In 1906, Gov. Napoleon Broward started the dredging of the Everglades to make cheap land available for settlers. By 1930, sugar cane was being grown on 800 acres of Everglades, and work began on the first major drainage canal, severing the sheet flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades to Florida Bay. Eventually, the Everglades shrunk to half of their original 4 million acres as sugar cane fields expanded. With a push from environmentalists like Douglas, in 1983 then-Gov. But the problems continued, evidenced in 1987 when sea grass began to die-off in Florida Bay, which lacked freshwater influx from the Glades.
Battles continue between government officials, agricultural interests and environmentalists.
Nowdays, there is huge public pressure to clean up the river of grass and restore it as much as possible to its former purity. In July 1993, a plan was announced by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, directing the federal and state governments, sugar cane growers and environmentalists to negotiate details for restoring the Everglades. The basic plan allowed for 20 years to complete the project, includes incentives for farmers to cut use of fertilizers that pollute water, increases water flow to the Everglades by 25 percent, and creates 40,000 acres of marshes to filter discharged farm water before it reaches the Everglades. There is also a current controversy in finding a way to pay for the program. Every year, about 100 tons of phosphorous is released into the Everglades system, according to a restoration program official.