SEATTLE - An independent test around over 10,000 acres of land purchased by the state of Florida in 2023 shows that the Collier family, one of the richest and most powerful in the state, sold 8,000 acres of contaminated land related to a 1956 fire that, according to a former employee, the family never cleaned up.
Last year, Florida spent nearly $30 million with the aims of conserving land near Everglades City, but a federal lawsuit unsealed in June found that most of it suffered from log-term exposure to creosote, which may cause birth defects and cancer, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Sonja Eddings Brown, a former employee of the Collier family, claims that they never disclosed any contamination.
