WATER DISTRICT VOTES TOMORROW ON LAKE RELEASES: ACT NOW!
September 8, 2010
We have asked our members to contact the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board prior to tomorrow’s vote on what is called “Adaptive Protocols” – which means how much water should be released from Lake Okeechobee during dry periods, when the Caloosahatchee actually needs some Lake Okeechobee water to ensure the estuary doesn’t become too salty for its habitats and ecosystem.
To help explain more about this, here are links to articles in today’s News-Press.
The first article, “Lake release proposal pits farmers vs. rivers,” explains the issue and the conflict between agriculture and the rivers. One of the water district’s governing board members, Charles Dauray, is quoted: “What bothers me and others is when we go into a dry period, agriculture seems to come first. … That doesn’t wash with me. There has to be shared adversity.”
Read the whole article here:
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201009080110/NEWS01/9080370
In the same edition, a News-Press editorial supports what PURRE has been saying: “We understand that there is a real risk to agriculture in dry periods. But our river and marine environments are just as important to our economy as agriculture is to other areas. The fact that Southwest Florida is getting the low priority is a continuation of the district’s traditional bias in favor of agriculture over the environment and against Southwest Florida. That needs to end.”
Read the whole editorial here:
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201009080110/OPINION/100907040
Finally, here is the letter the PURRE Water Coalition sent to each member of the SFWMD governing board and to its executive director, Carol Wehle.
Dear [Name of Governing Board Member]:
The board of directors and members of the PURRE Water Coalition Foundation, Inc., urge you to reject the staff recommendation on Adaptive Protocols at your Sept. 9 meeting and instead find an alternative method for managing water more equitably – one that doesn’t treat our river and estuary like a dumping ground in the wet season and ignore it in the dry season thereby creating a dangerous saltwater estuary that is an environmental disaster.
It’s time to stop putting agriculture first at the expense of the environment and to treat all affected by water releases as equals. What we are asking you to do is simple: be fair to all. We know agriculture is important, but it is also a private interest, as opposed to the estuary and the environment which are public interests. It is wrong and decidedly unfair to favor one over the other. It is time for that favoritism to end. We are not asking for special treatment – just fair treatment. We were promised shared adversity, but that is not what we have been experiencing.
Implementation of the emergency storage options we were promised by the District four years ago to reduce damaging high releases from the lake would be a good start to grant relief to the estuaries at least during the wet season.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours truly,
Michael J. Valiquette
Michael J. Valiquette, Chairman of the Board
PURRE Water Coalition Foundation, Inc.
www.purre.org
PLEASE EMAIL TODAY. Send your emails to:
Carol Wehle, Exec. Dir., 800-432-2045 executivedirector@sfwmd.gov
Eric Buermann, Chair. Phone 305-446-0045. ebuermann@sfwmd.gov
Jerry Montgomery, Vice-Chair. 561-682-6433. jmontgom@sfwmd.gov
Sandy Batchelor. Phone 561-682-6433. sbatchel@sfwmd.gov
Joe Collins. Phone 863-763-3041. jcollins@sfwmd.gov
Charles Dauray. Phone 239-992-2184. cdauray@sfwmd.gov
Shannon Estenoz. Phone 954-205-1132. sestenoz@sfwmd.gov
Kevin Powers. Phone 561-682-6433. kpowers@sfwmd.gov
Patrick J. Rooney, Jr. Phone 561-682-6433. prooney@sfwmd.gov
Glenn Waldman. Phone 561-682-6433. gwaldman@sfwmd.gov
PURRE SEEKS FAIRNESS FOR RIVER, ESTUARY FROM THE SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT AND NEEDS YOUR HELP
September 7, 2010
They’re at it again – treating the Caloosahatchee and our estuary unfairly in favor of agriculture and lawn irrigation.
The South Florida Water Management District will vote Thursday on how they will manage water releases from Lake Okeechobee. Unfortunately, their staff recommended a method that will continue to damage our river and estuaries while benefiting agriculture and public water supply – namely, lawn irrigation.
We all know releases from Lake Okeechobee are damaging when they are too high. But they also are damaging when releases are too low, during the dry season. Estuaries need fresh water to maintain a healthy salinity level. So when it's dry, a certain amount of Lake Okeechobee’s fresh water must come our way to maintain a healthy estuary. Without that, water quality suffers, critical habitats suffer, oysters die, and essential grasses die.
The Water District cuts off water flow to the Caloosahatchee during dry times to benefit agriculture at the expensive of the river and estuary – without requiring any conservation or cutbacks from other users. Only the Caloosahatchee suffers, and no one else.
The same is true when there is too much water. The excess water is pumped off agricultural lands throughout the system because it suits their needs, and it ends up in the lake. With the lake level too high, that water is dumped down the Caloosahatchee. Our precious river and estuary is treated like nothing more than a drainage pipe, when in fact it is a fragile system of sea grasses, a breeding ground for many species, and a federally endangered habitat. Not to mention the lifeblood of our economy and the backbone of the quality of life we treasure.
The Water District’s staff recommendation, on which they tend to rely, will perpetuate the harm of the current system. Agriculture will get 100% of its needs met while the environment continues to be harmed, perhaps irreparably. It’s not fair. We pay the same taxes to the district; we deserve a fair shake.
Florida’s water system has been damaged by man, and until the problems are solved, everyone must share equitably in the potential destruction that has resulted from this interference with nature. If you can, please email the District’s governing board and executive director prior to Thursday's meeting (sample text is below). Tell them it’s time to be fair, that sharing the damaging effects means less damage for all.
Possible text for emails (it’s more effective if you add a personal sentence or two):
Dear Governing Board Member/Executive Director:
It’s past time you considered the needs of the Caloosahatchee and estuaries at least as much as you do the needs of agriculture and public water supply such as lawn irrigation. We are not asking for special treatment – just fair treatment. Our environment and economy are dying with our water quality, and your vote on September 9 can help change that. We pay the same taxes as everyone else, and as taxpayers and citizens, ask you to vote against your staff recommendation and instead find an alternative method for managing water more equitably, one that doesn’t treat our river and estuary like a dumping ground in the wet season and a salt deposit in the dry season. It’s time to stop leaving the environment as a last consideration and to treat all users as equal. It's time to implement the emergency storage options we were promised four years ago to reduce damaging high releases from the lake. Thank you.
Send your emails to:
Carol Wehle, Exec. Dir., Phone 800-432-2045 executivedirector@sfwmd.gov
Eric Buermann, Chair. Phone 305-446-0045. ebuermann@sfwmd.gov
Jerry Montgomery, Vice-Chair. Phone 561-682-6433. jmontgom@sfwmd.gov
Sandy Batchelor. Phone 561-682-6433. No email provided.
Joe Collins. Phone 863-763-3041. jcollins@sfwmd.gov
Charles Dauray. Phone 239-992-2184. cdauray@sfwmd.gov
Shannon Estenoz. Phone 954-205-1132. sestenoz@sfwmd.gov
Kevin Powers. Phone 561-682-6433. kpowers@sfwmd.gov
Patrick J. Rooney, Jr. Phone 561-682-6433. prooney@sfwmd.gov
Glenn Waldman. Phone 561-682-6433. gwaldman@sfwmd.gov
Injunction denied for Everglades/US Sugar deal
Associated Press
August 24, 2010
MIAMI — A federal judge has denied the request by the Miccosukee Indians to stop the state from purchasing agricultural land in the Everglades.
Judge Federico Moreno ruled Monday that the tribe’s emergency motion, filed earlier this month in Miami federal court, was not actually emergency since the land deal would not close until Oct. 11.
The South Florida Water Management District has agreed to purchase 26,791 acres for about $197.4 million from U.S. Sugar. The state says the land will be used to help restore the Everglades, but the tribe has argued that the deal would stall other key restoration projects.
The initial deal announced in 2008 was to pay $1.75 billion to buy all of U.S. Sugar’s 180,000 acres, but it has been scaled back, in part, because of the economy.
August 16, 2010
Dream of restored Everglades, safety for estuaries, will have to wait
Dear PURRE Members,
When Florida Gov. Crist announced two years ago the extraordinary purchase by the state of 187,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land to restore the Everglades and the natural flow of water south, he called it “the holy grail” of restoration.
Last week that holy grail has turned into no more than a shot glass after the South Florida Management District on August 12 approved a dramatically smaller land purchase with few benefits, if any, and none at all for the Caloosahatchee and its estuary.
This (at left, source: NY Times) is how the deal looked in 2008, when the governor called it “miraculous” and “as monumental as the creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.”
The state was going to purchase the land shown in red from U.S. Sugar Corp. It is easy to see how a flow way could be created, as well as the possibilities for the promised million acre-feet of water storage.
Crist said, “I can envision no better gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the people of America, as well as our planet, than to place in public ownership this missing link that represents the key to true restoration.”
The state took back that gift last week, and the people of Florida and the people of America are going to have to fight hard to get it back.
This (at right, source: NY Times) is the land purchase that was approved last week. The two pieces that are dark blue, far apart from one another and one not even south of Lake Okeechobee, are all that is left of the once “miraculous” deal.
Gov. Crist isn’t calling it the “holy grail” anymore; instead he’s quoting Lao Tzu: “The longest journey begins with a single step,” said the governor.
Members of the South Florida Water Management District governing board said, “It’s a very strong signal that we’re heading in the right direction” (Shannon Estenoz) and, “This is what we can afford to bite off” (Eric Buermann, chair).
As our members know, PURRE was devastated to see the dwindling of this once promising land purchase. We voiced our extreme displeasure – loudly – but did not officially oppose the deal. It has always been PURRE’s philosophy not to insist on getting a perfect deal and as a result ending up with no deal at all. And if the District had not approved this purchase, we believe there would have been no deal at all. The two parcels being purchased can increase water storage and treatment, which is never a bad thing.
This deal also comes with a three-year exclusive option for the District to purchase either 46,800 specified acres (for a total of 73,590 acres including this week’s announced deal) or the entire 153,000 acres (for a total of 179,790 acres, close to Gov. Crist’s original proposal).
The PURRE Water Coalition will fight hard to make sure this option is exercised. We will do everything we can to pressure the South Florida Water Management District, the state, legislators and all decision makers involved to exercise those options and purchase the maximum amount of land possible. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is slipping through the state of Florida’s fingers. The purchase of U.S. Sugar land south of Lake Okeechobee remains the greatest – the only – opportunity to save the Everglades, restore South Florida’s more natural water flows and improve the water quality in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries.
We hope you will join us in this long-term effort. We are not going to sit by and pretend we’re happy that a mere 26,790 acres were purchased, if indeed this deal closes in October. We will continue to fight for South Florida, for the west coast estuaries, and join with our east coast friends in their quest to save their precious water resources as well.
If our leaders have seen fit to take back what our governor in 2008 called “the greatest gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the people of America, as well as our planet,” we can do nothing less than fight to get it back.
For more information, go to www.purre.org. The complete terms of the deal and all the documents are available at www.sfwmd.gov/riverofgrass.
DOWNSIZED US SUGAR DEAL A BITTER BILL TO SWALLOW: TELL GOV. CRIST
August 5, 2010
Dear PURRE Members:
The State of Florida's historic deal to purchase U.S. Sugar lands to restore the Everglades – and the natural water systems and estuaries of South Florida that support this national treasure – has been looted. What was once 180,000 acres became 73,000 acres, and yesterday became a mere 26,800 acres with virtually NO assistance to the Caloosahatchee River at this time.
Almost two years ago, PURRE members rallied to help pass the deal brokered by Gov. Charlie Crist and approved by the South Florida Water Management District to purchase more than 180,000 acres of agricultural land for Everglades restoration from U.S. Sugar Corp. At that time, Michael Sole, Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said “this acquisition represents one of the more important opportunities to protect the Everglades ecosystem in recent years.” PURRE agreed – and still believes – that purchase of U.S. Sugar land south of Lake Okeechobee is the greatest opportunity to save the Everglades, restore South Florida’s more natural water flows, and improve the water quality in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers estuaries.
Now that deal consists of 26,800 acres: 17,900 citrus acres in Hendry County, and 8,900 sugarcane acres in Palm Beach County. Here is a map showing how the deal has changed; the dark green patches are all that is left of the purchase. Neither of these small areas will offer ANY help for moving water south, EVER.
PURRE’s initial reaction to this development is crushing disappointment. This is totally devastating to everything we’ve been working for. Everyone involved has recognized the purchase of this land as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revive the River of Grass and complete the reconnection between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. The purchase as originally proposed would have provided the greatest opportunity we could ever have to store, treat water and move water south that will benefit America’s Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River and St. Lucie River estuaries. We have supported this position since PURRE was formed.
This revised deal, reached with just one week for the public’s consideration prior to a governing board vote at the August 12 meeting in West Palm Beach, leaves just two parcels of land in play that can possibly help, and if used by the SFWMD to their fullest, they will benefit the St. Lucie River and estuary. We are happy for our east coast friends and care deeply about their estuary. But for Florida’s west coast and the Caloosahatchee River, this is possibly the worst thing the water management district could have done.
What’s more, it does not help restore the Everglades, which is the main goal. Additionally, it does not call for immediate action by the SFWMD. One parcel of land will be leased back by U.S. Sugar for its use, and there is no commitment to use the citrus lands by the district except to say they can use it “with 12 months’ notice.”
PURRE understands – as all nonprofits do these days – the realities of the economic downturn. Still, the government takes on debt for projects much less important that provide much less return for its money than restoring the Everglades – a unique environmental jewel that has been dying for decades and does not have much time left.
Is this remnant of Gov. Crist’s brave deal of 2008 better than nothing?
Yes, it is. PURRE has always advocated compromise. If we had a motto, it would be: “Let’s get this done now, and we can work to improve it later.”
But we state emphatically that we will not allow this deal to end here without a fight. We will not allow a lackadaisical attitude to take over, one of congratulation that a deal was done, just as we fear could happen when BP finally closes the Deepwater Horizon well and promotes a feeling that “all is well, we’re finished now.” We will continue to fight for the state of Florida to acquire all the necessary land to restore the historic flow through the River of Grass to Florida Bay, to save the Caloosahatchee and the west coast estuaries, and join with our east coast friends in their quest to save their precious water resources.
We urge you to contact Gov. Charlie Crist AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and tell him that while this deal is better than nothing it is devastating to both the western coast of Florida and to the Everglades. It falls far short of the vision he had in 2008. Ask him to be brave enough to fight for the deal he said he believed in. You can reach him at Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com, or at 850-488-7146, or at Office of Gov. Charlie Crist, State of Florida, The Capitol, 400 So. Monroe St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001.
Remember, there’s no time to waste: The water management district gave the public only one week to weigh in – they vote on August 12.
To see the complete documents on the revised deal, go to www.sfwmd.gov/riverofgrass
A fact sheet is available at
http://sz0034.wc.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/ROG%20Just%20the%20Facts_0810.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=200100∂=3
"There are no other Everglades in the world. Nothing anywhere else is like them; their vast glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and sweetness of the their massive winds, under the dazzling blue heights of space. They are unique also in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose. The miracle of the light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass."
… Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 1947
July 20, 2010
PURRE CHAIRMAN REACHES OUT TO OPPONENTS OF U.S. SUGAR LAND PURCHASE
As you may know, a group called Tea Party in Action recently staged a demonstration against the U.S. Sugar land purchase at last week’s meeting of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board. They purchased numerous television ads and launched an extensive Internet campaign against the purchase. That effort is ongoing as the deal remains pending.
PURRE Chairman Mike Valiquette contacted the group’s lead political strategist, Tim McClellan of Pompano Beach, Florida, urging him not to go forward with this disastrous demonstration and campaign against a deal that is clearly in the best interest of Florida’s environment, economy and way of life. Mike attempted to educate him about the facts and stressed to him that this purchase is without a doubt the single most important item for the future of all of south Florida and our way of life.
Mike offered to meet with Mr. McClellan at his convenience but he answered with an email laying out his opposition point by point, which Mike answered thoroughly with solid facts and figures – yet the Tea Party in Action demonstration went forward, as you may have seen in the TV news coverage and elsewhere.
Now, the Rivers Coalition on the East Coast has sent out the below statement, and it applies to the West Coast and the Caloosahatchee as much as it does to the St. Lucie River. Misleading and irresponsible public relations campaigns like the one put forward by the Tea Party in Action aimed at killing the U.S. Sugar land purchase deal are threatening to kill our best chance at achieving a long-term fix to South Florida’s very damaged and failing water system.
As you can see, the public relations campaign on the east coast mirrors almost exactly the Tea Party in Action campaign here on the west coast (see in particular the sections we’ve marked in red):
FLORIDA CRYSTALS BARONS ATTACK RIVER OF GRASS PURCHASE WITH DECEPTIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN
Even though our tarnished and damaged St. Lucie estuary stands its best possible chance at recovery due to the planned state purchase U.S. Sugar lands for a flowway, residents are being peppered with advertising and phone calls aimed at killing the deal.
Orchestrated by U.S. Sugar's competitor, Florida Crystals (Fanjul family) is claiming that the River of Grass Acquisition is a "bailout" of cigar-smoking fat cats (TV images) and that everyone's real estate taxes will skyrocket. [Those are the same claims the Tea Party in Action is making: that the deal is a bailout of U.S. Sugar and the taxes will increase.]
The truth is that the purchase will be done under existing tax structures in the South Florida Water Management District and the result is expected to bring savings, not cost increases.
Meanwhile, the St. Lucie is being bombarded by nasty water that often exceeds a billion gallons per day, mostly discharged through Lake Okeechobee and then out the St. Lucie gates at Stuart. The U.S. Sugar purchase would provide land for a flowway south from the lake that would greatly reduce the inundations of the estuaries on both coasts.
Citizens are urged to read about the plan at the South Florida Water Management District website (sfwmd.gov) and at RiversCoalition.org.
And let's remember our sugar-coated politicians who fail to support the U.S. Sugar purchase. It’s not likely that our beloved estuary will get another chance for recovery anything like the River of Grass purchase.
Don’t be swayed by public relations scare tactics. Get the facts. Go right to the source. Log on to www.purre.org. Visit www.RiversCoalition.org. Visit www.sfwmd.gov. Call PURRE at 239.472.2703 Monday-Thursday if you have any questions. And spread the truth to your friends and anyone who will listen. Florida needs desperately to purchase that U.S. Sugar land.
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South Florida water managers avoid tax increase as they push for Everglades land deal
By Andy Reid, South Florida Sun Sentinel
July 15, 10:15 a.m. – Pledging no new taxes, South Florida water managers on Thursday agreed to keep the water district property tax rate unchanged for the coming budget year as they pursue a $536 million Everglades land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp.
A budget squeeze blamed on Florida's lingering economic downturn has jeopardized the proposed 73,000-acre purchase pushed by Gov. Charlie Crist as a way to fill in the "missing link" in Everglades restoration.
The South Florida Water Management District — which leads Everglades restoration — has long maintained it wouldn't increase the property tax rate to purchase the land. On Thursday, the board agreed to keep the tax rate where it's been since 1998, for the budget year that begins in October.
The rate is about 62 cents per $1,000 of taxable value for most of its 16-county region.
For a $230,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption, district taxes for residents of Broward and Palm Beach counties would be about $112 a year. Final approval of the tax rate comes in September.
District Board Chairman Eric Buermann has blamed "corporate opponents" of U.S. Sugar — referring to Florida Crystals — for claiming that the land deal will require tax increases.
"Nobody has ever seriously contemplated or discussed raising taxes," Buermann said Wednesday. "We all understand about paying taxes and spending taxpayers' money."
The continued drop in property values, due to the struggling economy, is projected to leave the district with about $61 million less in property tax revenues for the new budget year.
This comes as the district tries to pull off the still-pending deal with U.S. Sugar, while paying for its ongoing flood control and water supply duties.
The plan is to use U.S. Sugar land for reservoirs and treatment areas that could restore water flows between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. In addition to acquiring 73,000 acres, the deal includes a 10-year option to buy another 107,000 acres from U.S. Sugar.
The proposed deal allows U.S. Sugar to lease back much of the land, for $150 an acre annually, for as long as 20 years while the water management district phases in restoration construction.
During the two years since the deal was announced, the district's tax revenues and state funding dropped by nearly $300 million.
Environmental groups and other supporters call the blockbuster deal a historic opportunity to acquire former Everglades land drained through the decades to make way for agriculture. They envision capturing more of the stormwater now drained out to sea to avoid flooding and using it to replenish the Everglades and drinking water supplies.
"Our state water supply and the Everglades are priceless," said Cara Capp of Clean Water Action, who Thursday called on the district board to approve the U.S. Sugar land deal. "Protecting this vital resource should be our foremost priority."
Opponents of the deal, led by U.S. Sugar rival Florida Crystals and Miccosukee Tribe, contend that it costs too much and could drain funding from other overdue Everglades restoration projects.
Tea Party activists have dubbed the deal a bailout for U.S. Sugar, and on Wednesday more than 80 group members protested the deal at the South Florida Water Management District headquarters west of West Palm Beach.
"Even if they don't raise the [tax] rate, they are going to have to [borrow money]," said Marianne Moran, who helped organize Wednesday's Tea Party protest. "We don't need the land."
The U.S. Sugar land deal, two years in the making, already has been scaled back from the original $1.75 billion, 180,000-acre buyout first proposed by the governor. It could be headed for another downsizing or restructuring to allow it to move ahead.
A still-pending legal challenge now before the Florida Supreme Court could limit the district's plan to borrow money to pay for the deal.
If the Supreme Court or the drop in tax revenues limits the district's ability to borrow the money for the deal, the district could try to cover more of the cost with cash or reduce the amount of land it bus.
Cutting the deal down to 25,000 acres is one possibility.
The district's proposed $1 billion budget plan includes $321 million that could be used for buying U.S. Sugar property or for capital projects to address water-quality concerns.
Along with a continued decline in revenues, the district could be facing new costs to improve water quality.
Two federal judges this spring issued critical rulings about Florida's efforts address Everglades restoration and to meet water-quality requirements, intended to lessen pollution.
Even if the district gets the Supreme Court OK to borrow the money, it still can scrap the deal if the board decides it creates too much financial strain.
"The deal is going to be a challenge," Buermann said. "We don't know where we are going to go from here
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
July 13, 2010
Dear PURRE Members:
ACTION ALERT: URGENT MESSAGE TO SAVE U.S. SUGAR DEAL:
With elections coming up, politicians are up to their old tricks – trying to scare people with the prospect of tax increases, mis-labeling worthwhile environmental projects as “bailouts,” and smearing the state executives and legislators trying to get things done in the face of nasty opposition.
PURRE recently came across some television advertisements urging people to contact the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board to urge them to kill the deal for the state to purchase U.S. Sugar lands for the purpose of finally – FINALLY – sending water from Lake Okeechobee south to the Everglades as nature intended.
If this deal fails, it would be a horrendous, permanent, irreversible mistake for all of Florida. If this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is lost, our estuaries are lost. And that is not an overstatement or just another scare tactic: it is fact. Please take a few minutes to read Lee County
Commissioner Ray Judah’s article, below. He concludes, “Large problems require large solutions and completing this large land acquisition is the only solution to the problems facing not only the coastal estuaries but the entire Everglades ecosystem from Orlando to Florida Bay.”
You can help prevent this by contacting the members of the Water Management District Governing Board and telling them YOU WANT THE U.S. SUGAR PURCHASE TO GO THROUGH. They are holding a workshop open to the public tomorrow, July 14, at noon at 3301 Gun Club Road in West Palm Beach. Messages received prior to that meeting will be the most beneficial.
Eric Buermann, Chair. Phone 305-446-0045. ebuermann@sfwmd.gov
Jerry Montgomery, Vice-Chair. Phone 561-682-6433. jmontgom@sfwmd.gov
Sandy Batchelor. Phone 561-682-6433. No email provided.
Joe Collins. Phone 863-763-3041. jcollins@sfwmd.gov
Charles Dauray. Phone 239-992-2184. cdauray@sfwmd.gov
Shannon Estenoz. Phone 954-205-1132. sestenoz@sfwmd.gov
Kevin Powers. Phone 561-682-6433. kpowers@sfwmd.gov
Patrick J. Rooney, Jr. Phone 561-682-6433. prooney@sfwmd.gov
Glenn Waldman. Phone 561-682-6433. No email provided.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
’Glades restoration: Acquisition of sugar land a must
By Ray Judah, Lee County Commissioner
July 11, 2010 - Everglades restoration has been ongoing for nearly 20 years, and there is not one project among the billions of dollars worth of state and federal projects currently on books that will provide enough water storage and treatment to stop the devastating releases to our coastal estuaries every time it rains heavily or water levels in Lake Okeechobee rise before during or after hurricane season.
However, we now have an opportunity to change this untenable situation by moving forward with the proposed acquisition of U.S. Sugar's property south of Lake Okeechobee.
It's no secret that, over the last 50-plus years, water has been stored in Lake Okeechobee or drained from the system based on what is best for the Florida sugar industry. Sugar farmers are currently occupying and farming much of the historic flood plains of the Everglades, where water from Lake Okeechobee naturally overflowed and traveled south during wet times.
Sugar farmers south of Lake Okeechobee had refused to relinquish land needed to provide this vital storage and natural connectivity of the natural Everglades system — forcing engineers and scientists to rely on the politically expedient, but highly questionable, aquifer storage and recovery wells and rock pits to provide the massive storage needed to restore the system.
In the absence of adequate land for storage and treatment or the ability to send large amounts of water south to the Everglades, the current water regime will continue to devastate our coastal estuaries. Flushing polluted lake water to the estuaries also wastes large freshwater supplies that could be utilized by both residents and agriculture during drought.
The massive amounts of water that must be managed on a regular basis during South Florida's frequent wet cycles were not truly taken into consideration under previously anticipated restoration plans. Without willing sellers of land to build sufficient water storage south of Lake Okeechobee, there is literally no chance of meeting the current stringent water quality standards in the Everglades much less of meeting the far more stringent standards now being set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
U.S. Sugar has finally offered to sell 180,000 acres of land south of Lake Okeechobee that can be used to store and clean huge amounts of water. At long last, we can restore the historic southern flowway that will actually prevent further damage to the estuaries and send cleaner water south.
But, money-driven politics and powerful competing sugar interests threaten this critical opportunity by claiming this acquisition will bankrupt restoration. That is simply not true because this land will allow much more efficient restoration project planning and more natural and cost-efficient water storage and treatment options.
Most experts agree the system needs an additional million acre-feet of storage. Planned projects provide only a fraction of the storage and treatment needed to meet current water quality standards, much less the more stringent standards and deadlines that the federal courts and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are demanding.
From every economic, environmental, and scientific perspective, a combination of storage, treatment and flow in the Everglades Agricultural Area makes the most sense. Whether shallow water conveyances or interconnecting reservoirs and storm water treatment areas, the U.S. Sugar property provides the most efficient means of storing and treating water because:
Removing large sugarcane fields greatly reduces the fertilization and drainage in the EAA and increases water availability for people and the environment.
Water can be conveyed south through existing pumps that move agricultural water today, providing the desperately needed hydrological connection between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.
Large land acquisition will enable sufficient water quality treatment marshes.
It will provide enough storage to reduce harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers.
Public safety concerns over dike integrity would be solved by releasing large amounts of water south when high-water levels threaten the dike.
Large problems require large solutions and completing this large land acquisition is the only solution to the problems facing not only the coastal estuaries but the entire Everglades ecosystem from Orlando to Florida Bay.
Ray Judah is a Lee County commissioner.
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
June 30, 2010
PURRE Members:
James Evans, Environmental Biologist with the City of Sanibel, released the following memo to subscribers to the city's email list today. As you know, PURRE monitors the water releases from Lake Okeechobee daily, and they have been above acceptable levels (deemed to be 2,800 cubic feet per second at a maximum) since April. Apparently that is going to stop. Read some good news for a change (IF it actually happens!):
On the June 29th Periodic Scientists call with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Corps announced that they will be reducing flows to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries as a result of the current lake stage (13.29 ft) and the long-term weather outlook. Weather forecasters are predicting lower than normal rainfall throughout Florida this rainy season due to the strengthening La Niña pattern. Regulatory releases to the estuaries are being reduced to protect Lake Okeechobee and the water supply interests in the Lake Okeechobee service area.
The new release schedule calls for flows of "up to" 200 cubic feet per second to the St. Lucie estuary and up to 450 cfs to the Caloosahatchee. This will reduce flows at the Franklin Lock and Dam structure (S-79) from the current rate of 3,000 cfs to 450 cfs. This reduction in flow will improve salinity levels at the oyster reefs in the lower estuary, improve water clarity for seagrass beds near the mouth of the river, and will result in less nutrient loading in San Carlos Bay and the waters of Sanibel.
June 2, 2010
City of Sanibel to Take More Aggressive Approach
To Seek Relief from Lake Okeechobee Discharges
Sanibel Vice Mayor Mick Denham said at that city’s council meeting June 1 that he has had enough of the Caloosahatchee taking much more than its share of estuary-killing water from Lake Okeechobee.
After sitting through two Army Corps of Engineers’ briefings recently and being told it was “easier” to send polluted Lake Okeechobee water down the Caloosahatchee because it does not have the protections of lawsuits or endangered species, Denham said he is ready to take more aggressive action to stop the releases.
The vice mayor said he now wants to seek an official restriction similar to those enjoyed east and south of the lake because the Caloosahatchee’s estuary has been designated the critical habitat of the endangered species, the smalltooth sawfish (shown below).
“I am relieved to hear that, finally, after all these years, someone from a municipality understands what we at PURRE have been saying for years,” said Michael Valiquette, PURRE chairman. “The only thing that will get the attention of the Corps and the South Florida Water Management District is litigation and a court ruling. Way to go, Mick! It’s time to take off the gloves in this fight to save our estuary.”
The Charlotte Harbor Estuary, which includes the Caloosahatchee River and Sanibel Island, has been deemed the critical habitat of the smalltooth sawfish, an endangered fish belonging to the same group as sharks, skates and rays. It can reach 18 feet in length and live up to 25 or 30 years. Its habitat, once large, has shrunk to encompass only the Charlotte Harbor Estuary (see map of the sawfish's critical habitat, below right). 
The vice mayor received the full support of the Sanibel City Council and everyone who spoke from the audience, including Valiquette, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Natural Resources Policy Director Rae Anne Wessel, and other citizens.
The path Denham is suggesting would involve several steps, including the filing of Freedom of Information Act requests, possible petitions under the Endangered Species Act, and more. The city is working with the Washington, D.C. environmental law firm Beveridge & Diamond.
Denham also plans to set up a meeting with key staff of the South Florida Water Management District to try to hold them to their commitment to provide 450,000 acre-feet of water storage. “I want to have a very specific timeline about what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it,” Denham said. “I think I need to use the offices of the City of Sanibel, the Regional Planning Council, and Lee County to help them secure the necessary acreage.”
“PURRE fully supports the city of Sanibel’s more aggressive approach,” Valiquette said. “I told the vice mayor publicly that PURRE stands behind him and the city in these efforts and will help in any way we can.”
Valiquette did a telephone interview with Fox 4 News in Ft. Myers this morning to discuss what the Lake Okeechobee releases are doing to the water quality around Sanibel and voice PURRE’s support for the city’s plans. Click the link below to watch the broadcast.
Land Deal Likely to Improve Everglades, Ecologists Say
By Mary Caperton Morton
Tom Brokaw, Miss Florida, and the all stars of Florida Everglades advocacy came to Washington on May 19 to discuss the progress of restoration efforts. Packed into a small room down the street from the Capitol building, the environmentalists broke into cheers when the Obama adminstration unveiled a $324 million plan for new bridges to lift sections of a highway that now blocks water flow in the wetlands.
But panel speakers at the Everglades Summit made no big announcements about one of the most ambitious and controversial pieces of the $12 billion restoration puzzle -- a plan to buy agricultural land between the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee to the north. The purchase has been stalled by lawsuits and is under review in Florida's Supreme Court.
While debates continue to rage about the economics and politics of the $536 million land deal, Florida's wetland ecologists agree that, scientifically speaking, it is the best way to start to restoring much-needed water flow to Florida's "River of Grass."
Over the past 60 years as much as half of the wetland has been replaced by trickling canals and nutrient-hungry sugar cane. Everglades National Park is the third largest park in the lower 48 states, but according to the National Park Service, its 1.5 million acres protects less than half of the wetland’s original territory. The rest has been drained and developed into cities and into a vast swath of citrus and sugarcane-dominated farmland called the Everglades Agricultural Area.
This development has sapped water from south Florida’s famous wetlands and left them with ion and salinity “levels closer to an estuary rather than a fresh water system”, said Ronald Best, a wetlands ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Lauderdale.
William Orem, a geochemist with the USGS in Reston, Va. who studies pollution in the Everglades, estimated that sulfate levels in the Everglades are already 60 times higher than pre-agricultural levels. Phosphorous, chloride, calcium, copper and iron are also found in alarmingly high concentrations and mercury levels in fish and wading birds are among the highest anywhere in the U.S.
With numbers like those, few would argue that the Everglades needs no ecological intervention. So in 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a jointly federal and state funded plan comprised of 50-plus projects to be completed over 30 years at a cost of more than $10 billion, making it the most comprehensive and expensive environmental repair plan ever undertaken in the U.S.
One of CERP’s many goals was to increase freshwater flow into the Everglades by one-third. To this end, in 2008 the state of Florida proposed a $1.75 billion dollar plan to buy 180,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corporation land south of Lake Okeechobee.
Two years and a recession later, that original plan has been reduced to $536 million dollars for 73,000 acres. And while the smaller price tag has appeased some critics, others, including Republican Florida state senator Paula Dockery, still have concerns about the patchwork nature of the land deal - the six tracts being offered for sale by U.S. Sugar don’t directly connect. And a dozen other Everglades restoration projects may have to be put on hold due to the expense of the land purchase, including a massive $300 million dollar water reservoir already underway in Palm Beach county.
According to Thomas Van Lent, a hydrologist with the Everglades Foundation, the current land deal, while frustratingly patchwork, is still an important step in the right direction. “There are lots of political and economic issues swirling around this U.S. Sugar deal, but you’re not hearing much about the science, because it’s not that controversial,” Van Lent said. “We know what needs to be done [to help the Everglades] and how to do it,” he said.
“Water quality is the Achilles' heel of this whole freshwater plan,” said Orem. “Right now they’re trying to move more water down into the park through the canal system, which is probably the worst way to do it,” he said. “Canals don’t support the natural biogeochemical processes that remove contaminants.”
By purchasing land south of Lake Okeechobee, the South Florida Water Management District will not only gain more access to the lake water, it will also gain the land it needs to clean and filter the water to make it Everglades-ready.
Lake Okeechobee has been badly contaminated by half a century of fertilizer and pesticide-heavy agriculture, “so we shouldn’t just dump that water into the Everglades,” Orem said. Instead, the parcels purchased from U.S. Sugar will be converted back into marshlands, which will naturally filter the heavily polluted Lake Okeechobee water before it is swept into the park.
“Wetlands are very effective at removing toxic levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous,” said Stephen Davis, a wetlands ecologist with the Everglades Foundation, a non-profit conservation and restoration group based in Palmetto Bay, Fla. “Recreating these marshes is a closer approximation to how the Everglades used to work, as opposed to chemical treatment plants.”
Although the new reduced acreage plan is less than ideal -- the patchwork map will continue to make water delivery tricky -- Davis said taking any amount of farmland land out of production is good for the Everglades. And if enough parcels of land could eventually be bought and traded, water could move through these marshes from the lake all the way south to the park.
But despite what scientists say are clear ecologic benefits, the U.S. Sugar land deal, originally scheduled to close March 31 but recently extended until September 30, continues to be fiercely criticized by Senator Dockery, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and thousands of Florida taxpayers, mainly due to its high price tag and long timeframe:
Purchasing all the U.S. Sugar land and engineering a continuous sheet-flow of water through it from the lake into the park is estimated to cost a staggering $12 billion. Reaching CERP's goal of increasing freshwater flow into the Everglades by a third “will probably take years, if not decades,” said Van Lent.
Van Lent conceded the land purchase may put some other restoration projects on hold, including the oft-cited reservoir and a proposed series of underground wells, but he said restored marshlands are a more ecologically sound way to store and deliver freshwater anyway. “The economic realities are going to force us to prioritize, which is always hard,” he said. “But land is key and I do think this plan is going to be a good for the Everglades in the long run.”
By pushing back the close of sale deadline by six months, the South Florida Water Management District will have more time to address some of the deal’s financial and political pitfalls. So for now, convinced ecologists will have to wait and see.
Provided by Inside Science News Service
May 13, 2010
PURRE Chairman Michael Valiquette appeared live this morning on Fox-4 Rising to discuss the water releases from Lake Okeechobee.
Mike confirmed what we all know:
"With the amount of water that's in the lake right now, about 15 feet compared to about 10 feet two years ago ... they're definitely going to dump water off that lake and there's nothing we can do about it."
The Army Corps needs to fix the Herbert Hoover Dike, Mike stressed, but the South Florida Water Management District promised five years ago to provide 450,000 acre-feet of water storage area. "They never came up with that land," Mike stated.
"Most importantly, the Water Management District has control of the U.S. Sugar land purchase now, and if they can get their hands on that land and bring in online, we have immediate storage areas," Mike continued. "Also we can have a flowway south which is what we've been pushing for for five years, as well as a spillway between the two westernmost canals feeding into the Everglades Agricultural Area. If they can put a spillway there in the 15 to 15-1/2 foot range that will automatically release water from the lake into a flowway south, our problem is solved."
Here is the link to view the interview:
ARMY CORPS SAYS IT’S GOING TO BE A TOUGH YEAR AS
LAKE OKEECHOBEE STARTS WET SEASON HIGH
AND WATER RELEASES START EARLY
May 4, 2010 – If you’ve been reading the newspapers lately, you know that Lake Okeechobee is at an unusally high level for this time of year, when its water level should be low with room to spare to accommodate the coming summer rainy season and any storms it might bring. Unfortunately, the unseasonably rainy winter and spring kept the lake level rising to a high of 15.15 feet on May 3, compared to 11.02 feet on the same date last year.
Since March, with the lake at about 13.5 feet and steadily rising, the Army Corps of Engineers has been following its newer, better protocol and sending much smaller discharges than in previous years down the Caloosahatchee River to the west and the St. Lucie River to the east.
Until April 26, those releases to the Caloosahatchee remained below the 2,800 cubic-feet-per-second agreed upon as the maximum amount of polluted fresh lake water the river and its estuary could withstand. Then, after suffering four days of releases nearly double that amount, the releases have been back down below 2,800 cfs daily.
Still, so far the Army Corps is managing the lake in accordance with the plan it adopted two years ago in response to massive pressure by PURRE Water Coalition members and many others. Part of that management plan, in addition to the reduced releases, was to manage the lake’s level between 12.5 and 15.5 feet (it used to try to sustain the lake at a much lower level, forcing higher releases down the rivers and into the estuaries). But this year, the lake level is peaking before the wet and hurricane seasons even begin. And it’s just expected to get worse.
An article in the Stuart News on Friday, April 30, reported that according to the Corps, the releases “will likely continue well into the west season” to keep the lake at a safe level to protect the aging Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake. Col. Luis Alejandro, who manages the lake for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the newspaper, “At the end of the day, our fundamental purpose is to protect the dike and the people who live around it. It’s a matter of public health and safety.”
The dike is 80 years old and undergoing repairs – repairs that have been ongoing for decades at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. The Corps inspects the dike regularly – daily at 16.5 feet – for leaks, seepage, and more serious ruptures.
But the risk to public health and safety isn’t just about dike failure. The East Coast’s Martin County Health Department warned the Corps of health-threatening bacteria in the St. Lucie River estuary. Its director said Lake Okeechobee water “makes a better medium for bacteria levels to increase.”
Col. Alejandro was asked whether that bacteria didn’t also pose a health and safety issue? He said, “That’s also true. We have to try to balance all the impacts,” the Stuart News reported. “This is going to be a very tough year for everyone. Unfortunately, nature has put us in a situation where we have to make these releases.”
All of the above clearly supports the already strong arguments for the state of Florida completing the purchase of U.S. Sugar lands south of Lake Okeechobee. The purchase of this land will eventually allow some excess lake water to flow south without raising flooding or environmental concerns. That way, a statement like Col. Alejandro’s – “Unfortunately, nature has put us in a situation where we have to make these releases” – may never have to be uttered again.
“It’s a terrifically ironic statement,” said PURRE Chairman Mike Valiquette. “He should have said, ‘Unfortunately, man has created this situation by altering nature’s perfect design of Florida’s waterways such that natural occurrences like weather now force us to have to send polluted fresh water down unnaturally straightened rivers that will destroy estuaries.’ We are obligated as stewards of this planet and of this state and its people and its economy to see this land deal through and help solve this huge problem.”
This purchase is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the state to own land that will make it possible to help restore Florida’s water systems to more closely resemble the design nature intended, according to Valiquette. “The opportunity to buy land that will allow a path for water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay likely will never present itself again,” Valiquette said.
“As we can clearly see as the 2010 rainy season draws near with Lake Okeechobee over 15 feet and its polluted fresh water already pouring into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers – rivers that nature never even connected to the lake – a solution that will allow water to flow south is an absolute necessity,” Valiquette said. “And it cannot happen if the state does not own that U.S. Sugar land.”
The New York Times Issues Editorial Favoring
U.S. Sugar Corp. Land Purchase for Restoration:
A very strong and welcome endorsement of the deal
The New York Times EDITORIAL:
A Good Deal for the Everglades
March 17, 2010
The effort to restore Florida's Everglades has been revived thanks to the efforts of President Obama and Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist. The Obama administration has committed more than $300 million in new money, and construction on important projects - including lifting a section of the Tamiami Trail to bring freshwater to the Everglades - is under way.
Last week, the state agency that oversees the restoration voted unanimously to press forward with Mr. Crist's controversial - but potentially game-changing - $536 million deal to buy 73,000 acres of land from the United States Sugar Corporation. The land would eventually be taken out of agricultural production, removing a major source of pollution, and converted into reservoirs and artificial marshes to store and clean water for later release into the Everglades during the dry season.
The agency - the South Florida Water Management District - had been under mounting pressure to kill the deal. Florida Crystals, another big and politically connected sugar company, lobbied ferociously against the deal with its rival. Some environmentalists complained that Mr. Crist paid too much and that the cost of the deal would crowd out other restoration projects.
But some of those projects - a string of underground storage wells, for instance - made little sense to begin with and none are as important as the land deal. The payout to United States Sugar and some other aspects of the deal seem excessive. But the agency can negotiate the price downward or cancel the arrangement if United States Sugar refuses to bargain or if the economy keeps tanking and the deal becomes unaffordable.
What the taxpayers need to remember is that this is a very good deal for the environment. Without an ample supply of clean, fresh water, the Everglades will never be restored to anything approaching their former vitality.
There is no shortage of rainfall in Florida. What's in short supply is places to store it during the rainy season when Lake Okeechobee overflows, places from which the water can be released when it is needed during the dry season to nourish wildlife, prevent catastrophic fire and provide clean water to Florida Bay.
Far more will have to happen to restore the water flows that once sustained the Everglades. But the United States Sugar lands are a critically important first step.
March 11, 2010
Today, the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District voted unanimously to extend the contract to purchase the U.S. Sugar lands to Sept. 30, 2010. Without this extension, the contract would have expired March 31 and the deal - vital to the future of the Everglades and South Florida's water quality - would have died.
Speaking briefly before he made the motion to extend the contract, board member Charles Dauray, who represents Charlotte, Collier, Hendry and Lee counties, spoke of 2005 when "we came within a heartbeat of losing the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge."
"When I weigh the opportunity [of purchasing the land] versus the affordability, I'm 50-50, and I've lost a few hours sleep thinking about this," Dauray continued. "But when it comes to the affordability on the west coast, we cannot afford not to proceed with this contract. ... This is absolutely critical to the economy of the west coast of Florida and to the health and safety of the people who live there, so I am in favor of the extension."
Thirty people spoke during the public comment period, necessitating a reduction of their allotted time from three minutes to one minute. Only three spoke against allowing the deal to go forward. Board Chairman Eric Beurmann said the board had received thousands of calls, letters and emails prior to today's meeting.
PURRE would like to thank everyone who contacted the SFWMD urging them to extend the contract with U.S. Sugar to purchase this much-needed land. It worked! We will keep you posted as developments occur.
Michael J. Valiquette, PURRE Chairman
March 9, 2010
Yesterday PURRE Asked Its Members To contact members of the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District, urging them to move forward with the deal to purchase U.S. Sugar lands south of Lake Okeechobee.
The importance of this deal cannot be overstated.
Some of you may have seen the Miami Herald article, reprinted below, or others like it, presenting the naysayers’ side of the story, claiming the deal is a political one, too expensive, and not likely to achieve its objectives. But as Gov. Crist says to this day, “It we don’t do this, if we don’t save this treasure, shame on us.”
PURRE wants to state as strongly as we possibly can that this U.S. Sugar land purchase not only will go a long way towards saving the Everglades – as if that weren’t an urgent enough goal! – but will solve the single biggest problem plaguing and destroying the water quality in the rivers, estuaries, and bays of South Florida. And the water of South Florida IS South Florida!
For those who believe South Florida's water quality and our beloved and precious Everglades are worth protecting for their environmental and economic value to our state and nation, it is more important than ever that we continue to work together to advance policies that will ensure their continued survival. The U.S. Sugar Corp. land acquisition will do just that.
Tell the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board to push the U.S. Sugar Land Purchase through to completion:
ebeurmann@sfwmd.gov
jmontgom@sfwmd.gov
Sandy Batchelor: fax 561.682.5029
jcollins@sfwmd.gov
cdauray@sfwmd.gov
prooney@sfwmd.gov
Glenn Waldman: fax 561.682.5029
kpowers@sfwmd.gov
sestenoz@sfwmd.gov
THE MIAMI HERALD ARTICLE:
Charlie Crist's downsized U.S. Sugar deal under siege
BY CURTIS MORGAN
The Miami Herald, March 7, 2010
It started out so big, so bold and with so much promise for healing the River of Grass that environmentalists proclaimed it the holy grail of Everglades restoration. But 20 months after Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled his $1.75 billion bid to buy out the U.S. Sugar Corp., the grail is at serious risk of slipping away -- rather, what's left of it. Crist remains confident his landmark land buy will survive. ``It's a done deal,'' he told The Miami Herald. ``It's got to be done.'' Others, even supporters like Drew Martin, Everglades chairman for the Sierra Club, are less certain. ``There is no question it's hanging by a thread,'' he said. With revenues evaporating like Lake Okeechobee on a summer day, South Florida Water Management District leaders are balking at bankrolling even the whittled-down first phase approved nine months ago: $536 million for 72,800 acres of citrus groves and sugar fields, with options on 107,500 more. Water District Chairman Eric Buermann expects the governing board to crunch the numbers again when it meets this week. Buermann, a Miami lawyer appointed by Crist, has championed ``the governor's vision,'' but acknowledged he now questions if the agency can still afford it. Property values in the 16 counties that pay the district's bills have dropped an estimated 16 percent since 2008. In a February letter made public Friday, the district's outside financial advisor warned that mounting deficits -- projected to hit $110 million by 2012 -- could force ``very difficult decisions.'' A financial ``out'' clause in the contract gives the board an option to walk away. ``It's not a rosy picture, and I'm not going to try to portray it as one,'' Buermann said. The chunk of Big Sugar offers the promise of fixing -- someday, at uncertain but staggering cost -- what many experts see as a gaping hole in plans to replumb the Everglades: Not enough land to catch and clean water. But a deal that Crist had hoped would ensure his environmental legacy has morphed into a 900-pound political gorilla toting a ton of questions, along with $45 million in budget-straining annual debt for the district. The reeling economy has forced two down-sizings. An ambitious five-month fast track to get it done has slowed to a crawl. Plans to bankroll the deal with bonds have been pinched by state lawmakers and a Palm Beach County judge, and face more scrutiny from the Florida Supreme Court in April. Two powerful foes -- rival grower Florida Crystals and the Miccosukee Tribe -- have led a legal and lobbying assault. They paint the deal as a sweetheart bailout for a major Crist campaign donor that would stick the state with land it can't afford to build anything on for decades. ``It's not driven by science. It's not driven by need,'' said Gaston Cantens, a Florida Crystals vice president. ``It was driven by one person's political ambition and one company's necessities.'' But environmentalists doubt U.S. Sugar's chief competitor has interest in protecting anything but its bottom line. ``It's ridiculous,'' said Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation. ``If we thought the purchase would paralyze every restoration project, we wouldn't support it.'' During a phone interview last week from a car crossing Alligator Alley, Crist bristled at critics' allegations. ``I understand Florida Crystals plays hardball, but I really don't give a damn,'' he said. ``What's important is doing what's right. What is right is preserving this magnificent place.'' A lot has soured since since the sunny day in June 2008 when Crist laid out his ``monumental'' plan: Buy out Florida's largest sugar grower and use its 300-square-mile empire to restore the ``missing link'' between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, long ago severed by farms. U.S. Sugar would pocket $1.75 billion and profits from at least six years of continued farming. The state would get a real chance to salvage what's left of the Everglades. The deal offers what the $12 billion state-federal restoration approved a decade ago did not: enough land to store and clean water south of Lake Okeechobee, which once spilled over freely to drive the flow of the River of Grass. To protect the fragile Glades from pollution flowing off farms, ranches and yards, water managers are forced to flush Lake O's dirty excess where it isn't needed -- down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, triggering fish-killing algae blooms in delicate estuaries and anger in waterfront homes. Because Big Sugar was off-limits, engineers originally planned around it, concocting an uncertain $1 billion scheme to hold water in hundreds of wells deep underground. But a decade of study since, honed with computer and climate models, showed the Glades need more water and places to store and scrub it. ``From a scientific perspective, we know that answer was staring us right in the face,'' said Water District Deputy Executive Director Tommy Strowd. ``In the natural system, water doesn't go to the estuaries. That water had to go south.'' Crist's ``missing link'' rhetoric, summoning visions of marsh and hammock, oversold reality. Most scientists consider sugar lands -- saturated with fertilizers and sunken from erosion -- too far gone to revive. The real plan is less picturesque but, water managers say, critical: dammed reservoirs, pollution treatment marshes and diesel pumps. Crist dropped his bombshell offer in November 2007 to two high-powered U.S. Sugar lobbyists, Brian Ballard and J.M. `Mac' Stipanovich. They had wanted to gripe about a milestone defeat at the hands of Crist's appointees to the water board, who halted the practice of ``back-pumping'' polluted farm canals to replenish Lake Okeechobee. They emerged, after eight months of hush-hush talks, with what would rank as the biggest conservation land buy in state history. Politically, it seemed to shape up as a done deal. The governor, with politicos touting him as running mate material for presidential candidate John McCain, stood at the peak of his popularity and clout. The Water District had the power to finance the deal without approval from a potentially meddlesome Legislature. Its board was controlled by Crist picks, other than one hold-over from Gov. Jeb Bush. It was all so dazzling it was easy to be distracted from critical details. That month, Florida ascended to No. 2 nationally for rotten mortgages, on the way to a housing market meltdown. Five months later, citing the economy, Crist downsized to a $1.34 billion land-only deal. Four months after that, that proposal was split into two cheaper chunks. ``In hindsight, the attempt to purchase every nut and bolt, every rail car, was probably too ambitious,'' Fordham said. ``Now, it's something we can digest.'' But the deal hasn't been just victim of the burst real estate bubble. The governor's office rolled it out without cluing in, let alone cutting in, important Glades players. ``This was a deal cut behind closed doors, then shoved down everybody's throats,'' said Barbara Miedema, vice president of the Belle Glade-based Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative. Questions soon drowned hoopla. Florida Crystals, controlled by the influential Fanjul family, and the Miccosukee Tribe have hammered away, winning delays and constraints. Their lawsuit persuaded a Palm Beach judge to slash district borrowing plans by two-thirds -- a major blow to the bigger Phase Two land buy environmentalists consider critical. Crystals lobbyists worked the Legislature, coming away with a debt cap that will crimp future bond deals. The Supreme Court rebuffed Water District requests to expedite an appeal, setting its hearing for April 7 -- a week after a contract deadline expires, opening the door for a board vote this week on whether to extend the deal. Tribe attorney Dexter Lehtinen see big problems in the smaller deal: half a billion dollars spent on land that will require multibillion-dollar projects the state can't afford. Shredding of a restoration blueprint that took years to craft. Millions diverted from projects that promised faster relief. The way Lehtinen reads the terms and the economy, U.S. Sugar can keep farming for decades while pollution pushes deep into tribal lands. ``The only thing this guarantees is delay,'' he said. Florida Crystals' Cantens called it ``a deal done backwards. Instead of identifying what you need, we're just going to buy this land.'' Most of U.S. Sugar's broadly scattered parcels are miles from marshes they're intended to help. District engineers say they can do the job with those tracts alone, but not as cheaply or simply. Still, most concepts that water managers have sketched so far -- with eye-popping price tags estimated at $3 billion to $30 billion -- target more land owned by its chief rival. Cantens said early talks of swapping land or buying U.S. Sugar's assets went nowhere. He and other growers believe U.S. Sugar is fighting to hang on to a deal designed to boost its flagging fortunes, letting it unload money-losing citrus groves and pay down hundreds of millions it borrowed for a state-of-the-art mill. Robert Coker, a U.S Sugar vice president, said the company is sound and has been flexible to help preserve ``the governor's bold vision for the Everglades.'' He sees only one major obstacle to closing the deal: Florida Crystals. ``They have said things, alleged things, done everything humanly, legally and emotionally possible to try to keep this from happening.'' Historically, a lot of mud is slung in Glades disputes. This one has been no exception. Skeptics roll their eyes at Crist's claim of conceiving the buyout, saying it smacks more of the high-wire high-finance practiced by Paul Tudor Jones II, a billionaire Wall Street wizard, part-time Islamorada resident, avid tarpon angler and chair of the Everglades Foundation. They fume over, as Miedema put it, ``cozy'' connections. U.S. Sugar is a big campaign donor. Its lobbyists are political confidantes to Crist. The chairman of its law firm, Gunster, Yoakley & Stewert, is George LeMieux, who left as Crist's chief of staff a month after the governor pitched the buyout. It goes on. ``They think if you just put `Everglades restoration' on the cover sheet, we're all going to buy it,'' Lehtinen said. ``You're just using that to excuse insider deals and sweetheart deals.'' Crist dismissed charges of impropriety. An aide for LeMieux, later appointed by Crist to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat, said the senator did not work on the deal and would not profit from it. To Florida environmental Secretary Mike Sole, who negotiated the deal, critics are trying to connect dots that lead nowhere. ``There is absolutely no shred of truth to any accusations,'' he said. Supporters concede the deal has trade-offs, but only short-term. They say there may never be a better or cheaper chance to grab so much land where it is needed. ``It's a blessing and a curse,'' said Everglades authority Martha Musgrove, who led civic forums on the deal's pros and cons. ``It's a blessing because there is land available from a willing seller. It's a curse because it's so damn hard financing it.'' For water managers, looming new demands to settle water quality violations in a national wildlife refuge and meet tough new federal water pollution standards add to the frustration. They need more land now more than when the governor unveiled the deal. ``Setting aside for a minute where you put it, north of the lake, south of the lake, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, it's absolutely 100 percent necessary to expand,'' said Water District board member Shannon Estenoz, a Plantation environmentalist who has backed the deal. Crist has pulled the deal from the brink once before. In the days before a critical vote in December 2009, he phoned board members while on his honeymoon and dispatched Sole to push the deal in person. Two of his appointees defected but it survived, 4-3. Now he's a lame duck governor trailing in a Senate race. Supporters wonder if he can still hold the controversial deal together. He shored up support two week ago, filling three seats on what is now an all-Crist water board. The Sugar deal was his litmus test. ``I won't appoint people to the board who don't believe in it,'' he said. ``If we don't do this, if we don't save this treasure, shame on us.''
###
March 8, 2010 - CALL TO ACTION TO SAVE U.S. SUGAR LAND DEAL
The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District meets this Thursday, March 11, at 9 a.m. At that time, they may well decide not to move forward with the purchase of the U.S. Sugar Corp. lands. The purchase of these lands is essential to restore the flow of water through the Everglades – in fact, this is the biggest piece of the puzzle to solve our water quality problems. Simply stated, this land purchase HAS TO HAPPEN. If it isn’t done, then the South Florida’s tourist, boating, and fishing industries are done, to name a few. Hundreds of thousands of Florida jobs that depend on these industries are done. Eventually, our economy is done. Our wonderful quality of life is done.
We must act NOW to secure the purchase of this land to convey, store and treat water from Lake Okeechobee. Over the last 20 years, taxpayers have committed billions of dollars to Everglades restoration projects. Our investment will now be secured by Gov. Crist’s initiative in buying this property while it is available from a willing seller. Public purchase of the land currently owned by US Sugar Corp. is the best and most cost-effective option available to ensure Florida’s water and economic security.
Tell the members of the South Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board that you want them to move forward and complete this purchase. Cut and paste the letter below (in blue to make it easier for you to distinguish), and send it to each of the governing board members. It’s very helpful if you add a personal sentence or two. Their email addresses are listed below (two do not have emails, so we have provided their fax numbers). If you would rather phone them personally, go to www.sfwmd.gov, and click on “Governing Board” for all their contact information. THANK YOU for investing this time in the future of Florida’s water quality and economic prosperity.
SFWMD Governing Board Members:
ebeurmann@sfwmd.govjmontgom@sfwmd.gov
Sandy Batchelor doesn’t have email; fax 1-561-682-5029
Glenn J. Waldman doesn’t have email; fax 1-561-682-5029
SAMPLE LETTER TO CUT-AND-PASTE INTO EMAIL OR FAX:
Dear (fill in governing board member’s name):
When it comes time to vote this Thursday, March 11, on whether or not to proceed with the purchase of U.S. Sugar lands for the benefit of South Florida and the Everglades, I urge you to vote ‘yes’ and let the project move ahead for the good of the region’s people, environment, and economy. This land deal, once complete, will be the single biggest achievement in the struggle to improve South Florida’s water quality. It is the best and most cost-effective option available to ensure Florida’s water and economic security – our tourist, boating, and fishing industries and all that depend on them – and our wonderful way of life.
You are the water management district, and we the taxpayers are depending on you to properly manage our water. Moving this purchase forward is the proper way to responsibly manage our water problems. As a taxpayer, I want you to vote to move this deal forward and see it to completion as expeditiously as possible.
Yours truly,
(your name here)
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed two new members to the South Florida Water Management District and confirmed that he demanded assurances from the newcomers that they would support his plan for a $536-million purchase of U.S. Sugar property for Everglades restoration.
Crist appointed Anne "Sandy" Batchelor-Robjohns, 56, of Miami Beach, co-CEO of The Batchelor Foundation, and environmental and land use lawyer Glenn Waldman, 49, of Weston.
Crist also reappointed Shannon Estenoz, 42, a research assistant at FAU, to a new four-year term. Batchelor-Robjohns will replace Gladys Perez on the five-member governing board, and Waldman will replace Michael Collins.
Crist's litmus-test approach to the water-board appointments recalls his insistence that new appointees to the Public Service Commission take a skeptical view of a major rate increase sought by Florida Power & Light.
"I did that personally. Damn right," Crist said. "The litmus test is, you'll protect the Everglades. You'll protect the environment. You'll protect the water down there. It is the Water Management District."
The Miccosukee Tribe and U.S. Sugar rival Florida Crystals Corp. filed the lawsuit challenging the financing for the state’s purchase of 73,000 acres of sugar fields and citrus groves, a deal first proposed in June 2008.
They argue the land deal is a waste of taxpayers’ money and that financially strapped Florida doesn't have money to build Everglades restoration projects on the land. They also contend the purchase would stall already overdue Everglades project elsewhere.
Last August, a Palm Beach County circuit judge approved the deal, but stopped short of extending the credit lines as high as the district sought. Environmental groups and other supporters call the deal a historic opportunity to acquire strategically located land to build reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas and to help restore the natural southern flow of water from Lake Okeechobee.
Sources: Miami Herald, SunSentinel.com
Miami Herald
Posted on Tue, Feb. 02, 2010
BY CURTIS MORGAN
Even before its justices rule, the Florida Supreme Court has erected a potential legal hurdle to Gov. Charlie Crist's $536 million land deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp. The court has agreed to hear a challenge of plans to bankroll the $536 million purchase with bonds issued by the South Florida Water Management District.
But the hearing date, April 7, comes a week after a deadline for having a court ``validate'' the financing. That won't necessarily derail the blockbuster land buy, but it could force water managers and the sugar giant to alter deadlines -- something both sides have already agreed to do once.
U.S. Sugar spokeswoman Judy Sanchez signaled that the company was open to extensions to complete the purchase of 73,000 acres of sugar fields and citrus groves. Water district spokesman Randy Smith issued a brief statement that water managers were pleased the Supreme Court had set a hearing date.
Thom Rumberger, chairman of the Everglades Trust, said environmentalists were disappointed the court had not agreed to take up the case earlier, but he was hopeful the district would agree to extend deadlines, which might require another vote by the governing board on the controversial deal.
Water managers say the land, which eventually will be used for reservoirs and pollution treatment marshes, is critical to resolve water supply and quality problems that have long plagued the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and coastal estuaries.
The Miccosukee Tribe and U.S. Sugar rival Florida Crystals Corp., which filed a lawsuit challenging the deal, argue the land deal is a multibillion-dollar boondoggle for taxpayers and that the financially strapped state doesn't have money to build Everglades restoration projects on the land. Last August, a Palm Beach County circuit judge approved the deal, but balked at extending the credit lines as high as the district sought, cutting it by two-thirds to $650 million.
Gaston Cantens, a spokesman for Florida Crystals, said if the board had to vote, he hoped they would use it as an opportunity to walk away.
``If the board wants to change their minds and not go forward, they'd be saving us all from a terrible financial deal,'' he said.
SunSentinel.com
Florida Supreme Court finally takes up fight over U.S. Sugar deal
by Andy Reid on February 1, 2010 07:36 PM
The Florida Supreme Court on Monday announced that on April 7 it would hear the legal challenge to Gov. Charlie Crist’s pending $536 million Everglades restoration land deal.
The land deal, first proposed in June 2008, calls for South Florida taxpayers to pay for buying 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. that would be used for restoring water flows to the Everglades.
U.S. Sugar-competitor Florida Crystals and the Miccosukee Tribe are challenging the financing for the deal, arguing it would cost taxpayers too much and further stall already-overdue Everglades restoration plans.
Environmental groups and other supporters call the deal a historic opportunity to acquire strategically located land to build reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas.
The Supreme Court hearing date comes after the March 31 deadline called for in the deal to get court approval for the financing plan. The contract with U.S. Sugar sets a June deadline to close on the deal.
U.S. Sugar representative Judy Sanchez said Monday the company is willing to extend the deal if necessary due to the “lengthy litigation process.”
Update September 28, 2009
A note to PURRE Members from Public Policy Director Dan Wexler:
The legal battle over the South Florida Water Management District’s proposed purchase of US Sugar’s land continues. Last week the Miccosukee Tribe filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court in an effort to kill the deal. Below is a report from the South Florida Business Journal. Both sides will now present their case in legal briefs and could possibly be in court before the end of the year. We will keep you posted on these developments.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Battle over Everglades land continues
South Florida Business Journal
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is not ready to give up its legal fight to block bonding for the state’s purchase of Everglades agricultural land from U.S. Sugar Corp. The tribe has filed a notice of appeal to the Florida Supreme Court in the battle over the issuance of $650 million in bonds to pay for the purchase of 73,000 acres for Everglades restoration. The notice, filed Sept. 23 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, provides little detail about its grounds for appeal, but indicates the massive land purchase is still under the cloud of a legal challenge.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Don Hafele approved the purchase, but limited the South Florida Water Management District to $650 million in bonds to pay for 73,000 acres. The district had originally asked to acquire 180,000 acres. Gov. Charlie Crist announced the deal in June 2008, but it was downsized several times because of the recession. On Friday, the water management district issued a statement saying it would defend itself.
“The [lower] court was clear in its determination that the [district] demonstrated a valid public purpose, and complied with Florida law, for its financing program for the historic River of Grass land acquisition,” the statement reads. “These lands will be used to better revive, restore and preserve America’s Everglades and to protect Florida's coastal estuaries and Lake Okeechobee.”
In a phone interview, tribe attorney Dexter Lehtinen said the arguments on appeal will hinge on state laws requiring direct public benefit from the issuance of bonds, and whether a referendum should be required. “We’re confident we have a case before the Supreme Court,” he said.
In the lower court case, U.S. Sugar rival Florida Crystals Corp. joined the tribe in objecting. The tribe and Florida Crystals both indicated they would appeal. The bond is expected to cover the $536 million price tag for the land, plus additional fees and costs. Several environmental groups had praised Hafele’s ruling, saying further challenges would be a waste of time.
Update August 27, 2009
Earlier this month we reported about closing arguments in the Palm Beach County Circuit Court case against the South Florida Water Management District's use of Certificates of Participation to fund the purchase of 73,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. land. Despite the objections presented by Florida Crystals Corp. and the Miccosukee Tribe, Judge Don Hafele approved $650 million in bonds for this purpose. This approval does not extend to the additional 107,000 acres that could be acquired down the road but this takes care of the initial objection and is a positive step.
Since the beginning of PURRE we have strongly supported the acquisition of land in the Everglades Agricultural Area to enable excess water in Lake Okeechobee to have an additional outlet to the south. The goal of course is to allow excess water in the lake to have another option for release other than the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers.
In our meetings with elected and appointed officials over the years, including the Governor and Lt. Governor and members of the South Florida Water Management District, PURRE Chairman Mike Valiquette has talked about land acquisition whenever given the opportunity to speak with these decision makers about both short- and long-term solutions. We are very proud to stand with many other groups around the state who have maintained this position and look forward to continuing our work on this effort and to keeping you informed on these developments. Following is the story from the South Florida Business Journal.
Dan Wexler, PURRE Public Policy Director
Everglades restoration clears hurdle
South Florida Business Journal - by Paul Brinkman
A Palm Beach County judge approved $650 million in bonds to pay for the purchase of 73,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. land for Everglades restoration.
Circuit Judge Don Hafele’s ruling limited the South Florida Water Management District to that amount for bonding, even though the district originally requested for authorization to acquire an additional 107,000 acres.
“The district’s witnesses outlined, parcel by parcel, the immediate and future benefits to be gained by the 73,000 acre acquisition,” Hafele wrote in his ruling. “Among the benefits to be achieved are storage and treatment of water before it is pumped into Lake Okeechobee, additional storage and treatment facilities …. In contrast, however, the record is essentially devoid of any information discussing how the remaining 107,000 acres (if acquired) would be utilized.”
The ruling comes over the objection of sugar rival Florida Crystals Corp. and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.
The bond is expected to cover the $536 million cost of land, plus additional fees and costs.
Mike Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Eric Buermann, chairman of the water management district’s governing board, said the state was happy with the ruling. State and district officials said they could not say if bond validation would need to be sought for future purchases of land beyond the 73,000 acres.
“This allows us to at least make the first step in that plan to restore the Everglades,” Buermann said in a press conference. “It allows us to move forward. Obviously we would have liked validation of all the bonds, but I think we will be successful there as well.”
Gov. Charlie Crist announced the original plan to buy all of U.S. Sugar’s property last summer – originally 181,000 acres for $1.34 billion. But, the economy and political pressure forced the governor and water management district to downsize the plan. In a news release, the tribe indicated it may appeal the ruling, but “claimed a partial victory for itself and the taxpayers by convincing a judge not to validate the full $2.2 billion in bonds.”
Dexter Lehtinen, the attorney for the Miccosukees, said the tribe was proud of its challenge to the higher bonding amount. “While we are pleased that the court recognized the district had no comprehensive plan, and we saved the taxpayers money, we are disappointed that it did allow $650 million to purchase 73,000 acres of land when the district has no money to build projects on it,” he said in the release.
“The tribe, whose goal is to save the Everglades, is likely to pursue legal action in the form of a motion for rehearing or an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.”
Carol Wehle, executive director of the water management district, said the water managers are “very excited” about the ruling and the purchase of the first 73,000 acres will mean huge advances in restoration. U.S. Sugar Corp. issued a statement praising Wednesday’s ruling.
“We are very pleased with the court decision today that validates the district’s authority to finance the $650 million needed to complete this critical River of Grass land acquisition so that Everglades restoration can move forward,” said Robert Coker, senior vice president of public affairs, in a news release. “There was little doubt as to the public benefit of acquiring this land.”
One major backer of the restoration plan also praised the ruling.
“Everglades restoration cleared a significant hurdle today,” said Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. “The foundation believes that now is the time for all stakeholders to respect the court’s decision and channel efforts to work collaboratively to advance the restoration process.”
Update August 12, 2009
This editorial appeared in the Palm Beach Post on Monday, August 10, 2009, and we thought it would be of interest to you:
U.S. Sugar deal: Good to go
Parties challenging the purchase of U.S. Sugar land had to prove that buying swaths of farmland in the historic path of the Everglades has no public purpose. They failed.
In closing arguments last week before Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele, the challengers argued that the South Florida Water Management District has no plan for the land and no money for the projects that would go on the land. Therefore, the only possible use for the land is the continued cultivation of sugar and citrus, which doesn't amount to the public purpose necessary to issue bonds to buy the land.
Yes, it's complicated. But here's how the case breaks down:
The water district wants permission from Judge Hafele to issue $650 million in certificates of participation (COP) bonds, which don't require voter consent, to buy 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar. West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals, the other large Everglades sugar grower, wants to sidetrack a deal that it believes is too generous to its competitor. The Miccosukee Tribe claims that the lack of a defined Everglades restoration plan created by using the U.S. Sugar land would harm the tribe's ancestral home.
But water district attorneys Christine Lamia and Fred Springer, aided by Audubon of Florida attorney Thom Rumberger, rebutted those arguments. They noted that the U.S. Sugar land is extraordinarily well-suited for Everglades restoration. The Miccosukees are working off the earlier restoration plan, which was written in the 1990s with no conception that the cane fields ever could be publicly owned.
Barring incompetence or negligence bordering on the criminal, Everglades restoration will be enhanced, not harmed, if the plan is amended to include the U.S. Sugar land.The district admits that it hasn't gone through the years of planning to say exactly what it would do with the land, what the work would cost and where the money would come from.
The tribe's attorney, Dexter Lehtinen, and Florida Crystals' attorney, Joseph Klock, argued that the district will spend so much money buying the land that there won't be money to do anything with it, much less continue existing restoration efforts. So U.S. Sugar would have to keep farming it, and there would be no public benefit.
In fact, district officials know that they will use the land to store and cleanse water on its way to the Everglades.
It will take time to work out the details. The district never will have enough money to do everything, but it would be correct to expect the federal government, the district's 50-50 restoration partner, to contribute.
The Palm Beach County state attorney, a party to the lawsuit and representing all the state attorneys in the water district's 16-county area, announced Thursday that the district had met its public purpose test. Judge Hafele is being asked to apply the law to an argument that is more political than legal. The challengers are determined to block the best hope for Everglades restoration, no matter the public cost. Their politics don't belong in the courtroom.
Update - May 14, 2009
By a vote of 6-1, the SFWMD on May 13 approved a scaled back deal to purchase land owned by U.S. Sugar. This is an important day for Everglades restoration. This is also a better margin of victory than the vote on the previous deal. The first vote was 4-3; this time there was just one lone dissenting vote and it was from Mike Collins of Islamorada. Here is the press release from SFWMD announcing the decision.
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board on May 13 approved a revised strategy to acquire huge swathes of land from the United States Sugar Corporation for Everglades restoration.
The Board had sought ways to address current economic challenges while preserving the environmental vision of this historic purchase.
The amended agreement, approved last week by U.S. Sugar's Board of Directors, provides for the initial purchase of approximately 73,000 acres of strategically located land south of Lake Okeechobee, with options to purchase another 107,000 acres when economic and financial conditions improve.
"Benefits of this acquisition to the Everglades and Florida's coastal estuaries are immense, providing us the opportunity to restore a unique and treasured ecosystem in ways not previously envisioned," said SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Eric Buermann. "By approving this revised acquisition, the Board has balanced its duty to both the environment and the taxpayers, embracing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity while protecting the agency's mission responsibilities."
Under the approved agreement, which is subject to financing, the District would initially invest approximately $536 million for 73,000 acres of agricultural land. At nearly 112 square miles, the acreage represents a land mass nearly twice the size of Orlando and is the largest single acquisition of land in the District's history.
The District also has options to purchase the remaining 107,000 acres from U.S. Sugar during the next 10 years, including an exclusive 3-year option to purchase the remaining property at a fixed price of $7,400 an acre.
"This strategy allows us to take hold of an unprecedented opportunity for restoring America's Everglades with a fiscally responsible hand," said SFWMD Executive Director Carol Ann Wehle. "We took a very conservative financial approach during negotiations, which ultimately allowed us to present an affordable purchase plan to the Governing Board — one that preserves the environmental vision, sustains agriculture and maintains the regional economy in these challenging economic times."
Highlights of the amended acquisition include:
The District would take ownership of approximately 73,000 acres of land and its improvements for a purchase price of $536 million, including 33,000 acres of citrus lands and 40,000 acres of sugarcane lands.
At slightly less than appraised value, the revised purchase reduces the immediate public investment by 60 percent, or $800 million, and annual debt service payments by an estimated $65 million.
U.S. Sugar would lease back the 40,000 acres of sugarcane lands from the District at $150 per acre for 7 years, with provisions to extend up to 20 years. The lease would generate a minimum of $40 million in revenue and avoid more than $11 million in land management costs during the first 7 years.
U.S. Sugar would be required to pay all property taxes and assessments, control the land for exotic and invasive plants and implement Best Management Practices to prevent pollution.
The District may terminate portions of the lease and begin using the acreage for restoration under a "takedown" schedule, including all of the citrus lands with twelve months' notice, and 10,000 acres of sugarcane lands with two years' notice within the first 10 years.
Should the District exercise the purchase option, all property would be available for approved and funded restoration projects.
The amended agreements allow for the continued operation of the U.S. Sugar Corporation's mill and refinery, keeping 1,700 direct jobs for at least another decade and sustaining regional agriculture.
Today's action by the District's Governing Board is the culmination of close to a year's work since Governor Charlie Crist first announced on June 24, 2008, that the District would begin negotiations with the U.S. Sugar Corporation to acquire vast tracts of land south of Lake Okeechobee for Everglades restoration.
After extensive deliberation, due diligence and public input, the District's Governing Board voted on December 16, 2008, to accept a proposal to acquire more than 180,000 acres of land for $1.34 billion, contingent upon financing and affordability.
In light of changing economic conditions, the Governing Board added a clause to the December contract to allow for review of the most current financial conditions — including interest rates and revenue streams — before closing to verify the District's capacity to finance the purchase and still meet its existing statutory and legal obligations.
With continued economic uncertainty, the two parties on April 1, 2009, agreed to work on a revised framework that would allow for the completion of the transaction in affordable steps despite the economic downturn.
Under the revised contracts, closing on the 73,000 acres would take place in 2010, within 90 days after court validation of the bonds to finance the acquisition. In the coming months, the District will continue with its ongoing public planning process to determine viable configurations for constructing a managed system of water storage and treatment to support this ecosystem restoration effort.
Acquiring the strategic tracts of land offers water managers the opportunity and flexibility to store and clean water on a scale never before contemplated to protect Florida's coastal estuaries and to better revive, restore and preserve the fabled River of Grass.
Benefits from the acquisition would include:
* Increases in water storage to reduce harmful freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee to Florida's coastal rivers and estuaries.
* Improvements in the delivery of cleaner water to the Everglades.
* Preventing tons of phosphorus from entering the Everglades.
* Reducing the need for "back-pumping" water into Lake Okeechobee.
* Sustainability of agriculture and green energy production.
* Managing Lake Okeechobee within a more desirable ecological range.
For more information about the acquisition, visit www.sfwmd.gov/riverofgrass.
Update - May 1, 2009
The deal for the state to purchase U.S. Sugar Corp. land to restore a more natural flow of water south to the Everglades has taken another step forward, as you can see from the news contained in the below article. We will keep the news coming your way. Thank you for your continued interest and support.
U.S. Sugar Board Approves Two-Step Land Acquisition
Update - April 1, 2009
The Governor announced on April 1 the details of a revised plan. The State of Florida will spend $533 million to buy 72,500 acres of land owned by U.S. Sugar. The deal includes a 10-year option to buy the remaining 107,000 additional acres.
Gov. Crist commented during the press conference that “even though it is scaled, down, it’s still the biggest ever.” He also said that even though the purchase is scaled down it will be sufficient to restore the connection between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. The governor cited the economy as the reason for the move.
While it is not the original deal, this purchase will have significant environmental benefits and we support the Governor’s efforts in these difficult times. It is his hope and ours that over time there will be sufficient funds to purchase the remaining lands.
Background
On June 24, 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that the South Florida Water Management District would enter into negotiations to acquire more than 180,000 acres of land owned by the United States Sugar Corporation. The purpose of this acquisition would be for Everglades restoration. The land would be used to reestablish the connection between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. It addition, it would be used for storage, treatment and conveyance of water and would help protect the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and surrounding estuaries.
Following months of negotiations, on December 16 the South Florida Water Management District voted to accept the proposal to purchase at least 180,000 acres of land for $1.34 billion. The agreement stated that the deal is contingent on financing. This is the largest land acquisition in the history of the state of Florida and according to many the most important action to protect the Everglades. It has been said many times that land is what the state needs to restore the River of Grass.
In early January, PURRE attended a conference sponsored by the Everglades Coalition. The theme for this year's conference was "Everglades Restoration; New Opportunities, New Challenges." During the first full session, entitled; “Restoration after the U.S. Sugar Deal," representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Water Management District, Audubon of Florida and others confirmed the need for this plan if we have any hope of improving water quality and restoring habitat in the Everglades. This deal will fundamentally change the ability to restore the Everglades; without it, these efforts will be severely challenged.
As we all know, the current water management system in an around Lake Okeechobee is inadequate. In the wet season we get too much water, and in the dry season not enough. For a long time we have talked about water storage and water treatment as a critical component to improving our water quality here in Southwest Florida. This effort has always been compromised by the lack of available land. This acquisition will provide the necessary land in the Everglades Agriculture Area to build reservoirs and water treatment areas.
Many of the issues that PURRE has raised over the years will be improved, including:
It is very important to point out that all of the benefits from acquiring this land will help grow Florida’s economy while protecting the environment.
While the environmental benefits are great there are challenges to this deal that could prevent it from closing, not the least of which is acquiring adequate financing.
The deadline for completing the deal is September. The South Florida Water Management District must determine whether they can afford the debt service.
Meetings will take place throughout South Florida over the next few months to discuss how to best use the land with the goal of providing a draft plan sometime early this summer.
We will be watching these developments closely and participating in the debate where possible. Meanwhile we urge everyone to let our appointed and elected officials know of know of their support for this purchase.
