Recommendations that Audubon Florida has been making to resolve Everglades Water Quality problems were strongly validated by a new study commissioned by the Everglades Foundation through RTI International (Research Triangle Institute), an independent, nonprofit institute that provides research, development, and technical services to government and commercial clients worldwide.

A key finding of the study is that Best Management Practices (BMPs) implemented by farmers on their own land at their own expense are by far the most cost effective means of securing phosphorus cleanup. The study determined it costs only $47 per pound to remove phosphorus from water flowing to the Everglades through BMPs,  whereas it cost $350 per pound to remove phosphorus through government-funded construction of Stormwater Treatment Areas. These findings confirm Audubon’s position recently recommended in Federal Court by Audubon and to the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board that the next level of efforts to improve water quality in discharges from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) should place more reliance on intensified BMPs required to be undertaken by farmers on their own land and at their own expense.

Another major finding of the study is that excuse most often used by the sugar cane industry for phosphorus pollution emanating from the EAA – a claim that the phosphorus is actually coming from Lake Okeechobee rather than the farms- is not factually correct. The study concluded that of the 216 tons of phosphorus reaching the Stormwater Treatment Areas in the EAA for final processing, only 28 metric tons are actually coming from Lake Okeechobee.

The study also concluded that urban homeowners and businesses pay a far greater percentage of the cost to clean up water pollution than agricultural polluters, who primarily rely on public tax dollars to resolve their pollution problems.

Audubon Florida works closely with scientists and attorneys with the Everglades Foundation in effort to solve the water quality problems that are severely damaging the Everglades.

For a summary of the study, please click here.

Please click here to see the full study published by the Everglades Foundation.