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Water Management District Responds to Criticisms for Extending Land Lease

Everglades Agricultural Area Storage Reservoir Project Map
South Florida Water Management District
Everglades Agricultural Area Storage Reservoir Project Map

The South Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board recently voted to extend a lease to allow farming to continue on about 16-thousand acres of state owned land that’s going to be used to build the EAA, or Everglades Agricultural Area, Reservoir. The decision came quickly, without advanced public input. Some environmental groups, like The Everglades Foundation, immediately decried the move, saying it will delay construction of the much-needed reservoir, and that the vote was taken without enough advanced public notice. We had The Everglades Foundation’s CEO, Eric Eikenberg, on the show last Wednesday. We did invite the water management district to join that show, but didn’t hear back until afterwards. So, today, we’re going to hear from the district to to get their side of this story. We’re joined by Brian Accardo, Chief Counsel, Jerry Eisenband, Director of Communications, and by John Mitnick, he’s Chief Engineer for the South Florida Water Management District.

Copyright 2018 WGCU

Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.