Rick Scott signature Everglades restoration Bill taxing big sugar

The new legislation is a positive step, but more must be done to save the Everglades, according to Eric Draper of Audubon of Florida.

Environmentalists and big sugar that much Tuesday celebrated Governor Rick Scott signed legislation Everglades efforts to get more help from pollution control to famous River of grass of the Florida.

The Governor came to the pine Jog environmental education center to the West of West Palm Beach Tuesday to sign the Bill that supporters say signals a renewed effort to overcome years of delays and setbacks on lack of Florida Everglades federal water quality standards.

The legislation helps to pay part of the $880 million of Scott for cleaning of water pollution of the Everglades through the extension of a tax of $25 an acre in sugar cane and other agriculture South of Lake Okeechobee. The tax is intended to clean up pollution of stormwater that washes the land and farmland in the Everglades.

The legislation also requires the State to pay $32 million a year for the next 10 years to improve the quality of the water of the Everglades.

"This is a great day for Florida. It's a great day for the environment. "It is a great day for the Everglades, said Scott."This was not easy to make".

However, State officials and environmentalists have met before to celebrate beyond the plans of restoration of Everglades that have yet to achieve the goals of long-sought of improving the quantity and quality of stormwater which once flowed freely from Lake Okeechobee to the Bay of Florida - before development and agriculture got in the way.

The new legislation is a positive step, but more must be done to save the Everglades, according to Eric Draper of Audubon of Florida.

That includes ensuring the Florida legislature for the next decade to fulfil its commitment to provide at least $32 million a year for water quality plan, Draper said.

Cane sugar and other agriculture producers must also do more to clean stormwater loaded with phosphorus washing their fields, he said.

"Not finished yet," Draper said.

Phosphorus, fertilizers, animal wastes and the natural decay of soil, washing the agricultural lands and urban areas and drains the Everglades with harmful environmental effects.

In a move aimed at resolving two decades of federal litigation on Everglades water quality, Scott from 2011 has pushed by a renewed cleaning of rainwater from $880 million plan.

Calls Scott proposal for additional construction of 7,000 hectares of stormwater treatment areas to more than 50,000 hectares of artificial filter marshes that used to absorb the phosphorus from stormwater that went to the Everglades.

In addition, reservoirs called "flow equalization basins" will be built close to contain water for the treatment areas.

To help pay the $880 million, lawmakers plan this spring approved changes to the law of Everglades forever ranging from taxes on agriculture. The tax of $25 per acre in the Everglades agricultural area producers remain until 2026, beyond that the previous version was due to a reduction in 10 years.

Between 2027 and 2035, the tax declines from $20 to $15 and then in 2036 remains at $10 per acre.

Extended agricultural tax revenue complements the property taxpayers money to fund the Everglades water quality plan.

Environmental groups were able to discard updates of sugar backed before the legislation argued there could be bumper large sugar Everglades cleaning requirements and decreases the chance of challenging water permits to pollute farms.

The health of the Everglades affects tourism and supply of drinking water, in addition to animal habitat, said the Governor.

"For many decades, water quality problems have plagued this treasure and deserves greater attention from us," said Scott.

Big sugar, environmentalists and State lawmakers were among the supporters of more than two dozen gathered at Pine Jog Tuesday for Governor bill signing.

"This is a huge victory for the Everglades and Florida," Sugar Corp. Senior Vice President of United States Robert Coker said in a statement issued after the signing of the Bill. "Collaboration and restoration have triumphed over endless and costly litigation."

Although Audubon and the Everglades Foundation supported the compromise legislation, other groups environmentalists, including the Sierra Club and friends of the Everglades, argue that does not require to pay enough to clean pollutants flowing from the cultivation of agriculture.

The legislation "protects big sugar at the expense of taxpayers," said Albert Slap, of friends of the Everglades.

abreid@Tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews _

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