Clinton OK 'Everglades' restoration

Karin Meadows / AP 12dec00

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - With the signing of the Everglades Restoration Bill yesterday, the River of Grass is on the road to recovery.

President Clinton signed legislation authorizing a $7.8 billion project to restore the Everglades, which have been drained and rechanneled for decades to promote development and agriculture.

The 25-year project to restore the natural flow of water was the key environmental project passed by Congress this year.

The federal government will pay half the cost and the state of Florida will pay the other half.

''President Clinton has officially ended the era of Everglades destruction and begun a new era of allowing the River of Grass to flow anew,'' said Stuart D. Strahl, vice president of the National Audubon Society and president of Audubon of Florida.

The restoration of the Everglades, a mix of sawgrass prairies, hardwood hammocks, cypress swamps, and mangrove shorelines, became urgent after 40 years of drainage by the Army Corps of Engineers, which built canals and waterways to develop farms and urban areas and to divert floodwaters.

Over the years, indigenous plants and wildlife, including the Florida panther, have become endangered or have disappeared.

Governor Jeb Bush, at the White House to witness Clinton's signing of the bill, said the Everglades are ensured new life.

''It was dying and a whole lot of people here have worked very hard for most of their lives,'' Bush said. ''We've made a huge financial commitment for our state, and the federal government is responding in a true partnership.''

The legslation calls for creating reservoirs for drinking water, removing canals and levees to restore the natural flow of the water and creating wells to capture the huge amounts of groundwater seeping away into the Atlantic Ocean.