February 2002 

 

Everglades Village News

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24-Feb-02

W. R. Grace & Company's vermiculite mine in 
Libby, Mont., is no longer in operation, but 
asbestos from the mine has contaminated the
town, and Libby may be headed for a Superfund
cleanup.

Bush Proposing to Shift Burden of Toxic Cleanups to Taxpayers
Faced with dwindling reserves in the huge account that gave the Superfund waste cleanup program its name, the Bush administration has decided to designate fewer sites for restoration and to shift the bulk of the costs from industry to taxpayers.  The administration says it is dealing with much bigger and more complex sites, if fewer of them, and that deciding how to pay for the program is up to Congress.  For years Congress has failed to reach agreement on reauthorizing the tax on industry that used to be the source of money for the Superfund, which was founded in 1980 under the slogan "the polluter pays." The trust fund used the special corporate taxes to clean up contamination at so-called orphan sites, or those where the responsible party could not be identified or could not pay, as well as for recalcitrant companies and emergency action.   The trust fund has been used to clean up about 30 percent of the 1,551 sites on the Environmental Protection Agency's national priority list, with corporations themselves paying to clean up the other 70 percent. Most companies prefer to pay for their own cleanup because they can do it for less than the government, which is allowed to charge the companies three times the cost, plus penalties.  But the trust fund is running out of money.  
Copyright  © 2002  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

20-Feb-02

Enron's Florida failure: Big plans, big donations, little to show for it

Enron Corp. placed a big bet on Florida, showering almost $235,000 of campaign money on its political leaders and launching several projects to crack its energy markets. But despite gaining access to Gov. Jeb Bush and other top officials, the bankrupt company?s story in Florida was largely one of frustration.  Enron?s dream of a deregulated state electricity market died in the wake of California?s power crisis. The company?s proposals for power plants in
Pompano Beach and southern Miami-Dade County ran into a wall of protests from surrounding neighborhoods. Its plan for a natural gas pipeline from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale faced tough questions from state environmental regulators. And its proposal to pay for part of the Everglades restoration project in exchange for water rights fizzled after drawing criticism from
virtually all sides. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

18-Feb-02

Paradise lost: The legends, lore and love of the Everglades
Heading north from Tamiami Trail on Turner River Road, gators can be seen every few feet. Partially submerged in the canal that parallels the rutted dirt road or clustered on the banks in groups of three to five, the knobby reptiles ignore the cormorants, anhingas, blue herons, kingfishers, snowy egrets, coots and wood storks that poke or plunge into the dark waters of their shared feeding grounds. "Stop here," John Fritchey says as the car turns westward. We are in the southern part of Callaway Coochee Slough, what the Indians called the Okaloacooche Slough, a kind of inland waterway beginning at Goodno on the north and running southward, forking and eventually flowing into the Gulf of Mexico near Chokoloskee. Fritchey, a third-generation Floridian, knows this territory southwest of Lake Okeechobee as well as city folks know their home block. His daddy and granddaddy before him farmed this swampland, hunted and fished and partook of its generous bounty, including what Fritchey calls "the wild fruits." Today Fritchey's showing the wild place he loves to his 15-year-old grandson, Jonathan Joyner, Seminole historian Patsy West and a volunteer from the Museum of the Everglades, Phil Portz.  Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

15-Feb-02

Water managers to contribute $13.7 million to land buy near Delray
Assured a future reservoir would pose no definite threat to wildlife, water managers agreed Thursday to reimburse Palm Beach County $13.7 million toward its purchase of 634 acres of water-storage land west of Delray Beach. That would give the South Florida Water Management District a 61 percent ownership in 571 acres of the site, called the McMurrain farm. Water managers intend to flood it along with other land to create a 1,600-acre reservoir to bank water for the Everglades restoration. The water district agreed in April 2000 to co-purchase with the county the reservoir site inside the Agricultural Reserve, west of U.S. 441 near Atlantic Avenue. That deal will help the county preserve additional green space in a 20,000-acre agricultural zone. But the district had to put off payment for a year, pending the outcome of an environmental investigation by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the county went ahead and bought the land for $23 million. Used for years to grow vegetables, soil on the site contains concentrations of two common agricultural chemicals: copper and a now-banned pesticide called toxaphene. Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

14-Feb-02

A Computer Shutdown Plays Havoc at Interior
After a 10-week court-ordered shutdown of nearly all its computer communications, the Interior Department said yesterday that it had restored some of them, bringing e-mail back to government scientists, Web service to national parks - and payments to nearly 40,000 American Indians. The blanket electronic closing of a department that manages everything from seashores in New England to Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky stemmed from a problem that has been out of sight of much of official Washington but has played havoc with the lives of millions of people who depend on an agency that is landlord to one-eighth of the United States. A federal district judge ordered the department on Dec. 5 to shut down its entire computer system, saying it could not safeguard the accounting system that manages money for Indians. The judge, Royce C. Lamberth, who is hearing the largest class-action suit ever filed by Indians, has already found that the government mismanaged Indian money for more than a century. In the process of a second trial, to determine whether Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton should be held in contempt for failing to comply with past orders on cleaning up the department, the judge found that Interior's Web sites were vulnerable to computer hacking. Copyright  © 2002  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

We should learn from plight of manatee's kin, the dugong

The dugong, the Asian name for our manatee, is vanishing from the waters of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Scientists from the United Nations Environment Program say development on the coast of East Africa, India, and the area of Southeast Asia is the cause. There is no program to help prevent the species from becoming extinct, which means our own manatees could become a rare tourist attraction. "The situation in East Africa is particularly alarming and it is possible that this will be the next place where the dugong becomes extinct unless urgent action is taken," said Helene March, an Australian environmental science professor and the lead author of an agency report, who was quoted in an Associated Press story. The dugong is a key indicator species, meaning that if it is declining, "then the coastal environment which provides protein in the forms of fish and income in terms of tourism is also being degraded," the report said. For food, the herbivorous mammal depends on sea grass beds, which in many areas of the world are being cleared for development or smothered by silt and mud from runoff caused by overgrazing and deforestation, the report said. The report was delivered at a conference of environmental ministers in Cartagena, Colombia and will be a subject of the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development this summer in Johannesburg, South Africa.Copyright  © 2002  TC Palm  All rights reserved.

13-Feb-02

Planner named Smart Growth director Daltry to help set livability standards
Lee County has named Wayne Daltry, a veteran of planning in Southwest Florida for nearly three decades, as its first Smart Growth director. Daltry, 54, of North Fort Myers, will help Lee County commissioners set policy so that development can occur without destroying the environment, sapping water resources or jamming traffic. He'll help manage a budget of up to $340,000. "There is nothing more important to the livability of Lee County than Smart Growth," said County Manager Don Stilwell. "We have a very special place. Hiring Wayne gives us a very special person." Commissioner Bob Janes said Daltry has the right experience and can look at Smart Growth from a regional standpoint. Daltry has worked on the Smart Growth Task Force since the movement began here more than a year ago. "If anyone knows our area, it's Wayne," Janes said. The appointment of Daltry, who has served as executive director of the the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council since 1982, came as the ripple effect of Rep. Porter Goss' decision to run for re-election. 
Copyright  © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.

Growth will be smarter with Daltry Experienced leader ideal choice to helm Smart Growth panel
It would be hard to imagine a person better prepared than Wayne Daltry to serve as director of Lee County's Smart Growth committee. We hope he can help the committee lead the county and region into some innovative thinking about how to manage the explosive growth that has brought most of us here and produced some wonderful amenities, but threatens to strangle the community if not planned better. The Smart Growth committee will comprise 17 people, with 15 residents, a school board member and a county commissioner. It will act as an advisory group to the county to help make decisions on growth issues. Daltry was named its executive director Tuesday. County commissioners agreed to support the committee, but only if they were allowed to restructure it after the original group came under fire for being dominated by development interests, or at least looking like it was. 
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Birders, power walkers face off in [Wakodahatchee] nature preserve near Delray
Frozen for some time atop her nest, the great blue heron suddenly moved. Standing, she scratched her stick legs and preened her feathers. The two nature photographers who had waited patiently for the moment sprang into silent action behind their tripod- mounted cameras. Click, click, click. But as they snapped away in the middle of the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, their viewing platform, a boardwalk, began to vibrate. A parade of exercise walkers was bearing down on their National Geographic moment. Stomp, stomp, stomp. "Now we've got a walker and the cameras are shaking like crazy," groused one of the photographers, Peter Brandeis, a visitor from Scottsdale, Ariz. It was just before 9 a.m. on a weekday, rush hour at the 50-acre manmade nature preserve west of Delray Beach. Flocks of power walkers, casual strollers and a few joggers looped around a half-mile stretch of the boardwalk wide enough for two people striding side-by-side.  Their sometime adversaries -- birders -- pressed against the railings, their binoculars and cameras trained so closely on anhingas, green herons and other winged creatures, you'd swear you were watching one of those hidden-camera nature shows on television. At times there's a quiet friction between the two groups on the popular boardwalk, which zigzags through wetlands engineered to function like a giant, leafy kidney, filtering treated county waste water through aquatic plants.  
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Bills Would Force Local Governments To Incorporate District Water Plans
Local government planners will have to consult with their regional water management districts before developing long-range growth plans if a bill approved by the state House on Tuesday becomes law. House Bill 0569 was approved 117-0. It requires local governments, when developing their comprehensive plans, to consider their water management districts' regional water supply plans. Hours before the House vote, the Senate Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved a similar proposal, Senate Bill 1182, sponsored by Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville. 
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Swiftmud To Step Up Reclaimed Water Use
Water management officials look at more than 200 million gallons of treated sewage produced each day in the Tampa Bay area and see a potential water source equivalent to four new desalination plants. One problem, though, is that most of the treated water that could go on lawns, soccer fields and golf courses can't get to people who can use it. It winds up in Tampa Bay or piped deep underground. Improving that track record is a key goal of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, known as Swiftmud. ``Using reclaimed water just makes sense,'' said Michael Molligan, district spokesman. ``It reduces the demand for potable water and delays the need to develop new water supplies.'' 
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Bikers, hikers to get network of trails
People soon will be able to skate on trails through the Everglades conservation area, stroll along the banks of the C-14 Canal and bike without any fear of cars from suburban homes to downtown Fort Lauderdale.  Plans to build five major greenways received the go-ahead Tuesday from county commissioners in the first step toward the creation of a network of trails,
waterways and pedestrian paths that crisscross Broward County. The goal is to develop natural corridors that link neighborhoods, restore blighted areas and offer residents new recreational possibilities.The five greenways cover 183 miles and will include trailheads at local parks with drinking fountains, benches and picnic tables. Commissioners agreed to spend $2.4 million to design the greenways and laid out a plan to tap federal and state highway aid, impact fees, gas taxes and park money to pay the $46 million price tag. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

 

12-Feb-02

Too wordy on Everglades
 If President Bush and Gov. Bush wonder why skepticism remains about their commitment to the Everglades, they should look at a place that doesn't resemble the Everglades at all: New York City. More than once, the president has promised the city $20 billion in aid for the Sept. 11 attacks. In fact, the federal government has sent $11 billion and an arm-around-the shoulder promise of more. When the city complained, Mr. Bush's budget director said New York was "money-grubbing." With the Everglades, as with New York, the words have been reassuring, sometimes even inspiring. The president and the governor signed a pledge supporting Everglades restoration and promising that water from the $8.4 billion federal-state plan will go first to the environment. 
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

County's agricultural acres increase, but only on paper
Palm Beach County's agricultural acreage increased by 1,340 acres this year from 2001, a tiny but surprising blip in the continued decline in the number of acres being used for farming, nurseries and other kinds of agriculture, the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's Office said Wednesday. The county's 511,217 acres of agricultural land accounts for 42 percent of its 1.2 million-acre total, down from 47 percent in 1992. This year's "growth rate" -- a quarter of a percentage point -- is because of a 2,710-acre increase in sugar cane. "The increase in the sugar really surprised me. The price hasn't been that good for sugar cane. I thought there might be a decline," said Allen Zech, manager of the agriculture department at the property appraiser's office. Ken Wong, tax roll coordinator at the property appraiser's office, said the market value of the agricultural acreage increased by $10 million to $2.513 billion from $2.503 billion. That's 2 percent of the county's total property with a $94.2 billion market value.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Recent events put Everglades on road to quicker recovery
In the context of the recently delivered State of the Union and State of the State addresses by President George W. Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush, I find it appropriate to offer an assessment on a specific issue of importance both to the president and to the governor: restoring America's Everglades. The term depicts a national treasure, but while it is of interest to those outside the boundaries of our state, it is of vital importance to present and future Florida. Today's leaders, from President Bush to Gov. Bush, understand the enormity of the task as well as the prescription for a return to vitality. Despite their positive efforts to bring about restoration, they further understand that delivery of the message "Mission accomplished" will ultimately fall to tomorrow's leaders. While the Everglades are on the early stages of a long road to recovery, their cure is closer than it was just two years ago. At least five significant events have taken place in that short period of time that impact funding, land purchases, water quality, water quantity and allocation. 
Copyright  © 2002  The News-Press. All rights reserved.

After two-day review, Planning Commission approves land-use plan
Sweeping proposals to change the way Collier County handles growth in its rural area passed muster Monday with the county's Planning Commission. The Planning Commission, which advises county commissioners on land-use decisions, called a special meeting Monday after running out of time Thursday to complete its review of the proposal. The plan is a requirement of a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that the county do a better job of protecting its environment.County commissioners are set to vote on the plan at a public hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 27 at Max Hasse Community Park on Golden Gate Boulevard. From there, the plan will go to the state Department of Community Affairs for review before a final vote by county commissioners. The county is facing a June deadline. Often criticized by environmental advocates as too friendly to developers, the Planning Commission won praise Monday for its two-day review and for decisions that did not always go developers' way. 
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Don't Corrupt `Florida Forever'
Florida Forever is the program aimed at saving the state's natural heritage. A scheme in the state House would convert the conservation effort into a development tool. The House proposal would allow the money to be used to build reclaimed water projects - which would help meet water demands that result from new construction. Florida does need reclaimed water systems to accommodate its burgeoning population, but it should not rob its land-buying effort to fund them. After all, Florida's overwhelming growth makes it essential that it preserve its vanishing wilderness and other remaining natural riches while it can. Forever Florida's goal is simple: to preserve natural resources, not to fund water supply projects. To use conservation funds to hasten development would be an unconscionable corruption of Forever Florida.
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

 

11-Feb-02

S. Floridians angered as FPL 'mutilates' tree canopy while adding power lines
Mutilation, massacre, rape, murder. All of these things have happened in the past month in South Florida -- to trees. So say South Floridians, who find no words too strong, it appears, to describe what is happening to their trees at the hands of Florida Power & Light Co. "FPL is raping our environment while we, in my opinion, twiddle our thumbs and watch,'' Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson wrote on Wednesday in a memo to the city manager. The power company is in the hot seat because of its plans to trim a downtown Fort Lauderdale neighborhood's shady tree canopy -- what residents call an "urban forest'' -- to make way for major power lines.
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Nature preserve dream realized after 13 years in Coral Springs
Thirteen years ago, Broward County bought 30 acres of
tangled forest near Coral Springs High School in hopes of preserving a
fragile ecosystem.  Last week, visitors got their first close-up look at the pristine beauty of
the Tall Cypress Natural Area when its winding, 2,150-foot boardwalk at 3700
Turtle Run Blvd. opened to the public. "It's like a dream," said Coral Springs High School teacher Chuck DeVeney, whose student group "Save What's Left" helped preserve the land in the late 1980s by lobbying government officials and staging pickets. "I thought it
would be a passive park. Now it's even better." The 66.4-acre site, which includes 36 acres of city land, is composed of pine flatwoods and a cypress basin swamp. The lush forest includes slash pine, strangler figs, pond apples and swamp ferns and is home to woodpeckers
and great horned owls. Box turtles, armadillos and black racers also can be found.
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

 

Supervisor of preserve caught in quagmire
John Donahue knew what he was stepping into when he took over as superintendent of the Big Cypress National Preserve two years ago. A long and bitter legal squabble over swamp buggies. Pressure for more oil drilling among the dwarf cypress strands. A simmering dispute with the state over hunting regulations. Donahue has waded deep into that sticky mire, so deep that some supporters fear his job may be on the line. While earning praise from environmentalists, Donahue has rankled other groups -- hunters and off-road vehicle enthusiasts among them -- who have growing clout with the Bush administration in Washington. And it didn't help when the preserve's ill-timed report on a proposed oil rig embarrassed his new bosses, U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton and National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, during a visit last month to South Florida. Political savvy helped put Donahue in charge of the preserve, so he's not about to discuss internal park service conflicts. ''So far, I've gotten a lot of support,'' said Donahue, 49, who believes the controversies reflect the importance of the Southwest Florida preserve to so many diverse interests. ``People love this place, regardless of how they feel about me.''
Copyright  © 2002  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

 

Counties team up, make headway on headwaters
The land once served as the headwaters of Cypress Creek, but now vegetables and citrus grow on some of the 4,184 acres west of Interstate 95 on the border between Martin and Palm Beach counties. Fortunately, a state board last week added the land to a list of projects eligible for state grants. In June, the Florida Forever Acquisition and Restoration Council will decide whether to allocate some of its $100 million annual budget to help buy the land. The purchase would restore and preserve the cypress wetlands near the Loxahatchee River. A dozen environmentalists and government officials from both counties drove to Tallahassee so they could urge the board to put the land on its list. More than 100 projects will compete for the money. After the council -- made up of five representatives from state agencies and four citizens appointed by the governor -- recommends priorities, the governor and Florida Cabinet make the final decision.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

 

Collier officials wants to plow under some ag tax exemptions
A legal loophole often referred to as the "rent-a-cow" exemption, which allows developers and land speculators to save thousands on property taxes after land is rezoned for development, could be headed for the butcher shop in Collier County.  Under the current system, landowners need only keep cows or crops on property previously zoned agricultural for it to be taxed at the agricultural exemption rate, which can be as low as $40 an acre for grazing land. Meanwhile, the value could be more than 100 times greater after the land is zoned commercial or residential.  At the request of Collier County Property Appraiser Abe Skinner, commissioners have discussed requiring landowners who are applying for reasonings to give up using their land for agricultural purposes, thereby forfeiting the exemption. County attorneys are researching whether such a county policy would be legally defensible.  According to the 2001 tax rolls, the owners of 8,463 acres in 21 named planned unit developments across Collier County are saving an estimated $2 million in property taxes because they have agricultural exemptions.  The Florida Legislature created the exemption as a way to reduce pressures on farmers to sell their land, pressures brought on by higher tax bills triggered by increasing land values as surrounding property is developed. 
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

10-Feb-02

Lesson on pollution Ruling should be educational for residential water users.
A federal appeals court ruling -- recognizing that pollution is damaging, regardless of its source -- is a mandate to the South Florida Water Management District to clean up its act. The ruling also should tell the district and the utilities it serves that city dwellers must be just as responsive to pollution as sugar farmers are. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the water district violated the Clean Water Act. The district has been pumping polluted storm water from west Broward County streets and yards into the Everglades without a permit. Because the water is rich in phosphorus derived from fertilizer used on lawns and gardens, hundreds of acres of cattails have displaced native vegetation at the discharge points. But the appeals court removed a district court injunction that could have shut off the pumps. 
Copyright  © 2002  Herald Tribune  All rights reserved.

Volunteers join forces to restore cypress forest
Work gloves on and shovels in hand, a group of about 350 volunteers turned the earth Saturday morning to plant 1,640 tree seedlings at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boynton Beach.  Volunteers gathered to help restore more than 1,000 acres of cypress forest in Palm Beach County in the second installment in a 15-year project.
Saturday, they worked on about 2 acres along Lee Road, the refuge's main thoroughfare. The event coincided with Everglades Day, an annual event of canoeing, music, nature walks and educational activities designed to educate the public about the Everglades. But the nine Girl Scouts from Troop 1155 of Boynton Beach were more excited about the trees. They started at 8 a.m. and by 9:15 a.m. had planted about 150 cypress, three red maples and one pond apple tree. With rain clouds looming, the kindergarten and fourth-grade girls worked fast. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

 

Bills would cut environmental groups' intervention
The owner wanted to shoehorn an 8,000- to 10,000-square-foot mansion, swimming pool and concrete dock onto a 1.4-acre spit of land in the Lake Worth Lagoon. The state Department of Environmental Protection gave tentative approval to the project. But 1,000 Friends of Florida saw it as a detriment that would send heavy equipment and barges through seagrass beds and habitat for endangered manatees and harm water quality in the waterway.  The group used Florida's Environmental Protection Act of 1971 to win a state hearing that led the department to reverse course a month ago and deny the mansion permit.  
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

 

9-Feb-02

Agencies must help Everglades cleanup
If anyone should have to abide by water pollution control rules, it should be agencies charged with cleaning up the Everglades.  Happily, a federal appeals court has said as much, ruling that the South Florida Water Management District does indeed need a federal permit to discharge polluted water from a flood control pump station into the Everglades in Broward County.  Generally, the U.S. Clean Water Act requires a federal permit for the release of polluted water into the environment. Certain standards have to be met in pursuit of the national goal of adding no additional pollutants to our streams, lakes and wetlands.  Surely such a standard would apply to releases into the Everglades, where a historic cleanup is in the making, and surely it would apply to the state's lead agency in the restoration.  
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Flooding worries may sink rural Collier restoration project
Planners are rethinking an environmental restoration project in rural Collier County to make sure it doesn't worsen flood problems for nearby homes.  "We're working hard to make sure this is right," Maj. John Chaput, the project's manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Friday.  The Corps and the South Florida Water Management District's local arm, the Big Cypress Basin, are partners in the estimated $141 million project to restore natural water flow to an abandoned subdivision called Southern Golden Gate Estates.  The project calls for removing roads and plugging canals built in the 1960s and 1970s to drain the 94-square-mile area between Interstate 75 and U.S. 41 East and make it a place where people could live year-round. The state Department of Environmental Protection is working to finish a landowner buyout in the area by November.  Restoration would help replenish underground water supplies, reduce wildfire threats, re-establish wetland plants and animals, and restore the health of coastal estuaries suffering from too much runoff. 
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

8-Feb-02

How Enron Sought to Tap the Everglades
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- In 1999, while Florida was planning the most ambitious environmental restoration in history, leaders of an Enron Corp. subsidiary called Azurix Corp. made Gov. Jeb Bush an extraordinary offer: They would help pay Florida's multibillion-dollar share of the effort to replumb and revive the Everglades -- if they could then sell water captured by the project. But while Azurix's well-connected officials did get a meeting with the governor and his aides, their bid to start privatizing Florida's most precious resource went nowhere. The just-started $7.8 billion effort to restore the Everglades to its former glory has not been entrusted to a deeply troubled company. Water still belongs to the public here. "Boy, that was a near-disaster," said Fred Rapach, a top water official in Palm Beach County. "Azurix had the ear of everyone in the state, from the governor on down. Whew." In many ways, though, the saga of Azurix in Florida may mirror the larger saga of Enron in America: bold ideas, lousy finances, enviable access to government officials -- but few apparent results from those contacts.
  
Copyright  © 2002  Washington Post  All rights reserved.

 

7-Feb-02

The Role of Flow in the Everglades Ridge and Slough Landscape
Dear Science Coordination Team colleagues:
Please find included with this letter a document consisting of the newest draft of the flow paper; and responses to all of the reviewers' comments that have been received to date. Comments on this draft and the responses to reviewers' comments are due back to me by Friday, March 1. Comments may be sent to me by fax at 561 732-3867, or mailed to the address above. Although our DOI e-mail still is down, I have learned that I may use my personal computer at home to receive e-mail comments. Therefore, you may e-mail comments to naumen@bellsouth.net. Because I connect to an ISP at home using a fairly slow modem, please do not include in your e-mail the document or the figures. If you wish to comment by writing in the margins, please fax or snail-mail your comments. If you wish to create a comment list using page and line numbers as reference, you may e-mail those comments to me. 
http://www.sfrestore.org/sct/docs/Draftflowpaper.pdf

 

4-Feb-02

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE WINS CLEAN WATER ACT VICTORY FOR EVERGLADES Court of Appeals Says District Violated Clean Water Act: Needs Permit for S-9 Pump
Today the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an important Clean Water Act ruling for the Everglades in Case No. 00-15703. The Court's Order supports the claim brought by the Tribe, and the Friends of the Everglades, that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD or District) violated the Clean Water Act by pumping polluted water from urban Broward County into the Everglades through its S-9 pump without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Billy Cypress, Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians who live in the Florida Everglades, said the Appeals' Court ruling was a victory for the Everglades and people who love it: The Miccosukee Tribe, who live in the Everglades, is happy that we were able to win an important victory for all people who love the Everglades, as we do, and want it protected.
http://www.evergladesvillage.net/newest.asp

President Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush last month signed a historic
agreement to restore the Everglades
Although American presidents usually sign nothing but legislation, proclamations and treaties, Congress specifically required this unusual president-governor agreement to assure that the restoration results in adequate amounts of water being directed to the River of Grass and to
Everglades National Park. The State of Florida is more focused on supplying water and providing flood protection for sugarcane farms, citrus groves and a booming development industry. In the agreement, Jeb Bush pledged that Florida will reserve enough water to restore the parched Everglades ecosystem, regardless of the needs of farms or people. Both Bushes agreed to pursue adequate funding for the effort, which will be divided equally between the state and federal governments.

Frank and Audrey W. Peterman
http://www.flh2o.com/peterman.html

Estuary water at its finest
Experts: Past 3 months of water quality tests show best results in a decade. STUART The water quality of the St. Lucie Estuary and the Indian River Lagoon is the best it's been in at least the past 10 years, water monitors said Monday. Jim Egan, director of the Marine Resources Council, which organizes the monitoring, said the lastpast three months have produced the best prolonged salinity levels, water clarity, pH balance and amounts of dissolved
oxygen since the testing program began a decade ago.  "It's been the longest run of good water quality for the past 10 years," Egan said. Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, which works with the council to test water, said the water this month has been the best he's seen since the society joined the monitoring program in
October 1998. 
Stuart News
http://www.stuartnews.com

3-Feb-02

Today's tax buys future Design for Conservation funds could help protect state's natural wonders
Florida Sportsman magazine has come up with a whale of a good idea in its January issue. The outdoors magazine with a conservation focus has advocated that Florida steal an idea that apparently has worked extremely well in the state of Missouri for many years. It's called Design for Conservation. In 1976, Missouri residents voted to tax themselves one-eighth of a cent to support conservation-centered programs to maintain and add to their natural wealth. Certainly Florida has as much or more natural wealth in its lakes, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, forests and coasts as Missouri.  The tax revenue would be used to directly fund fish and wildlife activities through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Guest commentary: The problem is not the News, but uncontrolled growth
This is in response to the Jan. 27 guest commentary by Wayne Falbey, president of the Falbey Group, a Naples-based company that provides consulting services to various organizations. Their stated purpose is to provide a strategic plan that will optimize competitiveness, profitability and sustainability. It is difficult to reconcile these objectives with his viewpoints condemning the role of the Naples Daily News in our community and our uncontrolled growth record. 1. His first point is that you should not print anything that is negative about any organization that advertises in the Naples Daily News. Apparently this applies regardless of the truth of the observation, i.e. "do not bite the hand that feeds you." Obviously, this point does not merit further comment. 2. He follows the above with "this brand of irresponsible journalism also ignores the very significant contributions to our community made by exemplary corporate citizens such as the Bonita Bay Group." I have seen many articles in the Daily News that praise the Bonita Bay Group, though perhaps none by Jeff Lytle. Some developers are long-term members of our community and have ample business reasons to disassociate themselves with being characterized as one of the "greedy developers." Unfortunately, the merit of this thinking has not penetrated the minds of all of our long-term developers.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Keys' thirst raises concern
The growing lures of Fantasy Fest, Hemingway Days and Spring Break carousing have put such a drain on drinking water in the Florida Keys that the supplier is pushing for more of South Florida's groundwater.  The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, which pumps water from Homestead to Key West, is wrestling with the South Florida Water Management District
to increase its allocation of fresh water. The aqueduct authority wants permission to withdraw up to 20 million gallons a day on average from the ground -- roughly the amount it had once told water managers it wouldn't need until 2020. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Panther back from near extinction
Paw prints in mud, day-old dung bristling with undigested hog hair, a whiff of night scent lingering in late morning heat just long enough to lead tracking hounds to a dead-end at a deep marsh.  That might not sound like much, but when it comes to the Florida panther, one of the world's rarest and most elusive predators, even scattered traces amount to abundant signs of life. They are also evidence of a remarkable rebound. Spiraling toward extinction just a decade ago, panthers have quietly but steadily multiplied. Their numbers bottomed out at as few as 30 adults, but the latest verified count of tawny cats is near 80, not including litters of spotted kittens, and there are probably more. 
Copyright  © 2002  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Loxahatchee refuge offering chance to get close to nature
Grab a paddle, go eye-to-eye with snakes or just stroll around a swamp -- while keeping your feet dry. Those are just some of the ways you can get close to nature on Saturday, when the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge celebrates its third annual Everglades Day. The free event will feature half-hour canoe trips, snake and bird shows and tours of the refuge's cypress swamp boardwalk. You'll also find butterflies, photo workshops, children's songs, puppet shows, talks about the Everglades restoration and demonstrations of fire equipment.  U.S. Sen. Bob Graham will be there too -- to get down and dirty. Graham,
D- Fla., will be one of more than 300 volunteers planting cypress trees in the refuge, an event organized by the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation in West Palm Beach.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

2-Feb-02

Flows White Paper: "The Role of Flow in the Everglades Ridge and Slough Landscape"  
Several documents were distributed that included a cover letter to the SCT from Nick Aumen, the draft white paper, a response to reviewers’ comments, and one revised figure.  Nick explained that this draft was a composite product of many people that is quite different from the draft distributed to the SCT in June 2001.  Additional work is needed on several figures and some text. Nick acknowledged the Flow Paper Subcommittee for their hard work and contributions to this paper. Electronic versions of the draft white paper will be posted on the SFWMD FTP site shortly; please contact Chris McVoy at (561) 682-6510 or cmcvoy@sfwmd.gov for the FTP address. [The links for these items are provided below.
http://www.sfrestore.org/sct/index.html

Coyotes bring trouble to rural Florida areas
LAKELAND · Late at night, Central Florida ranchers are hearing the call of the wild -- sounds that are more reminiscent of the old West than modern- day Florida. The yips and howls come from coyotes, a crafty predator at home on the range or at the edge of a city. Once rarely seen in this part of the state, the 20- to 30-pound animals are becoming a nuisance in rural areas.
"When the train goes by our house you can hear them howl at the whistle, " said Lance Ham, who lives near Plant City.  "I've lost about five calves to coyotes in the past year," Ham said.
"When you lose that many calves a year it ends up being about $2,000 I've lost."
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Letters to the editor:
Big Cypress belongs to people
I just can't believe that people with half a brain would want to detonate thousands of underground explosions to search for oil at Big Cypress National Preserve, 14,700 dynamite charges and an 11,800 foot exploratory well. This is all before they start drilling for oil. The National Park Service recommends approval for the project. This is just unbelievable.  I don't think the park service is doing its job as protector of our fragile national park. This is a national park and the nation owns it, and I don't think a few money-hungry people should be making the decisions of what's going on there. In my opinion the land should be taken by the state or
government through eminent domain and the Colliers should be paid for their rights to the land and get out. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Buy back Colliers' mineral rights
Re initial approval by the National Park Service to a proposal to drill thousands of holes and detonate thousands of underground explosions in a search for oil beneath Big Cypress National Preserve: Fortunately final approval is awaiting comment and hopefully sanity will surface.  I am opposed to further drilling. Collier Resources, which owns the mineral rights to Big Cypress National Preserve, plans to use buried explosives to search for more oil in the preserve. They already produce 100,000 gallons of oil a day from beneath the preserve and now want to conduct exploratory drilling throughout a 41-square-mile tract.   
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Editorial:
Kill This Anti-Environment Bill
It didn't take long for the Legislature to start trying to dismantle
environmental protections. This happens every year as lawmakers, at the behest of development lobbyists, seek to undermine those laws that threaten the environment or
would prove costly to taxpayers. Just a few days into the session, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill proposed by Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville that would cripple
citizens' ability to legally challenge destructive projects. 
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Manatee Deaths Rise With Mercury
Frigid temperatures generally pose the biggest winter threat to the state's manatee population. But this year, unseasonably warm weather has resulted in a record number of watercraft-related manatee deaths for a single month.  At least 53 manatees died in Florida in January. Sixteen of them are confirmed boating-related fatalities, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Wildlife officials are urging boaters ``to exercise extreme caution'' on all Florida waters until the animals resume their normal migration patterns. The sustained spike in temperatures prompted the lumbering marine mammals to venture away from the shelter of power plants, natural springs and other places they normally congregate to escape the winter chill. 
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Manatee kills by boats set record in January
January set the record for a single month for manatees being killed by boats, according to figures released Friday by the Florida Marine Research Institute. Sixteen were killed by speeding boaters, out of a total of 53 that died from all causes.  Of the 16 confirmed boating-related deaths, 10 were found in or near state-designated manatee zones, where boaters are supposed to slow down to avoid hitting manatees. 
http://www.sptimes.com

1-Feb-02

Mating conditions ideal for visits from stork
Sanctuary counts almost 1,000 wood stork nests
For the first time in two years, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a-clatter with the bill clacking of mating wood storks. During an aerial survey Wednesday, Corkscrew staff counted almost 1,000 wood stork nests, sanctuary manager Ed Carlson said.  "They started nesting back in December, and had kind of a healthy start," Carlson said. "The first count was 500, then 700 two weeks ago.  When we flew yesterday, we counted 990-plus, so we're calling it 1,000."
Whether the nesting season is successful at Corkscrew, the largest wood stork nesting colony in North America, depends on the weather. 
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Developers beat path to sensitive properties
In the battle over Broward County's last remaining pockets of pristine green space, developers have been outgunning preservationists despite the $400 million that voters agreed to spend on new parkland a little more than a year ago. About 800 of the 1,400 acres available when the county was promoting the bond issue to voters in mid-2000 have been lost to development,
including cypress swamps, scrubland and slash pine flatwoods. Fewer than 170 acres
have been saved, at a cost of $30 million. The slow pace of progress on preservation will likely continue for at least the next two months, with only a few sites ready for purchase. So will
the high prices paid for the land. 
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

State Wetland Policy Endangers Local Rule
State officials say a proposed rule for determining what compensation is required when wetlands are filled for development would supersede standards set by local communities, including Hillsborough County. The draft rule, mandated by the Legislature, is intended to create a consistent method of evaluating wetlands statewide, said Clark Hull, a Southwest Florida Water Management District official who helped develop the proposal. It emphasizes gauging the functions a wetland provides, particularly for wildlife, rather than its size. About 100 people, mostly regulators and environmental consultants, attended a workshop on the proposed state rule Thursday in Tampa. Hillsborough's wetlands rule, enforced by the Environmental Protection Commission, requires a minimum of 1 acre of new wetlands for every acre destroyed. 
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

 

article with links

Revised:  05/01/03