[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 182 (Thursday, November 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2195-E2196]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TWO OF OUR MOST BELOVED TREASURES

                                 ______


                         HON. E. CLAY SHAW, JR.

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 16, 1995

  Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation to 
provide environmental relief to the Nation by saving two of our 
greatest national treasures: the Everglades and the Florida Bay. The 
Florida Everglades is a unique region that enjoys a broad area of 
subtropical freshwater wetlands, which nourish the tropical marine 
environment of coastal bays and estuaries. If you travel on the water 
between the Florida Bay and the Everglades, you will be overwhelmed by 
the blue-green color of the water. Wildlife has flourished in the 
Everglades and Florida Bay areas, allowing people to enjoy their 
unspoiled beauty and profit from its generosity. Unfortunately, the 
Everglades is the most threatened U.S. national park, and the Florida 
Bay's lush seagrass meadows are dying as a result of the polluted water 
dumped into the Everglades by sugar growers. Three acres of Everglades' 
wetlands die everyday. Clearly, it is time to restore the Everglades-
Florida Bay ecosystem for the benefit of the whole Nation.
  Let me be clear that the first step in ensuring that the Everglades 
continues to be one of the Nation's beautiful national parks should be 
to end the U.S. Sugar Program. If sugar growers were forced to compete 
in the open market, approximately 20 percent of artificially profitable 
Everglades agricultural area [EAA] 

[[Page E 2196]]
sugarcane production would cease. Thus, this acreage could be purchased 
and used to store water and reconnect Lake Okeechobee with the 
Everglades, which would be a major step in restoring the Everglades. We 
need to take other steps now, however, to protect the Everglades from 
further pollution and deterioration until we can end the Federal Sugar 
Program.
  Thus, I have introduced a bill which assesses, for the next 5 years 
or until the Federal price support program for sugar growers is 
terminated, 2 cents per pound on raw cane sugar grown in the EAA. These 
funds will be deposited into an account known as the Everglades 
Agricultural Area Account, which will be used to make grants to the 
South Florida Water Management District so that it, in conjunction with 
the State of Florida, may acquire property in the Everglades to restore 
these national treasures. A 2-cent-per-pound assessment on raw sugar 
produced in the EAA would raise $350 million over 5 years, which would 
help purchase land, halt the pollution of the Everglades, and assist in 
restoring water quality.
  After thoroughly researching this pollution crisis in the Florida 
Everglades, the Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water 
Management District have created a plan to save and restore the 
Everglades. Under this plan, 131,000 acres of land within the southern 
EAA must be purchased at a cost of $355 million. The money raised by 
the 2-cent assessment will fund this plan and help save the Everglades.
  Sugar growers in the Everglades area have been forced to take steps 
to improve water quality by implementing best management practices with 
respect to phosphorous discharge and agreeing to pay approximately $25 
an acre over the next 20 years, that will be used to help restore the 
water quality. The concessions made by the sugar growers under the 
Everglades Forever Act, however, cap the sugar growers' contribution 
and do not require them to make full reparation until 2010. That is 
simply too little too late to save the Everglades.
  Sugar growers in the EAA have benefited from Federal and State 
subsidized water projects that drain water from the Everglades to make 
this land suitable for sugar production. These water projects have 
severely injured the Everglades, and therefore it is only right that 
sugar growers be responsible for the cleanup of the Everglades and pay 
their fair share for the purchase of these lands.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to act now to protect these 
national treasures by supporting my bill to restore the Everglades to 
the pristine condition so that it can be enjoyed for generations to 
come. My bill is fair to the sugar growers who have reaped tremendous 
benefits from the sugar program at the cost of two of our most beloved 
but most neglected national treasures: the Everglades and the Florida 
Bay. It is time for the sugar growers to work with the rest of the 
Nation to preserve these treasures.

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