The success of a Florida plan to restore the Everglades' natural watershed may hinge on officials' ability to gain cooperation from two giants of the sugar industry, Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar.

Florida officials announced a plan last month to purchase 187,000 acres from U.S. Sugar and are now hoping to swap some of that land with Florida Crystals to create a water corridor from Lake Okeechobee to one of the nation's most prized wetlands.

Alfonso and J. Pepe Fanjul, the brothers at the top of family-run Florida Crystals, have agreed to make the exchanges, as long as their biomass plant in Okeelanta is allowed to stay put.

"We really want to be as green as we possibly can be," Alsonso said. But J. Pepe added, "You have to have a balance between the environment and economic development. Something has to be done for the humans too."

There also are struggles with U.S. Sugar, which has been frequently taken to court by environmentalists over its land-management practices. The state restoration plan would put the company out of business in six years.

Company workers, who face losing their jobs, say removing the sugar industry would destroy the local economy, filling the area with ghost towns (Damien Cave, New York Times, July 31). -- PR