Treasure Coast algae bloom: Environmentalists call for land seizure
“As toxic algae blooms inundate residential waterways in South Florida, environmentalists are calling on state leaders to address the crisis by seizing land owned by the politically well-connected sugar industry.
Lake Okeechobee pollution running off into rivers in South Florida
Toxic Blue-green algae blooms
Environmentalists want FL government to buy sugar farm land for the water
The land, which lies south of Lake Okeechobee, could be used to store the polluted runoff causing the health-threatening blooms.
“There’s something called eminent domain,” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, told reporters during a recent tour of a coastal estuary teeming with algae. Nelson suggests Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet should force the U.S. Sugar Corporation to sell tens of thousands of acres of its land to the state.
South Florida Water Management District officials in May rejected a deal negotiated by former Gov. Charlie Crist to purchase a large swath of U.S. Sugar land and, despite the mounting severity of the algae bloom crisis, seizing the land through eminent domain appears unlikely.”
Kinsey, Troy. Bay News 5 July 2016.