30-September-03
Public Comment to Everglades Consolidated Report (ECR) Peer
Review Panel
Arthur R. Marshall Foundation & Florida Environmental
Institute, Inc.
©
artmarshall.org
NOTE: This is also public comment on the
Long-Range Plan for Achieving Water Quality Goals (Attention: Gary Goforth)
ABSTRACT ARM FEI Public Comment was provided to The ECR Peer Review Panel (PRP)
during their open session Sept 24, 2003. Areas addressed included: I. Lack
of Trees as BMP's in Conceptual Long-Term Plan for Water Quality and CERP
Implementation. II. RECOVER Monitoring & Assessment Plan (MAP) deficiency:
Lack of a Northern Everglades Watershed Conceptual Ecological Model (CEM) III.
Lack of focus on officially approved CERP Table 5-1 goals and objectives in
approach to achieve a consistent evaluation methodology.
Read more
28-September-03
Hoeveler
will be remembered as Glades hero
By Carl Hiassen
© Miami
Herald
For those who've fought so long to save what remains of the Everglades,
it's tempting to see a dark conspiracy in the surprising and abrupt
removal of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler from Case No. 88-1886. The
decision to disqualify Hoeveler, regarded as one of the fairest and most
able jurists in our courts, was a bombshell to conservationists. For 15
years Hoeveler has been a patient watchdog over the contentious Everglades
cleanup process -- and a pain in the butt to Big Sugar, the most
prodigious polluter of Florida waters. It was U.S. Sugar that petitioned
to have Hoeveler booted off the case last summer, after the judge
expressed grave concerns about a new law that extended by up to a decade
the deadline for reducing harmful fertilizer levels in farm and urban
runoff. Hoeveler, and all Floridians, had good cause to worry. Read
more
Judge's
ouster reveals muscle of Big Sugar
© Key
West Citizen
The strong hand of Big Sugar
tightened its grip around the throat of the Everglades this week.
Responding to a motion filed by sugar companies, the chief of the U.S.
District Court circuit removed Judge William Hoeveler from the Everglades
pollution case he had overseen since its inception in 1988. Judge Hoeveler
was the man on the bench when Dexter Lehtinen, then the U.S. Attorney for
South Florida, went to court to prove that the emperor had no clothes. It
was an ugly truth that no one had wanted to acknowledge for decades: The
state of Florida was using its public waterway system to poison the
Everglades. Read
more
27-September-03
Developers Urge Support of Water
Transfer to Populous South Florida
By Abby Goodnough
© New York Times
Environmentalists and
North Florida lawmakers say development
in South Florida is adding to a
statewide water imbalance.
One new unit is Shoma Homes' Grand Lakes in
Miami.
( Richard Patterson, New York Times )
MIAMI, Sept. 26 — Some of
Florida's wealthiest real estate developers ignited what will probably be
a fierce debate this week by urging Gov. Jeb Bush to consider allowing the
transfer of water from the state's northern regions to its far more
populous south. The recommendation came on
Thursday in a report by the Florida Council of 100, a private lobbying
group that has advised governors on economic and policy issues since the
1960's. The group selects its own members, but the governor's approval of
them is necessary. The current chairman is Al Hoffman, a South Florida
developer who was the chief fund-raiser for both of Governor Bush's
election campaigns and is the national finance chairman for the
Republican National Committee. Read
more
25-September-03
An Everglades Champion Is Dumped
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
Last spring, utilizing an
army of lobbyists, Florida's sugar industry managed to convince the
Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush to adopt legislation that weakened
Everglades water quality standards. Now Big
Sugar has orchestrated the removal from the Everglades cleanup case of the
federal judge who has overseen the litigation for 15 years. Judge
William Hoeveler's offense? He told the truth. When
reporters asked Hoeveler about the Everglades legislation, he said it
would change the standards established in his court order and agreed to by
the state. He found the act ``clearly defective.'' Read
more
Sweetening the Bench
Editorial
© The Ledger
Life for Big Sugar just
became much sweeter. It has gotten rid of what it believed to be a
sourpuss judge. Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler has
presided over the clean-up of the Everglades in South Florida ever since
1988 -- when the United States Department of the Interior sued the South
Florida Water Management District for failing to prevent farm and urban
runoff into the Everglades. Hoeveler has been a
stickler for holding the state to its promises to clean up the Everglades
-- a position that the sugar industry construes as being
"biased." He has also been outspoken
about the industry's attempts to dilute the current law. When the
Legislature changed the law this year to ease phosphorus pollution
concentration levels, Hoeveler openly criticized the measure: Read
more
Judge's Removal Was Warranted
Editorial
© Sun-Sentinel
William Hoeveler is a superb
federal judge and a credit to his profession. But he's human, and he made
a mistake when he chose to discuss the Everglades cleanup case with the
media, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Chief U.S. District Judge
William Zloch was right to remove him from the case. As
U.S. Sugar Corp. contended in its motion to oust Hoeveler, the judge
became a "political actor" in the case when he made his
extra-judicial
remarks scolding state legislators and environmental regulators and
chiding Gov. Jeb Bush for having been "misled" about the cleanup
project. Specifically, Hoeveler criticized state officials for amending a
1994 Everglades cleanup law, an action that moved the 2006 cleanup
deadline back 10 years. The judge called the rewrite of the Everglades
Forever Act "clearly defective." Read
more
Analysis: Everglades decision a puzzle
By Les Kjos, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
© Washington Times
MIAMI, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The assessment of damage by environmentalists is getting nowhere in the days after the removal from a respected, longtime federal judge from the Everglades Restoration case.
The removal of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler produced a shock to the system of the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and others, but it wasn't really a surprise.
The judge was publicly critical of Gov. Jeb Bush and the sugar industry for a law that could delay the restoration process by as many as 10 years. His remarks appeared to be in violation of ethical standards for a federal judge.
Chief Judge William Zloch this week removed Hoeveler and replaced him with U.S. District Court Judge Federico Moreno, whose random selection left the case in the charge of a judge with no judicial record on environmental issues.
Environmentalists are flummoxed because
Read more
24-September-03
Tough judge removed from Everglades case
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
In a victory for the sugar
industry, a veteran federal judge was removed from a landmark Everglades
lawsuit Tuesday for telling the press that he doesn't trust Gov. Jeb Bush,
state lawmakers and South Florida water managers. The
ouster of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler was a devastating setback
for environmentalists, who have long viewed him as their bulwark against
the growers' money and political power. The
81-year-old Miami judge, best known for presiding at the trial of
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, has overseen the Everglades case since
it began 15 years ago. In May, he announced his intention to appoint a
federal overseer to make sure the state keeps its promises to clean
polluted runoff in the Everglades.
Read
more
Glades cleanup setback predicted
The removal of Judge William Hoeveler from the Everglades case could
benefit Gov. Jeb Bush and the sugar industry
By Lesley Clark
© Miami
Herald
Score one for Big Sugar and
Gov. Jeb Bush. With the sidelining of the
outspoken federal judge who is considered the top legal guardian of the
Everglades, environmentalists predict a setback for Everglades restoration
-- and perhaps a tougher case for critics who charge that Bush-backed
legislation will slow the cleanup. Senior U.S.
District Judge William Hoeveler, removed Tuesday from overseeing
Everglades restoration efforts for critical remarks he made to newspapers,
has been the federal government's point person on Everglades cleanup since
1988 -- and his replacement will need time to get up to speed,
environmentalists said. ''The learning curve and the experience is lost.
It's gone,'' said Thom Rumberger, an attorney with the Everglades Trust.
``It's a setback and Sugar loves it. If they can push out the cleanup
another five or 10 or 15 years, it's all to their advantage.'' Read
more
Big Sugar wins bid to oust judge from
case
By Curtis Morgan
© Miami
Herald
The industry contended that
Hoeveler's pointed public comments showed that he favors
environmentalists. Federal Judge William
Hoeveler was ordered off an Everglades cleanup
lawsuit he had overseen for 15 years on Tuesday, a stunning legal victory
for Big Sugar, which had argued the venerable jurist had strayed from law
into politics. Chief U.S. District Judge William
Zloch removed Hoeveler, agreeing with the U.S. Sugar Corp. that Hoeveler's
pointed public criticisms of intense industry lobbying over ''clearly
defective'' Everglades
legislation overstepped proper judicial bounds. The
ruling dismayed environmentalists who viewed the judge as a powerful ally
for Everglades protection, leaving them with a new judge, Federico Moreno,
whose record on environmental issues is virtually blank. Read
more
Judge in Glades case removed
Comments to the media showed bias, the ruling says. That ends 15 years of
him overseeing Everglades restoration.
By Craig Pittman
© St. Petersburg Times
For 15 years, one federal
judge oversaw the cleanup of the Everglades. He pored over documents,
listened to legal arguments, sifted through scientific studies. He even
toured the River of Grass by airboat. But on
Tuesday U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler was removed from the
Everglades case, not for misbehaving in court or making outrageous
rulings. South Florida's chief judge removed him
for talking to reporters. Hoeveler's comments
this spring blasting Gov. Jeb Bush, the Legislature, the sugar industry
and the South Florida Water Management District "demonstrate an
objective doubt as to Judge Hoeveler's continued
impartiality," wrote Chief Judge William Zloch. Contacted
at home, Hoeveler at first declined to comment because, "I may say
something that is impermissible." Read
more
Area is America's vegetable
By Tracy Whirls
© Okeechobee News
Vegetable production is big
business in Southwest Florida, Hendry County Extension Agent and regional
vegetable agent Gene McAvoy told members of the Clewiston Lions Club at
their regular meeting Sept. 18. "Because of
our location and climate, abundant water and sunshine and nearly frost
free growing season, southwest Florida is America's vegetable
garden, producing 70 percent of all vegetables consumed in the eastern
United States from November-April," Mr. McAvoy said. While
southwest Florida is a leading producer of tomatoes, green beans, sweet
corn, eggplant, cucumbers, green peppers and other vegetables, Hendry
County leads the nation in production of watermelon. Vegetable
farming contributes $500 million to south Florida's economy each year,
creating more than 8,000 jobs. The area is home to 40 different vegetable
crops, literally from A to Z, Mr. McAvoy said. Vegetable production
involves more than 60,000 acres in southwest Florida, include 21,000 acres
of tomatoes and 10,000 acres of snap beans. Read
more
23-September-03
Water district operations chief leaving
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
After six years of bearing
bad news, Tommy Strowd had one more bombshell Monday for his bosses at the
South Florida Water Management District: He's
leaving. Strowd resigned after six years as the
district's operations director, the master of an aging 1,800-mile drainage
system and myriad hard decisions about floods, drought and Lake
Okeechobee. It's a job almost designed for
unpopularity, and it has brought Strowd some harsh criticism from
activists enraged by the district's managing of the rain-swollen lake and
the St. Lucie River. But Strowd, 49, said he's
just ready for a change. Read
more
Respected
Federal Judge Removed From Everglades Trial
Sugar industry desperately attempts to avoid
pollution restrictions
Contact Info:
Cory Magnus, Earthjustice, (202) 667-4500 or
David Guest, Earthjustice, (850) 681-0031
©
Earthjustice
Tallahassee, Florida--
After more than a decade of presiding over the federal lawsuit that
brought national attention to the need for Everglades restoration, Judge
William Hoeveler has been forced to step down as a result of accusations
that he was biased against the sugar industry. Big Sugar filed a motion to
remove the judge from the case last spring, after he reprimanded the
Florida legislature for passing a new law allowing the sugar industry to
continue overloading the Everglades with phosphorous pollution.
“The sugar industry knew that they
could not make their case in court, so it decided to attack this
extraordinarily distinguished judge,” said David Guest, Managing Attorney
for Earthjustice’s Tallahassee office. [Click
here for a downloadable soundbite from attorney David Guest. (377 kb
downloadable AUDIO)]
Read more
22-September-03
Buy Glades Farms
Letter by Juanita Greene,
Conservation Chair, Friends of the Everglades
© Miami
Herald
Re the Sept. 13 story on the
perils of high water in Lake Okeechobee. We would like to add to the list
of proposed solutions. That is for the
government to buy the farms south of lake Okeechobee that soon must go out
of production and put the water back in the area.
This is where the excess lake water used to go before the natural system
was disrupted by massive drainage that created the Everglades Agricultural
Area. The soil here is peat and muck. It soon
will be too thin to plant because of a form of erosion that occurs
wherever such organic soil is drained. The U. S. Geological Survey
predicts that the remaining soil will be gone "within decades.
"Flooding this area would enable it to serve as a natural treatment
marsh, where water could be held until clean enough to be sent south. In
the meantime this area could begin to restore itself as the headwaters of
the River of Grass, the natural connection between the lake and the
remaining Everglades. There is pressing need for
places to store Everglades water in years of heavy rainfall. The most
logical place is where nature used to put it.
Battle lines drawn over water law
rewrite
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
A business group headed by
one of the Bush brothers' biggest financial backers is about to ignite an
epic fight over Florida's water. The fracas will
begin this week when the Florida Council of 100, led by developer and Bush
fund-raiser Al Hoffman, unveils proposals for the
most sweeping rewrite of the state's water laws in 31 years. They
include proposals that could allow the Tampa and Orlando areas to take
water from North Florida's springs and rivers, while giving the private
market a foothold in water management. One
specific suggestion would create a seven-person state water commission on
top of Florida's five regional water management districts, according to a
July draft the council provided to Gov. Jeb Bush. Yet another would
rewrite the state's "local sources first" law, which tells
communities to look for water nearby and consider conservation before
taking water from
elsewhere. Read
more
An alternative for Lake Okeechobee
Letter by Juanita Greene,
Conservation Chair, Friends of the Everglades
© Sun-Sentinel
The many environmental and public
safety threats caused by high levels in Lake Okeechobee are again in the
news. The question is where to move the surplus water without creating
other problems. Our long-range answer is to put it south of the lake.
That's where it used to go before the Everglades was disrupted by a
massive drainage project that converted a half
million acres of wetlands into the Everglades Agricultural Area.
Government should begin working on this solution now. This
area, mostly in sugar cane, soon will go out of production because the
soil is disappearing. It is peat and muck, which always erodes when
drained. The U.S. Geological Survey predicts the remainder will be gone
"within decades." Then the area will go to urban development
unless government takes the opportunity to acquire it for water storage
and Everglades restoration. Read
more
21-September-03
Developers' water plan wrong for Florida
By Charles Pattison
© Naples Daily News
An elite business group —
The Council of 100 — has made known its intentions to convince the
Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush to radically alter Florida water law so that
limited drinking water supplies in central and south Florida don't impede
future growth and development. A different perspective, that puts people
and the environment first, is the preferred approach to maintain the
environment and quality of life now and in the future. Since
the 1970s the correct and fundamental concept is that our climate, geology
and landscapes have limited water budgets. Moving water outside those
natural limitations results in damage not only to the area where the water
is taken, but receiving areas become artificial, unsustainable places
where water is manipulated for the benefit of a few. This practice means
that the "donor" sacrifices future opportunities to make choices
regarding economic development, recreation, environmental quality and,
eventually, low-cost drinkable water. Read
more
19-September-03
For Some, Mighty Clouds of Joy
By Peter Carlson
© Washington Post
Okay, so Hurricane Isabel
knocked out your electricity and flooded your basement and ripped off your
roof and hurled an ancient oak tree into your living room and now rabid
raccoons have wandered into your house and they've devoured the cat food
and now they're eyeing the cat and licking their lips -- hey, don't dwell
on the negative. It's time to look at the
bright side of hurricanes. "You have to
look at the silver lining," says Frank Marks, a research
meteorologist for the hurricane research division of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. "They're good for the ecosystem, even
if they're bad for us." Not only are
hurricanes good for the ecosystem, they're also good for the aquifer. And
for Lake Okeechobee. And for coral reefs. And for barrier islands. And for
the piping plover. In fact, if it wasn't for hurricanes, the poor piping
plover would have no place to mate. Read
more
Cabinet approves Golden Gate Estates land transfers
By MICHAEL PELTIER
© Naples Daily News
TALLAHASSEE — After months of delay and
negotiations, Florida's Cabinet on Thursday approved a deal with Collier County
officials to take over hundreds of miles of right of way in Southern Golden Gate
Estates necessary for Everglades restoration. In exchange, the agreement calls
on the South Florida Water Management District to donate 640 acres local
officials hope to develop into a recreational park for all-terrain vehicles.
With little discussion, Gov. Jeb Bush and three fellow Cabinet members approved
a Department of Environmental Protection recommendation that also requires the
Big Cypress Basin board annually to earmark $1 million over the next 20 years
for canal repair and maintenance. Thursday's vote sets the stage for a public
hearing Wednesday before the Collier County Commission, which must approve the
agreement to complete the transfer.
Read more
Battle over proposed rural Collier wetlands mitigation
bank
continues
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
The man with plans to build a whole new town in
rural Collier County is going on the offensive against the elected board
proposing a wetlands mitigation bank in part of the same area. The Collier Soil
and Water Conservation District voted 5-0 Thursday to send the third draft of a
plan for the mitigation bank to the state Department of Environmental Protection
for review. The review could take months. The DEP sent back the first draft with
comments, and the district revised the second draft in response to citizen
comments. The Regional Offsite Mitigation Area, or ROMA, would encompass 5,900
acres in Golden Gate Estates north of Interstate 75 and east of North Belle
Meade. Read more
Proposals for new districts surprise many
By LARRY HANNAN
© Naples Daily News
Developers' proposals to create two new special
districts in Collier County have taken county government and environmental
leaders by surprise. Barron Collier Cos. wants to create a special district to
build and maintain community services for Ave Maria University and its companion
town, while Collier Development Corp. is pushing what would be called the Big
Cypress Stewardship District. The companies and their proposals are not
affiliated with each other. Until recently no one was aware of the proposed
special districts. County officials said they only found out about them earlier
this month and most people outside of the government didn't know about them
until this week. Read
more
Lykes' land deal with state hits snag
By STEVE BOUSQUET
© St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE - Taxpayers deserve a better deal to protect 24,000 acres of South Florida wilderness, Gov. Jeb Bush and the chief financial officer told the state's top environmental regulator Thursday. The blunt remarks amounted to a new set of marching orders for David Struhs, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. Struhs has been negotiating to pay $24-million to Lykes Bros. for the development rights to land the company owns along Fisheating
Creek. But critics say the proposal is too generous to Lykes because it would allow the Tampa company to subdivide the land into 22 farms and drill for water, oil and
gas. The deal has caused a rift among environmental groups. The Nature Conservancy helped negotiate the terms - and could earn a $100,000 fee - while Earthjustice complains that the proposed agreement wouldn't give taxpayers enough conservation for their money.
Read more
18-September-03
Letter to the editor
Water-sharing as proposed by Council of 100 bad idea
By CHARLES PATTISON
© Palm Beach Post
Recently, a business group made
known its intentions to persuade the Legislature and Gov. Bush to
radically alter Florida water law so that limited drinking-water supplies
in Central and South Florida don't impede growth. A different perspective,
that puts people and the environment first, is the preferred approach if
we want to maintain Florida's quality of life. Since the 1970's, state
water policy has prohibited moving water from one area to another with
canals or pipelines. Moving it would mean that the donor area sacrifices
future opportunities to make choices and subsidizes growth. Since 2001,
the Florida Water Coalition has been sounding the alarm that our waters
are at risk and providing reasoned ways to deal with water issues while
making sure that clean, plentiful water is available.
Read more
Work on plant led to waste problem
By Teresa Lane
© Palm Beach Post
PORT ST. LUCIE -- The sewage flow from the
Northport Wastewater Treatment Plant into deep-injection wells occurred during
plant expansion and should
be corrected by the end of the month when the work is completed, utility
officials told state regulators Wednesday. Responding to concerns from the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Utility Director Jesus Merejo
said in a letter Wednesday that solid waste inadvertently flowed into the final
basin of the sewer plant because a "raw feed line" into the aeration basin was
temporarily moved from the bottom of the basin to the top. That resulted in
inadequate treatment and inadequate settling of solids before reaching the
chlorine contact chamber, which sends treated sewage out of the plant into a
holding pond and, ultimately, deep-injection wells, Merejo said.
Read more
17-September-03
Editorial: Lower voice,
then lake
© Palm Beach Post
The South Florida Water Management
District board needs to show more sense and less defensiveness when it
comes to decisions about Lake Okeechobee. Last week, board member Harkley
Thornton wrongly berated a Martin County official and stupidly denounced
Martin residents as selfish "Chicken Littles" for complaining about the
district's treatment of the St. Lucie River. Last week, the district again
increased the flow of dirty water from Lake Okeechobee into the river.
Fish with lesions are appearing in the stressed estuary, and no end to the
dumping is in sight. Fishing guides, bait and tackle shops and other
lake-related businesses are suffering. District officials, who manage the
730-square-mile lake with the Army Corps of Engineers, have given
themselves no good choices. The lake is at 17 feet, more than 1 1/2 feet
too high for hurricane season.
Read more
Commentary:
Stop the flow of bad water ideas
By CHARLES PATTISON
© St. Petersburg Times
Recently, an elite business group made known its intentions to convince the Legislature and Gov. Bush to radically alter Florida water law so that limited drinking water supplies in Central and South Florida don't impede future growth and development there. A different perspective, which puts people and the environment first, is the preferred approach if we want to maintain the environment and quality of life now and in the future. Here's why.
Since the 1970s, state water policy has prohibited moving water from one area to
another with canals or pipelines. Then as now, the correct and fundamental
concept is that our climate, geology and landscapes have limited water budgets.
When you move that water outside those natural limitations, the result is damage
not only to the area from where the water is taken, but receiving areas become
artificial, unsustainable places where water is manipulated for the benefit of a
few. Read more
Fisheating Creek Easement Delayed
By NEIL JOHNSON
© Tampa Tribune
PALMDALE - The Florida Cabinet has postponed
considering the purchase of a $24 million conservation easement along Fisheating
Creek. The deal would have prevented development on more than 24,000 acres near
the pristine waterway in Glades County, but still allowed the landowner, Lykes
Bros. Inc., to construct a wellfield. The proposal, which was to be taken up by
the Cabinet on Thursday, has been deferred for further negotiation and
examination, said Deena Wells, spokeswoman for the state Department of
Environmental Protection. ``We want to take additional time to understand this
item and make sure this is the best deal for the environment and state of
Florida,'' she said. Read
more
Don't ignore nitrogen in Everglades equation
© Key West Citizen
What if saving the Everglades destroys Florida
Bay? It's a dilemma, a double-bind that some involved in Everglades restoration
wish to ignore. But for the sake of Florida Bay, an ecological and economic
treasure, it must be acknowledged and responded to by state and federal
officials. Dr. Larry Brand, a marine biologist with the Rosensteil School of
Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, conducts research on
the physiology, ecology and evolution of phytoplankton and the cause and control
of harmful algal blooms. Brand fears that the $8 billion federal-state effort to
revive the Everglades will trigger algal blooms that choke off and kill
seagrasses in Florida Bay.
Read more
State gets sanctuary report
It says loss of coral cover is decreasing
By Kevin Wadlow Senior Staff Writer kwadlow@keynoter.com
©
Keynoter
The loss of corals at the Florida Keys reef tract
seems to have stabilized the past four years, the Florida Cabinet will hear
Thursday. During a Tallahassee meeting with Gov. Jeb Bush and state Cabinet
members, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials will present an annual
report on "activities and conditions in the sanctuary." While Keys "coral cover"
– the amount of living coral on the sea floor - declined 35 percent from
1996-99, "the coral cover has not shown a decline for the past four years," says
a summary report to the Cabinet. Since about 65 percent of the Keys sanctuary’s
2,900 square nautical
miles of water lie within state jurisdiction, the Cabinet in 1997 insisted on
veto control over major regulations.
Read more
16-September-03
Editorial:
Lives lost, state changed in one scary night
© Palm Beach Post
For the past several days, as
Hurricane Isabel has grown and moved toward the United States, wary
Floridians could go online and get the latest information and tracking
maps from forecasters. The National Hurricane Center's accuracy about the
storm's turn has kept residents advised while avoiding unnecessary and
expensive preparation and mobilization here while advising it for farther
north. The people who lived between Palm Beach and Lake Okeechobee in 1928
had no such warning. Seventy-five years ago today, they knew only that a
hurricane was coming and that it might be a big one. Around the lake, as
the day went on, some people were able to move or take precautions. Others
just waited until twilight, when the killer winds came. Those lucky enough
to be alive at dawn saw the devastation from the second-deadliest natural
disaster -- after the 1900 Galveston, Texas, hurricane -- in the country's
history. Read
more
Secretary Norton Announces $12.9 Million in Grants
To Support Conservation in 40 States and Puerto Rico
©
U.S. Department
of the Interior
Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced
that the department has awarded $12.9 million in cost-share grants under
President Bush's Cooperative Conservation Initiative to complete 256
conservation projects in conjunction with states, local communities, businesses,
landowners, and other partners. The grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service will fund
a wide range of conservation projects ranging from restoring wetland prairie
habitat in Oregon to restoring forested wetlands damaged by a tornado in
Maryland to building water catchments for endangered bighorn sheep in New
Mexico. The projects involve more than 700 partners in 40 states and Puerto Rico
and will conserve or restore more than 50,000 acres. Partners are required at
least to match the federal grants, so overall funding for the projects totals
more than $35 million. Read more
Cabinet To Decide Creek's Future
By NEIL JOHNSON
© Tampa Tribune
PALMDALE - If Lake Okeechobee is the state's
liquid heart, then Fisheating Creek could be the remnants of its soul.
Meandering for more than 50 miles through the remote landscape of Glades and
Highlands counties, the fabled creek is one of those rare jewels of vanishing
Florida wilderness that conservationists want to put behind glass and save
forever. Which is why to some it hardly seems the place to put a commercial
wellfield or drill into the earth hunting for oil and natural gas. That's what
could happen if the Florida Cabinet approves a $24 million deal Thursday to buy
development rights on nearly 24,000 acres along the creek.
Read more
15-September-03
SFWMD vs. Miccosukee Tribe and Friends of the
Everglades
©
SFWMD
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court,
which has agreed to hear a
case that is vital to environmental protection
and to restoring the fragile Florida Everglades, learned today that an
overreaching new interpretation of federal clean-water laws could severely
delay the complex Everglades Restoration effort.
Read more
Letter to the editor: Don't
add to district's burden
By Gale A. Norton
© Sun-Sentinel
Daniel Beard, the first
superintendent of Everglades National Park, once noted that "in any
approach to understanding the problems of the Everglades, it is necessary
for one to look at the present and see the future." His observation
remains true today, as concerned citizens in Florida work on the world's
largest watershed restoration project and the focus remains on the work
ahead. Our goals are ambitious. We are committed
to cleaning up polluted water
that enters the Everglades so that native flora and fauna, which depend upon
water free of excessive nutrients, are conserved. We are committed to
increasing water supplies for the environment -- at the right time and place
-- as well as meeting the needs of the many individuals and businesses of
South Florida. And we are committed to restoring habitat
by reconnecting natural areas that have been separated by dikes and levees
and removing invasive exotics. Read
more
14-September-03
The Herbert Hoover Dike leaks
© Palm Beach Post
By Bob King
The Herbert Hoover Dike could be the world's
biggest grave marker. Inspired by the 1928 hurricane that drowned 2,500 people
in the Glades, the mammoth earthen levee was a defensive move by desperate men.
To its creator, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the dike was a cage to
imprison the "monster," the rage of a future killer storm. They built it around
Lake Okeechobee to save lives, to protect people from a quick surge of water.
But then the mission changed. As memories of the storm faded, the engineers
began using the dike to hold more of that treacherous water. They piled the lake
higher so it could irrigate farms. They kept it higher, for months and months,
to make sure people on the coast would have enough water. The result: The
143-mile-long, 3-story-tall dike -- protector of 40,000 lives -- leaks.
Read more
Water district ready to begin plan to return water
flows to Southern
Golden Gates Estates
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
Engineers are still studying the computer models of
water flow and Congress has yet to approve money for the project, but the South
Florida Water Management District isn't waiting any longer. The agency is moving
ahead with plans for a so-called "early start" of the massive project to return
natural water flows to Southern Golden Gate Estates, a mostly abandoned
subdivision stretching between U.S. 41 East and Interstate 75. The district
governing board, meeting in West Palm Beach last week, approved a $411,000
contract to fill in parts of the Prairie Canal on the project's eastern edge.
The job is part of the district's early start on restoration. A dredge-and-fill
permit for the Prairie Canal project is pending at the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers office in Fort Myers.
Read more
Survivors recall killer 'cane
©
Stuart News
By Bob Betcher
PORT MAYACA — Under a bright sun and blue sky
Saturday, survivors of the 1928 hurricane recalled the dark day when 2,500
people died in a torrent of rain and wind that lashed the communities along the
southern shore of Lake Okeechobee. A 75th anniversary memorial service was
staged at the Port Mayaca Cemetery, about 3 miles east of the lake, to honor
1,600 of the victims whose remains were cremated and buried in the remote Martin
County graveyard. "I was helping the Red Cross give out some clothes and this
truck drove up in front of City Hall on the shores of Lake Okeechobee, and it
was just loaded with bodies they had picked up from under the muck," survivor
Uceba Babson, 90, recalled. "(Pahokee officials) poured lye or some kind of
disinfectant on this whole truckload."
Read more
13-September-03
Letter to the editor
No matter how you view it, drop in cattails' spread good
By
JUDY SANCHEZ
© Palm Beach Post
The first new research data since
1995 on cattails in the Everglades provides further evidence that the Everglades
Forever Act of 1994 is working. The study, showing a 67 percent decrease in the
spread of cattails since the mid-1990s, is a significant indicator of the
improving health of the Everglades. In addition to the dramatic drop in cattail
expansion, the study also showed that some areas of heavy concentration have
been diluted, and that one cattail area actually has been replaced by saw grass.
These results are encouraging. We regret that The Post's Aug. 31 editorial
("Everglades spin machine") has misinterpreted the data about cattails released
by the South Florida Water Management District. It is erroneous to state that
"cattails are taking over 2 acres a day."
Read more
Protesting the protesters
Letters to the Editor
© Naples Daily News
It was interesting to read about residents who
rallied to vent their discontent at "losing access to an area in rural Golden
Gate Estates" or their "right of access." They are probably the same people who
have destroyed several thousand acres of their community. In reality, these
residents, although I can't believe they all live in the south blocks, only talk
about their individual property rights and not the common good. For instance,
north of U.S. 41, about two miles before you get to Port of the Islands, there
is a large ATV-made lake that stands in an area called Hard Luck Prairie. The
area is completely torn up,
causing major changes to the natural sheetflow and disturbing the natural
"community."
Read more
12-September-03
Letter to the editor
Why are water managers excited? Cattail report bad
© Palm Beach Post
By JUANITA GREENE
The long-awaited report from the South
Florida Water Management District about the spread of cattails, a sure
sign of pollution problems, in the Everglades comes as a great
disappointment after reading "Cattails spur Everglades argument" Aug. 26.
While the district reports that the spread of cattails has slowed in one
area, it fails to report on conditions in the whole Everglades. In fact,
what the report tells us is that things continue to go badly in the
Everglades. It is not fair for officials of the agency in charge of
Everglades restoration to confuse the public with such statements as "we
are excited at what we see." How can one be excited that cattails are
spreading over this one area at the rate of 2 acres a day?
Read more
Do plans to restore Everglades hold water?
BY CURTIS MORGAN
© Miami
Herald
There's always been a hole in the plan to turn
the rock-mining pits of West Miami-Dade's ''lake belt'' into gargantuan
reservoirs for Everglades restoration. There are a slew of holes, in fact, along
with countless cracks and fissures in the walls of the limestone quarries, which
make them about as watertight as kitchen colanders. Not a good quality for
storing water. After much study, federal engineers have narrowed the search for
ways to reduce the leakage. The potential fixes display real out-of-the-box
thinking. Out of the icebox, in one case. Something called ''ground freezing''
made the official first cut with four other technologies under consideration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Read more
11-September-03
Water Management District To Blame
For Cleanup Delays
©
Sierra
Club
MIAMI, FL., SEPT. 11---A local grass roots
organization formed by the late Marjory Stoneman Douglas and a tribe of Indians
that live in the Everglades today expressed amazement over the claim of state
officials that the two groups are impeding Everglades restoration by
suing to
keep polluted water out of the area. Friends of the Everglades and the
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians are before the U.S. Supreme Court in a David vs.
Goliath attempt to prevent the state's powerful South Water Management District
from diverting polluted runoff from western Broward County into the endangered
wetland. The District declared in a Sept.9 news release that victory for the
Friends and the Tribe would be an "overreaching new interpretation of federal
clean water laws" and could "severely delay" the Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Plan, approved by Congress in 2000. Read
more
Water district gains ally in permit fight
© Sun-Sentinel
The federal government sided with
South Florida water managers Wednesday and
advised the
U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision
mandating a federal permit for the pumping of dirty water into
the Everglades. U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson said in a legal brief
that the pumping station near U.S. 27 and Griffin Road in western Broward County
does not qualify as an introducer of pollution a U.S. waters under federal
rules. The South Florida Water Management District has is merely passing along
pollution – phosphorus -- that it did not generate, and that water transfer
agencies historically have not been required to obtain water quality permits.
The Justice Department motion said the pump station merely transports dirty
water. That means it shouldn't be regulated under a federal permit, Olson wrote.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case early next year.
Miccosukeee Tribe Says Water Management District Claim
That Clean Water
Act Permit for the S-9 Pump Will Be Bad for
Everglades Restoration is
Reminiscent
of Chicken Little
press release
source
Today, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians said the
South Florida Water Management District's claim that forcing water managers to
get a Clean Water Act permit for their S-9 pump would be bad for Everglades
Restoration is reminiscent of Chicken Little. [The District is currently
attempting to overturn important Clean Water Act federal court victories won by
the Tribe in its struggle to stop the pollution of its Everglades homeland. The
case, South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe and Friends of
the Everglades,
No. 02-626 will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in January.
Read more
$49 million extra paid for more rock pit storage
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
A Loxahatchee rock mining company will get an
extra $49 million for a land deal that water managers say will help restore the
Everglades, north Palm Beach County waterways and the Lake Worth Lagoon. The
board of the South Florida Water Management District gave its staff permission
Wednesday to reach the deal with Palm Beach Aggregates Inc. That's on top of the
$139 million the company is set to receive from the district for 900 acres
northwest of Wellington. The original deal, approved in December, calls for the
company to dig a series of 45-foot-deep pits on the land, providing water
managers with 10 billion gallons of storage space. But Palm Beach Aggregates
held back the rights to the bottom 10 feet of storage, worth an additional 4.3
billion gallons, which the company had promised to another potential buyer. The
deal OK'd Wednesday would give the district that extra storage for $49 million.
Read more
Public path would benefit resort, critics say
By Melissa Harris
©
Orlando Sentinel
Taxpayers may pick up a $900,000 tab for a
boardwalk and nature trail that critics say would primarily benefit guests at
the posh Marriott Grande Vista Resort in the south International Drive tourist
corridor. The South Florida Water Management District is seeking help from
Orange County and the state to build the half-mile-long elevated, wooden walkway
through 1,750 acres of wetlands the district owns not far from SeaWorld.
District and county officials say schoolchildren would use the trail for field
trips, and the public could enjoy it as a hiking trail. Though the boardwalk
would be on public land, the only access would be from a private road, about a
half-mile beyond the entrance to the Marriott resort. The trailhead is adjacent
to the resort's four-court tennis center, where it would share six parking
spaces with guests using that facility. From there, the boardwalk would run
alongside a fairway on the Marriott golf course.
Read more
10-September-03
Federal Government Argues For Weaker Clean Water
Protections
©
Earth Justice
Washington DC-- A brief filed today with the U.S.
Supreme Court by the federal government argues that municipal water management
districts can pipe dirty water into cleaner water without any permit under the
federal Clean Water Act. The U.S. Solicitor General filed an amicus brief in the
case, South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe,
No. 02- 626,
which would have serious impacts on federal protections for the nation’s waters,
as well as on the imperiled Florida Everglades. “Today the federal government
sided with polluters who want to avoid any responsibility for the dirty water
they dump into our drinking water supplies, our natural lakes, streams and
wetlands,” said David Guest, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Tallahassee
office. Read
more
Reservoirs necessary to protect waterways
By PAMELA SMITH HAYFORD
©
The
News-Press (Ft. Myers)
Water managers have enough land to store the current
overabundance of water threatening Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee
River, according to Audubon of Florida. “But the district is dragging its feet on constructing the reservoirs,” said Eric Draper, policy director for the
conservation advocacy and education group. High waters are threatening the health of the lake, its levy
and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, the nurseries of the sea. Audubon of Florida and others are pushing for the South
Florida Water Management District to get the reservoirs built much
earlier than their 2009 and 2011 target dates. And they’re not the only ones. “I couldn’t agree more. That’s exactly what needs to happen,”
said district board member Trudi Williams of Fort Myers. Williams represents the southwest coast.
Read more
02-September-03
Everglades scientists are my new best friends, thanks to you
By Tom Tuell
©
Key West Citizen
Attention Florida Keys taxpayers: I spent some of your tax
money this week, so I thought I'd better account for my actions. Four Keys newspaper types, two from The Citizen and two from
the Keynoter, boarded a helicopter in Marathon early Wednesday, and spent the
day doing aerial, auto and airboat tours of the Everglades. The tours
focused primarily on areas at the core of a massive $8 billion
restoration effort. You paid for the fuel, four sandwiches, a six-pack or so of
bottled water, the pilot's time and the time we distracted a half dozen
scientists who work for the South Florida Water Management District. The water district has gotten a lot of critical press in
recent months, much of it focused on a Legislative surprise -- supported by the
district -- that pushed back by a decade the deadline for meeting
phosphorus-reduction standards for water flowing into the Glades from urban and
agricultural areas. Read
more
01-September-03
Letter to the editor
Too many honchos make decisions on Lake O level
© Palm Beach Post
By CARL LEONARD
I just finished reading the Aug. 22 article "Lake water
flooding into St. Lucie River." The water managers decided in March/April to allow
the lake to rise, based on an internal operational document. This document
lists at least 40 decision points, and a considerable number of those are
subjective, such as climate forecast, desirability of releases, tributary
condition, etc. I know that the South Florida Water Management District and
Army Corps of Engineers have many educated employees who oversee millions of
dollars in taxpayers' money attempting to manage water resources. But I
believe there must be too many in the decision tree, and that's the reason
water levels in Lake Okeechobee are always late in being initiated. I cannot
understand the difficulty in allowing a single person to be responsible for the
lake level. Read more
