Water Flow and Water Quality - State and Federal Partnership

Focusing on Water Flow

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), the 50-50 state-federal partnership, $10.9 billion, multi-decade restoration initiative, is the largest water restoration project in the world. Returning a more natural flow of water to the famed River of Grass is:

• Providing water back to the Everglades ecosystem essential for restoration
• Saving the habitat of more than 60 endangered species,
• Providing flood protection to the region, and
• Replenishing the underground water supply for millions of Floridians.

To date the State has:

• Invested over $2 billion in CERP.
• Acquired 55 percent (210,167 acres) of the total land needed for CERP implementation.
• In October 2003, Florida began the first major construction project of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The Picayune Strand Project, launched years ahead of schedule, will allow water to once again flow across 55,000 acres of wetlands out into the Florida Bay.
• Accelerated 8 critical Everglades restoration projects by a decade; 99 percent of the land needed for Acceler8 projects has been acquired. The projects will add approximately 25,000 acres of man-made wetlands to naturally clean water flowing into the sensitive marsh, restore 70,000 acres of wetlands and provide more than 425,000 acre-feet of water storage – the equivalent of over 209,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
• Six of the eight Acceler8 projects are already underway. Since February 2006, the State has expanded three Everglades Agricultural Area treatment wetlands and launched construction on the C-43 Caloosahatchee West Storage Reservoir, the C-44 St. Lucie Canal Reservoir/Stormwater Treatment Area, the Acme Basin B Discharge Project, the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir and the Picayune Strand Restoration Project.

View Water Flow Q & A