Historical changes in water-management practices to accommodate a large and rapidly growing urban population along the Atlantic coast, as well as intensive agricultural activities, have resulted in a highly managed hydrologic system with canals, levees, and pumping stations. These structures have altered the hydrology of the Everglades ecosystem on both coastal and interior lands. Surface-water flows in a direction south of Lake Okeechobee have been regulated by an extensive canal network, begun in the 1940's, to provide for drainage, flood control, saltwater intrusion control, agricultural requirements, and various environmental needs. Much of the development and subsequent monitoring of canal and river discharge south of Lake Okeechobee has traditionally emphasized the eastern coastal areas of Florida. Recently, more emphasis has been placed on providing a more accurate water budget for internal canal flows.

As part of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) propose modified water deliveries to Indian Tribal lands, Big Cypress National Preserve, and other noncoastal areas of south Florida. The pro- posed modified water deliveries are designed to provide flood protection and water-delivery benefits to agricultural lands as well as partial restoration of historic ecosystem conditions within both Seminole and Miccosukee Tribal lands. The effects that these proposed modified water- delivery changes will have on Indian Tribal lands can only be determined if internal flows and associated water quality are accurately known. The Everglades Construction Project, which developed as a result of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program, required diversion of the C-139 Basin surface water to storm treatment area 5 and will cause a change in the volume and quality of the water subject to Tribal entitlement.

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