On Oct. 12, 2010, the South Florida Water Management District closed on the purchase of land from U.S. Sugar Corp. – buying just one-ninth the amount of land proposed when the deal was first announced by Gov. Charlie Crist more than two years ago. PURRE’s officers and members have been fighting and rallying for the state to purchase U.S. Sugar land south of Lake Okeechobee since before our governor announced this deal, and we will continue to do so because after years of discussions, negotiations and politics, this deal turned into a disappointment.
What began as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire 180,000 acres of land that could have saved the Everglades, restored South Florida’s more natural water flows, and improved the water quality in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers has now become a 26,000-acre “this is the best we can do” deal.
We believe they could have done better. Still, we’re glad a deal was closed and at least some land was purchased even though the 26,800 acres the state acquired – 17,900 citrus acres in Hendry County and 8,900 sugarcane acres in Palm Beach County – will not benefit the Caloosahatchee.
But it isn’t over. The sale includes options for the state to purchase another 153,000 acres for up to 10 years:
As always in the battle for South Florida’s water quality, we cannot become complacent just because a land deal closed yesterday. PURRE will not allow this deal to end here without a fight or to let a laid-back attitude to take over, one of congratulation that a deal was done. All is not well, and we are not finished. 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.
