July 13, 2010
PLEASE READ THIS URGENT MESSAGE AND HELP SAVE THE U.S. SUGAR LAND PURCHASE:
Dear PURRE Members:
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
