Florida Governor Launches Plan to Save Polluted Everglades
Surrounded by America’s greatest marshlands, Gov. Lawton Chiles signed into law Tuesday a $685-million plan to save the dying Everglades from decades of pollution.
But environmentalists called the plan a sellout to Florida’s sugar industry and predicted that it would not stop the phosphorus-rich farm runoff that is choking the Everglades’ plant and animal life.
The bill ends a lawsuit that U.S. officials filed against Florida in 1987, accusing the state of failing to protect the Everglades from runoff polluted with fertilizer from 550,000 acres of farmland.
Under the cleanup plan, officials will create giant filtering marshes to prevent pollution from reaching the heart of the Everglades.
Chiles estimated that farmers and sugar growers will pay one-third to one-half of the cleanup cost over the next 20 years.
The rest will come from a property tax of up to 10 cents per $1,000 of taxable value on homes, businesses and other South Florida property.
The Everglades provides fresh water to residents and is home to thousands of wildlife species.
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