News - March  2003   

Other sources

Commons-Everglades Archives List  |  Daytona Beach News-Journal Special Reports  |  Everglades Village News  |  Sun-Sentinel:  Everglades Site  |  SFWMD News Releases      

                  
Environmental News Network                 

  News

Water law change proposed
Wording grabs attention of state, county
A freshman legislator — with the help of developers — proposed a change in Florida water law that ruffled feathers across the state and in Lee County. “It was to get attention and boy did we get attention,” said James Garner, a lobbyist for the Association of Florida Community Developers Inc., which helped write the legislation. Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, had proposed a bill that would eliminate water reservations — an emerging management tool designed to set aside water for the “protection of fish and wildlife or the public health and safety.” Lee County is seeking a reservation for the Caloosahatchee River. But Troutman’s bill is changing now that he and his entourage have the environmental community’s attention, Garner said.   
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Students soak up lessons on water issues
A hands-on exhibit teaches children about conserving and protecting the state's water resources.
Gerard DeChristofaro marched over to two large rocks sitting on a pedestal and gave a mini-dissertation. "This is limestone from the Floridian aquifer," Gerard, 9, said as he lifted an oversized magnifying glass to give a closer look. "In some of the parts, you can see fossils. There's leaves in there, and some shells. If you look real close, it has real small holes." His fourth-grade classmates at Suncoast Elementary School, near Seven Hills in south-central Hernando County, were equally well-versed on other aspects of water conservation and environmental protection. Emily Kling, 10, walked over to an aquarium filled with sand, clay and gravel. "This is a model of the aquifer," Emily said. "We learned how the water percolates through each layer. 
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                Florida Department of Environmental Protection

                "Beyond Drought" Information sheet (4 pages, PDF) *

                Southwest Florida Water Management District information and education

                * pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

In the Know: Kudzu and the Everglades
Question: Ten years ago, the Naples Daily News reported that kudzu had been discovered in the Everglades and could become a major threat to plant life there. Plans to  search and eradicate kudzu vines were announced. What happened? Is there still a kudzu threat? And for that matter, how about destruction of the melaleuca trees?  — W.N. Butler/Naples Answer: "Kudzu is an exotic invasive plant," says Jonathan Taylor, a botanist with Everglades National Park in Miami, "but it is not a threat or problem within the park  boundaries at the present time." Taylor explains that kudzu does not invade areas unless it has been intentionally planted. Regarding the melaleuca, Bill Synder, forestry technician with Big Cypress National Preserve, said, "We have a handle on the melaleuca trees in the preserve."  
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council

Editorial: Sugar won't come clean
The sugar industry is trying to weaken environmental regulation on two fronts, and the meddling could hinder cleanup of the Everglades and restoration of the Indian  River Lagoon. On the state level, the board of the South Florida Water Management District, under pressure from sugar growers, recently changed wording in an Everglades  cleanup plan to allow unacceptably high levels of pollution from farms and urban areas in water sent to the Everglades. If that happens, it would thwart a 1994 law  designed to improve water quality in the troubled ecosystem. Scientists oppose the higher level, and Gov. Bush has said he agrees. The governor, however, has yet to intervene -- he appointed the water district board members -- and make sure that the lower standard survives. Two federal researchers have said that allowing the higher pollution level won't fix the Everglades. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

30-March-03

Students get the dirt on Indian artifacts dig site

Just yards from the shaded banks of Ten Mile Creek, where American Indians fished about 5,000 years ago, archaeologists focused on a swatch of land no bigger than a canoe for clues about the natives' lives. Using flat trowels to slowly strip away layers of darkly colored dirt, the scientists proved the land in western St. Lucie County — where water managers plan to build a 550-acre reservoir — is rich with history. During the past six weeks of excavation, archaeologists have found bottle-cap-sized bits of brown, sandy pottery, stone spearheads, animal bones and a small circular stone that could have been a weight for a fishing net. In preliminary digs in October, workers found the artifacts — slowing the water-quality project by 10 months, but offering the experts and local elementary school students a close-up look at what life was like in 3,000 B.C. 
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

29-March-03

Wood storks don’t like rain
Waterfowl prefer lower water levels in nesting season

As the single-engine Cessna banked sharply over Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Friday morning, Jason Lauritsen photographed then counted nesting wood storks, which looked a lot like dandruff on a green wool sweater. After about a dozen passes, he came up with a tentative number of 650 nests, down from a high of 1,000 in January. Whether the remaining nests at Corkscrew, the largest wood stork nesting colony in North America, will fledge a new generation of the endangered species depends on the weather between now and the summer wet season. “With the recent rains we’ve had, it looks like about 350 pairs have abandoned their nests,” said Lauritsen, the sanctuary’s resource manager. “We might have more abandon their nests. Some are renesting, but those that renest this late may be lost.”        
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

28-March-03

Editorial: Preserve manatee budget
The federal government continues to support manatee protections, but two Florida lawmakers have introduced legislation that would undermine protection for the endangered sea cow. A federal judge ruled last week that the Interior Department must continue creating manatee sanctuaries and designating new slow-speed zones in Florida waters. Under an order from U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan, issued in Washington, the proposal would establish three new protection areas where powerboats either would have to reduce speed or be banned. Gov. Bush, who once declared the manatee to be his favorite mammal, has opposed federal safeguards, claiming with others that slow speed zones could cause economic problems in southwest Florida. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has singled out that area, which has a high rate of boat-related manatee deaths, for special restrictions, such as more controls on dock-building.
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Aspect of water project questioned
Activists want to know where water in reservoirs slated for Martin and St. Lucie counties will end up.
As federal scientists work to answer new questions by top officials about Everglades restoration projects on the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie River advocates say one of their own lingering concerns has yet to be addressed: Who will get all the water stored in the reservoirs planned in Martin and St. Lucie counties? The answer, local activists said, should include the water-starved Everglades and the Caloosahatchee and Loxahatchee rivers, both of which are struggling with saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico and the Jupiter Inlet. Making that clear, they said, could meet the concerns of political foes of the plans and increase support from environmental groups throughout the state. "We can't expect authorization without that part of the puzzle put together," said Kevin Henderson, executive director of the St. Lucie River Initiative. 
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

A 'rotten' law stymies fight over well
An environmental group is frustrated by a new state law that won't let it challenge a water permit.
An environmental group contends that treated waste water from the county's Zemel Road landfill may be tainting the ground water supply. But the state says the group doesn't have a legal right to challenge the reissuance of a permit for a deep-injection well, which shoots the waste water a half-mile under the dump. The reason: The group, known as the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, has only three members in the county. That wouldn't have mattered a year ago. But a state law passed last May requires environmental groups who want to challenge water permits to have at least 25 members in the county where a proposed project is located. "That is a rotten piece of legislation," said ECOSWF president Becky Ayech. 
Copyright  © 2003  Herald Tribune  All rights reserved.

27-March-03

Rules Approved to Reduce Pollutants at Power Plants
Power plants in New York State will have to sharply cut their output of pollutants blamed for acid rain, smog and other environmental ills beginning next year under rules approved yesterday by state regulators.  The regulations, which will be phased in over the next five years, are expected to reduce by tens of thousands of tons a year the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides generated by the plants across the state. Those emissions combine in the atmosphere to produce smog, while also poisoning lakes and killing fish, especially in the Adirondacks.  Gov. George E. Pataki, in announcing the rules, said that they put New York ahead of the rest of the country in protecting air quality. He said the restrictions on sulfur dioxide will be the most stringent in the nation.  Environmentalists and health experts said they were less sure. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

DIGEST: Law would require reports on water
Law would require reports on water
Democratic House members joined environmentalists Wednesday to promote a bill that would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue reports every six months with statistics on water being pumped in and out of underground storage wells. Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said the information the state now provides on aquifer storage and recovery wells is difficult to understand. "This is all simply about providing people with information," said Gelber, who sponsored the bill (HB 1503). "The current situation is intolerable if folks that are interested in this cannot figure out what is going on." Environmentalists have opposed the process of injecting water into the ground to save for future use, saying the water being pumped in may contaminate natural aquifers. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 27, 2003
                What's being pumped into the aquifer?

                March 27, 2003
                Bill Seeks Better Well Information

Bill Seeks Better Well Information
Democratic House members joined environmentalists Wednesday to promote a bill that would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue reports every six months with statistics on water being pumped in and out of underground storage wells.  Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said the information the state now provides on aquifer storage and recovery wells is difficult to understand: ``The current situation is intolerable if folks that are interested in this cannot figure out what is going on."  Environmentalists have opposed the process of injecting water into the ground to save for future use, saying the water being pumped in might contaminate natural aquifers.  The bill would require the state to list on its Web site the location of injection wells along with the amount of water being pumped into and out of the wells, the source of the water injected and other information. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 27, 2003
                What's being pumped into the aquifer?

                March 27, 2003
                DIGEST: Law would require reports on water

What's being pumped into the aquifer?
Adopting a new strategy to rekindle an old debate, environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers want to force regulators to do a better job of telling the public what's being pumped into the Floridan Aquifer, the underground drinking water supply for millions of residents.  Flanked by lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, rolled out a bill (HB-1503) on Wednesday that would force the Department of Environmental Protection to list all of the underground injection wells it regulates -- and the substances they pump deep underground -- in a reader-friendly format on its public Web site.  "Floridians should not have to feel that they are in an episode of Fear Factor every time they drink a glass of water," Gelber said. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 27, 2003
                Bill Seeks Better Well Information

                March 27, 2003
                DIGEST: Law would require reports on water

Water committee end sours some
Members of the Lake County Water Authority’s Citizen Advisory Committee reacted in different ways Thursday to news that the all-volunteer group has been disbanded. The water authority board voted 4-3 Wednesday in favor of doing away with the group because no specific task had been assigned to it during its one-year existence. “We just didn’t utilize them,” said Larry Everly, water authority board chairman. Mike Perry, executive director of the water authority, echoed that reason. “If the board wasn’t going to use the committee it’s not fair to the members to devote their time and energy and it’s not an efficient use of staff time,” he said. But soil scientist and state-licensed geologist Greg Gensheimer said the committee wasn’t twiddling its thumbs. It had great potential and made many recommendations to the board, he said. “It’s really disappointing. We really had an opportunity to help out,” Gensheimer said. 
Copyright  © 2003  Daily Commerce  All rights reserved.

Scientists Lobby For Network of Networks

Shared access to ecological 
measurements could greatly aid 
ecologists and researchers. 
(Photo courtesy High Performance 
Wireless Research and Education 
Network)

Advances in scientific observation and measurement over the past century have provided far reaching knowledge about individual species and local ecological processes, but scientists are quick to point out that there is still far more to be discovered about how ecosystems interact and change. "Ecosystem models are more constrained by lack of accurate input data than by lack of basic understanding," said John Aber, professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. To remedy this, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is calling for a new scientific infrastructure - a "network of networks" - that standardizes measurements, affords instant data sharing and facilitates cooperation between the nation's variety of field stations and environmental observatories. 
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                For additional information about NEON, see: http://www.nsf.gov/bio/neon/start.htm

26-March-03

State budget squeezing out waterway cleanup plans
Pensacola Bay project could take funding hit
Programs to clean up Florida's lagoons, estuaries and lakes would be severely scaled back under legislative budget proposals, jeopardizing the very waterways that pump life into the state's ecotourism industry.  At risk are at least $118 million in water pollution programs currently under way to help clean up Pensacola Bay, Indian River Lagoon and Loxahatchee River.  Only the biggest environmental projects - Everglades restoration and Florida Forever, the state's land-buying program - would be spared, Rep. Jerry Paul, R-Port Charlotte, said in a Tuesday House budget briefing.  "At this time, most of the (state revenue) we had available we had to put on high-priority issues," said Paul, who chairs the House budget subcommittee that drafted the cuts. 
Copyright  © 2003  Pensacola News Journal  All rights reserved.

Press Release: Service Officer Honored for Contributions to Wildlife Conservation
Special Agent Frank Kuncir, who works in the Fish and Wildlife Services law enforcement office in Fort Myers, Florida, has received the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's 2003 Guy Bradley Award for his contributions to protecting the Nation's wildlife resources. The award, which is named after the first wildlife law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty, was presented to Kuncir at the annual North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on March 26. Special Agent Kuncir and his Federal and State counterparts risk their lives every day to uphold wildlife protection laws in this country, said Service Director Steve Williams. We are proud that one of our agents has won this prestigious award and join the Foundation in applauding the contributions that law enforcement officers make to wildlife conservation throughout this country.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  National Fish and Wildlife Foundation All rights reserved.

25-March-03

Editorial: Threats and Alaska Oil
To the Editor:
Re "Drilling in Alaska, a Priority for Bush, Fails in the Senate" (news article, March 20):
The threat of retaliation implied by Ted Stevens, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, to those opposed to drilling for oil in the Alaskan wildlife refuge echoes what is becoming an all too common theme among some Republicans: trying to silence those who disagree with them.  Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's suggestion that Senator Tom Daschle's criticism of President Bush's diplomatic failures may serve to aid our enemies is more of the same.  Such intimidation and character assassination is behavior more reminiscent of repressive dictatorships than of our democracy, whose fundamental principles of free speech and respect for others' opinions these elected officials claim they wish to export. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 20, 2003
                Drilling in Alaska, a Priority for Bush, Fails in the Senate

Big Cypress official transferring
The National Park Service announced Monday it is transferring John Donahue out of Big Cypress National Preserve, where his crackdown on off-road vehicles infuriated hunters and earned praise from environmentalists. Donahue, who was superintendent of the preserve for three years, will take over Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one of the most heavily visited parks in the United States. He said the transfer was voluntary. But it comes at a critical time for Big Cypress, a vast stretch of wet prairies and cypress swamps that has become an environmental battleground. The preserve is working on a plan for managing hunting, off-road vehicle riding and other activities on 147,280 acres that were added to it in 1988. Hunters are demanding access to these areas, known as the Addition Lands. But environmentalists are pushing to protect some areas from rifles and swamp buggies. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Cabinet orders negotiations for Miccosukee Everglades land
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet ordered the Department of Environmental Protection to try to negotiate a land swap with the Miccosukee Indian tribe Tuesday instead of seizing their Everglades property through condemnation. Department Secretary David Struhs was told to proceed with condemnation of the 805 acres in Golden Gate Estates South, southeast of Naples, only if good-faith negotiations fail. The department had recommended condemnation of the property, which is needed for the Everglades restoration project. The agency has said the tribe refused offers to buy it for well above its appraised price. But Dione Carroll, the tribe's general counsel, told the Cabinet the land had cultural significance to the Miccosukees and was used for gathering medicinal herbs and palm fronds used for building dwellings. ``Selling culturally sensitive land is anathema to the tribe,'' Carroll said. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 18, 2003
                Letter-writing helps vet save home: Florida landowner given another reprieve from eminent domain

24-March-03

Editorial: Let public keep control over the public's water
A bad bill making its way through the Florida House would jeopardize Everglades restoration and lead to a a terrible idea -- private ownership of the state's public water supply. Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, admits that developers wrote the main parts of House Bill 1005. According to published reports, Mr. Troutman, a grandson of citrus magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr. and a cousin of Katherine Harris, asked lobbyists to explain it to a House committee last week. That's bad, but it still isn't as bad as the bill. His legislation would kill part of a 1972 law that allows water to be "reserved" to protect fish and wildlife or for public health and safety. Developers want to substitute language that would allow reserving water for Everglades restoration -- but also for flood control, water supply and other growth-related needs. Developers and utilities and others would have a right to water that has been reserved to protect the environment. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Commentary: Troutman Defends His Comments in Article
Freshman state Rep. Baxter Troutman was madder than a Chihuahua in a boot factory testing room. Troutman filed a bill that would take away the state control on ground water reserves during some water emergencies. Troutman says it would be a very rare occasion when that would be necessary.  The bill, which is opposed by environmentalists and the state Department of Environmental Protection, passed a committee hearing unanimously.  The St. Petersburg Times reported that Troutman, R-Winter Haven, "repeatedly" deferred to a lobbyist for developers when other committee members asked him questions about the bill. The Ledger ran the Times' story, and Troutman angrily called editors, the publisher and a kindly, but grizzled political reporter. "To say I did not know anything about the bill is a lie," Troutman said. "I asked the person who has a knowledge of the 10-year evolution of this bill to answer highly technical questions for the committee. 
Copyright  © 2003  The Ledger  All rights reserved.

Editorial: A Water Bill Lawmakers Should Quickly Deep-Six
Credit Rep. Baxter Troutman for the most shameless display of toadying to special interest at the expense of the public during this legislative session. The Winter Haven Republican is pushing a measure that would prohibit state agencies from managing water to sustain fish and wildlife.  The scheme was cooked up by development interests who fear that preserving Florida's flora and fauna might slow down the bulldozers by limiting the amount of water that would go to residential and commercial development. Troutman could not even explain his bill. He had to have Jim Garner, a lobbyist for such major developers as St. Joe Corp., describe how it would stop water districts from reserving water for fish and wildlife and the public safety. Water is not being husbanded for fish and wildlife at the expense of development - as a quick glance at the state countryside will confirm.
Copyright  © 2003  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

23-March-03

Splendor in the Glades Artists thrive in year-old park program

 
Frank DuVal, 57, of Frederick, Md., painted 
this 'Brown Pelican' as part of the artists-in-
residence program. 
COURTESY EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK

A swirl of inky water near mangroves, a rod suddenly slicing a happy arc and, at daylong last, the fishless curse of Frank DuVal is broken. A spotted sea trout soon flops in the net. It's the moment when the typical Everglades visitor poses a predictable question: Can I eat that? But DuVal studies the fat fish shimmering silvery in the sun and asks, ``Can I sketch that?'' He may fumble with fishing gear but, pen and drawing pad in hand, DuVal is an artist. Literally and officially. He's an ''artist in residence'' at Everglades National Park. The program, run on pennies and passion, has been a boon to participants and park alike. For DuVal and poet Roger Mitchell, the eighth and ninth artists in the year-old program, the park provides immersion in an exotic world and a rare escape from the real one.
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Trees in Haiti Fall Victim to Poverty of the People
In a musty shop near the capital's dilapidated cemetery, Josue Termidor takes a rasp, gently sanding a coffin made of avocado tree planks. A decade ago, the coffin would have been carved from heavy mahogany.  "All the good wood is gone," says Mr. Termidor, 32, his fingernails caked with putty used to seal the brittle wood. "It's got harder to make a living, and the lack of wood makes families disappointed and the dead angry."  Once blanketed by lush forests, Haiti is now nearly 90 percent deforested. Competing against a demand that has far exceeded supply, the Caribbean nation loses more than 30 million trees a year to provide wood, fuel and work to a desperate population.  "The peasants cutting down the trees make even less," added Mr. Termidor, flanked by a metallic mauve "tête-boeuf" or first-class coffin. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

For Town, Water Is a Fighting Word
As its name suggests, this mountain hamlet more than 5,000 feet above the desert floor near Palm Springs is endowed with many gifts of nature: centuries-old pines, rare and endangered species, bucolic lakes and stunning vistas.  But it is what lies beneath that has taken center stage recently: a battle is being waged over spring water and whether it is a commodity to sell or a resource to protect.  For Paul Black, a retiree whose Idyllwild Mountain Spring Water Works Inc. has been selling water to bottlers from his property here for nearly seven years, the issue is one of practicality.  "I see a very effective use of the water," said Mr. Black, who Riverside County officials estimate is taking 28,000 gallons of it a day from his parcel of slightly more than an acre. "It's safe, clean drinking water. Would you let it go, or would you do something with it?" 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Opinion: The Missing Energy Strategy
The Senate struck a blow for the environment and for common sense last week, defeating President Bush's second attempt in less than a year to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Credit goes to the Democrats, who mainly held firm in a close 52-to-48 vote, and to a small, sturdy group of moderate Republicans, which now includes Norm Coleman, a Minnesota freshman who wisely chose not to renege on his campaign promise to protect the refuge despite an aggressive sales pitch from senior Republicans and the White House.  The pitch included the usual hyperbole from the Alaska delegation, which typically inflates official estimates of economically recoverable oil in the refuge by a factor of four. It also included a new but equally spurious argument minted for the occasion, namely that rising gas prices and the war in Iraq made drilling more urgent than ever. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

22-March-03

Water district's top attorney resigns.
The South Florida Water Management District's top lawyer resigned Friday -- a move he called "kind of that middle-age thing."  "I'm at a point in my life right now where I'm ready for new and different challenges," said general counsel John Fumero, who turned 40 last summer. "I've literally and figuratively grown up at the district."  He announced he will step down May 30 after 3 1/2 years as general counsel and 15 years working for the district. He said he hasn't decided what his next job will be, although he plans to stay active in South Florida environmental and water issues.  Fumero, who lives in Boca Raton, earns $145,933 a year. He's also due to receive a still-to-be-determined sum for a total of 1,706 hours of unused sick leave and vacation.  As general counsel, Fumero is the district's highest-ranking Hispanic employee, and one of a handful of executives who work directly for its governor-appointed board. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Bird Man of New Jersey

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
New Jersey Audubon Society's 
paid birdwatcher conducting the 
spring count of migrating birds 
along the Atlantic flyway from 
his "hawk" platform at the very 
tip of the peninsula.

To the untrained eye, it was just a speck coming out of the western sky riding the thermals out over Raritan Bay.  To Dan Hegarty, the dihedral angle of the wings and the flying attitude — smoothly soaring as opposed to kiting as it sought to save energy — told him that it was a red-shouldered hawk migrating north. It was in the first wave of birds passing by the narrow finger of the Sandy Hook peninsula on its way up the Atlantic Flyway.  Mr. Hegarty, 34, is the New Jersey Audubon Society's only paid bird counter stationed here. He spends his days atop a large platform scanning the skies with his practiced eyes and a powerful telescope and binoculars to count the migrating birds, particularly the raptors.  It can be lonely work perched above the windy March desolation of the ocean shoreline. The scrubby barrier dunes dotted with freshwater ponds and low growing shrubs merge into uplands with locust and hackberry. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Opinion: Invoking War to Ease Rules
Invoking War to Ease Rules
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has begun a campaign it calls, portentously, "Operation End Extremism." The purpose is to expose "the increasing burden U.S. soldiers face on military training bases because of irrational enforcement of environmental laws." The whole thing might be dismissed as another ideological stunt from the committee's reactionary chairman, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, were it not for the fact that the Pentagon is trying to do the same thing. With White House backing, the Defense Department has asked Congress to approve a program it calls the "Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative," which would broadly exempt military bases and some operations from environmental regulation. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

21-March-03

Swiftmud Candidate Process Doubted
Southwest Florida Water Management District officials are poised to pick a new executive director next Tuesday amid questions about the selection process. The questions have been coming from Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs, who has questioned whether the 11-member Governing Board searched widely enough for a new head for the agency. Swiftmud has jurisdiction over a 16-county area that includes most of Polk County and some of the most water-strapped areas in Florida. The two finalists out of 11 applicants are Interim Executive Director Gene Heath and Dave Moore, deputy executive director for resource management and development. One of them will replace "Sonny" Vergara, who resigned in January. "The narrowing down happened very quickly," said Struhs' spokeswoman Deena Wells. "Our interest was in having a thorough search internally and externally." 
Copyright  © 2003  The Ledger  All rights reserved.

An Inexhaustible Energy to Protect the Environment
The danger is growing, and if it is left unchecked, say those who demand the use of force, it will be only a matter of time before someone is attacked.  This is New Jersey, and the danger is from black bears that are increasingly intruding into urban areas. The State Fish and Game Council, if it has its way, will hand out 10,000 licenses so hunters can tromp through the cold in December to shoot the 2,000 to 3,000 animals that have grown from a population of about 100 over the last 30 years.  At the center of this tussle and every other contentious issue that involves the environment and wildlife in New Jersey is the state's combative commissioner of environmental protection, Bradley M. Campbell.  The commissioner, however, has not yet said whether he will accept the Game Council's recommendation and allow the bear shoot to go forward. "The bears," he said one recent morning in his Lambertville row house, "are a small part of a much larger problem I face." 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Business: Fuel Economy Regulations Could be Revised
The Bush administration is considering changes to fuel economy regulations that would encourage manufacturers to offer more large cars, station wagons and smaller sport utility vehicles that are built more like cars.  The idea behind the changes is that such vehicles are safer than both small cars and sport utility vehicles and pickups, and that if more people drove them, fewer people would die in crashes. Producing more such vehicles and fewer very small or very large vehicles would reduce the increasing disparity among American vehicles, both in weight and how high they ride.  Because they ride so high, sport utility vehicles and pickups pose more dangers to drivers of small cars than large cars do. They are also more dangerous for their own occupants because of their increased rollover risk.  But the idea is opposed by environmentalists and has already drawn a sharply worded protest from the United Automobile Workers union.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Searching for scale
Crocodiles are for pansy Australians, give us nine-foot-long, goat-eating pythons
The big-shouldered bald man with the inscrutable face plops a plastic one-gallon jug on the wooden counter and says, ``Here's the answer to your question. Roadkill. Happened about eight weeks ago, on a Monday. I cleaned it and put the skin in here to cure. It was 9-feet-5-inches long.'' We're standing in a slightly cramped wooden office, store and nature exhibit at the Trail Lakes Campground on U.S. 41, about 70 miles west of Miami and 30 miles east of Naples in the part of the Everglades where city boys are eyed as carefully as cobras. Doing the eyeing here are three men: a local buck with the beard, cap, jeans and boots that make the perfect uniform for someone surrounded by walls adorned with Confederate flags; Jack Shealy, who co-owns the campground with his brother David; and Rick Scholle (pronounced ``sholly''), the animal curator at Trail Lakes who has just placed a plastic jug containing a gutted snake on the wooden counter.   
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Before war, there was sand
Sand is one of the Earth's great elementals, older than the human race. American and Iraqi troops will fight atop the crushy, powdery, granular, crystalline, silicon-based substance in desert terrain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They will live on, and breathe in, sand. Sand will be mixed in their breakfasts. Sand will absorb all the spilled blood and oil that flows from this war. Sand is "a term popularly applied to loose, unconsolidated accumulations of detrital sediment consisting essentially of rounded grains of quartz," according to Chambers's Technical Dictionary, published in 1961.  Nearly all of Florida is sand, and our original beaches are made of powdered granite, washed down from the Piedmont Plateau by oceanic action in the Jurassic Period, 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs still believed they had a chance at survival. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 20, 2003
                Some oil fields begin to burn

20-March-03

Changes to Everglades cleanup plan criticized
Water managers' changes to an Everglades cleanup plan have drawn rebukes from two federal science consultants, who say the alterations "create grave doubts" that pollution will ever be removed. The consultants, Massachusetts environmental engineer William Walker Jr. and Michigan wetlands expert Robert Kadlec, added to an already loud chorus of objections from environmentalists denouncing the changes by the South Florida Water Management District. District board member Mike Collins called the environmentalists' criticism misinformed and largely the product of an Audubon of Florida lobbying campaign. The accusations "are being made by people who haven't read what's in the plan," said Collins, an Islamorada fishing guide who proposed the changes last week. He said he hadn't seen Walker and Kadlec's letter and couldn't comment on it. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Bill Would Alter Water Oversight
Developers and sewer utilities are pushing a bill that would radically alter how water is managed in Florida as well as reserve water generated by the Everglades restoration project for new housing and commercial development. Proponents of House Bill 1005 say they are worried that agencies such as the state Department of Environmental Protection and water management districts will reserve water for fish and wildlife, leaving cities and economic development scrambling for what's left. ``What we're talking about is jobs in an economy that's built - whether for good or bad - on growth,'' said Jim Garner, a lobbyist for large developers such as WCI and St. Joe Corp. ``Take away water ... we may be out of business and not be able to build anything.'' The bill would scrap state regulations that allow water management districts to reserve water for fish and wildlife and for public safety. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Developers win early round on water bill
Developers scored an early victory Wednesday, pushing a measure through a House panel that environmentalists warned could turn the clock back more than 30 years in Florida's struggle to preserve water for conservation. Defending a measure (HB 1005) he acknowledged was largely written by the Association of Florida Community Developers, freshman Republican Baxter Troutman of Winter Haven said the measure was necessary to protect Florida's ability to continue to grow. The bill erases a 1972 provision of the Florida water code that allows regulators to deny permits if they think development threatens wildlife and other natural systems. The provision has been used only once, in 1994, to protect Paynes Prairie Preserve near Gainesville.  But as growth puts continuing pressure on Florida's dwindling drinking water supplies, water managers and environmentalists say the important tool is necessary to protect future preserves and restoration projects. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Whose water is this bill carrying?
A freshman lawmaker sponsors it. He defers to a lobbyist to explain it.
A freshman lawmaker was so unfamiliar with his own bill Wednesday that he couldn't answer any questions posed by a legislative committee. So he turned to someone he said was the expert: a lobbyist for the state's biggest developers. The lobbyist, Jim Garner of the Association of Florida Community Developers, helped write the bill for Rep. Baxter Troutman, a Winter Park Republican elected last year. It's not unusual for lobbyists to write legislation, but it is unusual for a lawmaker to admit that a lobbyist knew more about a bill he's sponsoring. "I'll have to defer to Jim Garner," Troutman repeatedly told committee members. Garner was happy to oblige.  Troutman's bill (HB 1005) is opposed by environmentalists and the state Department of Environmental Protection. 
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

Broward organizations lobby state legislators
Mayor Becky Tooley of Coconut Creek leaned across the conference table in a senator's office and started arguing the state's need for video lottery machines. It was the beginning of a lobbying effort that is one of her main reasons for being in the state capital this week.  The senator, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is Senate president pro tempore and a member of the GOP Senate leadership, had set aside five minutes for Tooley and other Coconut Creek officials.  In little slices of time -- five minutes with this legislator, 10 minutes with that one -- 400 political, business and civic leaders were making the rounds in Tallahassee this week. The annual orgy of lobbying for Broward County's needs is called Broward Days. De la Portilla, R-Miami, wanted to hear about Coconut Creek's experience with video slot machines, which some think is an easy way to raise $1.5 billion for the beleaguered state budget. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                May 11, 2002
                New rules create unhappy campers

Some oil fields begin to burn

Ruins of 1991 war: Abdullah Alkhubaizi 
of the Kuwait Information Ministry walks 
through a charred oil field March 12.

During the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq spilled 6 million to 8 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf and set afire almost 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, there were widespread predictions of a worldwide environmental disaster. "If hell had a national park, it would be those burning oil fires," said William K. Reilly, who was then the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In some respects, the fears proved overly pessimistic. The huge plumes of black smoke never went high enough in the atmosphere to create the "nuclear winter" some people projected. And though damage to marine environments and species was extensive, oil levels in the sea and populations of some birds and fish returned relatively quickly to pre-war levels. 
Copyright  © 2003  USA Today  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                March 21, 2003
                Before war, there was sand

Drilling in Alaska, a Priority for Bush, Fails in the Senate

Senator Barbara Boxer, a leading opponent 
of drilling in the Arctic refuge, celebrated 
the chamber's 52-to-48 vote against it, 
on Wednesday.
Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Senate narrowly voted against drilling for oil in the Alaskan wildlife refuge today, dealing a crippling blow to the central element of the Bush administration's energy plan.  The vote, 52 to 48, came after the hardest-fought lobbying campaign yet in the Congressional session, setting environmental groups, who said oil production would destroy an unspoiled wilderness, against Alaskan business interests, who said the oil was necessary for jobs and energy independence. Until the final moments, neither side was certain of victory, and the decision came down to two Republicans — Senators Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Gordon H. Smith of Oregon — whose opposition to drilling was not final until the floor vote. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 19, 2003
                Senate Rejects Oil Drilling in Alaskan Refuge

                March 19, 2003
                How Senators Voted on Drilling in Alaska

                March 25, 2003
                Editorial: Threats and Alaska Oil

19-March-03

Seminole Tribe gives Billie the boot
James E. Billie, suspended chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, was ousted from his position Tuesday morning by a unanimous vote of the remaining four Tribal Council members -- the first time a chairman has been removed in tribe history. Gone is his $300,000-plus annual salary and control of the tribe and its $300 million a year gaming empire. But tribal elections are set for May, and Billie said he will run for chairman. Just under 100 tribal members attended the brief meeting, closed to outsiders. Last Thursday, Billie defended himself against misconduct charges brought by the Tribal Council. Last month, Seminole tribal leaders took steps to permanently remove Billie, the tribe's controversial, charismatic chairman. He had been suspended for the past 22 months. Robert Saunooke, Billie's attorney, said the Seminole tribe has been divided even further. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Federal judge orders continuation of manatee protection
The Interior Department must continue creating new protections for the Florida manatee, including slow speed zones in the Caloosahatchee River, a federal judge has ruled. Last year, 95 manatees were killed by boats in Florida waters, a record in the state, and that is one reason environmental groups, led by Florida's Save the Manatee Club, have pursued federal help. The Interior Department is in the process of designating new slow-speed zones for Florida waterways, including the Caloosahatchee, and manatee sanctuaries. Such steps will continue under an order issued Tuesday in Washington by U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan approving an agreement between the Interior Department and the coalition of environmental groups.  Sullivan also withdrew an order threatening Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other agency officials with contempt of court for failing to honor a 3-year-old agreement with environmentalists to protect Florida manatees. 
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

Two endangered Miami Blue butterflies may give rise to captive colony

Endangered
The Miami Blue, found only !in the Florida 
Keys, is the size of a quarter.

Offering hope for a species on the edge of extinction, scientists said Tuesday that they have created the very first captive-bred population of Miami Blue butterflies. Biologists at the University of Florida produced a male and a female butterfly last Friday from eggs collected at Bahia Honda State Park in the Lower Keys, the site of the only known population of the endangered butterflies. They hope the two butterflies will form the beginning of a captive colony that could serve as insurance against extinction and a source of recruits for new populations in the wild. "We hope, if everything goes well, to have hundreds of Miami Blues in captivity," said Jaret Daniels, assistant director of the university's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Research. "It's primarily a reservoir to hopefully re-establish in the Keys within the historic range of the butterfly. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                Listen: University of Florida researcher Jaret Daniels talks about a 
                laboratory hatching of the endangered Miami Blue butterfly.

Collier may revise rules about construction on coastal parcel
Collier County officials are poised to revise a land-use formula that for years has allowed developers to overstuff dwelling units on coastal parcels. A proposed change to the county's growth management plan would prevent a scenario like this: A project site has 80 acres of saltwater wetlands, and 40 acres of solid, construction-worthy property. The developer can use the 120 acres to determine density — or the number of housing units per acre — even though building on the wetlands would be impossible. That means the developer could place all the units allowed for 120 units on 40 acres. Some county commissioners are ready to change that, as early as this summer. "We're in the process of reshaping the land development code to give us better control over growth," Collier Commissioner Fred Coyle said. "You can't use a road on a property to figure density because you can't build there. The same thing is true of land that is submerged." 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

How Senators Voted on Drilling in Alaska
Following is the roll call by which the Senate voted 52 to 48 today against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. A yes vote was a vote to remove the drilling provision from the budget resolution. A no vote was a vote to keep it in. Voting yes were 43 Democrats, 8 Republicans and an independent. Voting no were 5 Democrats and 43 Republicans.
DEMOCRATS YES
Baucus, Mont.; Bayh, Ind.; Biden, Del.; Bingaman, N.M.; Boxer, Calif.; Byrd, W.Va.; Cantwell, Wash.; Carper, Del.; Clinton, N.Y.; Conrad, N.D.; Corzine, N.J.; Daschle, S.D.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Dorgan, N.D.; Durbin, Ill.; Edwards, N.C.; Feingold, Wis.; Feinstein, Calif.; Graham, Fla.; Harkin, Iowa; Hollings, S.C.; Johnson, S.D.; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Kohl, Wis.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Leahy, Vt.; Levin, Mich.;
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 19, 2003
                Drilling in Alaska, a Priority for Bush, Fails in the Senate

                March 19, 2003
                Senate Rejects Oil Drilling in Alaskan Refuge

Senate Rejects Oil Drilling in Alaskan Refuge
The Senate rejected the keystone of President Bush's energy plan this afternoon, narrowly defeating a proposal to begin oil drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge.  The vote, 52 to 48 against opening the refuge to drilling, was largely along party lines. The result had been expected, since Republican vote-counters had concluded on Monday that they did not have a majority. But the result was nevertheless a stinging defeat for Mr. Bush.  Mr. Bush came into office vowing to reverse President Bill Clinton's refusal to permit drilling in the refuge. The president has argued that the United States must free itself from dependence on foreign oil. Mr. Bush and his allies in the Senate had hoped that rising oil and gasoline prices and the threat of war with Iraq — now all but certain — would lend momentum to their cause.  Mr. Bush has had wide support from oil companies and Alaska's powerful Congressional delegation. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                March 19, 2003
                Drilling in Alaska, a Priority for Bush, Fails in the Senate

                March 19, 2003
                How Senators Voted on Drilling in Alaska

18-March-03

RURAL CLEANSING: Letter-writing helps vet save home: Florida landowner given another reprieve from eminent domain
Disabled veteran Jesse Hardy and his neighbor George Miller won a second reprieve last week in their ongoing battle to save their homes and  land when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet again voted unanimously not to approve the use of eminent domain to acquire the properties. Cabinet members on Thursday told Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs to return to the negotiation table with better offers. According to the Naples Daily News, these might include buying the properties outright, paying all moving and legal fees, or allowing the two to remain until the area is actually flooded, which wouldn't take place until 2006, if then. No deadline was set for coming to an agreement. 
Copyright  © 2003  WorldNet Daily All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 25, 2003
                Cabinet orders negotiations for Miccosukee Everglades land

                Related Links,

                Veteran still fighting for his home

                Disabled vet's home safe for now

                Disabled vet fights for home

                Multi-state convoys converge in Florida

                Commentary:

                Get rid of the people!

                Senators steal Florida land

Panther recovery studies under way
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating sites in seven southern states, including the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on the Florida-Georgia border, for potential reintroduction of the endangered Florida panther. The site selection study, part of the comprehensive Florida Panther Recovery Plan, is still in its early stages, and final recommendations aren't expected until June. But based of conversations with project leaders and a review of draft site maps, a number of key locations in the South - including the Okefenokee, parts of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Georgia and the Ozarks in Arkansas - have emerged as possible locations for long-term panther recovery efforts. "There are a couple of draft maps that the research team are working with," said John Kasbohm, a biologist with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service in Jacksonville and leader of the recovery team. 
Copyright  © 2003 Gainesville Sun All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                Florida Panther Multi-species Recovery Plan - Implementation

                Comprehensive Conservation Plan

Letter to the editor: State working hard to get best value on land deals
The Post's recent editorial "Overpay for land now, or pay even more later" (Feb. 26) draws attention to the need to move ahead with land purchases for Everglades restoration, although it suggests that the state is overpaying for that land. It is true that the state operates within a "seller's market," not only because our purchasing plans are public but also because they are so specific. We are seeking to acquire those specific parcels necessary to restore the Everglades. It is this lack of flexibility that puts the state in such a position. Nevertheless, we are committed to securing the best deal possible for Florida's taxpayers. In fact, Gov. Bush and the Cabinet this month convened a conservation roundtable to ensure that the state's land acquisition program is making wise and effective investments. More progress has been made in the past four years toward restoring the "River of Grass" than in the entire preceding decade. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                February 26, 2003
                Editorial: Overpay for land now, or pay even more later

17-March-03

Editorial: Gov. Bush must protect Everglades standard
Gov. Bush and his environmental protection chief must move swiftly to affirm their support for low pollution levels in the Everglades. The governor also must exert his influence over South Florida Water Management District Board members -- all people he appointed -- to stop an end run that could put the entire Everglades restoration in jeopardy. The governor and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs so far have steadfastly upheld limiting the amount of phosphorus that will be allowed in water sent to the Everglades to a low 10 parts per billion. Scientific studies support their position. Higher levels of phosphorus --found in manure, fertilizer, urban runoff and muck throw the delicate Everglades ecosystem off balance. Sugar industry representatives have just as consistently pushed for a higher standard of 15 parts per billion. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

This day in Tallahassee 
Everglades Money
The state has spent all of the money from its Save Our Everglades land-purchase trust fund and is looking for ways to keep the program going until the resolution of lawsuits that are tying up the issuance of additional bonds. "We are now out of money," Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs told the Joint Committee on the Everglades. Struhs said that Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet want the Legislature to borrow $300 million being used as collateral for exisitng bonds and use it to continue the acquisition program. He said borrowed money would  be replaced with a surety bond. 
Copyright  © 2003  Wilmington Star All rights reserved.

Letter to the editor: State must give tribes dignity of self-government
It's time for the Florida Legislature to right a wrong inflicted on the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida more than 40 years ago. It happened during a disgraceful period when the federal government attempted to terminate its jurisdiction over Indian tribes. The tribe is seeking approval of a bill that will clarify in state law our right to have exclusive federal jurisdiction on our reservations in the Florida Everglades. Our bill would treat the Miccosukee reservations as other Indian reservations are treated in a vast majority of the states. It will clarify once and for all that federal, not state courts, will try criminal offenses committed on our reservations. The bill will bring Florida into conformance with 44 other states that have acknowledged federal jurisdiction over Indian tribes. It will also remove a vestige of the government's disgraceful - and long since repudiated - termination policy that attempted to eliminate Indian tribes and their reservations. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

International: A Province Is Dying of Thirst, and Cries Robbery
Millions of people in southeastern Pakistan are seething with anger and despair — and not over the American threat to attack Iraq, the plight of fellow Muslims in Kashmir or the political role of the mullahs.  The life-and-death matter that has provoked hundreds of irate demonstrations in Sind Province in the last three years is water. More precisely, what farmers and politicians alike here charge is that "water robbery" has been committed by Punjab, the more powerful Pakistani province upstream.  "Punjab isn't giving us the water we are owed and our lives are being destroyed," said Muhammad Usman, a 40-year-old father of 10, who has received enough water this year to plant only one of his 50 acres. To keep his family alive he has opened a tea hut along the roadside, where he earns less than a dollar a day. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Letter: Conserving Wetlands
To the Editor:
It is laudable when the federal government joins private efforts to restore and protect wetlands ("There's More Than One Way to Protect Wetlands," by Gale Norton and Ann Veneman, Op-Ed, March 12). But private initiatives are likely to continue without federal help.  What is needed from the Interior Department, which Ms. Norton heads, and the Agriculture Department, headed by Ms. Veneman, is strict enforcement of existing regulations, vigorous pursuit of violators and resistance to further loss of wetlands to developers and farmers, actions only the federal government can take.  Unless conservation laws are enforced, supporting private conservation efforts is an empty and suspect gesture. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 12, 2003
                Opinion: There's More Than One Way to Protect Wetlands

Rare Arizona Owl (All 7 Inches of It) Is in Habitat Furor

The pygmy owl, an endangered 
species, has lost some land that 
was designated as critical habitat 
in northwest Tucson.
Chris Richards for The New York Times

At last count, the greater Tucson area was home to about 900,000 people and 18 pygmy owls. Under federal law, that ratio is a mismatch.  To protect the owls, an endangered species, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in November that 1.2 million acres in and around the city be set aside as "critical habitat" for the birds, or about 67,000 acres per owl. The designation, issued under a court order, imposes obstacles to development, so developers in this fast-growing community are fighting back, calling it patently unfair.  "When you come right down to it, this is about land that would be lying fallow for no particular good reason, other than that the environmentalists want to have it that way," said Alan Lurie, the executive director of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Global Water Conference Opens in Japan 
The world's biggest international water conference began Sunday with international financiers and small-scale project leaders at odds over how to finance water projects for the poor.  Some 10,000 ministers, scientists and international financiers from 165 nations are debating how to halve the number of people without access to water by 2015.  The United Nations has said that the world's water crises can be solved if rich, developed nations devote about $100 billion more than the $80 billion a year currently spent on developing countries.  But in a panel discussion at the forum, Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute said an extra $10 billion a year -- spread out among a multitude of small projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia -- would suffice.  "The money is out there. But money for water areas is currently misspent,'' said Gleick, president of the Oakland, Calif.-based think tank. 
Copyright  © 2003  AP  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                World Water Forum

                Everglades collection site page on forum

16-March-03

State seeks permit to dump polluted water in Gulf of Mexico
State officials are seeking an emergency federal permit to dump millions of gallons of polluted water from a bankrupt phosphate plant into the Gulf of Mexico.  The state inherited the wastewater problem when Mulberry Phosphate went bankrupt two years ago, giving the Department of Environmental Protection just 48 hours notice before abandoning its plants at Port Manatee and in Mulberry.  At the port, a giant earthen dam is in danger of spilling the acidic water into Tampa Bay. Heavy rain over the last two years has filled the diked pond so high that state regulations fear it could burst in a hurricane and flood U.S. Highway 41, a key evacuation route.  "If we have a failure of the dike system ... pretty much anything it comes in contact with would be killed in that part of Tampa Bay," Allan Bedwell, DEP deputy secretary for regulatory programs, said Friday. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 15, 2003
                To spare bay, state may dump in gulf

                Related Links,

                DEP, CARGILL AGREE TO LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO MULBERRY 
                PHOSPHATE’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS - News Release, 5/7/02
                Questions & Answers

                Damage Cases and Environmental Releases from
                Mines and Mineral Processing Plants *
                U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997

                Mulberry Phosphate Museum

                * pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

Marine rescuers, fisheries service at odds
In attempt to help one sea creature, rescuers may have disrupted the habitat of another mammal, Fish and Wildlife officials fear.  Marine Mammal Conservancy members took a 12-foot pygmy sperm whale to a Key Largo canal, after it beached itself off the coast of Islamorada. For several weeks, rescuers had the canal fenced off so they could nurse the animal.  The fence prevented two manatees from swimming up the canal toward a fresh water spring, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said.  Fish and Wildlife officers want to prevent this from happening in the future.  Marine Mammal Conservancy members are working with National Marine Fisheries Service officials to come up with a solution.  Fisheries officials want conservancy members to set up a plastic "pop-up" pool to house marine life while they are rehabilitated, National Marine Fisheries stranding coordinator Blair Mase said. 
Copyright  © 2003  Keys News / Key West Citizen  All rights reserved.

15-March-03

To spare bay, state may dump in gulf
Florida wants to dispose of treated phosphate-polluted water to prevent a spill in Tampa Bay.
Hoping to avert an environmental catastrophe, state officials want to take the unprecedented step of removing millions of gallons of polluted water from an aging phosphate plant and dumping it into the Gulf of Mexico.  The treated wastewater would be loaded into large barges, then dribbled into the gulf.  The dumping could begin as close as 50 miles off St. Pete Beach, a top official of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration told state legislators on Friday.  State officials say they would remove most of the pollution from the water and it would not threaten people or marine creatures.  But federal officials want more evidence before they grant Florida's request for a little-used emergency permit for ocean dumping.  A top state environmental official called it a last-ditch solution to a "rapidly deteriorating situation." 
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 16, 2003
                State seeks permit to dump polluted water in Gulf of Mexico

                Related Links,

                DEP, CARGILL AGREE TO LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO MULBERRY 
                PHOSPHATE’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS - News Release, 5/7/02
                Questions & Answers

                Damage Cases and Environmental Releases from
                Mines and Mineral Processing Plants *
                U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997

                Mulberry Phosphate Museum

                * pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

National Park Service may fast-track repairs to Fort Jefferson

National Park Service
The National Park Service, which operates 
Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, is concerned 
about deterioration that 130 years in a marine 
environment has caused to the Civil War-era 
structure. The agency is talking about speeding 
up a repair project, which could take more 
than five years.

The crumbling brick walls of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas might not be crumbling much longer.  The National Park Service, which operates the fort, is aware of the deterioration that 130 years in a harsh marine environment caused to the Civil War-era structure. The agency is now starting discussions about speeding up the repair project, which could take more than five years.  Before any mortar is replaced and before any interior walls are stabilized, the National Park Service must complete an environmental assessment, which includes gathering input about the stabilization project from the public at an informal workshop Thursday. After receiving input, the park service will continue to assess the project and expects to have a repair plan finalized by July. 
Copyright  © 2003  Keys News / Key West Citizen  All rights reserved.

Parts of Estero Bay tributaries are polluted, officials now say
The state has revamped a list of polluted waters in Southwest Florida to include several Estero Bay tributaries that weren't on the original draft, although some groups still want to see Naples Bay added to the batch of impaired waters.  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has finalized a list of polluted waters in this region with hopes of implementing maximum pollution loads for those water bodies by 2007. The list will soon go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for review.  Having polluted waters identified could eventually affect development in the region. Permits could be denied for construction projects proposed in areas identified as adding too much pollution to a local waterway.  The Department of Environmental Protection released a draft of the list last summer that didn't include Estero Bay tributaries such as the Imperial River in Bonita Springs. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Growth workshop debates environment versus development
Smart Growth committee co-chairman Brian Griffin said Friday's workshop on recommendations for water and the environment would be where the battle lines were drawn. He was right.  The all-day workshop featured spirited discussion and finger-pointing as a group of about 50 hammered away at a slate of recommendations for how Lee County government should manage its growth.  The recommendations will be reviewed in public meetings by the county's Smart Growth Advisory Committee, which will propose sweeping changes in the comprehensive growth management plan next year. The recommendations range from a ban on smoking on public beaches to a development moratorium in the controversial Density Reduction Groundwater Resource area, which currently allows sparse development.   
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Babbitt: environmental steward or sellout?
Critics say the 'green' the ex-governor cares about more is money he gets to represent developers.
Former interior secretary and Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt has stepped through the revolving door.  Once viewed as the federal government's most vigilant protector of the environment, Babbitt is cashing in on his government expertise to help developers and other business interests in the United States and abroad in his job as a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer.  In addition to helping prominent Tucson developer Donald Diamond negotiate land swaps for properties in Ironwood Forest National Monument, which was detailed in Thursday's Tucson Citizen, Babbitt has represented Washington Mutual and the Hearst Ranch, two of the largest developers on the California coast.  "Since he has stepped down as interior secretary he has been on the developers' side," said Daniel R. Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tucson Citizen All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                July 30, 2001
                Bruce Babbitt: Man Without Shame

                August 21, 2001
                Babbitt: I Was Wronged!

Opinion: Environmental Word Games
Whenever the Republicans find themselves in trouble on environmental issues, the call goes out for Frank Luntz, a respected party strategist. Back in 1995, Mr. Luntz urged the party to soften its language when it became clear that the Gingrich revolution had gone too far in its attacks on environmental law. Mr. Luntz is now making the same point. In a memorandum recently described by The Times's Jennifer 8. Lee, he warns that after two years of regulatory rollbacks, environmental issues have become "the single biggest vulnerability for the Republicans and especially for George Bush."  Mr. Luntz's remedy is not to change the policy, but to dress it up with warm and fuzzy words. As in 1995, he says that the problem is one of communication, and that what must be done is to start using comforting words like "balance," "common sense," "safer," "cleaner" and "healthier."  So far, Mr. Bush has been following the strategy to the letter.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

14-March-03

New mercury warning falls short
State adopted less stringent FDA guidelines for its pamphlet              
Florida’s updated health advisory on avoiding fish with high levels of toxic mercury — increased from a one-page flier in 1997 to a six-page pamphlet — still doesn’t provide consumers with the safest advice on mercury.  Instead, the Florida Department of Health brochure uses mercury amounts that are far higher than those the Environmental Protection Agency regards as safe for long-term diets.  Spotted sea trout — the state’s most popular recreationally caught fish — provide an example. Florida changed its advice for eating spotted sea trout caught in Southwest Florida waters by removing legal-size fish from its list of species recommended for limited consumption.  The result could allow those at highest risk from mercury damage — fetuses and children — to get twice the EPA-recommended dose.             
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

               Fish advisories

               Consumption advice

               Florida Department of Health

                Look up where you fish: Mercury consumption advisories
                sorted by county, waterway and type of fish *

                EPa's position: Read document that defines for official
                agencies key issues in mercury problem *

                * pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

Editorial: Upper Keys sits on precarious perch
Environmental groups in neighboring Miami-Dade have filed suit to block the widening of Krome Avenue.  Noted Keys author and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen, in his Sunday column, blasted the Florida Department of Community Affairs for supporting the proposal to four-lane Krome.  And he warned that if this scheme proceeds, then "rural southwest Miami-Dade will soon look like southwest Broward – an unbroken congealment of suburbs."  This has special impact on Upper Keys residents and businesses, who perch quite precariously on the backdoor to this vast stretch of open space in the southern third of Miami-Dade County.  And it offers testament to the adage that more roads equal more development equal more congestion, in a spiral that too often causes more harm than good.  Here in the Keys, debate over widening the 18-Mile Stretch of U.S. 1 sounds suspiciously similar to the refrain being chanted now in Miami.     
Copyright  © 2003  Keynoter  All rights reserved.

Governor criticizes Collier in Southern Golden Gate Estates land buy
Gov. Jeb Bush angrily postponed a key land buy Thursday after learning that speculators had positioned themselves to profit from state Everglades restoration efforts in Southern Golden Gate Estates.  “We need to start second guessing Collier County on this,” Bush said during a Cabinet meeting after state workers told him officials there had enabled the purchases by allowing land destined for government purchase to be privately acquired and then divided into smaller parcels for resale to the state.  “It makes no sense in terms of real-world common sense to have our partner on this — a county government — going one way and us going another,” Bush said, adding that the relationship between the Collier tax collector and property appraiser and the two speculators made him “queasy."  Officials for both offices denied any wrongdoing.    
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Metro report: The board of the South Florida Water Management District took the following actions Thursday:
Palm Beach County water: Voted 9-0 to let Palm Beach County supply 67 percent more water to residents and businesses by 2023, an increase that water managers say won't harm efforts to replenish the Everglades. The county says it will increase its recycling of highly treated sewage, allowing it to replace the extra water it takes from the ground. The county supplies water to unincorporated areas and a few small municipalities.  Pal-Mar purchase: Voted 7-0 to pay $3 million to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for 2,033 acres in the marshy Pal-Mar area of Palm Beach and Martin counties. Martin County will pay $667,000 of the cost. Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard and County Administrator Russ Blackburn praised the purchase, part of a years-long effort to buy the foundation's Hartsel Ranch.        
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 14, 2003
                Water district to monitor land buys

Water district to monitor land buys
A third of the way through a $2.3 billion land-buying spree, water managers want to take a closer look at how they're doing it.  Board members of the South Florida Water Management District agreed Thursday to take a personal role in reviewing their staff's land buys before voting on the deals. That includes scrutiny of the appraisals and lawsuit settlements that often drive up the prices.  "I think it's important that a governing board member listen to the arguments of staff on why we should pay 20 percent more, why we should pay more, why we should settle," said board member Trudi Williams of Fort Myers, who proposed the idea. "We're talking about huge sums of money."  Williams' proposal came 2 1/2 weeks after The Palm Beach Post published a series examining the deals, including one in which district-hired appraisers pegged the value of a rock mine at anywhere from $17.6 million to $164 million. The board voted in December to buy the land for $139 million.    
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 14, 2003
                Metro report: The board of the South Florida Water Management District took the following actions Thursday

Wildlife Refuge System: 100 years old
Teddy Roosevelt. John James Audubon. Rachel Carson. These famous names are synonymous with the conservation and protection of our land and wildlife.  But it was an obscure Floridian named Paul Kroegel who played a vital role in the creation of one our nation's greatest treasures, the National Wildlife Refuge System. In doing so, he demonstrated that one person -- with dedication and fearless conviction -- can make a contribution for conservation that will last for generations. His life reminds us that we, too, can make a difference.  Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the refuge system with a ceremony on Pelican Island, a sliver of land off the coast of Florida. On March 14, 1903, Roosevelt signed an executive order setting aside this important bird rookery as the first national wildlife refuge.        
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                National Wildlife Refuges in Florida
                (Click for links to home pages)

                        Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
                        Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge
                        Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge
                        Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge
                        Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge
                        Passage Key National Wildlife Refuge
                        Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge
                        Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge
                        J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge
                        Caloosahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
                        Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge
                        Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge
                        Pine Island National Wildlife Refuge
                        Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge
                        Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge
                        Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge
                        Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
                        Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge
                        Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge
                        Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge
                        St. John's National Wildlife Refuge
                        National Key Deer Refuge
                        Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge
                        Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge
                        Key West National Wildlife Refuge
                        St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge
                        St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge

Press Release: DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS CHALLENGE GOVERNOR ON EVERGLADES AND SIDE WITH POLLUTERS
Will America's Everglades get clean water as proposed by Governor Bush?
A coalition of major state and national environmental organizations called on Governor Bush and DEP Secretary David Struhs urging them to stand firm in defense of America's Everglades, maintaining their current science backed positions, and insist on a 10 part per billion phosphorus standard for the Everglades that protects the whole ecosystem.  The coalition concerned with water quality in America's imperiled Everglades has condemned the action of South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) board members who on Wednesday joined with major polluters in an effort to block the cleanup of phosphorous pollution.  At Wednesday's SFWMD meeting, the board agreed to a policy position that had been drafted by the sugar industry.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Audubon Society  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 13, 2003
                Everglades pollution plan may change

National Briefing: Rockies
MONTANA: WOLF MANAGEMENT PLAN The state's plan for managing gray wolves would maintain at least 15 breeding pairs in the state, but would allow ranchers to kill animals that threaten their livestock. That proposal, part of a draft environmental impact statement, details how the state wants to manage wolves once they are removed from federal protection, which is expected next year. State officials said the plan's success rested on whether the federal government would help pay the $800,000 annual cost. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

13-March-03

Developer Gets Rent-Free Deal on Federal Land
The Army Corps of Engineers owns 456 lakes in 43 states, and under federal rules, private developers must pay fair market value to lease land from the corps along those lakes. But Ronald W. Howell, an Oklahoma lobbyist, a consultant and a prominent Republican fund-raiser, is one developer who recently found a cheaper way.  Last month, Mr. Howell and his\ company, StateSource L.L.C., signed a 50-year rent-free lease on 280 acres of lakefront at Skiatook Lake in Oklahoma, not far from Tulsa.  The deal was a sublease, between StateSource and the Skiatook Economic Development Authority, which had just leased the land free from the corps under an exemption that allows such arrangements for government agencies.  The authority then handed off the property to Mr. Howell, with the corps' full approval. Mr. Howell and his lobbying and communications company plan to build a $10 million marina, golf and cabin complex and, in the process, turn a profit. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Everglades pollution plan may change
The super-strict Everglades pollution limit endorsed by Gov. Jeb Bush could be in jeopardy because of what Bush's water managers did Wednesday, a leading environmental lobbyist warned.  And all because of 63 bureaucratic words.  Those words are contained in changes to a draft Everglades cleanup plan that won an informal endorsement Wednesday from the board of the South Florida Water Management District.  Depending on who is interpreting them, the changes could persuade lawmakers or regulators to allow phosphorus pollution levels in the Everglades as high as 15 parts per billion, Audubon of Florida lobbyist Charles Lee said.  That's a 50 percent leap above the 10 parts per billion that Bush and his staff endorsed just over a year ago.  "I find that politically a little bizarre," said Lee, who denounced the proposal as "a lobbying stunt by the sugar industry." 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 14, 2003
                Press Release: DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS CHALLENGE
                GOVERNOR ON EVERGLADES AND SIDE WITH POLLUTERS

Hundreds of dead puffer fish washing ashore in southwest Florida
Evidence of red tide has been found along the shores of two southwest Florida counties, which can partly explain why hundreds of puffer fish washed up on a beach, scientists said.  Red tide showed up in water samples taken along the Collier and Lee county coast and offshore, according to results released Friday from the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg.  Lee County volunteers this week collected more than 650 striped burrfish, a type of puffer fish, from a 2-mile stretch of Bonita Beach.  "We're no longer having fish dying without a cause," said Earnest Truby, a scientist at the research center.  Results are expected next week that could show whether something other than red tide had a role, researchers said.  Fish kills are often caused in the area by red tide, a bloom of algae that produces toxins fatal to fish.  Four of the dead fish were sent to scientists at the Florida Marine Research Institute. 
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                On the Net:
                Florida Marine Research Institute

Water management chairman from east coast
Fort Myers’ Trudi Williams completes her term
Water management leadership shifted back to the east coast Wednesday as Fort Myers engineer Trudi Williams handed the reins to Nicolas Gutierrez Jr.  The South Florida Water Management District oversees the $8 billion Everglades restoration and manages water supply and flood control over 16 counties from the Kissimmee River valley to the Florida Keys.  Taking turns in the top seat is normal but means less clout for Southwest Florida, said Bill Hammond, an environment professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and former board member.  “It does, I think, because the chair is on the inside on the budget and all that,” Hammond said. “It’s all that subtle indirect stuff that you miss."  Williams said the opposite may be true.  “I think we can actually be more productive behind the scenes rather than as chair,” Williams said.                 
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Editorial: Refuge for a century
Pelican Island, the birthplace of America's national wildlife refuge system, marks its 100-year anniversary on Friday. The 2-acre island in the Indian River Lagoon south of Sebastian was the start of a national refuge system that has grown to include 538 sites and 150,000 square miles of preserved lands across the U.S. -- including the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge in Martin County and the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boca Raton.  President Theodore Roosevelt saved the island as the nation's first wildlife refuge in 1903 at the behest of Paul Kroegel and other conservationists who asked him to protect Florida's wild birds from poachers who killed them for feathers for ladies' hats. Mr. Kroegel, a 37-year-old German immigrant, patrolled the island from a sailboat and used a double-barreled shotgun to warn poachers away from the bird haven. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Both Sides Confident as Senate Nears Vote on Alaska Drilling
As the Senate neared a close vote on whether to allow oil drilling in the Alaska wilderness, each side in the debate expressed confidence that it would prevail.  Oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is among the highest priorities of the Bush administration, and the Senate's switch to Republican control after the November elections has put the drilling plan in closer reach than last year, when the Senate rejected it, 54 to 46.  Supporters are seeking to persuade wavering senators with an argument that increased domestic oil production is needed more than ever on the approach of a possible war with Iraq and with gasoline prices rising sharply.  "In the last few months alone, our oil imports from Iraq have doubled," said Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is a leading proponent of drilling. "We're paying Saddam Hussein billions of dollars for gasoline and aviation fuel to send our aircraft carriers and troops to fight him. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

12-March-03

Florida's Rarest Visitors This Year Are Flying In on Their Own Wings
Most birdwatchers keep lists of some sort. They keep lists of all of the birds they've seen everywhere, which is called a life list.  But they also keep lists of the birds they've seen in their state, county or backyard.  One aspect of the list keeping, as least for me, is trying to predict which species of birds are the most likely to be the next I'll find in Florida. I guess you could call it my "bird wish list."  My most recent list envisioned closing in on 400 species for Florida.  I'm nearly there, but some of the species I've seen to advance toward my goal weren't on my list. Some of them weren't on anyone's list.  The latest surprise was a Eurasian kestrel, a type of falcon, discovered at the Lake Apopka restoration area near Zellwood in Orange County late last month. This is a species that isn't even depicted in most of the North American field guides. 
Copyright  © 2003  The Ledger  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Pelican Island's 100th: a time to recommit
At 5-feet 6-inches tall, Paul Kroegel wasn't a big man. But he was big enough to stand up against the hurricane-force wind of slaughter a century ago, and win.  Kroegel stopped hunters from decimating flocks of pelicans that inhabited the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian because their plumes made fanciful decorations atop women's hats.  President Theodore Roosevelt heard about Kroegel's crusade, and was inspired to create the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and with it found the National Wildlife Refuge System.  Today, the system consists of 540 refugees sprawling over 95 million acres, from the Alaskan arctic to the Florida tropics in a grand mosaic of protected land and animals that has no equal in the world.  On Friday, dignitaries will gather to mark the island's 100th birthday and the centennial of the wildlife system. 
Copyright  © 2003  Florida Today  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                Warden Paul Kroegel, Pelican Island - 1917 First Wildlife Officer and Refuge Manager
                   Images
                      http://training.fws.gov/history/pelisle/paulk.html
                      http://training.fws.gov/history/directoratehall/topics/mans.jpg
                   Monument
                      http://www.byways.org/image_library/media_details.html?CX_MEDIA=36187
                   Bio (1 page, PDF) *
                      http://pelicanisland.fws.gov/media/KroegelFlyer.pdf

                * pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

Opinion: There's More Than One Way to Protect Wetlands
Every year, the federal government and Americans across the country preserve, restore and enhance thousands of acres of wetlands through cooperative conservation efforts, partnerships and voluntary programs. Unfortunately, that's not the news that most Americans read about. Instead, the focus has been on the wetlands regulatory program.  Wetlands are essential to a healthy environment. They filter water, provide habitat for wildlife and offer opportunities for recreation. Over the past century, the United States has lost slightly more than half its wetlands, leaving about 105 million acres of intertidal basins, coastal estuaries, saltwater marshes and freshwater ponds, swamps and lakeside areas.  The debate is not whether to protect wetlands, but how. For the last 25 years, government officials and environmental activists have largely relied on the Clean Water Act's regulations to protect wetlands. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                March 17, 2003
                Letter: Conserving Wetlands

National Briefing: West
CALIFORNIA: INJUNCTION AGAINST TREE-SITTERS A request from Pacific Lumber Company for a temporary restraining order against environmental activists who are occupying redwood trees on company property was granted on Monday by a Humboldt County Superior Court judge. Activists have been protesting Pacific Lumber's logging practices by sitting high in the branches of at least 18 trees near Freshwater Creek, which empties into Humboldt Bay.  (AP) 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

11-March-03

Group backs lake releases
The County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake Okeechobee and St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries met Monday morning at the Okeechobee County Courthouse.  The coalition, made up of commissioners from Okeechobee, St. Lucie, Martin, Lee, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades and Highlands counties passed a resolution encouraging Osceola County to join the coalition.  Commissioner Sara Heard of Martin County suggested that the entire ecological system be treated as an integrated whole, and warned against crisis management.  Glades County Commissioner Alvin Ward said there was restoration work going on south of Moore Haven. He said South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) gave the Glades County commissioners an update on restoration of Lake Hicpochee. He said the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wants to take in more Glades County land for reservoirs. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Zap - Okeechobee News  All rights reserved.

The Charles Atlas of Algae
The Charles Atlas of Algae
Diatoms, algae that are major components of plankton, are proof that small is beautiful. Their silica shells, called frustules, are exquisitely ornamented, symmetrical structures.  But a diatom is more than just a pretty face. Its frustule is a form of armor that can protect the diatoms from predators. Just how much protection the typical diatom frustule offers has been determined by scientists in Germany, who performed load tests on several species.  Engineers perform these kinds of tests all the time — putting thousands of pounds of pressure on an aircraft part, say, until it breaks. The diatom tests were the same, but since diatoms are on the order of 100 microns in diameter, very tiny amounts of force were applied, using a microscopic glass needle. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Debating Whether Oil Wells and Wilderness Mix
A leading question in the debate over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska is whether wilderness can coexist with oil wells on America's only Arctic coast.  Alaska's North Slope, after all, is a place with a freeze-thaw climate that can turn a tire rut into a permanent geological feature. In the warm months, its treeless plains are cloaked with breeding birds, caribou and bear. Offshore, pods of bowhead whales are still hunted by Alaska Natives.  Last week, a panel of scientists, oil industry consultants and environmentalists organized by the National Academies, the nation's closest thing to a scientific arbitrator, completed a two-year assessment. Their task was to measure the effects of 35 years of expanding seismic thumping, drilling and pipeline construction west of the refuge, in the web of industrial activity spreading out from the site of the first big find, in Prudhoe Bay. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

09-March-03

Keep Krome as a two-lane road
Despite all the noble talk about restoring the Everglades, Florida's planners continue to act schizophrenically toward the fabled river of grass.  A prime example is the decision by the state Department of Community Affairs to endorse the four-laning of Krome Avenue from Okeechobee Road all the way to Homestead.  If that's allowed to happen, rural southwest Miami-Dade will soon look like southwest Broward -- an unbroken congealment of suburbs. This time, though, it will be the fragile rim of Everglades National Park being paved and polluted. Considering the billions being committed to replumb and renourish the 'Glades, it seems crazy to encourage rampant development throughout the adjoining wetlands.  Yet that's exactly what widening Krome is intended to do. The farms, nurseries and five-acre ranchettes between Kendall and Homestead represent the last buildable open spaces in Miami-Dade. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Color Them Green (or Greedy)
A lot of publications marshal facts and figures to influence car-buying decisions. The latest, 2003 edition of "ACEEE's Green Book" is no exception, though it doesn't provide the usual fodder of top speeds or zero-to-60 acceleration times.  Rather, the publication offers lesser-known measures like the "environmental damage index" of a car, plus estimates of the health care costs to society from the pollution produced by a particular model. The Green Book is published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an environmental group in Washington.  The Green Book also ranks cars by environmental standards. "The mantra of our book is to encourage consumers to buy the greenest vehicle that fits their needs and their budget," said James Kleisch, the co-author (with John DeCicco). "We don't say, `Stay away from pickup trucks.' We say that if you're going to buy a pickup, here's the greenest one on the market." 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

'Coal': Sovereign of the Industrial Age
When I was a boy growing up in West Virginia, I would lie in bed at night listening to a small AM radio, eager to hear ''Joy to the World'' (the Three Dog Night song, not the carol -- hey, I was 10) or straining to stay awake for Roberto Clemente's next at-bat in the Pirates game. In the course of these pursuits, I also became familiar with a ritual announcement that hit the air every night around 10 o'clock, and that I can still repeat verbatim. ''The following operations of Consolidation Coal will work the midnight shift: the Arkwright Mine, the Osage Mine, the Humphrey Mine, the Pursglove Mine. . . ."  Be assured that no other trade enjoyed the benefit of having its work shifts announced on the local airwaves. But that's how omnipresent ''king coal,'' as the mineral is sometimes called, was. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Ancient Dunes vs. Exotic Trees

Next to the Presidio Golf Club, a small grove 
of Monterey cypress trees that  were planted 
by the Army back in the late 1700's have 
been reforested after many trees have 
been blown down by high winds.

From the city's hilltops, the trees of the Presidio form luxurious green plumage against winter's crystalline skies.  When the United States Army planted this urban forest — now a 1,480-acre national park — on ridges and wind-swept sand dunes in the 1880's, it imbued the trees of what was then a military post with deep symbolism. Maj. W. A. Jones, the landscape engineer, wrote that soaring Monterey cypress, eucalyptus and other trees would make the base appear imposing and "indirectly accentuate the idea of the power of government."  San Franciscans take their history and horticulture seriously. So it is probably not surprising that a philosophical tempest has erupted over a draft plan by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, now under review, that suggests removing 3,800 trees to re-establish the sand dunes that once blanketed the landscape. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

08-March-03

Bay housing project gets the go-ahead
Environmental groups upset, saying water flow will suffer
Federal regulators will allow Lennar Corp. to build up to 3,000 new homes near Biscayne Bay, where they will sit amid a narrow swath of struggling coastal wetlands targeted for revival in the Everglades restoration plan.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday it plans to approve a major expansion of Lakes by the Bay in South Miami-Dade.  Damage would be minimized by a 145-acre wetlands preserve the developer has agreed to set aside on the 516-acre site, the Corps said.  Environmentalists, who have been fighting the project for a year, were disappointed. They said it could undermine plans to clean up water flowing into Biscayne National Park and set a bad precedent of allowing big development in the footprint of an Everglades project. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Water district chair reappointed
South Florida Water Management District Chairwoman Trudi K. Williams was reappointed on Friday by Gov. Jeb Bush, his office announced.  Williams, 49, heads a consulting engineering firm in Fort Myers.  Irela M. Bague, 34, of Coral Gables, a former district permit and public affairs representative and former Audubon Society executive, was named to succeed board member Gerardo "Jerry" Fernandez.  Kevin McCarty, 53, of Delray Beach, a managing director of the Bear Stearns investment bank and husband of Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, succeeds board member Pat Gleason.  Fernandez and Gleason opted not to seek new terms. The terms run through March 2007. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Oil and Gas Industry Exempt From New Clean Water Rules
New clean water regulations requiring small construction sites to develop plans for storm water will not apply to the oil and gas industries, officials of the Environmental Protection Agency said today.  The new rules, which take effect on Monday, will require construction sites bigger than one acre to have plans to handle storm water, which can carry chemical and metal runoff from the disturbed soil. Existing rules already require such plans for sites larger than five acres.  The agency says it is giving the oil and gas industries a two-year exemption from the requirement at the smaller sites while it conducts further study. Critics in national environmental groups and in Congress say the oil and gas industries are taking advantage of close ties to the administration to lay political groundwork for broader exemptions to the Clean Water Act.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Firm Puts Swath of Adirondacks Up for Sale
A 94,000-acre swath of forest in the Adirondacks has been put up for sale by the company that owns the land, raising concern among conservationists who fear that developers may buy chunks of it before it can be preserved.  The company, the Hancock Timber Resource Group, a subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services Inc., began sending out 32-page reports last Friday describing the land to a wide-range of prospective buyers and will accept bids until May 21. Henry Whittemore, the northeast regional manager for Hancock Timber, would not estimate the value of the property, but he said the company could withdraw the sale if it does not receive a favorable bid.  About 40,000 acres of the 93,911-acre property are already protected by conservation easements, which bar development but allow recreation and a certain amount of logging.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Europe's Carmakers Sticking With Diesel
Chalk it up to the widening gap in the way Europeans and Americans look at the world.  Last week, General Motors brought its prototype of a hydrogen-powered car to the Geneva International Motor Show. The futuristic car, known as the Hy-Wire, had just gotten a nice lift from President Bush, who was photographed admiring it after announcing that the government would put $1.7 billion into researching hydrogen as a replacement for gasoline.  In the salons of Geneva, however, the Hy-Wire sat forlornly next to a prototype of a monstrous Cadillac with a 16-cylinder engine. The crowds all but ignored the car, preferring to swarm around the latest Mini, which is made by the plucky English carmaker owned by BMW of Germany.  What was the attraction? The new Mini has a diesel engine.  To be fair, the Mini is rolling out this summer, while the Hy-Wire is merely a twinkle in the eye of automotive engineers.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

07-March-03

Manatee sides try to work out deal
New protection rules may be delayed while talks occur
New manatee protection measures could be put on hold in Florida while both sides of the controversy work on a permanent solution.  That means that new boating speed zones proposed for the Caloosahatchee River and other manatee protection measures, such as tougher restrictions on boat dock permits in Southwest Florida, could be delayed.  Officials from state and federal agencies, environmental groups, marine industry representatives and boaters met in Orlando on Tuesday to begin discussing a compromise.  It’s the first time the parties in the controversy have had meaningful discussions to resolve the situation that is creating hardships for boat-dock builders who can’t get permits. Boaters also claim that new speed zones will harm recreational boating and the marine industry in general.  But there’s a catch.  All the parties have to agree.   
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Study of Antarctic Points to Rising Sea Levels
New evidence from a rapidly warming part of Antarctica suggests that ice can flow into the sea much more readily than had been predicted, perhaps leading to an accelerated rise in sea levels from global warming.  Many polar and ice experts said the new study, to be published today in the journal Science, suggested that seas might rise as much as several yards over the next several centuries. They called that prospect a slow-motion disaster, the cost of which — in lost shorelines, salt in water supplies, and damaged ecosystems — would be borne by many future generations.  The new analysis focuses on the recent breakup of one of the floating ice shelves fringing the 1,000-mile Antarctic Peninsula after decades of warming temperatures there. The loss of the coastal shelves caused a "drastic" speedup of the seaward flow of inland glaciers, the researchers say.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Stricter Rules for Modified Crops
In an effort to prevent contamination of the food supply, the Agriculture Department announced stricter rules yesterday for crops that are genetically modified to produce pharmaceuticals or industrial chemicals.  The rules were criticized as inadequate by two groups usually opposed to each other, opponents of biotechnology and the food industry.  The growing of such crops, sometimes called pharming or biopharming, is in the experimental stage. Companies in the field say the process may one day manufacture proteins for pharmaceuticals at lower cost and in greater amounts than is now possible. Genetically modified crops might also allow the development of vaccines that can be eaten instead of injected.  But there are concerns that such crops might inadvertently enter the food supply, posing a possible danger to public health and forcing costly recalls.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

06-March-03

Revised:  11/16/03