The mermaid of death, the man flashing phony $100 bills with Gov. Rick Scott’s picture and “$UGAR” on them and a chorus of environmental activists chanting “No purchase, no peace” made for some first-rate political theater at the South Florida Water Management District headquarters Thursday.

But the displays, along with hours of passionate public comments, failed to persuade water managers to take action on a proposal to spend up to $500 million to buy 46,800 acres of U.S. Sugar land south of Lake Okeechobee to create a reservoir. The Everglades Foundation and other advocates say storing water there would reduce harmful discharges into the St. Lucie Estuary and the Caloosahatchee River.

Water district board members, all appointed by Scott, have not taken a position against the land purchase. But with the state’s option to buy the land expiring in October, their inaction has the same effect. If the board were to recommend the purchase, state legislators and Scott would also have to agree.

Before the board’s Thursday meeting, about 70 sign-waving, costume-wearing, slogan-chanting demonstrators stood outside district headquarters west of West Palm Beach calling for the purchase. Linda Curtiss of Stuart turned the most heads with a black and white mermaid skeleton costume and matching face paint to dramatize the effects of lake discharges on marine life in the St. Lucie Estuary.

Inside, about 120 people packed the board’s meeting room and more than 60 people signed up to speak. Before the public comments, the district’s chief engineer, Jeff Kivett, spent about 40 minutes telling the board that the plan to send the water south faces “major constraints.”

+

Linda Curtiss of Stuart, who dressed as a dead mermaid to illustrate the damage of discharge from Lake Okeechobee into the ... read more

Linda Curtiss of Stuart, who dressed as a dead mermaid to illustrate the damage of discharge from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary, was among the protesters demonstrating Thursday outside a meeting of the South Florida Water Management District Board west of West Palm Beach. (Brianna Soukup / Palm Beach Post)

×

Kivett, offering more detail on a presentation he had made earlier, said those constraints include pumps, canals and other structures that aren’t equipped to move large volumes of water from the lake to the Everglades. He also said storing more water south of the lake could threaten the Cape Sabal seaside sparrow and other migratory birds protected by federal law.

“Because of the Migratory Bird Act and the Endangered Species Act, we don’t have the ability just to say, ‘Oh, they’re in the way, but we need to put water quality first,’ … I can’t legally move water out of the lake and drown those nests. Fish and Wildlife would not accept that. It would send someone, really, to jail if we did that,” Kivett said.

A parade of speakers then ripped Kivett’s report and accused board members of doing the bidding of the sugar industry.

+

Jo Neeson of Jensen Beach, dressed as “Big Sugar,” and Bruce Osborn of Stuart, dressed as a “Florida politician” were among ... read more

Jo Neeson of Jensen Beach, dressed as “Big Sugar,” and Bruce Osborn of Stuart, dressed as a “Florida politician” were among the protesters demonstrating outside the South Florida Water Management District building west of West Palm Beach Thursday. (Brianna Soukup / Palm Beach Post)

×

“Talk about constraints, really, is obfuscation,” said Sierra Club member Arthur Broughton of Lake Worth, who contended the obstacles mentioned by Kivett are surmountable. “The real constraint is a lack of political will. The Legislature and the governor are beholden to Big Sugar, and the money of Big Sugar and you are beholden to the governor and the Legislature.”

U.S. Sugar agreed in 2010 to give the state the option to buy the land, but prefers to continue farming it. If the current option expires and the district decides later that it wants the U.S. Sugar land, it would have to meet the conditions of another option, which requires the district to buy the 46,800 acres plus another 106,200 at fair market value.

“It may not be a good deal for sugar any more, but it is for us,” said Cara Capp of the Everglades Coalition.

+

Bruce Osborn holds a handful of $ugar dollars with Florida Governor Rick Scott’s face on it while demonstrating Thursday outside the ... read more

Bruce Osborn holds a handful of $ugar dollars with Florida Governor Rick Scott’s face on it while demonstrating Thursday outside the South Florida Water Management District building west of West Palm Beach. (Brianna Soukup / Palm Beach Post)

×

Advocates of the purchase noted that Florida voters in November overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment creating a trust fund to acquire conservation lands.

“Now, we have a plan, we have a contract, we have the money. We can make a solution possible. … We know those constraints can be overcome,” said Maggy Hurchalla, the former Martin County commissioner. “We’re asking you to tell the Legislature, tell the folks in Tallahassee, what needs to happen.”

After hours of public comment, however, board members took no action on the land issue and moved on with the rest of their agenda.

Lisa Interlandi of the Everglades Law Center said afterward that advocates would “keep pushing for this. This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.” But, she acknowledged, “the opportunity is slipping away.”