What Florida’s New Everglades Restoration Deal w/The Army Corps Means

The new agreement delegates work the Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with doing to Florida agencies instead.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Brian Mudshow. It's the info you need
to start your day in the Bomb Beaches and the
Treasure Coast. As we take a look at Florida's new
Everglades restoration deal with the Army Corps and what it
all means. You know, a couple of things that we
never hear about when it comes to the government being
involved with stuff, is that they're on time or ahead

(00:24):
of schedule, you know, those types of things, unless we're
talking about the State of Florida. Now, in the State
of Florida, we have a darn good track record, especially
in recent years. We not only ranked second in taxpayer
ROI and first among large dates, we also are not
only first in government efficiency. And you see so many

(00:44):
different projects that the state takes on that actually get
done well and get done ahead of schedule and often
under cost as well. You know, you have examples that
are high profile, like the Sanda Bell Causeway that was
washed out during Hurricane Ian, and you have that, you know,
up and running within a week and then completely restored
months ahead of schedule. You can take a look at
things that don't gain as much of attention like what

(01:07):
we had earlier. This year with the NASA causeway bridge
at Cape Canaveral that was completed by the state one
hundred and twenty five days ahead of schedule and also
under budget. When it comes to the Everglades Restoration plan,
though nothing has ever come quick right. This has been
decades that we've been working on this, but we've made
more progress in the past six years, arguably than in

(01:28):
the prior two decades, including the raising at the Tammiami Trail,
the raising of the Lake o Dyke, the completion of
multiple reservoirs for runoff water as part of the EAA
Reservoir System. I mean, a lot of progress has been made,
but you start taking a look at the headaches and
where have they come in time and again it's been

(01:49):
with the Army Corps of Engineers the federal government getting
them on the same page with us and our interest,
but also their speed at getting things done. And when
you take a look at the Army Corps in particular,
one thing that has been a real issue the discharges.
They agreed to a manual under the previous leadership. The

(02:11):
new leadership has not stayed with that, and so just
last year, after years of fighting, we get the new manual,
and then in December the new leadership starts discharging again,
which they're doing straight through May Well. On Monday, the
Army Corps engineers agreed to delegate most responsibilities to the
State of Florida going forward with the Everglades restoration plan,

(02:34):
and all kinds of good things come out of this.
It accelerates the EAA reservoirs construction timeline by five years,
five years from twenty thirty four to twenty twenty nine.
That's huge. That means we might not have any eastern
discharges that we don't want again starting in twenty twenty nine,
just four years out. Huge. Florida is going to take
over the inflow and outflow pump stations along with some

(02:56):
of the other supporting features. The Army Corps just to
focus on the main reservoir basin with Laco. We're going
to have the State of Florida taking over the responsibility
for the Blue Shanty Flow Way and that is what
delivers clean water south across the Tammiami Trail into Florida Bay.

(03:17):
Florida is going to take over all future SERP projects,
which is huge as well. And then also the FEDS
have agreed to fast track critical restoration efforts as they
are determined by the state. So anyway, this is really
good news all the way around, given the challenges, the
frustrations that we have had in recent years, and ultimately

(03:39):
should mean cleaner waterways, faster for us, and an end
too the environmental harm over time that has been done
with all the Lake O discharges, all the toxicalgy all
the nonsense, and so this is it has not gained
much attention. This new deal could actually be the single
biggest deal that has happened since we had kind of

(04:02):
DeSantis' focus on this starting six years ago with the
record investment into the Everglades Restoration Plan.