Compromise
Reached on Everglades
By H. JOSEF HEBERT,
AP
06:52 PM ET 09/06/00
WASHINGTON (AP), A
compromise was reached Wednesday that increases the
likelihood of congressional approval this year of a
$1.4 billion first installment for restoration of the
imperiled Florida Everglades. But lawmakers and
environmentalists said concern remains whether the
legislation, likely to be considered by the full
Senate in the coming weeks, can make it through
Congress during the hectic rush toward adjournment.
The legislation,
still to be considered by the House, authorizes a
sweeping long-term rescue effort for the Everglades
that is expected to cost nearly $8 billion and take as
long as four decades.
The first
installment, which calls for spending $1.4 billion,
was approved by the Senate Environment and Natural
Resources Committee in late June, but sugar interests
and some of South Florida's water utilities objected
to certain provisions.
After lengthy
discussions those concerns _ dealing mainly with water
allocation, maintenance of existing water rights, and
the role of the Interior Department _ were resolved to
the satisfaction of both environmentalists and
agriculture and utility interests.
Florida Sens. Connie
Mack, a Republican, and Bob Graham, a Democrat, issued
a statement saying the agreement ``dramatically
increases the chance of enacting the legislation into
law this year.''
Mack called it ``an
historic partnership between many diverse groups''
that have been on opposite sides on Everglades
restoration.
``This broad support
shows the importance of returning America's Everglades
to the countless endangered species that call this
national treasure home,'' added Graham.
With the changes
that were made, Florida's sugar industry and water
utility agencies have joined in support of the
legislation, aides to the two senators said. The bill
also has the support of the White House, Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush, and major environmental groups, they added.
``We have set aside
decades of acrimony and are in the same boat and
rowing in the same direction,'' said Stuart Strahl, a
vice president of the National Audubon Society, who
heads the group's Everglades restoration office in
Miami.
But Strahl warned
that a celebration may be premature.
``Passing this
legislation now becomes a race against the clock,''
said Strahl.
Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H.,
chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources
Committee, called passing the legislation his top
environmental priority. His office is now circulating
the revised bill among senators to gauge the support.
The Florida senators
hope the bill can come up for a full Senate vote
within two weeks. The House has not yet acted on the
measure and any significant opposition could stall the
bill as lawmakers focus on critical spending bills and
then push for adjournment in the first week of
October.
While the Everglades
legislation has wide support, some lawmakers have
expressed concern over the amount of federal spending,
and the possibility that costs will increase beyond
current expectations.
``This project is
going to be a giant sucking machine,'' Sen. John
Warner, R-Va., warned when Smith's committee
considered the measure in June.
The plan aims to
revamp the water flows within the 100-mile Everglades
system and capture more fresh water and distribute it
in ways to revitalize ecosystem. The project includes
eliminating 240 miles of levees and canals, building
above-ground reservoirs and underground aquifers, and
developing new wetlands.
The sugar industry
and some local water utilities had been concerned that
they would not get enough water, and that their
current water allocation would be in jeopardy. The
compromise resolved those concerns, according to
congressional staffers involved in the discussions.
In addition to the
federal funding of $7.8 billion, the state of Florida
has committed $2 billion over the next 10 years to the
program.
THE
FLORIDA EVERGLADES: A Model of Destruction - More
recently, the Everglades has become a classic example of
widespread environmental destruction. Although in its 5,000
years of existence, the Everglades has supported an
extraordinary quantity and variety of plant and animal life,
we have taken less than a century to damage seriously or to
alter most of it. The current superintendent of Everglades
National Park calls it the most threatened park in the
country, and one in a state of biological collapse...
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