PANAMA CITY — Rep. Gwen Graham is among a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers getting behind a plan to increase the flow of clean water to the Everglades, which supporters said would preserve and protect the delicate but vital ecology.
The Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) is actually a bundle of projects designed to increase the collection of clean water around Lake Okeechobee and send it south into the center of the Everglades, said Dawn Sherreffs, a senior policy advisor for the Everglades Foundation who was involved in shaping the legislation.
“It’s actually just a smarter way to implement the projects that were passed by Congress in 2000,” Sherreffs said. “This basically takes out a bunch of blockages to moving water south.”
--- STUDENTS RAISE AWARENESS FOR EVEERGLADES»»
Moving more water from the lake to the Everglades cleans the water and enhances the ecosystem, Sherreffs said.
“From North Florida to Miami, our entire state’s ecosystem and water supply is dependent on keeping the Everglades healthy,” Graham said in a statement released Monday. “This historic project to send clean water south to the Everglades is a major step in restoring Florida’s vulnerable river of grass.”
Graham is a cosponsor of a bill to authorize the CEPP, which Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, introduced, along with about 10 other Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
As if to prove Sherreffs was correct when she said, “This is one of those issues that unifies,” Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
“It’s time to cut through the red tape and get this project moving forward,” said Graham, D-Tallahassee. “This is an issue I’m proud to be working with Democrats and Republicans on for the benefit of our entire state.”
The bill provides authorization for the project to move forward and $1.9 billion from federal and non-federal sources.
About 8 million Floridians depend on the Everglades for drinking water, Sherreffs said, so the issue is only growing more urgent. The CEPP barely missed being included in the Water Resources Development Bill last year, which became the first water bill to be signed into law in seven years.
--- STUDENTS RAISE AWARENESS FOR EVEERGLADES»»
“We can’t afford to wait seven more years,” Sherreffs said.
A final report from the Army Corps of Engineers was released in December. That was too late to be included with projects from around the nation in the water bill, but it has cleared the way for the introduction of CEPP as a single-project authorizing bill.
“We look forward to working with Congress to get it passed,” Sherreffs said.