In response to "Face the facts: Don't focus on Sugar" by guest columnist Gaston Cantens, The Stuart News, 10-1-08.

Gaston Cantens, Florida Crystals Corp., states pollution to the St. Lucie River estuary is caused by water from the north and not from sugar farmers south of Lake Okeechobee. The water does flow south from the Upper Chain of Lakes, down the Kissimmee River and into Lake Okeechobee. Then it used to flow south to the Everglades and into Florida Bay. When the Hoover Dike was built in 1930 the land south of the Lake (700,000 acres) became the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). US Sugar Corporation began farming sugar cane in the 1930's with the Fanjul family (Florida Crystals, 190,000 acres) starting in the1960's . Water flowing south from the Lake was diverted east and west; to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers (valuable estuarine ecosystems). Only water needed for "water supply" to the EAA was sent south.

The recent state initiative announced in June shows hope to restore the Everglades ecosystem. The plan is to buy 187,000 acres of US Sugar land and reconnect the "missing link," river of grass, from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades through the EAA. It would reestablish a natural flow of water to the south from the Lake instead of east and west to the estuaries. The "link" would occur between the Miami Canal and North New River Canal. We own the southern 80,000 acres; the US Sugar purchase would give us the northern 24,000 acres and leaves the middle 40,000 acres owned by Florida Crystals. Hopefully Florida Crystals will engage in a "conversation about real solutions" (Cantens' quote) as we try to trade an equivalent of the US Sugar Corp lands for these 40,000 acres. Hopefully Florida Crystals will do the right thing and we can proceed with restoration of the Everglades and saving the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee River estuaries.

Mark D. Perry
Executive Director
Florida Oceanographic Society