South Florida water managers should use U.S. Sugar Corp. land that the state is acquiring in a $1.8 billion deal to expand water storage and treatment areas in the Everglades Agricultural Area, two prominent advocacy groups said today.

The series of short- and long-term recommendations also urges state and federal agencies to "place an immediate focus on eliminating barriers to sheetflow," a necessary step toward returning water to parched portions of Everglades National Park.

Sara Fain, national co-chairwoman of the Everglades Coalition, an umbrella organization of nearly 50 local, state and national Everglades advocacy groups, said in a statement that as land acquisition negotiations proceed, government agencies "must ensure that enough lands in the right areas are protected to help restore our River of Grass."

To that end, the coalition and its partner, the Everglades Foundation, called for water managers to immediately pursue land swaps and other real estate deals that allow for the unimpeded movement of clean water through the nearly 400,000 acres of sugarcane plantation lands south of Lake Okeechobee to the lower glades.

It also called for the acquisition of up to 30,000 acres of cattle ranching lands in the Kissimmee River Basin north of Lake Okeechobee to provide additional storage and treatment areas for water flowing into the lake.

Large volumes of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution washing into Lake Okeechobee from the Kissimmee River Basin remain one of the greatest threats to the health of the lower Everglades as well as to two coastal estuaries -- the St. Lucie and Callosahatchee -- whose health has been greatly damaged by polluted discharges from the lake.

Major land deal

The U.S. Sugar buyout, announced in late June by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and the South Florida Water Management District, is expected to provide unprecedented opportunity for restoration managers to revisit some of their initial assumptions about how to repair the Everglades, which suffers from a half-century of modifications designed to control flooding and provide water for agriculture and human consumption.

In 2000, the state of Florida and the federal government launched the multibillion-dollar Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the boldest environmental restoration project ever conceived. Among other things, CERP seeks to restore water flows to the lower Everglades, including Everglades National Park. But progress has been hindered by a variety of problems, including cost overruns, funding shortfalls and logistical questions such as how to store, treat and move large volumes water through the agricultural area.

By purchasing 198,000 acres, or roughly half of the Everglades Agricultural Area, from U.S. Sugar, the state expects to be able to begin assembling large parcels of land that can be converted from sugar cultivation to water storage and treatment areas.

While many environmental groups and key restoration leaders have lauded the U.S. Sugar deal for its potential environmental benefits, other stakeholders, such as the Miccosukee Tribe, whose ancestral lands are in the heart of the Everglades, have questioned whether the deal is in keeping with the government's promises under CERP.

Others, including residents and economic development officials in the sugar-producing areas south of Lake Okeechobee, are concerned that the buyout will result in thousands of job losses and hasten the decline of one of the state's traditional economic bases.

As part of their recommendations, the groups called on the state to "commit to providing resources and meaningful support to local communities in order to sustain economic viability."

Call for halting land-use changes

One means of doing that would be to place easements on newly purchased lands that promote sustainable agricultural practices. But the groups recommended that all development rights to newly purchased Everglades Agricultural Area lands be held by the state and not traded away to encourage development in other sensitive areas.

Lisa Interlandi, senior counsel for the Everglades Law Center, said advocacy groups are asking local governments "to refrain from making land-use changes or approving new developments until restoration plans for the region are completed."

The groups specifically asked that the state prohibit any development that would be incompatible with broader restoration goals, including the siting of new mines, landfills, major roadways, rail lines, power plants or other institutional or civic buildings in the newly acquired lands.

"With this land acquisition, we have the opportunity to design a new regional master plan that restores the Everglades and provides new job opportunities for the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee," Kirk Fordham, chief executive of the Everglades Foundation, said in a statement. "Local and state officials should avoid reckless and premature decisions that could limit our options for both Everglades restoration and economic development."

Click here to review the list of recommendations.