The Clean Water Action Plan presents a multi-agency approach to water quality enhancement through watershed protection. The objectives of the program are to improve information and citizens' right to know, address polluted runoff, enhance natural resource stewardship, and protect public health. The state of Florida has used a watershed approach to water quality management since 1987, when the Florida legislature established the Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program. The SWIM program is implemented by Florida's Water Management Districts, and sets priorities for protection and restoration of the state's waters. Information from the SWIM program was combined with information from other sources, including the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Environmental Quality Incentives Program, to complete the Unified Watershed Assessments requested as part of the Clean Water Action Plan.
The Southeast Florida watershed, including the Everglades and their associated drainages, was identified by the Unified Watershed Assessment as a Category I Watershed Most in Need of Restoration. The Everglades watershed is already the focus of several restoration projects. In its historic natural condition, the basin was a vast, continuous wetland. Water flowed slowly in a shallow sheet from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay. The basin has been extensively modified from its historic condition, with thousands of miles of canals and levees constructed over the last century. The area is currently the subject of the Central and Southern Florida Project Restudy, conducted by the Corps of Engineers together with the South Florida Water Management District, as well as other federal, state, and local restoration efforts. The interagency partnerships developed in conjunction with the Everglades restoration efforts are examples of the type of cooperation called for in the Clean Water Action Plan.
I understand that some states have concerns about the implementation of certain aspects of the Clean Water Action Plan, and I look forward to hearing the comments of our witnesses today.