News - November  2003   

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Environmental News Network

 

Special News Sections    

•   Hon. William Hoeveler 

•   Hon. Federico Moreno 

•   Special Master John M. Barkett

  News

30-November-03

The Trail left scars on land, workers
© Miami Herald
It was a triumph of arrogance. We can see that now, 75 years after the fact. The notion of road builders cutting, blasting, shoveling, dredging and damming their way across the free-flowing width of the Everglades was simply unfettered by environmental concerns that now seem so obvious. The Tamiami Trail was also a triumph of labor. Brutal labor. Performed in dismal conditions, amid cypress jungles, mangrove swamps, chest-deep water and flesh-cutting sawgrass. But workers were a cheap currency -- currency freely spent in the far isolation of a Florida swamp. Men like Doc Johnson and Ray Crews were lured out of impoverished South Georgia by the promise of $78 a month (plus room and board, such as it was in a clapboard work camp) to work on the 13-year project to build a 274-mile road from Tampa, south to Naples, then across the Glades to Miami. Read more

American dream gets in way of Everglades restoration
By HILARY ROXE, AP
© Keys News
MIAMI -- Osvaldo Cueli's 10-acre nursery, with its rows of potted mahogany saplings and towering Royal Palms, stands stoutly in the way of a massive effort to replumb the Everglades. For nearly 15 years, Cueli and dozens of others from Cuba, Colombia and other Latin American countries have lived in this 8.5-square-mile area on the eastern edge of the Everglades National Park and have resisted federal and state efforts to take their land. Officials say this area is crucial to restoring natural water flow through the Everglades, and to the $8.4 billion restoration project. Under a compromise reached last February, about a third of the area's landowners have agreed to sell their property in the next few months, but they say they expected more when they came to the United States. "It's unbelievable that this is happening in America," said Cueli, a Cuban immigrant. "I've never wanted to sell here. I've done everything possible to stay." Read more

29-November-03

Harvesting Poverty: America's Sugar Daddies
Editorial
© New York Times
Sugar growers in this country, long protected from global competition, have had a great run at the expense of just about everyone else - refineries, candy manufacturers, other food companies, individual consumers and farmers in the developing world. But now the nation's sugar program, which guarantees a domestic price for raw sugar that can be as much as three times the world price, needs to be terminated. It has become far too costly to America's global economic and strategic interests. The less defensible a federal policy is on its merits, the greater the likelihood that it generates (or originates from) a great deal of cash in Washington, in the form of campaign contributions. Sugar is a sweet case in point. The
Fanjul brothers, Florida's Cuban-American reigning sugar barons who preside over Palm Beach's yacht-owning society, were alone responsible for generating nearly $1 million in
soft-money donations during the 2000 election cycle.  Read more

South Florida grapples with sewage problem
By David Fleshler
© Sun-Sentinel
As thousands of newcomers continue to pour into South Florida, city and county governments are busily drilling wells to get rid of their sewage. These wells shoot treated wastewater up to 3,500 feet underground, where geologists hope that layers of clay and rock will keep it. At least 20 wells have leaked, however, allowing sewage to migrate upward into
potential sources of drinking water. Sewer officials are pursuing plans to construct or operate new wells in Fort Myers, Immokolee, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, northern Broward
County, Cooper City, Sunrise, Pompano Beach and North Miami Beach, according to the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. And while the leaking wells are violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to find ways to let Florida continue to use injection wells, possibly by requiring additional treatment. Critics say the use of these wells has simply provided a way to accommodate population growth without spending the money to make wastewater clean enough to reuse. Read more

 

28-November-03

Judge says he wanted best for Glades
BY JAY WEAVER
© Miami Herald
Senior federal Judge William M. Hoeveler was thinking this week about the movie Philadelphia: Actor Tom Hanks, playing an attorney dying of AIDS who sues his law firm for firing him, testifies he became a lawyer to do some justice. Hoeveler said he, too, could identify with that principle during his 26-year career on the bench. In fact, that is what compelled him last spring to criticize proposed legislation that would extend the deadline for cleaning up the Everglades, he said. His remarks, both in court and to the press, led to his removal from the landmark case that he had overseen since 1988 because the sugar industry claimed they showed his bias. ''I felt what was happening was unjust to the people of Florida and the Everglades,'' Hoeveler, 81, said in his first public comments since September, when he was removed. ``I was angry. I believed I wouldn't be biased in my decisions. . . . I don't think anyone who knew me would have drawn that conclusion.'' His main goal: ``I wanted what was best for the Everglades.'' For 15 years, Hoeveler had presided over the federal government's environmental case against the state, which resulted in a consent order forcing Florida to clean up the ravaged River of Grass and a restoration bill of $8 billion.  Read more

A politically connected industry devastates the Everglades
By Ted Levin
© ENN
Staining an otherwise cerulean sky, oily black smoke billows a mile high from more than a half-dozen fires south of Lake Okeechobee. You can see the smoke from West Palm Beach, like the exhalations of detonated bombs. It is eerily quiet. From the highway around the lake, from the outskirts of towns such as Canal Point, Moore Haven, and Harlem, where they hold the Miss Brown Sugar Contest, sugarcane runs to the horizon, a ghostly replacement of what was once sawgrass marshes. Flames rush through patches of cane, burning off extraneous tassels and blades, leaving only the sucrose-rich stalks. You can hear the fires cackle from the streets of Clewiston, "America’s Sweetest Town." Read more

•   Save our Everglades
•   Flo-Sun

26-November-03

Dade, mining firm reach deal on land
A land swap in West Miami-Dade goes forward after the county and a rock-mining company reach a deal on property near a sensitive well field.
BY MARC CAPUTO
© Miami Herald
A last-minute deal averted a clash Tuesday between Miami-Dade County and a rock-mining company, which planned to start blasting operations near a water-supply well field that the county feared would become polluted. The company, Florida Rock Industries, agreed to sell the disputed land to the county for about $900,000 if officials determine that the operation
would come too close to the northwest well field west of Florida's Turnpike. With that agreement, Miami-Dade officials dropped a protest before the Florida Cabinet, clearing the way Tuesday for a land swap between the state and the company. The company would pay the state about $1.1 million and transfer nearly 203 acres of its own in return for 239 state-owned acres that included the disputed property.  Read more

Collier legislators to push for special districts
By LARRY HANNAN
© Naples Daily News
The Collier County legislative delegation will work to create two new independent special districts during the 2004 legislative session in Tallahassee. On Tuesday, the delegation unanimously agreed to support a local bill that would create the independent special districts. The special districts will encompass Ave Maria University and the rural lands west of Ave Maria, near Immokalee. A local bill only affects a local area and does not have an effect statewide. The tradition in the Legislature is that a local bill is pushed by legislators from the area the bill will affect. Read more

25-November-03

Dike not in danger of failing
By Tracy Whirls
© Okeechobee News
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Clewiston Chief of Field Operations Karen Estock told members of the Clewiston Lions Club at their regular meeting last Thursday that despite news reports concerning the condition of the Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee, that the dike is not in imminent danger of failing. "We do have seepage, in the South Bay, Pahokee and Belle Glade area," Ms. Estock said. "Congress has authorized repairs to 25 miles of the dike, which is in the planning and specification stage," Ms. Estock said. "It's not like we're going to have imminent failure." Ms. Estock said the problem with the dike is that when it was constructed, materials on hand were used to be the dike. On the south end of the lake, much of the material is mud and peat, which causes seepage. Read more

23-November-03

Water district calls shake-up 'efficient'
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
For seven years, John Neuharth was the voice of the South Florida Water Management District. But the district doesn't need him anymore. Neuharth is one of six people who lost their jobs this month in an overhaul of the district's public information department -- a move partly aimed at fighting a spate of bad press. The action came two months after the district demoted one of its most honored scientists, Kissimmee River restoration leader Lou Toth, after he complained to reporters about delays in that $600 million project. Those let go in the latest overhaul say they're mystified. "All of a sudden I'm not qualified, not even to be a writer," said Neuharth, who was the district's chief spokesman from 1992 until 1999. Since then he has written and edited district publications and devised a media strategy for the agency, earning $67,000 a year. Read more

Sea cows return
Happy to volunteer manatee information
By Suzanne Wentley
© Stuart News

FORT PIERCE -- With his back to the pelicans gliding over Moore's Creek, Tom Cook leaned on his cane and chatted with two first-time visitors to the Manatee Observation and Education Center. "You've never seen a manatee?" asked Cook, 74, wearing a white shirt with "volunteer" emblazoned on the chest. "On some days, you can see 20, 30 in a bunch here." Those days are approaching faster than a manatee can swim through the Indian River Lagoon. Manatee "season" -- four and a half months when colder water brings more of the marine mammals into warm-water refuges -- has just begun, bringing a busy time for the center's nearly 100 volunteers. Going into its eighth season, the non-profit center attracts up to 1,000 visitors a day from throughout the Treasure Coast and as far away as England and Australia -- all interested in catching a glimpse of the creatures that are the center of boating debates, scientific studies and a specialty license plate. Read more

•   Manatee Observation and Education Center

The Drainage Machine
The Drainage Machine, in short, destroys the Everglades wetlands so that a few super-rich kids can grow a propped-up, unneeded crop while heaping astoundingly large damages on Floridians.
By KARL WICKSTROM
© Stuart News
It is not true that our government is a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Sugar. It just seems that way. Sour as it is, we must taste this spoiled sucrose, and try to swallow. It doesn't go down well. For the benefit of the sugar industry, the above-mentioned subsidiary has created what may be called The Florida Drainage Machine. The Drainage Machine, in short, destroys the Everglades wetlands so that a few super-rich kids can grow a propped-up, unneeded crop while heaping astoundingly large damages on Floridians. If those words are too inflammatory for you, consider that they boil up out of three decades of heated frustration while watching the situation worsen, and worsen some more. No environmental scandal in Florida history can compare with the havoc wrought by the Florida Drainage Machine.  Read more

Harper methodology making waves for wetlands 
By PAMELA SMITH HAYFORD
© Ft. Myers News-Press
A 107-page report is changing the way wetlands destruction permits are granted throughout the state, despite criticism from some scientists and environmentalists, including an EPA scientist who resigned last month. All sides say they’re looking out for wetlands, which are often called the kidneys of the environment because they filter pollutants from the water,
including groundwater that eventually flows to the tap. But critics of the so-called Harper methodology, including Southwest Florida’s former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representative, say it is flawed, hasn’t received public input and in some instances could
allow more destruction of wetlands. Proponents say the report’s formulas and mathematical tables are better than current methods of assessing effects. In fact, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection contracted with author Harvey Harper, an environmental engineer in Orlando, last month to expand the methodology he developed for Southwest Florida to the
rest of the state. Read more

Destroying an American Treasure
The Bush Environmental Record in Florida
© Environment 2004
Spanning the southern end of the Florida peninsula from Lake Okeechobee to Florida and Biscayne Bays, the Everglades is a unique mosaic of temperate and tropical plant communities, and is renowned for its rich bird life.  Despite being nominated by the United States, and formal recognition by all the nations of the world as a World Heritage site, the Everglades is endangered by development of its wetlands, drastic changes in the amounts
and timing of the water flows that are supplied to it, and pollution. Due to unwise development and increased human water consumption, and average 1.7 billion gallons of water is discharged directly to the ocean while essential water flows to the Everglades have been reduced by 70%. Almost 95% of the wading bird population is gone and 68 plant and animal
species are endangered or threatened. Notwithstanding, pollution from nearby human activity has atrophied lake Okeechobee, high levels of mercury make fish inedible, and thousands of acres of Everglades marsh are now a parched sea of cattails, where beautiful native sawgrass used to stand. Read more

21-November-03

Emergency Court Action Seeks Halt to Drawdown Discharges 
to major estuaries linked to damaging "mudbaths."
© Florida Sportsman
An emergency motion has been filed in federal court requesting a temporary injunction against an impending drawdown of Lake Toho that is expected to lead to even more discharges of billions of gallons of fresh water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries in the Fort Myers and Stuart coastal regions. The Indian Riverkeeper, local affiliate of a national group that has successfully fought for clean water programs in other states, filed the injunction motion this week in West Palm Beach, asking for a hearing in early December. The action is filed against the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and its brigadier general, although the drawdown program is a project of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Read more

19-November-03

Tribe boosts image one deal at a time
The Miccosukee Tribe spends money on sports sponsorships, charitable donations and ads as part of a campaign to build respect for the tribe.
BY ROBERT L. STEINBACK
© Miami Herald
In one of the most electrifying moments of the 2003 World Series, a tiny Florida Indian tribe got publicity that was, as the commercial says, priceless. Florida Marlins' shortstop Alex Gonzalez's line drive barely cleared the outfield fence for a game-winning home run. Fox sports announcer Tim McCarver described the location, where the left-field fence is lowest, to more than 30 million viewers. 'There's about 30 feet with which he [Gonzalez] has to work, from the foul pole to the `c' on a word I can't pronounce: M-I-C-C-O-S-U-K-E-E,'' McCarver said. One of the Miccosukee tribe's recent flurry of big-ticket sponsorships -- a massive ad on the outfield fence at Pro Player Stadium -- had just paid off, big time. Read more

14-November-03

Protect the Everglades
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
The Everglades has an overseer. It is too early to tell whether the Everglades has an advocate. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, now supervising the lawsuit under which the state promised to clean up the Everglades, has named a Miami lawyer to be special master in the case. John M. Barkett's role will be to see whether the state is meeting its commitments as laid out in an agreement approved by Judge William Hoeveler. This year, the Legislature passed changes that everyone but Tallahassee and the sugar industry believes weaken the cleanup rules. During debate on the bill, Judge Hoeveler -- who had supervised the lawsuit since it was filed in 1988 -- criticized the legislation in strong terms during interviews with reporters. Sugar growers then persuaded the chief judge of the Southern District to remove him, and the case went to Judge Moreno. Read more

Environmentalists Sue State Over Dairy Waste Permits
By MIKE SALINERO
© Tampa Tribune
TALLAHASSEE - All but one of the 57 largest commercial dairies in Florida are operating without mandatory waste discharge permits for their mammoth cattle herds, even though federal authorities require them. The state Department of Environmental Protection, which enforces the federal Clean Water Act in Florida, contends the permits are unnecessary because it has sufficient measures in place to protect water supplies from the tons of manure produced by milk cows numbering in the thousands. Environmentalists are unconvinced and a Tallahassee courtroom has become the latest battleground over water quality in the state. ``EPA has been telling Florida for years you've got to get these dairies under permits, and Florida's just been dragging it out,'' said Linda Young, Southeast director of the Clean Water Network. Read more

Report Claims Florida One Of Worst Power Plant Pollution States
© Click10.com

©Click10.com

MIAMI -- A recent report claims Florida is one of the worst states when it comes to pollution from power plants.  The Florida Public Interest Research Group just released its "lethal legacy" report. In it, the group claims air pollution from Florida's dirtiest power plants, including the one at Port Everglades, can pose serious health risks. "There are 26 power plants here in Florida, which are still operating under the older and dirtier technologies regarding pollution control. These are soot- and smog-forming pollutions, and pollutions related to global warming," said Peter Von Burchard of Florida PIRG. Read more

•   Lethal Legacy Report

Environmental Groups Join Supreme Court Battle to Uphold Clean Water Act
National environmental groups submit Amicus brief
Contact Howard Fox or Cat Lazaroff, 202-667-4500
© Earth Justice
Washington DC-- A Florida regional water management district that pumps dirty stormwater into the Everglades is discharging a pollutant, and therefore must obtain a point source permit under the Clean Water Act, seven national environmental groups argued today in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. The environmental groups filed a friend of the court brief in the case, South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, No. 02-626, a suit whose outcome could weaken federal protections for the nation’s waters, including the imperiled Florida Everglades. The case before the Supreme Court will explore whether the core protections of the Clean Water Act apply to South Florida Water Management District’s practice of pumping huge quantities of polluted stormwater uphill from a collection canal in a developed area into a natural wetland area in the Everglades. The river-sized flow of stormwater contains phosphorus and other pollutants. Read more

•   South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, No. 02-626

•   National Environment Groups Amicus Brief  filed November 14, 2003  [205kb pdf file] 

 

13-November-03

Environmentalists pushing for more stringent wildlife protections
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
A debate is brewing about who should have the last word on how to protect rare and threatened wildlife species in Collier County. Environmental groups are pushing for a new county rule to require the county to impose more stringent wildlife protections on a development project if the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends it. Amid disagreement about the wording of the proposal, attorneys for Collier suggested at a Wednesday night hearing that the Collier County Planning Commission put off the issue until Nov. 20. The Planning Commission met Wednesday to begin reviewing land development codes to put the county's new rural growth plan into action. The plan is the result of a 1999 slow-growth order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet. Read more

Everglades project could go mostly private
By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
Water managers Wednesday embraced the possibility of handing private enterprise a major portion of their $8.4 billion Everglades restoration, without offering details. The idea could lead to companies building, operating or even owning more than 140 billion gallons worth of reservoirs meant to replenish the Everglades, protect Lake Okeechobee and expand South Florida's water supply. That's a sharp change from the practice of the past half-century, in which federal engineers built the projects and handed the reins to water managers. But private businesses could finish the desperately needed projects faster than government can, said Henry Dean, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. And, he said, partnerships with companies could help his agency do more with limited dollars. Read more

Face facts about the lake, the St. Lucie and sugar farming
Commentary By Robert E. Coker,f Senior Vice President, Public Affairs for U.S. Sugar Corp.
© Stuart News
Scapegoating an industry that is south of the lake may further the political agenda for some, but it doesn't help lower the water. Sugar farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) understand that we farm in an environmentally sensitive area between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, and we are dealing with issues that relate to our farming activities and their impact on the natural system. However, it is not fair to make us the scapegoat for every environmental problem in South Florida. More importantly, scapegoating distracts attention from the need to support real corrective actions regarding Lake Okeechobee, water quality, flood control and water storage in this huge system that begins in Orlando. Read more

Water managers float plan for speeding restoration of Everglades
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
South Florida water managers unveiled a rough plan Wednesday that has them taking some risks to further jump-start Everglades restoration and accelerate efforts to relieve Lake Okeechobee and coastal waters from the damaging blows of stormwater they now endure. Saying they had to be "creative" to get plans for much-needed water-storage areas off the ground, water managers are considering contracting with companies to build, finance and perhaps operate the reservoirs -- including one in rural Palm Beach County -- ahead of schedule.Those public-private ventures, if the district proceeds with its idea, would have the agency partially parting ways with its reservoir-building partner, the Army Corps of Engineers, and its more time-consuming and demanding process to design, construct and approve such projects. "I'd rather move ahead and get some dirt dug rather than sit on our thumbs for the next six years," said Henry Dean, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Read more

Extra water pours into river
County leaders want to stop drawdown
By PAMELA SMITH HAYFORD
© The News-Press (Ft. Myers)
The drawdown of a Kissimmee-area lake is sending an extra 14 billion gallons of water into the system that eventually cascades into the Caloosahatchee River. Leaders from Lee and Martin counties pleaded with water managers at their regular meeting Wednesday in West Palm Beach to postpone the drawdown, but the South Florida Water Management District board declined to address it. The extra water amounts to only 1.2 inches of water on Lake Okeechobee, the district said. Instead, the board agreed to look at three measures that might relieve the estuaries in the long run. They voted to: • Take another look at a relatively new policy, called the WSE schedule, which dictates when and how much water is released Read more

12-November-03

Public access limits to bay are proposed
BY CURTIS MORGAN
© Miami Herald

WORRIED: Fishing Capt. Dave Sutton says some of the proposed restrictions would cripple fishing guides. NOELLE THEARD/HERALD STAFF

Biscayne National Park has drafted five options for protecting its scarred sea grass beds, declining reefs and overcrowded coves. All but one option would impose new limits on public access in a park that serves as a watery playground for tens of thousands of South Florida boaters. None of the plans would ban fishing, a step park managers had informally floated for small portions of the 270-square-mile park, but some would make it a lot tougher for anglers to drop a hook in sensitive areas of Biscayne Bay. They do not include some of the more severe restrictions imposed in other sensitive areas, such as the ban on commercial fishing or shrimp trawling in Everglades National Park, or the protections on reefs off the Florida Keys. Read more

Development battles explored
By ANDRES VIGLUCCI
© Miami Herald
It's all over the news: A condo developer tries to tear down a historic bayfront home in an old Miami neighborhood. A big home-supply store applies to build on the fringes of the Everglades. The owner of a West Miami-Dade County golf course wants to sell out for a housing development. In each recent case, neighbors and activists banded together in opposition, with varying success: The house came down, while critics stopped the store and housing development. And every week, a new front opens in the local development wars. Read more

•   Link to Conference Information (Private Gain vs. the Public Good, 11/14/03)

County loses land-use ruling
BY TRAVIS JAMES TRITTEN
© Key West Citizen

Owners of a 13-lot property on No Name Key won a court ruling last week that said the county improperly took away the right to build on the lots, a decision that could cost the county millions. The case of Galleon Bay could now go before a jury to determine how much the county must pay to buy the land, though county attorneys will ask for a rehearing following the decision by 16th Circuit Court Judge Richard Payne. The county approved the platted lots in the early 1990s, but soon after enacted a rate-of-growth ordinance that stymied development plans. Galleon Bay attorney Jim Mattson said the county has offered only $1.5 million for the property -- a price that falls far below the market value. Read more

Florida: Everglades airboats face uncertain future
© CNN

An airboat carries tourists on a ride through subtropical wilderness in Coopertown, Florida.
© CNN

COOPERTOWN, Florida (AP) -- Jesse Kennon's backyard is the wide expanse of the Florida Everglades. And his mode of transportation is an airboat that brings tourists to see the hundreds of alligators and other wildlife that inhabit this subtropical wilderness. The ride business, located 25 miles southwest of downtown Miami, was founded by Kennon's cousin in 1945. But it remains a popular attraction, departing every 20 minutes, every day of the week, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Kennon would like to leave the business to his son, but it faces an uncertain long-term future. The National Park Service is buying the land where Kennon lives and does business, along with the property where two other independent airboat companies operate along the trail. It's part of the Everglades Protection and Expansion Act, which will add about 109,000 acres to Everglades National Park. Read more

11-November-03

Lake Tohopekaliga draining begins
By Suzanne Wentley, Staff Writer
© Stuart News
With water starting to flow from a Central Florida lake on Monday, local activists are planning a trip Wednesday to try to persuade top water managers to put off a restoration project they fear will eventually damage the St. Lucie Estuary. An estimated 1,500 cubic feet per second — or 11,220 gallons per second — began flowing Monday from Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County into Lake Kissimmee, Army Corps engineers said. By the middle of December, that extra water — equalling about 7 inches at the top of Lake Okeechobee — will flow south. Still, Martin County elected officials and St. Lucie River advocates said they think it isn't too late to stop the water from potentially reaching the St. Lucie Estuary, which suffered from low salinity during seven weeks of constant discharges earlier this fall. Read more

Area home construction rockets 69%
By Robin Pollack staff writer
© Stuart News
Quarterly home construction along the Treasure Coast shot up a whopping 69 percent -- a breakneck pace expected to persist well into 2004, new research figures show. From July through September, builders began construction on 1,418 single-family homes in subdivisions in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, according to a study released Monday by Boca Raton consulting firm Metrostudy. During the same time last year, 839 housing starts were recorded. Although it's no secret the Treasure Coast's housing market has been on a hot streak -- thriving even during the recession and terror attacks of 2001 -- these latest figures prove the region is hitting its long-predicted stride, industry experts said. Read more

10-November-03

Construction of Everglades filter marshes nearly complete
By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post

Source: South Florida Water Management District. Steve Lopez, Staff Artist
Click to enlarge image

On southwest Palm Beach County's lonely fringes, Gary Goforth sees the fruits of a $600 million success. Joette Lorion sees state-sponsored deception. A judge in Miami will decide who's right. The subject is the cleanup of the Everglades, a controversy that has kept teams of lawyers and scientists in court for more than 15 years. That dispute took a new turn in the past two weeks, as U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno gave at least some credence to critics' complaints that South Florida water managers could break their promises of cleansing the tainted runoff of suburbs and sugar farms The water managers call the timing of such complaints more than a little odd. After all, they're about to finish a project some people thought couldn't be done: 62 square miles of man-made marshes aimed at filtering the runoff before it hits the Everglades. Read more

Money isn't everything to Jesse James Hardy -- not even $1.5 million for his land
By ERIC STAATS, emstaats@naplesnews.com
© Naples Daily News
Jesse James Hardy pulls out a pocketknife and crouches in the dust next to his white Chevy Blazer. Snapping open the blade, the plainspoken 68-year-old scratches out a map of the 160-acre homestead where he has lived in the woods of eastern Collier County for more than 25 years. Here is the lake where he hand-feeds pieces of bread to fish. Back there is where he used to raise chickens. Over there is where a friend helped Hardy build his first house out of scrap lumber. That's where Hardy stood with a garden hose in his hand to keep a wildfire at bay. Read more

Sugar growers didn't create, can't fix high Lake O levels
Letter to the Editor By: JEFF BAUMAN, Delray Beach
© Palm Beach Post
Willie Howard's Outdoors column Oct. 26 ("Sentiments rising to keep level of Okeechobee lower") correctly notes that improving the water quality in Lake Okeechobee "would require building pollution-filtering marshes north of the lake and dredging phosphorus-laden sediment from the bottom, work that could take decades and cost an estimated $2 billion." Yet he gives credibility to false accusations that water levels in the lake are being held high for the benefit of sugar farms south of the lake. I know it is fashionable to blame sugar farming for every environmental ill in South Florida, but these two simply are not related to sugar. Water levels are not being maintained this high for farmers. U.S. Sugar supports lowering them. The real problem, and the reason for current high water levels, is the amount of drainage, combined with this year's extremely heavy rains. Water flowing south also is the source of the troublesome sediment that Mr. Howard mentions. The northern watershed is the source of most of the phosphorus in Lake Okeechobee. Water flowing in from the north contains levels as high as 600 parts per billion. In contrast, water from the sugar farms is one of the cleanest sources of water to the lake. Read more

River Blindness - The Army Corps of Engineers' continuing campaign to pour concrete into the Mississippi
By Michael A. Grunwald
© MSN.com

© MSN.com

In February 2000, the Army Corps of Engineers got busted cooking its books to try to justify a $1 billion lock-expansion project on the Mississippi River. It became a juicy scandal—not because make-work disguised as public works was so shocking, but because corps officials had left an amusing paper trail of their efforts to "get creative" with their economic studies in order to "grow the program" with porky boondoggles. The corps was humiliated, and the Mississippi study, the largest in corps history, was sent back to the drawing board. Now it's back from the drawing board, and the corps is no longer pushing a $1 billion project to improve navigation on the upper Mississippi. Instead, it's pushing projects that could cost more than $10 billion to improve navigation and the environment on the upper Mississippi. It's as if Arthur Andersen had stayed in the auditing business—and decided that Enron was doing even better than it had thought. Read more

09-November-03

Too weak on Everglades
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
The state already has extended the Everglades cleanup deadline by 10 years and muddled standards for water quality. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a 110-page list of water-quantity rules released this week, has failed to spell out ways to assure that the Everglades will get enough water to recover. The corps guidelines for the $8.4 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan -- issued a year after they were due -- will govern the nitty-gritty details of more than 50 restoration projects to be built over more than 20 years. The projects include plugging ditches and canals, making more land able to hold and cleanse water, and building reservoirs and using deep injection wells to store water. But the new rules, like the draft versions, still are not specific enough. Read more

Everglades restoration hinges on public input
Editorial
© Keys News
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, approved by Congress in November 2000, has been widely hailed as an extraordinary attempt to restore one of the planet's most unique ecosystems -- perhaps the world's largest attempt, with a 30-year timeline and an $8 billion price tag. The plan drew support from an unprecedented alliance of farmers and environmentalists, developers and federal regulators. Restoring the South Florida ecosystem made sense -- especially the stated goal of recapturing the 1.7 billion gallons of stormwater a day sent out to sea that is causing significant damage to the ecology of estuaries and coastal habitats on both sides of the state This plan, if it could work, would be something of a miracle. The devil, everyone knew, would be in the details Read more

07-November-03

Judge picks lawyer as special master for Everglades cleanup
By Neil Santaniello and Mike Clary
© Sun-Sentinel
Miami lawyer John M. Barkett once described himself as a professional "peacemaker." But there's this side to him, too: In his off hours he has a penchant for juggling -- in clown face paint. Both skills ought to come in handy for the Miami attorney and highly seasoned mediator of environmental disputes nationwide as he steps into his new job: Everglades special master. In that role, handed to him Thursday by U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, Barkett will walk into a firestorm of disagreements -- and lots of warring legal actions in perpetual motion. The University of Miami adjunct law professor, former Dade County School Board hearing officer and lecturer will now help Moreno monitor progress under a 1992 state-federal settlement agreement guiding Florida's efforts to limit phosphorus pollution pouring into the 'Glades. Read more

•   Special Master John M. Barkett news section

•  Judge Moreno's Special Master appointment order [1mb pdf file]
 

Bush lauds water dialogue
By LESLEY CLARK
© Miami Herald
Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday praised an influential business group for proposing to reshape the way water is distributed in Florida while bashing the plan's critics as purveyors of a ''politically correct'' mentality. While he stopped short of endorsing the proposal, which would make it easier for booming South Florida to siphon water from the rural north, Bush made it clear that he favors a change -- a risky stance as his brother faces reelection next year. Bush called the current system the ''tired, old way'' and said it would ``cost a fortune to continue to be able to grow.'' Read more

New director appointed for water authority
By CHAD GILLIS
© Naples Daily News
The state water authority recently appointed a new director for the southwest coast in the latest switch in what has been a revolving door position over the past two years. Jacque Rippe, 43, is now the director of the South Florida Water Management District's Lower West Coast Service Center. The center is in Fort Myers and serves Lee County and parts of Collier and Charlotte counties. Although Rippe is the fourth center director in just longer than two years, outside groups and district governing board members say they're confident that this latest change won't be to the detriment of Southwest Florida. Read more

Incinerator crackdown drastically reduces mercury tainting Everglades
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
Anglers still face limits on devouring freshwater fish tainted with mercury, but dramatic evidence from a state study shows the toxin has declined sharply in the Everglades. And it is upending earlier beliefs about how mired the poison might be inside South Florida wetlands. With a decade of study in hand, Florida environmental regulators Thursday trumpeted a 60 percent to 70 percent decline in mercury measured in Everglades' largemouth bass and certain wading birds. They tied that rapid result to state and federal efforts to aggressive government regulation of emissions from medical waste and municipal garbage incinerators in South Florida, the two top sources of mercury getting into the Everglades. Read more

Administration pulls scientists off near-complete river project
By LIBBY QUAID
© Billings Gazette
WASHINGTON - The long-running dispute over management of the nation's longest river took another twist when the Bush administration yanked government scientists off a project to study the waterway's ecosystem. The team had been on the job for years and was within weeks of producing what could have been its final report. Conservation groups criticized last week's unreported decision to remove the scientists, which they said was to protect business interests at the expense of the Endangered Species Act. The move may block changes to the Missouri River's flow, because the scientists had ordered the switch. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has resisted changing river operations but is under a December deadline to come up with a new plan that meets requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Read more

Environmental lawyer appointed to supervise Everglades cleanup
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
A Miami environmental lawyer with experience in complex pollution cases will oversee the state's $1.1 billion Everglades cleanup, a judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno named John M. Barkett as the special master in the 15-year-old Everglades case, in which the state and federal governments are squaring off with the sugar industry, the Miccosukee Indian tribe and a throng of environmental groups. Barkett, a partner in the firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon, appears to be a stranger to Everglades litigation. But he has served as a mediator and represented corporate clients in pollution disputes around the country, including a Tampa-area Superfund case in which he negotiated settlements for more than 1,000 parties. He is also an adjunct professor of environmental law. Read more

•   John M. Barkett profile from Shook, Hardy & Bacon  [html page]   
•   John M. Barkett biography from Shook, Hardy & Bacon  [pdf file] 
•   John M. Barkett biography from Center for Dispute Resolution  [pdf file]     

Why Kill Florida Wildlife Magazine?
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
It is disappointing that officials in Tallahassee are eliminating Florida Wildlife magazine, which for 56 years has enriched its readers with articles about hunting, fishing and other outdoor pleasures. Its November-December issue, featuring stories on catfish, Fisheating Creek and hunting accidents, will be the last for the publication of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The governor-appointed commissioners blame the decision on a tight budget and low circulation. Edwin Roberts, the Pensacola chiropractor who chairs the commission, told the Jacksonville Times-Union: ``The budget has shrunk. We were looking at taking officers off the water, and we just can't do that. We're at the point now that we are endangering our mission.'' Read more

•   Florida Wildlife Magazine

06-November-03

Study discovers a big chill as farms replace wetlands
BY CURTIS MORGAN
© Miami Herald

FIELDS STUNG BY FROST: Jose Santiago picks pole beans from a field in Homestead in January 1997 after a weekend freeze killed off some of the plants. MARTA LAVANDIER/AP FILE

Over the last century in Florida, farmers have moved south to escape damaging freezes, but ironically, in the process of plowing under marshes, they may have brought some of the chill with them. Draining portions of the Everglades and Kissimmee River Basin removed a natural source of warmth and may have created larger, longer cold snaps around Lake Okeechobee, heart of the state's sugar and winter vegetable crop, according to an article published today in the journal Nature The intent was to study climate impacts on the agricultural industry and to show that humans can alter the climate in more ways than just producing pollution from smokestacks and car exhausts, said Roger Pielke Sr., a professor of atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University who co-authored the study. Read more

•  Study: Impact of Land-Use Management Practices in Florida on the Regional Climate of South Florida and the Everglades [PDF File]

Rule Drafted That Would Dilute the Clean Water Act
By Elizabeth Shogren
© Los Angles Times
WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams of federal pollution controls and making them available to being filled for commercial development. The rule, spelled out in an internal document provided to The Times by a senior government official, says that Clean Water Act protection would no longer be provided to "ephemeral washes or streams" that do not have groundwater as a source. Streams that flow for less than six months a year would also lose protection, as would many wetlands, according to the document. Read more

Mercury Rules Work, Study Finds
By Eric Pianin
© Washington Post
A decade-long study of southern Florida and the Everglades concludes that tough regulations of airborne mercury emissions have a profound and almost immediate effect in removing the toxic pollutant from the environment and the food chain. The findings, according to some environmentalists, offer compelling evidence that government regulators can effectively and relatively swiftly address public health problems associated with mercury, a byproduct of burning coal and waste. Mercury in water turns to methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that can cause severe neurological and developmental damage in humans -- especially small children -- and that comes primarily from eating contaminated fish and shellfish. Read more

•  Florida Atmospheric Mercury Study [study home page]        

Wetlands: Crop freezes and land-use change in Florida
By CURTIS H. MARSHALL, ROGER A. PIELKE SR & LOUIS T. STEYAERT
Nature 426, 29 - 30 (06 November 2003)
© Nature.com
South Florida experienced a significant change in land usage during the twentieth century, including the conversion of natural wetlands into agricultural land for the cultivation of winter vegetable, sugar cane and citrus crops. This movement of agriculture from more northerly areas was intended partly to escape the risk of damaging winter freezes. Here we present evidence from a case study using a coupled atmosphere and land-surface computer-modelling system that suggests that the draining of wetlands may have inadvertently increased the frequency and severity of agriculturally damaging freezes in the south of Florida. Read more

•  Study: Impact of Land-Use Management Practices in Florida on the Regional Climate of South Florida and the Everglades [PDF File]

05-November-03

Unearthing Truth In Pollution Debate
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
Critics say the state Department of Environmental Protection tends to go easy on large industrial polluters while bludgeoning the mom and pop operations. Jerry Phillips, the director of Florida Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told the Tribune's Mike Salinero, ``You have a lot things like trash dumping that they go whole hog on to pump their enforcement stats up. But when you look at the meat and potatoes - industrial waste, hazardous waste, air programs - those permits are all for large industries. Those numbers are going down.'' But DEP officials say that in the four years since Gov. Jeb Bush appointed David Struhs to head the agency, it has collected $10 million more in fines than was collected in the previous four years. They dispute Phillips' claim, pointing out that most domestic waste violations, which have increased in the past year, involve large offenders, primarily municipal governments. Read more

Wellington's water runoff proposal will cost less
By Larry Hobbs
© Palm Beach Post
WELLINGTON -- In a move that's not likely to be repeated in the private sector, the plumber presented the village council with a bill Tuesday that was as much as half the lowest originally quoted price. And the council readily lent its support to the $9.4 million plan to keep its dirty water from running directly into the Everglades. Previous proposals to reduce the degree of phosphorus flowing south from Wellington's horse pastures and manicured lawns came with price tags ranging from $16 million to $25 million, said Jim Harvey, an engineering consultant for the village. The council gave village staff unanimous approval to begin shaping the plan with the South Florida Water Management District. The new plan will merge Wellington into a state and federal project to cleanse water through filter pools as part of the massive Everglades restoration project. "It's an incredible benefit to the citizens of Wellington at an incredible savings," council member Lizbeth Benacquisto said.  Read more

Environmentalists blast restoration rules
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
The federal government's detailed rule book for the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration finally got a public unveiling Tuesday -- and a swift attack from dozens of environmental groups, who called it a surrender to farmers and developers. Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton praised the rules, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished nearly a year behind schedule after a contentious series of public comments and meetings, including one hosted by the White House. Among other things, the rules spell out how much power the corps must share with the state, which is in charge of water supply and flood control, and with Norton's department, which runs the region's federal parks and refuges. Meeting the needs of both humans and nature is the project's "overarching goal," the corps pledged.  Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]


Federal government issues rulebook for Everglades restoration
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
Federal officials Tuesday issued their final rulebook for restoring the Everglades, but environmentalists roundly panned the technical how-to, saying it does not ensure that the $8 billion project will rejuvenate South Florida's signature ecosystem. Under the regulations crafted by the Army Corps of Engineers, "restoration is possible but not required" as part of work to re-engineer the Everglades' flawed water-delivery system, said Richard Grosso, speaking for the Everglades Coalition, which represents almost 40 organizations. "They don't prioritize restoration. They instead leave it to chance," Grosso said. The rules, revamped twice so far, were developed by order of a federal water-resources law passed in 2000. They are supposed to translate the broad concepts and goals of an Everglades rescue into restoration nuts and bolts.  Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]

Final blueprint of Glades restoration plan released
BY CURTIS MORGAN, cmorgan@herald.com
© Miami Herald
The U.S. government's beefed up plan for restoring the Everglades fails to win over critics who say it has no teeth and lacks clear goals. Federal officials released the final technical blueprint on Tuesday for replumbing the Everglades, saying they had toughened earlier versions that had drawn fire from environmentalists and some members of Congress. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lead federal agency for the massive $8 billion project, called the long-awaited ''programmatic regulations'' a big step toward protecting the Everglades and resolving criticisms of the restoration plan. Read more

Federal agency outlines rules for Everglades restoration
© Keys News
Rules governing the planned restoration of the Everglades were finalized Tuesday, setting the stage for one of the largest environmental projects in history. Now the $8 billion, 30-year Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan has a road map for completion, including which public agencies will develop, carry out and monitor the project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers developed the rules over three years with input from hundreds of residents, officials and Native American tribal leaders. In a release Tuesday, the agency stressed the rules put a strong emphasis on use of sound science in making decisions and call for independent scientific review. Read more

Wetland Draining May Have Hurt Crops
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
© Newsday / Associated Press
Some crop-damaging freezes in south Florida might have been milder or avoided completely if wetlands in those areas hadn't been drained years ago for farming, a new study suggests. The work emphasizes that land use is one of "a multitude of ways humans are affecting the climate system," said Roger Pielke Sr. of Colorado State University, one of the study authors. He and colleague Curtis Marshall report the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, along with Louis Steyaert of the U.S. Geological Survey. Read more

04-November-03

Letter from the Everglades - On a Silent Landscape, an Environmental War Endures
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
© The New York Times

The glades are far more than just a park.   
Photo:  Barbara P. Hernandez for The New York Times

The airboat signs on Highway 41 start just west of Miami, where the stucco sprawl of Little Havana gives way to South Florida's vast, mucky wilderness of saw grass, mangroves and cypress trees. Beckoned by promises of swamps and alligators, you can pull over and pay $20 to glide for a while on an airboat, flat-bottomed and wide, propelled by a huge fan so noisy that guides hand out cotton for your ears. Wherever you stop, the view is essentially the same: marshland so flat and expansive you can almost tell the world is round, and sense its limits. You may see snapping turtles, egrets and herons that look almost prehistoric and, of course, alligators, lured into camera range by marshmallows, which the guides keep tossing until the film runs out. Read more

Secretary Norton Commends Programmatic Regulations Issued by Army Corps of Engineers for Everglades Restoration
News Release    
©  USNewswire.com
U.S. Department of the Interior
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commended the Army Corps of Engineers for issuing programmatic regulations to implement the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, laying a strong legal foundation to ensure the ecological restoration of the Everglades in South Florida. "Developed through a thorough and cooperative process involving all the stakeholders in South Florida, these final regulations are a significant and lasting step towards a restored Everglades," Norton said. "Along with the binding assurances agreement signed last year by President Bush and Governor Bush, the regulations provide certainty we will 'get the water right' for both the Everglades and the people of South Florida." "I appreciate the tremendous efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers to balance the necessary requirements and to include the department, the state, the tribes and the public in developing these regulations," she said. Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]


Programmatic Regulations Questions and Answers
News Release       
U.S. Department of the Interior
Q: What are Programmatic Regulations? A: As required by the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 (WRDA 2000), programmatic regulations are required to be promulgated by the Secretary of the Army to ensure that the goals and purposes of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) are achieved. The programmatic regulations set the procedural framework to guide implementation of CERP. Q: Why are the Programmatic Regulations important? A: The Programmatic Regulations are required as part of the Assurances section of WRDA 2000. The regulations will establish the process for developing various project design documents and operating manuals to ensure the goals of the plan are achieved; to ensure that new information is incorporated into the implementation of the plan; and to ensure the protection of the natural system. Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]


Interior Department Accomplishments in Everglades Restoration Since 2000
News Release  
U.S. Department of the Interior
Ensuring Restoration of Natural Flows. President Bush and Governor Jeb Bush signed a landmark agreement in January 2002, to restore the Everglades, as required to implement the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The agreement is enforceable and binding. It will ensure the restoration of natural flows to the Everglades. Under the agreement, the state commits to managing its water resources so that water produced by the plan’s implementation will be available to restore the natural system. Meanwhile, the federal government commits to be an active partner in obtaining funding and working with the state to implement the plan. Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]


Everglades Restoration Rules Finalized; An Imperiled Ecosystem Will Thrive Once More
News Release     
US Army Corps of Engineers
Washington, DC. Nov. 4 - The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today its completion of the formal rules that will govern implementation of the plan for restoring America's Everglades. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan--- known as CERP--- is a joint venture between the State of Florida and the federal government. The final "programmatic regulations" released today establish the multi-agency program that will develop, integrate, implement and monitor the fifty-five projects that the plan envisions for south Florida and for the Everglades. Declaring the Everglades a unique national treasure, Assistant Secretary of the Army John Paul Woodley, Jr. said, "The Bush Administration is thoroughly committed to ensuring that the CERP fulfills all the goals intended by Congress. Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]


Agencies Will Discuss Programmatic Regulations For Governing Restoration of America's Everglades
Media Advisory   
US Army Corps of Engineers
Federal officials will be available at 1:00 p.m. EST today (November 4) to answer media queries about the publication of the formal rules that will govern the 30-year program for restoring America's Everglades. Publishing the final "programmatic regulations" establishes the framework for the coordination and completion of the individual projects that comprise the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The purpose of the regulations is to guide the development, integration, implementation and monitoring of the many activities and projects that will restore the Everglades and provide for the other water-related needs of south Florida Read more

•  Programmatic Regulations - Final Rule [412 kb pdf file]
 

03-November-03

WWF Statement on the Retirement of U.S. Senator Bob Graham, Everglades Champion
By Debra Harrison and Lee Poston, World Wildlife Fund
© US Newswire
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Responding to the today's news that Bob Graham, Florida's senior United States Senator, will not be running for a fourth term, Kathryn S. Fuller, President of World Wildlife Fund said: "In his lifetime of leadership, Bob Graham has proven himself a true champion of the restoration of America's Everglades. Were it not for Senator Graham, we would not be anywhere near the point we've reached in the campaign to save the Everglades for current and future generations. "The fate of the Everglades has reached a critical point this year. The loss of Senator Graham's leadership will deal a blow to the restoration effort, but we call on new Congressional leaders to step forward and fill his shoes to ensure that the irreplaceable habitats and wildlife of the Everglades are restored to health." Read more

Restoration: Lawsuit misreads law, hurts the Everglades
Opinion By NICOLAS J. GUTIERREZ JR., Chairman of the South Florida Water Management District's Governing Board.
© Miami Herald
Floridians are united in supporting the cause of Everglades restoration, as we work to preserve the crown jewel of our state's precious natural heritage. If there is one cause that unites people from every region and walk of life in our diverse state, it is the priority of returning the Everglades -- the unique ''river of grass'' that so richly defines what Florida is and who Floridians are -- to full environmental health. That's why it is regrettable that this unprecedented public mandate is in danger of being hijacked by an ill-considered lawsuit. The issue in question is this: Should state and local water managers who move water for flood control or water-supply purposes be required to obtain the same permits as industrial polluters of our nation's waters? Read more

02-November-03

Few in Keys getting information about Everglades restoration
BY JULIEN GORBACH
© Keys News
ISLAMORADA -- Acknowledging that Keys residents know little about the massive Everglades restoration plan that is expected to have dramatic effects on the region's waters and economy, government officials and representatives from non-profit groups gathered recently to discuss how best to educate the public and invite their participation in the process. One indication of the challenges that lie ahead was the low turnout of residents at the meeting, which was on a Friday from 9 a.m. until noon. Of the 16 people in attendance,, only three were members of the public. "It doesn't seem like all the information is trickling down to the Florida Keys," said Alex Score of Florida Sea Grant. "We're trying to address that with meetings like this one. Read more

Orlando firm sues Collier property appraiser
By LARRY HANNAN, ljhannan@naplesnews.com
© Naples Daily News
A lawsuit filed against Collier County Property Appraiser Abe Skinner has very different meanings to the two sides in the case. MicroDecisions Inc., an Orlando-based real-estate information provider, is suing Skinner because it alleges he isn't following the public records laws of the state of Florida. Lawyers for MicroDecisions claim it would be devastating to public records laws if Skinner wins. The public records law gives the public access to public records produced by municipal, county or state government. This includes e-mails between public officials, memos written by county employees and proposed legislation that is being drafted. Read more

Sugar, friend or foe?
Editorial
© Stuart News
U.S. Sugar's Coker insists his industry is 100 percent behind IRL Plan. Robert Coker, U.S. Sugar vice president, came to Stuart Thursday to voice support for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program, restoration of the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River, and to pledge to work to improve the quality of water and life in Florida. He also denied that "Big Sugar" tried to kill the Everglades restoration program behind the scenes, and blamed his industry's negative image on opponents who, he said, want to buy up the Everglades Agriculture Area and let it revert to wetlands. Coker was upbeat and cheerful, as well he might be considering his industry's success at delaying the strict regulation of phosphate and other chemical discharges into the 'glades for at least 15 years. Read more

01-November-03

Placing Polluters Before Progress In Everglades
Plan Threatens Cleanup
© National Wildlife Federation
The U.S. solicitor general in September filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the South Florida Water Management District's position that it can freely dump contaminated water across a levee and into the Everglades. The Miccosukee Indian tribe is resisting the plan, arguing that the Clean Water Act requires a permit for dumping the water, which contains pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in addition to oil, grease and heavy metals. The case will affect water pollution policy nationwide. "The Bush administration is pushing to give polluters carte blanche to ignore bedrock environmental laws designed to protect the citizens and wildlife of this nation," says Jim Murphy, NWF counsel. The administration is fighting two lower court rulings which agreed with the Miccosukee that such transfers of dirty water require federal Clean Water Act permits. Read more

•  EnviroAction Newsletter

Hope for the Everglades?
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
Potential good news came this week when U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said he will appoint a special master to oversee the Everglades cleanup. His decision will be good news if Judge Moreno appoints the right person. Judge Moreno got the Everglades case when the sugar industry forced the removal of Judge William Hoeveler, who had supervised it since the federal government sued the state 15 years ago. Judge Hoeveler had told reporters that he no longer trusted Gov. Bush and his advisers to keep the cleanup on track. The governor and Legislature, at the urging of the sugar industry, this year postponed the cleanup deadline for a decade, until 2016, and lowered the acceptable standard for pollution. Read more

Water watchers worried about new black bloom
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
© Keys News
Mysterious discolored water and weird currents off the Marquesas keys have commercial fishermen and scientists fearing a resurgence of "black water," a 2002 phenomenon some have linked to coral die-off and the elimination of fish populations between Naples and the Keys. Several patches of water -- described in various places as green, milky, mustard and black colored -- have been spotted by a lobster fisherman and a yellow-tail snapper fisherman, both based in the Keys. The water was first spotted by Marathon fisherman Phil Whitezell on Oct. 12. The unusual colored water is still in an area between the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas, according to satellite images. Read more

Advocates for lake, river bracing for new gush of water
By Libby Wells, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River are about to take another hit. The lowering of Lake Tohopekaliga, a popular fishing destination in Osceola County near Orlando, will begin in two weeks, sending more water downstream to a lake that has lost more than a third of its submerged vegetation because it's been too deep for so long the plants are starved for sunlight. Henry Dean, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, delivered the news Friday at the St. Lucie locks and dam to an unhappy crowd of Martin County environmentalists and politicians and Lake Okeechobee advocates. Read more

Eco-Tourism: Tipping The Scales
Bass fishing is a multimillion-dollar business in Florida, the nation’s bass capital. So why will the next world record fish likely come from Texas or California?
By Mike Vogel
© Florida Trend
On June 2, 1932 — a date generations of anglers know by heart — a 19-year-old farm boy named George W. Perry tossed his only lure, a Creek Chub 2401 Wiggle Fish, between two trees on Montgomery Lake near Helena in south Georgia. It was the Depression, and he hoped to catch dinner for his family. As he reeled in, something sent the water flying, then the line stuck, and Perry thought a fish had dived and snagged the line on a submerged limb. He was going to be out his lure. There was no limb. Perry had hooked a giant bass, 32 inches long. On the way home, Perry had it weighed at the general store with a notary public as a witness. The fish was 22 pounds, 4 ounces, a world record. Perry won $75 in merchandise from a Field and Stream contest. His mother fried the fish for dinner. Read more

 

Revised:  01/21/04