120630-
Florida is running out of water .
AlachuaToday.com – by John Martin, Republican Candidate, Alachua County Commission, District
June 30, 2012
Florida is running out of water, an on-going problem for Alachua County residents, without an apparent solution. At issue is the fact that large cities such as Tampa and Jacksonville are increasing the pressure to get further access to North Florida’s precious water supply.  For example, Jacksonville has been granted a permit that allows JEA (Jacksonville Electric Authority) to withdraw up to 155 million gallons per day from the Suwannee Water Management District, and divert it to their customers in the St. Johns Water Management District over the next 20 years.
 Several recent experiences and news items lead me to believe we are not placing proper emphasis on this issue, and Alachua County is either not taking or being provided the opportunity to be a leader in finding a solution. Two task forces/committees have been formed in which Alachua County has not been directly included. One was the formation of the Water Working Group that Alachua County chose not to join. Perhaps the more troubling is the fact that Alachua County was left off the St Johns Water Management Advisory Board.  When one considers factors such as our location, both geographical and hydrological, Alachua County must be a leader on water issues.
In addition to better management of our basic water supply, we must be open to solutions such as expanded water reclaim and re-use programs. Desalinization and recharge programs must be investigated as well as the use of reservoirs. In short, all possible solutions must be on the table.
While campaigning for Alachua County Commission over the past year, I am struck by how little the water issues have played in the campaign. There seems to be a disconnection between the concerns voiced to me by residents and how little candidates and political groups share that concern. Most residents ask me questions concerning water, but the other candidates never mention the issue, and I remain the only candidate that discusses the problem.  I have also not yet had this issued raised at the various forums by sponsoring groups. We must definitely address the critical water shortage and hold our leaders accountable on this issue.  Our future depends on it.

120629-a
Attacks on environment invite public suspicion
Orlando Sentinel
June 29, 2012
These are perilous times for public land in Florida.
This is an age of ideas that would turn state parks into golf courses, post advertisements on nature trails and purposely introduce a noxious weed like hydrilla into Lake Apopka.
Another initiative comes packaged as an objective, scientific assessment of publicly owned land that's been acquired over the years by Florida's various water management districts.
The St. Johns Water Management District, encompassing 18 counties and most of Central Florida, owns some 600,000 acres.
About a year ago the Department of Environmental Protection, at Gov. Rick Scott's behest, ordered Florida's water districts to evaluate their holdings for land that does "not meet your agency's core functions."
Sounds reasonable. It's hard to argue against good financial stewardship. Maybe there are instances where a hard-nosed seller cornered the district into buying a small parcel of little value as part of a larger purchase.
But as we mentioned at the start, this assessment comes at a dark time for the environmental movement in Florida.
The current Legislature is either ambivalent or outright hostile to conservation causes, gleefully dismantling the state's growth management laws, dozing off while Florida's springs decline, and doing the bidding of their chamber of commerce masters.
Gov. Rick Scott is no better. His environmental agenda so far has been pathetic, characterized primarily by a few outdoor photo ops. But he generally views environmental regulations as merely impediments to business.
It's hard to swallow the notion that Scott's goal truly is an objective assessment of public lands. It wouldn't stretch the imagination to envision scenic tracts coveted by private interests being deemed as surplus and sold off.
Water district officials stress the science behind their assessment, which produced a series of color-coded maps rating the conservation value of district-owned land.
Much of the district land is color-coded green, indicating a high conservation value. And yet, the initial set of maps showed the district-owned flood plains around Lake Apopka as having relatively little conservation value, an astonishing conclusion given their importance in bringing the polluted lake back to life.
St. Johns officials say the land around Lake Apopka ultimately will be off limits because it's part of an ongoing restoration project. We hope so.
But this also is an agency whose staff has been under intense pressure to make nice with developers who felt they hadn't been treated well in the past.
And an agency whose chairman, Lad Daniels, is a Scott appointee and a vocal critic in the early 2000s of Jacksonville's ambitious land-buying program.
In such an environmentally hostile atmosphere, there's plenty of reason to worry that Florida's protected green spaces could be headed for the auction block.
If Floridians care about their water, their wildlife, their way of life, they can't let that happen.

120629-b
Rivers Coalition Defense Fund seeking government help to address Everglades issues
TCPalm.com - by Donald Rodrigue
June 29, 2012
STUART — Rivers Coalition acting chairman Ted Guy explained to dozens of local environmentalists and concerned citizens Wednesday why he and other members of the Rivers Coalition Defense Fund are formally asking the federal government to eliminate future sugar subsidies in the Farm Bill.
Defense Fund members wrote the letter after both Florida senators recently declined to vote against the subsidies and when the modified Everglades restoration proposal released June 2 did not include an adequate flow way south of Lake Okeechobee.
The new restoration proposal includes stormwater treatment areas to filter out phosphorus from agricultural runoff and reservoirs for excess water currently sent toward the east and west coasts.
However, Rivers Coalition member Karl Wickstrom said with no major hurricanes the last few years, some politicians and environmentalists have become complacent about the flow issue.
"Even if we could send the water south, they've got nowhere to put it," he said. "We've had six long years of drought, so it's kind of put everybody to sleep."
Guy explained that the reservoirs, called flow equalization basins, are about four feet deep, which is not the same thing as a flow way at all.
"A real flow way would get the water through the Everglades agricultural area down to where the project begins," he said. "Without the flow way, we don't see this project doing the Everglades any good or relieving the pressure on our estuaries when the lake gets dumped."
Although two canals have already been constructed for the southward flow, Guy thinks they are insufficient.
"The Miami Canal and North New River Canals don't have enough flow capacity," he said. "The state bought options on the land (between them) but ran out of money and didn't exercise them due to the downturn in the economy."
Guy said he believes the Florida sugar industry might be willing to sell more land cheaper for additional flow way if it loses its Farm Bill subsidy, which artificially inflates the price of sugar by limiting cheaper imports.
Martin County District 2 Commissioner Ed Fielding agreed that the water needed to go south rather than to the St, Lucie Estuary or the Caloosahatchee Estuary, which receive the discharges when Lake Okeechobee gets too full.
Guy said the millions being spent on raising the Tamiami Trail in Miami-Dade County to restore the Everglades sheet flow won't work without a better flow way south from Lake Okeechobee.
"It's like unplugging the bathtub tub, but the water's stopped up on the other end," he said. "There's been some progress, but there's a missing link of 20 miles."

120628-
Our wetlands could bring in money
Daily Observer - by Yurfee B. Shaikalee
June 28, 2012
Florida’s Everglades (swamps) are the World’s largest wetland. The Everglades comprised 10,000 different islands all of which are inhabited by different species, including humans. The climate of the swamps is wet summers and dry winters. Average annual rainfall on those wetlands is about 130 mm, and thousands of Native Americans have been living on them for several years now.
The Everglades were used as reserves for the Indian people when they were in conflict with the United States.
Turn-of-the-century South Florida also became home to poachers and plume hunters, particularly near the small town of Flamingo. Plumes of great egrets and snowy egrets were in demand as fashion accessories. Hunters slaughtered thousands of wading birds with colorful feathers, and several animal and bird species came close to becoming inexistent.
The idea of a national park for the Everglades in Florida was pitched in 1928 when a Miami land developer, Ernest F. Coe, established the Everglades Tropical National Park Association. It had enough support to be declared a national park by Congress in 1934. It took another 13 years to be dedicated on December 6, 1947.
One month before the dedication of the park, however, a former editor from The Miami Herald and freelance writer, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, released her first book titled “The Everglades: River of Grass”.
Following a research of the region for five years, she described the history and ecology of South Florida in great detail -- characterizing the Everglades as a river, instead of a stagnant swamp. The last chapter was titled, "The Eleventh Hour", and then she warned that the Everglades were dying, although it could be reversed.
Even though scientists have made headways in decreasing mercury and phosphorus levels in water, the natural environment of South Florida continued to decline in the 1990s, and lives in nearby cities reflected a downturn.
People derived plans to stop the declining environmental quality and such plans seemed as the most expensive and comprehensive ecological repair project in history. Today, thousands of tourists visit the Everglades for air boat riding to see its beauty that bring millions of dollars to the State of Florida which contributes to the US economy.
Meanwhile, it brings to mind this question: What are we doing to develop the beautiful wetlands or swamps, island, and lakes that we have in Liberia, into what may profit us as a country?
Liberia has many wetlands, including the Mersurado Wetlands, you may want to take a trip to Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County, to see some of the natural wonders we’ve got. If they are properly managed, they will boost the economy of the country.
Is there anything preventing us from investing in our wetlands ? We need to take competitive steps, drawing clues from countries that are ahead of us, and act.
 Liberia has amazing wetlands as well as scenic lakes and islands. Such features could be even better than Florida’s Everglades, once developed. Yet, they are rather being abused by us. We need to wake up and make thinks work in this modern world.

120627-
Report: Everglades losses likely to continue
Florida Keys News – by Robert Silk
June 27, 2012
SOUTH FLORIDA -- A dozen years into the joint federal and state effort to restore the Everglades, progress in re-plumbing the core of the system has been scant, says a congressionally mandated report released last week.
"Unless near-term progress is made to improve water quantity and restore water flow, ecosystem losses will continue, many of which would require decades to centuries to recover," William Boggess, chair of the National Research Council committee that wrote the report, said in a prepared statement.
The report is the fourth biennial evaluation of the progress being made on the $13.5 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
Inaugurated in 2000, the plan involves numerous engineering projects which together are intended to mimic the historical north-to-south sheet flow of the Everglades system, which has been disrupted over the past 75 years by an extensive network of canals, dykes and other water control systems.
In addition to moving more water from Lake Okeechobee and areas north into the central and southern Everglades, the overall restoration effort must also reduce phosphorus pollution caused by the sugar plantations south of Okeechobee while continuing to provide flood protection to South Florida's urban and agricultural areas.
The NRC report notes that some progress has been made in Everglades restoration over the past two years. Eight projects are now under way, including an effort to reduce the harmful impact that the C-111 canal, extreme South Florida's largest, has had on Florida Bay.
Last December the state completed a $26 million project that will increase freshwater flow into the bay, a move that is expected to improve the overly salty water conditions believed to be a major cause of the diminished water quality in the 850-square-mile estuary.
However, the report states, little progress has been made on projects that would benefit the core of the Everglades system, including the mainland areas of Everglades National Park.
One major cause of the delay has been funding. Though the cost of CERP is supposed to be borne equally by Tallahassee and Washington, from 2002 to 2011 Florida spent just under $3.1 billion to the federal government's $854 million.
Recent state budget cuts likely mean the feds will bear increased responsibility for moving restoration ahead in the coming years, the reports says.
In analyzing the impact of the slow progress on the central Everglades, the committee looked at 10 indicators. It found that phosphorus pollution is improving, though full recovery could be decades off or more. But the condition of other portions of the Glades ecosystem is dire.
For example, tree islands, ridges and sloughs and the population of the snail kite, known as an indicator species for Everglades health, are all degrading, with full recovery likely decades or centuries away.
Despite the continued decrease in the health of the Everglades ecosystem, the NRC committee did find promising the implementation of the Central Everglades Planning Project last fall by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The goal of CEPP is to complete a plan for a suite of central Everglades restoration projects within two years.
In a joint press release last week, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District touted another recent positive sign for the Everglades: the state's commitment earlier this month to spend $880 million on additional water quality projects designed to reduce phosphorus pollution.
The NRC report emphasizes that it will take a combination of improved water quality and water flow to successfully restore the Everglades.

120626-a
DEP issues guidelines to water districts for buying, getting rid of state lands
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
June 26, 2012
Water management districts must receive Florida Department of Environmental Protection approval for major land purchases under guidelines published by DEP this month.
The DEP memo, posted on a department website last week, has received a mixed reaction from environmentalists. Some of them last year accused DEP and Gov. Rick Scott of launching a takeover of the districts, which were established by the Legislature in 1972.
Florida has purchased 2.5 million acres since 1990 under Florida Forever and a predecessor land-buying program. State law provides for 30 percent funding to be divided among the five water management districts, although funding has been sharply cut by the Legislature since 2009.
Three months after taking office in 2011, Scott directed DEP to supervise activities of the districts including review and oversight of land acquisition and disposition. Scott said the districts must focus on their core missions of water supply, flood control and resource protection.
The June 8 guidance memo says districts should focus on acquiring conservation easements, which involve paying landowners to conserve land rather than having the state outright buy the property. DEP also says districts should buy land at 90 percent of the appraised value and should find partner agencies to split the cost.
Related Research: Access the directive from Governor Scott and DEP's land acquisition guidelines.
The guidance document requires any purchase of more than $500,000 to be approved by the department. Any purchase below that amount must be approved by the department unless it is for 90 percent or less of the appraised value.
The document calls on districts to sell land that is no longer needed for conservation purposes. However, DEP cautions the districts against eliminating significant landscape linkages, conservation corridors, natural or cultural resources or public recreational opportunities including hunting.
Clay Henderson, a lawyer and member of the Florida Conservation Coalition, said the memo clearly will have a "chilling effect" on new land purchases by districts. He said the districts also are being pressured to sell their lands.
"I'm just tired of being on the defensive," Henderson said. "We are so well-known for our successes with these programs. They have protected some outstanding examples of conservation land across the state and commanded wide support from the public."
Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon Florida, said he remains concerned about how the districts are identifying land to get rid of. But he said the guidelines have some good language, such as requiring a determination that lands are no longer needed for conservation and avoiding the elimination of conservation corridors and landscape linkages.
"The land acquisition provisions seem to give reasonable latitude for the districts to move forward with purchases, including the $500,000 purchases which don’t even have to be approved by DEP," Lee wrote in an email.
DEP spokesman Patrick Gillespie said department officials met with district representatives in February and they have been following informally following the guidance document since then.
"The purpose of the document is to provide guidance to the water management districts on purchasing land to support their core missions of water supply, water quality, flood control and natural resource protection while being judicious of Florida taxpayer dollars," Gillespie said in an email.

120626-b
Ecosystem restoration group meets in Jensen Beach to discuss ways to save Everglades
TCPalm.com - by Jim Reeder
June 26, 2012
JENSEN BEACH — Pete Quasius walked out on the dock at Indian RiverSide Park on Tuesday and saw the bottom of the Indian River Lagoon.
"I was amazed," said Quasius, a director of the Snook Foundation as well as a lobbyist for the Audubon Society. "It comes from so many years living on the Caloosahatchee River."
Sand is a rare sight there because of water so dark you can barely see the black sediment bottom that flows from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee.
Back home in Fort Myers water churned by Tropical Storm Debby went over Quasius' seawall and onto his lawn, approaching his house.
The clear water in the Indian River Lagoon is unlikely to last much longer as Debby's heavy rain in north Florida makes its way down the Kissimmee River, through Lake Okeechobee and into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, he said.
Quasius came to Jensen Beach for a meeting of about 40 people from government agencies and conservation groups.
Known as the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Working Group, they're exchanging ideas on how to reduce the amount of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee that gets into the two rivers.
They're looking for the right combination of reservoirs, water levels and flow rates to clean water before it reaches the estuaries or goes into the Everglades.
Tuesday's presentations were filled with charts, graphs, technical data and acronyms incomprehensible to most people who haven't been following the Everglades restoration and water quality improvement efforts.
The agency representatives hope to sort through all the possibilities and present its preliminary report in October 2013.
Then it's up to Congress to authorize the project and budget millions of dollars to try to restore the Everglades with adequate water diverted from the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.
There were plenty of ideas on how to fix the problem, but those gathered Tuesday said it won't be easy to improve the situation.
"There is no silver bullet," Paul Millar of the South Florida Water Management District said. "One thing will not fix it."
The key is finding the right balance of available money, handling peak flows during the rainy season and lower flows during the dry. Too much or too little water affects the environment.
"One big discharge can wipe out a whole generation of fertilized fish eggs," Mark Perry of the Florida Oceanographic Society said.

120626-c
Indifference to a saline crisis
Ocala.com - Editorial
June 25, 2012
It will come as scant comfort to residents of Cedar Key to know that they are not alone. Salt water intrusion into coastal drinking water wells is a growing, even inevitable, phenomenon in Florida.
“Hallandale Beach, Pompano Beach, Dania Beach, Lantana and Lake Worth are among local cities that in recent years have been most at risk from saltwater intrusion,” the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported last year.
Now it is tiny Cedar Key that is passing out emergency bottled drinking water to residents and having to contemplate the installation of desalinization equipment to make municipal water potable once again.
Meanwhile, in the potato fields of Hastings, a patch of open fields north of Palatka, farmers are reporting salt water in their irrigation water, too. That Hastings is inland from the coast, although you have to go through it on the way to St. Augustine, makes its salt water intrusion even more notable and worrisome.
But make no mistake. This isn’t just Cedar Key’s or Hastings’ problem. The threat to coastal and noncoastal drinking water security is linked to the drying up of inland springs, rivers and lakes. Yes, the drought is a factor, but overpumping of the aquifer is the bigger, continuing threat.
That threat is now very real to Ocala/Marion County. At the “Save Silver Springs and Florida Water” rally, held Saturday at the Silver River State Park, Florida Audubon’s venerable Charles Lee, a veteran of two generations of our state’s environmental debate, warned that Silver Springs is flowing at about one-third its historic average of 740 cubic feet per second. He pointed out that the flow fell below 500 cfs for the first time in 2000 and below 300 cfs for the first time this year. If the springs’ flow continues to decline at the rate it has for the past dozen years, he said, it will be dry in another dozen.
Need more evidence that Florida’s inland waters are threatened ?  During 107 years of measurement, the Withlacoochee River that flows out of the Green Swamp in Polk County had never quit flowing. That is, until 2001 ... then again in 2007, and again in 2009 and, finally, again this year. Each time, miles-long stretches of the Withlacoochee went dry, becoming little more than cesspools and mud bogs.
There is a pattern developing that cannot be described as meteorological or geological anomaly, as some observers would suggest are the causes of these water calamities. Things are happening to Florida’s water supply that have never happened before, and what is worrisome is that the salt water intrusion, the spring flows falling to a trickle, the rivers drying up are not isolated incidents. They a change that demands we manage our water supply differently than ever before.
Florida needs a new water conservation ethic, and it needs it now. Such a conservation ethic, of course, will only be as effective as our water managers and their bosses in Tallahassee want it to be. That said, the seeming indifference of our politicians and water managers to Florida’s water crisis grows more baffling by the day.

120625-a
Former Gov. Graham leads rally to protect Fla.'s springs, rivers
Daytona Beach News Journal – by Dinah Voyles-Pulver
June 25, 2012
OCALA -- After more than 40 years of public service, including 16 years as a U.S. senator and two terms as Florida's governor, Bob Graham tried to retire, but anger and frustration over what he sees happening to the state's environment has him fully engaged in a new campaign.
On Saturday morning, Graham stood on a stage at Silver River State Park, rallying a crowd of about 1,000 who gathered in concern over the plight of Florida's springs and rivers, particularly Silver Springs. The famed attraction has featured glass-bottom boat rides for more than 130 years.
"We are mad as hell and we want to do something about it," Graham said during a speech that drew three standing ovations from the enthusiastic crowd.
Earlier in the morning, Graham had taken a boat tour along the Silver River to Silver Springs and heard about how water flowing from the springs and water levels in the river are at or near record lows. Similar conditions are being seen across North and Central Florida.
Graham talked with Bob Knight of the Florida Springs Institute and others about how groundwater pumping is believed to affect water levels in springs, wells and lakes, especially during times of drought. Knight and others explained how springs, including Blue Spring in Volusia County, are suffering from pollutants such as nitrates, which can come from fertilizers.
Graham launched a statewide petition drive to ask Gov. Rick Scott to "establish a serious process to look at what's happening to our springs and rivers in North and Central Florida, understand why it's happening and what we can do about it."
The petition urges Scott "to do everything within your power and ability" to protect and restore Florida's aquatic resources, beginning with a plan to address and resolve the dire conditions of Silver Springs, Silver River, Rainbow Springs and Rainbow River."
Florida has experienced drought conditions for more than a year, with Volusia and Flagler counties at more than 16 inches below normal rainfall for the past two years. Records show many area lakes and wells are near or below their record lows.
Graham, speaking during the boat cruise, pointed for example to the wildfires that burned in Volusia County's swamps for weeks in May and early June because the swamps are so dry. He said similar fires in the 1970s kicked off efforts to save the Everglades.
Several speakers during the afternoon also referred to Volusia-area springs, said County Chair Frank Bruno, one of a number of Volusia and Flagler residents who attended.
Charles and Saundra Gray of DeBary sat on the front row for Graham's speech.
"We believe that things need to turn around," Charles Gray said. "We're concerned about the future of our state," added his wife.
Eric West, a Daytona Beach small business owner, said he's very concerned about the Florida's water supplies.
"If we don't get a handle on this," West said, "we won't have an economy in Florida."
Scott has said repeatedly that he wants to preserve Florida's environment, but Graham and many others maintain Scott's administration effectively rolled back "50 years of environmental law" in the name of economic development. Graham formed the Florida Conservation Coalition last fall with other environmental advocates and conservation groups over concern about policies coming out of the Legislature and the governor's office.
Graham and other speakers said Saturday the administration needs to understand the economy and Florida's water supply are closely linked.
The economy is a serious issue, Graham said, acknowledging that many Floridians are out of work and have "lost hope."
But overtaxing the state's water supply won't solve the economic problems, Graham said, it will only make them worse.
Former state Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican, said a bipartisan effort is needed to ensure an adequate supply of clean water.
"The economic future of Florida is tied to our environment and our natural resources," said Constantine, who is running for the Seminole County Commission. "If we don't protect our environment, it doesn't matter how many short term deregulations we do."
The spark that started Saturday's rally was concern about a permit request to the St. Johns River Water Management District from a Marion County rancher who has asked to use up to 13.2 million gallons of water a day from the same water source that flows from Silver Springs and into the Silver River.
Silver Springs can't afford to lose any more water, said Charles Lee, advocacy director for Audubon of Florida. Water flow at the springs had never fallen below 500 cubic feet until 2000, Lee said. Last fall, the flow fell below 300 cubic feet per second, Lee said.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman said the future of the Silver River is important to all of Central Florida because it is a tributary to the St. Johns River.
Silver River has 25 times more nitrates than it did 20 years ago and fish populations have been reduced by 90 percent, said Knight of the Springs Institute. Similar problems are occurring in other springs, he said.

120625-b
Sea levels rising on US East Coast faster than anywhere else
Associated Press - by Seth Borenstein
June 25, 2012
The Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times faster than the global average since 1990, according to the US Geological Survey.
Sea levels are rising much faster along the U.S. East Coast than they are around the globe, putting one of the world's most costly coasts in danger of flooding, government researchers report.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists call the 600-mile (965-kilometer) swath a "hot spot" for climbing sea levels caused by global warming. Along the region, the Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times to four times faster than the global average since 1990, according to the study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
It's not just a faster rate, but at a faster pace, like a car on a highway "jamming on the accelerator," said the study's lead author, Asbury Sallenger Jr., an oceanographer at the agency. He looked at sea levels starting in 1950, and noticed a change beginning in 1990.
Since then, sea levels have gone up globally about 2 inches (5 centimeters). But in Norfolk, Virginia, where officials are scrambling to fight more frequent flooding, sea level has jumped a total of 4.8 inches (12.19 centimeters), the research showed. For Philadelphia, levels went up 3.7 inches (9.4 centimeters), and in New York City, it was 2.8 inches (7.11 centimeters).
Climate change pushes up sea levels by melting ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica, and because warmer water expands.
Computer models long have projected higher levels along parts of the East Coast because of changes in ocean currents from global warming, but this is the first study to show that's already happened.
By 2100, scientists and computer models estimate that sea levels globally could rise as much as 3.3 feet (1.01 meters). The accelerated rate along the East Coast could add about 8 inches (20 centimeters) to 11 inches (28 centimeters) more, Sallenger said.
"Where that kind of thing becomes important is during a storm," Sallenger said. That's when it can damage buildings and erode coastlines.
On the West Coast, a National Research Council report released Friday projects an average 3-foot (nearly 1-meter) rise in sea level in California by the year 2100, and 2 feet (0.61 meters) in Oregon and Washington. The land mass north of the San Andreas Fault is expected to rise, offsetting the rising sea level in those two states.
The USGS study suggests the Northeast would get hit harder because of ocean currents. When the Gulf Stream and its northern extension slow down, the slope of the seas changes to balance against the slowing current. That slope then pushes up sea levels in the Northeast. It is like a see-saw effect, Sallenger theorizes.
Scientists believe that with global warming, the Gulf Stream and other ocean currents are slowing and will slow further, Sallenger said.
Jeff Williams, a retired USGS expert who wasn't part of the study, and Stefan Rahmstorf, a professor of ocean physics at the Potsdam Institute in Germany, said the study does a good job of making the case for sea level rise acceleration.
Margaret Davidson, director of the Coastal Services Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Charleston, South Carolina, said the implications of the new research are "huge when you think about it. Somewhere between Maryland and Massachusetts, you've got some bodaciously expensive property at risk."
Sea level projections matter in coastal states because flood maps based on those predictions can result in restrictions on property development and affect flood insurance rates.
Those estimates became an issue in North Carolina recently when the Legislature proposed using historic figures to calculate future sea levels, rejecting higher rates from a state panel of experts. The USGS study suggests an even higher level than the panel's estimate for 2100.
The North Carolina proposal used data from University of Florida professor Robert Dean, who had found no regional differences in sea level rise. Dean said he can't argue with the results from Sallenger's study showing accelerating sea level rise in the region, but he said it's more likely to be from natural cycles. Sallenger said there is no evidence to support that claim.

120625-
Sugar industry's sweet deal
Miami Herald
June 25, 2012
Mitch McConnell called the passage last week of a massive "farm" bill "one of the finest moments in the Senate in recent times in terms of how you pass" legislation.
The Kentucky senator and Republican leader made a good point. Passage of the big-ticket bill -- a five-year, half-trillion-dollar amalgam of farm, food and conservation programs -- was often in doubt. It passed, 64-35, with support from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate -- and from the Obama administration's agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack.
Unfortunately, the Senate bill maintains the federal government's sugar-support program -- in part due to bipartisan support from Florida's two senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio.
Nelson and Rubio were among the senators who endorsed, by a 50-46 vote, continuing the federal sugar program without changes. The program limits domestic production of cane and beet sugar, restricts foreign imports, places a floor under growers' prices and requires the government to buy crop surpluses for sale at a loss to the ethanol-fuel industry. The program also protects the incomes of growers and producers -- including the most profitable and richest.
Distorting the market
The sugar program distorts the market and, food and beverage makers contend, unnaturally props up the price of a key ingredient. Naturally, the sugar industry disputes that assertion but Democratic and Republican senators who oppose the program make a compelling case that it costs consumers at least $3.5 billion annually in food costs. Only a decade ago, the Government Accounting Office estimated the cost to consumers at $1.9 billion a year.
What's more, sugar cane farming in Florida has been an environmental disaster. Production practices have improved slightly and taxpayers have taken some areas out of production through conservation purchases. But polluted runoff from cane fields has imperiled vast expanses of the Everglades.
Higher prices and higher costs for environmental protection are not the results of good public policy.
Attitudes may be changing
The Herald-Tribune Editorial Board has long opposed the sugar program for these reasons. We supported the 10-year campaign by then-Rep. Dan Miller, a Republican from Bradenton, to end the program for financial and environmental reasons.
Miller didn't succeed in his quest, but the narrow margin of support in the Senate for the sugar program suggests that attitudes are changing for the better.
There are, fortunately, parts of the Senate bill to like. It eliminates direct payments to farmers whether they plant crops or not, consolidates commodity-subsidy programs and seeks to prevent farm "managers" -- often wealthy corporate owners -- from receiving subsidies.
The bill also attempts to crack down on illegal trafficking in food stamp benefits and tighten requirements for recipients whose income should preclude their eligibility.
When the House of Representatives takes up the farm bill, perhaps after the Fourth of July break, we hope members of both parties refuse to continue the sugar program. Doing so would, to paraphrase Sen. McConnell, create one of the finest moments in recent times in terms of how you discontinue an unnecessary support system.

120624-
Crazy guilty about water
Gainesville Sun - by Ron Cunningham
June 24, 2012
I was sitting at the back of the tightly-packed open air tent at Saturday’s save our water rally at Silver River State Park when former Gov. Bob Graham gave his stem-winding “I’m mad as hell” about Silver Springs speech.
The audience roared its approval when Graham, whose family has long been in the cow business, ridiculed the notion that Canadian businessman Frank Stronach really needs 13 million gallons of water a day to “run a beef cattle operation” in nearby Fort McCoy.
Then former State Sen. Lee Constantine got up and chided state officials for pandering to the whims of developers, saying “nobody has ever moved here because we have the best strip shopping malls in the world.”
The crowd loved that line, too, because big developers are as culpable as Big Ag in the water blame-game.
Then Charles Lee, longtime lobbyist for Florida Audubon took the stage and asked the crowd if they were familiar with the most water-wasting product of all. “I’ve got it right here in my bag,” Lee said, reaching into the tote sack slung over his shoulders.
Several people around me blurted out “bottled water,” in knowing tones. Because water bottlers are right up there with builders and Big Ag when it comes to the water wasters we all love to hate.
Which sort of made me feel guilty, because it was incredibly hot and humid in that crowded tent. And right about then I would have killed for a nice cold bottle of water.
But Lee didn’t pull a bottle or water out of his tote bag. He pulled out a clump of grass sod. Growing grass, Lee said, consumes 50 percent, and sometimes much more, of the metered water provided by most municipal utilities.
“And what do we do with this product?” Lee asked. “We cut it every two weeks, we bag it up and we take it to the landfill.”
Which sounds kind of crazy when you put it like that.
In fact, Lee’s comment reminded me of a quote I recently came across in an article about the growing water scarcity in the western states. “A hundred years from now, your grandkids would ask you, `You sprayed what on your lawn? That’s crazy,’” Michael Webber, a University of Texas researcher, told the Austin-American Statesman.
Well, yes, it’s crazy. It’s like pouring money, not to mention water, on the ground. And all too many of us do it.
Heck, I immediately stopped feeling guilty about coveting a bottle of water and commenced to feeling even more guilt about the sod we laid down on our side yard this past spring.
I couldn’t prove that Charles Lee was staring directly at me, way back there in the very back of the tent, as he brandished his clump of sod. But it sure felt like it.
The thing is, of all the water-wasters — Big Ag, big builders, big bottlers and the rest — getting lawn lovers to kick their addiction figures to be the biggest impediment of all in confronting Florida’s water crisis.
Let’s face it, no politician in his right mind is going to ban lawns. And even enforcing modest restrictions on how often we may water our grass is probably beyond government’s grasp.
It’s crazy, sure. Ultimately we’re going to have to figure out how to guilt-trip millions of Floridians into giving up their lush green lawns for the sake of Florida’s endangered blue springs

120623-a
Rising seas mean shrinking South Florida future, experts say
Miami Herald – by Curtis Morgan
June 23, 2012
The subject of global warming has become so politically unpalatable over the last few years that neither party mentions it much anymore.
A conference on climate change sponsored by Florida Atlantic University made it clear that ignoring the threat has done nothing to slow it down — particularly in South Florida, which has more people and property at risk by rising sea levels than any place in the country.
The two-day summit in Boca Raton, which wrapped up Friday, painted a bleak and water-logged picture for much of coastal Florida.
Under current projections, the Atlantic Ocean would swallow much of the Florida Keys in 100 years. Miami-Dade, in turn, would eventually replace them as a chain of islands on the highest parts of the coastal limestone ridge, bordered by the ocean on one side and an Everglades turned into a salt water bay on the other.
Ben Strauss, chief operating officer of Climate Central, an independent research and journalism organization, warned that much of the southern peninsula south of Lake Okeechobee would be virtually uninhabitable within 250 years.
“There’s good reason to believe southern Florida will eventually have to be evacuated,” Strauss told some 275 scientists and climate and planning experts from government agencies, insurance companies, construction experts and other businesses likely to be impacted by rising seas.
While scientists can’t yet predict with certainty how fast and high seas will eventually rise, there is no disputing South Florida will be ground zero for the earliest major impacts, said Leonard Barry, director of FAU’s Florida Center for Environmental Studies.
“The sky is not falling, but the waters are rising,” he said. “We need to recognize that, prepare for that and begin to address it.’’
Four counties — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe — have begun to do that under a 2009 agreement to work together studying how to mitigate and adapt to the myriad ripple effects of rising seas.
Though it might take a century or more to flood people out, scientists warned that potential impacts will come long before in the form of increasing damage from hurricane storm surge and flooding, rising insurance rates and shrinking freshwater supplies as sea water taints coastal wells.
If the rate of rise increases, as some new studies suggest, all those impacts could come sooner — in decades, not centuries.
University of South Florida oceanographer Gary Mitchum said data from worldwide tide gauges suggest the sea level rise might be speeding up, jumping from about two millimeters a year from 1950 to 1992 to three millimeters since.
That amount, a little bit more than a tenth of an inch, adds up quickly in low-lying South Florida, according to expert analysis.
Six more inches, for instance, would compromise half of the South Florida Water Management flood control gates at high tide, potentially worsening flooding losses. Seven inches would consume 30 percent of Big Pine Key. At a foot, 60 percent of Monroe County’s land would disappear. At three feet, 85 percent would be inundated — along with a large swath of coastal Miami-Dade and Broward.
Overall, according to a “Surging Seas” report produced earlier this year by Climate Central, Florida easily ranks as the most vulnerable state to sea-level rise, with some 2.4 million people, 1.3 million homes and 107 cities at risk from a four-foot rise, according to the report. Louisiana, by comparison, has 65 cities below the four-foot mark.
Miami-Dade and Broward alone have more people at risk than any state except Florida and Louisiana, Strauss said. Lee and Pinellas counties also are at high risk.
It’s not just coastal areas either. Low-lying inland cities like Hialeah and Pembroke Pines could be flooded out by a rising, saltier Everglades.
Daniel Williams, an architect and post-disaster planner, said he envisions a future where Miami-Dade would be confined to islands on the highest points of an ancient coastal ridge that runs along the coast. Inundated homes and building along the coast might be left behind to serve as reefs.
The Climate Central study projects that under current trends, the most vulnerable areas could see increased flooding as early as 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international science panel, estimates the average sea level could rise from seven inches to about 24 inches by 2100 but notes it could be higher under some scenarios.
James Beever, a principal planner with the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, said the changes can already been seen in Florida’s landscape.
Some salt marshes, he said, had already moved inland by the length of a football field. In the Everglades, mangroves have also marched inland, as salt water transforms freshwater marshes.
“The things you read about in the literature that this is going to happen, it’s already happening,’’ he said.

120623-b







Clean Everglades
by the year
2025 ?

120623-b
This time, keep Everglades promise
Palm Beach Post – Editorial by Randy Schultz, Editorial Writer
June 23, 2012
The deal between Florida and the Environmental Protection Agency isn’t a victory lap for Everglades restoration, but it does mean that the race to save the “River of Grass” can start again.
Under the agreement, the state will spend roughly $880 million over the next dozen years on projects to clean water that flows into the Everglades. The initiative began in 1994 with the Everglades Forever Act, which was prompted by a 1988 federal lawsuit. The water-quality effort is separate from the federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan to increase water quantity.
It takes a PhD to decipher the science, but in kitchen-table English the problem is that for decades fertilizer-laden water moved from farmland into the Everglades. In the fertilizer is phosphorus, which harms plants and wildlife. The amount of phosphorous must be minimal – 10 parts per billion – to be safe. Getting to that level means storing and filtering water before it gets to the Everglades.
As the consent order between the state and feds notes, Florida has built almost 94 square miles of treatment areas in the last two decades. While the water is much cleaner, though, it isn’t clean enough. With these new projects, which will create more storage areas, the EPA believes that the state can meet the final standard.
In an interview with The Palm Beach Post, EPA Regional Administrator Gwen Keyes Fleming cites two reasons for optimism. “We now have the phosphorous limit (that 10 parts per billion) in writing,” under what the agreement calls a Water Quality Based Effluent Limit. Also, Ms. Fleming said, “We have a robust monitoring plan in place with clear deadlines.” After a “stalemate” of several years, “the parties are in place” in Tallahassee and Washington to resume work.
Still, all that state money must come from the South Florida Water Management District, and in 2011 Gov. Scott and the Legislature cut the budgets of the five water districts by $200 million. A bill this year loosened some of those restrictions, but the district can’t complete the projects on time if Tallahassee’s priority is cutting taxes.
In her letter to The Palm Beach Post, Ms. Fleming said, “While we would prefer an earlier schedule, we are hopeful the timetable can be accelerated if circumstances and resources permit.” That’s enough wiggle room for a bull gator to get through. Also, there seems to be no defined remedy if the state violates the agreement. The water district says the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will monitor progress with the EPA.
A fact sheet on the agreement from the water management district says the agency will “fund the plan through a combination of state and district revenues,” including $220 million in reserves and “$300 million in anticipated revenues associated with long-term new growth in South Florida.” That’s hardly guaranteed money.
Ernie Barnett, the district’s Everglades policy director, points out that the $300 million figure is the most conservative estimate, based on new construction. He says the district is seeing more building activity in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Finally, he notes that the Legislature approved Everglades money even while cutting the district’s overall budget.
Fortunately, because of the lawsuit the federal government still has leverage over the state. Environmental groups also remain engaged. David Guest, an attorney for Earthjustice, represents some of those groups. “We will be back in court,” he said, “if (the state) gets off this track.”
The Everglades Forever Act set a water-quality deadline of 2006. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature pushed it back 10 years. Now the deadline is 2025. We must hope that the Everglades can hold out, and that Florida’s promise this time is real.

120623-c
Water forum draws hundreds
Ocala.com - by Jim Ross, Staff writer
June 23, 2012
Bob Graham has a childhood memory of Silver Springs, where abundant fish and the sandy river bottom were visible from glass-bottomed boats. Florida's former governor and U.S. senator wants his grandchildren, and their grandchildren, to have similar memories.
Twelve and 20. The numbers that resonated most on Saturday at Silver River State Park were 12 and 20.
Silver Springs' flow will stop in 12 years, by conservative accounting, and within 20 months if the worst models prove true, according to Charles Lee, of Audubon of Florida.
The word “memory,” these numbers and those speakers met receptive ears at “Speak Up: Silver Springs,” a daylong forum that attracted several hundred people. The goal was to educate people about Florida's natural resources and encourage them to influence public policy makers so that Silver Springs, and all Florida's springs, can enjoy a brighter future.
Hanging in the air with the humidity, and almost going unmentioned by name, was a project that has invigorated local environmentalists and no doubt inspired some of them to attend the forum.
Several miles east of Silver Springs, land is being prepared for a new cattle ranch that wishes to draw up to 13.2 million gallons of groundwater per day.
The developer cites scientific studies to show that such a water draw wouldn't harm Silver Springs, and that the spring's ailing flow levels are not attributable to development.
Judging from their reactions, most people at the park on Saturday didn't agree.
Along with lightning and love bugs, few things are more reliably present in North Central Florida than battles over water.
Government and water management districts restrict lawn watering, often to the chagrin of homeowners. Experts warn of saltwater intrusion into the drinking supply, a worry that has turned to reality in Cedar Key.
Elected leaders fear water transfers from North Florida to Central and South Florida. And environmentalists worry that unencumbered development puts unrelenting pressure on the state's springs and other waterways.
All those things weighed heavily on the minds of the speakers who braved the muggy air and attended Saturday's forum, which was presented by the Florida Conservation Coalition in partnership with the park, the Silver River Museum, the Silver Springs Alliance and the Marion County Springs Festival Committee.
On the program cover, organizers printed a provocative suggestion: Imagine a Florida Without Water.
Lee, from Audubon, can imagine it. He encouraged attendees to go have a look at the Silver River — before it's too late.
In the past 12 years, he said, Silver Springs' flow has dropped from 800 cubic feet per second to 250 cubic feet per second. At that rate, the flow could cease altogether in as soon as 20 months or as long as 12 years.
“We are in danger of losing that spring completely,” he said. And since the Silver River is interconnected with other waterways, any damage would have significant direct and indirect effects.
To fend off Chicken Little-styled dismissals, Lee cited Kissengen Springs near Bartow, which dried up in the 1950s. The first stress signs presented themselves only 15 years before that spring dried up, he said.
Lee blamed Floridians' “addiction” to lawn watering. He blamed water management districts for not using the latest, most reasonable rainfall estimates. He blamed municipalities and the water districts that allow them to draw too much water.
He also blamed, or at least cautioned against, one person: Frank Stronach.
Stronach, a Canadian businessman, is developing Adena Springs, which will include a grass-fed cattle ranch and meat processing plant on thousands of acres in Fort McCoy.
Stronach's team argues that the operation won't hurt Silver Springs, and that the flow reductions to which Lee refers are the result of an undefined event that is not related to rainfall or development.
Stronach has personally pledged to prevent damage to water resources, even if that means cutting back on water usage. He said he wanted to be a good corporate citizen.
But Lee wants Gov. Rick Scott and the St. Johns River Water Management District to oppose the cattle ranch's request for a consumptive-use permit. Drawing 13.2 million gallons of water a day, he said to applause, “could well be the last nail in the coffin of Silver Springs.”
Graham, who was the day's first speaker, also referenced the cattle operation.
After receiving a standing ovation — the applause just a bit louder than that bestowed upon the guys who set up fans inside the speaking tent — Graham mentioned his agricultural background, which includes a family cattle business.
“I can't imagine” why a cattle operation would need as much water as Adena seeks, he said to hearty cheers.
***
Graham told the hundreds of people in the audience that they are the “front line of the protectors” for Florida's water resources. He encouraged them to apply common sense — and to encourage their elected leaders to do the same.
Why do people move themselves and their businesses to Florida? “It's not because of our beautiful strip malls,” Graham said. To neglect our waterways is to harm not just our environmental future, but also our economic present.
“If we screw this up, we have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs,” Graham said.
Lee Constantine, a former state senator, also emphasized the economic angle. The state's success depends on protecting natural resources, he said, calling for “enlightened self-interest” instead of dewy appeals for beautiful vistas.
Like Graham, Constantine treasures childhood memories of Silver Springs. “We, as Floridians, have an obligation to protect our culture and to protect our heritage,” he said.
***
By 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the parking lots at Silver River State Park were almost full. People wore green T-shirts from the Silver Springs Alliance, green T-shirts that encouraged people to “Ask me about slime,” and green stickers that asked others to “fight slime crime.”
The shaded, leafy grounds, still a bit spongy after recent rain, were covered with guests checking displays from St. Johns Riverkeeper, St. Johns River Alliance, Friends of the Wekiva River and similar groups. Tucked inside a pavilion was a group of student researchers from Vanguard High School's IB program.
Joyce and Frank Gamache, from Ocala, got a front-row seat to hear Graham and the other speakers talk about action and energy and memories. “This is certainly building awareness,” Frank Gamache said.
The couple moved to Florida from Manchester, N.H., in 1981. Their son, John, was just 2 years old. Ocala became home, and the importance of its environment became apparent during many boat trips down the Silver.
Now John is grown. On Saturday he joined his parents and hundreds of their like-minded fellow citizens at the forum.
“We raised him on that river,” Joyce Gamache said.

120622-a
Federal report shows little progress in Everglades
BusinessWeek.com - by Matt Sedensky
June 22, 2012
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Little progress has been made in restoring the Everglades and the fragile ecosystem continues to be degraded as projects with the greatest potential benefits are put off, a congressionally mandated report released Thursday found.
The fourth biennial review by the National Research Council says that while notable progress in the construction of restoration projects has been made since its last report, those initiatives still have done little to reverse generations of decline.
"Unless near-term progress is made to improve water quantity and restore water flow, ecosystem losses will continue, many of which would require decades to centuries to recover," said William Boggess, chair of the NRC committee that wrote the report and a professor at Oregon State University.
Since development began on the vast Everglades in the late 19th century, damage has been rampant with the draining of swamp land, the erection of dikes, dams and canals, and the intrusion of farms and development that have polluted with fertilizers and runoff.
The 228-page review looked at all aspects of progress of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, which was approved by Congress in 2000 and originally estimated to cost about $7.8 billion, a price tag that has since ballooned.
The plan aims to restore natural water flow, but has been stymied by years of funding shortfalls, legal challenges and political bickering. The Everglades, meantime, continues to be depleted, now occupying about half its historical size of 4 million acres.
CERP calls for a 50-50 cost share between the state and federal governments. The NRC's report says Florida's spending since 2002, however, has far outpaced that of Washington's, at $3.1 billion compared with $854 million.
In a joint statement Thursday, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration efforts for the state, pledged to work toward the goals outlined in the report.
"We will continue to work with our federal partners to fast-track project planning in the central Everglades, better integrate water quality and water quantity components and construct projects that will return the flow of cleaner water to this national treasure," it said.
In assessing the state of ten key attributes of the Everglades, the outlook was dire. Three measures of phosphorous levels appeared to be stabilizing, though full recovery was rated as being anywhere from years to centuries away. The condition of seven other aspects of the ecosystem were rated with letter grades of two C's, four D's and an F, with two criteria listed as stable and the others degrading.
Progress on a key factor in reversing damage, restoring water flow to the Everglades, was rated poor.
"Twelve years into the CERP, little progress has been made on restoring the hydrology," the authors wrote.
Bits of praise were sprinkled through the report, including for the Central Everglades Planning Project, which was called "an important step forward." But in sum, it echoed the cries of countless Everglades advocates, who say progress is too slow and funding too small.
"We thought this problem would be fixed," said David Guest, an attorney for Earthjustice who has spent decades fighting for Everglades restoration. "In 1994, we were screaming bloody murder that it was going to take 12 years and here we are 18 years later and we're nowhere near solving the problem."
The report notes funding has been strained by the recession, though Guest says getting the money has always been a problem.
"Part of it is the recession, but part of it even before that was that they didn't make it a priority," he said.

120622-b
Florida Struggles to Overcome Threats to Freshwater Springs
NewYork Times - by Lizette Alvarez
June 22, 2012
SILVER SPRINGS, Fla. — Of Florida’s 700 artesian springs, Silver Springs shimmered the brightest. Its fresh water was so translucent that the white sand and tiny shells at the bottom glistened, giving the river and springs a beautiful blue tint from above.
Glass-bottomed boats grew famous here as did underwater photography. Even Tarzan was lured to the springs; six of the movies in the 1930s and ’40s were filmed here. Tourists arrived in droves to these springs, just outside Ocala.
The riverscape — with anhingas drying their wings in the sun, alligators lolling near the banks and native hibiscus in bloom — is beautiful. But its fragility is plain to see. Except for a few patches, the bottom of Silver Springs and Silver River are no longer visible, covered by invasive weeds coated with algae.
The springs scarcely bubble up. Its flow rate has dropped by a third. The current moves as slowly as the red-bellied turtles that sun themselves on logs, allowing toxic nitrates to choke the water.
The culprits, environmental experts say, are a recent drought in north-central Florida and decades of pumping groundwater out of the aquifer to meet the demands of Florida’s population boom, its sprinklers and its agricultural industry. To what degree the overconsumption of groundwater is to blame for the changes is being batted back and forth between environmentalists and the state’s water keepers. But, for the first time, a state with so much rain — the vast majority of it uncaptured — is beginning to seriously fret about water.
“It’s a very dramatic drop-off in flow; it raises the hair on the back of your neck if you are concerned about springs,” said Robert L. Knight, the director of the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute who has spent decades studying Florida springs. “Springs are a very good canary in a coal mine because they pull water off the top of the aquifer.”
But Silver Springs is not alone in its distress. In the last 10 years, many of the famous freshwater springs and rivers in the central and northern parts of the state have seen a sharp drop-off in flows and a steady rise in algae. Nearby Rainbow Springs and River are also suffering, although not as much. The declines have accelerated rapidly in the past five years, so much so that they have galvanized Florida environmentalists to launch a broad campaign to bring attention to the problem and spur Gov. Rick Scott to act.
“Florida is a state that has historically had an abundance of water,” said Bob Graham, a former Democratic governor and United States senator who assembled the Florida Conservation Coalition last year to help safeguard the state’s water. “We have learned that we can degrade our water supplies to the point that water becomes a limitation on the quality of life in Florida. We don’t think that is necessary. But we think it is possible, if not probable, unless there are strong policies and enforcement at the state and local level for sound water practices.”
In a letter last week, the coalition called on Mr. Scott to direct a state agency to assess the decline in Silver and Rainbow Springs and Rivers and come up with a plan to help them. The plan could then benefit the state’s other ailing springs.
Lane Wright, a spokesman for Mr. Scott, said the governor understands how important water is to Florida. “The adequate supply of water resources is obviously something that is vital if we want to have people living here in our state,” Mr. Wright said.
The sudden attention on Silver Springs is the result of an application for a permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District to use 13 million gallons of water a day, about the same amount used by the city of Ocala. The permit is being sought by Frank Stronach, a Canadian auto parts magnate and horse breeder who is building Adena Springs Ranch nearby, a 25,000-acre cattle ranch and slaughterhouse that will produce organic grass-fed beef.
Mr. Stronach’s ranch is expected to provide about 150 jobs in the slaughterhouse and perhaps more as the operation grows. According to its Web site, the ranch plans to carefully monitor fertilizer use, which can dump nitrate into the springs and rivers, and will only use the amount of water necessary.
Scientists commissioned by Adena Springs Ranch to study the issue have concluded that the property’s water use will have an “immeasurable impact” on the surrounding area.
“The experts we have hired say that the impact on the springs and river will be insignificant,” said Ed de la Parte, a lawyer who is representing Adena Springs Ranch in its permit application.
But other experts, including Dr. Knight, disagree, saying the freshwater springs are in such a precarious state that they will be adversely affected even if the flows drop a tiny amount.
“If they get a permit for that amount it adds insult to injury because we already know it’s not sustainable,” Dr. Knight said. “It certainly has become a lighting rod for public attention.”
The application for so much water — Mr. Stronach initially wanted 25 million gallons — has brought the battle between water conservation and economic development in Florida into sharp relief.
Just a few years ago, a request for 13 million gallons would not have turned many heads.
But water experts and environmentalists say the effects are cumulative. Although water use has recently decreased, the amounts over all have been set too high for too long and the consequences are only now becoming obvious, they say.
Florida’s population boom led to an increase in the number of people and businesses demanding sprinklers (more water is used outside the home than inside). All of it is groundwater from the Florida Aquifer. The decrease in rainfall in central and northern Florida has worsened the situation.
“We are either in or headed for a water crisis,” said Estus Whitfield, a former principal environmental adviser to five Florida governors.
Ann Shortelle, the former director of water policy for the Department of Environmental Protection and now the director of the Suwannee River Water Management District, one of five districts to oversee water quality and quantity, said it is fair to say that both drought and water use permits affect the state’s groundwater supply.
She said the state and two water management districts are conducting a joint review of the data to see why the Silver Springs flow has dropped and what is causing it. The state also has launched projects to reuse water and capture rainwater, although the water management districts saw their budgets decrease sharply this year.
The five districts are also working more collaboratively since groundwater does not adhere to boundaries.
“We do not want to lose our springs,” Dr. Shortelle said.
Leaning into the still, murky Silver River, Karen Ahlers, a local environmentalist, grabbed a clutch of slimy hydrilla that is now clogging the waters.
“It’s scary how fast this is happening,” she said. “It seems as if we have reached some type of a tipping point.”

120622-c
Report: Everglades restoration shows too little progress
Sun Sentinel - by David Fleshler,
June 22, 2012
After 12 years and billions of dollars, "little progress" has been made in restoring the core of the Everglades, according to a report released Thursday by the National Research Council.
The report, an annual assessment required by Congress, found most restoration projects took place around the edges of the Everglades, improving water quality but failing to address the more severe problem of the quantity of water flowing through the vast marsh. As a result, there has been a continued decline of the classic central Everglades ecosystems, the sawgrass sloughs, ridges and tree islands inhabited by alligators, wading birds, snakes and panthers.
"There has been minimal progress in …restoring the water flow volumes and velocities, depth, and duration that sustain the distinctive terrain of the Everglades," states the report, prepared by 18 scientists from universities and the research council's staff.
Of the 3 million acres of the original Everglades, about half has been drained to make way for farms and cities. What remains has been degraded by a system of canals, levees and pumping stations that have destabilized the natural flow of water, leaving some sections of the Everglades too dry, others too wet. The water that does arrive contains too much phosphorus and other pollutants, which fertilizes the growth of cattails, crowding out native vegetation.
The $13.5 billion Everglades restoration is a state-federal project to restore natural flows of clean water through marshes, tree islands and sloughs, improving habitat for a vast range of wildlife and ensuring water supplies for South Florida's human population.
"I think the scientists are looking at this and saying, 'Hey, time is running out,'" said Jonathan Ullman, Everglades representative for the Sierra Club. "This isn't moving fast enough, and if we really want to restore the Everglades, we have to restore the flow through the central Everglades and provide clean water."
Gov. Rick Scott and federal environmental officials last year announced plans to reemphasize the central Everglades, and the authors of the report said they were "encouraged" by this development. But they warned that time was growing short, and expressed concern about funding.
Although costs were intended to be split by the state and federal governments, Florida has so far put up $3.1 billion and the federal government $854 million.
Howie Gonzales, ecosystem branch chief of the U.S. Army Corps of EngineersJacksonville District, the lead federal agency on the restoration, acknowledged most progress so far has been on the peripheries but said plans for several central Everglades projects will be delivered to Congress for approval in the next two years.
These "will identify and plan for projects on land already in public ownership to allow more water to be directed south to the central Everglades, Everglades National Park and Florida Bay while protecting coastal estuaries."
The report said it could take centuries for some of the most ravaged parts of the Everglades to recover, including tree islands, ridges and sloughs and the thinning peat soil underlying the marsh.
Related:
Federal report shows little progress in Everglades     Associated Press, ABC-8 WRIC.com, NECN.com

120622-d
Scientists say rising sea levels may threaten Pinellas County in coming decades
Palm Beach Post, Tampa Bay Times
June 22, 2012
BOCA RATON — If you're worried about rising sea levels but you still want to live in Florida, Palm Beach County is a relatively safe place to own property, but probably not Pinellas County.
If oceans continue to rise in the coming decades, the areas most likely to be under water are Pinellas, Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Lee counties, said scientists who gathered Thursday for Florida Atlantic University's Sea Level Rise Summit.
Palm Beach County benefits from elevations that are about 2 feet higher than those lower-lying areas, said Jayantha Obeysekera, director of modeling at the South Florida Water Management District.
"Palm Beach is a little higher," Obeysekera said.
South Florida stands to sustain significant damage from rising sea levels, said Ben Strauss, chief operating officer of Climate Central in Princeton, N.J. Florida is home to nearly half of the 4.9 million Americans who live at elevations less than 4 feet above the high-tide line, he said.
Among the cities with the most residents living at those elevations: Hialeah, Pembroke Pines, Cape Coral, Miami Beach, Plantation, Miramar and Fort Lauderdale.
Many of those cities are well inland, reflecting the reality that properties near the Everglades can face a higher risk of flooding than oceanfront homes.
"The mental image most people have is mansions on the beach," Strauss said.
There was no debate among scientists that seas are rising. Gary Mitchum, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida, said sea levels rose less than 2 millimeters a year from 1950 to 1992. Since 1992, he said, seas have been rising more than 3 millimeters a year.
Scientists acknowledge that they can't predict how quickly sea levels will continue to rise, but they agreed that it will be decades before South Florida sees catastrophic flooding.
The Sea Level Rise Summit continues today.

120621-b
DEP's Vinyard responds to Graham with concerns about starting from 'square one' on water
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
June 21, 2012
DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. said Thursday he's concerned that establishing a committee to oversee springs issues could delay department efforts to protect water.
The comments were in response to statements Wednesday from former Sen. Bob Graham in a letter that he and other members of the Florida Conservation Coalition sent to Gov. Rick Scott.
The letter cited dramatic declines in water flows to Silver and Rainbow springs in Marion County. Graham called on Scott to establish a resource planning and management committee as provided for under Florida law to oversee protection of springs in north Florida.
Vinyard said he shares Graham's sense of urgency in dealing with water issues. But Vinyard said establishing a committee could delay department efforts already under way, including two regional initiatives that are holding public meetings scheduled for next week.
"To start from square one with a new committee or commission seems to be an opportunity for delay," Vinyard told The Florida Current. "And what I have is a sense of urgency. I want for both to move forward and move forward quickly."
The Central Florida Water Initiative includes only Seminole, Orange, Osceola Lake and Polk counties. Agencies involved in the initiative are hosting an open house Thursday in St. Cloud.
On Monday, the North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership holds its initial stakeholder advisory committee meeting at the St. Johns River Water Management District in Palatka. DEP and the Suwannee River Water Management District also are involved.
A third working group was established three weeks ago to share data on Silver and Rainbow springs, said Jennifer Diaz, DEP's press secretary. The agencies involved are DEP's Florida Geological Survey, the St. Johns River Water Management District and Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Graham told the Current on Thursday that the lack of setting "minimum flows and levels" to protect Silver Springs shows the state water regulatory system is not working. Adena Springs Ranch has applied to pump more than 13 million gallons per day of groundwater.
Vinyard said he doesn't know why the minimum flows haven't been set for those springs. The St. Johns River Water Management District says it will set minimum flows for Silver Springs in 2013, after the ranch permit could be issued.
After being appointed last year, Vinyard said he established DEP's first Office of Water Policy to improve the sharing of science among the state's water districts.
"Obviously I can't control what was done or not done in the previous 30 years," Vinyard said. "But I share the public's concern."
"We have some of the best scientists, really, in the world on water issues housed in our water management districts and housed at DEP. They certainly have our support to do the right thing to protect these resources. I'm encouraging them to move as quickly as the science allows."

120621-c
Feds, state back in sync on Everglades water quality
Palm Beach Post – Letter by Gwen Keyes Fleming,  Administrator for Region 4 of the EPA, Atlanta, GA
June 21, 2012
Regarding the article, “EPA OKs $880 million Everglades cleanup plan”: We are all painfully familiar with the decline of the Everglades. One cause is phosphorus pollution from agricultural sources and urban runoff. This pollution has destroyed thousands of acres.
Restoring the Everglades will have significant economic benefits. The Everglades supports tourism, recreation and agriculture, and supplies drinking water to South Florida. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency took a significant step toward restoration when we found that permits submitted by the state will satisfy the EPA by improving water quality to levels that will restore and protect the Everglades.
These permits were submitted in response to a September 2010 amended determination, written by the EPA and filed in federal court, which provided remedies. The state proposed an alternative approach, and has further modified its proposal at the EPA’s request.
Restoring the Everglades is one of the most ambitious ecological restorations ever undertaken. Over the last two years, the EPA, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District have developed a plan that contains scientifically sound projects to reduce phosphorus pollution. We will remain an active partner with the state in overseeing implementation of the plan.
The state’s package includes a formal, science-based limit, known as the Water Quality Based Effluent Limit, on phosphorus discharges into the Everglades. This limit will be achieved by implementing a suite of projects on a schedule, and includes a state and federal enforceability framework. While we would prefer an earlier schedule , we are hopeful the timetable can be accelerated if circumstances and resources permit.
The Obama administration and the EPA are committed to restoring the Everglades. In fact, the administration has invested more than $1.4 billion to jump-start construction projects and protect habitat on working lands.
The EPA appreciates the hard work the state has undertaken to deliver this final package. This effort puts the state back on the path to achieve phosphorus removal that will protect the Everglades, paving the way for other restoration projects that depend on clean water. The most important thing is to begin now on this final phase of restoring water quality in the international treasure that is the Everglades.

120621-d
Focusing on water for Central Everglades essential to reversing whole ecosystem's continuing decline
e!ScienceNews, Phys.org
June 21, 2012
Twelve years into a multibillion-dollar state and federal effort to save the Florida Everglades, little progress has been made in restoring the core of the ecosystem, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. Expedited restoration projects that improve the quality and amount of water in this area are necessary to reverse ongoing declines. A new federal pilot project offers an innovative approach to this challenge, although additional analysis is needed to maximize restoration benefits within existing legal constraints. The report is the fourth biennial evaluation of progress made by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a project launched in 2000 that aims to reverse the ecosystem's decline while continuing to meet demands for water supply and flood control. The $13.5 billion effort comprises numerous projects to be completed over the next several decades. The committee that wrote the report found that restoration remains primarily focused on the periphery of the central Everglades. Consequently, restoration efforts within the water conservation areas and Everglades National Park lag behind other portions. Progress has been made to improve the system's water quality, such as reducing phosphorus and finalizing negotiations for additional water quality projects. Nevertheless, there has been minimal success in increasing the amount and flow of water needed to restore the remnant system. Key components that depend on the amount of water in the system, such as the ridge and slough and tree islands, continue to degrade.
"Unless near-term progress is made to improve water quantity and restore water flow, ecosystem losses will continue, many of which would require decades to centuries to recover," said William Boggess, chair of the committee and professor and executive associate dean of the college of agricultural sciences at Oregon State University, Corvallis."
However, bringing in more water, or even redistributing existing water flows before water quality is improved, risks introducing levels of contaminants that would have substantial effects on the ecosystem and possibly exceed legal limits.Analyzing the connections between water quality and quantity is one of the remaining challenges of the program, and will be a key component for moving forward."
The committee found that the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) -- one of five U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pilot projects nationwide that will test a new accelerated project planning process -- is an important and promising new initiative. Its goal is to deliver an approved project implementation report on central Everglades restoration to Congress within two years instead of the typical six-year process.At the completion of the committee's report, CEPP remained at an early stage, and no specific project plans were available for the committee to review.
Over the past few years, scientific understanding has advanced and provides a solid foundation for decision making in the program, the committee said. Investment in cutting-edge research, consolidated and timely synthesis, and effective monitoring are critical to supporting sound choices. Additional use of integrated ecosystem modeling and decision support tools could facilitate restoration progress by clarifying potential restoration conflicts, identifying interim strategies for limiting further degradation of critical ecosystem components, and enhancing the capacity to address trade-offs in a more timely and integrated way.
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Florida Water Management District, and U.S. Department of the Interior. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.
Related:
Focusing On Water For Central Everglades Essential To Reversing Whole Ecosystem's Continuing Decline, Says National Research Council
WaterOnline

120621-e





REPORT brief

120621-h
Report on the Florida Everglades: Progress is being made but more needed
Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald - by Curtis Morgan
June 21, 2012
In a progress report ordered by Congress, a team of independent scientists finds restoration is finally moving forward but more needs to be done faster.
Everglades restoration is finally moving forward but the struggling system stills more water — and fast. That sums up a major progress report on the ambitious $13.5 billion project released Thursday.
The report from independent scientists appointed by the National Resource Council is more upbeat than previous reviews but also finds much to question in the joint state-federal effort launched in 2000.
After a dozen years, the report finds plenty of positive signs with eight projects under construction, a new $880 million state plan to clean up polluted farm and suburban runoff and efforts to reduce federal red tape that has delayed work for years.
But life in the vast interior Everglades, from tree islands to endangered snail kites, continues to decline for a lack of water, and restoration could stall again in the near future unless Congress signs off on pending projects and steps up with more money. The report finds that too much early work has focused on the edges of the Everglades, with water storage and flood-control projects intended to protect or benefit cities and farmers, while little has been done to revive the interior marshes and sloughs starving for more water.
“The key point is there is continuing degradation in ecosystems that will take decades or perhaps centuries to recover,’’ said William Boggess, an agricultural sciences professor at Oregon State University-Corvallis and chair of the committee of 14 scientists who wrote the congressionally mandated analysis.
The two-year progress report from the council, part of the nonprofit National Academy of Sciences, is the fourth in a series of independent assessments ordered by Congress of a restoration plan jointly managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.
Previous reports have been broadly critical of restoration efforts, particularly in 2008 when a blistering analysis found efforts paralyzed by delay, interagency turf battles, spiraling cost projections and indifferent political support. The agencies have used recommendations in past reports to overhaul plans.
The water district and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a joint statement saying the report “reaffirms the significant progress that has been made, including advances in scientific understanding, while recognizing the considerable work that lies ahead.”
The latest report points to an array of remaining science, engineering and money challenges for an ecological restoration project of unprecedented complexity and but also finds substantial movement over the last two years, citing “notable progress” on the eight construction projects, plus advances in science and improvements in water quality that are key to a healthy Everglades.
“There are signs of hope,’’ Boggess wrote in a preface to the 210-page report.
The report was completed before the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month finalized an $880 million state plan intended to dramatically reduce the flow of farm and suburban pollution into the Everglades.
But even without the additional projects, the report suggests the $1.8 billion the state has spent on a network of pollution-scrubbing marshes is having an effect. There are signs that concentrations of the damaging nutrient phosphorus are starting to stabilize. The spread of cattails — plants once dubbed by a scientist as “grave markers of the Everglades’’ because they crowd out native plants in polluted areas — has begun to slow.
The most pressing challenge, the report finds, is to move more quickly to restore natural flows to the parched sloughs of Everglades National Park and to sawgrass marshes and prairies between Tamiami Trail and the farms south of Lake Okeechobee.
 Last year, agencies launched a Central Everglades project intended to speed up that work by reducing the typical planning period from six years to 18 months. An initial blueprint is expected by year’s end but where funding will come from remains uncertain.
Despite a deep recession and resulting budget shortages, both the state and federal government continue to support restoration and pollution control efforts — though the report notes that future funding on the federal side is uncertain unless Congress approves major legislation that typically funds large civil works projects across the nation.
Though funding has increased under the Obama administration, restoration remains far from the 50-50 cost-share it was supposed to be, the report finds. The state has outspent the federal government — $3 billion to $854 million — on specific restoration projections since 2002. On overall Glades spending, including pollution clean-up and previously approved projects, the gap is even larger, $10.1 billion in state funding to $3 billion in federal dollars.
Boggess, who was in Washington Thursday briefing agencies and congressional aides on the report, said “We’ve been encouraging the federal interests to pick up the slack and focus a bit more on the water quantity.’’
Related:
Everglades restoration is progressing, but water is still lacking, report says       KansasCity.com

120621-i
Sierra Club water quality testing to debut in Manatee/Sarasota
Bradenton.com - by Sara Kennedy
June 21, 2012
MANATEE -- The Sierra Club has picked the Manatee-Sarasota area as the first location in Florida for a program that will train volunteers to test the quality of local bodies of water.
The club's "Water Sentinels Program" is expected to debut July 14 and already has attracted about 30 volunteers who hope to learn to accurately test water quality, according to Cris Costello, the club's regional organizing representative.
The venerable environmental organization plans to train people to monitor areas near, for example, Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC's Wingate Creek phosphate mine, and a recently-approved mine extension near Duette.
The mines sit near the headwaters of the Myakka River, whose lower portion has been designated among the state's "Outstanding Florida Waters," because of its lush flora and fauna.
"We're starting it here because my office happens to be in Sarasota County," explained Costello Wednesday. "We intend to take this program all across the state; we're starting small to work the bugs out."
Those training as "Water Sentinels" will join 13,000 others in 22 states, according to the national Sierra
Club website. Volunteers, who do not have to be club members, monitor approximately 48,000 square miles of watersheds across the U.S. that are home to 184 million Americans, the website said.
By the end of the year, Costello hopes to provide training across Florida, she said.
She has already contacted the Manatee County Natural Resources Department, the county Health Department, and state environmental protection officials, Costello said, adding the responses have been "absolutely positive."
Typically, testing focuses on substances like nitrogen, phosphorus or fecal coliform, which can be indicators of water pollution, said Costello.
However, local volunteers working near phosphate mines might test for other substances, she said.
Sierra Club trainer Tim Guilfoile is slated to lead classes; the club plans to contract with a local lab to evaluate sample results, Costello said.
Asked how often bodies of water near phosphate mines are currently tested, a local official said it varies, depending on the mine and other factors.
For example, Wingate Creek mine and its extension would be monitored for water quality monthly for the first year of active mining, then with county approval, dropped to quarterly testing, said Alissa Powers, environmental program manager, mining services, Manatee County Natural Resources Department.
Groundwater wells typically are sampled semi-annually for water quality and weekly for water levels, she said, adding that the mines also would be checked for radiation levels and rainfall data.
Russell Schweiss, manager of public affairs for the Mosaic company, declined comment.

120620-
Tarnished jewel
The Gainesville Sun - Editorial
June 20, 2012
Silver Springs is the crown jewel of Florida's glittering necklace of natural springs. But, increasingly, it is a tarnished jewel: Its flow greatly diminished, its waters laden with nutrients, its vegetation brown with algae. Its diminished beauty makes a mockery of Tallahassee's empty pledge to “get the water right.”
On Saturday, former Gov. Bob Graham and the Florida Conservation Coalition will convene at Silver River State Park for a day-long series of speeches, workshops and events intended to highlight, not only the plight of Silver Springs, but Florida's neglectful, wasteful stewardship of its water resources.
The occasion is not intended simply to protest a water consumption permit or bemoan the slow death of Florida's premier spring. Rather, it is intended to ignite a popular movement, a “blue revolution,” in defense of Florida's water.
What are you doing on Saturday, Gov. Scott ?

120619-a
New report evaluates progress of Everglades Restoration Plan
Eurekalert.org
June 19, 2012
Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Fourth Biennial Review, 2012 -- a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council -- assesses progress in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a multibillion-dollar, joint federal and state effort that aims to reverse the ecosystem's decline while meeting growing demands for clean water and flood control. This is the fourth biennial evaluation of CERP, which was launched in 2000 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.
Advance copies will be available to reporters only beginning at 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 20.
THE REPORT IS EMBARGOED AND NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BEFORE 11 A.M. EDT ON THURSDAY, JUNE 21.
To obtain a copy of the report, contact the Office of News and Public Information; tel 202-334-2138 or e-mail news@nas.edu.

120619-b
Water district loses for no reason
Tallahassee.com - by Richard F. Griswold, General Manager of Destin Water Users Inc.
June 19, 2012
Change is on the way for Northwest Florida, and not the kind we like.
Florida does better at managing water resources than any other state, and a lot of credit goes to its regional management approach. Florida is divided into five water management districts, each with an appointed board of directors made up of citizens from the district, and an executive director who is responsible for carrying out the policies of the board.
Through the years, some of those districts have become burdened with layers of bureaucracy, rules and parochialism. One district, however, does not fit into this mold. The Northwest Florida Water Management District has operated for decades on a collaborative approach to water-related issues. It is a basic, simple system that works.
To prove the point, Northwest Florida has adequate drinking water for all the needs of our citizens. It also meets the water demands for agriculture and all business and commercial activities. In addition, the springs, streams, lakes and estuaries have the highest quality of water of any part of the state. And the Northwest District approach to management is — in large part — responsible for that accomplishment.
Gov. Rick Scott has taken on the task of fixing the water management districts, and four of those districts do need fixing. But in the fixing, he has determined that all the districts must be treated the same no matter if that "same" improves the situation in one district or makes it worse in another. This is the classic one-size-fits-all mentality.
On April 23, Doug Barr — who has served in the Northwest District for 32 years and as executive director for the last 20 — was forced to retire after Scott did not reappoint him. What a shame! Barr is a talented individual who should be given his due for the work he has done for the citizens and the water resources of our district. This, however, was not to be. The other four districts all received new executive directors approved/picked by Gov. Scott, and I guess the governor felt that he wanted to bat 5-for-5. How this came about, though is an interesting tale.
At the beginning of Florida’s last legislative session, Scott appointed Barr to another term . The appointment was approved by one committee but, for some reason, got stuck in another, as did many other appointees. Still, appointees can be brought up on the floor for a confirmation vote. One senator has only to say “I move the confirmation of Doug Barr for another term as executive director. All in favor, vote aye.” A mere couple of minutes is all it takes, yet the Senate says it ran out of time.
Even without the vote, the governor could have reappointed Barr, but he didn’t.
The Senate neglected to do its duty. The governor is not talking about his actions in the matter. And it all appears that the citizens of Northwest Florida don’t count for much as far as our elected officials are concerned. Very sad.
So, here we are. Other parts of the state will benefit from the efforts of Scott, and the Northwest District will be penalized. The least that our senators and governor can do is to explain to us why they elected to take a step backward in our area’s water resource management.

120618-a
As mercury affects fish in Treasure Coast waters, Florida officials grapple with fix
TCPalm.com - by Scott Wyland
June 18, 2012
Mercury tainting fish in the Indian River Lagoon and Everglades could come from local power plants or ones as far away as China.
The state's environmental managers must grapple with the far-flung sources of this toxic metal as they try to write the state's first limits on mercury pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has begun a series of meetings around the state to establish the maximum acceptable levels in the state's waterways, where mercury is a common contaminant that has led to advisories against eating too much of certain fish species.
Tests have shown people who live near the Indian River Lagoon and women on the Treasure Coast have above-average levels of mercury in their systems. Dolphins who swim the lagoon have shown some of the highest levels of mercury seen in the species worldwide.
How to reduce mercury in Florida's waters is the tough question.
As officials explained at a meeting last week in West Palm Beach, mercury in the waterways comes from sources around the world, from the large number of coal-fired power plants being built in China to the exhaust pipes of cars cruising up Interstate 95.
Some scientists also say sulfate used by Florida farmers as fertilizer and fungicide help convert the metal into methylmercury — the organic form of the toxin found in fish.
"It really is a national and a global issue," said Trina Vielhauer, chief of the department's Air Regulation Bureau. "We certainly are looking at Florida sources, and we're expecting folks to do what they can. But global and national sources are important."
Mercury is one of Florida's most persistent and dangerous pollutants, capable of causing neurological problems, memory loss, deafness, blindness, mental retardation and personality disorders. It presents the greatest danger to children, pregnant women and women of child-bearing age because it can damage the nervous system of the developing child.
From 2005 to 2010 there have been 89 confirmed cases of mercury poisoning in the state, with the vast majority thought to be linked to eating fish.
Researchers at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce say any amount of this toxic substance in a person's body is cause for concern. Mercury absorbs into fatty tissue and accumulates over time.
Last summer, Harbor Branch took 59 hair samples from adults who lived near the lagoon and plans to take at least 90 more samples this year, with an increased emphasis on residents who catch lagoon fish for their meals.
So far, the residents tested had mercury levels averaging 1.5 parts per million, higher than in other test areas in North America. Nearly all participants ate some seafood, making it likely that the higher mercury came from fish, researchers say
In 2010, Martin County Health Department measured mercury levels in 400 local women and found a fourth of them also averaged 1.5 parts per million — the highest rate nationally among women tested.
Warnings are in place throughout the state, with 12,994 square miles of marine and fresh water bodies classified as impaired by mercury, along with 2,903 miles of rivers, streams and canals.
Of all the mercury falling on the United States, 87 percent comes from outside the country, with two-thirds of the worldwide total coming from Asia, said Jan Mandrup-Poulsen, administrator of the watershed protection section of the department.
"If we were to look at all the mercury sources in Florida and turn them all off, we wouldn't solve the mercury problem in Florida," he said.
But David Guest, managing attorney for the Tallahassee office of Earthjustice, which sues on behalf of environmental groups, said the state's attempt to blame the bulk of the problem on other countries was ridiculous and allowed state regulators to avoid imposing tighter controls on the Florida power plants responsible for much of the mercury.
"It makes it looks like you're doing something when you're really not," he said. "This is not real. This is not a regulatory program aimed at mercury reduction, even though there are mercury advisories around the state and it's a serious problem, especially in the Everglades."
State officials say mercury from Florida power plants, trash-burning facilities and other sources has declined.
There are several reasons why Florida's mercury problem persists, officials say. The state's heavy traffic compounds mercury pollution, and the frequent lightning storms claw mercury from the air to the ground, they say.
However, Melodie Naja, a water quality scientist at the Everglades Foundation, has argued the state's mercury-laden waters shouldn't be blamed solely on power plants and air pollution.
Sulfate from fertilizer runoff increases the conversion of mercury into the organic methylmercury, she said.
Conservationists also say fertilizers and other pollutants deplete oxygen in the water, creating a breeding ground for the bacteria that turn mercury into methylmercury.
State officials aim to submit proposed mercury limits in September to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. After that, the state will draft a plan for imposing the limits.
In the future, the EPA could use the limits as guidelines for reducing pollution from power plants, cement kilns and other sources around the country, state officials said. The national limits, in turn, could form the basis for international treaties curbing mercury emissions.
"We don't have any authority outside Florida," Vielhauer said. "But we have been working with EPA, which does have influence on what happens in the rest of the country."

120618-b
Dirt cheap ? Not the Putnam ranch
Palm Beach Post – Editorial by Andrew Marra, Staff Writer
June 18, 2012
For some 80 years, the wealthy Putnam family raised cattle on its vast ranch near the Kissimmee River in Highlands County. The South Florida Water Management District wanted a 600-acre chunk for its efforts to restore the river, so it made multiple offers and, after being turned down time and again, came back in 2005 with an eye-popping pitch the family couldn’t refuse: buying up the entire 2,000-acre ranch for 30 percent more than its estimated value, along with a lucrative tax break, a lofty lawyer fee and free grazing rights for the family’s cattle.
The deal put millions of dollars into the pockets of Adam Putnam, then a congressman and now Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, along with the rest of his family. While there is no indication that the then-congressman had any undue influence on the deal, the way in which water-management officials orchestrated it — as revealed this month in a Post investigation — seemed yet another example of the agency’s questionable land-management practices.
In an investigation of the 2005 land deal , The Post’s Christine Stapleton laid out several suspicious details about the transaction. Among them: the way that water-management officials calculated the land’s value went against the recommendations of the district’s own inspector general. The inspector general had recommended that land appraisals be done by appraisers hired through competitive bidding, and that district officials overseeing appraisals not overlap with the officials negotiating land deals. Both recommendations were ignored in this case.
Then there was the sale price — $25.5 million — which was well above the ranch’s estimated value of $19.4 million. District officials pointed out that land prices at the time were rising quickly, and that negotiating a higher price to avoid costly litigation might have saved money in the long run. But that has not proven to be the case. The district bought all 2,042 acres at that whopping price — even though it only needed 600 for its restoration plans — with the idea that it could trade off much of the rest of the land to nearby property owners. But no such deal ever happened. The land remains in district hands.
The details of this seven-year-old transaction add to a new understanding of some of the district’s bad practices, as revealed in Post articles in recent months. This is the same district that for years renewed leases on its public land without looking for better offers and whose top officials at times appeared too chummy with the wealthy landowners they regulated. The district has tried to reform some of these wasteful practices. The case of the Putam family ranch shows too much time and money already have been wasted.

120617-a
Getting the water right
Ocala.com - Editorial
June 17, 2012
Those four words are how Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard described what he says is the highest environmental priority of Gov. Rick Scott's administration. Specifically, Vinyard said, DEP is focused on improving and sustaining the quality and quantity of Florida's water supply.
"If we don't, there's no way we can prosper," Vinyard said during a visit with the Star-Banner editorial board this week.
We could not agree more. Yet, we have heard such rhetoric before, and we have to look no farther than our own once-spectacular Silver Springs for indisputable evidence that our community's and our state's waters are in decline, both in quality and quantity, with little help on the way.
We would like to believe that Scott and Vinyard are committed to restoring Florida's ailing waters. But so far, their policies have been anything but encouraging. There have been massive cuts to the state's five water management districts' budgets and direction from Scott to be more "business friendly" in a regulatory arena where one is hard pressed to find the first rejection of a consumptive use permit application — ever.
Meanwhile, water managers tell us that their decision on Adena Springs' request for a CUP for 13 million gallons of water a day will be based on science and data. Yet again, Silver Springs, which has become ground zero in the state's water debate because of the Adena Springs request, is the most studied and chronicled body of water in Florida — and the data shows nothing but steady decline and increasing distress. The spring flow is one-third of its historical average. The fish population has declined 90 percent in the past half century. Plant monocultures are taking over the banks of the Springs and the Silver River. Nitrate levels have increased about 15-fold in the past 50 years, creating an explosion of algae that has turned a once white sand bottom putrid brown.
Add to all that a historic drought, and it is hard to see the Adena Springs request as anything but the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place.
As a result, iconic Silver Springs has become the symbol of what is wrong not only with Florida's waters, but its water policies. In fact, a statewide "Speak Up: Silver Springs" rally planned for Saturday at the Silver River State Park, led by former governor and U.S. senator Bob Graham, is being described as "a call to action to protect and restore Silver Springs and Florida's imperiled waterways."
Vinyard cited a list of state efforts aimed at getting the water right, from water farming and establishing minimum flows and levels to setting new nutrient standards and encouraging more water recycling.
All are commendable and needed, if not overdue. But if the secretary and his boss want to make a statement about their sincerity — and that sincerity is certainly still unproven — about reversing the disastrous trends in Florida's water quality and quantity, we can think of no better place to start than right here at Silver Springs.
Vinyard's words were right on target. But so far the Scott administration has exhibited little seriousness about addressing Florida's documented water crisis, and actions speak far, far louder than words when it comes to getting the water right.

120617-b
Restoring Florida Everglades needs cooperation
Sun Sentinel
June 17, 2012
Give Gov. Rick Scott credit. His administration has succeeded in moving what has been an agonizingly slow initiative to restore the Florida Everglades. The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the governor's $1.5 billion proposal to clean up the region's polluted water, a necessity if Everglades restoration is to become a reality.
Up until last week, the joint effort to help the River of Grass has moved in fits and starts. Funding problems from Washington, decisions out of Tallahassee that left major parts of the restoration efforts unfinished, not to mention the longstanding rift between federal and state environmental officials over clean water standards, even as pollution problems from stormwater runoff continued almost unabated.
This, however, is a welcome breakthrough and a far cry from the bitter disputes the Scott administration is currently embroiled in with other federal agencies, most notably the U.S. Department of Justice over the state's controversial voting purge. In this case, policy won out over politics.
Fortunately, the EPA agreement is the latest in a string of good news for the River of Grass. The U.S. House is expected to pass a bill that would pour an additional $145 million to complete projects in the Kissimmee Valley, the Picayune Strand in Collier County and the Indian River Lagoon along the Treasure Coast to remove pollutants before the water reaches the Everglades.
The Everglades funding has bipartisan support, and while the legislation could be held up with other parts of the energy-water appropriations bill, news of additional support from Washington is encouraging as something has to give to help develop a comprehensive strategy that will pass muster with the courts and gain credibility with the public. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection plan that was forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week can't hurt.
The plan calls for the construction of new water storage and treatment areas, targeted hot spots that would require stricter pollution controls for where phosphorus runoff remains a problem. More important, the proposal includes the completion of the unfinished 16,700 acre reservoir in southwest Palm Beach County, an idea-turned-boondoggle that cost taxpayers roughly $280 million before the project was shelved as part of the U.S. Sugar land deal.
As an idea, the DEP plan is a big step forward. Still, it won't matter much if either the governor or the Florida Legislature balks at backing up the plan with money and the commitment to implement it. The lack of both was a major reason why Florida found itself facing the possibility of having an even more costly alternative imposed on it by the EPA.
The Everglades is often touted as a national treasure, not to mention a source of water for one of the nation's largest metropolitan communities. It's time for both the federal and state governments to treat it as such and finally develop – and ultimately execute – a comprehensive plan that actually restores it.

120616-a
Back on path to protect a treasure
TBO.com – Opinion by Staff
June 16, 2012
We are all painfully familiar with the decline of the Everglades over the years. One of the sources of this decline is phosphorus pollution from agricultural sources and urban runoff, which has caused thousands of acres of destroyed and degraded habitat, and hindered our ability to truly enjoy this landmark.
Restoring the Everglades will also have significant economic benefits. The Everglades supports tourism, recreation and agriculture, and supplies drinking water to a growing South Florida population. The ecosystem also supports jobs and contributes billions to Florida's economy.
On June 13 the Environmental Protection Agency took a significant step toward restoration when we found that permits submitted by the state of Florida will satisfy the agency by taking specific measures to improve water quality to levels that will restore and protect the Everglades. These permits were submitted in response to a September 2010 "Amended Determination," authored by EPA and filed in federal court, that provided a blueprint for remedies needed to restore water quality in the Everglades. The state built upon and modified that work, proposed an alternative approach, and has further modified its proposal at the request of EPA.
Restoring the Everglades is one of the largest, most ambitious and complex ecological restorations ever undertaken, requiring a coordinated effort among many stakeholders to be successful. Over the course of the last two years, EPA, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District have worked closely to develop a plan that contains a set of scientifically sound restoration projects to reduce phosphorus pollution. We will remain an active partner with the state in overseeing implementation of the plan.
The state's package has many positive attributes. There will be a formal science-based protective limit, known as "Water Quality Based Effluent Limit," on phosphorous pollution discharges into the Everglades. This limit will be achieved by implementing a suite of projects on a specified schedule and includes a state and federal enforceability framework agreed to by the parties. While EPA would prefer an earlier schedule for implementing the corrective actions, EPA is hopeful the timetable can be accelerated if circumstances and resources permit.
President Obama's administration and the EPA are firmly committed to protecting and restoring the Everglades. The administration has reinvigorated federal leadership in Everglades' restoration, investing more than $1.4 billion to jump-start construction projects and protect essential habitat on working lands.
EPA appreciates the hard work DEP has undertaken to deliver this final package. This effort puts the state back on the path to achieve the final levels of phosphorus removal that will protect the Everglades, paving the way for other major restoration projects that depend on clean water. The most important thing now is to begin this final phase of restoring water quality in the international treasure that is the Everglades.
Gwen Keyes Fleming is regional administrator for Environmental Protection Agency Region 4

120615-a
Everglades clean-up project approved
Ag Professional – by Colleen Scherer, Managing Editor
June 15, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency approved a $880 million plan to clean up the Everglades in Florida. The plan is designed to clean up the water quality over a 12-year period.
EPA approved permits for the proposal, saying its completion “would represent a significant and historic milestone in restoring America’s Everglades.”
The agriculture industry will be watching the unfolding of the plan closely as the plans stemmed from lawsuits in 1988 over the enforcement of the Clean Water Act in wetland areas. Florida is already facing challenges over meeting numeric nutrient criteria in other parts of the state.
The recently approved project will construct stormwater treatment areas and issue permits for the operation of tens of thousands of acres of already built ones. It will also create new water storage areas. These steps are designed to filter phosphorus out of the water system.
The steps to be taken to clean up the Everglades has been debated for years between state and government officials and the Audubon Society.
 “It wraps up most almost a decade of arguing over what the best thing to do is,” Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida, told MagicValley.com
Related:
EPA Approves $880 Million Everglades Clean-up Plan        W*USA 9  (2012/06/15)
EPA gives OK to $880M Everglades clean-up plan  Dayton Daily News  (2012/06/15)
Agreement on pollutants will help restore Everglades           Tampabay.com  (2012/06/15)
Progress on restoring Everglades        Tampabay.com (2012/06/15)
EPA Greenlights $880M Everglades Restoration Plan          Law360
EPA Approves Fla. Everglades Plan  HispanicBusiness.com/Assoc. Press  (2012/06/14)

120615-b
Everglades progress
TBO.com – Editorial by Staff
June 15, 2012
A meeting of the minds between Gov. Rick Scott and President Barack Obama's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may seem unlikely, but both sides deserve credit for hammering out a reasonable plan to finish the Everglades cleanup.
The $880 million agreement may be imperfect, but given the delays, funding shortfalls and litigation that have marked the effort to save the River of Grass, it represents a significant achievement.
Scott at first wanted to limit costs to $400 million while the feds pushed an aggressive cleanup strategy that would have cost well over $1 billion.
Both sides made concessions. Scott hung tough on ensuring that costs would not require any tax increase, but agreed to a more extensive plan. EPA pushed for tough water quality standards, but gave in to the state's demand for more time to meet the standards.
The work, primarily the construction of additional stormwater treatment, will significantly filter the phosphorous that runs off agricultural lands and taints the Everglades.
Five stormwater treatment areas covering 57,000 acres will be developed for the vast, watery network that runs from Central Florida to Florida Bay.
The Everglades merits the investment. The system sustains South Florida's water supply, filters water that flows into Florida Bay, and supports tourism and fishing.
An independent study a couple of years ago estimated restoring the Everglades would have a $4 return for every $1 spent, primarily because of its importance to Florida's drinking water supply.
But a healthy Everglades also will increase tourism, boost the recreational and commercial fishing industries and even help the real estate market. Visitors to Everglades National Park alone spend about $165 million a year.
The construction work that will take place due to the Scott-EPA agreement is expected to create 1,500 direct jobs and should create 15,350 indirect jobs.
Restoration work in the last three years, The Miami Herald reports, has generated about 10,000 jobs.
The massive effort to repair the much abused and polluted Everglades was instigated by a 1988 lawsuit filed by a federal attorney that correctly accused the state of not enforcing the Clean Water Act.
The state and feds eventually resolved to work together, but there continued to be disagreements and funding lapses. The cleanup deadline was moved back from 2006 to 2016.
Now it is being moved back again, which some environmentalists find objectionable.
But a few more years, which helps the state curtail its costs, is not going to be the death of the Everglades.
The important thing is that there is agreement to execute the cleanup.
It's still possible work could stall, expenses explode or commitments waver. But this compromise promises to bring momentum and certainty to the Everglades rescue effort.
Scott and the EPA deserve credit for working together to salvage a Florida treasure.

120614-a
Dirty Water in the Farm Bill
Americanrivers.org – by Stacey Detwiler
June 14, 2012
Right on the heels of the latest attacks on the Clean Water Act, the Senate is now preparing to take up the Farm Bill (S. 3240). This year’s bill includes multiple dirty water amendments that seek to prevent the Administration from moving forward on various clean water policies or to roll back and undermine the Clean Water Act itself.
Blocking Administration Efforts to Protect Clean Water:
●  Similar to the dirty water provision in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act in the House (H.R. 5325), Senator Barrasso (R-WY) introduced an amendment to prevent the Administration from restoring protections to small streams and wetlands, ensuring that these waters – a critical source of drinking water for 117 million Americans – continue to be vulnerable to pollution.
●  Senator Inhofe (R-OK) introduced an amendment to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward to update its stormwater programs to better manage runoff, which can pollute our water with pathogens, excess nutrients, heavy metals and other contaminants that put people’s health at risk.
Weakening the Clean Water Act:
●  Senator Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment which would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, ignoring science and even existing policy to severely limit waters protected under the law.
●  Another amendment, introduced by Senator Johanns (R-NE), would exempt dischargers of pesticides directly into waterways from meeting minimum safety standards as required under the Clean Water Act. Already, more than 1,000 waterways are polluted by pesticides. Exempting these discharges weakens the law and puts clean water at risk.
●  Senator Rubio (R-FL) offered an amendment to remove nutrient limits for the discharge of manure, fertilizer, and sewage that pollute Florida’s waters with excess nutrients and cause toxic algae to grow. Senator Rubio (R-FL) offered an amendment to remove nutrient limits for the discharge of manure, fertilizer, and sewage that pollute Florida’s waters with excess nutrients and cause toxic algae to grow.

120614-b
EPA: State's Everglades Plan Meets Federal Approval
WCTV.tv – by David Royse, The News Service of Florida
June 14, 2012
Federal environmental officials told Florida that a revised state plan to improve water quality in the Everglades meets with Washington's approval, and said it may meet a federal judge's order to clean up the ecosystem.
Federal environmental officials on Wednesday told Florida that a revised state plan to improve water quality in the Everglades meets with Washington's approval, and said it may meet a federal judge's order to clean up the ecosystem.
In notifying the state Department of Environmental Protection that changes made to an earlier plan are satisfactory, the EPA will allow the state and the South Florida Water Management District to move forward with what officials say is a historic plan for the construction of stormwater treatment areas and huge new areas of water storage.
The plan was first submitted by Scott Administration officials to Washington in October last year, and a revised proposal was submitted earlier this month after the EPA raised objections to the initial plan. Permits for the network of stormwater treatment areas, which will be operated by the water management district, are required under the Clean Water Act and other laws. State officials said the technical plan was arrived at after extensive back-and-forth and collaboration with federal officials. The main goal is reducing phosphorous pollution in the ecosystem.
"This integrated plan will clean up water to protect the unique wetland system that makes up the Everglades Protection Area," said SFWMD Executive Director Melissa Meeker. “With a firm commitment to design, construct and operate a comprehensive and science-based suite of remedies, the District is taking a landmark step toward meeting the water quality needs of America’s Everglades. We will continue to work closely with our federal partners to finalize and implement these important projects."
"The state's plan meets the water quality goals in (an earlier EPA requirement) and establishes an enforceable framework for ensuring compliance with the Clean Water Act and its applicable regulations," Regional EPA Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming wrote to DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard on Wednesday. "Due to our collective efforts, the plan establishes for the first time a science-based protective water quality-based effluent limit on phosphorous discharges into the Everglades, additional water treatment projects to remove excess phosphorous to achieve that limit and a robust plan of monitoring and scientific research to confirm that water quality improvement is moving forward."
Vinyard praised the EPA for quickly approving the most recent state revisions to the proposal.
"Thanks to EPA’s expeditious review of our revised permit, we are moving forward on a comprehensive plan that is in the best interest of the Everglades and Florida’s taxpayers," Vinyard said in a statement.
The state is under a federal court order to clean up the Everglades, following a lawsuit that resulted in a 2008 order by U.S. District Judge Alan Gold boost cleanup efforts.
EPA's Keyes Fleming said she believed the new plan would meet the court's expectations.
"Under EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's leadership, and now Governor Scott's leadership, these critical measures will launch a new era in Everglades restoration that I believe will fulfill the expectations of Judge Gold, and the hopes of many others concerned about the health of the Everglades, for strong action to expedite the final necessary steps to restore Everglades water quality," Keyes Fleming wrote.
The Everglades Foundation supported the revised plan Tallahassee sent to Washington, but the environmental group Friends of the Everglades said in a statement last week, when that plan was put forth, that it was "encouraged," but still had fears.
"The state has proven an unreliable partner over many, many years," Friends of the Everglades, which was a party to the original lawsuit, said of the state's new plan. "We want to believe the best is at hand for the Everglades, but we have not seen detail sufficient to allow us to move from a position of well-earned skepticism.
"Our fear is that the state once again is declining to impose enforceable remedies, adequate financing and best farming practices to sharply curtail phosphorous pollution of the Everglades as required by law," Friends of the Everglades said.
But DEP said the plan will allow water managers to significantly reduce the amount of phosphorus in runoff to historically low levels, and dramatically increase the treatment capacity of water cleaning areas.
The proposal includes what the agency calls an "ultra-low" phosphorus water quality standard of 10 parts per billion: "six times cleaner than rainfall and 100 times lower than limits established for discharges from industrial facilities."
The treatment wetlands use plants to remove phosphorus from flowing water before it goes into the Everglades. DEP says that this year the treatment areas already in place reduced total phosphorus loads going into the Everglades by nearly 80 percent.
Related:
EPA gives OK to $880M Everglades clean up          St. Augustine Record (2012/06/14)
EPA gives OK to $880M Everglades clean-up plan  Newsday  (2012/06/14)
Florida's Everglades plan gets EPA approval Lexington Herald Leader (2012/06/14)
EPA Announces Florida Permits to Restore Everglades Water ...     Water World (2012/06/14)
EPA gives OK to $880M Everglades clean-up plan  Review Seeker (press release)  (2012/06/13)
Florida: Everglades Plan Advances                New York Times (2012/06/13)

120614-c
Faulty FDEP science drives unnecessary Florida mercury scare
CanadaFreePress.com - Guest Column byWillie Soon
June 14, 2012
Regulatory actions being debated in Florida should raise bright red flags for Sunshine State residents, other US states, and even other countries.
On May 24, the Environmental Assessment and Restoration Division of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) issued a seriously flawed draft report, proposing much stricter limits for mercury in Florida’s river, stream, lake and coastal waters. The FDEP claims the rules are based on sound science and will improve environmental quality and public health.
However, my studies of mercury (Hg) and its biologically toxic form, methyl mercury (MeHg), over the past ten years make it clear that the new limits are not scientifically defensible.
Not only would they raise electricity costs, while bringing no health or environmental benefits. The new standards, along with statements made by the DEP in public forums, would actually harm people’s health.
First, the FDEP is wrong in claiming that mercury pollution is a new, manmade phenomenon.
The Department cites a 2008 paper that reported average mercury levels of 0.25 parts per million (ppm) in the hair of Florida Panhandle women of childbearing age (16 to 49).  However, a 2002 study of 550-year-old Alaskan mummified bodies found hair mercury levels five to eighteen times higher: an average of 1.2 ppm for four adults and 1.44 ppm for four infants – and 4.6 ppm in one mummy!
Equally troubling, the FDEP draft report cited a 1972 study, but failed to highlight the study’s conclusion that mercury levels in the past were at least as high as those in today’s tuna. In a related study, Princeton University scientists expecting to find a 9-26% increase in MeHg instead found no increase (and actually a slight decline) in mercury levels in tuna caught between 1971 and 1998. The Princeton researchers concluded that mercury in fish is not related to human emissions, which continue to decline in the USA.
Even more important, the FDEP draft report failed to consider a 17-year-long Seychelles Islands study that found no harm, and no indications of harm, from mercury in children whose mothers ate five to twelve servings of fish per week – far more than most Floridians consume.
In establishing MeHg exposure risks from fish consumption, the researchers concluded that no consistent patterns exist between prenatal MeHg exposures and detailed neurological and behavioral tests. They also concluded that, despite remote but potential MeHg risks, “ocean fish consumption during pregnancy is important for the health and development of children, and the benefits are long lasting.”
Moreover, the latest Centers for Disease Control data show blood mercury levels for U.S. women and children are already below EPA’s “safe” levels for mercury – and EPA’s standards are the most restrictive in the world. In addition, selenium in nearly all fish is strongly attracted to mercury molecules and thus protects both fish and people against buildups of methyl mercury.
By scaring women and children into eating less fish, and thus getting fewer Omega 3 fatty acids, FDEP’s misleading literature on “dangerous mercury levels” in fish will actually impair their health.
Second, the FDEP failed to note that natural sources dwarf human mercury emissions.
Forest fires in Florida alone emitted an estimated 4,170 pounds of mercury annually between 2002 and 2006. This single source of local mercury emissions is significantly higher than mercury emitted in 2009 from all manmade mercury sources in Florida, including coal-fired power plants (which emit less than 1,500 pounds per year).
The FDEP draft report did note that volcanoes are an important source of global mercury emissions, but failed to explain how enormous this natural source is. In fact, recent studies calculated that volcanoes, subsea vents, geysers and other natural sources emit up to 2 million pounds of mercury per year.
These natural sources explain why it is unsurprising to find high levels of mercury in samples taken years ago in Florida fish, panthers and raccoons – long before coal-fired power plants were on the scene. Mercury has long been part of our environment, in ocean and terrestrial waters, and in Earth’s rocks and soils.
Today, mercury from natural sources represents the vast bulk of all the mercury in our atmosphere. Even eliminating 86% of all mercury from Florida’s power plants (as the FDEP proposes) would bring trifling environmental and health benefits – while raising electricity rates for the state’s families, retirees, schools, hospitals and businesses, costing jobs, and adversely affecting human health and welfare.
Third, the FDEP is wrong when it says mercury “pollution” in Florida’s watersheds and fishes is increasing.
Since the 1970s, contaminants in fish have been monitored increasingly each year. More advisories are being issued simply because of increased sampling by state agencies, and “not necessarily due to increased levels or frequency of contamination,” as even the U.S. EPA acknowledges.
Finally, FDEP’s proposed new mercury limit for Florida’s inland and coastal waters is an unjustifiably low 1.25 parts per trillion – which is equivalent to 0.00000125 ppm and 125 seconds in 32 million years !
The Department also assumes Hg levels in water are directly related to Hg levels in fish tissue. In fact, no such relationship exists. Indeed the FDEP draft report admits as much, when it says (page 58), “Using the data collected for the [Florida Mercury Project], no relationship is observed when comparing total mercury in the water column to total mercury in fish tissues.
It’s also worth noting that even a bottle of Hunt’s tomato ketchup or Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauce contains at least 50 times (!) more mercury than what Florida proposes to permit in its waters.
One has to wonder why the FDEP is so intent on setting mercury levels below those that exist in nature – and why it is so reluctant to disclose, explain or discuss publicly available information from the scientific literature, so that all concerned Florida citizens can study it themselves.
Scientific inquiry must be above political pressure and partisan advocacy. Good decisions can arise only if the scientific evidence and knowledge are examined fully, without selective bias.
The FDEP needs to reconsider its mercury rulemaking, and this time base it on actual science. So do other states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other countries considering similar actions.
Dr. Willie Soon is an independent PhD scientist, who for the past ten years has studied the bio geochemical nature of mercury in our environment and its effects on human health. The views expressed here are solely his own.

120614-d
Proposed cattle ranch's water needs has locals upset
WFTV.com
June 14, 2012
VIDEO
MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Opposition is growing over a proposed 25,000-acre cattle ranch.
If approved, the ranch would use more water each day than the entire city of Ocala.
A Canadian billionaire wants to develop land at County Road 315 and County Road 316 in Fort McCoy for the new ranch.
Not far from the tiny Marion County town of Fort McCoy, there is a 25,000-acre tract of wooded land. Some of that land is now being cleared of trees.
"The change is going to be huge," said Guy Marwick of the Silver Springs Alliance.
That change, Marwick says, will damage a national treasure.
"I really believe Silver Springs will become a trickle of its former self," said Marwick.
Marwick is part of a growing movement opposed to the launch of a mega cattle ranch called Adena Springs.
The ranch is just a couple of miles from Silver Springs and the Silver River. Some said they are concerned that if the project goes through, the area will never be the same.
That's because the ranch would need up to 13 million gallons of water each day to operate.
"A million more a day than Ocala uses. More than a whole city," said Marion County resident Karen Chadwick.
All that water would be used to grow grass to feed the cattle.
Developers have asked the St. Johns River Water Management District for a permit to drill wells and withdraw the water. They said the cattle operation would create more than 100 jobs and would not have a negative effect on the aquifer or the springs. And, they said, during the rainy season, they wouldn't need to pump as much water.
Opponents believe otherwise. They said they are afraid that if they don't fight now, future generations will never know how beautiful Silver Springs and the Silver River once were.
"Well, it might be the death knell for the springs. That's what we're worried about," said Chadwick.
Central Florida is already home to the largest cow-calf ranch in the country. The Deseret Ranch, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, covers nearly 300,000 acres. That ranch, near Orlando, has also faced legal issues in the past involving water usage.

120614-e
River must be nourished all the time
News-Press.com - Guest opinion by Jennifer Hecker, Director of natural resource policy for The Conservancy of Southwest Florida
June 14, 2012
The Caloosahatchee received some good news recently when the South Florida Water Management District recommended releasing fresh water from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary.
We can only hope that this long-delayed release of fresh water will help to prevent further stagnation and the concentration of nutrient pollution that has spurred the algae blooms prompting recent health advisories.
Advocates for the river have been asking for this release for months.
The Caloosahatchee is essential to our quality of life and our economy, and should not continue to suffer from degradation.
Supporters of the river are concerned that the district’s policy toward the river has created a new norm, one where freshwater flows are provided only as it is in crisis.
The district has allowed more than four months of violation of its own “minimum flow and level” for the Caloosahatchee this year; the amount of minimum flow it set as necessary to prevent significant ecological harm.
Even more egregious, the minimum flow has been violated the past five years causing, by the district’s own definition, a state of severe harm.
One argument against better protection of the Caloosahatchee is that it cannot be provided without future federally-funded water storage projects.
Meanwhile water that could be used for the river is diverted as new or expanded permits for water from the lake are given out.
The Caloosahatchee River and Estuary are running dry, drying up our real estate and tourism revenues with it. Soon, when the lake gets high and water needs to be disposed of, polluted excess water will be dumped on the Caloosahatchee. Our public water managers need to more fairly share the resource and the adversity in the future.

120613-a
EPA gives OK to $880M Everglades clean-up plan
Associated Press - by Matt Sedensky
June 13, 2012
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An $880 million plan to improve Everglades water quality was given federal approval Wednesday, setting the clock on a massive 12-year cleanup project.
The Environmental Protection Agency approved permits for the proposal, saying its completion "would represent a significant and historic milestone in restoring America's Everglades."
The Everglades are a key water source for millions of South Florida residents, but the Everglades have been damaged for decades by the intrusion of farms and development. Dikes, dams and canals have been cut, effectively draining much of the swamp and polluting it with fertilizers and urban runoff.
The state and federal governments' efforts to restore the wetlands have been stymied for years by funding shortfalls, legal challenges and political bickering.
The federal approval came just over a week after the latest plan was submitted by the South Florida Water Management District, the lead state agency on Everglades restoration efforts.
It pulls together pieces of plans proposed last year by the EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection and sets the stage for the ultimate resolution of lawsuits dating back to 1988 over enforcement of Clean Water Act standards in the vast wetlands area.
In a letter approving the project, Gwen Keyes Fleming, the EPA's regional administrator, said she believed the plan would satisfy judges as a remedy to the lawsuits.
Though state funding and the actual construction remain significant hurdles, the approval outlines a specific action, which has been haggled over for years between the state and federal governments.
"It wraps up almost a decade of arguing over what the best thing to do is," said Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida. "This, at the very least, is an agreement that these are the right steps to move forward and sets very stringent deadlines."
The project will construct stormwater treatment areas and begin operation of tens of thousands of acres of already built ones. It will also create new water storage areas. All of it is an effort to filter phosphorous, which comes from fertilizer and promotes the growth of unhealthy vegetation that chokes native plants.
Backers of projects to restore the ecosystem have emphasized the financial impact.
"A healthy Everglades is vital to the well-being of Florida and contributes jobs and billions of dollars to Florida's economy," Keyes Fleming said.
Related:
Environmental Protection Agency Gives OK To $880M Everglades ... Huffington Post

120613-c
Sierra Club Statement on EPA Approval of State Plan to Improve Water Quality in the Everglades
Sierra Club Press Release
June 13, 2012
Sierra Club is pleased that Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Florida have agreed on a plan towards attaining the 10 parts per billion (ppb) phosphorus standard in the lower Everglades, but this plan is only a small step forward with a lot of uncertainty.
We have three major concerns:
First, the State says it will complete work on the plan and meet the water quality goal no sooner than 2029. That's just more delay, putting the entire project at risk as costs escalate during this period. The Everglades will continue to decline as this project gets dragged out, making restoration more difficult.
Second, the plan calls for using a giant, sub-surface reservoir north of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge to provide cleaner water for the Refuge. This feature depends strongly on technology which has never been used before. We think this is a very risky decision.
Third, the plan agreed to by the State and the EPA does not include enough land for additional stormwater treatment areas (STAs). Flow Equalization Basins could prove helpful in enhancing the effectiveness of the limited acreage currently in STAs, but they are not a substitute for the nutrient reduction capabilities of STAs and do not offset the need for additional treatment acreage.

120612-b
Caloosahatchee River's advocates await meeting
News-Press.com
June 12, 2012
Using water from south of Lake Okeechobee to protect the health of the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary is an option the South Florida Water Management District will present to its governing board Thursday in Okeechobee.
District staffers have been working for months on a plan for the Caloosahatchee and aired their results recently in Fort Myers at a meeting of the advisory body to the district governing board.
Their efforts stem from long-term concerns about the river and estuary and the effect water, or lack of it, from Lake Okeechobee has on salinity and algal levels in the river system.
A continuous supply of fresh water is important to the health of the Caloosahatchee. Without that supply during droughts, salt water moves up the river and kills tape grass, an important component of the upper river’s ecology. Over the past 11 years, high salinity has killed 600 acres of tape grass in the river.
In April the river received a 3.87-billion-gallon freshwater injection intended to prevent harmful algal blooms. Earlier in the year, the water district recommended against the release of fresh water down the Caloosahatchee to protect water levels in Lake O, but the board approved the releases after an outcry from Southwest Florida environmentalists and politicians. Salinity levels dropped dramatically after the flushing started.
Dan DeLisi, Southwest Florida’s representative on the water district’s governing board, said keeping the river healthy is vital for the area’s $3 billion tourist industry as well as for anglers, boaters, environmentalists and others. “That depends on good water quality in the Caloosahatchee,” he said.
DeLisi said information from the district’s studies shows that the use of water from south of Lake O – called water supply augmentation –wouldn’t change nutrient levels in the lake or the river.
An aspect of that option has runoff from the area south of Lake O – the Everglades Agricultural Area – flowing to the lake during specific conditions in order to increase water storage and supply during low water periods.
“Water coming from the south has less phosphorus,” DeLisi said. Phosphorus – a byproduct of fertilizer use by agricultural and other industries – is a big issue as the nutrient at high levels triggers algal blooms.
A question presented by district staff during the local meeting last week asked how much water was needed to cut salinity in the estuary during high salinity months. The answer was a substantial volume in excess of current availability and requiring more water storage.
Questions needed
Rae Ann Wessel, natural resources policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, said there are a lot of questions to be dealt with involving the river plan. Wessel said she plans to be at the meeting.
“It is important to have an opportunity to discuss the options,” she said. “This is a case where the devil is in the details.”
Melissa Meeker, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, said that the point of the meeting Thursday is for the governing board to provide some direction to the district.

120612-c
The hunt for water dollars
Ocala.com - Editorial
June 12, 2012
Florida's water management disricts used to buy and manage land in order to better protect the state's water resources. But that was before the Scott administration decided that tax relief — not water protection — would be the top priority of the districts.
Now the Suwannee River Water Management District is setting a bad precedent because it is land poor. It's got 160,000 acres of conservation lands to take care of but only about $1.6 million in post-tax relief dollars to do the tending. The shocking move, a reversal of a generation of watershed protection and preservation, should raise fears that the state's other water management districts could follow suit.
Yet, sadly, we're hardly surprised that the Suwannee district is looking to turn a profit on some of its conservation lands. Still, a proposal to lease several hundred acres of district land along the Santa Fe River for use as a private hunting preserve is a terrible idea. The proposal to block public access to the district's Mud Swamp tract has drawn objections from at least two organizations: a sportsman's group called The Future of Hunting in Florida and conservationists in the form of Audubon Florida.
“We're very concerned when a water management district turns over public lands to a private interest, basically cutting out the little guy from being able to hunt on private land,” John Fuller, of the FHF, said recently. “We feel it's setting a precedent other water management districts may take advantage of in the face of budget cuts.”

120611-a
DEP eyes mercury levels
WFSU - by Regan McCarthy
June 11, 2012
Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials are traveling the state to talk about mercury in Florida’s waterways. The group plans to set a limit or a “total maximum daily load” for how much should be allowed, but a lot of the pollution is out of Florida’s control.
The department’s Jan Mandrup-Poulsen said the majority of the mercury in Florida’s water bodies doesn’t come from within the United States.
 “Eight to 10-percent is because of North America. So now you’ve got 90-percent of the sources being outside of the country," Mandrup-Poulsen said. " It’s hard for us in Florida to say we’re going to fix the problem because even if we turned all our knobs to zero, we’re not going to be able to fix everything.”
The biggest mercury problem comes from air emissions pumped out by facilities like coal plants, that eventually get’s into the water. The DEP said emissions for those plants need to be reduced by 86-percent. Mercury has been showing up in some of the fish Floridians eat. Officials said fish are still good for you, but certain groups, like children, should be careful about consuming large quantities of fish known to have high mercury levels like swordfish or tuna.

120611-b









Adam PUTNAM
FL Agriculture Commissioner

120611-b
Florida agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam got millions in land deal
TCPalm – by Christine Stapleton, Palm Beach Post
June 11, 2012
LISTEN
Adam Putnam — former Congressman, current commissioner of agriculture and widely viewed as the future of Florida politics — became a very rich man in 2005 when taxpayers spent $25.5 million on 2,042 acres of his family’s ranch that had been valued at $5.5 million a year earlier, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
The South Florida Water Management District needed only 600 acres of the ranch in Highlands County for environmental purposes. But it bought all 2,042 acres and did it in a way that arranged for the Putnams a lucrative tax break, while allowing the family to continue grazing cattle on the land rent-free until the district needed the land. After paying the family’s attorney $3.9 million in legal fees, the total deal cost taxpayers nearly $30 million.
Seven years later the district has used only 150 acres and has no plans for the rest. The Putnam cattle graze on, courtesy of Florida taxpayers.
Putnam, a congressman at the time of the deal, said he was careful to not involve himself in it to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Congressional ethics rules do not bar such real estate transactions as long as Putnam did not use his position to sweeten the deal. Records show Putnam was not on any committees that would have allowed him to do so. He said his older brother Will negotiated the deal for the family.
 “I can’t speak to the details of the transaction because I deliberately stayed away,” Adam Putnam said. His financial disclosure reports show his income from the family business jumped from under $100,000 in 2004 to between $1 million and $5 million after the deal. “If there’s something else I could have done to further remove myself, I don’t know what it was,” he said.
Will Putnam denied any favoritism was shown the Putnams. He merely negotiated the best deal possible for land that was in the family for generations, he said. He attributed the family's good fortune to a rising tide of real estate values.
"Nobody could have foreseen what was going on — we were fortunate," he said. "Adam never could have struck this good a deal. It was the market."
The $29.4 million deal was part of nearly $2 billion the district spent over the past 20 years on land for its restoration efforts, including the Everglades.
As the district negotiated deals, its inspector general repeatedly criticized its acquisition strategies. As early as 2001, Inspector General Allen Vann warned the district that if it paid more than the land was worth, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers might not award full credit for the purchase. The Everglades restoration effort is a partnership that requires the state and federal government to split costs. To get credit for its spending, the district must submit expenses to the Corps for review.
The audit also recommended appraisals be competitively bid and that the independence of the district's own appraisers be protected by separating the appraisal section from the land acquisitions section. In other words, the people orchestrating the deals shouldn't be able to influence appraisals.
Vann also criticized the district for letting landowners in the deals have a say in the district's appraiser selections. All of those criticisms were ignored during the Putnam negotiations.
Vann, currently audit director at Florida International University, stood by his reports when contacted in April but declined further comment. Ruth Clements, the district's land acquisitions manager who negotiated the Putnam deal, retired on May 22 and declined an interview.
Since the 1920s the Putnam family grazed cattle on land it owned between Lake Istokpoga and the Kissimmee River — about 25 miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. Adam Putnam, a fifth-generation Floridian, grew up on the family farm. He participated in the 4-H Club and worked beside his grandfather, Dudley Adelbert Putnam, a member of the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame.
The Putnams have been widely known in Florida's agriculture industry for decades. Adam Putnam was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1996, rising to chair the body's Agriculture Committee. He grabbed the national limelight in 2001 when, at 26, he became the youngest member of Congress.
In February 2006 he became chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. By the end of that year he was elected head of the Republican Conference, the third-ranking minority leadership position. In 2010, Florida voters elected Putnam the state commissioner of agriculture.
For years the district tried to buy the Putnams' land to help restore the natural flow of the Kissimmee River. District engineers determined that about 600 acres were needed for the project.
But with land values soaring and the family unwilling to sell only 600 acres, Clements decided to purchase all 2,042 acres, hoping to trade excess land to adjacent property owners Lykes Bros. in exchange for land better situated for restoration projects. But no deal with Lykes Bros. ever took place.
An April 2004 appraisal valued the Putnam land at $5.5 million. A month later, the district offered that amount. The family rejected the offer.
In November 2004, the district was poised to seek another appraisal. This time, though — despite the inspector general's criticisms a year earlier — the Putnams were consulted in the selection of appraisers.
The Putnams' attorney, Prineet Sharma, strongly suggested the district hire two specific appraisers. Emails obtained by The Post show Clements also participated in the appraiser selection discussions — another practice criticized earlier by the district inspector general.
Of the three appraisers invited to bid on the job, Clements suggested Phil Holden, a Palm Beach Gardens appraiser with more than 30 years' experience, who frequently appraised land for the district.
The Putnams agreed. However, in a single-spaced, full-page email, the Putnams' attorney insisted upon the district using Richard Kluza as the other appraiser. Kluza had submitted the highest bid — about $15,000 more than Holden.
After learning that Kluza was unavailable, the parties agreed on another appraiser.
In a written response to questions about the appraisal selection process, the district said a landowner is free to select any appraiser to complete a contrary appraisal and, under Florida law, the district must pay. The contrary appraisals are almost always substantially higher than the district-approved appraiser, the district said.
Since the prior appraisal in April 2004, when the land was valued at $5.5 million, there had been no improvements to the property and most of the land within a 10-mile radius remained agricultural. Commercial development in the remote, rural area was "virtually non-existent," according to one of the new appraisal reports.
Still, the land's appraised value had soared. Holden's appraisal, dated March 2005 — the height of the real estate boom — came in at $17.4 million. Two months later, with land values around the state continuing to rise and negotiations under way, Clements sought an update from Holden.
In a letter to the district's chief appraiser in June 2005, Holden estimated that land values were rising by 3 percent per month. The following month, Holden delivered his updated value of the Putnam land: $19.4 million.
But by then a deal had already been struck. The district would pay $25.5 million, or about $12,500 per acre.
Related: Adam Putnam could've gotten 4 times the value for family land in taxpayer Everglades deal

120610-b






GREED
Corruption
●
GREED
Corruption
●
GREED
Corruption
●
GREED
Corruption

Report finds
Florida most
corrupt state in US

First Coast News
reports that Florida led
the nation in federal
public corruption
convictions between
2000 and 2010,
according to
government watchdog
group Integrity Florida.
The “Corruption Risk
Report” shows Florida
had 781 federal
corruption convictions during that decade. …

120610-b
Ex-congressman got millions in land deal
Palm Beach Post - by Christine Stapleton, Staff Writer
June 10, 2012
Current Ag chief Putnam got rich in ‘05 selling land $20 million above appraised value.
Adam Putnam — former congressman, current commissioner of agriculture and widely viewed as the future of Florida politics — became a very rich man in 2005 when taxpayers spent $25.5 million on 2,042 acres of his family’s ranch that had been valued at $5.5 million a year earlier, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
The South Florida Water Management District needed only 600 acres of the ranch in Highlands County for environmental purposes. But it bought all 2,042 acres and did it in a way that arranged for the Putnams a lucrative tax break, while allowing the family to continue grazing cattle on the land rent-free until the district needed the land. After paying the family’s attorney $3.9 million in legal fees, the total deal cost taxpayers nearly $30 million.
Seven years later the district has used only 150 acres and has no plans for the rest. The Putnam cattle graze on, courtesy of Florida taxpayers.
Putnam, a congressman at the time of the deal, said he was careful to not involve himself in it to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Congressional ethics rules do not bar such real estate transactions as long as Putnam did not use his position to sweeten the deal. Records show Putnam was not on any committees that would have allowed him to do so. He said his older brother Will negotiated the deal for the family.
“I can’t speak to the details of the transaction because I deliberately stayed away,” Adam Putnam said. His financial disclosure reports show his income from the family business jumped from under $100,000 in 2004 to between $1 million and $5 million after the deal. “If there’s something else I could have done to further remove myself, I don’t know what it was,” he said.
Will Putnam denied any favoritism was shown the Putnams. He merely negotiated the best deal possible for land that was in the family for generations, he said. He attributed the family’s good fortune to a rising tide of real estate values.
“Nobody could have foreseen what was going on — we were fortunate,” he said. “Adam never could have struck this good a deal. It was the market.”
The $29.4 million deal was part of nearly $2 billion the district spent over the past 20 years on land for its restoration efforts, including the Everglades.
As the district negotiated deals, its inspector general repeatedly criticized its acquisition strategies. As early as 2001, Inspector General Allen Vann warned the district that if it paid more than the land was worth, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers might not award full credit for the purchase. The Everglades restoration effort is a partnership that requires the state and federal government to split costs. To get credit for its spending, the district must submit expenses to the Corps for review.
“The District’s appraisal process lacks essential controls that resulted in a number of potentially questionable appraisals that federal partners have questioned and may not approve for project credit or reimbursement,” Vann wrote in a November 2003 report.
The audit also recommended appraisals be competitively bid and that the independence of the district’s own appraisers be protected by separating the appraisal section from the land acquisitions section. In other words, the people orchestrating the deals shouldn’t be able to influence appraisals.
Vann also criticized the district for letting landowners in the deals have a say in the district’s appraiser selections. All of those criticisms were ignored during the Putnam negotiations.
Vann, currently audit director at Florida International University, stood by his reports when contacted in April but declined further comment. Ruth Clements, the district’s land acquisitions manager who negotiated the Putnam deal, retired on May 22 and declined an interview.
Since the 1920s the Putnam family grazed cattle on land it owned between Lake Istokpoga and the Kissimmee River — about 25 miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. Adam Putnam, a fifth-generation Floridian, grew up on the family farm. He participated in the 4-H Club and worked beside his grandfather, Dudley Adelbert Putnam, a member of the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame.
The Putnams have been widely known in Florida’s agriculture industry for decades. Adam Putnam was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1996, rising to chair the body’s Agriculture Committee. He grabbed the national limelight in 2001 when, at 26, he became the youngest member of Congress.
In February 2006 he became chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. By the end of that year he was elected head of the Republican Conference, the third-ranking minority leadership position. In 2010, Florida voters elected Putnam the state commissioner of agriculture.
For years the district tried to buy the Putnams’ land to help restore the natural flow of the Kissimmee River. District engineers determined that about 600 acres were needed for the project.
But with land values soaring and the family unwilling to sell only 600 acres, Clements decided to purchase all 2,042 acres, hoping to trade excess land to adjacent property owners Lykes Bros. in exchange for land better situated for restoration projects. But no deal with Lykes Bros. ever took place.
An April 2004 appraisal valued the Putnam land at $5.5 million. A month later, the district offered that amount. The family rejected the offer.
In November 2004, the district was poised to seek another appraisal. This time, though — despite the inspector general’s criticisms a year earlier — the Putnams were consulted in the selection of appraisers.
The Putnams’ attorney, Prineet Sharma, strongly suggested the district hire two specific appraisers. Emails obtained by The Post show Clements also participated in the appraiser selection discussions — another practice criticized earlier by the district inspector general.
Of the three appraisers invited to bid on the job, Clements suggested Phil Holden, a Palm Beach Gardens appraiser with more than 30 years’ experience, who frequently appraised land for the district.
The Putnams agreed. However, in a single-spaced, full-page email, the Putnams’ attorney insisted upon the district using Richard Kluza as the other appraiser. Kluza had submitted the highest bid — about $15,000 more than Holden.
“If we can find a way to keep Mr. Kluza involved, I am confident it will help during the negotiation process,” Sharma wrote. “When considering all the factors in play, and also the importance of getting this process moving, I hope that we can come to this agreement rather than starting over from square one.”
After learning that Kluza was unavailable, the parties agreed on another appraiser.
In a written response to questions about the appraisal selection process, the district said a landowner is free to select any appraiser to complete a contrary appraisal and, under Florida law, the district must pay. The contrary appraisals are almost always substantially higher than the district-approved appraiser, the district said.
Since the prior appraisal in April 2004, when the land was valued at $5.5 million, there had been no improvements to the property and most of the land within a 10-mile radius remained agricultural. Commercial development in the remote, rural area was “virtually non-existent,” according to one of the new appraisal reports.
Still, the land’s appraised value had soared. Holden’s appraisal, dated March 2005 — the height of the real estate boom — came in at $17.4 million. Two months later, with land values around the state continuing to rise and negotiations under way, Clements sought an update from Holden.
“In that time period, numbers were useful for about three months,” Holden said in a recent interview, about using sales of similar properties to determine the value of land during the real estate boom. “Sales that were a year old were long past useful.”
In a letter to the district’s chief appraiser in June 2005, Holden estimated that land values were rising by 3 percent per month. The following month, Holden delivered his updated value of the Putnam land: $19.4 million.
But by then a deal had already been struck. The district would pay $25.5 million, or about $12,500 per acre.
In response to written questions posed by The Post, the district said the price was justified. In such a rapidly increasing market, prolonged negotiations and litigation “often resulted in higher land values and, ultimately, higher acquisition costs to the taxpayers.” In other words, pay more to cut a deal quickly or risk paying even more if talks dragged on.
The district, in justifying the price, said that the $12,500 per acre was below the average price of $13,946 that it paid for all the other land it bought that year. However, the $13,946 reflects all types of land — from a several hundred-acre park to thousands of acres of ranchland — from Orlando to Key West.
To the district’s governing board in 2005, Clements justified paying top dollar as a way to avoid costly condemnation lawsuits. Those lawsuits enable the government to take private property for public use under a legal theory called eminent domain. The government must pay “just compensation,” the law says.
In the only two condemnation cases that the district took to trial, both in 2003, juries had awarded “just compensation” far above the appraised value. After that, the district threatened condemnation in more than 200 cases but settled without a trial.
Not wanting to take the Putnam family to trial, the district arranged a “friendly condemnation” lawsuit, which ended with the Putnams getting 30 percent above the appraised value and other perks. Among them: a rent-free lease without an expiration date; and a tax break available to landowners under threat of condemnation, which gives them more time to buy new land to offset taxes that otherwise would be due on the sale of the old land.
The friendly condemnation also assured the Putnams’ attorney, Sharma, $3.9 million in attorney fees, calculated under Florida eminent domain laws. The friendly condemnation worked like this: The district filed the lawsuit on July 14, 2005, which left no doubt that the Putnams had been threatened with condemnation and qualified for the tax break. The next day, the district settled the suit and the deal was done.
“Do you think any reporters will pick up on the settlement ?”  Sharma wrote in an email to Clements several days before the friendly condemnation was filed. “The Putnam’s (sic) are pretty private people and I would like to give them a heads up if you think something might be in the paper.”
 “No one has inquired on this end,” Clements responded.  “Doubt if this will garner much attention.”
Will Putnam said the potential for the district to flood the land for water storage and restoration was the reason the family agreed to sell all 2,042 acres. The price was comparable to other land sales in the area, he said, adding that much of the $25.5 million was reinvested in their cattle and citrus operations or used to purchase more land.
And the cows graze on.
 “It was an important part of the agreement for us,” Will Putnam said. “It was not a good time to sell cows.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Putnam deal is an example of land acquisition practices by the South Florida Water Management District that have recently come under scrutiny after complaints of cronyism and overspending. The district has spent nearly $2 billion buying land for restoration projects in recent years and the consequences of those practices are being felt as the district ponders what to do with land, such as the Putnams’, that it bought at top dollar and doesn’t need.
In April, Executive Director Melissa Meeker asked for an audit of district land not needed for “mission-critical” purposes. The district could sell the land at a loss, trade for land it needs, lease it for a small profit or let it sit vacant — which means spending more money to take care of it.
Whatever it decides, the district must also contend with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose skepticism about district spending has threatened the district’s ability to receive credits for acquisition costs.
As for the Putnam deal, although the district paid $25 million for the land, it could only seek credit for $6 million from the Corps — the value of the 600 acres it actually needed for its restoration project.
Palm Beach Post Reporter Christine Stapleton began digging into the South Florida Water Management District’s real estate practices in 2011 after learning of the district’s policy of leasing thousands of acres of public land without competitive bidding.
To compile this installment in The Post’s ongoing investigation, Stapleton reviewed tens of thousands of emails, appraisals, financial disclosure reports, audits, contracts and maps. She used social media, such as Facebook and Linkedin, to develop sources and analyzed data and dozens of spreadsheets.
Among the findings from earlier stories :
•The district, the state’s largest public landholder, has repeatedly leased its public land and renewed existing leases without putting the leases out for bid — favoring some tenants and preventing other prospective tenants from making offers better for taxpayers.
•The daughter of the Okeechobee Property Appraiser, for one, was allowed to graze her graze cattle on district land rent-free. After The Post exposed the practice in November, the district altered its policy to require public bidding on new and existing leases. However, a loophole still allows some no-bid agriculture leases.
•The district’s inspector general is investigating claims that the agency’s second-in-command, Assistant Executive Director Bob Brown, was too cozy with landowners and ranchers regulated by the district. Brown is alleged to have accepted gifts from a rancher whose business is permitted by the agency and to have gone hunting with others regulated by his agency.
•Brown also conducted personal business with and accepted a loan from a close friend whose companies made millions selling a mined-out shell pit in Okeechobee to the district. While the deal was in the planning stages, Brown headed the district’s Okeechobee office. Brown denied that his “friendships or personal-time activities interfaced with my regulatory responsibilities…. As a regulatory professional, I took care to conduct myself in an ethical and responsible way at all times.”

120608-a
Audubon expresses support for Everglades Water Quality Plan
Bradenton Times - by Staff
June 8, 2012
MIAMI -- Audubon Florida expressed support this week, for the South Florida Water Management District’s plan that responds to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Amended Determination and its call for a newly proposed Everglades water quality standard and an enforceable clean-up plan.
 “This package of solutions provides assurance that water entering the natural system will finally be cleaned up," said Eric Draper, Audubon Florida’s executive director. "This is a necessary step toward getting fresh water into the parched Everglades.”
The plan builds on recent initiatives by the federal government and state of Florida, including projects outlined in EPA’s Amended Determination and the state’s work to expand water treatment and storage. Lands acquired with federal funds and lands recently purchased from US Sugar will be used for treatment.
Audubon is an intervener in the two decades-old litigation seeking a permanent end to pollution in the Everglades. Along with other environmental groups, Audubon has long pushed for the next wave of actions to clean up the dirty water leaving agricultural fields and entering the Everglades. That polluted water alters the balance of life and is responsible for significant loss of wildlife habitat.  
 “The EPA and the state are to be commended for coming to terms on treatment plans, on a water quality standard and on enforcement,” Draper said. “The schedule contains enforceable deadlines for the plan components and compliance with requirements to improve water quality. We believe that it may be possible in the future to move the timetable forward if consensus is reached on additional funding.” 
Audubon pledges to work with Governor Scott and the South Florida Water Management District to urge the Legislature to approve timely funding for the water quality plan and to rebuild support for overall Everglades restoration.

120608-b
More water concerns aired at water policy meeting
Ocala.com - by Christopher Curry, Staff Writer
June 8, 2012
GAINESVILLE -- More concerns over Florida's water future flowed Friday during a state advisory board's meeting in Gainesville.
Members of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Agricultural Water Policy Advisory Council were gathered to receive staff updates on state government's ongoing effort to have all water management districts adopt the same uniform rules for water withdrawal permitting and the challenges expected in formulating long-term projections for the agricultural industry's water supply needs.
Some members of the public were there to talk about drying lakes and rivers.
"Water is a finite resource," Orange Lake resident Judy Etlzer said. "I hear you talking about rules and regulations. I don't hear you talking about water as a finite resource."
Etlzer, who lives on the banks of Orange Lake, said she has watched the lake dry up and has had to drill down some 130 feet in order for her well to draw water.
She expressed concerns that the Adena Springs cattle ranch in Fort McCoy, which seeks a permit to pump up to 13 million gallons of water per day, would further impact groundwater levels and lakes.
There were also concerns that the state was moving to establish the statewide rules for the review and approval of consumptive use permits to pump water ahead of another state-led process to establish more consistent rules for determining and updating minimum flows and levels (mfls).
Those mfls establish a point from which further water withdrawals would have significant negative impacts on springs, rivers and lakes.
A concern expressed Friday was that by the time new rules for those mfls are in place — or by the time mfls are set on water bodies currently without them — the water needed to meet them would already be tied up in a consumptive use permit.
Ann Shortelle, the Department of Environmental Protection's water policy director, said the update of rules for the establishment of mfls would take place in 2013.
"It may look like kicking the can down the road," she said. "It's something we talk about every day. We're not there yet."
Members of the advisory group and the public also pushed for a larger investment in the development of alternative water sources and, in the case of agriculture, funding for research and development for more efficient irrigation systems.

120608-c
Our take: Committed to Everglades
Orlando Sentinel
June 8, 2012
Partisan battles — whether in Wisconsin or Washington — have been grabbing most of the headlines lately, but Floridians can take heart that a bipartisan U.S. House majority acted this week to keep a federal commitment to restore the Everglades.
A bill the House passed Wednesday would pour $145 million next year into the ongoing restoration for projects from the Kissimmee Valley south of Orlando to reservoirs in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
There are more steps to go before this latest round of funding flows in the budget that begins in October: The Senate needs to pass its own bill, the two versions need to be reconciled, and President Obama needs to sign whatever ultimately passes. But it's a good sign that the Senate's proposal calls for a little more money for restoration than the House's.
Huge deficits have rightfully put Congress under increasing pressure to reduce or eliminate any part of the budget that isn't mandatory, including water projects. The days of indiscriminate spending must end.
But Florida has earned an advantage in competing for scarce dollars by committing to cover half the estimated $11.5 billion tab. And Congress promised more than a decade ago to help restore the River of Grass.
As an Interior Department official told the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel, "There is only one Everglades in the world. It's a unique ecosystem, a landscape unlike any other."
Too bad lawmakers in Washington can't be as far-sighted and bipartisan on more national priorities.

120607-a
DEP water quality rules upheld
TheLedger.com – Michael Peltier, The News Service of Florida
June 7, 2012
Ruling says state acted properly when it enacted less rigid standards.
TALLAHASSEE | State environmental regulators acted properly late last year when they enacted water quality standards less rigid than specific federal numeric requirements, an administrative law judge ruled Thursday in a closely watched case.
Rejecting arguments from a coalition of environmental groups, Florida Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter ruled the Department of Environmental Protection acted within its authority when it proposed a slate of water quality criteria less rigid than federal standards preferred by environmentalists.
Florida lawmakers earlier this year unanimously approved the DEP water standards, which came in response to federal standards sent down by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.
The seeds of the battle, however, go back to 1998, when the EPA ordered Florida and other states to come up with more stringent freshwater standards. After a decade without state action and in response to a lawsuit, the federal agency in 2009 imposed its own numeric criteria on Florida freshwater bodies. State officials from both parties said the standards were too unyielding.
Last year, DEP issued an alternative state set of criteria that retained portions of the state's existing rules.
In December, a group led by the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and others filed a petition with the Division of Administrative Hearings challenging the new state rules.
On Thursday, DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard was quick to applaud the ruling, saying it validates agency's effort to develop water quality rules that are effective yet take into account the unique hydrology and diversity of Florida's fresh water bodies.
"We have crafted not only standards, but also the rules detailing implementation of the standards," Vinyard said in a statement. "Our rules provide a clear process for identifying waters impaired by nutrients, preventing harmful discharges and establishing necessary reductions."
Business groups that backed DEP's actions last year and intervened in the case say the judge's ruling opens the door for final resolution of the issue. They urged EPA to quickly give final approval to the new standards.
"The Florida Legislature and now Judge Canter have confirmed that DEP has set the right course for setting our water quality standards," said Tom Feeney, CEO of Associated Industries of Florida, in a statement. "This is a state issue and should continue to be regulated by the state based on sound science."
Plaintiffs in the case were disappointed, saying the new rules favor developers and agricultural interests that would have face tougher requirements.
"The polluters won today and the people lost," said Earthjustice lawyer David Guest. "We need to be setting enforceable limits on this pollution, and now that won't happen. This is a sad day."
Environmental groups argue that sewage, run-off and other factors accelerate the growth of toxic algae, creating blooms that are dangerous to wildlife and humans.
State standards won't be effective because they don't kick in until after a water body is impaired, critics contend.
"This is a bad day for Floridians and for Florida wildlife," said Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller.
"It is sad, because this pollution really is preventable — we just need to set firm limits on it and enforce them. It's really common sense."
But in a 58-page ruling, Canter said lawyers for the environmental groups failed to convince him that the agency action overstepped its authority and that Florida's standards wouldn't work
"Petitioners' argument seems to draw on common sense; if there has been widespread nutrient pollution in Florida waters, then the Department's water quality criterion for nutrients is not preventing pollution," Canter wrote.
"However, proving that nutrient pollution has not been prevented is not the same thing as proving that the narrative criterion is the cause."
Related:
Judge clears way for Florida waterquality regs    Agprofessional.com
Administrative judge upholds Florida water rules            Gainesville Sun

120607-b
Politics, greed drive wetlands issue
NewsChief.com
June 7, 2012
Imagine Florida Gov. Rick Scott as Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 landing on the pristine La Florida ("place of flowers") shore in the vicinity of the Caloosahatchee River.
Now, imagine Rick Juan Ponce de Leon Scott discovering the mythical fountain of youth, a source of natural spring water.
Knowing Scott as we do, we do not have to imagine what would happen next: He and his some 200 men would begin capturing the spring water and exporting it for profit. If the water failed to restore youth as marketed, the Scott team would bury the now-worthless fountain and move on to the next treasure hunt, leaving behind the detritus of human progress.
Although fictional, this scenario closely mirrors several assaults on our state's fragile environment by the Scott administration. The latest is a wetlands-mitigation scheme involving a pine plantation. On one side is Highlands Ranch, formed in 2008 as a joint venture between a Jacksonville company and the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm. On the other side are science, environmental stewardship and the people of Florida.
Highlands Ranch is trying to pull off a shell game. Florida's wetlands-mitigation law is clear: When issued a permit, the applicant has the authority to "impact" wetlands and is required to offset those "impacts" with activities such as wetlands creation, preservation or enhancement. But Highlands Ranch is seeking wetlands-mitigation credit for some land that is high and dry.
As Tampa Bay Times staff writer Craig Pittman reported, Department of Environmental Protection wetlands expert Connie Bersok was suspended from her job after she followed science and bucked politics in denying the permit.
The Scott administration, with its zeal to give businesses carte blanche in dealing with our natural resources, seems to hold the anachronistic view of wetlands as being peat bogs that breed mosquitoes and other vermin, dirty and dangerous places that should be drained and backfilled for development and agriculture.
The governor and his aides need a primer on the intrinsic value of wetlands. They should log on, for example, to the St. Johns River Water Management website. They would learn that wetlands benefit us by:
- Cleaning, or filtering, pollutants from surface waters.
- Storing water from storms or runoff.
- Preventing flood damage to developed lands.
- Recharging groundwater.
- Serving as nurseries for saltwater and freshwater fish and shellfish that have commercial, recreational and ecological value.
- Providing natural habitat for a variety of fish, wildlife and plants, including rare, threatened, endangered and endemic (native) species.
Why, then, would anyone -- especially the state's highest elected official -- tolerate dissembling when the welfare of the state's wetlands is at stake ? Scott and his DEP appointees should be the lead stewards of our environment, always protecting our treasures from irresponsibility and greed.
In her best-selling book "The March of Folly," historian Barbara Tuchman discusses a problem that describes the kind of failed leadership in Tallahassee that imperils our environment.
"A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests," Tuchman writes. "In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function ?"
The original writers of DEP wetlands regulations appear to have been guided by science and experience and earnestly tried to balance environmental protection with private-property rights and economic development -- which is certain to continue. They knew that with progress some wetlands would be impacted. For that reason, they devised a permitting system that requires developers to do as little harm as possible to wetlands and to proportionally mitigate damage when it does occur. Mutual trust was a guiding principle.
Our governor and his minions are ignoring the science available to them. And they will not hesitate to come down hard on experts such as Connie Bersok who refuse to bend the rules for powerful friends.
Conservative politics and greed are driving those in power in Tallahassee to pursue environmental policies contrary to the interests of the greatest number of Floridians. It is an example of the march of folly.
Bill Maxwell is a columnist for the Tampa Bay Times. Email bmaxwell@tampabay.com.

120607-c
State takes aim at mercury pollution
Sun Sentinel – by David Fleshler
June 7, 2012
Officials say most sources are overseas.
Could the construction of power plants in Shanghai make it less safe to eat fish caught in the Everglades.
That's the difficulty Florida's environmental managers are grappling with as they try to write the state's first limits on mercury pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has begun a series of meetings around the state to establish the maximum acceptable level of mercury for the state's waterways, where the silvery metal is a pervasive contaminant that has led to extensive advisories against eating too much of certain fish species.
But as officials explained at a meeting Tuesday in West Palm Beach, the mercury in Florida's waterways comes from sources around the world, from the coal-fired power plants being built in huge numbers in China to the exhaust pipes of cars chugging up Interstate 95 in Broward County.
"It really is a national and a global issue," said Trina Vielhauer, chief of the department's Air Regulation Bureau. "We certainly are looking at Florida sources, and we're expecting folks to do what they can. But global and national sources are important."
Mercury is one of Florida's most persistent and dangerous pollutants, capable of causing neurological problems, memory loss, deafness, blindness, mental retardation and personality disorders. It presents the greatest danger to children, pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant because it can damage the nervous system of the developing child. From 2005 to 2010 there have been 89 confirmed cases of mercury poisoning in Florida, with the vast majority thought to be linked to eating fish.
Warnings are in place throughout the state, with 12,994 square miles of marine and fresh water bodies classified as impaired for mercury, along with 2,903 miles of rivers, streams and canals. High mercury levels are particularly pervasive in South Florida, where they cover most of the Everglades, as well as various streams and lakes.
Of all the mercury falling on the United States, 87 percent comes from outside the country, with two thirds of the worldwide total coming from Asia, said Jan Mandrup-Poulsen, administrator of the watershed protection section of the department.
"If we were to look at all the mercury sources in Florida and turn them all off, we wouldn't solve the mercury problem in Florida," he said.
But David Guest, managing attorney for the Tallahassee office of Earthjustice, which sues on behalf of environmental groups, said the state's attempt to blame the bulk of the problem on other countries was ridiculous and allowed state regulators to avoid imposing tighter controls on the Florida power plants responsible for much of the mercury.
"It makes it looks like you're doing something when you're really not," he said. "This is not real. This is not a regulatory program aimed at mercury reduction, even though there are mercury advisories around the state and it's a serious problem, especially in the Everglades."
State officials say mercury from Florida sources has declined sharply, with major drops posted by power plants, trash-burning facilities and other sources.
There are several reasons for South Florida's pervasive mercury problem, state officials said. The region's frequent lightning storms claw mercury from the air to the ground. Its power plants and heavy traffic contribute to the mercury problem. And the vast wetlands of the Everglades are good at transforming mercury arriving from the air into an organic form called methylmercury that can be absorbed by organisms at the bottom of the food chain.
The state plans to submit its proposed mercury limits in September to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. After that, the state will draw up a plan for implementing the limits.
Although they say much of the problem is out of Florida's hands, state officials said the EPA could use the limits them to reduce emissions from power plants, cement kilns and other sources around the United States. And down the road, the United States could use the limits as the basis for international treaties limiting mercury emissions.
We don't have any authority outside Florida," Vielhauer said. "But we have been working with EPA, which does have influence on what happens in the rest of the country."

120607-d
Valuable water sources should be protected
GulfBreezeNews – Opinion by Mike Robertson, a Gulf Breeze entrepreneur and author, President of the Midway Water System
June 7, 2012
It has been said that potable water is the new oil. It is absolutely necessary and becoming more scarce. Northwest Florida has been blessed with an abundant supply, but it, too, is dwindling. Our drinking water locally comes from two main sources:
The Floridan aquifer – a huge reservoir of pure water in the limestone layer far underground. Even 30 years ago it was thought to be virtually limitless. However, now when wells are drilled into the Floridan aquifer, we find that the water is further down each time. In other words, it is being used faster than nature can recharge it. The beauty of this water is that it needs little or no treatment for human consumption. It is very pure!
The Northwest Water Management District is weaning our local water companies such as Midway Water, Holley Navarre and Gulf Breeze off of the Floridan aquifer. Each year, we are allowed to draw less and less from this limited source.
The sand and gravel aquifer lies higher up beneath our soils. It is an excellent source of water, primarily because it is clean and it recharges more quickly. It does need more treatment, however, and because it can recharge more quickly it can be more vulnerable to contamination from those things we put on the surface of our good green earth.
Hazardous wastes, toxic chemicals, sewage, even runoff from roads and parking lots have the potential to enter into the sand and gravel aquifer near where we draw our drinking water. You might remember that the Emerald Coast Utility Authority has lost several very valuable wells to contamination. When replacement wells have to be located, drilled, tested and the infrastructure put into place to pump, pipe and treat the water – consumers of the water have to pay increased rates. It is an expensive, largescale proposition to replace wells that should not have become contaminated in the first place. I can also report to you that our local water companies are running out of suitable places to drill wells. That will continue to be an ever-increasing problem.
Fairpoint Regional Utility System is jointly owned by Holley-Navarre, Midway and Gulf Breeze water systems. Fairpoint water has six producing water wells and one test well in an area north of the Yellow River, east of State Road 87 and south of U.S. Highway 90. The independent East Milton Water System has an additional five wells and one test well within close proximity.
Seeing the need for wellhead protection, several Santa Rosa County citizens worked with county planners to obtain a federal grant to fund a professional geological assessment of what it would take to protect these wells from contamination.
It was submitted to the county on June 28, 2011 by a team of professional geologists known as Advanced Geo Spatial, Inc. This 2011 report recommends that certain land uses be prohibited within the “recharge” area to prevent rainfall from carrying harmful substances into the aquifer and our wells. Landfills of all kinds; underground fuel tanks; use, production and storage of hazardous materials; sewage wastewater disposal; mining and petroleum production; excavations and dirt pits would all have to be sited elsewhere in our county. Large developments would have to be served by sewer services rather than septic tanks, and impervious cover would be limited to 50 percent. Shortly, all or parts of this recommended Wellfield Protection area will be adapted into county ordinance.
How much protection is still up in the air. There are development interests that would like to reduce the protections. While current land users would be grandfathered in, there are private property owners that don’t want provisions that will necessarily limit the future uses of their property.
The Board of Directors of Midway Water urges everyone who depends on these wells to voice your opinion. If you live in Gulf Breeze, Midway or Navarre, you depend on these wells. The Santa Rosa Planning and Zoning Board has been meeting to discuss these protections. They will, in turn, make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. Unfortunately, the Planning and Zoning staff is not recommending to extend most of the protections specified in the geologist’s report. The public needs to take a proactive stance with the County Commission to further protect our rare and fragile aquifers. If we were to lose this aquifer because of contamination, it would be a very expensive fix that would raise water rates significantly for more than half the population of Santa Rosa County. Or, perhaps, we would need to learn to live with severe water restrictions the way many in our state have to. You cannot live in a home or run a business without safe, clean water.
The County Commission eventually will consider a new ordinance that will strengthen or possibly reduce protection for the wellfield aquifer at one of their regular meetings. Currently, they are waiting for their own Planning and Zoning Board to come up with provisions for the new ordinance. It is a long, drawn-out and tedious process. The landowners and developers have strong vested interests in the outcome of this debate.
If you live or work in South Santa Rosa County, you also have a strong vested interest. Please show up to these meetings and let the Planning and Zoning Board and your County Commissioners know that you want to protect the aquifer for this and future generations. The Planning and Zoning Board will take up this issue at its June 14 meeting at 5 p.m. in Milton in the Administrative Center (U.S. 90 behind McDonald’s).

120606-a
Everglades Restoration Plan Unveiled
WMFE - by: Patricia Sagustume
June 6, 2012
Audio (http://www.wmfe.org/audionews/060612Everglades.mp3)
WMFE - State and federal officials may finally have a plan for the Everglades Restoration project. The latest Everglades restoration deal proposes to clean up water pollution and resolve decades of federal legal fights. The plan has a price tag of more than $1.5 billion public price tag.
The Everglades water quality fight has been going on for two decades.
The newly proposed cleanup plan is not a final solution but a major step for getting clean and fresh water into the Everglades, says Eric Draper, Executive Director of Audubon of Florida
“We finally have a set of projects. An actual water quality standard that we can believe in, that we can depend on and that is actually enforceable in a court of law.”
In the plan, forwarded to the federal government from the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection, 7,000 acres of artificial wetlands will be created. Engineers say these storm water treatment areas, known as STA’s are critical  because they clean polluted water as it flows through to the Everglades.
Much of the pollution comes from runoff contaminated by fertilizer used by the area’s large sugar farms.
Estimates show the project costing about $880 million dollars over the next decade.
Audubon of Florida’s Eric Draper says the plan could be further improved if the sugar industry paid more for the cleanup.
“Right now the sugar companies do pay a small agriculture privilege tax but that’s only used to operate some of these projects.” Draper said.  “The actual cost of building the projects is borne by the state of Florida and the taxpayers.” 
Draper says that is something they can take a look at in the future. Right now he says it’s critical that the state meet the deadline the EPA has set. The state is cutting it close because today, June 6th, is the deadline for permits to be filed.

120606-b
Improved water standards get renewed state focus
KeysNet.com - by Kevin Wadlow
June 06, 2012 11:07 AM EDT
An $880 million proposal to settle a decades-old legal squabble over the Florida Everglades could reach the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency June 6.
Staff with the South Florida Water Management District, the state's lead agency on Everglades restoration, planned to submit permit applications for the plan today to meet a deadline imposed by the EPA.
"This is all about setting new standards for the quality of water that enters the natural system of the Everglades," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida.
Audubon Florida is one of the environmental groups taking part in a federal lawsuit against the state for not doing enough to protect the Everglades system that includes Florida Bay.
"This cleanup is long overdue," Draper said. "This appears to reflect an agreement between Gov. [Rick] Scott and the Obama Administration. It's welcome news."
At a special meeting Monday, the South Florida Water Management District board learned details of the complex plan that would build five new stormwater-treatment areas and change water- management operations to reduce nutrients that result in unwanted types of plant growth.
The Water Management District did not take a formal vote, but eight of nine board members indicated support for the permit application.
The proposal still must be approved by the EPA and a federal judge who ruled that Florida has not met legal standards. The Florida Legislature also must agree to the spending plan.
"Florida Bay is the ultimate victim of bad water management," Draper said. "If fresh water coming through the system is not managed well, Florida Bay winds up getting too little or too much."
Currently, massive quantities of fresh water needed for the Everglades and Florida Bay cannot be released because the water holds contaminants from farming areas, Draper said.
Paul Tudor Jones II, chairman of the Everglades Foundation, endorsed the proposal as "beginning a promising new era for restoring America's Everglades...They have crafted a sound plan, with achievable project goals, that will make a meaningful difference in restoring this unique national treasure."
Friends of the Everglades, which filed the original federal lawsuit, still harbors doubts about the plan, according to news reports.
The proposal was the result of Scott asking the EPA in October to modify its requirements for water quality. The EPA declined to accept a plan from the state; the current proposal is a result of subsequent negotiation. If enacted, the projects in the plan would be completed by 2025.

120605-a
Agency Releases $880 Million Plan To Clean Up Everglades: AP
6-NBC
June 5, 2012
A chairman of the Everglades Foundation said it was "a promising new era" for restoration
A 12-year, $880 million plan to clean up the Everglades was released Monday, the latest development in a nearly 25-year legal fight over water quality in the fragile ecosystem.
The blueprint proposed by the South Florida Water Management District, the lead state agency on Everglades restoration, pulls together pieces of plans proposed last year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
"Water entering the natural system will finally be cleaned up," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida. "This is a necessary step toward getting fresh water into the parched Everglades."
To read a story about dogs sniffing for pythons in the Everglades, click here.
Lawsuits date back to 1988 over enforcement of Clean Water Act standards in the vast wetlands area of the Everglades. Proposals to settle such complaints have centered on lowering levels of phosphorous, which comes from fertilizer and promotes the growth of unhealthy vegetation that chokes native plants.
The latest proposal would create five stormwater treatment areas covering 57,000 acres in an effort to filter phosphorous.
For a story about Joe Bidden touring the Everglades, click here.
Paul Tudor Jones II, chairman of the Everglades Foundation, applauded the plan, saying it was the beginning of "a promising new era" for restoring the Everglades.
"They have crafted a sound plan, with achievable project goals, that will make a meaningful difference in restoring this unique, national treasure," he said.
Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida, said she was encouraged by the proposal because of its strict deadlines. But she said state lawmakers would need to be convinced to fund the projects.
"We're going to have to work with the Legislature in the near future and impart on them how important this is," she said.
The Everglades have been damaged for decades by the intrusion of farms and development. Dikes, dams and canals have been cut, effectively draining much of the swamp and polluting it with fertilizers and urban runoff. The state and federal governments' efforts to restore the wetlands have been stymied for years by funding shortfalls, legal challenges and political bickering.

120605-b
Congress to pour millions into Everglades
Sun Sentinel - by William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
June 5, 2012
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House today is expected to pass a bill that would pour $145 million into Everglades restoration projects from the Kissimmee Valley south of Orlando to a series of reservoirs in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Despite tight budgets, Congress continues to pay for the massive re-plumbing of the "River of Grass" to nourish wildlife, preserve water supplies and save what's left of the ancient Everglades and its watershed. The expected flow of money from Washington -- along with a state plan released this week to clean phosphorous and other pollutants from stormwater runoff -- shores up the federal-state-local partnership needed to sustain the huge project.
"Yeah, it's real high priority. We've made a big effort to bring in federal funding," said Don Jodrey, a senior adviser in the U.S. Interior Department. "Why? There is only one Everglades in the world. It's a unique ecosystem, a landscape unlike any other. And we have a good partnership with state and local stakeholders." The House bill would provide the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineerswith Everglades restoration money for the fiscal year that starts in October. A Senate version, not yet passed, would provide a little more -- $153 million, in line with President Barack Obama's budget request. The two chambers will have to resolve their differences and agree on a final bill. Obama also has requested another $70 million of Interior Department spending on the Everglades, including maintenance of Everglades National Park, which will be considered in a separate spending bill. State and local governments are expected to pay half the cost of restoration, estimated at $11.5 billion over three decades. Florida's $1.5-billion plan to reduce phosphorous pollution helps remove federal concerns about the state's commitment to clean water and paves the way for continued federal spending. "That helps me and others in the Florida [congressional] delegation when it's time to get the federal government and Congress to also respond. And Congress has been very responsive," said U.S. Rep.Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, a member of the Appropriations Committee. "Also, the fact that there's a large local and state match adds to the credibility of Florida in this process." "It's a big pot of money, and I wouldn't doubt that it becomes a target," Diaz-Balart said. "But fortunately there's a lot of support in Congress, and we'll fight those battles as they come." U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, is pressing for the Senate version to prevail. "I would imagine there will be an uptick in the amount," he said. "In the meantime, this [House bill] is a good start, and it comes about at a time when all water projects throughout the country are being impacted [by budget cuts.]" The bill would allow the Corps to complete its work in the Kissimmee Valley, where putting natural bends back in the river brought almost immediate regeneration of vegetation and wildlife. It would also pay to complete work at Picayune Strand in Collier County and continue restoration of the severely Indian River Lagoon along the Treasure Coast. And it will provide planning and design money for a new Broward County water preserve at the edge of the 'Glades, including a levee and a series of reservoirs similar to one already being built in south Palm Beach County. The reservoirs are designed to contain water now sent through canals out to sea, filter it with submerged vegetation to naturally remove pollutants and release it into the Everglades. The projects also are designed to provide water supplies for south Palm Beach and western Broward counties. The Everglades money has not drawn controversy, but other parts of the $32-billion energy-and-water appropriations bill will be contested. The White House threatened to veto the House version, citing cuts to proposed clean-energy spending and limits on clean-water standards. The Everglades money could be held hostage by a standoff on these other matters, but environmentalists are encouraged. "We think it is enough to provide considerable progress on moving our projects forward," said Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy for Audubon of Florida. "It's important to get projects underway and hopefully bring more jobs to South Florida's economy.

120605-c
Project pumps fresh water into Hillsborough River
TBO.com – The Tampa Tribune – by KevinWiatrowski
TAMPA -- For nearly a century, Tampa's Rowlette Park dam has blocked much of the fresh water flowing down the Hillsborough River so city residents can use it to brush their teeth, flushing their toilets and watering their lawns.
As a result, the river below the dam became largely a salty finger of Tampa Bay, eliminating many of the plants and animals that thrived in a mix of salt and fresh water.
Five years ago, state and city officials embarked on a collection of projects they hope will make the lower Hillsborough more like its old self by pumping in millions of gallons of fresh water from a network of other sources.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn threw one of five such projects into gear Monday morning when he officially opened the pump station at Sulphur Springs.
Buckhorn praised the project as a boon to the river and the city. Then he paused.
"I don't have anything to cut," he said, pantomiming a pair of scissors as the pump house whirred to life in the distance behind him.
"I don't have anything to blow up or anything to knock down with a bulldozer," he said.
So he settled for the best option left to a mayor bereft of public works props.
"Turn on those pumps!" he shouted over his shoulder at the building.
The seconds stretched out as public officials, environmental advocates and neighborhood activists waited for something to happen.
Then water gushed from the enormous pipe spanning the spring. At the same time, thousands of gallons of spring water shot east to join the river at the dam two miles away.
The $5.3 million plumbing project, mandated by the Southwest Florida Water Management district in 2007, will keep a constant supply of fresh water in the river.
Swiftmud split the cost with the city. Swiftmud Executive Director Blake Guillroy said it's money well spent.
"This river is the lifeblood of our region," Guillroy said. "It's is a treasure to all of us."
The Sulphur Springs project is among a handful of big projects Swiftmud is working on to pump fresh water back into the river.
Plans call for using the Tampa Bay Bypass Canal and tapping into groundwater at Blue Sink near 109th Street and Florida Avenue, the Morris Bridge Sink northeast of Temple Terrace. Sinks are water-filled sinkholes disconnected from other groundwater flows.
Together, the parts of the project will cost more than $22.9 million and take several more years to complete. The city's portion is just more than $13 million.
The goal is to keep a bare-bones 12.9 million gallons of freshwater flowing into the river every day. That's not hard during the rainy season, when the river routinely spills over the dam. But it becomes critical during dry periods, water stops flowing over the dam.
The Hillsborough River starts in the Green Swamp northeast of Hillsborough County but it draws more freshwater from tributaries in Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
Before the dam when was built in 1916, the river's mix of fresh and salt water made it a fertile nursery for marine life. After the dam went up, the river below it grew saltier.
The pumping project is designed to freshen the river without altering the dam, where water is diverted and treated to feed the city's sinks, showers and toilets, said Sid Flannery, chief environmental scientist for Swiftmud.
City water managers can adjust their draw from Sulphur Springs from moment to moment based on the temperature and salinity of water in the river.
If all goes as planned, the Hillsborough will become healthier and more biologically diverse than it has been in decades, Flannery said.
Buckhorn said the project isn't sexy, but it is necessary. A healthy river equals a healthy city, he said.
Buckhorn, like mayors before him, continues trying to turn the Hillsborough River into the city's showpiece. He cut the ribbon last week on the newest segment of the city's Riverwalk project.
"We are making a passionate case for why we should celebrate the Hillsborough River is all its forms," Buckhorn said.

120604-a
Florida unveils new Everglades restoration plan
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
June 4, 2012
State officials on Monday unveiled a $1.5 billion plan to revamp Everglades restoration efforts in a bid to clean up water pollution and resolve two decades of federal litigation over stymied environmental efforts.
A new Everglades  restoration deal disclosed Monday proposes to clean up water pollution and resolve decades of federal legal fights, with a more than $1.5 billion public price tag.
The plan that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Monday forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeks to correct Florida's failure to meet water-quality standards in stormwater that flows to the Everglades.
Building new water storage and treatment areas along with other improvements over more than a decade could cost about $880 million, according to South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration for the state.
If endorsed by the federal government and the courts, the deal could resolve more than 20 years of legal fights and revamp stymied Everglades restoration efforts.
"This is a very solid plan. It is scientifically based and it's affordable," said Joe Collins, chairman of the water management district board. "We certainly are committed to protecting the Everglades."
The proposal includes stricter discharge limits for water treatment areas that send water to the Everglades, with plans by 2025 to meet overdue federal water quality standards that were supposed to take effect in 2006.
Audubon of Florida and the Everglades Foundation on Monday praised the proposal as a welcome sign of progress that could benefit the environment, tourism and drinking water supplies.
"The plan is clearly a major step forward," said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida's executive director. "We are all going to benefit (from) this."
How to pay for the new plan remains a hurdle.
Florida has already invested about $1.8 billion building 57,000 acres of stormwater treatment areas to filter polluting phosphorous from water that flows off agricultural land and into the Everglades.
Big Sugar should be paying for more of the pollution clean up costs, not taxpayers, according to the environmental group Friends of the Everglades.
"We are skeptical," group representative Albert Slap said about the terms of the proposal disclosed Monday. "We consider it a step in the right direction (but) the problem is enforceability and funding."
The proposed deal is the result of months of negotiations started by Gov. Scott who in October flew to Washington, D.C., to push for a new restoration plan.
Without a deal, Florida faces the possibility of having to enact a plan proposed by the EPA and prompted by a federal judge that calls for adding more than 40,000 acres of additional stormwater treatment areas along with other enhancements the state estimates would cost $1.5 billion.
The new state proposal includes more than 7,000 acres of expanded stormwater treatment areas, man-made marshes intended to filter phosphorus from stormwater that flows to the Everglades.
 The deal calls for building a series of reservoirs near water treatment areas to hold onto more water that is now drained away for flood control and to better regulate its flow, so that the filter marshes can be effective.
The state's plan also calls for targeting pollution "hot spots," which would mean more pollution control requirements on pockets of farmland where fertilizer runoff and other agricultural practices boost phosphorus levels.
The plan would put to use some of the 26,800 acres the district in 2010 acquired U.S. Sugar Corp. for $197 million. Old citrus groves in Hendry County would be turned into Everglades habitat, according to the proposal.
The new water storage areas in the plan would include making use of an unfinished 16,700-acre reservoir in southwestern Palm Beach County.
That stalled project already cost taxpayers about $280 million before the project was shelved while the district pursued the U.S. Sugar land deal.
Similarly, the proposal calls for redirecting the water in a $217 million rock-mine-turned-reservoir west of Royal Palm Beach to help improve Everglades water quality standards. That water was intended to go north for restoration efforts, but the district has yet to build the $60 million pumps needed to deliver the water to the Loxahatchee River.
The $880 million in new costs could come from $220 million the district has in reserves, $290 million projected from property tax revenue from expected new growth as well as money from the Legislature, according to the district.
The EPA has about a month to review the state's proposed permit changes for water quality standards. State officials face upcoming court hearings June 25 and July 2, where they are supposed to show progress in restoration efforts.
"More details are needed to justify the potential cost", said Barbara Miedema, vice president of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.
"How much more money are we going to spend to get how much more benefit ?" Miedema asked

120604-b
State moving forward with new Everglades restoration permit after talks with federal agencies
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
June 4, 2012
South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Melissa Meeker on Monday described a tentative agreement reached with state and federal officials for proceeding on a revised plan for Everglades restoration.
In October, Gov. Rick Scott met with federal officials in Washington to propose a revised state plan to reduce Everglades phosphorus pollution. Meeker said the plan, with new construction projects and revised pollution measures, has been developed based on an augmented plan developed in October.
"We are still working through the final points of the actual language," Meeker told her district's governing board on Monday.
The plan provides $880 million in new projects through 2025, Meeker said, in addition to some projects already under way. The district, she said, now has $220 million in the bank toward such projects.
Related Research: View the Everglades restoration strategies presentation to the SFWMD governing board.
U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in July 2008 ordered state and federal agencies to stop issuing permits for stormwater treatment areas. He ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review state water quality standards for the Everglades.
In 2010, the federal EPA said that clean water standards for phosphorus were not being achieved in all parts of the Everglades and that further reductions of phosphorus pollution are needed south of Lake Okeechobee. High levels of phosphorus can convert sawgrass savannahs into a swamp full of cattails with less wildlife habitat.
Since Scott met with federal officials in October, state and federal agencies have been working on a revised plan, Meeker said. They have developed a technical plan that includes water quality-based pollution limits, new filter marshes and holding ponds to improve water treatment, and an implementation schedule through 2025.
DEP spokeswoman Jennifer Diaz said the state is submitting a revised permit to the Environmental Protection Agency by Wednesday and that it would be posted soon after on the state agency's website.
Meeker said the $880 million in new projects include new "flow equalization basins" that capture and store water and release it later into stormwater treatment areas during dry periods.
She also said the plan assumes a contribution from taxpayers statewide and that the governor's representatives have met with legislative leaders to discuss it.
Meeker agreed with a board member's suggestion that the cost estimate was conservative with about one-third of the money now in the bank.
"In terms of the appropriations I think it is well within the means with what we have gotten in the past," she said. "There are no guarantees. It is the state Legislature."
But based on conversations the governor's office has had with legislative leaders, Meeker said, "they (legislators) felt the amount of money we were asking for was very reasonable and very doable."
Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Larry Lincoln commended the state for its hard work and said the federal agency will quickly review the submittal to determine whether it meets federal Clean Water Act requirements.
"The most important thing is for on-the-ground work to begin as soon as possible so we can begin work on these projects, which are vital to restoring water quality in the Everglades," Lincoln said.
Representatives of Audubon Florida and the Everglades Foundation spoke in support while U.S. Sugar Corp. issued a statement in support. But Friends of the Everglades, which filed the lawsuit pending in Gold's court, said it was suspicious.
"Our fear is that the state once again has declined to impose enforceable remedies, adequate financing and best farming practices to sharply curtail phosphorous pollution of the Everglades as required by law," Friends of the Everglades President Alan Farago said.
Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said his group was glad to hear that the state and federal agencies are working together.
"The plan is clearly a major step forward with helping us get fresh water into the Everglades, which is what we need to do," Draper said.

120604-c
Suit to force Everglades cleansing appears near resolution
Palm Beach Post – by Christine Stapleton, Staff Writer
June 4, 2012
WEST PALM BEACH — A proposed settlement to a 24-year-old lawsuit that has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in failed efforts to restore the Everglades was unveiled on Monday after months of private negotiations.
Melissa Meeker, the Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District, said the draft settlement calls for an $880 million series of projects to filter out nutrient contamination and increase water flow. The projects come in addition to the more than $2 billion the district has already spent on land and other construction projects -- including $300 million spent on a reservoir before scrapping the project.
According to Meeker, the proposed settlement calls for adding two stormwater treatment areas and flow-equalization basins, which would ensure a constant flow of water to the stormwater treatment areas. The district currently manages five such treatment areas, man-made wetlands that use plants to cleanse water headed to the Everglades.
The proposed settlement sets the completion date for Everglades restoration at 2025.
"We're trying to move forward to some closure with this plan," said Governing Board Chairman Joe Collins. "I for one would rather see us spending money on construction than lawyers."
The settlement proposal contains time lines that will be enforced by incorporating them in district regulations, Meeker said.
The lawsuit that spawned the epic lawsuit began in 1988, when the federal government sued the water district and other state agencies for failing to enforce water quality standards in the Everglades.
In 1992 a federal judge approved a settlement agreement, called a consent decree, in which the District agreed to build stormwater treatment areas and meet water quality standards by 2002. When the district was unable to meet that deadline, others were set and missed. Nutrient levels in certain areas continued to exceed maximum limits -- driving the lawsuit on.
Most recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set a deadline of June 6 for Florida to submit permits on behalf of the district to ensure that water quality standards are met in the five stormwater treatment areas the district currently operates. Officials of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection say that deadline will be met.
At a special meeting of the governing board on Monday, Meeker she wanted to the board to hear details about the proposed settlement from her rather than read them in the paper.
However, David Guest, attorney for EarthJustice, which represents environmental groups in the lawsuit, was guarded about his opinion of the draft settlement.
But Guest did say he was not aware that Meeker was going public with the settlement proposal on Monday. In fact, Guest -- who has been involved in the lawsuit since it was filed in 1988 -- said he was not certain that the settlement had been finalized by all parties.
"What worries me is, what the state is doing doesn't feel like collaboration," Guest said after learning of Monday's meeting.
In her 30-minute presentation, Meeker explained that the district would use some of the land it purchased from U.S. Sugar in 2010 and more than 2,000 acres of Mecca Farms that the District hopes to acquire in a land swap with the county.
The plan would also put to use two reservoirs: the L-8 Reservoir, a 15 billion gallon reservoir with a $217 million pricetag and water unfit for drinking; and the A1 Reservoir, which the district stopped building after spending $300 million.
As for money, Meeker said the district has $220 million set aside in reserves and would rely on money raised through property taxes and state appropriations for the remainder.
Despite the optimism at Monday's board meeting, the proposed settlement faces many hurdles. It must be approved by the EPA, the district's Governing Board, a federal judge and environmental groups.

120603-a
Got arsenic ? Get a plastic water bottle
Examiner. com – by Monika Woolsey
June 3, 2012
There is arsenic in your water, did you know that?  It's a natural compound, but above a certain level it can be dangerous, especially to pregnant and nursing women.  A study released last week by the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Dartmouth School of Medicine found that even at the new, lower level mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 10 parts per billion (ppb), arsenic changed the nutrient value of the blood and breast milk in female rats fed arsenic, significantly enough that growth and developmental deficits were observed in their babies, before they were even weaned.  Once the rat pups were switched to milk from mothers who had not been fed arsenic, their growth and development resumed at normal rates.  Previous research has also reported that arsenic in water raises the risk of type II diabetes, which can promote infertility and increase the rate of miscarriage.
Public water is subject to the FDA arsenic limits, which were recently reduced from 100 ppb to 10 ppb.  However, arsenic levels in private well water has been found, in several parts of the country, to exceed the old limit.  Women of child-bearing age are urged, especially if they live in New England, Florida, the Upper Midwest, the Rocky Mountains, or the Southwest, to have their water privately tested for arsenic levels to know for sure if they are drinking safe water.
Interestingly, scientists recently developed a new technique for removing arsenic from water.  They reported at the National Meeting and Exposition of the Chemical Society last year, that simply taking pieces of clean, used plastic beverage bottles and coating them with cysteine, adding them to water and stirring then removing, helped to remove arsenic from water.  In the studies described, this technique helped to reduce arsenic levels from 20 ppb to 0.2 ppb.  Cysteine is an amino acid found in some nutrition supplements.  This technique, developed for use in the third world, by people with limited technological skills, now has pertinence worldwide.
If you have tested your water and found arsenic levels to be high, consider looking to the third world for an easy solution.  It could be no further than your recycling bin.

120603-b
Rallying around Silver Springs
Ocala.com - Editorial
June 3, 2012
Adena Springs Ranch has become a household name hereabouts ever since representatives for billionaire Frank Stronach announced last summer that he had purchased 24,000 acres of land near Fort McCoy to build a grass-fed cattle operation that could eventually have 30,000 head of cattle on the ground.
Stronach's investment of tens of millions of dollars and the promise of 150 new jobs was cheered as an economic boost to economically ailing Ocala/Marion County. The County Commission quickly granted the project a special use permit and all was good.
Then came news that Adena Springs was seeking a permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District to withdraw 13.2 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer, more than what the city of Ocala uses.
Suddenly, the focus on Adena Springs Ranch was not about agribusiness expansion but about water. More specifically, it was about Silver Springs, and whether such a massive water withdrawal could be the death knell to the iconic national landmark that is already visibly distressed.
The protests were almost immediate. A local group called the Silver Springs Alliance formed, and environmentalists across the state promptly joined in the debate.
Now, 10 months after Stronach made public his plans to invest $80 million in Adena Springs, the debate over whether St. Johns should issue the consumptive use permit — and if so, for how much — is no longer a local one. Instead, the Adena Springs permit application and its potential impact on the water supply, especially Silver Springs, has become a rallying cry for environmental interests from Miami to Tallahassee.
As a result, fair or not, the Adena Springs permit request has become not only a symbol of the threat that overpumping poses to Silver Springs but of all that ails Florida's water resources — whether it be falling lake and river levels, pollution or salt water intrusion.
As has been the case throughout history, the lure and love of Silver Springs is so strong that a rally dubbed "Stand Up for Silver Springs & Florida's Waters" is planned on June 23 at Silver River State Park.
In a guest column on the preceding page announcing the rally, the authors make clear the power of Silver Springs as a symbol of Florida's water woes:
"(T)his is about much more than just Silver Springs. What is happening to Silver Springs is emblematic of the water-quality and supply challenges we are facing throughout Florida, highlighting the significant pollution problems that exist and the impending water crisis that we face."
So, once again, here we are. Ocala/Marion County is ground zero in Florida's ongoing tug-of-war over its precious and dwindling groundwater supply. Yes, low water levels are exacerbated by a historic, years-long drought, but the evidence that our water resources are in trouble is everywhere — in the dry lake beds of Interlachen, the disappearing springs of the Suwannee Valley and, yes, the increasingly debilitated Silver Springs.
Silver Springs has a long history of showcasing what is right and beautiful about Florida's waters. How sad that it has suddenly become the symbol of what is wrong with them

120603-c
Water district's plans to lease land for hunting draws fire
Ocala.com - by Christopher Curry, Staff Writer
Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 6:26 p.m.
GAINESVILLE - The 836-acre tract straddling the Santa Fe River and the Alachua/Bradford county line is known as Mud Swamp.
For some, it soon might be the unhappy hunting grounds.
The Suwannee River Water Management District — the owner of the conservation land — has plans to lease it for private use as a hunting ground.
The possibility that a private group will get the exclusive hunting rights on publicly owned land has drawn the opposition of a Tallahassee-based group formed to fight for public hunting grounds in the state.
 “We're very concerned when a water management district turns over public lands to a private interest, basically cutting out the little guy from being able to hunt on public land,” said John Fuller, executive director of The Future of Hunting in Florida Inc. “We feel it's setting a precedent other water management districts may take advantage of in the face of budget cuts. That's what we're concerned about — the precedent.”
For the water management district, budget cuts are indeed driving the plan.
Bob Heeke, the district's senior lands resources manager, said the district's funding from the state Land Trust Fund, which covers the costs of managing conservation land, went from approximately $5.9 million in fiscal year 2008-09 to approximately $2.1 million this year.
That money is generated by the documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions, a shrinking pool of money in the economic downturn, Heeke said. Of the district's $2.1 million in funding this year, $1.6 million goes toward the management of 160,000 acres of conservation land, Heeke said.
Budget cuts to the land acquisition program already have led the district to sell off some tracts deemed surplus in order to raise money to buy other land with greater environmental value.
The Mud Swamp tract, Heeke said, is a lightly used property where the district has not spent money on the development of trails or amenities. Hunting is not currently allowed on the land.
The district used Florida Forever funding to purchase the property for almost $1.25 million in 2004. The main goal, Heeke said, was the protection of water resources since the land stretches along both banks of the Santa Fe River. Opening the land for public recreation was always deemed a secondary goal, he said.
In response to the opposition to private hunting activities on public land, Heeke noted that the district still has 105,000 acres open for public hunting.
Fuller said his group is concerned that more of that acreage will be leased out after the Mud Swamp property, leaving less public hunting grounds.
The water management district received four bids to lease the land. The highest bid was approximately $16,900 a year, submitted by a property owner in neighboring Brooker.
Fuller said he believed that is a “proverbial drop in the bucket” for the district's budget woes and not worth closing off the land to the public.
The district's Governing Board is scheduled to vote on the lease on June 12.
In Alachua County, the county's Environmental Protection Department staff also is looking into the possibility of hunting leases on some county-owned Alachua County Forever conservation properties in order to raise money for land management.
 “We're still in the early stages of considering that,” Environmental Protection Department Director Chris Bird said.
Any recommendation that county staff would make would have to go to the County Commission.

120601-a
Decline in water flow at Silver Springs raises sharp disagreement
Gainesville.com and Ocala.com, The Gainesville Sun - by Fred Hiers, Staff Writer
June 1, 2012
OCALA — There has been no shortage of disagreements between supporters of the proposed 25,000-acre Adena Springs Ranch in Marion County and environmentalists who have serious concerns about it.
Now there is a growing disagreement about an abrupt decline in the flow of Silver Springs near the proposed ranch, and both sides agree the current drought can't account for it all.
At the center of the feud is whether the cattle operation planned near Fort McCoy should get a 13.2 million gallons-per-day water permit from Florida water regulators, and whether pumping that much water would harm an already diminishing Silver Springs.
Both sides agree that the 70-year average Silver Springs flow has nearly free-fallen from 790 cubic feet per second (or about 510 million gallons per day) before 2000 to 535 cfs. between 2001 and September 2011.
Both sides also agree that until 2000, the spring's flow was proportional to the rainfall that recharged it. After 2000, both sides agree, something happened and the flow decreased despite consistent rainfall.
"And it happened dramatically," said William Dunn, a Gainesville environmental scientist hired by the ranch to help in its water application.
Dunn said the spring's decline since 2000 has not been because of over-pumping, but possibly because of some "cataclysmic" event that has redirected water away from the spring.
Dunn said this theory, which is being reviewed by the St. Johns Water Management District, explains the spring's decline.
The water district, which will decide on Adena's application, did not return telephone calls for this story.
Robert Knight, an aquatic and wetland scientist who has studied Silver Springs for decades, said Dunn's theory is nonsense.
Meanwhile, Adena Springs Ranch owner billionaire Frank Stronach has hired environmental marketing consultant Sandra Anderson in Tampa to help get out the message that the spring won't be harmed by the ranch's water use.
"Unfortunately, most people are not aware of the facts regarding the project, or are commenting out of emotion or misinformation," she said on Friday.
A website explaining the ranch's side of the story is scheduled to be launched next week at www.Adenaspringsranch.com.
During a meeting this week, Dunn reiterated that the ranch likely won't need the full 13.2 mgd to irrigate grass to feed its cows. He said even if the full amount were withdrawn, the depth of the aquifer outside the ranch area would decrease only about 1.25 inches and about three-quarters of an inch in the Silver Spring area. In its water application, the ranch estimated it would have as many as 30,000 grass-fed cows on the property.
Dunn said the limerock that makes up the vast underground maze under the spring shed is always changing and susceptible to "time, chemistry and erosion," and that it could have changed, rerouting water elsewhere.
Knight said the theory of an underground event that's sending water away from the springs is unlikely.
"I think they're really clutching at straws," Knight said of Dunn and other Adena supporters. Knight contends the decline is due to over-withdrawal. He is director of the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute at the University of Florida.
Knight said that, although the theory of a "cataclysmic" underground event is a convenient explanation to distract attention from over-pumping, "we don't have any evidence of that (theory) at all."
Knight said the simplest and most reasonable explanation is that due to over-withdrawal of water from the aquifer, there's a lack of water to replenish the spring. He also said that the lower volume of water in the aquifer could be naturally causing underground water to go toward springs with lower elevations.
Evidence of that happening is seen with Rainbow Springs compared to Silver Springs. Knight said Silver Springs has lost about 32 percent of its flow during the past decade, while Rainbow Springs, about 25 miles away, has lost only 15 percent. The difference between the two and their shared 2,000-square-mile watershed is that Rainbow Spring is about a dozen feet lower in elevation, Knight said.
In addition, Rainbow's flow has surpassed that of the Silver Springs, another sign that the aquifer level has shrunk enough to favor springs of lower elevations.
He said similar problems have occurred in North Florida.
"They're in la-la land to think their pumping is not going to have an effect," Knight said.
Of the theory of a cataclysmic event under Silver Springs that would move water elsewhere, Knight said the water would still have to be accounted for elsewhere.
"You would find it … and they haven't. That's why I don't think it's a plausible explanation," he said.
Knight said the explanation as to where the missing water is simple.
"It's showing up in everybody's well, peanut fields," he said. "We're just reproducing what Southwest Florida went through … and creating our own nightmare."

120601-b
Federal judge again delays new Florida water pollution rules, says this will be the last time
Associated Press – The Republic
June 1, 2012
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge again has delayed water pollution rules for Florida but says this will be the final extension.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Thursday pushed back dates for the federal Environmental Protection Agency to sign proposed and permanent numeric nutrient rules for Florida.
The deadline for proposed rules for rivers, streams and lakes outside of South Florida is extended from June 4 to Nov. 30 with a final proposal due Aug. 31, 2013
For proposed rules covering the same types of waters in South Florida and all coastal and estuarine waters the deadline goes from June 4 to July 20 with final rules due May 10, 2013.
Business, agriculture and utility interests oppose the federal rules favored by environmentalists to stop algae blooms choking Florida waters.

120601-c
It's time to listen to reason
Newssun.com – by James Dean, Little Lake Jackson, FL
June 1, 2012
I am tired of reading the politically-motivated excuses why we can't get anything corrected on Little Lake Jackson, or Lake Jackson. As I read the front page article in the Thursday Highlands Today, I did a slow burn.
Although I am vice-president of the Friends of Erin Park Canals and Little Lake Jackson, LLC, I am writing this solely on my own.
I was at the meeting when Southwest Florida Water Management District discussed the addition of two dams on Jackson Creek ($1.6 million each, equaling the $3.2 million described in the article). They explained that after a two-year study, they realized that if the new dams worked perfectly, they would only raise our lake level, possibly, a quarter of an inch.
Our Lakes manager wrote me an e-mail in which he explained that our "spill dam" (which has no water anywhere near it), leaks 1,300,000 gallons a day, which he explained sounds like a lot, but really isn't. At our meeting with SWFWMD they explained that our water evaporation rate is approximately 1,300,000 per day. Now add those two together and I don't care who you are, that sounds like a lot of water loss and still no one can get a permit to fix anything, or presents a valid plan to correct the problems that they choose to ignore.
Our Lakes manager wrote me an e-mail in which he explained that our "spill dam" (which has no water anywhere near it), leaks 1,300,000 gallons a day, which he explained sounds like a lot, but really isn't. At our meeting with SWFWMD they explained that our water evaporation rate is approximately 1,300,000 per day. Now add those two together and I don't care who you are, that sounds like a lot of water loss and still no one can get a permit to fix anything, or presents a valid plan to correct the problems that they choose to ignore.
After the meeting, a representative from SWFWMD admitted he didn't really know where our dam on Tubbs Road was located. Why study other avenues for construction when you don't have any idea where the real problem is located?
Granted we have not had the rain necessary to bring our lake level up to where it should be, but if we don't stop the water from running out of the lakes we can soon turn our canals into dirt bike tracks. I hate to even mention that we can't even get the hilly terrain under the bridge simply leveled out so that if we ever do get enough water we could use the passage as we have for years. My poor boat thinks we moved to a desert.
I can't help but get the feeling that if we quit the politics, the expensive studies and the constant stalling from certain government agencies and instead used our heads and listened to reason, we could have had our problem fixed years ago. The repairs might, in actuality, be less than the time and manpower already wasted on studies and meeting after meeting to discuss why we can't get anything done on our favorite, beautiful little lakes.

120601-d
May rains boost Florida water supplies
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
June 1, 2012
South Florida's flood-or-famine water supply received welcome relief from steady May rains that kicked off an early start to the summer rainy season.
What had been a drier-than-normal, winter-to-spring dry season was capped with well-above-normal May rainfall.
South Florida, from Orlando to the Keys, averaged 6.17 inches of rain during May, which was 160 percent the normal level, according to the South Florida Water Management District.
Broward Palm Beach counties fared even better. Eastern Palm Beach County  averaged nearly 8.5 inches or rainfall and eastern Broward County averaged more than 10 inches during May, according to the district.
Lake Okeechobee, South Florida's primary backup water supply, on Friday measured 11.68 feet above sea level. That's 2 feet higher than this time last year, but still about 1.4 feet below normal.
The Everglades water conservation areas, which stretch across western Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, also benefited from May rainfall. Water levels in the conservation areas, which provide animal habitat and boost drinking water supplies, rose to about a foot above normal last month.
Despite ample May rainfall, regional totals for the dry season that started in November still fell short of normal, with almost 15 inches of rain. That was about 83 percent of normal leaving a more than 3 inch deficit heading into the summer.
But the summer storm season is when South Florida typically gets its greatest water supply boost.
June is the usual beginning to a five-month rainy season that coincides with the hurricane season.
During that stretch, near-daily afternoon showers along with tropical storms typically deliver about 70 percent of the more than 50 inches of rain South Florida averages each year.
The problem is, South Florida's water storage options are limited.
So even after months of dealing with drought conditions, as soon as the summer rains come, drainage discharges out to sea typically increase to guard against flooding towns and farms built on what used to be the Everglades.

120601-e
On first day, new Northwest Florida water chief says "conspiracy theories" are untrue
TBO.com – by Bruce Ritchie
June 1 2012
New Northwest Florida Water Management District Executive Director Jon Steverson on his first day on the new job on Friday said he's heard the "conspiracy theories" about a DEP takeover of the water management districts but they're not true.
Steverson, 36, was special counsel and chief of legislative affairs at DEP before being picked in May to replace Douglas Barr, who was not reappointed by Gov. Rick Scott. Steverson worked closely with the districts during the Legislature's past two regular sessions as key legislation affecting the districts' budgets passed.
An avid hunter with a stuffed duck in his new office along with photos of his family, Steverson is the second DEP official in the past year to lead a water management district after Melissa Meeker's move to the South Florida Water Management District. He will earn $165,000 a year.
"I'm a guy who applied for a job," Steverson said. "I was not put anywhere (by DEP). If you called the secretary (Herschel Vinyard) today, I'm sure he'd say, 'I'd like to have Jon out here still.' At least, I hope that's what he'd say."
Also, Anne Shortelle, director of DEP's Office of Water Policy, is the top pick for a search committee to lead the Suwannee River Water Management District this month following  the resignation of executive director David Still in February. With Barr's departure in April, all five water management district chiefs were gone with 16 months of Scott taking office.
"I don't think there is a takeover," Steverson said. "I've seen the quote-unquote conspiracy theory that's been put out there."
He said DEP officials have a familiarity with water district board members and their issues. And that makes those department officials attractive when the districts are hiring.
Steverson was acting deputy secretary for water policy at DEP in 2011 after the Legislature passed SB 2142, which cut property tax revenue for the districts by $210 million.
This year, SB 1986 passed, lifting those revenue caps while the Legislature continues to set maximum property tax rates.
The districts, Steverson said, probably won't be going out and raising taxes as a result of SB 1986, he said. Instead, the legislation will allow revenue to increase with new construction and increases in property values.
"If we need to make significant adjustments," he said, "we can do that for significant issues."
Barr wouldn't say why he was let go and the governor told reporters he didn't want to discuss individuals who were not reappointed. Steverson said Friday the issue is between Barr, the Legislature and the governor.
During a Senate committee confirmation hearing for Barr in February, Sen. Jack Latavala, R-St. Petersburg, criticized the district for taking a "business as usual" approach that included having $30 million in unallocated reserves.
Latvala also questioned Barr about a proposed Bay County groundwater pumping project that neighboring landowners and Washington County are opposing and environmental groups have criticized.
Barr responded that the status quo "has never been adequate in my view."
Steverson, through a district spokeswoman, said Friday that his agency is waiting for a judge's ruling on the pumping project and will follow whatever the law says.
During an interview, Steverson said he would have to bore into the budget to determine whether the agency's reserves are excessive.
And he said it was not appropriate for him to discuss how the agency was run in the past.
"We want to have respect for the environment, our customers, for each other -- the folks we service here," Steverson said. "And we want to have accountability."
There have been few water fights in the Northwest District -- as Steverson noted.
"We haven't had the pressures that other areas of the state -- yet," he said. "It's not to say they are not coming to northwest Florida. Hopefully not. But hopefully we can avoid some of those pressures and make sure we have plenty of good water supply for the future and the people we service."
The agency has played a key role advising DEP and governors in a 20-year legal fight with Alabama and Georgia over water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system flowing through those three states. That battle, focused on the use of the Lake Lanier reservoir north of Atlanta, is heading toward the U. S. Supreme Court.
"We have a really unique ecosystem that exists up and down that (Apalachicola) river and a special way of life," Steverson said. "I understand there are some thirsty people to the north of us, but they are killing a special way of life down there in Apalachicola."

120601-f
State's rivers and waterways are stressed
Jacksonville.com – Lead Letter by Barbara Ketchum, Jacksonville, FL
June 1, 2012
A representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection provided a glowing overview of the agency's efforts "to get the water right."
Coincidentally, this review was printed the same day I received startling pictures taken by Florida nature photographer John Moran on his recent trip to the Santa Fe River.
The green slimy mess of algae choking the river can be viewed at www.oursantaferiver.org.
Viewing these pictures and reading the most recent "Florida Water Quality Assessment Report," it's hard to believe that progress is being made or that sufficient resources or attention are being applied.
Here are the sobering statistics:
- For rivers, 80 percent of the stream miles are considered impaired, or polluted. However, the problem is even worse, since only 20 percent of all river and stream miles have been assessed.
- For lakes, reservoirs and ponds, 90 percent are impaired, with only 54 percent of the total acres assessed.
- For bays, estuaries and coastal shoreline, 97 percent are impaired (100 percent assessed).
The February 2010 "Florida Springs Initiative Monitoring Report" paints an extremely discouraging picture of the health of our springs, as well.
According to the report, of the 49 network springs, only Silver Glen Springs in the Ocala National Forest continues to have nitrate concentrations near the range of what would be considered true background levels.
The iconic Silver Springs is suffering from excessive nitrate levels and dramatic decreases in its flow of over 50 percent. The result: A reduction of fish biomass of 92 percent and an increase in algal biomass of 371 percent.
The poor conditions of our waterways adversely impact our economy, our health and our quality of life.
Many of us concur with Moran's commentary: "Something was seriously askew with my world. ... I want my Florida back."
We all want, need and deserve clean water. I hope the FDEP will soon "get the water right" by its actions and not just its rhetoric.

yymmdd-y

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