Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- A project to restore natural water flow to Florida's Everglades is making little progress because of federal delays in planning and funding, a report said.

The eight-year-old effort, originally estimated to cost $7.8 billion, also faces higher expenses for building and design, said the second biennial evaluation of the project by the National Research Council, released today in Washington.

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan has yet to complete any projects to reroute roads, canals and dikes that have disrupted natural water flow from Lake Okeechobee in central Florida south to the tip of the peninsula, the report said. The delays have allowed the ecological decline of the region to continue, it said.

``The ecosystem will continue to lose some vital parts if CERP continues on its present course,'' said William Graf, chairman of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, geography department and head of the panel that wrote the report. ``If this vision is to be realized, demonstrable progress needs to come soon.''

The report said any benefits from Florida's planned purchase of 187,000 acres of agricultural land from U.S. Sugar Corp. for $1.75 billion ``may not be seen for a decade or longer.''

The report recommended that the federal government alter its project-by-project review and yearly funding authorization and allocate money over a multiyear period. It said planners should first fund projects essential to restoration rather than those that receive local support.

It said both state and federal authorities face budget constraints that threaten the project's overall progress.

The report was sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Interior Department. The Research Council is an agency of the National Academy of Sciences.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 29, 2008 17:35 EDT