PHOTO COURTESY USACE

The nonprofit Captains for Clean Water said it has garnered nearly 15,000 signatures on a petition urging plaintiffs from the sugar industry to drop their appeal of a legal ruling about the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir project in Florida.

“Ultimately, if Big Sugar is successful in this lawsuit, it could upend years of restoration progress, threatening the future of Florida’s waters and our economy,” the group stated. “That’s why we’re standing up to oppose this lawsuit — so that the EAA Reservoir can be used to save our waters as it was intended.”

The EAA issue dates back years and is complicated — so much so than in March 2023, when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled against the sugar companies, the judge opened his nearly 40-page ruling by stating: “The facts of this case can be difficult to get through. There are countless acronyms; obscure statutes and regulations; and thousands of pages of administrative record with technical language, written mostly by scientists and engineers.”

At its core, the legal battle is about how water from Lake Okeechobee will be handled, affecting Florida boaters, anglers, residents and businesses, along with the environment.

In 2000, Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan to restore, preserve and protect the South Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection.

The multiyear, multibillion-dollar plan includes building a reservoir and stormwater treatment area that are bigger than Manhattan and Staten Island combined, with the reservoir storing enough water to lower the levels in Lake Okeechobee by about 6 inches.

That water will then be purified and sent south to the Everglades and Florida Bay, in part to reduce the discharges from Lake Okeechobee that can impact fishing and boating along the Treasure and Gulf coasts, which face cycles of blue-green algae blooms and red tide.

The project, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the “crown jewel of Everglades restoration,” is underway. But part of the plan, according to the sugar companies, was a promise that as work proceeded, existing legal water users would not lose the water supply they had before the legislation was enacted.

Okeelanta Corp., the U.S. Sugar Corp. and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, claiming that the corps has failed to ensure that operating the reservoir will not eliminate or transfer the water supply before replacement sources become available.

After the District Court ruled against them last year, the sugar companies appealed the decision. As that legal process continues, Captains for Clean Water is attempting to bring public pressure against the legal action and the companies.

The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida did not respond to a request for comment from Soundings Trade Only.

Captains for Clean Water said that if the sugar companies ultimately win in court, the case could upend years of restoration progress and lead to “more damaging discharges, more toxic algae blooms, and more economic and environmental peril.”