Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

• CERP Reports to Congress

The CERP 2010 Report to Congress has been delivered and is now available. The report details the collaborative effort of participating agencies and their combined commitment to improve the Everglades ecosystem.

Download the Final 2010 Report to Congress

View the 3 Nov 2011 Press Release (43 kb, PDF)

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000 (Section 601) and the Programmatic Regulations (2003) require the secretaries of the Army and the Interior to jointly submit a report to Congress on the progress of CERP implementation every five years. The report notes accomplishments in areas that include construction, outreach activities, new science and funding for that five-year period and what is anticipated over the next five years.

2010 Report to Congress – Final

The second of the five-year reports covers progress of CERP implementation for the period from mid-2005 to mid-2010.  Highlights include:

• Passage of WRDA 2007 authorizing for construction three major CERP projects
• Execution of the Master Agreement providing the legal framework for the CERP 50/50 partnership between the South Florida Water Management District and the Department of the Army
• Execution of the first Project Partnership Agreements
• Ongoing construction  of the Merritt Pump Station feature of Picayune Strand and the imminent construction start  of the Site 1 Impoundment

• Installation and monitoring of the Aquifer Storage and Recovery Pilot Project, and completion of the Pilot Project Design Report for the L-31N (L-30) Seepage Management Pilot
• Sequencing of all south Florida restoration efforts including CERP in the Integrated Delivery Schedule developed through an interagency effort

• Progress on related pre-CERP Foundation Projects (i.e., Kissimmee River Restoration, Modified Water Deliveries – Tamiami Trail Modifications), and the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (Phase 1) and C-111 Spreader Canal – Western Projects, both state expedited projects
• New scientific information which is expected to improve decision making within CERP, thereby improving restoration success
• A wide array of outreach activities and products designed to inform and engage a variety of audiences including the public at large, interest groups and stakeholders

• Funding and expenditures from 2004 to 2009

Download the FInal CERP 2010 Report to Congress:

Final CERP 2010 Report to Congress - September 2011

• Main Document (5.5 mb, PDF)
• Tab C - High Resolution Version of Land Aquisition Map
  (3.8 mb, PDF)

Letters to Congress:

2 Nov 2011 - Speaker of the House Boehner Letter (25 kb, PDF)

2 Nov 2011 - President of the Senate Biden Letter (24 kb, PDF)

 

Endangered Florida panther with two kittens at Picayune Strand after road removal/restoration (2010)
Photo courtesy of Darrell Land, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

 

CERP 2005 Report to Congress

The initial CERP 2005 Report to Congress covers program implementation progress made between mid-2000 to mid-2005.

Status:  The CERP 2005 Report to Congress was transmitted to Congress in September 2006.

Download CERP 2005 Report to Congress:

• Main Document (2.3 mb, PDF)

Letters to Congress:

22 Sep 2006 Cheney Letter (25 kb, PDF)

22 Sep 2006 Hastert Letter (24 kb, PDF)

Contacts for this page:

• Deborah Scerno, USACE Deborah.h.scerno@usace.army.mil
• Dennis Duke, U.S. Department of the Interior
  dduke@sfrestore.org

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Boring but important reading...

Federal and state officials announced today before the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force major revisions to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).  Consisting of almost 70 individual restoration projects, CERP is moving forward through projects scattered throughout South Florida, but major ecological decline of the Everglades ecosystem continues.  Audubon has long called for faster progress toward restoring the historic River of Grass, through such means as bundling projects together for more comprehensive planning and speedier implementation. See Audubon’s 2008 Tipping Point Fact Sheet.

The new plan, to be developed over 18 months, calls for such action in order to get projects moving forward at a faster pace.  A decade worth of projects will be evaluated for achieving on-the-ground results quicker than the original CERP plan could deliver.  The new plan was prompted by recent National Academy of Sciences reports detailing the decline of the Everglades ecosystem and the urgent need to expedite restoration progress before the ecosystem degraded to a point from which it was unlikely to recover.

Audubon applauds this initiative to hasten the recovery of the Everglades ecosystem, which suffers from decades of decline caused by over-drainage, water pollution, and water diversion which inundates some areas with too much freshwater, while Everglades National Park and other areas receive far too little.

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Progress continues...