Gov. Bush and his top environmental regulator bear responsibility for cynical legislation that threatens the federal-state agreement to save the Everglades.
Published May 23, 2003
We understand why Gov. Jeb Bush retreated behind closed doors to sign legislation that threatens the historic federal-state agreement to clean up the Everglades. Nobody in his right mind wants to be seen in public anywhere near this irresponsible piece of work.
The attempts by Bush and state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs to justify this betrayal of the Everglades Forever Act have been incoherent and disingenuous from the start. First, Struhs and other advocates claimed the proposed changes to the meticulously crafted Everglades compromise had the blessings of federal officials. Struhs said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional director was "enthusiastic" about the changes. Those assurances turned out to be untrue. Justice Department lawyers and prominent Republicans in Florida's congressional delegation were blindsided and alarmed by the Florida legislation and immediately began pleading with Bush to block it.
Then Bush and Struhs claimed the legislative language delaying the deadline for reducing phosphorus levels in the water entering the Everglades wouldn't really do what it said. That, too, turned out to be false. No matter how the defenders try to spin it, this legislation weakens the original 2006 deadline for reducing the phosphorus levels to 10 parts per billion. If Struhs and Bush believed the original deadline could not be met, they could have negotiated among all the parties to the original agreement. Instead, Tallahassee officials rammed through changes - written by the sugar industry and supported by other South Florida corporate interests unhappy with their obligations under the law - over the strenuous objections and warnings of their partners in the agreement.
Finally, Bush signed the Everglades bill Tuesday despite his own belated acknowledgement that it is flawed - and then he asked the Legislature to approve amendments to fix it as soon as possible. Even if one accepts Bush's stated position, the simple and logical thing to do would have been to veto the bill and then work with state lawmakers and federal authorities on revisions that would not threaten the original agreement. But the governor claimed he couldn't veto the bill because of "logistics."
Those unexplained logistics just add to the mystifying rationalizations Bush and Struhs have summoned in the effort to justify their Everglades bill. In contrast, the officials opposing the legislation hardly could be clearer. U.S. House Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, said "this action . . . could have a serious effect on the allocation of funds for the project." With more than $4-billion in federal funding now in jeopardy, that qualifies as serious. U.S. Reps. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, have been even harsher in assessing the legislation's threat to the original federal-state agreement. So has U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, who said he was "deeply troubled" by the bill and appointed a special master to ensure the state's continued compliance with the agreement.
The governor has often outraged environmentalists, but never before has he provoked such widespread and bitter condemnation from fellow Republican leaders. But in case anyone feared that he was wracked with guilt over this breach of faith with the Everglades agreement, Bush let it be known that he "sleep(s) well at night." He didn't say whether he could still look at himself in the mirror, or whether he had been visited by the ghost of Everglades agreements past. In any case, those who truly care about the fate of Florida's irreplaceable River of Grass will not rest easy until this cynical legislation is reversed.
