The fight over Florida's Everglades is decades old. Among the multiple ongoing law suits concerning Everglades restoration, the Miccosukee suit got some uneven results. It is a complex issue that too few people really understand. All of Florida plus our tourists have a dog in this race, but maybe 1 in 20 are paying attention.
Most Floridians moved here long after the beginning of the battle over The River of Grass, better known as the Everglades. Newbie Floridians generally have no use for gators other than the Gainesville variety and they have no clue that the Everglades (gators and all) is key to a healthy Florida environment.
Giving into pro-business interests leads to more and more expensive water for all Floridians, but the average Floridian won't care about the Everglades until they get their first $150 a month water bill (sewage will be extra).

From April on through September and October the debate on the Everglades clean up erupted between Federal Judge Alan Gold, the EPA and Florida Water Managers. The Everglades clean up is taking too long. The plan on the clean up started in the early nineties and policy makers kept kicking the process down the road. Meanwhile phosphorous levels in the Everglades, not to mention mercury and other pollutants, continue to be prevalent in the wetlands. The controversy over the plan released in September and bitched about last month has since died down in the news. Florida water managers will use this lull in the news to try and get the plan watered down and that will be bad for Florida.
The current argument has multiple facets with intertwining threads. Simplistically, the key issue is that big sugar has dumped way too much phosphorous into the 'Glades and is screwing up the environment. Interested parties say the Everglades restoration plan is taking too long and filed suit. The Miccosukees don't like the sugar corporation deal where big sugar sells their land to the state to help restore the Everglades and sued for a better plan. Somewhere along the time line, the Miccosukees lost their lawyer and had to get a new one. Despite the setbacks a federal judge agreed that the Everglades Clean up was taking too long and ordered the EPA to come up with a doable, faster plan. The EPA complied. Florida State water managers want to continue to drag their feet on the project and are whining about the new plan. The Miami Herald wrote:
The plan, which a Miami federal judge demanded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, calls for a more than 70 percent expansion of the state's existing network of reservoirs and pollution treatment marshes -- 42,000 acres of new projects that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It also endorses Gov. Charlie Crist's controversial land deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp. as part of the solution.
The EPA did come up with a better plan, but it's expensive and the plan pushes back phosphorous standards and other things for another 10 years. The Florida water managers complain that 10 years is too short a time period to get 'er done, but they've been "planning" this restoration for over 20 years. We missed the 2006 specified deadline for phosphorous reductions and this new plan takes it to 2016 or later. CERP was "planned" for close to 10 years before it's 30 year plan was unveiled in 2000. The time for talk is over. It's time to do the plan. Or, if you prefer; the bait's been cut, it's time to fish.
The main problem with cleaning up the Everglades is money. Florida got marching orders to do the clean up, but, uh, no direction for where the money to do it is to come from. The ideal situation would be the get the money from the Big Sugar polluters who made a fortune off this land, but that solution seems to have slipped away.
The damage done by the sugar industry is long term (like, about 100 years worth), the $197 million dollar deal is barely a step toward restoring alleviating the phosphorous pollution sugar growers and other agricultural businesses have done to the Everglades ecosystem and the perpetrators are getting a $197 million parting gift instead of a mandate to chip in to repair the damage. I'm aggravated this land is being paid for and the price isn't being severely knocked down under some combination of eminent domain and compensation for the pollution, but that didn't happen. Florida is paying $197 million for the land plus billions more for the Everglades clean up. That money will come from Florida residents and tourists. The feds? Probably not. Florida water managers are intent on forever pushing the clean up deadlines out another 10 years. Their thinking is that if tomorrow never comes, Florida won't have to pay for it, but that's a false choice. Florida and our tourists will have to pay for this foolish choice in higher water costs and higher indirect costs from the pollution.
More and more construction intrudes into the Everglades every year, further endangering Florida's fresh water supplies. More and more boneheaded ideas (opposition efforts are described here) go forward every year further endangering the Florida environment. A new Zephyrhills water bottling plant in drought affected Northern Florida went through with hardly a peep. I wonder if new residents of Florida realize how foolish our government officials are being with Florida's ecosystem? We live on a peninsula and the water aquifers are lost forever, once salt intrusion occurs. Florida residents take a long time before they clue into the seriousness of Florida's water situation. Some people blithely take 2 showers a day, water their grass 10-12 hours per week, fail to repair bad sprinklers or leaks in their pools. Tourists love our pools, water parks and fountains, but don't care how the water got there.
Water conservation is more than turning off the water while you brush your teeth. Florida's environmental concerns deserve better than what we're getting from our water managers. What is it going to take to wake them up? Maybe it's going to take charging $150 per 1,000 gallons of water (sewage extra) before we wake up and smell the salt.