As the week wound down, the Everglades Foundation (EF) and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) already had produced more sequels in their epic battle over Everglades reservoirs than we ever got from "Clash of the Titans."
But apparently they weren't through.
Now the stars of the show -- the environmental organization looking to reconfigure a part of Everglades restoration and the state authority committed to keeping restoration on track -- have given us another snarky sequel.
If you've been following the south-vs.-north reservoirs saga, you know what I'm talking about.
This is the latest:
On Friday, EF issued what it called "Statement Regarding the SFWMD's Response to The Everglades Foundation Letter." Basically, it challenges SFWMD to "sit down and openly discuss the serious challenges facing this state and how we can solve them together."
Here's the statement in full:
"The Everglades Foundation (The Foundation) is a science-based not-for-profit dedicated to protecting and restoring America’s Everglades. The Foundation provides policymakers and the public with honest and credible information.
"Our interest and goal is the public good of Florida and its economy, which is dependent on a healthy Everglades. The South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) continued criticism of The Foundation’s modeling and analysis has no merit. The SFWMD’s own modeling, which is cited by the University of Florida Water Institute’s Report, suffers from the same criticisms the SFWMD unfairly launched against The Foundation. We challenge the SFWMD to drop their smear campaign financed with taxpayer dollars and their boycotts on constructive dialogue, and instead sit down and openly discuss the serious challenges facing this state and how we can solve them together."
In other words, Your work is no better than ours, so stop trashing us; we can help you plan something better.
As you might imagine, EF's statement didn't sit well with the District.
On Saturday SFWMD issued a short, if not sweet, retort. Its headline: "Statement on Everglades Foundation Response," and this is the message in full:
"The South Florida Water Management District is a public body, and its Governing Board is accountable to its taxpayers. The Everglades Foundation is an advocacy group. The SFWMD Governing Board and its Water Resources Advisory Commission hold monthly meetings in the Sunshine, on the record, and discuss serious challenges facing the State. The SFWMD Governing Board enthusiastically invites everyone to attend these important meetings and participate in the decision making."
In other words, we're open, you're not. Nothing's stopping you from participating.
To catch you up, here are the stories leading up to the weekend in this epic Good-Gollywood series. If you're a fan, you'll want to follow the story links.
1. EF prepares a paper comparing "the Benefits of Northern & Southern Everglades Storage" and its Jan. 6 and 7 public introduction, promoted as "Three Estuaries, One Solution."
2. SFWMD responds Jan. 9 with a stern, finger-wagging letter based on this report and enumerating errors in the Foundation's argument that stormwater stored south of Lake Okeechobee is more beneficial than water stored north of the lake. SFWMD's message: The EF paper only works as a propaganda tool.
3. On Jan. 12 EF fires back a blistering rebuttal, indignant that its argument would be publicly and wrongly rebuked.
4. Literally minutes later SFWMD came back with a sarcastic "thank you" directed at Tom Van Lent, head scientist at EF -- clarifying that the modeling his letter was based on was "merely an academic exercise which does not account for numerous real world challenges or obligations."
Incidentally, not much attention has been given to the SFWMD-owned land, commonly known as "the A-1 and A-2 lands," purchased 15 years ago for a reservoir, half of which never was built. The District keeps trying to get people's attention that A-2, leased to agricultural interests, will be available in 2018 and can be a major part of plans for a "south" reservoir. In fact, it issued a press release-reminder Saturday.
"District engineers are fully capable of constructing a deep reservoir with the requisite water quality features on this land ..." SFWMD says.
Don't turn off the popcorn machine yet.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
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