Dear HCN,
Rabbit Babbitt’s reported
comment relative to Florida’s Everglades (HCN, 5/16/94) that “when
sugar companies blocked us in the Congress, we went to the state
legislature in Tallahassee and last week we got a law there,”
absurdly misleads anyone hearing it. The statute Babbitt brags
about only assures our Everglades remain polluted by Big Sugar. In
fact, the statute sweetens Big Sugar’s deal with the Interior
Department by letting it off the hook for water quality testing of
feeder rivers, providing “effluent mixing zones’ in water
conservation areas, delaying enforcement of existing water quality
standards from 2002 until 2006, and, finally, capping levies
against agriculture for clean-up of the present mess. The cap
actually shifts clean-up costs from corporations to many poor folks
here.
Conversely, anyone believing Florida’s
legislature gives a hoot about the Everglades can’t spell
“Tallaha$$ee.” That’s where the good ol” boys take their tea real
sweet.
B.C. Young
Hammock,
Florida
The writer is
coordinator of SCRAM, the Southern Coalition for Rivers, Air and
Mammals.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Sweet deal harms the Everglades.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
