LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — The dream of a restored Everglades, with water flowing from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, moved a giant step closer to reality on Tuesday when the nation’s largest sugarcane producer agreed to sell all of its assets to the state and go out of business.
Under the proposed deal, Florida will pay $1.75 billion for United States Sugar, which would have six years to continue farming before turning over 187,000 acres north of Everglades National Park, along with two sugar refineries, 200 miles of railroad and other assets. - Florida Buying Sugar Tract for Everglades NY Times article by Damien Cave.
This went under the radar it seemed today. Maybe, it's because the deal is a proposed deal. And there's lots of details to work through. These details include:
* The fate of 1900 current employees
* Current lawsuits by former employees
* What would happen to Clewiston, the tiny town that has relied on United States Sugar since the 1930s?
* The price: $1.75 b-b-b-b-illion.
* The probable need to buy additional contiguous tracts of land.
* What happens to the current plan to restore the Everglades?
But still, it's a proposed deal.
And that's a huge first step.
And in this era where science is trumped for dogma, where water is fast becoming the next oil, where development at all costs is considered a near-religious mission, where government rarely leads anymore for the common good...it's nice to see that a state government can possibly do the right thing. And as a special bonus...it's Florida!
Update: June, 26. Here's how NY City uses its water: Waterfalls Display on NY Harbor. Snark aside, the artistic merit rests in some part on the ability of the artist to dramatize the power of water by taking it outside its standard context: a man-made waterfall under a bridge over the NY Harbor. It's an indication, albeit a quirky one, of the growing awareness of the scarcity of water, that water may be the next oil. And that's the real story, maybe for the next decade. And that's why this step by Florida has such great significance.
This definitely flew below the radar up until the news broke this morning here in FL. This is HUGE for the Everglades restoration project. I don't think that the price tag of this will be a huge problem in the long run. The initial price tag of the Everglades Restoration to be shared by Fed and State gov't was $10B. (Although the the Fed has basically ignored their commitment.) Right now the entire area between Lake O and the Everglades (Shark Slew specifically) is referred to as the Everglades Agricultural Area where sugar is grown. When the soil is not rich enough to support sugar, sod is grown, when all the soil is gone with the sod, the area is harvested for lime rock and then abandoned. Up until this point, nutrients from the agricultural production make their way by runoff and drainage into the everglades. The additional nutrients allow vegetation that had not been able to grow (due to the lack of nutrients in the Everglades) to thrive. This changes the eco-system and balance that has allowed the Everglades to be a unique environment.
Wikipedia also does a good job of outlining the evolution of the current problems with the Everglades -- reoccurring examples of people thinking they have the engineered solution and then observing the consequences, rather than allowing nature to regain the balance -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades
Posted by: Eban | June 25, 2008 at 06:56 PM