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Recent Developments
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December 2001
Everglades Village News
Daytona Beach News Environment | Sun-Sentinel: Everglades Site | Miami Herald: Cy Zaneski | Commons-Everglades Discussion | Sun-Sentinel Everglades Discussion | SFWMD News ReleasesSFWMD Currents weekly e-newsletter
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29-Dec-01Seismic Surveys in Canals of Miami
Image: Dana Wiese (left) and Jack Kindinger set up
boomer acquisition system after the boat is in the water.
Photograph by Chandra Dreher.A cooperative study on a project to conduct a high-resolution seismic- reflection survey of the area around several Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP) projects was begun on November 13 and continued on December 3. Participants include Jack Kindinger, Chandra Dreher, Dana Wiese, and Jim Flocks (St. Petersburg), Kevin Cunningham (WRD, Miami), and Cynthia Gerfvert and Steve Kupa of the South Florida Water Management District
(SFWMD). Read more...
Copyright © 2001 Soundwaves All rights reserved.
Plan to Revive Everglades Brings Renewed Dispute
Environmentalists Say Draft Rules Offer No Gain
Federal officials yesterday proposed long-awaited rules to govern the $7.8 billion effort to replumb the Florida Everglades, but environmentalists immediately denounced them as a recipe for failure for the largest ecological restoration initiative in history. The 58-page draft "programmatic regulations" released yesterday by the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency overseeing the Everglades initiative, included few of the specific requirements and assurances that conservation groups have insisted are necessary to make sure the project restores the parched South Florida ecosystem. And the Corps declined to propose any performance goals that would help the public measure progress in resurrecting the so-called River of Grass over the next three decades. Instead, the Corps largely limited the regulations to generalities, postponing the details to less formal "protocols" to be drafted later. That was the strong desire of sugar farmers, water utilities and other thirsty Florida interest groups, as well as of Gov. Jeb Bush (R), President Bush's brother. Aides to the governor had argued that more detailed rules attempting to reserve water for the Everglades would trample on the state's right to allocate water as it sees fit, an argument the Corps cited in its documents yesterday.
Copyright © 2001 Washington Post All rights reserved.
Glades renewal blueprint drawing criticism
Little help seen for River of Grass
The Bush administration's first blueprint of how it plans to go about restoring the Everglades lays out a broad plan but contains few of the hard and fast details environmentalists had urged. A draft of the plan, released Friday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead federal agency in the $8 billion project, sketches a scheme to remove canals, build pumps, dig reservoirs and track impact on wildlife. But it also sets no deadlines, gives few specific goals and allows Florida wide latitude in calling the shots in the largest ecological restoration in American history. Stu Applebaum, chief of the restoration project for the Corps, said Congress did not request timelines when it ordered the development rules. ``Not everyone is going to like everything, and that is why we are putting the draft out there for public review,'' Applebaum said. The plan of what are called ``programmatic regulations'' will be revised after 60 days of public comment. The initial assessments from environmental groups were not positive. ``This just screams business as usual,'' said Shannon Estenoz, the World Wildlife Fund's Everglades director. ``They talk about states' rights. What about the rights of taxpayers to get what they're paying for: Everglades restoration?'' One glaring omission for environmentalists was any mention of perhaps the most controversial question of the project: How will the billions of new gallons of water produced from the 40-year project be divided among nature, farmers and the booming cities fringing the shrunken Everglades system?Because no specific assurances were written into the Everglades law itself, some conservation groups had been hoping the regulations would mandate first dibs for the natural system and also adopt congressional language suggesting that 80 percent of the water be diverted to the River of Grass. Also notably absent were biological standards for judging the success of various projects.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.Everglades Restoration Rules Are Proposed
The Bush administration has proposed rules for a $7.8 billion restoration of the Florida Everglades that map a broad strategy to save water but contain none of the deadlines sought by environmentalists. The proposed rules, released today by the Army Corps of Engineers, are a blueprint for eliminating canals, building pumps, conserving water and tracking wildlife in the next three decades. The corps will offer a final version later for 60 days of public review. No dates for completing goals were included in the preliminary version of the rules, and Florida officials would be allowed to determine how the project should be completed. Read more
Copyright © 2001 New York Times All rights reserved.
26-Dec-01
Everglades groups meet about controlling restoration of marsh
Last year, the fervent advocates for the Everglades couldn't help feeling celebratory after Congress inked its approval of the giant $8.4 billion restoration of the River of Grass. Next week in Fort Lauderdale, they'll roll up their sleeves at the Everglades Coalition's 17th annual conference as they look for proof their hard-won environmental public-works project is starting off in the right direction. The theme of the coalition meeting Jan. 3-6 at the Fort Lauderdale Marina Marriott is "Fulfilling the Promise" of Everglades restoration, which is aimed at improving water flows through the ecosystem while expanding public water supplies. Though the bulk of work unfolds over the next two decades, coalition leaders are seeking evidence now that the effort will truly bring about environmental benefits and not just aid development and agriculture. "This conference really is about which way we are going to go with restoration," said Frank Jackalone, national chairman of the coalition and the Sierra Club's senior Florida representative.
Copyright Sun-Sentinel © 2001 All rights reserved.
24-Dec-01Op-Ed
Universities need board of governors
The sunny future of Florida is clouded on two fronts -- an economy that has struggled to diversify and an education system that has lagged behind the rest of the nation. While both of these downward shifts can be reversed, to do so will require the wisdom to recognize the problems and the will to take prompt and sustained action. These two components of economy and education are intertwined as never before. Historically, Floridians have struggled to seize our piece of the nation's prosperity. As the Industrial Revolution began, Florida was a poor, geographically isolated state, lacking resources such as iron ore and coal.
Copyright Sun-Sentinel © 2001 All rights reserved.
Thoemke tapped to head IC's environmental management program
When International College decided to start a new degree program in environmentalmanagement, its administrators didn't have to look far to find someone to design it. They found someone who already had connections with the college and was a renowned expert as well, said President Terry McMahan. Kris Thoemke, 50, a recognized environmental authority who worked most recently with the National Wildlife Federation, has been named program chairman of International's new environmental management program. He is developing the program from scratch, but is bringing 30 years of experience, education and accomplishments in his field. "Having Dr. Thoemke do this for us is a real coup," McMahan said.
Copyright Naples Daily News © 2001 All rights reserved.
23-Dec-01
Life on Broward's far side: no Zip code, few rules
MICCOSUKEE INDIAN RESERVATION -- For decades the surge of development in Broward has pressed a question: Just how far west can and will it go? The answer is all the way out here, where the contrasts are sharp between development and its opposite. A giant cellphone tower looms over a short row of stucco-cube houses. Cattle graze the border between Indian land and federal land. The sky is big and few rooftops interrupt it. Out here, at a vague line drawn just beyond Helene Buster's front yard, western development in Broward County finally meets its absolute end.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Roads and growth
Collier working to halt new crisis
Collier County is taking steps to make sure it doesn't have to deal with another multimillion-dollar transportation crisis. Those plans include restricting growth along crowded roads, hiking road impact fees and creating a system that is patterned after keeping a checkbook - each development results in a subtraction of housing units from the available balance. Collier commissioners this past week decided to pay for most of the $257 million transportation shortfall over the next five years by bonding all of its existing gas taxes and about 33 percent of its sales tax. This will cover about $193 million of the shortfall, leaving county officials to find a way to come up with the other $65 million. Now that commissioners have figured out a way to pay for road construction over the next five years, county government leaders are attempting to set up safeguards to ensure another shortfall doesn't occur.
Copyright Naples Daily News © 2001 All rights reserved.
Editorial
Addicted to Growth
Broward Fills Up With Development, People
Development plans created in the 1980s describe an orderly process of managed growth for the state of Florida. There was just one problem with the plans: They called for too much growth and too little management. One potential consequence was this: If each of Florida's 67 counties had developed to the maximum limit authorized by the state-mandated master plans, the state today would have a population of more than 90 million people -- an almost inconceivable prospect. Fortunately, Florida hasn't come close to the full build-out permitted in its master plans. But the state has grown at a mind-boggling pace, faster than most other states -- and it has nearly doubled its population since 1980 to 16 million.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
A Frontier of Diversity
At the Publix supermarket in Weston's new Town Center mall, customers choose among 14 types of Spanish cooking wine and nine brands of mojo marinade. The bread aisle devotes two shelves to crumbly panecillos tostados. On special this week: Venezuelan corn meal. Built largely by a single developer and billed as South Florida's city of the future, Weston earned a new distinction in the 2000 census. It is the most Latinized city in Broward County, the city of South Florida's Hispanic future.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Getting tourists back to nature
The county that sports throbbing nightclubs on South Beach and rhythmic salsa on Calle Ocho also is trying to sell the sunrise and serenity of Biscayne Bay. A $1.1 million Miami-Dade County Parks Eco-Adventure Tours campaign is luring tourists and residents to its parks and Biscayne Bay in an effort to showcase South Florida's natural and historical attractions. "Here in Miami-Dade, our tourism has traditionally been directed at the people who are here to party," said Ernie Lynk, a naturalist and recreation specialist at Crandon Park. Some of that emphasis is changing as Miami-Dade Parks enhances its offering of canoe trips, kayaking and nature talks. The money, part of a $4 million trust allocated to the parks from the Miami-Dade County Commission, will enhance existing tours and add new ones, said Sally Timberlake, Crandon Park manager.
Copyright Sun-Sentinel © 2001 All rights reserved.
21-Dec-01Editorial
Give Collier Countains more conservation land
Setting aside land for conservation is the No. 1 issue for the future, according to a survey of Collier County residents, more evidence that county commissioners should put a referendum measure on the ballot to dedicate a tax for that purpose. Eighty-one percent of the 254 residents surveyed listed conservation land-buying as the top need. The survey results are to be used by commissioners at a strategic planning meeting Jan. 29. We urge commissioners to consider seeking voter approval of a land-buying program similar to Lee County's Conservation 2020. We realize that Collier voters rejected a similar land referendum in 1996 and resoundingly rejected a proposed sales tax for roads in November.
Copyright News-Press © 2001 All rights reserved.Editorial
Support Feeney plan for Everglades bonds
Ironically, a budget shortage may cause the state to provide enough money for Everglades restoration. Florida and the federal government are paying 50 percent of the $8.4 billion restoration plan, which over 20 to 30 years is supposed to provide enough water to sustain the environment and the projected 2050 population of 12 million people from south of Orlando to the Keys. The best way for the state to pay its share would be to sell bonds, thus guaranteeing the money. If it comes out of general tax revenue, the annual share could be a casualty of legislative infighting. The need for money is urgent.
Copyright Palm Beach Post © 2001 All rights reserved.
19-Dec-01Wildlife, Wetlands, Environment Need Our Protection
While most of the attention since the Sept. 11 attacks has focused on Afghanistan, airports and anthrax, national environmental leaders are hoping wildlife, wetlands and the well-being of the environment aren't the next victims. "The terrorists who invaded our country may destroy our buildings, but they are not likely to destroy our wildlife and natural places. Only we can do that," wrote John Flicker, president of National Audubon Society, in the current issue of Audubon magazine. Flicker said one of the tests of how Americans will be viewed by future generations will be their conduct during the current crisis. "We hope they will not conclude that we sacrificed the very environmental values we should have defended for them," he said. Since Sept. 11, there have been seemingly opportunistic moves to drill for oil in environmental preserves, punch more logging roads on public lands and preserve the19th century subsidies for mining and grazing in the Western states, all under the guise of something high-sounding to obscure baser motives.
Copyright The Ledger © 2001 All rights reserved.CORPS ASKS FOR INPUT ON WETLANDS MITIGATION
After receiving harsh criticism for its new stance on wetlands mitigation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is asking for input from other federal agencies. In November, the Corps issued new regulatory guidance regarding how developers will compensate for destroying wetlands. Critics said the policy would allow developers to offset losses of wetlands on one site by protecting wetlands, or even dry land, elsewhere, leading to a loss of wetlands nationwide. Conservation groups charged that the Corps ignored the national goal of achieving "no net loss" of wetlands, established during the first Bush administration.
Copyright © 2001.ENS. All rights reserved.House proposes Everglades bond
Saying flexibility is critical, House leaders Tuesday unveiled a proposal to give the state yet another option to pay its share of the $8 billion project to restore portions of the Everglades. Facing a stagnant economy, a tight budget and re-election, House members led by House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, want to give themselves the authority to sell bonds to pay for Everglades land acquisition when times get tight or when they decide that borrowing is better than paying cash. "We are adding another tool to our tool box," said Rep. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland. If approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, the plan would allow lawmakers to earmark up to $10 million a year in taxes collected from documentary stamps, a growing revenue stream that last year generated $1.3 billion. With $10 million in cash, lawmakers could leverage up to $125 million a year to spend on Everglades projects.
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.Lawmakers propose bonds to buy Everglades land
Saying Florida needs to buy land to protect the Everglades now before the price goes up, a group of state lawmakers on Tuesday proposed a new plan to borrow money to get the job done. The state would issue bonds for Everglades land buying, under a bill proposed by Repcan get t. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican. "The sooner you can buy, the cheaper you he land for," Dockery said at a news conference attended by a dozen House members and House Speaker Tom Feeney, a Republican from Oviedo. The proposal, dubbed "Bond as You Buy," would raise $125-million each year for eight years. But a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that "the governor is concerned" about the state's getting into more debt.
Copyright © 2001 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.Plan to buy bonds is latest proposal for saving 'Glades
The state could borrow money to buy land in the Florida Everglades and protect it under a bill with bipartisan support announced Tuesday by House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo. The plan to partly finance Everglades restoration by issuing bonds came after the South Florida Water Management District worried that the state's ability to pay its share of the cost was shaky. The proposal drew immediate praise from environmental groups, who said state ownership is the best way to preserve the region's sensitive ecology and water supply.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
18-Dec-01
'Ding' Darling wildlife refuge supporters hoping to get federal funding help
By CHAD GILLIS,
Standing on an elevated wooden patio overlooking the western shoreline of Tarpon Bay, several supporters of the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge said Monday that more federal money is needed to keep the refuge's Center for Education open weekends.
Members of the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Society and other support and conservation groups held a news conference in an attempt to persuade residents, business owners and visitors to pressure Congress to cough up more funds for the refuge. More than 30 people turned out.
Don Higgie, of North Carolina, looks over the displays at the education center at J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island on Monday. The center may be one of the programs that faces a reduction in hours if more federal money isn't allotted, supporters say. Cameron Gillie/Staff"We now have an education center ready to go and now we may find ourselves short of getting the lights turned on," Society president Jim Sprankle said.
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.
Ding Darling, other refuges seek funding Conservation group lobbies
government
Photo
The J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel has its hand out, along with the rest of the National Wildlife Refuge System. So, the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE), a coalition of 20 conservation and recreation organizations, is touring the country in an attempt to convince the federal government to increase the refuge system budget from $300 million to $700 million in 2003. Ding Darling, where a $3 million education center was built with local donations, receives no federal money to operate the center and is facing the possibility of leaving staff positions vacant or closing the center on weekends. Although the refuge system is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, many wildlife refuges are in financial straits because of the lack of federal aid.
Copyright © 2001. The News-Press. All rights reserved.
A LINE IN THE SWAMP
BUILDERS AIM FOR SLIVER OF PROTECTED LAND
As the cheap developable land in Southwest Broward dwindles, some builders have started to eye what one day could become a battleground. At issue: 3,400 acres of prime real estate east of U.S. 27 that the federal government has designated for two water preserve areas. Half of the land is on Weston's western borders; the other half lies west of Pembroke Pines and Miramar. Federal officials managing the Everglades Restoration Project and state officials who guide the South Florida Water Management District want the land to remain undeveloped. They view it as a necessary buffer between suburbia and the Everglades, which lies west of U.S. 27 and a parallel levee that has long been regarded as an immovable line in the swamp -- the absolute cutoff for development.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.Everglades property tax might not expire in 2003
South Florida property owners might have to pay a special tax for an extra year to make up a possible $5 million to $8 million shortfall in the state's Everglades cleanup. Water managers have not proposed any such extension of the Everglades tax, which applies to property owners in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and 12 other counties. In fact, they predict the $867 million cleanup will sport a modest $770,000 surplus by 2014. But the surplus doesn't include enough money to pay for finishing one of the Everglades cleanup's side projects: an effort to remove the bulk of the phosphorus-laden runoff that Lake Okeechobee receives from farming districts along its south end.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.Letter
Environmental myths easily disproved
A new exotic species is threatening the restoration of the Everglades. This one is neither an invasive tree nor a walking fish, but its impact on the long-range health of the habitat may be more damaging than those better-known nuisances. This exotic species walk on two legs and it seems to be a hybrid between Rip Van Winkle and Chicken Little. It runs in circles, chirping cries of alarm about crises that were identified - and addressed - some 10 or even 20 years ago. It masquerades as an environmental expert, bit it seems not even to know of work that has long been completed. Like old Rip, it just missed all the activity of nearly a generation and doesn't know anything to do except shout, like Chicken Little, the same alarms it was shouting back then. How else to explain the recent diatribe distributed statewide by the Friends of the Everglades, unless perchance the letter was lost in the mail for 20 years? Read more
Copyright © 2001 Key west Citizen All rights reserved.14-Dec-01
Letter to the Editor
Appoint More Scientists as Indication of Everglades Commitment
Many Florida citizens are in agreement with the Palm Beach Post comments on Secretary Norton's commitments reflected by her decision-making. We think the Post should take a poll on what the people of Florida want. Everglades restoration still lacks a science-focused advocate for the Everglades. An indicator of government interest in science-based restoration of the Everglades is the ratio of natural scientists to political scientists being appointed. Right now it appears the ratio is approaching zero. For nature to be commanded, it must be obeyed, i.e., nature cannot be legislated or engineered. Nor does nature understand mankind's laws. Everglades decisions made increasingly distant from the natural sciences are increasingly non-science. This distance has sealed the fate of the Everglades for the past 30 years, so it is alarming for many of us to observe the current regression from science portends to seal the fate for the next 30 years.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
13-Dec-01
Editorial
Clean-water activists ask officials to buy land
Local water-quality advocates met with water managers this week to encourage the state to buy the agricultural land south of Lake Okeechobee as a natural way to restore Florida's water flow. The idea of a public purchase of the 450,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area is not new, but has failed to gain widespread support because of political and economic pressure from agricultural interests. Still, supporters hope, the concept will gain momentum with grass-roots lobbying spurred by the $7.8 billion Everglades restoration plan. "We've realized a lot of things we messed up over the years," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society. "Now we've got to make some changes, and that has to happen south of the lake too. We need to change it back to the saw grass communities." Perry and Ed Fielding, a member of the Martin County Conservation Alliance, met with five staff members of the South Florida Water Management District on Tuesday to ask them to consider buying the land as a supplement to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project.
Copyright © 2001 TC Palm All rights reserved.
<posted December 13, 2001> October 2, 1998
Testimony of The National Wetlands Coalition before the
National Coastal Wetlands Summit:
"Today's Successes, Tomorrow's Challenges"
By Robert G. Szabo, Executive Director & Counsel
My name is Robert G. Szabo. I am Executive Director & Counsel of the National Wetlands Council. The National Wetlands Coalition was incorporated on September 1, 1989 to engage in the national debate over the Federal wetlands regulatory policy. The national debate was initiated when the National Wetlands Policy Forum recommended a series of policies, including the national goal of "no overall net loss of wetlands". President Bush embraced the national goal and appointed a Task Force of the Domestic Policy Council of his Administration to recommend a program of policies that would achieve "no overall net loss of wetlands". Late in 1989, after the Coalition was established, the release of the 1989 Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Wetlands refocused the national debate on the Section 404 "wetlands" permitting program of the Clean Water Act and the thorny question of "what is a wetland?"
The National Wetlands Coalition
Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conference
Flow Workshop Summary Concurrent Session III
Hydrology and Hydrologic Modeling
This report presents a summary of the panel and audience discussions that
took place during the Flow workshop held at the Greater Everglades Ecosystem
Restoration (GEER) Conference on Wednesday, December 13, 2000. The
discussions generally followed the format shown in the agenda, and this was
the only session that followed this format. One change from the published
format was that two panel members, Randy Van Zee and Christopher McVoy,
presented background information to frame the discussion, followed by open
discussion between the panel members. Read more... http://sofia.usgs.gov/geer/geerflowwshop.html
12-Dec-01
Realtors just want to make sure developers don't get bogged down
It used to be a joke. Selling people swamp land in Florida. Now, it's the subject of how-to seminars. Today, the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches is hosting what is being billed as a Realtors Wetlands Education Seminar. Hint: The emphasis won't be on keeping bulldozers away from environmentally sensitive land. Here's what the flier for the event says: "As Palm Beach County's population grows, prime housing sites dwindle and housing is forced to be located on sites once thought of as unbuildable . . ." (Translation: Don't let that big wet spot in the middle of the state scare you.)
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Opinion
Swartz: Beware that old sinking feeling
Israel has had them since 1956, England since 1958, Wildwood, N.J., since 1968. They are in Australia, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands and Spain. The world's largest is in Las Vegas, though Los Angeles soon will top it with a bigger one. Florida has had a few since 1983 and is about to begin a decade of testing to see whether the state's plan to use aquifer storage and recovery wells will work. Such wells are the key to the Everglades restoration plan, which calls for 333 of them to save water for the Everglades and 12 million future South Floridians. Over the next eight years, a dozen test wells will be built near Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee River, the Hillsboro Canal and at several sites in central and eastern Palm Beach County.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Sugar firm against lower levels for lake
Even if officials in the counties surrounding Lake Okeechobee support efforts to lower the lake's overall level, sugar industry executives still aren't convinced the old system needs to be changed. In an interview with The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News on Tuesday, U.S. Sugar Corp. spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said the recent push to keep the lake between 13.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level is shortsighted. "We don't have a problem with the lake being 14 feet or the lake being 15 feet," she said. "What we have a problem with is saying, lower the lake to a certain level and then Mother Nature comes along with a drought and takes another four feet out of it."
Copyright © 2001 TC Palm All rights reserved.
Chances drop for Stiltsville land deal. Legal opinion frowns on swap
A proposed land swap to keep Stiltsville in private hands has run aground legally, a sign the long tussle over control of the homes in Biscayne Bay may finally be near an end. The Florida Cabinet was scheduled to consider the swap next week but the U.S. Department of Interior issued an opinion released Tuesday that may sink any chance for a deal. ``What Interior is saying is, you can't do this, which is from my perspective very good news,'' said U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who along with U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has supported plans by the National Park Service to open the colorful cottages in Biscayne National Park to some sort of public use. Graham, who has held up several Interior nominations over concerns about Everglades restoration plans, also met with top department staffers to discuss Stiltsville's future.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
National Park Service Rejects Proposed Stiltsville Land Swap
The federal government rejected Tuesday a proposal to swap the federal land under Stiltsville - seven aging houses propped up in the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay - for state-owned land nearby. The National Park Service finding brought praise from U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, a proponent of keeping the tiny Biscayne National Park community in federal hands and ending decades of private ownership of the homes. "The land swap would have taken us in the wrong direction," Graham said in a statement. "Now we can focus on the right way of going about the preservation of these unique structures that have a special place in the hearts of so many Floridians."Copyright © 2001 Tampa Tribune / Associated Press All rights reserved.
Ex-water boss paid $77,000 but was asked to do little
Frank Finch walked away as South Florida's top water manager six months ago, but not empty-handed. Since he resigned under pressure June 13, Finch has received more than $77,000 as a consultant to his old employer, the South Florida Water Management District. But with a handful of exceptions, the district never asked him to consult. So he did almost nothing, aside from attending one daylong conference in Washington and speaking several times with his successor. Meanwhile, Finch continued receiving the same $150,092-a-year salary he was paid as executive director. The agreement expires Thursday.Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Palm Beach County eyes rockpits as potential water reservoirs
20-MILE BEND -- With the turn of a valve, brown water tumbled and foamed into an 83-acre rock pit Tuesday, the gushing start to a series of tests to see if a mining area could become a huge water-delivery depot for Palm Beach County. The flood of water, diverted from the nearby L-8 canal into the steep-walled rock pit west of West Palm Beach, followed a morning ribbon-cutting at the Palm Beach Aggregates quarry off Southern Boulevard. The event drew 100 people, including water managers, drainage officials, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County officials and state legislators, many of whom scaled a grassy levee to watch the water pour thickly from twin 72-inch-wide aluminum pipes.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
Pits might provide edge against drought
The roar of rushing water echoed over the flat land west of Lion Country Safari Tuesday as water managers sent a billion gallons cascading into a gargantuan rock pit. Officials hope to end floods, alleviate a drought and help save the Everglades by using Palm Beach Aggregates' empty quarries near 20-Mile Bend. State and local governments hope to use the cavities to store water during the rainy season and release it back into canals during a drought. They'll test water quality in the first two pits over the next two years, then decide whether to buy the 18 pits miners will leave when they finish digging out the quarries a decade from now.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Graham to lift 'hold' on nominee for wildlife service
After a meeting with key Interior Department officials Tuesday, Sen. Bob Graham said he was satisfied with their Everglades restoration work plans and would lift a "hold" he placed on the Bush administration's nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We reviewed the plan on a project-by-project basis, including the steps that will be taken by a variety of federal agencies, and the time-frames for completion of these individual building blocks for Everglades restoration," said Graham, D-Fla. "It is my intent to work closely and collaboratively with Secretary Gale Norton and her colleagues at the Department of Interior to see that this, the most significant environmental restoration project in the history of the world, achieves restoration of the 'River of Grass' to its original functions and beauty."Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Gov. Bush endorses tough anti-pollution rules for Everglades
State environmental officials and Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday endorsed a strict pollution limit sought by environmentalists for the Everglades. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection told the state's Environmental Regulation Commission in Tallahassee that water entering the Everglades should contain no more than 10 parts per billion of phosphorus. That would require the water to be two to three times cleaner than what a current state program can achieve for agricultural storm water discharged into the marsh. Judy Sanchez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sugar Corp., which sends dirty farm field drainage water into the Everglades like other growers, said 10 parts per billion "is a pretty tough standard."Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
State moves to impose lower phosphorus level
Gov. Jeb Bush's administration Tuesday recommended that a phosphorus standard for the Everglades be set at 10 parts per billion -- a level long applauded by environmentalists and long opposed by sugar growers. "Today is an important milestone," Department of Environmental Protection chief David Struhs told a meeting of the Environmental Regulation Commission. The group, by law, has until Dec. 31, 2003, to set a phosphorus standard. Three years after that, agricultural groups and residential communities that discharge water into the Everglades would be forced to abide by those restrictions and must meet all state pollution standards for water discharged into the Everglades.Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved
Editorial
Stalling a bad idea
The plan to build a commercial airport at Homestead Air Force Base suffered two welcome defeats last week. If the plan is dead, its demise will prevent potentially serious damage to nearby national parks. Last Thursday, Miami-Dade Metro commissioners voted 8-5 to drop out of a lawsuit against the federal government over its refusal to permit the airport. A day later, Air Force Secretary James Roche released a short memo stating that the Air Force's decision this year to reject the airport proposal was legitimate. The Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service consistently have opposed the airport plans. They point out that air, noise and water pollution from a proposed cargo and passenger airport that might handle as many as 600 flights a day would devastate Everglades National Park, 8.5 miles to the west, and Biscayne National Park, just 1.5 miles to the east. With the state and federal governments spending $8.4 billion to preserve the Everglades, it makes even less sense to think of putting a jetport nearby.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Opinion
The Air Force has hammered another nail in the coffin of the misbegotten Homestead jetport, and even Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas is kicking dirt on the grave. After a seven-year fight, the insider deal to top all insider deals finally appears dead. In a memo shorter than a sneeze, Air Force Secretary James Roche affirmed an earlier decision killing the county's plan to develop part of the former Homestead Air Force Base as a major commercial jetport. The screwy scheme, a now-infamous giveaway that reeked of backroom smoke, had been approved in 1994 by the County Commission. Without seeking any competing bids, commissioners made a deal with an unlikely consortium called the Homestead Air Base Developers Inc.
The jetport is dead; long live the parks
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.11-Dec-01
'Ecotourism' envisioned for Glades land
The future in this isolated corner of South Miami-Dade County rests on a concept dubbed ``Destination Everglades,'' but there's nothing around that remotely evokes the Everglades. No sawgrass, no water, no gators, not much of anything really, except weeds and rubbish. That's just one of the daunting challenges to turning 600 acres of scrub bordering Homestead Air Reserve Base into something anyone, particularly tourists, would visit. With plans for a controversial commercial airport dead, Miami-Dade is banking on a loosely defined ``ecotourism'' experience as the great hope for reviving what's been an economic dead zone since Hurricane Andrew battered the base in 1992. The proposal, one that envisions a bustling hub for tourists, scientists and soccer teams, is drawing mixed reviews so far, even from those who want it to succeed.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
USGS: Is Salty Groundwater in South Florida's Future?
Using a time-tested technique in a new way, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been able to determine how quickly marine groundwater has encroached into South Florida's inland fresh water aquifers. Charles Holmes will explain the technique and findings at the AGU Annual 2001 Fall Meeting, scheduled for Dec. 10-14 in San Francisco, CA. South Florida's aquifers are made mostly of limestone and other carbonate rocks, which tend to dissolve over time in water, making them porous. Groundwater travels relatively quickly in this regime. Where carbonate aquifers are near the coast, marine groundwater can begin to encroach landward, infiltrating freshwater aquifers, particularly where they are pumped for drinking water.
10-Dec-01
Letter to the editor:
Recovery is under way
Ten years ago, Gov. Lawton Chiles famously "surrendered" in federal court and agreed that Florida should clean the water going to the Everglades. Since then, a massive public and private effort (and about $500 million in spending) has been successfully implemented with virtually no public attention. The result is significantly cleaner water going into and improving the health of the Everglades. About 95 percent of the Everglades today, including all of the pristine areas and Everglades National Park, are at or near the water-quality goals set by scientists and believed to be impossible to reach just 10 years ago, when the Everglades ecosystem was pronounced in "critical" condition. The turnaround is a heartening story of private and public interests acting together to restore a precious national treasure.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.Picture tells story, ad doesn't
Clyde Butcher, famed for his black-and-white photographs of the Everglades, is a little upset about how one of his images is being used. Butcher said he gave Save Our Everglades Sugar permission to use his Splendid Isolation, a shot of a cypress tree in the Everglades' Big Cypress Swamp in Collier County, on the environmental group's bags of sugar. Butcher said he was told the photo was being used to honor the late George Barley, an Orlando developer and sportsman who founded Save Our Everglades. That's fine, but he doesn't like the tone of the copy that runs with the picture.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
WILDLIFE RECONNAISSANCE:
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK PROJECT
The southern Florida wilderness scenery is a study in halftones, not bright, broad strokes of a full brush as is the case of most of our other national parks. There are no knife-edged mountains protruding up into the sky. There are no valleys of any kind. No glaciers exist, no gaudy canyons, no geysers, no mighty trees unless we except the few royal palms, not even a rockbound coast with the spray of ocean waves -- none of the things we are used to seeing in our parks. Instead, there are lonely distances, intricate and monotonous waterways, birds, sky, and water. To put it crudely, there is nothing (and we include the bird rookeries) in the Everglades that will make Mr. Jonnie Q. Public suck in his breath. This is not an indictment against the Everglades as a national park, because "breath sucking" is still not the thing we are striving for in preserving wilderness areas.
Copyright © 2001 The National Park Service. All rights reserved.<posted >
May 31, 2001
SUGAR FARMERS NOT AT FAULT
Letter to the Editor
Citing the need for regional government in the Florida Keys, a reader somehow links his regional problems to sugar farmers100 miles to the north. Claims that sugar farmers are somehow responsible for water problems in the Keys and Florida Bay are simply not true. The consensus among the scientific community has long been that water from the Everglades Agricultural Area plays no role in Florida Bay's problems. Dr. Ron Jones of Florida International University, who gave expert witness testimony on the issue to the U.S. Justice Department in 1993, sated, "There is no evidence that anthropogenic nutrients, especially phosphorus, are entering Florida Bay from the agricultural and municipal areas to the North.
Copyright © 2001 Keys news All rights reserved.
<posted >
January 17, 2001
Environmentalism¹s quickly becoming a four-letter word -- but that¹s OK
It is distressing to read that, environmentally, the world still is going to heck in a hand basket. A quarter of the world¹s coral reefs are dead or dying, and amphibians are croaking and growing extra limbs and all kinds of stuff in response to world ecological decline. One would think, being able to live on land or in the water, that the danged amphibians would be the last to go. But they apparently are very sensitive. I am trying to be sensitive myself, but I seem to grow more confused by the day. It used to be that one was either an environmentalist, or a dirty rotten chemical company with dead fish under your outflow pipes. Now the line in the sand has become blurred, partly because turkeys have been dusting on it. There are environmental extremists out there who don¹t want people to catch fish, even if all they plan to do is release them. They send a costumed character named Gil The Fish to fishing tournaments, where they hope they¹ll generate bad press for anglers torturing fish.
Copyright © 2001. The News-Press. All rights reserved.
09-Dec-01
Species' endangered status at risk
Animal advocates say species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker could be virtually extinct before they gain protectionFirst, a proposal by the state's wildlife agency to lessen the level of protection for a controversial woodpecker set the feathers flying among bird experts. Now advocates of the manatee are jumping into the fray as well, teaming up with woodpecker experts to challenge the standards under which the state considers a species to be endangered. In the past three months, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has agreed to consider lowering the protected status of both the manatee and the red-cockaded woodpecker, two controversial species, using a new set of criteria. Experts on the red-cockaded woodpecker and advocates for the manatee both contend that the state's new criteria are so restrictive that a species would have to be as dead as the dodo for officials to list it as needing protection.
Copyright © 2001 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.
To cleanse Everglades, make standards tough
On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will announce a number that should be no more than 10, as in 10 parts per billion. That figure should be the maximum amount of phosphorus -- found in runoff from cities and farms -- the state will allow in water that flows into the Everglades. In 1994, to settle the federal lawsuit over pollution entering Everglades National Park, the Legislature passed the Everglades Forever Act, a plan for restoring water quality to Florida's "river of grass." The first phase, designed to lower discharges to 50 parts per billion, has exceeded expectations. The second phase will set a permanent limit.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
8-Dec-01
Politics ties up Kansan's confirmation to federal post
Steve Williams is a forestry expert, but even he would have trouble following the trail his nomination to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken. Williams' qualifications are not in doubt, but, as often happens, he's been sucked into a political whirlpool on Capitol Hill. More than 149 administration appointees still await confirmation. President Bush nominated Williams, Kansas secretary of wildlife and parks, in July. But the events of Sept. 11 delayed a routine Senate vote to confirm him. Then senators from different parts of the country clashed over the duck hunting regulations that he would oversee. Now another senator has delayed confirmation because he's upset over a plan for the Everglades.
Copyright © 2001 The Kansas City Star. All rights reserved.
LOCAL PERSPECTIVES
Finally, a Miami-Dade County Commission majority came to its senses Thursday and dropped the lawsuit against the federal government over its rejection of a plan to build a commercial airport at former Homestead Air Force Base. Good for the seven commissioners who joined Commissioner Katy Sorenson's indefatigable fight to give up the legal battle. Then yesterday, Air Force Secretary James Roche announced that he had concluded that the initial decision to reject the airport proposal was legitimate. The airport plan can be declared officially dead. Now the county must concentrate on creating a sound, effective alternative. The one approved by the commission Thursday -- a sort of destination resort cum research center to draw eco-tourists -- is a good blueprint from which to create a practical request for proposals. This time, the county should seek responses from many bidders, as opposed to the unacceptable manner in which the commission awarded a no-bid contract to Homestead Air Base Developers, Inc. to build the airport. Understandably, that deal never sat well with either the public or the federal government. It was environmental folly to site a busy airport between Biscayne Bay and Everglades national parks, posing far greater environmental threats than did the air base in its heyday. It's time to move on and give Homestead and Florida City new economic hope with the eco-tourism plan.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Water quality for 'Glades faces debate
The state's top environmental official said Friday his agency is going to endorse a pollution limit for the Everglades "at or near" that advocated by scientific consensus and the environmental community. But environmental groups did not immediately applaud. Audubon of Florida representative Charles Lee said he needs to see details expected to come next week on how the pollution standard would be measured. Those would indicate how seriously the state Department of Environmental Protection really wants to keep water clean in the Everglades, Lee said.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
Interior's Norton rebuts editorial
Your Dec. 4 editorial on the Interior Department's efforts to improve stewardship and streamline Everglades restoration overlooked three important points. First, President Bush is strongly committed to Everglades restoration. The administration shepherded through Congress a $31.4 million, or 37 percent, increase in the Interior Department's budget for Everglades restoration. Second, we will save $1.3 million in duplicative administrative overhead, which the department will redirect to important restoration projects at National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge and Arthur Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
State backs low level for Everglades phosphorus
Thirteen years after being dragged into federal court, the state is finally endorsing a tough pollution limit for the Everglades. But state regulators don't know how many extra hundreds of millions of dollars it will cost to meet that strict standard. Or who will pay. Or when the cleanup will be done -- except it probably won't be completely finished by the state's legal deadline of December 2006. Friday was a milestone nonetheless for the nation's most celebrated freshwater marsh: Gov. Jeb Bush's environmental aides announced they are siding with environmentalists, state scientists and federal researchers, who have long advocated a super-low limit for phosphorus pollution in the Everglades.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Terse letter ends airport fight
Air Force turns down HomesteadFor the second time in a year, the Air Force struck down Friday a proposal to build a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Reserve Base, ending a tumultuous chapter in Miami-Dade politics that entwined a national cast of characters, from the county mayor and the Mas Canosa dynasty to Washington lobbyists and environmental groups fighting to save the Everglades. In a two-sentence memo to the secretary of defense, Air Force Secretary James Roche concluded that the earlier decision to reject the airport proposal was legitimate.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved
State targets Glades pollution
Water-cleanliness rules devisedAfter a decade of debate, Florida is ready to say how clean water flowing into the Everglades will have to be. That's very clean -- cleaner, in fact, than anyone now knows how to make runoff from sugar cane fields, vegetable farms, cattle ranches and suburban streets. But it's also the level most scientists believe necessary to keep the River of Grass from turning into something else, such as a cattail marsh. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will release its long- awaited pollution standard on Tuesday in Tallahassee.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved
7-Dec-01
Engineering the future
Most people here don't know Gregory May, but he will have much to do with South Florida's future. Luckily, his priorities are in order. Col. May is district engineer in Florida for the Army Corps of Engineers. Working out of the corps' office in Jacksonville, Col. May is in charge of the agency that will build the nearly four dozen structures that are part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project. Since the work is supposed to take at least 20 years, and district engineers serve three-year hitches, Col. May won't be around when the work is complete, even if he puts in a second shift. Having started last summer, however, he is around during the crucial early years.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
6-Dec-01
Miami-Dade abandons commercial airport plan
Seven years after first approving the plan and prompting one of the region's biggest land-use battles, Miami-Dade County finally gave up on developing a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base Thursday when it voted to withdraw from a lawsuit trying to revive the proposal. Against the recommendations of its staff, the county commission voted 8-5 to scrap its last tie to the faltering airport proposal, while approving a conceptual plan to transform the site into a destination for scientists and tourists visiting the Florida Keys and Biscayne and Everglades national parks.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
5-Dec-01
Wildlife officials halt land contract
Federal wildlife managers say they want a better deal from the state before they agree to another 50 years of overseeing the northernmost Everglades in Palm Beach County. That means the future of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is in limbo again. South Florida water managers had been expected to approve a 50-year contract next week with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has managed the 143,000-acre state-owned sanctuary since 1951. The service's current contract expires Dec. 31. But now federal officials want six more months to work on the contract that their staff in Palm Beach County had negotiated, spokesmen in Atlanta and Washington said Tuesday.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Land swap is latest offer in fight for Stiltsville
The occupants of Stiltsville are trying to enlist Florida's Cabinet in their long-running battle to keep control of the famous bungalows in Biscayne National Park. The latest offer, a variation on one U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen previously floated without success in Congress, is a land swap: Florida would trade 74 acres of mostly barren Biscayne Bay bottom to the federal government in exchange for a thin, crooked strip of similar size stretching across lush grass flats and the seven home sites. While the pitch hasn't won over her colleagues in Washington, Ros-Lehtinen said the proposal has apparently been a hit in Tallahassee. Gov. Jeb Bush, Ros-Lehtinen said, had already told her he'd support it as did every other Cabinet member except one, who wanted more information.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
4-Dec-01
Nature Conservancy boasts of saving 1 million acres in Florida
First, The Nature Conservancy's Florida chapter turned 40 this year. Then it cruised past a more meaningful milestone: the million-acre mark. After completing a deal in October to protect a chunk of the Pinhook Swamp in north Florida, the non-profit can now boast it has helped preserve 1 million acres of undeveloped land across the state. Incorporated in 1961, the chapter currently owns 42,000 acres of conservation it bought through fund-raising. It also has helped state, county and local governments and others negotiate deals to buy green space by the sometimes tens of thousands of acres. It also has temporarily owned approximately one-third of the million acres before they were sold to government custodians.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
Adopt `Destination' Plan
Give South Miami-Dade Its FutureThe economic-development plan called ``Destination Everglades'' on the Miami-Dade County Commission's agenda today should be adopted and forwarded to the Defense Department, along with the county's request for the conveyance of all 717 surplus acres of the former Homestead Air Force base. And while commissioners are on the subject, they should vote to drop the county's lawsuit against the federal government over its rejection of a proposed commercial airport at the base.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
3-Dec-01
Farm Bill comes due in Glades
We have one urgent reason for asking Congress to eliminate the sugar subsidies in the Farm Bill: Government aid to the sugar industry is hampering government efforts to save the Everglades. The nation is preparing to spend more than $8 billion over 40 years to rescue Florida's vitally important Everglades. At the same time it is handing multimillions to the sugar-cane growers who primarily are responsible for the perilous condition of this ecosystem. The problem is not just the classic example of corporate welfare. The problem also is that federal handouts enable the farmers to stay in the Everglades and continue to threaten its demise.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
2-Dec-01
Future of Loxahatchee refuge hinges on lease
Palm Beach County's corner of the Everglades is no placid Garden of Eden. It's a place where herons and egrets devour writhing snakes and legless salamanders. Where red-shouldered hawks must guard their offspring from hungry horned owls. Where raptors munch on marsh rabbits. "Visitors will say this is the most peaceful place," said Ruth Baker, a longtime volunteer at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. "And I'll say actually, it's a bloody battlefield." The refuge itself is seeing its share of conflict these days, as state and federal officials debate its future. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is less than a month from the end of its 50-year contract to manage the 147,0000-acre sanctuary, which sits almost entirely on state-owned land from west of Wellington to west of Boca Raton.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
01-Dec 01
A spoonful of protest
After battling big sugar for years in the courts and at the polls, environmentalists with Save Our Everglades are now taking the fight to supermarket shelves throughout the region. nWith their own brightly packaged brand of pure cane sugar -- grown outside the Everglades in Texas and Louisiana -- stocked in Tampa Bay area grocery stores, the group also has launched an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at informing consumers of their new product and an old cause. Full-page magazine ads in Time, National Geographic, Southern Living, Cooking Light and Audubon tell consumers to "Help restore the Everglades to the harsh uninhabitable Hell nature intended it to be." Radio commercials began airing from Atlanta to the Florida Keys in late October when the campaign got under way.
Copyright © 2001 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.
30-Nov-01
Group examines region’s environmental concerns
Political, social issues cited as problem areasSome of the nation’s top scientists said they were surprised by Southwest Floridians’ lack of trust in local government when it comes to the environment. The prestigious National Academy of Sciences’ Everglades restoration advisory board visited Fort Myers for the first time this week. Some 50 people attended a board meeting Thursday in hopes that the group will bring more attention to this area’s needs. The message scientists got was that Southwest Florida environmental problems not only stem from a lack of scientific data but political issues and social issues as well. “I was surprised by the perception that it’s easy to obtain permits,” said Steve Parker, director of the Water, Science and Technology Board, parent group of the committee. Mike Bauer, the Southwest Florida policy director for Audubon of Florida, said he fears the region will be built out by the time science shows political leaders what to do. “We can’t wait for the science to happen,” Bauer said. “I think the reason for this is the permit system is you get a permit unless you prove that you’re damaging something. It should be the other way around.” Linda Blum, an ecologist from the University of Virginia, said Southwest Florida issues deserve more thought and more work.
Copyright © 2001. The News-Press. All rights reserved.
Watershed council leaders learn about Collier water restoration efforts Collier residents pay taxes levied by the Big Cypress Basin and the South Florida Water Management District.
A grass-roots effort to coordinate planning and better use of Southwest Florida's water resources came to Collier County on Thursday so group leaders could learn more about water restoration projects in the works here. Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress Basin that's an arm of the South Florida Water Management District, gave members of the Southwest Florida Watershed Council a primer on the basin board and emphasized that taxes collected in Collier for water basin projects stay in Collier. Other Southwest Florida counties, such as Lee County, don't have a separate basin and therefore lose tax money to east coast water projects.Collier residents pay taxes levied by the Big Cypress Basin and the South Florida Water Management District. The six representatives to the Big Cypress Basin Board are appointed by the governor. Lee County residents pay taxes to the water management district and the Okeechobee Basin that includes 15 counties. Tears told members of the watershed council that Collier is getting more accomplished for its money.
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.
EPA official: Conservation effort must balance growth with restoration
Local government and the development industry were treated like firing range targets Thursday during a meeting of science experts and environmentalists. The second meeting this week of the Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem brought local science and environmental experts out in droves. About 50 members of the public attended the morning session. The committee makes recommendations to agencies carrying out the restoration of the Everglades, a $7.8 billion project that's expected to take 30 years. The group meets every three months and was in Fort Myers this week for the first time. Many at the meeting asked committee members to help protect what's left of Southwest Florida's native habitat. Calling for assistance from the federal level, some said local government and permitting agencies have sat idle while development has destroyed environmentally sensitive areas throughout Southwest Florida.
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.
29-Nov-01
Norton owes Floridians Everglades commitment
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is correct to hold his ground in a standoff with Interior Secretary Gale Norton over Ms. Norton's decision to close the Everglades restoration office in West Palm Beach. In a meeting with Ms. Norton Tuesday, Sen. Graham refused to lift a "hold" he has placed on President Bush's nominee to run the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until Ms. Norton provides written specifics about Interior's role in Everglades restoration over the next two years. A senator can block a nomination indefinitely, and in most cases, including this one, a lawmaker does so because of a disagreement with the administration. Sen. Graham held up a vote on the nomination of Steven A. Williams Nov. 8, two days after Ms. Norton abolished the office that President Clinton established to make sure that Everglades restoration actually restored the Everglades. Aides said Sen. Graham expects Ms. Norton to come up with a two-year plan for the Everglades by Dec. 8. The plan would include such details as the names of those at Interior responsible for carrying out restoration and a timetable with deadlines for the first projects in the $8.4 billion federal-state effort.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Science, politics and money main debate topics at Everglades restoration meeting
Science, politics and money were the topics of debate Wednesday as engineers and scientists from around the country gathered in Lee County to mull over issues related to the 30-year Everglades restoration program. The Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem held its seventh meeting during a day-long session at the South Florida Water Management District's Fort Myers office. About 25 members attended the meeting. The groups meets again today at 7:50 a.m. at the water management office on McGregor Boulevard. The restoration committee is an advisory arm of the National Academy of Sciences and is charged with providing the best available science and information for the restoration of the Everglades. Its members make recommendations to agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, that make up the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program. Those agencies will implement the restoration project. The groups were formed two years ago after the federal government set aside funds for the Everglades restoration, a project that's expected to cost at least $7.8 billion. Half of the money will come from the federal level and half from the state. The overall effort includes 68 different projects.
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.28-Nov-01
Graham keeps heat on Everglades plan
Sen. Bob Graham said on Tuesday he would continue his hold on a Bush administration appointment until the Department of Interior presents him with a detailed plan for Everglades restoration. Graham, D-Fla., met with Interior Secretary Gale Norton and top aides for half an hour on Tuesday, almost three weeks after placing a hold on Steve Williams, a Kansan chosen by President Bush to be director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Graham's hold is a parliamentary move that allows individual senators to delay a full vote on appointments indefinitely. Graham placed the hold in retaliation for Norton's announcement that she was closing a West Palm Beach Everglades restoration office and reassigning its head, Michael Davis, to Washington. The move angered Graham and environmentalists because Davis, a former Army Corps of Engineers official, was a key player in getting the restoration program approved. "I expressed my feeling that his removal sent a signal to a number of people ... that there might be a retrenchment on the part of Interior's commitment to the Everglades," Graham told reporters after the meeting. "Mrs. Norton assured me that was not the case, that the department continues to be very committed to the Everglades."
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
Graham holds up Bush nominee over Everglades plan
Continuing a standoff over the Bush administration's commitment to restoring the Everglades, Sen. Bob Graham met Tuesday with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, but refused to lift a hold he has placed on President Bush's nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Norton, meanwhile, indicated she does not plan to reopen the Everglades restoration office in West Palm Beach, which she closed this month with the transfer of its director, Michael Davis, to a temporary post in the Interior Department's Washington headquarters. Graham, D-Fla., described the 45-minute meeting with Norton in his Capitol office as "frank, specific and constructive," but said he wanted to see the administration's restoration plans for the next two years before he would decide whether to allow the Senate to vote on the nomination of Steven A. Williams for the crucial fish and wildlife post. Graham placed the "hold" on Williams' nomination on Nov. 8, two days after Norton's announcement that the Everglades office was being closed.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Nomination still linked to work on Glades
Sen. Bob Graham told Secretary of Interior Gale Norton Tuesday that he will continue to block the confirmation of one of her appointees until he is assured that Norton will stay actively involved in Everglades restoration. Graham, a Florida Democrat, asked Norton in a ``frank, constructive meeting'' for the Interior department's plans for the next two years as the complex, $7.8 billion restoration project begins. After he sees the plans, Graham said he will decide whether to remove the ``hold'' he placed on the nomination of Steven Williams as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ``That decision will be based on performance, not rhetoric,'' said Graham, after a meeting with Norton in his Capitol office. Hugh Vickery, a spokesman for Norton, said the department would ``move crisply'' to provide the two-year plan to Graham, so that Williams can be confirmed. Vickery said the plan was already in the works. Norton also stressed that she supports the restoration plan, said Vickery.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
27-Nov-01
Collegiality and Courtesy are the magic words to success for this list.
he Governor and all six members of the Cabinet voted today to reject a major marina project in downtown Miami near the mouth of the Miami River. The Brickell Key Marina proposed to be located within the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve would have presented a direct conflict with Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve rules and statutory provisions requiring that projects be limited to those which are needed to resolve an "extreme hardship" and which are shown to be a "public necessity". The Cabinet supported a recommendation by DEP Secretary David Struhs that the lease be denied. The rejected marina would have included 62 slips, 20 for power boats, 35 for sailboats, 7 for transient docking and 6 for the City's Marine Patrol. The 62 slip marina was substantially reduced in size from a 106 slip marina proposal which the Cabinet rejected earlier in March, 2001. The reduction in the number of boat slips resulted in removal of objections to the project by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission based on manatee impacts because the lower number of slips came into compliance with the Miami-Dade County manatee protection plan. The single issue remaining to be decided by the Cabinet was whether the revised project met the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve hardship and public interest tests.
Copyright © 2001. Everglades Village. All rights reserved
23-Nov-01
NY Times Editorial:
Two Bushes and the EvergladesNearly one year has passed since President Clinton signed into law a $7.8 billion measure to restore the Florida Everglades. The bill commanded overwhelming bipartisan support and provided the framework for the most ambitious ecosystem recovery project in history. Because the costs will be shared equally by the federal and state governments, the responsibility for getting this momentous undertaking off to a solid start rests squarely with President Bush and his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida. And that has made many friends of the Everglades a bit nervous. The president and governor both have pledged their devotion to the Everglades and both have found room in their budgets for $200 million each in first-year costs. The nervousness arises from doubts about their willingness to stay the course against what is sure to be determined opposition from Florida's developers and agricultural interests as well as some local communities. The purpose of the Everglades project is simply stated — to replicate as nearly as possible the historical flows of fresh water that once made South Florida a biological wonderland. These flows slowed to a trickle over a half-century ago when Congress, following back-to-back hurricanes, ordered up a massive flood control project and the Army Corps of Engineers responded by draining 500,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee with a vast web of levees, canals and pumping stations. This spectacular feat of engineering made Florida's east coast safe for development and its midlands safe for profitable sugar cane. But it robbed the Everglades and the fishing grounds of Florida Bay of their traditional sources of water, and nearly killed both.
Read more..
Copyright © 2001 NY Times online All rights reserved.
18-Nov-01
Bush Team Is Reversing Environmental Policies
In the last two months, the Bush administration has proceeded with several regulations, legal settlements and legislative measures intended to reverse Clinton-era environmental policies. These include moves to allow road- building in national forests, reverse the phase out of snowmobiles in national parks, make it easier for mining companies to dig for gold, copper and zinc on public lands, ease energy-saving standards for air-conditioners, bar the reintroduction of grizzly bears in the Northwest and, environmentalists say, make it easier for developers to eliminate wetlands. Environmentalists are angered that in some cases the administration, in the name of national security, is taking steps that they say promote the interests of timber, mining, oil, gas and pipeline companies, at the expense of the environment. "They've used the smoke screen of the last two months to make key decisions out of public view," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "The most difficult situation we face is that the attention of the media is almost exclusively on Afghanistan and anthrax." Most notable, critics say, is the administration's renewed advocacy of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. As President Bush said last month, "The less dependent we are on foreign sources of crude oil, the more secure we are at home." Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the administration's view that oil drilling in Alaska was a matter of national security represented a "false patriotism."
Read more..
Copyright © 2001 NY Times online All rights reserved.
The Green Revolution: It's Also the Color of Money
Advocates for roadless wilderness and similar conservation issues have traditionally emphasized the ethical imperatives and aesthetic rewards of promoting environmentalism. But, perhaps noticing that money is green, too, a growing, hardnosed component in the environmental community, often led by constituents in the outdoor industry, is hammering out a different kind of message: that there are great practical, economic benefits to protecting the environment, and in promoting outdoor recreation. In a study that will be released next week, "The Bottom Line: Protecting the Value of
America 's Public Lands," Business for Wilderness, a program of the Outdoor Industry Association, quantifies the economic impact visitors have on a wide range of communities near recreation areas. These are not all A-list areas, likeMontana 's Glacier National Park orFlorida 'sEverglades , either. Yet many of them generate significant, steady revenue, often for distressed rural communities. The report also identifies the prime threats posed to such areas by proposed activities such as mining, development and acid rain pollution. The Business for Wilderness program ultimately seeks to increase the recreation industry's profile and its involvement in decisions aboutUnited States public land. Its goals include protecting wilderness (and roadless) areas, expanding the number of national recreation destinations and protecting public access.Read more..
Copyright © 2001 NY Times online All rights reserved.
17-Nov-01
Six years in the making, Lake Trafford restoration under way
Bass fisherman Ted Roebuck recalled the dismay he felt in 1996 when seeing thousands of dead fish in murky Lake Trafford in Immokalee. "It was unbelievable. I didn't think that many fish could even live in the lake," said Roebuck, 55, of Immokalee. "I thought, 'How did I miss all these fish?' As a sport fisherman it was sickening to see all that. Anticipating a future of clear water and thriving aquatic habitats, Collier County residents and environmental officials celebrated six years of lobbying and planning Friday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the restoration of Lake Trafford. The aim of the Lake Trafford Project, scheduled to begin later this year or early next year, is to dredge the 1,500-acre lake of an accumulation of 8.5 million cubic yards of muck and chemicals that killed masses of fish in 1996 and 1997. "You wouldn't believe how far you could go out and pick up mud," said Roebuck, one of one of about 100 people who attended the ceremony at Lake Trafford Marina, 6001 Lake Trafford Road. "It's just soupy."
Copyright © 2001 Naples News All rights reserved.
Sugar industry decries ads as false
An advertising campaign launched in major magazines this month by the company that markets Save Our Everglades sugar has angered South Florida's sugar industry.The ads -- one showing chicks, another an alligator and the third a dead tree -- blame sugar growers for Everglades pollution. The ad picturing chicks reads, "Dead chemical runoff from Florida's sugar industry has helped push life in the Everglades to the brink of extinction." Local sugar growers say the claim is false."The statement that we are causing animals to become extinct is outlandish and false," said Jorge Dominicis, spokesman for the Fanjul family's Florida Crystals Corp. in West Palm Beach. "When they say things like that to sell a product, when they have to rely on false images, it calls into question their credibility."
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved
Graham move the same way as blackmail to get way
On Nov. 9, The Post reported that Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., was holding up the nomination of Steven Williams to be head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He took this action in opposition to the closing of the local Everglades restoration office. This I would classify as blackmail by Sen. Graham to get his way. Whether the Everglades restoration office should be closed is a different subject and could be discussed and debated properly. The nomination of Mr. Williams should not be held captive by blackmail. If Mr. Williams is not qualified, Sen. Graham should so state.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved
Graham right to oppose closing Everglades office
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., again has demonstrated real leadership by opposing the closure of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project office headed by Michael Davis. I hope others will follow his lead and speak out against this action, which threatens the Everglades restoration process. Sen. Graham has real vision, and I hope his efforts succeed in reversing this decision.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved
Boynton Beach officials irked over limits on aquifer water
BOYNTON BEACH -- The gallons of water Boynton Beach is allowed to suck out of the ground is not enough for the city's changing population, city staff say. And if the amount of water is not increased, future building could come to a standstill, Assistant City Manager Dale Sugerman said. The South Florida Water Management District regulates the amount of water cities can take out of the underground aquifer to serve their residents. Boynton Beach is allowed to withdraw 142 gallons of water from the aquifer per person per day. But that might not be enough water for the approximately 90,000 customers the city serves, Sugerman said. Within the next month, the city plans to renew its permit and ask the district to increase the amount of water it can withdraw. Sugerman estimates that the city's actual usage is about 174 gallons per capita per day.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved
16-Nov-01
The World Descends on the Everglades
Isn't it funny how there are some things we Floridians never do unless we have visitors in town? We often don't appreciate the things around us until someone else comes to town to remind us. Some of the world's leading environmental experts, from famous ecosystems known the world over, are congregating in South Florida this week. They are here to remind us that the mighty Everglades are known on the same level as famous places such as the Amazon rainforest, the savannahs of Africa, and the Galapagos Islands.
Copyright (c) 2001 National Broadcasting Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
Water Groups Plan to Face Higher Demand
Growth is expected to almost double the area's need by the year 2020.
Growth will exceed the water supply in an area of Central Florida that includes the northeast corner of Polk County within two decades, officials of two water districts were told by experts this week during a joint meeting in Orlando. "The critical thing is not when there's going to be a water shortage, but how we can be prepared for that shortage," said William Kerr of the St. Johns River Water Management District. Growth in the area, which includes parts of Seminole, Lake, Osceola, Orange and Polk counties, is expected to result in a water demand of 632 million gallons per day by the year 2020, said Chris Sweazy, a senior planner for the South Florida Water Management District. That's almost twice the demand the area saw in 1995, which was 323 million gallons a day.Copyright © 2001 The Ledger. All rights reserved.
River runs a bit low now
Putting the bends back in a portion of the Kissimmee River has restored some of the natural beauty that was destroyed when the Army Corps of Engineers created a 56-mile canal out of the 103-mile meandering waterway in the 1960s. The 15 miles of restored river are a sight, but with dry season starting this month, officials warn that boaters must be careful. That's because water levels in the restored portion of the river are once again dependent on rainfall, just as they were before the river was channelized. "Traveling the Kissimmee River is much more interesting and full of life than in years past. In some sections, it's not the same deep, wide and straight waterway that boaters have known for 30 years," said Harkley Thornton, the St. Cloud resident who is on the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District.Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel. All rights reserved.
Contractor suit threatens to slow Everglades fix
The Everglades restoration could be hobbled for up to six months after a contractor filed a legal challenge accusing water managers of unfairly denying the company a crucial slice of the $8.4 billion project. Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. says the South Florida Water Management District wrongly made last-minute changes in the way it ranked three companies vying for a $25 million restoration contract, thus creating "opportunities for favoritism." Foster Wheeler's petition says water managers also allowed an attorney for another unsuccessful rival, CH2MHill, to violate district rules against lobbying board members. The attorney, Justin Sayfie of Fort Lauderdale, is a former aide to Gov. Jeb Bush. The challenge means that for now nobody gets the contract to help the district manage the first five years of the four-decade restoration. The winner would work on tasks such as negotiating land purchases and dealing with lawmakers.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
15-Nov-01
Norton: Closing local office will help Everglades project
The Post's Nov. 12 editorial on the Interior Department's efforts to improve stewardship and streamline Everglades restoration ("Reopen Everglades office") overlooked three important points. First, President Bush has made a strong commitment to Everglades restoration. The administration shepherded through Congress a $31.4 million, or 37 percent, increase in the Interior Department's budget for Everglades restoration. Second, we will save $1.3 million in duplicative administrative overhead, which the department will redirect to important restoration projects at National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge and the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Third, coordination of Everglades activities will be elevated and intensified. Col. Terrence "Rock" Salt, the highly respected executive director of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, will play an enhanced role in Everglades restoration activities and report directly to my office. Also, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, the former director of the Florida Recreation and Parks system, is infinitely familiar with the Everglades and will work aggressively on this important project.
Copyright © 2001 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
14-Nov-01
Tourist destination plan unveiled for ex-air base
If the faltering plan for a commercial airport at the old Homestead Air Reserve Base eventually dies, county officials should use the surplus land to create ``a destination'' for tourists visiting the Everglades, Florida Keys and Biscayne National Park, according to a plan released Tuesday by Miami-Dade County's economic development agency. Dubbed ``Destination Everglades,'' the proposed hotel, conference and ecological research center would take advantage of the property's location between South Florida's three great natural areas in hopes of capturing a bit of the eco-tourism industry booming worldwide. If approved by county commissioners Dec. 4, the proposal would provide an alternative to plans to build a commercial airfield on the Air Force land that have been mired in controversy since the base closed after Hurricane Andrew. Indeed, the Department of Defense outright rejected the idea of an airport earlier this year, prompting county commissioners to sue. At the same time, county officials hedged their bets.
Copyright © 2001 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
09-Nov-01
Graham holds up Bush appointment for closing of 'Glades office
Unhappy about an announcement this week that the Department of Interior plans to close an Everglades restoration office in West Palm Beach, Sen. Bob Graham retaliated Thursday by putting a hold on a Bush Administration appointment. Graham's hold, a parliamentary move that allows individual senators to stall presidential appointments indefinitely, will delay a final vote on the nomination of Steve Williams, a Kansas official chosen by President Bush to be director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Graham, who was instrumental in getting the $8 billion Everglades restoration plan through Congress last year, has asked for a meeting with Interior Secretary Gale Norton to discuss the closing of the office. "I look forward to speaking directly to Secretary Norton about the administration's commitment to the Everglades in light of the decision to close the office in West Palm Beach," Graham said, in a prepared statement. No meeting had been set as of Thursday night.
Copyright © 2001 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
Sen. Bob Graham places 'hold' on Fish and Wildlife nomination Senate rules allow any senator to block a presidential nomination from making it to the floor for a confirmation vote.
Between the ducks and the alligators, President Bush's nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can't catch a break. Sen. Bob Graham placed a "hold" on the nomination of Steve Williams on Thursday, citing a disagreement with Interior Secretary Gale Norton over her decision to close the department's Everglades restoration office in West Palm Beach.
A week ago, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., also placed a hold on the nomination, in this case because of a dispute with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott over the length of the duck-hunting season in
