By Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers
Feb. 3, 2020
The Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services has fired a consulting firm with ties to the sugar industry.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried
Ag Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried “has chosen to terminate the contract of MacVicar Consulting,” according to a message posted over the weekend on the department’s Facebook page. The department had a $35,000 contract calling for firm President Thomas K. MacVicar and two employees, William Baker and Lennart “Len” Lindahl, to help with “monitoring, understanding and influencing the water-related issues important to agriculture in South Florida.”
In particular, the three were to provide expertise as members of the panel working with the Army Corps of Engineers to develop new guidelines for operating Lake Okeechobee.
That drew criticism from environmentalists who have called for the lake elevation to be kept lower than the Corps currently calls for — between 12 feet 6 inches and 15 feet 6 inches — as a way to prevent discharges that can cause massive blue-green algae blooms in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. The sugar industry has long advocated keeping plenty of water in Lake Okeechobee, claiming allowing it to drop below 11 feet in elevation threatened water supplies for both farmers and municipalities.
From Facebook:
“Commissioner Fried has chosen to terminate the contract of MacVicar Consulting, a longtime technical consultant to the Department. The firm had provided hydrological expertise to the Department on various water projects.
This included advising the Commissioner’s three appointments to the Lake Okeechobee Project Delivery Team, which are three state employees of our Office of Agricultural Water Policy.
Commissioner Fried’s top priority regarding Lake Okeechobee remains the public health of the surrounding communities. She continues to work diligently towards achieving reduced nutrient impacts to Florida’s waterways, including major revisions to agricultural best management practices.”