March  2002 

 

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30-Mar-02

Drilling Could Hurt Wildlife, Federal Study of Arctic Says

SEATTLE, March 29 - Undercutting the Bush administration's
case for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a federal study released today said that such drilling could harm caribou, snow geese, musk oxen and
other wildlife. The report, by the United States Geological Survey, a
branch of the Interior Department, comes just a week and a half before the Senate is scheduled to begin debating the White House's plan to allow drilling in the 19-million-acre
refuge. Drilling was approved in an energy plan backed by the House, but opponents say they have the votes in the Democrat-controlled Senate to block it. The report paid particular attention to the Porcupine River caribou herd, which is 125,000 strong and masses on the
Arctic coastal plain early each summer to gorge on tundra grass and flowers and to give birth after a long migration from the Canadian Yukon.
Copyright  © 2002  NY Times  All rights reserved   

28-Mar-02

Environmentalists lose court bid to stop projects on panther land
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups to stop the construction of roads and other projects in Florida panther habitat.  U.S. District Judge James Robertson this week dismissed a suit filed by the National Wildlife Federation and several other groups against the Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups had accused the Corps of wrongly issuing 23 permits for roads, golf courses and housing developments within the endangered cat's shrinking range. The other two agencies played roles in certifying projects or plans as meeting the requirement of the Endangered Species Act.  The judge dismissed the suit on technical grounds, without considering its merits. He said he had no jurisdiction. The permits already had been issued and much of the construction completed. He said he had no authority to issue a blanket declaration that the permits shouldn't have been issued or that the agencies should refrain from issuing similar permits in the future.  John Kostyack, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said he expected to appeal. Nancy Payton, southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said the federal government continues to waste time doing studies and reports while the panther's habitat continues to dwindle.  "There's this pattern of studies and map and studies and reports and nothing really gets done," she said. "Meanwhile, every day, every month, every year panther habitat is being whittled away."  Dana Perino, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which defended the agencies, said the permits were issued lawfully. "The Fish and Wildlife Service is working with the Corps and other federal agencies to ensure the long-term survival of the Florida panther," she said.
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Judge dismisses suit seeking more protection for panthers
A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the Florida panther lawsuit that argues the government needs to do more to protect the endangered animal.   Judge James Robertson based his decision on legal process, saying the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case filed in October 2000 by the National Wildlife Federation and four other groups. The groups argued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Highway Administration are breaking federal law by allowing development harmful to panther habitat through permitting, planning and funding decisions.  Panther habitat issues have been a controversial concern in many Southwest Florida developments, such as Florida Gulf Coast University and the airport expansion.  In Robertson's dismissal opinion, he cited a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, that said federal courts should not hear lawsuits that seek "wholesale improvement" of a program - that's the territory of government agencies and Congress.  "We think he's just plain wrong on that and we'll be appealing," said John Kostyack, the Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing the environmental groups. "In that case, it was very different facts." In the panther case, the federation addressed 23 permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, plus other agencies' projects. Kostyack said the specific permits build a case that the program needs revision.  "That's not a violation of law," Kostyack said.  Lee County was among the 23 permit holders addressed in the case.  Chief Assistant County Attorney David Owen called the judge's ruling fair.  Kostyack, however said he is disappointed the case has been in court for a year and a half and no judge has addressed whether the groups are right or wrong on the panther issue.  The other groups that filed the panther lawsuit were the Collier County Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and the Florida Wildlife Federation.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has experts working on a conservation strategy for the panthers. The service does not issue permits but does comment on them.  "Hopefully . whatever recommendations the panel comes up with will be helpful in our decision making process," said Tom Grahl, deputy project leader for the Service's South Florida office in Vero Beach.
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Bush approves land protection: Panther, Bear corridor near LaBelle safe from development, mining
Gov. Jeb Bush approved a $1.6 million agreement that will keep 3,000 acres southeast of LaBelle - a panther and bear wildlife corridor - from being developed or mined.  The land, owned by LaBelle Ranch Inc., will remain a ranch. But the conservation easement approved Tuesday will prevent the land from being used for anything other than cattle grazing, sod harvesting or row crops. It also limits the latter two uses to 30 percent of the land. The easement is the first bought within the state's Caloosahatchee Ecoscape Florida Forever project, which aims to conserve nearly 18,000 acres in Hendry and Glades counties.  "It's to provide that refuge for threatened animals," said Lucia Ross, state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman.  The project's secondary goal is to provide compatible recreation such as fishing, camping and hiking.  The purchase "represents the first significant step toward protecting a number of native species and their habitats," said DEP Secretary David B. Struhs. "These kinds of purchases are a thoughtful use of state resources that Floridians expect when Preservation 2000 and Florida Forever funds are used."  Wide-roaming animals such as panthers and bears need such corridors for foraging and ranch land can provide those corridors, officials said.  By conserving the land with an easement instead of buying it, the state not only saves money but the property remains on tax rolls and the owner continues to pay taxes. That falls in line with requests from Hendry County, where residents fear losing tax revenue when governments buy land.  "We'd be happy with that," said Hendry County Administrator Lester B. Baird Sr.  Florida also has agreed to spend $1.7 million to buy 800 acres near Ocala National Forest to help protect the threatened black bear population.  The property is between the forest in central Florida, which is home to the state's largest population of bears, and two rural roads where dozens of bears have been hit by cars and died.  The deals are part of a larger plan to create a 74,000-acre corridor to protect bears as they migrate. The state has already spent $114 million and acquired about half of that land.  State officials have said Florida's black bear population hovers between 1,200 and 1,900. But federal officials have said there may be as many as 3,000 black bears in Florida. - The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Black water: Nitrogen-rich agricultural runoff possible black water catalyst
                               

Florida agriculture could have added the final ingredient to a cocktail of nutrients in western Florida Bay that led to the black water discovered there by fishermen in January.  Nitrogen-rich waters would have flowed from the Shark River after above-average rainfall, researchers say, and the area experienced such rainfall in the time period leading to the black water.  South Florida saw extremely heavy rainfall by early December almost two and half times normal monthly rainfall in the Big Cypress National Preserve, according to Collier County Pollution Control. And Larry Brand, a marine biology professor at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said with it would have come a shot of nitrogen.  "The nitrogen is coming off the sugar cane fields," Brand said. He said farmers don't put the chemical on their crops but rather disturb it from the peat on which they grow their sugarcane.  Barbara Miedema, spokeswoman for Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, said growers have worked to control nutrient releases and have substantially cut back on what phosphorus makes its way to the waters off South Florida. The cooperative represents 54 sugar cane growers in Palm Beach County.  She wasn't able to comment on efforts, if any, to control nitrogen by sugar cane growers.  A representative of Florida Crystals in Palm Beach County, one of the largest sugar operations in the state, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.  Plants and algae use both nitrogen and phosphorus as food and they do it in a 16 to 1 ratio, respectively. Without one the other can't be used efficiently, and ecosystems keep excessive plant growth, such as harmful algae blooms in check by lacking one.  Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Two firefighters suspended for cutting down mangroves
Two St. Lucie County firefighters will be suspended without pay, while three others received written reprimands for their roles in the destruction of mangroves near the South Hutchinson Island Fire Station.  Lt. Jan-Paul Brolmann, shift commander at the station when the trees were cut, will be suspended for 10 days, while firefighter William "Ferrel" Mosely will lose one day's pay.  Fire Chief Jay Sizemore said the pair left fire district property to cut mangroves and would have been unable to respond promptly to emergency calls. The pair also didn't tell all they knew during the department's internal investigation, Sizemore said. Their refusal to tell the truth was one reason a sheriff's detective was asked to investigate, Capt. Tom Whitley, the district's spokesman, said.  Firefighters Ed Hill, Joe Waters and Shawn Smith received written reprimands for driving a sheriff's department all-terrain vehicle down paths to fishing areas where they wouldn't be able to respond promptly to fire or rescue calls.  More than 40 mangroves -- protected by state law because they provide shelter for fish and combat shoreline erosion -- were destroyed on the county's Ocean Bay preserve and Mosquito Control District land near the station.  The sheriff's office investigation found that paths to two fishing areas had been there for years but were widened so firefighters could drive the all-terrain vehicle to them.  The fire district has agreed to replant the mangroves and remove Brazilian pepper trees from 5 acres near the station. Volunteer labor will be used, and the firefighters involved in cutting the trees aren't required to participate, Whitley said.  "That's not part of the discipline," Whitley said.  Two groups have offered to donate mangroves to be planted near the station, Whitley said.  Tim Munson, president of the Professional Fire Fighters & Paramedics, said many firefighters will help replant and cut trees.  "In a family of 300 people, these few made mistakes," Munson said. "That's not the whole family, but we will stand behind them."  He said that the five's actions were wrong and that he thinks the punishment is "fair, equitable and appropriate."  Brolmann and Mosely have the right to appeal their suspensions through the union contract's grievance procedure or through the Civil Service Appeals Board. Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

State to buy 800 acres in central Florida for black bears
State leaders have agreed to purchase 800 acres of black bear habitat in central Florida. The state will buy the land in Lake County between Ocala National Forest and two rural roads south of the forest where dozens of black bears have died.  The $3.3 million deal also buys conservation rights to prevent development on 3,000 acres near LaBelle in South Florida.  Tuesday's action is part of a larger plan to create a 74,000-acre corridor for the bears south of Ocala National Forest. The state has spent $114 million and acquired about half of that land, said David Struhs, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The black bear is listed by the state as a threatened species. State officials have said Florida's black bear population hovers between 1,200 and 1,900. But federal officials have concluded in the past that there may be as many as 3,000 black bears in Florida.  Officials also plan to build a second, $1 million bear underpass below state road 46, the deadliest road for bears in Florida.  At least 12,000 vehicles use the road between Sanford and Mount Dora every day and 41 bears have died there from 1976 to 1999.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

27-Mar-02

Commissioners, staff defend wetlands mitigation plan
 Lew Lautin, a developer-turned-environmentalist, flashes with pride pictures of the marshlands he has helped restore.  Lautin boasts that he and his partners have already spent almost $4 million turning abandoned farmland and forest into wetlands teeming with wildlife. Lautin is a mitigation land banker, and he's in the cross hairs of taxpayer watchdogs who are asking questions about the millions of dollars Collier County plans to give Lautin's wetlands bank to offset environmental damage caused by the construction of new roads.  On Tuesday, County Manager Tom Olliff, his staff and county commissioners vigorously defended the county's plan to buy wetlands mitigation credits from Lautin's Panther Island Mitigation Bank.  "We're saving money," Commissioner Fred Coyle said, adding that a contract to purchase credits did go out to bid last year.  To get state and federal permits, the county has to pay for wetlands restoration somewhere else to offset the wetlands that will be destroyed by new roads.  In the coming weeks, Collier County plans to spend $1.7 million for wetlands restoration without going out to competitive bid. The spending will come under the umbrella of an open-ended, yearly contract that was put out for competitive bid last year and awarded in June. The annual contract has an option for a four-year renewal, county officials said.  County officials said putting the mitigation credits out to bid for individual road projects would slow down permits for roads by eight weeks. Officials say they're trying to expedite a road-building agenda that's lagged behind Collier's booming population growth.Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Growth management- Speak out, Mr. Daltry
The bad news is that Wayne Daltry of Fort Myers is wrapping up 20 years as the executive director of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, a consortium of elected officials and appointees. They are supposed to scrutinize development for harsh impacts on surrounding areas. Obviously, they have not always heeded his warnings.  The good news is he is keeping his talents here and available to the public. He is becoming the director of a Lee County growth management review called Smart Growth, giving it instant credibility as more than a development-driven smokescreen for squeezing in more density here and golf courses there.  The better news would be that Daltry, who displays near-genius skills in history and vision, delivers on his promise to speak out forcefully.  "I already know I'm going to be fired," he says of the job that will sunset after two years. "But then I'm already retired. I'm supposed to say the things that are supposed to be said."  Say them, Mr. Daltry. Start with roads and water. Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Former water boss rehired for Everglades restoration
The man who was South Florida's top water manager in the 1970s and '80s is returning to head the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration.  The South Florida Water Management District announced Tuesday it is rehiring Jack Maloy, the former executive director who sometimes enraged environmentalists as he dealt with floods, drought, pollution in Lake Okeechobee and the start of the Kissimmee River restoration. Maloy, 68, will start work April 4 as director of the Everglades restoration and a separate $867 million cleanup of runoff in the northern Everglades. He'll earn $105, 414 a year, more than twice the $50,000 salary he received as executive director from 1975 to 1984.  Maloy, know for his unorthodox leadership style and disregard for rigid authority lines, was a bearded, cigar-chewing executive who hadn't finished college and never wore socks.  Critics and supporters agree he wielded almost single-handed control over the 16-county agency.  Just before leaving the district in 1984, Maloy admitted to the state ethics commission that he had accepted illegal salary increases, travel pay and the use of a Key West condo at taxpayers' expense. Maloy said at the time that he didn't think he had done anything wrong. He didn't return phone calls Tuesday. In yet another unusual arrangement, Maloy will remain on staff of the St. John's River Water Management District in North Florida during a three-month "trial run" in South Florida.  Maloy will be on unpaid leave from St. Johns, where he is assistant water resources director. The South Florida district will reimburse the St. Johns district for the cost of Maloy's health insurance and other benefits, South Florida District Executive Director Henry Dean said.  "He wanted to make sure he will fit in and be able to be of assistance to us," said Dean, who ran the St. Johns district for 17 years until last summer. Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Changes Set in Water, Growth Processes
 If local officials wanted to create a growth plan with no thought to whether it would cause flooding or seriously deplete the region's water supplies, there hasn't been much water management officials could do to stop them.T hat's about to change. Within the next three years, local officials will have to consider the water management district's regional water supply plans when they make major changes in their growth plans.  If they don't, they may have to explain their reluctance to officials at the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state planning agency that oversees local growth planning and the state-required periodic updates of those plans. "Water supply is going to be the major issue in the next round of reviews," said Rand Frahm, planning manager in the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Planning Department. Frahm briefed members of the district Governing Board's Planning Committee on Tuesday on the upcoming changes.  He said the effort to better coordinate land planning and water planning came out of meetings organized by David Struhs and Steve Seibert, the heads of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Department of Community Affairs, respectively.  Water managers will be reviewing the sections of the growth plan updates that relate to the regional water plans to look at a number of water-related issues. Those issues include what the 20-year water supply projections show, where local officials plan to get the water to meet their growth needs, how they plan to pay for getting additional water and how well they're doing to promote water conservation. In addition, water officials will be involved in reviewing major growth plan changes that may affect water demands, such as major land-use changes, Frahm said.  However, Frahm emphasized that it is the DCA, not the water management districts, that has the legal authority to enforce growth rules.  But board member Janet Kovach asked why water officials haven't been doing this all along.  Richard Owen, Swiftmud's planning director, said the difference between now and the last growth plan reviews in the 1990s was that now water officials have much better data to argue their case that increased water use in some parts of the district will damage groundwater supplies.  Sonny Vergara, Swiftmud's executive director, made it clear that the agency's role is limited, however.  "We're not proposing getting more involved in local government planning," he said. "But we've got to improve decision-making because the facts are on the table." Copyright  © 2002 theledger All rights reserved.

Study can open area to housing
A city study could pave the way for golf course development and more housing in an area of Bonita Springs that has been off-limits to major construction.  City officials want engineers and hydrologists to study and determine whether the 3,100 acres are vital to the region's water supply.  Within the next two city council meetings, council members will decide if the city should solicit experts to conduct the study now or wait until after the comprehensive land-use plan is complete later this year.   The water recharge areas are lands where development is limited so underground aquifers - vital sources of drinking water - can be replenished.  Current regulations limit development to one house per 10 acres.  Developers want the city to allow for construction of golf courses and increase residential density to three units per acre with the possibility of adding up to six units for affordable housing.  The water recharge area in Bonita is about a quarter-mile north of Bonita Beach Road and runs north to the city limits between Interstate 75 and Bonita Grande Drive.  The area was established in 1984 to protect Lee County's critical water supplies and declared off-limits to major development. Density in the area remains at one unit per 10 acres.  In 1999, the county amended uses in the recharge area and allowed for as many as 10 golf courses to be built.  When Bonita became a city in 2000, the county lost jurisdiction, and the city's LPA began working on its own growth plan. Bonita council members indicated last week they would like to see a study of the area start as soon as possible. The study could cost the city up to $75,000 and could take nearly a year to complete, City Manager Gary Price said Friday. "Once the RFP (request for proposal) goes out and we get someone on board, it'll probably take at least eight months to complete the study."  The study would likely examine soils, hydrology and the flow of groundwater, Price said. "They'll probably pull together a history of the area, talk to the people at the DEP, South Florida Water Management District and the county people who did the last study."  Both developers and environmentalists are encouraged by the city's effort to study the area.  Forty-two percent of the land in the recharge area is owned by Citrus Park owner Eric Trost and Kevin Stoneburner.  Engineer Grady Minor, who represents the two landowners said two weeks ago he wanted to see the city start the study immediately. He said he was confident small-scale residential development and golf courses will not have a negative impact on the area.  Minor could not be reached for comment Friday.  Fran Stallings, an environmentalist and president of the Responsible Growth Management Coalition, said the more information that's known about the area, the better off everyone will be. "There are parts that are recharge areas and there are parts that are discharge areas," he said. "It behooves us all to learn as much about it as possible." Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.


26-Mar-02

Former city councilman wants investigation into county's mitigation credits process
Taxpayer watchdogs have a new assignment from former Naples City Councilman Fred Tarrant, who wants an investigative spotlight turned on the millions of dollars it's costing county government to pay for environmental damage caused by new road construction. Buried inside Collier County commissioners' routine consent agenda today is an authorization to contract with two firms for so-called wetland mitigation credits. In order to get state and federal permits, the county has to pay for wetland restoration somewhere else to offset the wetlands that will be destroyed by new roads. But here's what is not disclosed to commissioners and the public on the one-page summary commissioners are scheduled to vote on today: the county is slated to pay $1.7 million for wetland mitigation credits in the coming weeks for construction on stretches of Livingston and Immokalee roads without going out to competitive bid. Consent agenda items have no public discussion unless commissioners ask for it.  County transportation official Kevin Dugan said the county hasn't opted to solicit competitive bids each time it needs to buy mitigation credits because doing so could throw permit applications for new roads off by two months.  The county is struggling to expedite a road-building agenda that lagged behind explosive population growth in recent years. Mitigation land banks sell credits to local governments and private developers, who in turn cash the credits in with federal and state regulatory agencies in order to get needed permits. Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Clause in growth management bill to regulate agriculture intensity disappears
As the dust cleared Monday from last week's end to the legislative session in Tallahassee, growth management advocates discovered they didn't have a victory they thought they had last week.  Advocates had pushed for a clause in a growth management bill to blunt an amendment they feared would undermine environmental groups' case for requiring Collier County to regulate the intensity of agriculture.  The amendment passed. The clause didn't. It made it into an early House version of the growth management bill, but it wasn't in the final version passed by both chambers. The bill now awaits the signature of Gov. Jeb Bush.  "Something may have slipped through the cracks, but it was supposed to have been there," said Charles Pattison, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Florida.  It's unclear whether the clause would have had any practical effect, but the episode points up a problem of the traditionally chaotic final hours of each legislative session. The dropped clause said the growth management bill would not affect pending litigation, including Florida Wildlife Federation and Collier Audubon Society's appeal of Collier County's interim Natural Resource Protection Area boundaries on agricultural land around Immokalee. The groups want to control the conversion of pasture land to more intense uses such as row crops or citrus groves in habitat for endangered Florida panthers.  The bill includes an amendment that does away with part of state law that the environmental groups are using in the appeal to argue that cities and counties are required to establish intensity standards for agriculture.  Instead, the amendment requires cities and counties to establish standards to control "population densities and building and structure intensities."  Supporters of the bill said that's what the original law meant anyway, but the groups' attorney Tom Reese, in St. Petersburg, said Monday that it was inappropriate to amend the law "at the request of certain parties."  "I was opposed to it because it just confuses things," Reese said.  Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Panel key to manatee law
With the passage of a new manatee protection law Friday by the state Legislature, the question becomes whether two sides of an often divisive issue can work together.  The new law is the result of a bill sponsored by Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, that passed in the House by a vote of 108 to 1, and a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, that passed when it was attached as an amendment to another bill.  According to the law, counties where manatees live must establish committees to review any proposed changes in rules regulating motor boat speed and operation to protect manatees. To ensure one side doesn't have greater sway on a committee, the law says each must be made up equally of waterway users, such as fishermen, boaters and water skiers, and manatee advocates and other environmental advocates.  "Any time you put together a committee that reviews regulations, the issue is who's on it," said Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples. "Having both boaters and environmentalists is the only way to go. If it was purely boaters, the environmentalists would be enraged. If it was purely environmentalists, the boaters would be enraged. We'll have to wait and see how it will work. I'm sure it will work."  County Commissioner Ray Judah was less concerned about whether it will work than what a review committee will cost Lee.  "Our board has consistently been opposed to unfunded legislative mandates and that's what this sounds like," he said. "If the Legislature deems this extra layer of bureaucracy essential in the issue of protecting manatees and boaters' rights, fine, let them help pay for it. Not help pay for it: Pay for it."  The law also states that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will establish "measurable biological goals" defining manatee recovery.  Then the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will use those goals, which include population counts, to develop manatee management plans.  The two manatee protection bills were controversial during the 2002 Legislative session. Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Black water casts shadow over faith in 'watchdogs'
Black water casts shadow over faith in 'watchdogs'  Those who are following the Mystery of the Black Water between Collier County and the Keys are learning a great deal.  They realize their sense of security is false from an array of public  agencies with watchdog-type names such as the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Environmental Protection Agency - even the Coast Guard. Despite satellite photos and firsthand testimony from commercial fishing fleets indicating something badly wrong with Florida Bay water as early as January, they're still leaving the heavy troubleshooting to privateers such as Sarasota-based Mote Marine Laboratory.  Citizens wonder what would have happened without news media exposure of the problem. Could fouled water have washed up on beaches and sickened unaware swimmers?  The lack of attention and skill in responding is mind- boggling in such a seafaring locale - especially one that publicly embraces environmental protection and public health. Against a backdrop of national security concerns, it still is not known if the black water is from a disease, a man-made toxin or a rush of fresh water from the Everglades.  That leads to the most important points we have learned - our ecosystem is so vulnerable and our knowledge of it is so incomplete. The latter will be helped right away when scientists in and out of government and commercial fishermen start sharing information and stop regarding each other as the enemy.  Shared threats from black water are the enemy. Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Lake Trafford cleanup critical to community
We should have known it couldn't be this easy. The beginning of restoration of Lake Trafford in Immokalee has been delayed until at least June because the Army Corps of Engineers miscalculated the cost of the project.  All bids have come in at least 25 percent above the estimated project cost of $17 million.  This project is essential to the economy of tiny Immokalee, a mostly farming community in Collier County.   Trafford is a marvelously productive fishing lake when it is healthy, but lately has been plagued by fish kill offs in recent years. That's because layers and layers of muck have built up on the lake bottom, choking off its health.  Not only is the lake important to ecotourism for its amazing assortment of bird life and for fishing tourism, but it provides food and recreation for poor people living near the lake.  A grass-roots effort by dedicated citizens, friends of the lake and even local schoolchildren has been effective in raising almost half of the money needed for the cleanup, a commitment not often seen in any community.   It will be up to Carl Overstreet, the new Corps project manager, to straighten this mess out.  Supporters, including U.S. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, and Big Cypress Basin director Clarence Tears Jr. vow they will not give up on the lake restoration.  That is a hopeful sign. This important natural resource must be maintained and returned to health. Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Former Water District Head to Manage Everglades Restoration
A veteran water manager has been named to oversee the day-to-day operations of restoring the Everglades.  Jack Maloy, former head of the South Florida Water Management District, will manage the massive $7.8 billion Everglades restoration project for the water district, officials said Tuesday.  The replumbing of the Everglades involves more than 40 projects to be completed over several decades. The state and federal government are sharing the cost of the cleanup.  Maloy also will oversee construction projects including six stormwater treatment areas intended to reduce the amount of phosphorous flowing into the Everglades.  He joined the district in 1965 as an engineer. He served as executive director from 1975 to 1984. He most recently was assistant water resources director at the St. Johns River Water Management District. Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

2 Florida parks on threatened list
Polluted runoff is affecting Florida's Everglades, mountain views are clouded by air pollution and historic monuments are crumbling, a park advocacy group said Monday.  In what is becoming an annual ritual for the National Parks Conservation Association, the nonprofit group released its "Top 10" most-threatened parks.  The list includes Florida's Everglades National Park and adjacent Big Cypress National Preserve.  The Everglades is threatened by polluted runoff from agriculture and from flood-control projects, and a restoration plan under way is still too conceptual to guarantee a fix, association officials said.  The Big Cypress is still fighting "considerable swamp buggy use" and now faces the threat that the private owner of underground mineral rights may want to conduct more exploratory drilling and seismic testing for petroleum deposits.  The list also includes Yellowstone National Park, the country's first park, and Federal Hall, the site in lower Manhattan where George Washington was sworn in as president.  The list was released just three days after the Interior Department released its own list, detailing projects it said are needed to improve 12 national parks. The Interior Department's list also included Yellowstone, for a $75,000 plan to replace an aging sewer line near Old Faithful, and Federal Hall, for a $16.5-million appropriation to repair cracks in the building's foundation that appeared following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11.  Also included on Interior's list are: Mojave National Preserve in California; Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia; Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania; Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska; Big Bend National Park, Texas; Glacier National Park, Montana; and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina.  "Parks have so many important projects going on across America that we couldn't keep it to the usual "Top 10' list," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a prepared statement.  President Bush has proposed $663-million for new construction, maintenance and rehabilitation projects, ranging from erecting new buildings to repairing sewer lines that threaten waterways.  That is about $2-million more than what Congress appropriated for the current year. Aides to Norton expect Congress will increase the president's  budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The parks association already is lobbying Congress to appropriate more money than what Bush has proposed in order to hire more employees and to catch up on a substantial maintenance backlog. Copyright  © 2002  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

Bond bill for Everglades opens environmental rift
TALLAHASSEE -- Before the final gavel pounded late Friday on a largely
incomplete agenda, Florida lawmakers gave environmentalists a qualified
victory. Now Gov. Jeb Bush must decide whether to approve a bill that creates a
$100 million bond program for Everglades restoration, but also makes it
harder for some individuals and environmental groups to sue polluters.
"We're on the horns of a dilemma," Terrell Arline, legal director for 1,000 Friends of Florida, said Monday. "Clearly a citizen lost the ability to initiate proceedings. The problem is, it's in the Everglades bill. We don't know what we're going to do." The last-minute coupling of two bills (HB-813 and SB-270) backed by Senate Majority Leader Jim King of Jacksonville could give Bush some pause -- as well as some welcome political cover. Bush has concerns about the funding scheme, even though it is supported by some of his staunchest conservative Republican allies.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Nursery owners get reprieve from plant ban
Palm Beach County's nursery industry breathed a collective sigh of
relief Monday. Environmental regulators have dropped plans to expand the
county's forbidden-plants list to more than 100 from nine non-native invasives.
"It means we can get back to work," said Pat Ford, owner of Pat Ford's
Nursery west of Boynton Beach and a state Florida Nurserymen & Growers
Association representative. Mike Kastenholz, owner of Boynton Botanicals west of Boynton Beach said, "A lot of the varieties are plants we ship out of state in large quantities
this time of year. We would have lost a significant amount of business."
Instead, legislation awaiting Gov. Jeb Bush's signature will require all
local governments to follow the state's less-restrictive banned-plants
list. The county's controversial proposed ordinance, which would have barred
the sale of the plants and fined homeowners who planted them up to $5,000 a
day, stirred a round of protests from the industry in the last month.
Growers had objected to what they called the arbitrary, non-scientific
basis for including plants on the list.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Controlled Burn Surrounds Bald Eagle Nest, Chicks Fate Unknown  

PALM COAST, Fla. (AP) - A controlled burn set by the state near a bald eagle's nest forced two adult birds to flee and left the fate of their chicks in question, officials said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating whether anyone violated the Federal Endangered Species Act, a criminal offense punishable by a $50,000 fine and one year in prison. The Flagler County Public Works Department and the Florida Division of Forestry set the fire in the Princess Place Preserve in west-central Florida, but did not call state wildlife officials to verify the location was clear of bald eagle nests. Instead they checked a website, which is not frequently updated. "We're really sorry it happened," said Mike Kuypers, district supervisor for the Division of Forestry. "Had we known, we wouldn't have burned in that location." The eagles "experienced extreme stress and they lost their chicks," said Amanda Auger, a volunteer for the Audubon EagleWatch division of the Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. Federal wildlife officials said they didn't find any bodies and could not confirm that any chicks had died. An aerial inspection in January showed one chick and one egg in the nest. One of the chicks may have been mature enough to fly away, officials said.

Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

 

25-Mar-02

New Plan Redesigns Plumbing of Everglades

        

Long ago, water in this subtropical state flowed this way: summer downpours coursed from the central flatlands into Lake Okeechobee, which spilled south through the vine-tangled forests beyond its indefinable marshy shore.  Trees and grasses filtered and locked away nutrients, building 20 feet of rich peat. The cleansed water percolated south, forming the Everglades' "river of grass." In dry times, the soggy, spongy ground kept things green.  Then farms, cities, highways and homes got in the way.  This is how South Florida's water flows now: in a hurricane-proof control room a block from Palm Beach International Airport, Tim Owens, an employee of the South Florida Water Management District, types a code for Canal Gate S39 and hits "return." Twenty miles inland, a gate rises and 119 cubic feet of water per second drains from a swampy wildlife refuge fed by Okeechobee into a canal used by vegetable farmers.  Day and night, water managers type and click, banking or moving water through 1,800 miles of canals and gates and pipes and valves.  But the system was built to serve people. Nature has mostly been an afterthought.  When there is too much water, the Everglades drown in runoff tainted with excess nutrients that nourish invading plant species. The water flushed to the coast kills oysters, crabs and plants attuned to a particular balance of fresh and salt. Okeechobee ails, as well, walled in behind the 38-foot Hoover dike and overdosing on the same nutrients.

   Stockpiling water for a river of grass. Multimedia  

   Copyright  © 2002  NY Times  All rights reserved   

Six 2002 OCEWA Finalists Are Chosen (Excerpts)
This year's jury has sleeted 6 merit finalists from a field of 33 in the
2002 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA)
competition-including this year's OCEA winner. The finalists will be recognized on April 27 at
the third annual Outstanding Project and Leader (OPAL) awards gala, which
will be held in Los Angles. The six projects are:  Experience Music Project Seattle, Washington Everglades Construction Project: Storm Water Treatment Areas 1 West
and 2 Palm Beach County, Florida  JFK Terminal 4 Jamaica, New York  I-15 Design/Build Reconstruction Project Salt Lake City, Utah Bibliotheca Alexandria Alexandria, Egypt Seven Oaks Dam Highland, California Established in 1960, the OCEA award recognizes the project that best illustrates superior civil engineering skills and represents a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society. Honoring an overall project rather than an individual, the awards signalizes the contributions of many engineers. The OCEA winner is accorded an OPAL award. Read more...

http://www.asce.org/ascenews/index.cfm

Trafford restoration delayed until June

The long awaited Lake Trafford restoration project will have to wait a little longer. Instead of breaking ground this month, as originally planned, dirt probably won’t move until June. The reason: Money and bad math. Project proposals came in with much higher price tags than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expected. The Corps miscalculated how much it would cost to remove 8.5 million cubic yards of muck from the bottom of the lake and dump it on agricultural land nearby, said Richard Bonner, the Corps’ deputy district engineer for project management. “$17 million is what we thought it would cost,” Bonner said. Bonner did not disclose the bids but explained that they were at least 25 percent above $17 million. “It was way above,” he said. How could the Corps make a multimillion dollar mistake? Two reasons, Bonner explained: First, the Corps used state agency formulas to figure out the cost of the project. However, state projects don’t have as many constraints as federal projects and generally cost less because of that. Another reason, he said, is that the bids were based on removing the muck from a dry lake. But the water can’t be drained from this lake, Bonner said. The Corps is now asking contractors to tell them what they can do for $20 million or less. The project may be smaller in scope because of this, Bonner said, at least for now. First the contractor is to prepare the disposal area, then begin dredging the lake one section — roughly 190 acres — at a time.

Copyright  © 2002  The News-Press. All rights reserved.

Session was struggle for environment

TALLAHASSEE -- For environmentalists working the Florida Legislature, victory is relative. Success in recent years usually meant fending off assaults on environmental laws. This year, it meant swallowing a proposal widely bashed as anti-environment to get a stable source of money for Everglades restoration. Lawmakers authorized borrowing up to $100-million a year to pay for Everglades cleanup, one of the biggest environmental priorities this year. But they added a controversial amendment making it harder for the average person to fight development. It was was a prime example of how difficult progress is on environmental protection, activists say. "It's analogous to having every finger on your hand plugging holes in the dike. While you're holding back the dike, you can't fix what's really broken," said Pat Rose, president of the Save the Manatee Club. His club, with help from Jimmy Buffett, mobilized hundreds of Floridians to oppose a proposal to weaken Manatee protections. The result: a compromise with boating groups that pleased both sides. Lawmakers also passed a much-touted growth management bill linking school capacity to new development. It was a priority of Gov. Jeb Bush, but is far weaker than what he wanted last year. Last year's version essentially required local communities to reject development in crowded school districts, according to homebuilder lobbyists. Developers did not oppose this year's bill, which merely requires that local governments weigh school capacity before approving development. Even that nearly died in a dispute over taxes. It passed only after senators agreed to strip out a provision allowing local governments to raise sales taxes for schools without a referendum. It was a baby step, said Charles Pattison, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Florida, a growth management watchdog.

Copyright  © 2002  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

 

24-Mar-02

Endangered Cranes May Head North
A small flock of endangered whooping cranes could soon begin a migration from Florida to a Wisconsin marsh where researchers hope the birds will spend the summer. Last fall, the cranes were led with ultralight aircraft on their flight from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. ``They're doing great,'' said Heather Ray, spokeswoman for Operation Migration, one of eight groups and agencies participating in the project aimed at establishing a second migratory flock of whooping cranes. Of the eight young birds that started the project in the fall, five have survived and could leave any day on the journey north, researchers said. The experiment in fostering migration worked well with a flock of sandhill cranes, which were led south in the fall of 2000 and then left Florida on Feb. 25, 2001, to travel north on their own. Ray said the later departure date for the whoopers was not a concern.   Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved

                                        

Land Advocates and Drivers Reach Fork in the Off-Road
An avid outdoorsman, Lyle McCandless likes to spend his weekends here in the southwest Florida back country hunting for small game and fishing for large-mouth bass. But in recent years, people who enjoy the land like Mr. McCandless have come under intense criticism from environmentalists, who say they are abusing the Big Cypress National Preserve and public wilderness areas throughout the country. That is because to get to the best hunting sites and fishing holes, Mr. McCandless and his buddies from the Collier County Sportsman's Club near Naples drive their off-road vehicles into the most remote sections of this 729,000-acre preserve, a vast undeveloped area of wetlands, cypress groves and protected wildlife.  Environmental groups contend that the squat, fat-tired all-terrain  vehicles are damaging wetlands and wildlife by creating thousands of miles of deep ruts in the soil.

                                                                                     

The tracks in Big Cypress are so extensive that, from the air, the preserve looks as though someone has dropped thousands of giant strands of spaghetti on the land.  More than merely causing aesthetic damage, the environmentalists say, the tire tracks have damaged soil, water and vegetation and changed the habitat of endangered species like the Florida panther and the Cape Sable seaside sparrow. In an effort to stop the damage, the groups have sought to limit or eliminate the use of all-terrain vehicles, swamp buggies and other off-road transportation in the preserve, which is 50 miles east of Naples and borders Everglades National Park.  As a result, a fight is raging between environmentalists and all-terrain vehicle users here that is a microcosm of the battle between interest groups and agencies nationwide trying to balance recreational use with preservation on public lands.  "What you have is a minority of the population using Big Cypress and other places around the nation as an amusement park for their thrill vehicles," said Erich Pica, an economic policy analyst for Friends of the Earth, a national environmental organization. "The environmental degradation it's caused, the air pollution it's caused and the effect on endangered species and other animals has to be factored into this use."  That, of course, is where the environmental groups and the users of all-terrain vehicles part ways.  "You can't have an area that is public and have people come in and not leave a footprint," Mr. McCandless said. "There are extremists out there who want to have untouched land, and they can't have that when it's public land." Copyright  © 2002  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

Tree-felling response angers activists: Some say harsher penalties for firefighters are in order
Local environmental activists are "disgusted" by the St. Lucie County Fire District's response to the felling of more than 50 protected trees by firefighters on Hutchinson Island.  Members of two environmental groups worry district officials are setting a bad example by not immediately disciplining firefighters who destroyed mangrove and other protected trees to improve access to a fishing hole and make room for joy riding on a sheriff's all-terrain vehicle.  "This is such a bad precedent when you have a government agency disobeying the law so blatantly," said Grace Stock, a board member of the Conservation Alliance of St. Lucie County. "There should be considerable mitigation on this." Activist Gerry Tafoya patrols the St. Lucie River for illegal mangrove cutting and said she's "disheartened" at the damage caused by the firefighters.  "It's like a slap in the face to us in St. Lucie County to have firefighters do that," said Tafoya, a member of the Port St. Lucie Ang- lers Club. "They are setting an example. These are people you tell your kids and grandchildren to look up to."  District officials said the state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the fire district to perform $15,000 worth of environmental enhancements to make up for the damage.  The DEP directed the county last week to devise a work plan for the mitigation, which the fire district must agree with before receiving final DEP approval.  The work could include such things as replanting dunes or clearing nuisance exotic vegetation, district officials said.  As part of the DEP penalty, the district must also replace the felled trees. Copyright  © 2002  TC Palm  All rights reserved.

Lee breaking new ground in developing Smart Growth panel will convene
Hanging on the door of Wayne Daltry's office is an oversized poster from the movie, "Gettysburg."  It's not his favorite movie.  And the Army brat/Vietnam veteran/son of a POW, isn't a proponent of war.  What caught his attention were some words in small print at the bottom that he says embody the debate that's been raging in Southwest Florida for decades: "Same land, same God, different dreams."  "That's our whole Southwest Florida dilemma,'' he said. "We have different dreams.''  At 54, Daltry is a 30-year veteran of planning in Southwest Florida. He will become Lee County's first Smart Growth director starting Thursday.  Smart Growth is an approach to planning that Lee County and various other areas in the United States are using so development doesn't damage the environment and deplete natural resources. Daltry, who will make nearly $90,000 a year and oversee a $340,000 budget, described himself as the lightning rod.  He'll meet with the 15-member citizen advisory committee created to guide the county commission on how to set policy on growth. Lee Commissioner Bob Janes, County Manager Don Stilwell and Lee School Board member Jane Kuckel are also committee members.  "We have an economy that depends on natural resources,'' Daltry said. "Without them we don't have much of an economy.''   Like counseling an addict, Daltry said the first step is getting past denial.  "We don't have to accept Miami is the end result of where we're going to be."   But that's the path Southwest Florida is heading if something's not done, Daltry said.  If every piece of land now zoned residential is built upon in Southwest Florida, there will be 3 million people living here between 2010 and 2020, he said. Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.


Editorial: Enron subsidiary

Little did most of us know that when Enron collapsed, it was due in large measure to an ill-fated campaign for control of Florida's drinking water. The name of the Enron water subsidiary is Azurix. Thanks to Florida's open records laws and investigative reporters, we see how close our state in general and Southwest Florida in particular came to being ensnared beyond our friends and neighbors losing their Enron investments. Stories originated by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and republished by this newspaper last Sunday show how Azurix lost nearly $1 billion trying to win long-term leases to withdraw water from the ground and relax state laws on aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells for stormwater runoff and treated sewage effluent. Azurix even offered to help pay for Everglades restoration, in hopes of repayment from the $8 billion state and federal commitment to the project, in return for the exclusive rights to sell the project's newly protected resource. Azurix hired key lobbyists. They include at least one former board member of the South Florida Water Management District — James Garner of Fort Myers, who tried in vain to win Lee County's water utilities contract for Azurix — and at least one former district executive director, John Wodraska. The water district includes Collier and Lee counties. Azurix enjoyed enthusiastic support from David Struhs, Gov. Jeb Bush's chief of the Department of Environmental Protection. Struhs, who worked with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay in the administration of President George W. Bush's father, championed water privatization at a Florida Chamber of Commerce seminar on Marco Island in July 2000.

Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Legislature: Lawmakers pass Everglades funding bill

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers voted Friday to allow bonding of up to $100 million to buy land as part of a massive Everglades cleanup on a bill that also dealt with when environmentalists can sue to block development. Florida and the federal government are sharing the cost of the $8 billion Everglades project. The state has committed to spending $100 million a year for 10 years. The bill (HB 813) would give lawmakers an option to pay for its share of the restoration if they don't have money available in the budget. Some lawmakers opposed the measure, however, because it contained another item that deals with when citizens can challenge developers' permits. It passed the House 87-30 in the final hours of the session. "I cannot allow the lack of public participation to be given up for a funding bill," said Rep. Cindy Lerner, D-Miami. "Public participation in the process is the cornerstone ... of a democratic state."

Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

23-Mar-02

Environmentalist William B. Hutchins dies
William B. Hutchins was in an ecological race with time: His goal was to
visit the world's tropical rain forests and see as many exotic animals
as possible. On Wednesday, time ran out for Mr. Hutchins. The 47-year-old
environmentalist, herpetologist, educator and world traveler died from a
sudden illness, according to his family. A memorial service will be held Monday for Mr. Hutchins at Quattlebaum-Holleman-Burse Funeral home, 1201 S. Olive Ave., from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m. On Tuesday, the funeral is being held at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 211 Trinity Place, at 3:30 p.m. Mr. Hutchins, a native of West Palm Beach, was the sanctuary manager at the Pine Jog Environmental Education Center. During his 21 years at the center,
he also became a great storyteller and photographer, traveling to some of the most exotic locations known to man. "He could turn a story into an adventure," said Kim Nielson, his oldest brother. "He had to go to where there was no telephone, no roads, no
town, no people."
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Odd Fish Thrive in Local River An AP Member Exchange

SEBASTIAN, Fla. (AP) - Sarah Fries-Torres is the only person in the world to keep opossum pipefish alive in an aquarium long enough to watch a male give birth to up to 250 comma-sized young. And it was done in her Melbourne dormitory room. The only place in the United States where that occurs naturally is in the St. Sebastian River, which divides Brevard and Indian River counties and is part of the most diverse estuary in North America. Fries-Torres is a Florida Tech doctoral candidate who has spent two breeding seasons studying the tiny fish that return to the St. Sebastian to breed after living in the ocean. The fish resembles a stretched-out seahorse. "This species is tropical. In North America, the only freshwater pipefish is this one," Fries-Torres said. Not just the opossum pipefish, but also four unique species of snook, the burro grunt, the striped croaker, the bigmouth sleeper and others are fish found nowhere else in the United States except in the St. Sebastian. In the 1960s, Grant Gilmore discovered and researched the unusual species while working as a fish biologist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce. "I was quite surprised to find fish here you don't see anywhere else, not even in the Florida Keys or the Bahamas. And it's interesting that some are abundant. There are 10 to 15 species in the St. Sebastian that only are found there," he said.

Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

 

22-Mar-02

County buys property to add to preserve:
The parcel will link Brooker Creek Preserve to other land the county owns, and provides lakes and lots of pine trees that could draw  wildlife such as bald eagles.
There's more to the 190 acres that the Pinellas County Commission decided to buy for $5.3-million this week than its four lakes and abundant pine trees.  The land also will connect the Brooker Creek Preserve to 160 acres the county owns in the Anclote River basin dubbed the Lost Management Area. One day, the new county property on the east side of East Lake Road may become a trailhead where residents can park and embark on hikes east toward the Anclote River or west into the heart of the preserve.  "We are very pleased," said Ken Rowe, chairman of the Friends of the Brooker Creek Preserve. "It's an important parcel. It's the stepping stone from the preserve to the Lost Management Area. We have been working in that direction for some time. This is terrific."  Until the county approached the property owners several years ago, it was well on its way to becoming a cemetery. The unusual method of purchase will have the county buying all the stock of East Lake Memorial Gardens, which is mostly owned by John Mills of Tarpon Springs. The commission will then deed the land to the county and then dissolve the company.  While certainly unorthodox, said county real estate manager Ellyn Kadel said, the method of purchase may actually have made it less expensive because there are some tax benefits to Mills.  As part of the agreement, Mills and his wife, Bonnie, will donate another 10 acres at the end of Ranch Road to the county to be added to the preserve. The property, now surrounded by the preserve, was purchased by Mills in 1986. Mills, who operates the property as a tree farm, estimates the land's value at $800,000.  The 190-acre property -- bounded on the west by East Lake Road, to the south by Trinity Boulevard and to the north by the Pasco County line -- is crucial to the county's long-range plan for the Brooker Creek Preserve, said Craig Huegel, Pinellas environmental lands division administrator.  The county has been buying up land in the Anclote River basin with an eye toward creating a connection to the Anclote River. Ultimately, Huegel said, the county hopes to connect the Brooker Creek Preserve to Pasco's Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park. Copyright  © 2002  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

 

Editorial: Sabotaging Environmental Protections
Members of the state House are attempting to pull the legal rug out from under common citizens. State senators, we hope, will avoid this insidious scheme.  The House on Wednesday passed a measure that prevents people not directly affected by a development from challenging the project.  At present, citizens can legally contest permits granted by the state water districts and the Department of Environmental Protection under the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.  Citizens who believe the government is not giving adequate attention to environmental concerns have an opportunity to make their case. But they must make that case. Lobbyists for developers assert that activists file administrative hearing challenges to harass projects. But abuse is exceedingly rare. Nuisance litigation is quickly dismissed.  And who - beyond state lawmakers and industry lobbyists - believes that developers have a hard time getting their way in Florida? Single-home construction is at its highest level since 1978.  Representatives did moderate the legislation some, but it still curtails an individual's ability to fight enterprises he believes harmful to state resources.  Citizens used the administrative hearing process to successfully fight plans by Florida Power & Light Co. to burn Orimulsion at its power plant in Manatee County. They successfully argued that the tarry fuel, which would have been shipped across Tampa Bay, would pollute the air and water.  Citizens have also used the process to challenge wellfield pumping and plans for the desalination plant on Tampa Bay.  Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

FGCU expected to award its biggest benefactor with honorary degree
Ben Hill Griffin III's name is etched onto a building at Florida Gulf Coast University and a road running alongside the school.  Now the 5-year-old school is expected to confer its first honorary degree on its largest benefactor.  Griffin and his agribusiness company, Alico Inc., have given FGCU $8.8 million as well as the land where FGCU sits.  FGCU's Board of Trustees will vote April 4 on a nomination to award an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Griffin.  Griffin, the head of LaBelle-based Alico Inc., said he didn't expect the honor.  "I was very surprised and obviously, very pleased," Griffin said.  If trustees approve the degree, Griffin will receive it at FGCU's spring graduation on May 4.  Griffin in December donated $5 million to FGCU for the rights to name the school's basketball arena and athletic complex.  They'll be called Alico Arena and the Alico Athletics Complex.  Alico donated the 760 acres for the FGCU campus, plus another 215 acres to the school's foundation. At the time, the gift was recognized as the largest single contribution to Florida's university system.
Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Lawmakers must listen to citizens: Legislature must let public speak during committee hearings
The increasing tendency of lawmakers not to let members of the public speak during committee meetings is disturbing, although not surprising.  The restrictions are not unprecedented, but people report more and more cases in which lawmakers allow only one person on each side of an issue to speak, or forbid public comment altogether.  This is extremely frustrating for citizens who have traveled to hard-to-reach Tallahassee from distant points like Southwest Florida. These committee meetings are just about the only chance an ordinary citizen has to participate in debate in Tallahassee. They have a reasonable expectation that they will get the chance to try to influence their legislators.  Barbara Peterson, president of the watchdog First Amendment Foundation and an expert on public access to government, says, "These are our elected representatives. How do they know what our interests are if they don't let us speak?"  She says legislative leaders should make certain people have an opportunity to speak and to schedule extra meetings if necessary to make that happen. We agree.  Keeping the public's voice out of the process is just one of several practices that make the legislative process less accessible and less transparent - less democratic when it comes down to it.  Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Court Upholds Species Deadline
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In a victory for environmentalists, a
federal appeals court ruled Thursday the government must determine within a year whether petitions seeking the listing of a species as endangered or threatened are
warranted. Under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service must make an initial finding on such petitions within 90 days if practicable, and a final finding within
12 months. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that those deadlines are firm, effectively reversing a lower court decision that said the service could make the initial finding at any
time.

 Copyright  © 2002  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

Canal workers find themselves overwhelmed with trash-removal duties

Canals are a kind of Bermuda Triangle for shopping carts, which just
seem to disappear into them. Until Mike Baker's crew comes along.
Workers probe the Lake Worth Drainage District's 511 miles of canals
about three times a month for debris that can cause water to back up and flood
into streets and yards. They reach their hooked metal poles into the
slow-moving murk and pull out all kinds of stuff -- including lots of
shopping carts. From Publix, from Wal-Mart and from Target: "Our biggest complaint is
the shopping carts," said Baker, director of Aquatic Control and supervisor
of the district's canal cleanup work. Baker attributes the problem to
mischievous juveniles and others. Baker and his 12-person crew -- based in district headquarters west of Delray Beach -- want to shed their trash collection role, a job they
perform when not making rounds killing aquatic weeds and canal-bank vegetation
that can slow or block canal water.
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Toxin found in Lake Griffin, dead alligators

TAVARES — An algae researcher from Ohio has confirmed the presence of a neurotoxin in Lake Griffin's and in the bodies of dead alligators. Dr. Wayne Carmichael, of Wright State University, found that the harmful blue-green algae called cylindrospermopsis is known to produce not only a liver toxin but Anatoxin-A, which prevents nerve impulse transmission to muscles, causing complete paralysis. But University of Florida crocodile specialist Perran Ross said the lake's alligators haven't shown complete paralysis. "Rather, they have slow and dis-coordinated muscles," he said. However, its still not known whether this is the culprit that has killed 380 adult alligators on the algae-infested lake in four years. The toxin doesn't cause brain lesions, which is thought to have been a contributing factor in deaths. "Our conclusion is that we still can't establish a direct link between the toxic algae in the lake and what's happening to the alligators," Ross said. Ross made his presentation to the Lake County Water Authority on Wednesday. With this information in hand, the authority approved a request by Ross for $24,362 to support continued mortality studies.

Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Florida Legislature

As long as the legislative session drags out in Tallahassee, there is time for mischief to get in the way of the public's business. While entertaining shortcuts such as video gambling to fund education and abdicating sensible congressional redistricting to the courts, Florida lawmakers are poised to cut back on citizen input on development. Drawing most of the lawmakers' ire are environmental groups — with bothersome questions about water and wildlife, whose protection can damage profits. Muzzling them would be a mistake. Public watchdog groups belong at any and all development bargaining tables. In Southwest Florida, credible nature-conscious organizations have made public-minded contributions to progress around Estero Bay, Barefoot Beach Preserve, TwinEagles and Collier County's elusive urban boundary. Cutting them out of the action to any degree is a setback.

Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

21-Mar-02

Sewage reuse study advances
Designed with south Palm Beach County in mind, a proposed study of using canals to store and recycle treated sewage is gaining momentum in the Legislature. The House approved the study Wednesday, and the Senate may consider it as soon as today.  The study itself has aroused little controversy, but it has tapped into broader concerns about the state's growing enthusiasm for reusing water. Environmentalists are trying to persuade legislators to tie the study to establishing more specific standards for reclaimed water, where a recent state study found more incidences than expected of two disease-causing microorganisms.  State law encourages the use of treating wastewater for watering landscaping and crops and other purposes, though not for drinking. Between 1990 and 2000, the amount of water reclaimed in Florida roughly doubled to 1.1 billion gallons a day, according to a recent study by the state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health. Florida has various requirements for the reclaimed water, including occasional testing for cryptosporidium and giardia, two tiny organisms  that can cause intestinal diseases.  The DEP reviews the results of the cryptosporidium and giardia tests but has not determined what level it considers too high, said agency researcher David York. Both microorganisms also occur in natural waters, and their presence in reclaimed water never has been linked to human health problems.  However, the DEP has been somewhat surprised to see more than half the samples come back positive for giardia, in some cases with almost 3,100 organisms per 100 liters, York said. The agency flags any amount more than 5 organisms per 100 liters, he said. Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Governor, Senate at odds on Everglades spending
 Gov. Jeb Bush scolded the Florida Senate on Wednesday for targeting $150 million set aside to buy environmentally-sensitive land to pay for what the governor labeled "unidentified" projects.  Bush said he wanted the chamber to avoid "raiding environmental funds for other purposes."  But Senate President John McKay said the money was shifted from a land-buying reserve fund and went to other budget projects - including a public school reading program and $50 million to increase technology research at the state's universities, both being touted by the governor. Bush said it was important lawmakers find a predictable source of cash to pay for the long-term Everglades restoration project free from the pressures of annual budget demands.  House members are also critical of the Senate plan.  "It's a sorry state of affairs when you have to sacrifice the environment to pay for education," said Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek.  The House has already approved a bill to issue up to $100 million in bonds each year to buy land as part of the Everglades project.  That bill (HB 813) would give lawmakers an option to pay for its share of the restoration if they don't have money available in the budget. Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Satellite images show 'black water' progression, giving researchers some clues
While researchers around the state continued detective work Wednesday into what caused the mass of black water in Florida Bay, scientists from the University of South Florida were putting together a picture of its progression from satellite data. 
Dr. Frank Muller-Karger and Dr. Chuanmin Hu, of the university's remote sensing laboratory, said the pictures can't tell the whole story, but they might give clues about the source of the water. Hu said the black water first appeared on satellite images in mid-December about 30 to 60 miles north of the Keys. At its peak in early February, it was larger than Lake Okeechobee but began to diffuse into the surrounding Gulf of Mexico waters in recent weeks.  Other scientists with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are testing samples of the water to see if the chemicals, dissolved matter and organisms in it might point to a source.  Results from those tests should begin coming in today, said Beverly Roberts, research administrator for the institute.  Fish spotter pilots were the first to discover the black water in January. Though fishermen didn't find dead fish in its wake, they report an abysmal season for those waters and unusual behavior in the few fish they did find. While the images from the private company Orbimage's SeaWiFS and a NASA satellite show that the water might be coming from the Shark River, not all the pictures are consistent with that possibility, Muller-Karger said.  In some images, the water appears to be coming from the river, which has its outlet about 35 miles south of Marco Island. But Hu said the water doesn't quite behave like river runoff and settles to the bottom as it travels farther from the source.  "Why, only in the center, do (the particles) appear to sink?" Hu asked.  He said another possible source might be from some kind of underwater fountain spewing the black water from the seabed.  "That would explain the isolated black water mass," he said.  Hu is also looking at images from past years to see if the black water came and went before with no one noticing, though he pointed out that fishermen with decades on the water had never seen the phenomenon.  "The samples will tell more of a story than the satellite images," he said.  Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved

Legislature: Environmentalists say bill will make it harder to challenge permits
A bill limiting the ability of environmental groups to challenge questionable development permits passed out of the Florida House on Wednesday and is on its way to the Senate with two days left in the legislative session.  By a 71-46 vote largely along party lines, the House voted to raise the bar for individuals and environmental groups seeking to challenge permits by making them prove that they are being directly affected.  Backers of the measure say the legislation is an attempt to curtail frivolous and expensive challenges from distant citizens groups or environmental organizations opposed to a local development. "If a person swims in a body of water, if they go bird-watching there or if they canoe on that body of water, they are affected and will have standing," said Rep. Gaston Cantens, R-Sweetwater, sponsor of the House measure. "That will not change."  "What we are trying to accomplish is to (prevent) someone form Miami filing and initiating a complaint or litigation on a permit that is being issued in Pensacola," Cantens continued.  Opponents, a laundry list of groups including the Sierra Club's Florida chapter, say the legislation unduly insulates developers from public scrutiny.  "It's shameful that they are doing this," said Fran Stallings, director of the Florida Conservation Project for the International Wildlife Coalition. "They are doing their damnedest to prevent citizens from challenging the decisions of government."   Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved

Editorial: Manatee compromise has merit:  Measure adopted by Florida House should become law
A compromise manatee-protection bill adopted by the Florida House marks a major advance in balancing competing interests in this heated debate, and deserves to become law.  Now the Senate needs to adopt a similar measure.  Rep. Lindsay Harrington's original bill, which was strongly pro-boater, has been modified to accommodate environmentalists, especially the Save the Manatee Club.  The compromises sound sensible. If the bill becomes law, it will recognize that human interests have to be taken more carefully into account as the state tries to protect the lumbering marine mammals, which are vulnerable to collision with boats. We also hope their success in the Legislature this year will help the boating movement rein in some of its more extreme anti-manatee elements. The public wants manatees protected, and we believe most boaters do as well.  The bill makes counties where manatee rules are proposed set up a committee, divided evenly between water users and manatee advocates, to review those rules.  That helps ensure a place at the table for boating interests. They rightly felt excluded when environmentalists and government agencies settled lawsuits by proposing major new boating restrictions to protect manatees.  It was the sweeping restrictions in those settlements that triggered an angry counterattack by boaters and produced Harrington's legislation.  Boating interests agreed to give up on a process in the bill for reviewing existing manatee rules. That's good. This is no time for sweeping new restrictions, or the dismantling of existing ones.  We need better scientific information about the manatee population and how many losses it can sustain. By some measures, manatees appear to be increasing, but the counts fluctuate wildly.  Credit Harrington with pushing hard to right the balance between boater rights and manatee protection. The Punta Gorda Republican started out aggressively, pushing the the bill through the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee, which he chairs. But when the time came to give a little, he fostered a useful compromise.  Senators and the governor should support this bill or similar legislation. Copyright  © 2002  Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Bills make environmentalists howl: The bills at issue tap the land buying fund and limit billboard rules and development challenges.
Environmentalists were crying foul Wednesday over several proposals moving forward in the final days of the legislative session. State House members passed a bill that bars people from challenging development proposals that don't directly affect them.  State senators have a budget proposal that critics say robs money from a popular environmental preservation program.  And a bill that could make it considerably more expensive for local communities to restrict billboards is headed to the governor.  Wednesday began with environmental leaders denouncing a Senate plan to divert $150-million in reserves from the Preservation 2000 land buying program and spend the money on public education. Floridians in 1998 overwhelmingly put the land buying program into the state Constitution, and critics of the Senate budget contend that even diverting reserve money from that pot amounts to a sellout.  "Environmental programs make up only 3 percent of the state's annual budget," said Stephanie Culp, lobbyist for the Trust for Public Land. "Land buying programs should not take this big a hit." It was the latest effort by the Senate to increase spending for education and social services, the subject of a standoff with the House. Supporters of the move say the money otherwise would sit in a bank.  "We're not sacrificing one for the other," said Sen. Ron Silver, D-North Miami Beach, who supports the move. "We've got to get the money from somewhere."  Gov. Jeb Bush said the Senate action jeopardizes his priority of setting aside a reliable source of money for the Everglades. "I urge the Legislature to reconsider," Bush said.  Later in the day, it was House members who were feeling the wrath of environmentalists, passing a bill, 71-46, to prevent people not directly affected by a development from challenging it. Supporters say it would, for instance, stop a gadfly in the Panhandle from thwarting development in the Tampa Bay area. Critics say the bill, which has made little progress in the Senate, makes it harder for Floridians to have a say on the environment.  "You're telling the people to 'shut up. You no longer have a right to speak,' " complained state Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa.  Established nonprofit environmental groups registered in Florida could challenge a development if the group had at least 25 members in the county where the development is proposed.  Also Wednesday, lawmakers passed a bill to require local governments to pay "just compensation" to billboard owners forced to remove signs. It also sets up an arbitration system.  Senate sponsor Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, called it "a property rights issue," and noted that 39 other states have similar laws.  The bill exempts local governments involved in litigation with billboard companies before January 2001, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater.
Copyright  © 2002  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

Tax Dispute May Doom Growth Management Bill
Growth management legislation that Gov. Jeb Bush considers one of his top priorities may be doomed again this year because of a dispute over taxes.  A bill that cleared the House Thursday did not include a provision sought by the Senate that would give local governments new taxing power.  The House dropped that provision and sent the bill (CS SB 1906) back to the upper chamber on a 70-49 vote.  There is little disagreement over a provision that would require local governments to include schools in their comprehensive plans to remedy overcrowding.  The dispute centers on Senate President John McKay's insistence that the legislation let county governments and school boards levy local option sales taxes without referendums as required by existing law. The taxes pay for school construction and other infrastructure to keep with growth.  House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, was just as adamant that such taxes should be imposed only by voters. Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

St. Petersburg Man Arrested for Killing Alligator
Authorities have arrested a 26-year-old man for catching an alligator in a local lake and killing it at a friend's house for food, officials said.  Gregory LaPrete, 26, of St. Petersburg, was charged Wednesday with unlawful killing of an alligator, a third-degree felony. He was released on his own recognizance late Wednesday from the Pinellas County Jail.  LaPrete's estranged wife videotaped him catching the 6-foot alligator in Viking Lake with a fishing pole on Sept. 15, 2000, investigators said. He reeled it to the shore where a friend helped him tie it up and tape its mouth, officials said. He brought it to a friend's house and slit the animals throat in the bathtub, then skinned it and split the meat with his friend, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. Lisa LaPrete turned the tape over to authorities after their relationship soured.  Gregory LaPrete's mother, Debbie Preble, said her son would not kill an alligator.  "If anything, he'd want to own it and make a home for it with a pool," she said.  The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates that 4,000 alligators, which are classified as a species of special concern, are removed by nuisance trappers and 2,000 alligators are hunted each year.  

Note: "The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates that 4,000 alligators, which are classified as a species of special concern, are removed by nuisance trappers and 2,000 alligators are hunted each year." Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial: More Farm Subsidies Are Bad News

A n effort is under way in Congress to divert money from conservation efforts to provide more subsidies to Midwestern farmers.  Such a move would waste tax dollars, undermine market forces and jeopardize natural lands, particularly in Florida.  At issue is the Farm Conservation Fund, which compensates farmers who set aside environmentally valuable land. This is appropriate since the public benefits from such stewardship.  Since Congress included a conservation program in the 1985 farm bill, more than 36 million acres have been set aside for conservation purposes. Biologists say this has been critical to protecting many species, especially waterfowl. But Congress has cut back on the conservation effort in recent years. And this year Midwestern interests are mounting a furious campaign to increase subsidies for grain and soybean farmers. The additional payments would be taken from conservation funding.  The proposed subsidy boost would cause the nation to violate international trade agreements limiting agricultural subsidies and thus would badly damage free trade efforts.  Paying for land preservation, in contrast, does not count against the ceiling on subsidies.  The conservation funds can be used to protect habitat, improve water quality, restore wetlands and buffer farmland from development and are particularly important in states such as Florida, where farms are being squeezed off the landscape by development. Florida has $35 million in unmet requests for such funding.  Compensating farmers for preserving valuable resources has proved effective, economical and just. Members of Congress should protect this worthy conservation effort - and free trade - and resist the temptation to lavish tax dollars on a few select farming interests. Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

20-Mar-02

Fla. Negotiators Continue Water Talks

One day after saying negotiations had reached an impasse, Florida officials said Tuesday they would continue talks with Georgia and Alabama over a water-sharing agreement. Florida, Alabama and Georgia have been trying since 1997 to develop water-use proposals for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system to determine how much water is available to each for drinking, industry and recreation. Alabama and Florida officials argue that Georgia takes too much water from rivers flowing into neighbor states. But Georgia wants to make sure it has enough water for future growth. On Monday, Florida negotiators said the were pulling out of the talks.  Copyright  © 2002  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

U.S. Acts to Shrink Endangered Species Habitats

The Bush administration, under pressure from lawsuits by real estate developers, is urging federal judges to roll back legal protections for nearly two dozen populations of endangered species around the country. In an effort to resolve as many as a dozen cases against them, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, two agencies that enforce the Endangered Species Act, are asking federal courts in California to rescind millions of acres of protected habitat for whipsnakes in the state's northern grasslands, rare birds in the scrublands to the south, fairy shrimp in shallow pools along the coast and salmon among the rivers, estuaries and shorelines of four Western states. The administration is also questioning whether to preserve the "critical habitat" designations that safeguard millions of acres for about 10 other endangered species, from the Mexican spotted owl to the California red-legged frog, signaling a widespread shift in environmental policy that has consoled developers and incensed environmentalists. "The Bush administration is voluntarily waving the white flag," said Joel Reynolds, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has intervened in a Los Angeles federal court on behalf of the California gnatcatcher, a tiny brush bird. "It is a significant step in the wrong direction for wildlife protection," Mr. Reynolds said, arguing that the administration's willingness to concede in these cases could indicate it is inclined to do so in future lawsuits. Copyright  © 2002  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

Pro-boat manatee House bill mitigated
A revised version of a Florida House of Representatives manatee
protection bill will become the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act - if the
Senate passes an identical bill. Boating-rights advocates and manatee advocates hammered out a series of compromises that led Friday to the passage of the House bill by a
108-to-1 vote. In its original form, the bill, sponsored by Rep. Lindsay Harrington,
R-Punta Gorda, was strongly pro-boater and rankled manatee advocates.
"We flat told them, 'We're going to sit here and punch out a bill, and
you won't be on board, and we want you on board. If you come on board,
we can work this thing out,'" Harrington said, referring to manatee
advocates. "We've put in a lot of work on this. From the (March 2001)
meeting with Standing Watch to where we are today, we've come 1,000
miles, with hundreds of thousands of man hours, and travel, and
meetings."
 Fort Meyers News Press  All rights reserved.

Scientists try to track down mysterious black water in bay
A mysterious mass of black water has been sighted off the Keys this week, perplexing fishermen and sending local scientists scurrying for their test tubes. "It's big, it's black and we have no idea what it is," said Brian Keller, science coordinator for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "It seems to resemble discolored water similar to that of water discolored by tannic acid from mangroves. Keller said it not a red tide bloom and there have been no reports of extensive fish kills. "Fishermen are saying this is something very different from anything they've ever seen," he said. The water mass, which was estimated to be about 40 miles by 100 miles when it was first sighted in January in northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico, has been reported by fishermen to be south of the Marquesas and in Sanctuary waters outside of Key West, Keller said. The water does not have the viscosity of an oil slick, but it appears to contain filamentous material, he said, adding that it could be a mass a dense bloom of phytoplankton, microscopic oceanic plants responsible for about 40 percent of the photosynthesis on the plant. Keller said a plane was sent out earlier this week to try and obtain an aerial sighting of the mass, but it could not be found, possibly due to the angle of the sun or wind conditions.

Copyright  © 2002  Keys news  All rights reserved.

 

'Bad' water in the Gulf still eludes scientists

A mysterious, gargantuan blob of black-tinged water is drifting west of the Florida Keys. That's the report from commercial fishermen, whose passages through a swath of what they indelicately describe as ''snotty water'' or ''sewer water'' staining the emerald Gulf of Mexico have scientists scrambling for answers and trying to confirm its existence. While it certainly looks and sounds ominous, alarming even the saltiest of Conch fishermen, the dark mass hasn't left an obvious trail of dead sea life, and one probable explanation points to something natural, if unpleasant -- an explosion of some variety of microscopic algae, something akin to red tide but apparently without the toxic effect on fish. ''I can only characterize it at this stage as a likely plankton bloom,'' said Brian Keller, science coordinator for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. ``We don't yet have an analysis that can tell us the type of plankton that are causing the bloom.'' Algae outbreaks, not well understood, are common problems in Florida Bay and along the Southwest Florida coast. But no one has seen anything like the mass first spotted in late January off Marco Island by a fisherman who described it as a large area of ``black water with gelatinous blobs at the surface.''

Copyright  © 2002  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Saunders hopes House will stop move to remove land funding

State Sen. Burt Saunders is looking to the Florida House of
Representatives to undo what his peers did Monday. The Senate
tentatively agreed to remove $150 million from the Florida Forever land
buying program in the state budget. "It's a major issue," said Saunders, R-Naples.
In Southwest Florida, the program and its predecessor, Preservation
2000, conserved thousands of acres, including: Cayo Costa State Park;
Much of the 24,000-acre Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed;
The 8,441-acre Estero Bay Aquatic & State Buffer Preserve, where the state spent nearly $32
million in 2000 to save more than 1,200 environmentally sensitive acres
from development; The 14,000-acre Charlotte Harbor Flatwoods; and Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. "We'd like to see the money go toward land acquisition as it was meant
to," said Kathalyn Gaither, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection, the state agency that runs the program. Saunders was the only senator to speak against the amendment.
Copyright  © 2002  The News-Press. All rights reserved.

Experts to discuss regional stormwater management problems

Southwest Florida water experts are meeting today in Fort Myers to
discuss options for dealing with regional stormwater management
problems, including the possibility of resuscitating a utility tax.
The meeting will take place 2 p.m. at 2180 W. First St. and is being
coordinated by Southwest Florida Watershed Council. The Watershed
Council monitors local water resources and is made up of members from
environmental groups, government agencies, private business, research
science and the public. Presentations will be given by Florida Association of Stormwater
Utilities, Lee County, Environmental Protection Agency and South Florida
Water Management District. Sarasota County officials will also attend the meeting to discuss
Sarasota's stormwater utility. Property owners there are assessed a tax
that pays for flood control and water quality improvements. Lee County tried a similar approach more than a decade ago when commissioners implemented a stormwater utility. That effort failed after many residents complained about the utility tax. The county refunded the paid taxes and axed the utility.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Researchers investigate 'black water' phenomenon

MARATHON — Researchers from Mote Marine Laboratory took samples Tuesday of what may be the black water phenomenon reported by Southwest Florida fishermen. Scientists speculate that the water held together when it was in deeper areas of Florida Bay but began breaking up and dissipating as it reached the shallows off the Keys.</