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Everglades Plan Under Fire as Vote Nears
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Dec 16, 2008 07:41am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Monday, December 15, 2008 01:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: December 15, 2008
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — State water managers on Monday began their final review of a proposed $1.34 billion deal in which Florida would buy 181,000 acres of land to help restore the Everglades. But with a vote expected Tuesday, criticism was already flowing like the swiftest of rivers.
At a public hearing, high school students, a banker, a pastor, a rival bidder for the land and a wide array of other people said the state’s arrangement to acquire the vast swath from the United States Sugar Corporation should be rejected.
“You’ve got an all-or-nothing deal here,” said the other bidder, Gaylon Lawrence Jr., whose company, the Lawrence Group, would buy United States Sugar and then resell part of its land to the state. “It’s not fair to the community. It’s not fair to the Everglades.”
The criticism voiced at the hearing, before the board of the South Florida Water Management District, is just the latest complication for a deal that was at first highly praised but has become highly questioned in the six months since Gov. Charlie Crist first announced it.
Florida has struggled for decades with how to balance competing demands for water, but given the current national fright over the economy, and with a deal this large, the scrutiny has become especially intense. In the last week alone, state lawmakers, other sugar companies and some environmentalists have all declared that the plan’s benefits may not justify its costs. |
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