All of the speakers supported a land purchase.
negotiated by district staff.”
The district has expressed little interest in purchasing the land but has not ruled it out. Spokesman Randy Smith said the district is “keeping all of its options open” and is looking at storage opportunities both north and south of the lake, but for now, it is focusing on completing projects already approved or underway.
Among those projects are the C-44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area in Martin County, which will store and treat stormwater before it flows into the estuary.
District Executive Director Blake Guillory and Tom Teets, the district’s director of Everglades policy, also explained that buying the land without a project approved by the Corps could put the district in a dicey financial situation.
The Corps is obligated to split the cost of Everglades restoration with the district, with responsibility for project design and land purchase falling to the district, and responsibility for construction falling to the Corps. The district already has outspent the Corps by $1 billion, and if the district were to go forward with a land purchase and project on its own before the Corps approves, the district could be stuck paying all of the cost, Guillory said.
According to a presentation by Jeff Kivett, the district’s chief engineer, other factors would stymie efforts to move water south even if the district owned the land:
■ Pumps, canals and other structures that water leaving the lake must pass through are not capable of moving large volumes from the lake to the Everglades.
■ The Endangered Species Act and other federal environmental regulations limit how much water can be moved south to protect migratory birds and prevent nests from being inundated.
■ Strict water regulation schedules set maximum limits on water depth in conservation ar- eas.
■ The East Coast Protective Levee, which protects western neighborhoods in Palm Beach and Martin counties from flooding from the Everglades, could be compromised by higher water.
■ An agreement in a federal lawsuit prohibits the district from moving water with high levels of phosphorous south. Doing so would put the district in violation of the agreement.
No representatives from U.S. Sugar spoke at the meeting. Contacted after the meeting, Judy Sanchez, head of the company’s communications and public affairs, said the company has heard nothing from the state, district or other agencies. She blames the Everglades Foundation for convincing residents in the Treasure Coast that purchasing land south of the lake would help the estuary.
“In order to be relevant, they have to have something to fight against,” Sanchez said about the foundation’s efforts. “Now it looks like they’ve morphed into the estuary foundation.”