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<title>SECRETS OF THE EVERGLADES</title>
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<h2 align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial">SECRETS OF THE EVERGLADES:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> <br>
</span>ENRON, POPULISM AND ELECTION 2000</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">by</span></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Nicholas
E. Hollis<br>
(All Rights Reserved)</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Deep
in the Everglades, the �River of Grass� with its alluring tropical
habitat, colorful birds and lush vegetation, the ghosts of Osceola,
William S. Jennings and latter day populism are stirring in the warm
Caribbean-borne breezes. The Everglades have seen it all�and its
secrets have remained hidden. But the latest bombshell revelation on
Enron�s water trading scheme, pushed before Election 2000, could rip
Pandora�s Box open. At a minimum it may provide another wake up call
for the American public.</font></span></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">Background</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><br>
</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">At the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century,
Florida�s newly elected governor, William S.
Jennings, a populist and
cousin of erstwhile Democratic presidential contender, <a href="../bryan.htm"> William Jennings
Bryan</a>, cited a little known state law for authority to begin a massive
land reclamation project south of Lake Okeechobee. The idea was to
create farmlands for smaller landholders and attract settlement with
food systems support for the surge of coastal hotel projects. Jennings
opposed the powerful railroad and development lobbies led by Henry M.
Flagler of Standard Oil.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Flagler�s railroad extension, from Jacksonville to Miami
and Key West had sparked a tourist boom in South Florida. The railroads
saw the agricultural potential of the Everglades early. But Governor
Jennings skillfully outmaneuvered the monied interests by partnering
with the Theodore Roosevelt Administration. In 1903 Jennings was able to
sell<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the concept in
Washington after a flood wiped out many farms in South Florida.
Thousands of acres were ceded by the federal government<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>to the State of Florida. The result was thousands of small farm
allotments, parceled and sold with reclaimed land. The huge
infrastructure project included dredging and drainage through a massive
complex of canals, levees, roads and controlling locks. Much of the cost
was financed through state bonds and private land sales.</span></font></p>
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<img border="0" src="Villa%20Serena.jpg" width="634" height="419"></td>
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<p align="right" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<i><font size="2">Courtesy of Jennings Heritage Project</font></i></p>
<p align="center" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">VILLA SERENA</font></p>
<p align="left" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">This Spanish-styled mansion
was built for William Jennings Bryan and his wife,</font></p>
<p align="left" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Mary, in Miami (on Biscayne
Bay near present-day Coconut Grove)</font></p>
<p align="left" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">near his cousin, former
Florida governor W.S. Jennings'esidence. </font></p>
<p align="left" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Construction began in 1912.</font></td>
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<p><font face="Arial"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">Environmental
Preservation Campaign<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Over the years cozy relations between land companies
and state government were reinforced at the federal level, and the
project grew. However, by the late 1920�s, after two devastating
hurricanes (1926-28) which took thousands of lives, the project was
nearly bankrupt. Moreover, in 1930 , naturalists behind Florida�s
first Congresswoman Ruth Bryan Owen (William Jennings Bryan�s
daughter) fearing for the Everglades,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>mounted a preservation/containment movement. Seventeen years
later during the Truman Administration (1947), the Everglades National
Park was created south of the land reclamation project. At the
dedication ceremony, both Ruth Bryan Owen and <a href="JHP%20enrollment%20form.htm"> May Mann
Jennings</a>, wife of
the late Governor Jennings (and an extraordinary civic activist in her
own right) were on the dais. <a href="#1/" name="1 return">1/</a></span></font></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">The
fragile ecosystems of this great park remained threatened by the massive
water drainage system, and in the Clinton Administration, a huge $7.8
billion re-plumbing project was proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers
(COE) and approved to redirect rainwater back into the Everglades. But
after much fanfare, few outside the COE seemed pleased . The plan�s
details � particularly what would happen to the water � remained
vague. As Election 2000 loomed on the horizon, frantic stakeholders
watched the Everglades project gather momentum.. Delicate negotiations -
only a few months earlier suddenly seemed strangely out of focus.</font> </span></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">The Phantom
Factor<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Behind the formidable phalanx of EPA, the
environmental community and COE lurked a �Phantom Factor�: the
Midwest agribusiness power from Illinois, ADM, and its chairman Dwayne
O. Andreas � a longtime South Florida<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>resident �<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>pushing
hard for the re-plumbing project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps
Andreas envisaged collateral benefits in crippling certain powerful
sugar interests from Palm Beach and Broward counties. As the torrent of
campaign contributions hedged on both sides, the sugar barons smelled a
rat when Enron�s subsidiary, Azurix rushed to Tallahassee with a
cockeyed scheme to sell water futures.</span></font></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Water
has often been a political football and bargaining chip in agriculture
and land development. Some could have reasoned that the �fool�s
rush� by Enron signaled something more sinister. Would farmers find
thousands of acres of sugar cane, vegetables even fruit trees under
water one morning � perhaps due to a technical snafu with no
accountability? ..The wrong lock opened by accident?</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Several
days before the Election, The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Washington
Post</i> carried two small stories together in its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Briefs</i> column. The first indicated that the �Everglades Bill was
on course� for final approval in House/Senate conference and
immediately below it was a story about USDA offering new direct
subsidies to ethanol producers to purchase corn and soybeans. Coupled
with the bizarre Elian Gonzalez saga, where the Clinton Justice
Department seemed to be taking orders from ADM �s Andreas � long
known for his visionary interest in normalizing trade with Cuba and
modernizing the country�s sugar production (probably for a low cost
ethanol feedstock) � the prize and the game itself took on clarity.</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Years
from now pundits and historians may still be arguing about the �cane
mutiny� � the battle of agribusiness behemoths and the impact on
Election 2000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But like its
other many secrets, as with Osceola�s ghost, the truth will probably
still be lost, running deep in the Everglades.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial">_____________________________________________________________</font></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Nicholas E.
Hollis is president of the Agribusiness Council (ABC), a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization formed in 1967.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">References:</font></span></i></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial"><sup><a name="1/" href="#1 return">1/</a>
</sup>Nelson Manfred Blake,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><u>Land
into Water � Water into Land: History of Water Management in Florida, </u>Florida
State University Press, Tallahassee, (1980)</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">�Everglades,
A Chance for Redemption,� Michael Grunwald, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Washington
Post</i> , September 14, 2000</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><font face="Arial">Linda
D. Vance,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><u>May Mann
Jennings: Florida�s Genteel Activist</u>, University of Florida Press,
1985</font></span></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font face="Arial">Jennings Heritage Project</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"><font size="1"><a href="../default.htm">Home</a></font></td>
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