Indian River Lagoon Clean up threatened

Bush threatens to veto bill that world pay for Indian River Lagoon cleanup

By Amie Parnes
(Contact)Originally published 02:45 p.m.,
August 1, 2007Updated 07:00 p.m., August 1, 2007

WASHINGTON — For more than six years, environmentalists have been determined to convince lawmakers to pass a massive water bill that holds more than $1.3 billion in money to help clean up the Indian River Lagoon.
Now, as the House and Senate are on the heels of finally passing the legislation that aims to clean up the sometimes-troubled local waters, someone else stands in the way: President Bush.
On Wednesday, as both chambers prepared to debate the Water Resources Development Act, White House officials sent a letter to lawmakers bluntly stating the president’s displeasure with the bill. The administration officials said Bush would veto the bill because of its hefty price tag.
The administration has urged the Congress to limit the total cost of the authorizations in this WRDA and to authorize only those projects that would provide a high net return on investment and fall within the three main Corps mission areas,” the letter from the White House Office of Management and Budget said. “Unfortunately, the conference has reported a bill that exceeds significantly the $15 billion estimated cost of the House-passed bill, which is the higher cost of the House and Senate bills.”
“Indeed, it seems a $14 billion Senate bill went into conference with the House’s $15 billion bill and somehow a bill emerged costing approximately $20 billion,” the letter continues. “This is not how most Americans would expect their representatives in Washington to reach agreement, especially when it is their tax dollars that are being spent.”
If the bill does get signed into law, it would help improve water quality in estuaries on both sides of the state. The estuaries have carried contaminants that have contributed to the Everglades’ pollution over the years.

The money would be used to help remove deposits of muck and phosphorous and in lakes and canals that have polluted sea grasses and oyster flats.
“Funding for these projects is vital and long overdue,” said April Gromnicki, the director of Ecosystems Restoration for Audubon, the environmental group. “We urge the president to reconsider.”
If Bush does in fact veto the legislation, Gromnicki said lawmakers should override the veto.
It was unclear on Wednesday if the bipartisan bill had enough votes for an override.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they were convinced the bill had to move forward.
“Delaying this bill will only add to the cost,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.“The federal government has made huge commitments in Florida and around our nation and they ought to honor those commitments. The seven-year delay in Everglades restoration alone has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

These projects are critical and there’s too much at stake to keep kicking the problem down the road,” Martinez added.
Rep. Tim Mahoney, the Democrat who represents parts of Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties, said the president’s decision to veto the bill will have “serious consequences” for the area.
“Local economies depend on preserving our rivers and estuaries,” he said, vowing to fight the White House on the issue.
Congress last passed WRDA in 2000 but failed to pass the bill since then — most recently in December — because lawmakers in the House and the Senate could not settle their differences on the legislation’s final cost.