By TC PALM Tyler Treadway: Treasure Coast environmentalists were downright ebullient in early January, convinced that Gov. Rick Scott would sign a deal to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. land needed to send excess Lake Okeechobee water south to the Everglades, sparing the St. Lucie River from disastrous discharges.
The signs were all there:
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, said he had “heard through the rumor mill” Scott was in talks with U.S. Sugar officials about a sale.
State Rep. Mark Pafford, a Palm Beach County Democrat and House minority leader, called a purchase “probable, a better than 50-50 proposition.”
Nathaniel P. “Nat” Reed of Jupiter Island, a former state and federal environmental official and dean of the Treasure Coast lagoon advocates, said Scott “is looking at this very seriously.”
The bubble burst Tuesday when Scott announced an ambitious Everglades restoration plan that includes spending $150 million in the next budget year and earmarking $5 billion from the proceeds of Amendment 1 over its 20-year life span. But the proposal didn’t include a call to buy the U.S. Sugar land.
Read the story online:
http://www.tcpalm.com/franchise/indian-river-lagoon/sugar-land-buy-to-spare-indian-river-lagoon-looks-iffy-after-scotts-budget-omission_35128713