Ed Killer: Why Captains for Clean Water petition is a well-intended waste of time
Enough is enough. That's the message environmental advocates Captains for Clean Water is sending to the sugar industry. And they're asking for your help.
The nonprofit last week began asking people — via social media, newsletters and its website — to sign a petition urging sugar farmers to drop their lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers demanding billions of gallons of Lake Okeechobee water. The nonprofit estimates 10,000 people had signed the petition as of May 7.
Captains for Clean Water's latest effort raises good questions:
Will Big Sugar bend to public pressure?
Where is the lawsuit in the legal process?
If sugar farmers win their lawsuit, or it drags on another few years, will the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan be delayed further or even worse — watered down to where it isn't effective?
At stake are 60 CERP projects worth $23 billion of taxpayers' money, chief among them the completion of the $4 billion Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir. Not to mention the long-term health of three of Florida's most important estuaries — Florida Bay and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers — and millions of residents whose lives depend on clean water.
What's in the lawsuit?
It's fairly simple. Three sugar companies in the Glades — U.S. Sugar Corp., Okeelanta Corp. (Florida Crystals) and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative — filed lawsuits in August 2021 to sue for the irrigation water they say was promised to them through what is called the "savings clause" in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000.
Part of the lawsuit claims the Army Corps' design of the 10,000-acre, 78 billion gallon EAA Reservoir "unlawfully ignored" the savings clause by cutting the amount of irrigation water farmers can take from the lake.
In March 2023, federal judge Donald Middlebrooks threw out the case, but ruled that more analysis of the reservoir plan and its effect on water users is warranted. In May 2023, the sugar companies appealed his ruling.
By November, the sugar companies and Army Corps each had several entities join the appeal through amicus briefs. It lined up like this:
Sugar companies side
West Palm Beach city government
Lake Worth Drainage District
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association
Army Corps side
South Florida Water Management District
City governments of Stuart, Sanibel, Islamorada and Lake Worth Beach
Chambers of commerce of Islamorada and Sanibel-Captiva Islands
Everglades Law Center
The Everglades Foundation, Inc.
Florida Bay Forever, Inc.
Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association, Inc.
Captains for Clean Water, Inc.
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, Inc.
Where is the lawsuit at this point?
Sometimes in the world of legal wrangling, issues can seem as if they are moving along at a snail's pace. But this case has been fully briefed and is pending in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"All parties have requested oral argument, but it has not been granted or denied at this point," said Lisa Interlandi of the Everglades Law Center, a nonprofit that represents public interests in environmental matters.
So we wait.
What happens now?
The EAA Reservoir moves ahead at full speed. Its completion date is 2032, according to the Army Corps. Operational testing will follow, which can take another few years, but it should be partially operational providing no delays caused by frivolous lawsuits.
Which brings me back to the Captains for Clean water campaign. The nonprofit was founded during the 2016 Lake Okeechobee discharge event and recently has offered vocal support to Everglades restoration projects moving forward.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't have high hopes. In my opinion, I don't believe it will accomplish anything — even if the petition has 1 million signatures and is delivered to the sugar companies' headquarters. These are for-profit businesses, not elected officials. They respond to drops in sales — which, by the way, won't ever happen for sugar, drugs or guns.
What we learned in 2016
In 2016, TCPalm had some experience with petition campaigns. Our newspaper served the community as environmental advocates and collected 10,000 petition signatures that summer. The petitions begged policymakers to help stop destructive Lake O discharges. Then-Martin County columnist Gil Smart and then-photojournalist Leah Voss hand-delivered the signed documents to Tallahassee to then-Gov. Rick Scott.
Scott wasn't around to receive them. And, as expected, no one at TCPalm ever heard a peep from anyone in the governor's office about the petitions.
Simpson d'uh: Florida's Senate president wants to stop the EAA reservoir. That isn't stopping progress.
Water Hall of Shame: A state leader taking shots at changes to water policy status quo? Nothing new here
The sugar companies pay their lawyers way too much money to drop lawsuits. This is a legal waste of time, which already has been rejected by one sound judge. At this point, it's going to run its course.
The outcome is anybody's guess. I know of at least two lawsuits filed by residents of the St. Lucie River basin that failed when judges rejected their pleas for a simple inalienable right to clean water. That's when I lost my faith in the environmental legal system.
My cynicism about Lake O discharges and Everglades restoration is rooted in a century of money, power and political influence controlling Florida's plumbing system. If nothing else, this petition drive is raising awareness about the lawsuits and their potential affect on Everglades restoration.
However, it's going to take a lot of action to convince me this state has a legal system that favors common sense for people who just want clean water.
Ed Killer is a columnist for TCPalm. This is his opinion. Email him at ed.killer@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Captains for Clean Water petition urges sugar to drop Army Corps lawsuit
