Environdoggle Aftermath: $880 Million Everglades Lawsuit Settlement Unveiled

Melissa Meeker, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, unveiled on Monday a draft settlement to a 24-year-old environmental lawsuit. The suit has dragged on for 24 years and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in useless attempts to restore the Everglades.

The settlement, if accepted by all parties involved, makes this environmental lawsuit one of the costliest and most painful in Florida history -- calling for an $880 million collection of projects to filter out nutrients and increase water flow. A deadline is also involved. According to the terms of the settlement, Everglades restoration must be completed by 2025.

At Monday's SFWMD board meeting, former board member Mike Collins told members, "From my point of view, it's one more installment on a fraud started in 1988."

Collins' point is well taken. The water management district has already shelled out $2 billion on land and all sorts of construction that supposedly didn't meet muster at the time. Perhaps the most famous was the $300 million reservoir built and then scrapped, when former Gov. Charlie Crist convinced the district it would be getting all of USSC's canelands and wouldn't need a reservoir.