Funding Issue Resolved For Everglades Restoration Projects

WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami/AP) — A pair of Everglades restoration projects, stalled due to a funding stalemate, will now move forward.

South Florida Water Management District Director Blake Guillory said Wednesday that the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had come to an agreement which will allow for the completion of both projects.

One project includes a series of detention basins that will help replenish Everglades National Park. The other would allow water managers to store water in the Kissimmee River Basin rather than flushing it east and west of Lake Okeechobee.

Both were authorized years ago and are largely complete, but the work came to stand sill after officials disputed funding and land issues.

The projects are not part of the Central Everglades Planning Project, another restoration plan still awaiting a federal funding resolution.