The battle over healing Florida’s freshwater heart moved to Tallahassee yesterday as lawmakers hear the first formal presentation in an ambitious bid to buy farm land for Lake Okeechobee overflow. There is no legislation filed, but the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Environment and Natural Resources set aside two hours for presentations on the sweeping problems created when man rerouted Florida’s natural plumbing, and the slow process of repairing the damage.
Senate President Joe Negron pitched the multi-billion dollar plan to buy land south of the lake in August following a summer tainted on the Treasure Coast by widespread algae blooms seeded by discharges from a bloated Lake Okeechobee. Negron’s proposal, which includes finding land viable for storing 120 billion gallons of water, builds on what many activists have been pleading for — to send excess Lake Okeechobee water south instead of dumping it east and west into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries.
LINK (via: My Palm Beach Post)
The place is a paradise!