Recently, after a particularly wet season in the region and large regulatory discharges to the estuaries, concerns arose about the timing of completing CERP, especially about the timing of construction and completion of projects that would reduce damaging estuary releases and increase the flow of clean water south to the Everglades. Stakeholders have questioned whether there are more immediate solutions especially to the problem of high discharges of poor quality freshwater to the estuaries. In response to the recommendations of the Florida Senate Select Committee on Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin, The Florida Senate request the UF Water Institute to conduct an independent review of agency-adopted and other proposed plans to move even more water to the Everglades to: (1) ensure that existing evaluations of plans by the agencies are technically sound; and (2) possibly identify innovative, new approaches that have not previously been considered. |