WEATHER

Sugar lawsuit says Corps is breaking a promise made in a 2000 plan to save the Everglades

Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
Muck is being scraped away to the capstone for materials to be stored on in preparation for the beginning of construction of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to hold overflow releases. [ALLEN EYESTONE/palmbeachpost.com]

Florida’s largest sugarcane growers want the water they say they were promised more than 20 years, and are suing to get it, with actions filed Thursday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida filed three separate lawsuits in federal court targeting water modeling that was used in plans for a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee that will reduce harmful lake discharges to the estuaries.

The Corps is building the 10,500-acre reservoir, called the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, while the South Florida Water Management District is responsible for an accompanying 6,500-acre wetlands area, also called a stormwater treatment area.

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Both projects, which are estimated to cost a combined $3.4 billion, are in western Palm Beach County.  The treatment area is already under construction and slated to be finished next year. The reservoir could be completed in eight to 10 years if Congress continues to allocate regular money to it.

Approximate location of the Everglades Agricultural Area stormwater treatment area and reservoir in western Palm Beach County.

The agricultural interests' concern is that the Corps didn’t adhere to a promise – dubbed the savings clause – that was made when the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was approved guaranteeing their water use rights would not be reduced.

“South Florida farmers are asking that the Corps uphold the federal commitment that environmental restoration would be achieved while maintaining a sustainable South Florida water supply,” said Judy Sanchez, U.S. Sugar’s senior director for corporate communications and public affairs. “This promise was the cornerstone of the 2000 Congressional authorization as well as key to creating the broad coalition of support that passed CERP.”

The groups, which filed their suits in the Southern District of Florida, say they want the reservoir project to stay on track, but also want the savings clause followed.

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Disputes about doling out water from Lake Okeechobee, which also is a water supply source for Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach, began years ago as the Corps launched a rewrite on how the lake is managed. The rewrite, called the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, or LOSOM, is in its final stages. The Corps said early on the savings clause would not be considered in the new management plan.

But the reservoir and treatment area are part of CERP, which is required to incorporate the savings clause.

Col. Andrew Kelly, commander of the Corps' Jacksonville District, said the lawsuits will not delay planning for the reservoir construction and that the first significant federal contract for building the project is expected to be awarded in September.

“At the end of the day, the Corps is committed to continuing putting infrastructure in the ground for restoration and we are committed to continuing working on getting a balanced water management plan,” Kelly said.

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The South Florida Water Management District is blasting canals for the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir that will hold Lake Okeechobee overflow.

Kelly said under the chosen LOSOM plan, farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area will get more water than they are currently allowed under a 2008 lake management plan that reduced the amount of water in the lake until repairs could be completed on the Herbert Hoover Dike.

But farmers as well as Palm Beach County, lake-area cities and some utilities want the water allotment they got before the 2008 reduction.

“Promises – especially those made by statue and rule – are meant to be kept,” is how the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative opens its lawsuit.

Everglades Foundation Chief Executive Officer Eric Eikenberg said he doesn’t believe the lawsuits will delay the reservoir, which is a priority project for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announces an agreement in April between the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers for a huge reservoir being built in far western Palm Beach County. Behind him, heavy equipment works to repair Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East in Wellington.

“We are focused and moving forward and this is an attempt to distract,” Eikenberg said. “The lawsuits are no surprise because they have been seeking ways to undermine the reservoir effort since 2017.”  

The South Florida Water Management District, like the Corps, said it is moving forward as planned.

“The citizens of Florida and our environment have suffered for too long because of harmful Lake Okeechobee discharges and a lack of available infrastructure to send more clean water south,” said Sean Cooley, the district’s director of communications.

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@Kmillerweather