Plan to save Everglades
8/30/96
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August 30, 1996
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Warring parties reach accord on plan to save Everglades
MIAMI (AP) -- A plan to spend years and billions of dollars to
restore the endangered Everglades has support from business and
environmental interests who hope state and federal officials will
join them.
The goal of the plan is to restore the flow of water through the
Everglades, the vast marshland of south Florida. Other efforts were
piecemeal and have resulted in legal battles.
The plan is a set of recommendations for government agencies with an
estimated cost of $2 billion to $5 billion.
Richard Pettigrew, chairman of the Governor's Commission for a
Sustainable South Florida, said he was glad to have the plan finished
and ready for review by state and federal officials. "I hope we can
get there before we lose these assets," Pettigrew said Thursday.
"Eventually it will be up to the governor, the legislature, the
Congress and the president."
The Everglades were damaged by a 1947 project that set up canals and
reservoirs for water supplies and flood control. The 15-year project
met the needs of development, but ravaged the area and contributed to
the degradation of Florida Bay, just west of the Florida Keys.
The plan would establish areas for water storage, return farmland to
marshes and create a secondary system of water preserves. It also
would expand upon state law requiring $300 million from sugar farmers
to create marshes and other filtering systems to remove phosphorous
from the water.
Some sugar industry officials backed the plan, even though it
recommends taking property out of sugar production on a voluntary
basis.
"This shows that if you get the right people and they work hard
enough in good faith, a middle ground is possible," U.S. Sugar
spokesman Bob Buker said.
Charles Lee of the Florida Audubon Society also was pleased with the
plan, saying it was close to recommendations put together by
environmental groups.