January 2001 

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  News  

31-Jan-01

Whitman and Norton Win Confirmation in the Senate

Laura Pedrick for The New York Times Christie Whitman, finishing up business as governor. She is to be sworn in on Wednesday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Related Articles • Profiles: The Bush Administration • Issue in Depth: White House Guide • Politics Home • National Home Forum • Can President Bush win bipartisan support?

The Senate approved Gale A. Norton and Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey today to oversee the nation's policies on natural resources and the environment.  Ms. Norton, a former attorney general of Colorado who drew criticism from environmental groups and Senate Democrats for her record on conservation, was confirmed as interior secretary by a 75-to-24 vote. She is the first woman to hold the post.

The Senate voted 99 to 0 to approve Ms. Whitman as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The job does not now carry cabinet rank, but President Bush has said he supports upgrading the post to the cabinet, which would require an act of Congress.  Ms. Whitman said today that she would resign as governor of New Jersey on Wednesday. Donald T. DiFrancesco, the Republican president of the New Jersey Senate, is to become acting governor.

With its action today, the Senate has approved most of President Bush's cabinet members and top agency officials. The Senate has yet to vote on former Senator John Ashcroft to head the Justice Department and on Robert B. Zoellick as United States trade representative.

Ms. Norton, 46, faced stiff opposition over her record on land management. A coalition of environmental groups urged senators to reject her nomination, citing her view that federal agencies ran roughshod over states and private property owners.  But in her testimony in committee Ms. Norton described herself as a "passionate conservationist" and assured senators she would enforce existing environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act.  "She is entitled to the job," Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, said on the Senate floor. "We have probably never had a candidate for that job who is better educated or qualified in the areas of her jurisdiction."  But Democrats who opposed her selection said they were convinced she would not strike a balance between corporate interests and conservation. Ms. Norton is expected to push to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas drilling, for example.  "If it's a wildlife refuge, it's a refuge," said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. "It's not oil drilling land."

Copyright  © 2000 NY Times online  All rights reserved.


Conservative Land-Use Groups Gain in Vote

Gale A. Norton's confirmation today as secretary of the interior by the Senate, by a comfortable 75-to-24 margin, can also be seen as a victory for several conservative environmental groups with which Ms. Norton has been connected in her career.

The groups, which include the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Political Economy Research Center, the Defenders of Property Rights and the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates, have played an increasingly important role in the battles over Western land use and other environmental issues. Some have been pressing for the rights of property owners against the federal government in response to what they view as overly cumbersome federal environmental regulations and aggressive moves to protect Western land. Others have pressed for a free-market approach to environmentalism, arguing that market forces should determine the proper uses of federal lands.

In recent years, these groups have become a counterweight to the larger and better-financed liberal environmental organizations, like the Sierra Club, that opposed Ms. Norton's nomination. They have also received money from Eastern social conservatives and Western business interests, public records show.  Some involved with these groups emphasize that Ms. Norton, a onetime member of the Libertarian Party and the former Republican attorney general of Colorado, will not automatically favor their positions as interior secretary.  "I know when she takes on a new role, all bets are off," said Nancie Marzulla, president of the Defenders of Property Rights, a group that defends property owners in disputes with the federal government. "If I have a case to take before her, I expect she will probably grill me harder than other people."

Copyright  © 2000 NY Times online  All rights reserved.

29-Jan-01

Wetland loses on decline

  A recent federal report on wetlands in the United States, shows them still losing ground, but at a dramatically reduced rate (80% lower than the decade prior). 
  Based on this there's optimism that losses might end altogether in the future, replaced by gains in U.S. wetland acreage. Hear about Florida's role in this process, what's behind the reduction, and where some of the wetland gains might come from, in Wetland Losses on the Decline, this week on the Florida Environment...  Resources: Tom Dahl, Wetlands Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Coterminous United States, 1986-1997".  The programs are broadcast on Florida public radio stations; scripts and streaming RealAudio are on the http://www.floridaenvironment.com website.  The Florida Environment radio program.  A resource for citizens, students and teachers Produced at Florida Gulf Coast University.  Funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education, Inc.
Copyright  © 2000 Florida Environment Radio  All rights reserved.
"Florida Environment radio" <info@floridaenvironment.com>

 

28-Jan-01

MOSQUITO SPRAY DEADLY TO BIRDS

  After the deaths of 200 birds on Marco Island, the EPA proposes curtailing Florida's use of the pesticide fenthion.
  For 30 years, ornithologist Ted Below regularly waded out to a sandbar off the public beach at Marco Island to document herons, sandpipers or other birds stopping off there. Occasionally, he ran across a few dead ones, but he didn't pay much attention -- until the day in 1997 he found 80 at once.  Among the dead lay an endangered piping plover. A band on its leg showed the tiny bird had flown south from Michigan only to keel over in sunny Florida.  In the years since, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has blamed the deaths of 200 birds on Marco Island on a pesticide called fenthion, which for decades has been sprayed throughout Florida -- including around Tampa Bay -- to control mosquitoes.  Marco Island's bird deaths have fueled a running feud over fenthion. Conservation groups want to ban it, citing concerns not only for birds but also for humans. Local government officials contend it is vital in warding off mosquito-borne viruses such as encephalitis.
  Two weeks ago, supporters and opponents of fenthion squared off for an eight-hour hearing in Orlando over whether the EPA should allow spraying to continue in Florida.  "We will not stand idle while fenthion continues to be sprayed in one of the most biologically rich and ecologically sensitive regions in the world," Linda Farley of the American Bird Conservancy told the EPA.
  Fenthion used to be available nationwide for mosquito spraying. In 1988, faced with tightening government restrictions, Bayer nearly halted production. Bayer officials say Florida's mosquito-control districts begged them to continue making it for use in this state only, so the company agreed.  Since then, fenthion has taken a toll on Florida wildlife. University researchers spent five years studying the effect of mosquito sprays in the Keys and found fenthion nearly wiped out the nation's rarest butterfly, the Schaus swallowtail.   
  "It was extremely toxic to butterflies in the Keys, and to 50 percent of other insect species," University of Florida zoologist Thomas Emmel said.
Copyright  © 2000 St. Petersburg Times   All rights reserved.

 

27-Jan-01

Cold weather cuts number of exotic fish that invades ENP 

  Fish kills are usually bad -- evidence of something amiss in the water like red tide or toxic pollution. But the bobbing carcasses that hit Everglades National Park this month are a good thing, biologically if not aesthetically.
  Most of the countless victims were obscure but troublesome interlopers -- a voracious invader called the Mayan cichlid, a sort of melaleuca with fins that eats up and bullies aside native fish...Scientists, while conceding the Mayan and other exotics are here to stay, are happy for anything that slows the spread of fish that pose an increasing threat during the massive Everglades restoration project in decades ahead...
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

24-Jan-01

Miami-Dade delays decision on uses for Homestead base

… "In our opinion, that lease is still in effect," said attorney Ramon Rasco, who represents Homestead Air Base Development Inc.
  Rasco successfully argued that it would be premature for commissioners to close off their options, including joining HABDI in its legal action. The county has three months to decide whether it wants the land, and up to an additional eight months to design an economic-development plan for its use. On the recommendation of County Manager Merrett Stierheim, commissioners voted on Tuesday to unanimously to study the issue further, including holding a public hearing on Feb. 8 before making a decision. 
Copyright  © 2000 Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Dade OKs legal probe of airport

  A strict denial from the federal government wasn't enough to persuade Miami-Dade County to drop the drive to develop a commercial airport in Homestead. 
  At least not yet. County commissioners, in a vote Tuesday that disappointed environmentalists, decided to explore legal options on the U.S. Air Force's decision to kill the airport at hurricane-battered Homestead Air Force Base. 
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

23-Jan-01

Letter to the editor
Base decision benefits Miami-Dade

  It's now time to move forward and provide jobs that protect agriculture, quality of life and Biscayne and Everglades national parks
  The Air Force said it best: ``Over time it became clear that a commercial airport is not
the only way of achieving desired economic development of southern Miami-Dade County. The choice is no longer simply between an airport and economic stagnation.'' … After a century of polluting our natural resources in South Florida, we need to start restoring our environment and conserving our precious natural resources, not promoting schemes that threaten our regional sustainability. This decision is our step forward. 
[43 signatories from the Sierra Club and others] 
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

High-level meeting was `death knell' for airport

  Homestead plan met strong foes
  After nearly seven years of intensive and expensive debate that elevated a regional development proposal into a national environmental cause, the controversial airport plan went quietly, with once-ardent supporters in the Clinton administration mounting only a
weak defense during a high-level Dec. 12 gathering called by the president's chief of staff, John Podesta. … Because of a standing federal lawsuit by powerful Miami-Dade developers, sources on both sides of the issue were reluctant to talk about the meeting. The final decision, which the Air Force acknowledged was easily the ``most difficult'' in 30 previous base closures, was carefully crafted with strong input from Interior and Clinton's
environmental advisors to ``strike a balance'' not just between the environment and economy, as it says, but among the political interests of various parties. … ``People don't believe it,'' James Wolffe, a special assistant to Air Force Secretary Peters said, ``but it was an open question right up to just about the end.'' 
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

 

22-Jan-01

Opinion
Imagine a causeway in the middle of the bay (gasp!)

Sitting in I-95's southbound lane, hopelessly immobilized in Miami-Dade County's distended rush-hour traffic, my mind drifted to those heady days of the late 1950s and early 1960s and the (gasp!) Mid-Bay Causeway. … A scheme to run a road up Biscayne Bay was hatched as early as 1947 by an assistant district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. There were revivals -- and different versions -- of the plan again in 1948, 1955, 1962 and 1965.  Sometimes it was called the Mid-Bay Causeway, at other times it was the Biscayne Bay Malecón, that being a plan that more hugged the shore as does Havana's Malecón. In 1959, when it was most seriously considered… In October 1965, the Dade County Planning Advisory Board finally erased the Mid-Bay causeway from its General Land Use Master Plan. 
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

The Lee County Smart Growth Task Force Addresses Growth

  Whether you are for it or against it, one thing everyone can agree on is that there will be more growth in Southwest Florida. 
  So, as a means of addressing the problems that will arise out of the growth boom, Lee County has put together a Smart Growth Task Force. The task force is co-chaired by
William Hammond, a noted area environmentalist, and Dennis Gilkey of Bonita Bay who spoke at the Urban Land Institute Smart Growth Forum October 12. Along with Gilkey and Hammond 30 other people serve on the task force. 
Copyright  © 2000 Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial
EPA office here should aid growth management

The opening of a U.S. EPA field office in Fort Myers is good news, because - we hope - it will create more pressure for better growth management. The Environmental Protection Agency is setting up shop here because the area is a hot spot for wetlands and other natural resource controversies. ... We shouldn't need Washington telling us how to grow. We need standards higher and better customized than the federal ones. So let's create them.
Copyright  © 2000 Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Questions mounting about revamping of state growth-management laws

  As time shrinks for a state panel to finish its road map for rewriting Florida's development laws, questions are growing among planners, environmentalists and local governments.
  Many of them agree with principles behind the state Growth Management Study Commission's efforts, the most attention-getting of which focus on limiting state oversight of communities' development plans. But they have cautioned that the difference between an overhaul and an overthrow will lie in particulars, not principles. And since a second draft of the commission's findings appeared Tuesday with proposals some still consider vague, the rumblings are growing louder.
Copyright  © 2000 Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

21-Jan-01

Editorial
What FL needs from President Bush: The Environment

The project to restore the Everglades... Under President Bush's approach to management, Gale Norton will act in that role if the Senate confirms her to be secretary of the Interior Department. ... When disputes arise as to where the new water goes, Interior will decide. Unless Interior gives the environment equal priority, what remains of the Everglades will continue to suffer. ... he can follow his brother's lead and oppose offshore drilling.
Copyright  © 2000 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

 

17-Jan-01

Environmentalism¹s quickly becoming a four-letter word -- but that¹s OK

It is distressing to read that, environmentally, the world still is going to heck in a handbasket.  A quarter of the world¹s coral reefs are dead or dying, and amphibians are croaking and growing extra limbs and all kinds of stuff in response to world ecological decline. One would think, being able to live on land or in the water, that the danged amphibians would be the last to go. But they apparently are very sensitive. I am trying to be sensitive myself, but I seem to grow more confused by the day. It used to be that one was either an environmentalist, or a dirty rotten chemical company with dead fish under your outflow pipes. Now the line in the sand has become blurred, partly because turkeys have been dusting on
it. There are environmental extremists out there who don¹t want people to catch fish, even if all they plan to do is release them. They send a costumed character named Gil The Fish to fishing tournaments, where they hope they¹ll generate bad press for anglers torturing fish.

Copyright © 2001. The News-Press. All rights reserved.

Florida Air Force Base

NPR's Phillip Davis reports that the Air Force has decided to keep a Florida runway to itself and to turn the rest of a controversial base over to surrounding Miami-Dade county. The Air Force set one condition upon granting the land: that it not be developed into a county airport. 
(Audio, 3:41minutes) 
14.4 Modem: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20010117.me.11.ram 
28.8 Modem: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20010117.me.11.rmm
Copyright  © 2000 NPR  All rights reserved.

 

14 Jan 01

Interior's silence on Army Corps plan questioned
By Michael Grunwald
© Ashville Global Report
Jan. 14, 2001 - In October, after the Army Corps of Engineers floated a
controversial proposal that would relax a series of wetlands protection
rules, the Fish and Wildlife Service drafted comments denouncing the plan as
scientifically and environmentally unjustified. The service's 15-page salvo warned that the Corps proposal would "result in tremendous destruction of aquatic and terrestrial habitats," sacrificing far too many streams and swamps for houses, levees, and coal mines. The plan, the comments stated, "has no scientific basis." But the Corps never received those comments. That's because Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who oversees Fish and Wildlife, never submitted them. So today, the Corps will announce its final version of its
controversial plan without formal input from Interior's key biological agency. The only input Interior offered was a memo supporting the coal-mining rule
that the wildlife service found, by far, the most objectionable. "Our job is to make sure the secretary gets our best biological advice, and we did that," said Marshall Jones, the service's acting director. "We don't decide what happens next."  Read more

07-Jan-01

The Death of a River Looms Over Choice for Interior Post

Eight years ago, Ignacio Rodriguez took his grandson out for an afternoon of fishing near his house on the Alamosa River in the foothills of the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. The river that runs through the valley was his longtime neighbor, but on this day, he said, it was a stranger.

 "The rocks were red and the river had some greenish tinge to it," Mr. Rodriguez said in a telephone interview last week. "The fish were all belly up. Rainbow trout and German browns — all dead. It was sickening."  Mr. Rodriguez was one of many witnesses to what state officials have called the worst environmental disaster in Colorado, a spill of cyanide and acidic water from a gold-mining operation that killed virtually every living thing in a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River, though causing no human injuries.
Copyright  © 2000 NY Times online   All rights reserved.

New presidential battleground: the environment, as Clinton passes last-minute preservation orders, Bush's allies gear up to undo `economic damage' 

  With two weeks left in office, President Clinton has joined environmentalists in an aggressive campaign to hamstring President-elect George W. Bush as an environmental policymaker before he takes power.  Bush's allies, meanwhile, are looking for ways to dismantle Clinton's environmental legacy as soon as he vacates the White House.  And the big fights are still to come, including a possible confrontation over Bush's proposal to permit oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Buoyed by Clinton's executive order Friday declaring nearly 60 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land off-limits to development, environmentalists are pushing the outgoing president to extend similar protections to the Arctic Refuge.  An executive order prohibiting oil exploration there -- by naming the refuge a national monument -- would undermine a cornerstone of Bush's proposed energy policy.  Environmental groups also are gearing up to fight Bush's selection of Gale Norton to head the Interior Department, calling her appointment ``a natural disaster'' in the making.  On the other side of the environmental divide, Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, the new chairman of the Resources Committee in the House of Representatives, urged the president-elect in a letter to rescind dozens of the Clinton administration's environmental initiatives.  Hansen's hit list includes snowmobile restrictions in Yellowstone National Park.
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

05-Jan-01

Eco-group vows more vigilance

  Everglades Coalition members were celebratory and a bit nostalgic at their four-day meeting in Stuart, which ends today. But they hardly were ready to rest on their laurels.   
  "It's remarkable how far we've come," said the World Wildlife Fund's Shannon Estenoz, national chairperson for the coalition --  quickly adding: "The hills that face us are actually higher, steeper, rockier."  Members fear it could be a much more daunting task to keep their troops trained on the more boring, technical nuts and bolts of designing a complex overhaul of the Everglades' drainage system over the next two to three decades.  "It's not as exciting. There's not an obvious starburst going on" as the bill becomes reality, said Estus Whitfield, a consultant and former environmental policy coordinator for the late Gov. Lawton Chiles.  "It will be hard to sustain that level of interest. It's design-and-build time now."  Vigilance will be the key, said Chinquina, the coalition's Florida co-chairman, and other activists.  Environmentalists fear if they drop their guard, new water for the marsh generated by the restoration will be steered away to urban and agricultural needs.        Reed thinks Everglades activists can continue to find "fascinating topics" in the nitty-gritty of the design phase.  But some funding organizations that underwrite environmental   groups' restoration campaigns might have an urge to move on now, Tipton said. Some have anted up money for several years and might feel "funders' fatigue" over that mission.  "We're starting to hear that now," he said.  Despite all the uncertainties, the coalition leadership released its vision for the next 10 years at its conference, an outline of    objectives to assure the restoration does not flop. The wish list probably did not fall on deaf ears.   
Copyright  © 2000 Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

 

04-Jan-01

Editorial
Everglades fight, Round 2
An extraordinary meeting opens today at Hutchinson Island near Stuart. The Everglades Coalition's 16th annual conference will discuss carrying out the restoration of Florida's river of grass, not advocating it. ... Florida must avoid the thousand ways to fail, to spend billions and not fix the Everglades. The Hutchinson Island meeting is a first, positive step on the long journey to make this, the largest environmental restoration ever attempted, a model for the rest of the world.
Copyright  © 2000 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Editorial
Growth’s Challenges: Plan together, or we'll strangle on our growth
South Florida's people and environment are inextricably entwined. The more people, the more demands on our air quality, on the ocean, bays, beaches, waterways and the Everglades. We need a better strategy for living in harmony with the environment and visionary leaders to implement that strategy -- and quickly. ... These basic principles have succeeded elsewhere because they are achieveable, friendly to people and to the environment. This region's political and civic leadership must learn to apply these principles here -- and soon.
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Opinion
A new era for Glades
.... Congress just made the commitment -- the Everglades Restoration bill -- in December, and President Clinton promptly signed it. Since the presidential-recount drama was still in full swing, this profound moment for Florida got less fanfare than it deserved. And there are lingering controversies -- the misguided plan to put a large commercial airport between the two parks, for one. Still, let's rejoice. It's not a case of ``if only'' anymore; it's a reality. And very near a miracle.
Copyright  © 2000 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Would-be catfish farmer fights DEP restoration Project
Jesse Hardy sat silently Wednesday as a committee of county advisers rejected his plans for a catfish farm on his homestead in the Picayune Strand State Forest. He didn't leave the meeting quietly though — indicating that environmental advocates opposed to his project and state land buyers trying to buy his land might have a big fight on their hands. "They come up with all sorts of things, and I'm tired of it," said Hardy, 65, after getting into a shouting match with opponents in the hallway outside the meeting room.
Copyright  © 2000 Naples News  All rights reserved.

Naples City Council accepts lower financial safety net on Calusa Bay deal
....$115,000 lower than the one they originally sought from the developer of the North Naples condominium community Calusa Bay. The city had shut down two wells after the developers of Calusa Bay, The Groves of Naples Inc., built its retention lakes 15 feet from the city's wells instead of the hundreds of feet as required. ... The Groves of Naples had agreed to put up $185,000 in an escrow-type account to ensure that if it did not hand over two new working wells as agreed upon, the city could use the money to build two new wells itself.
Copyright  © 2000 Naples News  All rights reserved.

Florida Water & Utilities Inc.,
which sells water-purifying devices in the Tampa area, says it is not out to scare anybody into buying its products.  The company's Web site has a page titled "Why Purify?" which states:
.... So what is in the water you drink? Chlorine: A greenish-yellow, very poisonous, liquifiable, gaseous element with an offensive odor. It has been used extensively in gas warfare. [Image of a man in a gasmask] MOST PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES ARE CHLORINATED BY FEDERAL LAW
Naples Daily News article, 1/4/01
Copyright  © 2000 Naples News  All rights reserved.

03-Jan-01

Environmental News Service, 1/3/00
(Following 3 news items)

EPA Sets Water Quality Criteria For Nutrients, Methylmercury
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took steps to protect waters from excessive nutrients and toxic methyl mercury. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can choke waterways and lead to algae blooms, including Pfiesteria and red tide, resulting in fish kills and harmful human health effects. For the first time, the EPA is setting water quality criteria which serve as recommendations to states and tribes for water quality standards for nutrients. States are expected to adopt or revise their nutrient standards by 2004, based on the new criteria.
http://www.epa.gov/ost/criteria/methylmercury
http://www.epa.gov/ost/standards/nutrient.html
Environmental News Service, 1/3/00

Mercury Research Strategy Unveiled
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development has released a five year research strategy outlining and summarizing the health and ecological risks posed by mercury. The strategy identifies key scientific questions of greatest importance to the agency, and charts a research program to reduce scientific uncertainties that limit EPA's ability to assess and manage mercury risks. ... As a result of their mothers' exposure to methylmercury, as many as 60,000 children are born every year in the U.S. at risk of nervous system damage.
Environmental News Service, 1/3/00

EPA Issues Guidelines For Environmental Economics
... The guidelines will ensure that valuation of costs and benefits are treated consistently in all
EPA economic analyses. Entitled "Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses," the economic framework will assist EPA policy makers and analysts charged with developing environmental and health standards at the lowest cost.
Environmental News Service, 1/3/00

02-Jan-01

Letter to the Editor in New York Times, 1/2/01
EVERGLADES AT RISK ... President Clinton should stop the airport now.

Related Articles • An Everglades Airport (Dec. 28, 2000) • Letters Home

To the Editor:

Re "Everglades Airport'' (letter, Dec. 28):

Too much will be sacrificed if Miami-Dade County is allowed to proceed with plans for a major commercial airport at the old Homestead Air Force Base.  The headquarters of Biscayne National Park are just two miles away; less than 10 miles away, the Everglades begin. The fabled Florida Keys, a magical, quiet place, are a few nautical miles south.  No human hands could reconstruct the Everglades' beauty once destroyed, and no engineering feats could spare it from the roar of airplane noise and the toxic pollutants.  Americans should not be expected to sacrifice our national heritage as embodied by our national parks, marine sanctuaries and wildlife refuges for the benefit of a few. President Clinton should stop the airport now.
BLANCA MESA
Key Biscayne, Fla., Dec. 28, 2000
Copyright  © 2000 NY Times online   All rights reserved.

Initiatives

Led by a $400 million bond referendum in Broward County, which passed by a
73.59% to 26.41% margin, voter approval of environmental land purchase proposals were generally given strong support around the state.

Seminole County Voters approved a $25 million trails, greenways, and land
purchase proposal by 58%.

Volusia County Voters approved twin referenda, both on the same ballot,
raising $80 million each for environmental land purchases and trails plus
other recreation projects. The Land purchase bond issue called "Volusia
Forever" passed by 61.3 percent. The Trails & Recreation proposal, called
"ECHO" passed by 57.5 percent. Considering Volusia's population size, the $
160 million provided by these two proposals may be the largest per-capita
investment of this kind in the state.

Alachua County approved a $29 million land acquisition program by a near 70%
vote of the electorate.

There may be more...if you know of another local land purchase or "Trails &
Greenways" vote, please post the results!

 

Two Bushes in the Everglades
Mother Jones
July / August 2000

George W. Bush has rarely encountered a public problem that the private sector, in his view, cannot solve. Now the Republican presidential hopeful
wants to unleash market forces on the Everglades. During a campaign swing
through Florida in March, Bush made clear he believes the state should
involve private enterprise in the effort to save the imperiled ecosystem.

One of Bush's biggest campaign contributors couldn't agree more. Azurix, a
Houston-based company formed b the energy giant Enron, has offered to pump
millions of dollars of its own money into building reservoirs and storage
wells designed to restore the Everglades. In return, the company wants
permission to sell the water that supplies 6 million residents of South
Florida.

http://www.motherjones.com//mother_jones/JA00/outfrontja00.html#twobushes

  Litigation


  Legislation

  New Bills

Senate action:

9/26/00 - Glades restoration project approved
9/24/00 - Canady takings bill rejected

•  Congress to Prepare Everglades Restoration Bill
Copyright © 2000 Everglades Conservation Network  All rights reserved.  Posted 01-Jun-00

•  H.R. 2372 to be voted on 
H.R. 2372, Rep. Canady's [R-FL] "Private Property Rights Implementation Act" (TAKINGS BILL) will be MARKED-UP and VOTED on by the Full HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8 and is likely to come to the Floor of the full House of Representatives the following week.

•  Search Thomas 

  Congressional Testimony

•  Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment

01-Mar-00
•  Hearings & Testimony: Restoration of the Everglades and South Florida Ecosystem 

 

South Florida Focus: Putting FLORIDA FIRST

Impact Magazine
Vol. 15, No. 3/ Spring 2000 (36 pages)

PDF download (8 MB) 

Perspective
A message from the VP for Agriculture & Natural Resources

Urban Focus
The Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center helps solve environmental
problems and enhances the quality of life in South Florida.

Everglades Agricultural Area
Best management practices help farmers protect environmentally sensitive
areas.

Education at Your Doorstep
With new distance education technologies, UF's College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences offers classes statewide.

Southernmost Solutions
Located in Homestead, the Tropical Research and Education Center is the only
university facility of its kind in the continental United States.

A Salty Problem
Algae blooms provide a sign that something's amiss with fragile Florida Bay.

Putting down roots
4-H project turns barren land into a garden.

Affordable Housing
Dreams come true in Collier County through a collaboration of UF/IFAS
extension, banks and county government.

Eat better, live better
A Hialeah nutrition education program helps the Hispanic population make the
most of limited resources.

UF/IFAS Updates

Florida Earth Project
Students and professionals can learn about Florida's environmental issues.

Ask the master
Florida ecotourism gets help from Master Naturalists.

Silicon success
New research indicates this element controls diseases and boosts crop
yields.

UF/IFAS Resources

22-Mar-01

All Eyes on Florida: Revitalizing, Restoring and Revisiting
The seventh annual public interest environmental conference

University Conference Center Doubletree
Gainesville, FL
March 22-24, 2001

This student-run conference brings together diverse interests to take part
in panels discussing a multitude of environmental issues. This form of
interaction allows the parties to develop understanding and even cooperation
on difficult environmental conflicts that may otherwise be impossible.   The University of Florida College of Law's Environmental and Land Use Law
Society in cooperation with the Florida Bar

05-Sep-01

Wetlands and Remediation: The Second International Conference

Background: In November, 1999, Battelle Memorial Institute, a
not-for-profit research organization based in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored
and organized a wetlands and remediation conference in Salt Lake City,
Utah, that brought together more than 300 wetlands and remediation
experts to discuss common issues related to cleaning up contaminated
wetlands and using wetlands (both natural and constructed) for treating
contaminated ground-, surface-, and wastewater. Based on the success of
that meeting, Battelle is pleased to announce that Wetlands and
Remediation: The Second International Conference will be held September
5-6, 2001, at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center in
Burlington, Vermont.

Organization: Karl Nehring of Battelle (614/424-6510, nehringk@battelle.org), Conference Chairman, will be responsible for coordinating the development of the technical program. Carol Young (614/424-7604, youngc@battelle.org) will be the Conference Coordinator, responsible for scheduling, correspondence, and issues involving abstract and manuscript submittal and preparation. The Conference Group (800/783-6338, conferencegroup@compuserve.com) of Columbus, Ohio, is
handling the meeting logistics.

Format: After an opening plenary session, there will be multiple platform sessions (two or three concurrent tracks), and a poster session on Wednesday evening. Speakers at the Plenary Session will include Dr. Jean-Paul Schwitzguebel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Dr. Barry Warner of the University of Waterloo (current vice president of the Society of Wetland Scientists) and Dr. John Pardue of Louisiana State University.

Sponsorship: Battelle is the sponsor and organizer, and we are hoping to add co-sponsors for the 2001 conference. Parsons Engineering Science, Morrison Knudsen Corporation, the U.S. DoD Environmental Security Technical Certification Program/Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, and the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command were co-sponsors of the 1999 Conference. Organizations interested in co-sponsoring the 2001 Conference should contact The Conference Group.

Participating Organizations: Organizations committed to helping with publicity for the conference and encouraging participation should contact The Conference Group at 800/783-6338. Participating organizations for the 1999 meeting included The Center for Wetlands and Riparian Design (University of Utah), Environmental Business Journal, the USDA NRCS Wetlands Science Institute, the University of Florida Center for Wetlands, The Michigan State University Institute of Water
Research, the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (The Ohio State University), The Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences/Coastal
Ecology Institute (Louisiana State University), The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Laboratory, the Utah Water Research Laboratory (Utah State University), the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the New York State Wetlands Forum.

Exhibitors: Companies or organizations interested in having an exhibit booth at the conference should contact The Conference Group at 800/783-6338.

Schedule: The Call for Abstracts will be mailed in November 2000; the deadline for submitting abstracts will be March 5, 2001. Once the program has been finalized and accepted presenters have been sent acceptance letters, a preliminary program will be mailed. 

Proceedings: A proceedings volume will be prepared and then published by Battelle Press and mailed to registrants shortly after the conference. Proceedings papers will be optional but strongly encouraged from all presenters, both platform and poster. Authors wishing to have their papers appear in the proceedings will be requested to provide camera-ready copies of their papers by July 13.

Registration: Because registration fees are by far the major source of funding for the conference and a significant percentage of registrants will make presentations, all presenting authors and session chairs are expected to register and pay the standard fees.  Potential topics for this conference include:

- Natural Attenuation in Wetlands
- Biological and Ecological Considerations
- Risk-Based Wetlands Remediation
- Regulatory Trends 
- Economic Factors in Wetlands Remediation and Restoration 
- Wetlands Hydrology and Morphology 
- Wetlands Microbial Ecology 
- Phytoremediation and Macrophytes in Wetlands 
- Wetlands for the Remediation and Treatment of Wastewater 
- Wetlands Treatment of Contaminated Sediments 
- GIS and Remediation 
- Innovative Technologies for Wetlands Investigations 
- Non-point Source Pollution and Agricultural Runoff 
- Redox Processes in Wetlands 
- Contaminant Fate and Environmentally Acceptable Endpoints 
- Wetlands Design and Construction 
- Creating Wetlands using Dredge Spoils 
- Wetlands Restoration and Mitigation 
- Explosives and Wetlands 
- Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Wetlands 
- Mine Waste Considerations 
- Metals and Inorganics in Wetlands 
- Perchlorate-Contaminated Wetlands 
- Groundwater/Surface Water Interfaces

 

 

•  UNEP/GPA News Forum

United Nations Environment Programme
A News and Information Service of the Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities

•  Environmental News Network

Education site
Only one in three adult Americans has a passing understanding of our most pressing environmental issues.  National Environmental Education and Training Foundation

•   League of Conservation voters, Presidential profiles

Political analysis of Presidential candidates' environmental platform
New section on Cheney's record (07-24-00)

•  Everglades Restoration Plan

Comprehensive site dedicated to educating the public about the restoration plan

•  Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD)
The controversy surrounding dihydrogen monoxide has never been more widely debated, and the goal of this site is to provide an unbiased data clearinghouse and a forum for public discussion. The success of this site depends on you, the citizen concerned about Dihydrogen Monoxide. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
http://www.dhmo.org/


•  Living on Earth, 10/26/00
http://www.loe.org/thisweek/highlight.htm#1

 

Revised:  07/01/03