The Florida Senate seems to finally get it. I know how crazy that sounds. A bunch of conservative Republicans finally understand something about the environment? Maybe they do.
Florida Senate lawmakers have passed one of the most carefully crafted bills yet to ensure the health of the Everglades. As environmentalists, water-dependent businesses, economists and tourists know, so much depends upon the health of the River of Grass, including South Floridians’ access to clean water, the state’s economic vitality, indeed, the well-being of the state itself.
This is not an overstatement.
Image: Greg Lovett
Florida desperately needs a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. For too long, the state has blithely allowed water released from the lake to flow to the coasts, and out to sea, an unconscionable waste of this precious resource. Just as bad, pollutants in that water have created massive algae blooms that, literally, have raised a stink in estuaries and along beaches, threatening to ruin the entire ecosystem around Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.
The reservoir will serve two vital purposes. First, it will store the billions of gallons of water currently being dumped into the sea. Second, it will feed needed water to the Everglades to keep them hydrated.
Image: Mac Stone
Now, the House, scheduled to take up the issue in committee this week, must realize what’s at stake, too. Those lawmakers should recognize a good deal when it sees one. Ultimately, they can be leaders who acknowledge just how beneficial the Senate’s bill will be for the state, or they can be obstructionists and pick it apart, load it up with needless amendments and torpedo far more than just a bill.
Senate President Joe Negron was a leader. Coming into the session he made creating a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee a priority and put his political muscle behind it. More important, he listened, addressed sugar industry and residents’ concerns and urged compromise — a seemingly long-forgotten principle in the Legislature.
Image: Judylynn Malloch
The state Senate overwhelmingly approved a compromise version of Senate Bill 10, originally introduced by Sen. Rob Bradley. It calls for state-owned land, in addition to sugar-industry property, to be used for the reservoir. It also allows the state to negotiate with private landowners. This mix of properties should put to rest claims that the state is simply conducting a “land grab.”
The bill wisely anticipates some job loss as private commercial properties are taken off line to create the reservoir. There is money in the bill for job training and infrastructure projects to employ displaced workers.
The state and federal governments will split the $2.4 billion cost. (For perspective, The U.S. Corps of Engineers has spent at least $500 million since 2007 on stopgap measures to shore up the 143-mile dike.) The feds consistently have come through for Everglades restoration, and Florida’s lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate must hammer home the point that the Everglades are a national treasure.
During the past year, evidence of the challenge has been most stark. Record rainfall raised Lake Okeechobee’s water to alarming levels, with the Herbert Hoover Dike under threat. Gov. Rick Scott declared an emergency in St. Lucie and Martin counties, Negron’s political back yard. By that time, there was little else Scott could do. Months later, South Florida is suffering through another crippling drought and all that "extra" water is gone, dumped into the sea.
But regressive Governor Scott himself had thwarted an optimistic proposal developed by his predecessor, Charlie Crist, to buy sugar property to create the reservoir. The governor, too, should show himself to be a leader, and get behind this current effort and push. I know, that sounds oxymoronic when talking about the Florida Governor, but he should. Could he? Does he have the capacity to accept that he was wrong before and do the right thing now? Probably not. But he should.
The Senate has done its job — well. Now, House lawmakers, and the governor, must do theirs.
The Senate passed a bill to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to curb discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. With a 36-3 vote, the Senate sent the bill to the House were some members have criticized Republican Senate President Joe Negron's plan to store 100 billion to 120 billion gallons of water that gets wastefully dumped into the sea when Lake Okeechobee's level is high. The reservoir would send that much-needed water into the Everglades and Florida Bay.
Florida's coastal waters are experiencing an unprecedented ecological collapse. Storing water south of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) will provide an outlet for water being discharged to fragile coastal estuaries while concurrently holding water that can be sent south to Florida Bay.
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Photo: Bears Ears National Monument
Its time to say enough is enough!
Using the now infamous Executive Order pen, Trump issues a new order calling into question two decades of National Monument designations. His target are National Monuments in Utah, some of the finest landscapes in the world populated by some of the most regressive environment haters that ever walked the planet.
Presidents of both parties have invoked their executive authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to provide safeguards for federal lands and waters. But some of these moves — including Barack Obama’s designation of the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in December and Bill Clinton’s 1996 declaration of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, both in Utah, have sparked fierce criticism from Republicans.
Members of Utah’s congressional delegation started lobbying Trump shortly after his November win to take unilateral action to undo the designation for Bears Ears, which they said should have been protected instead through legislation.
Presidents of both parties have invoked their executive authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to provide safeguards for federal lands and waters. But some of these moves — including Barack Obama’s designation of the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in December and Bill Clinton’s 1996 declaration of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, both in Utah, have sparked fierce criticism from Republicans.
Members of Utah’s congressional delegation started lobbying Trump shortly after his November win to take unilateral action to undo the designation for Bears Ears, which they said should have been protected instead through legislation.
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