State pursues sugar buyout to aid Glades (move to alter level of water polution in Everglades)

[Judi Lynn]

State pursues sugar buyout to aid Glades
If a ''breathtaking'' deal gets done, a state buyout of a vast swath of farm fields could expand efforts to restore and clean up the Everglades.
Posted on Tue, Jun. 24, 2008
BY CURTIS MORGAN
[e-mail]

The state of Florida is pursuing a blockbuster buyout of the biggest chunk of Big Sugar, the powerful agricultural industry whose pollution of the Everglades has made it a target of environmentalists for decades.

Gov. Charlie Crist has scheduled a press conference Tuesday in Palm Beach County, where he's expected to outline a state proposal to purchase the U.S. Sugar Corp.'s vast holdings between Lake Okeechobee and the marshes of the Everglades -- as much as 187,000 acres, including refineries, railroads and rock mines.

The opening bid could be near $1.7 billion, though the figures could change during what promise to be lengthy and complex negotiations.

But the actual outlay of cash from a state in the grips of economic and budget crises could be significantly less, according to sources briefed on the potential deal, because U.S. Sugar would be allowed to lease the land while farming for five or six more years.

Difficult details remain unresolved, and the proposal could face political and legal hurdles, but buying such a massive swath of farm fields could recharge and would dramatically reshape the bogged-down $11.8 billion state-federal effort to restore the River of Grass.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/580786.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Everglades deal's impact would be huge - for all of us

Everglades deal's impact would be huge - for all of us
Mike Thomas

COMMENTARY

June 24, 2008

For the Everglades to survive, Big Sugar has to go.

That makes the massive buyout of sugar land one of the biggest environmental stories in Florida's history.

For those of you fresh from Ohio, the Everglades is a massive network of lakes, creeks, swamps and rivers that begins in south Orange and extends to the southern tip of Florida. It brings in millions of dollars to Osceola County from fishing and eco-tourism.

It brings drinking water to the cities of South Florida.

During the past century, engineers have carved it up into a Frankenstein concoction of canals, dikes and dams.

Undoing this mess into something resembling nature has been Florida's greatest environmental challenge.

All seemed lost until the news broke Monday that U.S. Sugar was willing to sell its 187,000 acres to the state.

That land sits in the heart of the Everglades. You could no more save the Everglades and leave Big Sugar intact than you could save a cancer patient and leave the tumors intact.

More:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-miket2408jun24,0,5582750.column?track=rss