State Senator Burt Saunders says he wants to spend more time talking about the Everglades during next year’s legislative session. The Naples Republican says lawmakers need to focus on restoring the ‘River of Grass’. The Everglades is called the jewel of South Florida. And after years of trying to undo years of draining, navigation canals and development, Saunders says the restoration effort needs to speed up. He wants the state to commit another billion dollars over the next decade to fund its share of the project. Saunders also plans to ask state lawmakers to spend another 360-million dollars to release Everglades water that’s blocked by the Tamiami Trail in Dade County.

“If that portion of the project is not completed for whatever reason, then the restoration of the sheet flow into the Everglades will never be accomplished. And so obviously this is a very critical component of the overall comprehensive Everglades restoration project.”

Senator Saunders says the state will demand the federal government repay the money because that particular improvement has been delayed for more than a decade.

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One of Southwest Florida’s veteran state lawmakers wants to make Everglades restoration a key issue in next year’s legislative session. Republican Senator Burt Saunders of Naples says he intends to ask his colleagues to approve spending a billion dollars over the next decade to clean-up the Everglades. And he also wants 360-million dollars to aid water flow to the South.

“There’s a tremendous amount of progress that’s taken place and the water that’s now available to flow into the Everglades is greatly cleaned compared to what it was a few years ago in terms of the phosphorous content. Unfortunately, that water is not able to enter the Everglades because of the blockage at the Tamiami Trail and this is critical in order to permit that sheet flow back into the Everglades.”