U.S. Water News Online
MIAMI -- Congress passed a $23 billion water resources bill over President Bush's veto, but don't expect Everglades restoration projects in the bill to start soon, the author of a book on the River of Grass said.
Because the bill includes projects in so many states, Florida's projects will have to compete for attention and funding, said Michael Grunwald, author of "The Swamp."
"The Everglades has to get in line like everyone else," Grunwald said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Grunwald was at the Miami Book Fair International to promote his book, which was published in March. A former reporter for The Washington Post, he now lives in South Florida and writes for Time magazine.
President Bush had called the Water Resources Development Act too expensive and vetoed it in early November. Congress' override was the first of his presidency.
In addition to approximately $2 billion in Everglades projects, the bill approves hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects: dams, sewage plants, and relief for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast.
Grunwald also talked about Florida's drought, attributing water problems to the culmination of a hundred years of efforts to drain the state and Everglades.
"If you think it's bad now, wait until this spring," Grunwald said of the drought during a panel of authors he participated in.
He later said Floridians may have to start changing current habits like watering their lawns midday or washing a car three times a week.
"We may be getting to a state where the era of cheap water is over," he said.
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