Sugar farmers and Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas usually don't see eye to eye, but there are points on the Everglades on which we agree.

We agree that the natural Everglades has been whittled down. Some of that land is still farmed, but much more of it is growing houses. As the Sentinel pointed out, the Everglades starts in Orlando, which has grown rapidly. Our farming area has actually decreased since the 1947 drainage and flood-control projects -- with 100,000 acres now designated for storage and water The 16-county system has been drained, diked and kept dry, losing its natural carrying capacity and resulting in billions of gallons of polluted water being flushed downstream.

Thomas is right: We need more places to store water and clean that water before it further harms our lakes, estuaries and Everglades. Sugar farmers disagree with Thomas and other card-carrying sugar haters on where the best place is to store and clean the water.

Ninety-seven percent of the water and 97 percent of the phosphorus flowing into Lake Okeechobee comes from the northern basin, where Orlando through the Kissimmee basin is drained for development. It makes no sense to push that polluted water south, damaging everything downstream.

Common sense says that you store and treat all that water where it originates; then it will not pollute Lake Okeechobee, the coastal estuaries or the Everglades. Thomas should let go of his hate and support the state's purchase of large tracts of land north of Lake Okeechobee to clean and store water.

Robert E. Coker

U.S. Sugar, Senior Vice President

Public Affairs

Clewiston