A new round of legal tussle is expected to erupt on South Florida as the Miccosukee tribe requested an injunction from a US District judge on Tuesday this week to halt Gov Charlie Crist’s restoration land agreement with the US Sugar Corp.

The tribe’s petition would effectively pre-empt the scheduled Thursday vote on the revised deal, which the state government has been shaping for two years now to purchase farmland that it plans to allocate for the restoration of flowing water between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.

The leading agency for the restoration efforts, the South Florida Water Management District managed to scale down the required payment for the US Sugar-owned acres of land, clinching an agreement that calls for $197 million payment that would cover for a total of 26,800 acres which is way below from the originally targeted $536 million for 73,000 acres of land.

However, the Miccosukee tribe raised its opposition on a deal that it claimed would utilize funds to recommence the Everglade restoration efforts that had been earlier archived by the US Sugar land deal.

District board chairman Eric Buermann admitted that the injunction requested by the tribe could prove as a key development for the restoration efforts and the looming finalization of the deal.

The Miccosukee tribe joined forces with Florida Crystals in fighting off the land deal that they argued would unnecessary use a large amount of taxpayers’ money, which could be re-channeled to more pressing restoration concerns in the area.

The two entities also claimed that the agreement would be too advantageous for US Sugar, which could end up very rich once the contract has been sealed and finalized.

The controversial land deal already underwent three major revisions from its original form that covered 180,000 acres of land with costs of $1.75 billion and the new deal is in danger of being dissolved once it expires on Thursday without the benefit of an affirmative vote.

The tribe’s main argument against the deal is the likelihood of the water management district’s eventual dumping of the reservoir project, which would run counter to an earlier ruling by Judge Federico Moreno for the district to restart its work on the proposed reservoir.

Also, the Miccosukee tribe explained that once the district ended up abandoning the reservoir project, it could lead to the decline of the Everglades and the adjoining tribal lands, with other opponents of the deal citing concerns of pollution on the area and the prospect of destroying some Native American remains believed to be buried around the area.

On the other hand, proponents of the deal are calling for the expeditious consummation of the agreement to finally realize the Everglade restoration as an environmental group stressed that the best way to push through with the deal is to acquire more land that would be easy on the pocket now.

As US Sugar spokeswoman lamented in reaction to the latest injunction, “Delay is the enemy of restoration, and opponents of this acquisition have been throwing everything they can think of into the fray to try to stop this acquisition.”

On his part, Buermann suggested that opponents of the deal should not use the half-completed reservoir, where the district spent an estimated $280 million of taxpayers’ money, as an argument against the land deal since it can be re-utilized as a storm-water treatment facility once the Everglade restoration efforts were redesigned by the land deal.

He argued that more funds could be saved over the long term in buying the US Sugar land as it would provide the adequate space needed to establish reservoirs and treatment facilities to store and process water in replenishing the Everglades.

Buermann asserted that if the state government is dead serious on its plan to buffer South Florida’s water supply and devise ways to arrest water pollution, then it would have to “acquire more land somewhere south of the lake.”