Big Sugar contends they treat the water they use before releasing it back into the system.Īlbritton said his bill is all about “accountability” for the South Florida Water Management District since it’s the agency that oversees much of the Lake Okeechobee watershed. The Senator’s measure, SB 2508, would put into law that industries like Big Sugar, who use billions of gallons of fresh water to fertilize, grow and process their crops, then release it back into the southern flow, be allowed to continue to use at least as much as they have in the past. Yet Senator Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, filed a bill earlier this month that would give industrial-level agricultural water users around Lake Okeechobee a huge turn of the spigot – before the water reaches the heart of Everglades. All that clean water should help reverse environmental damage done by a centuries-worth of rampant development, polluted runoff from farming around Lake Okeechobee, and flood control efforts with unseen ecological repercussions.Ĭongress said improved water flow could, secondarily, provide for farming needs. The primary goal is to direct additional billions of gallons of clean water into the Everglades. In 2000, Congress approved an Everglades restoration plan that has become the most ambitious ecosystem renewal in American history. Members of the Florida House of Representatives are now considering the question raised by the most controversial environmental bill to be filed in Tallahassee this session, if not in years: Who gets the first taste of the cleaner water flowing into the Everglades?
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