Environmental groups assail Bush on Glades

A coalition demands tighter rules for Everglades restoration and says its efforts have been rebuffed.

By JULIE HAUSERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 11, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- A coalition of environmental groups criticized Gov. Jeb Bush Thursday for the environmental achievement it once praised, the one he touts the most in his re-election campaign: restoration of the Everglades.

Just two years ago, the Everglades Coalition gave Bush and his environmental chief, David Struhs, a Steward of the Everglades award. Now, the coalition says Bush is jeopardizing the $7.8-billion restoration plan. They say the state has refused to write tight rules to ensure that water goes to natural systems before it is used for agriculture and growth.

The coalition includes 43 environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund.

"We'd like to give Gov. Bush a better grade for this," said Mary Munson, director of the Suncoast region of the National Parks Conservation Association. "It's not too late for him to be an environmental hero."

Said Shannon Estenoz of the World Wildlife Fund: "We have tried numerous times to sit down and communicate with the state of Florida. We don't feel like we are being heard."

Estenoz said there's a December deadline for the state to tighten rules that will govern the massive restoration. Already, she said, Congress is reluctant to release some of the money for the project. The state and federal governments are splitting the cost.

A Senate appropriations committee report this year raised concerns that "the project may be too heavily weighted in favor of commercial development of water supplies rather than the restoration of historic water flow."

The committee recommended that this year's appropriation be cut by $10-million. Congress hasn't passed its budget.

"Congress is not going to come in here and save America's Everglades if we, as Floridians, don't fight for the Everglades," said Mary Barley of the Everglades Trust.

The groups said they had been trying to meet with the Bush administration to discuss the rules for more than a year but had been rebuffed.

Bush's spokeswoman, Liz Hirst, released a statement saying that Struhs and Bush have met with environmentalists. And a top state Department of Environmental Protection official, Bob Sparks, brushed off the criticism, saying the rules aren't that important because Bush and his brother, President Bush, already have a signed agreement that says natural systems are a top priority.

"It's a quibbling of small details," Sparks said.

Countered Estenoz: "Headlines are great, but you've got to read the fine print. These regulations are the fine print of Everglades restoration." At a Tallahassee news conference, the activists accused Gov. Bush of bowing to special interests.

"It's really the powerful corporations that Gov. Bush is listening to over and above the natural resources of the state of Florida," said Jonathan Ullman of the Sierra Club.

Half of Florida's historic Everglades are gone. The restoration project aims to reverse years of diking, ditching and draining. But in crafting the project, government has to balance the needs of a complex natural system with water-hungry agriculture and thirsty cities on the fringe of the vast marsh.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright