The decades-long campaign to end sugar cane field burning in south Florida is producing some results, we learned during a bus ride that was part of Florida Sierra’s recent winter meeting in South Bay near Lake Okeechobee.
The main concern was how the “black snow.” as residents in communities such as Belle Glade. Pahokee, South Bay and Clewiston term the ash fallout, affects their quality of life as it lands everywhere and reportedly causes health concerns for people who already have respiratory problems.
For years the industry seemed to ignore the issue and enlisted state environmental officials to declare the air was safe and clean.
More sophisticated air analyses by private investigative teams lead by Pro Publica have demonstrated there are issues.
There now seems to be some cracks in the sugar industry’s opposition to ending the practice.
We were told one major company, Florida. Crystals, no longer burns the fields and uses the organic debris that was once burned in open fields as biofuels to power their processing plants.
Plant operators have also installed physical barriers to prevent debris from affecting nearby homes in the Harlem community.
Economic development considerations have played a role, too.
When a new Wal-Mart was proposed for Clewiston, the store’s owners made it clear that they opposed burning in the fields adjacent to the store because it would affect their employees and customers.
There is no burning around the store.
This and other examples demonstrate that sugar cane field burning is not really as necessary as previously claimed.
As a side note to demonstrate how pervasive the “black snow” has become, when I visited John Stretch Park between Clewiston and South Bay, the ash even covered the spider webs as illustrated in the photo above.