Bill filed by Senator Rob Bradley to help reduce the discharges
Florida Senate President Joe Negron has unveiled his plan to address Lake Okeechobee discharges.
A bill filed last week by Fleming Island Senator Rob Bradley has several steps to try and reduce the toxic discharges. This would help the St Lucie River.
The first step would require the South Florida Water Management District to try and find willing sellers of 60-thousand acres of land south of Lake Okeechobee. That land would be used to build a reservoir to hold excess water.
If there are no willing sellers by the end of the year, the state would have until the end of 2018 to hold US Sugar to a contract signed in 2010 where the company agreed to sell 153-thousand acres of land.
If that fails, then the bill mandates that the legislature allocate $50-million a year for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration plan.
US Sugar and the agricultural communities south of the lake are against the plan. They say it would kill jobs and is built on bad science.
It also appears that the bill would have trouble passing the house. House Speaker Richard Corcoran said he isn’t convinced that the plan would work.
