By Eve Samples for TCPalm.com
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tate lawmakers have every reason to pull the trigger on buying land south of Lake Okeechobee this year. These are the biggies:
- Toxic algae is fresh in our memories: It choked the St. Lucie River last summer, following months of polluted discharges from Lake O. It was one of the worst blooms in decades.
- The new Florida Senate president, Joe Negron, is from Stuart — ground zero for the toxic algae — and has proposed a land buy
- to prevent such devastation from happening again and again.
- Money is available: Voters approved Amendment 1 in 2014 specifically to fund conservation projects. It’s expected to raise $10 billion over 20 years.
- The Legacy Florida bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott last year requires the state to prioritize spending on projects that reduce Lake O discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries.
- Independent scientists, including leaders at the University of Florida’s Water Institute, agree more land is needed to curtail pollution of the estuaries.
Seeing all those reasons, it should be a no-brainer, a slam dunk, insert-your-cliche here done deal, right?
Algae blooms are a disaster…
Wrong.
The powerful sugar industry opposes the deal, so it’s looking like an uphill battle.
A group called Florida Sugarcane Farmers is running ads claiming the land buy is “a scam.” At the same time, the South Florida Water Management District — run by Scott’s former general counsel, Peter Antonacci — has ramped up its efforts to discredit the deal.
Simultaneously, a “Glades Lives Matter” movement has emerged to fight the proposal, with some members painting those in favor of a deal as “coastal elites” who don’t care about communities south of the lake (disregarding the bait shop owners, marina workers and fishing guides who have had their livelihoods damaged by the algae blooms).
