121130-b
Ray Judah ‘Set Bar High’
Sand Paper – by Keri Hendry Weeg
November 30. 2012
Earlier this month, Ray Judah stepped down after having served our area as District 3's Commissioner for a nearly a quarter of a century. During that time he helped shepherd Lee County through two periods of unparalleled growth and a new era of environmental awareness. With baseball and 20/20 controversies swirling during his last few years in office, some may have forgotten all the positive things he helped create and the fact that – without his input – many of the parks and conservation areas residents now take for granted would likely be covered by so much concrete jungle.
Sanibel/Captiva Conservation Foundation Director Rae Ann Wessel was a private consultant when she first met Judah in 1987.
"He was working as Lee County's first environmental planner back then – a job he was hired for in 1983 – and he saw a way that he could do so much more,” she said. "At that time – the late 80's – this county was going through a big growth boom, there was a lot of money, and everyone was scrambling to build roads and such for all these new people. Ray saw that he could bring his planning experience and his knowledge of natural systems together and be a voice that hadn't been on the
commission before. And he cared about what was going to happen to this county – that's the most important thing. He really cared enough to want to make a difference.”
Not only was Lee growing by leaps and bounds in 1988, its citizens – and most of the country for that matter - were in the midst of awakening to a new era of environmental awareness. Having finally realized the importance of our natural resources to the overall economy of Southwest Florida, residents were pushing for the establishment of conservation areas and regulations to protect manatees and water quality. All of that combined created the perfect political storm for the 35-year-old Judah, who had recently earned his 'green' stripes by re-writing the Conservation Coastal Zone element of the county's Comprehensive Plan.
"It was the perfect situation for him, and he relished the chance to have that role to represent the community,” Wessel said.
Commissioner John Manning was serving on the Board of County Commissioners at the time, having been appointed by then-Governor Lawton Chiles in March of '88 after Porter Goss left to run for Congress.
"I remember when Ray was elected in November of that year, and we served together until 2000,” he said. "During that time, there was a tremendous growth push in Lee – people were literally coming here by the thousands – and we had to build infrastructure for all of them. Growth management in those days was like trying to tackle Jell-O.”
Wessel was one of many consultants that the county hired to help with that planning, and she told us that it was that work that laid the foundation for what would become known as Conservation 20/20.
"We started mapping out river corridors and flow-ways because there was a huge disconnect between road projects being planned and what would happen to our natural resources,” she said. "When you put in a big road like Summerlin, you lose half a mile on either side to commercial development - and some of these roads were being planned right through nature preserves.”
Through that planning, Judah helped Manning and their fellow commissioners create programs like 20/20 and the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed - otherwise known as CREW – a non-profit organization that Judah co-founded in 1989 to coordinate the land acquisition and management of the 60,000 acre headwaters of Estero Bay. The fledgling commissioner also became involved with Lee County students – helping a group of local high schoolers' environmental club, called the 'Monday Group', to establish Manatee Park in eastern Lee County.
Conservation 20/20 – which became controversial following Lee Clerk of Courts' Charlie Green's 2011 audit – was anything but that in 1996, when Lee voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax increase by up to .5 mils to fund the purchase and protection of environmentally sensitive lands. With the rate of development increasing every day, a land use study in 1994 found that only 10% of Lee County land was set aside for conservation though other south Florida counties had between 40% to 85%. This led to a group of citizens lobbying for a county-based land acquisition program that was championed by Judah and has resulted in the creation of nearly 50 preserves – including Matanzas Pass Preserve – all accessible to the public (for a complete list, see www.conservation2020.org).
Judah also made an impact on ­­our island directly in those early years before incorporation.
"In 1991, when the Historic Society got organized, Sue Davison called Ray Judah to help us and he stayed with us until we moved the Historic Cottage to its present location and has maintained his interest in us to the present day,” Dr. Jean Matthews wrote in 2004. "In addition, Ray has been instrumental in getting the boardwalks done in the Matanzas Preserve and also helped the Rotary Club get the observation deck completed.”
In the late 90’s, Judah championed re-purposing trash for energy. Through his efforts, the county created a waste energy facility that can provide enough electricity to power 40,000 homes. That facility, which was honored by Power Engineering International as the ‘Best Project in the World’ in 1995, has remained state-of-the-art and has resulted in Lee County having one of the most successful recycling programs in the state - exceeding the 75% recycling goal set for Florida
In the early 2000's, Judah came up against his biggest opponent yet – Big Sugar – when he realized that nutrient-laden runoff from the cane fields that had washed into Lake Okeechobee was being allowed to flow down the Caloosahatchee River - wreaking havoc along the way. From the time he first became aware of the problem – something for which he has often credited a story written by the Sand Paper's Mark List – he has doggedly fought for the sugar industry to pay for its share of restoration efforts and for the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers to hold them accountable.
"For decades, sugar companies have shaped U.S. farm policy to enrich corporate profits at the expense of the south Florida ecosystem and public taxpayers,” Judah wrote in early 2006. "The sugar subsidy formula is insidious in that we as taxpayers are enabling the sugarcane industry in south Florida to destroy the Everglades, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers and coastal estuaries.... A sustainable Everglades Agricultural Areas (EAA) that includes land for water storage and overflow, as well as for agriculture and compacted development in the glades communities of Belle Glade, Clewiston, Pahokee and South Bay, would ensure meaningful restoration of Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades and coastal estuaries and tremendous economic opportunities and growth for the residents and businesses that deserve a healthier life style and long term prosperity.”
Judah also spent the latter half of his political career campaigning for a fairer distribution of the water that the District and the Corps send down the river, resulting in much more media and citizen’s groups’ attention being paid to the matter and planting the issue prominently in the public eye. He did the same thing by drawing the public’s attention to the pollution being caused by phosphate mining in Charlotte County, resulting in the company responsible - Mosaic - bring forced to settle a lawsuit earlier this year by donating nearly 4,200-acres for permanent conservation and agreeing to preserve about 130 acres of land that was previously eligible to be mined.
Because of his efforts to safeguard the environment, he has received numerous awards over the years, including "Conservationist of the Year” from the Florida Audubon Society in 1984 and 1996, "Champion of the Environment” by Gulfshore Life Magazine and the "Pathfinder Award” from the Urban Land Institute in 2003, and "Conservationist of the Year” from the Florida Wildlife Federation in 2007. In 2011, The Everglades Coalition honored Judah with its prestigious "James D. Webb Award” - given every year "to a public official who has made an outstanding contribution to the Everglades”.
In 2010, Judah was selected by the bicycle and pedestrian advocate group, BikeWalkLee, to receive its first award when they recognized him as a "Champion for Complete Streets'.
"Ray has fought to ensure that biking, walking and mass transit has had a place at the transportation table -- and that has helped ensure that bikers, walkers and those who rely on public transportation have had a place to enjoy on our roadways,” BikeWalkLee’s Ken Gooderham said in August of that year.
In an attempt to diversify Lee's reliance on its traditional three-legged economy of tourism, construction and agriculture, Judah spearheaded efforts to bring new industries to the area – including a company that can create fuel from algae in 2008 and a biodiesel plant in 2009. Seeking to protect Lee's rivers from nutrient-laden runoff, Judah helped craft Lee County's fertilizer ordinance in 2008. He was also instrumental in expanding the Southwest Florida International Airport in 2005.
Both Wessel and Manning told us they are proud of the work they did with Judah over the years, and think there will be a future for him in Lee County.
"I think that what we did was good for Lee County,” Manning said. "He and I both decided that we needed to have a balanced approach to growth management and conservation, and I think it worked for this area.”
Wessel agreed, saying that Judah ‘set the bar pretty high’ for future commissioners to follow.
"Ray was someone who passionately cared about his community - this wasn’t just a job to him,” she said. "And it was so much more than just environmental stuff he had a vision, and he was able to contribute to this area in so many positive ways.”
"I definitely think there is another role for him here,” Wessel continued. "This county still needs him, and I believe he will be back.”

121129-a
Report: Water woes cost Florida $10B annually
Gasparilla Gazette
November 29, 2012
Florida's water-pollution problem is costing the state more than $10 billion every year, according to an independent report released Wednesday.
The Stockholm Environment Institute analyzed the impact of statewide problems such as algae and red-tide outbreaks.
The results don't surprise David Guest, managing attorney for Earthjustice in Florida, who points to the water pollution caused by industries in the state.
"That's just unfair. When you dump things in other people's water - destroy their property values, destroy their businesses - then you ought to stop."
This week's report comes as Florida policymakers wait to see if the federal Environmental Protection Agency will accept their new state-written water-pollution plan or enact stronger federal rules.
Opponents to stricter water standards argue that the cost to prevent pollution is too high for businesses.
Guest hopes the EPA is paying attention to the analysis.
"This is reminding EPA that there's a cost to real people of blowing off the public interest and approving Tea Party administration rules."
In addition to the issue of algae and red tides, Florida's springs have high nitrate levels, including Silver Springs with a nitrate level 1,000 times higher than normal. Sewage, manure and fertilizer are seen as major contributors to the water-pollution problem.
The full report is available online at www.earthjustice.org .

121129-b
Water pollution costs Florida more than $10 billion a year
WLRN News - by Ashley Lopez
November 29, 2012
Local officials around the coast in Florida have already started to deal with the price of sea level rise. Now, another report has put a price tag on the cost of water pollution throughout the state-- the verdict: it's about $10.5 billion a year (www.earthjustice.org).
According to the Stockholm Environment Institute, which conducted the study, a lot of the pollution we are dealing with in our water comes from human activities.
Water pollution from phosphorus and nitrogen is rapidly accelerated by human activity population growth, together with agricultural and urban development, have led to large-scale wastewater discharges into aquatic environments. Nutrient pollution causes the gradual degradation, or eutrophication, of waterbodies. Ecological changes which otherwise might have occurred naturally over millennia instead have taken place in decades.
Nutrient pollution fuels the proliferation of harmful algae outbreaks. Excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in the water can make algae grow so quickly that ecosystems are overwhelmed by it. These high concentrations of algae have the potential to harm water quality, food resources and habitats, and reduce oxygen levels, making it more difficult for fish and other aquatic life to survive. Large growths of algae, called algae blooms, can result in illness or death of large numbers of fish by severely reducing or eliminating oxygen in the water. Some algae outbreaks produce toxins and bacterial growth that can make people ill from contact with polluted water, consumption of contaminated water, or tainted fish or shellfish.
Dealing with this toxicity spurred by these algae and red tide outbreaks is what is really driving up the cost. Cleaning up after this pollution costs the state a lot of money.
Then, there is the loss of ecotourism business, which many of parts of the state thrive on.
Properties that are surrounded by polluted water also see significant declines in their property values, which affect the economies of both local governments, as well as the residents who own the properties.
According to Public News Service- FL, this week's report comes as Florida policymakers wait to see if the federal Environmental Protection Agency will accept their new state-written water-pollution plan or enact stronger federal rules and enforcement.
Businesses have long been the most opposed to stricter water standards. They argue that the cost to prevent pollution is too high.

121128-a
Environmental groups oppose another delay sought by feds for new Florida water pollution rules
The Associated Press
November 28, 2012
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Environmental groups are opposing another delay for new Florida water pollution rules designed to stop algae blooms from choking state waters.
They argued in court papers filed Wednesday in Tallahassee that federal law doesn't permit delaying a Friday deadline on grounds cited by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal agency wants a 120-day delay to continue talks with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on its proposed alternative to EPA's rules.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle approved similar requests in the past, but in June he said a postponement until Nov. 30 would be the last.
State officials as well as business, agriculture and utility interests support the state's proposal and oppose the federal rules, arguing they would be too costly.
Environmentalists say the state rules would be too weak.

121128-b
EPA seeks another delay in deadline for issuing water quality rules
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
November 28, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is again asking a federal court to delay a deadline for proposing new water quality rules for Florida, with the agency saying it needs more time to work with the state on new rules it is developing.
Environmental and industry groups have been battling for the past three years over proposed limits on nitrogen and phosphorus in Florida waterways. Industry groups say federal rules proposed in 2010 would be too difficult and expensive to meet.
Last February, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle threw out the federal rules for springs and waterways, saying they were "arbitrary and capricious." He directed the agency to propose new limits by May 21.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection by that time had developed its own proposed rules and the Legislature waived ratification. But the EPA still was required to meet court-imposed deadlines for proposing rules.
On May 30, Hinkle granted an extension requested by EPA but issued a warning to the federal agency.
"The defendants should take note: The effort that began in 1998 to establish numeric nutrient criteria for Florida waters must be completed," he wrote. "The defendants should not expect a further extension."
In its extension request filed Nov. 21, the EPA acknowledges the judge's earlier warning but says it only recently learned of new rules being developed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The EPA said rules that have been developed or proposed by the state previously did not include waterways that were required to be included by a 2009 court agreement. EPA officials did not respond to requests for comment.
A DEP spokeswoman said the department supports the delay request because it wants to implement the state rules.
The nonprofit Earthjustice law firm, representing environmental groups, on Wednesday filed an objection to the extension request.
"The Clean Water Act provides no excuse for delay based on consultation with states," Earthjustice wrote.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Earthjustice says a study it paid for suggests that algae and red tide outbreaks are costing the state between $1.3 billion and $10.5 billion a year. The authors of the study could not be reached to discuss that interpretation of their report.
"The cost of doing nothing is spectacularly higher than the cost of making the polluters reduce their pollution," David Guest, director of the Florida office of Earthjustice, said of the study.
David Childs, an attorney representing the Florida Water Environment Association-Utility Council as an intervenor in the case, said it's time for EPA to approve Florida's rules so that nutrient standards can be implemented.
"There is a lot going on in this state to deal with nutrient-related water quality issues," Childs said. "To suggest otherwise is simply incorrect."
Related Research:
* Nov. 13, 2012 "Valuing Florida's Clean Waters" report from the Stockholm Environment Institute
* Nov. 21, 2012 EPA extension request filed in U.S. District Court
* Nov. 21, 2012 EPA official James Giattina filed statement
* Nov. 28, 2012 Earthjustice objection to extension request

121128-c
Lingering effects of Okeechobee water release makes for murky fishing
Bellingham Herald – by Susan Cocking, Miami Herald
November 28, 2012
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Kayak angler Jerry McBride prays for drought. Life was beautiful for him before Hurricane Isaac made a couple of passes through Florida last summer, followed by more torrential downpours that caused Lake Okeechobee to rise more than three feet. Fast-rising lake levels and safety concerns about the aging dike surrounding it prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin pumping upwards of 1billion gallons per day into McBride's favorite fishing grounds in the St. Lucie Estuary.
"I never left Sailfish Flats and I had a shot at 10 species a day," McBride said of his paddle trips before the storm. "Now with the dumping, I have to go to Fort Pierce. I've had to turn everything into a road trip."
The corps stopped the latest round of lake releases on Nov. 7. But McBride said estuary waters were still murky, making sight-fishing all but impossible in the Stuart area. So last week, he and I decided to fish the Indian River Lagoon, hoping for water clear enough to sight-fish by kayak for snook, redfish and trout. Unfortunately, no joy.
Even a strong incoming tide at Fort Pierce Inlet could not overcome the opaque, brown water pouring out of Taylor Creek into the lagoon. With a higher-than-usual tide overlaying dirty creek water, visibility was poor, even on a sunny afternoon. McBride said he had scouted Round Island to the north the day before, and conditions there were no better.
So we gave up the idea of sight-fishing and instead blind-casted with jigs toward mangrove shorelines.
"It's still possible to catch fish here blind-casting," McBride said. "But not being able to see the fish or the potholes really takes the sport out of it."
True, but as the old cliche goes, a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day in the office, and the day wasn't that bad.
I caught and released a snook of 6 to 7 pounds on my second cast of the day with a chartreuse jig head and shad-like paddle tail, along with a couple of small jack crevalles. McBride caught and released a slot-sized redfish, plus two slot-sized sea trout and the usual complement of jacks.
At no point could we see the bottom, despite numerous periods of bright sunlight.
 In late afternoon, winds picked up briskly out of the north and what little bite we had trailed off, so we decided to head back to the boat ramp.
McBride said he planned to check out his home waters this week to see if conditions had cleared. But he sounded pessimistic about the health of the Indian River Lagoon in general and the St. Lucie Estuary in particular.
"People say it will recover. It won't necessarily recover," McBride said. "We have so much nutrients in the water. It causes algae blooms and dirties the water up and down the East Coast."
Indeed, the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon, including the Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon, suffers from algae blooms that some scientists blame for reducing sea grass meadows from more than 72,000 acres in 2009 to about 41,000 acres today.
Lake Okeechobee discharges are not the sole cause, but they are the most visible.
The head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Col. Alan Dodd, issued a news release last week explaining the necessity of water releases from the Big O and vowing to "continue to work with stakeholders to find feasible solutions."
Meanwhile, McBride and, no doubt, his fellow anglers on the Caloosahatchee River - the western recipient of Lake O discharges - are keeping their fingers crossed for a dry winter.
Said McBride: "There's no easy solution, but we're just tired of being the people who get dumped on."

121128-d
So far, so good for bay water project
Florida Keys News – by Robert Silk
November 28, 2012
HOMESTEAD -- Water managers say a new Florida Bay restoration system functioned effectively during its first wet season.
"We are very happy so far," South Florida Water Management District engineer Jorge Jaramillo said last week.
The $26 million pump, canal and water retention project went online early this year. Located just east of the main entrance to Everglades National Park, the system is designed to divert water away from extreme South Florida's largest canal, the C-111, and toward Taylor Slough, Florida Bay's historical freshwater tributary.
Putting more water into the slough and the surrounding ecosystem will help reduce salt levels in the bay -- a move that scientists expect will revitalize the bay ecosystem.
According to water district data, managers used the system's two new pump stations to pull an average of 165 million gallons of water per day out of the C-111 canal from June through mid-November -- the equivalent of 244 Olympic-sized swimming pools daily.
All told, the new system was used to divert nearly 28 billion gallons of water from the C-111 during the wet season.
That water doesn't go directly into Taylor Slough, however. Rather, at the northern of the two pump sites it is moved half a mile west, where it is used to fill up an area known as the Frog Pond Retention Area, which is capable of holding 577 million gallons.
The Frog Pond, in turn, serves as a sort of bulwark against water from Everglades National Park, a bit further west, which otherwise would seep east and into the gaping C-111 canal. Blocked by the Frog Pond water wall, the slough's water will instead stay in the Everglades and gradually flow into the bay, engineers expect.
At the southern pump site, water is diverted from the C-111 in a southwesterly direction. After the cement-grounded canal gives way to an earthen floor, engineers expect the water to percolate into the ground, thereby hydrating surrounding areas.
With just one wet season under the system's belt, Jaramillo stressed that there just isn't enough information to know what impact it has had on the quality and quantity of freshwater flowing into Florida Bay. Such data needs to be analyzed over several years.
Still, environmentalists and Everglades National Park Superintendent Dan Kimball alike are feeling optimistic.
"My sense from the reports I've seen is it's performing as advertised and this is a true benefit to Everglades National Park," Kimball said.
Tom Van Lent, a hydrologist for the nonprofit Everglades Foundation, said he has looked at early data related to the new restoration project and is pleased with what he has seen.
"Clearly through the wet season it has performed pretty well based on what Taylor Slough looks like through Everglades National Park," Van Lent said. "It's not dropping as fast as it normally would."
But Van Lent also emphasized that it is too early to make a final assessment. Yet to be seen, he said, is how much impact the Frog Pond will have during the dry season in keeping water in Taylor Slough.

121126-a
Florida needs to protect limited water resources
USForacle.com
November 26, 2012
Since elementary school days, the same phrases have been drilled into our heads: Don’t let the water run. Take shorter showers. Use less water.
But according to the Tampa Bay Times, Floridians use 158 gallons of water per person each day — that’s 50 more than the national average — and Florida’s water resources have been depleting for decades, leaving some freshwater springs dry and drastically reducing the flow rate of others.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) latest report on Florida water resources states that the 2005 average of 158 gallons per person declined from 174 gallons in 2000. In general, per capita water use is trending downward, and the reduction in use is attributed to conservation and changing landscaping techniques.
This is a good sign, considering 52 percent of groundwater used in 2005 was used for public supply, according to the USGS, but more should be done to ensure that the trend continues downward.
The issue is larger than public use, and efforts at the state level started by former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush to curb the deterioration of Florida’s springs have been cut since Gov. Rick Scott took office.
According to the Times, “groups drafting plans to restore some of the most important springs were disbanded because they lost their funding.”
An $11 million allotment has been made for “restoration, outreach, monitoring and research,” according to the Times, yet $8 million of that has gone toward a pollution monitoring system and most of the rest is being used for fertilizer technology and improving sewage systems.
Florida needs to get its priorities straight, and scientists who are aware of Florida’s water issues need to be given a real voice that can change the future of Florida springs.
Perhaps it’s hard for Scott to understand diminishing springs when he’s cooped up in a Tallahassee office all day, and he would do well to follow in Bush’s footsteps and go for a morning on the Ichetucknee Springs.
But Scott isn’t the only one to blame.
Cutting down on residential water usage — Floridians used 95 gallons per day per person in 2005 — is a key element in the issue, one way that every person can participate and make a difference in Florida’s springs. Large public institutions, including USF, would also do well to reduce water usage by landscaping with Florida-friendly plants that do not need constant watering.
This isn’t just an issue for environmentalists — it’s an issue for all Floridians, and reducing water use can be done with a simple yet concerted effort from every person. It starts at the residential level, but harsh statewide changes are long overdue.

121126-b
Florida's burmese pythons could slither across America
WUSFnews.com – by Greg Allen
November 26, 2012
There are several exotic snake species that have become a problem in the Everglades. But for wildlife managers, the biggest headache is the Burmese python.
Earlier this year, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey captured the largest Burmese python yet in Everglades National Park. Three USGS staffers had to wrestle the snake out of a plastic crate to measure it. The snake was a 17-foot-7-inch female carrying 87 eggs.
Wildlife managers are working to get a handle on the problem of exotic snakes in South Florida; but the snakes have already made a big impact.
One study suggests that in Everglades National Park, pythons have reduced the population of raccoons, opossums, deer and other mammal species by 90 percent.
To help combat the problem, the federal government earlier this year banned the importation and sale of Burmese pythons and three other exotic snake species.
One reason was fears that pythons might spread to other states. A study several years ago by the USGS found pythons could potentially spread up the East Coast and west to California.
But Elliott Jacobson, a professor emeritus of zoological medicine at the University of Florida, says a new study questions how far beyond South Florida pythons could spread.
"These maps give a very false sense of distribution," Jacobson says.
In a study published in the journal Integrative Zoology, Jacobson and other researchers looked closely at the low and high temperatures found along the East Coast in the python's projected habitat range. Freezing temperatures are deadly for pythons. And Jacobson says pythons have trouble eating and digesting food at temperatures below 60 degrees.
"The bottom-line conclusion was the number of freezing days in the winter is going to limit the ability of this animal to spread beyond extreme South Florida," he says.
Jacobson says this new information shows the federal government overreacted when it imposed a national ban on a species that's a problem just in Florida.
And some other well-known scientists are also speaking out against the python ban.
"The press has made this a big deal. The sky is falling — I call it the Chicken Little syndrome — when indeed it isn't," says Brady Barr, the resident herpetologist with the National Geographic Society.
Barr says the new study shows something he and other researchers have maintained for some time — that Burmese pythons can't spread far beyond Florida's three southern-most counties. Barr says that's because, unlike native snakes, pythons can't tolerate cold, and they lack the instinct to hibernate.
"They don't have the innate ability to find hibernacula, to find places to hide or to be warm. They don't know how to do that," Barr says.
That question — whether snakes from tropical climes, like pythons, may take measures to adapt to the cold — is one that divides herpetologists. Gordon Rodda, now retired from the USGS, helped write the report showing that pythons could potentially spread throughout the Southeast U.S. He says there's nothing in this new report to change his thinking, including its doubts about whether pythons may learn to adapt to cold.
"We know that Burmese pythons in the more high altitude portions of their range do in fact hibernate. The question then is: How do they acquire that behavior to do so?" Rodda says.
This is a question that may come up in Congress later this week. A House subcommittee is holding a hearing on whether to extend the ban on Burmese pythons to other exotic snake species.

121126-c
Florida Water Management District may sell off conservation land
Tampa Tribune - by Keith Morelli
November 26, 2012
TAMPA -- Stung by a slashed budget, the agency that oversees water resources in West Central Florida is taking a hard look at its vast land holdings.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District wants to determine which parcels aren't aquifer recharge areas, wetlands or needed for flood control -- and if some sort of revenue can be squeezed from those lands.
The process could end with the agency selling off, leasing or trading some prime Florida wilderness.
Some environmental groups oppose the plan, saying dumping land to save money is not in the state's best interest.
The district owns nearly a half-million acres in 16 counties, with property from Citrus County to Charlotte County along the Gulf Coast and a few inland counties. Most of the property is vital to water resources: it recharges the aquifer, is used for flood control or is suitable for storing freshwater for consumption.
Selling the parcels outright is only one of the options open to the district, which has so far evaluated 261,000 acres in 10 counties, including Hillsborough. The process has uncovered 1,276 acres in 26 parcels that have been labeled surplus lands.
Selling Florida's wilderness is a travesty, said Cathy Harrelson, conservation chair of the Sierra Club's Suncoast Group. She blames the governor and Florida Legislature, which she says is responsible for the "wholesale abuse of water protection in this state."
Slashed budgets and a lack of emphasis on protecting the ecology have forced water management districts across the state to take the drastic action, she said.
"The idea that we Floridians spent good money for decades to purchase lands that were reviewed and vetted to be important ecologically to the state of Florida and then, in the throes of a depressed real estate market, to sell them off at reduced rate -- well, I don't see that as getting a good bang for our buck," Harrelson said.
District officials say any selloff would be small.
"At this point, only 0.5 percent of our lands have been recommended for surplus," said district spokeswoman Robyn Felix. She said the project's surplus lands do not provide direct water resource benefits, which is at the core of the district's mission.
Such lands were acquired in better economic times, when the district and was able to purchase large tracts of environmentally sensitive land, some of which included uplands that had nothing to do with water resources.
Such deals mostly occurred when landowners had not been willing to divide a property offered for sale so the district bought the entire parcel. In some cases, the upland portions were leased to cattle concerns or molded into wildlife recreational areas.
The district has appointed a surplus lands subcommittee to direct the staff and to review recommendations before making its own proposals to the governing board. If approved by the subcommittee, the recommendation would be sent to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for approval.
If approved by the DEP, the recommendation would go to the full 13-member governing board.
Parcels in Hillsborough are scattered along the Tampa Bypass Canal, and two large tracts lie southwest of the corner of Lithia-Pinecrest Road and State Road 39 in the 5,515-acre Chito Branch Reserve in eastern Hillsborough.
Some along the canal are small, only a fraction of an acre, while others range up to 12 acres. The two tracts on the Chito Branch Reserve, the site of Tampa Bay Water's C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, are larger. One is 89 acres, the other 38 acres.
Most of those parcels currently are being reviewed by the DEP, Felix said, or being title researched.
Once all the red tape is navigated, the governing board has four options, Felix said.
The parcels can be sold or exchanged for land that "supports our core mission," she said, or can be deeded to local governments or retained as a conservation easement.
Revenue for lands sold may go to the district or to the programs under which the tracts initially were purchased, like Save Our Rivers, Preservation 2000 or Florida Forever. Some of the programs required the sale money to pay down state bonds used to make the purchases.
The district has no plans to buy additional land, Felix said.
Public hearings have been held, but the public still has an opportunity to be heard. Comments are being accepted on the district's website, www.sfwmd.gov.
Among the public's concerns was the future land use of property that ends up being sold. Some landowners purchased their property knowing they were adjacent to wildlife preserves and wanted assurances condominiums wouldn't be built or phosphate mines dug next to their homes.
The district said it can restrict, as a condition of sale, the types of uses allowed on the property by retaining a conservation easement and/or development rights. The restrictions would allow for agricultural use of the land but limit development.
Once the first round of dealing with surplus lands is over, the district will go back to take a look at properties it co-owns with other governmental agencies "to see if we can find additional management efficiencies," Felix said.
"We are trying to improve efficiencies in how we manage our lands."

121126-e
New, tougher fishing rules could be on the way
FloridaToday.com – by Kevin Lollar, Fort Myers News Press
November 26, 2012
Tagging tarpon, classifying permit among the issues
Plenty of discussion remains before the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission makes a decision, but some of the state’s favorite fish species might soon get greater protection.
Florida has no official designation for game fish and sport fish, so at the FWC meeting Dec. 5 in Apalachicola, staff will recommend to commissioners:
• A game fish designation for redfish, snook and spotted sea trout.
This designation could include no commercial harvest, recreational harvest by hook and line only, and zero bag limit for captain and crew of for-hire vessels. Under current regulations, commercial harvest is allowed for spotted seatrout but not redfish or snook.
• A sport fish designation for tarpon, bonefish, permit and billfish.
This designation could include catch-and-release only, no recreational or commercial harvest, fishing with hook and line only. Under current regulations, commercial harvest is allowed for permit but not tarpon, bonefish or billfish.
 “I’ve been kind of directing staff in this direction,” FWC chairman Kenneth Wright said. “There’s been a good amount of discussion about recognizing these fish as rock stars and highlighting what these species do in terms of recreational fishing and the amount of attention they draw to the state and the dollars as well.”
Saltwater fishing has a $5.7 billion impact in Florida, and the species proposed for game fish and sport fish designation are a big part of that.
Studies show that tarpon fishing in the Everglades, for example, has an annual economic impact of $174 million, and tarpon fishing in Charlotte Harbor has an annual economic impact of $109 million.
Among the biggest changes would be making tarpon a catch-and-­release only fishery.
Since 1989, fishermen had to buy a $50 tag to possess a tarpon. Money from tarpon tags is used for tarpon research.
Possession can mean killing the fish for submission as an International Game Fish Association world record or towing a live tarpon to a weigh station during a tournament
Making tarpon a catch-and-release only species would eliminate the towing of live tarpon.
In the past, the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series, which takes place in Boca Grande Pass in May and June, has drawn criticism because fishermen tow tarpon to shore to be weighed.
 “Before this proposal was proposed, we were changing our format to catch, measure and release,” PTTS director Joe Mercurio said. “So this wouldn’t have any effect on the tournament whatsoever.
 “What we don’t support is the elimination of tarpon harvest because there is no biological reason to do so. It’s just an arbitrary decision.”
Aaron Adams, operations manager of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, is in favor of doing away with the tarpon tag.
 “The spirit of the tag is to allow harvest for world records,” he said. “But the spirit is broken by folks who possess tarpon but don’t keep them. Research has shown that the less handling time of a fish, the better the survival.”
Fishing guide Capt. Chris Wittman regularly fishes the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series and has no problem with getting rid of tarpon tags.
 “But I’d be curious what the economic impact would be,” he said. “The $50 from the tags goes to research, to better understand and preserve the species. If you take away that funding, you take away the ability to study the fish. All that stuff costs money.”
Wright said an idea being considered is a $1,500 tag for any designated sport fish.
 “There are benefits to having a tag for purposes of a record,” he said. “The few people targeting these fish for a world record would be able to do that.”
Another important change could involve permit.
 “It’s the most controversial of the sport fish,” FWC biological scientist Carly Canion said. “It’s used a lot of different ways across the state. There’s a group of people in the Keys and extreme South Florida that value it as a catch-and-release fish. And there are definitely people who wouldn’t want to see it become catch-and-release only.”
Bob Wasno, education and resource coordinator at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Vester Field Station, is one of the latter.
 “I don’t know about putting permit on the list of sport fish,” he said. “You’re not going to bring the others back to the dinner table anyway, but permit: They're delicious. I can filet them from the eyebrows back, and there’s nothing left on the filets. Every bit is delicious.”
If the FWC does designate permit a sport fish, recreational harvest might be allowed outside the Special Permit Zone, an area that encompasses Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and the Keys.
FWC will hear public comment on sport and game fish proposals at its Dec. 5 meeting, then will take public comment through email and hold a series of webinars before voting on the issue in February.
 “Right now, we’re in the idea stage,” FWC spokeswoman Amanda Nalley said. “Nothing is set in stone. I hope the word gets out there. We want to hear what people think.”

121125-a
Closer inspection of St. Lucie estuary provides reasons to fight for St. Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon
TCPalm.com - Editorial
November 25, 2012
An estuary is where fresh-water and saltwater meet.
Too much of the former puts myriad species of fish and other marine life — fragile creatures that depend on the proper salinity level for their existence — in distress.
For more than two months, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumped massive amounts of fresh, polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. At the height of the releases, which the Corps discontinued Nov. 7, almost 1.2 billion gallons of water per day was gushing into the estuary through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in Tropical Farms.
The estuary became vulnerable 87 years ago, when the St. Lucie Canal connected Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River. In the past 50 years, the release of freshwater has been repeated many times. Destructive algae blooms, diseased and dead fish, and health warnings to avoid contact with the water are recurring events following the massive, prolonged infusions of freshwater.
But there's a lot more happening below the surface of the estuary. When it comes to discharges from Lake Okeechobee, the devil is in the details. And few people know this better than Nancy Beaver, owner and captain of Sunshine Wildlife Tours in Stuart.
Beaver conducts daytime and sunset ecotours of the estuary that embark several times a week from the dock at Manatee Pocket in Port Salerno. The two-hour tour is an eye-opening experience — one that illuminates the destructive power of the discharges on our marine environment, our fisheries and our local economies.
On a recent sunset tour, the pontoon boat with 30 or so guests made its way to Bird Island — a small spit of land off Sewall's Point covered with shrubs and small trees that serves as a nesting place for a variety of birds. En route, Beaver notes that one adult oyster filters 50 gallons of water per day. The ideal salinity level for oysters is in the mid-20-parts-per-thousand range.
However, when the salinity level in the estuary drops below 5 parts per thousand — as it did most days Aug. 28 and Oct. 27 — spat and juvenile oysters die within seven days, according to the Florida Oceanographic Society. Adult oysters die within 28 days.
Beaver takes a sample of water and puts it in a viewfinder for magnification. When held toward the setting sun, it illuminates about a dozen plankton. Someone asks what a water sample looks like when the salinity level is within normal ranges.
"The water sample is brimming with plankton," Beaver said.
In other words, the most basic food source all but disappears in freshwater. This creates a ripple effect throughout the food chain and explains the disappearance of bait fish, game fish and dolphins.
Beaver tells her audience that about 40 percent of the dolphins in the estuary have been diagnosed with papillomaviruses on their genitals — an infection scientists believe is caused by their increasing exposure to toxins and contaminants.
The pontoon boat anchors for about 30 minutes off Bird Island. Beaver says the darker water — one of the many consequences of the discharges from Lake O — makes it difficult for the birds to see and capture bait fish.
The water releases don't get all of the blame for the declining health of the estuary. Beaver is quick to point out that local residents share the blame.
"We've got to get a lot more serious with regulating pesticides and fertilizers," said Beaver, who applauds Martin County officials for being "one of the first local governments in Florida to pass a fertilizer ordinance more stringent than the state's."
The St. Lucie estuary isn't the only waterway on the Treasure Coast in distress. There has been a tremendous loss of sea grass in the Indian River Lagoon from Wabasso north to Mosquito Lagoon. All told, about 32,000 acres of sea grass, vital to the health of the lagoon and the fishery, have been lost in the central and northern parts of the lagoon since 2010. Culprits include what some scientists say is an algal or phytoplankton bloom, and propeller scars made by boaters.
The more we learn about the river and lagoon, the more we are angered — and inspired — to protect and restore these aquatic resources. Toward this objective, consider these two action steps.
First, get educated. This will enable you to speak with heat (passion) and light (intelligence) about the problems confronting this precious natural resource.
Second, get involved in the fight for the river and lagoon. Contact elected officials and champion the only viable, long-term solution to the problem: creating a southern flow-way from Lake Okeechobee that will move water to the Everglades instead of east and west from the lake.
The estuary — by definition — is a place where freshwater and saltwater meet. But it's much more than that. It also is "a nursery for almost everything in the ocean," Beaver said.
For this reason — and a host of others — it is worth protecting, preserving and restoring.

121125-c
Nathaniel Reed: Don't blame the Army Corps of Engineers for Okeechobee, Everglades woes; U.S. and federal officials must work together — now
TCPalm.com
November 25, 2012
Until a few weeks ago, billions of gallons of polluted water was flowing into the St. Lucie River, the Indian River and the Caloosahatchee Estuary from Lake Okeechobee.
The environmental damage is massive. After four years of drought and no large releases of excess water from Lake Okeechobee, the near record rainy season again has quickly filled the lake.Every time there is a wet tropical storm or series of hurricanes such as those that hit Florida in 2004-05, the lake rapidly rises 3-4 feet within days, threatening the Hoover Dike and the communities south of the lake.
The Corps has no options. It must reduce the water level in Lake Okeechobee in case of a potential wet hurricane, common in even October like Hurricanes Wilma and Isaac.
Before we collectively blame the Corps for the incredible damage that is being inflicted on our once productive waters, especially the remarkable recovery of seagrasses and inland fisheries since the Okeechobee flood gates were last opened in 2010, we collectively need a short history lesson and then a firm guide on how to stop these all too frequent environmental outrages.
The great Everglades ecosystem has been brutalized by a number of thoughtless decisions.
The private construction of Tamiami Trail by the Collier family to open up Naples to east coast tourists in the 1915-20's formed a dike preventing natural water flow from the northern Everglades marshes into what have become Everglades National Park and the great fishery of Florida Bay.
Although there are gated discharge structures and culverts under Tamiami Trail, they allow a fraction of the excess rain water to flow south as the everglades system once functioned. Water is backed up throughout the Florida Everglades known as water conservation areas.
Overly high water is inundating the unique 'Tree Islands," a major feature of the everglades system which provides essential habitat for deer and other mammals indigenous to the Everglades during times of excessive rain water. The Tree Islands also are "sacred sites" for the Miccosukee Native Americans.
Before the 1928 great hurricane that destroyed the small dike that then surrounded much of Lake Okeechobee, small farming communities grew around the south side of the lake. Winter vegetables were the main crop, but thousands of acres were devoted to raising cattle on the lush grass that the muck fields provided. U.S. Sugar grew a total of 50,000-plus acres of sugar cane. Their main profit was made from the sale of some of the finest Brahma cattle raised in the world for warm weather cattle ranches in Cuba, Central America and South America. The King Ranch had a similar operation for their famous crossbred cattle.
The low dike failed during a 1926 hurricane, and once again in 1928, drowning 3,000 people. President Herbert Hoover requested the Congress to pass legislation authorizing the construction of a high dike around Lake Okeechobee.
When there were long, wet summer rain seasons and fall hurricanes in the 1940s, excess water flowed through the Everglades and even over Tamiami Trail into what is now the Everglades National Park. The Corps of Engineers studied the average size of Lake Okeechobee and designed a dike to surround it. The dike was made from local sand and gravel. The Corps then made a fateful engineering decision to cut off the natural flow-way from Lake Okeechobee to the downstream Everglades and dump it more "efficiently" to the east and west estuaries.
Perhaps the nearly 700,000 acres now known as the Everglades Agricultural Area of rich organic soils — the byproduct of centuries of dying marsh grasses — was the incentive, but this error in judgment has created a conflict that will continue until sufficient land is acquired to restore a flow-way from Lake Okeechobee to the northern Florida Everglades and is then allowed to flow south and under Tamiami Trail into Everglades National Park.
The decision by the power brokers to persuade the-then governor of Florida and the congressional delegation to dredge the Kissimmee River to allow drainage in the headwaters of Lake Okeechobee was an ecological disaster. Thousands of acres of wetlands that served as storage for Lake Okeechobee and slowed down rain-driven floods moving south into the Kissimmee chain of lakes allowed developers to sell real estate around those lakes, guaranteeing an unnatural low water level. The Kissimmee chain of lakes during high rainfall periods used to hold billions of gallons of water that was slowly released down the Kissimmee into Lake Okeechobee naturally. The wetland marshes flanking the Kissimmee's two-mile-wide flood plain were wildlife treasures that were drained and turned into cattle pastures when the project was completed. Excessive rainwater then flowed at unnatural speed into the lake, raising it to dangerous levels and carrying a pollution-filled muck that now covers half the lake's bottom.
The Caloosahatchee River first was connected to Lake Okeechobee by Hamilton Disston, one of Florida's pioneer speculators who envisioned steamboats moving up from Ft. Myers and then the Kissimmee River to pick up winter crops and bring their loads back to Ft. Myers for shipment north.
After about 10 years, the St. Lucie Canal was completed in 1926 to provide easy access from the lake to Stuart, where ships would carry vegetables and fruit to the upper east coast and provide access for the east to the west coast for pleasure boats.
It did not take any length of time for the Corps to realize that an overflowing Lake Okeechobee threatened the "suspect construction" of the Hoover Dike and that the two outlets — the St. Lucie Canal and the Caloosahatchee River — would serve as escape valves whenever there was excessive rainfall and a rising lake that could threaten the integrity of the Hoover Dike — especially on the south side, where farming communities had grown in size. With the connection to the Everglades now severed, the present day colonel of the Corps of Engineers and his staff have no options other than releasing billions of gallons of water that is polluted from years of agricultural back-pumping from the Everglades Agricultural Area and now large amounts of nutrients flowing down the Kissimmee and the other headwaters of the lake. During his tenure, Gov. Bob Graham announced in the early 1980s a major effort to restore the Everglades system. Each successive governor has made a contribution toward that goal. The state has spent $1.8 billion acquiring land to clean up the excess water flowing from the 500,000 acres of sugar cane — a crop that enjoys a federal taxpayer guaranteed price. The amount of cane sugar that is permitted to be imported into the United States is controlled by the sugar cartel to guarantee them maximum profit. Their leadership is unrelenting in its efforts to produce maximum profits at the Everglades' expense.
Unless excessive Lake Okeechobee water is cleansed through a vast series of pollution-control artificial marsh systems built principally by the taxpayers of the 16 counties of south Florida for the sugar cane and winter crop growers, drainage cannot be allowed to flow into the Everglades, as it will change the botanical makeup of the River of Grass within months.
So where are we ?
Before the flow way and the pollution control marshes are built and are operational, additional storage — both upstream in the lake's headwaters and within the Everglades Agricultural Area — must be acquired, and a number of other priorities must be addressed.
First, Tamiami Trail must be modified to allow massive amounts of water to flow southward into the park. A one-mile bridge and limited road raising are currently under construction. While this is a very positive first step, more needs to done ! The trail needs more bridges and road raising (up to another 2 feet) so that it is protected when the Everglades and the lake are once again connected.
Additionally, the southeast corner of the vast Everglades system known as Water Conservation Area 3B has a vital role in delivering Okeechobee and Florida Everglades' excess water to flow under the proposed five-mile bridge. The Corps admits that when the eastern dike of Water Conservation Area 3B was constructed, it did not consider leakage to be a potential problem, as no one farmed or lived near the dike. Now, there are hundreds of acres of fruit trees and thousands of homes that could be impacted if the dike allowed significant seepage.
This problem must be solved before excess water can be released into Everglades National Park, relieving the entire system of too much water which forces the discharges of billions of gallons of water down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers.
We also have some local problems that must be faced with private drainage systems that drain millions of gallons of excess water into the St. Lucie River. Canals C-23, 24 and 25 were built at the urging of the Martin and St. Lucie County citrus growers and developers, who wanted their lands drained at public expense. Together with the C-44 and the St. Lucie Canal, more than 498,000 acres drain through canals into the estuary and lagoon.
These decisions have all combined to seriously add damaging amounts of polluted runoff into the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. There are plans to complete a pair of reservoirs — one on the St Lucie, the other on the Caloosahatchee — to capture local runoff, hold it and clean it before slowly releasing it to flow into the two estuaries.
What is the hope for the two rivers that are being used as drainage escape routes?
The federal and state governments must pay for the cost of modifications of the eastern dike of Water Conservation 3B to prevent seepage.
The Federal government should use fuel tax revenue to raise Tamiami Trail and build additional bridges to allow water to flow into ENP.
The state of Florida must acquire significant amounts of additional land both north and south of the lake or, at minimum, enforceable easements to contain excessive water until it can be leaked slowly down to the lake from the north and south through a flow-way into the Everglades system.
The gross pollution of Lake Okeechobee must become a state priority. Recent phosphorus loads to Lake Okeechobee have been in the 500-ton range, more than three times the goal of 140 tons. Today, estimates are that so much phosphorus has already been spread in the watershed to keep these heavy loads coming for decades. Today, nutrients from the EAA are less than 5 percent of the total into Lake Okeechobee. More than 90 percent is from the northern Lake Okeechobee watersheds. The failure to control phosphorus runoff is shared by the Florida Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environmental Regulation.
Agricultural and water utility interests must accept the fact that Lake Okeechobee's level must be held below 16 feet and that 'back pumping' polluted water from the EAA even in times of drought must not be permitted. Lake Okeechobee cannot continue to be considered a sewer.
Additional lands within the vast EAA must be acquired by the state and the South Florida Water Management District to construct major additional storage capacity and pollution control marshes that will dramatically reduce the nutrients flowing off the sugar cane plantations into the Everglades system
The sugar cane plantations should be forced to control and treat the thousands of gallons of polluted water on their land before they discharge it into the waters of the state. They should pay a far greater share for cleaning up their wastes for the needed additional pollution control marshes.
These are tall orders, but think for a moment before we continue to rail against the Corps' decision to lower Lake Okeechobee to protect the integrity of the Hoover Dike.
Everything on my "must do" list represents one week of the Afghanistan War expenses.
Everything on my wish list is obtainable.
Our congressional delegation has significant power in Congress. Our governor and Florida commissioner of agriculture are very persuasive with our legislature, even in times of recession.
Despite the need to reduce the incredible national deficit, don't you think manmade disasters like what is threatening our rivers and the everglades ecosystem are worthy of national and state investments ?
Mr. Reed served as the environmental advisor to governors Kirk and Askew, as assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish, Wildlife and National Parks under presidents Nixon and Ford, 14 years on the board of the South Florida Water Management District, chaired the Commission on Florida's Environmental Future — whose principal recommendation was the issuance of a series of bond issues that have been supported by successive governors before Gov. Scott and preserved more than 2 million acres of the best of native Florida. Mr. Reed is presently serving as vice chairman of the Everglades Foundation.

121123-a
DEP sets restoration goals and sets funding for several Florida springs
Wakulla.com
November 23, 2012
TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is expanding its efforts to restore Silver Springs and Kings Bay by finalizing restoration goals and committing $2.5 million to water quality improvement projects.
 “In the last two years, with support from Governor Scott, Senator Charlie Dean and the rest of the Florida Legislature, we will have directed $11.5 million to restoring Florida’s springs - more than double the spending in the previous three years,” said Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr.
Department research and monitoring led to designating Silver Springs and the Upper Silver River as impaired for nitrates, a form of nutrients that can cause serious algae problems.  The Department is now finalizing the Total Maximum Daily Load or, in this case, the maximum acceptable concentration of nitrates, at 0.35 milligrams per liter.  This is the same restoration target that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted for springs -- based on the Department’s data -- and that has been upheld in both state and federal courts. Meeting the restoration target will protect aquatic life and bring the system back into balance.
A formal management plan to reduce nitrate inputs to meet the total maximum daily load will be developed.  Local involvement will be key to identifying the specific actions that area stakeholders will implement to reduce nitrate inputs into the system, along with a schedule for carrying them out.
"Cooperation and partnerships between DEP, the Legislature and public and private stakeholders is the only way our springs will be restored," said Senator Charlie Dean.  "I appreciate the Department’s efforts as they continue to spend money allocated by the Legislature on meaningful projects to restore our springs."
The Department is not waiting on completion of the management plan to act, however.  In July, the Department announced a $1 million investment in wastewater projects identified in concert with Marion County and the St. Johns River Water Management District as critical to restoring area water quality.
The first project will redirect the current discharge from the Silver Springs Regional-Wastewater Treatment Plant, only 1.5 miles from the main boil of Silver Springs, to the Silver Springs Shores Wastewater Treatment Plant, 10 miles from the boil.  It will also connect a series of small “package” wastewater treatment plants to the central facility, which will provide better treatment.  Implementation of these actions will eliminate more than two tons of nitrates currently going into the Silver Springs system every year.
The Department will invest another $400,000 to take Silver River State Park off septic tanks and hook it to central sewer, reducing nitrates in Silver River and Silver Springs by another 1,370 pounds annually.
“Florida is a national leader in water quality assessment and restoration, and we are aggressively attacking pollution in Florida’s fabled springs,” said Drew Bartlett, Director of DEP’s Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration.  “DEP uses the best science available to identify water quality problems and works with local leaders to solve them.”
On another front, to improve King’s Bay, the Department is committing more than $1.1 million to a reuse project for the city of Crystal River.  This ongoing project, jointly funded with the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the city, will send 750,000 gallons of reclaimed water from the Crystal River wastewater treatment plant to the Progress Energy Citrus County Power Complex.  It will reduce wastewater nutrient loading to the local springshed by 16 percent and increase spring flow in Kings Bay by reducing the need for groundwater pumping at the power complex.
The Department will soon establish nutrient reduction requirements for the Rainbow, Jackson Blue and Weeki Wachee springs systems.  Earlier this year, the agency adopted a water quality restoration plan for the spring fed Santa Fe River and is on track to adopt a similar restoration plan for the Wekiva Basin.  The Department is also kicking off restoration plans for Wakulla Springs and multiple springs along the Suwannee River this year.  The objective is to speed up the pace of restoration, tackling problems with clear solutions immediately and developing plans with local stakeholders to solve longer term goals.

121123-b
Green amendment has good chance to pass
NewsChief.com
November 23, 2012
(This editorial appeared in The Gainesville Sun: “An Amendment that is good for Florida”).
Floridians were merciless in rejecting all but three of the 11 mostly ideologically driven state constitutional amendments the Florida Legislature placed on this year's general election ballot.
Even as they were doing so, volunteers were out at polling places collecting signatures on a petition drive to get yet another proposed constitutional amendment on the 2014 election ballot. The Florida's Water and Land Legacy Campaign is aimed at requiring the state to spend more money investing in environmentally sensitive lands and important water recharge areas.
Assuming sufficient signatures are collected to get it on the ballot, will voters be any more inclined to accept this one than most of the last bunch?
Actually, chances are pretty good, especially when you take a look at what happened around much of the rest of the nation during the recent election.
Voters in 21 states had the opportunity to approve no fewer than 57 state and local land conservation initiatives. Of those initiatives, 46, or 81 percent, were approved.
All together the initiatives pledged more than $2 billion for support of public lands, parks and other natural areas.
"From Maine to Texas to San Francisco, we saw voters across the political spectrum say yes to taxes and spending for conservation which helps their communities," said Will Rogers, president of The Trust for Public Land. "For example, in Maine, voters passed new spending for statewide conservation at the same time they elected an independent to represent them in the United States Senate.
"Alabama voters gave their state to Mitt Romney at the same time they overwhelmingly renewed a statewide land conservation program, while Rhode Island voted for President Barack Obama at the same time a statewide bond for open space was approved."
It seems that voters this year were in a "green" frame of mind.
As environmental concerns continue to gain traction, there is every reason to believe that in two years Florida voters will be ready to follow the example set in Alabama, Maine, Rhode Island and elsewhere.
But first it is necessary to get the measure on the ballot.
For more information go to  http://floridawaterlandlegacy.org.

121122-a
Lingering effects of Lake O water release makes for murky fishing
Miami Herald - by Susan Cocking
November 22, 2012
Water releases from Lake Okeechobee turn kayak fishing in St. Lucie Estuary from sight-fishing fun to blind-casting frustration.
FORT PIERCE -- Jensen Beach kayak angler Jerry McBride prays for drought. Life was beautiful for him before Hurricane Isaac made a couple of passes through Florida last summer, followed by more torrential downpours that caused Lake Okeechobee to rise more than three feet. Fast-rising lake levels and safety concerns about the aging dike surrounding it prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin pumping upwards of 1 billion gallons per day into McBride’s favorite fishing grounds in the St. Lucie Estuary.
 “I never left Sailfish Flats and I had a shot at 10 species a day,” McBride said of his paddle trips before the storm. “Now with the dumping, I have to go to Fort Pierce. I’ve had to turn everything into a road trip.”
The corps stopped the latest round of lake releases on Nov. 7. But McBride said estuary waters were still murky, making sight-fishing all but impossible in the Stuart area. So last week, he and I decided to fish the Indian River Lagoon north of the North A1A Causeway in Fort Pierce, hoping for water clear enough to sight-fish by kayak for snook, redfish and trout. Unfortunately, no joy.
Even a strong incoming tide at Fort Pierce Inlet could not overcome the opaque, brown water pouring out of Taylor Creek into the lagoon. With a higher-than-usual tide overlaying dirty creek water, visibility was poor, even on a sunny afternoon. McBride said he had scouted Round Island to the north the day before, and conditions there were no better.
So we gave up the idea of sight-fishing and instead blind-casted with jigs toward mangrove shorelines.
 “It’s still possible to catch fish here blind-casting,” McBride said. “But not being able to see the fish or the potholes really takes the sport out of it.”
True, but as the old cliché goes, a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day in the office, and the day wasn’t that bad.
I caught and released a snook of 6 to 7 pounds on my second cast of the day with a chartreuse jig head and shad-like paddle tail, along with a couple of small jack crevalles. McBride caught and released a slot-sized redfish, plus two slot-sized sea trout and the usual complement of jacks.
At no point could we see the bottom, despite numerous periods of bright sunlight.
In late afternoon, winds picked up briskly out of the north and what little bite we had trailed off, so we decided to head back to the boat ramp.
McBride said he planned to check out his home waters this week to see if conditions had cleared. But he sounded pessimistic about the health of the Indian River Lagoon in general and the St. Lucie Estuary in particular.
 “People say it will recover. It won’t necessarily recover,” McBride said. “We have so much nutrients in the water. It causes algae blooms and dirties the water up and down the East Coast.”
Indeed, the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon, including the Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon, suffers from algae blooms that some scientists blame for reducing sea grass meadows from more than 72,000 acres in 2009 to about 41,000 acres today.
Lake Okeechobee discharges are not the sole cause, but they are the most visible.
The head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Col. Alan Dodd, issued a news release last week explaining the necessity of water releases from the Big O and vowing to “continue to work with stakeholders to find feasible solutions.”
Meanwhile, McBride and, no doubt, his fellow anglers on the Caloosahatchee River — the western recipient of Lake O discharges — are keeping their fingers crossed for a dry winter.
Said McBride: “There’s no easy solution, but we’re just tired of being the people who get dumped on.”

121122-b
Storing more water farther north could lessen damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges
Sun Sentinel - by Andy Reid
November 22, 2012
Lake Okeechobee flood control concerns have water managers looking north for more room to hold water relied on to backup South Florida's water supply. Flooding threats have triggered months of draining billions of gallons of Lake Okeechobee water out to sea; wasting water that could be needed in South Florida's dry months to come. Those lake discharges also delivered damaging environmental consequences to East and West Coast estuaries, bringing an overload of lake water that harmed fishing grounds and hurt tourism.
South Florida Water Management District is looking into whether more stormwater could be held in lakes north of Lake Okeechobee during the rainy summer and fall instead of draining as much south at times when the big lake's rising waters prompt flood-control discharges out to sea. Holding more water north of the lake offers the potential to save more water for future water supply needs and lessen the environmental harm the draining does to coastal estuaries. "Once we release water, we can't get it back," said district Board Member Daniel DeLisi, who represents southwest Florida, where coastal water quality suffers from rainy season lake discharges. "We can't ever predict the future.” The result could be allowing water levels to rise higher in Lake Kissimmee, Lake Tohopekaliga and other water bodies before draining that water south into the Kissimmee River and eventually into Lake Okeechobee. While agreeing to consider alternatives, water managers say looking for other ways to ease Lake Okeechobee flooding threats can't result in raising flooding concerns for communities around lakes to the north.
"The answer to this is not pushing water closer and closer to people's homes," district board Chairman Joe Collins said. After months of below normal water levels, Lake Okeechobee got a big boost in August from Tropical Storm Isaac's rainfall and the lake kept rising during a soggy September and October.
The Army Corps of Engineers tries to keep the lake between 12.5 and 15.5 feet. In the wake of Isaac, the lake approached 16 feet. Rising lake levels raise concerns about the lake's 70-year-old dike, considered one of the country's most at risk of failure. The Herbert Hoover Dike remains in the midst of a multibillion-dollar, decades-long repair intended to help the 143-mile-long earthen structure better withstand erosion and a potential breach. To ease the strain on the dike, when the water level rises the Army Corps dumps lake water to the East and West coasts through the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee River.
The Army Corps on Sept. 19 started dumping lake water out to sea. While the discharges have lessened in recent weeks, they could continue into December. Lake levels have started going down now that the Florida rainy season has come to an end, but the draining continues as hurricane season still extends through the end of November.
"It's not over yet," said Tommy Strowd, director of operations. The Lake Okeechobee discharges had the effect of "washing out" the estuaries, according to Rae Ann Wessel, a marine scientist of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation.
The discharges bring an influx of pollutants from Lake Okeechobee as well as a rush of freshwater that throws off the estuaries' delicate mix of fresh and salt water. That has damaged oyster beds relied on for marine habitat and to help filter pollutants from water as well as sea grass beds that serve as a nursery to fish and feeding ground for manatees.
Ten weeks of "damaging flows" into the St. Lucie River fouled water quality to the point that health department warnings were posted in some areas, according to Deborah Drum, Martin County environmental quality manager."It is going to take some time; to see full recovery," said Drum told the water district board on Nov. 15. Water managers had room to hold more water in lakes north of Lake Okeechobee, which could have lessened the amount of damaging discharges to coastal estuaries, Wessel said. She contends that water managers need to allow more flexibility in their regulations for allowable lake water depths. There were opportunities to hold water," Wessel said. Much of this Lake Okeechobee water problem is manmade.
 Before development and farming got in the way, Lake Okeechobee used to naturally overlap its southern shore and send sheets of water flowing south to replenish the Everglades. Draining the land to make way for farming and development turned Lake Okeechobee into a giant retention pond, where water collected for flood control also gets tapped to irrigate South Florida crops and to backup drinking water supplies. The long-term solution to lessening lake discharges is building reservoirs and other water storage areas envisioned for Everglades restoration, Collins said. "The answer to this is more storage," he said.

121121-
Curtains rising on Conservancy makeover
NaplesNews.com - Editorial
November 21, 2012
Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Congratulations to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
The Naples-based environmental organization is opening a key part of a $20 million makeover at its headquarters off Goodlette-Frank Road in Naples.
The Susan and William Dalton Discovery Center is now open to the public, bringing visitors up close and personal with more than 100 animals in five habitats. Combined, the exhibits trace the path of water from uplands through the mangroves and Everglades, to beaches and the Gulf of Mexico.
The $3.5 million Discovery Center is a big deal, sure to draw visitors from near and far again and again.
The community is starting to get an idea of what has been going on behind those Goodlette-Frank Road barricades for all these months.
We are starting to see how all of this will blend in with the Naples Zoo next door.
We are starting to get the picture of how the Naples greenway for hikers and cyclists will fit in.
For more details, go online to conservancy.org/nature-center or call: 239-262-0304 .
There you can get information about when the Discovery Center is open, when you can get a boat ride or rent a kayak, and how much it will cost.
Go see, and enjoy, often.
Be a part of something big, and learn why our environment is worth protecting.

121120-a
Rescuing Ecosystems
TheScientist.com - Opinion by David Moreno-Mateos
November 20, 2012
Pushing the envelope of ecosystem restoration and creation could help recover the planet’s biodiversity.
Today, approximately 70 percent of the world’s ecosystems have been altered to some degree, and the whole Earth may be approaching a tipping point toward an uncertain regime as a consequence of the accelerated global loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functionality. Ecosystem restoration and creation is necessary now more than ever before to slow and, where possible, reverse that loss. But devising successful restoration strategies can be tricky.
Following ecosystem restoration, it may take many decades or centuries for damaged ecosystems to recover the structure and functionality they had prior to degradation. For example, in five depressional wetlands in the state of New York, only 50 percent of their organic matter was recovered 50 years after they were restored. Similarly, artificial ecosystems take just as long to resemble the selected reference systems its engineers are trying to recreate.
Some restorations and creations fail altogether, such as wetlands that end up dominated by invasive reeds or prairies where focal threatened species do not reestablish. In cases of success, some components, like highly mobile vertebrates, recover or re-assemble faster than others, like plants, which can affect the speed and trajectory of ecosystem recovery or development. Other factors, including the type and duration of the original cause of degradation, can further complicate the project, and ecological constraints, such as climate, hydrology, and organismal and plant-soil interactions, can also steer the trajectory of ecosystem development. The problem today is that we lack consistent understanding about how these factors affect ecosystem recovery.
Recent meta-analyses show that ecosystems do recover when degradation stops, but recovery is far from perfect, with only 70 to 80 percent of the biodiversity and ecosystem functions recovered even after decades of ecosystem restoration or development. These systems may simply need more time, as it can take up to centuries for some processes, such as the accumulation of soil carbon, to reach more stable levels. But it’s also possible that the ecosystems failed to fully recover as a result of an incomplete understanding of the actual requirements for effective community reassembly and ecosystem functionality. For example, little recovery has been achieved in Fiordland National Forest in New Zealand after 40 years of culling extremely high-dense deer populations that originated when the species was introduced to the area in the 1930s. Apparently, a combination of previously unknown ecological factors, including slow tree growth rates, deer diet changes, and altered ecological succession, limited the recovery of those heavily over-grazed forests.
Additionally, we need to consider that, under certain conditions, alternative ecosystem configurations to those prevailing prior to degradation (including occasional new species) may be better positioned to succeed. For example, the spread of invasive cattails in the Everglades that disturbs patches of the existing wetland vegetation is a consequence of increased agricultural phosphorus in the system. This may become increasingly important in response to the new and emerging environmental conditions, such as the spread of invasive species or climate change.
Finally, the ability to successfully restore and create ecosystems should not be used to justify further degradation of well-preserved ecosystems. Instead, we need to invest much more in developing the technical know-how of repairing the damaged ecosystems that already exist all over our world and adapt our interventions to the current changing conditions.
David Moreno-Mateos is the Jasper Ridge Restoration Fellow at Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in Woodside, California.

121120-b
The sea eats Miami
CounterPunch.org - by Alan Farago, President of Friends of the Everglades
November 20, 2012
It's Only a Mystery to Marco Rubio...
After the 1992 super-hurricane Andrew, South Florida was in a state of shock, similar to coastal New Jersey and New York today. Andrew was a compact, category five hurricane. In South Dade where the impact was strongest, the morning after the storm, sun and blue skies prevailed. The strike zone looked like a bomb had gone off.
Civic leaders quickly rallied under the proud banner, “We Will Rebuild”. How would South Florida rebuild? the blue ribbon panel asked. Twenty years later, the coastal areas of New Jersey and New York are facing a similar question after Superstorm Sandy. This time, the answers may be very different.
Twenty years ago in Florida, talk of sea level rise and climate change was in the margins. The subject had a place in the corner, where Chicken Little’s nursed their wounds, far from sight and off the political radar.
In its congratulatory essay on the Obama victory, The New Yorker put the issue startingly in front. The magazine, understandably rattled by the impacts of Sandy, followed bold statements by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The eponymous magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, instantly put on its Nov. 1 cover, “It’s Global Warming, Stupid”, as though channeling a Clinton era ordering of priorities, largely avoiding global warming, that the former president might wish he could do over.
In Miami in 1992, a segment of the urban planning community proposed that rebuilding South Miami-Dade, hardest hit by the hurricane, ought to be done with care and with an eye toward sustainability, incorporating planned growth in flood plains such as those provided by nearby national parks. Modest plans were drawn up and circulated through well-intended public meetings.
What followed was nearly as devastating as the hurricane itself. Those angels of our better nature did not prevail. Growth in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew easily slid back to the default business model: putting condominiums on beachfronts and platted subdivisions in low lying flood plains.
By 1998 in Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush had swung into office supported by Miami development interests whose business model was backed by the full, faith and credit of the Growth Machine. In 2000, when Al Gore ran for president, environmental issues vanished from sight, especially in Florida where campaign advisors persuaded Gore not to antagonize constituencies who tolerated talk about “balancing the environment and the economy” so long as this high road had plenty of exits to the free way.
Political entities, under the control of property rights activists and local bankers, didn’t simply ignore the idea of adaptation in land use planning, they made sure that what emerged from the wasteland of a category 5 hurricane was nothing more than a bigger and better version of the same strip mall culture that infects everything it touches.
Drive today along US 1 in Florida City en route to the Florida Keys, and you would never know anything happened, that any hurricane hit, or that issues on the forefront after Superstorm Sandy had been briefed, here, fully, twenty years ago; vetted by the lawyers, lobbyists, and builders. Nothing changed. Nothing, that is, until 2007 when financial consequences were eventually extracted by the housing collapse, the way a zip file is unpacked, following a housing boom whose origins were exactly in South Florida and exactly in flood plains vulnerable to sea level rise.
With Superstorm Sandy and a few tens of billions of damage, climate change and sea level rise may have finally pushed through the powerful forces that conspire to suppress policies to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise, especially regulations governing local land use.
The New Yorker observes:
“Inaction on climate change has an insidious ally: time. As the writer and activist Bill McKibben writes in The New York Review of Books, “Global warming happens just slowly enough that political systems have been able to ignore it. The distress signal is emitted at a frequency that scientists can hear quite clearly, but is seemingly just beyond the reach of most politicians.” When the financial system collapsed, the effects were swift and dramatic. People could debate how best to fix the problem, but they could not doubt that there was a problem and it had to be fixed. Yet, as Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank, who studied the costs of climate change for the British government, has observed, the risks are vastly greater than those posed by the collapse of the Western financial system.”
As an appointee to the original Miami-Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force in the early 2000′s, I can attest to incredulity when former county commissioner  Natacha Seijas, through chief of staff Terry Murphy, prevented the inclusion of precise geographical elevation maps in the local land use plan. Seijas was the de facto chair of the county commission; enforcing the political order emanating from campaign contributions that funded local races, by local homebuilders tied together with mortgage bankers and the Chamber of Commerce.
All growth was good. All good until you looked at those maps that show exactly where sea level rise will flood Miami-Dade property according to the march of the sea inland. (The first unstated reason the maps were suppressed was that the Growth Machine opposed anything that might be used to impinge on property rights, in the future. The second unstated reason: taxpayers in Miami can be fooled into paying for anything, at the right time.)
In South Florida — with the most economic value at stake in the nation — public awareness of sea level rise is growing belatedly. A recent presentation by Dr. Harold Wanless, University of Miami scientist, was packed. When slides bearing photos and data on melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sped by, no one moved.
Still, if Florida is predictive of the national response to sea level rise, there is no leadership on the toughest part of climate change adaptation: retreating from the coasts. The entire southern half of the state is scarcely a few feet above sea level. Yet, the region’s biggest utility — Florida Power and Light — is proceeding with plans to put two new nuclear reactors at a cost of more than $20 billion in exactly the area of the state, South Florida, that is most vulnerable to the rising seas.
The reality of future economic and social hardship from global warming is so severe, it might chase anyone to the side of denial. One of the best examples, unsurprisingly, is from Florida: US Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio is a Florida Republican whose political future has been groomed and manicured more carefully than any in the Bush camp. As the blog Eye On Miami  pointed out this year, Senator Rubio refuses even to be briefed by scientists on climate change. In an interview released on Monday, Rubio told GQ Magazine, “Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”
Just look to beach renourishment projects — deemed essential by the Chambers and tourism trades and costing hundreds of millions so far — as a bellwether: we will keep putting sand on beaches to get washed away until it is too expensive.
Who will decide when it is too expensive? It is one of the great mysteries.
This order of political crisis has overtaken the washed-away property owners in beach front communities of New Jersey and New York. The New York Times reported yesterday, “The Fate of Storm-Damaged Homes”.  Hundreds of homes are unsalvageable. Thousands of homes and businesses will need repair, financing and insurance.
Who will say, whether the owners of the property underlying the homes have the right to build in the same place? Before or after, one hundred year storms occur every five years?
This is a question that was obvious twenty years ago, but never asked because “We Will Rebuild” is antithetical to the notion there are places we shouldn’t rebuild. On the other hand, nature does bat last. Taxpayers will eventually reach the conclusion, why should they pay for property owners who couldn’t get out of the strike zone. Twenty years later, and even the New York Times treads gingerly on what’s next.
In the interim Florida has been fortunate to have escaped a storm the intensity of Hurricane Andrew. It may be a long time before a massive tropical storm coincides with a lunar tidal event, winds, and a bull’s eye toward valuable coastline. Then again, it may not.
Meanwhile South Florida is wrestling with higher sea levels right now. It is one thing when the hotel industry agitates for more money for the US Army Corps of Engineers to fill in the eroding Miami Beach waterfront. It is another thing, when private property owners on the coasts want upland taxpayers to share the burdens of a storm like Sandy, Katrina, or the next supertide that inundates lower Manhattan like occurred recently in Venice, Italy.
Miami is entering its busy season. The weather is glorious. The humidity, gone. In only a few weeks, many of the world’s richest collectors will arrive for Art Basel Miami Beach. The airports will be full, from passengers in private jets to the cheap seats in economy class. It is going to be grand, spreading joy and a keen appreciation for art. Few will know that sea water now creeps into nearby basement crawl spaces on ordinary high tides. Immoveable truths accompany rising seas.
Anyone can build on their property if they are willing to self finance and self insure. But if you need financing and insurance?
This is the shoe — the insurance industry response to sea level rise — that hasn’t dropped. But it will, and sooner maybe than anyone thinks. For years on global warming, while industrialized nations dithered, the world’s biggest reinsurance companies have been most vocal on the economic risks of global warming. Risk is, after all, their business; not Glenn Beck’s, or Rush Limbaugh’s, or the commentatoriat on Fox News.
Meanwhile, the tides rise and fall as they always have and always will. Just higher.

121119-a
Clean Water Act should not be taken for granted
Jacksonville.com – Letter by Jimmy Orth, Executive Director, St. Johns Riverkeeper
November 19, 2012
Florida’s natural resources are a linchpin of our economy and quality of life, attracting millions of tourists each year, creating thousands of jobs and enhancing the well-being of our citizens.
As a result, state legislators wisely began adopting legislation more than 40 years ago to better manage growth, protect our waters and conserve our state’s lands.
Landmark federal legislation, such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, was also enacted to protect our country’s rich natural heritage and human health.
All of these major environmental safeguards and conservation programs were implemented with bipartisan support by elected officials who recognized the value of clean water, the importance of healthy air and the benefits they provide to our economy.
Regrettably, many of today’s state leaders and legislators are intent on rolling back important rules and regulations, expediting the permitting process, eliminating funding for conservation programs, liquidating state lands and gutting agencies that protect our health and environment.
Essential environmental safeguards have unfortunately become unwarranted scapegoats for our economic problems.</p>
The fact is that environmental regulations often provide economic and health benefits that far outweigh the cost of compliance, leading to more jobs, not fewer.
Good for economy
Since the majority of our environmental laws have been passed, the U.S. gross domestic product has risen by 207 percent. The Clean Water Act alone is estimated to provide $11 billion in annual benefits.
The Clean Water Act has been responsible for significant improvements in water quality.
In 1970, more than 15 million gallons of raw sewage was dumped into the St. Johns each day, prompting a U.S. senator to call the river “a cesspool” and Gov. Claude Kirk to state that “if you fall in, you will die of pollution before you drown.”
While our river still suffers from pollution problems, we have certainly come a long way.
Policy changes that weaken or eliminate protections for our environment and human health are counter to the economic interests of our state and its citizens and do nothing to address the root causes of our economic woes.
It's a bipartisan issue
It is algal blooms, red tide events and pollution that hurt businesses, cost jobs, impact human health, deter tourists, diminish recreational opportunities and reduce property values and our tax base.
So, now that the election is behind us, let’s ensure that our state and our country continue the tradition of bipartisan support for conservation efforts.
We can do so by demanding that our elected officials address the devastating impacts of pollution, invest in the conservation and restoration of our natural resources, and support and uphold the important laws that continue to safeguard our environment and benefit our economy.

121119-b
DEP pushes back timeline on ERP permitting amid concerns about aggressive schedule
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
November 19, 2012
A Florida Department of Environmental Protection rule-making initiative to provide more consistency in construction permitting for wetlands and stormwater runoff is facing a delay of perhaps six months.
A Senate committee in 2011 recommended development of a statewide Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) rule to eliminate major inconsistencies among the state's five water management districts.
The Legislature earlier this year passed HB 7003, which authorized the rulemaking and required DEP to coordinate with the water management districts in developing rule consistency.
DEP said the rule revision would recognize differences in environmental resources among the five districts. Industry and agriculture groups generally signaled support for the effort while some environmentalists said they were concerned about the proposed changes that could emerge.
The department had planned for the proposed rule changes to be adopted by Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. by the end of this month. But the schedule now calls for adoption in the spring, with the next workshop now scheduled for Dec. 14.
Department spokesman Patrick Gillespie said the department slowed down the schedule to address feedback from regulated interests and provide more time to review the proposed rule.
The rule has been revised significantly since the most recent workshop on Sept. 20, Gillespie said. The department, he said, wants to have a "fairly complete" rule and an applicant's handbook available before the Dec. 14 workshop.
"We told everyone from the beginning that the proposed draft schedule is very aggressive and may need to be adjusted accordingly," Gillespie said. "We are continuing to work on the rule and are still moving forward with the assistance of the water management districts and input from the public."
Amelia Savage, a lawyer who represents industries affected by the proposed rule changes, said some speakers at workshops supported the aggressive schedule while others questioned said a delay was needed to give people time to comment.
"We empathize with the department in trying to get it right," Savage said. "We certainly would rather see them push (delay) the schedule a couple of months rather than having a rule that is not as good as it could have been."
Jennifer Hecker, director natural resource policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, said the delay is "probably a good thing to allow more public participation and time for (the) department to consider and address the many comments they received from stakeholders such as ourselves."

121119-c
Voracious Big Sugar gobbling up subsidies, killing off waterways
TCPalm – Letter by Terry Howard, Fort Pierce, FL
November 19, 2012
Most would agree that a seafood diet is mostly healthy and sustainable Florida seafood is a good thing. Processed sugar, which is in a gazillion products that we consume, has been named as one of the main contributors to a host of serious health issues in America.
That said, we give a gazillion dollars in federal subsidies and other incentives to sugar growers who are making gazillions of dollars selling processed sugar to us.
The South Florida drainage system — or its urinal, if you will — drains into Lake Okeechobee, which used to filter and percolate south through the Everglades. Today gazillions of gallons of this toxic Florida waste water from the lake is sent west via rivers and canals to Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor saltwater estuary and east to the Indian River Lagoon salt water estuary, each of which contains a gazillion kinds of sea creatures.
Both coastal areas support gazillion-dollar boating, fishing, tourist and real estate industries largely based on healthy water quality.
Sustainable Florida seafood is based on healthy saltwater estuaries, too. By doing nothing, we allow one gazillion-dollar industry, sugar, to survive and prosper while downstream other legitimate gazillion-dollar Florida industries — boating, fishing, seafood, tourism and real estate — are left to rot.
If there is a lesson here, it is that instead of enjoying a sustainable diet of healthy seafood, south Floridians should get used to eating more cake.

121118-a
Florida's water balance is showing a loss
Ocala.com, Star banner - by Robert L. Knight
Published: Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, November 16, 2012 at 7:11 p.m.
Florida is blessed with an abundant freshwater income — an average of about 175 billion gallons per day (BGD). Yet, we are having serious trouble living within our means.
A water balance is an analysis of the inflows and outflows, and the resulting change in the amount of water in storage (equivalent to the “balance” in a bank account). For example, Florida's water balance includes an estimated average inflow of 150 BGD from direct rainfall over the state's 38 million acres of land, and 25 BGD from river and groundwater inflows from Georgia and Alabama (e.g., Apalachicola, Suwannee and Withlacoochee rivers). During dry years, this inflow might decline by about one-third, while during wet years, it may increase by the same fraction.
As in a family's economy, Florida's natural economy is dependent upon all of these inflows of water. Right off the top, about 107 BGD of these inflows is lost to evaporation and transpiration. While these losses may seem unnecessary, this is nature's air conditioning, and Earth would be unlivable if evaporated water did not carry the sun's heat away. Similarly, in a family budget, a large fraction of income each month goes to taxes, insurance, shelter and food — the unavoidable costs of modern life.
Florida's freshwater net income of about 68 BGD (the difference between 175 and 107 BGD) nourishes the state's upland forests, wetlands, lakes and rivers, and recharges the freshwater aquifers.
Before modern development, this water maintained the flora and fauna that provided the food required by Florida's indigenous wildlife and people. There was no waste in nature's economy. During wet periods, there was more food and wildlife, and during droughts, there was less life.
However, the advent of modern technological society in Florida about 150 years ago changed this natural water economy. With development of fossil-fuel energy sources, humans began to harness natural water flows. Canals, dams and electric water pumps are the tools that allow humans to capture and extract water.
In 2010, it was estimated that Floridians directly utilized 7 BGD of this net water income for public water supply, agricultural production and mining/industry. This estimate does not include the tens of billions of gallons of fresh water diverted to the sea each day in ditches, canals and other flood-control systems.
So what happens in the water world if we overspend nature's income? Before modern society, Florida's water balance produced an excess income over loss of about 15 BGD that recharged the state's underground aquifers. The aquifers stayed full, and excess water spilled out from the top of the aquifer as purified spring flow, both from large springs and as diffuse seeps that nourished extensive and complex aquatic ecosystems.
More than 19 million humans in Florida now consume on average about 4 BGD of that groundwater. Groundwater pumping is a direct withdrawal from Florida's natural water bank account. In the northern half of Florida it is estimated that humans are withdrawing an average of 2.6 BGD from nature's groundwater savings account that formerly nourished more than 1,000 springs.
The permitted groundwater extraction in North Florida is actually more than 2 BGD higher than current estimated withdrawals.
Due to human groundwater use, in an average year, there is about one-fourth less water for the springs and environments they support. During a drought year, an increasing number of springs cease flowing, while the largest springs lose as much as one-half of their historic flows. Based on declining water levels in wells across North Florida, expenses are exceeding income for the Floridan Aquifer, resulting in an estimated average loss from groundwater storage of more than 500 million gallons per day.
We are cutting deeply into nature's assets. By mining groundwater and spring flows, Florida's environment is visibly diminished. The existing groundwater-use permits issued by the water management districts are like a second mortgage on a distressed property. By pledging more water to business, agriculture and public supplies than the resource can provide, our water managers are on a spending spree that could lead to nature's bankruptcy.
Robert L. Knight, Ph.D., is director of the private, nonprofit Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute at the University of Florida.

121118-b
Lake Okeechobee releases have stopped, but the pain continues for St. Lucie River aquaculture business
TCPalm - by Eve Samples
November 18, 2012
The irony is as thick as the muck at the bottom of the St. Lucie River.
The same plumbing system that is a lifeline for sugarcane growers and other farmers south of Lake Okeechobee has been a killer for Tom McCrudden's aquaculture business east and west of the lake.
At McCrudden's shellfish nursery on the Manatee Pocket in Port Salerno, salt levels plunged after the Army Corps of Engineers started releasing polluted freshwater from Lake O in mid-September.
The clams he raises can't live when salinity drops below 18 parts per thousand. It fell to 5 parts per thousand after the lake water started gushing into the St. Lucie River.
"Because of the discharges, everything died," said McCrudden, owner of Research Aquaculture and a newer wholesale company Premier Shellfish, which sells oysters and clams.
Before this year's releases, he had a full-time employee tending his nursery on the Manatee Pocket.
"I had to lay him off," explained McCrudden, who has been in the aquaculture business for 18 years.
He temporarily laid off another worker at his hatchery at Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island, too.
The picture is no better on Florida's West Coast, where McCrudden transplants shellfish from his nursery to 16 acres leased from the state. There, in Pine Island Sound, they grow to full size — or, at least, they do when the water is clean.
In October, the state temporarily halted harvesting in Pine Island Sound and other areas after detecting red tide toxins there. Red tide is linked to, though not solely caused by, releases from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River.
"I've got 4-5 million clams on the bottom there that I can't touch," McCrudden said.
They represent more than half a million dollars in inventory, and he hopes to harvest them when the red tide dissipates. He already lost about $50,000 worth of clam "seeds" at his nursery in Port Salerno, and his crops are not insured.
"When they do these discharges, it gets me on both sides," McCrudden said.
Lawmakers who defend federal price supports for sugar farmers (including Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney and Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson) often point to the need to protect our domestic food supply.
But the harm to aquaculture is rarely discussed in the same breath. It should be.
Doing away with federal price supports for sugar could help pave the way for restoring the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee south to the Everglades. That would boost business — and domestic food production — for aquaculture operators such as McCrudden.
Of course, the aquaculture lobby isn't nearly as powerful as Big Sugar.
Yet aquaculture is likely to become an increasingly important source of food as the world population grows.
Clam and oyster operations such as McCrudden's are particularly beneficial since there is no feed involved (as there is with fish and shrimp farming). Clams and oysters actually clean the water by filtering algae.
McCrudden has big visions for his aquaculture business, especially a new clam species called the Sunray Venus. It is a crossbreed between a Florida native clam and a commonly harvested northern species, which means it can live longer in warmer water. Its shell turns pink when it is cooked, and McCrudden said he got great response when he showcased it at a national seafood show in Boston.
"This could be a huge industry, but I just keep getting all these setbacks," McCrudden said.
When there aren't any releases from Lake Okeechobee, the conditions in Port Salerno are ideal for his nursery. The Army Corps halted its latest round of releases Nov. 7, and by last week McCrudden's bivalve seeds were growing there again.
Still, the releases will return when the water in Lake Okeechobee rises high enough to make the Army Corps nervous about the aging Herbert Hoover Dike.
We know the fallout: bacterial outbreaks in the St. Lucie River; potential algae blooms; harm to life in the river.
As McCrudden's story shows, the releases also inflict pain on the local economy.
"Here's a small business that's trying to make it work, and he's just getting hammered by the discharges," said Mark Perry, executive director of Florida Oceanographic.
Until lake water starts going south from Lake Okeechobee — instead of east and west into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers — that pain will continue.
Eve Samples is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects her opinion. Contact her at 772-221-4217  or eve.samples@scripps.com.

121118-c
Living within our natural boundaries
KeysNews.com – by Sandra Frederick, Citizen Staff
November 18, 2012
"Do you think some of the water in the Everglades comes to Key West?" Kristine Brunsman asked the youngsters sitting around tables Saturday morning at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center.
"Sure it does," she told the nearly two dozen children who raised their hands and nodding as if agreeing with her.
Brunsman, with the National Marine Sanctuary, was teaching the class -- there's one the third Saturday of every month -- at the center to get young kids interested in their environment. Saturday the topic was mangrove systems and the marine species that live within their boundaries. Next month is all about shipwrecks and lighthouses.
"We try and teach them on a natural, biological and cultural level in a way everyone can understand," she said. "We encourage them to go after class and use what they learn here."
Julie Way brought Ella, 2, and Jackson, 4, to learn more about the natural world they live in.
"We have a mangrove in front of our house," the Rockland Key mother said, as Ella bounced on her lap, and in her own artistic style, colored a picture of birds sitting in a tree.
"I have crabs, too," an enthusiastic Jackson added. "And I saw a swordfish."
Ann Ewing watched as her two sons, William, 6, and Sam, 9, read about estuaries and seagrasses.
"We went to an event last year and they gave us two mangrove trees and we planted them," the mother said. "And one is still growing."
After an oral lesson on how nature is connected in more ways than we know, the students were treated to a fun way of seeing those connections.
It started with the teacher saying her name and what her favorite things was.
"My favorite color is blue," she said. "Who likes blue?"
A boy raised his hand and she tossed him a skein of yarn, pulling a long strand from the ball so they stayed connected.
He said his favorite thing was Spiderman. Another child raised a hand and the yarn was tossed along.
The game continued until strands of yarn wove in and out of the group.
Then Brunsman reversed the process. "If one strand disappears, it affects the next person.
"They lose it too."
Before long, the web was unraveled and none of the kids were connected.
Still, the day wasn't just for the kids.
Ron Ramsingh admitted he enjoyed the classes as much as Julian, 5, and Emma, 8.
"I grew up here and there wasn't as much to do as a kid, so when I see a great program like this, I bring my children."
Emma Ramsingh studied the busy picture in front of her, and occasionally would raise her hand to answer a question.
"What are two types of water (in the Keys)?" Brunsman asked.
Emma knew the answer.
"Fresh and salt," she said.
"And if you mix it together, what do you get?"
This time, no hands jumped into the air.
After a little coaxing, Brunsman gave them the answer: "brackish water."

121118-
Restoring the Sanibel River
News-Press.com - by Kevin Lollar
November 18, 2012
Long-term fixes under way to rid waterway of nutrients that have thrown it into imbalance.
At the mere mention of the Sanibel River, Sterling Fulmer grew nostalgic.
The part-time Sanibel resident started paddling and fishing the river about 15 years ago.
“There was bass fishing like I’d never seen before,” he said. “And the trees were so full of birds you wondered how they stood up.
“Now we’ve got to the point where there are no more bass — I haven’t caught a bass in three years — and if you see half a dozen birds, it’s unusual.”
The Sanibel River’s main problem is excessive nutrients, and the city of Sanibel is working on a series of long-term fixes.
Sanibel is unusual among barrier islands because it has interior freshwater wetlands, which cover 1,200 acres and drain into the Sanibel River.
But the Sanibel River is not really a river: It’s a meandering slough, or low area between ridges on the Gulf of Mexico and Pine Island Sound.
Originally, the slough was a series of channels that held water only after extended periods of rain.
Over the years, the slough was dredged for mosquito control and to provide fill for development; channels were connected to create the “river,” which now holds water all year — water levels are controlled by weirs at Tarpon Bay and Beach Road.
“This slough is rain-fed,” said naturalist Mark “Bird” Westall, who operates Canoe Adventures on Sanibel. “The water doesn’t melt out of the mountains. It doesn’t come out of a spring. If you get a lot of rain in the summer, it can get very wet. It can also almost dry up in winter.
“The slough can have bass in wet years. In drought years, the fresh water evaporates, and the bass population declines.”
Sanibel’s freshwater wetlands are the reason Sanibel has alligators when other barrier islands don’t.
Alligators, in turn, are good for the island’s wading birds because they keep raccoons from swimming to trees where birds have built nests.
“When birds see alligators, that’s a cue,” Westall said. “They figure, ‘OK, this is where we want to nest.’”
Impaired waters
Under the federal Clean Water Act, each state must develop a list of impaired waters.
All water bodies have one or more designated uses, which include recreation, drinking and shellfish harvesting.
A water body is listed as impaired if it doesn’t meet its designated uses.
The Sanibel River’s designated use is freshwater fish and wildlife propagation, and the river is listed as impaired for nutrients, which can cause algal blooms, leading to low levels of dissolved oxygen.
“The river is supposed to provide habitat for fish and wildlife,” said James Evans, head of Sanibel’s Natural Resources Department. “We have fish and wildlife, but we don’t have a well balanced population of fish and wildlife.
“If we have algal blooms, that’s an indicator of imbalance. Until we get the imbalance fixed, the river’s impaired.”
Nutrients in many water bodies are from inorganic fertilizers, but a 2009 study showed that the source of much of the Sanibel River’s nutrients is organic nitrogen, said Eric Milbrandt, director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory and an investigator on the study.
“What happened is that people did fertilize, and a lot of that nitrogen was taken up by grass and ornamentals,” Milbrandt said. “So grass clippings ended up in the slough, and when those break down, they leave a lot of organic nitrogen behind.”
Seeking solutions
Sanibel has been working on and continues to work on ways to reduce nutrients in the river.
Beginning in 1998, the city started changing from septic to central sewer; today, 90 percent of the island is hooked up to the sewer system.
Another major step was the city’s fertilizer ordinance, adopted in 2007, which, among other things, prohibits the use of any fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus during the rainy season.
The city has completed two water-quality projects and is planning a third to address the river’s nutrient problem.
■ Sanibel Gardens Preserve
Owned and managed by the city and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, the 265-acre Sanibel Gardens Preserve straddles the slough just west of Tarpon Bay Road.
A $450,000 restoration project, completed in 2005, included removal of exotic vegetation, planting native vegetation, filling mosquito ditches and restoring the natural oxbows that had been straightened when the slough was dredged.
These improvements increased wetland area and the time that water remains in the system, thus increasing the slough’s ability to filter out nutrients.
More wetland area also provides more foraging habitat for wading birds and water fowl.
■ Sea Oats Preserve
On a smaller scale is the 5-acre Sea Oats Preserve, which lies within the 450-acre State Botanical Site just west of Rabbit Road.
The preserve is on what had been the site of a package wastewater treatment plant, where sewage from the Sea Oats Subdivision was treated with chemicals in holding ponds.
Although the plant wasn’t on the river, nutrients from the ponds leached into it.
Sea Oats went on central sewer in 2003, and the city bought the plant for $1 in 2004.
Restoration took place between April and July 2009 and included filling the wastewater ponds, restoring historic contours of the land, removing exotic vegetation, planting wetland and upland vegetation and digging ponds as habitat for fish and invertebrates.
“The ponds will help move nutrients up the food chain,” Evans said. “Fish and invertebrates take in nutrients low in the food web; a wading bird eats the fish or invertebrate; the bird flies away and takes the nutrients with it.”
This project was financed with $21,800 from the South Florida Water Management District and $25,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
■ Jordan Marsh Treatment Park
The 61-acre Jordan Marsh Water Quality Treatment Park will be a series of man-made marshes and filter ponds near the intersection of Periwinkle Way and Casa Ybel Road that will treat stormwater flowing south from Sanibel’s most developed residential and business corridor.
“This is a slough, and everything runs downhill into it,” Evans said. “If we don’t slow the water down, it will end up in the river untreated. The goal is to slow all that water down and clean it before it gets to the river.”
Funding is not yet available for the Jordan Marsh project, which which is expected to cost $500,000.
Lingering nutrients
At first glance, the Sanibel River looks healthy enough.
But, while it’s not clogged with trash and stinking with chemicals and other pollutants, it is impaired by excess nutrients.
Steps are under way to improve water quality, but despite central sewer, a fertilizer ordinance and restoration projects, nutrients will remain in the soil of the slough and affect the river for years.
“It could take decades for those to leach out,” Evans said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but the citizens and wildlife will thank us when it’s all done.”

121117-a
Orlando residents sickened by blue green algae bloom
DigitalJournal.com – by Greta McClane
November 17, 2012
Orlando - Officials in the Lake Buchanan area of Orlando, Florida are investigating whether a potentially toxic algae bloom is making residents in the area sick.
Residents of an apartment complex that surrounds Lake Buchanan have complained of a horrendous smell emanating from the lake. They are also experiencing significant allergy type symptoms such as burning and itching eyes, nasal congestion, sore throats, headaches and runny noses.
 Tasha Jones, a resident of the apartment complex told WKMG:
"I'm sneezing and my nose is running and my eyes are all watery like, or itchy. Even people like walking along on the sidewalks, you'll see them coming by like, 'What's that smell?'"
Officials with the Orange County Environmental Protection Division have begun to take water samples from the lake in an attempt to figure out what type of blue green algae is inhabiting the lake. Not all blue green algae is considered toxic. One form of the algae, called Cyanobacteria, is dangerous however. Cyanobaceria can kill pets, waterfowl, and other animals, as well as causing serious illness or even death in humans. People coming in contact with Cyanobacteria infested water can develop a severe skin rash. People who ingests the water or eat fish that live in lakes or ponds containing the algae, can experience muscle weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or nausea according to the Tacoma Health Department.
The toxic algae blooms form in slow-moving warm waters that are high in nutrients from fertilizers or septic tank overflows. The blooms, which normally float to the surface and can be several inches thick, can cause clear water to become cloudy. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) states that toxic algae blooms occur most frequently during the late summer or early fall months.
 Julie Bortles, an Orange County Environmental Protection Division supervisor, told WKMG:
"The smell is probably not dangerous, but actual physical contact with the algae could be."
The toxic algae blooms form in slow-moving warm waters that are high in nutrients from fertilizers or septic tank overflows. The blooms, which normally float to the surface and can be several inches thick, can cause clear water to become cloudy. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) states that toxic algae blooms occur most frequently during the late summer or early fall months.
Julie Bortles, an Orange County Environmental Protection Division supervisor, told WKMG:
"The smell is probably not dangerous, but actual physical contact with the algae could be."

121117-
Preserve water flow to precious Florida rivers
TBO.com – Editorial
November 17, 2012
With the Chassahowitzka River being degraded by rising salinity levels, the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board decided the other day to allow even more fresh water withdrawals.
Given the original staff proposal to allow withdrawals of as much as 9 percent of the Chassahowitzka's flow, the board's decision to limit any flow level reductions to only 3 percent can be viewed as something of a victory.
But this should hardly be the final word on the protection of the beautiful spring-fed river, which flows through nine miles of wilderness to the Gulf of Mexico.
The river, about 50 miles north of Tampa, has been designated an Outstanding Florida Water. So has the nearby Homosassa River, which also is experiencing increased salinity levels that are hurting flora and fauna.
The district's governing board also set a limit of a 3 percent flow reduction for the Homosassa.
The 3 percent may sound reasonable, but existing withdrawal levels are estimated to be at 1 percent at both the Chassahowitzka and the Homosassa, and both are suffering.
Longtime Chassahowitzka River users such as Mickey Newberger of Lutz report at least a quarter-mile of the river swamp is dying, likely because of an insufficient flow of fresh water.
Many who frequent the Homosassa River report similar deterioration.
Terri Auner, a member of the Homosassa River Alliance, told the Citrus County Chronicle, "If anything, they should be adding water. The Homosassa River is dead. The plant life is gone, and you hardly find fish in there."
During the district board meeting, a member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warned that increased withdrawals would threaten manatees, fish and other wildlife in the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka.
The district staff believes the problems are likely the result of rising sea levels, lack of rainfall and nutrient pollution.
Even so, why risk further damage with flow levels that allow additional withdrawals?
The "compromise" is superior to the original proposal, and to its credit, the agency plans to develop "water use cautionary area" rules for Hernando and Citrus County, toughening the requirements for water withdrawal permits. The proposed rules will be presented to the board next year.
The governing board also voted to review the minimum flow levels for the Chassahowitzka and Homosassa every six years.
These steps are positive.
But to save the Chassahowitzka and Homosassa — irreplaceable resources that profoundly enrich life in Central Florida — the district is going to have to get far tougher on groundwater withdrawals and force communities to develop alternative water sources.

121116-
DEP tweaks draft water-use permitting rule after environmentalists raise objections
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
November 16, 2012
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has revised draft water-use permitting rules in response to environmentalists' fears that they could prevent future agency action to safeguard water supplies.
Meanwhile, some utilities are raising concerns that other rule changes that could be proposed in January will force restrictions on those utilities that already are conserving water.
DEP on Friday concluded a series of workshops on the proposed consumptive-use permitting rule changes. Department officials say their goal is to provide more consistency among water management districts and increase water conservation.
Among the proposed rule changes is a requirement that water management districts not reduce the amount of water-pumping allowed under permits if reductions by the permit-holder were achieved through conservation. Environmental groups said in September they don't understand how districts can prevent environmental harm if they can't modify the permits they are issuing.
In response, DEP added a line to a draft of proposed rules saying that nothing in it would alter the ability of water management districts to require reductions.
"I didn't hear anybody continuing to express concerns about that," Janet Llewellyn, policy administrator in DEP's Office of Water Policy, said after the final workshop on Friday in Tallahassee. Other workshops were held Wednesday in West Palm Beach and Thursday in Orlando.
Jimmy Orth, executive director of St. Johns Riverkeeper, said the revised proposal was encouraging. But he listed several concerns the group still has with the rule changes, including objecting to proposed longer permits and less frequent compliance reports.
"We recommend that all (consumptive-use permits) include more aggressive and enforceable water conservation requirements," Orth said in an email. He did not attend the Tallahassee hearing.
Audubon Florida, while not objecting to the earlier proposed water conservation rule (62-40.412) before it was revised, thinks there are good conservation measures now being required by the water management districts in the permits they issue, said Mary Jean Yon, the group's representative.
The problem, she said, is "no one seems to know if the districts are enforcing what is out there now." 
"How can you say it's not working?" Yon said.
Also during the workshop, utilities raised concerns about statewide water management district rules that are scheduled to be written beginning with more DEP workshops in February.
Those rules will require utilities with higher per-person water use to develop more aggressive goal-based conservation plans, as opposed to the standard conservation measures now required by districts in their permits.
Utility representatives said their customers could face watering restrictions despite ongoing conservation efforts while other utilities that have residents whose water use is not measured because they have private wells are exempted from having the goal-based plans.
Llewellyn said the state could skip the screening process and require all utilities to develop goal-based water conservation plans.
"How do we decide when someone can opt for a goal-based plan as opposed to standard measures?" Llewellyn said.
After a long pause of silence from the audience, she said, "You all look as confused as we are now."

121115-a
$3.6 million approved for 8 water quality project mostly in Collier County
MarcoIslandFlorida.com – written by News-Press.com
November 15, 2012
The South Florida Water Management District today approved $3.6 million for eight water quality projects in the Big Cypress Basin, mostly located in Collier County.
The money will be transferred to local government agencies in Collier to help fund water storage and quality improvement projects.
 “These projects continue our long-standing program to help local communities develop alternative water supplies, enhance flood control and improve water quality,” Dan DeLisi, Big Cypress Basin Board chairman, said in a release. “This investment is well focused on the core missions of the Big Cypress Basin and the District and will provide lasting water resource benefits to the region.”
The state dollars will be used to partially pay for these projects:
● An aquifer storage and recovery well off Livingston Road
● Expanding the reclaimed water distribution networks in Naples and on Marco Island
● U.S. 41 drainage improvements near Naples Manor
● Stormwater storage, system improvements and planning for Naples, Immokalee, Marco Island and Everglades City.

121115-b
Audits: South Florida Water Management District should repay FEMA $18 million
Palm Beach Post - by Christine Stapleton, Staff Writer
Federal auditors want the South Florida Water Management District to repay FEMA $18.4 million they say the district received for ineligible and questionable expenses billed after Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Wilma blew through the region in 2004-2005.
The audits released by the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security in August, made similar findings: Accounting practices that did not track disaster-related expenses by project; billing for ineligible expenses; and excess equipment and unreasonable labor costs. The bulk of the money that Homeland Security wants returned to FEMA — $13.9 million — stems from payments made for ineligible expenses.
The District filed an administrative appeal on Thursday and released a memo saying it was “disappointed” with the audits.
The district is responsible for water supply and flood control in sixteen counties from Orlando to Key West. The district received a total of $21.2 million in disaster relief for three of the storms. Information for Wilma was not immediately available .
 “In close coordination with FEMA, the district adhered to FEMA’s rules and guidelines for emergency assistance; carried out the extensive, authorized repair work within budget; and successfully restored the damaged canals that protect South Florida’s citizens,” according to the district memo.
The questioned expenses include $10 million for repairs to flood control structures such canal banks, levees, locks and dams that were damaged when Hurricane Frances made landfall at Hutchinson Island on Sept. 5, 2004. According to the audit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for those repair costs.
In addition, storm-related repairs to federally funded flood control systems are not eligible for FEMA disaster relief, according to the audit. Auditors also found more than $5 million of ineligible expenses from hurricanes Charley and Jeanne.
However, district officials told auditors that it was FEMA that suggested they apply for FEMA assistance after the Army Corps denied their request, finding no evidence proving the flood system was seriously damaged. According to the district memo, in 2006 FEMA “specifically explored” the question of who should pay for storm-related damage and concluded that the work was eligible for FEMA disaster relief.
 “Between July 2006 and October 2011, FEMA reviewed and approved more than 100 requests from the district for embankment repair funding,” according to the District’s memo.
District officials also objected to the auditors’ findings that they did not follow mandatory accounting protocols, which allow auditors to track expenses by project. The auditors found that “the district commingled disaster-related receipt and expenditure transactions with non-disaster transactions in its general account, with no separate accounting establishing project balances, receipts or expenditures.”
District officials said they had invoices, purchases orders and other documents authenticating expenses. However, auditors said they “could not trace specific project costs to supporting documentation without direct assistance from district officials.” District officials told auditors they have since implemented a system to better track expenses.
The 2004-2005 hurricane seasons were among the most active on record. During a six-week span beginning in mid-August 2004, the southern half of the state was battered by three hurricanes.
Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, hit Captiva Island on Florida’s west coast on Aug. 13. On Sept. 5, Hurricane Frances, a category 2 storm, made landfall on Hutchinson Island in Martin County. Three weeks later, Hurricane Jeanne, a category 3, came ashore just two miles from where Frances hit. In October 2005, Hurricane Wilma made landfall near Marco Island as a category 3 storm.
FEMA, which is under the purview of Homeland Security, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Audits by the Homeland Security inspector general are “more or less progress reports,” said Arlen Morales, a public affairs specialist in the inspector general’s office.
 “We make sure the money that programs receive is used accordingly and if not, we go ahead and let the agency know,” Morales said. “We just make recommendations.”

121115-c
BP close to agreeing record oil spill fine: sources
November 15, 2012
BP Plc is expected to pay a record U.S. criminal penalty and plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster which caused the worst offshore spill in the country's history, sources familiar with discussions said.
They told Reuters that a plea deal with the Justice Department over the 2010 disaster, in which 11 workers died, may be announced as soon as Thursday.
London-based BP confirmed on Thursday that it was in "advanced discussions" with the Justice Department and U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).
Three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said BP would plead guilty in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution on the charges. The Justice Department declined to comment.
The sources did not disclose the amount of BP's payment for the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico and leak from the Macondo oil well, but one said it would be the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history.
That record is now held by Pfizer Inc, which paid a $1.3 billion fine in 2009 for a marketing fraud.
BP said the talks were about "proposed resolutions of all U.S. federal government criminal and SEC claims against BP in connection with the Deepwater Horizon incident", but added that no final deals had been reached. Its shares were down 0.9 percent on Thursday morning.
The mile-deep Macondo well spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over 87 days, fouling shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsing in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
The oil giant has been negotiating for months with the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars of potential civil and criminal liability claims. A deal could resolve a significant share of the liability that BP faces.
BP, which saw its market value plummet and replaced its chief executive after the spill, still faces economic and environmental damage claims sought by four Gulf Coast states and other private plaintiffs.
A record fine would far outstrip BP's last major settlement with the Justice Department in 2007, when it payed about $373 million to resolve three separate investigations into a deadly 2005 Texas refinery explosion, an Alaska oil pipeline leak and fraud for conspiring to corner the U.S. propane market.
BP has sold over $30 billion worth of assets to fund the costs of the spill. Matching that, it has already spent about $14 billion on clean-up costs and paid out, or agreed to pay out, a further $16 billion on compensation and claims. The disaster has dragged it from second to a distant fourth in the ranking of top western world oil companies by value.
A week after the U.S. presidential election, a massive Deepwater Horizon settlement could prompt a debate in Congress about how funds would be shared with the Gulf Coast states, depending on how the deal is structured.
Congress passed a law last year that would earmark 80 percent of BP penalties paid under the Clean Water Act to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas.
POTENTIAL LIABILITY
In an August filing, the Justice Department said "reckless management" of the Macondo well "constituted gross negligence and willful misconduct" which it intended to prove at a civil trial set to begin in New Orleans in February 2013. The U.S. government has yet to file any criminal charges in the case.
Given that the deal will not resolve any civil charges brought by the Justice Department, it is also unclear how large a financial penalty BP might pay to resolve the charges, or other punishments that the company might face.
Negligence is a central issue to BP's potential liability. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple the civil damages owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $21 billion in a straight-line calculation.
Still unresolved is potential liability faced by Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the Deepwater Horizon vessel, and Halliburton Co, which provided cementing work on the well that U.S. investigators say was flawed. Both companies were not immediately available for comment.
According to the Justice Department, errors made by BP and Transocean in deciphering a pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear indication of gross negligence.
"That such a simple, yet fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," the government said in its August filing.
Transocean disclosed in September that it is in discussions with the Justice Department to pay $1.5 billion to resolve civil and criminal claims.
BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs that the company estimates will cost $7.8 billion to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.

121115-d
BP must shell out $4.5 billion; Fla. will receive a quarter of it
News-Press.com – by Ledyard King
10:50 PM, Nov 15, 2012
Two-and-a-half years after the nation’s worst environmental catastrophe killed their sea life, stained their shores and slammed their economies, Gulf Coast communities soon will start receiving billions in fine money levied against BP for the massive 2010 oil spill.
BP has agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle charges in the spill, the largest criminal penalty ever assessed, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday.
As part of the deal, BP will plead guilty to charges involving the 11 deaths and lying to Congress about how much oil was spewing from the blown-out well.
As part of the company’s settlement with the Justice Department, about $2.4 billion will be earmarked for the five Gulf Coast states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — for environmental restoration, preservation, and conservation efforts, including barrier-island creation and river diversion projects.
Louisiana, the state that suffered the worst damage, will get $1.2 billion for coastal rehabilitation, according to the Justice Department. The other four states will split the remaining $1.2 billion for land acquisition efforts along the Gulf coast.
And more help could be on the way to ravaged coastal communities. Justice officials are pursuing civil penalties that could amount to $21 billion, according to some estimates. A civil trial is scheduled to begin in February if a settlement cannot be reached.
Eighty percent of the civil fines could flow directly to coastal communities under the bipartisan Restore (Resources and ecosystems sustainability, tourism opportunities and revived economies) Act that Congress passed this summer.
Unlike the settlement announced Thursday, Restore Act money also could be used for economic recovery efforts in states such as Alabama and Florida. The two states suffered less environmental damage than Louisiana and Mississippi, but lost tens of millions in tourism dollars.
Congressional lawmakers noted that, although the federal government usually collects such fine money and distributes it based on national need, the oil spill was a special circumstance given its scope and devastation. The spill lasted about three months, releasing as much as 60,000 barrels per day into the Gulf.
In a news release, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said he planned to “vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.”
Gulf Coast lawmakers were cautiously optimistic about Thursday’s news, saying they’re glad to see the criminal charges settled but remain concerned that civil fines might be less of a priority now.
Although the spill didn’t reach Southwest Florida shores, tourism officials worked to counteract misperceptions that the spill had soiled local waters. Charlotte County received a payment of $21,600 in 2010 as reimbursement for some advertising to help spread the word that local beaches were clear. Hoteliers from Port Charlotte to Marco Island reported fewer phone calls and advance bookings in the months after the spill.
 “Just when you think it’s over, you saw the news,” said Jack Wert, chief of Collier County’s convention and visitors bureau, alluding to media reports that some scientists thought the oil was a bigger mess than the government claims.
Lee County officials noted that bookings for destination weddings took a hit for several months after the spill
Even if BP pays billions in civil fines, it’s possible none of that money will be sent to the Gulf states, which already have set up a structure for distribution.
BP reportedly wants to pay at least a portion of any civil fines under the Natural Resources Damages Act, which would make the fines tax deductible. The company would get no such break by paying the fines under the Clean Water Act, which is the basis for sending fine money to the Gulf Coast under the Restore Act.
 “We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman.

121115-e
Conservancy of Southwest Florida opens Dalton Discovery Center
CISIonWire.com – Press Release
November 15, 2012
Conservancy of Southwest Florida announces the opening of the new Susan and William Dalton Discovery Center. Located at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Nature Center in Naples, the Dalton Discovery Center showcases southwest Florida’s diverse ecosystems, the creatures that live within and an overview of the work conducted by Conservancy of Southwest Florida. A unique, state-of-the-art, interpretive and multi-sensory experience, the Dalton Discovery Center houses six immersive eco-system exhibits under one roof:  Introduction Gallery, Uplands, Everglades, Mangroves, Sandy Beaches, and the Ocean gallery.
Guests can enjoy more than 100 animals in life-like enclosures and aquaria to better understand the unique habitats of southwest Florida, why they are important, how the Conservancy of Southwest Florida works to protect them and how they can take action. This world-class experience was made possible through a generous leadership gift from Sue and Bill Dalton with the support of more than 40 additional donors.
 “It is our pleasure to introduce the Dalton Discovery Center so visitors and members can experience hands-on, technology-rich learning,” said Susan Dalton. “The new Dalton Discovery Center brings the outdoors indoors, providing guests an indoor field trip to visit uplands, the Everglades, mangroves, beaches, the ocean and the Everglades, all under one roof. The Dalton Discovery Center serves to teach and involve newcomers to Naples in the Conservancy mission and help develop the next generation of Conservancy supporters and environmental leaders.”
The Conservancy worked with renowned interpretive designers Cambridge Seven Associates, Kubik Maltbie, and Living Color to design the Dalton Discovery Center, its exhibits and aquariums. These companies have worked on some of the most sophisticated interpretive plans in place including Disney and Sea World by Living Color; the National Aquarium by Cambridge Seven and Associates; and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History by Kubik Maltbie.
 “We gathered the most talented designers in the interpretive industry to help us create an environment that would provide the best guest experience and globally enhance our mission,” said David Webb, Conservancy of Southwest Florida education manager. “The exhibits, sounds, lighting and aquariums work in harmony inside the Dalton Discovery Center, providing guests of all abilities a multi-sensory journey that is both educational and empowering. In addition, our volunteer docents are trained in an interpretive approach to further enhance the visitor experience.”
 “The Susan and William Dalton Discovery Center is a significant enhancement to the Conservancy Nature Center that allows us to both educate and entertain our guests with live animals and interactive programs that inspire support for the mission,” said Andrew McElwaine, Conservancy of Southwest Florida president.. “We are grateful to the Daltons for their generous leadership gift and to all of our donors, members, volunteers and the community for their ongoing support and dedication to making the Conservancy of Southwest Florida the premiere Nature Center in the entire southeastern United States.”
For hours of operation and more information on the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, visit http://www.conservancy.org/nature-center or call             239-262-0304       .
About the Conservancy of Southwest Florida:
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida began in 1964 when community leaders came together to defeat a proposed “Road to Nowhere” and spearheaded the acquisition and protection of Rookery Bay. The Conservancy is a not-for-profit grassroots organization focused on the critical environmental issues of the Southwest Florida region with a mission to protect the region’s water, land and wildlife.  This is accomplished through the combined efforts of environmental education, science, h, policy,  and wildlife rehabilitation. The von Arx Wildife Hospital treats in excess of 3,200  injured, sick and orphaned animals each year and releases about half of them back into their native habitats. Conservancy of Southwest Florida and Nature Center is located in Naples, Fla. at 1450 Merrihue Dr., off Goodlette-Frank Road at 14thAvenue North. The new Nature Center entrance, Smith Preserve Way, is now open and is located just south of Naples Zoo off Goodlette-Frank Road.  For information about the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, call  239-262-0304    or visit www.conservancy.org.

121115-f
Costly reservoir deal for Broward, Palm Beach water gets renewed support
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
November 15, 2012
Tapping into private money could revive stalled plans to build a billion-dollar reservoir aimed at boosting Broward Palm Beach County drinking water supplies. A potential $1 billion price tag as well as South Florida's troubled history finishing costly reservoir projects has hampered a six-year effort to launch a 24 billion-gallon reservoir west of Royal Palm Beach that could supplement water supplies as far south as Miami-Dade County.
Now, new plans call for phasing in construction to lessen the initial cost to potentially less than $200 million. Also, the Palm Beach Aggregates rock mining company, the land owner, has offered to pay for building the first phase that would hold about 4.5 billion gallons.
That private investment would eventually be paid back by the customers of South Florida utilities that end up using water from the reservoir &#8212; which would store water now drained out to sea for flood control.
On Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District's board endorsed moving ahead with exploring the phased-in construction approach as well as working with private backers to help get it done.
This is water that is good, fresh water that once lost you never get back," district Executive Director Melissa Meeker said Thursday. "We have a real opportunity here."
Despite the new enthusiasm, cost concerns as well as the difficulty of figuring out how to divvy up and deliver water remain significant hurdles for building the reservoir.
Also, lingering controversies from previous district reservoirs plague the project.
This new reservoir would be built right next to another rock-mine-turned-reservoir that already cost taxpayers $217 million. That existing reservoir holds 15 billion gallons of water but still doesn't include pumps needed to put the water to use as intended.
The district also already invested nearly $280 million into a 62 billion-gallon reservoir left unfinished in southwestern Palm Beach County after Everglades restoration plans changed.
For [Palm Beach Aggregates], it is a great deal. The question is, 'Is this a great deal for the public ?' " asked Drew Martin of the Sierra Club, who favors more water conservation over building a new reservoir.
Since 2006, a coalition of Broward and Palm Beach County utilities have supported trying to store stormwater drained out to sea and use that water to help meet long-term drinking-water supply needs.
Existing canals operated by the South Florida Water Management District and the Lake Worth Drainage District would move the reservoir water south, raising water levels in drinking water wellfields that supply communities in Palm Beach and Broward counties, with capacity to expand to Miami-Dade.
In addition to boosting drinking water supplies, using the reservoir water to bolster wellfields would help hold back saltwater seeping into underground supplies due to sea level rise.
Palm Beach Aggregates proposes to build at least the first phase of the reservoir, company representative Ernie Cox said. That's expected to take about 2-1/2 years and cost less than $200 million, according to district estimates.
The next step calls for the reservoir proposal in January to go before the district's Water Resources Advisory Commission, which includes representatives from utilities, local governments and environmental groups.

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Gulf Power recycles 5 billion gallons of ECUA reclaimed water
NorthEscambia.com
November 15, 2012
It’s the perfect match – a wastewater treatment plant and a power plant. And two years and five billion gallons of water later, Gulf Power Company and Emerald Coast Utility Authority are proving that by working together a sustainable system of treating wastewater and making electricity can be a thing of beauty.
The electric utility recently surpassed the 5 billion-gallon mark in the amount of treated water used at the Plant Crist electric generating plant north of Pensacola. The plant uses the water as a cooling agent in the steam production process to operate a state-of-the-art scrubber system that reduces air emissions. And, by using the water from the nearby ECUA water treatment plant, the company avoids taking millions of gallons of water out of the Escambia River.
 “This shows through teamwork and innovation, two different utilities can work together to benefit all their customers and the environment,” said Natalie Smith, Gulf Power spokesperson. “With our scrubber system we are providing cleaner electricity for our customers in Northwest Florida, and this partnership with ECUA shows that we can provide solutions for sustainable resources and responsible growth. This partnership benefits Northwest Florida with cleaner air — and cleaner water.”
The award-winning Gulf Power-ECUA project started in October 2010, when Emerald Coast Utilities Authority began piping water from its new Central Water Reclamation Facility to Plant Crist, four miles away. Plant Crist uses the treated water in its steam generating process and to operate the scrubber system, which reduces regulated air emissions from Plant Crist by more than 95 percent.
The new advanced ECUA facility was built to replace the Main Street Wastewater plant, which was located downtown across the street from the Community Maritime Park. Since Gulf Power and International Paper are able to use the reclaimed water, the new facility is considered zero-discharge.
 “Being good stewards of the environment is part of our mission at Gulf Power and this project is a great example of doing this on a very large scale,” Smith said.
In September, Gulf Power won a national award from the WasteReuse Association as Water Reuse Customer of the Year. The partnership with ECUA won the Sustainable Florida Award in 2010. A year later, it won the 2011 Industry Excellence Award from the Southeastern Electric Exchange, which includes 20 major utilities in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic from Texas to Maryland and Virginia. Gulf Power also won the David York Water Reuse Award from the Florida Water Environment Association earlier this year.

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Passenger train on track for South Florida, company executive tells chamber
Palm Beach Post - by Emily Roach, Staff Writer
November 15, 2012
Jose Gonzalez pitched plans for a Miami to Orlando express train to a group of prime customers Thursday morning, enticing them with competitive fares and consistent, hourly service.
Gonzalez, executive vice president of corporate development for Florida East Coast Industries, told Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches members that the All Aboard Florida line would deliver passengers from Miami to Orlando in three hours with stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. A ticket will cost less than $100 one-way from Miami to Orlando, and less than that for shorter distances, he said.
 “All Aboard Florida is a real company, it’s not just an idea,” Gonzalez said.
The Palm Beach Post reported this week that the company paid $2.5 million for downtown land on Quadrille Boulevard between Clematis and Fern streets. Gonzalez and another key FECI executive said this week that three downtown West Palm Beach locations are still being considered.
 “We’re reaching out to a larger group,” Gonzalez said after addressing the chamber, “but we’re also having smaller conversations with the key stakeholders about each of the locations and and hearing the pros and cons from them.”
Chamber board Chairman Harvey Oyer telegraphed the sentiment of many local business people when he thanked the company for planning a passenger rail line without the use of public money.
 “I think the next great transformative event in South Florida is All Aboard Florida,” said Oyer, a historian and lawyer who praised Henry Flagler’s original railroad for developing South Florida. FECI is the successor to Flagler’s railroad.
So far the biggest concerns are road closings necessary if the station is located on Quadrille, which appears to be the company’s favored location. The platform would cause road closures at Evernia and Datura streets.
REG Architects founder Rick Gonzalez Jr. asked if the platform — 800 feet long according to the company’s documents — could be shortened to avoid street closures.
 “I’m just hoping we respect the streets and find a way to keep them connected, for cars and people,” he said after the presentation.
Jose Gonzalez said the company was hiring a traffic engineering firm to work on issues at all the stations. He also said the company is buying 10 trains and will be hiring an operator.
The timeline is high speed for the $1 billion project.
Launch is estimated for January 2015, ambitious for a project this size even if it already has been revised back from 2014. Being a private company with deep pockets and years of experience dealing with government transportation entities will gives FECI an advantage.
All Aboard Florida aims to have station locations nailed down by the end of the year, Gonzalez said Thursday. In that same time, it is producing a formal proposal for the central Florida connection from Cocoa to Orlando International Airport using the 528 corridor rights of way.
The Florida Department of Transportation will choose a proposal Dec. 18 and apparently 40 entities including All Aboard Florida were initially interested. FECI put the corridor in play when it requested FDOT consider a rail line there, but state regulations require the agency to issue a request for proposals.
The company also submitted an Environmental Assessment to the Federal Railroad Administration last month, which is open for public comment until Dec. 3. In addition to fulfilling environmental review for many federal processes, It will enable the company to apply for federal financing for railroad rehabilitation and improvement.
Eric Eikenberg, CEO of Everglades Foundation, said the group thinks the proposal is “good for the environment and Florida’s economy.” The route uses existing and historic rail beds, minimizing its environmental impact, while taking millions of vehicles off the road.
In the two decades various government planning agencies have looked at developing passenger rail on the FEC corridor, the railroad never cooperated as a partner, Gonzalez said. But after Fortress Investment Group bought the company in 2007 and repositioned it to more aggressively use its assets, FECI has embraced the idea. Though efforts failed, interest in high-speed rail in Central Florida demonstrated the business possibilities.
All Aboard Florida trains — and the company has narrowed down its options to two models of trains — would go slower through South Florida and downtown areas, but accelerate to as fast as 110 mph north of Palm Beach County, according to document filed with the Federal Railroad Administration.
Both company leaders and community business owners say downtown stations are key to the intermodality of the rail line.
 “I think it’s critical that all three stations be right in the middle of downtown,” Rick Gonzalez Jr. said.
Jose Gonzalez told chamber members the railway, and especially its stations, will be a “catalyst” for development.
 “Everything west of the tracks except CityPlace is underutilized,” he said.
Also, he said the railway will compliment, not compete with, other transportation systems, such as Tri-Rail and Palm Beach International Airport. It clearly links Orlando International Airport with South Florida and its cruise ports.

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Endangered wildlife reflects troubled waters
Huffington Post - by Leda Huta
November 14, 2012
As people, we see ourselves living in a community, a neighborhood, a city. We also live in an ecosystem.
Just as we depend on our neighbors in our daily lives, we also depend on the natural systems that support all life: forests clean our air, mountains and lakes provide our fresh water, and soil supports our food crops.
We know something's wrong in our neighborhoods when crime grows out of control or homes burn down without the fire department responding. We know something's wrong with our ecosystems when plants and animals are dwindling, or even vanishing altogether. And the rate at which wildlife is now vanishing in too many places should be a warning that all is not well in our natural neighborhood.
Right now, many of the ecosystems associated with our lakes, rivers and streams are showing signs of distress. Clean drinking water is something we all need every day. Most of Earth's surface is water, but between saltwater and ice caps, only 1 percent of this water is available for drinking, irrigating our crops, and running our fisheries and industries.
When our waterways show signs of stress, we need to listen.
The Endangered Species Coalition just released a report detailing 10 imperiled water-related ecosystems, and the imperiled wildlife that depend on them. Pay attention: there's probably a lake or river near you on the list.
Here are some examples:
• In the Sonoran Desert, near Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., the last few hundred Sonoran pronghorn antelope struggle to survive in one of the hottest, driest corners of North America.
 • In the Ozark Rivers and streams of the Eastern United States, the ancient salamander called the hellbender has declined 75 percent since the 1980s. North America's largest salamander depends entirely on cold, clean rushing water.
 • In Florida's famous Everglades, some 600 native species are rare or imperiled. One example is the Everglades kite, a beautiful hawk that specializes in eating a single kind of snail.
 • In the Colorado River (the river that carved the Grand Canyon) four species of native chub and pikeminnow fish are listed as endangered.
The other imperiled ecosystems -- and information about what people can do to help protect them -- can be found at www.waterwoes.org.
For nearly 40 years, Americans have depended on the Endangered Species Act to safeguard American's natural heritage. Unfortunately, we are now seeing new threats to fresh water, and therefore to native wildlife, that we were only beginning to fathom when the bill was written.
Americans are putting more and more pressure on our waterways through our network of dams, diversions and ditches. Climate change is expected to increase droughts and disrupt the natural flow cycles of our streams. According to scientific models, climate change combined with population growth will result in much of the United States experiencing water scarcity by 2025.
Pollution causes more problems. Our hunger for oil and gas does more than just replace wild habitats with roads and drilling pads. According to an Argonne National Laboratory report, our oil and gas wells produce at least two billion gallons of contaminated water per day.
For the country's imperiled wildlife, these threats are severe. We've seen massive fish kills, closures of multi-million-dollar fisheries and even the extinctions of plants and animals in the wild. Fish no longer reach their spawning grounds, frogs suffer from chemicals seeping through their delicate skin, introduced plants choke native plants from their habitats, exotic aquatic species threaten native fish, and development threatens the stream-side homes of mammals and birds.
Water is truly in the balance.
Thanks to one of the strongest endangered species laws in the world, we Americans continue to protect our natural heritage. And it is not too late to save our wildlife; across the country, we can all do our part.
Supporting the groups involved in this report and their work to protect wildlife, plants and habitats is important. Standing up for wildlife protections is essential. And at home, we can make a difference by eliminating any leaks in plumbing; by installing water-efficient toilets, showerheads, washing machines, and dishwashers; by planting native plants adapted to our local environment; and by installing rain barrels to capture storm water for watering the garden.
Join us in protecting our country's incredible web of life and that most precious of natural resources, clean water.

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Everglades restoration offers hope for the St. Lucie Estuary
TCPalm.com – Letter by Megan Tinsley, Audubon Florida, Miami, FL
November 14, 2012
Ed Killer's Nov. 4 column, "Discharges from Lake Okeechobee killing St. Lucie Estuary slowly, surely" very clearly documents the various types of ecological harm caused by the massive releases of freshwater from Lake Okeechobee down the St. Lucie River. These damaging unnatural freshwater flows result from the draining and redirecting of water throughout the Everglades.
The future of these treasured ecosystems thus depends on Everglades restoration. The C-44 reservoir, designed to help contain St. Lucie flows, is one of the few restoration projects statewide that is approaching completion. The C-44 will assist in relieving pressure from the inundation of freshwater releases, but alone cannot stop all the damage. More comprehensive and widespread restoration efforts are needed.
Fortunately, the recently launched Central Everglades Planning Project brings a refined planning effort to deliver a restoration plan much sooner than we've grown accustomed to. This is not a new project, but simply bundles together existing restoration plan components — where progress has lagged behind projects like the C-44 — and expedites them. The plan will finally move more water south of Lake Okeechobee, and in doing so, will help relieve the damaging freshwater releases to the fragile St. Lucie and Indian River Lagoon ecosystem.
The Martin County Commission recognizes the critical need for this project to succeed and passed a resolution in September supporting it. A project of this scale — unprecedented anywhere — must occur in phases. In its first iteration, the redirection of water south will only assist in minimizing damaging freshwater flows to the northern estuaries. It is not the final answer, but it is the biggest and boldest step toward meaningful restoration benefits yet, and united support is needed to ensure subsequent phases — and enhanced benefits — follow.
Without Everglades restoration efforts like the Central Everglades Planning Project, continued status quo for the St. Lucie might very well be a nail in its coffin.

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Research on environmental water research published by investigators at Texas A&M University
Equities.com - Environmental Water Research NewsRx.com
November 14, 2012
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Ecology, Environment & Conservation -- Research findings on Environmental Water Research are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from College Station, Texas, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Hydraulic stimulation of subsurface rocks is performed in developing geothermal and hydrocarbon reservoirs to create permeable zones and enhance flow and transport in low-permeability formations. Borehole fluid injection often induces measurable microearthquakes (MEQs)."
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Texas A&M University, "While the nature and source of the processes that lead to triggering of these events is yet to be fully understood, a major hypothesis has linked these events to an increase in pore pressure that decreases the effective compressional stress and causes sliding along preexisting cracks. Based on this hypothesis, the distribution of the resulting microseismicity clouds can be viewed as monitoring data that carry important information about the spatial distribution of hydraulic rock properties. However, integration of fluid-induced microseismicity events into prior rock permeability distributions is complicated by the discrete nature of the MEQ events, which is not amenable to well-established inversion methods. We use kernel density estimation to first interpret the MEQ data events as continuous seismicity density measurements and, subsequently, assimilate them to estimate rock permeability distribution. We apply the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for microseimic data integration where we update a prior ensemble of permeability distributions to obtain a new set of calibrated models for prediction. The EnKF offers several advantages for this application, including the ensemble formulation for uncertainty assessment, convenient gradient-free implementation, and the flexibility to incorporate various failure mechanisms and additional data types."
According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Using several numerical experiments, we illustrate the suitability of the proposed approach for characterization of reservoir hydraulic properties from discrete MEQ monitoring measurements."
For more information on this research see: Inference of permeability distribution from injection-induced discrete microseismic events with kernel density estimation and ensemble Kalman filter. Water Resources Research, 2012;48():1-13. Water Resources Research can be contacted at: Amer Geophysical Union, 2000 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA. (American Geophysical Union - www.agu.org; Water Resources Research - www.agu.org/journals/wr/)
The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from M. Tarrahi, Texas A&M University, Dept. of Petr Engn, College Stn, TX, United States.
Keywords for this news article include: Texas, United States, College Station, North and Central America, Environmental Water Research

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Cooler weather could send pythons into populated areas
FloridaToday.com
November 13, 2012
Has anyone ever been attacked by a python in Florida ?
 “People have been bitten trying to catch them, but no one has ever been killed in the wild,” Cheryl Millet said. “Not that we know of anyway.”
Millet, a wildlife biologist with The Nature Conservancy’s Babson office, answers that question a lot. It comes mostly from rookie big snake hunters and, this time, is prompted while Millet flips through slide after slide of slithering monstrosities captured in South Florida.
With cold weather moving in, more pythons are likely to come out of their hiding places and find sunny spots to bask. And that means more hunters will have the opportunity to capture the invasive predators.
There are fewer than 300 people licensed to hunt and transport them in the Sunshine State. But various government agencies, working with The Nature Conservancy, are training Floridians on how to deal with these monstrosities with an expanded Python Patrol program.
The program teaches the safe way to track and capture the snakes. Hunters must be certified.
 “If you’re going to shoot it, you have to hit its tiny brain,” said Jeff Fobb, a Miami firefighter who works with Millet to educate hunters and preserve managers. “If I were going to use a weapon it would be a shotgun. Just don’t shoot straight down. And running over them isn’t effective either.”
First found in the wilds of South Florida in the late 1970s, Burmese python are expanding their nesting grounds, and some experts say the reptile could establish haunts as far north as Washington, D.C., within decades.
Native to Southeast Asia and among the largest snakes in the world, Burmese pythons are active mostly at night and prefer wooded areas near water. Their diet in Florida consists of everything from rare rats to great blue herons and American alligators.
They eat protected and endangered species here and compete with other native animals for habitat and food.
With amazing camouflage that allows adults to hide in a few inches of grass, pythons are ambush predators that kill by asphyxiation and swallow prey whole. Breeding populations now exist in places such as Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and Collier-Seminole State Park in Collier County.
Estimates on the total population of Burmese pythons in Florida ranges from thousands to hundreds of thousands. They’ve been considered an established species by Florida since 2000. Two years ago Florida officials made it illegal to own, sell or transport a live Burmese python without a permit. People who owned this species before the law are allowed to keep that particular animal.

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Obama continues green initiatives
Examiner.com - by Crystal Elamon
November 13, 2012
Obama’s first term perked the nation’s ears to green initiatives. He promised to lower pollution levels, increase conservation efforts and hold environmental offenders accountable for their actions. The president heavily invested in green jobs and clean energy throughout his former term, and launched his re-election campaign with a positive push, announcing $4 billion in energy conserving upgrades to federal buildings throughout the country in December 2011 and finalizing efforts to create an ecosystem task force.
Obama set forth the first ever fuel and emissions standards for commercial vehicles, applying to those built between 2014 and 2018. These manufacturing standards will conserve 500 million barrels of oil during that period. Limits were also set for mercury and other toxic air pollutants in power plant emissions for the first time. During 2010 and 2011, the U.S. reduced its imports of oil by 10%, saving an average of one million barrels a day for the year.
The Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, chaired by the EPA, was designed to combat the declining states of America’s endangered ecosystems. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and NOAA committed $150 million to improving water quality and wildlife habitats. Specific to Florida, under Obama’s administration, $1.4 billion in funds was designated to conserving and restoring the Everglades. The project includes recover more than 3000 miles along the Kissimmee River.
The problem with his initiatives may have been his choice of investments. He invested approximately $21 billion alone in solar and wind energy companies. Unfortunately, the most publicized of these choices was the Solyndra loan of over $500 million, on which the company defaulted. His intention to continue internal dwelling to reduce oil imports is questionable, regarding the safety standards of American oil practices made public after the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Despite several hurdles and a few bad choices, the Obama administration continues to strive for clean energy, restoration, and conservation. His new term is headed with a Blueprint for Secure Energy Future, his National Ocean Policy, and America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. He continues to dedicate over two million acres of land as federal wilderness, including thousands of miles of rivers and trails under the Omnibus Public land Management Act of 2009. The Great Outdoors initiative is an effort to expand the environmental agenda to an individual scale, curbing some of the conservation efforts from large organizations to community based programs that encourage strengthening the recreational agenda. He has yet another four years to set the standards and lead the global incentive to practice green living on a global scale.

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Panel OKs estuary nutrient limits as environmental groups mount new challenge
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
November 13, 2012
A state panel on Tuesday approved phosphorus and nitrogen limits recommended by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for Panhandle estuaries.
Environmental groups have been battling DEP and industry groups over setting nutrient limits to prevent waterways from becoming choked with weeds and algae. Industry groups opposed pollution limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as too expensive while environmental groups supported them.
The Legislature this year waived ratification of DEP rules establishing limits for lakes, streams and rivers. DEP is awaiting approval by the federal EPA, but environmental groups have filed a new challenge to the state rules.
Department officials said the "rigorous" nutrient limits for Panhandle estuaries were established using "cutting-edge" science.
"We believe it is important to show EPA that Florida can protect our waters without their help," Jeff Littlejohn, DEP's deputy secretary for regulatory programs, told the state Environmental Regulation Commission on Tuesday.
He said Florida is continuing to "push hard" for EPA to approve its petition to lift the federal rules in Florida and approve state rules.
But Josh Smith, an attorney with the Earthjustice law firm, said the environmental groups filed an amended petition last week with the federal EPA challenging the legality of a DEP implementation plan issued in September.
"We disagree vigorously with that assessment (by DEP) of how things are going," Smith said. "I think as we've made clear the Florida standards don't help; they don't do what EPA has found necessary to protect Florida's waters."
Although EPA officials have said they hope to issue a decision by Nov. 30, the federal agency may now take longer because of the challenge filed to Florida's implementation plan, Smith said. The amended petition was filed by the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. Johns Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club.
During the Environmental Regulation Commission meeting Tuesday, no one spoke against the proposed nutrient limits recommended by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
With the approval, nutrient limits have been set for three-fourths of Florida's estuaries, DEP officials said. Limits for the remaining estuaries, located in the Big Bend, will be established by June 30, 2015.
Terry Cole, an attorney representing agricultural groups, praised DEP officials at the commission hearing for their work.
David Childs, representing wastewater utilities, said afterward that Florida's water quality experts are "second to none."
"Florida should be in control of its own waters and water quality standards," Childs said, in reference to the state awaiting the EPA's approval. He represents the Florida Water Environment Association Utility Council.
Linda Young, who in 2010 strongly criticized DEP's analysis of estuaries, said she did not attend because it would have been pointless because the commission is a "rubber-stamp" for the department. She is director of the Clean Water Network of Florida.
Related Research:
*Nov. 13, 2012 DEP presentation on estuary numeric nutrient criteria
*Nov. 06, 2012: Case No. 12-003605: Second Amended Petition Challenging Agency Statements Defined As Rules

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Tamiami Bridge is
under construction
now.
Eventually, how long
will it actually be ?

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Tracking the Tegu: Tampa Bay's Everglades connection
83degreesMedia.com- by Janan Talafer
November 13, 2012
Michelle McEachern has always loved science. After high school in California, she moved to Tampa Bay to study marine biology at Eckerd College, a liberal arts college with a national reputation for that field of study.
She graduated from Eckerd in 2010 with a double major in marine science and environmental studies and now lives in South Florida where she works for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). She's part of a team of scientists tracking giant tegu lizards and Burmese pythons, two alien invaders that are threatening the balance in the Florida Keys and the Everglades.
Pythons have been considered a dangerous nonnative invader there for several decades.They also continually cause sensational headlines due to their enormous size -- a 17.5-foot, 164-pound female was caught in April of this year, the largest ever found in the Everglades. The tegu is relative newcomer, but of equal concern.
Originally from South America, tegus have unusual black-and-white markings on their leathery skin and are trendy in the exotic pet trade. They're big -- about four to five feet long, and they grow rapidly, getting up to 15 pounds.
They were first spotted in Hillsborough County about five years ago. Now they're moving into South Florida and rapidly expanding their numbers.
"The USGS stand is that they've made their way into the Florida landscape through the pet trade -- whether owners intentionally released them or the animals simply escaped is unclear, but now it's a big problem,'' says McEachern.
While there haven't been reports of tegus harming people, there is major concern about their impact on the landscape, and on native mammals and birds.
Tegus are omnivorous, which means they eat plants, fruit, insects, small animals and eggs.
"They really like the eggs of ground nesting birds and reptiles,'' says McEachern. "There is concern about what they might do to birds and small mammals, as well as the potential to outcompete the large native predators like the alligator and the American crocodile, which is endangered.''
McEachern's day-to-day tasks include checking traps that USGS scientists have placed in the Florida Keys for the reptiles. Once caught, the animals are handed over either to scientists at the University of Florida or Everglades National Park for further study. The 17.5-foot python caught in April was euthanized and dissected by UF scientists, who found the snake was a pregnant female with 87 eggs.
Transmitting For Science
McEachern and her team members also conduct radio telemetry surveillance of both pythons and tegus. She outfits the tegus with transmitters, which she jokingly calls "backpacks.'' The backpacks are secured on the reptile with a small beaded chain placed around the pelvic area, she says. It's definitely a job that requires special care and attention.
"We hold the tegu just behind the head so the animal can't swing around and bite us,'' says McEachern. "We also have to hold the back legs down -- they have long claws that are very sharp so you have to be very careful.''
The transmitters allow the scientists to monitor the lizards' habitat, range, population size, route, what they're eating and other data.
"The whole point is to learn as much as we can so we can figure out how to control and contain them,'' says McEachern. "The ultimate goal is to remove nonnative species completely from the landscape. Our research will help figure how that is best accomplished with the least impact on the environment.''
Cuts to funding will cause McEachern's project to end later this year. But USGS will continue to have a presence in the areas, as will other scientific organizations, including UF and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
As for McEachern, she plans to go to graduate school to continue her scientific studies, perhaps in marine conservation biology. "If you're a curious person and you want to know about the world around you, science is the place for you,'' she says.

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Presidential election results encourage environmentalists
TheLedger.com - by Tom Palmer
November 11, 2012
As usual, environmental issues didn't get much coverage from the political press during this year's presidential campaign.
But future environmental policy, especially in regard to climate change and energy policy, were important issues to the country's environmental groups and the millions of voters they represent.
It has been interesting to read the takes various representatives from environmental groups and environmental-related industry sectors have on President Barack Obama's re-election Tuesday.
Locally, one issue to watch is what's going to happen to the establishment of the new Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge is intended to be a mix of public lands and private lands protected by conservation easements that would protect key portions of the Everglades headwaters in the Kissimmee River Basin. The project was announced in 2011, and the acquisition of the first token piece of land formally establishing the refuge occurred last January.
Rick Dantzler told a group of land managers earlier this year that the word from Washington was that any attempts to get money to begin the project in earnest were on hold until after the election.
That's because at that point it wasn't clear who was going to be president, which meant it wasn't clear who was going to be secretary of the interior, which means it wasn't clear who was going to be head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Who fills these posts is key in the decision of how much money to request from Congress, what lands to buy or whether the project would even go anywhere.
Dantzler is also one of the key players in a campaign called Florida Land and Water Legacy to amend the Florida Constitution in 2014 to secure guaranteed funding for conservation land purchases.
If that effort is successful, the money could be used to match federal funds to make the purchases move quickly and maybe increase the size of the project.
Much of what I received in recent days dealt primarily with climate and energy issues.
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune characterized Obama's victory as a repudiation of the large amount of anti-Obama campaign funds spent by fossil fuel industries.
He saw Obama's victory as a mandate to continue action to hold the industries accountable, to continue to oppose toxic pollution of air and water and to work to establish a "clean energy economy."
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica urged the next Obama administration to focus more on control of greenhouse gases to reduce the effects of climate change and to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline or any other project that brings "dirty fuels" to the United States and delays the day to break America's dependence on dirty fuels.
The World Wildlife Fund issued a statement in a similar vein.
The group proposed convening government and business leaders to build support for "a clear plan to deal with climate change," as well as to work to reduce greenhouse gases. That will include discussions during budget negotiations to push supports for clean energy and to end subsidies for fossil fuels.
Although the folks at American Rivers acknowledged the effects of climate change can damage habitat and water quality on rivers through flooding and pollution from overflowing sewer plants, the group also pressed the Obama administration to improve programs to protect rivers from urban pollution and to protect riverine habitat for wildlife and for human recreation.
"They should also help communities bring aging water infrastructure into the 21st century, investing in cost-effective solutions like green roofs and rain-catching street designs to reduce polluted runoff, flooding and sewer overflows," the statement read. "The Administration should also continue its work to modernize Clean Water Act rules to reduce polluted runoff to streams and rivers by more fairly targeting pollution sources and incorporating advances in technology."
The National Wildlife Federation emphasized that the effects of climate change can harm wildlife, particularly coastal species.
The federation added Obama's victory is also good news for efforts to clean up polluted water bodies, such as the Mississippi River and Chesapeake Bay.
I imagine the results will also affect the dispute over tougher water pollution standards in Florida, which business leaders and their allies in state government have opposed.
It wasn't just the national elections that drew comment.
The Trust for Public Land issued a statement heralding the success of 46 out of 57 state and local ballot measures to raise funds to buy conservation lands.
"From Maine to Texas to San Francisco, we saw voters across the political spectrum say yes to taxes and spending for conservation which helps their communities," said Will Rogers, the group's president.
That's certainly encouraging news for the backers of Florida's Land and Water Legacy petition.

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St. Johns River Water Management District shouldn't sell Lake County conservation property
Orlando Sentinel - Commentary by Lauren Ritchie
November 11, 2012
What does "forever" mean?
For Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the definition likely won't be the same as yours. His idea of the "Florida Forever" land-buying conservation program is more like "Florida Until I Say Otherwise."
And now he has said otherwise.
At Scott's order, the St. Johns River Water Management District started in December examining the nearly 600,000 acres it owns, including some bought under the Florida Forever program, to see what is "surplus" and could be sold.
This is puzzling. If a particular piece of land is needed for conservation or water management, how does it become "surplus"? It's not as if the topography of this 18-county chunk of Florida experienced the creation of a mountain or sank into the ocean in the decade since Florida Forever was created.
Among the properties that were considered for the auction block are 22,881 acres the St. Johns owns in Lake County. And now, as the process is drawing to a close, water-district officials propose getting rid of 2,434 of them in one way or another. That's a particularly bad idea for 800 of those acres, an area called Pine Meadows, just east of Eustis.
Local environmentalists at a community meeting last week fought to keep the water agency from selling the property. They fear it will fall into the hands of a peat company, and they accused the St. Johns of smoothing the way for the company, which is seeking county approval to mine the property next door. (Never mind that a big chunk of the land is in protected Wekiva River areas where all new mines are prohibited.)
"Now, who's the most logical buyer?" asked Joan Bryant, president of Trout Lake Nature Center. Trout Lake is a badly polluted water body that could only get worse if the property were sold and mined.
Ken LaRoe, First Green Bank president and CEO who led a successful Lake County preservation effort in 2004, said trying to sell the land was a "subterfuge" and a "nicey-nice way for something insidious."
"I wouldn't want anybody on that land. We have fought very hard to preserve land in our county, and this is my land," he said.
Pine Meadows was purchased in three pieces starting in 1992, when it was being used as a muck farm to grow grain for cattle feed. Farmers built dikes around the west land and pumped highly polluted water from it into Hicks Ditch, which crosses the property flowing south.
Water in the ditch still travels to Trout Lake, considered the most seriously "impaired" — other than Lake Apopka — in the Ocklawaha Chain by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The St. Johns stopped the muck farming after buying Pine Meadows, which Robert Christianson, director of operations and land resources for the agency, said was the goal. So, he said, the agency "declared success" and no longer needs the land. More could be done, he acknowledged, but the St. Johns board believes it's too expensive because it would involve building levees.
The district proposes to sell most of the property with what's called a conservation easement. That, however, can be negotiated to allow many harmful activities, the environmentalists warned.
In addition, the county has tentative plans for a trail from Trout Lake Nature Center through Pine Meadows to Lake May Conservation Area, purchased just a few years ago.
"I'm a little baffled at how this property ever got this far in the process — it's a poster child — enormously significant for water management," said Hugh Kent, who sold his Lake May property to the county's preservation program several years ago and is a former president of the nature center.
There are many good reasons for the state to hang on to this land and no compelling reason to put it on the market — except for Scott's misguided push to get rid of conservation lands.
How shortsighted. Money for conservation property has always been dear, and only the most desperately needed lands have been bought through the years. Because of Florida's natural swampy nature, water is always going to require the state buy some land for management.
Local environmentalists have worked hard through the years to guide the purchases and to do what they could to protect the resource that makes Lake such an attractive place.
Anyone who would like to comment on the proposed Pine Meadows sale may do so at floridaswater.com/landassessmentform.
The governor's obsession with budget cutting doesn't need to extend to important properties here.

121110-a
Hot-button bottler cites Sandy in push to pump more Central Florida water
Orlando Sentinel - by Kevin Spear
November 10, 2012|
After superstorm Sandy slammed ashore late last month in the Northeastern U.S., Niagara Bottling LLC sought to boost the amount of water it pumps from the Floridan Aquifer in Central Florida to help victims of what it called the nation's "worst natural disaster."
Whether Sandy's victims were unable to obtain bottled water is questionable. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been adamant that there were no shortages in the region affected by the superstorm. Also not clear: whether the extra water would be donated to victims and emergency-response workers — or sold.
Still, the head of the St. Johns River Water Management District issued an emergency order that authorized Niagara's south Lake County plant to pump an extra 1.5 million gallons from the Floridan Aquifer during five days "to protect the health, safety and welfare of persons stricken by Hurricane Sandy."
The district's board of directors will be asked to endorse the order at its meeting Tuesday in Palatka. According to Niagara spokeswoman Honey Rand, "The moral of the story is we help each other out when we are in trouble."
As it turns out, Niagara's Groveland facility couldn't ramp up quickly enough, and so it pumped very little extra water under the emergency under. And so the episode might be forgotten as a plausible but misfired response to a type of natural disaster that many Floridians have experienced firsthand.
Yet few, if any, water-permit holders in the region have sparked more-intense and long-lasting public criticism of the St. Johns district, which controls water use over an 18-county area, than California-based Niagara Bottling.
In 2009, the water-management district issued a permit to Niagara that allows it to pump an average of 484,000 gallons a day from the Floridan Aquifer, Central Florida's primary source of water.
The district said the added withdrawals would not harm the aquifer. But the district's decision to issue a permit to Niagara was taken as a mixed message by many Central Florida residents who remain perplexed or frustrated because, for the past several years, an out-of-state company has been allowed to pump and sell millions of gallons of water a week from the Floridan Aquifer — while residents are told repeatedly they must reduce their household use.
When Niagara's five-year permit was first under review, the district was also imposing the most-stringent water-use restrictions in its history, permanently banning lawn-and-landscape irrigation on all but one day a week during cooler months of the year. For the fourth year in a row, that seasonal restriction took effect again last week, even though the drought conditions of previous years have abated.
Taking its cue from the water district's increasingly strident warnings about the region's water supplies, Groveland sought to block Niagara's original permit, worried that the company's pumping would be especially harmful to the aquifer in south Lake.
Niagara won its right to pump Floridan Aquifer water — and then sued Groveland to recover the legal costs of its permit fight. That lawsuit was settled last year when Groveland agreed to provide the bottler with sewage treatment without charge.
Niagara's written emergency request for extra water stressed the effects of Hurricane Sandy, calling its destruction "unprecedented." The company's letter, dated Oct. 31 and signed by Tampa water lawyer Edward P. de la Parte Jr., stated: "The storm has been described as the worst natural disaster experienced by the United States."
Blamed for nearly 200 deaths, the superstorm is on track to become the nation's second-most-costly cyclone, trailing only Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Several disasters, however, have been far more deadly than Sandy.
In the context of requesting "emergency relief" from Sandy's destruction, Niagara asked that the 1.5 million gallons of extra pumping not be counted against the company's annual limit of nearly 177 million gallons a year.
Niagara didn't say in its request whether the extra water would help compensate it for revenue lost when a Niagara plant in Pennsylvania was left without power or if the water would be donated to storm victims. But Hans G. Tanzler, the water district's executive director, agreed not to count the 1.5 million gallons against the company's pumping cap.
Asked if Tanzler knew whether the water was to be sold or donated, district spokesman Hank Largin said: "Those are questions that the officials at Niagara should be able to answer."
Rand, the Niagara spokeswoman, said the company "typically" donates water to first responders in disasters. But "even when the water is being sold, the people up there desperately, desperately needed it," she added.
Largin said Tanzler did not consult with the agency's nine-member board before issuing his emergency order, which was effective from Nov. 1 through Nov. 5. But Tanzler will ask the board Tuesday to "concur" with his actions.

121110-b
Straight talk about crooked river
TCPalm.com - by Ed Killer
November 10, 2012
When is it better to paddle 100 miles than 52?
Answer: When the waterway is the Kissimmee River.
Just ask Justin Riney. Last week, the Vero Beach environmental activist traveled the length of a waterway that is one of the most debated, most expensive and yet little traveled in the Sunshine State.
For 52 miles, the waterway is known as the C-38 Canal. Before 1962, it was a curvy, winding 103 miles and called the Kissimmee River.
Riney, who traveled its length last week aboard a stand-up paddleboard, said what most of it is now can never be mistaken for a river.
"It's about 50 yards wide and has steep banks like the C-54 Canal near Fellsmere," said Riney, founder of Mother Ocean and Expedition Florida 500, who paddled 120 miles in eight days to raise awareness for water quality-related issues. "There is little to no wildlife or birds along it in the canal-like stretches."
Riney was beginning to get discouraged about this section of his trip. Then his team reached a spot where the waterway undergoes a surreal transition from canal to natural river again.
For about a day of the journey, Riney and his fellow travelers observed signs of rich wildlife — fish and wading birds, turtles, alligators, even turkeys. The waters, although tannin-colored, were clear and the bottom of the river sandy. The water moved slowly, but it moved. And they moved with it.
It was a stark contrast to the 30 feet deep black coffee-colored canal. The lifeless canal, starved of oxygen because no aquatic plants can grow in water that deep and dark, has been suffocating Lake Okeechobee since the project was finished in 1971.
Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to dig the canal to provide flood control for the lands along the Kissimmee River. The reason was the most powerful known to man — money. Placing a canal where a river once wandered could open up thousands of acres of land for profit — the same philosophy that led to draining all the land south of Lake Okeechobee.
For four decades, C-38 has drastically changed the hydrology of the Everglades system. For 20 years, the Army Corps has been working to undo its own handiwork, the only place in the nation that change has occurred.
The work could be finished in a matter of a few years. Needed land has been acquired. Engineering is in place.
Making C-38 into the mighty meandering Kissimmee is but one of a long, complex set of repairs. But it is one of the most important if we are ever to see clean water in St. Lucie River, and a healthy Everglades again.

121110-c
Time for concerted citizen action to save these precious water resources
TCPalm.com – Letter by Cray Little, Vero Beach, FL
November 10, 2012
I appreciate Joe Negron's Oct. 17 guest column about the St. Lucie Estuary and the role the Army Corps of Engineers plays in its health. It's encouraging to learn that Negron supports the efforts of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection regarding the management of Lake Okeechobee, its surrounding waterways, and the Indian River Lagoon.
Negron is correct to suggest that "managing Lake Okeechobee and surrounding waterways should be made by scientists and water management managers" and not the Corps.
A study cited on a University of Texas website found that since water management controls have been implemented, 56 Everglades plant and animal species are "endangered or threatened."
I agree with Negron that "Congress should immediately act to remove control of Lake Okeechobee from the Army Corps."
It's irrefutable that "the history of water management in the Everglades region, the series of canals, levees, and impoundments that have completely restructured the watershed, have caused major problems to the ecosystem as well as the overall water supply. There problems are inextricably linked, as one problem flows down the water system to cause new and sometimes unexpected complications."
The ongoing Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project was first supported financially by Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1994. His Everglades Forever Act authorized a major project to "clean and restore the Everglades Protection Area." Since then, other restorative projects have been proposed, but a single, comprehensive plan has remained elusive.
The 18th century English poet William Blake wrote, "The universe is reflected in the sides of a grain of sand" to suggest the interconnectivity of nature. To date, political support for this project has been characterized as "like the Everglades (itself) — very wide, very shallow." Isn't it time we all pulled together to press our state representatives to save this natural wonder before it is too late ?

121109-
Big investments in proposed Manatee County water plan
TheBradentonTimes.com - by John Rehill
November 9, 2012
BRADENTON -- To ensure the necessary water supply needed to serve Manatee County customers, Manatee's Utility Department submits a 10-year water use plan every five years, as required by South West Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). The plan evaluates the sources, treatment and delivery facilities, based on the demands of the projected population. Currently the county's supply is safe through the next decade, but aging facilities and outdated technology will need to be replaced to get to 2035.
Manatee's Utility Department Water Division Manager, Mark Simpson delivered a water supply facility work plan to the county planning commission Thursday that reassured them of sufficient supply, and detailed the cost of keeping it safe in the future.
The county's major source of portable water is Lake Manatee, which supplies almost 35 million gallons a day (MGD) for residents. Another 16 MGD comes from the county well fields. There is an agreement with Mosaic mining to share the almost 2 MGD that gets pumped from the IMC well field in East Manatee County. That brings the total to almost 53 MGD, and that is the amount permitted to the county by SWFWMD.
Conservation practices have helped to reduce the water demand over the past few years, but Simpson says future use is expected to climb. In 2011, the demand was 37 MGD. By 2020, it is expected to rise to almost 48 MGD, and by 2035 to over 53 MGD, taking the county beyond their permitted amount.
Simpson says we must plan for infrastructure reinvestment cost of $100 million if we are going to guarantee safe water for decades to come. The largest price tag would be a water treatment plant filtration upgrade, projected to be $43 million, followed by a biological treatment unit costing an estimated $16 million.
There are other planned major investments that make-up the remainder of the proposed $100 million. A Buffalo Creek water treatment plant along with dam repairs would cost over another $40 million.
Critics claim any additional sources are at the expense of residents who are forced to pay for the more expensive sources of water while the least expensive (easiest to retrieve) is reserved for agriculture and mining. One example is: the reclaimed water system infrastructure. It will cost over another $100 million, and that expense will fall on the residents, not the mega water users.
The Planning Commission recommended amending the Comprehensive Plan to accommodate the projected changes in the Water Supply Facility Work Plan at the meeting.

Waiting: Voters stand in line outside a Fort Myers, Florida church, where some had to wait six hours to cast their ballots

121108-b
Grant Funds Nutrient Management Study Focused on Phosphorus
NationalHogFarmer.com
November 8, 2012
The University of Missouri (MU) has received a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to fund a three-year study of nutrient management.
 “The grant is focused on the phosphorus index, a tool used by farmers, particularly ones applying manure, to assess the potential for phosphorus loss from fields,” says MU Extension nutrient management specialist John Lory. “These phosphorus indices were developed 10 to 15 years ago and there are some concerns that they are not operating appropriately, so the Conservation Innovation Grant we put together is aimed at assessing how well the phosphorus index is working in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.”
Phosphorus is an important nutrient for crop production and one of the major, potentially limiting nutrients on farmers’ fields. It is also an important nutrient in terms of water quality.
 “We have a dual focus when it comes to phosphorus,” Lory says. “On one side, we are trying to make sure our crops have the nutrients they need, but on the other side, we’re trying to keep that phosphorus in place. The phosphorus index is a tool to help farmers identify strategies that will maintain phosphorus in their fields and not have it run off into water.”
Phosphorus indices were originally developed as part of NRCS’s effort to implement good conservation practices on farms. The indices are required for many farmers who work with cost-share dollars from NRCS through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). Lory says that NRCS has received feedback and criticism that phosphorus indices are not working appropriately, which inspired the agency to use CIG funds to make sure the phosphorus indices are working as expected.
Existing water-quality data is being used to calibrate a computer model. Researchers will test how intensively the computer model needs to be calibrated to effectively evaluate a phosphorus index. It’s a lesson that Lory says will not only be important for the region, but nationally as well.
Phosphorus indices are also required for farmers spreading manure on fields controlled by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The tool can tell where manure should be spread for optimum phosphorus utilization, where spreading should be limited and locations where spreading should be avoided.
 “Obviously, if the tool is working well, we are making good decisions and we can justify saying ‘that is not a good spot,’” Lory says. “If you have a tool that is giving the wrong answer, then we are having farmers jump through hoops that really they shouldn’t be. It is important that we have confidence that the tools we offer – particularly in a regulatory environment and when there are dollars on the line – are behaving properly, and this proposal will allow us to gain that confidence.”
Two other grants are funding similar studies in the Chesapeake Bay region and Southern states. Lory says this is a great opportunity. “We have collaboration from the universities in the four states. We also are collaborating here with the Agricultural Research Service, Extension and University of Missouri faculty,” Lory relates. “Another layer of collaboration is that we have designed into the project to communicate with the other funded CIG proposals, so this is truly a national effort that is integrating efforts at many different levels.”

121108-c
Obama breaks silence on climate change. Does this presage action in his second term ?
The Telegraph – by Geoffrey Lean, US politics
November 8, 2012
It was one of the most unexpected lines in Barack Obama's barnstorming acceptance speech, and it got one of the biggest outbreaks of applause. After saying virtually nothing about climate change in many months, he declared: “We want our children to live in an America that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet”.
It may not have been much, but it broke a long silence – and one that contrasted with the last presidential campaign. Four years ago, both he and John McCain – who had long been the foremost champion of action on global warming in the US Senate, with a far better record than Obama – made it a centrepiece of their campaigns. This time it was ignored – even though the President remains convinced of its importance and though Mitt Romney, as Governor of Massachusetts, had prepared pioneering measures to reduce emissions, making the need to tackle global warming a 'mantra', according to one aide, before changing position when preparing to run for the White House. For the first time since 1988 it was not mentioned by either candidate in any of the presidential debates.
Of course, it intruded perforce, with the tragic devastation from Superstorm Sandy in the closing week of the campaign. Not that the storm can be attributed to climate change – though it looks as if unusually warm temperatures in the Atlantic and rising sea levels made it worse – but it served as a warning of the kind of thing scientists predict will occur as the world heats up. Importantly, it lead to a surprise endorsement of Mr Obama by New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg – a Republican turned Independent – on the grounds of climate change, saying that the disaster had brought what was at stake in the election “into sharp relief”.
The silence over global warming has of course much to do with the Republican's wholescale rejection of the overwhelming scientific consensus over the last few years. This is accompanied by a wider opposition to green measures. In the first six months after coming under Republican control in 2010, the House of Representatives voted 110 times to kill or emasculate initiatives from controlling air and water pollution to protecting parks and coastlines, an assault unprecedented in congressional history.
Yet this, too, is a new departure. For much of the last half century, Republicans not only vied with Democrats in environmental concern, but did more to put it into practice. Much of this was down to the first Nixon Administration.
Impressed that voters in the 1968 election ranked the environment only behind the economy and the Vietnam War – and expecting to face a green opponent, Ed Muskie, in 1972 – Nixon, of all people, presided over the construction of the edifice of institutions and legislation that his heirs are now attacking- including the powerful Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and tough, pioneering acts to clean up air and water pollution, protect wildlife and require government bodies to prepare 'environmental impact statements' for their proposals.
He moved a planned airport that would have endangered the Everglades and scrapped a controversial Florida canal prioritised by John Kennedy. Abroad, his administration led drives that resulted in international measures to regulate trade in endangered species, prevent dumping waste at sea and ban commercial whaling.
His ardour, admittedly, cooled as his presidency descended into deceit and disgrace, and Ronald Reagan came to office determined to reduce environmental regulation. But 'the Gipper' found there was little he could do in the face of public opposition – and ended up signing 38 bills that preserved 10.6 million acres of forests, mountains, wetlands and deserts as protected wilderness. And his administration led the successful international campaign to save the ozone layer.
His successor, the elder George Bush, campaigned on a promise to be “the environment president”,and appointed William Reilly the most respected head of the EPA to date, who cleaned up toxic waste sites, introduced effective measures to tackle acid rain and ( with the help of Michael Howard) persuaded the President to sign up to the international treaty on climate change.
All this was consistent with a right-wing environmental tradition stretching back to Edmund Burke and Theodore Roosevelt and also taken up by Margaret Thatcher. But the backlash was already under way, pioneered by Bush's orthographically-challenged vice-president, Dan Quayle.
Partly fuelled by Al Gore – who politicised the issue while doing little in office – partly buttressed by evangelicals believing it blasphemous to suggest that humanity can affect God's creation, it has now taken over the party.
It is hard to believe it will last. US public opinion is overwhelmingly,and increasingly. green. Seventy per cent, one recent poll reports, believe in global warming, up 13 per cent in under three years (only 12 per cent deny it). And another this week found that two to one majority believed it increased natural disasters.
Obama, meanwhile, according to close aides “totally gets the importance of climate change”.There have long been rumours that Obama would like to make it a legacy issue for his second them. Was the unexpected line in his speech a sign that he will push it up the agenda? I wouldn't bet on it, but you never know.

121108-e
Somebody should tell them the election is over: Florida STILL counting votes - 24 hours after Obama's victory
Reuters - by Reuters Reporter and Daily Mail Reporter
November 2012
● Official results may not be known until the weekend
● Florida vote marred by long lines and waits of up to six hours
● Obama was handily re-elected without needing any of the 29 votes up for grabs in the Sunshine State
The election may be over but contest continues to drag on in Florida, where the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was still too close to call - a full day after polls opened.
More than 24 hours after polls closed in Florida, election officials said votes were still being counted in a handful of counties and final results may not be known before this weekend.
'Every county must report their unofficial results to us by Saturday at noon,' said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Florida's Secretary of State, who is responsible for elections.
He declined to predict when the race in the fourth most populous U.S. state would be called.
Twelve years ago, when the key battleground state was a toss-up that left the presidential race unsettled, Florida was the cause of electoral gridlock.
This time, it hardly seemed to matter.
More...
● The party's over: Obama heads back to White House... as Wall Street suffers worst day of the year and America teeters on edge of fiscal cliff
● Mitt Romney likely to fade from public life after his 'very public death', says adviser
● Trump hastily backtracks over calls for a 'revolution' after branding Obama's re-election a 'disgusting injustice'
● Record number of Hispanic and Asian voters head to the polls to help Obama secure second term - as his support among whites plummets
● Will Marco Rubio lead the Republicans in 2016 ? GOP scrambles to find new standard bearer after Romney loses minority voters
President Obama handily won re-election without Florida's 29 Electoral College votes, which was the biggest prize up for grabs in any of the U.S. swing states.
As of Wednesday evening, Obama had 49.87 per cent of the statewide vote versus 49.27 per cent for Romney, with just 49,963 votes separating them, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Officials throughout the state blamed an unexpectedly high number of absentee ballots and the length of the ballots, which included 11 proposed state constitutional amendments, for long lines at polling places and delays in tallying final results.
But Republican Governor Rick Scott's decision not to extend early voting ahead of Election Day, after it was cut back from 14 to eight days by Scott and the Republican-controlled Legislature, was also cited as causing exceedingly long voter lines at many precincts on Tuesday.
Democrats have said repeatedly that the cutback was a part of an unsuccessful attempt to blunt turnout in Florida by Obama supporters.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez apologized for the long lines in his county on Wednesday, after acknowledging that some voters had been forced to wait up to six hours to cast their ballots.
'That should not have happened,' said Gimenez, whose county accounts for about 10 percent of Florida's nearly 12 million registered voters.
As for the glacially pace of the vote count, Gimenez said: 'We had a very long ballot. It was the longest ballot in Florida history.'
The final margin of victory in Florida may be less than a percentage point.
Some political pundits say the delays highlight Florida's seeming inability to hold elections that are free of controversy and public mockery.
'There are so many different potential sources of interference and conscious efforts to muck it up, we won't know for a while yet who to point the finger at,' said Seth Gordon, a former political consultant based in Miami.
'We could have been there in the bulls-eye of the whole works looking idiotic just like last time,' he said, referring to 2000, when George Bush won Florida by 537 and captured the White House.
'We may be just as idiotic this time, but it doesn't matter because no one is watching,' Gordon said. 'Last time, we held up the entire country.'

121107-b
Award-winning Ranches Calendar to showcase Florida Wildlife Corridor and Northern Everglades ranchlands
TCPalm.com – by Evelyn Lespinasse
November 7, 2012
STUART — The year 2013 marks the 500th anniversary of Juan Ponce de León's landing on Florida's east coast. While much has changed since his arrival, a few miles past the condos, concrete and cars, de León would still encounter the Florida he knew while searching for the Fountain of Youth.
The award-winning 2013 Florida Ranches Calendar highlights some of these natural places through its photographs of cattle ranches, illustrating the lives of ranching families who carry forward five centuries of tradition, caring for cattle and horses that Ponce de León himself first delivered to Florida and the New World.
 “Florida’s ranches play a critical role in honoring and preserving Florida’s agricultural and cultural heritage. These landowners also serve as environmental stewards of these natural areas,” said Stacy Ranieri, President of The Firefly Group, and publisher of the calendar.
The focus of the 2013 calendar is the Northern Everglades and Florida Wildlife Corridor. Renowned photojournalist, author, and eighth generation Floridian Carlton Ward Jr, captured stunning images for the calendar during his Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition. In 2012, Ward led a small team on a 1,000 mile, 100-day trek throughout the Florida peninsula, from the Everglades to Okefenokee.
In addition to breathtaking photos of Florida ranches in the Northern Everglades from Osceola to Collier Counties, the calendar also includes informative descriptions about each month’s photograph as well as introductory articles written by notable leaders such as Rick Dantzler, best know for his role in the Florida State Senate and House of Representatives, and Jim Handley, Executive Vice President of Florida Cattleman’s Association.
 “The Ranch calendar is much more than pretty pictures. It is a statewide, cooperative educational initiative that provides an unconventional way to tell the story of Florida’s ranches to our fellow citizens,’ Ranieri added. “Many residents and visitors to Florida are unaware of the beauty, culture and environmental value of these exceptional places.”
In keeping with the environmental stewardship theme, the calendar is printed in Florida using Stuart-based Southeastern Printing’s sustainable printing process, which includes using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified paper and vegetable inks.
The Ranch Calendar makes a great gift and is now on sale for pre-order for $15 each. Bulk order discounts and non-profit fundraising rates are also available. For more information, contact The Firefly Group at 772-287-5272  or  info@fireflyforyou.com or order online at http://www.fireflyforyou.com
Additional facts about the Florida Ranches Calendar
Ranches Featured:
• Adams Ranch, Osceola County
• Alico Ranch, Hendry County
• Avon Park Air Force Range, Polk/Highlands Counties
• Blue Head Ranch, Highlands County
• Camp Lonesome, Osceola County
• Creek Ranch, Polk County
• Disney Wilderness Preserve, Polk/Osceola Counties
• Durando Ranch, Hardee/Okeechobee Counties
• Lake X Ranch, Osceola County
• Rafter T Ranch, Highlands County
• Roman III Ranch, Highlands County
• Seminole Tribe of Florida
The calendar has won numerous awards for the past several years, including regional and statewide Image Awards from the Florida Public Relations Association as well as Gold ADDYs and a Best in Show from the Advertising Federation.
The 2013 Florida Ranches Calendar is a collaborative partnership between the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and Family Lands Remembered, the major underwriters of the calendar, along with Legacy Institute for Nature & Culture (LINC) and The Firefly Group. The calendar also receives diverse support from ranches, environmental organizations, companies involved with land planning and others.
Sponsors include: Adams Ranch, Alico Incorporated, Ard, Shirley & Rudolfph, PA, Avon Park Air Force Range, Blue Head Ranch, Conservation Trust of Florida, Creek Ranch, Roman III Ranch, Durando Ranch, Family Lands Remember, The Firefly Group, Floppy Ear Farm, Law offices of Johnathan Ferguson, Florida Cattlemen’s Association, FPL, Holland & Knight, InHouse Advertising, Kitson & Partners, Kenneth Kirchman Foundation, Lightsey Ranch, Camp Lonesome, Seminole Tribe of Florida, The Nature Conservancy, Thomas Two Rivers Ranch, Rafter T Ranch, National Wildlife Refuge Association, Inland Coat Resources, LINC, and Southeastern Printing.

121107-c
Election 2012: Veteran legislators win reelection to state House, Senate
NaplesNews.com - by Kristine Gill, Victoria Macchi
November 6, 2012
Southwest Floridians must be happy with their representation in Tallahassee, overwhelmingly supporting veteran legislators in state House and Senate races.
Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, won reelection against Libertarian candidate Peter Richter for her second term as representative for Florida’s House District 106. Passidomo won with about 79 percent of the vote in a landslide victory.
District 106 includes the southwest corner of Collier County including Naples, Marco Island, Pelican Bay and Moorings Park, plus voters as far south as the Everglades airport.
Incumbent Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, defeated challenger Pam Brown, who ran without party affiliation, taking about 66 percent of the vote in the race for Florida House of Representatives District 80.
Hudson, who represented District 101 since 2007, will answer to voters in areas of northeastern Collier, including Immokalee, as well as part of Hendry County, after redistricting changed legislative boundaries earlier this year.
Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, handily won his bid for Florida’s House District 105 against write-in candidate Raul Rene Robayna. Trujillo received 100 percent of the vote, according to the state election website.
Trujillo was a representative for House District 116 before redistricting took place this year. Trujillo will represent eastern Collier County voters, including those in Golden Gate. The district spans east to Miami and south to Key West.
State representatives are elected to two-year terms.
Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, claimed a victory Tuesday in District 30 over Democratic challenger Debbie Jordan, with about 61 percent of the vote.
She will serve a four-year term. Benacquisto was first elected to the Florida Senate in 2010, representing District 27. Redistricting earlier this year created the new District 30, which includes northern Lee and southern Charlotte counties.
Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami won his mother’s District 39 Senate seat over Republican Scott Hopes.
Bullard won a four-year term with about 70 percent of the vote.
Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, could not run for reelection due to term limits. The four-county district includes portions of Collier, Hendry, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

121107-d
Florida, I do declare
The Guardian – by Diane Roberts
November 7, 2012
It may be the Sunshine State, but politics here owe more to the Everglades. Yet Florida is a microcosm of the emerging America
Jesus, Florida. The election has been called, Barack Obama's earned four more years, the rest of the nation has gone back to ruminating on Kim Kardashian's boyfriends, Eli Manning's arm, and other Great Issues of the Day. But in the Looking-Glass Land of Florida, my home state, we're still counting votes.
Obama appears to have won Florida's 29 electoral college votes, but what with people queueing past midnight in Miami, absentee ballots yet to be counted, and a couple of lawsuits over voter suppression to be sorted out, Florida's election remains uncertified. Or, as we say in Leon County, a day late and a dollar short.
To cap it all, a historian at the University of South Florida, due to take part in a BBC-sponsored discussion of how Florida's Republican government had made it more difficult for citizens to exercise the franchise, found he'd been mysteriously removed from the voter rolls in his precinct.
Florida Representative Allen West, the irascible Islamophobe noted for insisting there were some 80 card-carrying communists amongst congressional Democrats, and that progressive politics has "feminised" American men, appears to be trailing his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy by about 2,500 votes. He's not conceding. He cites "hostility" and "irregularities".
The whole state is one big, hot, damp irregularity. There are other races in Florida so tight that automatic recounts could ensue, including the re-election bid of the future Speaker of the state House of Representatives. Florida's Republican legislature and governor – a former hospital executive whose company was found guilty of massive Medicare fraud who spent $70m of his own money getting elected – tried to purge voter rolls and clamp down on early voting in an attempt to stop all those uppity Latinos, African Americans and poor folks from getting to the polls.
It didn't work: Florida's turn-out was brain-slappingly high, around 75%. This was not a surprise. Yet, many polling places – often the ones in poor minority areas, though that's just a coincidence, I'm sure – didn't have enough poll workers or ballot machines.
Why is Florida always the screw-up, the redheaded stepchild of American democracy ?
Maybe it's our history: Florida was at the center of the dubious election of 1876, in which electoral college votes were traded for the removal of federal troops from the Reconstruction South, paving the way for a century of segregation. And, of course, in 2000, the whole world watched while we flogged "pregnant chads" and chased butterfly ballots. Battalions of lawyers hurled motions at each others' heads and banana republics called Florida "a banana republic".
Perhaps our peculiar cultural and demographic make-up – a Frankenstate monster hybrid of New Jersey sleaze, midwestern prissiness, evangelical backwardness and Confederate-style racism, with some hysterical Cuban-exile anti-communism thrown in – impedes our getting the hang of this free-and-fair-election thing.
Yet, Florida is a microcosm of America itself: its demographics comprise pensioners and young families, affluent and poor, the rural and the urban, whites, African Americans and, increasingly, Latinos. Some of us are descendants of Florida's early European colonisers; most of us arrived much later, perhaps only last week.
The state is a cocktail of paradoxical flavours, from the rainbow flags of Key West to the Confederate battle flags of the old plantation country, Disney World and the Everglades, environmental campaigners, and climate-change deniers. Hell, Rush Limbaugh lives in Florida. So does one of the Koch brothers.
Like the rest of the nation, Florida is changing fast – too fast for many. Once, the Cuban exile vote, reliably conservative, would have helped Republicans in the state. Now, the Cubans are more than offset by Puerto Ricans who've moved along the now-famous I-4 corridor, a swath of new towns, retirement communities and strip malls from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic.
Obama won Hillsborough County, once a Republican stronghold, with 53% of the vote. Statewide, he's apparently snagged a huge win with Latinos, 60% to 32% for Romney (John McCain got 47% of the Hispanic vote in 2008). Women, young people, and African Americans in Florida also voted overwhelmingly for Obama, leaving the angry white guys for Romney. But as prominent Republicans have pointed out, the GOP isn't growing enough angry white guys to sustain itself.
Two years ago, Florida looked like it was going to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tea Party. Today, Florida is having another one of its periodic existential crises, wondering just who we are and what it is. Nobody's yelling about "our country back" now; we're not going back.
Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly laments that the "white establishment" is gone and, with it, "traditional America". Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the conservative pin-up boy from 2010, chastises his party for its hardline attitude toward Latinos and immigration. The GOP isn't listening. Republicans are sulking.

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How Obama's re-election affects Florida
Sun-Sentinel.com – by William E. Gibson
November 7, 2012
President Barack Obama’s convincing re-election on Tuesday gives him an opportunity to more aggressively push policies that profoundly affect South Florida, from seeking legal status for the undocumented to carrying out the new health care law.
Obama is expected to keep seeking more money for Everglades restoration, maintain looser rules on travel to Cuba and press states like Florida to set up shopping “exchanges” for buying health insurance.
He has promised to help more underwater homeowners adjust their mortgages to avoid foreclosure. And he wants to “invest” federal money in alternative energy projects while maintaining a buffer against oil drilling near Florida’s shores.
Obama’s re-election, though hard fought and far from a landslide victory, strengthens his hand. But he still faces a sharply divided Congress and Republican leaders determined to block much of his agenda.
Look for Obama to forcefully claim a mandate to govern, something he didn’t do after the 2008 election while seeking cooperation with Republicans.
 “He has to seize the initiative really quickly, I mean within a week. If he doesn’t, he’s going to have problems,” said Richard Semiatin, a political scientist at American University in Washington. “He can’t wait for Congress to come back; he has to be proactive almost immediately.”
Here are issues of special concern to Florida that the president and Congress could confront:
Medicare and Social Security
Florida, a retirement haven, is especially dependent on these big entitlement programs, and Obama has acknowledged that changes must be made to keep them solvent for future generations.
 “It’s going to require all of us to work together and tell the American people just how serious the current crisis is,” said U.S Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar. “Medicare in its current form is unsustainable. The same goes with Social Security.”
The issue could come up as early as this month when Obama and Congress explore ways to reduce the federal deficit to avoid falling off the “fiscal cliff,” a draconian set of tax increases and deep spending cuts that kick in at the end of the year.
Raising the eligibility age beyond 65 “is something that is going to have to happen,” Hastings said. Other resolutions require painful choices, such as raising taxes or trimming future benefits.
A likely first step: setting up a commission to recommend solutions.
The environment
Despite tight budgets, the Obama administration has consistently called for big spending on a massive re-plumbing of the Everglades to preserve South Florida’s environment, wildlife and water supplies. Congress responded with $1.5 billion of spending on related projects since 2009.
Members of both parties have cooperated, but an Obama defeat could have squeezed Everglades spending under a more tight-fisted Republican administration.
Obama’s victory also blocks Republican attempts to scale back recent federal rules and standards designed to clean pollution from Florida’s waterways.
Housing
Obama promises to expand programs that encourage lenders to modify mortgages paid by owners who owe more than their homes are worth. Plans are vague, but the goal is to simplify the process and make more homeowners eligible for loan modifications.
Immigration
Hispanic voters in Florida and elsewhere helped Obama get re-elected, and he has promised to press Congress to overhaul immigration law that would give undocumented residents legal status and a path to citizenship. This really matters to Florida, home to 850,000 illegal residents.
Obama’s behind-the-scenes attempts went nowhere during his first term, so the president is obligated to try harder in a second term.
 “I think the formula he’ll come up with would grandfather in (undocumented) people who have been here more than five or ten years,” Semiatin said.
Cuba
Embargo opponents will keep pressing Obama to allow American tourists to visit Cuba, but some members of Congress will try to tighten travel rules and the embargo.
But the president is unlikely to move forward until the Cuban government eases its repression of dissenters and releases Alan Gross, a Maryland man jailed for bringing communications equipment to the island’s Jewish community.
Health care
Obama’s re-election, along with a Supreme Court decision in June, ensures that “Obamacare” will remain the law of the land.
The results put pressure on Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida legislature to set up state-run exchanges for buying insurance and to expand Medicaid -- mostly at federal expense -- to cover roughly a million uninsured people.
The economy
Some economists think a more certain playing field will prompt consumers to spend and businesses to invest, which would lead to economic growth. If so, Florida’s job market would improve, providing more opportunities for job seekers.
Now we know the health-care law will remain and who will control the government.
 “The election alone will clear away some of these uncertainties,” said Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida.
He predicts a gradual expansion of jobs through next year and “more Florida-like growth” in 2014 and 2015.

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The Super PAC that ousted a longtime commissioner
WINKnews.com
November 7, 2012
FORT MYERS, Fla. - With all of the big elections on Tuesday, one is already decided. After 24 years as a Lee County Commissioner, Ray Judah lost in the primary in August and will leave office on November 20th.
It was the first time ever a Super PAC went after a local elected official around here and we wanted to know why.
"It was that big of a deal to them to get you off the county commission?" WINK News Anchor Chris Cifatte asked Judah, "there's no question Chris."
If you've lived in Lee County for any period of time, whether a day or a decade, you've seen Ray Judah's legacy. A champion of Spring Training Baseball and the new JetBlue Park. And the driving force behind Conservation 20/20, which created a tax to buy and preserve nearly 25,000 acres of land. Things he unapologetically supports.
So you might think the story ends there. Programs that cost money and voters that didn't want to pay the bill. But Judah says that wasn't the money issue here.
"Those were political action committees with an ax to grind for a number of reasons including U.S. Sugar because I had been fighting the sugar industry for over two decades to try to restore and protect our river and our back bays and estuaries," Judah said.
The Super PAC that helped oust him came from an organization called "Florida First" which Judah says was funded by a lot of interests, not just sugar.
"The fertilizer industry, even the gaming and tobacco industry," said Judah.
But he says it was U.S. Sugar most of all that wrote the big checks to get rid of him.
"And with regards to U.S. Sugar, they actually ended up spending in excess of $300,000. The total accumulation of PAC money was over $750,000 spent to run political attack ads trying to undermine my integrity in both in the personal and professional sector."
Judah says it was his fight for Everglades restoration that made him a threat.
"That I kept pushing the need to provide for greater storage and treatment from runoff from their agricultural fields, their sugar cane fields."
And he says it goes deeper.  To gambling and fertilizer money and State Representative Matt Caldwell from Lehigh Acres.
"Well, yes. And it's an insidious process because for instance, I'll just say it right out loud, Representative Matt Caldwell.  "He several years ago, took issue with Lee County's budget. I took issue with him on that and countered his allegations. And so he ended up calling in favors from companies like the tobacco industry, the gaming industry."
We asked Caldwell if he was behind the donations to Florida First. He told us he didn't write any checks, but wouldn't say the accusation is false.
"I certainly know of folks that were very interested in seeing Commissioner Judah leave office," Caldwell said.
"I personally didn't write any checks, but you know, you hear things...you hear of things."
But that's the point of a Super PAC. He doesn't have to be the one to write the checks. In fact, politicians can't be directly involved with Super PACs. But someone paid for it.
A search through campaign finance activity filed with the State Elections Office finds that U.S. Sugar hasn't made any contributions to Florida First. But that doesn't necessarily refute Ray Judah's claims.
The biggest check Florida First received was on August 7th, a week before the primary, for $225,000 from Partnership for Florida's Future, Inc. Another Political Action Committee. We checked the contributions for that group and it turns out U.S. Sugar wrote a check for $125,000 on Junes 27th and another check for $200,000 on August 28th, two weeks after Judah was defeated.
The contributions don't end there. U.S. Sugar donated $125,000 to the Florida Chamber of Commerce Alliance on June 27th. That group later contributed $75,000 to Florida First.
We asked U.S. Sugar if they wanted to refute any of Judah's claims, but they chose not to comment.
Florida First has received more than $1.2 million in contributions since 2010. It's run by two political operatives with no known connections to Ray Judah.

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Icelandic Glacial Water introduces innovative home-delivery program
BevNet.com
November 6, 2012
Icelandic Water Holdings ehf, makers of the award-winning, CarbonNeutral® premium natural spring water Icelandic Glacial, today announced the launch of home-delivery in Southern California and South Florida via an inventive initiative with the Los Angeles Times and the Sun Sentinel.
 “This is a unique venture not only for Icelandic Glacial, but also for consumers in the L.A. and Ft. Lauderdale markets,” said Jon Olafsson, chairman and co-founder, Icelandic Glacial. “Our super-premium water is now available to homes and offices, direct from Ölfus Spring in Iceland, with minimal impact on the environment.”
Icelandic Glacial’s marketing and distribution deal with Tribune Company’s Los Angeles Times Media Group and Sun Sentinel Company will provide consumers in both communities with the opportunity to have Icelandic Glacial delivered to their doors. Orders are fulfilled utilizing established customer service and distribution infrastructure and capitalizing on existing resources. This new delivery model mirrors the company’s international shipping methods and reduces unnecessary emissions and minimizes carbon footprint through the utilization of existing truck space and routes.
 “This was an excellent opportunity to deploy our distribution capabilities and offer a new service to consumers,” said The Times executive vice president of Business Services, Bill Nagel. “Icelandic Glacial is a superior product that we believe has strong appeal for our discerning and influential consumers.”
The program initially kicked off in September with targeted promotions in each market, including product sampling at Los Angeles Times’ three-day food festival, THE TASTE, and direct to Sun Sentinel subscribers. Moving forward, The Times and Sun Sentinel will leverage additional assets in support of the home-delivery program including print, digital and mobile advertising, sampling and direct mail. Details on home delivery of Icelandic Glacial in Southern California and South Florida are available at http://www.buyicelandicwater.com.
About Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water™
Born and bottled in Ölfus, Iceland, Icelandic Glacial™ is the world’s first certified CarbonNeutral® natural spring bottled water for both product and operations. An environmental pioneer in the industry, Icelandic Glacial™ uses 100% natural green energy in the form of geothermal and hydroelectric power to fuel production, delivering a super-premium bottled water from pristine Iceland to consumers while maintaining a “net zero” carbon footprint. The source of Icelandic Glacial™ is Iceland’s legendary Ölfus Spring, a naturally replenished catchment zone formed during a massive volcanic eruption more than 5,000 years ago. The Spring has been deemed certifiably sustainable by Zenith International, Europe’s leading food and drinks consultancy. The Ölfus Spring produces water so pure that nothing is added or taken away. As a result, Icelandic Glacial™ possesses exceptional balance that is the envy of the industry, featuring a naturally occurring low mineral content and naturally high alkaline pH level of 8.4. As a testament to its exceptional purity, Icelandic Glacial™ was chosen by Parfums Christian Dior
 as the exclusive hydration method to be used in their Diorsnow line of skin-lightening beauty products to be released in 2012. Icelandic Glacial™ is distributed in the United States by Anheuser-Busch, which took a 20 percent ownership stake in the company in July 2007.

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Sugar: Good for Florida, not so sweet for your wallet
Jacksonville.com – by Amy Green
November 6, 2012
BELLE GLADE | Behind every candy bar and can of soda is a complex government program of import tariffs and farmer loans establishing how much you pay for sugar.
The program, which has been in place in one form or another since shortly after the founding of the United States, is responsible for the success of Florida’s $616 million sugar industry, the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane.
But that success, according to government and independent studies, comes at a cost to consumers every time they shop at grocery stores.
The studies, including by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, conclude the sugar program inflates the U.S. price of sugar, costing consumers about $2 billion annually in increased food prices on such  items as bread, fruit juice and ketchup.
The program guarantees growers a minimum price by controlling supply and limiting imports through tariffs. When the supply is high and the price low, the program goes further, allowing for loans that farmers can satisfy by forfeiting their crops to the government.
The program survives on the political largesse of sugar growers, who are among the most generous in the agribusiness industry. This election cycle, sugar growers spent $3.6 million in campaign contributions, outpacing the tobacco industry’s $2.8 million.
The Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act, or the Farm Bill — which shapes U.S. policy on agriculture, rural development, environmental conservation, food aid and more — contains the sugar program provisions. The Farm Bill comes up for renewal every five years, and is set to expire on Sunday. At stake for Florida is a sugar industry with an estimated $4.5 million state economic impact.
Without the program, Florida’s sugar industry would compete with growers worldwide who enjoy government support of their own and whose surpluses are dumped below cost on the world market, said Phillip Hayes, a spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, which represents Florida’s growers.
Florida’s senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, voted against ending the program; the Senate version of the Farm Bill passed in June with the sugar program intact. Nelson is the Senate’s second-largest beneficiary of sugar growers this election cycle, having received $42,000 in contributions. Rubio collected $5,000.
The sugar industry tends to favor Democrats, who are more receptive to government programs, but the spending reveals an effort to curry bipartisan favor. President Barack Obama has received $22,700 from the industry, for example, while his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney — who has spoken out against “sugar subsidies” — has received $22,500.
The Farm Bill remains stalled in the House, where leaders declined to bring it to the floor before adjournment contending they did not have the votes to pass it.
Florida produces 2 million tons of sugar cane annually, constituting half of the nation’s domestic supply.
The industry is situated in the Everglades Agricultural Area, a 700,000-acre swath of fertile land south of Lake Okeechobee. The area is so remote that many Floridians have never seen a sugar cane field.
Here the world’s largest sugar cane mill, owned by U.S. Sugar Corp. — the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane — grinds 42,000 tons daily, providing up to 10 percent of the nation’s domestic sugar supply. During the crop season from October through April, harvesting and processing continue 24 hours a day.
Politics and the sugar industry long have been linked, and in the narrative of U.S. politics, sugar has played a supporting role at the highest levels. In 1996, for example, President Bill Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky were in the Oval Office, in the middle of a conversation about their relationship, when the phone rang.
The intern would later tell independent counsel Kenneth Starr that the call was from a Florida sugar grower whose name she remembered as “Fanuli.” Lewinsky was referring to Alfonso Fanjul, who with his brother Jose owns Florida Crystals Corp., the world’s largest sugar refiner. That Clinton accepted a call in the Oval Office from a Fanjul brother during a meeting with someone who would partly define his presidency illustrates how much influence the sugar industry has in Washington, D.C.
For Florida, the sugar program makes growing sugar cane possible, according to Lance deHaven-Smith, a professor of public administration at Florida State University who studies state politics and history.
 “It’s called a collective action problem. The people who have a stake in it see their interest, and they are all over it,” deHaven-Smith said.
 “But the other side, the people who are paying a little more for their cereal in the morning, they never see it, and so they never mobilize. That’s the problem.”
A report authored by Michael Wohlgenant, a North Carolina State University agricultural economics professor who has studied the sugar program, estimates it costs food consumers $2.4 billion per year and provides sugar producers with $1.4 billion per year in benefits. Other studies support Wohlgenant’s findings.
Wohlgenant believes the world price of sugar today is high enough to sustain the current U.S. price, making the U.S. sugar program needless.
Precedent exists for ending the sugar program. In 1974, when commodity prices boomed because of an energy crisis, inflation and global commodity shortages, lawmakers suspended the sugar price support.
Wohlgenant estimated that if U.S. sugar were to compete on the global market without government supports, the world price of sugar would rise 8.5 percent, but the U.S. price would tumble 41.5 percent — a bust for farmers in the economically depressed Everglades Agricultural Area, but a boon for you as a food consumer.

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Exception to EPA water-transfer rule holds fast
Courthouse News Service - by Iulia Filip
November 5, 2012
ATLANTA (CN) - The 11th Circuit refused to review a rule that exempts transfers of U.S. waters from Clean Water Act permit requirements.
In 2002, Friends of the Everglades and one other environmental group filed a federal complaint against the South Florida Water Management District over its water transfers from polluted canals in the Everglades agricultural area into Lake Okeechobee. The groups argued that the water transfers introduced pollutants into the lake, and thus were subject to the requirements for a permit.
But the water district countered that its transfers did not alter the existing level of pollutants in U.S. waters, and so they did not require a permit.
Though a federal judge agreed with the environmental groups that a permit was necessary, the EPA created a permanent exemption from permits for pollutants discharged from water transfers, except where the transfer itself introduced new pollutants to the water being transferred.
Friends of the Everglades, several other environmental organizations, nine states, a Canadian province and the Miccosukee Tribe challenged the new rule in the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of Florida.
Before the Florida court could rule on the consolidated actions, the plaintiffs asked the 11th Circuit to review their petitions regarding the water-transfer rule, in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's argument that federal appeals courts alone had jurisdiction over the exemption.
A three-judge panel concluded, however, that the 11th Circuit lacked jurisdiction to hear the petitions.
Concluding that the water-transfer rule was "a reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous provision of the Clean Water Act," the court had lifted the injunction against the water district in 2009.
The Clean Water Act gives the EPA authority to issue permits to control the discharge of pollutants in navigable waters, but also allows it to grant exemptions from the requirements for a permit.
In addressing the plaintiffs' request for review, the panel explained that it had no jurisdiction to review the agency's rule, which is not "an effluent limitation" that restricts pollutants, but an exemption that allows the discharge of pollutants from water transfers.
"The water-transfer rule imposes no restrictions on entities engaged in water transfers," Judge William Pryor wrote for a three-member panel. "The effect is the opposite: the rule exempts governments and private parties engaged in water transfers from the procedural and substantive requirements of the [EPA] administrator's permit program."
What's more, the water-transfer rule neither issues nor denies a permit, but instead permanently exempts a category of activities from permits, the ruling states.
The judges declined to exercise hypothetical jurisdiction, noting that the Supreme Court cautioned federal courts against deciding a case on the merits where they lack statutory and constitutional jurisdiction.

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Tampa Bay Water ordered to pay engineering firm $20 million over reservoir suit
Tampa Bay Times - by Craig Pittman, Staff Writer
Nov 05, 2012
The company that designed Tampa Bay Water's cracked reservoir deserves $9.2 million in attorneys' fees and $10.8 million in expenses for defending itself against the utility's unsuccessful lawsuit, the federal judge overseeing the case has ruled.
Even U.S. District Judge James Whittemore called the fees "extraordinary," but explained in his 38-page ruling, "This was no ordinary engineering malpractice case."
In fact, he noted in his Nov. 2 ruling, some testimony suggested it might be "the largest engineering professional liability case, in terms of damages sought, ever tried to a jury." The utility's board has already voted to appeal the ruling.
After cracks developed in the walls of the 15.5-billion gallon C.W. Bill Young Reservoir in rural Hillsborough County, Tampa Bay Water sued all the companies involved in its construction. They all settled except for the reservoir's designer, HDR Engineering.
Tampa Bay Water's initial demand from the Nebraska-based HDR was $225 million, but by the time the case went to the jury the utility was seeking only $73 million.
Before the case went to trial, the utility rejected a settlement of $30 million, contending that amount was too low and would require ratepayers to bear too much of a burden for fixing the cracks.
Three years of litigation and a five-week trial ended in April when the jury, after deliberating less than four hours, ruled that HDR was not liable for any of the damage.
Tampa Bay Water has appealed the verdict, and will include its appeal of the attorneys' fees and costs in that, Tampa Bay Water general manager Gerald Seeber said. Given the speed of the appellate courts, he said he expects a ruling in late 2013 or early 2014.
Unless the appellate court overturns the jury's verdict, the estimated $122 million cost of fixing the reservoir will have to be paid for by the ratepayers in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, plus whatever state and federal grants the utility can line up, according to Seeber.
However Seeber —- who labeled the judge's award as "ridiculously high" —- said the utility has enough cash in reserve to cover the legal costs should it lose the appeal.
"We will not need to increase our fees to pay for this," Seeber said.
"I think the court obviously made a very reasoned decision after carefully considering all the evidence," said Wayne Mason, the lead attorney for HDR.
The reservoir — the largest in Florida — opened in June 2005 as a place to store water skimmed from the Alafia River, Hillsborough River and Tampa Bypass Canal. The reservoir's walls consist of an earthen embankment as wide as a football field at its base, averaging about 50 feet high. An impermeable membrane buried in the embankment prevents leaks.
The embankment's top layer, a mixture of soil and concrete to prevent erosion, is where cracks were discovered in December 2006. Some cracks were up to 400 feet long and up to 15½ inches deep. Workers patched the cracks, but the patches didn't last.
The cracks have now shown up along two-thirds of the embankment, attorneys told jurors during closing arguments.
Last year Tampa Bay Water hired Kiewit Infrastructure South to repair the reservoir and also boost its capacity by 3 billion gallons for $162 million. However, after the trial ended, state officials warned that they were unlikely to approve expanding the reservoir because they feared the additional weight would prove too much for the ground, particularly if pumping by neighboring farmers during a freeze caused more sinkholes.
So Tampa Bay Water scaled back the contract to $122 million to cover only a repair job, now scheduled to begin next year. The utility has already begun draining the reservoir, using up about 40 million gallons of water a day. The reservoir is down to about 2.9 billion gallons, Seeber said.

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Discharges from Lake Okeechobee killing St. Lucie Estuary slowly, surely
TCPalm - by Ed Killer
November 4, 2012
For more than two months, the St. Lucie River has been receiving an unhealthy dose of fresh water. River advocates say the influx of fresh water into the brackish estuary has created problems for the oysters, fish, dolphins, seagrass and people who depend upon a healthy river for their livelihoods.
Since 1925, the St. Lucie River has been connected to Lake Okeechobee by the St. Lucie Canal for the purposes of flood control for communities along the lake's shores and cross-state boating traffic.
For 87 years, when heavy rains have caused the lake to rise to high levels, the Army Corps of Engineers has discharged huge amounts of water east into the St. Lucie River and west into the Caloosahatchee River toward Fort Myers. The Army Corps said the discharges are the only way it can move huge volumes of water fast enough to prevent a failure of the 110-mile Herbert Hoover Dike that encircles the 730-square-mile lake.
As a result, scores of discharge events have caused short-term and permanent destruction to the organisms that live in the river. Some of the problems that have occurred include: health advisories recommending no contact with the river, suffocating blue-green algae blooms, fish kills, acres of dead oysters, bare sand where there was once a seagrass meadow and sick humans.
Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, said data suggest environmental catastrophes such as oyster die-offs, algae blooms and sick fish correlate with high-volume lake discharges.
This year, discharges have been taking place since Sept. 19. There have been no reports of toxic algae or fish with ulcers on their skin yet.
What conditions must be in place to produce events such as these? Could area residents soon see another neon green-colored algae bloom blanketing the river from shore to shore, or sick and dying fish by the thousands?
Perry said these consequences are possible if the appropriate conditions line up, but it begins with the water. If there is enough water coming from the lake fast enough for a long enough period of time, locals could again experience a river full of water they would never want to touch.
"If the freshwater discharges from the lake continue, we could see our problems worsen," he said.
On Thursday, the Army Corps reduced the flow rate of the discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Now, nutrient-laden fresh water is pouring into the St. Lucie River at a rate of about 494 million gallons per day. This discharge event began following a month of above-average rainfall in South and Central Florida kicked off by Tropical Storm Isaac on Aug. 25.
From Oct. 3 through Oct. 31, the Army Corps released almost 1.2 billion gallons per day into the St. Lucie River through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in Tropical Farms. Only about 685 million gallons per day came from Lake Okeechobee through the gates at Port Mayaca while the rest was draining off the lands of western Martin County and into the St. Lucie Canal.
Army Corps Lt. Col. Tom Greco, the Jacksonville district deputy commander, reported to the Martin County Commission on Oct. 9 that this season's unusually high seasonal rainfall and lack of water storage to the north and south of the lake were the primary reasons for this round of discharges.
"The wetter it gets, the more limited we are in terms of our decision making," Greco said. "We don't want to release one more gallon than is necessary."
What follows is an analysis of three of the most troubling problems that plague the St. Lucie River estuary and lower Indian River Lagoon stemming from the frequent and high-volume discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
TOXIC ALGAE
Precedent: The St. Lucie River's most severe algae bloom in recent years occurred during the summer of 2005. The neon colored blue-green algae, Microcystis aeruginosa, appeared in the river in June following a discharge event that began early in 2005 and extended into early September. Perry said the algae was seen in Lake Okeechobee before being observed in the river.
Flow rates of discharges from the lake into the St. Lucie were high, measuring at their peak nearly 4.5 billion gallons per day.
Conditions that produce it: According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Microcystis is found in freshwater systems and also sometimes in low-salinity waters when it is washed out of a freshwater system. It is often called blue-green algae, but it's not an algae. Instead, it's a simpler form of life more closely related to bacteria that's found in many places in the world, including many waters of Florida.
The best growing conditions for it are during the early summer months, as when it was observed in 2005. High light with long periods of daylight during the day, warm temperatures, low salinity and calm weather are required for it to thrive, according to the FWRI's website.
Will we see it soon: "It's possible," Perry said. However, the length of daylight each day gets progressively shorter until the winter solstice Dec. 21. And if cool fronts arrive, those lower the water temperature slightly. Plus, discharge rates are becoming smaller as dryer weather arrives in South Florida.
SICK FISH
Precedent: Five times since 1998 and eight times since 1979, anglers and boaters have caught or observed fish in the St. Lucie River with open, bleeding sores on their skin. The sores, called lesions by many, but called ulcers by scientists, can only be described as disgusting.
The worst of all sick fish events in recent years coincided with a huge-volume lake water discharge event during the spring of 1998.
Conditions that produce it: Perry said state scientists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute correlated discharges with sick fish in the St. Lucie River.
"All occurred when discharges were more than 2,000 cubic feet per second (1.2 billion gallons per day)," Perry explained.
In 1998, the discharges were four times what can produce an estuary full of fish with visible ulcers. That year, as much as 4.8 billion gallons a day poured through the floodgates and persisted for nearly three months.
FWRI scientist Theresa Cody said research suggested the fish stressed because of the rapid change and prolonged occurrence of low salinity. That likely weakened their immune systems and made them susceptible to harmful fungi and bacteria already living in the estuary. Cody said the ulcers on the fish in 1998 were mostly caused by a fungus called Aphanomyces invadans.
Will we see it soon: Probably not. The Army Corps has begun to reduce the discharge rates with dryer weather in place. It remains to be seen whether a strong El Niño forms that could create winter weather patterns that would generate above-average rainfall.
OYSTERS
Precedent: Oysters in the St. Lucie River thrive on brackish water, that is, water not completely salty and not completely fresh. They are an estuary's filtration system, too, so the more oysters, the cleaner the water can be.
Too much fresh water can kill oysters. Low salinity levels have stressed and killed off local oysters many times.
"In the 1940s, there were 470 acres of oysters in the St. Lucie River," Perry said. "The discharges in 2005 nearly wiped out the last 116 acres."
Discharge events in many years, including spring of 2010, August of 2008 from Tropical Storm Fay, 2005, 2003 and 2001 are just some of the years that have devastated oysters here.
Conditions that produce it: "At salinity under 10 parts per thousand, oysters begin to get stressed," Perry said. "Under 7.5 ppt, harm begins, and under 5 ppt, they begin to die. Conditions need to exist for seven days to cause death for the younger oysters and 14 to 28 days at less than 5 ppt for the adult ones to die."
When the Army Corps releases water at a rate of 1,000 cubic feet per second, or 646 million gallons per day, it can kill the oysters from the South Fork to Hell's Gate.
Will we see it soon: We have. The recent discharges began to produce low salinity conditions by Aug. 27 following local runoff of stormwater from Tropical Storm Isaac in the western parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties. Salinity at Speedy Point, where the northwest part of the Old Roosevelt Bridge crosses the St. Lucie River, measured at 15 to 20 ppt the day before the runoff flooded the river. From Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, the salinity dropped to close to 0 ppt and only began to climb as local runoff slowed. By Sept. 15, the salinity level had climbed back to 10 ppt, but on Sept. 19, water from the lake began to enter the estuary from the South Fork. It remained low until Oct. 27, when it began to climb into a range, 10 ppt, much better for oysters, or what's left of them.
THE FUTURE
Henry Caimotto, owner of the Snook Nook Bait and Tackle shop in Jensen Beach, said the entire situation is fixable — if anyone has the guts to change it.
"Nothing has been done to prevent this from happening again," said Caimotto. "There is no question events like the sick fish or the algae blooms will happen again.
"The problem is, people like me are getting old. If this system continues on the way it is for long enough, people will just begin to accept that this is the way the river is supposed to look. It has already happened to the south (in the Lake Worth Lagoon) where so much fresh water poured into it for so long, they have no more trout and redfish to catch there, and the people that live and fish there now don't know any different."
The sick fish rallied the community even before the gross algae did. Ten years after the sick fish and three years after the algae, the Army Corps set in place new standards for regulating the level of Lake Okeechobee. The agency follows an operation schedule that prevents the lake from getting as high as it did that year, thereby reducing the probability of a huge-volume, prolonged discharge event.
The Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule, redesigned in 2008, indicates that if all protocols are followed, discharges from the lake into the St. Lucie should not exceed 1.8 billion gallons of water per day.
But that is well above the rate where the fish will suffer. And in actuality, there is nothing that prevents the Army Corps from releasing water at higher volume amounts or more frequently.
On the agency's operational guidance flowchart it clearly states that if conditions warrant, they may discharge "up to maximum capacity to tidewater." That rate would be 11,000 cubic feet per second, or a flash flood-like 7.1 billion gallons of water a day. That actually happened, most recently during the fall of 1969.
And that could finally be the nail in the coffin of this precious estuary.

121104-a
As panthers roam north, agencies pursue habitat for endangered cats
Florida Today – by Bill Sargent
November 4, 2012
In recent years, sightings of endangered Florida panthers have been documented in central and north Florida, far from their present south Florida range. The huge cats have been seen in rural sections of Volusia, Osceola, Orange and Polk counties, and sightings even have been reported around Brevard County.
Biologists contend all the sightings were males which are known to roam hundreds of miles in search of females.
Now, in an effort to expand the northern range of breeding panthers, or even females with cubs, establishing wildlife corridors.
For starters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working in partnership to determine where the cats are roaming and to come up with ways to develop coexisting conditions between people and panthers to further the panthers’ recovery.
FWC Commission Chairman Kenneth Wright said, “Panther expansion northward is going to be,
Commissioner Ronald Bergeron said there’s room for population growth north of the Caloosahatchee River and Lake Okeechobee as long as the areas are managed successfully.
“We have to target the heart of where the panthers are and continue to move forward with good habitat and with underpasses to protect panthers crossing highways,” Bergeron said.
The present south Florida range for panthers include federally-managed public lands like Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and the Panther National Wildlife Refuge, plus privately-owned lands. But north of those areas most of the lands are privately owned where control is more difficult.
FWC staff will be collaborating with stakeholders and landowners about details of what the landowners feel they need in the way of resources and conservation incentives. The FWC is supporting this approach.
 “I think we have to see some version of good wildlife corridors or good unfragmented habitat,” said Aliese Priddy, another commissioner. “We need to get realistic about what our goals should be and what habitat is available.”
Priddy also called for a continued partnership between the FWC and the USFWS, and efforts to build public support for the plan.
 “We’ve come a long way. But we want to achieve more,” Priddy added.
Panthers once roamed across eight southern states including Florida. Today’s population is estimated to be 100 to 160 adults and sub-adults. Sub-adults are those that have left their mothers but have not reached sexual maturity.
FWC and USFWS biologists use measures that include capture and tracking of radio-collared panthers to document denning mothers, changes in occupied range, threats to the population and causes of panther deaths.
Automobile strikes account for a high rate of mortalities each year. Recently three panthers were struck and killed in Collier County in one week, bringing the number of deaths caused by automobiles to 11 for 2012. It already exceeds the nine roadway deaths in 2011.
The three deaths in seven days prompted PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) to petition the USFWS to establish more protected panther habitat.
In their work, biologists were able to detect the outbreak of feline-leukemia virus and control the disease before it had a major impact on the small population. By capturing the cats they have been able to measure genetic diversity and detection of inbreeding problems.
The FWC is asking the public to assist in this project with information on any potential panther tracks or sightings. A new website allows the public to upload photos of panthers and their tracks and link them to a specific location on a geographic database.
The website is https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/panthersightings/getlatlong.aspx.
Photos from motion-activated game cameras would be invaluable.
 “We are really hoping that someone will step up and be the first person who can show real proof of a female or kittens in central or north Florida,” said Kipp Frohlich, leader of the FWC’s Imperiled Species Management Section. “That would be really exciting news.”
The public also can support panther research by purchasing the panther specialty license plate. For more go to www.buyaplate.com and click on “cat tag.”

121104-b
Hernando lands program is a magnet for funds
Tampa bay Times - Letter by Eugene Kelly, Brooksville
November 4, 2012
Several recent letters and editorials have extolled the virtues of Hernando's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Program but overlooked one of its most valuable benefits. The program has served as a magnet for other sources of funding that have made the program an incredible bargain to our community.
Nearly every ESL property has been protected by working in partnership with other public agencies or programs. The Cypress Lakes Preserve was purchased with assistance from a Florida Community Trust grant that covered half of the purchase price. Development of the boat ramps, boardwalk and other recreational facilities at Bayport Park were the result of partnering with the Southwest Florida Water Management District in expansion of the park. And the creation of an innovative water treatment system to prevent groundwater contamination at Peck Sink would not have happened without $2.4 million in funding from outside sources after ESL purchased the land.
The competition for grants and other sources of funding assistance is fierce. There are more deserving projects than funds to go around, and strong community support often serves as a compelling bargaining chip. Nothing says "community support" better than a willingness to put your money where your mouth is and contribute funds toward the cost of a project. The ESL Program allows Hernando County to do exactly that, and in the process we protect our most precious natural resources at bargain prices.
At an estimated annual cost of less than $6 per property owner, ESL might be easily overlooked or discounted as unimportant. But if you ever fish at Jenkins Creek, enjoy a sunset at Bayport, canoe the Withlacoochee near Cypress Lake or appreciate clean water coming out of your tap, then make no mistake — you are a beneficiary of the ESL Program. And one of the best bargains you'll ever find.

121104-c

Kayaking on the river
that is drying up

Oysters dying out

121104-d
Water quality monitoring begins in Clam Bay, goal is a cleanup plan
NaplesNews.com - by Eric Staats
November 4, 2012
NAPLES — A new rule went into effect at Sue Black's house the day she read a report that showed the water in the bay down the canal from her Seagate home routinely violated state standards for fecal coliform bacteria: No more swimming.
"That was alarming," said Black, whose family moved to the house on Seashell Avenue in 2002. "We've always used the canals."
The March 2012 report, by a Collier County consultant hired to study water quality in the Clam Bay estuary in North Naples, has prompted Seagate to embark on its own study that one neighborhood leader hopes will help decision-makers manage the sensitive and sometimes controversial waterway.
At the neighborhood's urging, the city of Naples for the first time plans to test water samples from each of Seagate's canals once a month for three months. The city would pick up the estimated $3,000 tab; the neighborhood would have to pay its own way for testing after that.
"If we have a problem in our neighborhood, we want to try to come up with a solution," Seagate Property Owners Association President David Buser said. "We're kind of holding our breath on what we're going to find."
Seagate is at the southern end of Clam Bay, a popular spot for kayakers. Monthly tests in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at nine sampling sites showed more than half of the 132 samples exceeded state standards for fecal coliform, according to the report. Besides individual samples violating the standard, each site had median fecal coliform counts that violated state standards.
Fecal coliform bacteria are found in the gastrointestinal tracts of humans, warm-blooded and some cold-blooded animals and have long been used to warn of fecal contamination in water and food.
Clam Bay is considered a Class II waterway, which means the applicable standard is for shellfish harvesting areas. That standard is more strict than for water bodies, like Naples Bay, that are intended for fishing and swimming. Clam Bay meets the fishing and swimming standard.
Key to the fecal coliform question — and whether it is fixable — is whether the source of the contamination is human, wildlife or pet waste, Naples Natural Resources Manager Mike Bauer said.
"You can't put diapers on birds," Bauer said.
Follow-up tests on the Clam Bay samples came up with no hits for human bacterial genes or viruses, and scientists concluded that it was "within the realm of possibility" that the contamination came from Clam Bay's large bird population.
That's meant Florida hasn't required the county to try to clean up the fecal coliform violations, the county's coastal zone management director Gary McAlpin said.
"We'll never be able to solve Mother Nature unless you eliminate the wildlife," he said.
McAlpin said most of the homes in the Clam Bay watershed are serviced by a functioning sewage collection system; the greatest concentration of septic tanks in the Clam Bay watershed is in the Pine Ridge neighborhood, about a mile from the estuary.
Even if fecal coliform contamination in Seagate cannot be cleaned up, an ongoing long-term sampling program could become fodder for resolving two other longstanding Clam Bay issues, said Buser, the Seagate association president.
Some Moorings Bay residents have said they want to close the culverts in the Seagate neighborhood that connect Moorings Bay to Clam Bay for fear the connection is making Moorings Bay water quality worse.
Buser said a long-term sampling program could shed light on whether the connection should be closed or whether the two bays would benefit from an increased exchange of water.
Long-term sampling also could help address ongoing controversies about whether more dredging should be done in Clam Pass as a way to improve tidal flushing in Clam Bay, Buser said.
Black, the Seagate homeowner, said the canal behind her home doesn't flush as well as it did when they first moved in. The days of being able to see snook swim past dock lights at night are long gone, she said.
The neighborhood of 90 lots is attracting more and more families, and Black said they consider the canals to be a neighborhood amenity. Her three daughters and one son, ranging in age from 11 to 20, used to swim off a floating dock in the canal and eat fish they caught there.
"We've watched our canal getting murkier and murkier — and stinkier," Black said.

121103-a
Analyze the aquifer
Ocala.com - Editorial
November 3, 2012
For White Springs Mayor Helen B. Miller, Florida’s water problems hit home more than two decades ago, when White Sulphur Springs dried up. It was a stunning natural phenomenon, considering White Sulphur Springs used to spew out of the banks of the Suwannee River.
 “Hydrologists and other experts tell us excessive consumptive water withdrawals and compromised recharge zones are the cause,” Miller wrote in a recent letter to water advocates. “However, our situation is not unique.”
Indeed it is not. We here in Marion County know all about declining spring flows and other signs our springs are deteriorating, maybe even disappearing as White Sulphur Springs did. And as Florida springs expert Jim Peterson famously noted, our springs are merely windows into the aquifer.
Simply, Florida’s vast underground aquifer is under siege as a result of overpumping, nutrient pollution, salt-water intrusion and other negative impacts.
And although the topic of water has been much discussed in recent years, what we don’t know about the true condition of our aquifers may be more important than what we do know.
That’s why Miller and representatives of 27 other North Florida counties and 70 area cities and towns are asking the Florida Legislature to mandate a more comprehensive mining of the data regarding Florida’s aquifers.
A resolution adopted by the Northwest Florida League of Cities and the Suwannee River League of Cities implores the Legislature to fund “an unbiased scientific study of the Floridan Aquifer due to its critical implications to statewide water supply.”
In other words, what we don’t know about the water under our feet — the water that provides life support for nearly all Floridians — may be more than enough to hurt us.
The proposed The Floridan Aquifer System Sustainability Act of 2013 would direct the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and its water management districts to amass and analyze the existing and new data necessary to protect the aquifer against over-pumping and pollution.
Lawmakers should do exactly that.
 “Springs from central Georgia to southern Florida are experiencing reduced or intermittent flows. And, wells throughout the State are drying up every day,” Mayor Miller wrote. “... (A) piecemeal approach cannot restore sustainability to the Floridan Aquifer System or provide for future growth. A system-wide approach is needed.”
It’s true. What we don’t know about the water beneath our feet could hurt us, and we would urge Marion County and our county’s three municipalities to seek to join in this sensible and needed scientific undertaking.

121102-a
High on the hog hunt
The Tampa Tribune - by Laura Kinsler
November 2, 2012
ZEPHYRHILLS -- Hunters talk about Swiftmud hog hunt permits like a teenage girl might discuss her crush on Justin Bieber. These permits are limited, and they sell out fast.
Each year, the Southwest Florida Water Management District opens its nature preserves for a series of three-day hog hunts. The first of three hunts in Pasco County ended Thursday at Swiftmud's Alston Tract, just north of the Hillsborough County line.
"I love it — just the adrenaline," hunter Ty Morrell said. He and his entourage, which included three friends and four dogs, nabbed five hogs on the first day of the hunt. On day two, they were happy with a single 50-pound sow before taking off early for Halloween. "It's a perfect eating hog. This one's pretty fat already — she's been eating acorns."
Morrell, who lives in Zephyrhills, started hunting about four years ago, and he was hooked. Like the other hunters, he arrived at the entrance to the Upper Hillsborough Preserve well before daylight. "You've got to make sure your friends are up so you can be here at 6:20," he said. "That's the hardest part."
Swiftmud issued 11 permits for the 2,700-acre Alston Tract. During the three days, the hunting parties killed about 30 hogs — enough for some generous barbecues — and got to enjoy the season's first cool snap.
The real advantage is to the water district. Those 30 or so hogs can damage hundreds of acres of the wetlands that protect Tampa's main water source, the Hillsborough River. They eat all day and reproduce prolifically, sometimes two litters a year of four to seven piglets each. And they have no natural enemies, so periodic public hunts are the best way to control the wild hog population.
"We do this because the hog population has been on the rise," said William VanGelder, land management supervisor for Swiftmud. "They're the most prolific mammal on the face of the Earth, and they cause a lot of damage to the wetlands. They carry diseases, they disturb the soil. And they pee and poop in the water, so you get elevated bacteria levels."
The hogs are omnivorous and feed by rooting with their broad snouts. "They'll eat frogs, turtles, and any eggs they find out of the ground — like quail or wild turkey," VanGelder said. "They'll even take down a baby deer."
Wild hogs aren't native to Florida, but they have been in the state for centuries. One theory is they were introduced to Florida by explorer Hernando DeSoto as early as 1539.
Morrell also has a permit for the three-day hunt next week in Pasco's Conner Preserve — though he might not have room left in his freezer to bring home more hogs.
The final hog hunt of the season is scheduled for early January on 14,000 acres of the Starkey Preserve in west Pasco County. Swiftmud has issued 55 permits for the three-night hunt.

121102-b
Local leaders fight to protect water quality
ABC-Ch7 - by Lauren DiSpirito, NBC2 Reporter
November 2, 2012
SANIBEL - - With nearly four months to go until Florida's next legislative session, some of Southwest Florida's leaders say they're gearing up for a fight to protect water quality.
Each year, Sanibel vice Mayor Mick Denham urges Florida's leaders not to weaken rules that limit fertilizer use.
He says local laws reduce pollution and problems.
there's a bloom we feel it we're coughing and hacking," said Sanibel resident Chuck Ketterman.
To keep that from happening again, Chuck Ketteman's joining Denham's fight.
They want to raise money to educate people on fertilizer effects and rules. They also want to assign area captains, who will work to get more people involved.
"We want them to join us in a grassroots effort to make the feelings felt in the legislature of how important these issues are," Denham said.
Lee County and Cape Coral leaders, among others, say they're behind the cause and some are chipping in thousands.
Fort Myers Beach leaders will take a look at the proposal on Monday.
We reached out to legislators, and Representative Matt Caldwell says he supports keeping the issue under local control.
Denham and his area captains want to gather hundreds to keep decision making in their hands.
"We need to let the folks in Tallahassee understand what those of us that live on an island like Sanibel near the water what we're experiencing," Ketterman said.
The next state legislative session begins in March.

121101-a
Southwest Florida Water District OKs settlements in two cases
TheLedger.com
November 1, 2012
Southwest Florida Water Management District's Governing Board approved settlements Tuesday in two cases during the monthly meeting in Brooksville.
One involved a $170,000 settlement with M. Lewis King and Hancock Lake Ranch for an 8.5-acre inundation easement in connection with the work to raise the level of Lake Hancock to restore flow in the Peace River.
The other involved a $40,000 settlement with a number of Lake Wales residents in connection with the flooding of land around Lake Belle in 2005.

121101-b
Summit considers water supply planning for the Four Corners Area
TheLedger.com - by Tom Palmer
November 1, 2012
Four Corners area leaders also look at transportation and land use.
CHAMPIONSGATE | Residents in the region who wonder where their future supplies of water will come from and how much it will cost should pay attention to efforts to draft a water supply plan for the four-county region that includes Polk County, a group of business and civic leaders were told Thursday.
The water discussion headed a list of topics that also included transportation and land planning at the Four Corners Summit convened by the Four Corners Area Council at Championsgate on the Polk-Osceola line.
Four Corners refers to the area where the boundaries of Polk, Osceola, Orange and Lake counties meet. The council was organized in 2005 by the Kissimmee-Greater Osceola Chamber of Commerce.
The heart of the water plan is the development of a model that "will tell us where the water is and isn't," said Blake Guillory, executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, one of three regional water agencies that have jurisdiction in different parts of Central Florida.
Guillory said the purpose of the model and the plan is to figure out the source of the additional 310 million gallons a day of water to meet a projected demand over the next 20 years.
Although conservation was mentioned often during Thursday's discussion, the talk also turned to setting up a regional pipeline system to distribute not only drinking water, but also reclaimed water — treated sewage or effluent — for irrigation and other uses.
Guillory said public meetings on the plan are scheduled to begin early next year with formal approval of the plan by local governments by summer.
Everyone acknowledged that implementation of the plan could run to more than $1 billion and would have to be financed mainly from utility rate increases and property taxes.
But Paul Senft, a Haines City businessman who chairs Swiftmud's Governing Board, said the alternative is to have the kind of expensive legal fights that occurred decades ago in the Tampa Bay area before a regional water plan took effect.
"It's going to be expensive and we'll need public support,'' Senft said.
Transportation is another troublesome issue, as major routes through the area such as U.S. 27 and U.S. 192 have become increasingly congested and are in need of redevelopment, along with land-use planning surrounding them.
"The next wave of growth in the region is coming to Four Corners," said Jeff Jones, Osceola County's strategic initiatives director in charge of the redevelopment of West U.S. 192.
"There's an opportunity to plan land uses that support transit,'' he said, adding another challenge is to redevelop the aging corridor to help it regain its share of the tourist market.
Transportation funding, like water funding, is increasingly restricted because many governments have already tapped sales, gas and property taxes as much as they can and have scrapped transportation impact fees.
There has been some discussion of trying to establish a regional sales tax, but it's unclear how that could be implemented equitably, the group was told.
State funding is possible, but it has to be tied to a great benefit, such as job creation, Orange County Commissioner Scott Boyd said.
He said that's the strategy they're taking in the Horizon West project, which involves development of 23,000 acres along west State Road 50 in Orange County, but also affects parts of southern Lake County.

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