The Elephant in the Everglades

Team Everglades-

Recently, the Miami Herald hosted the 2019 Florida Priorities Summit that focused on issues affecting all Floridians – the economy, education, the environment, health care and transportation. The day-long conference of speakers and panel discussions brought together some of Florida’s top leaders and decision makers. Oh, and Big Sugar.

Moderated by Michael Grunwald, journalist and author of The Swamp, the group convened to discuss the number one issue described by the 50 top thought leaders in the state – our environment – and included Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, Eric Eikenberg of the Everglades Foundation, and Julie Wraithmell of Audubon Florida.

Joining these environmental leaders was Gaston Cantens of Florida Crystals, representing the Sugar Cane League. Weird, right?! Turns out, the Sugar Cane League was a sponsor of the event.

It was hard to watch at times, as hypocrisy and audacity collided. Gaston carried on about the “great strides the sugar industry has made in technology and pollution control,” and how “clean and sustainable” their operations are as if they aren’t even part of the problem and have no idea what all the fuss is about.

We had to laugh when we heard him say, “You know, we’re not Old MacDonald’s farm anymore.” Well, that’s for sure.  I don’t recall the nursery song containing a line about a subsidy-E-I-E-I-O or a price support-E-I-E-I-O.

Gaston touted their progress on limiting pollution. Did they do that on their own, as good stewards of the land? Not a chance, it was mandated by a federal court and roughly 91% has been paid for by you and me, the taxpayers. To the tune of $4 billion. Four. Billion. Dollars. E-I-E-I-O!

He goes on to claim Florida Crystals and US Sugar have nothing to do with the pollution in Lake Okeechobee or its discharges. Do we laugh, or do we cry?

Next came Gaston’s attempt at sugarsplainin’ water storage NORTH of the lake.

The boys of sugar are physically blocking the flow of water south to the Everglades (yes, Gaston, we see how big you are on the map, all 500,000 acres of you). They force-hold all that water in Lake O in case they need it, requiring it to be dumped to both coasts of Florida when they don’t. 

So, they simply adore the idea of injecting that polluted water into the aquifer north of the lake. Out of sight. Out of mind. E-I-E-I-O.

Florida’s economic and ecological survival relies on lots and lots of clean water and Big Sugar’s political survival relies on getting as much dirty water out of sight and out of mind. Injecting trillions of gallons of agricultural runoff into the aquifer and hoping enough of it will be available when South Florida needs it in the dry season isn’t just a disastrous idea, it’s a strawman distraction.

Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of ASR wells north of the lake are a Big Sugar Shuffle, shifting filthy water from one place to another, moving us further away from solving the problem, delaying real solutions and forcing the taxpayers to, once again, pay for it.

Since Ol’ MacDonald was a young lad, Florida Crystals and US Sugar have obstructed every attempt to send clean and plentiful freshwater south because that direction – south – hammers home the obvious. Big Sugar’s 800-square miles of publicly subsidized sugarcane geographically starves the Everglades and vital, national estuaries of the freshwater they need to survive.

Big Sugar isn’t part of the problem. They are the problem – the gigantic corporate elephant in the Everglades, drinking it dry.

Try again, Gaston, the water is going the wrong way and the peanut gallery isn’t buying your spin.

For the rest of you, stick with us!

Kimberly Mitchell
Executive Director