State water managers oppose legislation to expand basin boundary

State legislators are sponsoring bills to expand the authority overseeing water control structures in Collier County, but the state agency overseeing the governing board thinks it’s a bad idea.

State Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero) introduced a bill to expand the Big Cypress Basin’s governing board’s boundary into portions of southern Lee County by July 1, 2022. State Representative Adam Botana is sponsoring a similar bill in the House.

Rodrigues’ Senate bill went through an Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government meeting April 8 where South Florida Water Management District representative Phil Flood opposed the legislation.

During the committee meeting, Flood testified against the bill, saying a loss in tax revenues would adversely affect the operation and maintenance of Everglades restoration.

“In the bill as written, I have to commend (Rodrigues) on his work to improve the (Big Cypress Basin) board, he certainly has, but we're still looking at a $6.3 million annual impact that it will have on our monies that will be going to assist in Everglades restoration,” Flood said.

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Rodrigues said the loss in revenue is not a significant amount when the state is looking to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on those projects.

Flood said the state funds the construction of Everglades restoration projects but not the recurring operations costs for those projects after they’re built.

“We’re seeing $17 million in (operations and maintenance) costs associated with those projects when they come online within the next five years,” Flood said. “That's $17 million annually, and that would be on top of the $6.3 million (lost) that we'll see as a result of this bill.”

Those costs include things like fuel and electricity, staffing and water quality monitoring.

"Look at the C-43 reservoir," Flood said this week. "There's 600 acres of grass just on the dam surrounding the reservoir. Somebody has to maintain that. We can't let trees grow up there or allow gopher tortoises to nest or anything that would damage integrity of it." 

Rodrigues said the lack of water projects done in the area the bill is trying to include in the basin boundary is more important.

“The Big Cypress water projects are funded through the Big Cypress governing board ad valorem, which includes everything in Collier, but nothing in Lee,” he said at the meeting. “For the portions of Lee County that are in the Big Cypress watershed: they’re paying ad valorem taxes and receiving nothing, and I mean literally nothing for that.”

Rodrigues went on to say he had a conversation with members of the district who told him there are no future projects slated for the south Lee County area and no projects have been completed.

“So flooding has been a problem, particularly in Bonita Springs, and yet we've gotten nothing from the taxes that have been paid, specifically to address those issues and this is what’s necessary in order to get that addressed,” he said.

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Dan DeLisi, representing Lee County at the subcommittee meeting, said the water district has two pools of ad valorem taxes, general and basin specific. He testified that if projects had been done in south Lee County, they were likely funded through the general pool, which would not be affected by the basin boundary expansion.

Rodrigues this week said he has asked the district for a list of projects completed in south Lee County and to see where funding originated for those projects.

"If the funding is out of the Okeechobee Basin, then yes, the district would have a legitimate point," he said. "But if (Lee residents) are paying an assessment and seeing nothing for it, the point of bill becomes more important: aligning the scientific and political boundaries of the basin."

Flood said this week that a number of projects funded through Okeechobee Basin taxes have been to the benefit of south Lee County. 

Those include the purchase of Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) lands, the Southern CREW Hydrological Restoration Project off Bonita Beach Road and other flood mitigation efforts.

Following Hurricane Irma in 2017, the water management district established an agreement with Lee County to undertake operations to improve flood protection, including clearing trees and debris from creeks and estuaries.

The district spends about $850,000 annually under the agreement, Flood said, and maintains drainage features around the Estero and Imperial rivers.

Collier County supports expansion

Lisa Hurley, representing Collier County at the subcommittee meeting, gave support for the bill — a departure from the lobbyist’s previous stance. County commissioners had three issues with the bill as originally written, but recent amendments alleviated their concerns.

The commissioners met Tuesday during a regularly scheduled board meeting and voted 3-1 to support the senate bill. Commissioner Penny Taylor voted against it without comment.

The support comes after the board held multiple discussions on the bill. Commissioners were concerned the legislation would shift tax money away from projects in Collier County, dilute Collier representation on the basin board and not provide enough time for the water managers to adjust to the changes.

As the bill is currently written, taxes paid in each county will go toward projects in that county, four board members will represent Collier and one will represent Lee, and the effective date has been pushed back a year.

Rodrigues said Tuesday that Lee County would prefer not to have the delay, but compromised.

"It's another year of taxes without benefit for them," he said. "But if that's what is necessary to move the legislation, they were willing to accept it to get to a better position in the long term."

Rodrigues’ bill will appear once more before a Senate committee. It is not currently on the agenda this week.

Karl Schneider is an environment reporter. Send tips and comments to kschneider@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @karlstartswithk