|
U.S. Sugar – a company that has been
farming in the Lake Okeechobee region for more than four generations.
The Company agreed to sell a considerable amount of its sugar cane and citrus
acreage to the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for
the “River of Grass” restoration project.
1.
In June of 2008, SFWMD would purchase 187,000 acres of U.S. Sugar’s land
for $1.75 billion
(292 square miles [27 x 27Km or 17 x 17 miles]
to help restoration efforts for Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee
and St. Lucie estuaries and the Everglades. Land available for
critical water storage and treatment, allowing sustainable farming in the
Everglades Agricultural Area.
2.
In May 2009, an amended agreement provided for the initial purchase of close to
73,000 acres for $536 million, with options to purchase the
remaining 107,000 acres.
3.
In 2009, a proposal for
a scaled down, now at 72,500 acres for $530 million suggested by
the SFWMD.
The Company would continue to farm the 72,500 acres through a 7-year lease.
Option to acquire the Company’s remaining 107,500 acres for up to ten years.
4.
On August 12, 2010, down again to 26,800 acres of land for
$197
million
along with the option to acquire 153,200 acres in the future.
5.
In October 2010, the agreement for 26,800 acres was
finalized
and the following month the Florida Supreme Court struck down a challenge to the
land acquisition.
**
Based on the feasibility study and PIR approved by Congress in 2007 and
further refinements, the project is expected to include the following
components:
·
Construction and operation of four new large-scale above-ground reservoirs
and their connecting canals, control structures, levees and pumps to capture
water from the, C-23, C-24, C-25, and C-44 canals for increased storage. A total
combined new water storage of about 130,000 acre-ft (44 billion of gallons) of
new storage.
·
Construction and operation of four new storm-water treatment areas (STAs)
(constructed marsh), one for each C-23/C-24 North, C-23/C-24 South, C-25,
and C-44 basins, to reduce sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen entering
the SLR (St Lucie River) estuary and the IRL (Indian River
Lagoon). A total combined new STAs (constructed marsh) of about 9,100 acres.
·
Restoration of about 92,100 acres of upland/wetland areas and habitat
with ditch plugging, berm construction, and periodic fire
maintenance.
·
Redirection of water from the C-23/C-24 basin to the North Fork of the SLR
attenuating freshwater flows to the estuary.
·
About 7.9 million cubic yards of muck removal from the SLR’s estuary.
·
About 900 acres of oyster shell, reef balls, and artificial submerged
aquatic vegetation near muck removal sites will be added for habitat
improvement.
** Underscoring
the state's commitment to Greater Everglades ecosystem restoration, the
Florida Legislature in 2007 expanded the Lake Okeechobee Protection Act
(LOPA) to strengthen protection for the Northern Everglades. This is
being achieved by restoring and preserving the Lake Okeechobee watershed and the
Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries. The legislation required watershed
plans for Lake Okeechobee (including Fish-eating Creek), the
Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers and their estuaries.
Features of the Northern Everglades & Estuaries Protection Program (NE&EPP):
-
Recognizes
that the Lake Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie watersheds are
critical water resources of the State
-
Builds upon
and consolidates numerous restoration activities into a comprehensive
approach
-
Expands use
of the Save Our Everglades Trust Fund (SOETF) to include Northern
Everglades restoration and extends it through 2020
Initial phases of these plans are now being implemented, as is planning for
feasibility studies of sub-basins within each plan. Details of each of these
plans, developed and updated in partnership with the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection and the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services, as well as with stakeholders and members of the
public, are listed below.
March 7, 2010 … Deal to Save Everglades May Help Sugar Firm
(from TC Palm)
When Gov. Charlie Crist
announced Florida’s $1.75 billion plan to save the Everglades
by buying out a major landowner, United States Sugar, he declared
that the deal would be remembered as a public acquisition “as monumental as the
creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.”
Standing amid the marshes at the
Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in June 2008, Mr. Crist said, “I
can envision no better gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the
people of America — as well as our planet — than to place in public ownership
this missing link that represents the key to true restoration.”
Nearly two years later,
the governor’s ambitious plan to reclaim the river of grass, as the famed
wetlands are known, is instead on track to rescue the fortunes of United States
Sugar.
The proposal was downsized only five months after it was announced. By April
2009, amid the deepening recession, the state said it could afford to
purchase only 72,800 acres of United States Sugar’s land, for $536
million. The company would stay in business and the state would retain the
option of buying the remaining 107,000 acres at a future date.
Efforts to restore the Everglades have picked up urgency in the last decade: the
sprawling subtropical wetland, the only ecosystem of its kind,
is dying for
lack of clean water.
Negotiations favored US_Sugar from the start, when the state accepted two
outside firms’ appraisals of the company’s land that used figures from the
height of the real estate market.
When a “fairness opinion” commissioned by the state found that those appraisals
had overvalued the land by $400 million
·
When it came time to decide which land to buy, state officials acknowledged that
US_Sugar was, as one official put it during an interview, “pretty much in the
driver’s seat.” The water district overseeing the restoration will end up with
six large disconnected parcels under the current deal, including all of
US_Sugar’s citrus groves. Some of that land, which has been ravaged by canker,
a plant disease, is useless for restoration. The officials defended the
negotiations as appropriate, saying that US_Sugar needed certain tracts of
farmland to continue operating.
Good stewardship?
The land would enable the state and federal government to build reservoirs
and water treatment systems. But doing so would require deep financial
reserves from the South Florida Water Management District, which oversees
restoration and is financed by taxpayers in 16 counties. Internal
district documents put the price tag at up to $12 billion and projected
that the district would have nowhere near that amount.
More than a dozen
projects under way as part of a 10-year-old federal and district
restoration effort
have been suspended. Among them is a massive reservoir in western Palm Beach
County that was seen as a major step toward restoration of the Everglades.
In total, $1.3 billion had already been spent.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who
initiated most of that work, said in an interview that he was “deeply
disappointed” with the decision by Mr. Crist to stall. “This appears to me there
has been a replacement of science-based environmental policy for photo-op
environmental policy.”
·
In its current form, the deal’s only clear, immediate beneficiaries would be
US_Sugar, a privately held company based in Clewiston, Fla., and its
law firm, Gunster, which is expected to collect tens of millions
of dollars in fees. The sale was a lifeline for the company a time of
profound weakness; it was facing a costly shareholder lawsuit, sinking profit
margins and increased foreign competition. The deal would enable it to wipe
nearly all the debt from its books.
United States Sugar had an unusually
powerful advocate in Gunster, a West Palm Beach law firm that had
represented it since 1990. Gunster’s chairman, George LeMieux, was
Governor Crist’s chief of staff when the deal was first conceived.
Mr. LeMieux, who began working at the law firm in 1994, returned to it in
January 2008 as the deal was being renegotiated.
He and
Mr. Crist are confidants, and the governor referred to Mr. LeMieux as the
“maestro” of his 2006 election victory. When a US Senate seat was vacated
in 2009, Mr. Crist appointed Mr. LeMieux to fill it.
Gunster’s partners…
Kirk Fordham,
who runs the powerful
Everglades Foundation spoke two or three times with Mr. LeMieux when he was
at the law firm for updates about the negotiations.
For US_Sugar, “was a fantastic
deal,” said a former senior executive of the company, who described his
colleagues as “elated.” “I won’t lie to you — it’s a damn good price for that
land. But it’s not as good a deal for the Everglades. If the district
doesn’t have any money after this purchase, then they won’t be able to do any
restoration projects. It could be a disaster in the making.”
|
