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According to U.S. Sugar Corp, the company will sell all its holdings to the state, including land, its sugar mill, refinery, citrus plant, citrus nursery, rock mines and equipment.
The land, covering Hendry, Glades and Palm Beach counties, is slightly smaller than the size of Pinellas County. The farming in the area has long been considered a hinderance to protecting the environment.
Here is an image from the NY Times:
Also from the NY Times:
For more discussion on this topic, see WSJ:Environmental Capital.
The impact on the Everglades could be substantial. The natural flow of water would be restored, and the expanse of about 292 square miles would add about a million acre-feet of water storage. That amount of water — enough to fill about 500,000 Olympic size swimming pools — could soak the southern Everglades during the dry season, protecting wildlife, preventing fires, and allowing for a redrawing of the $8 billion Everglades restoration plan approved in 2000.
It would essentially remove some of the proposed plumbing. Many of the complicated wells and pumps the plan relied on might never have to be built, water officials said, because the water could move naturally down the gradually sloping land.
** Quote in the NY Times Article from David G. Guest, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.