Sugar fields purchase approved

After extensive debate, the South Florida Water Management District’s
governing board voted 4 to 3 to accept a controversial deal with U.S.
Sugar Corp., spending $1.34 billion to buy 300 square miles of
land to help restore the Everglades. The board did provide an emergency
exit clause of sorts, allowing it to back out of the deal by the
scheduled Sept. 25, 2009, closing if the deal threatened to
bankrupt the agency in a plunging economy.