Surrounded by major cities, the Everglades also provides water to 8 million Florida residents, protects South Florida from flooding, and is home to biodiversity found nowhere else.
The Everglades is shallow, slow-moving, and uniquely vulnerable to contamination. Toxic chemicals entering the system do not flush out quickly: they settle, accumulate, and persist.
Over time, contaminants:
-Bind to sediments
-Bioaccumulate in wildlife
-Move up the food chain
-Reach municipal drinking water supplies
This includes “forever chemicals”, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and carcinogens, many of which are not routinely monitored or removed by conventional water treatment systems.
Endocrine disruption has been documented in alligators in the Everglades, including abnormal reproductive development linked to exposure to pesticides and industrial chemicals. As apex predators, alligators serve as biological indicators of water quality, reflecting long-term chemical exposure within the ecosystem. This same water ultimately supplies drinking water to millions of Floridians. The consequences are not theoretical.
No single organization is responsible for the comprehensive, long-term monitoring of Contaminants of Emerging Concern
Existing regulations address only a small fraction of known chemicals in commercial use
Most drinking water facilities do not remove endocrine disruptors, PFAS, or complex synthetic compounds
The Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative™ is designed to research, remove, and prevent harmful contaminants, protecting both the ecosystem and the people who depend on it.
Monitoring without action endangers residents.
Action without data is ineffective.
The Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative™ exists to do both.
The Research Lab: Securing Long-Term Protect
The initiative is supported by the development of a state-of-the-art water research laboratory in South Florida, which will enable continuous Everglades monitoring and advanced detection of the most harmful contaminants, including endocrine and DNA disruptors, cancer-causing agents, pesticides, forever chemicals, and emerging pollutants. This precision ensures that water treatment technologies target what truly threatens human health.
Serving Southern Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, the lab establishes scientific independence and long-term sustainability for the initiative, positioning it to protect clean drinking water now and into the future.
Save the Water™ is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to conduct research to identify and remove harmful contaminants in water and to raise public awareness about water contamination and its health impacts.
