Category: South Florida Water Management District
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As U.S. Sugar quietly expands north of Lake Okeechobee, environmentalists fear Everglades cleanup losing out to farming
By Joel Engelhardt
FloridaBulldog.org
For months environmentalists have whispered that the Legislature’s push toward water storage north of Lake Okeechobee was driven by sugar interests. Behind their fear is the belief that an underground water storage method that got $100 million in the two past legislative cycles and is in line for another $50 million this year would do more to help farming than it would to help the Everglades. -
SFWMD colleagues award $9 million to Commissioner Ron Bergeron’s construction firm
By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
Commissioner Ron Bergeron had a rewarding experience at this month’s Zoom meeting of the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District. His colleagues voted unanimously to award his company another $9 million to complete construction of a storm water treatment project in Martin County. -
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SFWMD’s last minute move to extend sugarcane lease triggers hearing demand
By Katherine Lewin
FloridaBulldog.org
Nineteen years ago, the South Florida Water Management District bought 16,158 rural acres south of Lake Okeechobee leased for sugar cane farming as part of the massive Everglades restoration project. But one night last month, just hours before the district’s morning meeting, a resolution was quietly added to the governing board’s agenda that would extend the lease to a subsidiary of Florida Crystals, delaying restoration for as long as eight years. -
U.S. Rep. Graham asks Gov. Scott to call special session on Lake O crisis
By Francisco Alvarado
FloridaBulldog.org
In a sharply worded rebuke of Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham (D-FL) urged the governor to call a special legislative session to deal with the toxic algae bloom discharges from Lake Okeechobee threatening the state’s ecosystem as well as the tourism and fishing industries. -
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South Florida winning war against saltwater intrusion, but it’s not cheap
By Ann Henson Feltgen
FloridaBulldog.org
Saltwater intrusion leading to contaminated drinking water wells has long been feared in South Florida. But, billions spent on measures to protect our water supply — mostly paid for by utilities and their customers — have paid off so far. -
New law drives lobbyists out of the shadows at state water management districts
By Dan Christensen
BrowardBulldog.org
Florida’s five water management districts, special-purpose governments that collectively will spend $1.1 billion next year, have publicly registered 250 special-interest lobbyists since new registration requirements took effect July 1.
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