oh boy my head is spinning Stuart City Commission calls for eminent domain seizure of U.S. Sugar land By Mark Burneko Wednesday, August 28, 2013 STUART — City commissioners have asked the city manager to prepare a resolution favoring state action to seize land owned by U.S. Sugar Corp., a step the city hopes will speed up efforts to stem pollution of the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. Commissioners approved the action Monday after hearing a report by Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, in which Perry outlined the environmental damage to the estuary and nearshore reefs caused by the ongoing discharge of pollutants and sediment from Lake Okeechobee. Asked by Commissioner Jeffrey Krauskopf for his opinion on the most expedient way of dealing with the problem, Perry suggested the best way to control the level of Lake Okeechobee was to release water southward, its natural direction of flow; rather than east through the St. Lucie River and west through the Caloosahatchee River. Billions of gallons of freshwater are released daily by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to control the level of the lake and reduce the likelihood of a structural failure to the dike that contains it. A longstanding impediment to creating a southern flow-way, however, is that more than 150,000 acres of land necessary to accomplish the task is owned by U.S. Sugar Corp., based in Clewiston. Although the state purchased nearly 27,000 acres of U.S. Sugar property for $197 million two years ago, it now has no funding and little time to exercise its option to purchase the rest of U.S. Sugar’s land for another $1 billion. The state’s option on the land expires in October. One possible solution would be for the South Florida Water Management District to take possession of the land through the process of eminent domain, which would allow the state to negotiate a fair-market price for payment. “The government maintains broad powers to seize land through eminent domain when it’s in the public’s best interest,” said Sarah Heard, chairman of the Martin County Commission. “That’s why we’re very careful about using it.” Heard said she was unaware of any legislative impediment to the state exercising its option to seize the property. While the proposed Stuart commission resolution would have no legally binding effect, it is intended as a clear message the city has reached a tipping point in the fight to protect environmentally sensitive coastal waters. “You saw how people responded when the BP spill happened,” Krauskopf said, referring to the 2012 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “This is just as bad, if not worse.” I hope I was allowed to share this it came through an email from south florida, Scripps I will remove it if this is your work. JTL
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 23:16:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015