The Everglades struck out in negotiations over the massive economic spending package, despite a lobbying campaign by South Florida water managers and environmentalists and a push from Florida lawmakers.
No specific funding designated for the long-stalled restoration project made into the final product, said Garrett Wallace, director of federal affairs for the South Florida Water Management District.
Instead, the billion-dollar restoration project will be left lumped in with among hundreds of back-logged projects funded and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the Senate bill, the Corps got a $4.6 billion cut of the stimuli pie, but it hasn't publicly discussed its priority list or where the Everglades projects might land.
Shannon Estenoz, vice chairwoman of the district's governing board, said she was still hopeful the Corps would finally start pumping money into the $10.8 billion project. Since the state-federal plan was approved by Congress in 2000, Florida has outspent its federal partner 6 to 1.
"If the Everglades doesn't qualify for stimulus money, what does?'' she said. "It's green, it will create thousands of jobs and we're ready to put boots on the ground right now.''
Environmentalists have formally pitched 10 projects to the Obama administration as candidates for economic stimulus money, including overhauls of the Tamiami Trail and C-111 and L-31 canals in Miami-Dade County -- with a target of $300 million this year, $550 million next year and $3 billion overall.
The water management district, which oversees projects for the state, had said it could begin work within weeks and had for direct funding instead of working through the Corps' cumbersome bureaucracy.
Without federal money, which trickled in under President Bush, activists and South Florida water managers have warn that already sluggish restoration work is likely to grind to a halt.
- CURTIS MORGAN
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