Two federal judges, Federico Moreno and Alan Gold, are converging on major steps on Everglades restoration. Things are coming to a head in early October. Here is the latest, as reported by the Palm Beach Post:
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U.S. judge demands water district show it has money to undertake Everglades cleansing
By CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 6:25 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010
Posted: 4:49 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010
A federal judge wants the South Florida Water Management District to explain where it will find the billions of dollars it needs to comply with his order to clean water headed to the Everglades, since the district's financial advisers told another federal judge it does not have the money.
In an uncommon legal move, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold on Tuesday issued an order based on testimony in an unrelated case. He warned the district and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to come to his courtroom on Oct. 7 prepared to explain how "specific milestones" are "directly linked to a meaningful financing plan" to reduce phosphorus levels in the Everglades.
Gold cited testimony in which the district's financial advisers estimated the cost buy the land and build the projects to comply with his order at $2 billion to $6 billion. The advisers also said, in that case being heard by U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, that the district "does not have the financing capacity" to comply with Judge Gold's order.
What impact Gold's latest order might have on the district's plan to spend $197 million on nearly 27,000 acres for Everglades restoration is not known. The district approved the purchase last month and the closing is scheduled for mid-October.
The district did not comment on the order but said through a spokesperson that the sale would be reviewed after the Oct. 7 hearing. Pulling out of the sale contract now would cost the district $10 million, under terms of the contract.
Gold issued a scathing 48-page order in April, accusing the EPA, the district and Florida Department of Environmental Protection of deliberately ignoring and refusing to enforce the laws limiting the amount of phosphorus discharged into the Everglades. He set a deadline of Sept. 3 for the EPA to draft guidelines and deadlines for the district to use in building projects to lower phosphorus levels.
Those guidelines require work to be completed by 2020. In his order Tuesday, Gold cited the district's own Strategic Plan 2010-2020, which shows land-purchase and design schedules but "no construction in connection with the 'River of Grass" through 2020."
Gold said he fears that without a financing plan in place, work will be postponed and the water quality will continue to decline.
"What actions will the EPA require to assure that such a result does not occur?" Gold wrote. "And how does the EPA intend to enforce its requirement?"
Christine_Stapleton@pbpost.com
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4 comments:
Thank God someone is holding somebody accountable. EPA and DEP have fallen down on the job. THey need to be called on that.
Wholeheartly agree. How many years of dithering are we going to live with? Kudos to Judge Gold for keeping the agencies' feet to the fire.
But the District was so proud that they held the tax rate flat, cutting millions from projects including restoration work and flood control projects.
I was worried too, since I might have paid another couple dollars in taxes for the protection of my drinking water, Everglades National Park, and flood control improvements.
Whew! Dodged that bullet!
Read The Swamp by Michael Grunwald. It will make you sick how politics and a century of abuse has gotten us to where we are today. The same players, different names, are still trying to destroy the Everglades. Wake up people.
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