Talks to Restore Everglades Stall

Talks aimed at ending years of legal battles over cleaning up the Florida Everglades collapsed Thursday amid sharp disagreement between U.S officials and the sugar industry.

The failure to reach agreement dashed hopes that had been raised last July when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced an accord with sugar growers that was designed to be a framework for ending the dispute.

Major sugar growers had agreed to pay as much as $342 million toward cleaning up the pollution by building treatment plants and man-made marshes to filter out phosphorus--caused by agricultural runoff into the Southern Florida system of wetlands.

Assistant Interior Secretary George T. Frampton said that some sugar interests had presented a condition that would block any future federal or state plans for Everglades restoration for two decades. “We’re not going to trade restoration for this agreement,” he said.