Lawsuit claims Florida bought contaminated land to protect Everglades

TALLAHASSEE — Last year, the state of Florida bought more than 11,000 acres of land for nearly $30 million from the powerful Collier family near Everglades City for conservation purposes. Now, a former employee of Parker J. Collier — the matriarch of the family for which Collier County is named — says much of that land is toxic.

In a federal lawsuit unsealed late last week, Sonja Eddings Brown — a former Collier employee — alleges that independent testing showed that at least 8,000 acres of the land she sold was likely contaminated with creosote, a wood-treatment chemical from a 1956 fire that she says the family never cleaned up.

Long-term exposure to creosote can cause birth defects and cancer, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Brown says Collier never disclosed the contamination to the state.

“This case centers on a businesswoman and matriarch of a powerful Florida family, Parker Collier, and the unlawful acts she engaged in to enrich herself by arranging the promotion and sale of 8,000 acres of land contaminated with deadly creosote in the Everglades,” Brown’s unsealed complaint reads.

Collier has completely denied the allegations through a Times/Herald spokesman.

“This claim is baseless and completely without merit,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We categorically reject all allegations made against us and will vigorously defend our position and reputation to the fullest extent of the law.”

The lawsuit is part of a larger employment dispute with Parker Collier. The lawsuit alleges that Parker Collier misrepresented the contamination of the Green Heart of the Everglades site to Brown when she presented it to the DeSantis and Trump administrations in 2020. Brown claims that Parker Collier fired her when she began asking questions about the contamination, as well as raising corruption issues in a separate development deal in Collier County.

It’s unclear whether Brown’s allegations of contamination on the Collier land — sold to the state as part of a project called Green Heart of the Everglades — will jeopardize conservation efforts. The purchase is the last significant piece of private land separating the Everglades ecosystem. It sits between Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. It is home to 39 threatened or endangered species, including the American crocodile, black bear and Florida panther, according to a project summary.

A spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which bought the land on behalf of the state, told the Times/Herald in an email that a “comprehensive environmental impact assessment” of the land was conducted before the transaction, which is standard practice. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the governor’s office declined to answer specific questions further, and the governor’s staff referred the newspaper to the district for information.

Ernie Cox, a lobbyist for the environmental nonprofit WildLandscapes International that arranged for the state to buy the land, denied it was toxic, saying an environmental impact assessment conducted by the District examined creosote contamination on land that was not part of the parcel sold to the state.

“The people who do this (evaluations) know what they’re doing and have looked at all the backups. The conclusion seems to be that they were deleted years ago and are no longer a problem,” Cox said.

He added: “If there had been an issue, WildLandscapes would have mentioned it.”

Cox said he never worked with Brown on the land sale. The lawsuit says Brown was fired in 2020, during an early sales pitch. By the time the land was sold, the South Florida Water Management District was no longer involved.

The Times/Herald reviewed the environmental impact assessment. It refers to previous creosote contamination in an unincorporated area of ​​Jerome about 150 feet east of the parcel sold to the state, but notes that it has since been remediated, citing government reports. No physical sampling was conducted for the report.

Brown says she conducted her own environmental tests, which were reviewed by a toxicologist on a property adjacent to the plot she sold in Jerome in May and June. Those tests show the soil is toxic, indicating that much of the Green Heart of the Everglades likely is toxic, too, she says.

“Recent testing of areas immediately adjacent to the Everglades Parcel indicates that creosote contaminants remain on those areas and in drinking water to this day,” Brown’s complaint states.

A Brief History of Toxic Earth

Jerome is a small, rural area of ​​Collier County on the edge of the Everglades, north of Everglades City and Copeland. It was built around 1920 and housed employees of C.J. Jones Lumber Co., “the largest manufacturer of treated lumber products in the southeastern United States,” according to Brown’s complaint.

According to the lawsuit, CJ Jones leased the land from a company owned by the Collier family.

In a 1956 fire, 3,000 gallons of creosote exploded as the company was closing down, according to the lawsuit and an environmental impact assessment conducted by the District.

According to the complaint, for decades Jerome residents have complained about the water quality.

In 1990, the then-Florida Department of Environmental Regulation ordered Collier to remediate the site and provide the city with an alternative source of drinking water, a settlement between the Collier family business and the state.

As the Naples Daily News reported at the time, in 2003 dozens of Jerome residents still believed their water was contaminated with creosote and sued the Collier family company.

According to Brown’s complaint, the Collier Companies reached a settlement.

Physical samples of Brown’s soil adjacent to the land sold to the state were tested by James Dahlgren, according to the lawsuit, a toxicology expert who gained fame for helping Erin Brockovich uncover the energy company’s role in polluting California water in 1993. The samples show that Jerome’s soil and drinking water are still contaminated, and therefore the surrounding areas likely still are, including much of the land sold to the state, Brown claims.

Dahlgren stated that “the water and soil around Jerome and Everglades City are contaminated and need to be cleaned up or they will continue to be a source of toxic substances for hundreds of years,” Brown’s complaint states.

The Times/Herald requested an interview with Dahlgren, but one was not available at the time of publication.

In addition to the complete state takeover of the Everglades ecosystem, the Green Heart of the Everglades lands will not be subject to mineral extraction or oil drilling because, under the sales agreement, the Collier family businesses also sold those rights to the state.

The Green Heart of the Everglades is “one of the few subtropical regions in North America” and “is known for being home to 44 native orchids and 14 native bromeliad species, including one of the rarest plants in the world — the ghost orchid,” according to a project synopsis. The ghost orchid was featured in the 2002 film “Adaptation,” based on journalist Susan Orlean’s 1998 nonfiction book “The Orchid Thief.”

“The location of this complex of sites is unique and irreplaceable,” states a May 11 memorandum from the South Florida Water Management District about the project. “The ecological values ​​of these sites are extraordinary, as are the ecosystem services they provide.”

The memo continued: “This acquisition has broad public support and represents a tremendous opportunity to improve water quality, increase habitat connectivity, coordinate management with adjacent conservation lands, and protect these lands in perpetuity.”

Cox, the WildLandscapes lobbyist who coordinated the sale, said he was concerned that Brown’s accusations would create unnecessary controversy over a purchase he believed was fair.

“I’m afraid someone is trying to say this transaction wasn’t done properly,” Cox said. “She’s saying (the creosote contamination) was covered up. And it wasn’t.”

Herald journalist Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow contributed to this report.