Charlie Crist 3 new appointments to water board likely to bolster US Sugar-Everglades deal
July 21, 2009 at 6:44 am by Wayne Garcia
The landmark US Sugar-Everglades deal fashioned by Gov. Charlie Crist – limping toward the finish line, a fraction of its once grand scale – could have received a shot in the arm this week with three new appointees to the South Florida Water Management District.
Crist appointed three new members to the district board that oversees and approves the deal to purchase more than 78,000 acres of US Sugar property and eventually take them out of farming production as a means of lowering pollutant runoff into the Everglades.
The Miami Herald reports:
Gladys Perez, who has worked for Crist as a civil rights and environmental counsel, will join a Treasure Coast real estate agent and manager for the agricultural giant Lykes Brothers as members of a board overseeing a powerful, often controversial, agency that manages the water supply for 16 counties and directs Everglades restoration.
Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer for the Everglades Foundation, praised the appointments and predicted they would bolster sometimes shaky board support for Crist’s $536 million land deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp.
“It’s my understanding these appointees all share the governor’s vision,” he said.
I reported on US Sugar’s sweet deal in an August 2008 Creative Loafing cover story. At that time, the purchase was set to be three times larger than what remains on the table to day:
The deal? The taxpayers of South Florida would pay $1.75 billion for the Everglades-polluting U.S. Sugar Corp., for its 187,000 acres of farmland and the world’s largest raw sugar mill. Within six years, U.S. Sugar would cease to exist, and its property would be converted into wetlands and holding ponds to help restore the natural flow of water back into the ailing Everglades.
