Why are some Florida environmental lobbyists feeding the widespread resentment of federal Everglades funding that has existed since a Washington Post series cast doubt on the massive CERP (Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan) project a year ago?

The state's part of the Everglades cleanup is ahead of schedule. The water-management district needed both the authority and the funding guarantee to enter the next phase of the water cleanup. That phase will optimize the cleansing capacity of the treatment areas that filter all water flowing from the agricultural area. It will also begin to address the huge issue of water coming from Lake Okeechobee and the urban and suburban areas, including Central Florida.

However, by taking their campaign to Congress and sowing hysteria there, those lobbyists have undermined the fragile national consensus over CERP's $8 billion in funding. Representatives from other states were never enthusiastic about sending that much federal money to enlarge a 1.5
million-acre wetland wilderness to 2.5 million acres, when they have mountains, lakes and streams in their districts that need attention.

Florida environmental lobbyists now have let that genie out of the bottle by maligning their own state government and environmental agencies, which every honest evaluation shows have done more to clean, protect and enlarge the Everglades than was ever anticipated in 1994. We can only hope they will be able to repair the damage and stuff the genie back into the bottle before
the scramble for the CERP money turns into a feeding frenzy.