History has proven that the 1994 Everglades Forever Act has been
extremely successful.
More than 90 percent of the entire Everglades
Protection Area receives clean water that meets the water quality
goals.
Wading birds, down to 9,000 pair in 1994, have
reached nearly 70,000 nesting pair for the first time since 1946.
In 2001, 73 percent of the phosphorus was removed
from water leaving the Everglades-area farms with a three-year
average of 50 percent reduction. The law only requires a 25
percent reduction.
Farmers are paying 100 percent of the cost of
cleaning the water that leaves their land, more than $232 million.
Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) are now are
discharging water at levels between 20 parts per billion (ppb)
and 35 ppb of phosphorus into areas that historically received
concentrations as high as 200
ppb. These levels are expected to go even lower as the STAs mature
and their technologies are optimized.
In 2003, the Florida Legislature passed necessary
amendments to the 1994 EFA that provide the funding and framework
for Phase II and a road map for the future of Everglades restoration.
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is a plan to
replumb the water delivery system in South Florida. It was approved
by Congress in 2000 and is the most ambitious eco-system restoration
ever undertaken
in the world.
