August 16, 2010
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.
