Sorry, Everglades, Feds Postpone CEPP Money Approval

The Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Review Board, scheduled Tuesday to approve paying for half of the $1.9 billion Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP), instead postponed completing its review -- a needed step before it can get Congress's final funding approval.

On April 10 the South Florida Water Management District had approved a resolution saying it would go 50-50 with the Army Corps on the project designed to move water from Lake Okeechobee south -- rather than to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee River estuaries -- by using land already in public hands. More than 30 South Florida stakeholders are on board with the plan.

According to the district, the project will move about 68.5 billion gallons a year to the Everglades and ultimately, thirsty Everglades National Park. That's about 15 percent of the 456.2 billion gallons dumped into the estuaries.

"We are extremely disappointed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not approve CEPP today, and we call upon the Corps to move quickly to reconsider this very critical piece of environmental restoration," Robert Coker, vice president of public affairs for U.S. Sugar, said in a written statement Tuesday. "Sugar farmers support CEPP and other restoration projects that also will provide benefits to Lake Okeechobee and the coastal estuaries as well as the Everglades."

SFWMD board member Jim Moran of Boyton Beach voted for the project at the April 10 meeting, but said he has "serious doubts" the federal government will keep their end of the bargain.

"If you're counting on CEPP to save the Everglades, it may not happen," Moran said, pointing out that Congress has to authorize the project and appropriate the money to pay the federal share at a time when the Corps has a backlog of $48 billion in projects because there's no money for them."