Posted September 10, 2013 at
11:57 a.m., updated September 10, 2013 at 7:48 p.m.
WEST PALM BEACH — With the deal’s
deadline about a month away, Gov.
Rick Scott didn’t offer a
preference Tuesday on an option to buy sugar land to send more Lake Okeechobee
water south into the Everglades, away from the St. Lucie
Estuary.
Over a two-week period in August, Scott
promised more than $130 million for projects related to the St. Lucie. But Scott
and state officials haven’t prioritized the land buy. Scott opposed a U.S.
Sugar Corp. land purchase
deal as a tea party candidate in the 2010 Republican primary, claiming the deal
was crafted to benefit special interests.
The Republican governor addressed the
land buy Tuesday at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, his first stop on a
statewide tour to brainstorm new tax cuts.
“We work with our Department of
Environmental Protection and water management districts to see what land they
need to continue to make sure we have the quality of water we want (flowing)
through the Everglades,” Scott told reporters Tuesday. “So it will be a decision
they focus on.”
Oct. 12 is the expiration date on the
South Florida Water Management District’s three-year option to buy up to 153,200
acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. land at a set price of $7,400 an acre, about $1.1
billion. Also under a deal negotiated with U.S. Sugar, the state has the option
to buy 46,800 acres, most of it on the south end of the lake between Clewiston
and Belle Glade, at the same per-acre price — a total of about $346
million.
After the deadline passes, the district
has six years left to buy all or part the land, but at market
price.
The district has said there is no
active negotiation to buy the land, which local environmentalists argue is the
best move to divert Lake Okeechobee releases away from the St. Lucie and
Caloosahatchee estuaries, and into the River of Grass. The problem, the district
has said, is lack of money.
Representatives from U.S. Sugar have
said the plan for a “flow way” south was deemed not viable multiple times. But
at an Aug. 22 Senate hearing on Lake Okeechobee discharges, Bubba Wade Jr. of
U.S. Sugar said his company was not opposed to having a panel revisit the
flow-way concept.
The other sugar giant, Florida Crystals
Corp., was willing to swap lands necessary to create a flow-way in 2008. But a
Florida Crystals spokesman said he’s not sure about the swap now, since it
hasn’t been brought up to the company.
“Now, I don’t know,” said Gaston
Cantens, Florida Crystals vice president of corporate relations. “No one has
approached us about it.”
Then-Gov. Charlie Crist announced the
sugar land purchase idea in June 2008. The $1.7 billion deal would have bought
out U.S. Sugar and its 187,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area. After
the economy tanked, the district approved only a 26,800-acre land buy that cost
$197.4 million.
Scott tied his 2010 Republican
opponent, Bill McCollum, to the scaled-down deal, bashing him for taking huge
donations from U.S. Sugar.
For his 2014 re-election try, Scott has
since accepted at least $430,000 from U.S. Sugar and affiliates through his
political committee, Let’s Get to Work.
“Voting in favor of this sweetheart
deal for U.S. Sugar places the interests of one company above those of the 7.5
million people who will end up being taxed to pay for this political favor,”
Scott said about the U.S. Sugar deal in August 2010.
“During the course of his campaign,
McCollum and his attack groups have directly or indirectly received nearly $1
million from U.S. Sugar. He has cut a secret deal supporting a secret tax.
Unfortunately for U.S. Sugar, I can’t be bought.”
After he toured the St. Lucie Lock and
Dam on Aug. 22, Scott started promising cash for water projects benefiting the
St. Lucie.
He dedicated $40 million for the C-44
project and $90 million to raise 2.5 miles of Tamiami Trail, a Miami-Dade County
stretch of highway blocking the flow of water into the Everglades. The C-44
stormwater treatment area and reservoir will use state and federal dollars to
clean runoff into the canal that ends up dirtying the St. Lucie. But the project
won’t limit the lake discharges into the estuary.
Staff writer Tyler Treadway contributed
to this report.
TOXIC WATER: Martin County declares state of
emergency for Indian River Lagoon
Stuart also passes resolution to move water south
STUART, Fla. -
The paddle boards stand ready at attention.
But no one is
coming to Coastal Paddleboarding to use them.
"I'm just mad.
I'm sick and tired of talking about this," said Dan Neumann, owner of Coastal
Paddleboarding.
Dan Neumann
lost almost all of his summer business thanks to the toxic algae in the water.
But the rent still has to be paid for his Port Salerno
space.
"Every day is
worth money to us in some way, whether it's money coming in or money going out.
Right now, it's just money going out," said Neumann.
Stories like
this have garnered headlines, but now local governments are trying to get more
attention, and resources to the problem.
Tuesday night,
Martin County Commissioners approved a resolution asking the governor to declare
a state of emergency for the Indian River Lagoon.
"I think
anything we can do to protect our residents and to protect our resources we
should do," said Commission Chairwoman Sarah Heard.
Monday night,
Stuart city commissioners passed a resolution supporting the restoration of the
southerly flow of water from Lake Okeechobee through the
Everglades.
"We hope to
build a lot of support and momentum and hope this is the first of many to come,"
said Commissioner Jeff Krauskopf.
For business
owners, like Dan Neumann, he's tired of all the talk because a resolution
doesn't keep his business afloat.
"Unfortunately
on a selfish note, for us there's no quick fix," said
Neumann.
The hope is
that if the Governor declares an emergency, it could cut through some red tape
for potential short and long term fixes for the health of the Indian River
Lagoon.
