The Everglades restoration effort is being hampered by government agencies' inability to effectively plan, prioritize and execute more than 220 projects deemed essential to saving the vast Florida wetland, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

The restoration's progress is instead being dictated by congressional appropriators, causing conflicting priorities among federal and state agencies, the report says.

Moreover, planning principles that should be guiding the restoration have been set aside in favor of short-term achievements that may slow, complicate or even hinder overall restoration, the report says.

Meanwhile, total project costs keep rising -- from an expected $15.4 billion in 2000 to at least $19.7 billion in 2006. And that figure could go "significantly higher," GAO says.

"While many of the restoration effort's 222 projects have been completed or are ongoing, a core set of projects that are critical to the success of the restoration are behind schedule or not yet started," GAO says.

GAO's findings -- made public yesterday -- are the latest in a series of critical reports on the restoration by independent analysts.

Last September, for example, a National Academies of Science panel cited bureaucratic delays as a major obstacle to restoration and urged the Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers to use an "incremental adaptive restoration" approach that would allow critical projects to go forward despite design problems and funding shortfalls (Greenwire, Sept. 25, 2006).

GAO investigators are particularly concerned about 60 projects authorized by Congress under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) in 2000, many of which remain in the design or planning phases. Some CERP projects are as much as six years behind schedule, GAO said, while the costs of implementing the overall plan have swelled from roughly $8 billion to $11 billion.

Additionally, the government has failed to effectively cross-reference 27 independent scientific models being used to guide restoration. These models, developed by different agencies, address vital aspects of the Everglades' overall health, such as hydrology, water quality and ecological conditions.

Because of the government's inability to effectively sequence restoration projects, "there is little assurance that the [restoration] plan will be effective," GAO says.

Interior expresses optimism

Anu K. Mittal, GAO's director for natural resources and environment, recommended that the primary federal agency in charge of restoration -- the Army Corps of Engineers -- "obtain key data ... needed to ensure that all required sequencing factors are appropriately considered when deciding which projects to implement."

Mittal also called on the Interior Department, which has broad fiscal and oversight responsibility for the restoration, to "take the lead on helping participating agencies better coordinate their efforts to develop models and their interfaces."

Responding to the GAO report, Associate Deputy Interior Secretary James E. Cason wrote that while on-the-ground progress has been slow, the department has "worked diligently" with the corps and the South Florida Water Management District to "establish legal assurances for CERP" and to "ensure that restoration goals will be achieved."

He added that Interior officials will encourage agencies involved in Everglades restoration to "improve technical coordination" among models being used to gauge restoration progress. However, he added, "models are only one predictive tool [to] develop restoration project plans.

"Although we may be behind the original schedule that was submitted to Congress in the summer of 1999, we are pleased with the collaboration and partnership that has developed and the strong foundation we have laid for future restoration efforts," Cason wrote.

Assistant Army Secretary John Paul Woodley, who oversees all corps civil works projects, told GAO his agency will work to obtain "key data necessary for making [project] sequencing decisions and to continually re-evaluate the implementation sequence."

Woodley resisted the notion, however, that Interior should take a stronger leadership role in helping agencies coordinate modeling efforts. Rather, he said, the existing Interagency Modeling Center, co-run by the corps and the State of Florida, should remain the primary oversight agency and clearinghouse for all modeling efforts.