31-May-03
Tribe lands stand on Glades water
By Jasmine Kripalani
© The Miami Herald
Miccosukee Indian Tribe members and
environmentalists were one step closer Friday to forcing South Florida water
managers to clean up polluted waters before pumping them into
the Everglades. In a 19-page brief, U.S. Solicitor General
Theodore Olson sided with a federal appeals court, which said the district
should be required to comply with the stringent standards of the U.S.
Clean Water Act. That would force the district to obtain a
federal permit and to clean floodwaters before they are pumped into the
Everglades. The Supreme Court, which was asked to overturn
the lower-court ruling, sought the opinion of the solicitor general, who argues
cases before the high court. The court can still decide
to take up the appeal by the South Florida Water Management District. ''While we respect the solicitor general's
decision, we're disappointed in the position taken,'' water management district
spokesman Randy Smith said, reading a prepared statement. ``Our
governing board feels strongly that this is an important issue. The district
remains hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will choose to hear our
case.'' Read
more...
Federal officials back Miccosukees in
Everglades water dispute
© Herald Tribune/ Associated Press
Miccosukee Indian Tribe members and
environmentalists are getting closer to forcing South Florida water managers to
clean up polluted waters before pumping them into the Everglades. In a 19-page brief released Friday, U.S.
Solicitor General Theodore Olson joined a federal appeals court in saying that
the South Florida Water Management District should comply with
the strict standards of the U.S. Clean Waters Act. The act would force the district to obtain a
federal permit and clean floodwaters before they are pumped into the Everglades.
The Supreme Court, which the district has asked to overturn the
appeals court ruling, had sought the opinion of the solicitor general, who would
argue the case before the high court.
Read
more...
Still endangered, for now
Editorial
© St.
Petersburg Times
Just as the summer boating season kicks
into gear, Florida's manatees have won a reprieve of sorts as state wildlife officials wisely
delayed until November a decision on whether the sea cows are still an
endangered species. The latest count puts the state's
manatee herd at about 3,000. Since there is no magic number for when a species is truly endangered or
merely threatened with extinction, the state must decide if the
rebounding numbers mean manatees no longer need strict protection or whether their
recovery, and continued existence, depends on keeping the safeguards in
place. Boating and marine industry agents want
the government to ease up on speed zone and dock-building restrictions. Environmentalists say those
restrictions are why the sea cows are having a comeback. State and federal wildlife agencies are
awash these days in scientific, and often contradictory, studies of the manatees' plight. One recent
report by a federal researcher, however, is getting close attention. The
report's computer model shows that along the Atlantic coast and in
southwest Florida, the danger to manatees is so severe that there is no chance for
the species to rebound from its endangered status within 100 years. Read
more...
Mercury Pollution Underscores Need For
Clean Air Laws
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
The Chassahowitzka River is one of the
most beautiful wildernesses in Florida, an expanse of coastline dominated by saw grass, not
condominiums. Yet a study of mercury pollution found
water in the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge had peak mercury levels 23.2 times higher than
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard. No industry dumps wastewater into the
river. Nor is there urban stormwater runoff. But the river is 15 miles south of the Crystal River
power plants, which are among the top emitters of mercury in the state. Indeed, much of the mercury in Florida's
waters comes from coal-burning power plants, whose emissions ultimately end up in lakes, rivers
and bays. Florida was among 12 states criticized by the National Wildlife
Federation, which reviewed mercury pollution statistics throughout the
nation. As the Tribune's Jim Tunstall reports,
mercury content at Florida's four
rain monitoring sites average 4.5 times higher than the EPA
standards. Some sites, such as Chassahowitzka, were far higher. Read
more...
River shut out of state's budget
By Libby Wells, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
All the agencies and local governments
that asked the state for money to clean up the St. Lucie River received the same amount this year:
$0. The St. Lucie River Issues Team, a panel
of 18 federal, state and local officials, asked the legislature for $11.5 million this year to
help with large and small projects, ranging from stormwater treatment to
equipment needs and research projects. Each agency or government agreed to
pay half. But the state couldn't spare the bucks
in the $53.5 billion budget the legislature passed Tuesday. "We had it until the last minute," state
Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, told the Rivers Coalition on Friday. "We lost it in negotiations."
It was the first time the Issues Team
did not receive any state money since it started drawing up a "wish list" in 1998. The group has
received $26.5 million from the state, which helped pay for 91 water-quality
projects in Martin and St. Lucie counties. "We've had excellent success with it,"
said Patti Sime, director of the upper east coast division for the South Florida Water Management
District. There were 38 projects on the list, all
of which were ranked in order of priority for funding. Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Sewall's Point,
Martin County and the Town of Ocean Breeze all had projects ranked in the top
10. Read
more...
U.S. urges judges not to hear Everglades
case
© The Sun Sentinel
The federal government is advising the U.S.
Supreme Court not to hear a water managers' appeal of a lower-court ruling that
they need a permit to pump polluted storm water into
the Everglades from western Broward County. U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson urged
the high court in an opinion Friday not to enter into the dispute between the
South Florida Water Management District, the
Miccosukee Tribe and environmentalists. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Miami
has ruled that the district needs to obtain a federal Clean Water Act permit to
run the pollution-gushing pumps near Griffin
Road and U.S. 27.
Coalition urges early lobby campaign
Restoration plans are in jeopardy,
river activists say
By Suzanne Wentley, Staff Writer
© Stuart News
TREASURE COAST -- As water managers vowed to
put the local Everglades restoration project before Congress in time for a
funding decision this fall, Treasure Coast environmental
advocates made plans Friday to increase pressure on decision makers. The 31 member organizations of the Rivers
Coalition agreed to begin a letter-writing campaign to state and federal elected
officials, as well as top water managers, in support of nearly $1
billion worth of reservoirs, stormwater treatment facilities and land
preservation planned for Martin and St. Lucie counties. Known as the Indian River Lagoon Feasibility
Study, the water-quality effort is the first project of the $8 billion statewide
Everglades effort. Increased scrutiny has put the plan in
jeopardy of missing important funding deadlines. "We're out of time, folks," coalition chairman
Leon Abood said. "Our IRL plan is really in trouble. We need to put as much
pressure on our elected officials as possible." Two sets of letters will be sent out
early next week, with one asking elected officials to support the plan in its entirety. Water managers had once considered splitting
the plan into less expensive pieces to please top officials of the Army Corps of
Engineers. Read
more...
30-May-03
Federal Judge Upholds Florida's Water
Protection Plan
Court rejects complaint against
state's impaired waters rule.
Department of Environmental
Protection
Press Release
TALLAHASSEE - The United States
District Court today issued a judgment rejecting a complaint by a
handful of litigants that Florida's procedure for identifying polluted
lakes and rivers constitutes a change in water quality standards. The
decision comes just one week after the Florida First District Court of
Appeal upheld the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP)
Impaired Waters Rule, which is the basis of Florida's plan to clean up
state waters. "Florida's approach is based on sound science and
common sense. The Courts
have again determined that the State is on track with a comprehensive
plan to clean up pollution in the water," said DEP Secretary David
B. Struhs. "We can now focus on the real work at hand: ensuring
that our waters are clean - and stay that way." Read
more...
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
US SOLICITOR'S OFFICE SAYS SFWMD SUPREME COURT PETITION SHOULD BE DENIED
Recommends Supreme Court Deny District's Challenge in the S-9 Case
Friends of the Everglades
Press Release
The Solicitor General of the United
States, today recommended that the U.S. Supreme Court NOT hear a challenge by the South Florida Water
Management District (District) to the Clean Water Act case that it lost to
Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. Friends and
the Tribe won at both the US District and Appeals court levels. The case involves the pumping of
polluted water into the Everglades by the South Florida Water Management District. The S-9 is a pump
station which back pumps polluted water from the C-11 canal basin in Broward
County into the Everglades. The discharge has caused severe damage in the
Everglades especially in Water Conservation Area 3A - home to the Miccosukee
Tribe of
Indians. The Federal District Court held that a federal pollution
discharge permit is required. Such a permit would set strict limits on how
much pollution the District can discharge.
Read
more...
SOLICITOR'S OFFICE SAYS SUPREME COURT
PETITION
SHOULD BE DENIED
Recommends Supreme Court Should Deny District's Challenge in
Miccosukee Case
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians
Press Release
Today, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians,
whose members live in the Florida Everglades, hailed an Opinion of the
Solicitor General of the United States, which recommends that the U.S.
Supreme Court NOT hear a challenge by the South Florida Water Management
District (District) to the Clean Water Act case that the Tribe won at
both the district and appeals court levels. According to Dexter Lehtinen,
the Tribe's General Counsel on these matters, "We are happy that
the federal government agrees with the four 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals Judges, but we know that the District is still going to try to
get the Supreme Court to get them off the hook. The Solicitor's
Opinion is definitely a step in the right direction in ensuring that the
Clean Water Act is applied to the Everglades, but it's not over yet. The
Tribe continues to question how the District can tell the public they
are restoring the Everglades, while they tell the U.S. Supreme Court
that they don't want the Clean Water Act applied to their S-9 pump that
releases polluted water into the Everglades. It appears that the
Solicitor General agrees with us." Read
more...
Florida sugar crop second-largest ever
Staff Reports
© Palm Beach Post
Florida's sugar industry produced its
second-largest crop ever during the recently completed season, new figures show.
The 2.123 million tons of raw sugar produced
in the 2002-2003 season is just 4,000 tons shy of the record crop in 1998-99,
according to data obtained Thursday from the Florida Sugar
Cane League Inc. The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida
in Belle Glade, U.S. Sugar Corp. in Clewiston and West Palm Beach-based Florida
Crystals Corp. harvested sugar cane on 442,000
acres in Palm Beach, Martin, Hendry and Glades counties. Each acre produced an average of 4.8
tons of sugar. The industry also produced 108.1 million
gallons of molasses. Florida produces more than half of the
nation's sugar that comes from cane. Along with molasses and other byproducts,
Florida's sugar is valued at more than $800 million, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
FGCU: Merwin calls revamped Ginn Co.
plan a 'vast improvement'
By Marci Elliot
© Naples News
It's a kinder and gentler plan, more
sensitive to environmental issues. And the latest changes in the
development proposed by the Ginn Co. of Central Florida near Florida Gulf Coast University are a "vast
improvement" over the original plan, FGCU President William
Merwin
said Thursday after the university's Board of Trustees' quarterly meeting.
"It's a lot more flexible, and there
will be enough (land) included for business and engineering schools," Merwin said.
Bobby Ginn, president and CEO of the
Ginn Co. in Celebration near Orlando, told the trustees about revisions to the plan for a
proposed development east of FGCU's campus. Ginn's original plan, announced last
year, sparked outcries from area environmentalists and public officials because of the
sensitivity of the property's location. It's in the Density Reduction
Groundwater Recharge area, which limits development to one unit per 10 acres. The designation was
built into Lee County's comprehensive plan in the 1980s to
protect the sensitive filtering of rainwater into Southwest Florida's aquifers — water reserves — deep in the ground.
The original plan proposed construction
of 1,400 homes, 72 holes of golf, and hotel, office and commercial areas on more than 5,000
acres of DRGR land. Read
more...
Poor, poor Florida
It's the people who fall victim to
2003 Legislature's 'perfect storm'
Editorial
©
Stuart News
The 2003 Florida Legislature, after both
regular and special sessions, may go down in state history as one of the worst ever convened.
The salient fact emerging is that while
legislators struggled to polish their egos and curry favor with special interests, the people
were not well-served. Sadly, the agony isn't over yet. Gov.
Jeb Bush will call the legislators into a second special session June 16 to address problems arising
from medical malpractice insurance rates that are driving doctors out
of the state. In light of the lawmakers' surrender to the lobbyists for
the sugar and insurance industries during the past couple of weeks, it is
unlikely that any solution helpful to doctors or patients will emerge from
that session.
Read
more...
29-May-03
Florida set to work "extra
hard" for funds to cleanup Glades
By Frank Davies
©
The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON - Protecting federal funding
for Everglades restoration became more difficult Wednesday as Congress absorbed the impact of state
legislation that pushes back water quality goals as much as 10 years. ''This was a tough budget year to begin with, with a lot of
districts and states competing for funds,'' said Rep. Clay Shaw's chief of
staff, Eric
Eikenberg. ``Now we're going to have to work extra hard to secure
our share.'' The state Legislature on Tuesday night passed a ''glitch'' bill
designed to fix elements in an earlier Everglades water quality bill backed
by Gov. Jeb Bush and the sugar industry. That measure came under fire in
Congress for loosening standards on phosphorus, a key pollutant. VAGUE LANGUAGE The ''glitch'' bill eliminates some of the vague language that
critics said invited the sugar industry and others to postpone cleanup goals.
But members and staffers of the powerful House Appropriations Committee said
other problems remain. A spokesman for the committee, John Scofield, warned that because
Florida is delaying some water quality deadlines from 2006 to 2016, Congress
may be skeptical of how the state-federal partnership will last. Both
partners are due to contribute $4 billion for the massive restoration project. ''The glitch bill doesn't go far enough -- it's not a positive
development,'' Scofield said. ``I can't prejudge members, but this could have a
real impact on funding.'' With Congress in recess, two key Florida Republicans, Shaw of
Fort Lauderdale and Porter Goss of Sanibel, were not available for comment. Their
staffs began to shift from criticizing the state legislation to living
with it and planning for new budget battles.
Read
more...
State official defends Everglades bill
By Jim Ash, Capital Bureau
© Palm Beach Post
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush's environmental
chief took a swipe at the media Wednesday, the morning after the legislature
completed a late-night and controversial rewrite of
the 1994 Everglades Forever Act. Department of Environmental Protection
Secretary David Struhs complained that news coverage has failed to emphasize the
good points of the legislation, which was heavily pushed by
Bush and the sugar industry. Addressing a morning meeting of the
Environmental Regulation Commission, Struhs asked commissioners whether they had
read the morning papers describing the bill's guarantee
of $1.7 billion for Everglades cleanup. "I say that somewhat facetiously because that
wasn't in any headlines," Struhs said. "I think that anybody who suggests that
the state's commitment to Everglades restoration is
questionable has to go back and do the math." Struhs said the legislation will not result in
a 10-year delay in reaching the final stages of phosphorus cleanup as critics
have charged. "If you look at it side by side (with
the 1994 law) you will see the date has not changed," Struhs said. Environmentalists and powerful members of the
Florida congressional delegation say that while the legislation does not
specifically mention a delay, it accomplishes the same thing by
making an obscure reference to a restoration plan written by the South Florida
Water Management District. Read
more
Everglades bill raises taxes, critics
argue
By Neil Santaniello, Staff
Writer
© The Sun Sentinel
Gov. Jeb Bush and state officials have
portrayed Florida's newly modified Everglades cleanup law as delivering a half-billion dollars in
new money to help the ecosystem "without raising taxes." Critics of the hotly contested law beg
to differ. The revised law passed by the
Republican-led Legislature will extend for at least 13 years a cleanup tax paid by home and business owners
from Orlando to Key West. And, environmentalists say, stretching
that payment out to 2016 not only makes it a new tax for home and business owners, but defies a
provision of the state constitution, which mandates that farmers and other
polluters in
the Everglades Agricultural Area bear the brunt cleanup costs. That tax, $20 a year for the owner of a
home with a $200,000 taxable value, was tied to cleanup construction work that was scheduled
to wind up this year. South Florida water managers had talked about levying
it one more year, in 2004, to pay higher-than-expected cleanup expenses. But the cleanup law, tweaked for the
last time by state legislators Tuesday, would sock property owners for nearly $470 million to
more than $500 million in additional cleanup cash by 2016, when a new
cleanup plan it finances is completed. Read
more
28-May-03
Glades law amended
By Mark Hollis, Tallahassee
Bureau
© The Sun Sentinel
TALLAHASSEE · State legislators tweaked a new
Everglades cleanup law Tuesday night but did little to placate critics who say
billions of federal dollars remains in peril. In the final hours of their 16-day special
session, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a "glitch bill" sought by Gov.
Jeb Bush, who called for the changes in hopes of appeasing
environmentalists, congressional critics and a federal judge. The House voted 96-18 in favor of the bill.
The Senate's approval came on a 34-4 vote. Democrats led the opposition in both
chambers. Critics of the new Everglades law responded
with more warnings of impending budget fights in Washington and legal challenges
in Florida. Bush, though, painted a rosier picture. The governor rejects suggestions that he and
the Republican-run Legislature have jeopardized federal funding for the
Everglades. The overall cleanup and restoration project is
expected to cost $8 billion, with the state providing half the money. David
Struhs, the governor's secretary of the
Department of Environmental Protection, hammered away at that point Tuesday,
issuing written statements that hailed this year's package of
Everglades legislation as a sure sign that Florida is committed to the
decades-long project. He also wrote that the state's new budget sets aside
$225 million in the upcoming fiscal year for Everglades restoration. It amounts
to "twice the funding originally anticipated," he said. Read
more
Legislature
backs governor's Everglades law
By
Lesley Clark
©
The Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE
- Hoping to appease environmentalists and congressional critics,
the Republican-led Legislature on Tuesday easily endorsed Gov. Jeb Bush's
tweaking of a controversial Everglades law. The
changes remove some language that critics said was troublesome, but the
move did little to quiet critics, who suggest the fix falls short and the
state may still be risking billions of federal dollars by allowing
polluters to push back water-quality deadlines by a decade. Bush
proposed the revisions after he signed the measure into law last week, in
hopes of quelling fears expressed by environmentalists and leading GOP
members of Congress that the law could lead some in Congress to conclude
that Florida has abandoned its commitment to a costly Everglades cleanup.
Read more
27-May-03
Record New Funding to Save the
Everglades
Florida Keeps Money Flowing Into
the River of Grass and Other Environmental Priorities
Department of Environmental
Protection
Press Release
Tallahassee: Today, the Legislature is
expected to redouble Florida's commitment to Ev erglades restoration by
appropriating a record $225 million to restore the River of Grass, more than twice the
funding originally anticipated this year. In addition, the Legislature is
also
expected to approve $800 million in bonding authority over the
next eight years to fund Florida's ongoing commitment. Governor Jeb Bush is the architect of
the funding plan for the state-federal partnership that is accomplishing Everglades restoration. Since
2000, the
State of Florida and South Florida Water Management District have
invested nearly $500 million in the project. Including cash and bonds
provided this year, Florida's total financial commitment to restore water flow
through the famed River of Grass now tops one-and-a-half billion dollars. Read
more...
24-May-03
Chairman out of
order
Editorial
©
Palm Beach Post
No "abusive" criticism. No "negative"
debate. The chairman decides whether you're guilty. You get one warning. Say anything more, and you're
out the door. No need for Robert's Rules of Order. The South Florida
Water Management District board has Michael's Rules of Order. The thin-skinned Chairman Michael
Collins has decided that the board should limit the free speech of any potential critics. Typically,
Mr. Collins refused to elaborate on what kind of behavior could lead
to expulsion. Read
more...
Delaying Everglades cleanup doesn't
make sense
Editorial
©
Tampa Tribune
During the Florida Legislature's regular
session, when members of Congress and environmentalists complained a bill would undermine the
federal and state effort to restore the Everglades, Gov. Jeb Bush assured
them his bill would not retreat from the cleanup standards established in
the plan. He said that critics didn't understand
the legislation, which was vigorously promoted by the sugar industry. Partly because of the governor's
support, lawmakers passed the measure, despite warnings from members of Congress that it could
jeopardize Washington's support for the $8 billion cleanup project. The
governor and
lawmakers also ignored the concerns of U.S. District Judge
William Hoeveler, who originally ordered the state to clean up the
Everglades. Hoeveler found the legislation language intentionally
``puzzling.'' Now Bush is finally admitting there
might be a problem. Unfortunately, he still refuses to do the right thing. After visiting with members
of Congress who expressed their alarm, he still signed the bill. He
wants the Legislature to amend the legislation to clean up the bill's
language. Read
more...
Why environmentalists oppose Lawson's Everglades bill
By Eric Draper, MY VIEW
© Tallahassee Democrat
Tallahassee Sen. Al Lawson, writing for
the Democrat on May 17, criticized environmentalists in general and Audubon of Florida in particular
for our role in opposing the recently passed Everglades bill. SB 626, now signed into law by the
governor, extends the deadline for meeting water pollution standards in the Everglades and directs
additional
property taxes in South Florida to pay for the cleanup. Audubon is proud to have led the
opposition to this harmful legislation. However, we regret the frustration that Sen. Lawson experienced
in dealing with us on his bill. Lawson has a long-standing record in the
Legislature as a friend of the environment. Indeed, it was his record that made it so
disappointing when he sponsored the bill to postpone Everglades cleanup. We recognize that our seeming
unwillingness to compromise on the bill is irritating to him. Sadly, a bill drafted at the behest and for
the benefit of the sugar industry is the source of his complaint. By agreeing
to sponsor the bill, he put himself in the middle of a controversial
issue.
Read
more...
Graham
chides Bush over letter sent to stop Glades bill
By
Peter Wallsten
©
The Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE
-- U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said Friday that Gov. Jeb Bush misled the public
about the senator's attempt to persuade him to veto controversial
Everglades legislation. Graham
said he sent a letter to Bush on Monday afternoon demanding that he veto
the legislation -- but Bush told reporters this week that he did not
receive the letter until a half-hour after he signed it Tuesday.
Graham said
that he called Bush on Tuesday after learning that the legislation had
been signed and that the governor did not call him back -- but Bush told
reporters that Graham did not call him. The
disagreement might sound minor, but a clarification is important for
Graham as he builds a campaign for president in part on his record as an
environmentalist.
Read
more
23-May-03
1992 deal on Glades cleanup stands,
judge says
By Curtis Morgan
©
The Miami Herald
William Hoeveler doesn't know exactly what the
Florida Legislature will do to fix a controversial Everglades cleanup bill, but
the federal judge said Thursday he does know this: In his Miami court, which set the original
schedule for cleaning pollution from the Everglades in a 1992 settlement, the
law is already set in stone. ''I'll tell you one thing I'm sure of, we're
going according to the old law, the Everglades Forever Act, and we're going to
make sure of that,'' the senior U.S. District judge said
Thursday. Hoeveler said he is waiting to review changes
that emerge after Gov. Jeb Bush signed the measure this week and then asked
lawmakers to pass a ''glitch bill'' intended to remove some of
the looser language, including references to the removal of a key pollutant ``to
the maximum extent practicable.'' Critics, from environmentalists to Florida
congressional members, still fear the bill would allow the state to skirt a
tough standard for phosphorus and push back a cleanup deadline by at
least a decade to 2016. Bush, lawmakers and his top environmental
advisors insist the law will strengthen cleanup with an additional $450 million
investment under a timeline that reflects technological
reality. They also say it won't violate the earlier
agreement Florida made in the 1992 settlement of a federal lawsuit that forced
the state to reduce farm and urban pollution tainting the
Everglades. The matter also has become a potent issue on
the presidential campaign trail, with Democratic hopefuls attempting to link the
president to the measure by virtue of his relationship
with his brother. Read
more...
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
EVERGLADES CLEANUP
Editorial
©
The Miami Herald
If Gov. Bush wanted to fix the flawed
Everglades bill, he would have sent it back to the Legislature for repairs
before he signed it. This would have signaled his commitment to making a bad bill
better. The new law risks weakening the state's hard-won agreement with the
federal government to replumb the Everglades. The bill puts at
risk the $4 billion matching funds for the project. By asking the Legislature to make fixes to
this damaging legislation now that it's law, Mr. Bush seems to opt for symbolism
over substance. The governor signed the bill despite criticism
from Republican congressmen, environmentalists and a federal judge. The sugar
industry hired dozens of lobbyists push the bill through the
Legislature. The bill extends the deadline for cleaning up agricultural runoff.
It keeps the scientifically recommended phosphorus-pollution standard of
10 parts per billion mandated in the 1994 Everglades Forever Act. But it doesn't
clearly mandate enforcement of that standard. Read
more...
Uphold manatee status
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
The state and federal governments, which
are supposed to be cooperating to protect Florida's endangered manatees, are reacting to pressure
from boating and fishing groups to remove rules that protect the
manatees. On Wednesday, a state agency will
consider changing the manatee's status from "endangered" to "threatened," despite increasing numbers of
boat-
related deaths and increasing numbers of boaters on state
waterways. The federal government wants to remove a protective designation on
the Caloosahatchee River, where more manatees die in boat accidents
than anywhere else in Florida. The state's Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, which had planned to gather scientific information and decide in November whether
to change the status, moved up the timetable at the urging of a
governor-appointed board staffed with Realtors, developers and representatives of
boating,
fishing and marine industry groups. Yet statistics recently
released by the commission's Florida Marine Research Institute show manatee
deaths from boat accidents at a record high of 95, 31 percent of all
manatee deaths in 2002. Read
more...
Everglades betrayal
Gov. Bush and his top environmental
regulator bear responsibility for cynical legislation that threatens the federal-state agreement
to save the Everglades.
Editorial
© St.
Petersburg Times
We understand why Gov. Jeb Bush
retreated behind closed doors to sign legislation that threatens the historic federal-state agreement
to clean up the Everglades. Nobody in his right mind wants to be seen in
public anywhere near this irresponsible piece of work. The attempts by Bush and state
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs to justify this betrayal of the Everglades
Forever Act have been incoherent and disingenuous from the start. First,
Struhs and other advocates claimed the proposed changes to the
meticulously
crafted Everglades compromise had the blessings of federal
officials. Struhs said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional
director was "enthusiastic" about the changes. Those assurances turned out
to be untrue. Justice Department lawyers and prominent Republicans in
Florida's congressional delegation were blindsided and alarmed by the
Florida
legislation and immediately began pleading with Bush to block it.
Read
more...
The Green Old Party?
By William K. Reilly
©
New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO- Lee Atwater, who was the Karl Rove of
George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, once explained to me why he supported one
of my controversial decisions as administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency: "To me," he said, "your appointment is about suburban
women. We need 'em. And they care a lot about your issue." As Christie Whitman, the most prominent
suburban woman in the Bush administration, steps down at E.P.A., the coverage primarily
concerns the issues on which she was overruled. This ignores some of her
significant achievements — the "brownfields" legislation that will return
thousands of derelict urban sites to productive use, and the decision to
reduce the pollutants from diesel fuels. Yet again a Republican
administration is widely seen as unfriendly to the environment, and its E.P.A.
administrator as a casualty of neglect. There are political strategists within
the party who say it doesn't matter, that environmentalists won't credit a Republican
administration no matter how green, and certainly won't vote for one. That may well
be true. Nevertheless, there are many good reasons for the Bush team to
give the environment a higher priority. For three decades polls have
consistently revealed lopsided majorities —80 percent-plus — in favor of maintaining or strengthening clean
air and water laws. Whether people vote the environment or not, and I
admit most don't, they still want it protected and improved. The problem, of course, is that vigorous
environmental protection involves regulation, which is suspect if not anathema to many
conservatives. And E.P.A. decisions necessarily hit elements of the Republican base
hardest: manufacturers and other businesses, farmers, land developers. In
fact, the first thing an E.P.A. administrator learns is not to antagonize
more than one major industry at a time: if big oil is to be hit this week,
big autos had better be deferred until next week. Read
more...
Bob sprinkles sugar on the Glades
wounds
By Mike Thomas
© Orlando Sentinel
Annika Sorenstam. Annika
Sorenstam. Now that I've got your attention. How sweet it is. I wish my columns were as funny as Bob
Graham's campaign releases. He has one on his Web site blasting Jeb
Bush for signing a law that gives sugar growers more leeway in polluting the Everglades.
Bob says: "... a grave injustice was
done to the people of Florida and to America when Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation delaying the
cleanup of our cherished Everglades, while his brother, the President, stood
silent." Bob stood silent for more than 20 years
as sugar growers polluted the Everglades. He also stood silent when the bill that Jeb signed
first surfaced in the Legislature. It was Republican Rep. Clay Shaw who
protested it and tried to talk Jeb into vetoing it. Only after Jeb signed off on the law did
Bob feign outrage. By then it was a done deal and the sugar growers had their permission to
pollute. The growers know Bob wouldn't really try to hurt them. They've been
giving him money for years. Last summer, Crystals Corp. gave Bob $50,000. Read
more...
Related link:
Graham Blasts Bush Brothers on
Everglades
Statement from Senator Bob Graham
"Yesterday, a grave injustice was
done to the people of Florida and to America when Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation delaying
the cleanup of our cherished Everglades, while his brother, the
President, stood silent.
Read more about this important issue.
http://www.grahamforpresident.com/news/0305/030521-1.html
22-May-03
Changes will protect the Everglades
Commentary by Jorge Dominicis
© Palm Beach Post
The legislature is "surrendering to the big
sugar corporations that pollute the Everglades." That was the comment from 14
environmental groups. They called on legislatures to vote
against the bill, and after it passed, they called on the governor to veto it. You probably guessed that these quotes refer
to the Everglades bill just passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov.
Bush. Actually, this quote is from 1994, when the Legislature
passed the current Everglades cleanup law, called the Everglades Forever Act.
Today, we have adifferent governor and a different
Legislature, but the rhetoric of the anti-farming extremists remains the same. The groups that decried this law nine years
ago as a sweetheart deal for sugar farmers now use the same rhetoric to say that
the law is working so well that it cannot be altered to
accommodate for what has been learned during the first decade of restoration. They were wrong in 1994, and they are
wrong today. Here are the facts: - The first phase of the Everglades Forever
Act anticipated a second phase that would improve upon the Everglades cleanup
project. - Because of the success of the Everglades
Forever Act, approximately 90 percent of the Everglades already meets the tough
numerical criterion that is part of the water-quality standard for
phosphorus. In fact, all of Everglades National Park meets this criterion and
must continue to under the 2003 Phase 2 legislation. - Under both the 1994 and 2003 legislation,
the remaining 10 percent of the Everglades must show continual improvement until
restored. Clean water flowing from the filter marshes that
were built as part of the 1994 law will achieve water quality in 90 percent of
the Everglades, but the nutrient-rich soil in the remaining area will
release phosphorus into the clean water and may cause measurements to be higher
until nature heals.
Tallahassee Upside Down
Editorial
© The Ledger
In the wacky, dysfunctional world of
Tallahassee, is it any surprise that a good bill fails and a faulty one -- even
declared so by the governor -- gains his signature? Gov. Jeb Bush signed a
bill Tuesday that delays cleanup of the Everglades by 10 years -- even though he
was warned by a federal judge overseeing the restoration
project not to tamper with the federal-state agreement. He was also told by the Florida congressional
delegation that changing the law could cause the state to lose billions of
federal dollars earmarked for restoration. The federal government has
agreed to come up with about half of the money needed for the project, estimated
to cost about $8 billion. Not to worry, said Bush, in effect, at
the bill signing. The Florida Legislature is here to help. Bush has asked for another bill amending the
one he signed to improve on the first bill's objectionable language. A Senate
committee has already approved them.
Read
more...
Bush Had Better Keep Promise
Editorial
© The Sun Sentinel
Gov. Jeb Bush signed a flawed Everglades
cleanup bill into law, but promised the measure's many detractors that he would fix it. It's a pledge
he'd better keep. Bush has asked state lawmakers to send
him a second bill. Unfortunately, his own idea of a fix doesn't go far enough to address the lack of
hard and fast-discharge limits and deadlines in the newly revised law.
He'll need a more comprehensive cleanup bill than the one now making the
rounds at the state Capitol. There's a lot at stake. U.S. District
Judge William Hoeveler isn't a fan of the new law, and he's the federal judge who carries legal clout
in determining how well the state of Florida is complying with a
1994 consent decree to rid the River of Grass of phosphorous. Read
more...
Christie Out, Pataki Not
Interested
By David Seifman & Brian
Blomquist
© New York Post
Courtsey New York Post ©
2003
Gov. Pataki said yesterday
he's not interested in replacing Christie Whitman, the former New Jersey
governor who's quitting her job as President Bush's environmental
chief. "No, no," Pataki told reporters in Manhattan.
"I am interested in being governor of the state of New York, and I worked very
hard last fall to have the privilege to be the governor for the
next four years." Asked if he was taking his name out of the
running, Pataki said, "My name, to the best of my knowledge, has never been in
the running - and if it was, take it out." Whitman, a moderate Republican who sometimes
battled the White House on environmental policy, announced yesterday she's
resigning as administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency. Read
more...
Graham gives the Bushes a
scolding; Senator shores up image on Everglades
By Peter Wallsten
©
The Miami Herald
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, moving Wednesday to
repair his environmental image while adding some sting to his presidential message, accused
the Bush brothers of ''malfeasance'' for backing controversial
Everglades legislation and predicted that Florida would punish the
president for it next year. The scolding from the typically measured senator came days
after leading environmentalists accused Graham of failing to forcefully
oppose the sugar industry-backed bill even while some of his primary opponents
and leading Republicans in Congress demanded a veto. Campaign strategists hope that Graham's statement Wednesday
will quiet critics who question his commitment to Everglades restoration
while also demonstrating that he is capable of unleashing a strong attack
that could distinguish him from his eight rivals for the presidential
nomination. Read
more...
21-May-03
Marketing the Everglades bill
By Sally Swartz, Editorial
Writer
© Palm Beach Post
So Gov. Bush has signed the bad
Everglades bill and will ask legislators to fix it -- in ways yet unclear -- with a new bill before the special session ends Tuesday. Trusting the governor to make the Legislature do anything, however, is risky business. Two years ago, The St. Petersburg Times reports, Gov. Bush let an adoption bill become law under similar circumstances. But legislators never followed through with the second bill, and the governor promised "not to do that ever again." The Everglades bill, which pushes back the cleanup deadline, has been criticized by environmental groups, by the federal judge supervising the cleanup and by the Republican congressmen trying to maintain federal support for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. That $8.4 billion, 50-50 state-federal project is supposed to give the Everglades more water and depends on the water being clean. Sugar industry lobbyists wrote the original bad bill and marketed it successfully -- to the governor, state water and environmental officials and lawmakers -- as something it isn't. Now, the governor claims that this same screwed-up system will produce a good bill to fix the one he signed.
Read
more...
Related Material:
Relevant text from the Table on page ES-9
Final Report: Everglades Protection Area Tributary Basins
Conceptual Plan for Achieving Long-Term Water Quality Goals
|
Table ES.2-
Pre-2006 Strategies |
|
Basin |
Strategies
and Activities |
Scheduled
Construction |
Full Complete
Operation |
|
Acme B |
The CERP process will make the final
determination of the appropriate strategy and be responsible for implementation. The most promising alternative appears to be diversion
to STA-1E for treatment.
|
10/01/2006 - 12/31/2006 |
|
Florida Governor
Signs Controversial Everglades Bill
Environmental News Service (ENS)
TALLAHASSEE - Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed
into law Tuesday a state bill that many believe will slow the clean up of the
Everglades. Critics say the bill undermines water quality
standards and threatens federal funding critical to the $8 billion state/federal
partnership devised in 2000 to clean up some 2.4 million acres
of the massive ecosystem. The bill relaxes standards designed to reduce
phosphorus runoff that is polluting the Everglades. It had the strong support of
the sugar industry, which is the leading source of
phosphorus runoff. Critics, including some Republican
Congressmen, say this weakens the federal state pact and could jeopardize
funding for what many consider to be the most comprehensive and
ambitious ecosystem restoration project ever undertaken in the United States. But Bush, a Republican, says he is convinced
the bill "reinforces" the state's commitment to restore water quality in the
Everglades. The Florida governor says 95 percent of the entire
Everglades will meet the goal of phosphorus levels below 10 parts per billion
(ppb) by December 31, 2006. "The remaining five percent will sporadically
have phosphorus levels higher than the goal, until the phosphorus build up in
the sediment can be cleansed through "green" technology,"
Bush said in a prepared statement.
Criticized
Glades bill signed by Bush
By Lesley Clark and Curtis
Morgan
©
The Miami Herald
Gov. Jeb
Bush quietly signed into law Tuesday a controversial bill that critics
fear could imperil a massive Everglades restoration project. The
signing had none of the pomp of landmark legislation: Bush signed it
behind closed doors -- as environmentalists outside his office unfurled a
banner of 17,000 signatures demanding a veto. But in an unusually long and
detailed letter that accompanied his signature, Bush defended the new law
as ''the next logical step'' in restoring the polluted marsh. ''I
am unabashedly supporting this,'' Bush told reporters minutes before
signing the bill. ``I'm not ashamed of it. I think once the concept has
been given a fair hearing, I think people will say we're on the right
track.'' Still, in a nod to critics,
Bush asked legislators, meeting in a special session scheduled to end
early next week, to change some of the newly signed law's most troublesome
language. The law sets a cap for a key pollutant, phosphorus, at a
super-low 10 parts per billion, but contains the words ''to the maximum
extent practicable'' so many times that critics say polluters could easily
slide out of the restrictions. Bush's
tweaking -- done at the request of his critics in Congress -- removes
those words from the law. But the proposed changes did little to placate
Bush's numerous critics who said the governor didn't go far enough.
Read
more...
Governor tries
to prevent a potential publicity nightmare
By Peter Wallsten
©
The Miami Herald
Deriding the ''political science''
of Everglades restoration, Gov. Jeb Bush engaged Tuesday in rhetorical
contortions to justify his support for legislation despised by
environmentalists. By signing the bill into a law that critics fear will
delay Glades cleanup, Bush stuck to his conviction that the measure was
sound policy built on smart science. By demanding that the Legislature
come back to tweak it, he could tell environmentalists that he felt their
pain. To underscore his sincerity, the governor issued an excruciatingly
detailed letter defending his decision -- then shed his suit jacket to sit
through a dull, hour long session with technical experts to discuss
niggling details of Everglades restoration. ''At the end of the day, the
political science of this is starting to go away,'' he told the panel,
``but the real science is what matters.'' For Bush, a one-time real estate
developer who has worked meticulously to carve out an image as an
environmentally friendly governor, Tuesday's events comprised a campaign
of sorts to stem a potential public relations nightmare for his Republican
Party. While Bush has spent weeks insisting that he and the sugar industry
were not trying to ruin the Everglades, critical letters from Democratic
presidential candidates John Kerry and Howard Dean on top of sharp
responses from leading Republicans in Congress are seriously testing his
bragging rights to a legacy of environmental protection.
Read
more...
Full text of
Gov. Jeb Bush's letter
©
The Miami Herald
I hereby
transmit to you, with my signature, Committee Substitute for Senate Bill
626, an Act relating to the Florida Everglades Forever Act, passed by the
Florida Legislature on April 30, 2003. I have signed this bill because it
is the next logical step to ensure that concerted action continues to be
taken to protect and restore the Florida Everglades ecological system.
This bill is one of many steps that must be
taken on our journey to complete Everglades Restoration as quickly as
possible. Bold steps have already been taken with the cooperation of our
federal partners and Florida stakeholders, most notably the Comprehensive
Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), passed in 2000. Many steps will have
to be taken in the future to ensure that this massive restoration project
remains true to its goals. CS/SB 626 will make those future steps easier
to take, because it provides a more clearly defined framework within which
the good work of Everglades Restoration will be accomplished.
Read
more...
JUDGE HOEVELER’S ORDER SETTING HEARING
DOES NOT FIND THAT AMENDMENTS TO THE EVERGLADES FOREVER ACT ARE IN CONFLICT WITH CONSENT DECREE
Press Release
U.S. Sugar Corporation
Judge Hoeveler’s “ORDER SETTING HEARING” is
based upon what the judge has read in the Miami Herald and not on his review of
the legislation. The Judge makes clear that the Settlement
Agreement and his Consent Decree do not control the State owned parts of the
Everglades (Water Conservation Areas 1, 2 and 3) but do
control what the parties do in the Everglades National Park. This litigation was filed by the Federal
Government to protect the Government’s interests as a landowner of the National
Park and as a manager of the state owned Loxahatchee Wildlife
Refuge. It was filed under state law and all prior orders of Judge Hoeveler have
recognized that the interests of the Federal Government will
be determined under state law. The Settlement Agreement established interim
and long-term limits for both the National Park and Refuge. These limits have
already been achieved even though only one half of the
treatment works provided by the Stormwater Treatment Areas have been completed. The proposed phosphorus criterion for the
Everglades of 10 parts per billion has been achieved in the Everglades National
Park. Implementing the Long-Term Plan of the South Florida Water
Management District as provided in SB 626 would ensure that this compliance will
continue into the future. The Long-Term Plan makes further improvements
to the Stormwater Treatment Areas to ensure that State Water Quality Standards
regarding phosphorus in all parts of the
Everglades will be achieved and maintained. Even though Judge Hoeveler’s order says: “I do
not propose to deviate from the settlement that now exists..”, the Settlement
Agreement and Consent Decree expressly provided that the
Settlement Agreement was not self-executing but had to be implemented under
State Law. State Agencies were expressly directed to “use the
full scope of their authority” to achieve compliance with State Water Quality
Standards. As stated by the Court in the Consent Decree
and restated by the 11th Circuit on appeal: “Nothing in this Agreement is
intended to abrogate the District’s and the DEP’s duties to act in
accordance with Florida Law”.. As Judge Hoeveler recognized in his Consent
Decree: “...the Agreement imposes a process, rather than a
result.” Read
more
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
20-May-2003
Glades bill
needs fixing, Bush says
By Lesley Clark and Peter
Wallsten
©
The Miami Herald
After weeks of intense pressure
from environmentalists and even some Republicans in Congress, Gov. Jeb
Bush acknowledged Monday that a controversial Everglades bill backed by
Big Sugar and written in part by his office needs a fix. In an unusual bit
of political gymnastics, Bush said he will sign the measure -- but then
directed lawmakers to draft a new bill to ''clarify'' some of the wording
that was most alarming to his critics. Environmentalists and leading
members of Congress, even from Bush's own Republican Party, had warned
that the legislation could slow Everglades restoration efforts and
threaten an $8 billion state-federal cleanup plan. In a written statement
issued Monday night, Bush insisted that the bill is ''strong legislation
built upon good policy,'' but he indicated for the first time that fears
expressed by the likes of House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young of St.
Petersburg and Rep. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale could be legitimate. It
was an unusual admission for a governor who rarely admits to a misstep.
But with his brother, the president, hoping to tout support for Everglades
cleanup in his reelection campaign next year, the move underscores the
influence of environmental issues in Florida politics.
Read
more...
15-May-2003
Governor vows to
study Everglades bill objections
By Frank Davies
©
The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON
- Gov. Jeb Bush Wednesday assured Rep. Clay Shaw and three other
Republican congressmen Wednesday that he will hold off signing a
controversial Everglades bill that could threaten funding until he studies
their objections. ''I'm
going to keep my options open. My hope is to sign the bill, but I don't
want to do anything to jeopardize the progress we have made'' on
Everglades restoration, Bush said after the meeting on Capitol Hill.
Shaw, Porter Goss of Sanibel and two key
members of the House Appropriations Committee warned Bush that if the
bill, which could delay cleanup efforts, is not vetoed or changed, $4
billion in federal funds pledged to restoration of the Everglades would be
in danger. Read
more...
14-May-2003
Governor
counters critics of Glades bill
By Frank Davies and Lesley Clark
©
The Miami Herald
On the eve of a showdown with
congressional critics over his controversial Everglades bill, Gov. Jeb
Bush on Tuesday launched a public-relations campaign to stem some of that
criticism. Bush's office late Tuesday unveiled a website -- complete with
color pictures of the Everglades -- extolling what Bush insists will be
benefits of the proposed legislation. The governor's new offensive comes
amid increasing unease over the effect of the measure, with critics saying
it would delay cleanup of the Everglades and threaten federal funding for
half of the $8.4 billion restoration effort. Even Interior Secretary Gale
Norton and Environmental Protection Administrator Christine Todd Whitman
considered publicly opposing the bill, according to two Capitol Hill
staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The two members of the
Cabinet even cowrote a proposed ''op-ed'' piece on the subject that was
sent to the White House. But in a measure of the dispute's political
sensitivity, Norton and Whitman kept their opposition private to avoid any
criticism of the president's brother, according to the staffers.
Read
more...
12-May-2003
Phosphorus
threat at center of debate on Glades renewal
By Curtis Morgan
©
The Miami Herald
The entire dispute over
phosphorus in the Everglades comes down to an amount so small that it's
roughly equal to 5 ½ grains of sand in a bucket filled with one billion
of them. "It's so small you wonder why we're even squabbling about
it,'' said Philip Parsons, an attorney for the Florida Sugar Cane
League.
Here's
why: In the Everglades, even barely detectable amounts of the fertilizer
ingredient have huge effects. Largely
lost in the fog of lobbying surrounding the controversial revision of
Florida's plan to clean up the Everglades is the daunting problem that
phosphorus poses: Despite significant strides by the state and the sugar
industry in the last seven years, plumes already taint as much as 10
percent of the Everglades system and continue to creep across the
sawgrass. When pollution reaches
unspoiled areas, algae that anchor the food chain die. If the level
builds -- as it has in more than 61,000 acres of the north Everglades --
prairies morph into something distinctly non-Glades, cattail thickets
largely devoid of any other life. And,
as yet anyway, no one knows exactly how to make farm and suburban runoff
clean enough for the Everglades.
Read
more...
Picture: Courtesy Tim Chapman, Herald Staff
10-May-2003
Governor is warned about
Glades proposal
By Curtis Morgan
©
The Miami Herald
If his
message didn't get through the first time, U.S. District Court Judge
William Hoeveler delivered it again Friday to Gov. Jeb Bush in the
bluntest language: A controversial Everglades bill is ``clearly
defective.'' The judge, in an unusually
pointed order following a hearing on the measure in his Miami courtroom
last week, stopped short of directly urging a veto. But he said his
''fervent hope'' was that Bush would reconsider his stated intention to
sign it. ''Apparently, he has been
misled by persons who do not have the best interests of the Everglades in
mind,'' Hoeveler wrote. Coming days
before the governor visits Washington to discuss the measure with
congressional critics, the stern words from a venerable federal jurist
added considerably to mounting pressure on Bush to kill a bill backed by
the sugar industry. Opponents say the
bill could push cleanup of farm pollution back a decade or more and
threatens the federal share of the $8 billion Everglades restoration
effort. Bush, who has defended the
measure and said he intends to sign it, issued a brief statement Friday,
saying he was reviewing the judge's order.
Read
more...
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
09-May-2003
Bush set to hear critics of
Glades bill
By Lesley Clark
©
The Miami Herald
Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that he
is poised to sign a controversial Everglades bill into law unless his
congressional critics can convince him that it will endanger an $8 billion
restoration project. Despite overwhelming opposition from
environmentalists and leading Republican congressmen, Bush said he's
prepared to defend the sugar-industry-backed measure as a ``path for
continued water-quality improvement.'' But Bush said he has promised U.S.
Rep. E. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, that he'll hear him out before he
signs the bill. Shaw has scolded Bush and the Legislature for pushing the
measure, saying it could create mistrust and dampen federal enthusiasm for
splitting with the state the cost of an $8 billion project to restore the
polluted marsh. Bush said he plans to meet with Shaw next week in
Washington, D.C., and said he wants to hear Shaw's concerns ``in
specific.'' Bush said he's been inundated with e-mail, phone calls and
letters on the measure, but that his critics lack details. ''I'm getting a
lot of grief, Lord have mercy,'' Bush exclaimed Thursday as he left a
Tallahassee elementary school where he launched a summer reading
initiative.
Read
more...
04-May-2003
Bush criticized
for compromise in Glades bill
By Lesley Clark
©
The Miami Herald
Gov. Jeb Bush's alliance with the
sugar industry in softening water-quality standards in the Everglades has
sparked questions from critics -- some of them in his own party -- about
whether he miscalculated, imperiling federal money for one of the
country's largest environmental restoration projects. The Legislature
passed a measure -- all but guaranteed to receive his signature -- that
would push back deadlines for cleaning up the polluted water that flows
off farm fields and suburban lawns, forcing his administration into
federal court Friday to defend the controversial measure before a
skeptical judge who has overseen Everglades cleanup efforts since 1988.
The issue is so explosive that leading congressional Republicans --
typically eager to flaunt their friendship with the powerful Bush family
-- have not been shy about attacking the policies espoused by the
president's brother and his leadership in a key political state. ''There
seems to be no recognition in Tallahassee of how hard this legislation
will make our job,'' said U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw, a Fort Lauderdale
Republican so worried about the measure that he attended the court hearing
Friday. ``There is a perception [in Washington] that the state is not
keeping its part of the deal.''
Read
more...
03-May-2003
Glades legislation worries
judge
By Curtis Morgan
©
The Miami Herald
U.S.
District Court Judge William Hoeveler left no doubt Friday that he was
troubled by a bill that critics charge could delay the cleanup of the
Everglades for at least a decade. He
peppered attorneys for the state with questions. And when U.S. Rep. E.
Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale , told the judge he thought the ''bad bill''
was riddled with ''weasel words,'' Hoeveler quickly concurred:
``Absolutely.'' Hoeveler's authority to
do anything about the bill was limited, in part because the bill isn't a
law until Bush signs it -- which a spokeswoman said Friday that Bush
intends to do soon. But during the
four-hour hearing in Miami, the judge stressed he would not budge from a
1992 settlement that he oversaw. That agreement set a deadline for
cleaning up polluted farm water flowing into federal parks and Everglades
refuges within three years -- 10 to 20 years earlier than the new
proposal. ''There's nothing that the
state can do to back out of these agreements,'' he said. ``If it doesn't
happen in 2006, then we may need slightly more time, but not 10 years.''
Read
more...
Judge
Hoeveler News Page
01-May-2003
Legislature backs disputed bill on cleanup of
the Everglades
By Lesley Clark
©
The Miami Herald
Over the objections of
environmentalists and the Republican members of Congress who control
federal spending, the Legislature sent Gov. Jeb Bush a controversial
Everglades cleanup measure Wednesday that critics warn could cost the
state $4 billion. In a sure sign of the
political clout behind the bill, the House waived its own rules to send
the sugar-industry-backed measure to the governor as fast as possible,
voting 96-18 across party lines for a Senate version of legislation that
critics say eases pollution restrictions in the Everglades, giving
polluters more time to clean up their act. The
vote followed an intense lobbying campaign by environmentalists and
members of Congress who have warned that the legislation threatens fragile
federal support for an $8 billion Everglades restoration project -- the
cost of which is being split by the state and federal governments. ''We
applaud the 18 courageous members of the House who get the picture, the
picture that clearly shows that federal money is now in jeopardy,'' said
Eric Eikenberg, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, the Fort Lauderdale
Republican who has repeatedly warned that the effort will make it harder
to get federal money for Everglades restoration. Environmentalists
vowed to lobby Bush for a veto, but the governor has supported the
legislation, even in the face of opposition from U.S. Rep. Bill Young, the
Florida Republican who heads the House of Representatives' Appropriations
Committee. Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman
for Bush, said he and the state environmental agency ``maintain their
unwavering commitment to improving the water quality within the Everglades
and to continued restoration.'' ''This
bill clearly provides important environmental benefits,'' Faraj said.
Read
more...
Return to Top
