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Reservoir Project May Jeopardize Everglades Deal

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The Associated Press

Published: August 13, 2008

MIAMI - Florida's proposed purchase of thousands of acres of farmland from U.S. Sugar Corp. to restore the Everglades would be jeopardized if a federal judge forces the state to resume construction on a huge reservoir, attorneys for the state said in court Tuesday.

The Miccosukee Indian Tribe, which considers the Everglades its ancestral home, wants U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno to order work to continue on a planned 25-square-mile reservoir considered a key to cleaner water in the vast wetlands.

Attorneys for the state said the estimated $300 million cost of the next phase of the massive reservoir work in western Palm Beach County might make it difficult for the state to finance the planned $1.75 billion, 187,000-acre sugar land buy.

"Our ability to close that deal would be impaired," said Kirk Burns, attorney for the South Florida Water Management District.

Lawyers for several environmental groups agreed, telling Moreno at a hearing that the planned U.S. Sugar purchase represents a once-in-a-generation chance to rescue the Everglades.

Sugar farms and other agricultural interests are blamed for decades of damage to the "River of Grass" because of fertilizer and other contaminants.

"The ability to acquire this piece of property is really monumental," said Thom Rumberger, attorney for the Florida Audubon Society.

Moreno has authority over Everglades work because of a 20-year-old lawsuit that was root of the multibillion-dollar restoration effort. The Miccosukees' attorney, Dexter Lehtinen, questioned what might happen if the U.S. Sugar deal falls through, and yet the reservoir remains stalled.

"They've already started it. The bulldozers are sitting there," Lehtinen said. "Delay is the enemy of the Everglades. You don't come back from being poisoned."

Burns and other attorneys for the state said the main reason construction was halted on the reservoir was the possibility that its permits would be revoked because of a separate lawsuit pending before another federal judge. That case involves the legal uses of the proposed reservoir's water.

Attorneys for the state also said they may not resume the project at all if the U.S. Sugar transaction closes as planned in four or five months.

Moreno did not issue an immediate decision and did not indicate when he would rule.

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