31-July-03
Everglades restoration group won't
abolish team
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
A panel of state and federal
scientists will get a higher profile and clearer goals instead of being
abolished, a task force overseeing the Everglades restoration decided
Wednesday. South Florida water managers had
suggested dissolving the Science Coordination Team, arguing it would be
more efficient to transfer its duties to a separate scientific committee
that also oversees the $8.4 billion restoration. But
environmentalists, including Sierra Club national President Larry Fahn,
argued that the team plays a needed role by looking at broad questions
about South Florida's environment. Read
more
Front group for big tobacco fights Riley
Citizens for a Sound Economy refuses to make public a list of its
membership
By Robert A. Martin
© Montgomery
Independent
Citizens for a Sound Economy
(CSE) touts itself as a grass roots organization dedicated to help
consumers. It claims to have over 7,000 members in Alabama and 280,000
nationwide. But last week when The Independent
asked the group to prove it had a membership of 7,000 in Alabama by
showing us a list of its dues-paying members, CSE refused to provide a
list. In reality CSE is a shill organization for
big tobacco and other huge multi-national corporations. Since one of the
planks in Governor Bob Riley's tax and accountability package levies an
additional tax on cigarettes, it isn't difficult to determine where CSE is
getting the funds to help fight the governor's package. In
1998 alone the tobacco industry gave CSE $1.1 million. It was no surprise
that this was a time when CSE was opposing new tobacco taxes.
Read
more
30-July-03
Dishing Out Florida's Water: A Challenge
For The Future
By Neil Johnson
© Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - It could come to this
someday as water management districts wrestle with how to slice a limited
pie of the state's water resources. Who should get a permit to pump more
water? The people filling a new subdivision or a farmer who grows crops?
It hasn't come to that for the Southwest Florida Water
Management District, though governing board members have discussed what
will happen when competing requests for permits surface. They
don't have an answer. But seeing this on the
horizon, the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services spent
the past two years crafting an agricultural water policy. Read
more
State Watering Rules May Be Lifted In
August
By Neil Johnson
© Tampa Tribune
BROOKSVILLE - The state's
toughest watering rules could be lifted by the end of next month, meaning
a return to sprinkling twice a week for residents of Pasco, Hillsborough
and Pinellas counties. Officials at the
Southwest Florida Water Management District said Tuesday that lakes and
wetlands are almost back to levels they were at before Swiftmud imposed
regulations limiting residents from Levy to Charlotte counties to watering
only once a week. As the state recovered from
the effects of a three-year drought, restrictions in other counties were
eased to twice a week watering, except for the Tampa Bay area. But
that could end when Swiftmud next meets, in late August. Read
more
Land sale signals new day for sleepy
fishing town
Change is coming for little Carrabelle after developer St. Joe Co.
successfully bids for 48 acres of waterfront land.
By Julie Hauserman
© St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE - St. Joe Co.,
which is developing vast tracts in North Florida, was the only bidder
Tuesday for a valuable piece of public waterfront that the state put up
for auction. The state Department of
Environmental Protection put the 48-acre parcel up for a minimum bid of
$6.7-million, saying it wasn't needed for conservation. St. Joe submitted
a sealed bid of $6.8-million, said Kathalyn Gaither, spokeswoman for the
state Department of Environmental Protection. St.
Joe officials did not return phone calls seeking comment on the company's
plans for the land, which has been publicly owned or 18 years. Gov. Jeb
Bush and the Cabinet will likely approve the sale in September, Gaither
said. Read
more
Commissioners OK plan that could start
handover of Estates roads
By Eric Staats
© Naples Daily News
Al Perkins, a 15-year resident of Golden Gate Estates, tells members of
the Collier County Commission why he is against turning over roads in
Southern Golden Gate Estates for Everglades restoration, at the
commissioner's meeting Tuesday at the Collier County Government Center in
Naples. Gary Coronado/Staff
In front of a room of
skeptical sportsmen, Collier County commissioners took a first step
Tuesday to clear the way for an Everglades restoration project in the
county's rural area. Commissioners voted 4-1 to
approve an agreement with water managers and the Florida Cabinet that
could lead to the county turning over road easements that threaten to hold
up restoration of 55,000 acres in Southern Golden Gate Estates. The
next step is a public hearing and possible vote within 90 days on the
roads question, which has set off a backlash from ATV riders and swamp
buggy enthusiasts who for decades have used the mostly abandoned
subdivision south of Interstate 75 for fun. Read
more
Water district warned FGCU
Manager say they told university it needed permit
By Pamela Smith Hayford
© Ft. Myers
News-Press
Construction continues Monday on an
Olympic-sized swimming pool at Florida Gulf Coast University. The
construction of the aquatic center made necessary a dewatering program for
which FGCU is now under fire from the South Florida Water Management
District. STEPHEN HAYFORD/news-press.com
FGCU officials received two
warnings in June from water managers that a permit was needed before the
school could dewater land to accommodate its new aquatics center, records
show. But for three months the university has
pumped tens of millions gallons of water and still has not applied for a
permit - despite last week's notice that the South Florida Water
Management District had launched an investigation. Jack
Fenwick, director of facilities planning at Florida Gulf Coast University,
said he wasn't aware the school needed a dewatering permit and that now
FGCU is working on an application. Read
more
University doesn't live its values
FGCU’s disregard for environment
deeply disturbing
Editorial
© Ft. Myers
News-Press
Florida Gulf Coast University
officials, who promote their institution’s environmental credentials,
are under fire again for what critics say is an offense against nature.
This sort of thing is getting old, and calls into
question once again the seriousness of FGCU’s commitment as an
institution to the environment: Will FGCU practice the values its faculty
teaches? The university has done some valuable
restoration work at its site, which was infested with melaleuca and other
exotic vegetation. It is building an impressive new environmental center,
and more than half the campus is in preserved wetlands. But
its plans to put a marine lab on largely undeveloped Lovers Key — plans
since abandoned — and its support for a developer who once wanted
increased density for housing in a water resource area near the university
have drawn fire. Read
more
Referendum Idea Misguided
Editorial
© Sun-Sentinel
Even well-informed and
well-intentioned government "reformers" sometimes do better at
identifying problems than at suggesting proper solutions. Case
in point: a committee seeking 489,000 voter signatures on petitions to put
a proposed Florida constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2, 2004, ballot.
The amendment would let city or county voters have the final say at a
referendum on any new local comprehensive land-use plans or plan
amendments. The goal is to fix a genuine
problem, but the amendment risks becoming the "Law of Unintended
Consequences." It could confuse voters, further clog crowded ballots,
boost housing costs and stall government decision-making. Read
more
Clear plans for better waterways
New deal to dredge Miami River should aid economy, environment
By Curtis Morgan
© The
Miami Herald
CONTAMINATED: Wagner Creek is cited as the
most polluted tributary to the Miami River.
PETER ANDREW BOSCH/HERALD STAFF
For 70 years, the bottom of the Miami
River has been slowly filling in with a soft ooze, making it shallower and
shallower and nastier and nastier. For about half as long, people have
been talking about cleaning it up. Today, all
the talking, studying and planning finally become reality. In a ceremony
scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Lummus Park along the river, Miami-Dade County
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will sign an agreement that will make
a dredging project on the drawing board since the 1970s a done deal.
''This is the real thing,'' said David Miller, managing
director of The Miami River Commission. ``Once this is signed, we really
have a project that's really funded.'' Read
more
29-July-03
A Fair Plan To Protect Manatees
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
While it faced a nearly
impossible charge, the local panel established to recommend manatee zones
for Tampa Bay has developed a reasonable plan. Its
recommendations, which would require slow boat speeds in areas frequented
by the seagoing manatee, will undoubtedly anger some boaters. But the
committee - which included boaters, conservationists, commercial fishermen
and others who make their living off the bay - tried to be fair to boaters
while also safeguarding the animal, which is frequently rammed by boats.
The recommendations will go to the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission, which will have the final say on the
regulations. Read
more
Water district wants science team
disbanded
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
South Florida water managers
want to abolish a state-federal science team that helps monitor the
Everglades restoration, saying the move would trim the project's jungle of
bureaucracy. The proposal would dissolve the
Science Coordination Team, a six-year-old panel that has tackled such
touchy issues as whether Tamiami Trail should be elevated to restore
flowing water to Everglades National Park. The team is descended from an
earlier science group that ignited a fury a decade ago by calling for a
massive buyout of sugar farms. Some critics have
accused the all-volunteer team of meddling in politics, and a federal
audit in March said a lack of money and staff has kept it from
accomplishing all its goals.
Read
more
Letter to the Editor: Environmentalists'
enemy is sugar, not lawmakers
By Robert E. Coker, Senior Vice
President of U.S. Sugar Corp.
© Palm
Beach Post
If The Palm Beach Post were
correct in its false claim that Florida's governor and environmental
agencies are "betraying" the Everglades ("Give Everglades
guardian," July 14, and "Short Everglades leash," July 26),
then Congress would be right to renege on its promise to finance the
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project. Sugar farmers strongly
disapprove of that outcome. The environmental
lobbyists from Florida who went to Washington this spring and summer to
stir up political mud prior to the 2004 presidential election may,
however, get their way. Members of Congress may pull the plug, and who
would blame them? The Washington Post's series on the project a year ago
already had sowed considerable doubt on Capitol Hill about the project.
Most representatives care more about the rivers, lakes and mountains in
their own districts than they do about restoring
another million acres of wetlands in Florida to match the existing 1.5
million acres of pristine Everglades. Read
more
28-July-03
Letter to the Editor: Progress
made in Everglades, but Post's editorial ignores it
By Kenneth
W. Wright, Chairman of the Environmental Regulation Commission
© Palm
Beach Post
The Environmental Regulation
Commission has adopted a stringent, science-based water-quality standard
for the Everglades. The Post's July 14 editorial "Give Everglades
guardian" ignored that fact and consistently disregards the
unprecedented progress achieved during the past four years to restore
water quality and flow to the "River of Grass." The
10-parts-per-billion water-quality standard for phosphorus is one of the
first in the nation. More scientific research has gone into developing the
water-quality standard than any other standard in Florida -- and perhaps
even the nation. Read
more
Commission policy ... Collier should
participate in Everglades restoration
Editorial
© Naples Daily News
Everglades restoration
promises to help Collier County by cleansing an immense natural resource
to the east. It is time for the county itself to get with the program and
let state and federal officials get on with the work of restoring costly
past mistakes — draining Southern Golden Gate Estates and installing
roads for development. That means taking the
final step of relinquishing easements for roads in return for replacement
of recreational all-terrain vehicle access and assumption of maintenance
of some stormwater canals elsewhere in the county. Granted, the canals
will be kept clear with local taxes now going to the Big Cypress Basin
board. But still, the flood control job will get done. Read
more
Collier set to consider Everglades
restoration plan
By Denes Husty III
© Ft. Myers
News-Press
Collier County commissioners
Tuesday will consider approving a crucial part to the overall mammoth $4
billion state and federal Everglades Restoration project. The
county’s part in helping restore water levels and water flow through
what is known as the River of Grass, which takes up most of Florida south
of Lake Okeechobee, centers on what is called South Golden Gate Estates.
In the 1970s, developers built hundreds of miles of
roads in the area — bounded by Road 951 to the west, U.S. 41 to the
south, Alligator Alley to the North and the Picayune State Forest to the
east — for a development that went bust and never was built.
Read
more
Democracy is served by current system
By Gerald Broening
© Sun-Sentinel
The proposed state constitutional
amendment to require land-use changes be approved by public referendum
should be cause for great concern. While I share the fear of
environmentalists, some elected officials and many citizens that the
tremendous growth most planners see as inevitable might continue to result
in the detrimental dilution of precious undeveloped land west of the
urbanized coast, I see bad things ahead for us if such a radical measure
is adopted. Read
more
27-July-03
State rejects rural Lee development
proposal; suggests land swap
By Chad Gillis
© Naples Daily News
The state's top planning
department is not real keen on the idea of transforming rural Lee County
land set aside to control urban sprawl and allow for recharge into
drinking water aquifers into residential golf course communities. At
least that's what a letter from the Florida Department of Community
Affairs says. The department sent a letter to Lee officials last week
objecting to the latest attempt to permit previously unallowable
development in the density reduction-groundwater resource area. Read
more
Commissioners could move to give up
county roads in southern Estates
By Eric Staats
© Naples Daily News
A logjam over an Everglades
restoration project in Collier County's back yard could shake loose
Tuesday. After months of resistance, county
commissioners are set to take a first step toward giving up its roads in
Southern Golden Gate Estates, where restorers plan to tear out roads and
plug canals that criss-cross the abandoned subdivision south of Interstate
75. The project, a state and federal
partnership, would return natural water flows to the Ten Thousand Islands
and help recharge the county's underground drinking water supply. County
commissioners want more, though. Read
more
Letter to the Editor: WMD chairman
should be honest about tax increase
By Gary R. Nikolits, Palm Beach
County Property Appraiser, West Palm Beach
© Palm
Beach Post
In his attempt to deflect
criticism for raising property taxes, Nicholas J. Gutierrez Jr., chairman
of the South Florida Water Management District Board, incorrectly blamed
rising property taxes on county property appraisers. His July 20 letter
"Higher values, not taxes, raising water district revenues"
shows Mr. Gutierrez to be either ignorant of the property tax system or
purposely trying to mislead taxpayers. Property
appraisers are required by the state constitution to assess property at
market value. The WMD, however, can raise, lower or have the same amount
of tax revenue as in the previous year, depending on the tax rate it
adopts. Tax bureaucrats such as Mr. Gutierrez can vote to lower their tax
rate to offset any increase in tax revenue that would come from higher
property values. Simply keeping the same tax rate as last year will
increase tax revenue, which Mr. Gutierrez knows is the reason behind his
agency's huge proposed tax increase. Read
more
Shortsighted on the seas
Runoff pollution and overfishing are chief reasons that Congress must
enact regulations for protecting our oceans and coastal waters.
© St.
Petersburg Times
In Florida, lawmakers put off
a tough cleanup standard for the Everglades. In Virginia, the state
refused to support a program to save Chesapeake Bay's declining blue crab
population. In the Pacific Northwest, officials chose dams over wild
salmon threatened with extinction. While those shortsighted decisions
appear to be unrelated, they all signal the confused and ineffective
effort to protect our nation's oceans and coastal waters. Contrary
to the way we have treated the sea, it is not infinitely renewable. A
comprehensive study by the Pew Oceans Commission released this summer
reminds us that the threat to our nation's ocean realm is also a threat to
our economy and way of life. Read
more
Developer champions 'Glades
By Buddy Nevins
© Sun-Sentinel
Developer Ronnie Bergeron
grew up in a place where the only sounds were chirping and hissing and
buzzing and the slap of his hand on the mosquito boring into his thigh.
The Everglades. Dirt poor as
a boy, he started with one $200 tractor to earn money mowing neighbors'
pastures and fought his way to the top of Florida's business world.
He's become one of South Florida's biggest landowners,
one of Florida's biggest road builders, and owner of one of the biggest
mining companies in the state, with thousands of acres of rock pits. He's
played a leading role in turning hundreds of square miles of wetlands into
homes, schools, shopping centers and warehouses throughout Miami-Dade,
Broward and Palm Beach counties. Read
more
26-July-03
Free-market conservatives aim to be
heard
By Anthony Man
© Sun-Sentinel
John Hallman envisions a
force of free-market, small-government conservatives rising from the
generally liberal fields of Palm Beach County. "We
want to become a voice as big as some of the groups on the left are, [such
as] environmental groups that drive public policy through a large
membership and making their voices heard," he said. Hallman's
a long way from that goal, but months of organizing on behalf of Citizens
for a Sound Economy have brought some success. The last local meeting
attracted 40 people. The group is interested
only in economic policy and does not touch issues such as gun control or
abortion. Read
more
Short Everglades leash
© Palm
Beach Post
A threat -- meet federal
standards or lose federal money for Everglades cleanup and restoration --
has moved closer to an order after Florida's senators stepped in. Under
new controls that Bob Graham and Bill Nelson have inserted into a spending
bill, Florida would not receive federal money if the state fails to meet
strict federal standards for clean water in the Everglades by a 2006
deadline. Federal agencies are unhappy about a
new state law, which the sugar industry wrote, that extends the deadline
to 2016. The feds also don't trust a state agency's approval of new rules
that will allow higher amounts of polluting phosphorus into the Everglades
than federal rules permit. So Sens. Graham and Nelson, both Democrats,
changed the 2004 energy and water appropriations bill to require that the
federal Environmental Protection Agency make sure that the Everglades
restoration project meets water-quality standards set forth in a 1992
state-federal agreement. The agreement contains standards far more
protective of the Everglades than those the state has approved. Read
more
$620,000 repair to Lake O dike just the
beginning
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
It was the last thing
engineers wanted to see in the encircling dike that protects 40,000 people
around Lake Okeechobee: Dozens of leaks. The
legacy of years of abnormally high water in the lake during the 1990s, the
leaks forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make emergency repairs
last month to a 1-mile stretch of the Herbert Hoover Dike near South Bay.
The dike was never in immediate danger of collapsing,
the engineers say. "I wouldn't alarm people," said Karen Estock,
Clewiston field operations chief for the corps, which has been patching
leaks, sinkholes and other problems in the dike since 1993. "We're
doing our job by fixing it as we can." But
Estock added that the corps couldn't ignore the leaks, some of which were
carrying sand along with the trickling water -- a sign that "you're
losing part of your levee," she said. Read
more
Agencies back Hoeveler as 'Glades
overseer
© Sun-Sentinel
The federal government and
Florida Department of Environmental Protection have filed legal motions
arguing that U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler should continue his
watch over the Everglades cleanup. In their
joint response, U.S. Justice Department and DEP officials opposed a June 4
motion from U.S. Sugar to have Hoeveler disqualified as a cleanup
overseer. Sugar growers contend the judge has shown bias against their
industry and acted improperly in recent remarks and court actions on the
cleanup directive he has supervised since 1992. Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
Concerns grow with melaleuca tree
program
By Milton D. Carrero Galarza
© Sun-Sentinel
Southwest Ranches · When
David Longstaff first moved to his five-acre home 17 years ago, he walked
around marveling at the melaleuca trees. "You
saw all of that green and you really appreciated how great all of this
is," he said. "You were here but you were far away from any
place. You could see the owls and all the wild animals that you don't see
anywhere else. It made me appreciate how much it was like the woods."
Few share his nostalgia. Melaleuca
trees are considered a pest in South Florida. Introduced in the early
1900s to dry up the land, they have taken over thousands of acres,
usurping local vegetation and threatening the natural life of the
Everglades. To counteract their spread, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
has released a combination of cicada-like bugs as voracious as the
invasive trees. Read
more
Building of spillway to raise water
levels, aid wetland's wildlife
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
In a bid to help a still-wild
river -- and restore a huge block of north Palm Beach County wetlands -- a
concrete-and-steel structure will start to rise from the C-18 Canal this
summer. The spillway, a concrete arch holding
two massive steel lift gates, will intrude visually on the green natural
beauty of the Loxahatchee Slough. But its imposing form is a welcome one
too. "I'm jumping up and down," said
Joanne Davis, community planner for the environmental group 1000 Friends
of Florida. The $2.5 million apparatus, three
miles north of PGA Boulevard in the east leg of the C-18, will help
wetland wildlife by lifting water levels in the slough, a sometimes
over-drained 14,000-acre mix of cypress forest, pine flatwoods and wet
prairie, said its installer, the South Florida Water Management District.
Read
more
State rebukes Brooksville for promoting
sprawl
The state is seeking more proof that the city can provide for a 999-home
development.
By Dan DeWitt
© St. Petersburg Times
BROOKSVILLE - The state has
slammed the city of Brooksville's plan to allow the 999-home Southern
Hills Plantation development, saying it promotes sprawl and fails to
account for the project's impact on roads. The
Department of Community Affairs sent the letter in response to the City
Council's vote in May to change its comprehensive plan to accommodate the
Southern Hills Plantation. The change also
allows future residential development on property owned by the developer,
LandMar Group LLC. As many as 3,000 homes may be built on the
company's 1,600 acres, most of which was previously designated as rural on
the county's future land use map. The letter --
essentially a warning that the city's comp plan changes are not in
compliance -- may not be as damaging as it sounds, however. Read
more
Managers cry foul over FGCU pool
Water district says pump permit needed
By Pamela Smith Hayford
© Ft. Myers
News-Press
Water managers are
investigating Florida Gulf Coast University for pumping millions of
gallons of muddy water into nearby preserve wetlands without a permit,
according to public records. To install its $4.5
million Olympic-size swimming pool, the school began dewatering the site
around mid-March. Contractors can do some
dewatering without a permit from the South Florida Water Management
District, but pumping must not exceed 90 days, 5 million gallons per day
and 100 million gallons total. Environmentalists
- among them local scientists - say the dewatering could have several
damaging effects: a silty blanket of mud covering the wetlands, wetlands
drying out, a drop in the groundwater level in an area where Lee County
gets much of its drinking water and putting too much fresh water into
Estero Bay, which is normally brackish. Read
more
Plan to improve lake is nearing
completion
By Christina Locke
© Okeechobe News
The Lake Okeechobee
Protection Plan (LOPP) was the main topic of discussion at a public
meeting Thursday evening hosted by the South Florida Water Management
District (SFWMD). The plan is a key
element of the Lake Okeechobee Protection Act (LOPA), passed by the
Florida legislature in 2000 in order to remedy the three major problems
facing the lake: high phosphorous content, high water levels, and exotic
species. LOPA requires that a plan and schedule
to remedy these problems is presented to the legislature by January 2004.
Dr. Susan Gray of SFWMD said that a draft of the plan would be ready for
discussion at the next public meeting on August 28. Read
more
Planned quarry irks activists who want
to see wetland restored
By Curtis Morgan
© The
Miami Herald
SOUTHEAST DADE: Conservationist John Adornato
says mining would ruin this land,
the Everglades' Long Glade branch. CURTIS MORGAN/HERALD STAFF
Long Glade, a branch of the River of
Grass that once bent east to feed fresh water to the mangroves and sea
grass of south Biscayne Bay, is long gone and largely forgotten. It's
been severe by U.S. 1, crisscrossed by rutted roads and plowed under for
decades to grow corn, potatoes and, now, palms. Much of the remnant
wetland has been reduced to illegal dump site and playground for a
different sort of wildlife. A sign warning, ''No ATV's, No Partying
Allowed'' has been edited by shotgun blasts to erase both ``No's.''
But a proposal to dig a 931-acre rock quarry has put
Long Glade back on the map for environmentalists, who want the shriveled
sawgrass slough protected. They consider it a key piece of an Everglades
restoration project intended to revive the fringe of wetlands and
mangroves along the coast and improve water quality in the bay. Read
more
25-July-03
Renewed lake drawdown draws critics
By Libby Wells
© Palm Beach Post
The drawdown of a Central
Florida lake that was postponed early this year after widespread protest
has been rescheduled, and is already fueling renewed criticism from
advocates for Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River. The
state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will lower Lake
Tohopekaliga by about 5 feet beginning Nov. 1 as part of an $8 million
project to rejuvenate the sea grasses and fish population. The spill from
the lake, south of Orlando, will run through the Kissimmee chain of lakes
and into Lake Okeechobee. The project was shut
down in January because of complaints that it was being done during an El
Nino winter when Lake Okeechobee was swollen from heavy rains in the
Kissimmee valley, and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries were
suffering from months of freshwater discharges. Read
more
Everglades projects get $20 million
boost
By Ross Rapoport
© Palm Beach Post
WASHINGTON -- Nine Everglades
restoration projects received a $20 million boost this week from a
congressional panel. The House Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee agreed Wednesday to authorize $95 million for
nine "critical restoration projects" associated with the $8.4
billion Everglades restoration. Individual projects, which had been
limited to $25 million, would be capped at $30 million. The
action came as the committee adopted the Water Resources Development Act,
which still faces a vote in the House and Senate. The
critical restoration projects are equally funded by the federal government
and state agencies. Seven of the projects are sponsored locally by the
South Florida Water Management District. The Florida Department of
Community Affairs is sponsoring a $6 million study on the viability of the
ecosystem in the Florida Keys, and the Seminole Indians are sponsoring a
$50 million project to restructure the canal system on the Big Cypress
Reservation. Read
more
24-July-03
Conditions put on 'Glades funding
Congressional move ensures water
quality
By Pamela Smith Hayford
© Ft. Myers
News-Press
Congress is tying federal
Everglades dollars to water quality in the famed River of Grass in the
wake of a state bill that congressmen had begged Florida not to pass.
Critics said the state bill passed this spring delays
cleaning excess phosphorus from the water by 10 years. The
bill eroded trust in Congress and put federal money at risk of going
elsewhere. Congress is putting conditional
language in its appropriations bills that will pull federal Everglades
money if Florida drops the ball on water quality. Read
more
Journey Into (What's Left of) the
Everglades- The River Where Everything Went Wrong
Journey with us through the
watery heart of the largest subtropical wetlands in America: the
Everglades. Why? Because it's there - or used to be.
By W. Hodding Carter
© Outside Magazine
"WAKE UP HODDING, WE'VE GOT TO
GET GOING." A kick in the ribs accompanied these grumbled words. A
six-foot-six-inch redheaded monster stands over me. Without hesitating, he
starts swinging his arms in full circles like an irate baboon, rocking our
makeshift canoe campsite. The monster's name is David Conover, He's a
42-year-old documentary filmmaker, and he's been swinging his arms all
night long for two nights straight. Something's gone wrong with his wrists
and hands after six days of poling a canoe through the Shark River Slough,
in Everglades National Park. The windmilling make his arms feel better,
and under different circumstances I might feel happy for him. Read
more
Growth Proposal Puts Plans on Ballet
By Mike Salinero
© Tampa Tribune
TALLAHASSEE - Ross Burnaman
and Lesley Blackner grew up in Florida and watched the state's mostly
rural landscape be smothered by condominiums, strip malls and sprawling
residential subdivisions. To the two
environmental lawyers, Florida's growth and development industry has used
its financial muscle and political connections to undermine the state's
meager effort at growth management. Proof of that, they say, is the ease
with which county comprehensive growth plans are amended, in many cases to
aid a developer. Read
more
Farmers Do Their Part In Clean-Up
Editorial
© Sun-Sentinel
It's becoming more difficult
to point fingers at the farmers of the Everglades Agricultural Area.
They're no longer the villains in the state's ongoing efforts to reduce
phosphorous levels in the River of Grass. In
fact, agricultural interests in the area have made a concerted effort to
do their part in the cleanup. That's the good news, and it's backed up by
South Florida Water Management District data that show that since 1996 the
farmers have cut their volume of phosphorous discharge by an estimated
1,100 tons. Is it perfect? Of course not. Stark
differences remain in the results among the farms. There clearly is room
for improvement in individual performance. Overall performance standards
also could be improved, but that can't happen without the input of the
farmers who have to bear the costs in establishing and reaching any new
pollution standards. Read
more
Developers fear building industry would
suffer if voters are allowed to decide local growth
By Robin Benedick
© Sun-Sentinel
Frustrated by frenetic
development, a grass-roots movement is pushing for a statewide
constitutional amendment to allow voters -- not elected officials -- to
control local growth. Under the proposal, if a
developer wanted to convert a piece of land for new houses, increase
densities or the height of a building, voters would have the final say.
"We want to put people back in charge of the
places where they live," said Lesley Blackner, a Palm Beach County
environmental lawyer, who is spearheading the petition drive to get the
idea on the November 2004 ballot. She and Ross
Burnaman, a Tallahassee lawyer who worked for the Florida Department of
Community Affairs, have formed a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, Florida
Hometown Democracy, based in Volusia County. The group needs almost
500,000 signatures to get the issue on the ballot. Read
more
Developer-led Group Seeks Property Tax
Hike For Land Preservation
By Michael W. Freeman
© The Ledger
KISSIMMEE -- A developer is
leading an environmental group that is seeking a property tax levy
dedicated to preserving undeveloped areas in Osceola County.Kevin
Schoolfield's motives are both profit and community. "Yes,
I'm a real estate investor and my family's primary business has been here
over 30 years," said Schoolfield of the Kissimmee company Schoolfield
Properties Inc. "But we're also active
citizens," he said, "and we value our community, and want to
make sure it grows smart." Schoolfield is
chairman of SAVE Osceola, a grass-roots organization formed in June 2002.
The group now has more than 50 members and a nine-member steering
committee. Read
more
County delays debate on SWFWMD
Director wants 60 days to prepare
By Phil Attinger
© News-Sun
SEBRING - After hearing from
the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Highlands County
commissioners decided Tuesday they want to know more before asking to
change water districts. Commissioner Bob Bullard
said he wanted a better explanation of the scientific reasons why the
district has the county in the Southern Water Use Caution Area, and if
that has really had any effect on the county's water levels. If
not, he'd like to see the county taken out of the caution area, or have
the Florida Legislature redraw the water district lines so most of
Highlands County would sit in the South Florida Water Management District.
Read
more
23-July-03
Amendment would let voters alter growth
plan
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
Pregnant pigs, move over. If
a Palm Beach activist has her way, Florida developers will be the ones
squealing for more room. Environmental lawyer
Lesley Blackner is proposing a state constitutional amendment that would
let voters decide all changes to city and county growth plans. It would
remove the final say from local governments -- bodies that critics
consider largely a tool of developers. "This
is really about letting people take ownership of their communities,"
said Blackner, whose not-for-profit group, Florida Hometown Democracy, is
trying to get the proposal on Florida's November 2004 ballot. Read
more
Struhs swims against the truth
By Sally Swartz
© Palm Beach Post
The day was sunny and hot,
with a breeze brisk enough to blow away most of the biting flies that are
part of Florida summer in the woods. Driving
toward the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, I slowed to
give a gopher tortoise plenty of room for his march across the road. I
passed an area that park rangers burned a few years ago. There's no sign
of that fire except for the darker trunks of the tall slash pines,
blackened by the flames. Everything has grown back green and healthy. I
passed a sign with a deer on it. The message read, "Slow down, save a
life." Read
more
Officials move to protect land purchases
By Joel Engelhardt and Nirvi Shah
© Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH -- The county
has spent more than $100 million of tax money buying land for its beauty
and environmental value. Environmentalists are
worried the land won't be preserved for the next generation. So are some
county commissioners. Commissioners took the
first step Tuesday toward making it harder for any development to occur on
the 28,000 acres county voters taxed themselves to save. Under the
proposal, the support of at least five of the seven commissioners, instead
of just four, would be needed before any development could occur on the
land, including roads and electrical substations. "We
want to make it very hard for you to do anything with this land,"
said Joanne Davis, chairwoman of a committee that oversees the purchase of
environmentally sensitive land. "Not just you, but the board of
county commissioners 15 or 20 years from now. None of us are going to be
here." Read
more
Water district scrambles to solve
Ranches' water loss
By Angie Francalancia
© Palm
Beach Post
Late last month, several
Rustic Ranches homeowners watched water in their ponds drop more than
three feet in less than 24 hours. The following
day, several discovered they had no drinking water. The
cause: The Army Corps of Engineers' canal dredging project. "One
of the contractors with the Corps was doing a dewatering project as part
of construction to build two new canals...That's what brought the water
table down," said water management district spokesman Randy Smith.
Dewatering, which is the process of pumping the water
out of the ground, allows the contractor to work in dry ground rather than
work through the water as he dredged the canal. Read
more
22-July-03
Time for Re-engineering
Editorial
© Washington Post
SO LONG WAS the list of
"miscalculations" in one Army Corps of Engineers water project
that the General Accounting Office, in a report published last year, said
the "adequacy and effectiveness" of the Corps itself had been
thrown into doubt. Other GAO reports have found flaws in the Corps'
computer security, have discovered that the Corps lacks documentation for
some of its projects and have questioned whether it has accounted fully
for environmental impact. The National Academy of Sciences, in a report
prepared at the request of Congress, has recommended that the Corps'
planning studies be subjected to independent review. Read
more
21-July-03
Sandhill cranes lose their habitat
© Tampa
Tribune
Florida's sandhill cranes are
falling victim to the state's rapid growth and development. Cranes
are roaming with their young all over new subdivisions, parking lots and
construction sites because they have nowhere else to go, state biologists
say. The familiar tall, gray birds with the
crimson caps, listed as a threatened species in Florida, are losing their
real estate. ``If you eliminate habitat, you
eliminate cranes,'' said Steve Nesbitt, biological administrator for the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Read
more
Letter to the Editor: WMD plainly
contributing to pollution of Everglades
By Wayne L. Nelson, Okeechobee
© Palm
Beach Post
South Florida Water
Management District Executive Director Henry Dean's letter "Defending
water-pumping case important to Everglades cleanup" (July 11) is
another example of self-deception and hubris where the district's
facilitation of water pollution and pumping of polluters' water is
concerned. It is not enough for the district
that the late Gov. Lawton Chiles conceded before U.S. District Judge
William Hoeveler in 1990 that "the water is dirty" and "I
am here to surrender my (the state's) sword." Why was he surrendering
his sword? He was admitting the fact that it was wrong for the state to be
moving dirty water into the publicly owned Everglades. Read
more
Naturalist Richard Coleman dies
By Thomas R. Collins
© Palm
Beach Post
Richard Coleman, a founder of
the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club who was as passionate an
outdoorsman as he was a protector of the outdoors, died Friday in a
head-on airboat collision. He was 59. Mr.
Coleman, of Winter Haven, worked for nearly 20 years fighting for
restoration of the Kissimmee River and then watching the project's
progress hawk-like once it started. He was
reportedly piloting an airboat in the Dead River, a serpentine waterway in
Central Florida, when he collided with another airboat. Read
more
Glades fight far from over despite
revised water law
By Curtis Morgan
© Miami
Herald
For four months, Florida's
controversial overhaul of Everglades pollution laws produced sharply
clashing claims: Environmentalists and others charged lawmakers and
regulators with watering down protections to benefit Big Sugar. The state
and industry dismissed critics as alarmists urging unnecessary and
unreasonably expensive standards. After all the lobbying, rhetoric,
editorials and court hearings, this much is clear: - The state and
the sugar industry gained time and leeway in stemming the flow of dirty
water from farms and suburbs -- and from pumping hundreds of millions of
dollars more into a cleanup already expected to top $1 billion. Read
more
Related Links:
WHAT THE NEW LAW DOES
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/6348791.htm
Eleventh Circuit Rules That Rainfall
Removed By Pumping Is A "Stormwater Discharge" Under The Clean
Water Act
By Harrison M. Pittman, Staff
Attorney
© National
AgLaw Reporter
The United States Court of
Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a Florida sugar cane
farming operation was not required to obtain a National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") permit to discharge water
from its water management system into an adjacent lake. Fisherman Against
Destruction of the Environment, Inc. v. Closter Farms, Inc. , No.
01-11932, 2002 WL 1804952 (11th Cir. Aug. 7, 2002). The court determined
that an NPDES permit was unnecessary because the pollutants discharged
into the lake fell within the scope of the agricultural exemptions
contained in the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251-1376. Id. at *2.
The Clean Water Act ("CWA") requires
"any party that discharges pollutants from a 'point source' into
navigable waters to have a NPDES permit, unless the discharges fall into
an exception." Id. at *1 (citing 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311, 1342). A point
source is "'one which enters navigable waters from a discrete,
defined source.'" Id. (quoting 33 U.S.C. §§ 1362(14)). The CWA
exempts from the definition of point source "'agricultural stormwater
discharges and return flows from irrigation agriculture.'" Id. at *2
(citing
§§ 1362 (14)). Read
more
Letter to the Board of Commissioners
Regarding Economic Development Center Proposal
Written by J. William Louda, Ph.D.
Hopefully by now you have
received the letter I penned while I was wearing my hat as a scientist
involved in Everglades Restoration research. For the present letter, I don
the hat of more highly credentialed individual -that of a resident and
taxpayer in Palm Beach County. Allowing the
proposed Economic Development Center (EDC) to be built on the Palm Beach
Aggregates site near 20 mile bend would not only be an environmental
travesty it would be the most ridiculous example of bad-planning I have
ever witnessed. Read
more
20-July-03
Letter to the Editor: Higher values, not
taxes, raising water district revenue
By N.
J. Gutiérrez Jr., Chairman of the South Florida Water Management District
Board, West Palm Beach
© Palm Beach Post
While the July 10 article in The Post
regarding the South Florida Water Management District's proposed 2004
budget generally was fair and accurate, readers may have found the
headline, "Water district cuts budget despite increase in
taxes," and lead sentence to be misleading. A distinction must be
drawn between district tax rates and increases in property values. Read
more
Farmers tout success in reducing
discharge into the Everglades
By Neil Santaniello, Staff Writer
© Sun-Sentinel
South Bay -- Work to renew
the Everglades begins in a farming paradise miles upstream of the
government's wetland cleanup construction project. On
a 112-acre field owned by U.S. Sugar Corp., a tractor guided by a
laser-beam precisely levels the rich, dark earth being readied for another
crop of sugar cane. To the west, in the sugar
company town of Clewiston, a sign outside a U.S. Sugar pump house tells
field hands: "Remember, reduce pumping -- save the Everglades. Reduce
pumping -- save your job." Both practices
-- scraping fields flat and holding rainwater longer on crops -- are used
by farmers to help cut the amount of phosphorus-laden runoff discharged
from the super-fertile farming region into canals that pipe it right to
the Everglades. Read
more
Water management chief search down to 5
finalists
The hire would be the liaison between the South Florida Water Management
District's governing board and the Treasure Coast.
By Suzanne Wentley, Staff Writer
© Stuart News
Officials with the South
Florida Water Management District plan to interview five candidates this
week for the job many consider the district's voice on the Treasure Coast.
A group of officials, headed by Alvin Jackson, deputy
executive director of corporate resources, will meet Wednesday with the
candidates for the post of director of the district's Martin-St. Lucie
Service Center. The Stuart-based post,
previously held by Paul Millar who left the district in April, is the
liaison between the district's governing board and Treasure Coast
residents.
Read
more
Okeechobee basin now includes watershed
By Ric Lilkenburg
© News-Sun
SEBRING - It is a moot issue
whether it makes any difference to the natural flow of surface water from
off the Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County, water that from ancient
times has flowed north from Lake Annie in southern Highlands County, and
south from Lake Arbuckle in southeast Polk County, and eventually into
Lake Istokpoga. After years of officially
ignoring Istokpoga as a source of Lake Okeechobee water, this summer
officials of several agencies have decided to include the 238-square-mile
Istokpoga watershed that includes the two main streams that feed Istokpoga
- Arbuckle and Josephine creeks. With the
addition of this watershed, the one time roughly 400-square-mile
Okeechobee basin is now more than 600 square miles. Read
more
State paying for bad law
Relaxing pollution rules makes getting
federal aid difficult
Editorial
© Ft. Myers News-Press
As far as the Congress is
concerned, Florida is guilty until proven innocent as far as Everglades
restoration is concerned. That is a
self-inflicted problem, growing out of a very ill-advised piece of
legislation passed this year in Tallahassee despite warnings from Florida
congressmen and others. Under the law the state
granted itself a 10-year relaxation of
pollution abatement deadlines. That angered our federal partners, who are
pitching in half of the estimated $8 billion it will take to restore some
of the natural conditions that once prevailed in the vast Everglades
system. They wondered whether Florida’s commitment to Everglades
restoration was solid. Read
more
Letter to the Editor: Victory for the
district would be loss for environment
By Juanita Greene, Friends of the
Eveglades, Miami
© Ft. Myers News-Press
Supreme Re: “Everglades
restoration a priority,” Henry Dean, July 3. Henry Dean, executive
director of the South Florida Water Management District, defends his
agency for appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court an anti-pollution lawsuit
won by Friends of the Everglades and the
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians against the district. The issue involves the
diversion of polluted water from western Broward County into the
Everglades through a pumping station known
as the S-9. Our lawsuit was filed to prevent this addition of damaging
pollution, which would not flow into the Everglades if it were not for the
pumping. Friends of the Everglades, through our pro-bono attorney John
Childe, argued successfully in the lower courts that this pumping requires
a permit under the federal Clean Water Act. Read
more
Guest commentary: Rapid resolution of
SGGE rights-of-way issue essential to Everglades restoration
By Gary Davis, Nancy Payton, and
Brad Corell
© Naples News
Don't let divisiveness delay
the project. That's the message that the Conservancy of Southwest Florida,
Florida Wildlife Federation and Collier County Audubon are sending to
county commissioners concerning the stalemate between the state and the
county over
compensation for right-of-way easements for roads in Southern Golden Gate
Estates (SGGE). On June 30 the groups issued a
joint letter to Collier County Commission Chairman Tom Henning asking for
exactly that — swift resolution to their differences over the Golden
Gate land. Read
more
Leaving A Trail to Follow
Richard Coleman's Legacy Is in His Work
and In Those He Inspired
By Tom Palmer
© The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN Richard Coleman
was a big man who led big efforts -- restoring the Kissimmee River,
protecting Florida's lakes from pollution and the Green Swamp from
overdevelopment. His death will leave a gap in Polk County's and Florida's
environmental movements, friends said Saturday. He
was killed Friday while piloting an airboat on a tributary of the
Kissimmee River he loved and spent decades of his life trying save.
Coleman, 59, died when his airboat and another collided
Friday afternoon on the Dead River between Lake Hatchineha and Lake
Cypress on the Polk-Osceola line. Coleman,
former Florida chair for the Sierra Club, has been credited with
championing the Kissimmee River restoration issue to a skeptical public.
Read more
19-July-03
In search of a manatee mating story
Researchers hope learning more
about courtship rituals will help protect the species
By Barbara Behrendt
© St. Petersburg Times
[Times photos: Stephen Coddington]
Volunteer
research assistant Alana Schoenberg, left, and Chifuyu Horikoshi prepare
to guide one of nine manatees at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
into a holding tank for observation.
HOMOSASSA SPRINGS - Even
without the benefit of singles bars and pickup lines, manatees still find
a way to pair off with members of the opposite sex. Scientists
don't know much about the behavioral and chemical signals females send to
initiate courtship. In fact, many details of manatee reproduction are a
mystery. With an endangered animal like the manatee, researchers say that
such knowledge could be critical to ensure manatees produce healthy
offspring to increase their numbers. The female
manatees of the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park are now part of a
university-sponsored research project focused on manatee behavior and
their reproductive cycles. Read
more
18-July-03
U.S. House relaxes conditions for
Everglades funding
By Cory Reiss, Washington Bureau
© Herald Tribune
This dam is designed to help maintain the flow
of water through the Everglades.
Changes made in the U.S. House on Wednesday weakened the link
between
federal funding and the pollution cleanup timetable in the Glades.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House
has loosened conditions that would tie Everglades funding to compliance
with a court settlement on water pollution flowing into federal lands.
Given efforts to remove funding caveats entirely,
environmental groups said they could live with a compromise the House
passed Wednesday night as part of an Interior Department spending bill.
The new language makes it less certain that Florida
would suffer consequences for failing to achieve pollution reductions
under a consent decree. The author of the compromise, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart,
R-Fla., said he wanted to ensure that money would continue to flow to the
$8 billion restoration even if the state strays from the pollution deal it
struck in 1992 to end federal and state litigation. "This
was not the original proposal that we had in the bill, but I think this is
an improvement," Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, a Florida
Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said on
the floor Wednesday night. Read
more
Measure would give Congress control of
money for Everglades project
By Joel Eskovitz
© Naples News
WASHINGTON — Southwest
Florida's two congressmen have struck a deal with House appropriators that
would place the onus on Congress, not four federal agencies, to decide
whether to continue sending money to Florida for Everglades restoration.
The measure, which was included in a spending bill for
the Interior Department that was expected to be passed late Thursday, is
the most recent shot from Washington to the state to ensure it is holding
up its end of the bargain in returning water flow in the River of Grass.
A House subcommittee had decided last month that before
Florida could get construction dollars for projects within the heart of
the restoration plan, state officials needed to give a status report on
phosphorous cleanup efforts to the heads of four departments: the Army,
Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Justice
Department. Those agencies would have to approve the state's efforts
before money could flow to Florida. Read
more
17-July-03
Martin to rethink 'western corridor'
path
By Jennifer Sorentrue
© Palm Beach Post
Martin County commissioners
told their Palm Beach County counterparts Wednesday they will reconsider
the path the "western corridor" will follow to link the two
counties. Residents say the route approved by
Martin commissioners last year for the extension of Island Way into Palm
Beach County is not the track that officials now plan to build. The new
path, they say, brings cars and traffic much closer to homes in Jupiter's
North Fork neighborhood -- a route that was questioned by Palm Beach
County Commission Chairwoman Karen Marcus. Martin
officials say the original route, approved in September, was altered in
order to keep traffic away from wetlands. Commissioners gave staff the
option to modify the route as needed to minimize impacts on sensitive
areas. The new track keeps traffic east of a large wetland south of
Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Read
more
House deal keeps feds watching
Everglades
By Larry Lipman, Washington Bureau
© Palm
Beach Post
WASHINGTON -- The Everglades
deal was sealed at suppertime. At stake was
federal money for the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration. The
issue -- which split the Florida congressional delegation -- was whether
and under what circumstances Congress would require Florida to meet
water-quality standards before allowing federal money to flow. The
players, all Republican lawmakers, included the Diaz-Balart brothers--
Mario and Lincoln, both from Miami -- vs. three senior delegation
members: Bill Young of Indian Rocks Beach, Porter Goss of Sanibel, and E.
Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale. Several other senior GOP House members from
other states also were involved. Read
more
Palm Beach builders, city officials
angered by county's 'cap' on population growth
By Prashant Gopal
© Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach County's proposal
to decrease its population forecast for the next 25 years has angered
builders and city officials, who see the move as an artificial cap on
growth. Critics say county officials won't
properly plan for roads, schools, libraries, and police and fire
protection if they underestimate growth. And growth laws limit development
in areas where roads and services are overburdened. But
environmental groups have come out strongly in support of the proposal,
saying that overestimating growth also has costs -- the loss of open
space, more sprawl and traffic congestion. Read
more
16-July-03
Letter to the Editor- MANATEES: Strong
protection is necessary
By Judith Vallee, Executive
Director of the Save the Manatee Club, Maitland
© Jacksonville Florida
Times-Union
Letters and articles continue
to be written about the status of the manatee population. There
is a great deal of confusion as to whether it is increasing, decreasing or
remaining stable. When assessing the manatee population issue, scientific
facts presented by qualified experts must be considered. A
recently released manatee population model by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, developed by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, clearly
states that unless drastic steps are taken to reduce human-induced
mortality and injury, the long-term fate of the manatee is bleak. Some
individuals and special interest groups continue to attribute the
record-high manatee deaths from boats in recent years to a growing
manatee population. Read
more
Florida Agriculture Commissioner
releases water policy
By Lauren Layden
© Naples News
When Florida Agriculture
Commissioner Charles Bronson set out to develop a policy to ensure there's
enough water to meet the needs of the state's agriculture industry over
the next 20 years, some questioned whether it could be done. But
there aren't questions anymore. At a meeting
Tuesday on Marco Island, Bronson released a comprehensive agricultural
water policy for Florida — a policy that has widespread support from
state and local government leaders, state agency heads, growers and water
district officials. "I'm very proud of this
product that everybody put so much hard work into," Bronson said to a
gathering of more than 50 at the Marco Island Marriott Resort Golf Club
& Spa. "This is a living
document," he added. "As new science and technology come along,
we are going to change it." Read
more
Land bought amid controversy to be
rezoned for agriculture
Thanks to an easement bought by Swiftmud, 790 acres cost County
Commissioner Ted Schrader's family about $4,000
By James Thorner
© St. Petersburg Times
Pasco County plans to revoke
development rights on hundreds of acres of land the family of County
Commissioner Ted Schrader acquired for $4,000 in a controversial land deal
in 1997. It's merely a formality at this point:
The Schraders sold a conservation easement to the 790 acres to the
Southwest Florida Water Management District for $974,508. That came four
days after they bought the land from its Miami owners for $978,425.
Some county officials cried foul, arguing that the deal
allowed the Schraders to acquire the pasture, woods and swamp for mere
pennies. The water district gave the Schraders what at the time was the
highest dollar amount it had paid per acre for such an easement. The
land, southwest of State Road 52 and Bellamy Brothers Boulevard, was
originally approved in 1988 for a 848-acre golf course community to be
called The Cedars. The Schrader deal, which Swiftmud sought to preserve
land close to the Cypress Creek well field, closed the book on that
development. Read
more
Referendum sought so voters would have
say over developments
By Michael Reed, Staff Writer
© St. Augustine
Record
Petitions are circulating in
Florida to make local Comprehensive Plan amendments subject to a
referendum by county residents. That means
voters, not Boards of County Commissioners, would have the ultimate say on
projects such as Nocatee and World Commerce Center,
according to the ballot initiative -- the Florida Hometown Democracy
Amendment. If the movement receives 500,000 signatures from registered
voters, it will be placed on the 2004 General Election ballot as a
referendum to amend the Florida Constitution, according to the
initiative. St. Johns County resident Julie
Parker has taken up the cause and she spoke to the Board of County
Commissioners on Tuesday about the petition. Read
more
15-July-03
DEP slow out of gate
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
It's not that
Payson Park, which stables as many as 500 thoroughbred race horses each
winter, is new to Martin County. Before
Virginia Kraft Payson and her late husband, John, bought the 750-acre
operation in the late 1970s, it was the St. Lucie Training Center. Mrs.
Payson has built Payson Park into a hugely successful stable and training
center. Some Payson Park horses race at Gulfstream and Calder during the
winter, and others rest and get ready for the spring and summer seasons at
Belmont Park, Churchill Downs and Saratoga Race Course. The park and many
of the horses it boards are nationally known. So
it should have come as no surprise to Florida Department of Environmental
Protection regulators that Payson Park's large horse population produces
large amounts of equestrian residuals -- horse manure. That is a potential
problem, because Payson Park is near the St. Lucie
Canal, which runs from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River. With manure
piles that have grown to a height of 10 feet on 4 acres, runoff from the
Payson land into the canal could pollute the river. Read
more
Taking Care of National
Parks
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
The Bush administration deserves
credit for seeking to address a backlog of maintenance needs at America's
national parks. The National Park Service has
spent $2.9 billion in the past two years, but it is not clear how much
more remains to be done. The backlog was
estimated to be $4.9 billion 10 years ago. The General Accounting Office
earlier this year estimated the backlog could be as high as $6.08 billion.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton says progress has been made, but warns
against putting a particular figure on the remaining backlog until more
information is compiled - including a first-ever inventory of park
facilities.
Read
more
14-July-03
Letter to the Board of Commissioners
Regarding Palm Beach Aggregates Land
By J. William Louda, Ph.D.
I had the opportunity to attend
and participate in the Land Use Advisory board (LUAB) hearing on the
proposed "jobs center" (aka Economic Development Center, EDC)
this past Friday. As is a necessary evil, I
suppose, the petitioner had ample opportunity to rebut or attempt to rebut
comments by the public but the same courtesy is never afforded other
interested parties. Thus, during some of his many follow up remarks, Mr.
Kieran Kilday of Kilday and Associates made several remarks concerning the
change in geology of the Palm Beach Aggregates (PBA) land as one crosses
the L-8 canal from west to east. Basically, he stated that it is
unsuitable for water uses. Several LUAB board members wanted answers to
water related questions. Thus, I asked the recording secretary to pass Mr.
Hall a note stating that besides teaching Environmental Chemistry I am
also performing research (periphyton) on the Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Plan (CERP) under contract with South Florida Water Management
District (SFWMD). Thus, while certainly not expert in all phases of water
issues and certainly not a representative of SFWMD, I could have shed
considerable light
on Mr. Kilday's misleading statements. This I wish to do now so that you
may be forewarned as this issue comes before you. Read
more
Give Everglades guardian
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
With the Environmental Regulation Commission's approval last week of
disastrous rules for measuring pollution in the Everglades, Florida's
failure to protect the endangered ecosystem is complete.
The sugar industry has succeeded in dictating a new
state law and rules governing cleanup and restoration. The sugar growers
have been aided by the Republicans who control Tallahassee, the Department
of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management
District. So the federal government, Florida's
50-50 partner in the $1 billion cleanup and $8.4 billion restoration of
the Everglades, must take charge. The Environmental Protection Agency
already has served notice in a July 7 letter that the ERC's rules allowing
more pollution are unacceptable under the federal Clean Water Act. The new
rules, which DEP probably will approve, allow higher amounts of polluting
phosphorus than the Everglades can take and still recover fully. Read
more
The Return Of The Kissimmee River
Editorial
© Tampa
Tribune
The revival of the
Kissimmee River demonstrates that Florida, for all its growth problems,
has some striking environmental success stories to celebrate. The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers transformed the winding 103-mile river into a
56-mile polluted ditch in the less enlightened 1960s. Fish and waterfowl
populations plummeted. Where the meandering river once filtered water, the
canal carried nutrients directly into Lake Okeechobee. Now
the Kissimmee is being returned to the original river bed, as part of a
$600 million restoration effort. The canal is being filled, but flood-
control devices will be maintained where necessary. Much work remains to
be done, but the river is flowing naturally in some areas. Wetlands are
returning. Bird numbers are way up. It will take years to complete the
job, but ultimately the Kissimmee will be a wild river again. The
restoration effort is a reminder that not all is doom and gloom on the
environmental front. Now if only lawmakers would
get rid of the Rodman dam and allow the Ocklawaha River to run free.
Read
more
13-July-03
Everglades photographer tells how he
makes it all click
By Alessandra Selg-Harrigan
© Miami
Herald
When Clyde Butcher moved to
Florida in 1979, nature photographers in the state were focused on
alligators and birds. He changed that by going
deep into the Everglades and finding its natural beauty, spending hours
taking photographs in black-and-white
film. He also became an advocate for the state's natural treasure. Butcher,
often called the Ansel Adams of the Everglades, spoke recently at a
Broward Urban River Trails meeting at Secret Woods Nature Center in Dania
Beach. He offered tips on taking better
photographs and talked about his life's experiences to an audience of
about 70 fans, including environmentalists and amateur photographers. In
his signature Panama hat and full white
beard, Butcher discussed his 1942 Deardorff camera, one of the three he
uses in his craft.
Read
more
New look at Glades
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
People of the Glades have
endured decades of adversity that often has left them feeling detached
from the rest of Palm Beach County and even the rest of Florida. Most
every type of bad news has visited the Lake Okeechobee rim towns of Belle
Glade, Pahokee and South Bay. People have watched AIDS spread, jobs
disappear, poverty increase and optimism decrease. Each year, the lake got
a little more polluted, and not enough people in the coastal cities or
Tallahassee cared. Even when something positive happened -- such as the
improvements to State Road 80 -- it came with a negative aftershock. The
better road just made it easier for people with good jobs to live miles
away in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and Loxahatchee. Read
more
Letter to the editor: Manage
Lake O levels to benefit all interests, not just sugar
Written by Paul Parks,
Crawfordville
© Palm Beach Post
About Monday's article
"Now you see it... but rising water levels threaten lake's
recovery": Once again, water managers are damaging fishing in Lake
Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Every time the
recreational qualities of the lake and estuaries are degraded, hundreds of
businesses lose income and thousands of citizens experience a reduced
quality of life. When asked why the lake so
often reaches damaging depths and why harmful dumping keeps happening,
water managers spin out a tale of unavoidable technical necessity:
"It's the rain"; "Our hands are tied by regulations";
"Nothing can be done until Everglades restoration is complete";
"We must manage Lake Okeechobee this way to protect cities and
farms." Not true. By holding lake levels deep, water managers benefit
the sugar industry at the expense of other commercial interests and
recreational users. When it comes to sharing adversity, water managers
have their thumb on the scale, tipping the balance toward sugar. Read
more
12-July-03
'Glades project funding assured
Water management officials said state and federal programs could replace
cut congressional funds.
By Suzanne Wentley
© Stuart News
STUART — In a rare visit to
the Treasure Coast, top state water management officials on Friday pledged
to fund millions of dollars for land preservation and other water-quality
measures even if federal officials cut the $1 billion local Everglades
restoration plan. Addressing the Rivers
Coalition, Henry Dean, executive director of the South Florida Water
Management District, also acknowledged more water should have been
released from Lake Okeechobee earlier this year to reduce the threat of
heavy, damaging discharges to the St. Lucie Estuary later this summer.
Regarding financing, Dean and Len Lindahl, the area's
representative on the water management governing board, said they could
use other state and federal programs besides congressional appropriations
to fund the planned restoration of the estuary and Indian River Lagoon.
Read
more
11-July-03
Environmentalists fight permit law
© Herald-Tribune
Environmentalists fought
Thursday to overturn a year-old law they say stifles their most effective
way of forcing the state to protect natural resources. They
filed papers in a state appeals court in Tallahassee arguing that the law
limiting who may challenge state development and environmental permitting
decisions is unconstitutional. However, the
law's supporters, including the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, contend the challenge comes too late. They've asked the court
to dismiss the environmentalists' appeal.
At issue is a bill, approved in the chaotic closing hours of the 2002
state legislative session, requiring that groups filing legal challenges
to state permitting decisions have at least 25 members in the county where
the permit is sought. Read
more
No limits on Everglades spending- yet
By Larry Lipman
© Palm Beach Post
WASHINGTON -- The Senate
Appropriations Committee adopted a $19.6 billion Interior spending bill
Thursday without imposing any restrictions on money for the Everglades,
but restrictions could be added when the full Senate acts. Sen.
Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman of the Interior Appropriations
Subcommittee, said he received proposed restrictions late Wednesday from
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Burns said he referred the restrictions to his
staff and asked for comments from House appropriators who have already
adopted similar language. "I'll support
whatever th
