MIAMI — The legacy of William Hoeveler may be 15 years spent policing a complex lawsuit mired in biology and hydrology that is intended to restore the Everglades to its bygone days as a free-flowing, slow-growth marsh.
Best known as the judge who sent Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to prison in 1992, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines in the spring by saying a new Everglades law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was "clearly defective" even before it was signed. The law would extend some of the deadlines for Everglades restoration.
Stiffened by a stroke and back trouble but still ramrod straight in person and in deed, the judge insists the federal and state governments are bound by their commitments to him in a 1992 consent decree — no matter what state lawmakers concoct.
Read more
26-June-03
Letter to the Editor:
Cleanup timetable 'flexibility'
may end up choking Everglades
By Mark D. Perry, Executive
Director of the Florida Oceanographic Society
© Palm Beach Post
Here are a few points that the
public needs to know about the new law (SB 626) signed by the governor
that rewrites the Everglades Forever Act. On March 12, the South Florida
Water Management District governing board overwhelmingly endorsed the
draft conceptual plan for achieving long-term water-quality goals in the
Everglades Protection Area tributary basins. The board made two
modifications to this plan: It "acknowledged the need for flexibility
in achieving the water-quality goals in the Everglades and changed the
plan objective to obtain, to the maximum extent practicable, a predicted
long-term geometric mean phosphorus concentration in discharges to the
Everglades Protection Area" and defined a more realistic pace toward
achieving the phosphorus criterion. The board directed staff to implement
a
second 10-year phase (2017-2026) of continuous improvement in phosphorous
reduction as necessary to achieve the plan objective. The "long-term
plan" referred to above (more than 500 pages) is embodied in the new
law. The "glitch bill" may have removed the phrase "to the
maximum extent practicable," but the "second 10-year phase"
still will allow the phosphorous pollution to continue until 2026, 23
years past the 2003 original deadline.
Read
more
EPA May Ease Its Drinking Water Rules
By Neil Johnson
© Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Every day, 640 million
gallons of sewage in Florida is injected deep underground, where it's
supposed to stay far away from drinking water supplies. But what goes down
is coming up, migrating into portions of the aquifer that cities and
counties tap for their water supplies, a violation of current federal
regulations governing drinking water. Officials from the federal
Environmental Protection Agency were in Tampa on Wednesday to get public
opinion about a controversial proposal to relax those rules and allow
what's called deep-well injection of sewage to continue, even if the
treated effluent is mixing with drinking water. Changes are opposed by
environmental groups, but utilities - mainly in South Florida - want the
regulations altered. The change would apply only to Florida. Although the
vast majority of the injected sewage is in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm
Beach counties, St. Petersburg uses that method to dispose of an average
of 20 million gallons a day - about 3 percent of the state's total and
almost exclusively during the rainy season when demand for its reclaimed
water hits bottom. Either of two changes the EPA is considering could cost
the city's sewer customers dearly. Read
more
Sugar's bitter aftertaste
Editorial
© Orlando Sentinel
Our position: The mistake made
by the governor and legislators is creating trouble for the Everglades.
For weeks, the sugar industry and the Bush administration pooh-poohed
threats by congressional appropriators that an odious bill delaying
Everglades restoration for a decade could imperil federal funding. Drawing
once again from their bottomless pit of arrogance, the sugar barons
dismissed the warnings as so much ill-informed chatter. Gov. Jeb Bush
followed suit, signing the bill into law despite repeated federal
objections. Well, the consequences of their "we-know-best"
attitude now are becoming manifest. A powerful House subcommittee last
week attached strict stipulations to Everglades funding, requiring the
state to honor prior commitments to improve the quality of water flowing
into the fabled River of Grass or risk federal participation in the
restoration effort. Read
more
Letter to the Editor: Laws help
Everglades
By Michael
Collins, SFWMD Governing Board Member
© Key West Citizen
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
The Citizen is awfully quick to falsely accuse state legislators of
"shirking responsibility" regarding funding for Everglades
cleanup, when, in
reality, the newspaper is shirking its own responsibility to get the facts
straight before publishing inaccurate and uninformed tirades. When stories
and editorials are based primarily on quotes from Audubon professional
lobbyists and master media manipulator Mary Barley, the newspaper's
readers are sure to be shortchanged when it comes to a balanced
perspective of the issue. As these and other environmental extremist
groups are well aware, the amended Everglades Forever Act did not shift
the funding burden away from sugar growers and onto the public. It is not
some kind of veiled -- or overt -- attempt to let the sugar industry off
the hook. In reality, it continues the shared responsibility concept of
the original law which recognizes that we all, in one way or another,
contribute to the problem and, therefore, must contribute to the solution.
It is important to note, however, that the new law does increase and
extend the funding obligations of area farmers. Read
more
Florida Panther Lawsuits Filed
News Release
© National Wildlife
Federation
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National
Wildlife Federation, the nation's leading conservation education and
advocacy organization, and two Florida conservation groups today filed two
separate legal actions in Federal District Court here seeking action to
protect the rapidly diminishing habitat of the severely endangered Florida
panther. In one action, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the
Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF) and the Florida Panther Society (FPS)
are asking the court to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to stop construction of the
Florida Rock Industries'
Ft. Myers Mine #2 until the mine's effect on the Florida panther is more
thoroughly investigated. In a second action, NWF and the Florida Panther
Society are challenging the
Corps' use of the Clean Water Act's permitting process which has resulted
in the loss of substantial tracts of habitat deemed essential to the
panther's survival. In the Ft. Myers Mine case, government wildlife
biologists have identified the land the Corps has approved for development
as important panther habitat. "Both the law and sound science argue
persuasively against the Corps decision to authorize this substantial
sacrifice of habitat panther need just to have a chance to survive,"
said John Kostyack, NWF senior counsel.
Read
more
Alliance still willing to negotiate
Martin County Commissioners rejected a settlement Tuesday.
By Jim Turner
© Stuart News
MARTIN COUNTY - Time is running
out on efforts to settle an environmental group's challenge to the
county's Comprehensive Plan, because a judge is expected to rule on the
case soon, the group said Wednesday. The Martin County Conservation
Alliance has challenged changes to the public facilities section of the
Comprehensive Growth Management Plan that make it easier to build public
facilities such as schools and fire stations by waiving strict development
regulations. The County Commission on Tuesday rejected a settlement
proposal and voted to continue negotiations for another two weeks.
Alliance members said Wednesday they are still open to a settlement.
However, they don't expect to reach a deal before an administrative law
judge releases his ruling on the case.
Read
more
Sulfurous stink no cause for alarm in
PSL
The smell comes from water being treated with a new product at the city's
water treatment plant
By Robin Campbell
© Stuart News
PORT ST. LUCIE - Residents who
may have detected a hint of rotten eggs in the air the past few days can
quit sniffing around the home and yard looking for leftover Easter goods.
The smell is Florida's natural water being treated by one of the city's
neighborhood water treatment plants. The city's utility department on
Wednesday began testing a new product at
its Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant on Ogden Lane that is designed
to dissipate the natural rotten egg-like smell of water taken from
Florida's aquifer. During the 30-day trial some residents within a couple
of blocks of the plant could detect the natural odors while utility crews
perfect the new process. "It's like a pinch of this and a dash of
that. We've got to get the formula right," said Donna Rhoden, public
information manager for the city's utility
department. "The smell is a transitional period while we're
fine-tuning the process." Read
more
Carol Browner Elected National Audubon
Society Chair
© National
Audubon Society
New York, NY, June 26, 2003 -
Carol M. Browner, the longest serving administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency, has been elected chair of the National Audubon Society
Board of Directors. Browner will be the first woman to chair Audubon, and
is one of few women to hold such a position at a major conservation
organization. "It is truly a privilege to help lead such a
distinguished organization," Browner said at the announcement of her
election. "Audubon has been at the forefront of environmental issues
since the turn of the century when two determined women founded the first
Audubon Chapter. Today, it is again leading the way, educating a whole new
generation of Americans about the need to protect bird and wildlife
habitat and to fight for clean water and clean air." Browner will
replace Donal C. O'Brien when he retires this fall after having served 12
years as Audubon Chair. Browner joined the Audubon Board in 2001 and
currently oversees its Public Policy Committee. Browner served as EPA
Administrator from 1993 to 2001. Throughout her tenure at the EPA, Browner
was guided by the philosophy that safeguarding the environment meant
protecting where people live and how they live. She partnered with
business leaders, community advocates, and all levels of government to
promote common sense, cost-effective solutions to the nation's most
pressing environmental and public health problems. Read
more
25-June-03
Spin cycle can't rinse out
pollution
By Sally Swartz,
Editorial Writer
© Palm Beach Post
I seldom find much to applaud
about the way the Bush brothers handle environmental issues. But President
Bush, Gov. Bush -- and sometimes officials at their environmental
agencies, which are supposed to be impartial -- are experts at
"spin." They are masters at altering facts, changing rules and
standards and complicating simple information so that
truth is either elusive or invisible. Last week, the White House altered a
section of the Environmental Protection Agency's report on the state of
the environment to reflect the views of the energy industry on global
warming. The EPA's own views, based on scientific
studies, warned that pollution from automobiles and factories is affecting
the environment and public health. The Bush administration rewrite decided
global warming is a "theory." In Florida this week, watch for
more spin on the need to pump wastewater underground. The EPA is holding
hearings on whether to change rules that allow treated sewage to be pumped
deep below the Earth's surface, despite evidence that the polluted
wastewater is moving, contaminating drinking-water supplies and surfacing
on the ocean floor, feeding algae that
smothers reefs. The federal agency is cooperating with Florida's
Department of Environmental Protection to try to weaken standards only in
South Florida, which has more deep-injection wells than any other part of
the United States. If the EPA doesn't change its rule, said Scott
Randolph, attorney with the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, it
would have
to enforce the law and shut down the disposal wells that are
leaking. Read
more
Buoy system could save manatees
By Bob Keefe
© Palm Beach Post
SAN DIEGO -- Using technology
designed for fish-finders and submarine tracking equipment, researchers
here are developing a floating warning system that would alert Florida
boaters to slow down whenever a manatee is near. The system would be
connected to flashing buoys in areas where manatees are common, creating
something like a school-crossing zone to protect the slow-moving mammals.
"It would be just like when the kids get out of school and the
flashing lights go off warning people to slow down," said Jules
Jaffe, a research oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who
is helping lead the project. Also participating is the Hubbs-SeaWorld
Research Institute. Last year, more than 300 manatees died in Florida
waters, according to state figures. About 30 percent of those deaths were
attributed to boats. The sonar system is one of six manatee avoidance
projects being funded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission's Florida Marine Research Institute. The Florida Legislature
two years ago agreed to spend $200,000 on such research through the
institute in an effort to reduce the number of manatees killed or injured
by boats.
Read
more
Water managers won't close library
By Robert King
© Palm Beach Post
A second state library has
escaped the chopping block -- this time, the 54-year-old reference center
at the South Florida Water Management District. Water managers said
Tuesday they will keep the collection of more than 50,000 documents intact
at the district's headquarters in suburban West Palm Beach, rather then
sending most of it to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The
district had considered dismantling the library to save money and space.
But workers in the 1,800-employee agency wanted the documents to stay,
Executive Director Henry Dean said. "There are a lot of staff members
who really do use the library and
expressed a keen interest in having it remain," Dean said. So did
scientists and scholars outside. As a compromise, he said, the district
will install rolling shelves that reduce the number of aisles needed
between the stacks. That will let the district chop 6,000 square feet from
the library, which now occupies 12,600 square feet. Read
more
Wishing for reservoir fishing
Basin proposal excludes recreational use
By Byron Stout
© News-Press
John Denby of Punta Gorda teaches his
grandchildren, Trevor Schuler, 14,
back left, and Adrianna Denby, 13, front left, both from Punta Gorda, and
Amber Radli, 10, of West Palm Beach, how to fish at Webb Lake in Charlotte
County. Webb Lake, in the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area, is an
example of a manmade lake helping the environment and being used for
water-related
recreational purposes. The reservoir to be built in Hendry County
doesn’t call for any
water-related activities.
TODD STUBING/news-press.com
Fishermen and fishery
managers beam as if in the glow of a Christmas tree when they hear a
31-square-mile reservoir — potentially the seventh-largest lake in the
state — soon will be built in Southwest Florida. “We’re not creating
large lakes in the state of Florida anymore. It could be very exciting,”
said Ed Moyer, director of freshwater fisheries for the state’s Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission. Unfortunately, the news might be
exciting for birdwatchers and hikers but not for angling advocates.
Project engineers don’t see fishing in the reservoir’s future. Any
recreational uses, and they are all non-water related, are secondary to
the reservoir’s main functions. The C-43 Basin Reservoir is billed as a
Caloosahatchee River restoration project. Its main purpose will be to
catch massive water releases from Lake Okeechobee that have been
destroying the river’s ecosystem. Those waters then will be used for
agricultural and urban uses, and for environmentally appropriate releases
back into the river. Even though the plans don’t include fishing,
anglers and other recreation enthusiasts can give their opinions at public
hearings scheduled today and Thursday in Fort Myers and Clewiston by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management
District. Read
more
Related Links:
Everglades Restoration Page
http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/030406gladesmain.html
Fishing page:
http://cityguide.news-press.com/fe/Fishing/Search.asp
Outdoors page:
http://cityguide.news-press.com/fe/Recreation/Search.asp
Envrinonment page:
http://www.news-press.com/news/environment/index.html
Fla. Judge Fights To Preserve Everglades
By Catherine Wilson, Associated
Press Writer
© Guardian
Unlimited- United Kingdom
MIAMI (AP) - The legacy of
William Hoeveler may be 15 years spent policing a complex lawsuit mired in
biology and hydrology that is intended to restore the Everglades to its
bygone days as a free-flowing, slow-growth marsh. Best known as the judge
who sent Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to prison in 1992, the
80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines in the spring by saying a new
Everglades law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was
``clearly defective'' even before it was signed. The law would extend some
of the deadlines for Everglades restoration. Stiffened by a stroke and
back trouble but still ramrod straight in person and in deed, the judge
insists the federal and state governments are bound by their commitments
to him in a 1992 consent decree - no matter what state lawmakers concoct.
The agreement with the state dictates a 2006 deadline for cleaning up the
quality of water flowing into Everglades National Park from the broader
Everglades ecosystem above it. But sugar growers say Hoeveler's 15 years
of policing the Everglades is long enough. Claiming the judge has turned
into a bully with a political bent, they asked two courts to throw him off
the case for bias. They don't want him in charge of any more Everglades
hearings. Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
Senators Keen to Reform Endangered
Species Act
By J.R. Pegg
© Environmental News Service
Section 7 is designed to protect endangered
species - like the pygmy owl -
from the negative impacts of federal agency actions. (Photo by Robin
Silver courtesy Center
for Biological Diversity )
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2003 (ENS)
- Some Republican senators believe the requirement that federal agencies
consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine
Fisheries Service to ensure their actions do not jeopardize endangered
species has become too costly and time consuming. The process is burdening
federal agencies without producing measurable conservation benefits and
should be reformed, the senators said today at a subcommittee hearing.
This process needs "major surgery," said Alaska Senator Lisa
Murkowski, a Republican. "The potential for abuse remains inherent in
the statute as written." Under Section 7 of the Endangered Species
Act (ESA), all federal agencies must consult with either the Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) if
they believe any proposed action may affect the continued existence of any
endangered or threatened species. Murkowski and other critics of Section 7
say that it is a mass of red tape and is needlessly delaying federal
projects and permits, bogging down agencies with paperwork, and costing
private citizens and companies considerable money. "The services are
expending colossal resources on a process that produces a lot of paperwork
without a lot of positive impacts on recovery," said Senator Michael
Crapo, an Idaho Republican and chair of the Senate Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Water. Read
more
Ringleaders must stop risking 'Glades
funding
Editorial
© Keynoter
Waiting for the other shoe to
drop on Everglades funding? The wait ended last week when a key
congressional committee revoked $32 million promised to help Florida
acquire land needed for Everglades restoration. Worse than the loss of $32
million is the ominous warning that came with the rebuke. The budget
gatekeepers said future federal dollars pledged - about $4 billion of the
estimated $8.4 billion restoration cost - are also in jeopardy because it
looks as if Florida is stalling on its promised timetable to clean up the
River of Grass. The U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which
controls the flow of dollars critical to this massive 30-year restoration
effort, delivered the message after earlier warnings from GOP leaders in
Congress fell on deaf ears. Read
more
24-June-03
Sugar's role in cleanup rapped
By Libby Wells, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
STUART -- There was a lot of
talk about sugar Monday night at a public workshop on Everglades
restoration. But none of it was sweet. Florida's
sugar industry has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Treasure Coast
residents, judging by the comments at a forum organized by the Marine
Resources Council that was held at the Blake Library. The
recent signing of a bill into law allowing for a delay in the Everglades
cleanup, which was supported by sugar growers, and the industry's
criticism of the now-stalled Indian River Lagoon restoration plan have
left many people fed up with Big Sugar. "We've
got to go into the national arena and stop the subsidy for sugar,"
said Stuart resident Charles Pierce. "There
are politicians around the U.S. who don't like the sugar subsidy,"
added Bill Thornton of Palm City. Read
more
23-June-03
Federal
judge scrutinized over Everglades remarks
Sugar industry: Comments show bias
By Jay Weaver and Curtis Morgan
© Miami
Herald
In the spring, a federal judge accused state legislators of messing with
the
court-ordered
Everglades cleanup, saying their bill was ''clearly
defective'' and that the governor was being ``misled by persons who do not
have the best interests of the Everglades at heart.''
Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler is about to learn whether his
unusually provocative comments will cost him the job of enforcing the
cleanup agreement that he orchestrated a decade ago.
The sugar industry is seeking to have the prominent Miami judge pulled off
the case, claiming his ''bully pulpit'' comments in court and to reporters
betray a bias against sugar interests.
Several
legal experts say Hoeveler may have entered the realm of impropriety
when he spoke with reporters about the Everglades case, but they stress
it's
rare for a federal judge to be removed over an issue of fairness -- unless
he says something flagrantly prejudicial.
Such removals are uncommon, because federal judges rarely talk publicly
about their cases. Possible punishment ranges from a public reprimand to
removal from a case.
Read more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
One
more chance
Editorial
© Orlando
Sentinel
Our
position: Gov. Bush can save the Wekiva basin by declaring it a
"critical concern." The future of the
Wekiva River basin, completion of a beltway around Orlando and the
containment of urban sprawl north of Apopka rest in the hands of Gov. Jeb
Bush. He alone has the ability to determine
Central Florida's destiny, to provide the environmental protections and
mobility options that Rep. Fred Brummer of Apopka almost single-handedly
scuttled during this year's legislative session.
To do so, however, Mr. Bush must take decisive action -- and soon. Further
study of 17 recommendations issued by a gubernatorial task force that
thoroughly examined how best to protect the Wekiva won't do the trick.
That's what land speculators and a handful of money-grubbing local
officials want. Led by Apopka Mayor John Land, those folks couldn't care
less if development robs the Wekiva of its water resources. They just want
the additional property tax revenues to bloat municipal coffers. Read
more
More library woes
Water Management District wants to dismantle
its library, too
Editorial
© Stuart News
This has been a tough year for
libraries. First Gov. Jeb Bush pushes plans to eliminate the state library
and archives in Tallahassee by giving them to Nova Southeastern University
in Broward County, and now the board of the South Florida Water Management
District wants to close down its libraries. Both moves are touted as
cost-saving initiatives. The economic
argument is shortsighted. Any savings realized from closing down the
libraries would be more than offset by the need for government staffers
and researchers to spend more time hunting down sources and bits of
information. Only someone who doesn't read much, and has no need to
research a specific issue, would make such a proposal. Read
more
22-June-03
Everglades' Straitjacket
Editorial
© The Ledger
Members of Congress
warned Florida legislators and Gov. Jeb Bush that if the state tampered
with its agreement to clean up the Everglades, the federal-state
partnership to fund the $8 billion project would be jeopardized. They
weren't kidding. The first batch of federal money to get the cleanup
started -- about $1 billion thus far -- was sent to the state to spend in
whatever way officials thought would move the plan forward. But last week,
Congress attached so many strings to future payments that they look like a
marionette's nightmare.
Read
more
Report card
Editorial
© Orlando
Sentinel
Our position: Legislators don't
have a very high average for this year's sessions. Lawmakers
and the governor properly hold public schools accountable by assigning
annual letter grades to measure performance. So it's only fair that they
be similarly assessed. How are they
doing? Is the state headed in the right direction? In what legislative
areas can they claim success? Unlike
most public schools, though, Gov. Jeb Bush and lawmakers have few
achievements to savor. After a bitter, 60-day session that produced hardly
a single piece of noteworthy legislation, lawmakers since have returned
twice to Tallahassee at the governor's behest to finish up their business.
And last week, they failed again to rein in soaring medical-malpractice
insurance costs. Read
more
21-June-03
An Everglades alarm
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
Worried that a
new state law means Florida won't keep its promise to clean up the
Everglades, a U.S. House panel has cut some Everglades restoration money
and tied strings on the rest to try to make the state keep its
commitments. Gov. Bush has said he'll convince federal lawmakers the new
law doesn't hurt the Everglades. Now is the time to start. But repeal
might be his only tool. Members of Florida's congressional delegation had
warned the Legislature not to pass the law, which the sugar industry
wrote, and Gov. Bush not to sign
it. The law amends the 1994 Everglades Forever Act and threatens to
violate a 1992 consent decree, muddying standards for clean water,
extending the cleanup deadline and shifting cleanup costs from sugar
industry polluters to state taxpayers. Florida and the federal government
are splitting the $8.4 billion restoration costs 50-50, but the new state
law has so unnerved federal partners not even Gov. Bush's personal visit
to Washington could reassure
Congress. The U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee revoked $32
million Congress had promised the state to buy land for restoration. The
subcommittee also insists Florida must follow the old law, not the
Everglades from cities and farms by the original
2006 deadline, not the state extension to 2016. Read
more
Feds hit state in wallet for
Everglades Forever Act
By Joel Eskovitz
© Naples News
WASHINGTON - Federal
legislators followed through this week on their threat to the state of
Florida over Everglades funding, slashing $32 million for land acquisition
and attaching strings to another $68 million for the restoration effort.
Members of the House appropriations subcommittee for the Interior had
warned Gov. Jeb Bush in a meeting last month against signing a
controversial amendment to the Everglades Forever Act that could
potentially delay the state's meeting of water-quality standards. The
possibility of delay led the subcommittee to shift $32 million expected to
be used to purchase land for the restoration. That money will now be
earmarked for a cleanup effort in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife
Refuge. The $68 million that the panel approved - which is $44 million
less than the president sought - also forces the state to jump through a
few more hoops. To get the construction money in this year's budget along
with up to $100 million previously approved, the state must report to four
federal agencies that it is meeting water-quality standards as established
in a consent
decree in the original Everglades Forever Act. Read
more
Farmers win no new local
regulation
Bush signs a bill seen
by agricultural interests as crucial to their
survival, and by counties and cities as an intrusion
By Julie Hauserman
© St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE - Despite
opposition from local governments across the state, Gov. Jeb Bush on
Friday signed a bill into law barring cities and counties from passing new
regulations on agriculture. The sweeping measure has been pushed for years
by lobbyists for Florida's
citrus, timber, vegetable and cattle industries. They say local
regulations are threatening their businesses. "Realistically, the
governor has thrown a life preserver to the agricultural
industry in Florida," said Phil Leary of the Florida Farm Bureau. But
opponents, including the Florida Association of Counties and the
Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission, say the measure strips
local governments of authority. The law has already had an effect. Last
month, the Citrus County Commission tabled an ordinance it drafted to
regulate intensive farming. Residents demanded the new regulations after a
large dairy operation was built off County Road 491. Read
more
Everglades Restoration Utilizes
Web-based Solution
Newsletter- Posted on
June 21, 2003
© Accela, Inc
The South Florida
Water Management District (SFWMD) recently announced it will restore,
protect, and preserve more than 18,000-square miles of land with the
assistance of Accela's Web-based solution, Accela AutomationTM.
Specifically, the solution will be utilized to track land acquisition
associated with the restoration of the Florida Everglades. The SFWMD will
acquire $41 billion of land in support of the restoration of the Florida
Everglades over the next 40 years, with the goal of returning the land to
a strong and vibrant natural environment. The solution will provide a
streamlined process, as well as public access to land acquisition
data. Charged with managing the water supply of 16 central and southern
Florida
counties, the Agency is leading the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
Plan (CERP). The Plan is designed to the restore the unique ecosystem of
the Everglades to its original state. Read
more
20-June-03
Premise for river-pollution
checks criticized
By Libby Wells
© Palm Beach Post
STUART -- A system for
deciding which of Florida's water bodies are the most polluted came under
criticism Thursday during a sparsely attended public hearing held by the
state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP presented a list of
St. Lucie and Loxahatchee river basins that are high in contaminants or
have problems such as low oxygen levels that imperil marine life. The
draft list included 31 sites such as the C-23 and C-24 canals, Ten Mile
Creek and various points along the north and south forks of the St. Lucie
River. The DEP will approve a final list this fall, then establish
strategies for cleaning the worst water bodies as part of a plan to comply
with the federal Clean Water Act. But the premise of the program -- to
establish the highest levels of pollutants a water body will tolerate
before it's no longer safe for animals or people -- doesn't make sense to
some.
"That doesn't jibe with what we're trying to accomplish for cleaning
up our waters," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida
Oceanographic Society. "Why figure out a maximum amount of pollution
to go into water and still have its designated uses? Why should we be
allowing any pollution in a water body?" Read
more
Related Links:
Florida Department
of Environmental Protection
http://www.dep.state.fl.us
The Watershed
Management Program is responsible for fostering better
stewardship of Florida's ground and surface water resources. Working with
private sector, the
bureau coordinates the collection, data management, and
interpretation of
monitoring information to assess the health of our water
resources; develops
watershed-based aquatic resource goals and pollutant
loading limits for
individual water bodies; and develops and implements
management action
plans to preserve or restore water bodies. These
activities are
undertaken using the rotating basin approach that assures
that the watershed
plans for each of the state's watersheds are evaluated
and updated every
five years.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/watersheds/index.htm
Florida Water
Quality Assessment -- 305(b) Report
The 305(b) report is
a biennial assessment of the water quality of Florida's
waters. It provides
a summary of water quality by water body type, i.e.
good, fair, poor and
is displayed on maps organized by Hydrological Units.
The report also
identifies sources and causes of pollution for each water
body type and
summarizes pollution prevention programs, management programs,
restoration and
rehabilitation activities, monitoring activities, and
provides an
evaluation of ground water quality.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/305b/index.htm
Corps of Engineers Pressures
Homeowners to Sell by Threatening to Condemn Their Land
By National Center for
Public Policy Research
© Cybercast News Service
An
8.5-square-mile area along the eastern edge of the Everglades National
mostly of Cuban descent - who live on small, family
owned farms. The community contains about 320 homes. Residents grow fruit,
vegetables and flowers and raise pigs, goats, chickens and horses. A
proposed Army Corps of Engineers' levee and seepage canal would require
the taking of about 100 homes and would bisect the community. In 1989,
Congress passed the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act.
It requires that the Corps, which controls the flow of fresh water in the
Everglades area, "improve water deliveries into" the park. If
these changes adversely affect the area, the Act requires the Corps to
"construct a flood protection system for that portion of presently
developed land within such area." The Corps' original 1992 plan
sought construction of a levee on the western edge of the area. This plan
would have protected all residents of the area and not condemned any
homes. In 2002, the Corps, along with the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI),
decided on an alternative plan that would put the canal and levee right
through the middle of the community, forcing residents out of all homes in
the canal's path and north and west of the canal. The Corps pressured
affected homeowners to sign "offers to sell" by asserting that
the Corps had
the authority to condemn their land if they did not voluntarily sell. Some
homeowners, thinking they had no other choice, sold their land to the
Corps. Seven homeowners, with the support of a local organization, the 8.5
Square Mile Legal Defense Foundation, filed a lawsuit against the Corps.
Read
more
Related
Links:
Fortin Paper - Pariah, Florida
http://www.sfaa.net/eap/fortin/fortin.html
Standoff ensnares Everglades
.... Fortin and other holdouts want to see Everglades restoration
happen, but
without touching a single home.
http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/standoff_ensnares_everglades.htm
All I Did Was Buy A House
.... In the Everglades, according to Fortin, "Over half the tree
islands in
the central Everglades are dead, killed by unnaturally high water."
http://www.mountaincoalition.org/articles/all_I_did.htm
Property Rights Violated......Rural America Under Siege
.... Madeleine Fortin on her land in Florida. I live in a small
community in
Southeast Florida, on the eastern edge of Everglades National Park
called
the 8.5 ...
http://www.cse.org/informed/issues_template.php?issue_id=1101
The Madeleine Fortin Story
http://www.scamsandscandals.com/MadeleineFortin.htm
Pariah, Florida: Feds Use Water as Weapon
Letter to Paragon Foundation
March 4, 2002
by Madeleine Fortin
http://www.aldenchronicles.com/archives/archives_paragon_fortin.html
A Plea For Help
Madeleine Fortin, president, East Everglades Legal Defense Foundation
http://www.paragonpowerhouse.org/a_plea_for_help.htm
Expert says regular Lake
Okeechobee water releases needed
Too much fresh water from
the lake can have detrimental effects on coastal
estuaries as far away as Estero Bay
By Chad Gillis
© Naples News
Freshwater
releases from Lake Okeechobee into Lee County estuaries are going to be
annual events in the region, at least until restoration projects can
better deal with excess rainwater. That was one of the messages Trudi
Williams, a member of the South Florida
Water Management District's governing board, delivered to a regional
watershed monitoring group on Thursday. Williams spoke to members of the
Southwest Florida Watershed Council about a variety of topics, from lake
management to water reservations for natural systems to the possible
future implementation of a stormwater utility for this region. "The
top of the lake is only 21 feet, but the dam has been known to spring a
leak," Williams said of a dike system that helps contain water within
Florida's largest lake. "You can't have (18 feet) of water pushing
against the walls around the lake. Were the walls to break, those (nearby)
areas would be in major trouble." The 18-foot level Williams referred
to is the height water managers say the River
and other systems. Releases have been controversial on this coast for
years. Too much fresh water from the lake can have detrimental effects on
coastal estuaries as far away as Estero Bay. Read
more
House plan slaps Florida over
Glades pact
The House panel also took back
funds granted to Florida to buy land for the
cleanup project
By Cory Reiss,
Washington Bureau
© Gainesville Sun
WASHINGTON - A House
subcommittee on Wednesday decided to withhold federal money if Florida
doesn't comply with a 1992 agreement to reduce pollution flowing into the
Everglades.
The decision by the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee answers those who
thought Congress wouldn't jeopardize federal funding for the $8 billion
Everglades restoration as many had warned. The subcommittee required
Florida to comply with a water quality deal, as spelled out in a consent
decree that ended federal and state litigation. Four federal agencies -
the departments of Interior and Justice, the Environmental Protection
Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers - would have to agree twice a year
that Florida is keeping its word or money from a $113 million account
would stop flowing. Rep. C.W. 'Bill" Young, the Florida
Republican who chairs the full House Appropriations Committee, supported
the measure. Read
more
Developer's proposal would take
advantage of rural growth plan
By Eric Staats
© Naples News
Click on the map to full full-sized image.
Graphic © Naples News 2003
Collier County's new
plan for rural growth around Immokalee didn't have to wait long for
somebody to use it. Barron Collier Cos. submitted a proposal this week
under which they
would give up most of their development rights across 5,300 acres in the
county's eastern reaches in return for credits to develop other areas. The
credits could become the building blocks for a whole new town north of Oil
Well Road and west of Camp Keais Road to support the proposed Ave Maria
University, a Catholic university backed by Domino's Pizza founder Tom
Monaghan. The Barron Collier proposal, dated Wednesday, is the first
proposal submitted under new growth rules adopted by county commissioners
Monday night. Plans for the university and town have yet to be submitted.
Organizers want to open the university in fall 2006. The university's
timetable puts a County Commission vote on the plans in
March 2004. The development credit proposal also requires approval by
county commissioners. Read
more
Alligator presence need not be
tragic
The dangerous reptiles are a
fact of Florida life. Coexisting peacefully with them depends on several
important rules.
By Adrienne Lu
© St. Petersburg Times
Photo © Scott Keeler, St. Petersburg Times
ST. PETERSBURG - One
day last summer, Christopher Dixon took his 10-year-old son for an
unforgettable fishing trip at Lake Maggiore. The boy was standing near the
shore when all of a sudden, Dixon said, an alligator "came out of the
water charging at my son." Dixon threw a brick and whatever else he
could find at the alligator, which retreated before it could do any harm.
"He told me he'll never go freshwater fishing again," Dixon, 33,
said Thursday, fishing with a buddy at Lake Maggiore. It's a fact of
Florida living. If you're near freshwater, be it a retention pond, stream,
lake or even backyard pool, a leathery alligator could be lurking. "I
don't care what kind of body of water you have in the state of Florida,
you have the potential for alligators," said Louis J. Guillette Jr.,
a professor of zoology at the University of Florida. A 12-year-old boy was
killed by an alligator in Lake County on Wednesday knew there were
alligators in the river where he and his friends had been swimming. But
experts say people should be cautious anywhere there's water. With the
mating season wrapping up, male alligators are still in their aggressive
stage, guarding territory from other males and wandering as far as they
need to in search of females. The summer rain showers don't help matters,
adding to the number of streams and ponds the reptiles can use to get from
one place to the next, Guillette said. Read
more
21 waterways make cleanup list
By Suzanne Wentley,
Staff Writer
© Stuart News
STUART - The St. Lucie
Estuary, the C-24 Canal and the Manatee Pocket are just three of 21 local
waterways that made a preliminary list of polluted streams, rivers and
lakes, state scientists announced Thursday. Most of the waterways in the
St. Lucie and Loxahatchee river basins are polluted - with nutrients,
mercury or bacteria - enough to be cleaned up by
a new state program, said Eric Livingston, a scientist with the state
Department of Environmental Protection. Although local environmentalists
weren't able to pick out any problem waterways that didn't make the list,
many expressed disappointment with the
lengthy process. Cleanup is set to begin in 2005 on some area waterways
and 2010 for others. "We know what the problem is, but it's still
five years down the road, six years down the road, to fix it," said
Henry Caimotto, owner of the Snook Nook and a member of the Martin County
Anglers. "I've lost confidence in the system." Although the
draft list offered Thursday won't be final until October, Livingston said
data collection that has been under way for the past few years will help
establish limits on further pollution, known as Total Maximum Daily Loads,
or TMDL. Read
more
19-June-03
Congress pressures state on
Everglades restoration
By William E. Gibson,
Washington Bureau
© Orlando Sentinel
WASHINGTON -- Key
members of Congress put pressure on Florida officials Wednesday by
threatening to hold up funding for Everglades restoration unless the state
meets federal water-quality standards. The move by appropriators, who hold
the purse strings for the massive restoration project, was the first
substantive backlash to a controversial bill passed by the state
Legislature that pushed back the deadline for cleaning up pollution in the
Everglades. The U.S. House Interior Subcommittee added language to an
appropriations
bill that would require federal agencies to certify the state is meeting
water-quality standards before money can be released for a "water
modification project." The project, designed to restore a flow of
fresh water to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, is an essential
step before construction begins on an $8 billion replumbing of the
Everglades over three decades. Read
more
State loses oversight of
Everglades project
By Mike Salinero
© Tamba
Tribune
TALLAHASSEE -
Congressional budget writers agreed Wednesday to send $68 million to
Florida for Everglades restoration, but the money comes with plenty of
strings attached, reflecting concerns that a new state law will postpone
the swamp's cleanup. The appropriation brings to about $1 billion that the
federal government has spent on restoring the Everglades to its
pre-development splendor. The money of
restoring the natural flow of water across the marsh. Until now, Congress
has not seen fit to restrict how the money is used. That changed Wednesday
when the House Appropriations Committee placed the state's
restoration efforts under federal oversight. Now, before the money can be
released, Florida must establish that it is meeting its obligations under
a federal court consent decree to clean up water entering the Everglades.
The order calls for strict phosphate limits in the Everglades to be met by
December 2006. The state Environmental Regulatory Commission is expected
to set the limit at 10 parts per billion this year. The state's yearly
progress report must be approved by the Department of Engineers
and the U.S. attorney general. ``I would characterize this as the state
being put on a very short leash,'' said Charles Lee of Audubon of Florida.
Read
more
Miccosukee Tribe wants 'Glades
judge to stay
By Neil Santaniello,
Staff Writer
© Sun-Sentinel
Florida's sugar
industry hasn't mustered sufficient proof U.S. District Judge William
Hoeveler is too biased to continue his oversight of the Everglades
cleanup, the Miccosukee Tribe said in a legal motion filed Wednesday.
Instead of being disqualified from the case, Hoeveler should be commended
for the restraint he has shown in the case, the tribe said in a response
to U.S. Sugar's attempt to have chief District Judge William Zloch force
Hoeveler out of his decadelong duty policing the state-run cleanup. Tribe
attorney Dexter Lehtinen also argues in the response that U.S. Sugar lacks
standing to seek the judge's ouster -- the intent of a motion it filed
June 4 in Miami. That's because the Clewiston sugar grower is not one of
the original parties to the 1992 federal-state settlement Hoeveler
approved that spells out how the state will halt agricultural pollution
pouring from fields into the northern Everglades, the tribe contends. The
tribe's motion is the second filed in defense of Hoeveler in the wake of
two sugar industry court maneuvers to have the judge recused. Audubon of
Florida said in a response it filed last week that U.S. Sugar's removal
motion fails "on several counts," including falling short of
proving the judge is prejudiced against the industry.
Read
more
Everglades money cut
By Robert P. King,
Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
Florida lawmakers'
postponement of deadlines for cleaning the Everglades will cost the state
at least $32 million in federal money -- and possibly billions more,
congressional budget leaders said Wednesday. The U.S. House's Interior
Appropriations subcommittee decided to revoke $32 million Congress had
promised to give Florida to buy land for the restoration. The panel cited
"the potential for delay" created by the new state law, and said
the money should go instead to federal projects meant to help the Arthur
R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in south-central Palm
Beach County. The subcommittee also warned that future federal spending on
an $8.4 billion Everglades restoration project will depend on Florida
meeting its promises to finish the cleanup first. Congress promised three
years ago to pay for half of the restoration. As a start, the panel said
it will halt spending on a separate water project in Everglades National
Park unless four federal agencies tell Congress every six months that the
state is cleaning the runoff that flows into the park and the refuge.
Stopping that project would halt crucial parts of the $8.4 billion
restoration. Read
more
Panel imposes Glades oversight
Under U.S. Rep.
Young's plan, federal restoration money will be tied to certification by
four agencies that Florida's doing its part.
By
Craig
Pittman and Bill Adair
© St.
Petersburg Times
WASHINGTON -
Although the Florida Legislature delayed the deadline for cleaning up the
Everglades, U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young is using the power of the purse to
hold the state to its original commitment. Before any more federal money
is spent restoring the River of Grass, the leaders of four federal
agencies must certify that the state is really cleaning up the pollution,
a subcommittee Young oversees decided Wednesday. Young, R-Largo, chairman
of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said he had the panel
attach those strings to the $68-million appropriation because some
lawmakers were concerned the state might break its promise to clean up the
Everglades. "The members of the subcommittee were a little put out by
the Legislature doing what we consider breaking the agreement," Young
said. "We are very much concerned about the quality of water."
Similar strings will be attached to a $120-million Everglades
appropriation slated for a vote in July, Young said. Under Young's plan,
the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the
Interior, Army Corps of Engineers and Justice Department will be required
to review the state's progress on cleaning up the Everglades. Read
more
Glades money comes with a catch
Panel: State must
follow earlier law
By Curtis Morgan
© The
Miami Herald
A powerful
congressional committee on Wednesday set aside $68 million for Everglades
restoration but with a significant catch: The state will have to stick to
an earlier pollution cleanup law, not a controversial revision, to cash
the whole check. The move comes after repeated warnings from leaders in
Congress about a new Florida law backed by the sugar industry, which
critics contend could weaken a plan to sharply reduce tainted runoff from
farms and suburbs. ''What we're doing is putting a string on the money.
That's the only
responsible thing to do,'' U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican,
said. ``We just want to make sure that they'll live by the original
agreement because obviously they've changed their mind.'' The action,
taken by a House subcommittee working on an appropriations bill
for the U.S. Interior Department, is a long way from becoming law but at
the very least it intensifies the political sparring between Florida and
Congress over the nettlesome issue of ensuring the massive $8 billion
Everglades restoration effort isn't undermined by dirty water flowing into
the system. Read
more
State touts filtering system
Stormwater areas
used to reduce phosphorous ratio
By Pamela Smith Hayford
© News-Press
Stormwater Treatment Area 3/4 is under construction in the Everglades
Agricultural
Area and will be the largest constructed wetland in
the
world, with nearly 16,500 acres. - AMANDA INSCORE/news-press.com
The state is showing off its
latest "green" technology for filtering damaging amounts of
phosphorus from water destined for the Everglades - this in the wake of
controversy over Everglades cleanup deadlines. The South Florida Water
Management District's plan to use this technology may also reduce harmful
flushes to the Caloosahatchee River. PSTA, pronounced pasta, may sound
more like it should be under meatballs and sauce instead of water, but
scientists swear by the periphyton-based Stormwater Treatment Areas.
Periphyton is a spongy mat of algae and other microorganisms that absorb
phosphorus.
The district's small man-made marshes with periphyton have proven
effective and lowered phosphorus levels to 10 parts per billion, the limit
proposed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Five-acre
field tests have been slightly less effective for the district,
lowering phosphorus to 10 to 15 ppb. These experiments have been ongoing
for a few years, but now the state has the money to create a much larger
PSTA, which the district said costs
$31,000 an acre, in one of six stormwater treatment areas at the head of
the Everglades thanks to the same legislation that environmentalists said
delays cleanup. The legislation includes $650 million over the next 13
years for advanced water treatment tools like PSTA.
Read
more
Fitch Affirms Port of Palm Beach Dist,
FL Improvement Revenues 'A-'
By Corey S. Modeste, Fitch
Ratings
© Business Wire
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June
19, 2003--Fitch Ratings affirms the 'A-' rating on approximately $50.6
million Port of Palm Beach District, FL (the Port or the District) revenue
improvement bonds. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Fitch initially assigned
the rating to the Port's series 1999 bonds. The bonds are secured by a
pledge of gross port operating revenues. The series 1999 bonds have a
final maturity in 2024 and were underwritten by a syndicate led Raymond
James & Associates. Other banks in the syndicate include Mesirow
Financial, Inc. and LM Capital Securities, Inc. The 'A-' rating
reflects the District's consistent operating performance, overall positive
cargo and cruise passenger trends and moderate debt load. Total 2002
District operating revenue was $12 million, with $6.2 million in operating
expenses. Operating margins at the District have averaged 50% each year
since 1998, and 2002 debt service coverage on the District's total
outstanding bonds was 1.3 times (x). Debt service is level at $4.3
million. Though debt service coverage has declined in recent years as
series 1999 debt service came on line, debt coverage remains above the
District's 1.25x rate covenant. Read
more
Colony of 11 Endangered Bats
Found in Fort Myers Area
Associated Press
© Tampa Tribune
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)
- The largest recorded colony of endangered Wagner's mastiff bats has set
up home in a suburb of this southwest Florida city, a bat conservation
group said Friday. Eleven of the bats were found in a special bat house
designed by the Organization for Bat Conservation, the Bloomfield Hills,
Mich.-based group said. The previous largest recorded colony of the
Wagner's mastiff, also known as the Florida mastiff, was eight, recorded
in 1983. The bat has a wingspan of up to 21 inches, the largest of
Florida's 19 species of bats, and is listed as endangered by the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Commission. Read
more
Related Links:
Eumops
glaucinus (Wagner's Mastiff Bat)
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/eumops/e._glaucinus$narrative.html
http://www.floridabats.org/Wagners.HTM
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/WCS/BATS/050970.HTM
Caloosahatchee Reservoir to
take 20,000 acres
By Tracy Whirls
© Newszap
Corps of
Engineers will acquire the projected 170,000 acres of land needed for the
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project remains to be answered,
officials from Glades and Hendry County got a preview of what sites are
being looked at for one portion of the project. C-43 Basin Storage
Reservoir Project Manager Agnes Ramsey told those
attending the joint meeting held in Clewiston June 2 that the C-43 basin
storage reservoir is expected to take up 20,000 acres in Hendry, Glades or
Lee Counties, intended to store 160,000 acre feet of water at a depth of
up to eight feet. The purpose of the project is to capture C-43 Basin
runoff and water released from Lake Okeechobee, reducing the loss of water
released to the Caloosahatchee from the Lake during high lake levels,
protecting the
Caloosahatchee Estuary, as well as preserving fresh water to supply to the
estuary during drought. The reservoir will provide additional water
supply, some additional flood prevention and will produce water quality
benefits by reducing salinity and nutrient impacts of large quantities of
runoff to the estuary. In determining where the C-43 basin reservoir
storage areas will be constructed, Corps and SFWMD staff and others
reviewed a total of 180,874
acres in Lee, Hendry and Glades Counties. Some of those sites, Ms. Ramsey
said, will likely be rejected because they failed to "make it out of
the gate," due to the potential of their locations as significant
habit for threatened and endangered species, significant wetlands,
avoiding cultural resources and avoiding safety problems.
Read
more
18-June-03
EPA candidate under fire
By Robert P. King,
Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
David Struhs:
polluters' pal or overzealous enforcer? To the Sierra Club, Gov. Jeb
Bush's environmental secretary is a former energy industry consultant who
weakened the Everglades cleanup and tried to sell South Florida's water
supply to Enron. To property rights activists, Struhs is a bureaucrat from
Boston who championed air pollution limits in the Northeast and favors
expanding the power of the federal government. The criticism from both
sides of the eco-political spectrum comes as the White House seeks a
replacement for Christie Whitman, the departing administrator of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. Struhs -- with a long environmental résumé,
a nimble grasp of policy and a brother-in-law who is President Bush's
chief of staff -- was once a top candidate for the post, according to
published news reports. But The New York Times and the environmental news
service Greenwire have reported that Struhs is no longer among the
front-runners, who include such
anti-regulation stalwarts as Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne. Environmentalists
say they believe Struhs' credibility as a candidate suffered because of
his support for a new state law that postpones the final deadlines for
cleaning the Everglades. The law also annoyed congressmen from both
parties, which could lead to sharp questioning in confirmation hearings
before the U.S. Senate. Environmental and sugar industry lobbyists say
Struhs took part in early discussions of the Everglades legislation in
March, although he has said he
didn't see it until April. Struhs later championed a revised version that
he said would strengthen the $1 billion cleanup. Read
more
Cranes Prepare For Migratory
Whoopla
By Jim Tunstall
© Tamba
Tribune
CHASSAHOWITZKA
- The whooping crane Class of 2003 is starting to assemble in
Wisconsin. Ten of the 18 endangered cranes chosen
for this fall's migration are expected to begin
flight school this weekend at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge,
Heather Ray, a spokeswoman for Operation Migration, said this week.
The cranes are hatched from eggs in a Maryland breeding
center. They learn to identify an ultralight, equipped to make
sounds like a crane, as a surrogate mother. They follow the aircraft, and
the first place they see from the air is their summer home, she said. To
minimize exposure to humans, their trainers dress in hooded gowns that to
cranes make them look like other cranes. The 10 birds will be joined by
eight from Maryland this month or early July. If all goes as planned, the
flock and aircraft will begin the more than 1,200-mile journey to their
winter home at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in western Hernando
and Citrus counties in early October. Ray and other wildlife officials
hope the 21 surviving cranes from the first two migration experiments will
return to Florida on their own. The five remaining cranes from the Class
of 2001 came south last fall and returned north this spring. Sixteen from
the Class of 2002 also returned to Wisconsin in the fall. The goal is to
have 25 migrating breeding pairs east of the Mississippi
River by 2025. Read
more
17-June-03
Pollution-reduction warriors
battle on in Everglades
By Maya Bell, Miami
Bureau
© Orlando
Sentinel
© Maya Bell, Orlando Sentinel 2003.
Click on the map
thumbnail to view full-sized image.
CLEWISTON -- Standing
in a sugar-cane field, Mitch Murphy watches a backhoe scoop up rich black
muck from a ditch and deposit it on the bank, where it will be reused.
About 30 miles east, Tracey Piccone stands on a bridge near the
Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, marveling as 24,000 gallons of water
a second rush under her feet into one of the largest man-made wetlands in
the world. Murphy and Piccone are foot soldiers in the battle to stop
phosphorus from destroying the Everglades, and even as a firestorm rages
over amendments to the law mandating cleanup of the fabled River of Grass,
they remain proud of their court-ordered accomplishments. And for good
reason: They're paying off. For Murphy, it's tedious work, but the
maintenance supervisor with the U.S. Sugar Corp. is doing his part to keep
even more pollution out of the Everglades and keep his paycheck coming.
"I'm in farming, but I'm also an avid hunter and fisherman, and I
want to clean up the water as much as I want to protect my
livelihood," the lifelong Clewiston resident said. Piccone, an
environmental engineer with the South Florida Water Management District,
is equally proud to know that the wetlands -- or stormwater-treatment
areas -- like the one constructed near the refuge are absorbing more
harmful phosphorus than expected from waters draining from farms, urban
lawns and Lake Okeechobee. "That's why all the people throwing stones
at us is so hurtful," the fifth-generation Floridian said. "They
know what we've done." Read
more
Letter to the editor- Lawmakers
rub our noses in sugar
By David A. Schwartz,
Boca Raton
© Sun-Sentinel
It's bad enough that
the state government of Florida is bought and paid for by the sugar
industry, but do they have to rub our noses in it by mailing fliers that
proclaim themselves champions of the environment? Can I expect the same
from the oil and coal industries? I guess I can expect to be enlightened
about the environmental benefits of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps a treatise about how deficits are now good and surpluses are bad?
If a bill that the public consistently polled in the 80 percent range
against can be passed without even an attempt to hide who the Legislature
works for (and passes off $400 million to taxpayers instead of Big Sugar),
please have the decency to do it in the middle of the night in a
smoke-filled room. Read
more
Rain, Land Acquisition Slow
Kissimmee River Restoration
By Nancy Vickers-Pyle
© Tampa Tribune
CORNWELL -
Restoration of a river scarred by man can be as slow as a long
summer day. It has been more than a decade since the state and federal
governments agreed to restore the original, twisting course of the
Kissimmee River - a course that drove steamboat captains crazy a century
ago. Though slowed by heavy rains and land acquisition, the nearly $600
million project is making progress on the Kissimmee, and the completed
first phase is showing signs of success. Environmentalists say the near
arrow-straight canal that replaced the natural river channel decades ago
did a terrific job of draining wetlands and opening flood plains to
agriculture and development. But those same wetlands helped filter out
pollution that made its way into Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. On a
recent morning construction crews had to repair damage caused by downpours
that hampered the building of a bridge over the Kissimmee River flood
plain at U.S. 98 in Cornwell, a community east of Lorida. The bridge is
part of the second phase of restoring the Kissimmee, which flows from Lake
Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee. The first phase restored the river from
about U.S. 98 to Bluff Hammock Road, a stretch connecting Highlands and
Okeechobee counties. The lead scientist for the project, Lou Toth, said
crews are rebuilding the bridge and installing culverts so wetlands can be
created along the river. ``Ultimately the culverts and the bridge will
allow a sheet flow of water under the bridge and the road when that
section of the river is restored,''
he said. Read
more
Wildlife corridor funding lined
up
The Martin County
water manager has submitted a grant application for 50 percent of the cost
of the first 1,200 acres of the corridor
By Suzanne Wentley
© Stuart News
Martin County planners
are working to preserve almost 3,000 acres of pasture land that is the
missing link for a continuous wildlife corridor in southern Martin County
from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Okeechobee. The property, which is known
as Pal-Mar East because it is between Jonathan Dickinson State Park and
the Pal-Mar preserve, would also be necessary for preliminary plans to
divert stormwater from the St. Lucie Canal into the freshwater-starved
Loxahatchee River. "It will be a multi-beneficial project," said
Kim Love, Martin County's water resource manager. "We'll be able to
restore wetlands and maybe use it for water management purposes."
This week, Love submitted a grant application to the Florida Communities
Trust for 50 percent of the cost of the first 1,200 acres of the property.
County planners will find out at the end of summer whether they receive
the grant funding. The land is valued at $8.6 million, of which the state
would pay $4.3 million. Martin County would chip in $2.15 million in a 1
percent sales tax and the South Florida Water Management District would
pay the rest, Love said. Read
more
16-June-03
Manatees' Voices Could Trigger
Warnings For Dangerous Boats
By Jim Tunstall
© Tampa Tribune
HOMOSASSA SPRINGS -
Researchers hope the voices of manatees can help them develop a visual
warning system that one day will reduce the number of sea cows killed and
injured by boat collisions. They say the experiment is prompted by the
soaring number of boat-related deaths, which reached a record 95 last
year. ``We thought if we could pick up the sounds of manatees, we could
warn boaters of their presence,'' said Deke Beusse, a University of
Florida veterinarian who heads the Marine Mammal Medicine Program. Beusse,
assistant engineering Professor Chris Niezrecki and some graduate students
used hydrophones earlier this year to record manatees at Homosassa Springs
State Wildlife Park in Citrus County. ``When we played it back, they
started vocalizing more - three times as much as normal - and approached
the speakers,'' Beusse said. Beusse's team hopes that in the wild,
speakers can be placed in channels, where they would prompt and intensify
manatee vocalizations. Read
more
$243 million in land purchases
By Tracy Whirls
© Newszap
Hendry and Glades
County officials got a preview June 2 of what the Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Program may mean for the area. With 80,000 acres of the
estimated 140,000 acres to be acquired by the South Florida Water
Management District and US Army Corps of Engineers in hand, the primarily
agricultural communities around the lake are looking at losing 60,000
acres of productive ag land to water storage projects. Much of the land
which will be purchased under the CERP program is likely to be located in
Hendry and Glades Counties. "There's very limited land available on
the lower east coast," U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers Program Manager for Ecosystem Restoration Dennis Duke
told those attending a joint county meeting with South Florida Water
Management and Corps of Engineers representatives June 2, specifically
concerning the proposed C-43 Basin Storage Reservoir and other CERP
projects. Much of that land is expected to be purchased within the next
three to eight years. Unlike many federal projects, the CERP project calls
for the land
acquisitions to be made early in the process, Mr. Duke said, "before
it can be bought up for other uses." Read
more
State lawmakers shirked responsibility
to enforce Polluters Pay
Editorial
© Key West Citizen
It's been seven years since
Floridians -- 68 percent of them -- voted for a constitutional amendment
that requires Everglades polluters to pay for the cleanup of the
"River of Grass."
Since then, environmentalist Mary Barley has filed a class action suit
that has been heard by the Florida Supreme Court. Barley demands that the
state carry out the wishes of the state's voters when they passed the
Polluters Pay Amendment. The constitutional amendment says that those
responsible for elevated levels of phosphorus -- such as sugar growers who
use it in fertilizer -- should pay to restore the Everglades to its
natural level of phosphorus. Despite the clear message from Florida
voters, Florida's taxpayers, and not corporate polluters, continue to bear
the bulk of the cleanup costs. South Florida Water Management District
collects a tax from 6 million property owners in 15 counties that equals
more than three times the amount collected from the agriculture industry,
which pays just $24.89 per acre.
Read
more
15-June-03
Lake Okeechobee water releases
have far-ranging effect on ecosystems
By Chad Gillis
© Naples News
Summer rains typically
mean one thing for the Caloosahatchee River estuary and other nearby bays:
freshwater pulse released from Lake Okeechobee. This year is no different.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management
District were expected to finish a release to the river Saturday, and
start a second release today. Under level one, the releases consist of
rates of 1,000 cubic feet per second on the first day, 2,800 cubic feet
per second on day two, 3,300 cubic feet per second on day three and then
taper off to 500 cubic feet per second on days nine and 10. The releases
can have profound effects on nearby estuaries, which require a brackish
mixture of fresh and saltwater in order to maintain the critical marine
habitats. And while water from the lake is sent through the
Caloosahatchee on the west coast, scientific studies suggest that the
freshwater from the lake eventually reaches water bodies as far away as
Estero Bay. "It's very clear the there's been a definite change in
clarity in the river in the last week," said Jim Beever, chairman of
the Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management, of the Caloosahatchee. "And
that affects seagrass beds." Beever gave a presentation in front of
ABM members on Monday that showed how waters as far south as Bonita
Springs can be impacted by the releases.
Read
more
Bay's visionary
Ex-Senator's Dream of
Restoration 30 Years Ago Still Unrealized
By Anita Huslin, Staff
Writer
© Washington Post
When he stepped ashore
at the Annapolis City Dock on a hot summer day 30 years ago, Charles McC.
"Mac" Mathias looked and sounded more like a khaki-clad
naturalist than a U.S. senator from Maryland. Just returning from a
five-day expedition around the Chesapeake Bay, Mathias had seen for
himself the fading plenitude of the world's richest estuary. He
had a vision, however, to restore its muddy, polluted waters and return
the bay's fish, crabs and oysters to abundances not seen in more than 300
years. As he stood on the dock with a map of the Chesapeake as a prop,
Mathias explained to a small gathering of reporters his ambitious plan: a
three-year, $15 million examination of the bay. He could not have imagined
that it would grow into the most studied and complex environmental
restoration project in history, with a vaunted voluntary effort by the
neighboring states and with a price tag that
eventually would exceed the $15 billion cost of the Florida Everglades
project. Nor could he have foreseen how far the effort would be falling
short 30 years later. Read
more
FIU scientist offers 'Glades
pollution solution
By Neil Santaniello,
Staff Writer
© Sun-Sentinel
The water Ron Jones
peers into is inches deep, and below it, he'll swear, grows the final
answer in the contentious battle over how to clean up the Everglades. It
happens to carpet the bottom of a 10-foot-by-100-foot concrete trough, a
golden brown and solidly woven mat that the Florida International
University microbiologist has been perfecting and testing for months at an
outdoor laboratory west of Wellington. No biotech wonder here, just your
typical been-around-for-ages Everglades-type pond scum. "It's
actually quite beautiful under a microscope. It's really quite neat,"
said Jones, a slim, animated scientist who can talk on end, and with
religious fervor, about the pancake-thick pond scum and its prospects for
saving the Everglades from phosphorus pollution. Technically, the scum is
a combination of algae and other microorganisms called periphyton. It
grows beautifully in shallow water, over a bed of limerock, the
Everglades' natural stony foundation. In months of experiments
underwritten by the Army Corps of Engineers, Jones has harnessed this
combination of lowly algae and limerock to impressively purge stormwater
of phosphorus, the fertilizer ingredient changing the mix of Everglades
plants and making the marsh less wildlife-friendly. His $2 million project
at a fenced-in compound next to Flying Cow Road, just south of Southern
Boulevard, has knocked phosphorus concentrations of 65 to 70 parts per
billion down to 10 or below -- the Everglades water quality goal endorsed
by state environmental officials and Florida's environmental groups.
Read
more
Save Everglades library
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
Some things everybody
likes. Clean water and open libraries are on the list. So if there is a
way for the South Florida Water Management District to wade out of its
recent decision to restrict and possibly disperse its library of documents
related to the Everglades, the district should wade as fast as it can.
First, the district acknowledged that, to save money, it might dismantle
its unique collection of maps, reports, studies and observations collected
since
1949. The district's retiring reference librarian said of the 50,000
documents, "I don't think they're being treated with respect."
In practice, the collection, once used by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, had
been open to anyone. But just after The Post reported about the possible
transfer of documents, the district started requiring visitors to be
accompanied by a
district escort. The district says that always was the policy and that the
material still will be available. But the clear impression is that
district officials don't want to make it easy for the public to study
documents that critics might use to challenge current policies that many
suspect are hurting the Everglades and connected wetlands and waterways.
Read
more
County, state join on land
policy
Corridors of land between
tracts that are already protected from development are in line to receive
their own new safeguards
By Dan DeWitt, Times
Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
The Citrus and
Croom tracts of the Withlacoochee State Forest are among the area's most
secure hedges against development pressing north from Tampa Bay. The gap
between them, though, is mostly farms, some of it in the large parcels
most attractive to builders of shopping centers and subdivisions. Now,
local governments are working with the state on a plan that might protect
those vulnerable open spaces and create a bridge between the larger
tracts of preserved land. "We want to work with Hernando and possibly
Citrus County on a cooperative project to close some of these gaps,"
said Tom Hoctor, a University of Florida researcher who has worked on a
state project to identify the most environmentally sensitive of these
connections in the state. On the local level, the work started about a
year ago, when Hernando decided to scrap its old approach to acquiring
natural lands and adopt a new one.
Instead of using its limited funds to buy small parcels around the county,
the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee focused on setting aside
2,700acres stretching from the Citrus Tract of the
Withlacoochee State Forest, which are in turn joined
to the Croom tract. The idea was based on a well-established principal -
that buying land to connect larger parcels is more beneficial to wildlife
than isolated parcels. The County Commission approved the plan a month
ago. Read
more
When have waterways had enough?
By Steven D. Barnes,
Sentinel Correspondent
© Orlando
Sentinel
© Steven D. Barnes, Orlando Sentinel 2003
SANFORD --
Rapidly growing cities, poor farming practices and inadequate pollution
controls have despoiled hundreds of Florida waterways. But how much is too
much? How much pollution can a body of water absorb before it no longer
functions the way nature intended?
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is trying to answer
those precious natural resources. For
the past 18 months, the agency has been systematically evaluating
Florida's waterways to determine which should be listed as
"impaired" -- a first step in a multiyear process that could
trigger big changes in the way farms, businesses and government handle the
pollutants that find their way into local waters. The process uses
scientific methods to set limits on a range of pollutants and to establish
benchmarks for dissolved oxygen levels. The agency recently released a
draft list of Central Florida waters it
thinks are so polluted that they may be unfit, or on the verge of being
unfit, for swimming, fishing or other uses. Read
more
14-June-03
The deep well problem
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
There are no perfect
solutions for disposing of treated sewage in Florida, but both federal and
state agencies should require better treatment of wastewater before it
further endangers both people and the fragile coastal reefs. Dumping
treated sewage into the ocean can be dangerous because microorganisms that
cause disease can infect swimmers or contaminate fish. Wastewater also is
dumped into wetlands to recharge the surficial aquifer, another
questionable disposal method. The other "solution" for disposing
of treated wastewater has been to pump it deep underground -- an estimated
500 million gallons a day in 120 wells
throughout the state. But evidence is mounting that the trillions of
gallons dumped deep into the Earth over the past decades are surfacing.
Ammonia is showing up at the edges of at least 20 of the state's
drinking-water supplies, including a well Seacoast Utilities Authority
owns in Palm Beach Gardens. Nutrients from treated wastewater are seeping
onto Florida's coastal reefs, including those off Palm Beach County,
possibly feeding algae that chokes the reefs and covers the ocean floor.
On the Treasure Coast, the "green tide" of invasive seaweed is
advancing into the Intracoastal Waterway. Read
more
13-June-03
Bad attempt by Sugar
Editorial
© Orlando Sentinel
Our position: The court was right to
turn down the sugar industry's attempt to derail judge. A federal appeals court this week
properly rejected transparent attempts by the sugar industry to influence judicial oversight of Everglades
restoration efforts. One sensible ruling down. One to go. Senior U.S. District Court Judge William
Hoeveler has presided over Everglades restoration for 15 years. And there's no reason to
replace him, as the sugar industry now wants. He is a respected, indeed
revered, arbiter in judicial circles -- unimpressed by sugar-backed efforts to
delay restoration of the Everglades another 10 years.
Read
more
It's not an open book
By Bob King
© Palm Beach Post
You don't need
a library card, but you need a specific reason and an escort to browse the stacks at the South Florida Water Management
District. Spokesman Randy Smith said that's long
been the policy, aimed at protecting rare documents. But retiring librarian Cynthia Plockelman called
it a change from four decades of open-door policies,
a shift that emerged Wednesday after the Palm Beach Post printed an article on the library's
possible closing. "Anybody has been able
to walk into the reference center anytime they wanted," she said. A memo
Wednesday, reminded Plockelman that only employees and contractors can use the library in suburban West
Palm Beach, and anyone else must submit a records request.
EPA and Florida Continue with Water
Restoration Plan
Federal agency concurs with state's impaired waters list
By Deena Wells, DEP, and Carl Terry,
EPA
© Florida Department
of Enviromental Protection
TALLAHASSEE: The Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today another
milestone in restoring water quality in Florida's rivers and lakes. EPA and
Florida agreed on the waterbodies that are identified as impaired as well
as those that require further evaluation. Florida is working with federal
and local governments, water management districts, public and private
utilities,
industry, agriculture and environmental groups to clean up
pollution in state waters. Read
more
The Case Against Dave Struhs
Sierra Club Special Report
© Florida Sierra
Club
When Department of Environmental
Protection Secretary David Struhs was hired by Governor Jeb Bush, Struhs had agency letterhead
etched with his personal slogan, “More Protection, Less Process.” But four years later, it is plain that
Floridians have “less protection
and no process,” under the administration of David Struhs. Volunteer activists, professional
staffers and former Department of Environmental Protection agency staff are telling the same story:
David Struhs is not protecting Florida’s environment. “Less process”
means the
diminishment of public participation and the expansion of
backroom deal making, of privatization as a way to reward friends and campaign supporters of Jeb Bush.
Dozens of documents, news accounts, and
interviews show that David Struhs, a former utility consultant, has shown a pattern of deception and
manipulation to the public, the press, and to federal and state
lawmakers. Read
more
Related
Link: PDF Report (4 pages)- http://florida.sierraclub.org/ex13laj55.pdf
Lee, Collier now under year-round water
restrictions
By Chad Gillis
© Naples News
The southwest coast became the
first region in south Florida to be placed on year-round irrigation
restrictions Thursday when the state's water management district
officially adopted a water conservation rule aimed at Lee, Collier and the
southern tip of Charlotte counties. Property owners will be allowed to
water lawns and landscaping three days a week from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. the
following morning with no watering allowed on Friday. Addresses that end
in even numbers can irrigate only on a Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday
rotation while even addresses will be allowed to water on Monday,
Wednesday and Saturday. Golf courses and
sports playing fields are exempt from the restrictions. "It's in
effect, but it really shouldn't change anyone's life right now," said
South Florida Water Management District spokesman Kurt Harclerode.
"No one should need to irrigate now that we're in the rainy season.
The timed sensors should probably be shut off." Read
more
Bush: I won't fire environmental chief
By Lesley Clark
© The
Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE - Florida conservationists
Thursday called on Gov. Jeb Bush to jettison his environmental chief, accusing David Struhs of
cozying up to big business, rewarding his friends and selling out the Everglades to
Big Sugar. But Bush said he's not about to can the
Department of Environmental Protection secretary, one of the few holdovers from Bush's first
term. ''No, hell no!'' Bush told reporters
Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press. Struhs had been considered a
front-runner to replace outgoing Christie Todd Whitman at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but the New
York Times reported Thursday that Struhs' environmental record in
Massachusetts -- his posting before Florida -- has been questioned by conservatives
and he's no longer on the short list. A spokeswoman for the vacationing Struhs
said the secretary believes ''he has the best environmental job in Florida'' and plans to stay as
long as the governor wants him." Read
more
Coalition wants DEP chief fired
The environmental groups say
Secretary David Struhs is too friendly with industry
By Julie Hauserman, Times
Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE - A coalition of
environmental groups on Thursday called on Gov. Jeb Bush to fire David Struhs, his Department of
Environmental Protection secretary, saying Struhs has been too cozy with
polluters. "No. Hell no," Bush said when asked
whether Struhs should go. The environmental groups, which include
the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Florida League of Conservation Voters, the Friends of
the Everglades, the Clean Water Network, and 11 others, cited several instances in which they say Struhs has favored industry over the
environment. Among the groups' concerns was a
controversial 1999 settlement Struhs engineered dealing with pollution from Tampa Electric Co. Federal
regulators said Florida's deal didn't do enough to safeguard
public health. Struhs' deal also specified that TECO try a technology
marketed by a friend of Struhs - whom he later hired at DEP. TECO opted not
to use the technology, but environmentalists said it was a sweetheart deal
designed to enrich a friend of the DEP secretary. Read
more
DEP Secretary's Reaction to Everglades
Bill
© Florida
Government Headlines
Tallahassee - The Department today joins
Florida's environmental advocacycommunity in applauding Gover-nor Bush's signing of a bill that
will makeup to $800 million of funding available to restore America's
Everglades. The Governor's commitment to ensuring
that Florida continues to pay its half of the project costs has been critical to maintaining an
equivalent share of federal funding. Today's action by the Governor
continues this pattern. We would have preferred the Governor’s
original funding proposal which would have put $250 million in cash directly into the Everglades
Restoration Trust Fund and provided additional bonding authority.
However, given budget constraints and other legislative priorities, we wel-come this alternative which will also allow Florida to fully meet its
Everglades funding commitment. Read
more
Corps official affirms
commitment to Everglades restoration
Earlier this week,
the DEP issued a press release outlining the state's continuing commitment
to the $8.4 million restoration.
By Alan Scher Zagier
© Naples Daily News
Some soldiers on the
front lines of Everglades restoration traveled to Naples on Thursday to
offer their assurances that, despite a new state law rolling back
phosphorous cleanup deadlines, the commitment remains steadfast to a
cleaner River of Grass. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Florida
Association for Water Quality Control, held at The Registry Resort, the
federal government's point man for Everglades restoration said he's not
worried about a decline in state oversight. "There has been no
backing off on the part of the state" regarding water quality
standards, said Dennis Duke, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'
program manager for Everglades restoration. Duke was joined by Ernie
Barnett, director of ecosystem projects for the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection; Barbara Miedema, a spokeswoman for the Sugar
Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida; and April
Gromnicki, Everglades policy coordinator for Florida Audubon. Barnett said
the amount of phosphorous entering the Everglades has decreased from 270
metric tons in 1990 to current levels of 80 metric tons, with a further
reduction to 30 metric tons anticipated by 2006. "We've ended up far
exceeding the first phase of water quality restoration," he told an
audience of 30 engineers and hydrologists. A sugar industry-driven bill
signed into law recently by Gov. Jeb Bush gives the state and agricultural
interests more wiggle room to meet rigorous emission standards first
established as part of a federal-state consent agreement following a 1988
lawsuit brought by the federal Department of Justice against Florida. The
agreement calls for a reduction of phosphorus in the Everglades to 10
parts per billion by 2006. Too much phosphorus, used in agriculture as
fertilizer, has changed parts of the River of Grass into dense fields of
cattails that choke water flow. The new law extends that deadline to 2016;
a clause offering the option of extending the deadline to "the
earliest practicable date" was later eliminated. The law also has
wording that makes the water quality standards less rigid, requiring the
water essentially to be made as clean
as is technically possible. Read
more
Groups rip environmental chief
By Rafael
Lorente and Linda Kleindienst, Washington Bureau
© Orlando
Sentinel
WASHINGTON --
Florida's top environmental regulator, mentioned as a possibility to head
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is coming under increasing
attack on his home turf for not protecting the state's natural resources.
David Struhs, secretary of Florida's Department of Environmental
Protection, has been named as a potential replacement for Christie
Whitman, who resigned as EPA administrator last month. However, he is now
the target of a "Dump Struhs" campaign by a host of Florida
environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Everglades
Trust, the Clean Water Network and the Florida League of Conservation
Voters. His role in a recent revision of the Everglades Forever Act, which
could stall a cleanup plan for the River of Grass, already has drawn
staunch criticism from Congress, likely making him vulnerable in required
confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate. With Democrats on Capitol
Hill looking for ways to attack what seems to be a Teflon-coated
president, whoever the nominee is could be in for a long, bumpy ride.
Struhs already has come under attack by Republican congressional leaders
unhappy with his handling of the Everglades bill approved by the Florida
Legislature. "If he went to Washington, it would be good for Florida
but bad for the EPA," said Mary Barley of the Everglades Trust.
"We need to dump him because he's dumping on the state of Florida and
our environment." Gov. Jeb Bush, who tapped Struhs for the DEP job in
1999, has been a staunch supporter of how Struhs has run the agency. Asked
if he would consider firing his top environmental regulator, Bush replied:
"No. Hell no." Read
more
Bush refuses to fire Struhs
Environmental coalition calls
for removal of DEP secretary
By Bruce
Ritchie, Staff Writer
© The
Tallahassee Democrat
Gov. Jeb Bush
used few words Thursday in response to a call to fire David Struhs,
secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "No.
Hell no - that's my comment," Bush told reporters. The Sierra Club's
Florida chapter and a coalition of 16 other fire
Struhs. They released a report that they said documents his deception and
backroom deal-making. The coalition includes the Florida Consumer Action
Network, the Florida League of Conservation Voters, the Clean Water
Network and the Everglades Trust. The groups say Struhs has sacrificed
Florida's environmental treasures, including the Everglades and the
Ichetucknee River in North Florida. They also blame him for new rules that
led last year to some waterways being dropped from the state's
"impaired waters" cleanup list. Bush and Struhs recently
supported a state bill to remove a 2006 deadline for the sugar industry to
clean up Everglades pollution. And in 1999, DEP the
Ichetucknee River. The Sierra Club said both issues were examples of
deception and private deal-making. Struhs is on vacation this week and was
not available for comment, DEP spokeswoman Deena Wells said earlier this
week. She also said Struhs' critics were engaging in "personal
attacks" and that the accusations against him were
"ridiculous." Struhs was named DEP Secretary by Bush in 1999
after serving as chief of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection. He has been rumored as a possible replacement for
Environmental Protection Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who is
resigning. Read
more
Letter to the editor-
Help the 'Glades: Stop buying sugar!
By Gayle Rogalski,
Delray Beach
© Sun-Sentinel
Well, the sugar barons
just have no limit to their blatant bully tactics when it comes to
avoiding their responsibility in cleaning up their mess in the Everglades.
It's not bad enough that they're pulling the strings on the puppet in the
governor's mansion, but now they're threatening a respected judge whose
goal is to save the Everglades from destruction they
are in large part responsible for. Those who are infuriated by these
actions, as many of us are, do have a way of making our own statement to
the sugar industry. All we have to do
is stop buying sugar. Not only would you be retaliating against the sugar
barons, but you would be doing yourself a great service because sugar is
very bad for your health. Read
more
12-June-03
Pols want Jeb to put Everglades bill on
hold
By Jasmine Kripalani
© The
Miami Herald
Seven South Florida
Democratic legislators stood on a patch of grass near the Everglades on
Wednesday, and asked Gov. Jeb Bush to delay implementation of a new
Everglades cleanup law. Leading Congressional Republicans,
environmentalists and even a federal judge have been critical of the
Everglades measure, which Bush signed into law in May. On Tuesday, Bush
signed a second measure removing language environmentalists had found
troubling. Still, the Democratic legislators called for Bush to reconsider
the law, saying that it jeopardizes a federal-state agreement to split the
cost of an $8 billion Everglades restoration project. Airboat motors
revved in the background at Everglades Holiday Park off of U.S. 27 and
Griffin Road, as the state senators and representatives warned that the
river of grass behind them could one day turn into a wasteland. Efforts
are underway to rid the Everglades of pollutants including phosphorous,
which drains into the Everglades from urban areas, the sugar industry and
other agriculture. ''Our state's most natural treasure is in peril,'' said
Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek who voted for the bill during the
regular session. ''The reason I voted for it was a work plan to put in
front of the judge. I thought the judge had the option of throwing it
out,'' Greenstein said, referring to U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler,
who is overseeing the Everglades cleanup. Read
more
Alvin B. Jackson, Jr. prepares
message of opportunity for NAACP Conference
By William Graf
© Orlando
Sentinel
Whether it's taking on
a part of the $8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Palm winning
a contact for work on the $500 million Kissimmee River Restoration, or
work on local government water resource partnerships in Central and South
Florida, the time has never been better for doing business with the South
Florida Water Management District. With that message of opportunity, Alvin
B. Jackson, Jr., is the keynote speaker at this year's "Women in the
NAACT" Breakfast at the annual Florida State Conference of NAACP
Branches to be held June 20-21 at Orlando's Rosen Plaza Hotel. With so
much business to share with the private sector, Jackson is leading the way
to ensure that women- and minority-owned businesses enjoy an unprecedented
piece of that economic pie. "In 2002, I'm pleased to report, the
South Florida Water Management District did $65 million in business with
minority-owned businesses," Jackson said. "That's a 168-percent
increase over the previous year. And we're on track for additional
improvements this year." Likewise, the South Florida Water Management
pursues a philosophy that a diverse work force strengthens its ability to
serve the diverse communities of Central and South Florida. The District
employs 1,771 people who work in the 16 counties of the greater Kissimmee
-Okeechobee - Everglades watershed that begins in Orlando and stretches
all the way to the Florida Keys. Read
more
Related Links:
Avlin B. Jackson, Jr.
Deputy Executive Director for Corporate Resources
South Florida Water Management District
http://www.sfwmd.gov/gover/3_jackson.html
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
http://www.naacp.org
Florida NAACP Branches
http://www.naacp.org/locally/contact45.shtml#florida
7
legislators to Gov. Bush: Put Glades bill on hold
By
Jasmine Kripalani
© The
Miami Herald
Seven
South Florida Democratic legislators stood on a patch of grass near the
Everglades on Wednesday and asked Gov. Jeb Bush to delay implementation of
a new Everglades cleanup law. Leading
congressional Republicans, environmentalists and even a federal judge have
been critical of the Everglades measure, which Bush signed into law in
May. On
Tuesday, Bush signed a second measure removing language that
environmentalists had found troubling. Still,
the Democratic legislators called for Bush to reconsider the law, saying
that it jeopardizes a federal-state agreement to split the cost of an $8
billion Everglades restoration project. Read
more
11-June-03
Water district may close library
By Robert King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
South Florida's past may be running out of
future. That's the fear of Cynthia Plockelman, who has spent 40 years
assembling a one-of-a-kind archive of bird books, plant guides, pioneer lore
and century-old game warden reports detailing the region's past as a
watery wilderness. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, queen of the Everglades activists,
browsed the documents in the 1970s. Scientists and scholars from as far away
as South Africa rely on the collection today. It's open to anyone wishing
to peruse the engineering plans, congressional reports and pump blueprints
that helped create the realm of suburbs and shopping malls we dwell
in now. But Plockelman retires this month as reference librarian at the
South Florida Water Management District in suburban West Palm Beach.
And to save money, the district is considering dismantling the library's
collection of tens of thousands of documents -- perhaps sending much of it to
Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. District leaders say they haven't made any decisions, but
promise all the documents will be preserved and remain available to the public. But Plockelman is convinced the collection is in danger.
"Once it's gone to Boca, it's totally out of our control," she said. "Things can be lost, stolen, not catalogued."
"I care deeply about what happens to this material," she added.
"This isn't my private property. These are the district's records, and
I don't think they're being treated with respect."
Read
more
Judge to remain on Glades case
By Curtis Morgan
© The
Miami Herald
A federal appeals
court Tuesday threw out one of two legal efforts by the sugar industry to
remove a Miami federal judge from his longtime role of overseeing
Everglades cleanup.
Sugar companies said Senior District Judge William Hoeveler had
overstepped his bounds by publicly criticizing an Everglades cleanup bill
passed by the Florida Legislature this year. The bill postponed the
deadline for reducing Everglades pollution from sugar farm and urban
runoff. On Tuesday, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the bill, which was tightened
from an earlier version that Everglades activists and even some Republican
congressmen thought was too lenient. Environmentalists hailed the appeals
court's decision as a victory for Hoeveler, a venerable jurist they
consider the last, best defense of tough pollution standards in the
Everglades. ''The court obviously saw through their ruse and sent them
packing,'' said
Thom Rumberger, an attorney for Audubon of Florida. But sugar growers
stood by their cases, arguing the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in Atlanta was based on a technicality. Another motion to
remove the judge remains pending. ''They didn't rule on the merits of the
case,'' said Jorge Dominicis, vice president of Florida Crystals, whose
affiliate, New Hope Sugar Co., filed the petition last week in Atlanta.
That petition, like a separate motion filed in District Court in Miami by
the United State Sugar Corp., argued that Hoeveler had overstepped his
judicial authority over the past few months by issuing criticisms of the
sugar-supported legislative overhaul of Everglades pollution laws. Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
Democrats urge Bush to delay
Everglades act
By Holly Hickman,
Associated Press Writer
© Herald Tribune
Flanked by the vast
river of grass they said they want to protect, several Democratic state
legislators implored Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday to stop implementation of
the recently signed Everglades Restoration Act. The legislators said the
law threatens both the wetland itself and the $8 billion cleanup
partnership with the federal government. They said some
Democrats voted for the bill last month only because they were duped by
the Department of Environmental Protection. Agency officials denied the
accusation and noted that measure passed by an "overwhelming
majority" in the Legislature. "The title 'Everglades Restoration
Act' is a misnomer given what we, the state of Florida, have just
done," said Rep. Nan Rich, D-Weston. "We're not restoring. We're
destroying a historic partnership. By signing this
act without their input, the governor has thumbed his nose at our federal
partners." She pointed to a recent letter written to Bush by U.S.
Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, [shown below] which urged the governor to
create "a sense of confidence that the coalition of shared interests
... has not been irreversibly damaged." The letter also called on the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate whether Florida is meeting the
specific environmental requirements outlined in previous state-federal
agreements. Hobson spokesman Chris Galm said that the governor must prove
that Florida "has not reneged on its commitment to the
restoration" if the state is to receive the $4 billion federal grant
earmarked for the mammoth
project. State Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Pembroke Pines, likened
the current
state-federal relationship to a marriage. "If you don't want a
divorce, you sit down and work it out," she said. "If you do
want a divorce, you go down the road Jeb Bush is going down."
Read
more
Letter from Terry Rice to
Governor Bush
Press Release
Governor Bush ... I
routinely comment to you on correspondence such as the below letter that
you recently received from Congressman Hobson.... I normally take the time
to logically evaluate and amplify the points made as I've done for you
many time in the past ... but, after 4 years-plus of corresponding with
you, I am convinced that I have confirmed one of your predictable
characteristic ... when you have made up your mind, you rarely change it
... the fight appears to become winning regardless of new information,
refuted facts, or whatever ... although most everyone recognizes that
changing a decision for the right reasons is prudent, there seems to be an
innate force in you that precludes this from happening. Some confuse this
condition with decisiveness ... this is not decisiveness as changes of
decision can be made decisively. Read
more
10-June-03
Bush signs
bill he says will address Everglades concerns
The Herald Tribue/Associated
Press
Gov. Jeb Bush signed
a bill Tuesday intended to ease concerns of environmentalists and members
of Congress about the state's commitment to cleaning up the Everglades.
The bill, passed during a special session last month, was meant to tighten
language in a measure he earlier signed into law earlier that critics said
would delay by a decade or more the cleanup of phosphorus pollution
running into Everglades National Park from sugar farms and suburban
sprawl. "Florida's commitment to restoration of America's Everglades
continues," Bush said in a release issued by the Department of
Environmental Protection. "We have the plan and we're providing the
money to make restoration a reality. We're keeping our promise to the
famed River of Grass." Environmentalists said the original bill
created wiggle room on a deadline for completing the restoration and the
degree to which water in the Everglades had to be clean. The bill allowed
for cleanup to be done at the "earliest practical date" and to
the "maximum practical extent," rather than setting out a hard
deadline. Congress also was watching the issue closely. It's paying half
the $8 billion cleanup cost, and several members have warned that if the
state's guarantee continued financial
support. Read
more
Good Everglades news overlooked
Opinion, submitted by
Governor Jeb Bush
© Sun-Sentinel
The South Florida
Sun-Sentinel's May 29 article, "Everglades bill raises taxes, critics
argue," proves that it is impossible to satisfy some people. Instead
of celebrating the unprecedented progress and success of Everglades
restoration, some will create a reason -- without regard to the truth --
to complain and criticize this monumental project. Meanwhile, the real
news about Everglades restoration went virtually unreported last month.
The Florida Legislature committed $225 million in cash -- more than twice
the amount originally anticipated this year -- and another $800 million in
bonding authority to keep Everglades restoration on schedule and on
budget. Florida's total financial commitment to restore water flow now
tops $1.5 billion. Florida is also keeping its commitment to restoring
water quality. Since enactment of the 1994 Everglades Forever Act, more
than $600 million has been invested in cleaning up the famed River of
Grass. Today, 90 percent of the water in the Everglades is clean. Read
more
Letter to the editor- Polluters
don't pay
By Rep. Ron Greenstein
© The
Miami Herald
When voters
approved a 1996 constitutional amendment requiring polluters to pay for
the cost of cleaning up the Everglades, I am sure the last thing on their
minds was the possibility that the Legislature would be billing them,
rather than the sugar industry, for the cleanup.
Well, in the strange Republican world of Tallahassee, that is exactly what
happened. Every Floridian feels a responsibility to restore the
Everglades. As the father of an infant, it is my hope that my son will
grow up to know and love an Everglades that is fully restored, and like
every other resident of South Florida, I am willing to do my part.
However, the polluters must do their part, too. That is why I proposed a
minor increase in the fee that sugar farmers pay to grow crops near the
Everglades. The fee increase would have been negligible, just $5 to $7 per
acre, but it would have provided significant funding for the cleanup.
Read
more
FLORIDA LEGISLATORS TO GOVERNOR
BUSH: STOP IMPLEMENTATION OF EVERGLADES BILL TO DELAY IMPLEMENTATION
OF EVERGLADES BILL
Press Advisory
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
CONTACT:
Julia Lopes (Sen. Wasserman Schultz) (954) 704-2934
Dawn Vihrachoff (Rep. Greenstein) (954) 956-5600
WESTON, Fl---
Members of the Florida Legislature will hold a press conference on
Wednesday to call on Governor Bush to issue a moratorium delaying the
implementation of the recently signed Everglades Act. Florida Legislators
are calling for the moratorium in response to a recent announcement that
Congressman David Hobson (R-Ohio), Chair of the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Resources, will ask the Army Corps of
Engineers to undertake a study to determine whether the recently passed
legislation will “result in an abrogation of the cost-sharing agreement
and end the Federal contribution for any such project features.”
Congressman Hobson’s prouncement indicates the real possibility that
Florida could lose some $4 billion in federal funding for Everglades
restoration. Read
more
Record New Funding To Save the
Everglades
Florida keeps money flowing
into River of Grass
Florida Department of
Environmental Protection Press Release
Contact: Deena Wells,
(850) 528-2155
Tallahassee - Governor Jeb
Bush today signed Senate Bill 54A that clarifies amendments made to the
Everglades Forever Act during the Regular Session this year. The
legislation also provides the bonding authority for an additional $800
million for Everglades Restoration. Including the record $225 million
appropriated in this year's budget, Florida's total financial
commitment to restore water flow through the famed River of Grass now tops
$1.5 billion.
"Florida's commitment to restoration of America's Everglades
continues," said Governor Jeb Bush. "We have the plan and we're
providing the money to make restoration a reality. We're keeping our
promise to the famed River of Grass." The legislation signed today
eliminates specific language within the amended Everglades Forever Act
that has been a source of concern to Florida's federal partners. Since the
law has been the subject of intense debate and scrutiny, Governor Bush
asked the Legislature to clarify specific language in the bill. Read
more
09-June-03
Bush policies harm the environment
By Bob Graham
© Boston Globe
THE NEXT MAJOR
environmental showdown in America will be the nomination of a new EPA
administrator. While this selection could be a strong signal of where the
Bush administration is on environmental policy, the experience of the
outgoing administrator is a perfect example of my skepticism when it comes
to the ability of the Bush White House to make a commitment to real
environmental protection. After 28 months as head of the Environmental
Protection Agency, Christie Whitman called it quits on May 21. Known as a
political moderate, Whitman's departure may have been the result of
frustration after repeatedly losing out to big business, big coal, and big
oil. Her tenure at the agency has been defined by environmental rollbacks
announced at 5:30 on Friday. Finding her replacement will give the White
House the opportunity to decide if it is committed to environmental
protection or Friday night raids on the environment. Over the last two
years, these environmental rollbacks have included allowing open access to
snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, delaying needed action to reduce
the impact of global warming, and undermining the cleanup of America's
lakes, rivers, and estuaries. These rollbacks, combined with lack of
action by EPA and other environmental agencies, threaten our national
parks, our air, and our water. The administration's hostile environmental
policies are undermining projects that have traditionally lacked partisan
rancor. For example, the restoration of the Everglades, which became law
with the help of Democrats and Republicans, is threatened by lack of
action on the part of the EPA and the Interior Department. In 2000,
historic legislation paved the way for restoration and solidified a
commitment between the state and federal government to restore the River
of Grass. Read
more
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the release of its draft report on
groundwater at the Stauffer Chemical site in Tarpon Springs, Florida
Press Release
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the release of its draft report on
groundwater at the Stauffer Chemical site in Tarpon Springs, Florida. A
copy of the report is available for public review at the Tarpon Springs
Public Library, 138 East Lemon Street in Tarpon. [ Tarpon Springs Public
Library - http://snoopy.tblc.lib.fl.us/tarpon/
] The Groundwater Study was specifically focused on evaluating certain
groundwater characteristics that are of concern to the community and may
impact the future remedy. The objectives of the study included:
determining ocean tides effect on groundwater flow; determining a
connection between the surficial aquifer and the deeper Floridian aquifer;
and evaluating groundwater movement beneath the site and possible
contaminant transport away from the site. EPA entered into an enforceable
agreement with the Stauffer Management Company that required the company
to conduct geophysical studies, evaluate the effect of groundwater on the
remedy, and conduct treatability studies on the solidification portion of
the remedy before the Agency makes a final decision regarding the remedy
for the site. Read
more
Related Links:
Public health
assessment of the Stauffer Chemical Co. site
http://cisat1.isciii.es/NEWS/tarponspringsfl040203.html
ATSDR - Stauffer
Chemical Company Site - Tarpon Springs, Florida .
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/NEWS/staufferhealthresponse.html
EPA Region 4 Florida NPL/NPL Caliber Cleanup Site Summaries, ...
.... The Stauffer
Chemical Company obtained the plant from Victor Chemical in 1960 and ... The
160-Acre site (130 acres dry) is situated along the Anclote River ...
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/npl/nplfln/stautsfl.htm
[PDF]STAUFFER
CHEMICAL - TAMPA
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/quick_topics/publications/wc/sites/summary/094.pdf
[PDF]Stauffer
Chemical Company
http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/cpr/
wastesites/PDFs/StaufTS.pdf
08-June-03
Polluters not paying as much as
taxpayers
By Travis James Tritten
© Key West Citizen
© SHERI
LOHR / Special to The Citizen
Changes to the Everglades Forever Act mean Monroe County property owners
will now
pay $2 million or more annually for the next decade to clean up farm
runoff.
Floridians felt so strongly that
polluters -- not taxpayers -- should pay for a cleanup of the Everglades that 68 percent voted to add the
rule to the state constitution in 1996. Seven years later, South Florida
property owners are paying nearly three times more than the agricultural industry responsible for most of
the phosphorous pollution that flows into the swamp. And changes to the Everglades Forever
Act passed last month by the Legislature and signed by the governor extends the burden on
taxpayers for another 10 years. Monroe County property owners will now pay $2
million or more annually for the next decade to clean up farm runoff. "Orlando to Key West would have had the
tax dropped" in 2004, said Charles
Lee, senior vice president of Audubon of Florida. "The effect of
this bill is to re-impose that tax on the homeowners, who have nothing to
do with phosphorous pollution." Residents will pay about an extra $20 a
year on a $250,000 home until 2014 under the new amendments to the Everglades Forever Act.
In 2001, the cleanup tax raised $1.94
million from the Florida Keys, Tax Collector Danise Henriquez said. That amount will most likely
increase over
the years due to soaring property values. About 6 million residents in 15 South
Florida counties will be affected by the property tax extension, which is levied by the South Florida
Water Management District.
TIMELINE:
1994 -- The Florida Legislature passes
the Everglades Forever Act, which
requires phosphorous levels in the swamp to be reduced to natural
levels.
Property owners are taxed to pay for the cleanup.
1996 -- Sixty-eight percent of Floridians
vote for a constitutional
amendment that requires polluters to pay for the Everglades cleanup, not
taxpayers. The agricultural industry is given tax breaks for decreased
phosphorous levels.
1997 -- The state Supreme Court rules
that the amendment requires polluters
to pay "100 percent" of the cost for reducing pollution. Yet
taxes collected
from non-polluters pay the majority for the first construction of
wetland
treatment areas that cleanse farm runoff.
1998 -- A class action suit is filed by
Mary Barley challenging the
constitutionality of taxing property owners for the cleanup.
2002 -- The Florida Supreme Court rules
that the Polluter Pays amendment
must be clarified by the Legislature before taking effect.
2003 -- The Legislature renews the
Everglades cleanup tax on property owners
for another decade.
Read
more
80-yr-old jurist fights to preserve his
Everglades legacy
By Catherine Wilson, Associated
Press
© Naples News/AP
©
Wilfredo Lee, Associated Press 2003
District Judge William Hoeveler poses near an
oil painting of the Everglades that hangs over
his desk in his chambers in Miami. Best known as the federal judge who
sent Manuel Noriega to
prison, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines this spring by
saying a new Everglades
law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was "clearly defective" even
before it was signed.
MIAMI — The legacy of William Hoeveler
may be 15 years spent policing a complex lawsuit mired in biology and
hydrology that is intended to restore the Everglades to its bygone days as
a free-flowing, slow-growth marsh. But sugar growers say that is long
enough. Claiming the federal judge has turned into a bully with a
political bent, they are asking other judges to throw him off the case.
Best known as the federal judge who sent Panamanian dictator Manuel
Noriega to prison, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines this
spring by saying a new Everglades law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was
"clearly defective" even before it was signed. Stiffened by a
stroke and back trouble but still ramrod straight in person and in deed,
the judge insists the federal and state governments are bound by their
commitments to him in a 1992 consent decree — no matter what state
lawmakers concoct. His dogmatic position comes as no surprise to those who
know him. Federico Moreno, who tried cases in front of Hoeveler before
joining the Miami federal bench, considers him "a judge's
judge." Moreno's thoughts veered to "The Wizard of Oz,"
saying Hoeveler possessed the attributes treasured by Dorothy's friends:
courage, heart and intellect. Kevin Martin, a member of the Federal
Communications Commission and former Hoeveler clerk, said the judge
"was very sharp, was very deliberative, one of the most fair-minded
people I've ever known." Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
07-June-03
Congressman questions Glades law
By Lesley Clark
© The
Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE - Citing ''genuine alarm''
over the controversial Everglades law, another leading Republican congressman is questioning Gov.
Jeb Bush's commitment to cleaning up the River of Grass. U.S. Rep. David Hobson, an Ohio
Republican who has sway over federal money for energy and water projects across the United States, wrote a
letter Friday to the Republican governor saying the new law gives him
''reason to doubt'' the state is ''bound or committed'' to cleaning up the
water in the Everglades fast enough to allow an $8 billion restoration project
to go forward. The letter is the starkest warning yet
that the sugar industry-backed law could put at risk the federal government's $4 billion share of
the massive restoration project. ''I am told that the failings of this
legislation may render water flowing through the South Florida system unsuitable for Everglades
restoration for several more years,'' said Hobson, one of several congressmen
Bush met with last month on a trip to Washington, D.C., in an effort to appease
his critics. Read
more
Judge postpones Everglades hearing
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
A federal judge, under fire from the
sugar industry, has indefinitely postponed a hearing at which he could have appointed an overseer
for the $1 billion Everglades cleanup. In a terse order late Friday, U.S.
District Judge William Hoeveler said the hearing, scheduled to begin Tuesday in Miami, is postponed
"until further notice." Sugar lawyers this week asked Chief U.S.
District Judge William Zloch in Miami and an appellate court in Atlanta to remove Hoeveler from
the case, charging that he has become biased in favor of environmentalists. "Sugar's fusillade gained them a delay,"
said Charles Lee, senior vice president of Audubon of Florida. "And of course, sugar is the
master of seeking and gaining delays." Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for United
States Sugar Corp., said she hadn't read the order and could not comment. Thom
Rumberger, chairman of the
environmental group Everglades Trust, said the delay left him "upset and hurt."
"I just wish we could go forward," he
said.
Read
more
EVERGLADES UNDER THREAT
By Gerad Tubb
© Sky News- United Kingdom
© Sky News
Under the new legislation, alligators are now in danger.
In the steamy heat of the Florida
Everglades, the American alligator is trying to compete with the American sugar industry - and it's
losing, writes Sky's Gerard Tubb. Florida - the sunshine state, and one of
the UK's top foreign holiday destinations, is polluting the Everglades with run-off from sugar
cane fields. It causes plants to grow unnaturally
fast, turning the pristine waters black and crowding out the wildlife. The pollution was due to stop in 2006.
An agreement between Florida and Washington would have released four billion dollars of federal
funds to save the Everglades from further destruction and providing a
better supply of fresh water for South Florida's population. But a critical water quality standard of
10 parts per billion of phosphorous was going to be difficult to reach. The rich sugar
industry
spent millions of dollars lobbying to get the standard scrapped. Florida Governor Jeb Bush sided with the
industry and signed a bill last month allowing the pollution to continue till 2016.
To see the damage caused by the
pollution, the Audubon Society, one of
Florida's leading conservation groups, took us on a two-hour trip
into the river of grass. The Everglades are dominated by this 60
mile wide, 300 mile long ribbon of water stretching from the Kissimmee River to Florida Bay.
It's a unique habitat, rarely more than
two feet deep, and accessible only by canoe and the flat-bottomed airboats with massive aircraft
propellers
that pushed us over lily ponds and through the sawgrass.
Read
more
Big Sugar wins delay on 'Glades
By Neil Santaniello
© The Sun Sentinel
Florida's sugar industry prevailed
Friday in one part of a legal attack it launched on U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler after he ripped
state legislation overhauling Florida's Everglades cleanup law. The federal judge Friday postponed until
further notice a hearing he had set for Tuesday to consider appointing a special master to
oversee his 1992 court mandate on the Everglades. That action spurred the state to
initiate a 9-year-old program to clean polluted sugar and vegetable farm water pouring into the
Everglades. U.S. Sugar Corp. filed a motion
Wednesday to have the hearing stayed until chief U.S. District Judge William Zloch could act on its request
to remove Hoeveler from his longtime role in the Everglades pollution case. The same day, Florida Crystals filed a
motion with the federal appeals court in Atlanta seeking Hoeveler's ouster.
Read
more
Sugar Tries Legal Ambush Of Everglades
Cleanup Judge
© The
Tampa Tribune
The sugar industry's effort to remove
the federal judge who has overseen the Everglades restoration effort for 15 years is a clear attempt
to stall progress. The growers claim U.S. District Judge
William Hoeveler is biased because he publicly questioned the wisdom of an industry-promoted bill
that weakens Everglades water quality standards. But Hoeveler only stated the obvious.
The measure changes the standards established in his court order and agreed to by the state.
Hoeveler has presided over the cleanup effort since former federal attorney
Dexter Lehtinen sued the state in 1988 for not enforcing its own water
quality laws by allowing tainted runoff to flow into the Everglades. Hoeveler is scheduled Tuesday to assign
a special master to the cleanup and has stated his intent to maintain the cleanup standards.
The sugar industry is not even a party
to the court order. The judge is simply presiding over the consent order to which the state agreed
to comply. Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
WMD seeks $50 million
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
Water managers expect to have a record
amount of cash next year, but they're still struggling to plug a $50 million hole in their $800
million-plus proposed budget. The casualties could include programs to
help Lake Okeechobee, the St. Lucie River, the Indian River Lagoon and various flood-control
projects, along with 15 jobs at the South Florida Water Management
District. "We're definitely having to do some
belt-tightening," said Executive
Director Henry Dean. Despite the tightness, Dean said the
district intends to plunge ahead with this year's installment of the $8.4 billion, four-decade
Everglades restoration project. The restoration is entering its most
expensive phase, including an effort to finish buying more than $2 billion worth
of land in the next several years. Dean also is recommending that the
district spend $1.5 million annually for the next three years to help Palm Beach County create a
nearly $35 million water treatment plant for the Glades. That would provide
carcinogen-free water to Pahokee, South Bay and other farming
towns around the lake.
Read
more
06-June-03
Letter from David Hobson to Governor
Bush
Press Release
I am writing to express my
concern over the current state of the effort to save the Everglades, and
to urge you to begin the task of restoring a sense of confidence that the
coalition of shared interests dedicated to carrying out this work has not
been irreversibly damaged by recent legislative actions taken by the State
of Florida. As governor of Florida, you have stewardship of a number
of national treasures. The national significance of the Everglades
has been highlighted, in part, by the large commitment of Federal revenues
representing an investment from taxpayers all over the country and the
human resources of several Federal agencies working on this project.
As Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittees primarily responsible for
the wise commitment of taxpayer funds to this and other energy and water
projects in Florida and across the nation, I must insure that the
continued provision of funds for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
Plan (CERP) represents their best possible use. Read
more
05-June-03
Sugar companies want judge off Glades
case
By CRAIG PITTMAN
© St. Petersburg
Times
Two sugar companies say the federal
judge overseeing the cleanup of the Everglades has been talking too much, both in court and to
reporters, and should be booted off the case. In separate motions filed in two federal
courts Wednesday, U.S. Sugar and a subsidiary of Flo-Sun Sugar criticized tough-talking U.S.
District Judge William Hoeveler, 80, for giving interviews to several
newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times, that show he no longer is impartial.
"The judge has become an advocate," U.S.
Sugar vice president Robert Coker said. The sugar companies also want overturned
a pair of blunt orders Hoeveler sent out criticizing a sugar-backed bill that flew through the
Legislature and delays the deadline for cleaning up Everglades pollution by a
decade. One order called an emergency hearing
because the judge said he'd been reading news accounts about the legislation "with considerable
apprehension." Then, after that hearing, Hoeveler
issued an order in which he called the bill "clearly defective" and said Gov. Jeb Bush was being
"misled" by people
who did not care about the Everglades. Bush signed the bill anyway. Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
Brochure rewards Everglades sellout
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
If you receive a brochure
praising your lawmaker for supporting Everglades legislation, there is
something you should know. The brochure was paid for by a nonprofit group
with close ties to the sugar industry. As the Tribune's Mike Salinero
found, the law firm that formed the Everglades Forever Partnership, which
mailed the brochure, represents the Fanjul family, owners of Flo-Sun sugar
conglomerate. There is something else you should know. While the pamphlet,
adorned with photographs of birds and wetlands, praises the legislators
who voted for the bill as ``leading the fight for Everglades
restoration,'' the measure actually endangered the cleanup effort. It
delays by 10 years water quality standards for runoff that flows from
agricultural lands onto the Everglades. The court-approved plan had
mandated that growers reduce phosphorus levels below 10 parts per billion
by 2006. At the urging of a platoon of sugar industry lobbyists, lawmakers
pushed back the deadline until 2016. They did this even though members of
Congress warned that the legislation could jeopardize congressional
support for the 20-year, $8 billion cleanup plan. Read
more
State of Glades
UF project to examine phosphorus levels
By Greg C. Bruno, Sun Staff
Writer
© Gainsville Sun
© Greg C. Bruno, Gainville Sun 2003
In much of the northern
Everglades’ so-called water conservation areas,
high levels of phosphorus are threatening to wipe out native plants and
wildlife.
WEST PALM BEACH- Last month, amid vocal
opposition from state environmentalists, Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation that some say
will delay a deadline for the reduction of phosphorus pollution in the Everglades by a decade, from 2006 to 2016. Critics of the move
said it was a nod to the sugar industry and could jeopardize federal funding
for the $8 billion project. Supporters point to recent allocations of
money as proof of their continued support, adding that previous deadlines
were scientifically unrealistic. But while lawmakers continue to debate
the controversial bill, a pivotal question remains unanswered: Just how widespread is phosphorus in
Florida's fabled River of Grass? New research by the University of
Florida aims to find out. Armed with a South Florida Water
Management District grant, university
soil and water scientists are embarking on a monumental
Everglades mapping project — a one-year, $500,000 phosphorus survey of the
marshland’s entire 1.7 million acres. “This will be the newest and the
biggest,” said Todd Osborne, 29, a graduate student in the university's soil and water science
department, part of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, who is
leading the project’s field sampling efforts. For years, nutrient research in
Florida's southern freshwater marshes centered primarily on the northern regions of the Everglades
basin, so-called water conservation areas south of Lake Okeechobee
established 40 to 50 years ago. Read
more
Latest Everglades move is
such a sweet deal
By Howard Goodman, Commentary
© The Sun Sentinel
Probably like most of you out
there, I can't wait to check my mailbox for the latest on the new
Everglades bill. I'm expecting a flier that features a photo of my state
representative or
senator, some colorful pictures of wildlife and prose about the new law's
benefits: "Science-based plan that works ... Tough standards ... No
new taxes." Guess they didn't want to say, "Pushes deadlines
back 10 years ... Increases taxpayer share of cleanup cost." The
fliers are going out to an unknown number of communities around the state.
What's interesting is, the highlighted legislators aren't paying for them.
The sponsor is the Everglades Forever Partnership, a clever name for a
front group for the sugar industry. The mailing is a sweet little
thank-you to legislators who, in a moving display of bipartisanship,
ignored party divisions to stand as one and sell out the Everglades. So we
come full circle: The sugar industry gives at least $1.02 million to
politicians in Tallahassee in the past two years. Legislators vote almost
unanimously for an industry-backed bill that relaxes requirements to clean
up the pollution the industry produces. Now the industry sends out
campaign-like material in the legislators' names. It's almost like getting
a calling card saying, "This Florida representative/senator is
brought to you by Flo-Sun and U.S. Sugar."
Read
more
SWFMD to seek perpetual
payment
By Tracy Whirls
© Glades
County Democrat
South Florida
Water Management District Executive Director Henry Dean told an audience
of Hendry and Glades County officials that he will assist the counties in
seeking perpetual payment in lieu of taxes for lands being taken off the
counties' tax rolls as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
Project and other state and federal conservation project[s]. Saying it's
apparent that the citizens and governments of Hendry and Glades
are facing "undue adverse impact from land acquisitions," Mr.
Dean told. Reservoirs in Clewiston
Monday that Lake-area landowners and governments should not bear the brunt
of Everglades Restoration. "I'm not sure it was well thought out to
take land off the tax rolls to
create reservoirs t ensure the water supplies for the lower east coast and
the three million acres of Everglades marsh," Mr. Dean said. "I'm
prepared to work with you as hard as I know how, to go the legislature
next spring and insist that perpetual payment in lieu of taxes be made on
all the land that's being taken off the tax rolls," Mr. Dean said.
Mr. Dean pointed out that the 140,000 acres proposed to be acquired by the
CERP project is less than half of the 352,000 acres that the state has
acquired or is in the process of acquiring by the Trustees Internal
Improvement Fund. Mr. Dean said the payment in lieu of taxes could be
based on a need criteria based on population, tax revenue and mean income
over 50 years to insure
perpetual funding. In the meantime, Mr. Dean said he would ask SFWMD's
Governing Board to draft a memorandum of understanding between Dade,
Broward and Palm Beach Counties
to have a portion of their ad valorum taxes paid to SFWMD rebated to
Hendry and Glades Counties for providing water to those areas. "We're
talking about fairness, equity and what's right," Mr. Dean said,
noting that the urban areas and the Everglades will receive the benefits
from the water storage projects, while inland rural counties, already
designated areas of critical economic concern are struggling to pay for
schools, road, emergency medical and other services. U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers project manager Dennis Duke said the District
and the Corps of Engineers have already begun a study of the potential
economic impact of the CERP project, as workers are displaced by ag land
acquisitions. Mr. Duke said some jobs may be replaced by expanded
operations of the new water storage structures and more jobs could be
created through recreation opportunities. Mr. Duke said the project team
is working on a master recreation plan to capitalize on bass fishing and
other recreational opportunities with the 200,000 acres of land that will
be acquired under CERP. Hendry County Commissioner Bill Maddox said Monday's
meeting was the first he has attended where officials have admitted that
Hendry and Glades Countylands are being acquired to provide
water for the coast.. He proposed that a task force
be create to work with SFWMD and the Corps to secure the payment in lieu
of taxes funding and address the economic impacts of the plan. "We
understand the need to have land to store water," Commissioner Maddox
said. "But it's kind of like how you would feel if somebody brought
your backyard for an interstate."
Big
Sugar: Oust judge in Glades cleanup
By Curtis
Morgan
© The
Miami Herald
The
sugar industry launched a legal attack Wednesday against U.S. District
Senior Judge William Hoeveler, an outspoken critic of Florida's
controversial overhaul of pollution laws protecting the Everglades.
In separate
but similar motions filed in federal court in Miami and Atlanta, the
state's biggest sugar companies asked that Hoeveler be removed from a
landmark case that he has overseen for more than a decade -- the original
lawsuit that forced the state's environmental regulators to stop allowing
farm and urban runoff to taint the River of Grass. The
motions contend the judge overstepped appropriate judicial oversight to
play politics, issuing rulings in April and May critical of efforts by
sugar industry lobbyists and the Florida Legislature to revise the 1994
Florida Forever Act and suggesting Gov. Jeb Bush had been misled about the
bill. Bush later signed the bill into law.
Read
more
04-June-03
EPA to Permit Florida to Pollute
Drinking Water Supplies
By Donald Sutherland
© RiskWorld.com
News Report
Before EPA Administrator Christine Todd
Whitman resigned from her office she had decided to sign off on a rule-making decision drawn up by EPA
water administrators declaring Florida exempt from certain provisions
of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Published in the Federal Register on May
5, 2003, the exemption will permit Florida to legally pollute drinking
water aquifers with inadequately treated waste through municipal underground
injection control (UIC) wells. Read
more...
Letter to the Editor: Wellington boy's
science promising for Everglades
By HENRY DEAN, executive director South Florida Water Management District,
West Palm Beach
© Palm Beach Post
The South Florida Water Management
District congratulates Patrick Geer on his first-place win at the prestigious Intel International
Science and Engineering Fair ("Wellington High student cleans up water,
competition," May 18). As the agency responsible for Everglades
water quality cleanup, we want to commend Mr. Geer and his inspirational teacher, Ann Henderson,
for conducting scientific research on phosphorus removal techniques.
The use of
constructed wetlands to naturally cleanse farm runoff is a key
component of our efforts to meet water-quality mandates. Mr. Geer's
independent research supports the benefits and effectiveness of utilizing "green
technology" to achieve our long-term goals. Read
more
Brochure on Everglades Irks
Environmentalists
By Mike Salinero
© The Tampa Tribune
TALLAHASSEE - Sugar companies and other
agricultural interests are saying thanks to state legislators who voted in favor of a controversial
Everglades bill by sending colorful brochures to voters in the
lawmakers' districts. The mailings are from the Everglades
Forever Partnership, a nonprofit group set up April 3. The law firm that formed the corporation
also
represents the Fanjul family, owners of Flo-Sun sugar
conglomerate. Sugar company executives did not return
calls for comment. Otis Wragg, a spokesman for U.S. Sugar Co., said the partnership is a ``broad-
based coalition.'' The brochures, featuring photographs of
wading birds, cypress trees and saw grass, tout the legislators as ``leading the fight for
Everglades restoration.'' Environmentalists call the postcards
free political advertising and the
sugar industry's payback to state lawmakers who supported flawed legislation.
Read
more
Be fair to Glades
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
"How do you come up with $30 million?"
asked Palm Beach County Commission
Chairwoman Karen Marcus. In this case, any way you can. This case is the need for a regional
water treatment plant in the Glades area along the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. The cities can't
afford to build one. Without a new plant, which will cost about $35
million,
residents of these poor towns will continue to drink water that
everyone agrees has dangerously high levels of trihalomethanes, which can
cause cancer. Ideally, the state would pay much or all
of the cost, since state policies have allowed the fouling of Lake Okeechobee. The cities draw
their water from the lake, and the material that has fouled the lake reacts
with chlorine to form the suspected carcinogens. But these days, the Legislature has no conscience, only a good memory for who gave
campaign contributions. Annual per-capita income in Belle Glade, Pahokee
and South Bay averages about $10,000.
Read more
Letter to the Editor: Sugar industry
doesn't want to delay cleanup
By Judy Sanchez, United States Sugar Corporation
© Stuart News
As a stakeholder in the Everglades
region, we strongly support the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program. We support the
restoration of the Indian River Lagoon as well. We certainly have no interest
in delaying or in any way interfering with the success of this
project. The United States Army Corps of
Engineers is responsible for the planning
and approval process of each individual CERP project. After the
local Corps office proposes a project, the Jacksonville District in
this case, it is sent to the Corps' Washington headquarters for review and
approval. Part of the approval process involves
the chief's office sending out requests for comment on the proposed project to all stakeholders.
In that
capacity, a consultant in Washington for many agriculture
interests, who is a former acting assistant secretary of the Army, reviewed the
project. Based on his experience, he noted several significant problems in
the proposal. Read
more
Butterworth suggested for Everglades
master
By Bob King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
Five months after retiring from public
life, former state Attorney General Bob Butterworth could return as federal overseer of the
Everglades cleanup. The Sierra Club and seven other
environmental groups are nominating Butterworth to serve as the cleanup's special master, who would
help a federal judge decide whether the state is keeping its promises. U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler in
Miami said last month that he intends to appoint a special master, a step he had resisted for
years. Hoeveler said he's alarmed by the state's support for a bill
postponing the cleanup's December 2006 deadline -- legislation he called
"clearly
defective." Butterworth said Tuesday that he didn't
even know that environmentalists
had nominated him, but he's willing to serve if Hoeveler wants. "I would be honored to do anything for
Judge Hoeveler," said Butterworth, now dean of St. Thomas University Law School in Miami. "I think
that he's the finest jurist that I've ever worked with." Read
more
03-June-03
Letter regarding the expedited
implementation of PASTA
to
Colonel James G. May
By David B. Struhs and Henry
Dean
Water in 90 percent of the
Everglades is clean. Governor Jeb Bush is committed to accelerate cleanup
of the remaining 10 percent. As you
know, Florida is already implementing proven technologies, including
construction of Stormwater Treatment Areas and implementation of Best
Management Practices, that guarantee continued progress for improving
water quality over the next decade. However, until now, funding was not
available for advanced treatment technologies. As
a result of amendments to the Everglades Forever Act made by the Florida
Legislature just last month, the South Florida Water Management District
is able to use an estimated $650 million over the next 13 years in
existing revenue to implement advanced water treatment tools to reduce
phosphorus entering the Everglades. Now
that the funding is available, the South Florida Water Management District
is accelerating implementation of a promising new technology, Periphyton-Based
Stormwater Treatment Area (PASTA), in Stormwater Treatment Area 3-4. The
District has been testing this new technology, which uses algae and
microscopic organisms to naturally cleanse phosphorus from the water,
since 1999. These test results show great promise and build on our efforts
to achieve the stringent water quality stand throughout the Everglades
Protection Area. Read
more
Seminole tribe inaugurates new leader
St. Petersburg Times/ Associated
Press
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. The Seminole Tribe of Florida has its new leader in place.
Mitchell Cypress, the tribe's former
vice chairman, was inaugurated Monday as the tribe's new chairman. He was elected to the post last
month, becoming the first new chairman since James E. Billie was elected
in 1979. Cypress will lead the tribe and its $300
million gambling empire. He also controls an annual allotment of $15 million. Cypress took an oath of office Monday to
uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Seminole one. The new Tribal Council and board of directors
also were inaugurated. They vowed to protect the best interests of the
2,800-member tribe. Cypress said he plans to focus on issues
such as education, housing and preserving the tribal languages. "I think the new elected officials are
going to be working together -- the board and the council," he said after a 90-minute ceremony that
about 500
people attended. "Whatever we accomplish, it is going to benefit
the tribal members." Billie, 59, was ousted by the Tribal
Council in March for alleged shady financial practices. After he was unsuccessful in seeking to be
reinstated, he insisted that he should be able to run in the
election. But the tribe said no.
01-June-03
Protests swamp Florida's Jeb Bush for
relaxing Everglades
pollution law
By Jacqui Goddard
© Scotland
on Sunday
The brother of the US President - Florida
governor Jeb Bush - has become embroiled in a furious row over a relaxation of
pollution controls in the mangrove swamps of the
Everglades. Political analysts said a growing backlash
against the decision to allow phosphorous from large sugar farms to run off into
the world's largest sub-tropical wetland could
seriously damage George W Bush's campaign for re-election in the crucial
swing-vote state. The new law, which was signed into the statute
books by his brother, extends the deadline for reducing phosphorous levels in
the world-famous Everglades from 2006 to 2016,
undoing a strict timetable previously laid down by the 1994 Everglades Forever
Act. Phosphorous run-off from sugar farms kills
algae, allowing non-native plants, such as cat-tails, to spread rapidly and
crowd out native species, fatally altering the
habitat for wildlife. Read
more...
Water crisis clues come early, often
By Tom Palmer
© The Ledger
© Jeff Spence, The Ledger 2003
BARTOW -- Polk County water users are
pumping water from the aquifer faster than rainfall can replenish it, a group of experts told
the County Commission before an overflow crowd. That's a recap of a meeting that
occurred in 1968. For anyone who has been here long enough
and was paying attention, there were plenty of clues that the water supply was not inexhaustible
and that sooner or later the water problems the region confronts today
would become too critical to ignore. Perhaps the earliest and most-cited omen
occurred in 1950, when Kissingen Springs, a popular swimming area south of
Bartow, quit flowing
because of
heavy groundwater pumping in the area. It never recovered and today is a dry,
weed-covered depression near the Peace River. By 1965, the aquifer had declined so
much that the historic flow of the aquifer into the Upper Peace River was reversed. Water in the
section of the river between Bartow and Fort Meade was flowing into the
aquifer instead of water from the aquifer flowing into the river. That condition was quite visible during
the 2001-02 drought when sinkholes near Bartow swallowed that section of the river's entire flow.
Textbooks used in local public schools
as long ago as the early 1950s warned that drainage and overpumping combined to deplete the
freshwater aquifer and encourage saltwater intrusion. Read
more
Large preserve created along Intracostal
Waterway
St. Petersburg Times/ Associated
Press
MATANZAS MARSH, Fla. The recent state purchase of 8,465
pristine acres north of Faver-Dykes State Park creates a 16,000-acre preserve along the Intracoastal
Waterway
of undisturbed marshfront land. The acquisition will protect wildlife
habitat and water quality in
shellfish harvesting areas, according to the St. Johns River
Water Management District. And the public will be able to use the land
for hiking, camping and horseback riding. State officials and St. Johns County
residents celebrated the $40 million purchase of the Matanzas Marsh last month at
Faver-Dykes. Using
Florida Forever Funds, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection contributed 75 percent of the cost, and the Water Management
District contributed the rest. The land was purchased in December. Cluttered with oak hammocks, palms,
pines and cypress trees, the Matanzas Marsh is an expansive wildlife habitat with about 70 animal
species, including two bald eagle nests and a wood stork rookery. It's
located between the Intracoastal Waterway and U.S. 1 south of State Road
206.
Read
more
DEP, WMD Partner in Land Acquisition
Creating 16,000-Acre Conservation Corridor
Press Release
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
PALATKA -- The Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) joined with St. Johns River Water Management District (WMD)
in the purchase of 8,465 acres of environmentally significant land in St.
Johns County, creating a 16,000-acre conservation corridor.
Read
more
Author of Everglades bill murky
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
This year's controversial Everglades
bill had plenty of powerful supporters -- but nobody willing to admit writing it.
Not David Struhs, Gov. Jeb Bush's top
environmental aide, who insists he didn't see the legislation until after it emerged April 1 in the
state House. Not House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who told
reporters he let a committee chairman lead on the issue. Not the committee chairman, who refuses
to talk about it. And not the sugar industry, whose dozens
of lobbyists supporting the bill included an old pal of Byrd's, a union leader and a former top
aide to Gov. Lawton Chiles. But all had a hand in the legislation,
according to public documents and the recollections of people involved in weeks of negotiations:
Read
more
