On Thursday, Everglades activists attempted to persuade the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District to complete the deal made by district managers for the option to purchase US sugar lands below the Everglades Agricultural Area. The video was taken by Cyndi Lenz and the activists for the Indian River lagoon, who are desperate to stop the outrageous pollution flowing from Lake Okeechobee because there are not enough cleansing marshes to store excess water south of the lake: a lake called "the diseased heart" of Florida.
The reason water managers and Governor Rick Scott will not step to the plate and deal with removal of land from sugar production south of the lake is that Big Sugar will only yield its acreage when it is boxed in, with no option other than to sell. From the governing board? Appeals to legacy, history, moral right? "Stop the bullshit, grow some balls, buy the land"? Response: Excuses, excuses, excuses.
The reason water managers and Governor Rick Scott will not step to the plate and deal with removal of land from sugar production south of the lake is that Big Sugar will only yield its acreage when it is boxed in, with no option other than to sell. From the governing board? Appeals to legacy, history, moral right? "Stop the bullshit, grow some balls, buy the land"? Response: Excuses, excuses, excuses.
7 comments:
That's what you get for re-electing Gov. Rick Scott and what the Democrats get for being such weak links to the public.
I never realized how boring public testimony is. They need to spice it up. Maybe a costume or tap dancing lessons for all NGOS. Just being pretty doesn't fly anymore. I got tired of watching and I agree with the issue.
People do not realize the "trickle down" effects of electing officials by not casting a vote. Scott et al will inflict more damage on us by what they don't do than by what they do.
I agree with the premise of land buys and re-establishing southward flow, but can you at least please be honest and admit that even if the SFWMD buys the US Sugar lands today it won't be the end, but just the beginning. You know full well that the US Sugar lands are not the ones needed for the continued enhancement (I refuse to use the word restoration, because that's not what's being done) of the Everglades and that other purchases, land swaps and significant engineering works are needed once the lands are actually purchased.
I've written on the subject at length: no one says buying the US Sugar lands are the "end", and everyone who tracks this issue also knows that swaps or outright purchases are needed from the Fanjul billionaires to create any possible connection between Lake O and the Everglades. Lastly, anyone tracking this issue knows that the system will remain highly managed and require continual maintenance and operations of the district. To suggest that environmentalists have not been "honest" on this issue is plain wrong.
There needs to be a Federal investigation done by honest Federal investigators.
Please don't forget that Jeb Bush editorial in the Herald a few days before the governor's releelection trashing Charlie Crist for wanting to buy up this land, calling his plan a boondoggle, while praising Scott as a great environmentalist. Like his father, "what ever it takes" to win, regardless of the damage done to the public.
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