The lack of progress comes as construction costs rise, population continues to grow and encroach on surrounding lands, and the money to pay for the reservoirs, filters marshes and other components of the $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan appears to be drying up, the National Research Council said in its second biennial progress report. The council released the report this morning.
"We don't like where we are," said William Graf, chair of the committee that wrote the report.
And now the price tag has soared to at least $10.9 billion - not counting the additional $1.75 billion that the state has tacked on for its proposed buyout of U.S. Sugar Corp.
The real bottleneck in efforts to complete any one of the 68 components of the restoration is not so much funding as the "byzantine" process of approval, authorization and funding that faces those leading the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, said Graf.
"Don't do it in 68 drops, but do it in a few splashes," said Graf. "Package projects together so Congress and the public can see what they're getting and how they fit into each other."
The report also chastises the federal government for falling far behind the state of Florida in spending on the Everglades restoration, originally hailed as an equal state and federal partnership.
Florida has contributed about $4.8 billion, while the feds have spent only $2.3 billion, the report says.