The Miami Herald – Calling the downsized deal more realistic and affordable, regional water managers Wednesday afternoon signed off on Gov. Charlie Crist’s bid to buy a massive swath of farmland for Everglades restoration.

The deal would pay the U.S. Sugar Corp. $536 million for 72,800 acres of sugar fields and citrus groves, with the eventual goal of turning them into huge reservoirs and pollution treatment marshes to restore the flow of clean water to the River of Grass.

The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District, which agonized over a previous $1.34 billion offer for 180,000 acres before approving it by a single vote in December, voted 6-1 in favor of the latest deal. Mike Collins of Islamorada dissented.

Environmentalists, backed by Crist’s chief environmental aide, sport-fishing groups and the Obama administration, have argued the deal was too good to pass up — despite concerns that paying for it might delay or divert money from other Glades projects. [read more…]