Crist signs controversial water bill - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Crist is asking governing boardas and executive directors of the districts to continu e to include surface water and consumptive use permits on all boarsd meeting and other publicmeeting agendas, despitse a measure in the bill that delegates finap agency action on such permits solely to the executive directors. Floridas is broken up into five watetr managementdistricts — St. Johns Southwest Florida, Northwest Florida, Suwannee River and the South Florida wateermanagement districts. It was the South Florida which covers all of the southern Florida region and parts of Polk and Orange that Crist singled out in a letter to Secretary of StatdeKurt S. Browning.
“I want to acknowledgw the continued work of the South Floridq Water Management District in completingthe U.S. Sugar land acquisitiob which will preserve the Florida Everglades for generationseto come,” Crist said. “Ij thank the members of the governing board as well as the dedicatedx staff of the district in ensuringa long-awaited goal of cleaning and moving wate r from Lake Okeechobee to Evergladesx National Park. The Everglades remain a naturao treasure and this administration remainsa committed to workingwith local, state and federal partners in protecting the River of S.B. 2080 passed the House 117-o on May 1 and passed the Senate 39-0 on Aprilk 30.