Talks to Restore Everglades Fail; Had Won Praise

Negotiations between the Clinton Administration and the sugar industry to finalize an environmental restoration plan for Florida’s Everglades hit an impasse Thursday, perhaps delaying for years any serious effort to save the nation’s largest marsh.

The deadlock represents a setback for the Administration and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who five months ago hailed the tentative $465-million accord among the industry, federal government and Florida officials as a historic event.

But Interior officials and sugar-industry representatives battled over several issues, amid charges by environmentalists that the pact was a sellout to the industry.

Assistant Interior Secretary George T. Frampton blamed the collapse of the talks on a late demand by some segments of the sugar industry for an ironclad promise by state and federal governments that no additional cleanup efforts would be instituted for 20 years beyond those called for in the plan announced last summer.