News - April  2003   

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30-April-03

Bush urged to shun Glades measure
By Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald
Four influential congressional leaders, including Rep. Bill Young, the Florida Republican who heads the House appropriations committee, are urging Gov. Jeb Bush to abandon his support for a controversial sugar-industry-backed Everglades cleanup bill. The congressmen sent Bush a letter Tuesday in the clearest signal yet that Congress fears that the hotly disputed legislation will threaten the fragile federal support for splitting the cost with the state of a massive $8 billion Everglades restoration project. Environmentalists have assailed the legislation as a gift to the sugar industry, and Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, has repeatedly warned that it jeopardizes the federal project by delaying deadlines for cleaning up the Everglades by as long as a decade. In the letter Tuesday, the congressmen who hold sway over the congressional budget agree with some of the critics, noting the bill would ``limit the state's ability to achieve water quality that is protective of the Everglades environment.'' Though the congressmen wrote that the Senate version of the legislation is improved, they said it ``remains inadequate and we recommend it be vetoed by the governor.'' Environmentalists said they fear that congressmen from other states will think Florida has lost its commitment to the cleanup and then siphon money from the Everglades.
Read more...

 

29-April-03

Senate OKs softer bill on Glades
By Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald
Over the objections of environmentalists, the Florida Senate unanimously gave final approval Monday to sugar-industry-backed legislation that eases pollution restrictions in the Everglades. The measure passed with little debate, with Senate sponsor Al Lawson, a Tallahassee Democrat, telling senators that three changes suggested by the federal government make the legislation more environment-friendly. But federal officials distanced themselves from the changes, and environmentalists skewered them as mere window dressing. ''This is really just subterfuge orchestrated to make it look like it's been improved,'' said Dexter Lehtinen, the former federal prosecutor who first took the state to court more than a decade ago to force it to start cleaning up the Everglades. ``It still provides for loopholes and massive delays.'' And U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, reiterated his warning that the state Legislature is putting at risk the federal contribution toward an $8 billion Everglades restoration effort -- one of the largest environmental projects ever attempted.  Read more...

 

26-April-03

White House enters Glades dispute
By Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald
President Bush's administration, stepping into the fray over a controversial move to ease pollution standards in the Everglades, has asked state lawmakers to make changes that could soften opposition from environmentalists. The proposed changes come one day after the White House received a letter from nine national environmental groups protesting the measure making its way through the Legislature. Critics have suggested the president's reelection bid could suffer in Florida if a perception persists that he and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, have abandoned the Everglades. The legislation, pushed by the politically influential sugar industry and its lobbyists, has prompted worries from a federal judge and cries of protests from environmentalists. Even members of Congress have weighed in, contending that the tweaking could imperil the Everglades and put at risk a massive federal-state effort to restore it. The measure has sailed through the Legislature despite critics' attacks, though conservationists acknowledge the legislation has been tempered in the Senate, which advanced the measure Friday with little debate. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, told colleagues it will be changed again next week to reflect the concerns of the federal government. ''I think that what you will see when the legislation is adopted is that we're in a much stronger position in terms of our commitment to the Everglades,'' Lawson said. Under the landmark 1994 Everglades Forever Act, polluters are supposed to meet a low-pollution standard by the end of 2006. But state environmental officials said that deadline may be impossible to meet, because of the polluted nature of much of the soil around the Everglades.  Read more...

25-April-03

Spillway to help Loxahatchee River
 By Joe Brogan,  Staff Writer  
 Palm Beach Post
The Loxahatchee River, under threat from saltwater that is destroying the tower cypress trees along its banks, will soon be getting the fresh water it needs to flourish, water managers said Thursday. Officials from various environmental agencies gathered along the C-18 Canal north of PGA Boulevard to break ground for a $2.1 million spillway that is designed to bring fresh water to the beleaguered river. The spillway, the second-largest structure of its kind in the 16-county South Florida Water Management District, will block water from as far south as Northlake Boulevard and allow the water to seep into the surrounding Loxahatchee Slough, said Patrick Gleason, a former water district board member. From there, the water will find its way into the river's northwest fork. "This structure is a key to the restoration of the Loxahatchee River and is part of the first portion of the Everglades restoration effort," Gleason said. "It will provide the water we need to push the saltwater back and stop saltwater damage in the Loxahatchee River." Read More...

Glades bill heads for Senate showdown
By JULIE HAUSERMAN and CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writers
St. Petersburg Times
Both sides in the fight to delay the Everglades cleanup claim the other guys are dead wrong. A Senate vote is scheduled today.
As a bill delaying a key part of the Everglades cleanup heads for its first vote in the Florida Senate today, political pressure  is mounting on both sides of the debate. A group with ties to the sugar industry, the Everglades Forever Partnership, began running television advertisements around the state and sponsoring telephone calls to voters, urging them to phone Gov. Jeb Bush to support the bill. The ads refer to delaying the cleanup by up to 20 years as "the next phase of Everglades restoration." Pearl Troyer, 68, of Tampa got a call from the group Thursday morning. "They said, "Are you interested in saving the Everglades? Let me connect you to the governor's office to get him to vote yes,' " she said. Troyer told the caller she would love to talk to the governor's office about the Everglades - but when she was connected to Bush's office she lambasted the governor's staff for not standing up to legislators who want to push back the cleanup deadline. "In 20 more years, the Everglades will be gone," Troyer said. Meanwhile, the heads of nine national environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and the National Audubon Society, called on President Bush to get his brother to block the delay. Otherwise, they said, the Legislature's tinkering might persuade Congress to drop federal funding for the $8-billion Everglades restoration. Read More...

Manatee Money In Safe Waters
Tampa Tribune
By MIKE SALINERO        
The lawmakers who proposed draining state trust funds dedicated to manatee research are abandoning their efforts. In the House, state Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, said Thursday that he has agreed to yank a provision in his bill that would have taken $2 million - roughly half - of the Manatee Trust Fund to hire more marine police officers. The plan would have crippled state-funded manatee research and management, the bulk of which is conducted by the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg. On the other side of the Capitol rotunda, state Sen. Michael Bennett, R- Bradenton, told lawmakers this week that he would vote against his own bill if it makes it to the Senate floor unchanged. His proposal would siphon the trust fund dry to pay for marine police officers, but Bennett says he wants to look at other options. Critics of the move have argued the proposals were nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to end the independent scientific research that developers and others have long complained delays the building of marinas and boat docks along Florida's coast. Much of the trust fund's $4.1 million in annual revenue comes from the fees motorists pay for the ``Save the Manatee'' specialty license plate. Harrington and Bennett dispute any suggestion that they were trying to cripple manatee research, but their bills had the support of lobbyists representing marinas, developers and boating groups. Harrington said Thursday that he will instead push a plan offered by Republican Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland to transfer part of the tax on gas sold at marinas to fund additional marine police. ``It's a positive thing for Florida,'' Harrington said. ``Nobody wants to kill manatees.'' Read More...

Winsberg Farm to have new purpose
By Laurel Kalser
Special Correspondent
Sun-SentinelThere's a new development going up along Jog Road west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, but it won't be housing people. The 175-acre Winsberg Farm Wetlands Restoration Project, set for construction this summer, will be home to hardwood hammocks, blue herons and about 150 other species of indigenous South Florida plant and wildlife. " ... Right now it's a farm field, but we're going to create a marsh and see what animals will show up," said Bill Wilsher, superintendent of park planning and design for the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. The purpose of the Winsberg project, named after longtime Delray Beach farmers Ted and Trudy Winsberg, who sold their land to the county in 1999, is two-fold. First, it will be a manmade wetlands area run as a water-conservation program by the county's Water Utilities Department. It will be modeled after the 50-acre Wakodahatchee Wetlands that opened in 1996 on the east side of Jog Road west of Delray Beach. Second, it is also an opportunity for the parks department to increase public awareness about South Florida's wetlands and the role they play in preserving the earth's ecosystem. Read More...

Editorial: Florida Legislature
Big Sugar's bill exposed
The Naples Daily News
Sometimes Florida legislators and lobbyists seem to do things just to see how far they can get without being caught. Surely, amid the isolation and insulation of Tallahassee, what they are doing will not be noticed by the outside world. In their dreams. This session's glaring example of that is legislation that would increase the amount of sugar-fed pollutants allowed into the Everglades, which taxpayers across the nation are joining Floridians in spending $8 billion to cleanse and restore. This plan embodies bad science — and bad politics. The science part is easy. Add nutrients from farm fields and you enable more poison. Delete nutrients and you're on the right track — if, that is, preservation of a unique ecosystem is the mission. The politics part is easy too. Such scientific recklessness is enough to trigger a cost-sharing retreat by an already skittish Congress that even Gov. Jeb Bush's brother, President Bush, could not corral. Read More...

Bush is asked to step in on `Glades cleanup
Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach County news briefs
Leaders of nine major conservation groups are calling on President Bush to intervene in the Legislature's attempt to revise Florida's 9-year-old Everglades-cleanup law.  The environmental organization presidents, meeting in Yulee this week, wrote a letter April 18 to Bush asking him to work with his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, "to prevent the passage of this ill-conceived legislation."  At issue are two bills that would push back a 2006 cleanup deadline 10 or 20 years. The changes have sparked a warning from Congress that Florida might scare off $4 billion of federal funds for other Everglades work.  The letter was signed by presidents of the National Audubon Society, National Parks Conservation Association, World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife and four other organizations. Read More...

Case against Glades bill taken to President Bush
By Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald
A coalition of national environmental groups asked President Bush in a letter Thursday to intervene and block a sugar-industry-backed measure in the Florida Legislature that it contends will bring Everglades restoration efforts to a halt. The letter, signed by the heads of nine environmental organizations, comes a day after a Miami federal judge weighed in with worries that the legislative plan could affect an ongoing cleanup effort. Several Florida congressmen have also warned that the measure puts at risk an $8 billion federal-state restoration project. ''The Florida Everglades are nationally significant, and we need to protect them,'' said Thomas Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the nine who signed the letter to President Bush. The other signatures were from the heads of the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense, the Ocean Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and the Wilderness Society. The White House referred calls about the letter to the Interior Department, where a spokesman said Secretary Gale Norton remains concerned about the legislation. Norton last week told a press gathering in Washington that she is keeping tabs on the measure.  Read more...

 

24-April-03

Everglades pollution bill alarms U.S. judge
 BY LESLEY CLARK AND CURTIS MORGAN
A push by Gov. Jeb Bush and the powerful sugar industry to loosen pollution standards in the Everglades could be challenged by a Miami federal judge, who said Wednesday the measure may threaten ongoing restoration efforts. In a strongly worded order, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler demanded that the state appear in court to discuss the matter May 2, the same day the Legislature is scheduled to end its annual session. Citing Herald reports of the deal, Hoeveler said he views the proposal with ''considerable apprehension'' and twice noted in a four-paragraph order that he has no intention of abandoning a 1992 Everglades cleanup settlement agreement he orchestrated. ''I think we should immediately have a hearing on this subject and you should make every effort to attend before this legislation becomes effective,'' Hoeveler wrote. The politically connected sugar industry has angered environmentalists and members of Congress from both parties in recent weeks with its aggressive efforts to convince the Republican-led Legislature to soften water-quality standards in the Everglades. The legislation has moved swiftly through House and Senate committees with little objection from either party, guided by a battalion of sugar industry lobbyists. The measures would push back enforcement deadlines for cleaning up the Everglades by at least seven years -- and the House version would boost the acceptable amount of one key pollutant by 50 percent or more. Read More...

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April  24, 2003
JUDGE HOEVELER'S ORDER
I have been viewing the Herald coverage of the proposed legislation by the state with considerable apprehension. I do not propose to deviate from the settlement that now exists between the state government and the federal government. If we do nothing, there appears to be an action by the Legislature which may indeed affect the settlement. I think we should immediately have a hearing on this subject and you should make every effort to attend before this legislation becomes effective. Again, I say that I do not propose to deviate from the settlement agreement. Now I cannot control what the parties do as to the other parts of the Everglades, but the national parks are and will be controlled by the settlement and amendments thereto which have been memorialized in the settlement decree. I would like to propose a hearing immediately and therefore, IT IS ORDERED that counsel shall appear before this Court on May 2, 2003, at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 9 at 301 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida.
-- William Hoeveler, senior United States district judge Read More...

The Everglades aren't dead yet
The Miami Herald
MARTHA MUSGROVE
Floridas sugar industry headed to Tallahassee for this years legislative session determined to kill Everglades restoration. It bought the casket -- pouring $800,000 in state-election campaigns -- polished the hearse and recruited a cadre of pallbearers. Not surprisingly, things got messy. Sugars bills (SB 626 and HB 1893) rewriting the 1994 Everglades Forever Act are two of the worse pieces of legislation to be put before the Legislature since the late 1960s. Environmentalists are outraged and staffing phone banks, members of the states congressional delegation have warned that passage will make it impossible to continue funding the $8.4 billion, 30-year Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, and Gov. Jeb Bush has found himself in the squeeze. Tuesday night the Senate Appropriations Committee balked. It attached six amendments intended ''to clean up'' the Senate bill, and David Struhs, secretary of the states Department of Environmental Protection, declared that the bill had ''turned green.'' If so, its a very pale green. The question to ask now is: Why a bill at all? To answer, you have to look for the intent of those who have pushed the legislation. Read More...

Groups claim miners, developers destroyed panther habitat
 By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer,  St. Petersburg Times
 Federal regulators illegally allowed developers and miners to destroy crucial habitat for the endangered Florida panther, a trio of environmental groups charged in legal notices Wednesday. The National Wildlife Federation and two other groups notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers that they will sue in the next 60 days if the agencies do not halt a 6,000-acre mine and other projects in Lee and Collier counties where panthers prowl. "We realized we can't afford to sit on the sidelines as the panther's last remaining habitat is chipped away," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, senior vice president of the National Wildlife Federation and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A spokesman for the Corps of Engineers said it could not comment because no one had received the notice yet. A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service defended his agency's actions. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done nothing in the past but keep the Florida panther's best interests in mind," said spokesman Bert Byers. "We've got a long way to go but it's not like we're doing things that would endanger the Florida panther." The panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the world. Although panthers once roamed the South, fewer than 100 now exist, most hemmed into Southwest Florida -- an area that over the past decade has experienced some of the most rapid development in the country. Read More...

Wildlife groups: Lawsuits planned to protect Florida panther
By ERIC STAATS

 
An adult male Florida panther growls as he leaves his shipping 
container to enter his new home at Big Cypress National Preserve 
in this Jan. 30, 1997, file photo. Three wildlife conservation groups 
notified the federal government Wednesday they intend to file 
lawsuits to stop development in the habitat of the endangered 
Florida panther. Fewer than 100 panthers remain in Florida. About 
half of their habitat is on private property. They also roam Big 
Cypress National Preserve and other public property.

MAP  http://www.naplesnews.com/03/04/graphics/24panther-map-big.JPG

    Naples Daily News - Front Page Top of Fold Three environmental groups threatened Wednesday to go to court to keep habitat for the endangered Florida panther out of the hands of developers. At issue is a massive rock-mining proposal in southern Lee County and a federal environmental permitting system that allows shortcut permits for smaller projects that the groups say are eating away at habitat for one of the world's rarest mammals. The best guesses put the panther population at 80 to 100 cats. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit for the Florida Rock Industries mine in February 2003 after a biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in January 2002 concluded that the mine would not jeopardize the Florida panther. The National Wildlife Federation, Florida Wildlife Federation and the Florida Panther Society sent letters Wednesday to Army Secretary Thomas White and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, calling on the agencies to reconsider their decisions or face a lawsuit in 60 days. A second 60-day letter sent by the NWF and the Florida Panther Society calls on the Corps of Engineers to suspend the use of shortcut permits for utility lines, roads, farming and residential and commercial development in Florida panther habitat in Collier and Lee counties. "We have realized we can't afford to sit on the sidelines any longer as the last remnants of panther habitat are chipped away piece by piece," said NWF senior vice president Jamie Rappaport Clark. New litigation would be a follow-up to a similar lawsuit filed by some of the same groups in 2000. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit, saying he had no jurisdiction because the lawsuit was too wide-ranging. The lawsuit targeted 26 projects in Collier and Lee counties. Clark called litigation a "mechanism of last resort" and said she hoped the 60-day notice would spur developers and federal agencies to come to the table to talk with environmental groups about a big-picture approach to saving panther habitat in Southwest Florida. "We were finally able to get them to pay attention," Inge said, referring to federal wildlife officials. Read More...

Editorial: Senate a co-conspirator against the Everglades|
Palm Beach Post
The attempt to kill Everglades restoration but cover up the crime gathered force Tuesday, even as more evidence emerged that shows the deception behind the scheme. In the Senate, the misnamed Natural Resources Committee voted 15-0 for a bill that would weaken the 1994 Everglades Forever Act, designed to clean up water flowing into the state's "river of grass." The bill is set for a full Senate vote Friday. In the meantime, South Florida Water Management Director Henry Dean, whose agency is in charge of the cleanup, told The Post that he hadn't asked for any legislation, nor was he asked for his advice. Of course he wasn't. The sugar industry, working through nearly four dozen lobbyist/perpetrators, has greased this legislation through other sources -- the water district board members to whom Mr. Dean reports and legislators. Since the Legislature and the equally misnamed Florida Department of Environmental Protection are portraying themselves as saviors of the Everglades because they support the legislation, the only hopes may be a veto from Gov. Bush or failure of the House and Senate to reconcile their differing bills. Read More...

Everglades moves get judge's notice
 By Robert P. King,  Staff Writer
 Palm Beach Post
Legislators' attempts to rewrite Florida's Everglades cleanup law ran into what could be an immovable roadblock Wednesday: a federal judge who says he has no intention of letting the state delay its deadlines. In a surprise order, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler in Miami expressed "considerable apprehension" about bills that would postpone enforcement of strict pollution limits until 2016 or 2026.Hoeveler then set a hearing for May 2 -- the last day of the legislative session -- so that he could hear arguments "before this legislation becomes effective."  Hoeveler's opinion matters because he is still overseeing the 1988 lawsuit in which the federal government accused the state of polluting the Everglades with phosphorus-laden sugar farm runoff. That suit led to creation of a state cleanup law that calls for the pollution to end by Dec. 31, 2006 -- a deadline that South Florida water managers now say they almost certainly cannot meet. "I do not propose to deviate from the settlement that now exists between the state government and the federal government," Hoeveler wrote. However, he also seemed to hint that his power may not extend beyond the parts of the Everglades controlled by the federal government: Everglades National Park to the south and the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach County. Environmentalists and the Miccosukee Indian tribe argue that he also has at least a powerful say in what happens to the state-owned Everglades in the middle. "Now I cannot control what the parties do as to the other parts of the Everglades," he wrote, "but the National Parks are and will be controlled by the settlement." Environmentalists say Hoeveler would be a much more formidable opponent than the activists groups, U.S. representatives and U.S. senators who have been decrying the bills for weeks. Read More...

Judge intervenes on Everglades
U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, concerned that legislators may delay the cleanup deadline, calls a hearing.
By CRAIG PITTMAN 
St. Petersburg Times
A federal judge, alarmed that Florida lawmakers are about to alter a longstanding agreement to clean up the Everglades, on Wednesday summoned state and federal officials to his Miami courtroom for an emergency hearing. U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, who is overseeing the Everglades cleanup, set the hearing for May 2 -- the last scheduled day of the legislative session. For weeks, powerful state lawmakers have debated whether to delay the deadline for clean up by as much as 20 years. Congressmen and environmental groups have howled, warning it could unravel an $8-billion deal between the state and federal government to restore the River of Grass. But their concerns have done nothing to derail the proposals. In his order, Hoeveler wrote that he has been reading "with considerable apprehension" news stories about what state lawmakers were doing to the Everglades cleanup plan and feared that "if we do nothing," lawmakers will change the plan. "I do not propose to deviate from the settlement agreement," Hoeveler wrote in his one-page order, saying it twice for emphasis. The fight centers on phosphorus, a pollutant that runs off sugar farms and suburban lawns and can tip the Everglades' natural balance so it becomes a stagnant swamp full of cattails instead of a flowing river of sawgrass. State law now requires the state to cut back the flow of phosphorus no later than 2006. Although phosphorus has been cut far below its historic high of 300 parts per billion, state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs has said he doubts it can be cut to 10 parts per billion, which is what the Everglades needs, by 2006. Read More...

Legislators jeopardize $4 billion for Everglades cleanup
By Linda Kleindienst and Neil Santaniello, Staff Writers
Sun-Sentinel
A controversial Everglades cleanup bill prompted concern on Wednesday from a federal judge and stern warnings from a South Florida congressman that the state is on the verge of losing $4 billion in federal help. The proposal, backed by Gov. Jeb Bush's administration, is on a fast track in the Legislature, but environmentalists warn that it will torpedo attempts to reduce agricultural pollution running into the River of Grass. "This is going to cost Florida billions of dollars, no question about it," said U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, a key leader in getting Congress to ante up its share of funding for the unprecedented state-federal cleanup project. "[U.S. Sen.] Bob Graham and I worked like hell to get this legislation through, and the Florida Legislature is blowing it up. You can't enter into a partnership and then each partner goes where they darn well please." The legislation, backed and written with the help of the sugar industry, extends a 2006 cleanup deadline by 20 years under the House plan and 10 years under the Senate version. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said he decided to let the bill move forward after being assured by David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, that most of the state's congressional delegation understood the bill. "I said, `Do you think it's safe?' And he said, `Yes, I think it's safe. I don't think that the funding we've talked about is at risk,'" King said. But Shaw, chairman of the Florida delegation, disputed those claims, saying, "Anyone who claims the Florida delegation is behind this is not telling the truth." Angry at the sugar lobby for pushing the bill, Shaw said: "I've never seen lobbyists having such a chokehold on government. This is a bipartisan screw-up." The growing controversy, which has sparked two television ad campaigns -- one by the sugar industry and the other by the environmental community -- has also caught the eye of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler. Hoeveler presided over the settlement of a 1988 lawsuit brought against the state by the federal government that eventually led to the 1994 landmark Everglades Forever Act. He has periodically monitored the water cleanup progress. On Wednesday, he set a court hearing for May 2 -- the last scheduled day of the Legislature's session -- saying he has been viewing the proposed legislation with "considerable apprehension." In his order, Hoeveler said he does not propose to deviate from the settlement, adding, "If we do nothing, there appears to be an action by the Legislature which may indeed affect the settlement." Read More...

Judge orders a hearing on Everglades legislation
Concern is that bills could change restoration plans
By Brendan Farrington,  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tallahassee Democrat
A federal judge in Miami on Wednesday ordered a hearing on whether two bills moving through the Legislature could change the agreement the federal and state government have to restore the Everglades. U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ordered lawyers for all parties involved in the restoration to a hearing May 2, the last scheduled day of the legislative session. Environmentalists have opposed bills moving through the House and Senate and hope the order will keep them from passing. The bills (PCB NR 03, SB 626) put into law technical details about how the $8 billion federal-state restoration project will proceed, including standards on how much phosphorus can run into the ecosystem. Phosphorus is a nutrient that has run into the Everglades for decades from cities, suburbs and farms. Excess amounts can kill vital algae and grasses. Environmentalists have complained that the House and Senate bills fail to ensure a strict enough standard for phosphorus entering the ecosystem and delay the deadline for when it must be judged clean of the nutrient. Hoeveler said in his order that he has been reading news of the legislation "with apprehension." "I do not propose to deviate from the settlement that now exists between the state government and the federal government," he wrote. "If we do nothing, there appears to be an action by the Legislature which may indeed affect the settlement." Read More...

Panther fight heads to federal court
By Joe Newman,  Staff Writer
Orlando Sentinel
By itself, a limestone mine approved for the western edge of the Everglades might not seem like a significant threat to the survival of the Florida panther. But the mine just east of Fort Myers has become a rallying point for environmentalists, who say federal officials are allowing development to chip away at habitat essential to the panther's future. "You eat an apple one bite at a time, and pretty soon the apple is gone," said Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation. "It's piecemeal, cumulative habitat destruction." Now, it looks like the fight to protect the panther -- which numbers fewer than 70 adults and is one of the most endangered mammals in the world -- is headed to federal court, where its fate likely will be pitted against the needs of southwest Florida's booming population. The Florida Wildlife Federation, the National Wildlife Federation and the Florida Panther Society announced Wednesday that they plan to sue the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act, as well as the Clean Water Act. It's the second set of legal challenges aimed at the two federal agencies in the past nine months. In August, three other environmental groups sued over the expansion of a limestone mine in western Miami-Dade County.  Limestone essential While it might only be coincidental that the agencies are being sued over permits issued to mining companies, it is certainly symbolic because limestone is essential to Florida's growth. The material is used in the construction of roads and homes, among other things. Construction-industry analysts say that blocking mining operations in Florida could cause a steep increase in the cost of homes and roads because limestone would have to be shipped in from out of state. The environmental groups, however, aren't trying to block growth, Fuller said. The development pressure in Lee and Collier counties is not expected to subside. Naples has the highest new-home construction rate in the country among metropolitan areas, while Fort Myers is third. "It would be naive on our part to think we can stop all development in [southwest Florida]," he said. "We'd just like to see it steered away from panther habitat." Read More...

Algae poses threat, experts say
Palm Beach Post
By Libby Wells, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Red tide invaded the Treasure Coast last winter. Now, it's a "green tide" of exotic seaweed that has marine scientists and environmentalists worried.   Caulerpa brachypus, a species of enemy algae, blankets offshore reefs in Palm Beach County like an overgrown lawn. Patches of the invasive bloom, which is native to the Pacific Ocean, have been spotted by fishermen and divers in the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River.   "I feel a little bit guilty because this problem has existed for years for our neighbors to the south," Kevin Stinnette, executive director of Indian Riverkeeper, told a roomful of people who met Wednesday night at the Fort Pierce branch of the St. Lucie County Library to talk about the problem. "And now it's here and we're kinda late."   Brachypus doesn't appear to have a firm foothold in local waters, but experts agreed that it will become a serious threat to native marine life if it's ignored. Read More...

23-April-03

Senate: Give Glades cleanup 10 more years
By JULIE HAUSERMAN
St. Petersburg Times
That's 10 years fewer than the House wants. Washington watches nervously as
the two restoration bills evolve.
A controversial Everglades pollution cleanup bill, which has spawned television attack ads and a political scuffle between Tallahassee and Washington, got more moderate Tuesday -- at least in the Senate. A Senate committee made changes to extend a key Everglades cleanup deadline by 10 years, instead of the 20-year delay in the House bill. The bill also holds firm to a phosphorus pollution limit favored by environmentalists (10 parts per billion), instead of a looser standard sought by sugar companies (15 parts per billion.) "Now it's a green bill," said David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Not everyone agreed. Environmentalists and sugar growers left grumbling. Since the Senate and House bills differ, the legislation will probably change more as it heads to the floor in both chambers. Sugar growers sought protection against government seizure of their lands by eminent domain, but the Senate committee refused. Environmentalists said the legal language in the bill still gives too much wiggle room on deadlines. One chief concern: The second phase of cleanup can't begin until the plan goes back to the Legislature for approval in the future. In Washington, lawmakers are closely watching what happens in Florida because the federal government and the state are splitting the cost of the $8.4-billion effort to clean up the Everglades. It is the largest environmental restoration project ever attempted in the United States. The main issue of disagreement is a 2006 deadline to reduce phosphorus, a pollutant that tips the marsh's natural balance so it grows cattails instead of sawgrass. Although phosphorus levels have dropped dramatically during the initial stages of the cleanup, getting to 10 parts per billion won't happen by the 2006 deadline set in the 1994 state-federal agreement, Struhs said. The state favors a 10-year delay, sugar growers want 20 more years, and environmentalists want no delay. "It's hard to look at this bill and say it's going to change the state's commitment to Everglades restoration," said state Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, the bill's sponsor. Read More...

U.S. Sugar Industry Targets New Study
Lawmakers' Aid Sought In Halting WHO Report
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
The sugar industry has launched a vigorous campaign to discredit a World Health Organization report on healthful diets, questioning why the Geneva-based group would urge people to derive no more than 10 percent of their daily caloric intake from sugar additives. Hoping to block the report, which is scheduled for release today, the Sugar Association threatened to lobby Congress to cut off the $406 million the United States gives annually to WHO. The funds account for nearly a quarter of the organization's budget. "We will exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature of the 'Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases' report," Sugar Association President Andrew Briscoe said in an April 14 letter to WHO's director general, Gro Harlem Brundtland. WHO's report suggests that people can reduce their susceptibility to obesity, diabetes and some heart problems by curbing the amount of sugar they consume. It warns that "unbalanced consumption of foods high in energy (sugar, starch, and/or fat) and low in essential nutrients contributes to energy excess . . . and obesity." Read More...

Editorial: Set Tribe Free From State
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, a nation of 500 Indians who inhabit the Everglades, wants independence from the state. The Legislature should grant its wish. The tribe wants the state to rescind a law giving Florida authorities jurisdiction over what happens on Miccosukee-owned land. Although Native American affairs are the domain of the federal government, Florida grabbed jurisdiction after Congress briefly opened the window on joint governance in the 1950s. Now it's time for Florida to close that window, as the majority of other states have already done. Two bills before the Legislature, House bill 269 and Senate bill 424, seek to do just that. The bills are similar, with one major exception. The Senate bill grants the Miccosukees complete legal autonomy from the state, though they would remain under federal jurisdiction. The House bill reserves the right of Florida courts to hear civil cases involving non-Indians and gives Florida police concurrent criminal powers in cases where the victim is a non-Indian. Lawmakers should support the exceptions in the House bill, which are designed partly to cover Florida residents and tourists who gamble or dine at the Miccosukee-owned and -operated casino and hotel complex in western Miami-Dade. Read More...

Editorial: Track the reef killer
Palm Beach Post
Now that an invasive seaweed, already a problem in the Florida Keys and on reefs off Palm Beach County, has reached the Treasure Coast, groups are organizing to seek solutions. The state should help. The St. Lucie County Conservation Alliance hosts a first meeting of those organizations today in Fort Pierce. The concern is caulerpa brachypus, a Pacific Ocean native that smothers sea grasses, covers reefs and crowds out fish and other native marine life. Keynote speaker is Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution scientist Brian Lapointe, who identified the seaweed and believes it is fed by nutrient-rich sewage that is dumped into the ocean or seeps up from storage wells. Mr. Lapointe is using a $279,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant to trace possible sources of nitrogen feeding the algae. State Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, has asked for $500,000 in this year's budget to do more, but Gov. Bush has vetoed similar "green tide" study money the past two years, and this very tight budget year is even tighter. More money, though, could help on a number of fronts. Scientists could work with volunteers to track seaweed location and map areas of infestation. Tracking when growth occurs also could be important. Some other invasive seaweeds, for example, grow faster in the summer. This one appears to grow year-round. "After the initial cold weather in January ended," Mr. Lapointe said, "it took over Palm Beach County reefs in a month." Read More...

State takes aim at the manatee
By Sally Swartz, Editorial Writer
Palm Beach Post
If red tide doesn't get Florida's manatees, politicians will. Sixty-four manatees have died since Feb. 27 in an outbreak of deadly red tide along Florida's southwest coast. At the same time, state legislators are trying to kill manatee research and management programs to get money for law enforcement. And a state commission that is considering whether to change the manatee's status from "endangered" to "threatened" has decided to make its decision without waiting for scientific information. "It's getting really, really bad," said Judith Vallee, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. "The state is pretty much a monster right now." She's talking about the political situation, not the red tide. The red tide is named for a bloom of microscopic algae. It emits a powerful nerve poison that interferes with breathing in mammals and fish, and it's a monster of another kind. In 1996, red tide killed 149 manatees between March 5 and April 27 in the same coastal area. Deaths have tapered off since last week, but Tom Pitchford, director of Florida's Marine Mammal Pathology Laboratory in St. Petersburg, isn't ready to declare the red tide at an end. Manatees don't always die from the toxic algae. Since 1995, people have rescued about two dozen red tide victims, holding their heads above water so they can breathe while guiding them into shallow water. Once they are moved out of the poisoned water, the majority recuperate quickly. The Legislature, however, wants to shove the endangered sea cow's head under the water, politically speaking. Ready to hit the Senate floor is SB 1476, which would divert almost all the money from the Save the Manatee Trust Fund -- raised from boat registration fees -- and the popular Save the Manatee license plate to pay for more wildlife law-enforcement officers. Nobody would object to that if the bill didn't simultaneously cut most of the money for manatee research and management programs that have been 20 years in the making. Read More...

Everglades pollution bill alarms U.S. judge
By Lesley Clark and Curtis Morgan
The Miami Herald
A push by Gov. Jeb Bush and the powerful sugar industry to loosen pollution standards in the Everglades could be challenged by a Miami federal judge, who said Wednesday the measure may threaten ongoing restoration efforts. In a strongly worded order, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler demanded that the state appear in court to discuss the matter May 2, the same day the Legislature is scheduled to end its annual session. Citing Herald reports of the deal, Hoeveler said he views the proposal with ''considerable apprehension'' and twice noted in a four-paragraph order that he has no intention of abandoning a 1992 Everglades cleanup settlement agreement he orchestrated. ''I think we should immediately have a hearing on this subject and you should make every effort to attend before this legislation becomes effective,'' Hoeveler wrote. The politically connected sugar industry has angered environmentalists and members of Congress from both parties in recent weeks with its aggressive efforts to convince the Republican-led Legislature to soften water-quality standards in the Everglades. The legislation has moved swiftly through House and Senate committees with little objection from either party, guided by a battalion of sugar industry lobbyists. The measures would push back enforcement deadlines for cleaning up the Everglades by at least seven years -- and the House version would boost the acceptable amount of one key pollutant by 50 percent or more.  Read more...

 

23-April-03

Eased rules on Glades pollution advance
By Lesley Clark and Curtis Morgan
The Miami Herald
Despite massive opposition from environmentalists and Congressional warnings that an unprecedented effort to restore the Everglades could be at risk, a sugar-industry-backed measure to ease pollution restrictions shows no signs of slowing in the Legislature. In less than five minutes, with no debate or public testimony, the proposal cleared its final Senate committee Tuesday and is now ready for action by the full chamber. The speed at which the measure was approved was in keeping with its trajectory since it surfaced just three weeks ago -- pushed by Big Sugar and its estimated 46 lobbyists. More than a half-dozen members of Congress from both parties have warned state lawmakers that weakening pollution regulations in the Everglades could endanger the $8 billion federal-state agreement to clean up the River of Grass, but legislators and Gov. Jeb Bush insist the Washington politicians are worried about outdated versions of the proposal. Bush's top environmental administrator acknowledged Tuesday that an early version of the proposal favored the sugar industry but said it's since been modified to protect the Everglades. ''We started with a brown bill, we moved to neutral and now we're solidly, positively green,'' said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs, adding that the agency and Bush are backing the newest Senate version. ``We had a bad first impression with the initial bill.'' But Charles Lee, senior vice president of Florida Audubon, said the revised version still threatens restoration efforts because it gives polluters room to wiggle and pushes back enforcement deadlines for cleaning up polluted water. ''It's still a killer for Everglades restoration,'' Lee said. The politically powerful sugar industry maintains that the new Senate version is ''radically different'' from the initial House proposal that prompted protest from environmentalists, editorial writers and Congress -- as well as a TV ad campaign that targets Bush.  Read more...

22-April-03

Cane Cutters Take On Big Sugar in Backpay Fight
Steve Ellman
Miami Daily Business Review
14-year fight on behalf of sugar cane cutters in Palm Beach County may be entering last phase
Starting today in state trial court in Florida, 20,000 Caribbean sugar cane cutters get what could be their last shot at Big Sugar in their long-running legal battle to win tens of millions of dollars in backpay.  Pre-trial motions in the class-action contract lawsuit, Bygrave v. Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, quickly turned rancorous Monday, following a pattern set in preceding cases. One of the defense attorneys, David Coulson, insulted the plaintiffs' proposed chief expert witness; Judge Karen Miller admonished Coulson, prompting him to apologize. The outcome of the trial, for which jury selection begins today in Palm Beach Circuit Court, could determine whether attorney David Gorman's 14-year-long crusade on behalf of the predominantly black cutters is finally over.

21-April-03

Public comment sought on proposed water policy   
Orlando Business Journal
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced Wednesday that his department has developed a proposed agricultural water policy and is seeking public comment on it between now and May 16. The draft policy, which has been developed after more than a year of public meetings, is posted on a Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Web site at http://www.floridaagwaterpolicy.com Citizens and agricultural industry groups are encouraged to view the site and make any recommendations that they may have in the comment section. The 31-page draft policy identifies actions that are needed to assure that agriculture has access to an adequate supply of water of sufficient quality to remain competitive in a global marketplace. It calls for all levels of government to work together to achieve that goal and stresses the need for industry groups to implement environmentally friendly best management practices and employ various water conservation measures. A final policy is expected to be approved by Bronson at a water policy meeting in Marco Island on July 15. Read More...

Related link 

   Office of Agricultural Water Policy
   http://www.floridaagwaterpolicy.com/

14-April-03

September 20, 2001
Who We Are
Brian Scherf - Hollywood, Fla.
Chair, Biodiversity Committee of the Broward County Group

When American Automobile Association members reach travel counselor Brian Scherf on the phone to help them plan a vacation, they get more than highway routes and discount motels. They get an environmental education as well.  "I talk about national parks all day, and I always work in a conservation message," says the Florida activist. "So you're going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Do you know about the work that they're doing there to reintroduce elk? Bound for Yosemite? Are you familiar with the efforts being made to reduce the impacts of visitors there?"  Some are interested, some are ambivalent - it just depends on the person, says Scherf.  Read more . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Sierra Club Planet Newsletter All rights reserved.

12-April-03

Lawmakers: Extend ’Glades pollution deadline
Part II
While on the subject of lobbyists, it looks like the sugar industry did a number on a House committee considering some significant changes to the landmark 1994 Everglades Forever Act.  On a 16-1 vote, the committee moved to the full House a bill that would give polluters an extra 20 years to meet clean water standards in the Everglades.  As reported by The Miami Herald’s Lesley Clark, the committee chamber was packed with agricultural lobbyists who worked hard to back off the original 2006 deadline set in the original 1994 Act.  This flies counter to the stand taken by many environmental groups and even by some prominent GOP members of Congress, who now fear that the state sends a very wrong signal – backpedaling on this $8 billion joint state-federal Everglades cleanup.    
Copyright  © 2003  Keynoter  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 12, 2003
                Lawmakers: Extend ’Glades pollution deadline

Lawmakers: Extend ’Glades pollution deadline
A Florida Keys marine-advisory panel unanimously voted this week to oppose a state law that softens a deadline for curtailing phosphorous pollution in Everglades water.  The recommendation from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council did little to sway members of a key state House of Representatives committee, which the next day passed the controversial bill on a 16-1 vote.  The bill – which would eliminate a 2006 deadline for sharply reducing phosphorous pollution from stormwater flowing into the Everglades – still must win endorsement of the full Legislature.  A companion bill would curtail state water-management districts’ authority to "reserve" water for ecosystem preservation.  "We believe both these bills have the potential to derail Everglades restoration," said Nancy Klingener, Keys program manager for The Ocean Conservancy.
Copyright  © 2003  Keynoter  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 12, 2003
                Lawmakers: Extend ’Glades pollution deadline - Part II

Editorial: The Everglades 'albatross'
As a House committee voted Wednesday to postpone Everglades cleanup for two more decades, Florida's top environmental cop was remarkably docile. "Whatever date is put into law will not speed up or slow down our process," said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs. "That is because the laws of man cannot affect the laws of nature."  Is that so?  The Everglades is losing roughly six acres a day to cattail invasion because the laws of man allowed sugar and dairy farmers and urban developers and flood-control engineers to use it as their sewer. After environmental groups waged fruitless battles over the years to change those permissive laws, a U.S. attorney sued in 1988 and found a federal court that would listen. The result was that some new laws of man, the 1994 Everglades Forever Act, were passed.   
Copyright  © 2003  St. Petersburg Times  All rights reserved.

11-April-03

Letter to the editor: Stalling Everglades cleanup for 20 years will make it moot
I was outraged as I read the April 3 article "20-year delay sought for Everglades cleanup law." It makes me sick to see the work of the past 30 years being destroyed by Gov. Bush and his administration.  All the state needs to do is to make sugar farmers do what other farmers are required to do, which is on-site retention of water polluted with phosphorus and pesticides.  This was first suggested more than 30 years ago, but the sugar interests were exempted.  On-site retention requires farmers to take a portion of their land to build reservoirs to recycle water off the cropland and into the retention ponds. In dry times, the retention ponds are available to provide irrigation. This keeps the overly enriched and pesticide-laden water out of the Everglades and out of state waters.  When the Everglades Forever Act passed in 1994, I thought it was a stall so the sugar farms could conduct business as usual.   
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Letter: Threat of Extinction
To the Editor:
The news that gorillas and chimpanzees are in grave danger of extinction is profoundly disturbing ("Gorillas and Chimps in Peril, Report Says," news article, April 7). But this is just the tip of the iceberg. A majority of biologists now believe that humans are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species of life on earth since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  According to the most recent United Nations Global Environment Outlook Report, if current trends continue, one quarter of all mammal species will be extinct in 30 years, and E. O. Wilson of Harvard, the world's most esteemed biologist, estimates that one half of all species on earth will be extinct by the end of this century. It is long past time for us to stop wasting our resources killing each other and to start using them to rescue the planet we are rapidly devastating.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 7, 2003
                Gorillas and Chimps in Peril, Report Says

House Endorses Oil Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
House members endorsed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge tonight as they considered a wide-ranging energy measure that seeks to spur domestic energy production and provides tax incentives to oil and power companies.  Siding with the Bush administration on one of its top energy initiatives, the House defeated on a 228-to-197 vote an effort to strip the drilling plan from the measure. Lawmakers did support limiting development to a 2,000-acre "footprint" in the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the refuge on the North Slope of Alaska.  The Senate, which is developing its own energy measure, rejected the drilling plan in a crucial budget vote last month and Republican leaders there say they do not intend to return to the issue in their energy proposal. But House advocates of drilling said they hoped to persuade the Senate to reverse that position.    
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Letter to the Editor: Bush ignores restoration
On Dec. 11, 2000, Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan with a $7.8 billion price tag. Over the years, the activities of the Corps of Engineers (drainage for large plantations, mining and dike building) have been responsible for the conditions that required such a large price tag.  Now the Bush administration is allowing the Corps of Engineers to issue two new mining leases to corporations for limestone mining in the Everglades. Currently, the leases call for two deep open-pit mines totaling 5,000 acres just east of the Everglades, and one would abut the park.  Limestone in Florida is used for making cement and these new mines are supposed to support construction for the new people moving into the state.  The future goal of the corporations is to secure permits for mining limestone in 15,000 acres of wetlands just north of the national park.   
Copyright  © 2003  Statesman Journal  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

               U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
                Jacksonville District

               Hot Topics - Lake Belt Permits

Invasive Species Find Florida to Their Liking
Conservationists are warning that the Florida's problem with invasive species must be addressed immediately. A new booklet on the issue, compiled by the Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, details the severity of the situation, as nonnative plants and animals continue to destroy native habitats and species.  "The problem of invasive, non-native species grows exponentially worse each day," said Vicki Tschinkel, director of the Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "The time to act is now."  "There is a point in the proliferation of these invaders where intervention can be effective, but unfortunately it is a very small window of opportunity," Tschinkel said.  The organization is passing the booklet, titled "Stopping the Spread" to state legislators and agency heads in an attempt to get them to recognize the seriousness and scale of the issue.  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 7, 2003
                Press Release: Conservancy Sounds the Alarm About Invasive Species Crisis

                Related Link,

               Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson calls for decisive, quick action.

Editorial: Bush getting bad advice on Everglades legislation
Gov. Bush and his chief environmental regulator either don't understand the behind-the-scenes manipulations by the sugar industry that threaten Everglades cleanup and restoration, or they are part of the industry's efforts to gut rules and delay restoration indefinitely.  The governor told The Miami Herald this week that U.S. Reps. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, "need to be briefed" to understand that industry-written changes to the 1994 Everglades Forever Act are not a problem, even if the changes allow more pollution and a 20-year delay in enforcing any water-quality standard. The Florida House Natural Resources Committee approved the amendments this week; a Senate panel considers them next week.  Gov. Bush, however, is the one who needs the briefing.   
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Federal Everglades money threatened
The congressmen's warning this week could not have been more blunt: Florida can kiss $4 billion in federal money goodbye if the state's lawmakers persist with a rewrite of its Everglades cleanup law.  The four Democratic congressmen's letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the White House upped the stakes in what has become a bipartisan outcry over state legislation that environmentalists insist would weaken and delay the cleanup.  The four, including U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Pembroke Pines and Jim Davis of Tampa, put their key sentence in boldface type: If the bill passes, "the U.S. Congress will not appropriate funds" for a larger, state-federal $8.4 billion Everglades restoration project.  Norton's staff is still studying the legislation and the congressmen's objections, spokesman Hugh Vickery said Thursday. The White House environmental office failed to respond to a request for comment.       
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Letter to the Editor: Stalling Everglades cleanup for 20 years will make it moot
I was outraged as I read the April 3 article "20-year delay sought for Everglades cleanup law." It makes me sick to see the work of the past 30 years being destroyed by Gov. Bush and his administration.  All the state needs to do is to make sugar farmers do what other farmers are required to do, which is on-site retention of water polluted with phosphorus and pesticides. This was first suggested more than 30 years ago, but the sugar interests were exempted.  On-site retention requires farmers to take a portion of their land to build reservoirs to recycle water off the cropland and into the retention ponds. In dry times, the retention ponds are available to provide irrigation. This keeps the overly enriched and pesticide-laden water out of the Everglades and out of state waters.  When the Everglades Forever Act passed in 1994, I thought it was a stall so the sugar farms could conduct business as usual.     
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

10-April-03

Business: U.S. Left Out of Emissions Trading
During negotiations over the Kyoto Protocol, the United States preached the importance of market solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Few countries listened.  Now, with the Americans no longer at the table, the former free-market opposition has taken over the pulpit. Canada ratified the treaty in December, meaning the plan to reduce greenhouse gases is just one nation shy of becoming law in more than 100 countries. And the heart of the treaty is an emissions-trading plan that closely resembles what the United States originally proposed.  "When Bush pulled out in the cavalier way he did, he galvanized everyone around the world to make it work," said David Doniger, a former Kyoto treaty negotiator under President Bill Clinton and now policy director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The system is made in America, and the Americans aren't part of it."  Other countries see opportunity in America's retreat.     
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Well-deserved awards
Wildlife Federation, Law Institute recognize Maggy Hurchalla
Congratulations to former Martin County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla, honored last weekend by the National Wildlife Federation for her efforts to improve the quality of life for both humans and wildlife. Hurchalla was one of 12 persons recognized in Washington, D.C., with the presentation of the prestigious National Conservation Achievement Award.  In addition, the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute has just selected Hurchalla — among eight outstanding conservationists nationwide — to receive a 2003 National Wetlands Award. The award celebrates exemplary contributions to the conservation and restoration of the nation's wetlands. She and the other winners will be honored at a ceremony May 20 on Capitol Hill.    
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 8, 2003
                Hurchalla receives national award

Water managers store hope in underground well plan
Water managers will seek permission today to begin drilling exploratory wells that could help determine the fate of a critical -- and expensive -- component of the Everglades restoration.  The South Florida Water Management District governing board will consider a $2.4 million contract to drill four wells as part of $33 million in projects to investigate whether the district's ambitious plan to store millions of gallons of storm water underground will work.  The wells would be drilled at Port Mayaca and Moore Haven, near the Kissimmee River's entry to Lake Okeechobee and on a former citrus grove near the Caloosahatchee River. The information unearthed from the wells would augment the findings from an existing exploratory well west of Boca Raton alongside the Hillsboro Canal.    
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Panel extends 'Glades deadline
Despite warnings from Congress that the partnership to restore the Everglades could be shattered, a state House committee on Wednesday approved a bill giving a 20-year extension to the deadline for cleaning up phosphorous pollution in the endangered marsh. The House Natural Resources Committee voted 16-1 to amend the Everglades Forever Act, the landmark 1994 law that required the state to reduce the phosphorous washing into the Everglades from farms and cities. Phosphorous damages the Everglades by encouraging the growth of cattails and other invasive plants that crowd out sawgrass, leaving little habitat for snakes, birds, fish and frogs. The amendment would move the deadline for reducing phosphorous to acceptable levels from 2006 to 2026. It would also place restrictions on the expansion of treatment marshes on private land, although the state's top environmental official says the state has enough land to expand the marshes.    
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Seminoles: Ousted leader can't run for council
Ousted Seminole Tribe of Florida chairman James Billie doesn't live on a Seminole reservation and can't try to regain his position, the Tribal Council has ruled. The council ruled Wednesday that Billie can vote in tribal elections but can't run for any seat on the council because he does not live on a Seminole reservation. The council said Billie lives in the Glades County town of Moore Haven. Billie's attorney, Robert Saunooke, said he would fight the ruling. Billie, who has sued the tribe demanding his immediate reinstatement, had planned to run for chairman in the May 12 election. Saunooke said Billie has two homes at the Seminole's Big Cypress reservation in the Everglades. The Seminoles also have reservations in Hollywood, Tampa, Immokalee, Fort Pierce and Brighton in Glades County north of Moore Haven, according to the tribe's Web site.         
Copyright  © 2003  Herald Tribune  All rights reserved.

Everglades deadline extension advances
Environmentalists charged that a House panel dealt a serious blow to Everglades restoration on Wednesday, and then added insult to injury by signing off on controversial legislation that would hamstring water managers in other parts of the state. Spurred by a powerful sugar lobby and the assurances of Gov. Jeb Bush's top environmental regulator, the House Natural Resources Committee voted 16-1 to approve a measure that would dramatically push back deadlines for the final phase of phosphorus cleanup in the famed River of Grass. Jack Seiler, D-Pompano Beach, was the holdout. Committee chairman Joseph Spratt, R-Labelle, won support from skeptical Democrats on the panel after softening an earlier version and winning the resounding support of Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs and the South Florida Water Management District.     
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

House Panel OKs Bill Extending Deadline For Cleaning Glades
A sugar industry-backed bill is on the fast track in the House, despite a letter from two Florida congressmen who say the proposed law will endanger the state's partnership with the federal government in restoring the Everglades. The House Natural Resources Committee passed the bill (PCB NR 03-01), which would extend the December 2006 deadline for reaching water quality standards to 2026. The standards were established in the state's landmark Everglades Forever Act. The bill is slated to go straight to the House floor. No similar bill exists in the state Senate. The measure has the backing of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration. Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs, a Bush appointee, said it would be impossible to lower phosphorus levels to the mandated 10 parts per billion in water entering the Everglades by 2006.         
Copyright  © 2003  Tampa Tribune  All rights reserved.

09-April-03

CALIFORNIA: PARK SERVICE REJECTS COAST PROPOSAL  
In a long-awaited study of the Gaviota Coast, the National Park Service said the 76 miles of seashore should not be a national park, despite its beauty, history and bounty of plants and animals. Running north from Santa Barbara to the northern tip of Vandenberg Air Force Base at Point Sal, the Gaviota Coast takes in half of the remaining rural Southern California coast, and it is the "healthiest remaining coastal ecosystem" in the region, the Park Service said. But the agency added the area should not join the national system because of landowners' opposition and the cost of acquiring the land and running a new park.       
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times, AP online  All rights reserved.

South Florida Water Management District Awards Accela $5 Million Contract
Software Maker's Technology Selected to Manage, Protect, and Preserve Area Water Supply
Accela, Inc., the leading provider of government enterprise management solutions, announced today that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has selected Accela software to automate and track the land acquisition activities involved with managing and maintaining the water supply for 16 central and southern Florida counties. Accela Automation(TM), a Web browser-based solution, will directly aid SFWMD in meeting the land acquisition requirements set forth in the 30-year, $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and allow the District to effectively provide the land required to protect and preserve the area's water supply and corresponding ecosystem in a timely manner.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  PR Newswire  All rights reserved.

South Florida Water Management District awards $5M software deal
In partnership with the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District has signed a $5 million contract with Dublin, Calif.-based Accela Inc.  The contract will bring new software to the district that will automate and track its land acquisition activities in the 16 central and southern Florida counties it covers.  District officials will employee Accela Automation, the company's Web browser software, to help meet the land acquisition requirements found in the 30-year, $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, which encompasses seven bodies of water within an 18,000-square-mile radius.  The district already uses some Accela software to join more than 20 of its offices, including those in Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Osceola County and Winter Springs.                
Copyright  © 2003  Orlando Business Journal  All Rights Reserved.

Proposal could ease reins on developers
With strong support from builders, the state Senate on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that could make it harder for local governments to restrict the construction of condominium towers, office buildings and other developments.  The Senate approved an amendment to the Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Act that would clear the way for property owners to sue local governments if the value of their land is diminished by height restrictions, density limits or other land-use changes. The bill (SB 1164 and HB 113) would remove local government's immunity from lawsuits, known as sovereign immunity, for land-use decisions. The House has not yet taken any action.  The bill is backed by the Property Rights Coalition, a group of builders, farmers and landowners. Dan Stengle, the group's attorney, said the bill is designed to fix a glitch in the original law and that it won't bring any major changes in the way local governments regulate development.           
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

08-April-03

Hurchalla receives national award
The former Martin County commissioner is recognized for her work with environmental causes.
Former Martin County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla has long been known locally as a driving force behind such environmental causes as restoring the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.  Now, that recognition has reached the national level.  In Washington on Saturday, Hurchalla was one of 12 individuals and organizations to receive the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award, which honors conservationists whose activities set an example for others around the country.  "I was with some very good company," said Hurchalla. "It was a great bunch of people up there. They all care a lot."        
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                April 10, 2003
                Editorial: Well-deserved awards

Bush: Sugar bill no Glades threat
Pollution standards weakened, state environmentalists argue
Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that two Republican congressmen got it wrong when they warned state Republicans that a proposal under consideration in the House could jeopardize the $8 billion Everglades restoration effort. U.S. Reps. Porter Goss of Sanibel and Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale cautioned Friday that a sugar industry-backed proposal being debated in the state House of Representatives could put at risk a ''fragile partnership'' between Washington and Florida, which are splitting the tab for the 30-year cleanup project. But Bush on Monday suggested that the two congressmen ''need to be briefed'' on the issue.  Environmentalists have charged that the legislation would weaken pollution standards, particularly one set by the landmark 1994 Everglades Forever Act, which sought to cap phosphorus, a key ingredient in the fertilizer used on farms and sugar cane fields.          
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

07-April-03

Gorillas and Chimps in Peril, Report Says
Gorillas and chimpanzees, the most common of the great apes and humanity's closest relatives, are facing such severe threats from hunting and now from the Ebola virus that they should immediately be declared "critically endangered," researchers say.The scientists, from a broad spectrum of research institutions and conservation organizations, reported yesterday that ape populations in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, home to 80 percent of the world's gorillas and most of its chimpanzees, fell by more than half between 1983 and 2000. At that rate of decline, the scientists said, the population of both gorillas and chimpanzees would drop by another 80 percent in 33 years, about a generation and a half, which would meet the World Conservation Union's criteria for upgrading their status.        
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

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                Letter: Threat of Extinction

Press Release: Conservancy Sounds the Alarm About Invasive Species Crisis
Florida’s problem of out-of-control non-native plants and animals destroying native habitats and species must be addressed immediately to optimize the state’s chances for success, The Nature Conservancy said today.  The Florida Chapter of the international environmental group, through a booklet being distributed called "Stopping the Spread," is alerting state legislators and agency heads about the seriousness and scale of the invasive, non-native species problem. The Conservancy is urging lawmakers to maintain environmental trust fund balances so money is available to deal with the crisis. "Stopping the Spread" recommends ways to stem the tide and reduce the destructive impacts caused by predatory catfish, disease-carrying insects and smothering vines, to name a few.  "The problem of invasive, non-native species grows exponentially worse each day. The time to act is now," said Vicki Tschinkel, Florida Chapter director.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy All rights reserved.

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