State Purchase of U.S. Sugar Land Under Attack - Express Your Support for Everglades Restoration
This Wednesday (tomorrow), the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board will be under attack from protestors opposed to the U.S. Sugar land purchase. The U.S. Sugar purchase, also known as the River of Grass project, is the seminal project that will reduce excess lake flows to the Caloosahatchee and represents the most meaningful opportunity for restoration of the greater Everglades.
No other project provides the fundamental solutions for restoration: water storage, reduction in lake flows to the estuaries, water quality treatment and rehydration of the Everglades, Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay. In fact, the U.S. Sugar land purchase represents the first opportunity in 80 years – since the dike was constructed — to restore flows south out of Lake Okeechobee through the Everglades Agricultural Area, as they once flowed, to the Everglades and Florida Bay.
The benefits are enormous.
- Restoration of hydrology and habitat
- Replacement of some of the lost water storage and treatment potential
- Reduction in excess flows to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie
- Recapture freshwater flows to the Everglades, Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay.
Meaningful estuary protection and Everglades restoration cannot be achieved without recapturing a portion of the historic Everglades for storage and treatment.
Speak out and make your support of this landmark restoration opportunity heard. Email the Governing Board by clicking here to send your message of support or write your own and send it with the subject line “Support Everglades Restoration & U.S. Sugar Land Purchase.”
