President Obama is committed to addressing the longstanding ecological decline of that region, which was compounded by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. He established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force to coordinate the long-term conservation and restoration of the Gulf Coast and to address the decades-long decline of the Gulf's natural systems. In July 2012, the President signed the RESTORE Act into law, establishing the Gulf Restoration Council. The Council is charged with bringing five states and six federal agencies together to restore Gulf ecosystems and communities.
The Administration and the state of California are working to ensure a coordinated approach to water issues to achieve a sustainable water supply for California and a healthy ecosystem. The Administration has released a draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan to restore the California Bay Delta and is working closely with the state of California to protect endangered fish and deliver reliable supplies of water to towns, cities, and farmers.
The Administration is protecting and restoring the environment in Chesapeake Bay communities throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed and in its thousands of streams, creeks, and rivers. EPA has developed a “pollution diet” that describes the pollution reductions needed to restore America’s largest estuary. In 2014, federal, state, and local partners signed released the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, outlining a collaborative strategy to accomplish key restoration goals, including recovering land and water habitat, sustaining fish and wildlife, conserving land, and increasing public access.
The Administration created the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and invested more than $1 billion to restore the Great Lakes ecosystem, the most significant investment in Great Lakes restoration in decades. Led by EPA, the initiative has removed more than 1 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and protected or restored more than 20,000 acres of essential habitat. The federal government is committed to dozens of additional actions that will restore this vital freshwater ecosystem, including targeting, preventing, and controlling invasive species; restoring habitat; and reducing nutrient runoff that contributes to harmful algal blooms.
The Administration has invested an unprecedented $1.5 billion to restore the Everglades, reinvigorating federal leadership to jump start construction projects and protect essential habitat on working lands. In partnership with the state of Florida, progress includes restoring more than 3,000 acres of the floodplains along the Kissimmee River, completing the first mile of bridging for the Tamiami Trail and starting implementation of key components of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, including the Central Everglades Planning Project.