Gore Unveils Plan to Restore the Everglades

The Everglades can be protected even while Florida’s growing population gets the water it needs, Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday, unveiling a $7.8-billion restoration proposal.

The plan would rebuild the state’s water distribution system and help restore the Everglades--the huge ecosystem of marsh, lake and river that flows over more than 4 million acres from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.

The draft plan, developed by the Army Corps of Engineers, includes about 60 steps to restore the Everglades over the next two decades.

It recommends improvements to the central and southern Florida flood-control project, a network of levees and canals covering 18,000 square miles.

A key feature of the plan is improved water storage, which will require land acquisition so that the corps can better control the water that flows through the Everglades ecosystem.

In preparing the proposal, the corps got input from farmers, environmentalists, government agencies and Indian tribes.

“This is an ambitious and aggressive plan,” Gore said. “But this much we know, the cost of inaction cannot be afforded. It’s way too high.”

The corps designed the current water distribution system in south Florida more than 50 years ago to provide water for 2 million people, and its canals and levees endangered the natural water flow of the massive but fragile Everglades and its wildlife.

Since then, the area’s population has grown to more than 6 million and is estimated to grow to 8 million by 2010.

The plan must go through several public hearings in Florida before Congress considers approval.