29
April 04
Wellington annexation plan dealt fatal
blow
By J. Christopher Hain
© Palm
Beach Post
WELLINGTON -- The grand
vision of Wellington expanding deep into sugar cane country has died
quickly. Mining company Palm Beach Aggregates
has decided to withdraw its annexation application for 1,200 acres of
farmland the company owns east of its rock pits. Instead, Palm Beach
Aggregates will accept a county offer to remain unincorporated and develop
2,000 homes and 30 acres of commercial space. For
county officials, the development halts Wellington's dream of annexing as
much as 18,000 acres farther west, including vast sugar cane fields west
of 20-mile bend. "I don't think we
anticipate any development out there," County Commissioner Karen
Marcus said. The county deal allows Palm Beach
Aggregates to develop land previously farmed for sod, peppers and tomatoes
into housing without annexing additional property. Company President
Enrique Tomeu said he was pressured to annex not only the farmland but an
additional 1,500 acres the company
still mines so the village could eventually move farther west into the
sugar cane land.
Statement By Governor Jeb Bush Regarding
Everglades Restoration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 29, 2004
CONTACT: Alia Faraj, (850) 488-5394
"Florida is continuing to
meet its commitment to restore America's Everglades. The state's share of
the 30-year project is on schedule and budget, allowing us to move forward
faster than originally planned. Florida can now
use the Talisman land to construct a reservoir and
expand treatment marshes to naturally cleanse water flowing into the River
of Grass. When complete, the project will reduce pollution and provide
water storage that will benefit both the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.
I thank the U.S. Sugar Corporation for its cooperation.
By vacating state land needed for these projects, the company is
guaranteeing our continued
progress. As we move forward with this critical project, I am hopeful
other sugar companies will follow suit and provide the same collaborative
support required to complete Everglades restoration." Read
more
County gives OK for review of western
development boundary
By Samantha Joseph
© Miami Today
Miami-Dade County commissioners Tuesday gave the go-ahead for a review of
the county's western development boundary, which protects agricultural and
environmentally sensitive areas from construction. Since the boundary was
created in the early 1980s, commissioners have been reluctant to alter it,
assistant county attorney John McInnis said. But rapid population growth
is leading officials to consider permitting development outside the
boundary in the southern and southwestern parts of the county.
"There's been a longstanding commitment by the county not to move the
urban development boundary west," Mr. McInnis said. "The farther
west you go in Miami-Dade County, the more environmentally sensitive areas
you're going to affect. Extending services west becomes increasingly
expensive." Despite anticipated high costs, population increases may
leave few options. The planning and zoning department will study the
existing boundary and present its findings and recommendations to the
commission within a year. The cost and scope of the research have not been
determined
28
April 04
Lake Okeechobee releases stopped
By Suzanne Wentley
© Stuart
News
STUART — For the first time
since December, water managers on Wednesday stopped freshwater discharges
from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary. Susan
Sylvester, a civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers in
Jacksonville, said the lake level was going down on its own and will
likely be low enough to store rain water from the wet season, which
begins in about a month. On Wednesday, Lake
Okeechobee stood at 13.98 feet above sea level — about a half-foot
higher than the yearly low river activists have been lobbying for. But
with high irrigation demands and even higher evaporation losses, water
managers think the lake will drop further in the next few weeks, even
without discharges.
Sugar mobilizes against CAFTA
By Tracy Whirls
© Okeechobee
News
Leadership for the 2500 Lake
Okeechobee and South Florida members of the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union summoned to a meeting last Thursday
at the John Boy Auditorium in Clewiston, spent the morning learning how
devastating the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, if passed,
could be to the sugar industry in Florida, then brainstormed before lunch
about what they and their families, friends and business associates can do
to defeat it. "It's not just us in
this room," U.S. Sugar Corporation Vice President for Community and
Governmental Affairs Robert Coker told the union stewards. "A lot of
smaller companies work with us, and if sugar goes down, they lose their
jobs. Our suppliers, the people we buy chemicals and tractors from. When
you go somewhere and spend money, tell them, 'This is sugar money, and we
need your help,' Mr. Coker said. 'I go over to Stuart and go fishing, and
every time I go, Captain Henry busts my chops on Everglades restoration,
but I'm wearing my USSC hat and my USSC t-shirt, to remind him that the
money I'm giving him is sugar money. Read
more
19
April 04
Governor
not guiding growth, critics say
After two years of planning, Bush has only two weeks to get a Wekiva River
proposal passed.
By Joe Newman
© Orlando
Sentinel
TALLAHASSEE -- After pledging
during his 2002 re-election campaign to make growth management a priority,
Gov. Jeb Bush so far has little to show for those promises. An
ambitious plan to make Secretary of State Glenda Hood his growth czar
stalled. The Department of Community Affairs, which oversees how land is
developed and would have been merged with Hood's office, instead is
grappling with its uncertain fate and revolving-door leadership. Critics
say no meaningful growth-management legislation has passed during
Bush's second term -- and the few statewide measures in front of the
Legislature this year have been criticized for actually loosening growth
controls. And now, a bill that would protect the
fragile Wekiva River ecosystem from rampant development is in doubt for
the second year in a row. Read
more
18
April 04
Water allocation concerns may delay
conservation bill
By CATHY ZOLLO
© Naples Daily News
The Florida Department of
Agriculture stalled and possibly killed an agreement late last week among
developers, conservationists and state environmental regulators that would
prevent Everglades restoration from being derailed. By
Saturday afterrnoon, the parties involved were trying to reach another
agreement, said state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, on whose water
conservation bill the original deal was struck. Language
to be added to that bill would have answered concerns by developers and
had the OK of environmentalists about how the state would allot water from
the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration effort. The agriculture department
objected to the legislative language addressing water reservations.
Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson wasn't
available to comment, but other officials in his department said the
agreement caught them off guard. They want more time to see how it affects
farmers and their future water supply. "We
believe there are many positive features in this bill that would involve
reserving water for environmental needs which we very much support and are
committed to," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the department.
"But it's important that the bill is a bit more broad-based."
Read
more
Ocala's
race
Will legislation open the field for a track...
BY RYAN CONLEY
Thoroughbreds and
their jockeys race to the first quarter pole during the OBS Sprint Stakes.
Senate legislation could clear the way for the creation of a race track in
Ocala.
© Ocala
Star-Banner
OCALA - For those following
the saga surrounding a proposed Marion County racetrack, recently
introduced Senate legislation is clearly viewed as a momentous step toward
the creation of a horse race track in Ocala. It
was so momentous and so swift that many inside the industry and outside
have scarcely had time to get adjusted to the idea, let alone understand
the complex proposal. But even if the amended
bill should somehow pass before the current legislative session ends in
two weeks -- and the early odds say it is a longshot -- a daunting myriad
of challenges must be overcome to make way for the Ocala jewel envisioned
by racing giant Magna Entertainment Corp. Read
more
Babcock Ranch could be major part of
state's preservation puzzle
By CHAD GILLIS
© Naples
Daily News
Click Picture for a
Larger View
Matt Bixler takes stock of a
chilly April morning while bouncing along dirt trails in rural Charlotte
County. "This is probably the single most
important acquisition in Southwest
Florida right now," Bixler says while riding on a swamp buggy tour of
the Babcock Ranch. "I've been working on this for almost three
years." Bixler, an environmental policy
specialist with The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, has not been working
alone. Not on a project of this size. In size, cost and importance, the
acquisition of the ranch would be one of the largest examples of private
land being turned to public use in the state's history. The
size of the land alone is daunting. At more than 91,000 acres, the Babcock
Ranch stretches more than a dozen miles along Highway 31. If the ranch
were a municipality, it would be the second biggest city in Florida,
behind only Jacksonville. Read
more
Michel Fortier/Staff
A lone Great Blue heron wades cautiously in front of a horde of male
American alligators grunting to attract a mate.
The Babcock Ranch
contains several distinct ecosystems, most of which can be seen
by visitors on the guided tours.
Michel Fortier/Staff
Covering approximately 90,000 acres, the historic and ecologically
sensitive
Babcock Ranch may be sold and several state agencies are interested.
There's more to Glades activist
A Marjory Stoneman Douglas exhibit in Jupiter emphasizes many things the
famed conservationist did to improve her community.
BY PHIL LONG
© Miami
Herald
JUPITER - Marjory Stoneman
Douglas is best remembered as the protector and defender of the
Everglades. But she was also an activist for
other causes, some of which are highlighted in a Douglas exhibit of
pictures, artifacts and memorabilia at the Loxahatchee River Historical
Museum. ''Why was she known as such a great
woman?'' asked museum curator Michael
Zaidman. ``Because she got involved in so many activities. You don't have
to save the Everglades to be remembered. You just volunteer in your local
hospital or someplace to make your own mark.'' When
docents walk students up to the reconstructed living room office where
Douglas worked, or past the glass case housing the Presidential Medal of
Freedom she received in 1993, they ask the youngsters: ``What are you
doing to make your community better?'' Read
more
17
April 04
The guardhouse really needs to go
Positive impact on systems necessary
Editorial
© Ft.
Myers News-Press
The South Florida Water
Management District has taken an important and long overdue step in the
direction of giving nature its due. The positive
impact on systems like the Caloosahatchee River in Lee County and the
Everglades could be monumental as competition for water increases in
booming Florida. So-called “water
reservations” that set aside a minimum water supply for the healthy
functioning of natural systems, then protect that supply from being
diverted to farms or cities, have been virtually unused in this state.
But the needs of the massive $8 billion federal-state
Everglades restoration project are forcing action. The
historic depletion of water available to the Everglades is what made its
restoration necessary. Other natural systems such as the Caloosahatchee
River have also lost out in the scramble when water supplies were tight,
and government agencies and environmentalists are lobbying for a water
reservation for the river.
Restoring Kissimmee River helps
Okeechobee, Everglades
By Lloyd Jones
© News-Sun
It is amazing how man has
gone about destroying nature's handiwork in nearly every corner of the
earth, including right here in central Florida Thank
goodness there are some who do care what happens to our habitat and who
take the time to try to repair the damage done by the thoughtless and
irresponsible. They deserve our applause and support. For instance,
environmental groups from all over our country are fighting to save and
restore Florida's Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.
We who live here in Florida need to recognize that the
river, the lake and the Everglades belong to all of us, not just those who
would defile them. Those who lay waste to our environment, such as the big
sugar companies who have severely damaged the Everglades and Lake
Okeechobee, should be made to pay for the cleanup and repair of the damage
they have caused. Hopefully,
it is not too late to bring the big lake and the Everglades back to their
original pristine beauty.
16
April 04
Purge polluted science
Editorial
© Palm
Beach Post
The Bush administration won't
let science stand in the way of lobbyists when it comes to environmental
policy. New White House proposals to "control" mercury pollution
are so skewed, it's as if the power industry had written them itself.
Turns out that's exactly what happened. Leaked
memorandums showed the proposed rules used verbatim whole paragraphs
written by lobbyists for coal-fired plants and industry lawyers.
Environmental Protection Agency officials also noticed that White House
staff members took out language
from a report by the National Academy of Sciences that detailed the
dangers of mercury pollution. New EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt, who
inherited the creative editing and ordered further review, finds himself
at the edge of an ethical precipice in his sixth month on the job. Will he
bow to the White House or stand on the side of science? If
he chooses the latter, he will have the company of 45 senators and
attorneys general from 10 states who have asked the EPA to scrap the
proposed rules., The nation's largest source of unregulated pollution
still is the old cold-fired power plants that spew 48 tons of mercury into
the air each year. Rain carries it into waterways, fish absorb it, and
people eat the fish. The EPA has estimated that each year, 630,000
newborns in the United States, about one in six, come into the world with
dangerous levels of mercury in their blood.
Park Service seeks new 'Glades overseer
© Sun-Sentinel
The National Park Service on
Thursday began searching for a new superintendent for Everglades National
Park, after the previous superintendent was charged with drunken driving.
The Park Service posted an announcement on the main
federal jobs Web site, USAJOBS, that it was seeking applicants to run
Florida's best-known national park. [http://www.usajobs.com
; I did not see it posted.] Maureen Finnerty,
the previous superintendent, was removed after being charged with drunken
driving last August in Homestead.
Citrus growers see hope in sugar win
By Susan Salisbury
© Palm
Beach Post
FORT PIERCE -- Citrus growers
are taking heart in their fight against Brazilian citrus from a recent
victory by the sugar industry. Andy LaVigne,
vice president and chief executive officer of Florida Citrus Mutual, said
Thursday that sugar's exclusion from the recent U.S.-Australian free trade
agreement bodes well for citrus. "It opened
the door for citrus to be taken off the table, too," LaVigne said.
LaVigne spoke at Florida Citrus Mutual's area meeting
for growers, held at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Horticultural
Research Center in Fort Pierce. LaVigne and
others lobbying for the 29-cents-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian orange juice
have stressed that without the fee, Brazil, the world's largest orange
juice producer, would become a monopoly. LaVigne
said the fight to keep the tariff could take up to five years. One
difficulty is that Florida is the only state that is a major orange juice
producer, leaving it to stand alone politically.
Collier public services administrator
resigns to take West Palm Beach job
By LARRY HANNAN
© Naples Daily News
John Dunnuck, Collier
County's public services administrator, has resigned to take a position at
the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach. Dunnuck,
32, resigned earlier this week. His last day on the job will be June 2.
"This was just a tremendous opportunity that I
felt couldn't be turned down," Dunnuck said. As
public services administrator Dunnuck supervised emergency medical
services, parks and recreation, university extension services and domestic
animal services. He will be joining former
Collier County Commissioner Pam Mac'Kie and former County Manager Tom
Olliff. Both left Collier County government to work for the Water
Management District. Dunnuck said Mac'Kie and
Olliff played a role in recruiting him. He will work in West Palm Beach
for the department's land management resources department.
Smith ends bid for U.S. Senate
Former New Hampshire legislator blames exit on fund-raising woes
By Brendan Farrington
© Tallahassee
Democrat
MIAMI - Former New Hampshire
Sen. Bob Smith on Thursday ended his campaign to seek the Republican
nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in his new home of Florida, citing a
poor start to fund-raising. Smith raised only
$66,000 for the campaign in a crowded race that
features five Republican candidates who have topped the $1 million mark.
"In spite of our best effort, we just didn't raise
enough money to make the campaign viable," Smith said in a release.
Instead, Smith said he has accepted an appointment to
be president of the Everglades Foundation, a nonprofit group which
represents the public's interest in the massive Everglades restoration.
Smith backed the restoration plan as chairman of the Senate's Environment
and Public Works Committee in 2001. Read
more
15
April 04
Mercury Wars
Editorial
© New
York Times
Michael Leavitt, the head of
the Environmental Protection Agency, will announce today new standards
aimed at reducing smog in the country's most polluted urban areas as well
as its national parks. These are important steps in the battle for cleaner
air and impose heavy obligations on an administrator who is relatively new
to the job. But they cannot distract
him from the equally important obligation to strengthen the
administration's timid and legally suspect proposals for regulating
mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. The
mercury issue will not go away. In recent days, 45 senators and 10
attorneys general have urged Mr. Leavitt to write new and stronger rules.
Senators James Jeffords of Vermont and Hillary Clinton of New York have
demanded an investigation into the role industry played in drafting the
existing proposals, as well as into allegations that the White House
manipulated a National Academy of Sciences study in order to minimize
mercury's health risks. Read
more
Next Stop, Nowhere: Just wait till you
see
The little train that almost sorta kinda
could, maybe.
BY JEFF STRATTON
© New
Times Broward Palm Beach
And we were doing so well.
Just a few minutes after the northbound Tri-Rail train begins its jaunt
from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, we slow to a crawl and stop for
no apparent reason. Engineer and conductor converse. Radio static cuts
through the quiet. An employee leaves the train to manually flip the
switch that ensures we're traveling where we're supposed
to. The signal problem has cost us commuters almost 20 minutes. Since
beggars can't be choosers, though, no one complains. As
Nick, the only other passenger on this car, points out: "It beats
walking." A week's worth of trips on the
Tri-Rail, South Florida's poky, 15-year-old commuter railway, recently
confirmed the conventional rat-racing wisdom: The train serves not the
region's most populated areas but the fringes. It doesn't offer riders
destinations they truly need or desire, nor convenient times to get there.
It's underutilized, even during rush hour. It's not located where people
like Nick -- an unemployed construction worker who says he's "between
cars" -- are most likely to use it. Read
more
Everglades: Land of rivers and bays
Decisions, decisions. Equipped with
experience or not, a journey through the Everglades, complete with twists
and turns, is simply no picnic
By TERRY TOMALIN
© St.
Petersburg Times
EVERGLADES CITY - The channel
markers that led from the Barron River to the start of the Wilderness
Waterway stopped abruptly in the middle of Chokoloskee Bay. "What
do we do now?" I asked my companions as we sat idle in 18 inches of
water. "Where did all the water go?" The
volunteer at the Everglades National Park ranger station said we should
have no problem finding our way to the mouth of the Lopez River, which
marks the beginning of the 99-mile inland route from Everglades City to
Flamingo. Read
more
DEP Launches Updated, User-Friendly Web
Site
Press Release
CONTACT: Dee Ann Miller (850) 245-2112
TALLAHASSEE – As part of an
ongoing commitment to improve services, the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) today re-launched its Web site to increase public access
to on-line environmental news, science and regulations. Through enhanced
navigation, the customer-friendly design emphasizes quick and easy
information access for educators, citizens, businesses and governments.
“The Department is using state-of-the-art e-tools to
manage information, deliver services and increase government
efficiency,” said DEP Secretary Colleen M. Castille. “Whether
conducting research, locating regulations or planning a getaway to an
award-winning Florida State Park, the Web is a tool for all visitors.”
While highlighting Florida’s progress to restore
America’s Everglades, the latest Internet site provides a one-stop shop
for details on Florida’s award-winning state parks, public lands and the
state’s more than 4,000 miles of greenways and trails. Read
more
Related Link:
Department of Environmental
Protection
www.floridadep.org
Winds make Okeechobee water level
fluctuate wildly
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
An unusually strong and stiff
wind caused the surface of Lake Okeechobee to seesaw dramatically before
dawn Tuesday, an effect the National Weather Service called
"wild." Sustained 30- to 50-mph winds,
coupled with gusts up to 70 mph, pushed the north end of the shallow,
730-square-mile lake up to 18.5 feet above sea level. Those
middle-of-the-night winds also appear to have depressed the south end to
12.2 feet, according to South Florida Water Management District operations
chief Bob Howard. Before the phenomenon, the interior of the lake was at
just less than 14.4 feet. The 6-foot
differential in the height of Lake Okeechobee from end to end occurred
during a three- to four-hour period and is being investigated by the
Weather Service science officer, the agency's Miami meteorologist in
charge, Rusty Pfost, said on Wednesday.
Development raises evacuation questions
BY STEVE GIBBS
© Key West Citizen
KEY LARGO — Mayor Murray
Nelson wants the Monroe County Commission to ask Gov. Jeb Bush to block
the planned 6,000-home development at the top of Card Sound Road. The
matter will be discussed during the April 21 county commission meeting in
Key West. "As Monroe County is an area of
critical concern, the governor of Florida and the Department of Community
Affairs must not allow development in Dade County that impacts Monroe in a
way that will create a dangerous choke point at the intersection of S.W.
352nd St. and U.S. 1," Nelson wrote in a letter to fellow
commissioners for discussion at next week's meeting. For
years Monroe County has been under a state requirement to devise a
hurricane evacuation plan that would empty the Florida Keys within 24
hours. That mandate encouraged the county
commission to ask the Florida Department of Transportation for a 30-mph
radius curve at the intersection of C.R. 905 and Card Sound Road, and also
has been the impetus behind a reconfiguration of the 18-Mile Stretch, the
portion of U.S. 1 that connects Key Largo with Florida City. Read
more
Ocean scientist: Potential red tide cure
may be worse than problem
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
Donald Anderson has been on
the trail of red tides all over the world for some 30 years. He is
determined to find a way to tame them. Anderson,
a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in
Massachusetts, reported progress Wednesday with experiments using clay to
control red tide but warned that science has yet to overcome
fears that the promising cure could be worse than the disease. "We
may be able to clear the way, but will society ever allow us to do
this?" Anderson told almost 100 people at a breakfast lecture at the
Port Royal Club in Naples. Many people agree
that red tide is a big problem. The blooms of microscopic toxic algae can
poison shellfish and harm tourism. They
trigger coughing fits in humans and litter beaches with dead fish. Red
tide has been blamed for deaths of manatees, sea turtles and dolphins.
A red tide's worst enemy is proving to be phosphatic
clay, a byproduct of the region's phosphate mining industry, laboratory
studies show.
14
April 04
Florida economy and environment in
balance?
By Alan Farago
© Orlando
Sentinel
What has come of the wrecked
balance of the economy and environment in the state of Florida -- whether
it ever existed or not is an entirely separate question -- might be
commemorated in a gold coin inscribed with the words, "socializing
risks and privatizing profits." The images
of three men would be embossed on the front: President George W.
Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush, flanking a man in slightly higher relief: finance
chair for the Republican National Committee, past chair of the governor's
re-election campaign, and Florida developer, Al Hoffman. Hoffman,
who recently led a blue-ribbon commission proposing to capture and
redistribute Florida's water supply, is now promoting the effort of the
Association of Florida Community Developers to insert a spigot into water
reserved for the Everglades. Its lobbyists worked for the Enron subsidiary
-- Azurix -- that tried in 1999 to shoplift Florida's water under the
premise that, if your target is big enough, there is no video recorder
with a lens large enough to capture the crime. The public wasn't invited
to their opening party. They called it "Liquid Gold." Read
more
Billy Cypress, tribal historian, dead at
61
By John Holland
© Sun-Sentinel
HOLLYWOOD · Billy Larry
Cypress, a Seminole tribal historian who directed the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum
and spent a lifetime educating children and adults in the ways of
Florida's largest Indian tribe, died Monday. He was 61. Born
at a Seminole camp at Royal Palm Hammock along the Tamiami Trail, Mr.
Cypress became the first tribe member to graduate from college, receiving
a bachelor's degree in English from Stetson University. He received a
master's degree from Arizona State University. He
also served in the U.S. Army as a combat platoon leader, rising to the
rank of major. His love of the tribe, its
culture and its members was evident in everything he did. He spent several
years teaching the tribe's Head Start program and worked 18 years in the
education department at the Bureau of
Indian Affairs.
Land owner survives latest challenge to
take property
By MICHAEL PELTIER
© Naples Daily News
TALLAHASSEE — The David and
Goliath battle between a Collier County property owner and the state's
lead environmental agency continues after Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet
told regulators Tuesday to go back to the table again. Fighting
to keep his 160 acres in Southern Golden Gate Estates above later, Jesse
Hardy survived another round Tuesday as the governor and Cabinet deferred
action on a proposal to begin condemnation proceedings on his homestead
that lies directly in the path of Everglades restoration. Days
after Hardy refused the state's latest offer of $4.4 million, Bush urged
agency officials to change course. Instead of offering Hardy more money,
Bush called on negotiators to see if the massive
project could be modified so the 68-year-old Navy veteran could remain on
the land he has repeatedly refused to sell. If not, the state would
proceed with efforts to take the land. Following
sometimes emotional testimony from Hardy supporters, Cabinet members
postponed action for at least two weeks to give negotiators time to talk.
Holdout gets new chance
Gov. Bush wants to protect landowner, environment
By Paul Flemming, The News-Press
Tallahassee Bureau
© Ft.Myer News-Press
TALLAHASSEE — Back to the
negotiating table. Jesse Hardy, 68, the final
holdout in Southern Golden Gate Estates, will get another chance to strike
a deal with the state to allow him to stay on his land. The
Department of Environmental Protection has offered $4.5 million for
Hardy’s 160 acres — needed for Everglades restoration — but he has
said no to that and every previous offer. Gov.
Jeb Bush and his Cabinet on Tuesday delayed a final decision on DEP’s
request that it be allowed to start court proceedings to take Hardy’s
land. Instead, Bush and other Cabinet members
directed DEP to search for a way to accommodate both Hardy and the
environmental restoration project. “If you
don’t want to sell, we’ll put a dike around it and if it floods it
floods: Not our problem,” Treasurer Tom Gallagher said. It’s
not as simple as that, DEP’s Ernie Barnett said. For one thing, it would
cost $5.8 million to construct a dike and $100,000 every year to maintain
it.
13
April 04
Florida cane growers breaking records
By Susan Salisbury
© Palm
Beach Post
Florida's sugar cane harvest,
three-fourths of it grown in Palm Beach County, wrapped up Monday with
what could be the biggest haul ever. Near-perfect
weather conditions helped Florida produce more than 2 million tons of
sugar during the 2003-04 season, with record crops noted by the two sugar
companies that have completed grinding their cane. Florida
Crystals Corp., headquartered in West Palm Beach, produced an all-time
high of about 900,000 tons of sugar, and the Sugar Cane Growers
Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade had a record-breaker with 407,947
tons, the companies said. The yields were at
unprecedented levels, too.
Green camouflage aids ambush
By Joel Engelhardt
© Palm
Beach Post
Home builder WCI Communities
markets itself as a "green" developer. It
markets "green" homes that win awards for "green"
development by conserving water and energy, preserving native plants and
wildlife habitat and building with recycled materials. The company has an
all-"green" model home, the Geni G at Evergrene in Palm Beach
Gardens, a first step toward
achieving "green" standards for all its new east coast Florida
homes. Home buyers can't help but be impressed
by statements such as this one, on the Bonita Springs company's Web site:
"Our environmental commitment is based on our belief that a healthy
and stable environment surely fosters a happy and wondrous home." WCI
is proud to certify its many golf courses through Audubon International, a
group that may sound like one of the most trusted names in environmental
protection but actually is a U.S. Golf Association offshoot that sells its
services like any other consultant. Last week,
WCI underwrote "Can We Build an Emerald City? Green Thinking in
Business," a forum that drew about 100 people to Palm Beach Gardens
to talk about how to build, you guessed it, "green." No matter
how clever the
marketing, however, it can't keep up with WCI's image in Tallahassee,
where its lobbyists have spent two years fighting a rule intended to make
sure that the plan to save the Everglades actually saves the Everglades.
12
April 04
DEP Appoints Kevin Neal as Southeast
Environmental Chief
Press Release
CONTACT: Jill Johnson, (561) 681-6714 Deena Wells, (850) 245-2112
PALM BEACH – Florida Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Colleen M. Castille and Deputy
Secretary Allan F. Bedwell today announced the appointment of Kevin Neal
as DEP's new Director of District Management for Southeast Florida.
“Kevin brings a host of governmental and management
experience to the Department,” said Allan Bedwell, who oversees DEP’s
statewide regulatory programs. “His comprehensive knowledge of state
government and dedication to public service provide a strong foundation
for further protecting
south Florida’s environmental and economic interests.” Neal
is the Deputy Executive Director for the Public Service Commission, where
he oversees the Commission staff and serves as a liaison to governments
and the Florida Legislature. He has considerable experience in state
government, working as a legislative analyst for the Agency for Health
Care Administration and, later, as a policy coordinator for the Department
of Labor. Before his appointment as Deputy Commissioner for the Department
of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Neal served as Legislative Affairs
Director to Governor Jeb Bush. Read
more
11
April 04
Bittersweet harvest for Big Sugar
By Susan Salisbury
© Palm Beach Post
Sugar cane doesn't look like
much when it's sprouting in the black muck of the Glades. Yet
the gigantic tropical reed, which creates a sea of grass as far as the eye
can see in western Palm Beach County, is part of an industry that wields
serious political clout far beyond its size. But
things are changing for Big Sugar just at the point when it is poised in
Florida to bring in the biggest crop in its history. Today,
shrinking sugar consumption is being exacerbated by popular
low-carbohydrate diets. At the same time, more baked goods, candies and
other products are being made overseas and shipped to the United States.
"We are in a precarious situation," said Jack
Roney, economics and policy analysis director at the American Sugar
Alliance in Washington, D.C. "We need for
our producers to produce less," he said. "We need for consumers
to consume more, and for the (Bush) administration not to make any further
import concessions."
Legislature considers trio of water policy measures
By CATHY ZOLLO
© Naples Daily News
Following turbulent battles last year over recommendations from the Council of 100 concerning the state's water supply and policy affecting it, the Florida Legislature is dipping its toe in the topic this year.
Three bills are moving through the House that address water concerns. They include provisions that require local governments to deal with water needs in their comprehensive plans and to include reuse in their water development plans. As well, some of the legislation allows for a feasibility study to test the dumping of treated sewage in some South Florida canals and calls for public workshops to look at ways to develop regional water supply plans.
While Florida is surrounded by water and gets 55 inches a year of rain on average, 50 inches of that evaporates and four is lost to the tides. That leaves an inch for the water needs of the more than 16 million people who live here and the more than 75 million who visited in 2003 alone.
Conservation now could save big water bills in future
Sprinklers water the lawn of a home on Caxambas Drive on Marco Island
on Friday morning.
Jason
Easterly/Staff
By CATHY ZOLLO
© Naples Daily News
On his way to work Friday, Paul Mattausch had to stop and sidestep sprinklers to leave a note on someone's door.
That he had to dodge getting wet on a Friday was frustrating for Collier County's water department director. He left the homeowner a copy of the county's irrigation ordinance, pointing out that watering is illegal on Fridays.
"One thing we are doing in Collier County is trying to instill a water conservation ethic in our customers that makes sense in the long and short terms," Mattausch said.
It matters to their wallets and to the environment.
Collier County is heading into the driest, hottest part of the dry season, and it's been nearly two months since any significant rain fell here. You'd never know it, though, from the lush green plants on every patch of ground.
01
April 04
'Glades repair a high priority
Panel talks 'Glades repair St. Lucie River advocates hope the legislation
discussed will fund the first restoration efforts.
By Jenn Stewart and Joel Eskovitz
© Stuart
News
WASHINGTON — In his first
public comment on local Everglades restoration efforts, the federal
government's top water manager on Wednesday called the $1.2 billion
project a "high priority" this spring. Lt.
Gen. Robert Flowers, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, attended
the first day of congressional committee discussion of legislation that
St. Lucie River advocates hope will fund the project. "I
look forward to it coming to my office," Flowers said during the
first Senate committee hearing on the Water Resources and Development Act.
"It's a high priority." Federal and
state water management scientists — with help from Martin
and St. Lucie county activists — last week finished the final version of
the project, which includes the construction of reservoirs, water
cleansing areas and land preservation.
Plants help clean water
By Pete Gawda
© Okeechobee
News
A pilot project aimed at
reducing the phosphorous levels in Lake Okeechobee, scheduled to last one
year and ending this January, has been so successful that it has been
extended until September. The prototype system
is located on the L-62 canal just off S.W. 87th
Terrace. Mark Zivojnovich, vice president of HydroMentia, Inc, calls his
company's project, "farming water." Basically the aquatic plant
treatment system pumps nutrient laden water from the canal into treatment
cells where it loses some of its nutrients to the growth of water
hyacinth. Then the water is pumped into another area to provide nutrients
for algae. The results are cleaner water and cattle feed. The
Algal Turf Scrubber, which is designed to grow algae from the nutrients in
the water, was slow getting started and required some
"polishing,"
according to Mr. Zivojnovich, even though 20.15 wet tons were harvest the
first quarter. Read
more
Legislators
Promote Better Ocean Stewardship with Introduction of Clean Cruise Ship
Act of 2004
Members of Congress act to protect marine ecosystems from cruise ship
pollution
Press Release
Gregg M. Schmidt
Telephone: 202-857-1685
Email: gschmidt@oceanconservancy.org
Washington, DC – The Ocean Conservancy applauds the bi-partisan group of
legislators led by Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), California
Congressman Sam Farr (D-17th), and Connecticut Congressman Christopher
Shays (R-4th) for introducing the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004. As cruise
ships have continued to grow in popularity, capacity and number, so has
their impact on our ocean ecosystems. This new measure will establish
clear and
reasonable environmental standards for a largely unregulated industry.
The cruise ships of today carry thousands of
passengers, and produce waste equivalent to that of small cities. Yet they
are not governed by the same anti-pollution laws as municipalities of
comparable size on land. Right now, cruise ships are not subject to
regulations that would help protect the beautiful and inspiring ocean
ecosystems and marine wildlife that attract many cruise ship travelers.
“Cruise ships have largely escaped pollution
regulations, and The Ocean
Conservancy believes it is time to adopt legislation that brings cruise
ships in line with 21st century pollution control practices,” said Roger
Rufe, President of The Ocean Conservancy. “With the large expansion in
the cruise industry, the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004 provides an
appropriate solution to a preventable problem.”
$300M reservoir project part of
Everglades restoration
The Berry Groves site, which is just east of the Lee County line and south
of State Road 80, will be used to store water during the rainy season.
By CHAD GILLIS
© Naples Daily News
The state is taking a $300
million leap of faith to initiate an Everglades project that will create
the largest water storage tank on the southwest coast of Florida. Project
managers from the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers met in Fort Myers on Wednesday to discuss a
reservoir system that will be built on more than 12,000
acres on the south side of the Caloosahatchee River. "The
district has decided to take some risks and pursue the Berry Groves site
for a reservoir," said water management district project manager
Agnes Ramsey. "But the project criteria has ranked very high (on the
federal level.)" Funding for the reservoir
portion of the project hasn't been approved by Congress yet, but district
leaders decided to start the project early in order to get a jump on one
of this region's largest Everglades restoration ventures.
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