With the land exchange, Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West (STA-1W), just west of Wellington, Fla., will grow from 6,700 acres to 11,300 acres, giving the South Florida Water Management District an expanded stormwater treatment area for aquatic plants to remove phosphorus and other nutrients from water flowing south into the Everglades. The project is one of 10 components in the state's restoration strategies plan to improve Everglades water quality.
Image: South Florida Water Management District

On Jan. 9, the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) www.sfwmd.gov approved a land exchange to expand an Everglades restoration project by 4,604 acres. The Palm Beach Post (Post) reported the board "agreed to overlook two of its own policies regarding real estate deals and unanimously approved a three-way land swap"?(R)?" The most pertinent ignored policy is a requirement that leases on district-owned land be put out for public bid.

The board's action was precipitated to meet a federal judge's court order for the district to build a stormwater treatment area, and to avoid daily fines.

The Post reports the district is giving up land worth "as much as $24.7 million more than it is getting," and paying anywhere from "$7.5 million to $23.2 million" to clean contaminated soil on the land it is getting from Florida Crystals and Gladeview Holdings Co., the two sugar growing companies involved in the deal.

SFWMD says the site is contaminated with copper and a 1990 banned insecticide (toxaphene).

In exchange for the 4,604 acres, the Post reports Florida Crystals receives 8,700 acres the district purchased from U.S. Sugar in 2010; Gladeview gets 2,865 acres from Florida Crystals, plus $5.9 million in cash from the district. Crystals also received no-bid extensions for its leased state and district-owned land on which it grows sugarcane.