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JONI JAMESA water reservation plan agreed upon by environmentalists and developers now needs approval by the Legislature.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida environmentalists and developers have agreed how the state will reserve water for environmental projects in the future, avoiding a legal battle that threatened to delay Everglades restoration.
The deal, which must be approved by the Legislature, will give regional water management districts the power to designate "water reservations" for natural systems as part of long-term regional water supply plans.
The plan also gives an affected party, such as a landowner, the power to demand that a water management district's plan undergo independent scientific review before it is adopted, a provision sought by developers. And it requires that water reservations be reviewed in such events as drought.
The deal also maintains a provision, important to some in the environmental community, that water reservations must be taken into account before any new water permit can be issued for other purposes, such as industry or residential growth.
"We feel the clearer the procedure, the more it will encourage reservations," said David Gluckman, lobbyist for the Florida Wildlife Federation. "We see this as very positive."
Cathy Vogel, lobbyist for the Association of Florida Community Developers, said she planned to tell state officials this morning that her group would sign off on the plan with just a "few tweaks. Window dressing, actually."
"I'm cautiously optimistic," said Janet Llewellyn, the state Department of Environmental Protection's deputy director for water resource management, who spent the past few weeks working on the agreement. She meets with Vogel today. "The devil is in the details," Llewellyn said.
The deal, if approved, would settle one of the more intense behind-the-scenes battles this legislative session between environmentalists and the influential Association of Florida Community Developers.
The subject for debate: a proposed DEP rule, years in the making, that detailed how the state's water management districts could reserve water for environmental projects, something done only once before but that will become increasingly necessary in the state's $8-billion Everglades restoration plan.
Developers challenged the rule before an administrative judge, potentially stalling its adoption for more than a year and threatening, environmentalists thought, water reservations for Everglades projects. The South Florida Water Management District is expected to consider today a reservation for the Loxahatchee River as part of the Everglades restoration plan. If the agreement is approved, developers will withdraw their challenge to the rule.
"I'm surprised we've gotten to this point, I didn't know if we could," said Eric Draper, lobbyist for Audubon of Florida.