June  2002 

 

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Washington Post series: The Everglades 

This series, based on more than 200 interviews and thousands of pages of documents, shows that the $7.8 billion plan to restore the Everglades may result in little restoration but will certainly increase water supplies for Florida residents, farmers and businesses, who already lead the nation in per-capita water consumption
Copyright  © 2002  Washington Post  All rights reserved.

30-June-02

Jim Mudd ready, waiting for challenges as Collier county manager 
Jim Mudd's office on the second floor of the county government center sheds some light on what's in store for Collier County. His walls sport pictures of the U.S. Central Command of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, during Desert Storm, complete with a chronology of the Aug. 7, 1990, through Feb. 28, 1991, operation Desert Shield. Mudd is pictured in the middle with the other top commanders. His bookcase brims with the likes of "The Leadership Challenge," "In Search of Excellence" and "Improving Performance." His desk is topped with 13 separate piles of papers. A well-worn coffee cup and over-sized, cool-drink cup are at the ready for his regular 12-hour days. No personal effects here, save the tiny 3-by-7 silver-framed photos of his two children, Ryan, 23, and Kati, 19. Both photos lie flat on the shelf, no time to put them in place. There is no evidence of his wife, Toni, the woman he has known since kindergarten, been married to for 28 years and calls his best friend. This is a war room and he is all business - a take-charge kind of leader who aims to get to the point - his point. "I am a Type-A personality," he says with self-assurance. 
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Threat or natural hazard?
The killing of an alligator considered a community pet renewed a debate    about what to do when humans and wildlife collide. Most of the 142 alligator calls to Martin County sheriff's deputies in the past 18 months were aimed at removing a threat with lots of teeth. In backyard pools, on the first hole of a golf course and even crashing through one victim's windshield, Florida's ancient resident reptiles have taken a bite out of a few nerves. But not Buddy, the 6-foot Jensen Beach alligator that became a community pet to some of his human neighbors. Throwing food and watching him grow in a pond behind dozens of homes, his supporters hoped he would live out a natural and full life. But the sheriff's deputy who shot him in the name of public safety last weekend, other residents and state wildlife officials say those who fed him ultimately caused his death. Buddy's story was just another in the continual "nuisance or nature" debate about alligators across the state. Nuisance "That happens quite frequently. Some people don't want it there and some people want it there. It's a Catch-22," said Lt. Chris Sella, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Some people think it's part of the natural environment and should be there. Other people fear for the safety of their family." The reality is that alligators, or other wild animals, are generally not a threat to humans, as long as they are left alone. That means no feeding, he said. 
Copyright  © 2002 StuartNews  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Everglades Revival
WILL THE MASSIVE $8 billion program for re-plumbing the Everglades actually succeed in reviving the unique wetlands ecosystem that was decimated by years of federal reclamation and flood-control projects? A broad-ranging look at the project by The Post's Michael Grunwald raised that question last week, and underscored the need for strong and continuing oversight as the ambitious restoration effort moves forward.  Danger looms in two directions. One is that engineers can't say for sure that the technological fixes on which the plan depends will work as hoped. If the scientists and engineers can't "get the water right," as local officials say, the ecosystem's hoped-for recovery won't materialize. The other is that, with benefits for industry and development materializing faster than benefits for the environment, Congress will run out of patience, and federal support for the project will dry up before its goals are reached. The reasons for worry show up starkly in the "Lake Belt," a quarrying project at the Everglades' edge that is eating away 21,000 acres of wetlands even though it's not at all guaranteed its promised future water storage benefits will materialize. There are also signs of hope, such as the Indian River Lagoon Project, where Army Corps of Engineers officials responded to local activists and changed a project design to meet environmental needs. The restoration project, funded half by the federal government and half by the state of Florida, was designed to serve a wide range of interests, including water supply and flood control for booming South Florida: The strains inherent in encompassing them all are clear.  The federal interest in the project is in reviving the unique wetlands ecology and protecting it from future harm. Congress must keep pushing to uphold that mission. A House subcommittee took a step in that direction this week by voting to boost the Interior Department's role in the restoration effort. President Bush, who has pledged to be a good steward of the Everglades, has a role as well. His administration is developing the regulations that will guide the re-plumbing project; draft rules are now under review in the Office of Management and Budget. To meet his commitment, those rules must be strong and specific enough to protect the restoration goals. The damage done by years of effort to drain the Everglades can never be fully undone, but the federal government took on the right mission when it set out to restore what can be healed. Now the challenge is to keep it on course. Note: On Sunday, June 30, 2002, Washington Post reporter   Michael Grunwald was interviewed live on-camera on   "This Week in South Florida," Channel 10 WPLG, http://www.click10.com   A copy of the show is available for $31.95 from The News Poll,   800-799-8881.
Copyright  © 2002  Washington Post  All rights reserved.

Growing and pained
Environmentalists fear that lack of respect for natural resources will be the demise of our water supply, species and environmental legacy for future generations. If quotes published in The Washington Post from the leader of WCI Communities Inc. are any indication, those fears are well founded.  Part 3 of the Post series "The Swamp - Growing Pains in Southwest Florida" (at washingtonpost.com) afforded readers a troubling glimpse into the phenomenon of growth at all costs. Most environmental woes are the result of poor planning in how we've built our communities and allowed them to overflow - sprawling into areas where growth is not only inappropriate but also destructive to the environment.  Sprawl causes many afflictions, among them loss of wetlands, water and wildlife.  Sprawl is expensive, wasteful and environmentally damaging.  WCI's leader called sprawl "an inevitable tidal wave" that can't be stopped.  With the company's Florida home sales totaling $1.1 billion last year alone, it's wealth over health. It's all about making millions at the expense of the health of our ecosystems and natural landscapes. Collier County's growth plan approved last week demonstrated that local citizens and elected officials want to calm the wave and accomplish both environmental protection and development objectives by clustering development away from sensitive natural areas.  Unless citizens fight runaway sprawl, vote responsibly and support the efforts of environmental organizations, that "unstoppable" concrete wave will continue to crash relentlessly upon us - turning once pristine areas and wetlands into pavement, parking lots and rooftops.
Kathy Prosser/Naples
President and CEO, The Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

29-June-02

Project aims to protect acres of Florida wetlands
In what could end up as one of the most ambitious environmental projects in the nation, The Nature Conservancy said Friday it plans to restore 337,000 acres of wetlands along the Kissimmee River and keep developers off another 300,000.  The project calls for paying ranchers along the river never to build on their property. Under these "conservation easements," cattle could keep grazing on pastures that are not turned back into wetlands.  The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit group that works with government agencies to protect wildlife habitat, also would compensate the ranchers for maintaining the restored wetlands.  The project could cost $700 million and take years.  To pay for it, the Nature Conservancy hopes to tap into as much as $472 million available to Florida farmers during the six-year life of the $190 billion farm bill President Bush signed into law last month. The rest would have to come from state grants and private donations.  The idea of buying conservation easements to keep land out of the hands of developers hasn't been tried on this scale in Florida, but it's not unique.  If successful, this program would be the third largest restoration effort in Florida history, ranking only behind the Everglades and Kissimmee River projects, said Doug Shaw, a hydrologist with the Nature Conservancy, which is based in Washington, D.C. All told, the Nature Conservancy wants to protect more than 600,000 acres stretching from the headwaters of the Kissimmee River in Osceola County to Lake Okeechobee in South Florida.  Besides permanently keeping development from much of the Kissimmee River basin, restoring the wetlands will help improve the water quality of Lake Okeechobee and ultimately the Everglades. Ranchers who participate in the program will have to abide by certain rules, including a ban on using fertilizers that contain phosphorous. The wetlands, which are to be restored by filling in ditches and canals that now drain the pastures, will also provide new homes for wildlife, including the Florida panther, black bear and an array of wading birds.  A high-ranking USDA official who was on hand for the announcement and a tour of the area Friday said he is optimistic the program will get a good portion of the money it needs through the federal farm bill. Roughly $50 million for Florida will be available for the 2002 budget year, which begins in October. However, is it impossible to know how much the Kissimmee River project will get until Congress begins considering the Department of Agriculture's budget, said Paul Anderson, a spokesman for Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.  This is the first time that conservation money has been part of the farm bill, which has traditionally existed to subsidize American farms. There was a $35 million pilot project in the 1996 version of the bill, and roughly $50 million has been spent since then on conservation, said an aide to Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.  "I don't see any reason that we can't help them," said Mack Gray, the USDA's deputy undersecretary for Natural Resources, the division in charge of doling out the conservation money.  But even if the money is available, the program can't succeed unless a majority of the ranchers agree to participate. That's because the restoration must take place on an enormous scale rather than piecemeal if it is really to help Lake Okeechobee, conservancy scientists said.  Officials with the conservancy and USDA concede the program is not a done deal because of the history of mistrust and confrontation between agriculture and environmental groups. Ranchers and farmers, however, are concerned about the environment, too, Gray said.  "We hear the term, `the environment is important to everyone.' Well, the Nature Conservancy gives us a chance to prove that," Gray said. 
Copyright  © 2002 Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Water district cleaning up after fish kill
 Work began Friday to clean up more than 1 million dead fish floating amid weeds and plants in the C-24 Canal, the site of one of the largest fish kills in years. Paul Millar, director of the South Florida Water Management District's Stuart office, said workers moved a backhoe next to a machine that was placed on the waterway this week to pick up the decomposing plants. A mechanical harvester was placed on the canal this week to pick up the floating plants before they move through the spillway into the river, he said. It is used as an alternative to chemical spraying. The machine will now trap the dead bluegill sunfish, largemouth bass, threadfin shad and gizzard shad as they float to the spillway. Millar said heavy rain flushed weeds from drainage ditches in nearby groves into the canal, causing the massive fish kill. "Weeds naturally grow in secondary canals, and in the discharge process, they get kind of torn up and there's a high bio-chemical oxygen demand," he said. Decomposing plants take dissolved oxygen out of the water. When the dissolved oxygen is depleted, fish suffocate. "This is a big fish kill," Millar said of the estimated 1.5 million fish found dead Thursday in the 5-mile stretch of the C-24 from the North Fork of the St. Lucie River to the Savona Boulevard bridge. "It's incredibly huge, and that number is accurate," he said. 
Copyright  © 2002 StuartNews  All rights reserved.

 

Judge encouraged, concerned on Everglades cleanup
A federal judge said Friday that he is encouraged by Everglades cleanup reports but was concerned that a key component will be built later than the state agreed.   However, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler did not directly address complaints from environmentalists and the Miccosukee Indian tribe, which makes its home in the Everglades, that deadlines set for 2006 will be missed.   "It's creative accounting. It's cooking the books. It's phosphorus laundering, laundering the numbers," Dexter Lehtinen, the tribe's attorney, said after the hearing.   Water managers, in contrast, cited success so far and predicted more to come.   The South Florida Water Management District is the state agency in charge of most projects removing the pollutant phosophorus from water feeding the Everglades. Long-term costs for better water quality and quantity are estimated at $7.8 billion, to be shared by federal and state agencies.   Ruth Clements, attorney for the district, delivered an optimistic report on work to date and expressed confidence that goals covered by a 1991 lawsuit settlement will be reached on schedule four years from now. "We are enjoying better results overall than we expected," she told the judge. "We are confident we can attain those long-term numbers by 2006."   Lehtinen shot back, "The interim deadline is not being met, and there's no Phase 2 to meet the final deadline."   Phosphorus from fertilizer flows in runoff from ranches, farms and suburbs into the Everglades, which evolved as a low-nutrient ecosystem. Native plants such as sawgrass are quickly displaced by nonnative  phosphorus lovers, such as cattails and Australian melaleuca trees, but wildlife is unable to adapt as fast.   With a few exceptions, the district said it already is meeting a phosphorus standard of 50 parts per billion. The state has proposed a long-term 10 ppb standard, but a report filed with the court Thursday consistently talked about projects to get phosphorus to the range of 15 to 20 ppb. The primary phosphorus removal technique is a system of six manmade marshes, called stormwater treatment areas, where the mineral settles in the soil or is absorbed by plants.   Four operating treatment areas covering 18,000 acres produce phosphorus levels below 35 ppb, the district said.   Another area being built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be late. The delay will send untreated water to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, the northern chunk of federally protected Everglades in Palm Beach County, after a deadline set next year.   "I'm encouraged," said Hoeveler. "I understand that the (stormwater treatment area) might be a year late. If that's so, we want to find out about it."   He set a hearing Sept. 16 to begin hearing testimony from the tribe's experts to support their claims that slow cleanup is endangering the unique ecosystem.   "It looks good, but it's not the Everglades," said Lehtinen. 
Copyright  © 2002 Naples News  All rights reserved.

Miccosukees, environmentalists question state's rosy Glades report
State water managers on Friday gave a federal judge an upbeat assessment of efforts to reduce polluted farm runoff flowing into the Everglades. The Miccosukee Tribe, which has revived a landmark lawsuit against the state that helped trigger the Everglades restoration effort, ripped the report as ``creative accounting.'' ''It's phosphorous laundering,'' said tribe attorney Dexter Lehtinen after a hearing before senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler. The judge made no ruling but set another hearing for Sept. 16 to address allegations from the tribe and environmental groups that the South Florida Water Management District is running behind a court-mandated schedule to sharply cut pollution poisoning the Everglades by 2006.
Hoeveler called the district's report encouraging but also expressed concern about a key project, the biggest of a string of six filtering marshes called storm-water treatment areas, or STA. ''I understand that the STA might be a year late,'' Hoeveler said. ``If so, we want to find out what to do about it.'' The critical issue in the 14-year-old lawsuit, originally brought against the state of Florida in 1988 by Lehtinen when he was a U.S. attorney, is how much phosphorous should be allowed in the system. Under terms of a settlement, the state agreed to a set of deadlines to build filtering marshes and reduce pollution. The district's report claimed it was already averaging phosphorous levels of 35 parts per billion, ''well below'' an interim target of 50 parts per billion. In December, the state Department of Environmental Protection also proposed a tough permanent standard of 10 parts per billion, one cited in the 1994 Florida Forever Act and supported by the tribe and environmentalists. But that limit faces months of administrative hearings, and agricultural interests want to raise it to 15 to 16 parts per billion. The difference sounds small but some scientists believe phosphorous levels above 10 parts per billion will create a biological ripple that could change the Everglades: First, tiny things like algae die, then exotic plants oust natives like sawgrass and, finally, the altered habitat changes the wildlife. District attorney Ruth Clements told Hoeveler that while the report details problems, delays or high spikes of pollution with some filtering marshes, the overall results were better than expected. Pollution levels in Everglades National Park and the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge were already at or below the 2006 standards, she said. ''We are on track with complying with the settlement agreement performance measures,'' she said. Her comments were supported by lawyers for growers in the Everglades Agricultural Area southeast of Lake Okeechobee. Lehtinen told Hoeveler that while he had not had time to fully review the report, filed with the court late Thursday, the tribe's data suggested the picture was less rosy. He said the report contained numerous red flags, including suggestions that the district would not meet a number of deadlines and indications the agency was contemplating altering measurement techniques, which might skew results. He also said the state has failed to even develop a system that will clean water to the 2006 standard. ''Their own files show the interim deadline will not be met,'' he said. Environmental groups also expressed concerns. ''We just got this glowing report but I think on analysis it may not be so glowing,'' said Thom Rumberger, an attorney for Audubon of Florida.
Copyright  © 2002 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Managers, tribe differ on Everglades cleanup
Water managers are confident they can clean up the Everglades by the end of 2006.  Just not all of it.  Attorneys for the South Florida Water Management District told a federal judge Friday they're optimistic about meeting cleanup deadlines for the 2,600 square miles of Everglades managed by the U.S. government.  The district says the cleanup is removing hundreds of tons of polluting phosphorus faster than anyone had expected.  But they declined to promise the same for the other 1,100 square miles of Everglades controlled by the state or the Miccosukee Indian tribe. The pledge failed to soothe the tribe, who estimate the district's pace will drag the $867 million cleanup to at least 2013, six years past the deadline set by state law.  "What they're doing is changing the rate at which the Everglades is destroyed," Miccosukee water consultant Terry Rice said after the 1 1/2 - hour hearing in federal court.  District General Counsel John Fumero said nobody, including Rice, can predict what will happen in four years. But Fumero said the district and the sugar industry are making huge progress in cleaning phosphorus-tainted runoff from suburbs and farms.  "I'm not going to speculate," Fumero said. "We're doing everything humanly and technologically possible to improve the water in the Everglades.... This project is unprecedented." The questions are so tangled that U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ordered a new round of testimony in mid-September -- just shy of the 14th birthday of the lawsuit still slogging through his court.  "I'm encouraged," Hoeveler said after hearing the district's report. But he expressed concern about delays in finishing construction of the last of six large pollution-filtering marshes south of Lake Okeechobee.  One marsh, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building west of Wellington, is a year behind schedule.  The district's final marsh, on former sugar land in southwest Palm Beach County, is 200 days behind schedule because of a contractor's bankruptcy, but water managers expect to finish it by their October 2003 deadline. The tribe insists the marsh will fall a year behind schedule in producing clean water.  Water managers still don't know how clean the water must be, and the state commission in charge of setting the pollution limit may not finish the task until early 2003. But the district says it has spent more than $35 million researching ways to cut phosphorus levels further.   
Copyright  © 2002 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

28-June-02

County digs in on wastewater issues
A staff-led discussion on wastewater funding and projects at last week’s County Commission meeting was the most comprehensive look at the unincorporated Monroe County projects in the last two years. Thirty days following County Administrator Jim Roberts’ appointment as wastewater point person, he presented County Commissioners with numerous  project reports as well as the status of all funding and a punch list of  tasks ahead. The reports, all three-hole punched, separated by color-coded dividers and contained in thick white binders, are just the beginning, Roberts said. “This is the first train station on the sewage express,” he said. “Staff has put together the beginning binder, which will be the record of what the decisions are.” Monthly updates will be added to the binder. Roberts said he would seek board guidance with each step. “Because of the time periods involved, we can’t put things off for a month or two to think about,” he cautioned. Commissioners were impressed. “This is encouraging, it looks like we’re going on the fast train,“ said County Mayor Sonny McCoy. FKAA STAYS Roberts’ first announcement was that county staff reached agreement with the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) to continue its role as wastewater utility. But a new team of players will work with the county, including FKAA board member Mary Rice and another board member not yet identified. Jim Reynolds, deputy director of FKAA, will lead the team. FKAA Director Roger Braun previously led the initiative. Rice said after the meeting that so much was going on with water and wastewater that board members felt Braun “was being spread too thin.” Rice said the team was committed to helping the county meet the tight timelines for spending grant money and upgrading wastewater, as ordered by the state.
Read More...
Copyright  © 2002 Upper Keys Reporter  All rights reserved. 

Property rights debate builds on Big Pine Key
Growth or no growth. Marsh rabbits and Key deer versus people. Habitat Conservation Plan versus private property rights. These issues, brought again to the forefront by newly formed Citizens for Constitutional Property Rights, dominate the ongoing battle about future development on Big Pine Key. The CCPR, which met in Wednesday in Big Pine, describes itself as a group of local people who have gotten together to provide a voice for small-property owners who believe their right to own and use property is being eroded in violation of the Constitution. About 49 participants listened to guest speakers discuss the history of Monroe County land-use plans and a Habitat Conservation Plan.  "I feel the county is giving away the store in their program being put forth by HCP by limiting the number of houses to be built over the next 20 years," CCPR President Joe Ambrose said.  The ultimate goal of the Habitat Conservation Plan is to come up with a way to develop Big Pine and No Name keys in ways that would enable people to coexist with endangered species. The plan will mitigate and compensate for any negative consequences of development on the endangered species in the area.Tim McGarry, division director of Monroe County's Growth Management Department, said the final draft of the HCP is to be finished in September, but still will have to be approved by county commissioners, the Department of Community Affairs and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  McGarry referred The Citizen to county Planning Director Margaret Conaway for details of the plan, but she was out of town this week.  The issue of future development on Big Pine Key is further complicated because it is a part of the 6,000-acre National Key Deer Refuge, and the island is under a building moratorium because U.S. 1 is inadequate to support existing traffic. Also in the planning stages is a so-called CommuniKeys program, which attempts to find the "needs of the human community and is being completed by the citizens and property owners in the community, under the guidance of the county Planning and Environmental Resources Department."  In light of the ongoing battles that face the residents of Big Pine from the Key deer and building moratorium, the Citizens for Constitutional Property Rights believe Monroe County is heading towards no-growth legislation.  According to Ambrose, planning and zoning by the county devalues property and robs the owner of the value of the property by curbing the use of the property.  
Copyright  © 2002 Keys news  All rights reserved.

A state biologist estimated there were 1.5 million dead fish in the  waterway
State scientists examined one of the largest fish kills in years Thursday, with more than a million fish found floating in the C-24 Canal. Doug Strom, a biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection, inspected the scene Thursday morning after neighbors reported the dead fish to state agencies. In a report, Strom estimated there were 1.5 million dead fish in the 5-mile stretch of canal from the North Fork of the St. Lucie River to at least the Savona Boulevard bridge. But another state scientist who tracks fish kills throughout the state said there could be more. "Usually, your estimates are rather conservative," said Emilio Sosa, a research associate with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg. "That's a lot of fish." Heavy rains and discharges from the canal into the St. Lucie River are partly to blame for the fish kill, which was caused by a lack of dissolved oxygen, Strom reported. Dissolved oxygen, which fish breathe, comes from underwater photosynthesis, in which plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy. Cloudy weather inhibits photosynthesis, and stormwater runoff sucks up dissolved oxygen needed to break down the phosphorous and other nutrients that pour into the canal. Nutrients from the runoff also cloud the water, making photosynthesis more difficult. Warm water naturally contains less oxygen, and rotting fish and plants can also suck up the dissolved oxygen. 
copyright  © 2002  Stuart News  All rights reserved.

 

Discharges from lake looming with rain
Officials have already begun discharging water from the C-23, C-24 and C-25 canals into the estuary. Recent heavy rains have caused the level of Lake Okeechobee to rise a foot in less than two weeks a rapid increase that has caused water managers and local St. Lucie River advocates to take notice. Most scientists agree the higher water level won't hurt the health of the lake, but the rains have caused South Florida Water Management District officials to discharge water from the C-23, C-24 and C-25 canals into the St. Lucie Estuary. Because of those discharges, the water quality of the estuary is "the lowest its been since January," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society. Discharge threat begins Lake Okeechobee was 12.5 feet above sea level Thursday, and the canals to the south of the lake that feed the Everglades Agricultural Area reached a level for the first time Wednesday that allowed water managers to unnaturally pump water back into the lake. The season-long threat of discharges from the lake into the St. Lucie Estuary from the nutrient-rich lake has begun. "Once it gets over 14.5 feet in the lake, then we really have to keep our eyes on the district," Perry said. "It will have to come up another 2 feet, and that's very possible. It could definitely happen." 
copyright  © 2002  Stuart News  All rights reserved.

 

27-June-02

Water Supply, Growth Don't Mix
People in southern Hillsborough look at new houses, apartments and businesses rising around them and wonder: If water is in such short supply, how can the county keep approving
all these developments? Mary Cardenas of Valrico doesn't understand commissioners banning lawn watering but doing nothing to curb the construction boom. ``How can we keep building out here if there's no water?'' she said. ``We hear that all the time,'' said Pat Frank, chairwoman of the Hillsborough County Commission, which Tuesday banned lawn watering in southern and eastern Hillsborough to prevent the well field serving the area from violating its pumping permits. 
Copyright  © 2002 Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Locals surprised, but pleased with decision to make Mudd permanent county manager
From government officials to county watchdogs, environmentalists and business leaders, there was agreement Wednesday that Collier County commissioners made a good decision when they suddenly picked Deputy County Manager Jim Mudd to become county manager as of July 15.  "It was out of the blue, but I think it was the right thing to do and it was an excellent choice," said Nancy Payton, local representative for the National Wildlife Federation. "It will provide continuity. We will not be disrupted by looking for a new manager." Most residents had no idea that commissioners Tuesday night were about to pick Mudd to replace County Manager Tom Olliff when he leaves in two weeks. Commissioners were scheduled to hire a national search firm to assess the field of candidates. Now, commissioners will work out a contract with Mudd and plan to approve it in July.  "Everybody was surprised," Commissioner Donna Fiala said. "Going into that meeting even I had no idea that's how we would be coming out."  Fiala said comments and e-mails she received Wednesday were positive.  "I've talked to people in the city and the county and in the field, and they are very pleased," she said. "People who work with him say his honesty is refreshing."  Mudd was hired as the county's public utilities administrator in October 2000 and became Olliff's right-hand man one year later. He spent 26 years in the U.S. Army, and several years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His last post was as commander of the Rock Island, Ill., Army Corps of Engineers district.  It was there Mudd became embroiled in a controversy that went all the way to the Pentagon and has since dogged him to Collier County.  A Pentagon investigation reported that he and others manipulated numbers to favor spending $1.1 billion on Corps construction projects in 2000.  Olliff and commissioners stood by Mudd's version that the controversy was really government politics gone awry. Even people who were his harshest critics a year ago had nothing but praise for him Wednesday.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

26-June-02

Sanctuary votes for greater voice in 'Glades project: Asks that Corps involve the Keys in more decisions
Everything that flows through the Everglades restoration project will end up on the shores of the Florida Keys, warned conservationists.  "We are definitely going to feel the consequences here," said Nancy Klingener, who heads the Ocean Conservancy's office in Key West.  "Right now, the voices of the Keys are not being heard," she said.  At the urging of Klingener and officials of the World Wildlife Fund, the Advisory Council to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary voted June 18 to seek more information on the $7.8-billion restoration effort for the Everglades.  The panel also told state and federal officials that restoration projects planned for the Keys should be explained and considered in the Keys. Among the long list of Everglades-related projects are the Florida Bay/Florida Keys Feasibility Study, and the Florida Keys Tidal Restoration Study. The tidal study, for example, proposed to dig large culverts underneath U.S. 1 in the Middle Keys to improve water flows between the bay to ocean.  "Those are Keys projects, but most of the meetings for them take place in Fort Lauderdale or even Jacksonville," Klingener said. "The people of the Keys need to know what's going on."  Shannon Estenoz, director of World Wildlife Fund's Everglades Program, said Keys residents cannot afford to be spectators as Everglades projects take shape over the next two decades.  "If you want it to happen right, you have to be engaged in the process," Estenoz said. "No county is as geographically or economically positioned like Monroe County to bear the brunt of the success or failure of this project."  Most of the planning sessions for the Keys projects take place near U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices, or near large population centers.  "We understand that it is a pain for the agency staffers to come down to the Keys," Klingener said. "But it's more of a pain for Keys residents to go up to Fort Lauderdale for everything. The Keys voices are not being heard." 
Read More...
Copyright  © 2002 Florida Keys Keynoter All rights reserved.
 

Editorial: SAVE THE CORAL REEFS KEYS MOTIVATED TO BUILD TREATMENT PLANTS
The results of a new study on what's killing elkhorn coral in the Keys produced an answer that surprises no one. The study by University of Georgia scientists looked for the cause of the ''white pox'' disease that is decimating the once abundant elkhorn coral that ranged like forests across vast expanses of tropical sea bottom.  The culprit turns out to be fecal coliform bacteria present in the intestines of humans, animals and some soils. The bacteria appear to be fatal only for the elkhorn coral. The researchers, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies make a reasonable assumption that the biggest source of the bacteria is sewage in the Keys.  But that doesn't explain how underwater forests of elkhorn on reefs located some seven miles offshore also have been attacked. That's a long way from the Keys' 2,800 cesspits and hundreds of septic tanks. Research into that puzzle will continue. Yet this study's findings have confirmed what many have said for years -- the Florida Keys must get serious about its solid-waste treatment or else face losing one of its biggest tourist draws: the clear offshore waters and the corals they nurture. While other factors such as coral bleaching, rising sea levels and boat groundings contribute to the decline of the reef systems, the perils that sewage pose can be controlled.  Some advances are being made in Monroe County on the sewage-treatment front. Key West has gone to advanced wastewater treatment for sewage, replacing its main lines and requiring residents to replace leaky lateral lines.  Marathon is working on a request for proposals for a central treatment system, but is moving at a snail's pace. In the unincorporated area, the Florida Keys Aquaduct Authority, after some wavering, is back as the overseer of sewage treatment. Its board briefly voted to pull out after the County Commission approved an elected sewer board to oversee waste-treatment plans in the Key Largo area.  Keys officials are motivated by $12 million appropriated by Gov. Jeb Bush for sewage treatment that wisely comes with a deadline. The money must be committed to projects that are under way by next March or it becomes available for other projects. That's a big incentive for communities to move more swiftly to get rid of this inexcusable pollution threat.  
Copyright  © 2002  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

 

25-June-02

How Did Busch Gardens Grow?
Wild animals - and people - have always roamed where Montu, Kumba, zebras and monkeys now rule.  Long before Busch Gardens opened in 1959, beckoning guests with free beer and a chance to see exotic birds and flowers, the future theme park's land was roamed by black bears, deer, turkeys and bobcats.  In the early 1900s, hunters stalked wildlife on the 5,500-acre flatland of pine trees and palmettos that included the future Busch Gardens property. The wealthy Chicago Potter-Palmer family owned the private hunting preserve, as well as half of Sarasota County. In 1941, parts of the property were cleared for concrete runways and tarmac for Henderson Airport, a pale forerunner of Tampa's international airport.  During World War II, flyboys arrived on the airfield from all over the country to learn to fly P-51 Mustangs. By then, it was run by the U.S. Army Air Corps and renamed Hillsborough Army Airfield.  Ansley Watson, now 89, was the base's commanding officer.  ``We had about 400 people on the base. Mechanics and clerks and GIs lived there in barracks. Officers lived off base,'' recalls Watson, who lives in Palma Ceia, just 10 miles from the base he first commanded in January '44 and closed less than a year later. ``It was really wooded then, but we had service facilities with one hangar and a control tower and a concrete building where we parked the fighters. We usually had about 28 airplanes.''  It was a very small base, remembers his wife, Jane Price Watson, whom he met at a party not long after arriving in Tampa from South Dakota in 1943. ``But he was determined to make it a fine base.''  Watson, who flew for United Airlines before and after the war, arranged for bombers from MacDill Air Force Base to fly over his airfield for training exercises.  ``We would play like we were attacking them,'' he recalls. ``Six bombers, 12 fighters. We did rolls and zooms.''  Years later, the Watsons settled in Tampa and often took their four children and nine grandchildren to Busch Gardens to see the animals. Watson knew the theme park was on the same property as his base, but he never associated the two, since it didn't seem like anything was left of his old airfield. But when he visited the park in 1994, Busch employees - knowing his background - showed him some of the leftover concrete tarmac just north of park boundaries.  The tarmac reminded him of the closeness of the base back then.  ``We pursuit pilots were closer to each other than bomber pilots,'' he says, smiling. ``Because we thought we were the best.''
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

Group formed to identify Lee Everglades restoration projects
An advisory team aimed at identifying Everglades restoration projects for much of Lee and Charlotte counties formed Monday and is expected to hold its first meeting later this month.  The Charlotte Harbor-Caloosahatchee River Regional Coordination Team was established during a meeting of water and environmental experts meeting in North Fort Myers. The new group will meet July 22 at the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council office at 9:30 a.m. in North Fort Myers.  The group is a sub-team of the more comprehensive Southwest Florida Regional Restoration Coordination Team.  Serving as an advisory group to identify projects for the 30-year, $8 billion Everglades restoration project, the Charlotte Harbor-Caloosahatchee team is headed by Lisa Beever, director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program.  Beever also will function as co-chairwoman of the overall restoration group, which includes the new team as well as the Big Cypress Basin-Estero Bay Restoration Coordination Team. The two teams together cover Southwest Florida from the Charlotte Harbor watershed south to Everglades National Park.  The teams will collect scientific research and data from their areas and rank projects they hope will get money during Everglades restoration. As a whole, the group will also lobby for money for identified projects. Combining the Big Cypress-Estero Bay team with a partner to the north is the brainchild of Wayne Daltry, Lee County's Smart Growth director.  Daltry said Monday he hopes to bring the scientific research from both teams to Everglades restoration groups in hopes that Southwest Florida will gain a stronger voice in the project.  "This is a political science process to try to move the science into the politics," Daltry said. "And that ain't easy. It's a political game. And if you don't play, you automatically lose."  FGCU professor Mike Savarese heads the Big Cypress-Estero Bay team and agreed to help Beever organize a team for the north area. He agreed with Daltry, saying the region needs a strong voice during the Everglades project.  "I think Southwest Florida should start to flex its muscle and get better representation," said Savarese, the second co-chair for the overall group.  The teams will meet together four times a year and submit annual reports to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project team. 
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

24-June-02

MELALEUCA PROJECT
Big Cypress Gallery Clyde and Niki Butcher Special Projects

Kill the scourge of the Everglades, buy a unique hiking stick made from the invasive Melaleuca tree! $10 from every walking stick will be donated to the Florida Exotic Pest Council. 



Warren Resen working hard on 
creating his Melaleuca Walking Sticks. 


The spread of the Austrailian Melaleuca tree (Melaleuca Quinquenervia) across the Everglades began with its introduction into South Florida early in the 20th century as a fast-growing ornamental tree, and as a tree to "drain the swamp" of the Everglades. To say that the subsequent spread of Melaleuca has been explosive is a mild description of how the tree has taken over the native habitats of South Florida.The Melaleuca not only invades areas where the soil has been disturbed, but also invades every existing ecosystem in South Florida, except for the saline zone. The tree grows in Melaleuca forests so dense that no animal can live within the boundary. They also absorb phenomenal mounts of water. Developers in the early 1900's had hoped the tree would dry up the Everglades, so the land could be put to "good" use. Because of its explosive reproductive rate, the Melaleuca could overtake most of this region's remaining natural land within 30 years. 

 
Clyde uses his when he goes 
out into the swamp.

The Big Cypress Melaleuca Fight
Florida Environment Radio

Big Cypress National Preserve protects about 750,000 acres of Southwest Florida. But not long ago, more than a third of it was home to the invasive plant Melaleuca. Thanks to an aggressive, eradication effort, the bulk of the preserve is maintained nearly Melaleuca free. Bill Snyder is a Big Cypress Forestry Technician...http://www.floridaenvironment.com/programs/fe20624.htm

 

Related Articles;

National park celebrates death of its last melaleuca tree

Mitigation funds boost melaleuca control efforts

Related Links;

Melaleuca quinquenervia
http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/melainv.html

Invasive Species: Melaleuca profile
http://www.invasivespecies.gov/profiles/melaleuca.shtml

Exotics in the Everglades
http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/exotics.htm

 

 

22-June-02

Bush letter to property rights group raises outcry
Environmentalists say it is inappropriate for the governor to    use his office to urge donations for the group. In Florida's courtrooms, the Pacific Legal Foundation has argued against dimming beach lights to help baby sea turtles. It has fought for the rights of boaters upset about manatee protection regulations. It has opposed the state Department of Environmental Protection over a land use case. And it has won a notable fan: Gov. Jeb Bush. The cover of the most recent newsletter from the foundation's Atlantic Center in Miami reproduces a letter from Bush in which he encourages potential donors to give to the foundation. "I hope that your supporters, and those who have not yet made the decision to contribute to your effort, realize the extent to which PLF has become a voice ... on behalf of limited government, private property rights, education reform and free enterprise," Bush wrote. "Keep up the good work." Critics questioned why Bush would allow the foundation to use the prestige of the governor's office in a bid for financial support. "I think it's inappropriate to send a letter saying, 'I hope people send money to your organization and join it,"' said David Guest of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which frequently sues state agencies to push for more environmental regulation. "It reveals something about Jeb that we've always known: He's a closet right-wing crazy." One of the Atlantic Center's advisory board members said the foundation is not that far to the right.
Copyright  © 2002 St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

21-June-02

MICCOSUKEE DEALS WORRY WATER MANAGERS
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) shows not only its ineptitude, but its transparent attempt to continuously portray the true residents of the Everglades as an obstacle to their faulty logic for "restoring the Everglades." The most recent attempt is a column by the Miami herald who has apparently joined forces to disseminate false or at best misleading information. The Miccosukee Tribe has acquired various parcels of land, that part of the column is true. I have not returned calls from the Miami Herald because they too often misrepresent what I say. We purchased land that was taken from us long ago. We have not done so under the guise of false names or secret dealings. The purchases were done in the open for all to see. The SFWMD would have you believe that as a result of the Miccosukee Tribe's purchases they now cannot clean up the mess that they made. Ironic, that this is the same water management district that last year created an extremely costly drought with their failed attempt to maintain Lake Okeechobee. They created a drought through is-management, and then flood our neighboring cities of Sweetwater, and Kendall, only to later fine the same residents for lawn watering. Do the citizens of South Florida want this same SFWMD "restoring the Everglades"?
Copyright  © 2002 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

 

20- June-02

Water district targets wasters
Managers said sprinkler systems should be reset during the rainy season. As the typical afternoon thunderstorms roll into the Treasure Coast, water conservationists say not everyone is taking advantage of the wet weather. Some sprinkler systems are still spritzing and spraying, even though the area has received up to 5 inches of rain in the past week. Such unnecessary irrigating not only wastes water, officials say, it hurts the plants and grass and increases the amount of polluted runoff in neighboring waterways. "We've had the onset of our summer wet season. It's rained every day for a week. There's absolutely no reason to be irrigating," said Paul Millar, the director of the South Florida Water Management District's Stuart office. "It's an incredible waste of a precious commodity." Outdated or poorly designed irrigation systems are usually to blame, but another reason water gets wasted, during the rainy season especially, is that people aren't adjusting the timers on their sprinklers. Even Stuart is at fault. "I see blatant water wast- ers," Millar said.
Copyright  © 2002 StuartNews  All rights reserved.

 

Way down upon the Suwanee
When Stephen Collins Foster wrote Old Folks at Home, which most people recognize by the opening line, "Way down upon the Swanee River," he immortalized the river that snakes through Florida's Panhandle. The song became a symbol of love for home and inspired the Florida Legislature to adopt it as the official state song in 1935. Oddly, the Pennsylvania-born composer never visited the Suwannee. Had Foster seen the Suwannee, he might have described in song the diverse river that changes personalities with water levels as it meanders 250 miles from Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico. A four-year drought in North Florida has left the Suwannee's water level low, especially the upper parts of the river. The spring-fed lower and middle parts of the Suwannee have enough flow to keep paddlers afloat, but sections north of Live Oak still require canoeists to wade across sand flats covered with 4 inches of tea-colored water. Farther upstream, the river has been less navigable in recent months. Low water on the Suwannee is not all bad, though. Vertical limestone walls filled with holes like Swiss cheese and gracefully sloping banks of white sand at river bends are fully exposed in times of low water. Artifact hunters who scour the river for arrowheads and sharks teeth also find low water levels appealing on a river whose water level can fluctuate 30 feet.
copyright  © 2002 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved

19-June-02

A price on priceless swamps
Years ago, buying Florida swamp was a national joke. Swamps were worthless and unusable. But times have changed. These days the buying and selling of Florida swamp isn't funny. Our swamps aren't worthless anymore. Science has established that they are a critical component of Florida's unique ecosystems, as well as Florida's water supply and Florida's weather. And swamps aren't unusable anymore. Over the past 100 years, human ingenuity has perfected techniques of dredge and fill to dry out the swamp, making it ready for roads, houses and stores. Beginning in the 1970s, after the importance of wetlands to our collective well-being was scientifically established, the political system responded by adopting laws to protect wet places. Congress passed the Clean Water Act, Florida passed laws, and some counties adopted wetlands protection ordinances. Under the Clean Water Act it should be difficult to obtain a dredge and fill permit to build a house, a road, or a box store because these property uses are "non-water dependent" -- you don't need to be in a wetland to successfully build a road, a house, or a box store. The law presumes that you can find dry land to build these non-water dependent projects on. You might think that, given the stringent protections afforded wetlands under the Clean Water Act, we could rest easy. You would be mistaken. The Clean Water Act, like most environmental laws, is not self-executing. The law has no meaning if it is not properly enforced, and it has not been rigorously enforced in Florida for years. As the News-Journal has reported, dredge and fill proceeds at a rapid pace in Florida, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, charged with administering the Clean Water Act, almost never rejects a permit application. The reality is that the Clean Water Act has been effectively subverted. An army of consultants, engineers, permitting bureaucrats, "biologists," and lawyers has evolved to circumvent and thwart the firm enforcement of wetland protection rules in Florida. The heist of Florida's wetlands since the 1970s has been pulled off by a sleight of hand known as "mitigation." This quid pro quo is intended to ensure a "no net loss" of wetlands, an avowed purpose of the Clean Water Act, through the replacement of ecological resources proposed to be lost in a dredge and fill project. However, "mitigation" is not supposed to be considered until after an applicant has shown first that there is no alternative non-wetland site available for the proposed project, and then demonstrated avoidance and minimization of all wetland destruction.
Read More...
Copyright  © 2002 Daytona News-Journalonline All rights reserved.

 

18-June-02

Brent Batten: Large rural landowners like county's plan, so it might not be too bad
When the proposed new rules for development in the county's rural fringe go before Collier County commissioners today, landowners worried that their property rights will be gutted by the plan are likely to raise a fuss. Their protests stand in marked contrast to the reaction of landowners to the east who commissioned, then accepted, a similar plan for their land.   There are differences in the two groups, to be sure. In the 93,000-acre rural fringe between the urban zone and Golden Gate Estates, hundreds of property owners own smallish chunks of land ranging from a few, to a few hundred, acres. Farther east, in the area surrounding Immokalee, most of the land is owned by a handful of major holders with thousands of acres each.But the growth-limiting plans being considered in the two areas have as their basis a similar principle - that of transferring development rights from some spots to other spots.   The rural fringe landowners therefore might want to take a clue from their counterparts to the east.   If the big landowners aren't frightened at the prospect of development rights shifting around, maybe the concept isn't as bad as feared.   After all, these big landowners are good at being landowners.   They pull off deals like selling or trading surface rights to swampland to the government, then selling the oil and mineral rights on the same land years later to the same government. They've made money through agriculture and development. They aren't going to sign on to a bad deal and sit quietly as it becomes law.   The large rural landowners paid for the plan that county commissioners and - after some tweaking - environmental groups have agreed to and sent to Tallahassee for review.   Under it, the development rights to environmentally sensitive land can be transferred to less delicate parcels. The result, theoretically, will be large swaths of permanently preserved areas with communities clustered at sensible intervals.   While the county, and not the landowners, paid for the separate plan in the rural fringe, one looks a lot like the other.   Rural fringe landowners with property in areas designated "sending areas" can sell their development rights to those with land in "receiving areas."
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

Luciano Reinoso, 10, casts a line under the New Pass Bridge over
  Estero Bay on Monday afternoon. The Reinoso family, including sister
 Irina, ll, right, are vacationing in Bonita Springs from Miami for the week
They didn't catch any fish on this day. The state Department of Environmental 
Protection is launching a five-year study of the bay's health. 

 

DEP launching five-year 'impaired water' study of Estero Bay
The state's Department of Environmental Protection is gathering data in Estero Bay to determine whether the bay is polluted enough to be classified as impaired. The Estero Bay watershed is among the first areas in Florida to undergo such a review. A new statewide rule, called the impaired water bodies rule, requires that data be collected from various sources within a river system, estuary, bay or lake. Scientists will examine that information to determine average amounts of various pollutants. If pollutants total more than is allowed by the Department of Environmental Protection, the waterway is considered impaired, which triggers an effort to remove the pollutants and find ways to keep them from entering the water.   The impaired waters rule, which is intended to create a list of Florida waters that are polluted and formulate a plan for addressing the contamination, has been controversial. Some groups, such as the Clean Water Network, have criticized the rule for not being stringent enough, and several environmental groups challenged the rule in court.   A hearing officer recently ruled in favor of the Department of Environmental Protection, meaning the agency can implement the science behind the rule.   DEP officials say the rule will give the state a scientific approach for classifying water bodies and cleansing them of pollutants. The rule also will give DEP the authority to more closely monitor development within the watershed. "What we're talking about here are additional efforts for restoration," said Jerry Brooks with DEP's Division of Water Resource Management. "The restoration measures are going to be focused on non-point storm water sources, mostly for which we've not had regulative authority to address."   Non-point sources, mostly runoff from development and fertilizers, are one of the main threats to the Estero Bay watershed. Some areas of the state have industry and other pollution sources that are more easily monitored. Non-point sources include farming, golf courses and even lawns.   Brooks said Estero Bay appears to be in good shape, although the tributaries flowing into the bay do show signs of nutrient pollution.   "It's apparently a very healthy water body," Brooks said. "(But it) may be threatened."   Estero Bay is endangered mostly by pollution coming from developments and the agriculture industry. The watershed is under intense building pressures as nearby Bonita Springs, Estero and San Carlos Park continue to develop. Allan Bedwell, the DEP deputy secretary for regulatory programs, said the rule will allow the agency to gather information from various water quality monitoring groups as a way of comprehensively dealing with watersheds instead of just considering the effect of individual developments.   "Our whole approach is really to start dealing with water pollution from a basin approach," Bedwell said.   Matt Bixler with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said the rule is a positive step and should create a blueprint for assessing nutrient pollutants in the bay and in area waters.   "It will hopefully show us where the problems are and how to correct them," said Bixler, who's also a member of the Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management. "Eventually it's going to push people toward more innovative techniques of dealing with storm water management."   Public meetings on the rule and the data collected will take place in Fort Myers and Marco Island in July. Similar meetings will take place statewide. The rule is expected to be finalized and adopted by Oct. 1.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Developer hoping to build on groundwater recharge area by changing county's rules
When Lee County first created a groundwater recharge area designation more than a decade ago, the land was considered nearly untouchable. County officials, searching for ways to accommodate growth but still deal with water resource issues, set aside tens of thousands of acres east of Interstate 75 as open space where rain could filter through layers of soil to replenish the aquifers that quench Southwest Florida's thirst.   Then two years ago, at the urging of developers such as The Bonita Bay Group, the county decided to permit up to 10 golf courses in the Density Reduction Groundwater Recharge (DRGR) area. Environmentalists howled in complaint, so county officials placed stringent restrictions on development, such as allowing only one home per 10 acres, to severely limit future development on those lands.   Sometime in the next few months, a developer may test those limits.  Ginn Company, an Orange County-based residential developer, hopes to build on the groundwater recharge land east of Florida Gulf Coast University.   So far, the company has sought rezoning for a golf course on a section of the 4,500 acres it is in the process of buying. Lee County planning staff has recommended approval of the 27-hole golf course as one of the 10 permissible on groundwater recharge land.   The issue will go to a public hearing Wednesday.   Initial statements following the company's purchase of the land last spring indicated that Ginn Co. planned to use the land for several golf courses and approximately 1,600 residences, or about one home per 3 acres.   Tom McCarthy, vice president of the Southwest Florida region for Ginn Co., said the company hasn't decided how it plans to pursue development of the property. He said those plans likely will be announced sometime in the next 60 days.   One of the options Ginn Co. hasn't ruled out is seeking a change in the comprehensive plan to allow greater density than the limit of one home per 10 acres.   County planning director Paul O'Connor said part of the original DRGR designation included a provision to discourage amendments to the comprehensive plan that would seek increased density.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.
Link to Map:   http://www.naplesnews.com/02/06/graphics/18ginn.JPG
 

Scientists: Bacteria Found in Human Waste Killing Coral in Keys
A bacteria common in human waste is rapidly killing coral in the Florida Keys, according to a study published in a scientific journal. A bacteria called Serratia marcescens, which is found in waste of about half the human population, is destroying the elkhorn coral. Elkhorn coral has large rust-colored branches that provide food and shelter for a wide range of sea life.  "It's our first link between a bacteria found in human waste and a coral disease, and a particularly virulent strain of coral disease," said Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.  The bacteria causes a disease called white pox, which infects the thin layer of living tissue on a coral skeleton and creates an open white wound that spreads as much as three inches a day. White pox can kill a reef in about a year, said lead researcher James Porter.  Elkhorn once ranked as the most common coral in the Caribbean, but about 70 percent of it has died across the Keys, said Kathryn Patterson, a principal investigator. Scientists believe white pox caused most of the destruction.  Researchers, led by a team from the University of Georgia, said the bacteria can also be found in water, soil and animal waste. The finding, published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, does not directly identify sewage as the source of the bacteria.  But some environmentalists said they hope the discovery will help get funding for sewage overhauls in the Keys. Monroe County faces a 2010 state deadline to upgrade its sewage systems, which could cost $500 million.      
Copyright  © 2002  Tampa Tribune / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

Related links,  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org/

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGAZDLGGL2D.html

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/

Rapid Spread of Diseases in Caribbean Coral Reefs
http://globalcoral.org/rapid_spread_of_diseases_in_cari.htm
 

Sewage bacteria blamed for coral disease
An epidemic of "white pox" that has decimated the once- plentiful elkhorn coral in the Caribbean has been traced to bacteria found in sewage, scientists are reporting today.  The epidemic has reduced populations of elkhorn by as much as 70 percent in waters surrounding some Florida keys.  "It is very sad that the one coral species affected is the magnificent branching elkhorn coral," University of Georgia ecologist James Porter said.  "These are the giant redwoods of the reef," he said. "What used to be the most common coral in the Caribbean has now been recommended for inclusion on the endangered species list."  Porter and a team of scientists from universities, government and private industry are reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have established that the epidemic is caused by bacteria called Serratia marcescens.  The organism is found in the digestive tracts of humans and many other animals, Porter said. To identify the reason for the disease, which causes pale blotches to grow on the normally tan coral, researchers collected material from the outer edges of each and grew the bacteria found there in a laboratory seawater- based "broth."  Genetic analysis confirmed that Serratia marcescens was the microbe culprit, they said.  Porter said the white pox disease is extremely contagious among coral.  White pox often is confused with coral bleaching, a different cause of coral death.  Yet the two may be related, said Katherine Patterson, a researcher who works with Porter.  "Identification of a fecal enteric bacterium as the cause of white pox means we cannot blame global warming as the main problem on the coral reefs, but it all adds up," she said. "Warmer water depresses coral growth, but increases bacterial growth. In combination this domino effect could foretell a disaster."
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

So-so year for citrus fruit growers
It's been a mixed bag for Florida growers this season, from slumping grapefruit juice demand to prices for oranges that nudged up just a bit.  "It wasn't a great year, but it's not the worst year we've ever seen," said Robert Barber, economist for Florida Citrus Mutual in Lakeland, a growers' group.Data from Citrus Mutual released earlier this month shows the big loser in the 2001-2002 harvest was red grapefruit juice, which is fetching 10 cents to 25 cents "per pound solids." A pound of solids, consisting of juice and fruit sugar, is needed for one gallon of juice.  Those are the lowest prices in five years, the growers' group said.  Prices were even worse last season, said Bob Terry, agricultural statistics administrator at the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service in Orlando.  "This season is up from that, so it is in the right direction," Terry said. "Growers' costs have increased, such as fuel, so higher prices don't necessarily mean they made more money."  White grapefruit juice fared slightly better than red grapefruit juice, ranging from 45 to 75 cents. The break-even point for growers is 70 to 80 cents, said Doug Bournique, executive vice president of Vero Beach-based Indian River Citrus League.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Sewage a suspect in coral death
It is the hardest evidence yet that all those toilet flushes in the Florida Keys could be killing off the area's magnificent branched corals.  A bacterium commonly found in the intestinal tracts of humans and animals has been positively identified as the cause of a disease decimating elkhorn corals in marine waters around the island chain, marine researchers reported Monday.  Exactly where the bacteria -- the culprit behind the coral-destroying malady called white pox -- comes from is under investigation.  But University of Georgia ecology professor James W. Porter says the research he led pointing to the enteric bacterium is "highly suggestive" of sewage discharge in the Keys as the trigger for the white pox outbreaks.  "This evidence points to a human sewage connection to the disease, but does not prove it," said Porter, whose findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He said additional and more complicated research is needed to make that direct link.  "We have the bullet and the body, but we don't have the smoking gun yet," Porter said.  Corals stricken with white pox develop irregularly shaped white blotches. The disease grows and kills the coral by consuming the thin layer of living tissue that covers its limestone skeleton. The bacteria can spread across 1/2 square inch to 3 square inches a day.  Monitoring reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Porter and a research team traced white pox to fecal bacteria called Serratia marcescens.  It is the same species found in the guts of humans and animals, but more work must be done to determine whether it is the same strain, Porter said.  Serratia marcescens can survive as a free-living microbe in both soil and water.  Whether it is reaching reefs via sewage disposal is a critical matter for the Keys.  A lot of sewage there is discharged into septic fields that allow it to seep into the ground, as opposed to being put through extensive and advanced wastewater treatment to destroy bacteria.  Boats also dump sewage directly into Keys waters with their pump-out disposal systems.  "We need to bring [Keys] sewage treatment up to advanced wastewater treatment standards, and we need to take seriously the no-discharge zone in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary," Porter said.
Copyright  © 2002  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.


17-June-02

Attention boaters: Manatee battle zone
The waters of Lee County, No. 1 in manatee killings,  churn with boaters who grumble about a ban on new docks.
A 22-foot boat pounded across glittering waves at 40 mph, its Mercury outboard roaring. One of the uniformed officers aboard, Tim Kiss of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, flipped on the blue lights in the bow.  His partner, Darrin Riley, steered the boat to intercept two deeply tanned Lee County men spending their sunny Sunday afternoon racing a pair of Yamaha WaveRunners through a slow-speed zone.  Kiss and Riley gave each a $63 citation for violating a law protecting manatees from speeding boats. One man asked when "manatee season" would end. The other grumbled that the officers had ruined his day.  "That's about the average attitude for a manatee violation," Kiss said afterward.  Federal wildlife officials say not enough sunny days are being ruined for Lee County boaters. Last year, Lee had more manatees killed by boats than any other county, with 23. Then boats clobbered eight more in January and February. So federal officials have declared much of Lee County to be an "area of inadequate enforcement" for manatee protection, blocking federal permits for 110 new docks, to the consternation of builders, boating interests, real estate agents and waterfront residents.  "It seems a little obscene that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could close off Lee County's waterways,' said New Jersey retiree Tony Penn, 57, whose dock permit application has been on hold for months. Boating rights activists whose groups oppose waterway restrictions say the backlash to the dock ban has brought them lots of new members. They are planning a massive rally for Matlacha Pass on July 4.  Federal officials "have underestimated the orneriness of folks on this issue," said Rick Joyce, Lee County's environmental science director.  Cars and trucks in Lee now sport bumper stickers that say "Docks Don't Kill Manatees." A few also feature window decals showing the cartoon character Calvin urinating on a manatee.  The uproar over the dock ban has turned Lee County into ground zero in Florida's ongoing battle over manatee protection -- a battle the New York Times recently called "one of the fiercest fights over an endangered species since loggers in the Pacific Northwest strung mock spotted owls on the grills of their trucks."  Illustrating that New York Times story was a photo of Lee County Deputy James Erb warning a boater about violating a manatee speed zone. Last Sunday, the first boater Kiss and Riley stopped for speeding in a manatee zone was none other than Erb.  Wearing a hat with the Krispy Kreme logo, Erb was piloting a Carolina Skiff that Kiss and Riley saw plowing along too fast. Erb insisted he had done nothing wrong. The officers let him go.  "We've caught several deputies," Kiss said with a shrug. "We don't want to start a war with them."
Copyright  © 2002 St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

What Jeb and George are doing to Florida 
What Jeb and George are doing to Florida Rejoice, citizens of the Sunshine State: Florida is saved. Our waters will remain as pellucid as a summer sky; our sandy beaches will remain as white as Britney Spears' teeth. Our governor and our president have agreed to pay three oil companies and the rich folks who own Collier County to pack up the heavy equipment and go away. Newspapers are casting garlands. Audubon Society types are rolling over and purring. Let us crown Jeb Bush with native Florida laurels (Kalmia hirsuta) as the Environment Governor. Rejoice, citizens of the Sunshine State: Florida is saved. Our waters will remain as pellucid as a summer sky; our sandy beaches will remain as white as Britney Spears' teeth. Our governor and our president have agreed to pay three oil companies and the rich folks who own Collier County to pack up the heavy equipment and go away. Newspapers are casting garlands. Audubon Society types are rolling over and purring. Let us crown Jeb Bush with native Florida laurels (Kalmia hirsuta) as the Environment Governor. Nature is, of course, above politics. Now if you buy that, go on back to sleep. For the rest of you, here's what's really going on. Jeb and George Bush recently cut a $235-million deal with taxpayer money that will neutralize a number of natural gas and oil drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico and near the Everglades.
Copyright  © 2002 St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

Citrus controversy like canker on state
There's a reason why a life-sized orange is featured on Florida's standard license plates.  Over the decades, the orange, and the citrus industry that produces it, have been something Floridians proudly associated with their state.  After all, who could hate the sunny orange?  Plenty of people, it turns out.  It's not that they hate the fruit itself. But they are less than kindly disposed to the $9 billion industry that grows 20 billion pounds of oranges each year.  Some Floridians now talk about Big Citrus in the same derogatory way they speak of other large industries: Big Oil, Big Sugar. They spew out the term in anger over what they see as the state's eagerness to trample on the rights of ordinary backyard citrus tree owners in a bid to save the Florida's fruit-growing industry from the depredations of the citrus canker bacterium.  For the first time since many of them can remember, growers and industry groups report receiving hate mail filled with outrage over the canker campaign, which has led to the demise of more than 2.1 million citrus trees since the current bacterial infection showed up in 1995.  "We've gotten some pretty nasty e-mails," says Andrew LaVigne, chief executive officer of the state's largest grower group, the 11,500-member Florida Citrus Mutual in Lakeland.  "It gets my dander up when people say, 'You've got other alternatives, you can spray,' " LaVigne said. "Isn't it logical if we could spray, we would be spraying. Why would we tear trees out? We'd rather have our trees."  Critics see things in a much more malevolent light.  "We see the Florida Department of Agriculture as nothing more than an arm of the citrus industry," said Jack Haire, a Fort Lauderdale resident and anti-canker program activist who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality and scientific basis of the state's program.  In March, the legislature passed a law giving the state blanket authority to destroy all citrus trees within 1,900 feet of a tree infected with canker. Last month, Broward County Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet ruled that program unconstitutional. The state has appealed.
Copyright  © 2002 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Turn the Lake O rim into a Florida resource
Few areas of the state need more help than the southern rim of Lake Okeechobee. Dependent on agriculture, which is seasonal and pays less than other industries, the rim -- roughly from Canal Point in northwestern Palm Beach County to Moore Haven in Glades County -- stands real-estate logic on its head because the state has treated the lake as a cesspool and farm reservoir, not a resource. Along this waterfront, property values aren't booming. Dramatic help for the area is beyond the area's means. According to census data released this month, the three poorest towns in Palm Beach County are along the southern rim: Belle Glade, where per capita income is $11,159; Pahokee, at $10,346; and South Bay, at $9,126. Clewiston, west of South Bay in Hendry County, is in better shape because it is home to paternalistic U.S. Sugar Corp., which has built several key public buildings and provides jobs.  In 1994, of course, U.S. Sugar closed its vegetable operation in South Bay, taking 1,300 other jobs. The 2000 Census recorded a population increase for South Bay only because a prison opened. Glades County ranks barely above chronically poor Panhandle counties in per capita income, and the rim's outlook is subject to American and world sugar policy and the decisions of two large companies, U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals. A hard freeze could decimate the citrus groves, which also are endangered by the spread of canker.  Fortunately, outside help is starting to bring some change. The state soon will begin work on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, which could allow bikers and rollerbladers to join hikers atop the dike. Palm Beach County is working with the state to build a regional water plant in Belle Glade after tests detected dangerous amounts of a possible carcinogen in South Bay's and Pahokee's water. Population growth from the Wellington-Royal Palm Beach- Loxahatchee area is pushing west.
Copyright  © 2002 Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Everglades Deal Worries Some
South Florida water managers are concerned the Miccosukee Tribe will develop a piece of the land in the Florida Everglades slated to be used in a water restoration project.  The South Florida Water Management District had planned to buy the parcel and build a 6-square-mile water storage and flood control reservoir as part of the $7.8 billion Everglades restoration project.  The land is across the highway from the tribe's $55 million gambling resort, and water district officials said they are worried the plot will become a golf course, casino or theme park.  ``It's probably one of the most critical acquisitions we have in Miami-Dade County,'' said Mike Collins, a board member on the water district. ``There's no other place to put'' the reservoir.  So far, the tribe has been silent on its plans for the parcel.  Restoring the Everglades involves more than 40 projects to be completed over several decades. The state and federal government are sharing the cost of the project.  The district oversees construction projects, including six stormwater treatment areas intended to reduce the amount of phosphorous flowing into the Everglades.  The tribe bought other pieces of land over the last several years that water managers were hoping could be used in flood-control areas.  The Miccosukee Tribe has projected the image of being environmental defenders of the Everglades, appearing in court to urge the state to clean up polluted water flowing into the water system.  
Copyright  © 2002 Tampa Tribune / Associated Press  All rights reserved.
 

Sea turtle fan helps the endangered to the ocean
Some people are cat people. Some people are dog people.  Mort Hanson is a turtle person.  He saved his first endangered sea turtle about 20 years ago. At last count, about 65,000 baby turtles had made it to water with his help.  Hanson, 71, heads the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol, a nonprofit organization that protects sea turtles and their natural habitat, the beaches. Each morning from May to October, you can see Hanson and his wife, Jan, scooting down the shorelines of Jacksonville, Atlantic and Neptune beaches in a red, souped-up cart with an American flag on it. Wooden stakes, green buckets and long shovels are carried in the back. Going at turtle speed, they look for flipper marks and sea turtle tracks that may lead to a nest. Hanson has about 15 volunteers who help him comb the beaches.  When they find a turtle nest - about one a day - they stake it, surround it with orange nets the color of street cones and place a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it. 

Mort and Jan Hanson cruise the beaches 
daily in search of sea turtle nests in need of protection.

They also leave a card with sea turtle information.  "Humans can be so destructive," Hanson says. "We want to show people that we share the beach with another species.  "Where there used to be eight species of sea turtles, there now are only seven, Hanson says. It takes 10 nests to produce 1,000 eggs. For every 1,000 eggs a turtle lays, only one of the hatchlings makes it to sea. So on the sand superhighway, Hanson is a hero. Sea sprinters, dog walkers and beach joggers constantly pass him by. More than a few stop. "Look at what these fishermen leave behind," a jogger says with hands open, a tangle of fishing line spilling from them. "They just don't know," Hanson said.  A retired Navy captain, Hanson said he developed an affinity for sea turtles during his days at sea. From aboard the big Navy ships, he would spot them swimming.  When he retired, he would jog on the beach every morning and see dead or injured turtles.  That's when he decided to help. 

The Hansons use wooden stakes 
and plastic netting to rope off sea 
turtle nests so beachgoers won't 
accidentally harm turtle eggs.

Hanson said his greatest sea turtle moment was seeing a sea turtle lay its eggs on the shore.  "It was just so amazing to look her in the face and see the tears streaming down it," he said. "Some say the tears come out to wash the sand from their faces. I'm a romantic, I'd like to think they're for another reason."    
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Bumper Crop of Florida Panthers Born
Two litters from two female Florida panthers were found this year at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), raising hope for the endangered species.  This year's births are a highlight for the refuge in the recovery of the imperiled cousin of the mountain lion or cougar. Only 80 to 100 Florida panthers remain in the wild, making Florida's official state animal one of the most endangered mammals in the world.  "We're also pleasantly surprised about the size of the litters," said Sam Hamilton, southeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). "The dens produced three kittens in one litter and four in the other."  The Florida panther's population was decimated after bounties were placed on the cats from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Today, other factors continue to threaten the species A Florida panther - one of less than 100 remaining in the wild - in a tree in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo courtesy USFWS) "Car collisions have killed over 44 panthers since 1972," said Ben Nottingham, deputy refuge manager from the Florida Panther NWR. "Also, aggression among the male cats has caused other deaths. However, the biggest cause of diminished numbers is loss of habitat." Hamilton added, "The panther deaths from car collisions can be greatly reduced if people will share a little of their time with the animals and slow down to the posted speed limits."Extensive development over the last few decades has reduced the panther's preferred habitat of hardwood hammocks and pine flatwoods, wet prairies, marshes and swamp forests.  Florida panthers are most active at night and avoid one another except during breeding season. Adult males defend territories averaging 200 miles while females have territories of 75 square miles.  Florida panthers, like all cougars, stalk and ambush their prey. They leap distances of more than 15 feet and rely on surprise. The cats can run up to 35 miles an hour for short distances.  Panthers prefer large animals such as deer and wild pigs but will eat smaller game such as raccoons, armadillos, rabbits and even alligators.  The USFWS is working with a number of federal and state agencies such as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as well as private organizations to save the Florida panther from extinction and develop healthy populations.

More information about the Florida panther is available at:
http://endangered.fws.gov/i/A05.html

Copyright  © 2002  Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights Reserved.    

 

Editorial: Growth management still tenuous issue in Collier
Though they lead the self-congratulatory cheers, Collier County commissioners have little to do with the long-range development plans they approved last week for the Immokalee area. The plan was drawn by consultants paid by the affected landowners. Its credibility comes more from the trusted Florida Wildlife Federation's endorsement than the commission's say-so.  Now the plans head to Tallahassee, where growth police who blew the whistle on Collier's sprawl and environmental destruction in 1999 check to see if those problems really are addressed. The commission left it up to the state to worry about where major development would occur. As a prior commission abdicated responsibility for drafting the plan to vested interests, today's commissioners settled for getting residential-commercial growth out of environmentally sensitive areas and clustering it somewhere else. That covers a lot of ground amid 300 square miles.   Thus it remains a leap of faith that development will be better managed as the county population looks to grow by 75 percent, out east.
Copyright  © 2002  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Letter to the editor: Preservation list isn't a sure thing for land 
The June 7 article "State puts Cypress Creek land on A list," about the state designating this area in Palm Beach and Martin counties for preservation, is a positive step in protecting the Loxahatchee River watershed. But I caution those who are elated at this news.  When Palm Beach County purchases land designated environmentally sensitive with tax money, it does not necessarily mean it will be preserved in perpetuity as the bond issue reads. A case in point is the Pond Cypress Natural Area. This land is north of Okeechobee Boulevard, west of the West Palm Beach Water Catchment Area -- definitely a place we want to protect. The Pond Cypress is also class A. It is almost entirely undisturbed and highly varied, containing rich wetlands, wide expanses of scrub as well as pine forests. It is a rare piece of land.  The state owns a right of way for State Road 7 that would infringe on the water catchment that, in its wisdom, it has not sought to develop. Now, there are those who would like to bend that easement through the Pond Cypress area to create a reliever road for Royal Palm Beach. This would inevitably become a developer's road for The Acreage -- which, of course, would result in more traffic, not less.  People who voted for the land preservation bond issues need to be vigilant and let the commissioners know that we do not want to set a precedent in allowing these lands to be chopped up for roads.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Letter to the editor: Preservation list isn't a sure thing for land
The June 7 article "State puts Cypress Creek land on A list," about the state designating this area in Palm Beach and Martin counties for preservation, is a positive step in protecting the Loxahatchee River watershed. But I caution those who are elated at this news.  When Palm Beach County purchases land designated environmentally sensitive with tax money, it does not necessarily mean it will be preserved in perpetuity as the bond issue reads. A case in point is the Pond Cypress Natural Area. This land is north of Okeechobee Boulevard, west of the West Palm Beach Water Catchment Area -- definitely a place we want to protect. The Pond Cypress is also class A. It is almost entirely undisturbed and highly varied, containing rich wetlands, wide expanses of scrub as well as pine forests. It is a rare piece of land.  The state owns a right of way for State Road 7 that would infringe on the water catchment that, in its wisdom, it has not sought to develop. Now, there are those who would like to bend that easement through the Pond Cypress area to create a reliever road for Royal Palm Beach. This would inevitably become a developer's road for The Acreage -- which, of course, would result in more traffic, not less.  People who voted for the land preservation bond issues need to be vigilant and let the commissioners know that we do not want to set a precedent in allowing these lands to be chopped up for roads.
Copyright  © 2002  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

16-June-02

Guest commentary: Collier's building moratorium is pointless and inequitable
Agree or disagree, Naples real estate broker/analyst Ross McIntosh of Naples delivered a provocative address to Collier County commissioners last week.  McIntosh, the agent for the purchaser of the Twelve Lakes property that he cites, argued against the imposition of a building moratorium along three busy roads.  Here is the complete prepared text of his remarks that were cut short by the commission's time limit for public speakers. Which of you has the courage to put a stop to this pointless and painful charade?  You previously requested that staff come back to you with a list of road segments impacted by sudden and unanticipated congestion and in need of the immediate attention of this board. Staff has hurriedly cobbled together three crises based upon arbitrary, flawed, contrived and self-serving criteria.  As you consider the ordinance before you today, you are about to drop your bombs where Osama bin Laden was, not where he is. Will you then declare a heroic victory for the citizens of Collier County? As with any other misguided bomb, the casualties will be innocent civilians. As with any other propaganda victory, you will not advance towards your strategic objective one iota.  The ordinance which you are considering today will have no discernable positive affect on the public health, welfare, or quality of life. But, it will cause anguish and financial hardship for a few, random, innocent bystanders.  Take a deep breath, pull the plug on this selectively punitive ordinance, and focus your efforts upon an equitable countywide concurrency management plan that actually works.   Vanderbilt Beach Road: The Planning Commission heard evidence that the county's traffic-counting station is located near the intersection with U.S. 41, where it is significantly impacted by vehicles frequenting the grocery stores and movie theaters at the intersection, while private studies have shown that just a few hundred yards to the west, beyond the influence of the shopping centers, Vanderbilt Beach Road may be operating at Level of Service "C."  Relocate the traffic counting station a few hundred yards west, and presto! Crisis averted!  But the Vanderbilt Beach Road moratorium will make no difference anyway, and therefore makes no sense ... I know of no project planned or contemplated on that road segment.   U.S. 41 North: Now that the 90,000-square-foot "layer cake" office building on the corner of Cypress Woods and 41 has been approved, only the 1.25-acre lot north of Thomasville Furnishings remains to be developed. The owners of that parcel may reasonably wonder how the development of this last, small tract became such a menace to society!
Copyright  © 2002 Naples News  All rights reserved.

Spiegel leak's source not yet found
Divers tried without success Saturday to pinpoint the source of an oily sheen trailing from the sunken Navy ship Spiegel Grove six miles off Key Largo.  The oil slick, about three feet wide and 150 yards long and trickling east offshore, was discovered Friday, four days after the ship was put down 130 feet deep as an artificial reef.  Dave Score, upper region manager for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, collected a sample of the fluid Saturday, and sent it by overnight delivery to a laboratory at Louisiana State University to find out what it is. Score said he expected the results by Monday.  ''It's not a significant threat at this point,'' Score said. ``It's bubbling about 60 bubbles a minute. It's a light sheen -- not heavy crude. We're lucky in one sense it's not being carried toward the reef, the sea grass or the mangrove shoreline.''
BUBBLE TRAIL Divers tried to follow the emerging bubbles to their source on the ship Saturday morning, but they were hampered by thunderstorms and rough seas of six to eight feet. They will return to the shipwreck today. Score said Saturday's examination indicated the leak may not be coming from the stern as divers first suspected, but instead from closer to the front of the ship.  ''It's forward of the stern. That made us suspect the two cranes -- potentially some oil that lubricates the gears on the cranes,'' Score said. ``If we can find the source, then we can determine how much is there and stop it. If you had calm weather, you could follow the trail of bubbles down to the bottom.''  The U.S. Coast Guard is awaiting further details on the leak from sanctuary officials.  ''We saw how much oil was on top of the water. It's very light,'' said Coast Guard Petty Officer Anastasia Burns.  Before the Spiegel Grove could be sunk in the marine sanctuary, it underwent multiple levels of cleaning and inspection. The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce paid $468,000 to Bay Bridge Enterprises of Chesapeake, Va., to rid the ship of contaminants.  Coast Guard Environmental Officer Jason Walker then inspected the ship and gave the go-ahead for it to be towed to Key Largo last month.  Walker inspected the ship again on May 16 -- the day before it sank prematurely upside down with its bow sticking out of the water.
Copyright  © 2002 Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Commissioners to take final look at rural fringe growth plan
Collier County commissioners are on the verge of adopting the most significant changes to the county's growth plan since it was created in 1985. Landowners opposed to the changes are expected to pack a meeting room Tuesday to protest the so-called rural fringe plan that would apply to some 93,000 acres between the urban area and Golden Gate Estates. The meeting starts at 5 p.m. The backbone of the new plan is a Transfer of Development Rights program that would discourage development on thousands of acres in the name of environmental protection. Landowners in those areas would be able to sell their lost development rights. Buyers would be able to buy the rights to develop other areas identified for growth. Opponents say the TDR program will not protect their private property rights. The plan has been in the works since 1999, when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet ordered a virtual stop to growth in the county's rural area until the county came up with better environmental protections. The order set a June 22 deadline.   Another plan, also stemming from the state order, for almost 200,000 acres around Immokalee also is in the works. Commissioners voted last week to transmit that plan to the state Department of Community Affairs for review. A final vote is set for October.  The rural fringe plan already has undergone DCA review and is back to commissioners for final adoption. Commissioners said last week they support the new plan.   "I think it's good for the community as a whole," said Commissioner Tom Henning.   That's not to say it won't make people angry, said Commission Chairman Jim Coletta.   "I've never in my life seen a perfect piece of legislation come down from any form of government," said Coletta, whose district includes the rural fringe area.   He said the key to the plan is to make sure the TDR program works, and that might take some help from taxpayers, he said. Coletta proposed borrowing $5 million to buy development credits in the TDR program at $25,000 each. The county then would sell the rights and any profit could go toward buying land for a regional medical center to serve rural parts of the county, Coletta said.   "We're telling these people the TDR program is going to work, we should be putting our money where out mouth is," Coletta said.   Commissioner Fred Coyle agreed that the