Major relief for Everglades; lawsuit would have upended restoration efforts and established the critical EAA Reservoir project as a taxpayer-funded water supply for special interests.
A federal lawsuit filed by three industrial sugar entities against the Army Corps of Engineers over their design and planned use of a critical Everglades restoration project—the EAA Reservoir—was officially denied last week.
You might not remember us talking about the lawsuit last September because immediately after we published our initial report on the matter, Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida and forced us to refocus our attention to disaster relief efforts.
But it was a essentially a far-fetched attempt by Big Sugar to establish the EAA Reservoir primarily as a taxpayer-funded agricultural water supply reservoir—quite contrary to its intended design of helping restore the Everglades by storing, cleaning, and sending water south from Lake Okeechobee.
It was a pretty complicated lawsuit, but the implications were simple.
Had their claims been substantiated in court, it could have set a precedent that would turn Everglades restoration—a multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar plan to rehydrate a withering national treasure—into little more than a water-supply insurance policy for Big Sugar.
That’s why we joined a legal effort to oppose the lawsuit through what’s called an amicus brief, or “friends of the court” brief. Written and filed by Everglades Law Center, the joint brief officially threw our hat into the proceedings, establishing our on-the-record case against Big Sugar’s baseless logic with substantiating arguments against their claims.
Everglades Law Center did a fantastic job writing the amicus brief, clearly breaking down the situation so that the ruling judge could understand exactly why Big Sugar’s reasoning was seriously flawed. It paid off too, because in the end, the judge ruled against the sugar industry’s claims, several times citing arguments from the brief in his ruling.
It’s really hard to overstate how bad it could have been if this lawsuit had been granted. It was certainly a long shot, but the threat was serious, and you just never know with these situations—we’ve seen crazier things happen.
Fortunately, the judge understood the bigger picture, and the effort to restore the Everglades prevailed. There will be, of course, options for the sugar industry to appeal, another reminder that this fight is never really over, and the next threat is always right around the corner.
But for now, the future of Everglades restoration—and the EAA Reservoir in particular—continues to have hope. Thanks for being with us every step of the way and for always being ready for whatever’s next; our waters are seeing progress because of you.
Major relief for Everglades; lawsuit would have upended restoration efforts and established the critical EAA Reservoir project as a taxpayer-funded water supply for special interests.
A federal lawsuit filed by three industrial sugar entities against the Army Corps of Engineers over their design and planned use of a critical Everglades restoration project—the EAA Reservoir—was officially denied last week.
You might not remember us talking about the lawsuit last September because immediately after we published our initial report on the matter, Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida and forced us to refocus our attention to disaster relief efforts.
But it was a essentially a far-fetched attempt by Big Sugar to establish the EAA Reservoir primarily as a taxpayer-funded agricultural water supply reservoir—quite contrary to its intended design of helping restore the Everglades by storing, cleaning, and sending water south from Lake Okeechobee.
It was a pretty complicated lawsuit, but the implications were simple.
Had their claims been substantiated in court, it could have set a precedent that would turn Everglades restoration—a multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar plan to rehydrate a withering national treasure—into little more than a water-supply insurance policy for Big Sugar.
That’s why we joined a legal effort to oppose the lawsuit through what’s called an amicus brief, or “friends of the court” brief. Written and filed by Everglades Law Center, the joint brief officially threw our hat into the proceedings, establishing our on-the-record case against Big Sugar’s baseless logic with substantiating arguments against their claims.
Everglades Law Center did a fantastic job writing the amicus brief, clearly breaking down the situation so that the ruling judge could understand exactly why Big Sugar’s reasoning was seriously flawed. It paid off too, because in the end, the judge ruled against the sugar industry’s claims, several times citing arguments from the brief in his ruling.
It’s really hard to overstate how bad it could have been if this lawsuit had been granted. It was certainly a long shot, but the threat was serious, and you just never know with these situations—we’ve seen crazier things happen.
Fortunately, the judge understood the bigger picture, and the effort to restore the Everglades prevailed. There will be, of course, options for the sugar industry to appeal, another reminder that this fight is never really over, and the next threat is always right around the corner.
But for now, the future of Everglades restoration—and the EAA Reservoir in particular—continues to have hope. Thanks for being with us every step of the way and for always being ready for whatever’s next; our waters are seeing progress because of you.