All I Did Was Buy A House

 

" We're falsely depicted in the media and to people in Washington as ‘squatters’ who bought land in a ‘swamp." - Madeleine Fortin

 
by Dave Skinner
For The Paragon Foundation

In 1989, by passing The Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act, the United States Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to build or modify fifty-two water management projects in South Florida, all aimed at improving the Everglades’ environmental functioning.

One small part of this gigantic, multibillion-dollar scheme (which now includes sixty-nine projects) was construction of the Modified Water Delivery System (Mod Waters) and the C-111 Canal on the east fringe of the Everglades near Miami. In a nutshell, the goal was to raise the water table to supply water to Everglades National Park; at the same time protecting 5500 acres of private land in the so-called "8.5 Square Mile Area," or 8.5 SMA, from any associated flooding.

But politics, especially environmental politics, being what they are, the flood protection phase of Mod Waters remains undone. Instead, Mod Waters has been endlessly delayed while environmental special interests and their acolytes in government agencies have lobbied to boot 8.5 SMA residents off their land and turn it over to the Park.

One of the targeted residents is Madeleine Fortin, a 51-year-old registered nurse with a Masters degree in Anthropology/Sociology. When asked why she finds herself in the crosshairs, Fortin replies: "All I did was buy a house."

Before Fortin bought her home in September 1994, she checked with the Army Corps of Engineers about its plan to build a protective levee around the 8.5 SMA. "They [the Corps] said the project was congressionally approved and fully funded by the federal government. No homes were in the path of the proposed canal and the Corps said they had already purchased about half the land they needed."

However, only two weeks after she took possession, "The community flooded so badly that most people were stranded for weeks." Most homes in the 8.5 SMA are built on elevated pads, which "…became islands in a sea of water that stretched for miles in every direction and stayed…" for months.

Unfortunately for Fortin and her neighbors, the flooding wasn’t a fluke. She says that almost every year since 1994, "Our fields, orchards, and roads are flooded with up to two-and-a-half feet of water for months at a time."

The ironic thing about all this is it wasn’t supposed to happen. Work on the congressionally mandated Mod Waters plan was to start in 1992, with completion no later than 1997.

For those wondering how such things could happen, Fortin answers: "In stages."

"First," she says, "the community was made a pariah. We’re falsely depicted in the media and to people in Washington as ‘squatters’ who bought land in a ‘swamp,’ who don’t deserve to be ‘saved’ at the expense of the poor taxpayer," notes Fortin. For example, The Miami Herald trumpeted the so-called "Alternative 6D" as "good news," while The Palm Beach Post revealed its bias with: "Ideally, government would take all the property, but the compromise still would restore flows of fresh water to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay."

So, too, would have the original, legal version of Mod Waters. Former Florida Army Corps Commander Colonel Terry Rice (USA-Retired) emphatically states that both the original and the Alternative 6D "compromise" had to meet the same environmental criteria for approval. As far as the Everglades and environment are concerned, both will work. The difference? The 6D plan will cost at least $58 million more than the $39 million original and will trample private property rights.

"Next," Fortin says, "you have to deny people reasonable use of their land." The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)…is the worst. At one time, the District tried to get the county to cut off all electricity to the community in order to drive us from our homes!"

While many holdings in the 8.5 SMA are less than five acres, Metro Dade zoning regulations were changed in the 1980’s to prohibit new construction on parcels smaller than forty acres, rendering many holdings useless and therefore worthless.

"Next, landowners must be denied all access to their property. The county denies any responsibility for our fifty-five miles of unpaved roads because they are ‘private roads’ and the county is not legally responsible for their maintenance," says Fortin. But Metro Dade has been delighted to collect property taxes from areas where it provides no services and, in fact, has blocked attempts by unincorporated areas to incorporate and put those taxes in the service of those who pay them.

The home of one of Madeleine’s neighbors recently burned to the ground, at least partly because fire trucks had to travel a very slow mile through two feet of water. Another neighbor suffered a stroke and it took three days to get him to a hospital, where he died. Fortin remains incredulous that: "Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) money was available to make our roads passable, but the county refused to apply for it!"

Finally, comes the coup de grace in Fortrin’s 8.5 SMA case: Flooding. "The water has been high for so long that even native plants used to wet conditions" are dying, but not only in the 8.5 SMA. In the Everglades, according to Fortin, "Over half the tree islands in the central Everglades are dead, killed by unnaturally high water." Amazingly, SFWMD has "inadvertently flooded all of Miami...twice in a one-year period. So far there have been more than $1 billion in flood-related losses and fourteen deaths from preventable flooding throughout the urban and agricultural areas of the county. No one in either the Corps or the Water Management District lost their job over the flooding."

After Hurricane Irene in October 1999, the floodwaters didn’t recede until New Years 2000. "People had to slaughter their livestock and poultry because the animals were getting sick from standing in water for weeks. The roads were flooded so badly people were unable to remove the carcasses, so they covered them with gasoline and burned them."

Losses included $250,000 in mahogany trees, 2,000 chickens, and numerous vehicles. Fortin says she "…could go on and on recounting what people have lost due to the flooding." On behalf of the community, Fortin tried to get permission from an SFWMD official to connect the 8.5 SMA’s secondary drainage canals to the main system, but the official responded: "I will never give you a permit!"

It’s enough to turn anyone into a "willing seller." In 1998, the South Florida Water Management District voted to try to acquire the entire community. "They sent out booklets titled Your Rights As A Displaced Person," says Fortin, "It turned out the District didn’t have the authority to condemn any land, but no one knew that." They weren’t told. In SFWMD’s Report On Investigation Of Willing Seller Program In The 8.5 Square Mile Area - IG Report #99-17, June 9, 1999, (available at www.sfwmd.gov/org/ing/85sqmile.pdf), the failure to tell was described as ‘miscommunication’."

In an interesting reflection on Dade County zoning, SFWMD’s investigators also "…found that most of the property owners were both eager and happy to sell their land. They were predominantly owners of unimproved properties. However, their motivation to sell was mostly due to Miami Dade zoning restrictions that prohibit building on most parcels in the area. One property owner wrote: ‘...I like to inform you that we do like to sell our land that in accordance with the regulations has become good for nothing’."

Eager? Happy? Fortin recalled: "One old Cuban man stood out in the muddy rutted road in from of his house and banana grove with tears running down his cheeks. Now what was once a home with a profitable banana plantation is overgrown with weeds. I don't know what happened to the owner."

The Corps of Engineers then tried the same thing, threatening recalcitrant residents with condemnation, but only two homeowners sold. The "8.5 Square Mile Area Legal Defense Foundation," of which Fortin is president, joined other affected organizations in a lawsuit against the Corps. On July 5, 2002, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore ruled in their favor. Judge Moore stated: "The Corps 2000 Plan...is unauthorized and contrary to clear statutory directives. It should be set aside as a matter of law." In short, the judge said Alternative 6D is illegal, and the law would need to be changed.

The Corps, SFWMD, Greens, and various politicos quickly swung into action, "Sneaking a rider into the Department of the Interior appropriations bill that would give them the authority to condemn my community," according to Fortin, "by overturning (‘notwithstanding’ was the magic word in the rider) the 1989 law."

Even though legislation through appropriations is frowned upon in Congress, Norm Dicks, a liberal Democrat Congressman from Washington State dutifully inserted the stealth rider. It then fell upon three Western Republican defenders of property rights: Don Young of Alaska, Jim Hansen of Utah, and Joe Skeen of New Mexico, to remove the provisions and prevent Dicks and crew from reinserting the language.

The vigil was successful; the original law still stands. But now the Army Corps of Engineers has declared that it cannot go forward. That, too, is the law. Public Law No: 106-541, Section 601 et al: Modified Water Delivery states: "No appropriation shall be made to construct [Decomp...] until the completion of the project to improve water deliveries to Everglades National Park authorized by section 104 of the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act of 1989 (16 U.S.C. 410r-8) [emphasis added]."

Obviously, Congress still wants the law followed.

Environmentalists have turned up the heat and the deception. One example is the website of the Florida Audubon Society. Only a week after Judge Moore’s ruling, Audubon prepared a July 12 "campaign" page complete with a prewritten "Dear Decision Maker" form letter and "background" reading that should ring bells with anyone familiar with the language of "smart growth." Audubon claims the "problem" with following the law would "be a terrible precedent of allowing urbanization outside an Urban Development Boundary…" and, of course, "…subsidize unplanned development in the 8.5 SMA."

Such pressure has at least one Florida politician running for cover. The press office of Republican Congressman Clay Shaw of Florida’s 22nd district declares that Shaw "viewed passage of H.R. 5093, which contained almost $100 million for Everglades restoration, as a vital step forward in this historic project and did not vote against the rule, thereby delaying the process further."

Now the battle is moving to the Senate, where Democratic Senators Bob Graham and freshman Jeff Nelson are being lobbied to put Representative Dick’s language in the Senate version. The Palm Beach Post wrote that "any move to sidestep existing law by Nelson and Graham in the Senate will have to go through the Environment and Public Works Committee, which is chaired by none other than former Republican turncoat Independent Senator James Jeffords of Vermont.

For Fortin and her neighbors, the wrangling has been a hard lesson and a graduate seminar in Politics 501. "When I bought my house, I didn’t know if Clinton was a Democrat or Republican. At first I thought if only I could find the right people and tell them what was going on, the problem would be resolved." Instead, she says, "Decisions are made in secret, closed-door meetings between politicians, agency personnel, and special interest groups that buy their way into the process. We’re at the mercy of political forces we can not control or even understand." Fortin is "especially heartbroken" for her neighbors, who "came here from Cuba, often at great personal cost, because they believed that democracy would protect them from governmental abuses. Now they are losing their homes and farms to the government they trusted."

Well, maybe not. The law and the Constitution are clear. The residents of the 8.5 SMA and others affected by the political machinations of Everglades "restoration" in Florida clearly have rights, the same rights as all Americans. Too, they have friends in the Congress who stuck their necks out to defend those rights. And they have other supporters - The Sawgrass Rebels.

Plans are being made to hold the largest land-rights rallies ever held in the United States in Florida in October 2002. The Sawgrass Rebellion has the participation and support of hundreds of grassroots civil liberties and property rights organizations; and thousands of citizens from all across America are expected to attend Sawgrass Rebellion events.

After all, as Fortin notes: "My community isn’t the only one this is happening to. Communities all over the country are being destroyed in the same way as mine, for the same stupid reasons. Everyone involved in this struggle is fighting for more than their own homes and farms. Each time another grazing lease is lost, one more home burned by preventable forest fires, another farm or home stolen by the government, the front line moves forward. It’s high time for us all to join together to hold the line, and start pushing back - hard."

Fortin says the intent of The Sawgrass Rebellion rallies and coast-to-coast convoys is to "put the fear of God into our elected officials. They need to know we are going to elect, and keep in office, people who will protect the rights of their constituents. The Sawgrass Rebellion signifies the beginning of the end of the abuses perpetrated against citizens and small communities in the name of the ‘environment’."

And all she did was buy a house.