South Florida Water Management District Report: May 2009

Revised U. S. Sugar Land Purchase Plan Approved

On May 13, the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board approved the revised purchase agreement with U.S. Sugar Corporation (USSC) with only one dissenting vote.  

The new agreement calls for the purchase of approximately 73,000 acres with options to purchase the remaining 107,000 acres of USSC’s land during the next ten years.  The purchase price is $536 million.  

Also revised are the lease terms with which USSC can lease back the property to continue to farm sugarcane.  The new lease rate is $150 per acre for 7 years, with provisions to extend the leases up to 20 years.  The lessee will be required to pay all property taxes and assessments, control the land for exotic and invasive plants and implement Best Management Practices.  

The revised plan is still subject to bond validation and financing.  The timeframe for bond validation has been extended to March 31, 2010.  

River of Grass Conceptual Planning Continues

South Florida Water Management District staff has been actively seeking public input in the development of conceptual plans to move water south from Lake Okeechobee to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.  Numerous workshops have been held and the district is now evaluating nine plans that have been developed.  

Florida Farm Bureau Federation has been critical of the process used to engage the public in the plan development process.  The charette process is a design-based, accelerated, collaborative project management system for community planning.  This process has been used successfully in creating sustainable community plans including transportation and infrastructure plans.  It is a tool used by developers and design teams to get the 50,000 foot view of public perception on how a project should be developed.  Its use in this conceptual planning process to develop complex water moving structures over private lands is improper and impinges on private property rights by involving the public to determine how private lands should be used.  

Florida Farm Bureau believes that the water management district should be using the water engineers and modeling tools at their disposal to develop a single plan that moves water in the most efficient manner while conserving resources for the environment, agriculture and urban use.  

Dry Conditions Worsen – Water Restrictions Enacted on Agriculture

Although rain is falling throughout south Florida as this report is being written, the South Florida Water Management District governing board voted to place water restrictions on municipalities and agriculture in many areas throughout south Florida at their monthly meeting on May 14.  Rainfall throughout the district has been only 30 percent of normal for the dry season which started last November.  This has resulted in the third driest ‘dry season’ recorded since the late 1800’s.  

The current level of Lake Okeechobee is 10.55 feet.  The lake has recovered slightly in the past two days due to rainfall over the lake and low evapotranspiration rates with the cloudy weather.

If rainfall over the next several days is widespread throughout south Florida and a wetter pattern develops that is more indicative of the summer wet pattern, the water restrictions should be short-lived.

SFWMD/SJRWMD Interconnect Study

The South Florida Water Management District governing board received an update on May 13th relating to a study to address excess surface water in St. Lucie and Indian River Counties.  The presentation from staff and several agricultural representatives showed how historical flows in the area changed direction according to rainfall throughout the relatively flat basin.  

The study is focusing on ways that South Florida Water Management District canals can be connected to St. Johns River Water Management District canals to effectively move water between districts to areas of need when excess water is available.  Agricultural interests are interested in the study as they may be able to store water on fallow citrus land in St. Lucie County.

Florida Farm Bureau is following the study and will review the documents when they become available to determine how this might ultimately affect agriculture in the region as well as the state.