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Forbes Breaking News
  • 6 months ago
During a press conference on Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was asked about Alligator Alcatraz.
Transcript
00:00Yes, ma'am. Jennifer Crawford, WGCU News in Fort Myers.
00:03What concerns do you have about an expanded footprint of this facility on the Everglades,
00:09which you have really fought hard to restore?
00:11None, because we've looked at it, it doesn't have an impact.
00:14As Kevin said, there were hundreds of flights going in here, training flights.
00:17There are less flights now doing that.
00:20Everything that you see built is on the existing infrastructure, so it's not going to have an impact.
00:25And I would note, particularly for people in your region,
00:28you know, I just did something no one thought, you know, could get done as quickly as we did,
00:32open the C-43 Reservoir.
00:34And so you remember, before I became governor back in 18,
00:37there was a lot of water being spewed out of Lake Okeechobee.
00:40It interacted with the red tide.
00:42It created some real serious problems for quality of life, tourism, and the economy.
00:49And now we've got a massive reservoir that can store that water, clean it.
00:54It can send to southwest Florida in the dry season when they want it.
00:58And that is a huge, huge thing.
01:00So the number one environmental issue that was present in 2018,
01:06this stuff being spewed in from the lake,
01:09we addressed it head on and have completed this massive infrastructure project.
01:15And if you also look at the hydrology of the Everglades,
01:18what I said was, you know, we got to have water flow south as nature and God intended.
01:23And the amount of water flowing south compared to when I became governor, dramatic, dramatic increase.
01:29This thing, you know, I looked into, should we buy it and then like, you know, grow over it?
01:34Would that, but it doesn't really do a lot to increase the hydrology.
01:38Like that money could be spent much better doing the stuff that we're doing.
01:42So there's not going to be an impact here.
01:45But even if this wasn't here, like if I had to pay money to mothball it,
01:48I think that money would probably be better off doing the pump stations like we're doing at the EAA reservoir
01:54that the Army Corps has given us responsibility over.
01:57So that's going to be bid on and procured.
02:00We're going to move forward with that.
02:01So all those things I think are very important.
02:03But this has been huge success that we have had with Everglades restoration.
02:09We're continuing the momentum.
02:11This delegation of authority that we announced down in Marco Island last week,
02:14huge, huge deal for the state of Florida.
02:17They were looking at the federal share being done 2034.
02:21Now it's going to be done five years earlier
02:23because the state is being given resources to be able to go forward and do this.
02:28And so it's been a huge cornerstone of what we've done.
02:31The progress is undeniable.
02:34This is not anything that's impacting.
02:37In fact, there are less flights as a result of what we're doing than there were before that.
02:42Can you explain all the waste?
02:44What happens with all the...
02:45They truck it out.
02:46Yeah, yeah.
02:46There's no sewer or anything.
02:47They just truck the waste out.
02:49They bring in potable water and they do it.
02:51So, you know, look, that's more expensive to do.
02:53That's more cumbersome.
02:55But we weren't willing to do this facility if we weren't managing that in a way that was not going to have impacts.
03:04And so that's what we're trying to do.
03:05So they're running these things out of here all the time.
03:07And I think they've done a really good job doing it.
03:09And they're basically this existing concrete is what they're using.
03:13I mean, you look, there's like grass in the interior here.
03:15Like, honestly, there'd be no reason that you couldn't use.
03:18That's not going to affect Everglades.
03:20But they're not even using that.
03:22They're literally just staying on the concrete.
03:24So I think it's been a really incredible footprint that they've been able to...
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