A Message from Sandy Moret
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is BIG news! Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they are committed to expediting SB 10 and the building of the reservoir outlined in the bill. This is an important step forward in the process of helping to restore the Everglades and surrounding waterways.
In other important news, a TCPalm investigation into hundreds of emails they obtained from the South Florida Water Management District showed that the SFWMD was on the verge of tightening agricultural pollution regulations in 2014 before letting a sugar lobbyist dictate edits that resulted in substantially weaker regulations. It is a reminder that there are still strong forces working to oppose forward progress on Everglades restoration. Signing the Now or Neverglades Declaration is the best way to show that you stand with the people advocating for common sense solutions to Florida’s devastating water issues.
Sincerely,
A POINT OF VIEW – By Skip Clement
So who are these South Florida Water Management District board members serving?
They are eight men and one woman entrusted to do the right thing for 8.1 million residents in 16 Florida counties – from Orlando to the Florida Keys.
They had the final say on tightening the agri-pollution strangling South Florida water, something they had agreed to do in a well thought out engineering plan that was ready to implement in 2014.
Did they pull the trigger – do the right thing?
No, they did not do the right thing. The South Florida Water Management District board yielded control of the restoration plan to the Fanjul interests – U.S. Sugar (Big Sugar) via lobbying. Yes, the board sold-out 8.1 million people. It cannot be said they did it for 30 pieces of silver. Weak? Yes.
Who are the current South Florida Water Management District members? Do they look different than you?
Here they are, the easily persuaded knights of doing the next right wrong thing:
L to R – Dan O’Keefe (Chrm), James J. Moran, Sam Accursio, Rick Barber, Federico Fernandez, Clarke Harlow, Melanie Peterson, Brandon Tucker, Jaime Weisinger. Damn, they look just like regular people.
