If you're a member of the Everglades Coalition or Everglades Foundation you might want to skip the Post editorial page today

Hendry County Commissioner Janet Taylor (District One) has a scathing Point of View published in today's (2/26) Palm Beach Post. To say she doesn't hold back is an understatement. The opinions by Commissioner Taylor are almost certainly going to get another letter from the Loxahatchee Sierra Club's Drew Martin published so stay tuned for that.

If you recall there was an effort by some environmental groups, referred to as the "Everglades Land Buy", to move water south from Lake Okeechobee, cleaned, and then directed south at a cost of about $3 billion (billion with a 'B'). A blog post from last year alludes to that effort and ideas on how that money may be better spent on other priorities.

Here is the link to the Point of View in the paper today titled, "Glades-area agriculture a pillar of Florida’s economy" and two short excerpts:

     The swank Biltmore in Coral Gables in January. The luxurious Breakers in Palm Beach in February. These resorts are where the wealthy upper crust of the Everglades Coalition and Everglades Foundation have gathered so far this year — while trying to make their case that the working-class Glades-area residents should give up their homes and livelihoods to make way for Lake Okeechobee’s excess water.
     Some activists’ desires apparently go far further than wanting to end Florida agriculture. A Feb. 11 post of a Sierra Club email exchange suggested that “a dike failure would fix everything. The human toll would be inconceivable. The benefits to our environment would be immeasurable.” [emphasis added]
     “Inconceivable” is right! More than 39,000 people live in Hendry County.

[and. . .]

     I guess the problem is that most of those 12,000 workers live in the Glades/Clewiston/Hendry County area and don’t matter much to those living in Florida’s coastal communities. Devastating our area’s economy won’t mean a thing to millionaires and billionaires living hours away.
     Agriculture is the backbone of Florida’s economy; it was here long before the development of our state’s coastal enclaves. Agriculture was here before the Sierra Club. Our state’s farmers are its first environmentalists, caring for the land because they know it’s the land that provides for us all. We aren’t going to be driven away by people too privileged to understand that.

Has it really been suggested by the Sierra Club that a Herbert Hoover Dike collapse "would fix everything"? The benefits to the environment of a dike failure "would be immeasurable" in a positive way? If so, they haven't bothered to read the Lloyd's of London report on this very subject; very sobering to say the least.