"Palm Beach County endorses $55 million Mecca Farms deal" in @sunsentinal @abreidnews

Falls short of taxpayers' more than $100 million investment

By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel
7:57 PM EDT, August 14, 2012

Six years ago, environmentalists warned Palm Beach County commissioners that water, not development, belonged on taxpayer-owned Mecca Farms.

Now after a failed "biotech village" soaked taxpayers for more than $100 million, a new deal would transform Mecca Farms into water storage needed for Everglades restoration.

The County Commission on Tuesday endorsed a $55 million deal that would allow the South Florida Water Management District to acquire the 1,919 acres west of Palm Beach Gardens, once intended to become home to The Scripps Research Institute.

While the deal leaves county taxpayers far short of getting their money back, it would provide water storage vital to a new $880 million Everglades restoration plan.

"We see this as just a great end to the saga of Mecca Farms," said Lisa Interlandi, of the Everglades Law Center, who represented environmental groups that waged a legal fight against the Scripps deal.

The new deal calls for the water management district to get Mecca Farms in exchange for $30 million and a land trade valued at $25 million.

The land the district proposes to trade includes property at Riverbend Park near Jupiter as well as farmland and other land west of Delray Beach.

The district's board last week agreed to proceed with trying to acquire land that now figures prominently into a revamped state Everglades restoration plan.

Likewise, the County Commission Tuesday approved the general terms of the deal, allowing negotiations and land appraisals to proceed. Final approval of the deal could come by November.

"We have a conclusion, an ideal conclusion, to a problem that has existed for a long time," said County Commissioner Jess Santamaria.

The county in 2004 paid $60 million for Mecca Farms and spent about $40 million more in planning, permitting and initial construction for Scripps. In addition, the county built a $51 million water pipeline to supply development expected on Mecca Farms and surrounding farmland.

The idea was that Scripps would attract spin-off businesses and new jobs to farmland pegged for development.

But environmental concerns in 2006 moved Scripps to Jupiter and left taxpayers with a more than $6 million in annual debt payments for Mecca Farms along with maintenance of Mecca Farms.

The water management district now plans to build stormwater storage and treatment areas on Mecca Farms and then use the land to help restore water flows to the Loxahatchee River.

Selling Mecca Farms would be good for taxpayers, but the county should be trying to get more in return, according to Fred Scheibl, of the Tea Party spinoff Palm Beach County Taxpayer Action Board.

With a new development proposal in the works for the Vavrus Ranch that borders Mecca Farms, as well as the water pipeline the county invested in, the county should be angling for more cash than land in return for the property, he suggested in an email to county commissioners.

"Disposing of Mecca for a fair price is a good thing, but how can we be sure that this is a fair price?" Scheibl asked.

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews
Sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-mecca-commission-vote-20120814,0,59902.story

 

"Suit to force #Everglades cleansing appears near resolution" in @PBPost

By CHRISTINE STAPLETON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 9:07 p.m. Monday, June 4, 2012

WEST PALM BEACH — A proposed settlement to a 24-year-old lawsuit that has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in failed efforts to restore the Everglades was unveiled on Monday after months of private negotiations.

Melissa Meeker, the Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District, said the draft settlement calls for an $880 million series of projects to filter out nutrient contamination and increase water flow. The projects come in addition to the more than $2 billion the district has already spent on land and other construction projects -- including $300 million spent on a reservoir before scrapping the project.

According to Meeker, the proposed settlement calls for adding two stormwater treatment areas and flow-equalization basins, which would ensure a constant flow of water to the stormwater treatment areas. The district currently manages five such treatment areas, man-made wetlands that use plants to cleanse water headed to the Everglades.

The proposed settlement sets the completion date for Everglades restoration at 2025.

"We're trying to move forward to some closure with this plan," said Governing Board Chairman Joe Collins. "I for one would rather see us spending money on construction than lawyers."

The settlement proposal contains time lines that will be enforced by incorporating them in district regulations, Meeker said.

The lawsuit that spawned the epic lawsuit began in 1988, when the federal government sued the water district and other state agencies for failing to enforce water quality standards in the Everglades.

In 1992 a federal judge approved a settlement agreement, called a consent decree, in which the District agreed to build stormwater treatment areas and meet water quality standards by 2002. When the district was unable to meet that deadline, others were set and missed. Nutrient levels in certain areas continued to exceed maximum limits -- driving the lawsuit on.

Most recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set a deadline of June 6 for Florida to submit permits on behalf of the district to ensure that water quality standards are met in the five stormwater treatment areas the district currently operates. Officials of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection say that deadline will be met.

At a special meeting of the governing board on Monday, Meeker she wanted to the board to hear details about the proposed settlement from her rather than read them in the paper.

However, David Guest, attorney for EarthJustice, which represents environmental groups in the lawsuit, was guarded about his opinion of the draft settlement.

But Guest did say he was not aware that Meeker was going public with the settlement proposal on Monday. In fact, Guest -- who has been involved in the lawsuit since it was filed in 1988 -- said he was not certain that the settlement had been finalized by all parties.

"What worries me is, what the state is doing doesn't feel like collaboration," Guest said after learning of Monday's meeting.

In her 30-minute presentation, Meeker explained that the district would use some of the land it purchased from U.S. Sugar in 2010 and more than 2,000 acres of Mecca Farms that the District hopes to acquire in a land swap with the county.

The plan would also put to use two reservoirs: the L-8 Reservoir, a 15 billion gallon reservoir with a $217 million pricetag and water unfit for drinking; and the A1 Reservoir, which the district stopped building after spending $300 million.

As for money, Meeker said the district has $220 million set aside in reserves and would rely on money raised through property taxes and state appropriations for the remainder.

Despite the optimism at Monday's board meeting, the proposed settlement faces many hurdles. It must be approved by the EPA, the district's Governing Board, a federal judge and environmental groups.

christine_stapleton@pbpost.com