140228-a
A horrible bill
Gainesville.com - Editorial
February 28, 2014
Back in 2011, when Gov. Rick Scott and his Republican legislative colleagues recklessly decided Florida’s growth planning and permitting process needed streamlining, one of their core arguments was that city and county governments had matured enough to handle the tedious and technical work involved. So when the Community Development Act gutted a quarter-century of state-driven growth management process and progress, it not only affirmed but elevated the importance of home rule on growth matters.
Now comes state Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, with arguably the worst bill of the 2014 legislative session. Petronis’ bill, HB 703, would effectively strip local governments of much of the growth management powers bequeathed to them in 2011 with the dismantling of the Department of Community Affairs, which once held sway over most big growth decisions in the state.
HB 703 is an affront to home rule and community-based growth management. It is also an assault on water supply protection that would essentially allow some large landholders to privatize big chunks of Florida’s water supply.
The list of offensive parts of HB 703 is long and inexplicable, but here are some of the key components that should have every Floridian riled up:
It retroactively prohibits the enforcement of any local ordinances regarding springs, wetlands and stormwater approved after July 2003.
It bans local government boards from requiring a super-majority vote, rather than a simple majority, to amend comprehensive plans and land-use actions.
Would make it illegal for local governments to rescind comp plan amendments that permit more intensive development of agricultural lands, whether or not the landowner has met the conditions required for the change.
Would allow Developments of Regional Impact to receive a 30-year consumptive use water permit, which now are only granted to governments and public utilities.
Agriculture — which uses 40 percent of our groundwater and is the largest consumer of water in the state — would be exempt from taking part in the water supply planning process.
Large landowners who participate in water storage programs could receive 50-year water use permits and would be allowed to sell that water to governments and utilities, clearly the first step toward privatizing what is clearly a public resource.
Of course, Big Ag, Big Sugar and Big Business are enthusiastically backing Petronis’ bill. Meanwhile, groups like the Florida Conservation Coalition, the Sierra Club and Florida Audubon are aggressively opposing it.
It probably speaks volumes that with days to go before the Legislature convenes, there is no Senate companion to HB 703. But that does not mean it cannot become law. If the House passes it — and, sadly, this seems right up that chamber’s alley — it could be snuck into another, larger bill that is sure to pass.
Please contact our legislators and ask them to oppose HB 703. It is a bad bill that would be bad for Florida’s water, growth management and, indeed, its future.

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Environmental summit puts Northeast Florida water issues in the glare
StAugustine.com - by Meredith Rutland
February 28, 2014
JaxPort plans, the St. Johns River and the aquifer’s supply drew attention at a summit of utility staff, regulators, advocates and lawyers that provided a snapshot of Northeast Florida’s hottest environmental issues.
The environmental summit, hosted Thursday by Florida Coastal School of Law and Jacksonville University, summarized the challenges and potential outcomes of issues being debated along the First Coast. Experts discussed whether dredging the St. Johns River to make it deeper would benefit the area economically — and whether that benefit outweighs the possible environmental damage.
JaxPort is attempting to get funding and authorization to deepen the St. Johns River to 47 feet so larger cargo boats can do business in Northeast Florida. The $684 million port expansion will require congressional approval.
George Gabel Jr., a partner at Holland & Knight, said JaxPort needs the expansion to be competitive along the East Coast and entice shipping companies to bring jobs to Jacksonville.
“Savannah, Miami and Charleston will be taking the business that we should have,” he said.
David Jaffee, a University of North Florida sociology professor, said there are drawbacks for JaxPort is reaching higher than Jacksonville’s resources can support, both economically and environmentally. He said the port should remain as a second-tier, supporting port, and shouldn’t try to compete with other, larger ports for these larger cargo ships’ business.
“These jobs will be coming at a very high price tag,” he said.
Environmental concerns abounded in the discussion. Marc Hudson, land protection director for the North Florida Land Trust, said the river has been dredged for decades, and the environmental impacts can be seen from those expansions, such as bird die-offs, increased salt water levels in the river and concerns salt water will get into Florida’s underground water supply.
“JaxPort does have the potential to make that worse,” he said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did a study on environmental impacts from dredging, and the St. Johns will have a very small increase in salt from dredging, but nothing dangerous to plant or animal life, said Eric Summa, environmental branch chief for the corps’ planning and policy division.
Experts also discussed Northeast Florida’s stressed water supply.
Hans Tanzler, executive director for the St. Johns River Water Management District, explained how the demand for water is growing faster than the aquifer can support, which means the district needs to consider other options, such as using above-ground water.
The district is also in discussions with Central Florida, which is looking at taking water from the St. Johns River system to help supplement its shrinking water supply.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman said conserving the current supply, rather than pulling water from elsewhere, is a more sustainable solution.
Tanzler addressed several comments from attendees as to why the water management district doesn’t force Floridians to use less water.
He said conservation is important, but the district can only set requirements for permits, not regulate once the permit is acquired. Permits often last 20 or more years.
“We cannot in effect say to a community, ‘Thou shalt have low flow showerheads. Thou shall not have robust lawns.’ That’s not in our toolbox. That’s in someone else’s toolbox,” he said.
He also said companies that get permits to pull water directly from the aquifer to bottle, such as for bottled water, alcohol or sports drinks, are legally entitled to those permits.
The district gave Niagara Bottling a 20-year permit on Feb. 11 for about 1 million gallons of water a day for its bottled water operations. Tanzler said the district made an agreement with the company that it would take the water from a lower part of the Floridan aquifer, which he said shouldn’t affect Northeast Florida’s water supply.

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Everglades restoration project snagged by funding dispute
Sun Sentinel - by William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
February 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — An eagerly awaited restoration project at the headwaters of the Everglades has been snagged by a money dispute, delaying relief for communities plagued by polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
The marquee project to put the bends back in the Kissimmee River is 86 percent complete, and already wildlife and native plants have rebounded along its banks.

About $650 million has been poured into the successful project, and Everglades promoters want to get it done. But state officials are balking at a federal demand that they acquire easements north of the lake for as much as $30 million to avoid flooding liability, a cost the state says is unnecessary.
Federal engineers recently pushed back the projected completion date from 2016 to 2019. But members of Congress are prodding state and federal officials to resolve their differences and speed the final construction.
They want to showcase the project to convince members from other states that it's worth spending billions of dollars on a comprehensive plan to re-plumb the River of Grass all the way down to Florida Bay.
"We're already seeing a lot of ecological benefits," said Thomas Teets of the South Florida Water Management District. "If you have a successful Kissimmee River restoration, that's just going to prime the pump for additional funding for other restoration projects in the future."
Once complete, the project will clean and store water north of the lake, remove fertilizer and other polluted runoff, spread the river flow across a wider area and slow its path into the lake.
Teets and Florida members of Congress say the project will indirectly help communities south of the lake, especially along the Treasure Coast in Martin County, that have suffered from damage to their environment and property values.
Storms and heavy rains have forced federal managers to dump billions of gallons of polluted water from the swollen lake east into the St. Lucie River and west into the Caloosahatchee River. Residents say the discharges have killed fish, created toxic algae blooms and turned their splendid waterways into a green cesspool unsafe for swimming, boating and fishing.
The discharges also channel out to sea water that could be used for agriculture or stored to replenish drinking-water supplies during dry seasons.
"This [Kissimmee project] is one more piece of the pie toward solving the problems to prevent the discharges," said U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter. "It not only helps slow that water down into the lake, it also helps filter it. It provides more riverbank area for that water to flow onto.
"We've got to get it done. There are a lot of projects that won't be done for 10 years. We've got to finish the things that are close now."
The environmental results so far have exceeded expectations. Wetland plants have sprung up. Sandbars have emerged to provide new habitat for shorebirds and clams. Dissolved oxygen critical for fish has increased six-fold. Long-legged wading birds are increasing at double the expected rate.
A hitch in plans to complete the project came when the Army Corps of Engineers told state water officials they need to acquire easements in the Basinger Grove area just north of the lake to protect the property from flooding and prevent liability from potential damages.
"This matter is currently being discussed by leadership in both agencies," said Jenn Miller, a Corps spokeswoman in Jacksonville. "The sooner we resolve all of the issues, the sooner we will be able to complete the project."
State officials say they've already solved that problem through deed restrictions that allow them to take flood-control measures.
"With these protections in place, I am having a difficult time understanding why the [water district] is being asked to spend millions of dollars to purchase an unnecessary flowage easement eight years after we agreed to and executed a well-considered course of action," Blake Guillory, executive director of the district, wrote last month to Jo-Ellen Darcy, who oversees the Army Corps.
Teets said that acquiring the easements could cost the state as much as $30 million. "This is the biggest hurdle we've got to get over," he said.
Congress has agreed to pay half the costs of this and other Everglades restoration projects, but Gov. Rick Scott has complained that the federal government has been slow to deliver its share.
The Army Corps and state officials — prodded by Murphy and his Republican colleague, Tom Rooney of Okeechobee — say they are working through their differences.
"Sounds like both parties are ready to get this thing finished and are close to an agreement," Murphy said. "This is one they know they can hang their hat on and be proud of."

140228-d
Florida attorney general should focus on our water pollution problems
Palm Beach Post – Commentary by Nathaniel P. Reed
February 28, 2014
In 1960, I returned from the Middle East after service in the U.S. Air Force. My brother had acquired a farm on the Chester River that flowed into Chesapeake Bay where I was a frequent visitor. We fished for striped bass, then plentiful. We learned from his wife how to catch soft-shelled crabs.
The aquatic grasses were thick. Eight varieties of native aquatic plants covered the river’s bottom attracting thousands of migrating diving ducks. It was an unforgettable sight as five varieties of diving ducks zoomed down the river.
As corn became the dominant crop on the eastern shore of Maryland to support the enormous growth of the chicken industry, all mixed farming ceased. It was corn, corn and more corn. Thousands of acres of corn were planted. The corn plant requires heavy doses of nitrogen fertilizer. Rainfall washes fertilizer into the tributaries of the bay. The grass beds disappeared. The ducks migrated south, losing one of their most valuable food resources.
Summer algal blooms became common. When I served as assistant secretary of Interior from 1971 to 1977, the bay’s pollution problems seemed impossible to solve. The bay’s watershed is within six states and the District of Columbia. Powerful agricultural lobbying slowed down a concentrated effort of all parties to reach common agreement to halt under-treated sewage, industrial discharges and agricultural runoff that ended up in the bay.
The world-famous oyster beds suffered serious declines.
The Chesapeake Bay is the most important spawning ground and nursery for the prized striped bass. Their numbers plummeted.
Recently, at long last, the leadership of the six concerned states joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a bold plan to end under-treated sewage, industrial discharges and, most important, agricultural pollution: a deadly combination of excess fertilizer and animal wastes.
Just as the oysters begin to return, dead zones begin to recede, and underwater grasses begin to grow again, a group of national lobbying associations led by the American Farm Bureau and the Fertilizer Institute are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They are suing to halt what has been called the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint and they have persuaded Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to join them. Apparently she is afraid that success may lead to solutions to Florida’s fouled waters as well.
Why is she opposed to clean water ?
Florida’s most pressing water pollution problem is drainage of excess nutrients flowing into the waters of the state from all forms of agriculture. I would like to think that our state’s attorney general was more concerned about cleaning up Florida’s increasingly polluted water than worrying about EPA’s efforts to coordinate many efforts to halt agricultural pollution of Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay’s productivity is legendary. H.L. Mencken called it an “immense protein factory.” It teemed with crabs, oysters and fish. So what happened ?
Big Agriculture in Maryland and the adjacent states have begun innovative controls on retaining fertilizer on their farmland. That is the identical great challenge to Florida’s farmers and homeowners whose fertilized crops and lawns are destroying our state’s rivers, lakes and estuaries.
All Floridians should be outraged by our attorney general’s action to join forces with the polluters. The waters of Florida, and across the country, all suffer from the same source of pollution as Chesapeake Bay — too much nitrogen and phosphorus. Algal blooms explode; often-toxic dead zones are created; and waters are rendered unfit for swimming after heavy rains. The good news is that solutions are available, and they usually require nothing more than good agronomic practices, which can benefit the farmer and the consumer with healthy, sustainable food.
We can manage our golf courses and lawns to minimize fertilizer entering adjacent waters.
This is the moment when the vast majority of Floridians are really concerned about water — clean, ample supplies of water.
Why would our state’s attorney general butt into a pact that can save Chesapeake Bay ? Aren’t there enough water pollution problems within our state to keep her busy ?
Related:
Thousands oppose states' challenge of EPA   My Eastern Shore
States fear 'power grab' by EPA in Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort  MyFox Washington DC

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Florida's water woes are seen as urgent — except in the House
TampaBay.com – by Craig Pittman, Tampa Bay Times
February 28, 2014
A remarkable alignment of Florida political interests has occurred this year — perhaps because it's an election year, perhaps because the urgency of the problem has drawn a lot of attention.
Gov. Rick Scott, several powerful state senators, a coalition of environmental groups and a consortium of business and industry groups all say the Legislature needs to do something this year about fixing Florida's water.
The pollution is too pervasive, the flow too endangered, and the perils too great to the state's future to ignore it any longer, they all agreed.
"Water quality and quantity have the potential to limit residential and business growth, and we need to attack this problem head-on with forward-thinking solutions," Tom Feeney, president of the probusiness Associated Industries of Florida, said in February.
A rally for clean water drew 200 people to Tallahassee last month, all clamoring for quick action. One speaker, former Department of Community Affairs secretary Tom Pelham, told the crowd, "The time to act is now. Delay will only make the situation worse and the solutions more costly."
The House is the one place where there's no such sense of urgency.
"I don't foresee any major changes to water policy this year," said Speaker-designate Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island.
The reason, said the man who will be speaker next year, is simple: "It's going to take more than a year to solve this problem."
Crisafulli, who hails from a prominent citrus family and is former president of the Brevard County Farm Bureau, pointed out that Florida's water problem is actually a whole suite of woes involving both water quality and water quantity.
"Nobody has really come up with one silver bullet answer," he said in an interview a day before the clean water rally.
In Crisafulli's backyard lies the Indian River Lagoon, which has been battling pollution that likely fueled a series of toxic algae blooms blamed for wiping out 40,000 acres of sea grass. Since then hundreds of manatees, dolphins and pelicans have died, too. Scientists are not sure if the deaths are related to each other or to the pollution and sea grass die-off.
Meanwhile the state's iconic springs — many of them owned by the taxpayers as part of the state park system — have suffered from increased pollution, toxic algae blooms and a loss of flow that some have blamed on overpumping of the aquifer by agriculture and development interests.
Further south, the Caloosahatchee River on the west coast and the St. Lucie River on the east coast have born the brunt of polluted water released from Lake Okeechobee by federal officials trying to lower the water level before it breaches the berm surrounding the lake.
The emergency releases have fouled the estuaries of both rivers, hurting their sea grass beds and marine life and causing economic consequences for fishing and tourist industries.
Water supply has become a prickly issue. In Apalachicola, the oyster industry that has long tied the town together is failing and Scott is suing Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court for holding back too much water that normally flows down to Florida.
Niagara Bottling's Groveland plant overcame strong opposition to get a permit to boost its pumping from the aquifer from 484,000 gallons a day to 910,000 gallons. The Adena Springs Ranch near Silver Springs has faced similar opposition to its request for a permit to pump 5.3 million gallons daily for its proposed cattle operation.
Meanwhile, a coalition of five of Central Florida's fastest-growing counties have proposed slaking their future thirst by pumping 150 million gallons per day from the St. Johns River. The proposal has proven controversial, with critics pointing out that the St. Johns is already suffering a loss of flow as well as dealing with pollution-fueled algae blooms.
None of these are new problems. They all date back at least a year and, in the case of both the springs and the Lake Okeechobee releases, a decade or more. But finding the political will to deal with them has been difficult. Just last year, for instance, Scott vetoed money for tracking the pollution in Indian River Lagoon.
One thing all of these problems appear to have in common is the type of pollution involved — nitrate pollution, made up of excess nitrogen and phosphorus, from wasted fertilizer, animal waste and leaking septic tanks. Scott's administration fought hard to wrest away from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the power to regulate nitrate pollution, and now must grapple with it in waterways across the state.
Last year thousands of people petitioned Scott for more protection and restoration for the state's springs. Local government officials in North Florida formed a group to push for springs legislation. However, no springs bill passed.
The Legislature did agree last year to spend $10 million for springs protection, far from the $122 million in projects that the state's five water management districts had listed as essential to springs restoration.
This year, Scott has proposed the Legislature appropriate $55 million to restore and protect the state's springs. The Senate is ready to spend even more than that. A coalition of Senate committee chairs has drafted a bill to raise nearly $400 million a year for springs from documentary stamp taxes on real estate transactions, using it for hooking septic tank users up to central sewer lines in the regions around major springs.
There's also a Senate bill to spend $220 million to protect the Indian River Lagoon and to redirect the damaging water releases from Lake Okeechobee.
Crisafulli doesn't like the dollar figure on the Senate's springs bill, calling it "the biggest, most unfortunate part" of any water-related measure. An amount that big "would take away the opportunity to work on other issues around the state."
He foresees putting aside an as-yet undetermined amount of money this year "to fund as much as we can, and not just focus on one region." There will be no comprehensive fixes, just individual projects that offer a chance for improvement — for instance, removing 6 million cubic yards of polluted muck from the bottom of the Indian River Lagoon.
Resolving all of Florida's water problems, he said, "is going to take a commitment continuing out for an indefinite number of years." That's how to resolve what's needed for any new state water policy, he said.
Ironically, according to Estus Whitfield, who served as an aide to governors from Reubin Askew to Jeb Bush, "Florida has had a water policy, the most widely acclaimed in the U.S., for over 40 years."
So how did things get so messed up? "Thanks to a lack of conviction and implementation by our state government, and with a little help from our friends in the business and ag industries," Whitfield said, "it has not been effective in preventing the serious demise of our water resources."

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Legislative Preview: Water a central issue for lawmakers this spring
WMFE.com - by Amy Green
February 28, 2014
February 28th, 2014 | WMFE Orlando - It used to be Florida had more water than it knew what to do with. No more. Now Floridians are worried they could run out of water. Fears of a fresh water crisis are spreading to the state Capitol, where water is expected to be a central issue of the spring legislative session.
Yuri Hanja and his wife Carol live in a tidy, salmon-colored home in Clermont.
Their house is buttressed by drought-resistant zoysiagrass and landscaping. From their backyard pool they can see Lake Louisa. A few years ago water levels were so low the lake bottom turned into a sandy beach.
In December Lake Utility Services wrote to the Hanjas, telling them to cut back on their water use. 
This annoyed Yuri. At the same time the St. Johns River Water Management District was poised to approve a request from Niagara Bottling. The bottler wanted to nearly double the volume of water it draws from the aquifer to 910,000 gallons daily.
Yuri wrote back to the utility: 
"Now you're asking my neighbors and I to save five- to 10-thousand gallons per year, and St. Johns is now intending to approve Niagara's request to double their draw of water," he wrote. 
"It's not logical."
The Hanjas aren't the only ones worried that Florida could run out of water.
Former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, a longtime environmental advocate, says the state needs a water management plan.
"We don't have to be the next Arizona," says Graham. 
"We've got enough water that nature has given us to be able to essentially lead the same quality of life that we and our parents have lived into the lives of our children and grandchildren," he says. 
That message resonates with environmentalists.
In December demonstrators in Orlando presented a "Clean Water Declaration" asserting Floridians have an "inalienable right" to clean water, a right they can no longer depend on.
Lawmakers in Tallahassee appear to be listening to the concerns of environmentalists and residents.
Gov. Rick Scott, running for re-election this year, wants more than $520 million for the Everglades and waterways in the state budget, and at least a half-dozen lawmakers are pushing measures to protect the state’s fresh water.
Rep. Linda Stewart is among them. The Central Florida Democrat says the goal is to combine the bills into a statewide plan combating pollution and creating storage.
"The state of Florida's citizens want to see something happen, and I think that's why you're getting a little more attention by the legislators," says Stewart.
"Because they see no matter where they go and where they live they're being talked to about the water and springs."
Central Florida gets about 50 inches of rain annually. But that's not enough for the region's fast-growing population.
Tom Bartol of the St. Johns River Water Management District says the region is running out of fresh groundwater. 
"It's not an infinite source," says Bartol. 
St. John's Water Management District is part of the Central Florida Water Initiative, which also includes two other water management districts, state agencies and local leaders.
The initiative released a report estimating water use will grow 40 percent by 2035-  more than what the Floridan aquifer can provide.
Bartol helped draft the report.  
"If we continue to just pump and meet all these future needs with the current source, fresh groundwater, we will see unacceptable affects to the water resources of the area," says Bartol. 
He says the alternatives – reclaimed and desalinated water – are much more expensive.
The Central Florida Water Initiative expects to produce a regional water plan this spring. In the meantime environmentalists say they'll keep the pressure on lawmakers to take action to protect the state's fresh water. 

140228-g
Official: Plan to deepen inlet could worsen flooding threat
Palm Beach Daily News - by William Kelly, Daily News Staff Writer
February 28, 2014
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to deepen and widen the Lake Worth Inlet could worsen the threat of flooding in town, a town official said Thursday.
The Army Corps has predicted the proposed expansion of the port’s navigation channels would add 4 inches to an expected 10-foot surge in a “100-year storm,” or a storm that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. But there is no point in asking property owners to raise bulkhead walls higher than the 5-foot minimum elevation already required, Public Works Director Paul Brazil told the Shore Protection Board.
To avoid being flooded, Town Manager Peter Elwell said residents would have to raise the elevation of their homes instead. “The best thing for folks to do is to raise their structures, and the infrastructure can follow,” he said.
Brazil described the threat of flooding from a two-day storm during high tide. Palm Beach County has an extensive canal system that releases water into the Lake Worth Lagoon.
The water elevation between low and high tide varies up to 4 feet during a seasonal tide. The town has a powerful pump system that moves storm water into the lagoon, but it can’t do that at high tide, he said.
“If the lagoon water level rises and stays there for an extended period of time, the ground water table is going to follow and there is nothing we can do to control it,” Brazil said. “Ground water will follow, no matter how high you build a wall in between (the lagoon and the town), and if it stays elevated for a period of time, (we are) just pumping against the tide.”
Increasing the town’s minimum height elevation requirement for the bulkheads to greater than the current 5 feet wouldn’t help, he said.
“That lagoon level could stay there for an extended period of time,” Brazil said. “Because all the water that is going to be coming in through the storm, the South Florida Water District can’t send it out into the ocean. They can only send it out into the lake.
“There are storm events we cannot control, and there will be flooding,” Brazil said.
The town requires the floor of new homes and buildings to be at an elevation of 7.5 feet. But there are older ones with a bottom-floor elevation of 5 feet, sometimes less, Brazil said.
The Corps, which maintains the navigation channel into the port, says it is not adequate for modern vessel sizes, and that it hampers the Port of Palm Beach’s economic potential.
‘Dangerous situation’
The Corps proposes to deepen the entrance channel from 35 to 41 feet and widen it from 400 to between 440 and 460 feet; deepen the inner channel from 33 to 39 feet and widen it from 300 to 450 feet; and deepen the main turning basin from 33 to 39 feet.
“There is vigorous debate, in that they have only looked at the 100-year storm” impact, Elwell said of the Corps’ storm surge prediction. “The higher the water in the lake, and the longer it stays up before it recedes, the more likely we will have flooding on the island that we cannot prevent because of a change in the water table.”
Council members Bill Diamond and Richard Kleid attended the shore board meeting.
“The town faces an incredibly dangerous situation with the expansion of the port and the larger storm surge, which will result therefrom,” Diamond said in an interview. “It is bad enough we already are topping the bulkheads in the lagoon from time to time. Now we’re going to add more water in the lagoon, from the inlet ?  We have to think of raising our houses or getting some form of water transportation.”
Mayor Gail Coniglio has written opposition letters to the Corps and met with Col. Alan Dodd (commander and district engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville District) and with U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.
A portion of today’s special Town Council meeting will be devoted to the port expansion. The Palm Beach Civic Association, which hired experts to study the project, is expected to deliver a report.
Elwell said town staff also will ask the council if it wants to take any additional steps to express the town’s concerns.
A planned rehabilitation of the sea wall between Wells Road and Sunrise Avenue also will be discussed at the meeting, which begins at 11 a.m. in Town Hall.

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Thousands oppose states' challenge of EPA
Star Democrat – by Justine McDaniel, Capital News Service
February 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — Three weeks after 21 states signed on to a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay pollution limits, more than 25,000 people have signed a petition condemning the suit.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation petition has garnered an unusually high response from the public in the 23 days since the attorneys general from states like Florida, Kansas and Alaska filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.
“It’s quite a statement of the public’s interest in this issue,” said Kim Coble, the Bay Foundation’s vice president for environmental protection and restoration.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the National Association of Home Builders and other related industry groups, challenges pollution limits set by the EPA under the Clean Water Act.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and several partners sued the EPA in 2009 asking a federal court to require the agency to reduce pollution in the Bay after it became clear states wouldn’t meet a cleanup goal they agreed to in 2000. As part of the settlement, the EPA created pollution limits in 2010, which the Chesapeake Bay Program refers to as the Bay “pollution diet.”
Each state in the Chesapeake Bay watershed created cleanup plans to reach the pollution diet goals. The EPA can impose consequences on states that fail to reach the goals by designated two-year milestones.
Efforts by Maryland and other states to restore the Chesapeake Bay have been underway since 1983. The Chesapeake watershed includes all or parts of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and the District of Columbia.
The 21 states opposed to the plan question the EPA’s authority to impose pollution limits, also known as Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDLs, saying the agency is violating states’ rights.
“EPA’s untenable interpretation of its authority under the CWA has unlawfully usurped States’ traditional authority over land-management decisions,” the attorneys general wrote in their amicus brief, filed February 3.
Coble said the arrangement with the EPA is the best approach to cleaning up the Bay and gives states the autonomy to decide how to meet EPA goals. It has been very successful so far and the Pennsylvania court found no evidence of federal overreach, she said.
“This lawsuit, the appeal of the decision and the friend-of-the-court brief that has been filed threatens and potentially ends the success that we’ve been seeing with the cleanup plan. There’s a lot at stake,” Coble said.
Nitrogen levels in the Bay decreased by 18.5 million pounds between 2009 and 2012, a reduction that represents a quarter of the long-term goal, said Rich Batiuk, associate director for science with the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program office.
Nitrogen is one of the top three Bay pollutants, and it comes from many everyday human activities. An excess of nitrogen can disrupt the Bay’s system, harm drinking water and lead to habitat loss, Batiuk said.
“There are over 17 million of us that call the Chesapeake Bay watershed home … Life in the mid-Atlantic is really so intricately tied into the Chesapeake Bay and its hundreds and hundreds of rivers and streams,” he said.
The lawsuit opposing the pollution diet originated in 2010 and was struck down in federal court in Pennsylvania in September. The Farm Bureau and associated parties appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and all parties will have filed briefs in the appeal by the end of April.
The opposed states, some of which have major natural resources of their own, like the Lake Michigan and Florida Everglades watersheds, said they want to regulate land use within their own borders.
“(T)his case has far-reaching implications for States across the country,” they said in the brief. “If this TMDL is left to stand, other watersheds, including the Mississippi River Basin (which spans 31 states from Canada to the Gulf Coast), could be next.”
In Florida, the state is working with the EPA and using state and federal money to fund restoration of the Everglades. State officials signed a long-awaited $880 million deal with the federal government last year.
All the states whose attorneys general signed the brief are outside the Chesapeake Bay watershed except West Virginia, whose Republican attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, replaced Democrat Darrell McGraw, who was in office when the cleanup agreement was approved.
The attempt by out-of-region states to influence the Chesapeake and the appeal of what Coble called a “very, very strong, legal, solid decision” make this conflict a singular struggle in the Bay’s history, she said.
“There’s, needless to say, many challenges with the work of restoring the Bay, but this one’s unique,” Coble said. The circumstances “make the situation much more urgent than other challenges we’ve had.”

140227-b
Oil prospectors seek their next big strike in South Florida’s Everglades
Newsweek.com - by Victoria Bekiempis
February 27, 2014
The letter was printed on plain white paper in plain black type, and but for its unfamiliar globe logo "Total Safety" and its unsettling message, it was no different from most of the junk mail filling the mailboxes of 30 homes in a rural south Florida area called Golden Gate Estates, east of Naples.
"Dear Sir or Madam," it read, "Total Safety US, Inc. is currently going around your area gathering information on households for Dan A. Hughes, so we can develop a contingency plan. We need the name of the main contact of the household, the number of people in your household, address and a number where you could be contacted in case of emergency, if you have transportation to evacuate and if you have any special needs in transportation." 
This message from "the world's leading provider" of safety service solutions to the petrochemical industry went on to instruct recipients to contact a Jennifer Jones with any questions about the still unspecified project coming to their neighborhood. Each household had its own reference number.
With a little research, one of the many perplexed recipients, a retired artist by the name of Jaime Duran, learned that Dan A. Hughes was a Beeville, Texas-based oil outfit and that the company planned on drilling a test well on the pasture alongside his log cabin, less than 1,000 feet from his front porch.
"We could hear the cows in the next field when we moved here," says Duran. He and his wife, Pamela, bought the lot at the end of an unpaved, one-lane road because they wanted a quiet place where they could grow fruits and vegetables in their golden years, far from the traffic and pollution of more populated areas. They liked the croaking of cicadas around sunset, the humid shadow of mosquitos during summertime, even the bear that ransacked their garden. And they had no reason to think that it would change. The neighboring lot was zoned agriculture and, he says, "This road was a dead end."
But for companies like Dan A. Hughes, undeveloped plots of south Florida are anything but dead ends - they are new beginnings for the region's long languishing petrochemical industry. As the price of oil climbs, American prospectors are increasingly looking for untapped regions, even in areas like Florida which, traditionally, aren't big fonts of fossil fuels the way Pennsylvania or Kansas might be.
The state has had some small-scale petroleum production since 1943, when Humble Oil & Refining Co. struck oil south of Immokalee - the nation's top tomato-producing region. There are now 162 wells operating in the state. In the south, they are in Collier, Henry, Lee and Dade counties. (There is also some production in the Panhandle's Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, near Pensacola.) Refining peaked at 45 million barrels in 1978, amid the gas crisis, but has since spiraled to less than 2 million barrels annually.
A new pack of wildcatters, however, is convinced that the next big crude discovery is just around the corner - in the Sunshine State - and is actively seeking land leases and permits.
Of course, south Florida's landscape is more than a little different from Louisiana's Cancer Alley or Texas's derrick-littered landscape. Much of the wildcatting could take place on the known habitat of the endangered Florida panther, of which there are estimated to be about a hundred extant. The area -- comprised of the watershed that replenishes levels in the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades -- is also integral to the area's hydrological health. It fills the aquifers millions of south Florida residents rely on for drinking water. 
The looming conflict over south Florida's oil potential also underscores several mining controversies in Florida and across the U.S. - the often uneasy relationship between mineral rights owners, homeowners and preservationists - and local politicians' efforts to protect constituents above business interests.
***
Barron Collier was a Southerner through and through, hailing from a prominent Tennessee family that even claimed relation to Virginia Dare, "the first white woman born to English parents in North America," according to Paradise for Sale: Florida's Booms and Busts by Nick Wynne and Richard Moorhead. His entry into the business world belied this lofty pedigree. Collier got his start as a low-level railroad hand - a sales solicitor, in fact, but invested in a printing company, which produced advertising placards for subways and streetcars. A few years and a few shrewd business moves later, Collier had amassed a "virtual monopoly on this form of advertising," making him "a millionaire many times over" by the age of 26.
At one point during negotiations with a Chicago railroad, Collier agreed to buy an island off the coast of Florida from the company's president, spurring what would become a fascination with the state's wild lands. The Everglades, in particular, "captured Barron Collier's soul." From 1921 to 1923, Barron Collier bought 1.5 million acres in southern Lee County, to make livable the swamps and cypress stands. He would later get a county named after him, Collier County, in exchange for funding an interstate linking Tampa and Miami.
Collier's purchases and developments were so extensive that one historian remarked in 1926 that he would be "the first man to make a billion dollars from land" - with the potential to exceed even the Astors' profits from New York City real estate. Despite a lack of evidence - and the fact that prospectors had tried unsuccessfully to find oil in Florida since 1901 - Collier was convinced that the earth under the state bubbled with black gold, telling his son shortly before his death: "I can smell it."
Four years later, Collier's nose was vindicated when Humble Oil and Refining Company (since absorbed by Exxon) struck oil on the Sunniland trend, which spans from Fort Myers to Miami. His descendants stood to profit greatly from his persistence: Collier businesses own around 200,000 acres in southwest Florida. Though they donated 160,000 acres to form the Big Cypress National Preserve, they kept the mineral rights to this combined acreage.
Despite the potential profits from mineral rights, Sunniland is no Alaska's famed Prudhoe Bay, which boasts both the U.S.'s and North America's proved reserves and produces some 236,750 barrels of oil daily. Rather, Sunniland's 16 or 17 wells yield 2,400 barrels daily, according to the trade publication Oil and Gas Investor. A consultant who spoke to Newsweek on background because he works closely with the oil industry says that in Florida it's also more costly to seek oil, as it has to be transported by truck.
A confluence of market forces and new technologies, however, have given prospectors more reasons to dig in Florida, including Sunniland. In the past five years, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has received 39 drilling applications and granted 37 of them. (The other two applications were incomplete or withdrawn, according to the DEP.) Sixteen of these have been applied for in the past year - 14 of which are in Collier and Hendry counties, according to reports.
Prospectors also have economic incentive to dig deeper. The few wells drilled in the lower portion of Sunniland level all showed signs of oil. This has prospectors such as Brandt Temple, president of New Orleans-based Sunrise Exploration, actively developing the area. "Sunrise identified the play in 2010 and a number of wells have been permitted or drilled so far," Temple said in an email to Newsweek. "Operators are keeping a tight lid on their results so far. Sunrise and its partners plan to drill a well in Hendry County this year."
"Time will tell - every play is different," he added. "When we take a good look at the stunning technology breakthroughs in drilling and completions that have SAFELY revolutionized the oil and gas industry in the past decade in CO, CA, PA, TX, OK, ND, MS, LA, MI, WV, OH and Canada - there is no reason to think those same technologies will not be successful here in FL as well."
Another draw is horizontal drilling, which allows prospectors to put a longer network of pipes in underground rock formations, and hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a., fracking. The DEP has generally downplayed potential fracking, saying that Florida's geography is not amenable to the practice. In an internal memo from 2011, one official even said it's "not a factor" in south Florida.
In a recent email to Newsweek, department officials echoed these sentiments.
Florida's present oilfields are not contained within shale, "the prime target of conventional hydraulic fracturing in other states." In 2012, however, a DEP official requested a conference call with a prospector, saying there is an "imminent fracking job in S. Florida," the Fort Myers News-Press first reported. The paper also notes that Alico, Inc., claims to have discovered as many as 94 tons of fracking sand in nearby Hendry County.
Plus, there's some precedent for fracking in Florida. The DEP does have record of some wells being fracked, the last being in 2003, on the Panhandle.
The geological traits that make Florida good for oil exploration might also make it particularly environmentally risky. Andrew Zimmerman, an associate professor in the University of Florida's geology department, tells Newsweek that the state's oil is found in cracked, porous limestone formations. This is also the same rock sourcing drinking water. Plus, south Florida already has its share of water problems. In addition to water managers constantly balancing over-wet or over-dry conditions, they are often being caught between the two bad choices of over-drawing from aquifers or dumping fresh water into the ocean. Lake Okeechobee, which is also a major player in the region's water sources, is another ongoing problem, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recently diverted polluted water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers from the lake to prevent its 80-year-old dike from bursting. That has dealt a near deathblow to these rivers' estuaries, with locals complaining that the lake's waters containing agricultural chemicals from nearby farms have killed numerous manatees, dolphins, fish and oysters.
The Everglades is also in the midst of a massive $1 billion restoration project, a joint state and federal effort which will protect some 2.4 million acres of interconnected wetlands by returning them to their natural state. These areas aren't just habitats for more than 60 threatened and endangered species. They are also integral in providing approximately 7 million south Florida residents' drinking water, according to Florida's Department of Environmental Protection. "Because of that high probability of contamination spreading itself into the aquifer, I would be very hesitant to encourage any growth of the oil industry," Zimmerman says.
He's not coming from an alarmist standpoint, he explains, even admitting that oil exploration can be completed safely. However, there's always a risk. "If you do any type of activity long enough, you're going to have accident," and, considering the water problems in south Florida, "it's not going to be worth it."
The developers are also asking the EPA for a permit to dig an injection well, which would pump brine, a salty, watery by-product of drilling, back into the earth for storage.
A recent ProPublica investigation revealed that injection wells, which have been growing in popularity as a means of waste disposal, are not as safe as previously thought, having "repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation's drinking water."
In south Florida specifically, the report notes that "20 of the nation's most stringently regulated disposal wells failed in the early 1990s, releasing partly treated sewage into aquifers that may one day be needed to supply Miami's drinking water."
Florida has another big reason to be wary. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said by many to be the worst oil spill in American history, dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing wildlife and laying waste to coastal economies dependent on the fishing and tourism industries.
The DEP contends that Florida's oil operations have been safe throughout the years, without any "major accidents, spills, or blowouts" but admits that there have been some incidents. Since 1972, there have been 393 reported spills - totaling 1,281 barrels of crude oil spilled and 16,636 barrels of brine spilled. The DEP maintains that this amount is minimal, equating to .0002 percent of what has been produced.
The consultant to Florida's oil industry who spoke to Newsweek on background agreed that nothing major had happened but did mention one incident pointing to pragmatic issues in addressing problems. In the early 1960s, when several fields operated on the Sunniland formation, operators decided to build a pipeline to Port Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, rather than transport it by truck.
The pipeline operated until the late 1990s and closed because of "corrosion issues." The pipeline couldn't be fixed because there had been so much development above where it had been placed underground - and because part of it ran through newly designated water conservation areas. So, it was drained, flushed and filled with fresh water.
There's also the issue of wildlife - the proposed drill site is less than a mile from the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, located in what some describe as popular roaming grounds for the animals. The DEP has told residents that "the well location does not contain habitat for federal or state listed wildlife species.... No listed species have been observed on site."
The South Florida Wildlands Association counters that there has been "an actual panther observation in the proposed drill site (a rare occurrence even for seasoned panther scientists)." Data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the conservancy continues in a letter to the DEP opposing drilling, "show the area to be a hot spot for our state animal." The commission maps provided by the conservancy show that two female and three male panthers' home ranges "either include or are immediately adjacent to the proposed drill site."
Another three call home the Picayune Strand State Forest, which is immediately south of the proposed drill site and part of the Everglades restoration project.
Alexis Meyer, who coordinates the Florida Sierra Club panther campaign, tells Newsweek that the challenge to panthers' viability is habitat destruction. "They have no place to go," she says. "The oil and gas exploration is happening right in panther primary habitat - which are the lands essential to their continued existence." Humans near the slated drill site area also concerned about their habitat.
In a worst-case scenario, drilling could have deadly consequences.
Hydrogen sulfide is a gas that smells of eggs but rivals hydrogen cyanide in its potential to kill and is often present in fields with sour crude oil, the kind found in south Florida.
A DEP document maintains that hydrogen sulfide is not a big concern in south Florida, saying in a memo that "southwest Florida wells drilled to the lower Sunniland formation generally yield low or zero volume natural gas or H2S concentrations."
Jennifer Jones, the coordinator referenced in the Total Safety letter to Sunniland residents, was a bit more direct when discussing safety procedure in the area, saying in April that "if something goes wrong, if a well blows up, hazardous gases can be released."
These kinds of fears aren't fueled by mere fear-mongering. In October, a North Dakota oilfield worker died after being exposed to hydrogen sulfide on the job. In July, a father and his son-in-law died because of hydrogen sulfide exposure on a Kansas oilfield.
***
As more and more Americans are learning that new drilling technologies could quickly turn the land under or next to their property into an oil field, questions about who owns mineral rights and what the owners of said rights can do with their resources abound, as well as legal confusion.
D.R. Horton, the country's largest home builder, has held on to the mineral rights under "more than 10,000 lots" in Florida alone," including a subdivision in Naples, near Golden Gate Estates. This is a common practice "in states where shale plays are either well under way or possible," Reuters recently reported.
Most of the affected owners didn't even know. Many of these states do not require developers to disclose this to buyers, meaning, as with D.R. Horton, a contract gives the builder "all geothermal energy and resources...on, in or under the lot." In other words, homeowners who don't own mineral rights can have hydrocarbon development on their property and have absolutely no say in the matter. (The Tampa Bay Times reports that D.R. Horton has sent letters to some Florida homeowners offering to return severed mineral rights, but it's unclear how many letters the company had sent.)
In one Greeley, Colo. subdivision, homeowners learned, after purchasing their home, that an oil company would begin drilling under their neighborhood "right across the street," Reuters also notes. The confused residents received one consolation - the oil company would let them pick the landscaping to hide the well heads and keep noise down.
Duran has seen firsthand how ugly this situation could get. During a meeting with prospectors to discuss their ongoing concerns, a prospector told Duran, his wife, a neighbor and several activists that they shouldn't make so much of a fuss, threatening: "If we wanted to, we could drill right on your property and there's nothing you can do about it."
There was one consolation for Duran who, because of the oil well slated for next door, has felt pretty powerless these last few months: He made sure he owned the mineral rights under his property before moving in.
There has been some pushback about mineral right severance in general and how they are used in Florida. Some members of the Florida house want developers to disclose to would be homeowners before they sit down to sign paperwork whether the mineral rights have been severed from their property.
Increased attention toward Florida's petroleum resources has also rekindled conversations about the industry's future there, as State Senator Darren Soto recently penned a letter to the DEP asking for the agency "to immediately suspend all recently approved oil exploration permits in the Everglades to assure the Environmental Protection Committees in both the Senate and House have a chance to review the risks and effects of this decision." Because of backlash from Duran and other concerned residents, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a public hearing March 11 before deciding whether to grant the injection well permit.
Related:
What's Under Florida's Everglades Could Be The Next Fossil Fuel ...          ThinkProgress

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Sale of sensitive state lands 'harebrained'
Florida Today – by Paula Dockery
February 27, 2014
Scott, Legislature should drop plan, fund Florida Forever
Call me a cynic, but the plan to sell state-owned conservation lands in order to buy “better” conservation lands was, at best, an intellectually dishonest way to brag about funding environmental programs without actually funding them. At worst, it was a deviously flawed plan designed to fail.
Under four governors, Bob Martinez, Lawton Chiles, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, environmental land acquisition programs were developed, implemented, adequately funded and improved.
The first program, Preservation 2000, was a visionary effort to preserve the environmental lands that make Florida the beautiful and special place that attracts millions of people to our state. The voluntary 10-year land acquisition program was hugely popular and successful.
As it neared the end of its run, I was given the opportunity to work with my colleagues in the Florida Legislature and then-Gov. Jeb Bush to improve and continue the acquisition program. Bringing all interested parties together, we updated the goals of the program to include a greater focus on water resources, more funding for management of the lands we had purchased, and a greater emphasis on public access for our citizens and visitors to enjoy. We renamed the program Florida Forever to more accurately reflect our goal as we moved into the future.
The program was funded at or near its intended level of $300 million a year, and environmentally sensitive, unique or resource-rich lands were identified for purchase. In order to ensure that taxpayers’ financial interests were protected, a system was put in place to safeguard against backroom deals for the politically connected.
While the funding came from a combination of general revenue, trust funds and bond proceeds, it was anticipated that documentary stamp revenue would be used to fund the program, whether in cash or to service the debt incurred when bonds were issued.
Documentary stamp revenue is generated from real estate transactions and provides a good nexus between development and environmental preservation. Many environmentally friendly Floridians worried about the program’s prospects when Jeb Bush, a developer, became governor. To their surprise and delight, Bush was an enthusiastic supporter of its continuation and a steady proponent of its funding.
Of course the budget was strong then and Gov. Bush preferred to use cash rather than issue more debt. In fact, as the real estate market remained remarkably hot, doc stamp revenues exceeded what was necessary to fund Florida Forever.
The first budget under Gov. Charlie Crist also brought full funding of Florida Forever. But when state revenues plummeted from $72 billion to $66 billion in 2008, the funding evaporated as expected. The environmental community feared the limited revenue would be hard to come by and was willing to make the same sacrifices as everyone else until the economy improved.
But with an $8 billion jump in state revenues since then, it’s difficult to understand why the $300 million-a-year program has received little or no funding.
In 2013, with a $74.5 billion budget, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature announced their renewed interest in funding Florida Forever.
The scheme? Appropriate $20 million (1/15th of the $300 million level intended) and allow an additional $50 million to be used if and when lands already in state ownership could be identified as surplus and sold.
Many of us were underwhelmed by their “generosity” and commitment. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?
While Gov. Scott and the Legislature touted funding Florida Forever at $70 million, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began its questionable process of identifying these potential “unneeded” lands for surplus.
By some newspaper accounts, the department originally listed 169 potential sites totaling 5,300 acres. After much public outcry, the list is down to 77 parcels totaling 3,405 acres and is still not finalized.
To date:
• No money has been raised from land sales.
• Controversy surrounds the largest parcels left that lie in the Green Swamp, which is headwaters to four Florida rivers.
• Two top DEP state land officials have resigned, including a highly respected nine-year veteran.
At least one legislator has correctly called the effort a disaster. Not only has the execution been incredibly botched, the plan itself was a harebrained idea intended to appear magnanimous while deviously forcing advocates to divert their attention from acquiring additional sensitive lands to protecting existing sensitive lands from being sold.
As we head into the next legislative session, Gov. Scott and the Legislature should abandon this ill-conceived notion and fully fund Florida Forever as originally intended. With a projected record high budget, there’s no excuse not to.

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What’s under Florida’s Everglades could be the next fossil fuel boom
ThinkProgress.org - by Ari Phillips
February 27, 2014
The opening of previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves in Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania is almost daily news. The environmental, climate, and local impacts of this domestic fossil fuel renaissance are also frequently reported, if not necessarily acted upon. Now Florida may be the next subject of this state of boom. Florida is ecologically more unique and more at risk than many other fossil fuel-rich locales, and a recent spate of industry and political attention has brought the Everglades, a tropical wetlands and World Heritage Site, to the center of the stories’ attention.
At least a half dozen oil companies have spent upwards of $10 million on plans to expand operations across Southwest Florida in the last few years, according to reporting from the Miami Herald last year. With oil prices remaining high, previously uneconomic reserves in places like Big Cypress National Preserve, the first national preserve in the U.S. National Park System, are retaining new interest. Big Cypress National Preserve borders the Everglades to the northwest.
“We feel like this is going to open up the floodgates to Everglades drilling, this particular drill site,” Karen Dwyer of Naples, who’s protested drilling plans in the state, told the Orlando Sentinel. “We want to stop the problem before it starts.”
Florida residents are not the only ones voicing concern. Earlier this week state Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, sent a letter to Florida Department of Environmental Regulation Secretary Herschel Vinyard cautioning against any further oil exploration or fracking in the Everglades without further review of the risks.
Vinyard responded in somewhat scathing fashion, saying “there has been no energy exploration in the Everglades,” and that “the Department’s sole focus is on protecting the environment … the Administration’s commitment to the Everglades is unrivaled and we are anxious to continue this pace-setting work to improve our Everglades.”
The letter states that there are 162 oil and gas wells operating in six counties in Florida, and that there has never been a single permit issued for any oil and gas exploration in the Everglades.
In an analysis of the bureaucratic back-and-forth, Mary Ellen Klas at the Tampa Bay Times writes that “Soto may have been trapped in a bit of semantics:”
“The permits appear to be issued on the edge of the Everglades not within the actual Everglades National Park as we know it … Vinyard may be technically right but his letter did not explain why there are investors hoping to search for oil on the western edge of the Everglades in Naples and in the Big Cypress National Preserve.”
Klas points out that the crossfire between Soto and Vinyard fails to address what would seem an ominous indicator — two state bills proposed by state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, HB 71 and HB 157, that would “set state guidelines for reporting on the chemicals used in oil and gas hydraulic fracturing and offer companies a public records exemption for trade secrets.”
The bills are opposed by environmental groups and have been speculated as being modeled on legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a national right-wing organization known recently for its state-level war on renewable energy.
Florida has provided less than one percent of the county’s oil production recently, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2011, renewable energy accounted for 2.2 percent of the state’s total net electricity generation, making it third in the country for net solar electricity generation. However, the Sunshine State’s sunshine is not of concern to companies based in nearby states like Texas and Mississippi that are on a quest to find out how much crude oil lies beneath the surface — and then how much of it they can extract. These companies have obtained leases for seismic testing along a large area of the southern Florida peninsula, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
In 2011, Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott acknowledged that a small amount of drilling has been going on in the Everglades for a while, and that a large amount could be possible in the future.
“We already have oil wells in the Everglades, there’s a road in Naples that’s called ‘Oil Well Road,” Scott said. “It’s my understanding at least, we haven’t had any problems in the Everglades to date,” Scott said.
According to an October analysis by Politifact, Gov. Scott broke his 2010 campaign promise to explore expansion of drilling in a safe, environmentally sound way. While the statement was focused primarily on offshore drilling after the devastating impacts of the nearby Deepwater Horizon explosion, not much has been done to ensure safety measures inland either.
Last year, Gov. Scott did sign into law HB 999, a bill detested by a number of environmental groups that, among other things, speeds up the permitting for natural gas pipelines originating in other states.

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Will FPL run power lines through the Everglades ?
Broward/PalmBeach NewTimes – by Deirdra Funcheon
February, 27 2014
Florida Power & Light could soon be allowed to run power lines through Everglades National Park. They would deliver power from Turkey Point nuclear power plant to points north. The National Park Service is accepting public input on the matter until March 18.
The Park Service never followed through on its threat, leaving us in a conundrum today.
Here's the backstory, as explained by Matt Schwartz, director of the South Florida Wildlands Association: A long time ago, FPL bought up tracts of private land that ran north and south, expecting that one day it might need to add more power lines. Twenty-five years ago, with the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act of 1989, park boundaries were expanded. Suddenly, FPL's land was now inside the park.
Congress authorized the National Park Service to buy the land from FPL. In 1996, the Park Service moved to buy it for $110,000. The Park Service warned that if FPL didn't agree, the agency would move to seize the land through eminent domain.
For whatever reason, the Park Service never followed through on its threat, leaving us in a conundrum today.
In 2009, a federal omnibus public lands bill authorized another plan: The Park Service could, rather than buy or seize FPL's land, trade it for a north-south tract on the eastern side of the Everglades — still inside park boundaries.
Problem is, now FPL has the leverage.
One way or another, the Park Service needs to get FPL out of the way, Schwartz explains. "You know the new bridge they just built at Tamiami Trail ?  This corridor is directly below the new bridge. We don't have flowage — water is not flowing under it — and one of the reasons is that FPL's old utility corridor is underneath it." So the park needs that land for Everglades restoration.
But instead of passively owning the land, FPL intends to erect utility poles, part of its plan to add two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. (That's a whole separate bad idea, Schwartz says. "Climate scientists say we're going under [water because of sea level rise], and they want to put two new nuclear reactors right next to the one that got hit full-force during Hurricane Andrew and lost communication and outside power ?")
"It's a shame," Schwartz says. "In 1996, the price was $100,000. Now, FPL is going to jack it up." He says he's heard whispers that FPL will ask for $100 million.
Still, he says, buying out the power company is the best option. Then FPL will be forced to buy private land and put its corridor outside the park. Schwartz explains a draft environmental impact statement has been created. It specifically states buying out FPL and forcing the utility to go elsewhere is the "environmentally preferred alternative." He says FPL is "already working on alternative corridors."
He doubts FPL would try to erect utility poles in the corridor it owns now. "They could try, but it's highly unlikely to get permitted by the Army Corps."
However, he's afraid the Park Service will opt for the land swap because that way "they don't even have to come up with money" to buy out FPL.

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Funding eyed for south Lake water supply study
DailyCommercial.com – by Livi Stanford, Staff Writer
February 26, 2014
With lawmakers looking at a surplus in the state’s budget this year, and Gov. Rick Scott already planning to spend $185 million on water issues in Florida, local officials hope some money will trickle down from Tallahassee for a study to find an alternative water supply in South Lake.
County officials recently attended an annual event known as Lake County Days in Tallahassee, where they had the opportunity to meet with the Lake County Legislative Delegation to highlight key issues important to the county.
One of those issues is funding a study to find an alternative water supply to groundwater in South Lake, as the projected demand for water continues to grow. There will be demand for 300 million gallons of water a day in 2035; currently the traditional source, the Floridan aquifer, can meet a demand of only 50 million gallons, according to water experts.
“I’m very hopeful for funding for the study based on support expressed by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Groveland, and Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla,” County Commissioner Sean Parks said. “I am looking forward to getting that (study) project listed as an appropriation.”
The South Lake Regional Water Initiative — consisting of the South Lake Chamber of Commerce, the county and the municipalities of Clermont, Groveland, Minneola, Mascotte and Montverde — agreed in January to equally share in the cost of hiring a consultant to help find an alternative water source for south Lake County.
Working in conjunction with the Central Florida Water Initiative, which is developing a unified process to address Central Florida’s current long-term water supply needs, the South Lake Regional Water Initiative must come up with $300,000 to fund a study to explore alternative water sources in the region.
Hays said he did not know of any higher priority statewide than the protection of water resources.
“Water has been an issue in Florida for years,” he said. “Now, we have more revenue and are able to do more than we previously could.”
Metz agreed.
“We are going to be addressing water issues on some level,” he said. “What you are going to see most of is the ability to fund water projects that haven’t been funded previously because we were in budget-cutting mode the last couple of years. I think some of the water projects will be funded this year.”
Scott already has said he wants to spend $130 million this year for Everglades and other water projects, plus another $55 million for springs protection.

140226-b
Keep the straws out of the St. Johns
FolioWeekly.com – by y Jimmy Orth, executive director, Lisa Rinaman, St. Johns Riverkeeper
February 26, 2014
The real problem with Florida's water supply is use, not supply
Depending on whom you talk to, Central Florida has either reached or will soon reach the sustainable limits of its primary source of water, the Floridan Aquifer. As a result, the three water management districts in a five-county area — the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), South Florida Water Management District and Southwest Florida Water Management District — created the Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI) to identify alternative water supply (AWS) sources to meet future demand.
Recently, the CFWI released its Draft Regional Water Supply Plan, which relies heavily on surface water withdrawals from the St. Johns River, instead of more responsible and cost-effective water conservation and efficiency options. The plan calls for potentially siphoning more than 150 million gallons of water a day from the St. Johns at an estimated cost of nearly $1.5 billion. The Ocklawaha River, one of the most important tributaries of the St. Johns, is also identified for potential withdrawals.
In addition, the SJRWMD recently released its Water Supply Plan for the 18 counties within its jurisdiction. The District's plan calls for the siphoning of an additional 125 million-plus gallons of water a day from the St. Johns River and more than 85 million gallons from the Ocklawaha River.
Unfortunately, these proposed surface water withdrawals are being justified based on the findings of a flawed and incomplete study by the SJRWMD. A group of independent scientists and experts from the National Research Council (NRC) conducted a peer review of the St. Johns River Water Supply Impact Study (WSIS). They identified significant shortcomings and expressed concerns about many of the study's conclusions.
According to the NRC, "The WSIS operated within a range of constraints that ultimately imposed both limitations and uncertainties on the study's overall conclusions." The NRC report goes on to say that "the modeling conducted by the District did not have a water quality component, and the District considered the potential ecological effects of significant increases in degraded stormwater runoff, as well as changes in the frequency distribution of stream flows in urbanized areas, to be outside the scope of the WSIS."
Subsequently, St. Johns Riverkeeper has serious concerns that these proposed withdrawals would worsen existing pollution problems, increase the frequency of toxic algal blooms, further reduce flow and increase salinity levels farther upstream, and adversely impact the fisheries, wildlife and submerged vegetation in and along the St. Johns and its many tributaries.
Many of these withdrawals would require treatment by reverse osmosis, resulting in a byproduct with a high mineral and/or salt content that would likely be discharged back into the river. This concentrate would only create additional pollution problems for an already-polluted and threatened waterway. In addition, once communities become reliant on this water, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn off the spigot during low-flow drought conditions or if environmental damage occurs.
The plans have also been criticized by utilities and other stakeholders for overestimating future demand projections. The larger the projected deficit, the less likely it is that conservation will be prioritized. Instead, utilities will be forced to pursue expensive alternative water supply infrastructure projects that may ultimately prove unnecessary. And, once those projects are included in an approved water supply plan, they are available for state funding and presumed to be in the public interest, making them more attractive and more difficult to challenge.
The bottom line is that water conservation does work, can potentially meet most if not all of our water supply needs, and is much more cost-effective and environmentally responsible. Previously, the SJRWMD determined that nearly 288 million gallons of water could potentially be saved with a $1.6 billion investment in conservation. The 2005 District Water Supply Plan's analysis "indicates a reasonable possibility that a substantial portion of the projected increase in SJRWMD water use between 2005 and 2025 could be met through improved water use efficiency."
Instead of siphoning millions of gallons of water a day from our rivers, our water managers and public officials should be focused on aggressive conservation and efficiency measures. Regrettably, both water supply plans downplay the potential of conservation to meet future demand. The CFWI's Draft Regional Water Supply Plan determined that only "3.9 percent of the projected demand for 2035 can be eliminated by water conservation."
This is absurd. We know how to use water much more efficiently, and opportunities clearly exist for significant reductions in water use at a fraction of the cost of risky alternative water supply projects. When irrigation accounts for nearly 50 percent of total residential water use and leaks are responsible for 10 percent of indoor use, we are obviously just scratching the surface of what is possible with conservation.
However, we must first acknowledge that our real problem is one of use, not supply. Then, we need to get serious about addressing the root cause of our water use problem by implementing aggressive, proven and quantifiable conservation strategies.
Unfortunately, the Central Florida plan only estimates the potential of water conservation "based on voluntary consumer actions." Voluntary measures alone are simply not sufficient. Mandatory requirements must also be implemented and enforced. We don't have voluntary water quality standards, so why should the use of this essential public resource be any different?
Also, pricing strategies are necessary to achieve maximum conservation and efficiency benefits. Tiered rates for utility customers need to be much more aggressive, and consumptive-use permit holders must begin to pay for the right to use the public's water.
Despite the looming water shortages and calls for new sources of supply, our state water management districts continue to issue frivolous consumptive-use permits that will further deplete our aquifer. Recently, the SJRWMD approved a permit from the California-based Niagara Bottling Company to nearly double groundwater withdrawals for its water bottling facility in Lake County to 910,000 gallons of water a day — an 88 percent increase. The time has clearly arrived for moratoriums on new withdrawals from the aquifer and permit increases, until we have a sustainable plan of action in place and a better handle on the hydrologic performance of our aquifer system.
Let's keep the straws out of the St. Johns, quit over-allocating our groundwater and finally get serious about addressing the root causes of our water use problems by exhausting all opportunities to use existing water resources more efficiently.

140226-c
Water district plan fails to protect precious asset
Daytona Beach News Journal - Community Voices by Eric West
February 26, 2014
The St. Johns River Water Management District has just released its most recent water plan. Well, it purports to be a plan, but looks disarmingly like every other “plan” it has produced for the last 30-plus years since its inception — the sum total of which has brought us to the state of decline of our aquifer, our estuaries, lakes, rivers, springs, seashores and environment and that has the potential to destroy our entire economy.
When the water management district was first created, its mandated goals were to first catalog and understand our water supply; second, determine how much recharge water was available to sustain this supply without damage to the environment; third, to manage distribution of this supply in such a way as to not exceed the ability of the system to recharge and remain healthy.
This should have been done in the order listed, since you can’t tell consumers they can have water until it has been determined how much water there is, and how much it takes to keep the system functioning.
The water management district did almost nothing to quantify the supply, nor did it pay much heed at all to the minimum flows and levels of the springs for nearly two decades. This is a job they still have not completed, but they’ve had no problem approving absurd levels of consumption.
The water management district has used every tool in its arsenal to look as if it is doing something positive, while still continuing to do the opposite.
(I must state here that I have no problems with the staff of the water management districts, but I do have a problem with the hierarchy that directs the staff and makes the final decisions.)
One of these pretend self back-patting measures is the touting of how much “restoration” is being performed. While some problems predated the water management districts, a good deal of “restoration” actually translates into using millions of dollars to undo the damage officials authorized earlier. Stormwater systems come to mind as one of the top examples. We will eventually actually have to spend billions of dollars to undo previously permitted systems to comply with the Clean Water Act. So we get to pay twice.
Another of my favorite insanities that sounds, at first blush, sensible, is using average rainfall in models for everything from recharge to flow. But two things stand out about this that makes it about the dumbest concept in modeling one could imagine: First, we have great storm events, like Hurricane Fay and others, that dump huge amounts of rainfall on our state at a rate that it cannot possibly be absorbed. Hurricane Fay dumped around 30 inches of rain which would seemingly boost our average 10-year rainfall by 3 inches a year. But most of that rainfall ran off into the ocean. So that“average” is actually a higher number, with regard to recharge, than it should be.
Second, we have a cyclical rainfall climate, which means that sometimes we have droughts that can last years. If you plan for average (already a too-high number), you’re out of water in the drought years. Our wetlands, wildlife and commercial fishing suffer. A much more useful number would be to use the lowest rainfall recorded as the modeling standard. That way we would be running a surplus much of the time.
Of course, since district officials know that they can’t really sustain the excesses they have already permitted, to cover their behinds, they are now talking about draining our lakes, streams and rivers and actually pumping water from where it is, to where it never has been — and where development of huge population centers shouldn’t be. If the land has been useful since Florida became a state without additional water, it can still be used the same way for eternity. The buzzword there is “sustainable.”
Imagine if the St. Johns district implements its plan to suck from our water bodies, and promises to supply thousands more new households — and then we have a years-long drought. Do they let the people they’ve over-promised water to dehydrate into zombies, or do they destroy what’s left of our water bodies? Isn’t this the definition of insanity?
What can they possibly be thinking?
When the water management districts were founded, Florida had hundreds of miles of clean rivers and streams, thousands of clean lakes, hundreds of artesian wells, a plentiful water supply and estuaries that were thriving, all contributing billions of dollars to our economy.
Now we have few artesian wells. We have impaired water bodies everywhere, dying coral reefs, dying wildlife and areas where there is no water for the future.
Just exactly how is our economy going to survive, let alone thrive, when neither our biggest economic engine, tourists, nor our own citizens, can swim in, fish in or even drink our water ?
West owns a participatory sailing charter in Wilbur-by-the-Sea and has a long history of environmental activism

140225-a
Big Sugar's influence stretches from Florida to Washington
WGCU.com - by Gina Jordan
February 25, 2014
Sugar is one of the biggest special interests in Tallahassee. More sugar comes from Florida than anywhere else in the country. It’s grown in a 700,000-acre region between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades known as the Everglades Agricultural Area. Florida sugar growers say they provide the state with $3.1 billion in economic activity each year – and 12,500 jobs. The processing facilities say they are self-sufficient, operating on renewable energy and selling surplus electricity back to the Florida Power and Light grid.
“Historically, big sugar has meant big bucks for politicians running for office,” says University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus. She says sugar companies are often successful at getting legislation passed -- or preventing less appealing proposals from moving forward. “In Florida, it has been an industry that has very much been involved in trying to influence the political process legally through PACs (political action committees) and other contributions,” MacManus says. But, she says other agriculture industries that spend big money on campaigns and lobbying efforts have found similar success. (Disclosure: MacManus’ family has long worked in agriculture.) While people are often surprised to hear how much money special interests contribute to political campaigns, “special interest to one person means an advocacy group to another, so the semantics of it make a difference,” MacManus says. Alan Farago, president of Friends of the Everglades, says the sugar industry gets what it wants, when it wants it, thanks to its influence on Washington and Florida policymakers. “When the sugar industry needs to change a piece of legislation, it can flood the hallways of the state legislature as it has done in the past with literally more lobbyists than legislators,” Farago says. “There is simply no way for the environmental community or for the public interest to be adequately represented.” Farago says the sugar industry also wields considerable authority over the state’s water management districts. “There is virtually no piece of Everglades restoration that can proceed without the sugar industry's endorsement,” Farago said. “In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the entire Everglades restoration effort is a workaround of Big Sugar.” “There are undoubtedly critics of sugar farming that call themselves environmental advocates,” says Brian Hughes, spokesman for Florida Sugar Farmers, a coalition that includes U.S. Sugar Corporation and Florida Crystals. “Last year, we worked hand in hand with the Everglades Foundation and Florida Audubon to help craft a bill that is now law that will enshrine really the final phase of Everglades restoration,” Hughes says. “What people should understand about Florida sugar farmers is that they are good stewards of the land.” Hughes says the industry pays billions of dollars of additional “privilege taxes” just to farm. He says growers also spend millions more on best management practices designed to help improve water quality on farms. Critics say Big Sugar’s unabashed power in Washington has garnered federal subsidies for the industry under the U.S. Farm Bill that actually drive up prices for American consumers. “It’s not a subsidy,” Hughes said. “The federal program is about protecting American farmers from foreign subsidized producers.” “Like most agricultural sectors, Florida sugar farmers work in a highly regulated environment,” Hughes said. “It’s just important to work with government officials to make sure they understand the impact of public policy on this important part of Florida’s agriculture sector.”

140225-b
Fla. lawmakers to talk water funding, not policy
WHEC.com – by Jennifer Kay
February 25, 2014
LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (AP) — In the marshes along the western edge of Florida's largest freshwater lake, the water is clear, wading birds burst into the sky ahead of an approaching airboat, and there's no sign of the turmoil that elevated water levels caused last summer.
The political waters in Tallahassee, though, are roiling over Lake Okeechobee and other hydrological woes, from Florida's Big Bend to the state's signature springs to a treasured estuary along the Atlantic.
Residents, lawmakers and environmental advocates want the state to do more to better manage its water resources. However, the speaker of the House has said no major change to Florida's water policies is likely to come out of the legislative session that begins March 4.
Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, told reporters earlier this month that any water issues that come up this year will deal with funding, while policy initiatives and long-term water management plans likely will be deferred until next year. His office declined comment last week on those statements and referred questions about water issues to the legislator expected to take over as speaker in 2015, House Majority Leader Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island.
"Most of what we're looking at right now is project-related, not policy-related," Crisafulli said.
The projects up for discussion include a cleanup in the Indian River Lagoon and finding ways to store more water north of Lake Okeechobee, which would alleviate pressure on the lake's decrepit dike and reduce the amount of water released into sensitive ecosystems west and east of the lake, Crisafulli said.
Last year, water levels in the lake rose to dangerous levels during a very rainy wet season, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the dike and locks around the 730-square-mile lake, to release large amounts of fresh water into the Indian River Lagoon and the Caloosahatchee River. The excess water and the pollution it carried were blamed for steep declines in the health of those ecosystems.
Residents on either side of the lake loudly called for the water to stop; corps officials said they were working to do so while managing the risks that high water levels pose to the earthen dike, parts of which date back to the 1930s. It got so contentious that Republican Gov. Rick Scott added the lake's federal management to his list of complaints against President Barack Obama's administration.
State senators investigating the problems have recommended shifting control of how and when water is released from the lake from the corps to the state, which would require congressional action. The Senate select committee led by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, also recommends $220 million in state funding to improve water quality and expand storage reservoirs around the lake.
In November, voters will consider a conservation amendment that could set aside $10 billion in state funds over 20 years for land and water conservation. Some lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, say it's better to wait and see whether that amendment passes before devoting major resources to water cleanup and management.
Waiting doesn't sit well with everyone, though.
"What we know is that during this legislative session or any other legislative session, if we do not make the elected officials do what we demand, then they won't," said Cris Costello, a regional organizer for the Sierra Club, which has signed onto a statewide campaign that aims to build public demand for better water quality and resource management. "They will take the easy way out and remain in status quo mode."
It's unclear how the House would receive bipartisan legislation that would set a firm timeframe for cleaning up Florida's most polluted springs, identify the septic tanks and other sources of that pollution and establish an ongoing funding source for those projects. Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, is one of five lawmakers now working on the bill in the Senate.
Scott wants to spend $55 million in the coming year to restore and protect Florida's long-suffering springs. "I think we're looking for more money than that this year to get started," Simpson said.
Scott also has pledged $130 million in the upcoming budget for Everglades projects, including restoration of the Kissimmee River that drains into South Florida's wetlands, construction of a storm-water treatment plant for Martin and St. Lucie counties and reconstruction of the Tamiami Trail to allow water to freely flow south.
Environmental groups have criticized state officials for slashing funding for conservation purchases as well as Florida's invocation of states' rights in joining a friend-of-the-court brief challenging a cleanup plan for the Chesapeake Bay. Also missing from this year's water proposals, they say, is any discussion of stopping water pollution at its source: farms, septic tanks and wastewater treatment plants.
"Do we need money for cleanup and restoration? Yes, but in order for those projects to work you have to stop the source of the pollution," Costello said. She called Scott's budget proposals "a political ploy in an election season to make it look like he's doing something."
Audubon Florida officials point to Lake Okeechobee as an example of what happens when pollution isn't addressed at the source. It's the focus of competing interests: Environmentalists want to preserve its resources; the corps uses it for flood control; the state wants it for South Florida's water supply; and the agriculture industry views it as a reservoir. Repeated costly cleanups have been needed in and around the lake because water hasn't been stored or cleaned elsewhere. Meanwhile, pollution continues to flow into the watersheds in quantities that exceed standards the state set for the lake.
"With all the repeated high-water and low-water problems on the lake, and the estuary dumps, and all the pollution, and all the water shortages — you know, we're going to have to spend a lot of money to fix it. If we don't, this is going to be our life, and it's going to get nothing but worse with more and more people (moving to Florida)," said Paul Gray, science coordinator for Audubon Florida's Lake Okeechobee program. "If this isn't important to people — this is going to be our life, really? It's going to be this bad?"

140225-c
Poor water quality leads to 'no swimming' advisory at Jupiter's Dubois Park
WPTV.com – by Terra Sullivan
February 25, 2014
JUPITER, Fla. - The Palm Beach County Health Department is advising residents to avoid swimming at Dubois Park after bacterial levels in the water tested in the poor range.
Health Department staff routinely samples the beach waters at 13 locations from Boca Raton to Jupiter for enterococci as recommended by the Florida Department if Environmental Protection.
Dubois sampled above 105 parts per 100 milliliters of marine water for enterococci placing it in the poor range and prompting the advisory. The area affected is the small lagoon located just off the Jupiter Inlet in the park. 
New results are expected on Thursday.

140225-e
Resevoir should help lower toxic algae entering Indian River Lagoon
CBS 12 News - by Jana Eschbach
February 25, 2014
FORT PIERCE, Fla. - "The whole state from Panama City to Key West has storm water issues. Lets face it. This is a statewide problem," said St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky.
He's fought for years to get some way to clean the water before it gets to the Indian River Lagoon. Today he got to kick start his wish.
The St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners and City of Fort Pierce Commissioners held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Indian Hills Storm Water Treatment and Recreation Area.
This new recreation and stormwater treatment project will provide future water quality benefits for the Indian River Lagoon, while at the same time adding additional passive recreational opportunities. 
The goal of the project is to make sure the polluted water never makes it to the Lagoon or St Lucie Estuary with the toxic algae in tow.
The new project will expand the reservoir to three times its size, and allow Fort Pierce and St Lucie County staff to treat the lake water with chemicals and plant mats. Plant mats float on the water with living plants that eat the toxic algae.
The Martin and St Lucie County Health Departments for 8 months in 2013 urged county residents not to touch the water, nor get it in your eyes, nose, or mouth. The levels of bacteria were so high--it could make you sick. And for many it did just that.
"I can tell you it does happen and I was one of those people," St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said,  "yes it was a valuable lesson and I am glad I got the proper treatment and was able early on fight the bacteria."
With more than $4.2 million in grants from the state, the project is a collaborative effort from several agencies, including: Florida Communities Trust, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Lucie County, the City of Fort Pierce and the South Florida Water Management District.
The first phase of the project, which is expected to take 12 months to construct, includes the expansion of the existing storm water retention area. In addition to increasing the capacity of water stored there, the system will also feature an Alum system and floating vegetative mats to provide additional treatment of the storm water. Future improvements will include hiking trails and passive recreational opportunities around the lake. 
"We have a lot of these storm water treatment areas that need to be built. This is actually an existing sand mine that's been here for several decades, and we thought outside the box and we're going to use it to create a better storm water system," Dzadovsky said. "The goal here is to hold the water on site and cleanse it."
"We've got to do this one step at a time. Is this all the answers? No, this is only a small part of it. But we have to make every small part, part of the bigger part." Dzadovsky added. "After the toxic algae dies, it settles to the bottom and creates more of a muck process. So this is a never ending cycle. Our goal is to end the cycle."
The river in Stuart had plenty of victims as well.
"I developed a rash all over the upper part of my body in June, so I got involved then with Save the Indian River Lagoon." said Gayle Ryan, who came up from Stuart to the groundbreaking today, "I"I retired after teaching for 30 years to swim and I couldn't for a long time last summer. We call it the summer of death, or the lost summer."
Elected officials and staff from St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie were in attendance at the groundbreaking event, along with Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard.
Funding for the project came from the Florida Communities Trust and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

140225-f
Senator Soto, DEP trade letters over Everglades oil drilling concerns
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
February 25, 2014
No permits have been issued for oil and gas exploration or drilling in the Florida Everglades, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday in response to a senator's letter.
Sen. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, wrote to DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard on Monday requesting that the department suspend approved oil exploration permits in the Everglades to allow the House and Senate to review the risks and effects.
The letter followed a report Saturday in the Orlando Sentinel saying that the search for oil on the western edge of the Everglades is raising hopes and fears of an emerging oil boom.
"In addition, please clarify whether any of these permits relate to fracking or other similar methods," Soto wrote.  "These permits were issued without meaningful dialogue with your legislative partners and represent a major change in policy without our approval."
In response, Vinyard wrote that there are 162 oil and gas wells operating in six counties. But he said no exploration or drilling permits have been issued for The Everglades.
"While there are challenges to restoration efforts in The Everglades, oil and gas exploration is not one of them," Vinyard said.
A DEP spokeswoman said The Everglades for the purpose of the letter was being defined as the Everglades Protection Area, which covers nearly 2.5 million acres of publicly-owned land including 1.5 million acres of Everglades National Park.
Vinyard's letter didn't list the six counties where the wells are operating. 
DEP's web site also shows that 13 applications were approved in 2013 for drilling in Hendry or Collier counties in Southwest Florida. 
HB 71 and HB 157 were filed in response to reports about the oil industry's interest in oil and natural gas hydraulic fracturing in southwest Florida, said Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero.
HB 71 requires companies to provide a list of chemicals used in fracking to an online registry. HB 157 provides an exemption from public records disclosure of industry "trade secrets" related to fracking. The bills, which lack Senate companion bills, face opposition from environmental groups. 
On Tuesday, Mary Jean Yon, legislative director of Audubon Florida, told a Florida League of Women Voters telephone audience that she's hearing that the bills are dead for the session. But she said the bill language still could be included in other legislation.
In response, Rodrigues said, "I think it's awful early to call a bill dead when session hasn't even begun yet. Anything can happen in the next 60 days."
National groups last week said HB 71 and HB 157 were among legislation being proposed nationally by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Rodrigues, who couldn't be reached for comment last week, said Tuesday the bills didn't come from ALEC.
He said the bills originated with Texas law changes that were proposed by environmental and energy industry representatives and passed with bipartisan support. Rodrigues said ALEC has since adopted the Texas law as model legislation nationally.
Related Research:
* Feb. 25, 2014 DEP Secretary Vinyard response letter to Sen. Soto
* Feb. 24, 2014 Sen. Darren Soto letter to DEP re Everglades drilling
* DEP map of the Everglades Protection Area
Related:           State Senator Asks DEP To Halt Oil Drilling Permits In the Everglades      WGCU News
Search for oil near Everglades sparks hopes, controversy      Sun-Sentinel
Growing search for oil near Everglades raises environmental concerns         Orlando Sentinel
Senator asks DEP to stop issuing oil drilling permits in the Everglades        MiamiHerald.com (blog)-

140224-
Oil search raises water concerns
WUSF News - by Health News Florida Staff
February 24, 2014
A search for oil on the Everglades’ western shore is raising both hopes and fears of an oil boom that could be a threat to the underground water supply, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. 
While energy companies are planning to seek approval and/or drill near the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and National Wildlife Refuge, a plan that could expand Florida’s oil production and boost jobs, environmental activists fear that drilling could adversely affect South Florida’s delicate ecosystem, threatening wildlife and posing a hazard to the aquifer.
Related:
Search for oil near Everglades sparks hopes, controversy      Sun-Sentinel
Growing search for oil near Everglades raises environmental concerns         Orlando Sentinel
Senator asks DEP to stop issuing oil drilling permits in the Everglades        MiamiHerald.com (blog)-

140223-a
Florida water issues may be put off until 2015
SainPetersBlog - by Phil Ammann
February 23, 2014
Even after two measures in the Florida Senate, and a 200-person rally Tuesday at the Historic Capitol, wetland advocates may have to wait for future legislative sessions before the state cleans up its natural springs, bays and streams.
Although House Speaker Will Weatherford says he is “sensitive” to natural springs proposals to be released by the Senate, he tells Jim Turner of the News Service of Florida that House lawmakers will focus on issues they “can control” in 2014.
“I think we’ll tackle a lot of the funding issues this year,” Weatherford added. “I think there is an opportunity for us to address some of the policies issues, but water is so broad. You have water quality, you have water quantity, water infrastructure and how we move water resources.”
Weatherford also deferred any water-issue plans to Speaker-designate Steve Crisafulli, who will take over the House in 2015.
Brushing aside water issues means that most of the $380 million proposal — reducing the amount of fertilizers released into waterways, no-cost replacements of aging septic systems and redirecting the flow of wastewater — will have to wait until at least next year.  
A priority will be Senate budget chief Joe Negron’s efforts to reduce releases from Lake Okeechobee in South Florida, a plan that would cost $220 million, including first-year costs of $160 million.
“I would agree it’s advantageous for what I’m trying to do to have the focus on funding,” Negron told the News Service when asked about Weatherford’s water plans.
Tuesday’s Historic Capitol clean water rally—attended by the Sierra Club, 1000 Friends of Florida, Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Florida Wildlife Federation, Silver Springs Alliance and Our Sante Fe River — had activists demanding that lawmakers address a wide range of water-related issues.
The group called for improved quality and quantity of Florida drinking-water sources, freshwater springs, as well as the Apalachicola River area and South Florida.
“What will the value of the Florida brand be when the dirty reality of Florida’s water eclipses our sterling reputation,” said Springs Eternal Project spokesperson John Moran. “Talk about a game-changer; what do you suppose will happen when our reputation, like our formerly pristine waters, reaches the tipping point and the stench of dead and dying pelicans and manatees and dolphins is exceeded only by the stench of our dying tourism economy?”
Gov. Rick Scott proposed $55 million in 2014 for the springs, a $45 million increase from 2013.

140223-b
Ken Pruitt's lobbying firm harvested $180,000 from Florida Crystals since 2012, investigation finds
TCPalm - by George Andreassi
February 23, 2014
Florida's sugar industry has been very generous to St. Lucie County Property Appraiser Ken Pruitt. Critics have said sugar-related lobbying fees and political contributions cast doubt on politicians who say they are committed to protecting the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River. See the total amount from all sugar-related companies as well as which contribute to his campaigns vs. his lobbying firm. (For full article a subscription is required).

140222-a
Fertilizer makes a controversy grow
DaytonaBeachNewsJournal.com
February 22, 2014
In Florida, fertilizer has a way of growing controversies, so it’s unsurprising the Volusia County Council last week found itself divided.
Many Florida coastal counties already have ordinances restricting fertilizer use, especially during summer’s rainy season. More than 50 Florida cities and counties have some kind of fertilizer ordinance.
They’re there because a lot of people have no idea what they’re doing with bags of fertilizer and everyone suffers the environmental consequences.
They apply it right up to the water’s edge and before heavy rains so phosphorous and nitrogen end up in wetlands, rivers and streams.
They spread the stuff on driveways and roads so it ends up in storm sewers and then into rivers and streams.
They figure if one bag will turn a St. Augustine lawn green, two bags should make it twice as green.
When these chemicals end up in waterways, they feed algae blooms instead of grass and vegetables. The algae blooms foul waterways and harm aquatic plants and fish. And then there are those particularly toxic algae blooms, like red tide, that kill fish, shellfish, dolphins and manatees.
And when the algae in a bloom die and bacteria feast on them, the bacteria multiply and suck up so much dissolved oxygen they create dead zones, stretches of water with no aquatic life.
Each summer, for instance, a dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico. Last year it was about the size of Connecticut
Nutrients from farms and lawn fertilizer are among the string of causes for the shocking recent deterioration of the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon. A red tide bloom in the Indian River last summer made for a record number of manatee deaths in 2013.
No wonder counties and cities want to control the damage. The question is how.
Some counties, like Pinellas and Indian River, ban fertilizing from June through September, warm months that see regular 2 p.m. thunderstorms and hurricanes. A time when rain washes fertilizer into rivers, lakes and storm sewers.
But wait, a recent University of Florida review of scientific literature found research suggesting that lawns actually are best able to absorb fertilizer, and thus keep it from washing away, during peak growing months of summer. It cast doubt on how well summer fertilizing bans work.
Less controversial are bans on fertilizing too close to waterways, requiring use of slow-release fertilizers, requiring cleanup of sloppily spread fertilizer and mandating training for commercial and institutional fertilizer applicators.
People often throw around fertilizing chemicals the way an earlier generation threw around pesticide chemicals, without thinking about environmental blow-back.
Any ordinance, no matter what its details, can only start changing that attitude. But if Florida waterways are going to be healthy, it must change.

140222-b
Public hearing on drilling
Sun Sentinel  - February 22, 2014
What: Public hearing on plans to drill an "injection well" to store toxic wastewater created by exploratory oil drilling at the edge of the Everglades.
Who: Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will discuss the permitting process, provide information about construction and operation of the well and receive spoken and written comments from the public.
Why: Drilling plans have raised concerns about the impact on wildlife and water supplies. Federal officials are deciding whether to approve a permit for the injection well.
When: 4 to 6 p.m. March 11.
Where: Golden Gate Community Center Auditorium, 4701 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples

140221-a
Finding ‘new’ water for Florida
TBO.com – by Mark Farrell, former assistant executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District and principal at WRA Engineering. He is the president of WaterReuseFL
February 21, 2014
With Senate Bill 536, the Florida Legislature is starting a process to quantify and recognize the important role of recycling our water supply in the overall management of our water resources.
Audubon has some concerns about this study including excess surface water and stormwater, but the fact is that we need to know how much water we have, how much we can expect and what sources it comes from.
Florida leads the nation in the amount of reclaimed water produced, but we could do so much more. As much as we are using we are also sending too much usable water to tide. In other words, we are throwing it away.
Today our reclaimed water is used primarily for irrigation, both agriculture and landscaping. We also have a few rehydration projects, where reclaimed water is used to rehydrate wetlands or other natural bodies.
This proposed study, due in December 2015, will help us understand how much reclaimed water we have, how it can be used and what needs to be done to help educate the public that treated right, water is just water. The water management districts have done much to encourage water recycling, but more can be done to increase the efficient use of this precious resource.
And they are sources of water that will help us ensure that we do not overuse our traditional ground or surface water. Because, however we decide to use those resources — including recycling our reclaimed water into drinking water — we still have to be mindful of the need to protect natural systems and public health. All of these sources are limited and all need to be used wisely. Although we have not come to the end of our resources, we can look to California to see the many ways that reclaimed water — they call it “purified” — has been applied to create desperately needed drinking water supplies.
California has been recycling its water supply for years and gained widespread acceptance. Even with this efficient use of water, they are still subject to the hardships of periodic drought, as is Florida.
In order to decide what we want to do, we need to know what we have. This study will help define our reclaimed resource. It will not tell us how to use it.

140221-d
Growing search for oil near Everglades raises environmental concerns
Sun Sentinel – by William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
February 21, 2014|
WASHINGTON — Energy exploration at the western edge of the Everglades is expanding into a potential oil boom, as companies prepare to use new drilling techniques to tap a vast deposit of crude oil in South Florida.
A Texas company is planning to drill an exploratory well next to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge east of Naples. And other companies are seeking approval to conduct testing on tens of thousands of acres beneath the Big Cypress National Preserve.
These plans could dramatically expand the state's oil production, boosting jobs and energy supplies. But some environmental activists fear that drilling in this delicate ecosystem not only threatens endangered wildlife but poses a hazard to drinking water in underground aquifers.
Low-volume drilling has taken place in the Everglades since 1943 without a major spill or extensive damage. New techniques have raised the stakes by allowing deeper exploration across a wider area surrounded by ecological landmarks, including the Picayune Strand State Forest and Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
"People who enjoy nature — including all those people on the East Coast with their `Protect the Panther' license plates — know and love these wild and beautiful places. For many of us, it's a big reason why we live here, to have this vast wilderness in our back yards with millions of acres of habitat to explore," said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. "To sacrifice it for oil drilling, that's just wrong."
He and other opponents see the drilling plans as a precedent for exploiting environmentally sensitive places.
"We feel like this is going to open up the floodgates to Everglades drilling, this particular drill site," said Karen Dwyer of Naples, who led a bus caravan of environmental activists to Tallahassee last week to protest the drilling plans and other water concerns. "We want to stop the problem before it starts."
These fears were heightened when neighbors near the Panther Refuge were notified of forthcoming evacuation plans in case of an explosion, gas leak or drilling disaster.
But with oil prices climbing above $100 a barrel, energy companies are eager to tap domestic deposits, saying it would make the U.S. less dependent on foreign supplies. They say the new technology — employing "directional," or horizontal, drilling — will make it possible to suck up more oil over wider underground areas without relying on a field of vertical wells.
"It's part of what some call a serious renaissance in oil and gas production in the United States," said David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, an industry group. "Obviously, Americans want it, because it creates energy security.
"If you did a map of the areas that have been drilled and did a flyover, I don't think you would recognize the fact that we've been there. We've been good environmental stewards, and I hope we can be in the future as well."
Oil production in Florida already generates about 286,800 jobs, according to industry estimates. The state in recent years has provided less than 1 percent of the nation's oil production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nobody knows how much crude lies below the state's soil and waters, but companies in Texas and Mississippi are determined to find out.
They have obtained leases — some awaiting final approval from the state — to conduct seismic tests of the Sunniland Trend, a swath of underground oil deposits about 20 miles wide and nearly 150 miles long across the southern Florida peninsula.
Collier Resources Co. of Naples, with roots dating back to the county's founder, owns the mineral rights on about 800,000 acres, including lands the Collier family donated to form the Big Cypress Preserve and the Panther Refuge.
The company has leased mineral rights to the Dan A. Hughes Co. of Beeville, Texas, for exploratory drilling, including the site near the Panther Refuge, and to other companies to conduct seismic testing to determine how much oil is down there and whether it's worth extracting.
The leases reflect a burst of interest in Florida's oil deposits. State officials say they have granted 37 drilling permits over the past five years, concentrated in Collier, Hendry, Lee, Miami-Dade, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Companies now hold active permits for 29 horizontal wells.
The state Department of Environmental Protection says that drilling in those counties since 1943 has produced 611 million barrels of crude oil and 689 billion cubic feet of natural gas without major accidents, spills, or blowouts.
State and federal agencies have raised no objections, though communications within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicate some qualms about the Hughes Co.'s drill site.
Related:           Growing search for oil near Everglades raises environmental concerns         Orlando Sentinel

140221-c
Proposed project a major water threat
Visalia Times-Delta – by Del Strange, a Tulare resident and former spokesman for the now defunct nonprofit organization Valley Citizens for Water
Febuary 21, 2014
Another dry year. The third and most severe in this current drought, just one of many, recently.
History shows that there have been many lengthy drought cycles locally, with some lasting up to 50 years. Yet, our local water managers just don’t get it.
They’ve made contracts with outside water users to deliver water they don’t have now. They’ve been relying on outside Friant water to cover their deficits. This year, they’re “bankrupt” and can’t deliver the water at any price. Friant water has been shut off due to the extreme water shortage.
It’s been known for a long time now that Tulare County uses more than twice as much water as it has locally in its watershed annually. The majority comes from the Friant-Kern Canal. Now its “dried up” for our local use. What’s next?
Well, the latest thing to hit our local water resources is the McKay Point Reservoir Project. This water-threatening news just hit the streets and its a doozy.
You see, several local water interests have gotten together and dreamed up this plan whereby they can essentially build this water-tight tub or reservoir, insert it into the narrowest and shallowest part of the groundwater aquifer down to bedrock, then use it as a forebay to dump water into from their electric power plant at the dam when electric prices are high. Then, when the irrigation companies need their water, it would be delivered to them first from the reservoir or forebay.
This project has been ill-conceived. It’s flawed on two counts. First, the proposed watertight tub in the groundwater aquifer down to bedrock will act as a giant “brick” or dam underground at the groundwater system’s narrowest and shallowest point.
Since the proposed project site is located in the deepest part of this confined passageway as well, this “brick” will cut off a large portion of the groundwater that otherwise flows to all of the water users downstream. This includes all of the rural agricultural and domestic water users, in addition to the cities of Woodlake, Exeter, Farmersville, Visalia and Tulare
As it is right now, with the shortage of surface water for our farmers, we’re all pumping groundwater. The water table levels are at historic lows and dropping.
Our groundwater levels continue to decline at accelerating rates. Ever since 1934, groundwater levels have been recorded here in the Kaweah River Basin and the trend has been a long-term decline or “overdraft” of our groundwater.
With virtually everyone drawing upon groundwater, the water levels are rapidly dropping. How low can we go?
It’s a known fact that the groundwater aquifer holds less water per foot of depth as we go deeper. For instance, let’s say that a given well with a 10-horsepower submersible pump installed in a 100-foot-deep well with a standing water level of 30 feet draws the water level down to a pumping water level of 60 feet. That’s a 30 foot drawdown.
Now that was 20 years ago. Let’s fast-forward to today.
Our well now has a standing water level of 50 feet and a required drawdown of another 50 feet, due to the older and deeper alluvial deposits not being able to hold as much water. Our well has gone dry and we’re sucking air.
I forgot to mention that this well hit bedrock at 100 feet. Unfortunately, there’s no place to go. We’re out of water.
As proposed, this project could result in hundreds of dry wells in short order.
The second flaw in the project, is that it results in a reservoir with 110 acres of surface area. With the known annual evaporative loss to a body of water in this area being 6 vertical feet, this project would ultimately result in the permanent loss of 660 acre-feet per year. That’s enough water to supply 3,300 people each year, forever.
Keep in mind that the groundwater normally below the project site is protected from evaporative losses, as is all groundwater. Digging open pits or basins or “reservoirs” only contributes to unprotected water that’s subject to permanent evaporative losses instead of protection as designed by Mother Nature.
In addition, land subsidence is a real concern, especially in Tulare, where the water table is excessively depressed in relation to areas upstream. Subsidence is occurring much more frequently of late here in the Central Valley of California.
Similar to the sink holes in Florida and other parts of the country, they can destroy homes, streets, or whole areas may collapse without warning. Without groundwater filling the pore spaces within the sand and gravel deposits of the aquifer, those materials no longer have added support and could settle easily. Possibly all it would take would be a small earthquake to shake things up, then down.
Water is vital to life and property. I urge you to help protect your water by writing down your concerns about this real threat to the local water resources and mail them to the Tulare Irrigation District so they become part of the public record.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “When the well goes dry, we know the worth of water!”
Will you do your part ?

140221-d
Taxes, regulation dominate Florida's lobbying agenda
Orlando Sentinel – by Aaron Deslatte, Capitol View
February 21, 2014
TALLAHASSEE – Florida's lobbying corps garnered another banner year of cash in exchange for influencing legislation and regulation in the Capitol last year.
And although social issues such as abortion, medical marijuana and gun rights draw a lot of ink and airtime in the Capitol, it's always interesting to note that when it comes to swaying political outcomes, the most critical issues almost always revolve around corporate profits.
An Orlando Sentinel analysis of the 2013 lobbyist compensation data filed last week indicates Florida's lobbyists were paid about $132.3 million to ply the Legislature, up from $123 million in 2012.
They also reported being compensated to the tune of $93.8 million to lobby Gov. Rick Scott's office and executive branch agencies, up from $88.5 million last year.
The biggest lobbying spenders were all companies with either tax or regulation issues affecting their bottom lines pending before state government.
The top 10 list for lobbying the Legislature includes: AT&T ($1.53 million); U.S. Sugar Corp. ($983,000); Honeywell International Inc. ($777,000); Florida Crystals ($740,000); Dosal Tobacco Corp. ($720,000); the Florida Hospital Association ($630,000); the Florida Justice Association ($625,000); the Seminole Tribe of Florida ($615,000); Associated Industries of Florida ($590,000) and Florida Power & Light Co. ($545,000).
On the executive branch side of the ledger, the list shakes out a bit differently: U.S. Sugar Corp. (695,000); AT&T ($660,000); Honeywell ($597,000); Florida Crystals ($520,000); Automated Healthcare Solutions ($505,000); Harris Corp. ($452,000); Florida Power & Light ($430,000); FJA ($355,000); the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office ($340,000); and the Florida Hospital Association ($320,000).
Many of these companies have big-dollar issues perennially at stake, which is why they spend near the top.
AT&T is one of the companies pushing for a $242 million annual cut in the communications services tax. AT&T was part of a working group in 2012 that recommended abolishing the tax altogether. The bill sponsored by Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-DeLand, instead just cuts it.
Big Sugar is constantly involved in Everglades clean-up fights and related water-pollution issues.
Automated is a Broward County company that regularly beats back insurance industry attempts to kill its business model: selling software to doctors who dispense their own drugs for workers' compensation patients.
Dosal is a Miami-Dade discount cigarette maker that doesn't want to pay into Florida's tobacco settlement.
Even the Seminole Tribe of Florida has big business issues to resolve in Tallahassee. Its compact to offer exclusive gambling options at tribal casinos is due to be renegotiated this year or in 2015. The Seminoles don't want other casino interests to cut into their business.
The $226.1 million total for 2013 is based on compensation ranges that lobbying firms have to disclose for each of their clients. The way it works is this: if the pay day is $15,000 a quarter, they report between $10,000 and $19,999. If it is more than $50,000, they report the exact amount.
But lawmakers and lobbyists alike are dissatisfied with the 2005 law requiring the reports. There are accusations from some of the biggest firms in town that rivals are inflating their books. That might happen in some instances. But we now have seven years of decent data, and while some firms could inflate contracts, I'd wager most do not.
Starting with the 2014 reports, auditors will begin pouring over randomly selected firms. This humble scribe's expectation: Don't expect the big numbers to change much in 2015.

140220-a
Bondi's duties elsewhere ?
News-Press.com - Editorial
February. 20, 2014
Fellow taxpayers, it is our fiscally conservative Floridian duty to inform you that your Floridian tax dollars are being dumped on an out-of-state effort that has nothing to do with, well, Florida.
In the latest misadventure of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, her Florida-funded salary has been put toward work way up north in Chesapeake Bay, more than a 14-hour-drive from Tallahassee.
You may be wondering how in the world Chesapeake Bay fits into the Florida attorney general’s job description, which, according to the official state website, entails: “… protecting Florida consumers from various types of fraud and enforcing the state’s antitrust laws. Additionally, the Attorney General protects her constituents in cases of Medicaid fraud, defends the state in civil litigation cases and represents the people of Florida when criminals appeal their convictions in state and federal courts.”
The short answer – it doesn’t.
But that hasn’t stopped Bondi, who used her office and, presumably, her work hours, to file a brief opposing the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint, which sets pollution limits that have been agreed upon by six states in the region and the federal government as a pathway toward restoring the damaged ecosystem.
The effort to overturn the pollution limits has been led by the American Farm Bureau Federation which is being backed up by Bondi and 20 other attorneys general. Of the whole bunch, only one of them is from a state in the Chesapeake Bay region: the attorney general from West Virginia.
Forget that Bondi is a self-proclaimed “states rights” conservative going out and meddling with decisions, standards and agreements formed far away from Florida by – ahem – other states.
Forget that Bondi’s attention is elsewhere, fighting for the right to more water pollution, while we here in Florida are facing gravely serious issues with our own toxic waters – from the Everglades on up to the Indian River Lagoon, through our algae-choked springs, the sputtering Apalachicola River Basin and the Caloosahatchee River.
But don’t forget that you are paying Bondi to do a job – with duties here in Florida – and that meddling in the affairs of other states at the behest of private, special interests is a direct dereliction of the duties of her office. That is not what we, the taxpayers, are paying her to do. Needless to say, we doubt any private-sector employer would put up with such behavior.
But sadly, with too many of our elected officials, actions like this remind us that we citizens are not the only ones signing paychecks. Although we finance their official duties, others are paying for their influence. Which is where the American Farm Bureau Federation comes into the picture. And that’s the 1,000-mile connection between Florida, our attorney general and Chesapeake Bay. This is an election year. The Farm Bureau Federation will be financing its favorite candidates. And Bondi is running for re-election.
So remember all this when November comes around and there’s a blank box next to Bondi’s name on your ballot, and ask yourself this question: What does the Chesapeake Bay have to do with us in Florida ?
Nothing. Yet, everything.

140220-b
Florida water advocates may have to put hopes on ice
News-JournalOnline.com - by Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
February 20, 2014
TALLAHASSEE — Advocates of cleaning Florida’s threatened rivers, bays and natural springs will have to tread water for a few more legislative sessions.
Two large water measures are floating in the Senate this year. And at least 200 water advocates from across the state rallied outside the Historic Capitol on Tuesday. But next year will probably bring a better chance for more comprehensive reforms.
House Speaker Will Weatherford told The News Service of Florida last week that he is “sensitive” to the Senate’s yet-to-be-released natural springs proposal and an equally comprehensive measure pushed by Senate budget chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, that would redirect and improve the quality of Lake Okeechobee water.
But the House will focus this session on issues “we can control, Weatherford said.
“I think we’ll tackle a lot of the funding issues, this year,” Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said. “I think there is an opportunity for us to address some of the policies issues, but water is so broad, you have water quality, you have water quantity, water infrastructure and how we move water resources.”
Weatherford has also deferred water policy issues to Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, who has said he wants to make water a priority when he becomes speaker in 2015.
Weatherford’s approach means that large portions of the nearly $380 million springs effort — controlling the amounts of fertilizers allowed into waterways, redirecting waste water, and replacing septic systems at no charge to homeowners — may have to wait another year. Instead, Senate budget chief Negron’s efforts to reduce impacts of Lake Okeechobee releases in South Florida will take priority.
Next month’s updated forecast from state economists will help determine how much money is available for the projects, said Negron, R-Stuart. Negron’s plan would cost $220 million, including $160 million in the first year.
“I would agree, it’s advantageous for what I’m trying to do to have the focus on funding,” Negron replied when asked about Weatherford’s water outlook.
Negron on Tuesday sent a letter to Congress asking that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers no longer have sole jurisdiction over the lake releases and requesting money for a water storage project to help the Caloosahatchee region.
The Sierra Club, 1000 Friends of Florida, Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Florida Wildlife Federation, Silver Springs Alliance, Our Sante Fe River, and other water advocates rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday. The groups are demanding that lawmakers tackle the entire spectrum of water-related issues, including the quality and quantity of the state’s drinking-water sources, the state’s freshwater springs, the Apalachicola River region and South Florida.
“What will the value of the Florida brand be when the dirty reality of Florida’s water eclipses our sterling reputation,” asked John Moran of the Springs Eternal Project. “Talk about a game-changer; what do you suppose will happen when our reputation, like our formerly pristine waters, reaches the tipping point and the stench of dead and dying pelicans and manatees and dolphins is exceeded only by the stench of our dying tourism economy?”
Gov. Rick Scott has proposed $55 million for the springs in the coming year, a $45 million increase from the current year.
Sen. Wilton Simpson, one of the architects of the Senate’s springs proposal, drew cheers from the crowd when he spoke of the plan. Simpson, R-Trilby, said later he isn’t troubled by Weatherford’s stance.
“I think we’ve got an ambitious agenda in the Senate, but I think we are on the right track,” Simpson said. “It will take a few years to fully ramp up and be able to spend a $150, $200, $300 million a year. But at least with the path known, our agencies — DEP, the water basin boards — can start planning for these projects.”

140220-c
Fracking chemical disclosure bills revived in Florida
RingOfFireRadio.com - by Joshua De Leon
February 20, 2014
The Florida House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee (FHANRS) has revived two American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bills. One of the bills will require energy companies to disclose fracking chemicals, and the other creates a loophole in that it dictates a trade secrets exemption from chemical disclosure.
Originally, the Fracturing Chemical Usage Disclosure Act (HB 71), was introduced to the Florida state legislature as HB 743 in February 2013. The Florida House passed HB 473 in a 92-19 vote, but the bill never got to the state senate. Now, the bill, reintroduced as HB 71 is steadily working its way through Florida congressional subcommittees as it was passed by the FHANRS by an 8-4 vote. HB 71 has a sister bill and both bills have been endorsed by ExxonMobil.
The Public Records/Fracturing Chemical Usage Disclosure Act (HB 157) has been attached to HB 71. This bill creates a loophole that exempts energy companies from the mandated disclosures as dictated by HB 71 as the fracking chemicals will be considered protected proprietary trade secrets. This covert kind of legislative trickery echoes what became known as the “Halliburton Loophole.”
Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, was Vice President of the United States when the federal government passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The act was designed to force transparency upon energy companies so environmental groups could report and regulate pollutants released into the environment. Playing favorites, Dick Cheney, who headed the Energy Task Force, allowed the fracking industry a pass deeming the chemicals used as a trade secret.
The Florida bills, introduced by Florida State Representative Ray Rodrigues (R-Ft. Myers), echo legislation passed in Texas in 2011. ALEC has gained a reputation as a ghost-lobbying group acting in the interest of destructive corporations.
ALEC created the ExxonMobil-endorsed Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act that was eventually passed in Texas. The bill posed as pro-transparency legislation, but ended up being a Trojan Horse for fracking companies as there were transparency exemptions to disclosure in the form of trade secret protections. ALEC kept Exxon’s sponsorship of the bill hidden from the public.
There are currently no fracking wells in Florida, but energy companies have increasingly been considering establishing sites in the state. If the Florida legislature allows energy companies to frack in the state, the industry would ravage and destroy Florida’s natural habitats, which have been a major point of pride for the state.
The Dan A. Hughes Company applied for a wastewater injection well permit in Collier County. The proposed operation site is less than 1,000 feet from the Big Cypress drainage basin, which is “in the middle of the Florida panthers’ remaining Everglades habitat.”
Environmental and conservationist groups, like Audubon Florida, say that HB 71 and HB 157 fail to establish environmental standards and alleviate accountability from energy companies that plan to frack in Florida. If fracking is allowed in Florida, the Florida legislature will put in danger hundreds of lawfully protected species and conservation land in the state, not to mention undermine the political platform used by many state politicians.

140220-d
Let's start taking steps to restore lagoon
Florida Today - Letter by Rodney Smith
February 20, 2014
Brevard’s Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) program is a vital part of preserving the higher quality of life we all have grown accustomed to having on the Space Coast.
The EEL program also is an excellent way to protect and conserve the Indian River Lagoon. Leaving EEL land in its natural state and protecting the native plants and animals living on this land is a practical step in conservation, saving today for tomorrow.
However, the way to correct many of the water quality and habitat problems negatively affecting the Indian River Lagoon, and the humans, marine mammals, birds, fish, crustaceans and other creatures depending on its health, starts in your yard and the yards of other homeowners and businesses within the lagoon watershed. (If you’re a Brevard resident, there’s a strong possibility you live within the lagoon watershed).
To return a portion of good health to the lagoon, we should stop over applying chemicals and fertilizers to our yards, start removing seawalls and replacing them with natural barriers like mangroves, stop dumping sand on beaches and dredging our inshore waters and replace St. Augustine grass and exotic plant gardens with native ground cover, trees and plants.
We have a long way to go to restore the lagoon, so let’s start today, a little by little.

140220-e
National Park Service wants public's opinion on acquiring FPL-owned Everglades land
WLRN.com - by Hillary Lindwall
February 20, 2014
The National Park Service has come up with five different ways they can acquire Everglades land currently owned by the Florida Power and Light Company.
NPS held a forum this week to get public opinion on possible acquisition plans. Currently, FPL owns an 8.5-square-mile area of land within Everglades National Park.  
 The agency laid out its five alternatives in a draft environmental impact statement. The most notable were Alternative 2, in which NPS would acquire the land in fee, and Alternative 3, exchanging the FPL-owned land for other land.
Dan Kimball is the superintendent of the Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park. He says it is important for NPS to acquire the land to add clean water back into the Everglades.
"The very northeast corner of the park is dying of thirst, and that's having a lot of adverse impacts on wildlife," Kimball says. "What we're trying to do is ... preserve and protect the park for the enjoyment of future generations."
Steve Scroggs is FPL's senior director. He says the company is willing to agree on an exchange. He spoke in favor of Alternative 3, a fee -or-fee land exchange. According to the NPS project summary, under that alternative FPL would get fee title ownership of an adjacent corridor. This would potentially allow FPL to develop the area for utilities or even power lines, if they can secure permits.
According to Scroggs, "that alternative provides the park with a net 60-acre gain, moves FPL out of the park, and does so at little or no cost, leaving money available for other environmental projects. We think that is a good deal, in a practical world where you do have to appreciate the realities of landownership and landowner's rights.”
But activists are more concerned about the possibility that FPL could build power lines in the area if it remains in the company's possession.
"It is the best resolution for this while doing the least amount of damage to the park’s fragile ecosystem, which is highly stressed," Sherwood says. "The land swap is not under equal value because the pristine land FPL would get would be forever polluted and would further encroach on an already stressed ecosystem while adding to their profit margin and including three massive power lines that go through the park."
Dozens of community members attended the forum held on the main FIU campus. Almost everyone who spoke did so in favor of Alternative 2, like Cara Capp. She works for the National Parks Conservation Association and says public landownership is key to future park success.
"All of the lands in National Park boundaries have to remain in public ownership," Capp says. "That's our legacy and our responsibility as Americans."
NPS won't make a decision on which Alternative to follow until December of this year. It is accepting public comments through March 18. To make a comment or for more information, visit the NPS project planning website.

140220-f
Save our Florida springs
Jacksonville.com - Guest column
February 20, 2014
The people of Florida, the state government and the industries that benefit from Florida’s natural resources have the responsibility to protect the natural environment.
The mightiest river in Florida is the river of denial that courses through the hearts and minds of those to whom we have entrusted the reins of power.
For decades, we’ve seen our precious waters trending south.
And for decades, we’ve heard the litany of delay and denial.
First it was: “We don’t have a problem here.”
And then: “We can’t afford to fix this.”
Now we’re told we need more studies “so that sound science can point the way.”
We know that clean and abundant water lies at the heart of the Florida experience.
But our appeals — spoken in the language of science, social responsibility and common sense — have been no match for the powerful polluters who think nothing of using our public waters as their private sewers.
Well, we can speak that language, too.
DON’T TAKE OUR WATER FOR GRANTED
Not only is water the stuff of life, our springs and rivers and lakes and coastal waters define Florida’s identity on the world stage.
Gov. Rick Scott recently declared Florida as “the top travel destination in the world.”
But what’s the real engine of Florida’s tourism economy?
It’s not just the sunshine and theme parks.
It’s also the water that pulls them in — 90 million visitors last year.
They were following in the footsteps of Ponce de León, drawn by the myth of our magical waters.
It is the very idea of Florida as a watery wonderland that is the bedrock of our economy.
What will the value of the Florida brand be when the dirty reality of Florida’s waters eclipses our sterling reputation?
Water — clean water — is like a good reputation.
When you’ve got it, you don’t even think about it.
But when you lose it, it’s the only thing you think about.
Just as water is easier to keep clean than to make clean, so too is Florida’s reputation for natural abundance and clean water easier to protect than to earn back.
And if you think clean water is expensive, consider the alternative.
WE NEED ENVIRONMENTAL PATRIOTS
We must clean up our waters.
We must embrace change.
We need a new era of environmental patriotism here in Florida.
And we must learn anew the civic virtue of shared sacrifice.
We must stop overpumping the aquifer.
And we must stop pollution at its source.
We can no longer afford to buy the false dichotomy that would have us choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment.
For the former will surely wither and die without the latter.
Our springs and rivers and lakes and coastal waters are world-class treasures.
They deserve world-class protection.
I believe there is no issue more important to the future of our state.
And nothing less than the soul of Florida hangs in the balance.
John Moran is co-director of the Springs Eternal Project.
■ Learn more at SpringsEternalProject.org.
■ Learn more about the Clean Water Declaration Campaign at WeWantCleanWater.com.

140220-g
Wakulla voters likely to decide wetlands issue
Tallahassee.com
February 20, 2014
The Wakulla County Commission eliminated wetlands protections from its comprehensive plan as expected on Tuesday, as organizers of a citizen-led petition drive announced they will have enough signatures to let voters decide the issue in November.
The commission voted 4 to 1 to remove from its comp plan a provision that calls for a 75-foot buffer around wetlands. The move is the first step, begun last summer, to get rid of the county’s wetlands protection ordinance, which bans all development within 35 feet of wetlands and restricts building within 40 additional feet if no other options exist.
The current majority of the board says the rule is an unnecessary impediment to development and infringes on personal property rights in a county where about 60 percent of the land is wetlands. The move signals a departure from years of efforts to enhance local policies aimed at water-quality protection. Three years ago, the board, with different members, unanimously approved the reinstatement of the ordinance, first adopted in 2006.
Commissioner Ralph Thomas said he expects the commission will press ahead and vote to rescind the enforcing ordinance as soon as possible, despite recommendations from the county’s planning staff that the board wait until after the results of the November vote. He stressed existing state regulations provide enough protection for wetlands.
“I love the wetlands just as much as anyone, but some people want too much protection,” Thomas said. “We are giving rights back to our citizens. I do believe this vote is going to fail.”
Commissioner Howard Kessler, the lone board member opposed to striking the local wetlands protections, asked in August that the land-use decision be left to the citizens. When the effort was rejected in another 4-to-1 board vote, citizens mobilized and launched an initiative-petition drive to put the question on the November general election ballot.
If supporters of the initiative petition drive prevail at the ballot box, the wetlands ordinance would be reinstated and only could be removed by a unanimous vote of the commission or another citizen vote.
“I think we’ve got a good shot,” said Ron Piasecki, with the Wakulla Wetlands Alliance, which started collecting signatures in September and will now shift to educating voters. “We will know in November, is all I can say.”
The alliance began turning in petitions last week — well ahead of a March 3 deadline. More than 6,000 people have signed the petitions, exceeding the 5,550 needed, and all are expected to be turned in by the middle of next week for verification by the Wakulla County Supervisor of Elections.
To get the issue on the ballot requires signatures from 30 percent of registered voters in the county and in each of its five voting precincts, a bar three times as high as must be met in other charter-government counties, such as Leon County. If for some reason organizers come up short, they will have 30 days to make up the shortfall.
Thomas said commission action to get rid of the ordinance likely would begin in about a month. State agencies or other interested parties have 30 days to challenge the county’s move.
Piasecki said the Wakulla Wetlands Alliance has not yet discussed whether it will mount a challenge to the Tuesday’s comp plan change.
“The ordinance can stand by itself without a comp plan,” he said.
Piasecki, who also heads the Wakulla Springs Alliance, said that group is considering if it will take action and plans to talk with the Department of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Environmental Protection about at least writing a strongly worded letter.
Thomas said officials with DEO and DEP told him they have no plans to challenge the plan amendment.
A DEO spokeswoman said Wednesday the amendment will be sent to other appropriate state agencies for comment and the land-planning agency will determine if a challenge is warranted. DEO, which was created by Gov. Rick Scott in 2011, has never challenged a local comprehensive plan amendment.
A DEP spokeswoman said the authority to challenge such amendments rests with DEO and the change by Wakulla County was not a cause for concern
“DEP determined that the County’s proposed comprehensive plan amendment would not result in an adverse impact to important state resources,” agency spokeswoman Mara Burger wrote in an email Wednesday.
But both DEP and the Northwest Florida Water Management District indicated in written comments prior to the commission’s vote Tuesday that the county’s additional measures are needed to protect the fragile ecosystem.
While the state’s Environmental Resource Permitting program calls for a 25-foot-average buffer from larger-scale development near wetlands, both agencies said Wakulla County’s local buffer restriction provided better protection for wetlands, surface water and the function of their related habitats. The state buffer rules do not apply to all development.
DEP said in its December comment letter the county’s development goals could be accomplished by maintaining some additional buffering around wetlands and called the measure “a valuable tool for the county to protect surface water quality.”
“There are many areas where the Wakulla County Ordinance would provide more protection,” DEP’s letter said. “Those wetlands are valuable resources and do provide protection to important state resources.”
DEP spokesman Patrick Gillespie said later Wednesday the agency’s decision to not oppose a plan does not counter to its previous comments.
“While the County’s requirements related to buffers exceed those of the state, DEP believes that setback requirements under ERP are adequate to ensure that wetlands are not adversely impacted,” Gillespie said in an email. “Setbacks for existing karst features and springs, which also provide a valuable tool in protecting water quality, will remain in place.”

140220-h
Water conservation: Florida washed out
TheLedger.com - Editorial
February 20, 2014
With its many lakes, rivers, springs and wetlands, one would think Florida must be overflowing with freshwater — plenty for drinking, irrigation and enterprise. However, a coalition of three large regional water-management districts calculates that continuation of today's practices will result in Central Florida running out of fresh water in 21 years.
With such a withering warning, three recent developments are worrying, despite preliminary governmental efforts to ensure water purity.
One such effort is that of five influential state senators. They have been working on legislation to save the more than 700 natural springs in Florida. Another effort is that of state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to redirect and improve the water of Lake Okeechobee. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Negron is in charge of the Senate budget.
Tuesday, state House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, told The News Service of Florida that he is "sensitive" to both the senators' plan for springs and Negron's plan for Lake Okeechobee, but will focus the House "on issues we can control" during the 60-day legislative session that starts March 4.
As a result, the House is likely to give priority to Negron's plan and to shun the Senate plan.
Weatherford is pushing water-policy issues back to Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. He is set to become speaker in 2015.
"I think we'll tackle a lot of the funding issues this year," Weatherford said. "I think there is an opportunity for us to address some of the policy issues, but water is so broad, you have water quality, you have water quantity, water infrastructure and how we move water resources."
BUSINESS LOBBY
The second worrisome development came Feb. 6 when Associated Industries of Florida, the state's most powerful business lobby, announced that it and 21 other business groups have formed the Florida H2O Coalition. The groups include the Florida Home Builders Association, the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association, and the Association of Florida Community Developers. The latter two oppose the Senate spring proposal.
Florida H2O will be "encouraging lawmakers to support a comprehensive, statewide plan to address our current problems and plan for future needs, advocating science-based solutions and adequate funding for badly needed programs, supporting alternative-water-supply options and highlighting the need to fund regional projects that are in line and ready to deliver results," said Tom Feeney, CEO and president of AIF.
Florida H2O should have been formed decades ago and joined the water advocates who sounded early warnings about the soundness of Florida's water supply. Even now that Florida H2O is in existence, one must wonder how its founding bias against spring protection can "address our current problems" with water.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said he was "thrilled" to see Associated Industries and others on the scene. However, Putnam, R-Bartow, who rightly advocates a state water policy to ensure the safety and sustainability of Florida's water supply, should take care before jumping in.
Estus Whitfield of the Florida Conservation Coalition, who served as the top environmental adviser to six governors, has a pragmatic take on the business group's new interest in water policy. He told the Ocala Star-Banner "there's room for suspicion as to what this is all about." He added, "If they care about [Florida's water], they'll come up with some serious solutions."
BOTTLED WATER
The third worrisome development came Feb. 11 from the governing board of the St. Johns River Water Management District. The board voted to allow a Niagara water-bottling plant near Groveland — just 20 miles north of Polk County — to double the amount of water it can pump from the aquifer.
Despite more than 1,000 comments urging the board to reject the request from the California bottled-water company, the board's vote granted a 20-year permit to withdraw 910,000 gallons a day from the Floridan Aquifer.
The decision came as officials from three large water-management districts are pushing a plan called the Central Florida Water Initiative. It is aimed at conserving water and developing alternative sources in anticipation of the aquifer being tapped out by 2035 in Central Florida.

140219-a
Fracking near the Everglades ?
Bradenton Times – by Environment Florida
February 19, 2014
TALLAHASSEE -- “Fracking,” a dangerous and destructive gas drilling technique, has used 250 billion gallons of water and 2 billion gallons of chemicals since 2005, according to a September report from Environment America Research & Policy Center, Environment Florida’s national federation. Unfortunately, some of those same impacts may be coming to South Florida near Big Cypress and the western Everglades.
Last spring, an out-of-state drilling company applied for a permit to drill a 13,900 foot deep exploratory gas drilling well in close proximity to a relatively densely populated residential area known as Golden Gate, just miles from a string of parks created to preserve Big Cypress Swamp and the historic Everglades.
While the application has been approved, citizens still have the chance to stop this project by speaking out to local and federal officials. Environment Florida is working to build the momentum we need to keep special places, like Big Cypress and the Everglades, off-limits to dangerous and destructive drilling.

140219-b
In Florida, responsibility for clean water rests with all of its citizens
News-Press.com - Guest Opinion by David Guest, managing attorney for the Florida office of Earthjustice, a national public interest law firm
February 19, 2014
To anyone who has spent much time in Florida, the decline of our freshwater springs is heartbreaking.
Clear pools are now choked with algae. The algae gets so thick it shuts down glass-bottom boat rides because the water is no longer clear enough to see anything. Swimming beaches at the springs are suddenly roped off with health department signs, warning people of the health threats from polluted water.
When faced with something this sad and overwhelming, there’s a tendency to shrug our shoulders and say it is the inevitable result of progress. After all, New York City once had bubbling streams and oyster beds. But, in our case, that is the wrong way to think.
The truth is that springs pollution is preventable and reversible. We can change this.
What we need is political will — a scarce Florida resource but one that each of us can cultivate. It is starting to happen. People have been rallying throughout the state to protest the decline of our water resources.
In January, people turned out in force to demand clean water at public events in Boynton Beach, Bradenton, Fort Myers, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Interlachen, Jacksonville, Key West, Palm Bay, Naples, Ocala, Stuart, Tallahassee, Tampa, Vero Beach and Orlando. A statewide rally for clean water took place Tuesday in Tallahassee.
They unveiled a new Floridians’ Clean Water Declaration, which lists six rights that should be guaranteed to the people of Florida and four responsibilities of our state government, water managers, and natural resource users.
The campaign’s goal is to get as many individuals, organizations, businesses, and elected and appointed officials as possible to sign the Clean Water Declaration and commit to work together to achieve its principles.
And politicians are responding.
Four Florida Senate committee chairmen agreed to support filing freshwater springs legislation. A draft bill would direct an estimated $378 million a year from documentary stamp tax revenue toward springs protection. It is encouraging, too, to see that Gov. Rick Scott earmarked $55 million in his proposed state budget this year for springs protection.
Using public money to protect our shared resource — water — makes sense. We’re overdue on fixing our outdated public infrastructure.
But let’s not lose sight of the main thing we need to do: Demand that our leaders hold polluters accountable. Every day, factory farms send fertilizer and manure into our public waters, when they could be controlling this pollution on-site. These corporations must be required to meet specific pollution limits, and they should face consequences if they exceed those limits and pollute our water.
Instead, we are giving them a free pass and then the public pays for their mess. Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature have been selling out to polluters like never before. Polluter lobbyists drafted the state’s rules on sewage, manure and fertilizer pollution, Scott’s administration adopted the weak language, then the Legislature approved it.
Certain categories of major polluters are allowed to operate on the honor system. A big polluter like an industrial plant would be fined if it spilled toxics into a river. But that’s not true for Florida agricultural operations. Florida allows them to use voluntary goals called “best management practices.” All the corporation has to do is say it is implementing a plan to control pollution, and it is exempt from monitoring. It’s as if you were allowed to speed on the freeway so long as you gave the Highway Patrol a “speed-limit compliance plan.”
It’s great for politicians to tell us they want to protect the environment. But we should all make it clear that we want them to set real, enforceable pollution limits. That’s the only way we’ll reverse this mess and heal our freshwater springs.
Related:           Clean Water Advocates Demand State Pay Attention To Resources            WJHG-TV

140219-c
Live from the Everglades: a nature webcast
Sun Sentinel - by David Fleshler
February 19, 2014|
Canoe trip runs through Friday.
The Everglades can be a cruel place, particularly for wireless reception. But a group of scientists and environmentalists did their best Wednesday, as they produced live webcasts from the vast marsh for South Florida's classrooms.
The 2014 River of Grass Canoe Expedition, organized by the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation for the Everglades, is taking place this week, with nine participants going by canoe (and occasionally by truck) on a journey from the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee to the beaches of Biscayne Bay.
The expedition reached Everglades Holiday Park in west Broward on Wednesday morning, where they did a webcast from one of the dikes that run through the Everglades.
"When we woke up this morning, we heard the sound of many wonderful birds," said Victor Suarez, NatureScape Broward education specialist for the county government. "We spotted at least 10 or 12 different species."
This brought him to the subject of the importance of defending the Everglades against non-native species. The sabal palm ("It's the state tree of Florida, even though it's not actually a tree, it's a grass") is one of the most important species for the billion or so birds that migrate through South Florida, he said.
But non-native plants such as the Brazilian pepper, an attractive tree with red berries, grow so easily they can "steal the space of most of our natives" like the sabal palm, he said.
Tomas Boiton, founder of Citizens for Improved Transit and a member of the foundation's advisory council, said the expedition would bring students closer to the Everglades without having to leave their classrooms.
"We're excited because this allows us to bring into the classroom what it's like to be out in nature and really give first-hand experience from true biologists and nature lovers of why we need to protect the Everglades and why it's so important to our ecosystem," he said.
Nature didn't always cooperate. The picture froze. Sound disappeared. Problems were particularly acute Wednesday afternoon when they tried to broadcast from a remote location in the Everglades of western Miami-Dade County.
Their route is taking them from the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee to west Broward through natural and industrial areas of Miami-Dade County, down the Miami River and into Biscayne Bay. The webcasts are going to schools in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
Live broadcasts will be held along the way at 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Anyone can access the webcasts and submit questions.

140219-d
Panel wants faster pollution limits
FloridaToday.com – by Jim Waymer
February 19, 2014
Cities won't need to limit levels of nitrogen, phosphorus in lagoon for at least four years
PALM BAY — Excess nitrogen and phosphorus are killing the Indian River Lagoon. But cities between Melbourne and Vero Beach won’t be forced to limit how much of those two nutrients they send into the lagoon for at least four years.
An advisory board to the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program wants that changed.
On Wednesday, the board decided to send a letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and state legislators to urge them to speed up the limits on nitrogen and phosphorus for the central lagoon, which ranges from roughly Melbourne to Vero Beach.
“I think this is crazy,” said Bill Kerr, an advisory panel member and environmental consultant from Indialantic. “I don’t want to wait.”
While nitrogen and phosphorus are vital ingredients for life, in excess the two nutrients can trigger too much algae that clouds out seagrass and can be toxic to fish and other marine life.
Governments along the lagoon face an estimated $1.4 billion in stormwater fixes needed to cut nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into the lagoon by about half in 15 years. They must meet specific state-mandated benchmarks toward that goal every five years, with the clock starting for most last year.
Regulators divide the lagoon into “sublagoons” — such as the north, central and the Banana River Lagoon — based on the the unique characteristics of each part of the lagoon system.
Because the central lagoon is close to the Sebastian and Fort Pierce inlets, it has a “flushing rate” 10 to 15 times higher than other parts of the lagoon, according to the DEP. That benefits seagrass, considered the key barometer of the estuary’s health.
Because the most recent seagrass monitoring maps showed record levels of the plant in the central lagoon, mandated nutrient limits aren’t expected to be in place for about four years. Those maps, however, predated a 2011 “superbloom” of green algae that killed 60 percent of the lagoon’s seagrass. Two subsequent years of brown algae blooms kept much of that seagrass from growing back.
“$3.7 million to study it?” Kerr said, referring to a four-year lagoon initiative. “Come on people, it doesn’t make any sense.”
Some ongoing voluntary actions are still being taken to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in the central lagoon, officials said.
A collaborative of five counties, including Brevard, plans to ask the legislature for $100 million this year for muck dredging and other projects to reduce nutrients in the lagoon.
Wednesday’s meeting included a review of the lagoon program’s 2014-15 work plan. The plan includes 37 proposals that total $1.5 million in grant requests.
But the lagoon program expects to fund less than half of the $1.5 million requested in grants. The program, run by the St. Johns River Water Management District, typically receives about $500,000 annually for the work plan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Indian River Lagoon specialty license plate raised an additional $187,000, combined, for lagoon projects in Brevard, Indian River and Volusia counties.
A draft of this year’s lagoon work plan will be presented for approval on April 30 to the lagoon program’s advisory board, then to the water management district’s Governing Board in May for submission to EPA by June 1.
The board formed a subcommittee to review the proposal rankings.
Proposals include water quality and algae monitoring, a study of septic tanks’ effects on the lagoon, shoreline and oyster reef restorations, and a proposal to use special traps to catch invasive lionfish from the lagoon.

140219-e
Stop the deception, U.S. Sugar
NorthFortMyersNeighbor.com - to the Editor by Ray Judah, former Lee County Commissioner
February 19, 2014
Judy Sanchez of U.S. Sugar is sadly mistaken to allege that my earlier commentary concerning land needed for storage, treatment and conveyance of water from Lake Okeechobee south to the Everglades is personal, when in reality any reasonable person reviewing the list of water projects proposed by the Governor, South Florida Water Management District and the 2013 Senate Committee on Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin can well appreciate moving forward on completing the Kissimmee River restoration project and additional bridging under the Tamiami Trail, but collectively, the projects will not provide sufficient storage to alleviate the massive releases of water from Lake Okeechobee that waste precious fresh water and further degradation of our estuaries.
The Central Everglades Planning Project, including the additional 2.6 miles of bridging, is important to enhancing flow under the Tamiami Trail but will only convey 210,000 acre feet (68 billion gallons) of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. The balance of the drainage flowing south is from agricultural lands.
The C-44 Reservoir, under construction on the east coast, will store 50,000 acre feet (16 billion gallons) of water from surrounding agricultural drainage with no relief for Lake Okeechobee water release.
The C-43 Reservoir, to be constructed with funding from the Water Resource Development Act, is designed to store 170,000 acre feet of water ( 55 billion gallons ) with no water quality component.
In an average year, approximately 1.4 million acre feet (455 billion gallons ) of water from Lake Okeechobee is released to the St. Lucie (400,000 acre feet or 130 billion gallons) and Caloosahatchee (1,000,000 acre feet or 325 billion gallons) that flows to the estuaries on the east and west coast of south Florida. In wet years, such as 2005 and 2013, approximately 2.5 million acre feet ( 812 billion gallons ) of water was released from Lake Okeechobee to tide.
Regardless of Ms. Sanchez attempt to spin the issue, restoration of a flow way south of Lake Okeechobee is the only meaningful solution to prevent further harm to the environment and economy of south Florida.

140218-a
FPL eyes the Everglades
Sun Sentinel – by Chan Lowe
February 18, 2014
When potential visitors from up north think of South Florida, their imaginations dwell on the usual clichés — balmy weather, sun, sand, surf and South Beach. When snowbirds and spring breakers cast their eyes in the direction of Florida’s unique River of Grass, their gaze may extend no farther than the Miccosukee casino located at its edge.
That is their loss, and the fact that Everglades National Park is the least-visited in the federal park system says more about those who do not experience it than the locale itself.
It’s easy, when you view the over-photographed and –painted Yosemite Valley, to be awestruck by the sheer majesty of the thrusting rock formations, the cascades, and the lofty peaks. The Grand Tetons and the Grand Canyon elicit a similar response.
Magnificent, to be sure — but in their case, the attractions are doing most of the work. Their presence is so overpowering that individuals feel insignificant and humbled. Their relationship with their surroundings is a lopsided one — and more about impact than engagement.
The Everglades, on the other hand, is a place where you escape the dehumanizing clamor of civilization and pause to re-examine your position in the hierarchy of creation. Buried within the ’Glades’ peace, its silence, and its emptiness is the opportunity for us to become more conscious of what we have been given, perhaps to lament what we have squandered, but most of all, to be alone with ourselves amid nature’s endless, slow-moving and inexorable cycle.
The beauty on offer is one that requires our being in the proper spiritual condition to embrace; it’s a secret to be unlocked, not a dramatic panorama to bowl us over. Allowing ourselves to clear our minds and balance our yin and yang, or get in touch with our inner being — or however one might wish to describe the healing of selves damaged by secular assaults — is the Everglades’ great gift.
To besmirch this earthly treasure’s pristine, watery face with a parade of high-transmission towers would not only insult the environment and its inhabitants, it would shatter that spiritual dynamic whence we can, if we choose, draw a sustenance from the balance of earth and sky.
Any agreement, therefore, with FPL to swap some land in exchange for a power line easement (even along the park’s edge) would, by no means, be a win-win for all involved — which is the way the utility is attempting to characterize the deal. Rather, it would constitute an unspeakable and irreparable crime against nature and the human spirit.

140218-b
Focus on conservation to save resources, meet demand
Orlando Sentinel - by Eric Draper, Executive Director, Audubon FL
February 18, 2014
Central Florida is facing some important water decisions. Our region shares an aquifer that sits at the headwaters of rivers that drain to Tampa, Jacksonville and the Everglades. Yet we are projected to run low on water, and some of our utilities are pushing expensive and unsustainable projects.
Audubon has entered this debate as an invited participant in the Central Florida Water Initiative — a multi-agency effort intended to bring cooperation and end conflict among three water-management districts and dozens of utilities. Audubon also joined the debate to advocate for protection of birds, fish and other wildlife and the habitats they need.
The fact is that overconsumption of groundwater has reduced the flow of Wekiwa and other springs and damaged beautiful wetlands. If the trend is not reversed, the damage will continue. People will lose access to places to swim and boat, and wildlife will lose their homes, which means we will lose the birds and other animals that make Central Florida such an interesting and enjoyable place.
We can change course toward efficiency and sustainability. Or we can rely on risky strategies to pipe water from natural rivers and push residents to use their lawns as disposal sites for wastewater.
Water managers have advised the Central Florida Water Initiative that if definitive action is not taken, the Central Florida region will run out of traditional groundwater supplies by 2035. A deficit of 250 million gallons a day will lead to more competition and water restrictions. At risk of further harm will be wetlands, springs and lakes throughout the region, many of which are already stressed.
Utilities say this is a water-supply problem and that there is not enough water to sustain our needs. But in truth, water shortage is a demand problem. Florida is a water-rich state, but much of our available water is being inefficiently used. Utilities, dependent on revenue from selling water, ignore this truth. Their claim of supply shortages is simply a justification to pipe water from our beautiful rivers and wetlands rather than urging everyone to be more efficient users.
This is a moment when Central Florida can show the nation how a water-rich region can thoughtfully sustain its resources and still meet its needs.
Yet, the Central Florida Water Initiative Draft Regional Water Supply plan takes a different approach. The plan includes proposals to tap more than 220 million gallons per day from rivers, lakes and other waters throughout Florida as "surface water projects." There are plans to take more than 150 million gallons each day from the St. Johns River. The Kissimmee River is being asked to surrender 25 million gallons a day — a water grab that may pre-empt Kissimmee River restoration where government has spent more than $650 million. The historic river's oxbows might be restored only to have the water pumped away.
Relying on surface waters for supply is the wrong direction. These projects are complicated, expensive and unreliable, and pose risks to the natural environment.
Instead of turning to rivers and lakes, utilities need to work with their customers to make better use of water currently available. Measurable and robustly funded water-conservation programs can do much better than the meager 4 percent conservation goal in the Draft Regional Water Supply Plan.
The plan should increase funding for incentive programs to help defray costs to modernize our water usage. Replace thirsty St. Augustine grass-covered lawns with beautiful and native Florida Friendly landscaping. Help customers install efficient low-flow toilets and faucets. Funding should also be increased to promote incentive programs that encourage farmers to conserve and store water on their lands to protect wetlands.
Through regulations and programs, the CFWI should require the most efficient use of water possible. A dollar invested in efficiency saves many dollars over the lifetime of the investment. And yes, reuse water is still water and should be conserved.
The Central Florida Water Initiative draft plan is accepting public comments until Thursday. Urge water planners to modernize the way water is used in Central Florida. Pursue a water ethic based on conservation over consumption.

140218-c
Getting clean water from the sea, at a high price
CBSnews.com – by Bruce Kennedy
February 18, 2014
The ongoing severe drought in California is the just the latest in a recent series of water crises that have kept large areas of America parched.
Parts of Texas and the Southwest are still recovering from historic drought conditions that dried up the region several years ago. And given global climate change and the world's growing population, the costly process of desalination -- turning ocean or brackish water into clean, drinkable fresh water -- is being considered a viable option in California and elsewhere.
In California alone, 17 desalination plants are either under construction or being planned, including the $1 billion Carlsbad facility near San Diego, scheduled to open in 2016. Once fully operational, that plant is expected to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.
"We'll produce enough water to meet the daily needs of 300,000 San Diego residents," Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president at Poseidon Resources, the company partnering with the San Diego County Water Authority on the project, said last month. "We'll have at least one water supply that's drought-proof -- it won't matter whether it snows in the Rockies or rains in the Sierras."
That desalinated water, however, won't be cheap.
"When you want to desalinate, it's incredibly energy-intensive, and therefore cost-intensive," said Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. "And that's the rub of it. It's drought-resistant, it's abundant, it's never going to go away, but it's costly to do."
There are two main desalination processes. Thermal, as the name implies, involves heating salt water and then distilling pure, drinkable water from the steam. And there's reverse osmosis, the process Carlsbad will use -- where sea water or brackish water is forced through filter membranes that remove the salts.
Thermal desalination is huge in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. That method makes economic sense there, says Webber, "because they have energy but don't have water, so they trade energy for water."
California also expends a lot of energy -- as well as hundreds of millions of dollars annually -- to store, pump and deliver water across the state.
The question, then, is whether Californians will be willing to purchase the expensive water that desalination facilities produce. As an example, Webber points to the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination facility in Florida, which can produce up to 25 million gallons of drinking water daily. But due in part to the cost, the Tampa Bay plant is rarely run at full capacity.
Desalination can make economic sense when it's combined with good design and proper integration into a region's infrastructure. And given its growing use worldwide -- industry website Desalination.com says more than 60 million cubic meters of drinking water are produced worldwide daily by desalination -- technological advances could help reduce the cost of turning salt water into fresh water.
"I do see that water is the next oil," Webber notes, "that water is the great resource of the 21st century over which battles [will be] fought, money is invested."

140218-d
Why taxpayers will bail out the rich when the next storm hits
NBCnews.com - by Bill Dedman
February 18, 2014
GULF SHORES, Ala. — As homeowners around the nation protest skyrocketing premiums for federal flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has quietly moved the lines on its flood maps to benefit hundreds of oceanfront condo buildings and million-dollar homes, according to an analysis of federal records by NBC News.
The changes shift the financial burden for the next destructive hurricane, tsunami or tropical storm onto the neighbors of these wealthy beach-dwellers — and ultimately onto all American taxpayers.
In more than 500 instances from the Gulf of Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine, FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program.
NBC News also found that FEMA has redrawn maps even for properties that have repeatedly filed claims for flood losses from previous storms. At least some of the properties are on the secret "repetitive loss list" that FEMA sends to communities to alert them to problem properties. FEMA says that it does not factor in previous losses into its decisions on applications to redraw the flood zones.
And FEMA has given property owners a break even when the changes are opposed by the town hall official in charge of flood control. Although FEMA asks the local official to sign off on the map changes, it told NBC that its policy is to consider the applications even if the local expert opposes the change.
"If it's been flooded, it's susceptible to being flooded again. We all know that," said Larry A. Larson, director emeritus of the 15,000-member national Association of State Floodplain Managers. "FEMA is ignoring data that's readily available. That's not smart. And it puts taxpayer money at risk."
The Gulf Coast experience
The neighboring resorts of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach on the South Alabama coast include a stretch of beach that was flooded by Hurricanes Erin and Opal in 1995, Danny in 1997, Georges in 1998, Ivan in 2004, and Katrina in 2005. The map changes here offer a vivid example of the risks that come with such reclassifications.
The direct hit by Ivan was the worst, bringing not gently rising floodwaters but a 14-foot wall of water that leveled buildings and flooded more than a mile inland. That’s why flood maps show most of this beach as a "coastal velocity wave zone," the area with the highest risk of damage from storm surge.
But nearly all of the condominium towers are no longer in that high-risk zone, including a 17-story condominium built where the old Holiday Inn was wiped away by Ivan’s winds and waves, and another where the McDonald's was a total loss. From 2011 through 2013, FEMA granted applications remapping 66 out of 72 waterfront condo towers in Gulf Shores to lower-risk flood zones or off the flood maps entirely. Four others have applications pending. Just two applications have been denied. And next door in Orange Beach, the map lines have been redrawn around four high-rise condo buildings.
On a single day, Oct. 25, 2012 — a day when FEMA was closely monitoring Hurricane Sandy as it barreled toward the Atlantic Coast — a FEMA manager issued a document reclassifying a full mile of the coastal property in Gulf Shores. That document, just one of the 533 cases found nationwide by NBC News, redrew the lines to exclude 25 condo buildings from the highest-risk flood zone.
This beachfront condo, the Island Tower, collected $11,562 for its damage from Katrina, and more than $250,000 from Ivan.
The Island Tower's condo association was paying $143,190 a year into the National Flood Insurance Program. Now that it's been reclassified into a lower-risk flood zone, its premium is $8,457 a year, a saving of 94 percent, according to records examined by NBC News.
Just down the beach is the Royal Palms. It collected $58,230 for damages during Katrina, and $889,730 from Ivan. The Royal Palms was paying $218,484 a year, but after being changed to a lower-risk flood zone, now pays only $6,845, saving 97 percent.
The map changes in just these two towns resulted in at least $5 million a year in lost revenue to the flood insurance program, according to records examined by NBC News. All of these changes were approved by FEMA despite opposition from the city officials in charge of floodplain management.
See a map from NBC News with details of the condominium projects in Gulf Shores and Ocean Beach. Some of the condo projects have multiple buildings, making more than 60 buildings in all.
Elsewhere in Gulf Shores, homeowners are paying as much as $12,000 a year in flood insurance premiums for their single-family homes, according to insurance records. These homeowners are paying as much as several large condo buildings combined.
Properties from Alaska to Maine
Because waterfront properties are expensive, and it costs thousands of dollars to hire an engineer to press a case with FEMA, the remapped properties tend to be luxurious, either the first or second homes of industrialists, real estate developers and orthopedic surgeons.
The 533 properties include a $4 million home in the Hamptons resort on Long Island, N.Y., owned by a married couple who direct Wall Street investment firms.
In Miami, the beneficiaries include the twin 37-story condos at ritzy Turnberry Isle in Sunny Isles Beach, and also the Regalia, "the most luxurious building in South Florida."
In Naples, Fla., a $19 million home was remapped last year out of the high-risk zone. The owner, Robert A. Watson, former president and CEO of units of Westinghouse Electric and Transamerica, said his property is protected by a floodwall, and he sought the map change last year not to save money but because FEMA has changed the map elevations in that area so many times. He said he wanted to know for sure that a guesthouse would be permitted. (He called mandatory flood insurance "a massive scam on the American people.")
In New York, FEMA granted the Mamaroneck Beach & Yacht Club's request to be remapped from the high-risk flood zone in August 2012 — just two months before the club was damaged and its outbuildings destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, which stacked up yachts at its docks like pick-up sticks. The club told NBC that its engineering study showed that FEMA's map was wrong.
"Sandy was a once in a millennium event, and therefore cannot be the sole determination for planning," said Eric L. Gordon, attorney for the yacht club.
On North Carolina's Hatteras Island, the Frisco section was swamped by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. The storm produced a new body of water, Isabel Inlet, isolating the island for months. An entire neighborhood, flooded then, was remapped in 2011 by FEMA out of the high-risk flood zone.
Number of changes more than doubled last year
These map changes were rare until the mid-2000s, but their numbers have skyrocketed in recent years. We found a handful of cases each year in the early 2000s, then 44 cases in 2008, 68 in 2009, 90 in 2010, 87 in 2011, 68 in 2012, and 152 in 2013. The true number of flood map changes is probably far higher than our count of 533. We were able to examine documents for only about half of FEMA's map changes in coastal states, because searchable documents were not available on the FEMA website. And our count excluded thousands of map changes each year near rivers and streams.
On the Pacific Coast, where the hurricane threat is lower but tsunamis are a risk, dozens of properties on Puget Sound have benefitted from map changes. Though low-lying Florida, with the highest number of flood zone properties, has the most cases that NBC documented, with 124, Washington state was a close second with 116, followed by Maine (79), California (35) and Massachusetts (35). We were able to confirm map changes in every coastal state except New Hampshire, with its tiny shoreline, and Louisiana, where most of the coastline is marsh, and where Katrina's high waves set a new bar for flood maps, overriding previous map changes.
FEMA reviewing cases identified by NBC
Although FEMA would not make any official available for an interview on the record, spokesman Dan Watson issued this statement: "In order to ensure the public knows their flood risk and insurance is priced accurately, FEMA works with communities and property owners to incorporate the best available data into the nation’s flood maps. Individuals can request amendments and changes to the maps, but those requests must meet regulatory as well as scientifically established, technical requirements. ... FEMA has no tolerance for fraud and we refer any allegations or suspicions of fraud to the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General."
Property owners send their applications for map changes along with measurements and elevation data certified by an engineer or surveyor. These are evaluated by contractors for FEMA, which then issues the letter approving or denying the changes. Although the contractors do most of the work, FEMA said it has auditing procedures to check a random sample of the work done by its contractors.
"FEMA takes its responsibility for administering the National Flood Insurance Program seriously and is reviewing the cases presented by NBC to ensure they were properly processed," Watson said in the statement. "FEMA strives to ensure that administrative actions are properly executed and meet all statutory and regulatory mandates. The data provided by applicants for LOMAs (letters of map amendment) and LOMRs (letters of map revision) are reviewed based on scientific, technical standards and approved or denied based on those standards. FEMA has monitoring, oversight, and audit processes in place to ensure the work performed by contractors follows proper procedures."
If you're remapped, will the next hurricane care?
At town hall meetings around the country in recent months, homeowners have cried out about sharply higher premiums for flood insurance or the inclusion of their properties in the program for the first time. New flood maps in many states have raised the estimation of flood risks along rivers, streams and oceans, adding many properties to flood zones for the first time. And now, as changes are phased in from a law called the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, owners are facing sticker shock as they pay their "fair share" according to their risk of flooding.
Meantime, with little public notice, FEMA has been changing the flood maps to give others a break. Last year, FEMA says, it approved 89 percent of the applications for map amendments. Carving the flood zone map like a parent cutting a notch in a jack-o'-lantern to make a tooth, FEMA moves the lines on a map for one property, while leaving its neighbors in the higher-risk zone. In some cases FEMA not only moves the properties down a step in risk, which would save those owners on their insurance premiums, but moves them all the way down to the lowest-risk zone, making flood insurance optional.
Although the map changes are required to be made public, they receive little attention. The action reclassifying a mile of the Gulf Shores beach got the standard treatment: a line in the Federal Register showing a case number, and a tiny classified ad in the community newspaper.
Giving property owners a method for correcting errors on flood maps is perfectly reasonable, according to national specialists in flood insurance. But considering coastal properties with a history of flooding as low risk has inevitable results, they say:
● The owners pay less into the national flood insurance program, where a reduced risk typically means a lower premium. Depending on when the map change is issued, the owners may receive refunds of premiums for the current year and the previous year.
● If these properties are damaged in the next hurricane, nor'easter or tsunami, they're still insured by the national flood program, up to $250,000 in damage to a single-family home, or $250,000 per unit for a condo building, which could add up to $100 million for a high-rise with 400 units.
● The American taxpayer gets the bill when the National Flood Insurance Program runs out of cash. The program currently has a deficit of $24 billion, FEMA says.
● Being in a less-restrictive flood zone allows owners to use lower construction standards, avoiding breakaway walls and sinking piers and pilings deep into the ground. Such shortcuts encourage overbuilding along the coastline, further increasing the risk to taxpayers.
One prominent insurance consultant, Bruce A. Bender of Arizona, said that many map changes may be perfectly justified. A surveyor may find a higher elevation, for example, than FEMA had estimated. An unjustified map change, however, "impacts how people build," Bender said. "For example, if you put a new building in a Zone A," which doesn't anticipate strong waves, "that really has a higher risk due to potential heavy wave damage and should be in a Zone V, you should be putting in breakaway walls. Homes have a greater chance of getting damaged or wiped out."
Coming Wednesday, part two: The "Robin Hood" who can get properties a break on the flood maps.
Share your information
Do you have information on FEMA's changes to flood maps, or the companies that apply for or evaluate these applications? Send an email to investigative reporter Bill Dedman at NBC News.
About the public records
NBC News requested from FEMA the public records of all active changes to its flood maps, called letters of map revision (LOMR) or letters of map amendment (LOMA). We received databases with short descriptions of 307,730 of these changes since the 1970s. Limiting our search to 23 states on the Pacific, Gulf and Atlantic coasts, NBC downloaded all the available PDFs of the public records for those map changes from FEMA's website. NBC News investigative reporter Bill Dedman and database consultant Richard Mullins examined the public records, evaluating determining whether any part of a coastal property changed from the highest-risk flood zone (a coastal high-hazard area, defined as Zone V on FEMA flood maps) to a lower zone. Only changes from this highest classification were counted — most of the properties received revisions from, say, a mid-risk flood zone to the lowest-risk zone. The actual number of map changes from high-risk zones is apparently far higher than the 533 we counted; more than half of the FEMA documents did not have searchable text or no document could be found under that case number on FEMA's website.

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Big Cypress National Preserve makes big history: The big 4-0
Florida Today – by Cathy Chestnut
February 17, 2014
Legendary preserve set to celebrate its 40th anniversary
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Big Cypress National Preserve — the first national preserve in the national park system that came into being after a groundswell decried plans for a jetport to be built on top of the swamp.
From high-ranking politicians to Seminoles and hunters, the vast Collier County wilderness — 729,000 acres of it — that’s part of the greater Everglades ecosystem was given a reprieve. It serves the critical function of filtering fresh water into the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal estuarine environment and into the underground aquifers that provide us with the water that comes out of our taps.
Bob DeGross, chief of interpretation for the Big Cypress National Preserve, sums it up this way: “This is basically the backyard of the 6 million people who live in South Florida.”
Throughout time, its wild bounty has sustained those courageous, and industrious, enough to penetrate its mysteries. One of those is internationally renowned photographer Clyde Butcher, 71, and his wife, Niki, 69, who discovered the swamp’s primeval healing powers after their teenage son died in a car accident.
“It brought us back to a good place,” says Clyde, whose rise to fame began with his black-and-white photographs of what he calls “one of the few remaining pure and natural systems in the world.”
The Butchers are opening their Big Cypress Gallery with lectures, book signings and swamp walks to raise funds for the often-overlooked preserve, which is seeking grants to develop and offer special programs for its big anniversary.
DeGross says the preserve is planning on having events the weekend of April 5-6 honoring Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ birthdate; a workshop on its history and ecological importance Oct. 11 (the preserve’s birthdate); and its fourth annual Swamp Heritage Festival on Dec. 6.
The Butchers note that the Big Cypress isn’t a typical tourist destination, so they strive to bring visitors into the swamp to help them understand it and connect with it.
“Most people only know the big names: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain,” Niki Butcher says. “This falls into the unknown park category. When federal dollars are given out, the bigger parks get the money.”
All money raised from their Presidents Day weekend open house will be donated to the South Florida National Parks Trust for the preserve’s educational fund. “We’re going to give that money to them. We don’t wait around. We like to get things done,” says Clyde. “We try to do as much as we can — it’s our home.”
Big Cypress Timeline
• 1500s: The arrival of European explorers brings devastation to the region’s thriving Native American culture: the Tequesta and Calusa who live in dry, elevated hardwood hammocks and the shell mound earthworks they created.
• 1700s: Creek Indians living in clan villages in Alabama and Georgia migrate seasonally into Florida to hunt and forage. They become known as the Seminole and Miccosukee.
• Post-1814: A major influx of Seminole and Miccosukee move permanently into the Everglades and the almost-impenetrable Big Cypress at the end of the 1812-1814 Creek War.
• 1845: Florida becomes a state. It’s estimated that there are 15 million acres of virgin timber, including long-leaf and yellow pine, oak, mahogany and bald cypress. Hardy cypress, which thrives in swampy environs, is prized. The “Giants of the Swamp” measure up to 25 feet in circumference and reach heights of 150 feet.
• 1858: The end of the Third Seminole War culminates a trilogy of violent clashes to drive the Seminole out of Florida. A small remnant stubbornly resists relocation.
• 1900s: Two entrepreneurs purchase Deep Lake Hammock in Big Cypress to develop a Marsh seedless grapefruit growing and packing operation. They clear 200 acres and build a 14-mile railroad tram system to transport their harvest.
• 1914: Thomas Edison treks from Fort Myers to Deep Lake with a camping entourage. Rainy weather cuts the trip to three days.
• 1921: Self-made millionaire Barron Gift Collier makes his first purchase in what will become Collier County when he acquires Deep Lake and buys up large tracts of land. As North Florida’s forests become depleted, the timber industry begins moving into Big Cypress.
• 1923: Collier petitions the state to carve a new county out of Lee County and pledges to help finish the link of the Tamiami Trail (connecting Tampa to Miami) through his vast holdings. The governor names the new county for Collier, the largest landowner in the state. Collier invests five years and $6 million on the road’s completion between Naples and Miami.
• 1928: The Tamiami Trail opens April 26.
• 1934: Congress designates the Everglades as a national park, but it takes 13 years to acquire land and funding.
• Late 1930s-1940s: The swamp buggy is developed by Naples mechanic Ed Frank for traversing the Everglades region. The Collier County News declares swamp buggies “as important to Florida as the cow pony is to the west, in that they are the only practical means of transportation once off the main road.”
• 1940s through 1950s: Small, transient logging operations are pushed aside by large timber concerns that move in and set up company towns — Jerome, Copeland, Miles City and Carnestown.
• 1947: Everglades National Park is officially dedicated, set aside for its biodiversity and importance as a watershed.
• Late 1950s: The last lumber operations pull out. Cleared land is transformed into agricultural crops.
• 1960s: Rail line from Immokalee through Deep Lake to Everglades City is abandoned.
• 1974: Following public outcry against a planned jetport, Big Cypress National Preserve is established as the first federal preserve in the National Park Service. As a preserve, Big Cypress is open to off-road vehicles, hiking, canoeing, hunting, fishing and camping, in addition to oil and gas exploration and grazing. Traditional use by the Miccosukee and Seminole people is permitted. (The same year, Fakahatchee, the largest strand in Big Cypress, becomes a state preserve.)
• 1978: Five archaeological sites are named to the National Register of Historic Places in the preserve.
• 1988: An additional 150,000 acres are included in the preserve, bringing its total to 729,000 protected acres.
• 1989: The 26,000-acre Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge is established under the authority of the Endangered Species Act to protect the Florida panther and its prime habitat: the Big Cypress Basin.
• 1990s: The population of the Florida panther dwindles to 20 or 30. An ambitious genetic restoration project brings in other mountain lion subspecies to breed with the endangered big cat. Today, the adult population is estimated at 100 to 160.
• Today: Approved oil drilling and fracking for natural gas in the watershed sparks concern among Collier County residents, politicians and environmentalists.

SLIDESHOW:
Click here to see a
slideshow on Florida's
environmental policies

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'Crisis mode' on Florida's environment
Herald-Tribune  - by Zac Anderson ,
February 17, 2014
It has been nearly three years since Manatee County adopted fertilizer restrictions designed to keep pollution out of local waterways, but environmental educator Michelle Atkinson still meets plenty of homeowners who are unaware of the rules when she speaks to neighborhood groups.
Their ignorance is evident across the county in water bodies choked by algae blooms fed by lawn fertilizers
Similar blooms have wreaked environmental havoc on rivers, springs and bays throughout Florida, to the point that Gov. Rick Scott and state legislative leaders are proposing hundreds of millions for cleanup efforts this year.
Yet the education program Atkinson runs in Manatee County, and others like it in Sarasota County and elsewhere, recently were threatened with elimination.
Atkinson's job teaching homeowners about environmentally friendly fertilizer and water use had been funded with a grant from the regional water district. But the district eliminated money for the program after state leaders imposed steep budget cuts two years ago.
That paradox — Florida preparing to spend big on environmental clean-up after cutting pollution prevention efforts — illustrates what some say is a fundamental flaw with the state's water quality approach in recent years. The state has made it easier to dirty waterways, even as taxpayers are being asked to pick up the cost.
While state leaders are hyping Everglades and springs cleanup proposals and money for conservation land purchases heading into the legislative session that begins March 4, some environmental advocates describe Florida's recent track record on such issues as disastrous.
"Really, everywhere we're in crisis mode," said Cris Costello, a regional organizer for the Sierra Club in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Costello said Scott and top lawmakers have been "horrible" on environmental protection policy. Controversial decisions include the repeal of statewide growth management rules, rolling back septic tank standards and dramatic water district funding cuts.
State leaders defend their approach, arguing there are fundamental disagreements over the right mix of regulation, education and funding needed to protect the environment.
The debate is heating up this year as water pollution reaches critical levels and lawmakers feel pressure to act.
Deregulation push
Scott came into office in 2010 on a mission to create jobs and boost an economy in the worst slump since the Great Depression. He also shared conservative antipathy toward government.
One of his first actions was to repeal the state's growth management rules, which he and many lawmakers viewed as impediments to new construction and economic growth.
The move was part of Republicans' larger deregulation agenda.
Scott also pushed Florida's five water management districts to roll back their property tax rates and make dramatic budget cuts.
The water districts are responsible for many environmental permitting, land conservation and education efforts, and some observers viewed the budget cuts as a way to hobble the agencies and make it easier for developers to obtain questionable water permits.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District, which governs 16 counties, including Sarasota and Manatee, reduced permitting staff, moving regulators out of local communities and into a centralized office.
The district slashed spending by 44 percent, largely eliminating land conservation efforts and cutting education programs such as the Florida Friendly Landscaping initiative that Atkinson runs in Manatee.
Robert Beltran, a former consultant for companies seeking water permits who was recently elevated by Scott's appointees to become district director, said the funding cuts have not lowered the bar for environmental conservation and permitting.
Beltran said funding is still available for land purchases but they have to be at the right price, one reason the district has not been able to reach a deal to buy the McCall Ranch in North Port, which environmentalists describe as the most important piece of conservation land in Sarasota County.
Permitting remains just as stringent, he added.
"Are we still doing the same level of quality? I would say yes," Beltran said. "Are we doing it more efficiently? I would say yes."
Costello finds that hard to believe.
"The water management districts, I don't even know what vocabulary to use," she said. "Emasculated? Gutted?"
Florida Senate President Don Gaetz said legislative leaders and environmental activists have fundamentally different views on many issues.
In 2012, Gaetz helped roll back a law adopted just a few years earlier that required mandatory statewide septic tank inspections. Florida has an estimated 500,000 broken septic tanks that send waste into ground and surface water.
Leaky septic tanks have polluted Phillippi Creek and other local waterways and are a major contributor to poor water quality statewide.
Gaetz argues the law was too overreaching and should have been tailored to individual communities.
"I didn't believe the one-size-fits-all approach was appropriate," he said.
Critics of the Legislature's environmental agenda say a greater emphasis on stopping pollution at the source might have helped avert some of the dramatic water problems seen across Florida over the last year.
Ecosystem collapse
Water pollution has now become too severe to ignore in many parts of the state.
The most dramatic images have been from Florida's east coast, where massive algae blooms in the Indian River Lagoon contributed to the deaths of hundreds of pelicans, dolphins and manatees and wiped out sea grass beds that serve as critical habitat for marine life.
More than 5,000 people attended a rally near Stuart last August to protest the release of fertilizer-rich water from Lake Okeechobee.
The public outcry caught lawmakers' attention.
The Senate created a special committee to investigate the problem. Scott included a record $130 million in his proposed 2015 budget for Everglades restoration, with part of the money devoted to treating Okeechobee water before it is released into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.
Meanwhile, similar concerns about algae and weeds choking freshwater springs in North and Central Florida led Scott to propose $55 million for springs restoration this year. Some senators are crafting a springs protection package that would set aside up to $400 million to address the issue, with money earmarked to help homeowners move from septic tanks to central sewer systems.
The governor also wants to spend $70 million on land conservation programs. Scott spokesman John Tupps said the increase in funding for environmental issues speaks to the governor's priorities.
In an email, he said Scott "is a leader in protecting Florida's natural treasures and restoring water quality for our communities."
But some argue that state leaders are digging themselves out of a hole they helped create.
"If we had stayed the course we would have already had in place what needed to be done and now we're scrambling," said former Republican state Sen. Lee Constantine, who sponsored the septic tank inspection bill that lawmakers repealed.
Simply "throwing money" at the problem isn't enough Costello said. Sensible regulations also are important.
Costello noted that state leaders fought federal water quality standards and are even challenging a clean-up plan for the Chesapeake Bay because of concerns it could become a model for Florida.
Scott "has turned regulation into a dirty word," said Costello, the Sierra Club organizer. "It's not a dirty word. Clean up is much more expensive than prevention."
Spurred by the Indian River Lagoon crisis, Costello recently helped organize a "Citizens Clean Water Summit" that drew 253 environmental activists from 121 groups.
The activists are trying to turn up the pressure on lawmakers with a rally today in Tallahassee.
"These folks are not going to do anything if we don't make them," she said. "If we don't produce a strong enough demand for clean water they will continue to make excuses."
Atkinson visited a neighborhood in University Park off Honore Avenue recently, where she met with homeowner Rosemary DePaola. She kept her job through a grant from Manatee County, which stepped in to fund the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program when the water district pulled out.
DePaola and her neighbors have been working to get every yard in their small section of University Park certified as Florida friendly, which means using plants that are not invasive and require minimal water and fertilizer. The retiree proudly showed off the new landscape in her backyard, including bright pink and red bromeliads, saw palmettos, coontie bushes and macho ferns.
"It's really beautiful," DePaola said, adding: "It's something that's the right thing to do and it's not that hard to do."

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Everglades Benefit gives New Yorkers welcome escape from cold
Wall Street Journal - by Marshall Heyman
February 17, 2014
PALM BEACH, Fla.—They could have had snooze-worthy guests, served terrible food and provided awful entertainment at last weekend's benefit for the Everglades Foundation.
But the hundreds of guests who attend this casual gala at the Breakers were still excited to be there, because it meant being out of the New York City cold.
That's the kind of winter it has been.
"It's snowing right now up there as we speak," the New York-based music executive and entrepreneur Tommy Mottola said during the cocktail hour, as he headed outside for a drink and a gander at the full moon in the balmy Floridian night.
This party, which takes place in Palm Beach over Presidents Day weekend and brings out some of New York's biggest power players thanks to the foundation's board chairman, Paul Tudor Jones, is anything but snooze-worthy.
Each year, it features a full concert. Past artists have included Dave Matthews, Sting and Kenny Chesney. Last year's entertainment was ZZ Top. This year's musical guest stars were the Zac Brown Band, the country/folk group out of Atlanta.
Because of the Southern spin, attire was requested as "country chic" with "blue jeans preferred." Surprisingly, nearly everyone complied, with 10-gallon hats and denim. For some ladies, this even meant tiny jean shorts.
"Tommy told me too late, so I'm here just with a leather jacket," said Mr. Mottola's wife, Thalia, who will soon have her own line of clothing at Macy's.
What people wear to this party "runs the whole gamut," Georgina Bloomberg, a regular guest, explained to her friend, Beth Murphy, who was visiting her in the nearby horse country of Wellington.
"You'll see ball gowns, but you'll also see people in 'theme.' A lot more people are following it than usual tonight," Ms. Bloomberg said.
"My husband asked me, 'Do I have to wear a tuxedo?'" recalled Sam Storkerson, a Palm Beach local who grew up in Manhattan and said she has been to several black-tie parties in the past few weeks in Florida. "I said, 'Hell no!'" Instead, Mr. Storkerson went with a gingham shirt.
Katie Couric, the evening's master of ceremonies, borrowed a cowboy hat for the occasion, and even she admitted she was thrilled to be "away from one of the snowiest winters on record."
Ms. Couric told a story about how when she was in local news, the weatherman predicted there was going to be a blizzard.
When it didn't come the next day, an anchor, on air, asked: "Whatever happened to those 9 inches you promised me?"
"I debated if that story was too saucy for this crowd," Ms. Couric said.
Dinner was inspired by the "eat and greets" that take place before all of the Zac Brown Band concerts, where a hundred or so guests are treated to a meal of Southern cuisine as prepared by Mr. Brown and chef Rusty Hamlin.
After some spiced crab salad and jive turkey collard greens, dessert was served, which included a solid dark-chocolate alligator at every place setting.
At this point, Florida journalist and novelist Carl Hiaasen took to the stage to honor his friend, the actor Michael Keaton, who is making a big-screen comeback in "RoboCop" and DreamWorks' "Need for Speed," opposite Aaron Paul and Dakota Johnson.
Mr. Hiaasen, who splits his time between Montana and Los Angeles, called Mr. Keaton "a passionate conservationist and a dedicated fly fisher and a great ambassador for this foundation."
Taking care of the ecosystem, Mr. Keaton said, "seems trendy and seems like the thing to do. But if you don't do it, it's just rude. It's rude to God."
Mr. Jones, who brought pals such as Eva and Glenn Dubin to the evening's festivities, added that helping the Everglades isn't just about "being a reasonable citizen of Florida, but also of the United States and of this planet."
The evening was streamlined thanks to a "really silent auction" featuring trips to Costa Rica, Argentina and Zimbabwe.
This auction was "so silent, in fact, that we will only take bids via email," read the program. That silence served as a counterpoint to the raucous Zac Brown Band, who was eventually joined by the great Jimmy Buffett.
When the band hit the stage, decorated with blue and green lights and eco-friendly water bottles, the Palm Beach guests left the dark-chocolate alligators at their tables, forgot about the snow up north, grabbed their cowboy hats and got ready to rock.
Related;           Palm Beach Scene: Paul Tudor Jones's Everglades Margaritaville - Businessweek

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Florida lobbying haul for 2013 ?  $226 million
Orlando Sentinel - by Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee Bureau Chief
February 17, 2014
TALLAHASSEE – Florida’s lobbying corps earned another banner year of cash in exchange for influencing legislation and regulation in the Capitol last year.
An Orlando Sentinel analysis of the 2013 lobbyist compensation data filed last week indicates Florida’s lobbyists were paid roughly $132.3 million to ply the Legislature, up from $123 million in 2012.
They also reported being compensated to the tune of $93.8 million to lobby Gov. Rick Scott’s office and executive branch agencies, also up from $88.5 million last year.
The biggest spenders to lobby lawmakers were: AT&T ($1.53 million); U.S. Sugar Corp. ($983,000); Honeywell International Inc. ($777,000); Florida Crystals ($740,000); Dosal Tobacco Corp. ($720,000); the Florida Hospital Association ($630,000); the Florida Justice Association ($625,000); the Seminole Tribe of Florida ($615,000); Associated Industries of Florida ($590,000) and Florida Power & Light Co. ($545,000).
On the executive-branch side of the ledger, the list shakes out a bit differently: United States Sugar Corp. (695,000); AT&T ($660,000); Honeywell ($597,000); Florida Crystals ($520,000); Automated Healthcare Solutions ($505,000); Harris Corporation ($452,000); Florida Power & Light ($430,000); FJA ($355,000);  the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office ($340,000); and the Florida Hospital Association ($320,000).
Many of these companies have big-dollar issues perennially at stake in the Legislature, which is why they spend near the top. AT&T is pushing for a $220 million communications services tax break this year.
Big Sugar is constantly involved in Everglades clean-up fights and related water-pollution issues.
Automated is a Broward County company that regularly beats back insurance industry attempts to kill its business model: selling software to doctors who dispense their own drugs for workers’ compensation patients.
Dosal is a Miami-Dade discount cigarette maker that doesn’t want to pay into Florida’s tobacco settlement.
Even the Seminole Tribe of Florida has billion-dollar business issues to resolve in Tallahassee: their compact to offer exclusive gambling options at tribal casinos is due to be re-negotiated this year or in 2015 – and they don’t want other casino interests to cut into their business.
You get the picture.
The $226.1 million total for 2013 is based on compensation ranges that lobbying firms have to disclose for each of their clients. The way it works is this: if the pay day is $15,000 a quarter, they report between $10,000 and $19,999. If it is over $50,000, they report the exact amount. The Sentinel analysis determines the mean for each client, then sums them. Simple enough.
But lawmakers and lobbyists alike are dissatisfied with the way the 2005 law requiring the reports has spurred accusations from some of the biggest firms in town that rivals are inflating their books of business. That might happen in some instances. But that's the point of measures of central tendency. Outliers can exist, but not necessarily skew the overall trajectory. We now have seven years of decent data, and while some firms could inflate contracts, I'd wager most do not.
So, starting with the 2014 reports, auditors will begin pouring over randomly selected firms.
This humble scribe's expectation: Don’t expect the big numbers to change much in 2015.

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Former Sen. Graham details opposition to latest Patronis permitting bill
Florida Current – by Bruce Ritchie
February 17, 2014
The Florida Conservation Coalition is opposing HB 703 and former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has provided a section-by-section breakdown in a letter to Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City and bill sponsor.
HB 703 provides for water-use permits of up to 30 years for larger developments and up to 50 years for landowners who participate in water storage programs.  
The bill also would extend "right to farm" provisions in state law to prohibit enforcement of local springs and wetlands regulations that also have been modified or readopted since 2003. And the bill requires the Department of Environmental Protection to consider the cost of implementing any greenhouse gas reductions when developing a plan to meet federal regulations.
Graham, who is founder and chairman of the Florida Conservation Coalition, wrote in a letter to Patronis on Friday that the Legislature in 2011 "decimated" growth management law in Florida but reaffirmed "home rule" by cities and counties. 
"This bill is an attempt to reduce even that authority by limiting local government’s rights to conduct their land-use business, or by telling them what they can or cannot do in rather specific circumstances," Graham wrote.
He also wrote that many entities are attempting to avoid careful review of new or renewed water-use permits that effectively privatize water resources in Florida.
"If unamended, the FCC will oppose this bill in its entirety for the reasons stated above," Graham wrote. "However, we are providing you with comments on several sections which might further more specific discussion."
Patronis said Monday he wasn't aware of the group's concerns.
"I always have an open door with any legislation I've ever filed, HB 703 is not any different," he said in an email. "I look forward to all concerns, this process is citizen-led."
Bills by Patronis in previous years faced environmental opposition and led to a series of strike-all amendments that resolved some issues and created other issues. This year, HB 703 already has been criticized by Sierra Club Florida, Audubon Florida and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Last year, HB 999 also included a provision prohibiting local governments from enacting new ordinances restricting fertilizer use. Another section would have exempted water control districts from being subject to state wetlands regulations. 
But those sections were taken out of the bill after former Gov. Graham personally lobbied against them at the Capitol. They are not included this year in the initial version of HB 703.
Related Research: Feb. 14, 2014 Former Sen. Bob Graham letter to Rep. Patronis re HB 703

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Hearing planned on power lines through Everglades
Sun Sentinel - by David Fleshler
February 17, 2014
Deal with FPL would give park more land
A parade of high-voltage power lines may not be anyone's idea of what Everglades National Park needs to enhance its vistas of wading birds, open skies and cypress domes.
But in return for a transmission line corridor along the edge of the park, Florida Power & Light Co. would give the park land it owns deeper inside the Everglades, which would allow the park to improve water flow through its parched wetlands. The proposed land swap will be the subject of a public hearing Wednesday at Florida International University's main campus.
FPL would acquire 260 acres on a 6.5-mile corridor along the park's eastern edge to erect towers and other infrastructure for three power lines. In return, the park would get 320 acres acquired by FPL more than 40 years ago before the land was engulfed by an expansion of the park's boundaries.
Several environmental groups oppose the swap, saying a corridor of cement pads, access roads, guy wires, transmission towers and power lines would destroy wetlands, kill birds and create an unsightly addition to the park's skyline.
"We would be disrupting a national park," said Stephen Mahoney, conservation chair of the Sierra Club's Miami chapter. "It's building power lines in a wetland, which would be a very destructive process for the water flow."
FPL says it needs the power lines to transmit electricity from the new reactors planned for its Turkey Point nuclear plant, which are currently undergoing state and federal review. The company says the land swap would allow the park to acquire environmentally significant property without being unfair to FPL or its customers.
"We anticipate that the need for electricity is going to increase in South Florida, and the need for these transmission lines, poles and wires is part of that," said Bill Orlove, spokesman for FPL.
The park has not yet taken a position on the proposal. An environmental analysis by the park found the proposal would result in the destruction of 260 acres of wetlands, a "direct, long-term, major adverse impact." This would be mitigated by the enhancement of wetlands elsewhere, and the transaction would result in a net gain of 60 acres under the park's control.
"We're concerned about power lines next to the park, no doubt about that," said Park Superintendent Dan Kimball.
But he said they would be preferable on the edge of the park rather than through the land FPL owns in the park's interior. And he said the land swap would further the plan to restore the flow of water south through the park.
The public hearing will be held Wednesday from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at FIU's Stadium Club, between gates 2 and 3 of the FIU stadium, 11310 SW 17th Street, Miami.

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Lee officials ask SFWMD for more flexibility in water releases
CaptivaCurrent.com – by Mckenzies Cassidy
February 17, 2014
Sanibel Island elected officials and regional environmentalists attending a meeting of the South Florida Water Management District in Fort Myers on Feb. 13. voiced their concerns about the management of water from Lake Okeechobee.
The SFWMD's governing board rotates among meeting locations in its 16-county district and had scheduled time in Fort Myers last week. Officials pointed out to the governing board that Lee County -with a population of 650,000 people- generates $2.7 billion a year in tourism revenue and issues of water quality would devastate that industry, which employs one-fifth of all residents.
Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane addressed the governing board during public comment to describe how 2013 was especially challenging, specifically pointing to flows that were 2.5 times higher than targeted levels and discolored plumes that stretched 13 miles from the beach.
"These flows not only impacted the ecology, but most important to many of us, the economy," said Ruane. "Really, the thing that gets affected the most is consumer confidence."
News that Sanibel Island and Lee County were experiencing water quality issues spread quickly across the Internet, he said. Ruane was receiving phone calls from visitors as far away as Germany who said they heard that the water was brown and were concerned about visiting the beaches.
Once consumer confidence drops, he said, the tourists won't be visiting, new homes won't get sold or built, and retail establishments will suffer.
Rae Ann Wessel, director of Natural Resource Policy at the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, said the Caloosahatchee Estuary has experienced several years of extremes, which damaged the ecosystem but proved to be valuable for scientists studying the issue.
She told the governing board that it was time to develop new, balanced protocols for freshwater releases, or what is referred to as a "sweet spot" between ideal wet and dry conditions.
"We are interested in working with the district on developing protocols for low water flows," said Wessel.
Florida Gulf Coast University recently hosted the Caloosahatchee Science Workshop where scientists came together to discuss ecological indicators, gaps in data or research, and priorities in the science of water quality. They expressed that the current science was too disjointed to make changes within the system and met to gain some common ground.
Jennifer Hecker, director of Natural Resource Policy at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, said there is enough information available and the science exists to identify new and appropriate flow rates.
"Right now it's (Caloosahatchee Estuary) being greatly damaged by mismanagement," said Hecker. "We need to move towards implementation of a comprehensive strategy."
Kurt Harclerode, operations manager for Lee County Natural Resources, added that the release schedules need more flexibility for "beneficial releases" or when areas receive the benefit of additional water even though they aren't on the district's schedule.
"We think there can be more flexibility in the regulation schedule," said Harclerode.
Dr. Michael Parsons from the Coastal Watershed Institute at FGCU said the problem with water flows is that it's too much during the wet season and too little during the dry season, and as a result the ecosystem is suffering. Tape grass populations in the upper part of the Caloosahatchee River are decreasing and that is known to affect the populations of other species in the food chain, such as the Florida manatee.
A total of 829 manatees a record-setting amount died last year. Scientists suspect that a number of deaths were contributed to red tide and other unforeseen changes to the local ecosystem.
The SFWMD later voted unanimously to reserve all of the water in the Caloosahatchee River C-43 West Basin Storage Reservoir for the protection of fish and wildlife in the river, but those changes won't significantly impact Southwest Florida until the U.S. Congress authorizes funding to complete the reservoir.

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NWFWMD approves funding to improve water quality in Apalachicola Bay
WCTV.tv - by The Northwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board email
February 17, 2014
News Release: The Northwest Florida Water Management District
HAVANA - The Northwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board last week approved up to $443,000 in grant funding to the City of Apalachicola for the construction of a water quality improvement project in Apalachicola Bay. This funding builds upon $71,500 in District funding previously provided for the design and engineering phase of this stormwater improvement project, which will treat stormwater that currently discharges directly into Apalachicola Bay.
“Protecting the Apalachicola River and Bay remains one of the District’s top priorities,” said Executive Director Jon Steverson. “We look forward to continuing to work with the City, state agencies and other stakeholders to improve water quality and restore flow to the Bay.”
The Battery Park Basin Stormwater Improvement Project consists of two primary components designed to improve stormwater quality before it discharges into Apalachicola Bay—a treatment system in the upper reaches of the basin and a baffle box near the Bay. The project will treat stormwater and separate pollutants including nutrients, bacteria, suspended solids and heavy metals from stormwater before it discharges it into the bay, improving water quality and protecting aquatic habitat. Currently, stormwater within the 67 acre Battery Park basin discharges directly into the Bay with little or no treatment.
Along with improving the quality of water entering the Bay, the Battery Park project provides stormwater infrastructure that will help address localized flooding within the Battery Park basin.
The District remains committed to the restoration of the Apalachicola River and Bay. The District’s 2013-2014 budget includes a total of $4.7 million for Apalachicola River and Bay watershed protection and restoration, including $3 million proposed by Governor Rick Scott and approved by the Florida Legislature as part of the state’s Fiscal Year 2013-2014 budget. Funding for the Battery Park project is allocated by the District through its Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program.

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Water War: Southern states battle to keep faucets flowing
FoxNews.com - by Barnini Chakraborty
February 17, 2014
The drought-parched states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida are back at it -- fighting for a slice of water rights in a decades-long water war that’s left all three thirsty for more.
The 24-year dispute is emblematic of an increasingly common economic problem facing cities and states across the country – the demand for water quickly outpacing the supply as spikes in population soak up resources.
During the dispute, Alabama and Florida have argued metro Atlanta consumes more water than it should, leaving too little downstream for municipalities, farmers, business interests and endangered shellfish. They believe the amount of water legally available to the metro Atlanta area should be scaled back significantly.
Florida says Georgia’s water grab is cutting off the water flow the seafood industry in Apalachicola Bay needs to survive.
Alabama says Georgia’s increased water consumption is placing an unfair economic burden on its residents.
The water fight was taken to the courts, and in June 2011 Atlanta won a big legal victory after a panel of judges reversed a decision that would have severely restricted access to the city’s water supply for nearly 3 million people. Almost immediately, Alabama and Florida asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the ruling over water rights in the basin formed by the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola rivers. 
In 2011, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals also ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to work on a new water allocation plan for the region.
In October, Florida officials said their state needed immediate relief from the growing water consumption problem.
“Generations of Florida families have relied upon these waters for their livelihood, but now risk losing their way of life if Georgia’s actions are not stopped,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott told reporters after the state filed legal action last year.
Last week, attorneys for the state of Georgia asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the latest legal drama, saying Florida was trying to sue “the wrong party, in the wrong court, and at the wrong time,” according to court documents.
The tristate fight has moved from the courts to Congress as lawmakers in Alabama and Florida have looked for ways to challenge Georgia’s water consumption.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., argued in a January letter to Sens. Barbara Boxer and David Vitter, the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Environmental & Public Works, that Atlanta-area water withdrawals are causing “substantial harm to the environment and downstream communities in Alabama and Florida.”
Sessions letter highlights key findings from hearings held last summer from water management officials from all three states and leaders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before a congressional committee.
He says because there is less water to generate electricity at the hydroelectric dams, “more expensive energy -- perhaps produced by carbon fuels -- will have to replace it.”
He also says federal hydropower customers in his home state would pay lower rates for electricity if Atlanta-area interests paid appropriately for water "they actually withdraw.”
He also zeroes in on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying it has entered “but never enforces, water supply contracts with Atlanta-area interests and even allows Atlanta-area interests to withdraw water from Lake Lanier for just one-thousandth of a penny per gallon and to sell the same water to their respective customers for around 250 times that amount.”
Georgia’s water war isn’t limited to Florida and Alabama. The state has a storied history of not playing nice with its neighbors and is currently locked in another fight with Tennessee.
Last year, lawmakers in Atlanta tried to renew efforts to tap into Tennessee’s water supply contesting the state’s border with its northern neighbor.
Related:           Water resource study a must for the County  Aiken Standard

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Pam BONDI
FL Attorney General

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Why we’re fighting against federal overreach on the environment
Miami Herald – by Pam Bondi, FL Attorney General
February 17, 2014
As a fourth-generation Floridian, I care deeply about protecting our waterways and environment. I believe that Florida has always had the best expertise and resources to determine how to protect our waters, as does each unique state.
Under the current administration, the federal Environmental Protection Agency continually seeks expanded authority to trump state regulation. But Congress — not the EPA — decides the extent of federal regulatory authority. And under the Clean Water Act, Congress left important authority to the states, expressly determining to “recognize, preserve and protect the primary responsibilities and rights of states to prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution, [and] to plan the development and use . . . of land and water resources.”
The EPA has a role to play, but the states do, too.
Fighting against federal government overreach has been one of my priorities as attorney general. And federal overreach is precisely what is at issue in American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA. While the details of that case involve the Chesapeake Bay, the principles at stake are far broader.
Indeed, the federal court deciding the case explained that the “dispute, at its core, raises questions regarding the proper division of duties between the states and the federal government” under the Clean Water Act.
Because of that critical issue, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general joined a friend-of-the-court brief led by Kansas defending individual states’ authority in environmental regulation. Contrary to what has been reported, by signing on to the friend-of-the-court brief, no taxpayer money was spent.
The 21 states are not alone in objecting to this federal overreach. Eight counties in three affected states (Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia) also filed a friend-of-the-court brief. According to those counties, which are suffering as a result of the EPA’s unauthorized actions, the “EPA usurped the state and local function” and simply “went too far.”
As a result, these counties anticipate that a significant area of their farmland will have to be removed from production. There are real consequences when the federal government acts beyond its authority.
Those who suggest that the attorneys general who joined the brief are anti-environment entirely miss the point. Everyone involved agrees that our environment must be protected — whether it’s the Chesapeake Bay, Florida’s springs, or the Mississippi River.
The issue is the division of federal and state authority. By joining the brief, I sought to defend Florida’s right to continue protecting its own environment without unnecessary federal intervention.
Florida has taken dramatic steps to protect its own resources, and I’m confident Florida will continue to do so. Recently, my office asked the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure that Florida receives its fair share of water flowing from Georgia, which is our best chance to save Apalachicola and the surrounding region from the devastation caused by Georgia’s overconsumption.
I also ended years of litigation by working with the EPA to reach an agreement to protect Florida’s waterways from excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. The agreement between the EPA and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection allowed Florida's leaders, who know our waterways best, to implement their own sound criteria that will safeguard our water from excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.
The best way to serve the cause of environmental protection is to recognize states’ authority and be vigilant about EPA overreach. This brief is not about whether to protect the environment; it is about defending the important role Congress gave states in protecting their own widely varying environments.
I will remain steadfast in my efforts to stop the federal government from exceeding its authority and infringing on our rights.

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Floridians love water, but getting them to conserve it can be tough, survey shows
Jacksonville.com - by Meredith Rutland
February 16, 2014
Water conservation is essential to maintain the state’s water supply, but actually getting Floridians to conserve is tough.
They’ll gladly wait to run those laundry machines. They’ll turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth. Just don’t ask them to take shorter showers.
Most Florida residents recognize water is a vital issue to the state, but left to their own devices, they’ll mostly conserve water when it’s convenient, according to a University of Florida survey of about 500 residents released Monday.
Florida constantly battles water issues, and this year will be no exception. Cities across the state are trying to figure out how to draw enough water to keep up with their growing populations.
In December, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Florida was growing faster than New York. Demographers predicted Florida would soon become the third most populated state in the country.
Central Florida is figuring out a plan to manage its growth over the next 20 years, which could mean taking water from nearby lakes and rivers. The usual source — the Floridan aquifer — is too strained for regions to take any more water from it.
On top of that, the Panhandle is dealing with the decline of oyster beds in Apalachicola due to a lack of fresh water, and Florida is suing Georgia for allegedly taking more than its fair share of water from the region.
Conservation, experts say, is one way to delay a serious drain on Florida’s water resources.
Floridians want to help out and protect the environment, the study suggests.
But they simply don’t want dry, brown lawns, and they don’t want buzzers bugging them to get out of the shower.
The study showed 90 percent of respondents would wait to load the washing machine until it’s full, 54 percent would install water-saving shower heads, 42 percent would limit watering the lawn if it meant the grass would die and 29 percent would use a shower timer.
Sixty-nine percent said they would spend 10 percent more on their water bills to protect the state’s future water supply.
“It is an issue that Floridians are aware of and feel is important because quite a few of the respondents are willing to use water conservation,” said Alexa Lamm, a University of Florida assistant professor who led the survey for the university’s Center for Public Issues Education. “But when it comes to personal impacts, they are more reserved in being willing to conserve water.”
Michael Dukes, director of UF/IFAS’ Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology, said education is key to get residents to cut their water consumption.
“It’s hard to explain to them that 20 years from now that we’re going to be in a serious problem area,” he said, “when they’ve been dealing with flooding for the past year.”
Even simple steps like turning off your sprinklers when it’s raining helps immensely, he said. He recommended purchasing sprinkler systems that can tell when it’s raining and shut off automatically until conditions dry up.
Dukes said using reclaimed water, which is water that’s been treated but isn’t safe to drink, to water lawns, golf courses and other landscapes also is a good conservation practice.
One method that seemed to push residents toward conservation was government mandates, Lamm said.
Respondents in the study said when they felt the government was regulating how much water they could use, they conserved water more. The more free they felt to regulate their own water conservation, they less they did so.
“The pressure, the threat of being fined, it works,” Lamm said.

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Protecting the river
Jacksonville.com – Letter by Terry R. Tabor, Orange Park, FL
Oppose withdrawals
As a native of West Virginia, I have followed the story of the chemical spill into the Elk River with special interest. It is just another example of how the water supply of West Virginians is being compromised by the chemical and coal industries.
Pollution, chemical spills and mountain top removal are systematically ruining the streams and rivers of that state.
We who live in Northeast Florida are extremely fortunate to have the St. Johns River flowing through our backyards. It appears we have a limitless source of healthy, fresh water. We may be wrong!
Because of increasing population, temperature increases and pollution, cities like Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville are at significant risk for water shortages in the not too distant future.
Let’s support the St. Johns Riverkeeper’s efforts to prohibit Central Florida’s proposed withdrawal of more than 150 million gallons of water a day from the St. Johns and do all we can as individuals to conserve and protect our precious water supply.

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Protections to come for Florida’s waters
Bradenton Times
February 15, 2014 12:02 am
TALLAHASSEE -- For more than a decade, hundreds of miles of rivers and streams across Florida have lacked clear protections under the nation’s Clean Water Act. From Tampa Bay and Lake Okeechobee, to the Everglades and our countless streams and wetlands, Florida’s waters are like no others in the world. Providing homes for manatees and hundreds of types of birds and fish, they draw visitors from across the globe. But the news lately is full of reports about the sorry state of too many of these waters. 
Record numbers of endangered manatees died last year, a tragedy due at least in part to increased pollution. Lake Okeechobee, bursting at its seams due to heavy rainfall, is becoming a giant toxic lagoon that threatens Indian River Lagoon and the Everglades. In fact, of all of the waters that have been tested in the state, only 20 percent are considered suitable for their designated use of fishing, swimming or drinking.
Loopholes worsen the problem. More than a decade ago, a pair of Bush-era Supreme Court decisions opened major loopholes in the nation’s bedrock clean water law, calling into question whether smaller, sometimes intermittent, streams and headwaters across Florida deserve protections. In a move to better protect all of Florida’s waterways, from its iconic waters to the rivers and streams in Floridians’ backyards, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has acted again this fall to fix these dangerous loopholes.
Action announced
This fall, the EPA issued a report linking the health of smaller rivers and streams to the waters they feed and announced it is moving forward with a new rule to clarify protections for all of our waterways. Environment Florida applauded the move, and our staff got to work enlisting scientists, farmers and ordinary citizens to speak up in favor of protecting all of the state’s waters. Environment Florida will continue to work to ensure that we can fish, boat, swim, birdwatch, and simply enjoy our treasured waters without worrying about pollution.
This article appears courtesy of Environment Florida

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Students to take virtual canoe tour
Miami Herald - by Sue Cocking
February 15, 2013
South Florida elementary and middle school students learning about the importance of historic water flows through the Everglades will be able to take a virtual canoe tour of this critical ecosystem from their classrooms Tuesday through Friday.
Chris Carl of West Palm Beach will lead a handful of expert paddlers on an expedition beginning on Lake Okeechobee at Clewiston, following the Miami Canal and then the Miami River and ending at the Rickenbacker Causeway on Biscayne Bay. The trip will be webcast live to fifth- through seventh-grade classrooms in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties via Adobe Connect at 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. daily. Students will be able to follow the group’s progress and ask them questions.
“It’s about the river and its history and how it impacts the city,” Carl said. “We’re not just showing up in schools lecturing on what we think they want to know. They’re asking us questions and directing what they want to learn.”
The 2014 River of Grass Canoe Expedition — the fourth in a series of annual treks funded by the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation — will cover about 85 miles, tracing water flow, monitoring water quality, and examining the health of plants and animals.
From Clewiston, the group will head east across the Big O and pull their canoes across the dike into the Miami Canal at its north end. They’ll pack the canoes on a trailer and drive south on U.S. 27 to Everglades Holiday Park in west Broward to camp. The next day, they’ll resume paddling on the L-67 canal to the Miami Canal and spend the night at Mack’s Fish Camp. From Mack’s, the explorers will paddle south to Miami Springs, camping at the Lions Club. On Friday, they’ll canoe south on the Miami River through the lock at NW 36th Street and continue downriver, passing the historic Miami Circle, heading into Biscayne Bay and disembarking on the beach beside the Rickenbacker.
“This year’s expedition will be especially interesting to the students because they will be able to see the changes from fresh water at the top of the Miami Canal to brackish water further south, and then to saltwater at the Miami River,” Carl said. “They will see the changes in the plant life along the way and the effect salt water has as it intrudes deeper into the canal from the Miami River. The route is also important historically because it was a significant transportation route in the 1800s.”
Besides Carl, the core group will include Susan Sylvester, operations bureau chief with the South Florida Water Management District; Tomas Boiton of Lake Park, founder of Citizens for Improved Transit; Miami attorney and conservationist Charlie Arazoza; Victor Suarez of Fort Lauderdale, an environmental educator with Broward County; Coral Springs nature photographer Flex Maslan; University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researcher Janet Talbot; Massachusetts snowbird/educator and part-time Palm Beach Gardens resident Hope Hitchcock and her home-schooled seventh-grade son Ted. Several teachers and students from around the region are expected to join the expedition for day paddles

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Concerns over possibility of oil drilling in Southwest Florida spur meetings
Associated Press
February 14, 2014
FORT MYERS, Florida — Residents and environmentalists are concerned about the impacts that oil drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County could have on drinking water and Florida panther habitat.
The News-Press reports (http://newspr.es/1mekKlg) that Collier Resources, the company jointly owned by Barron Collier and Collier Enterprises that manages more than 800,000 mineral acres throughout Collier, Lee and Hendry counties, leased 115,000 acres to the Dan A. Hughes Company in Beeville, Texas.
Officials say the company seeks to find out whether there's potential for oil exploration in the area.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing on March 11 in Naples.
The South Florida Wildlands Association wants to challenge the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's approval of an oil and gas drilling permit on the property.

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Toxicity monitor chosen for river cleaning project
Filtsep.com
February 14, 2014
Modern Water chosen for Florida assessment.
Modern Water, the owner of water technologies for the production of fresh water and monitoring of water quality, has collaborated with the University of Central Florida (UCF) to supply a Microtox M500 toxicity monitor. The monitor will assist with research into advanced treatment techniques which could provide a solution to the removal of Total Phosphorus from the Middle St Johns river basin in Central Florida. 
The Middle St Johns river has been found to have excessive concentrations of total phosphorous and current studies have indicated that conventional stormwater treatment methods are insufficient to provide the necessary level of water quality.
Reuse of byproduct materials, including fly ash, dried alum sludge (drinking water treatment residuals) and tyre crumb, which all have high phosphorous sorption capacities, were assessed as part of this study.
The adsorbents are typically low value but some of them could be considered environmentally hazardous and may pose a potential environmental risk so it was necessary to monitor the toxicity of these materials during the research.   
The UCF chose the Microtox M500 as it provides rapid toxicity testing with immediate results. This has allowed the university to make real-time adjustments in order to identify potential toxicity-related challenges.   
Dr Steven Duranceau, PE associate professor and director of the Environmental Systems Engineering Institute at the University of Central Florida, said: “We chose the Microtox M500 for its ease of use and rapid toxicity testing. This is important as this enables the toxicity testing to happen concurrently with the rest of the research project.” 
Simon Humphrey, Modern Water CEO, commented: “This study represents one of the first examples of using Microtox as part of a nutrient treatment technological evaluation and this example demonstrates yet another application for our rapid toxicity monitor.”

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Caloosahatchee reservoir project clears hurdle
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
February 13, 2014
State water managers voted Thursday to move forward with a water plan for the Caloosahatchee River reservoir, a necessary step if the project is to be authorized and funded by Congress.
During a meeting in Fort Myers, the South Florida Water Management District governing board voted unanimously, 8-0, to set aside all waters pumped into the reservoir as well as rain that falls on the compound for the Caloosahatchee and its estuary.
The Caloosahatchee reservoir, also called C-43, is expected to hold 170,000 acre-feet, or 55 billion gallons. Water would be pumped from the river to the reservoir during periods of heavy rain and then released back to the river during dry spells. The reservoir will not capture excess flows from Lake Okeechobee. The plan would essentially make waters used in the reservoir system off-limits to farming and residential uses.
Thursday’s vote was not final as a public hearing, and a second vote must take place. The hearing will likely be in April and the vote in June. The South Florida Water Management District includes 16 counties.
Board members passed the measure without comment.
Mike Baldwin, a member of the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge support group on Sanibel, pleaded with the governing board to find some way to hold back fresh water during the rainy season. Water quality issues, he said, aren’t going to magically go away.
“They’re real, they’re alarming and they’re adverse social and economic issues,” Baldwin said before inviting water district board members to tour Sanibel during the summer months. “If you haven’t had the opportunity to lift your child or grandchild over a 2-foot pile of drift algae while they’re on their way to swim or paddle, I encourage you to do that.”
Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane asked district managers to find as much water storage as possible in the Caloosahatchee watershed, which stretches from Lake Okeechobee to Sanibel and includes lands on the north and south banks.
“I started getting phone calls from Germany: ‘What’s wrong with your beaches? The water looks like root beer,’ ” Ruane said.
The Caloosahatchee River is regularly plagued with water quantity issues — too much fresh water during the rainy season flushes out the estuary and fuels algae blooms. Too little water during the dry season allows saltwater to creep up the river and kill off tape grass and other marine organisms.
The river was connected to Lake Okeechobee a century ago as way to drain and develop South Florida. Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, a former district governing board member, said the Everglades restoration will be a challenge for possibly another century.
“It took 100 years to mess it up, and I understand that it’s going to take another 100 years (to restore the Everglades),” Mann said. “And we’ll never get it just right.”
Governing board members also agreed to ask Congress for nearly $100 million in additional funding for the Picayune Strand restoration, the first major Everglades restoration project. If approved, costs will increase from $522 million to $619 million.
Brad Cornell, with the Audubon Society, said the increase is needed as labor and material costs have increased since the project was approved.
“We would have ended up spending $500 million on restoration over the last 30 years and not see all the benefits,” Cornell said. “It’s within our grasps. It’s just a few short years away.”

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Documentary to look at Florida’s springs
Ocala.com - by Fred Hiers, Staff writer
February 13, 2014
Silver Springs State Park is not new to film crews.
The iconic first magnitude spring has been the setting of many classic films, television shows and commercials. On Thursday it was the site where Orlando-based Equinox Documentary filmed a trailer for a planned documentary about Florida's springs.
Equinox producer Bob Giguere said the five- to six-minute trailer will be used to generate interest in the project and raise money to fund a full-length documentary for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS.)
"The documentary is really to take a look at the connections we all have with springs — our historical connections and our cultural connections," Giguere said.
The documentary will focus on many of the problems Florida's springs are facing, including pollution due to over fertilization, and pumping, which diminishes flow.
"That's really the urgency of this message," Giguere said. "The bulk of the documentary will be done here because of its iconic history."
Giguere expects the trailer to be completed within a month, and said it will take another three months to raise the needed $250,000 to make the documentary.
Following that, Giguere said, it will take six to nine months to film and edit the documentary.
He said Equinox has already agreed with WUFT-TV for the public television station to broadcast and distribute the documentary.
Bob Graham, the former Florida governor and U.S. senator, will be in the documentary and was filmed Thursday for the trailer.
Graham said such films are important.
"It informs people (about springs) in a way that is accessible," he said. "And it contributes to the development of (a springs) ethic."
Historically, Florida's resources were looked upon as commodities, with little regard for impact on the environment such as its springs, Graham said.
Only after World War II did people begin to look at Florida as a tourism destination and begin to appreciate the state for its natural resources, which should be protected. Documentaries like this one should educate people about using less water and stop practices that pollute Florida's springs, he said.
Graham is founder and chairman of the Florida Conservation Coalition. He said that although he worked hard as governor to make people aware of Florida's fragile environment, he fell short. He said he wishes now that he had pushed more to educate school children about environmental issues and had done more to educate senior citizens who moved to Florida about the state's springs and natural resources.
Also in the trailer will be Eric Hutcheson, a diver who has mapped numerous springs throughout the world, including about 2,000 linear feet of Silver Springs in 1993.
Silver Springs is difficult to map because its underground vents are fragile and can collapse, trapping divers, he said.
Hutcheson said many people are not aware of the aquifer and passages feeding Silver Springs because they are underground and out of sight.
"Imagine all the tourists going to the Grand Canyon and not being able to see it. So it's out of sight, out of mind," he said. "So you have to bring it to the people and show it to them."

140213-c
Everglades restoration project's cost going up
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
February 13, 2014
A key Everglades restoration project will cost nearly $100 million more than anticipated to complete, South Florida water managers said Thursday.
The Picayune Strand restoration is turning a failed development on the western edge of the Everglades back into native wildlife habitat.
Now, unforeseen expenses are driving the price tag up to about $620 million, according to the South Florida Water Management District. The district's board on Thursday approved a measure supporting the price increase and calling on Congress to OK — and eventually help pay for — the increase.
"We have come so far," said Jane Graham of Audubon Florida, which supports the cost increase to complete the project. "It's just a bit more way to go."
But that's a costly bump in price, according to District Board Member Tim Sargent, who said officials need to do a better job of anticipating and reining in expenses.
"We really need to button down these costs," Sargent said. "We have got to be careful."
South Florida is in the midst of a decades-long, multibillion-dollar restoration effort to revive wildlife habitat and build reservoirs and treatment areas to re-create the water flows that once naturally replenished the Everglades.
Picayune Strand includes 55,000 acres spread between Alligator Alley and Tamiami Trail in southwest Florida. The Collier County property is bordered by preserves and Everglades National Park.
Transforming the land back into its natural state has involved clearing out exotic plants, plugging drainage canals and removing roadways.
Higher construction costs and the need for more land increased the cost of the project.
Work still left to do includes adding a levee, channels and manatee protections as well as back-up pumps.
The more work that is completed at Picayune Strand, the more wildlife returns to land that was once expected to become one of southwest Florida's largest housing developments, environmentalists say.
Endangered Florida panthers as well as Black bears and wading birds have followed the native vegetation back to Picayune Strand. Environmental advocates contend the Picayune Strand finish line could be three years away, if Congress OKs paying more.
"It's within our grasp," said Brad Cornell, of Audubon. "It's one of the biggest habitat [restoration] projects we have on the books."

140213-d
Voters can protect vital Florida resources
TampaBay.com – Saturday’s Letters
February 13, 2014
There are plenty of compelling reasons why Floridians should vote for the Water and Land Conservation Amendment in November.
As soon as state Sen. David Simmons' springs protection legislation surfaced and the voter-initiated conservation amendment was approved by the Florida Supreme Court, the predictable opposition and spin started, with legislators, lobbyists, water barons, polluting industries and developers starting to squirm like snakes in a skillet.
Should voters trust the same special interests that have made careers on a record of broken promises to protect our water and environment?
In spite of a growing public recognition that something must be done to fix the growing environmental problems plaguing our state, corporate interests and legislators, joined at the hip by a compromised Florida League of Cities, claims that everything is just fine, that no changes or additional protections are needed.
We are expected to believe that corporations will protect the public interest voluntarily, apparently disregarding profits — after having poured money into legislators' pockets to block any new protections for our waters. All of which proves that investing in politicians has a higher rate of return than protecting Florida's tourist economy, water or quality of life.
When legislators and corporate-funded PACs oppose the amendment, just remember that it does not raise taxes, is funded from an existing and dedicated source, and is not "forever," being limited to a 20-year life.
Consider also who is responsible for what has happened to our springs, lakes and rivers, and that our legislators stuffed over $49 million in their pockets from campaign contributions in the last election, much of it from the very corporations now telling us we don't need any protection and don't have enough sense to know we need to fix the problem.
Show them democracy still works. Vote "yes" on the Water and Land Conservation Amendment in November.
Terry Brant, Melrose, FL

140212-a
Business lobbying group says 'large parts of Florida' had 'years of below average rainfall'
PolitiFact.com
February 12, 2014
Response to the Press release by Associated Industries of Florida on Thursday, February 6th, 2014
Florida may be the Sunshine State, but what really sets it apart is its water -- where it comes from, how much there is and who uses it.
Lawmakers are paying more attention to water policies in an election year. That means the business-backed lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida is also announcing a new group to help the state make decisions about water quality and quantity.
In a Feb. 6 press release, AIF announced the H20 Coalition, a group described only as "stakeholders" who plan to help mold legislation for water laws. The group points out some reasons for this marked interest.
"Years of below average rainfall in large parts of Florida combined with reduced infrastructure spending during the recession, have exacerbated a growing shortfall in water supply across the state, drawing the attention of Florida's businesses, environmental groups, utilities and government," the release said.
It seems like there’s been a lot of rain across the state lately. Is it true swaths of Florida have been experiencing a persistent lack of rain over the years? We decided to examine the rain gauges and find out.
Rain check
The state’s main groundwater supply is the Floridan Aquifer, which also supplies parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The aquifer’s network loses water as it is pumped out of the ground through wells or city water systems, and relies on rainfall to recharge water levels.
Andy O’Reilly, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey’s Florida Water Science Center in Orlando, says that across the state, anywhere from less than one to 25 or more inches of annual rainfall has the potential to soak into the aquifer, depending on the local geology. Even much of that ends up as runoff in rivers and streams. The rest of the precipitation either evaporates or is used by plants for transpiration.
"Rainfall is the biggest component in maintaining the aquifer on a regional level," he said, noting that the Floridan Aquifer is particularly sensitive to precipitation levels -- and from overpumping by homes and industries during dry spells. 
So the first thing we did was look into statewide rainfall totals. Checking in with the Florida Climate Center provided a quick look at statewide totals over the years.
Over the last 30 years, Florida has averaged a little more than 54 inches of rain per year, among the highest in the country. Going back to 2000, an extremely dry year, there have been five years of below-average rainfall statewide (2012 was the most recent complete year available):

So, five out of 13 years were below average, which is about 40 percent.
We checked the state’s five water management districts, designed to tend to water resources across Florida. AIF said that "large parts" of Florida had below average rainfail, so numbers by district give us a sense of how rainfall measures up on a regional basis.
For instance, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which extends from parts of Marion County down to Sarasota County, has a 30-year rainfall average of 51.2 inches. For that district, rainfall totals were:

So there were six years out of 13 that were below the regional average, which is about 46 percent.
The South Florida Water Management District, covering the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach metroplex over to Fort Myers and Naples, extending north of Lake Okeechobee into Orlando, has a 30-year average of 51.4 inches. Its rainfall totals were:

There are seven years below that average since 2000, or about 54 percent.
The data is broken down different ways in different districts, but all of them give you a decent idea of which parts of the state are experiencing less rainfall than usual. In the Northwest Florida Water Management District, covering the Panhandle from Escambia County to the western half of Jefferson County, district-wide data isn’t kept, but rather organized by cities where rainfall totals are measured.
In Panama City, for example, the 30-year rainfall average is 61 inches. They’re an example of a location being hit by some below average years lately:

That means 11 years between 2000-12 had below average rainfall, or 85 percent.
What the climatologists say
But do these numbers mean there’s a shortage of rainfall in the state? Climatologist David Zierden with the Florida Climate Center says no. While it’s true there have been some drier years than normal in the past decade or so, there have been plenty of wetter than average years, too. He said 2013 was the 14th or 15th rainiest year on record since 1895.
Tracking average rainfall means "there will be some winners and some losers," Zierden said. Sometimes the totals are above the average, and sometimes they’re below, which is the nature of Florida’s rainfall. This is a pattern that repeats across the state’s climate zones.
He added the state has been in and out of drought over the last decade, but recent years are no worse than 2000 and 2001, which coincided with three dry years of La Nina conditions.
"Here in Florida we’re really dominated by year-to-year totals," he said. "There’s no statistically significant trend at work here."
Those rainfall variances, as inconsistent as they may be, still mean parts of the state have had dry years, and hydrologist O’Reilly said they still could affect the aquifer. That’s because the recharge rate is not a direct ratio to the rainfall total; for example, a 20 percent decrease in rainfall could mean quite a bit more than a 20 percent decrease in the recharge rate.
Overall, the accumulated effects of rainfall deficits and surpluses combine with the rate at which people pump water out of the aquifer to affect the water supply’s long-term balance, he said.
The AIF press release doesn’t mention overpumping from the aquifer as part of the problem maintaining the water supply, but some experts say that would be the real driver of any shortfalls. And commercial interests, especially agriculture, are responsible for most of that overpumping during dry periods.
Tom Swihart, the former head of the Office of Water Policy in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, says not only are estimates of future water supply shortfalls historically too high, but currently funded water projects all but meet those goals. Water usage by residents is on a downward trend as well, not just in Florida, but nationwide. But even keeping that in mind, ensuring quality should take precedent over quantity, Swihart said.
"All of this concern about water supply deflects attention from the much more serious problem of excessive nutrients in Florida waters," he said, referring to the proliferation of fertilizers, pesticides and dangerous chemicals in the water supply from the industries for which AIF lobbies. "That truly is a statewide issue and needs urgent attention."
Our ruling
The Associated Industries of Florida said in its press release that "large parts of Florida" have experienced "years of below average rainfall." While parts of Florida have had below-average rainfall, we also saw years of above-average rainfall. Climatologists told us the state overall is doing fine, thanks to the years when it was above average. Most recently, 2013 was the 14th or 15th rainiest year on record since 1895.
While the record on rainfall is mixed, there are other issues that affect water levels in the aquifer. Overpumping for residential and commercial uses, especially during dry spells, has a lot to do with the dwindling water supply as well, but AIF, which lobbies for business interests that pump from the aquifer, makes no mention of that.
The claim is partially accurate, but leaves out important details. We rate the statement Half True.

140212-b
Crocodiles can climb trees — and they’re good at it, researchers say
Washington Times – by Cheryl K. Chumley
February 12, 2014
Crocodiles, it seems, can actually climb trees. Moreover, they’re pretty good at it. Wired reported that some crocs have been seen in trees, 32 feet above the ground.
It’s actually quite common, scientists in Herpetology Notes reported. Researchers said they received sightings of crocodiles — and alligators, the croc’s genetic partner — in trees in Tulum, Mexico; in Mississippi; in Colombia; and all along the Nile. The crocodiles in Colombia were seen as far as 30 feet up, researchers found.
Researchers then decided to take matters into their own hands and observe the beasts in their tree-climbing habitats for themselves. What they found proved surprising.
Scientists reported crocodiles in trees in Australia — where they also watched one trying to scale a chain-link fence — as well as in the Everglades and Central America, Wired reported.
Meanwhile, African crocodiles along the Nile were spotted just as frequently in trees as in the water. One was resting on a log that was 13 feet above the water — but 16 feet from the bank of the river, Wired reported.
“To reach this site the crocodile would have had to scale a [13-foot] completely vertical bank and then walk amongst the branches to reach the end of the tree,” the researchers reported.

140212-c
Florida population growth returns to form
Florida Weekly.com - by Evan Williams, Fort Myers
February 12, 2014
After growth screeched to a halt during the recession, people are moving back to Florida. Researchers project 192,091 new faces will arrive in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties over the next seven years. The coastal stretch is already home to an estimated 1.1 million people.
Lee County leads the way, growing 20.2 percent — twice the rate of Florida as a whole — to reach 773,500 people by 2020. Collier will absorb 49,537 new residents and Charlotte 12,421.
The projections from the University of Florida are based on past growth. They’re a conservative estimate between the lowest and highest estimates. Population increases fuel economic development but also pose infrastructure and environmental challenges.
“(It) puts more demand on schools, roads, water supply, water runoff, buildings that may be subject to sea level rise,” said Charles Pattison, president of 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit that promotes conservation and environmentally friendly development.
Waterfront property and activities are top selling points driving people to Florida, points out David Crawford, principal planner with Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, a state mandated planning group with officials representing six counties and all their cities.
Water — for drinking, swimming, fishing, but first of all for our natural habitat — is key to a healthy economy.
“(It) runs the whole engine,” Mr. Crawford said. “If we don’t have that, the beaches turn nasty, the water goes bad, retirees stop coming because the place is vile, tourists don’t come, the hotels don’t get occupied, people lose their jobs and the whole system crashes.”
People move to Florida for a wide variety of reasons. It’s known as a place where they come to retire or start over, for instance. And as more arrive, housing inventory is being reduced and construction is picking up. That in turn attracts new residents.
“Those people will need jobs and they may be coming for jobs,” said Tom Patton, Charlotte County economic development director. “The construction trade is our fastest growing industry right now.”
There is also no personal income tax in the state.
“Some people are coming to Florida just simply to minimize the state income tax hit,” said Kenny Goodman, a Naples based tax and estate-planning attorney.
Year-round sunshine is always at the top of the list of reasons why people move here. That was driven home for Bonita Springs Mayor Ben Nelson, who recently visited Atlanta, Ga., where biting weather kept him inside most of the trip.
“I know why people are coming here and it’s not going to stop,” he said.
Surpassing New York
Florida lost a small percent of its population because of the recession. Now the state is on track to surpass New York this year if it hasn’t yet already. That would make it the third most populous state behind California and Texas.
Through 2020, Florida is projected to absorb some 1.9 million new people, pushing the population past 21.1 million.
“Assuming the estimates are correct, Florida should pass New York in the near future,” said Stefan Rayer, Ph.D., a demographer at UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “But there’s really no way of telling exactly when that’s going to happen.”
Population estimates are based on building permits, electric connections and other data. They are more accurate for larger areas such as the state as a whole than at the county or city level and are subject to change from major economic events such as a housing industry meltdown.
Going forward
For now growth is trending steadily upwards in Southwest Florida, albeit not at the breakneck pace seen in the early to mid-2000s.
Cape Coral, the region’s most populous city, grew by 6,764 people between 2010 and 2013, UF estimates show. Nearly 160,000 reside in the Cape.
“Just before the recession Cape Coral was one of the top five fastest growing cities in America,” recalls Kevin Pickett, a Lee County-based broker associate with Right Choice Realty. “With all the new construction, the availability of land to do new construction, we’re starting to see it come back to that.”
Many homebuyers are baby boomer retirees from the Midwest and Northeast, but a surprising number are younger, Mr. Pickett said. His office sampled 100 recent buyers and found that 60 percent were between age 35 and 45.
He suggested that recent college graduates who had tough luck in a weak job market moved back in with family. As more jobs became available they ended up staying and are now buying homes.
But with all the growth, is Southwest Florida gearing up for another precarious real estate bubble ? Lee County was often cited as a “ground zero” for the housing meltdown that preceded the recession.
“I believe we’re going to see sustained growth in more of a normal market,” Mr. Pickett said.
As once vacant homes and properties left untended during the recession fill up, “that makes it a lot safer for the buyer.” ¦

Long-term population projections

140212-d
Inlet dredging plan puts town on alert
Palm Beach Daily News - by Aleese Kopf, Staff Writer
February 12, 2014
Storm surge, blasting and sand ownership top concerns as port project moves ahead, mayor says.
Town officials and residents still have concerns about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to deepen and widen the Lake Worth Inlet after reviewing a final report of the dredge plan released Monday.
Mayor Gail Coniglio addressed the study Tuesday at the Town Council meeting, saying that blasting, storm surge and sand placement “are of continuing concern.”
Coniglio talked with Jacksonville District Commander Col. Alan M. Dodd and other Corps officials immediately after reviewing the report.
“They have not completely ruled out blasting,” she said. “They have assured us that it will be done thusly: The rock is pre-treated, small explosives are inserted into that rock and they gently detonate underwater and, according to them, you will only see a possible bubble on the surface.”
The Corps maintains that the project will raise storm surge by only 4 inches, Coniglio said.
“As you know, during the hurricanes and certainly post-Sandy, we’ve clearly seen that there is an issue for flooding, so we are tremendously watchful of this.”
Corps project manager Laurel Reichold said the Corps’ storm surge analysis yielded an “insignificant change” and “poses no threat to infrastructure or environmental impacts.”
Coniglio has asked the Corps to spell out in the report that dredged sand belongs to the town. She also asked the Corps to extend the area where sand can be placed to include beaches farther south and in the nearshore, or ankle-deep water.
“I am very concerned that every grain, every ounce of sand that is within that inlet will be put on our dry beach,” she said. “I assure you that all hands are on deck, all eyes and ears are on this subject.”
Reichold said the Corps can haul or pump beach quality sand farther south, but the town would pay the bill entirely.
The Corps proposes to deepen the main turning basin and the inner channel at the Port of Palm Beach from 33 feet to 39 feet, to deepen the entrance channel from 35 feet to 41 feet, and to widen the existing footprint in certain places up to 150 feet.
The recommended plan also includes 22.5 acres of seagrass and several hardbottom mitigation north and south of the inlet. Little Lake Worth, north of John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, and Turtle Cove, south of the Little Lake Worth Bridge, were originally considered as potential mitigation sites but were strongly opposed by residents during the public review period and removed from the final report.
These changes will bring the port, which hasn’t been updated since 1963, to current standards by improving inlet conditions, navigation and economic inefficiencies. Inadequate depths and widths, high shoaling, maneuverability difficulties, tidal delays, and expensive and frequent maintenance dredgings are some of the existing challenges.
With the dredging, the port could accept bigger ships carrying more goods, while reducing delays caused by tidal shifts and other challenges, Reichold wrote in a news release.
The proposed plan would reduce dredging to once every two years from once a year, and save about $850,000 a year, she said.
The Palm Beach Civic Association also raised concerns with the plan. President Ned Barnes said the association is working with Everglades Law Center and other environmentalists to “build a record” in case they decide to challenge the project later.
“They are evaluating this final (study) and they are going to make some comments,” he told the council. “The Civic Association is geared up for this. We would like to cooperate with the town in this effort, and maybe we can all work together to build some sort of coalition on this very important issue.”
Comments will be accepted until March 10, when the report will go through the Corps’ headquarters and U.S. Congress for authorization. A pre-construction, engineering and design phase would take about two years, followed by two years of construction, the Corps said.
The project is estimated to cost $88.6 million, with the federal government paying $57.6 million and the port paying about $31 million.

140212-e
Lake O increased releases: a healthy decision
Fort Myers Beach Bulletin, Fort Myers Beach Observer – by Bob Fletcher
February 12, 2014
One week after a local clean water rally and less than two weeks before a planned rally in the state capitol, an increased flow of regulatory freshwater releases have been discharged from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee.
Right in time for tourism season.
But, don't believe every thing you see or hear. Last week, when the Army Corps of Engineers reportedly increased its regulatory releases by a considerable level, then made a decision on Friday to maintain an increased flow beginning Saturday, it was a sound one, says Town Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen.
The Town's scientist says the salinities in the upper estuaries have been too high, and more freshwater is needed to counter-balance.
"Right now, we are very pleased with the Corps decision on the current releases and hope it can restore some of that freshwater balance in the upper estuaries to help regenerate some of the tape grass that got heavily impacted over the past few years," he said. "We have to think about the system as a whole, which includes the freshwater part of the river east of Fort Myers and the downstream impacts.
"The 650 cubic feet per second (cfs) they had been giving us has not been sufficient to keep the Caloosahatchee River below the minimum flow level violation standard of 10 parts per thousand. Anything above 10 psu (practical salinity units) is recognized as causing significant harm to the estuary, especially in the tape grass."
Increased flows during this time of year are part of the norm to regulate lake water levels ahead of rainy season. But due to an earlier rainy start and an overabundance of rain last summer, the long-standing water quality issue was elevated after increased freshwater releases began sooner and were higher than normal.
Last Friday's decision resulted in the Corps adjusting the target flow from the lake to the Caloosahatchee Estuary upward to a 10-day average of 1,000 cfs as measured at W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam (S-79) near Fort Myers, according to an online report by Corps' Public Affairs Specialist John Campbell. Local runoff outside the lake into the Caloosahatchee River could cause flows to exceed this target.
"We're hoping that the 1,000 cfs number can help push the salinity wedge further downstream to fight off some of that salinity from the Gulf of Mexico," said Laakkonen, who is involved in weekly conference calls with the Corps, Southwest Florida Water Management District officials, colleagues from Sanibel and Lee County, Audubon Society officials, various National Wildlife Refuge officials, state agencies and similar folks from the east coast of Florida.
"The lake has seen a one-quarter foot rise in the past week and the most current analysis of forecasted conditions show an increase to projected lake inflows over the next six months," said Lt. Col. Tom Greco, the Corps' Jacksonville District Deputy Commander for South Florida. "We'll continue to work with stakeholders to assess conditions in order to make sound operational decisions."
The current "pulse" releases mimic what a natural rainfall would be and are crucial for the water management and lowering of the lake level during the course of the year, which includes dry season typically in April and May and rainy season typically from late June through October.
"When they do have the operational flexibility to make decisions about the how much water they can give us, that's when the stakeholders have the ability to maybe ask for more flexibility, like right now," said Laakkonen.
Rally officials, who gathered at Alliance of the Arts on Feb. 1, are planning on a "Rally in Tally" to campaign for a clean water declaration on the steps of the old Capitol in Tallahassee on Feb. 18. Activists say that too much freshwater mixing with saltwater causes water pollution and offer photos of a murky, oil-like, brown-colored water against traditional green-blue Gulf water as proof.
Laakkonen says our Beach waters shouldn't be affected as bad with the current increased flows.
"This past summer, there was so much organic matter in the water and that was really causing stress to those tape grasses in the upper estuaries," he said. "We are going to get more (color) than we are getting currently, but it certainly won't be of the same deep, dark colors that were much more nutrient-laden this past summer," he said. "The average of 1,000 cfs is likely a healthy number for the Caloosahatchee during winter."
Since Oct. 21, 2013, the target flow from the Franklin Lock had been 650 cfs and the target flow from the St. Lucie Lock has been 0 cfs, according to the Corps. SFWMD continues to move water south through the Stormwater Treatment Areas to the Water Conservation Areas.
Last Friday, the lake stage was 14.02 feet and has been on an upward trend since Jan. 30. The releases are being conducted in accordance with the 2008 Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS). The current LORS guidance allows for releases up to 3,000 cfs at Franklin Lock and 1,170 cfs at St. Lucie Lock. However, at this time the current target flows are being adjusted out of consideration for all project purposes.
Estuaries require a balance of fresh and salt water, depend on nutrients and support an abundance of sea life, said Roland Ottolini, a civil engineering expert in water pollution control and water conservation, in October 2013.
"Our estuary out there is very important. It has national and state significance and is very important to our economy," he said. "Unfortunately, we do not have a natural system. It is subjected to a lot of extremes because it is a managed system."
Sending discharges south used to be the approach, but it's more difficult now.
"The historic route and desire is to send it south, but now we have what was hundreds of miles wide has now been shortened out to narrow canals. We also have a lot of agriculture and communities now," said Ottolini. "There is also a federal court order that says you can't send dirty water to the Everglades National Park. There are a lot of environmental considerations."
Solutions involve storing and conveying more water. Long-term projects are being looked into, such as Caloosahatchee River (C-43) West Basin Storage Reservoir (designed to hold 170,000 acre feet of water), Central Everglades Planning Project (reconnect Lake O south with Everglades National Park, but water needs to be treated/clean) and the restoration of Herbert Hoover Dike (to enhance structural integrity and provide additional storage).

140212-f
Pafford named CEO of Marshall Foundation for the Everglades
Palm Beach Post - by Christine Stapleton, Staff Writer
February 12, 2014
The Arthur R. Marshall Foundation for The Everglades has selected state Rep. Mark S. Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, as Chief Executive Officer. He is the first CEO of the 15-year-old environmental education foundation.
Pafford expects to begin the full-time position with the foundation this spring. He does not expect there will be a conflict of interest between his position with the foundation and his duties as an elected official but has asked for a legal opinion to remove any doubt.
“It’s a subject that is near and dear to my heart,” said Pafford, who leads free, guided tours throughout wildlife areas in South Florida. “Blended with my nonprofit experience and fund-raising it’s really going to be a great opportunity at a time when Everglades restoration and water quality issues are a very high priority for a lot of people.”
Early in his career, Pafford worked as a naturalist with the Metro-Dade Parks Department at Arch Creek Park in North Miami, Florida. He later served as a congressional aide from 1989 to 1992.
Pafford received his Bachelor of Public Administration degree at Florida International University in 1988 and moved to Palm Beach County in 1993, where he worked as a Senior Coordinator for the Village of Royal Palm Beach and later joined the legislative office of State Representative Lois Frankel.
After working more than 20 years of working in community based non-profit organizations, including the CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association Southeast Florida Chapter, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, unopposed, in 2008. He is now serving his third term.
Pafford will lead a team of professional environmental educators and Everglades science experts in programs including the Foundation’s Everglades canoe expedition, college summer intern program and the 2014 Sea Level Rise Symposium.
“Mark Pafford’s knowledge of the Everglades, his non-profit fund-raising experience and his passion for environmental education placed him at the top of the consideration list,” said Marshall Foundation Board Vice President Michael Davis. “Mark has all the essential experiences that are critical to running the Foundation, including more than 14 years of successful non-profit fund-raising and management experience.”

140212-g
Response to Judah commentary
Fort Myers Beach Bulletin, Fort Myers Beach Observer – Letter to the Editor by Judy Clayton Sanchez, senior director of corporate communications and public affairs for the U S Sugar Corp.
February 12, 2014
Former commissioner Judah's latest letter is more of the same, tired extremist rhetoric-- always whining and complaining. Even as he lists $130 million in approved new projects that have broad support and that will "significantly increase" water storage in South Florida, provide for additional bridging of Tamiami Trail to enable more water to be moved south, and build reservoir projects on both the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers to assist the estuaries, Judah still isn't satisfied.
He'd rather waste additional time and resources continuing his personal campaign against sugar farmers.
Every state and federal agency involved in South Florida ecosystem restoration have repeatedly reviewed and rejected the concept of a flow-way south, or Plan-6.
Most recently, agency and scientific testimony before the broad-based 2013 Senate Select Committee on Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin rejected the notion that a Plan-6 flow-way would solve the Lake Okeechobee discharge issues. The Southwest Florida Water Management District already has purchased more than 118,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area for water projects that are approved and ready to go.
No single plan or project, in and of itself, is the perfect solution to preventing heavy discharges from harming our coastal water resources. However, as part of a comprehensive plan, each project can and will provide some relief. The answer then is moving forward quickly -while there is momentum and support from both Governor Scott and the Florida Legislature- to authorize, fund and build these projects.
With more than 100 years of drainage and flood control projects that have enabled development and encouraged more than seven million people to move into our area, there are no "silver bullets" or quick fixes. Recognizing that, most reasonable people support the current list of proposed projects that will start providing relief for our rivers and estuaries.
Ray Judah needs to get over his personal issues with Florida sugar farmers and help the effort to save our coastal water resources by supporting consensus projects that can and should be built now!
Judy Clayton Sanchez, Clewiston, FL, is the senior director of corporate communications and public affairs for the United States Sugar Corp. She joined U.S. Sugar in 1994, transferring from its South Bay Growers vegetable operations. She is responsible for U. S. Sugar's media and public relations activities and its public education/information programs, and coordinates all external and internal communications functions, acts as corporate spokeswoman and assists with the company's public affairs efforts. She serves on the board of directors for the Agriculture Institute of Florida, Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau, Sustainable Florida and the Lake Okeechobee Regional Economic Alliance of Palm Beach County. Sanchez serves on the Public Education Advisory Committee for The Sugar Association and the steering committee of the Lake Okeechobee Regional Initiative, Collins Center.

140211-a
Department of Environmental Protection wants to investigate why herbicides in lagoon surface water
TCPalm.com - by Scott Wyland
February 11, 2014
Herbicides found in water and sediment taken from the Indian River Lagoon surprised state environmental officials who said they are curious why these chemicals are ending up in the waterways.
WPTV NewsChannel 5 reported Tuesday the state Department of Environmental Protection wants to look into why certain herbicides were detected in surface water. Agency officials will meet to discuss how to conduct this investigation, WPTV reported.
Late last year, the Ocean Conservation and Research Association assisted Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and WPTV in gleaning water and sediment samples in a 55-mile stretch of the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River.
Trace amounts of three herbicides were found in Indian River County’s south relief canal and one herbicide was detected in sediment taken near the Taylor Creek canal in the Fort Pierce Inlet.
These chemicals could contribute to sea grass die off. Much higher concentrations can harm fish and mammals, though regulatory agencies don’t specify the thresholds when this could happen.
The herbicides are glyphosate, diquat and Indaziflam — chemicals blended into household weed killers such as Roundup and Rodeo. Governments, farmers and landscapers also use the herbicides to remove unwanted vegetation in canals, citrus groves, golf courses, lawns and roadside ditches.
There’s relatively little research on how herbicides affect waterways, which makes it difficult to increase regulations, said Chris Dzadovsky, St. Lucie County commissioner.
“We’ve learned through trial and error that you’ve got to start with education and science to get an effective political discussion going,” Dzadovsky said.
Agency officials were surprised the main ingredient, glyphosate, was discovered because it’s so difficult to detect, WPTV reports. And they were more surprised that indaziflam was found because it hasn’t been used in Florida for very long.
Finding herbicides was unprecedented because the lagoon has never been tested for such chemicals, local researchers say.
Herbicides mostly enter waterways as runoff flowing through drainage canals, researchers say.
“One testing that’s been lacking is the testing of the entire canal system,” said Tim Zorc, Indian River County commissioner. “Knowing what’s there helps you know what to do.”
Scientists, industry officials and conservationists debate whether herbicides such as glyphosate remain in the water long enough and in concentrations great enough to harm sea grass and wildlife.
ORCA researchers say finding trace amounts of herbicides will help them get funding to do more extensive studies of herbicide pollution and its impact on the lagoon’s ecosystem.
ABOUT THIS INVESTIGATION
After finding out a study on chemicals sprayed to kill weeds and invasive species in local canals had ever been conducted, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers worked with the Ocean Research and Conservation Association on testing whether herbicide runoff was affecting local waterways.
Water collections and sediment samples were taken from in and around the lagoon. Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers/TCPalm and WPTV NewsChannel 5 paid SunLabs in Tampa to test 18 samples for three chemicals used as herbicides. All three chemicals were detected at one site, and one chemical was found at another.
ORCA said the positive results will allow the organization to pursue funding for more extensive studies of the lagoon's herbicide pollution.
READ TCPALM's special report

140211-b
Florida gubernatorial candidates clash over nutrient rich water
WaterOnline.com - by Sara Jerome
February 11, 2014
Nutrient rich water has become a defining topic in the Florida gubernatorial race. 
Water with a high nutrient content was deliberately funneled out of Florida's Lake Okeechobee last summer, resulting in pollution in nearby rivers. The question of who's to blame is now at the center of a high-profile game of finger pointing.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist blamed current Gov. Rick Scott for the discharges in remarks last week, according to the Florida Current. Crist, a Democrat, is running for governor in the 2014 election. So is Scott, a Republican. 
In pointed remarks, Crist "all but accused Scott of masterminding the pollution of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers this summer after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discharged nutrient-rich water from Lake Okeechobee into those water bodies," according to the Herald-Tribune.  
The discharges were an attempt to decrease the water level of the lake, relieving "pressure on an aging dike system threatened by record rainfall," the report said.  
The South Florida Water District explains that the lake health has been "threatened in recent decades by excessive nutrients from agricultural and urban activities in the lake's watershed, by harmful high and low water levels and by the spread of exotic vegetation."
Here's what Scott took issue with, per the Miami Herald: "Crist said he interrupted his 2008 honeymoon to persuade his appointees to the South Florida Water Management District to stop discharges of pollutants from Lake Okeechobee. He accused the Scott administration of reversing that decision, and blamed Scott for a return of pollution to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers on Florida’s Treasure Coast and Gulf Coast."
Crist explained the importance of the incident in a sit-down with News 4 Jax. He "grew so animated about the Lake Okeechobee issue during the interview that he sketched a map of the river system on the back of a napkin."
Scott, on the other hand, holds the position that the Obama Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are at fault, the report said. 
Scott has proposed to spend "$130 million more next year to improve the South Florida ecosystem and speed up restoration of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades," according to Gannett's News-Press

140211-c
Make all lobbyists come clean
Miami Herald – Our Opinion
State law shouldn’t shield those in special-purpose districts
If you are a lobbyist in Florida you should be required to register as one and disclose who you are representing before appearing in front of any government body.
That’s precisely the case these days in Tallahassee and for most county and city governments in the Sunshine State.
But if you are a lobbyist with a cause to press before one of the special-purpose districts in Florida you likely don’t have to disclose anything before pleading your client’s case, according to BrowardBulldog.org, a not-for-profit online newspaper that reports on public-interest issues.
These special-purpose districts are often created to collect taxes within a defined geographical area for a specific purpose, such as administering child-welfare programs or delivering healthcare. The biggest special-purpose agencies are the state’s five water-management districts governed by nine-member boards appointed by the governor.
Together, the five water-management districts levied $480 million in property taxes in 2012 — and not a single one of them requires lobbyists to register or disclose their clients.
That lax policy allowed the vice chairman of the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board to serve as the lawyer/lobbyist for a company that sold the district $1.5 million worth of faulty electric pumps without disclosing the connection in 2007.
The same no-registration policy rules at North Broward Hospital District, which, as the story says, is long known for its political favoritism and lack of transparency in its contracting decisions. The hospital district currently is the subject of a federal probe connected to allegations of phony Medicare and Medicaid claims.
Of the special districts surveyed by BrowardBulldog.org, including 38 with combined budgets of more than $50 million, only three require some form of lobbyist registration and another one prohibits lobbying in its bylaws. One requiring registration is The Children’s Trust in Miami-Dade County. And the Broward Children’s Services Council commendably prohibits lobbying altogether.
We’re talking about lobbyists operating without public scrutiny at special-taxing districts that oversee millions of dollars of collected taxes each year. The South Florida Water Management District levied $284.7 million in 2012. The North Broward Hospital District collected $149.5 million that year, while the Southwest Florida Water Management District collected $104.7 million.
Integrity Florida, a Tallahassee-based nonprofit and nonpartisan government watchdog, is calling for more transparency for the special districts. It is absolutely right to do so.
There are two types of districts — dependent and independent. Dependent districts include the community-redevelopment agencies that many cities have established. They operate according to their municipalities’ lobbying rules, so most require registration and disclosure.
But there are 136 independent districts, often run by unelected boards, many of which can impose ad valorem taxes on homeowners and businesses. These districts wield enormous power over spending decisions involving the public’s tax money without much public oversight. Such shadowy transactions involving tax money draw lobbyists like moths to a flame. The Legislature should require the special districts’ governing boards to operate by the same rules for lobbyists that apply to it and most cities and counties in the state.

140211-d
New reverse osmosis plant helps FL city meet water supply demands
WaterWorld.com
February 11, 2014
SURREY, UK -- The acceptance testing of a new 1.5-million-gallons-per-day (MGD) reverse osmosis (RO) system has been completed at the Springtree Water Treatment Plant located in Sunrise, Fla.
Provided by Biwater, a provider of various water services internationally, the now-operating facility is assisting the city in meeting its alternative water supply requirements. The UK-based company designed the two-stage system, which incorporates an interstage energy recovery system that includes a novel manipulated valve control system that it developed in conjunction with Fluid Equipment Development Company (FEDCO).
Approximately 1.5 MGD of potable water is produced with permeate water recoveries of up to 80 percent at the facility. Likewise, the feed water total dissolved solids (TDS) is recorded at roughly 3,000 mg/l, from a repurposed existing aquifer storage recovery (ASR) well. Biwater's installed treatment capacity in the city of Sunrise has climbed to 19.5 MGD/74,000 m3/day.
The project was performed directly under contract with the city of Sunrise, and Carollo Engineers served as the owner's engineer.
About Biwater
Biwater provides large-scale water and wastewater solutions for clients across the world.The company's desalination business serves both municipal and industrial clients. It is a premier membrane system manufacturer, particularly for large capacity systems, producing high purity drinking water. The company currently has more than 440 MGD of installed membrane treatment capacity globally. For more information, visit www.biwater.com.

140211-e
US Sugar statement on recent court ruling re. Works of the District permits
SE-AgNet - by Dan
February 11, 2014
CLEWISTON, FL – Feb. 11, 2014 ¬– We are pleased that the courts have again recognized that sugar farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area are meeting their requirements in cleaning the water leaving their farms.
Judge Canter has affirmed that EAA farmers have succeeded in not only meeting the clean up requirements of their water permits, but have averaged greater than 50% reductions in phosphorous – double what has been asked of them.
While Audubon has sought to disrupt and delay, sugar farmers have been cleaning water and collaborating with state and federal partners on projects to clean and protect our water resources.
“Now that this divisive issue is behind us, once and for all it is time for everyone to move on and to start working together on the approval and funding of solutions to problems in our water management system ¬– such as completing projects to protect our coastal estuaries and all of the Everglades,” said Robert Coker, senior vice president, public affairs.

140211-f
Water business
Ocala.com
February 11, 2014
Big Business 2, People of Florida 0. If Florida's water politics were a game, that would be the score over the past week.
In the midst of promising signs from Tallahassee and closer to home, the St. Johns River Water Management District, that public officials are finally serious about stopping the degradation and depletion of our water supply, comes two unsettling developments.
First, a group of five influential senators are working on legislation to save Florida's 700-plus natural springs. Among their proposals are setting aside some $378 million a year in real estate documentary stamp dollars to force either the repair or removal of septic tanks and encourage hook-ups to central sewer systems and establish special protection zones for the state's 22 first magnitude springs. Needless to say, the senators' boldness is raising eyebrows.
So, last week Associated Industries of Florida, the state's most powerful business lobby, announced that it and 21 other business groups — including the Florida Home Builders Association, the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association and the Association of Florida Community Developers — have formed the Florida H2O Coalition. Florida H2O will be "encouraging lawmakers to support a comprehensive, statewide plan to address our current problems and plan for future needs, advocating science-based solutions and adequate funding for badly needed programs, supporting alternative water supply options and highlighting the need to fund regional projects that are in line and ready to deliver results," said Tom Feeney, CEO/president of AIF.

140211-g
Why are Florida leaders involved with Chesapeake Bay ?
Jacksonville.com – by Ron Littlepage
February 11, 2014
Others, such as Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen, have already jumped on this bandwagon, but let me climb aboard as well.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and her buddy Gov. Rick Scott have lost their minds.
Last week, Bondi joined in a lawsuit to undermine an agreement that would clean up one of the nation’s most valued bodies of water, the Chesapeake Bay.
That’s no typo. As Hiaasen wrote, “And, no, you can’t make this stuff up.”
In her quest to further suck up to Big Agriculture and to take a jab at President Barack Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bondi joined the attorneys general from 20 other states in appealing a federal judge’s approval of a blueprint for cleaning up the pollution that has damaged the bay for decades.
That puts Bondi and by extension all Floridians on the side of the American Farm Bureau Federation in being pro-pollution and anti-clean water.
And there hasn’t been a peep of dissent from Scott about spending Florida’s tax dollars to fight an agreement that was reached through a collaborative effort by the EPA and the states and other interested parties that actually have a stake in what happens to the bay.
In an editorial, the Baltimore Sun asked, “Why interfere with an environmental campaign that is working, and in a cooperative manner at that?”
The Sun added, “It is shocking … to see so many attorneys general attack that effort in what amounts to a declaration of environmental war.”
Of course, it’s a good time for Bondi and Scott to be sucking up to Big Ag with their re-election campaigns in full swing and the pressing need for campaign cash.
You can forget about those environmental clothes Scott has been masquerading in of late while making a big deal about handing out dollars for restoring the Everglades and our iconic springs.
Scott and Bondi are all about protecting Big Ag’s ability to pollute for profits.
And the result?
The St. Johns River regularly turns green with toxic algal blooms, the Indian River Lagoon is near death and our once crystal clear springs are drying up and polluted.
The federal Clean Water Act is the tool the EPA uses to guide efforts to restore polluted waterways like Chesapeake Bay.
Scott and Bondi hate all regulations, especially those that come from the federal government.
The Clean Water Act, however, provided the impetus for former Mayor Hans Tanzler to begin the process of restoring the health of the St. Johns.
If Scott and Bondi had been in office then, we would still be dumping raw sewage into the river today.
The Sun concluded its editorial with this:
“All that’s being asked is that they (Big Ag) be held responsible for their share of the nitrogen, phosphorus, sediments and toxics that are killing fish and shellfish in our waterways. Such accountability ought not only to be allowed in Maryland but ought to be welcomed everywhere else, too.”
Including Florida.

140210-a









Carl HIAASEN

140210-a
Carl Hiaasen: Muddying the waters far from home
Miami Herald – by Carl Hiaasen
February 10, 2014 
Your tax dollars hard at work:
The state of Florida has joined a lawsuit aimed at blocking a massive cleanup plan for Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay.
And, no, you can't make this stuff up.
Last week, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a brief - paid for with your taxes - attacking the legality of the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint.
The plan was devised by six bay area states, the District of Columbia and the federal government. Its mission is to improve water quality in the rivers, streams and estuaries of the Chesapeake region.
A federal judge upheld the terms of the so-called blueprint, which will limit the amount of pollution being dumped, but the ruling is being appealed.
Why would the state of Florida try to obstruct the cleanup of public waters hundreds of miles away from our own? Because Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott are complete tools.
They aren't suing on behalf of the citizens of Florida; they're suing on behalf of big agricultural and development interests that don't want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcing clean-water laws anywhere.
Among the lobby groups trying to dismantle the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint are the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Home Builders and those famously civic-minded folks at the Fertilizer Institute. They want us to trust them to regulate their own pollution, and to hell with the EPA.
Quietly these industries recruited Florida and 20 other states - most led by Republican governors, of course - to join the lawsuit attacking the Chesapeake Bay plan. Among the other shameless meddlers are Kansas, Alaska and Indiana.
"To say we are outraged is a vast understatement," said Will Baker, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "We find it almost beyond belief for any state outside of the Chesapeake Bay watershed to try to sue to stop us from cleaning up our waters. What are they afraid of if we have clean water in the Chesapeake Bay?"
Here in Florida, Bondi and Scott didn't hold a press conference to announce they were joining the Chesapeake litigation. In fact, they'd be much happier if nobody knew about it except the special interests for whom they're pimping.
Imagine the widespread anger down here if the state of Maryland or Pennsylvania sued to halt Everglades restoration. That's how people up there feel about what we're doing to them.
There's a perverse irony in the fact that the Scott administration is spending public dollars to defend polluters up North while our own most precious waterways are being poisoned.
Fertilizer runoff from lawns and other pollution has killed thousands of acres of sea grass in the Indian River Lagoon, and it's the prime suspect in a steep rise in deaths of manatees and bottle-nosed dolphins.
The rapid decline in water quality poses a serious threat to the marine-based economy of the Treasure Coast, affecting everything from boat sales to riverfront real estate. Residents have protested, organized and begged for help from Scott and the Legislature.
Meanwhile, whenever it gets rainy, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to pump fertilizer-laden water from Lake Okeechobee eastward down the St. Lucie River toward the Atlantic Ocean, and westward down the Caloosahatchee to the Gulf of Mexico.
The people living around Stuart dread the dense algae blooms that suffocate the oysters and drive away sea life whenever that scummy green-black torrent from Lake O arrives. It's a catastrophic violation of the federal Clean Water Act, committed by a federal agency on a seasonal basis.
Instead of suing the Corps to halt the dumping, Scott and Bondi are wasting Florida's legal budget fighting faraway projects like the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint, which is actually a model of sensible cooperation between the states and the feds.
Scott and Bondi don't care. Both are up for re-election this year, and are banking on hefty donations from developers and Big Agriculture. That's the only reason they stuck their noses into this lawsuit.
A vote for either one of them is basically a vote for the Fertilizer Institute. Remember that in November.
In the meantime, speaking for all other Floridians, I'd like to apologize to the concerned citizens of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C.
We had nothing to do with this ridiculous lawsuit. We know firsthand the terrible impact of water pollution, and we truly want your Chesapeake Bay to be clean.
Pay no attention to our clueless governor and attorney general. We try not to.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Carl Hiaasen is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Readers may write to him at: The Miami Herald, 3511 N.W. 91 Avenue, Doral, Fla. 33172; email: chiaasen@miamiherald.com.

140210-b
Thursday's free forum explores lagoon woes
Florida Today – by Jim Wymer
February 10, 2014
The knowns and unknowns of what’s killing the Indian River Lagoon are the focus of a forum this Thursday in Melbourne.
The forum begins at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at Front Street Civic Center, 2205 Front St., in downtown Melbourne.
Speakers include Tom Belanger, professor of marine and environmental systems at Florida Tech; Dick Martens, retired director of Brevard County Utility Services; Troy Rice, director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program; and Leesa Souto, executive director of the nonprofit Marine Resources Council.
Discussion topics include what to do once muck is removed from the lagoon and what gaps in scientific understanding need to be filled.
The free event is co-hosted by Partnership for a Sustainable Future, Save Our Aquifer, Turtle Coast Sierra Club, and Space Coast Progressive Alliance.
The forum’s organizers point to insufficient sewage treatement, leaky sewage pipes, more than 90,000 septic tanks in Brevard County, and fertilizer nutrients as among the causes of chronic algae blooms in the lagoon.
Severe algae blooms have killed some 47,000 acres — more than 73 square miles — of seagrass in the lagoon since an unprecedented green-algae “superbloom” hit the northern lagoon in 2011. Then brown algae blooms over the past two years added to the die-off and kept seagrass from recovering.
Each acre of seagrass generates $5,000 to $10,000 annually to local economy, according to studies on behalf of the St. Johns River Water Management District.

140209-a
Reclaiming our springs
Ocala.com - by John Moran
February 9, 2014
As saving our springs gains ground, opposition begins to mount.
2014 just might go down as the year in which rising public concern over the declining health of our springs finally reaches critical mass.
The Star-Banner's recent "Fragile Springs" series has certainly helped to elevate the conversation about water and Florida's future to its rightful place at center stage. Day after day, the stories drove home two points: Our fabulous springs are in a world of hurt. And we are failing the test to preserve and protect our priceless blue-water gems.
Language structures any debate, so let's be clear: It's simply inaccurate to say that our springs are dying. Dying is what happens when old trees fall down in the forest. That's the cycle of nature.
"Dying" is too soft a word to describe what's happening to our springs. The reality is that we are killing our springs. The fact that none of us wanted this to happen doesn't excuse our responsibility for the consequences of our actions.
The desecration of our springs is no accident; this is negligent homicide. As with the drunken driver who meant to cause no harm, crying "Oops!" is no defense to this crime against nature.
Massive groundwater overpumping and nutrient pollution are the culprits, compounded by gross regulatory neglect. For more than 20 years, a growing chorus of scientists and journalists and artists and springs-loving Floridians of every stripe has sounded the alarm that our springs are imperiled and in danger of collapse.
The message is finally getting through. A bipartisan band of concerned senators has drafted a bill that begins to correct the neglect that has masqueraded as legislative oversight in recent years. The bill is a fluid work in progress but this much is clear: What ails our springs cannot be corrected by throwing a few million dollars at the problem. We must stop overpumping the aquifer. And we must stop pollution at its source.
But as surely as the sun comes rising in the east, the pushback is in full swing. A wide-ranging consortium of business leaders ­— including developers, farmers and fertilizer suppliers ­— have predictably responded with "not so fast."
Many are the same folks who once insisted that "we don't have a problem," before switching gears to "we can't afford to fix this." Now they claim "we need more studies so that sound science" can point the way, a tired argument which echoes the tobacco industry's deny-and-delay response to the surgeon general's 1964 report linking smoking to cancer.
Come on, Florida. If that's the best we can do, why don't we just be honest with each other and admit that we're really only interested in fixing our springs if it's convenient and painless to do so.
And while we're at it, why don't we gather our children and grandchildren and confess this dirty little secret: They deserve no better than to inherit a state in which our pristine springs, running clear and blue, can be found only in old pictures and fading memories. For that is surely the message we've conveyed in deed, if not in word.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, Floridians increasingly have concluded that our state agencies — formerly national models of wise water governance — are now engaged in an elaborate charade to create the illusion of environmental protection.
Think about it. "Protection" means to safeguard from injury or harm. If the springs were our children, the Department of Children and Families would long ago have acted to place them in the care of responsible adults
What we have here in Florida is a failure of imagination and a poverty of spirit that has enabled a system of governance that seemingly knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing. We've done nothing to deserve the gift of these pools of stunning blue wonder ­— the finest springs the world has ever known. And our only charge was to find a way to not screw it up.
Our springs are world-class treasures, and they deserve world-class protection. If you believe this to be true, then Tallahassee needs to hear from you, because you can be sure our legislators are getting an earful from powerful polluters who value their private profits more than our public waters.
The future of our springs depends on public advocacy. We can no longer afford to buy the false dichotomy that would have us choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment, for the former will surely wither and die without the latter. Nothing less than the soul of Florida hangs in the balance. And that is a message we can take to heart as we resolve to make tomorrow a better day in Florida.

140209-b
Wading bird nests increased in 2013, but some smaller species still doing poorly
Palm Beach Post – by Christine Stapleton, Staff Writer
February 9, 2013
In the highly technical, science-driven effort to restore Florida’s Everglades, progress is measured with wings, skinny legs and the South Florida Water Management District’s annual wading bird report.
“There is good and bad news,” said ornithologist Mark Cook, a lead scientist at the district who produced the 2013 South Florida Wading Bird Report, which shows moderate improvement in nesting last year.
This story continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyPalmBeachPost.com.

140208-a
Lagoon dolphins harbor potentially deadly bacteria
Florida Today
February 8, 2014
Study: Mammals may be more susceptible to other serious infections
One in every three bottlenose dolphins tested in the Indian River Lagoon has antibodies to a bacteria that can make them more vulnerable to other deadly infections, according to a new study.
The finding comes as researchers struggle to figure out what has caused a rash of unexplained dolphin deaths in the lagoon.
“This is just one additional level of evidence that’s concerning,” said Greg Bossart, a marine mammal pathologist at the Georgia Aquarium and lead author of the study. “It starts to shed light on what’s happening in the lagoon.”
Researchers found 43 of 126 dolphins tested had antibodies indicating exposure to the Chlamydiaceae bacteria, which can make them more vulnerable to other deadly infections.
Bossart, formerly of FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, has been heading up a federal study of lagoon dolphins’ health since 2003.
This study, which involved 10 researchers, was published this month in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.
The researchers say the Chlamydiaceae bacteria could be one piece of the puzzle helping to explain why so many dolphins are dying here. At least 76 bottlenose dolphins died in the lagoon last year of a mysterious affliction that federal scientists are investigating.
Scientists don’t know whether the bacteria also infects and harms manatees, which also have died in large numbers in the lagoon during the past year. At least 117 manatees died for reasons that federal biologists are trying to figure out.
In April, NOAA formally declared the manatee deaths in the lagoon an unusual die-off. Biologists also are investigating the deaths of 250 to 300 brown pelicans in Brevard County last year.
While the lagoon dolphins don’t show clinical signs of disease from Chlamydiaceae infection, the bacteria’s presence could lower the animals immunity to other diseases, the researchers say.
The bacteria might also be affecting dolphin fertility, the researchers say, since in other species the pathogen causes reproductive disease and abortion.
Dolphins are considered sentinel species that can herald health threats to humans, biologists say. The same family of bacteria found in the dolphins can cause disease in humans.
“This can be a human disease, absolutely,” Bossart said. “We don’t know if it’s due to the one that causes human disease or not.”
Chlamydiaceae bacteria can cause acute or chronic disease within the eyes, lungs, genital track and intestines. It’s typically spread by direct contact.
“It may or may not be sexually transmitting,” Bossart said. “We don’t know. This is brand new data,” he added. “It has been reported in some other marine mammals.” Those include sea lions and monk seals.
The droppings of resident and migratory birds might be the main source.
“The reservoir for this disease can be birds,” Bossart said. “This particular organism is found in seabirds.”
For the past decade, Bossart and about 40 other scientists have examined and released more than 240 bottlenose dolphins, most of them from the Indian River Lagoon.
They have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria, high incidence of tumors, heart problems, cancer, stomach ulcers, skin lesions, genital herpes and other ailments previously thought rare in dolphins. As many as half the dolphins studied in the lagoon so far suffer from some form of chronic infectious disease, suggesting compromised immune systems.
Dolphins captured near Merritt Island, especially, seem in poor health. And the researchers point to water tainted by partially treated sewage and runoff as the possible cause.
A study published in 2009 found 23 percent of lagoon bottlenose tested had triclosan — a common ingredient in antibacterial soaps, deodorants, toothpastes, shaving cream mouthwash — in their blood.
“All these diseases, either directly or indirectly, resulted in immune system dysfunction,” Bossart said. “It opens them up for other disease issues. That may explain why this area has such a high unusual mortality.”
NOAA scientists suspect a measles-like virus, called morbillivirus, killed hundreds of bottlenose dolphins from New York to Virginia last year. The same pathogen hammered the bottlenose dolphin population from New Jersey to Central Florida in the late 1980s.
In July and August, more than nine times the historical average of bottlenose dolphins died or stranded in the mid-Atlantic region.
Scientists are concerned that the 600-plus dolphins that live almost exclusively in the lagoon could get exposed to morbillivirus carried here by dolphins migrating from the mid-Atlantic

140208-b
Typical Miami schizophrenia on Cuba
HavanaTimes.org – by Alvaro Fernandez (Progreso Weekly)
February 8, 2014
HAVANA TIMES – Schizophrenia is nothing new to Miami. But the recent uproar caused by a piece on Cuban American sugar tycoon Alfy Fanjul takes the cake. It also demonstrates what many have been saying for the past few years: the Cuba debate has pivoted towards one where even a stalwart of the past half century Cuba-thought now yearns to return to the island of his birth.
“If there is some way the family flag could be taken back to Cuba, then I am happy to do that,” said Fanjul to Washington Post reporters, adding that “his primary motivation in visiting Cuba has been a desire to ‘reunite the Cuban family.’”
Fanjul, it turns out, has visited the island a couple of times the past few years as part of a Brookings Institution delegation, and in the process has met with Cuban officials and discussed business opportunities on the island.
[Are you listening President Obama? These are words that should put your creative juices flowing. Because Miami is ready for whatever pleasant (to a majority of us) surprise you may offer for the island nation. Not only are we ready; we’re anxious for something fresh and new. And all that’s needed is a signature from you. Think of it as an autograph of great worth in the years to come. Your name on a document that seals your Latin American legacy. And it will be a positive one… the day you decide to overcome your jitters on the issue.]
But let’s get back to the fun. Well, Miami is known as the fun and sun capital of the world, isn’t it? And schizophrenia, although serious, can have its comic side effects.
Note the crazies pouring out of their closets after reading the aforementioned Washington Post article titled “Sugar tycoon Fanjul open to investing in Cuba under ‘right circumstances’”.
Crazy number one was Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who turned that ever-present smile upside down and attacked Fanjul in a press statement referred by some in the media as “surprisingly personal.”
Sen. Marco Rubio was surprised and dissapointed.
Then there was Florida’s two-faced senator who has the ability to stand on either side of any issue – and defend it. Marco Rubio stated that he “was surprised and disappointed.”
“We should not ignore the systemic violations of human rights in Cuba,” added Rubio. These are words from a person who defended not funding Medicaid for 850,000 persons in Florida, most who cannot afford health insurance. But still, he talks of human rights…
There was also Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart who claimed to be “outraged.” Not to be outdone, the Miami Cuban airwaves hurled insults and epithets at Fanjul 24 hours a day. In fact, I think they are still on that roller coaster. No wonder Armando Perez-Roura always looks dizzy.
I cannot leave out Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of Cuba Democracy Advocates in Washington, DC, a lobbying group, who went as far as to threaten Fanjul and his family with a quid pro quo that’s not unusual in Mauricio’s world, where money is what’s most important in the business of politics.
Claver-Carone basically said that such statements as Alfy made to the Washington Post might affect his yearly multi-million dollar sugar subsidy provided by the U.S. government. First, Mauricio’s words could me misinterpreted as an attempt to extort. And secondly, I didn’t realize that Mauricio wielded as much power as he purports by making such threats.
The truth is I found the whole charade of the past week funny. And after reading the Fanjul piece in the Post, I immediately re-printed it in Progreso Weekly (and had it translated to Spanish in Semanal). I knew it would have this type of reaction, which then puts on display these sickly attitudes from certain Cuban Americans.
Schizophrenia is nothing new to Miami. But the recent uproar caused by a piece on Cuban American sugar tycoon Alfy Fanjul takes the cake.
But what puzzles me, because I am not a psychiatrist, were the schizophrenic reactions. Here is one of their own proposing to do in Cuba what Ileana and Mario and Mauricio and so many others have been proposing for years – to change the rules of the game. And when he expresses it, they are all over him like rampaging lice on children in a kindergarten class.
In my opinion Alfy Fanjul doing business in Cuba would be a dream come true for these folks. They just have not realized it.
Have they forgotten that the Fanjul family has turned the welfare system for millionaires into an art form? Don’t they realize that the Fanjuls and their sugar business in Florida are greatly responsible for the destruction of great swaths of the Everglades putting in danger the future of our most precious water source here in this state?
Ileana, don’t you get it? Mario, can’t you see? The Fanjuls exploit the U.S. government and its taxpayers. Sound familiar? They’ve also endangered the future of our state. Another dynamic I dare say you should be familiar with.
So what’s the big deal? Maybe the Fanjuls yearn to bring that circa 1958 Cuba exploitative style of government back to the island. Oh how you must yearn for those days…
And you idiots still complain!
Exploitation. Come on… you’re masters at it here in South Florida and in the U.S Congress.
You refuse to raise the minimum wage, which only helps to create more poverty in this country. What do you think the Fanjuls do to their farmworkers whose toil is responsible for their billions?
So what is the problem? In Alfy and his brother you have two masters of this universe. And again, they want to bring it to Cuba.

140207-a
AIF's Florida H2O Coalition weighing in on water issues
Gainesville.com - by Jim Ross and Fred Hiers, Staff writers
February 7, 2014
A powerful state business group is formally weighing in on a key issue: the quantity and quality of Florida water.
Associated Industries of Florida's newly announced Florida H2O Coalition is an effort to “bring together stakeholders” in water policy and to “review and make recommendations on state and federal water laws and rules,” according to an AIF news release.
The legislative session starts March 4, and the coalition “will be encouraging lawmakers to support a comprehensive statewide plan to address our current problems and plan for future needs, advocating for science-based solutions and adequate funding for badly needed programs, supporting alternative water supply options, and highlighting the need to fund regional projects that are in line and ready to deliver results,” according to a statement from Tom Feeney, AIF president and CEO.
AIF's news release quotes state Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam as a supporter of the new effort.
“Florida's water policy must be flexible, comprehensive and long term. I am thrilled to see Florida businesses coming together, under the leadership of AIF, to address Florida's water crisis with sound principles and a science-based approach,” Putnam said.
AIF, formed in 1920, bills itself as “the voice of Florida business” and says it “represents the link between responsible public policy and a thriving marketplace.”
Water is a natural issue for AIF to take up because “water quality and quantity have the potential to limit residential and business growth,” Feeney said in his statement.
Estus Whitfield of the Florida Conservation Coalition, a consortium of 50 environmental organizations, said that ever since recent rallies and forums have been held in Marion County, the public, state legislators, and business groups have taken notice.
“But there's room for suspicion as to what this (AIF's water interest) is all about,” Whitfield said.
Whitfield said AIF's Florida H2O Coalition could be the follow-up to a recent letter AIF and other business organizations sent to Florida senators expressing concern about proposed springs-protection legislation.
Until now, the AIF position and that of other business groups has been “Things are fine. Let's implement the rules we've got. Let's not mess with the good we've got going,” Whitfield said.
“But if (AIF) cares about (Florida's water) they'll come up with some serious solutions rather than, 'Let's polish up the same old pieces on the chessboard,' ” he said.
“If they come up with some serous solutions, I'll applaud them. And they need to involve all the stakeholders and not just the stakeholders in their (business sector).”
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, Florida's demand for fresh water will be an estimated 7.9 billion gallons per day (bgd) by 2030, which is about a 1.4 billion bgd increase from current usage.
“Traditional sources of fresh groundwater will not be able to meet all of the additional demand,” DEP reports. As a result, the state is counting on the success of regional water supply plans, which are developed by Florida's water management districts and spell out alternative water source development plans and water conservation efforts.
One of those districts, the St. Johns River Water Management District, recently made an announcement of local interest: pumping the Ocklawaha River for drinking water would be considered only as a last resort.
That's a huge change from what had been contemplated: an $811 million plan featuring a treatment plant and 173 miles of pipeline reaching 15 utilities in three counties.

140207-b
Lake discharges to start towards SW Florida
WFLX.com - by Rachel Leigh, Content Manager
February 7, 2014
ST LUCIE COUNTY, FL (WFLX) - The Army Corps of Engineers says it will start discharges again from Lake Okeechobee. However, the water will flow to the Caloosahatchee Estuary.
The Corps said, "flows to St. Lucie Estuary will remain at 0 cfs except for any runoff that collects in St. Lucie Canal that we allow to pass through the St. Lucie Lock."
Last year, discharges caused algae blooms and lower salinity levels that wreaked havoc on the water, animals and the economy on the Treasure Coast.
"The lake has seen a one-quarter foot rise in the past week and the most current analysis of forecasted conditions show an increase to projected lake inflows over the next six months," said Lt. Col. Tom Greco, Jacksonville District Deputy Commander for South Florida in a news release. "We'll continue to work with stakeholders to assess conditions in order to make sound operational decisions."
The discharges will begin February 8.

140206-
Tides have turned on Lake O water releases
Fox4now – by Kelli Stegeman
February 6, 2014
FORT MYERS, Fla. - More Lake Okeechobee water releases?  
The idea may bring thoughts of doom and gloom after the rounds of summer releases by the Army Corps of Engineers turned our waters brown and threatened the lives of some wildlife.
Environmentalists this time around are saying now we aren’t getting enough water from the releases and the Caloosahatchee River is reaching a critical point.
They’re asking the Corps to increase water flow to avoid severe consquences.
“It’s feast or famine,” says Jennifer Hecker with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida as she explains the constant battle in keeping the Caloosahatchee River healthy.  “We actually need more water right now.”
The plea is a far cry from 6 months ago when too much water released from Lake Okeechobee threw the fragile ecosystem of the river into a tailspin.
Hecker is joining others in asking the Army Corps of Engineers for more water to lower rising salt levels.
“We actually get cutoff and the river starts to get too salty, which kills off freshwater organisms like tape grass which is the base of the food chain for mantees and other types of aquatic life,” she said.
If the water becomes stagnant, slimy green algae blooms start to threaten the health of water life, humans and the economy.
“I think when the water turns green, slime green, we are seeing a direct economic impact to our tourism, our waterfront real estate values and that's why its so important that we keep a healthy river,” said Hecker.
Environmentalists are looking for a balance and say policies in place with the Army Corp of Engineers make it difficult. 
“We have policies that are cutting us off right now when no other users are being restricted whatsoever and that's really unacceptable,” Hecker said.
The Corps tells FOX 4 that this week they got authorization to increase flow through the Caloosahatchee in preparation of more rain in the coming months. 
They are now developing a course of action, if any, to ease the pain activists say will certainly come to this river if nothing is done.
“It’s absolutely imperative that we get the water regardless of its water quality,” said Hecker.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is hosting an information session on water management and how to improve the resources next Tuesday, February 12, from 6:30 to 7:30 at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Nature Center.

140205-
18-foot Burmese python found in Florida Everglades
Reuters
February 5, 2014
Engineers in the Everglades stumbled upon a near-record-breaking Burmese python measuring more than 18 feet long during a routine inspection of levees on Tuesday, a water management district spokesman said.
The snake, measuring at 18 feet 2 inches, fell short of the state record by 6 inches, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Last year, a snake collector in the state discovered the largest python on record there, measuring 18 feet 8 inches, commission spokeswoman Katie Johnson said.
The pythons, which can grow to more than 20 feet in their native habitat in Southeast Asia, are one of the most problematic invaders of Florida's sprawling Everglades wetlands.
They eat indigenous species and their food sources, fueling concerns that the predator snakes will fundamentally change the ecosystem.
The python found on Tuesday was killed, and its corpse was taken to the University of Florida, where it will be measured and studied by scientists trying to combat the species, according to South Florida Water Management District spokesman Gabe Margasak.
Officials have said the python population is believed to have grown to as many as 150,000 in the Everglades. The cold-blooded reptiles are often found atop levees, where they lie for hours at a time to warm up under the Florida sun.
The snakes, one of the largest species in the world, found a home to their liking in the Everglades when pet owners started using the wetlands as a convenient dumping ground.

140204-
Four signs of restoration progress across four corners of the Everglades
Huffington Post – by Jane Graham, Everglades Policy Associate, Audubon FL
February 4, 2014
Last week, there were several exciting announcements about increases to Everglades restoration funding. Gov. Rick Scott proposed a $130 million Everglades budget. Everglades National Park Superintendent Dan Kimball announced the federal government will match the state's funds for Tamiami Trail Bridge construction, the project that lifts up the far western edge of Miami's Calle Ocho to let water flow south to rehydrate Everglades National Park.
The average person listening to these announcements might wonder where we stand in the big picture of Everglades restoration. Have we made any progress? When will it all be finished?
Long-time Everglades warriors often remind me that restoration is a marathon, not a sprint. And they are right. Last century, as part of the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project, the federal government ditched and dredged wetlands from Orlando to Florida Bay, creating 128 miles of canals and hundreds of miles of levees to drain and redirect water from the landscape for human development. Restoration of this region, which covers an area of over 18,000 square miles -- an area larger than the square mileage of Vermont, Delaware and Connecticut combined -- will take decades. It is necessary for Southern Florida's water supplies, ecosystems and flood protection.
Fortunately, there are already clear indicators of progress. Here are four signs of early success across four corners of the Everglades:
North: The Kissimmee River Restoration project is almost done
Historically, the Kissimmee River wound across 103 miles of the Northern Everglades, supporting a thriving habitat for hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife. In the 1960s the federal government transformed this river into a 30-mile canal, creating a superhighway for water to drain south to Lake Okeechobee for flood control. Unfortunately, this decimated key wetland habitats in the process. A drop of water that once took around six months to flow from the top of the river to Lake Okeechobee now only took one month. In 1992, the federal and state of Florida embarked on a project known as Kissimmee River Restoration to restore the river's floodplain ecosystem, including tens of thousands of acres of wetlands and 44 miles of river channel.
Today, this project is now 85 percent complete, and there are already dramatic benefits. Species of birds absent from the floodplain for over 40 years have returned, and lost habitats have now re-emerged. Once fully operational, the project will add up to 100,000 acre feet of water storage to the system -- water that otherwise may need to be flushed to tide and cause harm to the Indian River Lagoon and Caloosahatchee Estuary. So, it is worthy of celebration that Gov. Scott made a commitment last week to fund the completion of Kissimmee River Restoration in his FY2015 budget announcement.
This photo courtesy of the United States Army Corps of Engineers shows a portion of the river before it was channelized and after it was restored. The blue box in the picture shows the result of restoration. In the place of a filled-in canal, the winding river has returned.
South: A major component of a Southern Everglades project is exceeding expectations after one year of operations
Last year, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the C-111 Spreader Canal Western Project. This project redirects flows of water south to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. While it is still preliminary, Audubon scientists have observed that the ecosystem's response seems to be exceeding expectations. The increased water flows are linked to an increased growth of underwater plants and less salt in the water, which in turn supports habitat for the tiny fish that Roseate Spoonbills love to eat. Audubon's short term goals for this project outlined in 2010 on the eve of the project's groundbreaking appear to be coming to fruition.
East: After decades of bitter litigation, there are concrete steps forward on Everglades water quality improvements
The Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Florida have been embroiled in litigation over Everglades water quality for decades. When pollution from too much phosphorus enters the Everglades and Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, it alters the balance of life and disrupts wildlife habitat. The state of Florida is responsible for Everglades water quality improvement and dedicates a specific portion of the state Everglades budget annually to its clean-up in a plan known as the "Restoration Strategies Plan."
A few weeks ago, representatives from the state and federal government came together to break ground on the "A1-FEB Reservoir," the first project in the state's Restoration Strategies Plan to store and cleanse water before it flows into the Everglades. There is still much to be done, but the fact that the federal and state representatives are collaborating and making progress on solutions is worthy of celebration in its own right.
West: The "world's largest failed subdivision" now has Florida Panthers, Wood Storks and other wildlife as its residents
On the western edge of Big Cypress Reserve, the wetlands and uplands of Picayune Strand were logged in the 1940s and then ditched, drained and paved with miles of roads in the 1960s to become a subdivision nightmare known as Southern Golden Gate Estates. Tens of thousands of unsuspecting buyers bought pieces of land on this property, only to find out that they needed a boat, not a car, to get to their "home" in June.
In an amazing feat, the state of Florida bought back 17,000 individual pieces of land in a plan to restore the 55,000 acres of wetlands and uplands to their natural function. Sizable portions of this project are now complete, such as the Prairie Canal. Endangered Florida panthers and wood storks are already returning to the area as hydrology has been restored. The project also rehydrates nearby Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.
Look at these before (left) and after (right) photos of the project, courtesy of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Hard to believe this could have been a subdivision.
Restoration is a slog through a swamp of bureaucracy, a quagmire of stakeholders with different agendas, and a maze of economic and political constraints.
But it must be done. One in three Floridians rely on the Everglades for drinking water. The system must be re-plumbed to protect our urban areas from flooding and our treasured ecosystems from continued degradation. We are making headway and must keep trudging forward.
Funding must be made available to build, monitor and operate these crucial projects. Decision makers on the local, state and federal levels need to hear the public's vocal support to sustain the political will over the course of decades. Contact your elected officials to let them know you want a restored Everglades.

140202-a









EricEIKENBERG
CEO, The Everglades
Foundation

140202-a
Experts split on Scott environmental pivot
TBO.com - by William March, Tribune Staff
February 2, 2014
TAMPA ­­— Gov. Rick Scott has trumpeted the environmental initiatives in his new budget, including money for protection of Florida’s increasingly polluted springs and a new initiative for Everglades restoration.
Some environmental advocates give Scott credit for responding to critical needs, while others say the springs money is a drop in the bucket of what’s needed and that the Everglades initiative is a result of the ongoing litigation in which the state has been found to have violated its agreement to protect the River of Grass.
“He’s certainly heard the concerns ... He is now stepping up,” said Erik Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. “The governor understands that a restored and protected Everglades is an enormous economic driver.”
Eric Draper, executive director of the Florida Audubon Society, said Scott’s proposal to spend $130 million on Everglades protection projects “is a good Everglades budget. It’s starting to get back to where we were in the best years, when we got up to $200 million in 2007.”
But David Guest, an environmental lawyer who has worked to force Florida to stop the continuing pollution of the Everglades, had a different view.
Scott’s Everglades initiative, he said, stems mainly from two motives — court orders resulting from litigation and public outcry over pollution of the Indian River Lagoon not — from a newfound devotion to the environment.
“If we didn’t bring out the cattle prod, they would still be dithering,” Guest said. “You have to look at the whole Rick Scott, the governor who has had the worst impact on protecting Florida’s waters of any governor in Florida history.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Bob Knight of the Florida Springs Institute called Scott’s $55 million springs initiative “baby steps” that “will not make a noticeable difference. That won’t even be a speed bump in the process of decline that’s going on right now.”
Scott’s Everglades initiative consists roughly of three parts:
♦ $30 million to create an elevated roadbed for 2.5 miles of Alligator Alley, allowing water to flow under the highway, which for decades has blocked the natural water flow of the Everglades. That adds to the one mile of bridging already in place, intended eventually to total 6.5 miles.
♦ $32 million to build cleanup facilities for agriculturally polluted water flowing from the Everglades Agricultural Area.
♦ The remainder is for reservoirs to store polluted water in Martin County and along the Caloosahatchee River, plus the final steps in restoring the natural flow of the Kissimmee River.
The reservoirs and Kissimmee restoration are linked directly to the pollution flowing into the Indian River Lagoon along the Treasure Coast, which suffered last summer from the combined effects of heavy rain, pollution in Lake Okeechobee and local development.
The level of nitrogen and phosphorus — fertilizers that stimulate algae growth in water — spiked in the lagoon.
The rain forced releases of fertilizer-laden water from the lake that ended up in the southern part of the lagoon, while heavy freshwater flows and runoff from development turned the northern part into an algae-laden soup.
The result, said Guest, was “a gigantic crisis, stinking green slime, scores or hundreds of manatees and dolphins and pelicans killed.”
In October, Scott was booed at the opening of a Bass Pro Shops in Port St. Lucie, according to news reports.
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According to a news release from the Governor’s Office, the springs initiative money will go for improving agricultural practices in use of water and fertilizer, and development of alternative water supplies and recharge projects.
Florida’s springs suffer the same problem as the Everglades and many coastal waters — excessive loads of nitrogen and phosphorus from runoff from agriculture, development and septic tanks, leading to algae blooms and death of natural vegetation that’s the base of the food chain.
Springs pollution is aggravated by reduced flows of fresh water in the springs because of overpumping of water from the aquifer that feeds them, Knight said.
The springs, famed for their clear water and abundant wildlife, have long been among the state’s top tourist attractions. But many of them are now murky, with fewer fish, and are suffering from saltwater intrusion, Knight said.
In the 1990s, he recalled, the problem gained attention statewide, resulting in the launch of the Florida Springs Initiative after a visit by former Gov. Jeb Bush to Itchetucknee Spring in 1999.
But the initiative never got much beyond planning and in 2007, it “started fading away.”
It ended in 2011, Scott’s first year in office, in the midst of preparations for restoration of Wakulla, Silver, Itchetucknee and Rainbow River springs.
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As to how much money is needed to protect springs, Knight noted that a single project to upgrade the sprayfield used to dispose of sewage treatment effluent in Tallahassee has a price tag of $220 million. The project is designed to reduce pollution of underground water.
Even those environmental advocates who praise Scott’s initiative this year say it doesn’t make up for actions earlier in his term.
In the name of expediting economic growth and development, Scott slashed the budgets of the state’s water management districts, largely responsible for enforcing anti-water pollution regulations, and dismantled the state Department of Community Affairs, responsible for state participation in growth management.
With Scott’s acquiescence, the state Legislature killed a bill aimed at protecting springs by requiring inspections of residential septic tanks.
“His policy has been to allow businesses to dump pollution into Florida waterways, letting polluting industries write regulations and getting rid of all the good people at Department of Environmental Protection,” attorney Guest said.
Draper, with Florida Audubon, said Scott appears to be feeling the heat from that record and is responding.
“I think the governor wants to be seen as positive toward the environment, and recognizes that early in his term, he made some mistakes that gave people the impression he’s not,” Draper said.
“From his staff, I heard they were concerned about losing the votes of environmental voters, including Republicans.
“They don’t tend to be concerned about climate change or alternative energy, but they do care about the Everglades, water and parks.”

140202-b
Wealthy special interests endangering environment
Palm Beach Post - by Sally Swartz, former member of the Editorial Board
February 2, 2014
When wealthy special interests can’t control local governments — such as Martin County’s careful growth county commission majority — they look to Tallahassee for relief. They often find it by contributing to state legislators willing to advance their agendas.
So it’s not surprising that big buck interests who don’t like Martin’s rules — or those of any local government that wants to enforce environmental regulations — have a champion in the upcoming Florida legislative session. Rep. Jimmy Patronis of Panama City has filed House Bill 703, so filled with poisonous provisions that Martin residents already are fighting it.
Mr. Patronis, who had no opposition in the 2012 election, raised $137,000 and took contributions from Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated Industries, Miami Limestone, North Florida Rock Ltd., White Rock Quarries and Gunster Yoakley, among others. Last year, he sponsored an environmental permitting bill that would have killed local wetlands, permitting and fertilizer controls, before the Senate removed the provisions.
HB 703, which as yet has no Senate companion, drew comments from Martin residents Henry Copeland, Jackie Transcynger, Myra Galoci and Donna Melzer at Martin County Commission on Tuesday. Ms. Melzer, a former commissioner and head of the Martin County Conservation Alliance, calls it “anti-river, anti-home rule and anti-planning.”
“The Patronis bill,” Mr. Copeland said in urging residents to lobby against it, “goes to the core of every value we stand for in Martin County.”
Maggy Hurchalla, former Martin commissioner and both a court-recognized expert on and champion for Martin’s protective growth plan, posts more information at www.rivercrisis.com.
In a letter to commissioners, Ms. Hurchalla cites concerns about HB 703.
– All the environmental policies Martin has had in place since 1982 no longer would apply to agriculture.
– Requiring a super majority vote for critical issues such as Martin’s four-story height limit, 15-units per acre density cap, or the provision that development “can’t put more dirty runoff in the river” would be illegal —retroactively. Martin recently included the supermajority provision in an update of its growth plan.
–Big land owners could continue to be taxed as owners of farm lands after they’ve won approval to build a new city on the land — if they keep one cow on the property. Pasture land is valued at $700 an acre; industrial or commercial at $100,000 an acre. “urban homeowners and businesses can’t claim a tax break by putting a cow in their backyard,” Ms. Hurchalla writes. “They shouldn’t have to pay more taxes because big landowners who have no intention of remaining in agriculture are paying less.”
–Big land owners could get 50-year permits to let landowners sell Martin County water to utilities in Palm Beach County and Broward County. That’s a first step in privatizing water, which now is a public resource.
After Gov. Rick Scott was elected, state agencies that protected local communities from runaway growth were gutted and turned into economic boosters. Local communities were to make their own rules. HB 703 would erase that concept of home rule for Martin and other Florida counties.
Martin commissioners asked Ms. Hurchalla, who helped create the county’s protective growth plan, to update it and repair problems a previous commission majority made in a rewrite that removed many historic protections.
Now developers Hobe Grove, Lake Point and King Ranch are challenging the revamped growth plan and its protections. Lake Point also has filed a SLAPP — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — aimed at shutting up Ms. Hurchalla and intimidating others who oppose their Martin rock-mining operation.
Residents can e-mail Gov. Scott and local representatives urging them to kill this bad bill: Rick.Scott@eog.myflorida.com; Gaetz.Don.web@flsenate.gov; Will.Weatherford@myfloridahouse.gov; negron.joe.web@flsenate.gov; gharrell@gayleharrell.com; marylynn.magar@myfloridahouse.gov; larry.lee@myfloridahouse.gov
Among local legislators, only Sen. Negron voted against Rep. Patronis’ last bad bill.
“It’s a dangerous time of year,” Ms. Transcynger told Martin commissioners, “when legislators return to Tallahassee and do damage to the environment and the rivers.”
So sad. Too true.

140201-a
Finding alternative water sources before it is too late
DailyCommercial.com – by Livi Stanfor, Staff Writer
February 1, 2014 10:00 am
T he Florida Legislature, local water management districts and the South Lake Regional Water Initiative are taking aggressive steps to find alternative water sources to groundwater use as the projected demand for water continues to grow.
There is a demand of 300 million gallons of water a day by 2035 and currently there is only 50 million gallons that can be met by the traditional sources, according to water experts.
This leaves the Central Florida region with the task of finding 250 millions gallons of water from someplace else.
“That is a shot across the bow that we have to seriously do something,” Rep. Larry Metz, R-Groveland, said Thursday after moderating the Lake County legislative delegation to address water concerns.
“If we continue to go in the direction we are headed lately in the next 10 years or so, we are quickly going to use up the available capacity and not allow any further consumptive use, which means no growth and no jobs.”
The South Lake Regional Water Initiative, consisting of the South Lake Chamber of Commerce, the county and the municipalities of Clermont, Groveland, Minneola, Mascotte and Montverde, agreed this week to equally share in the cost of hiring a consultant to help find an alternative water source for south Lake County.
“It is a great day for Lake County in our quest to protect water resources,” said Commissioner Sean Parks, who founded the initiative two years ago with Groveland Mayor Tim Loucks.
That agreement must come before the city councils and the County Commission for approval.
At the same time, the St. Johns River Water Management District released its Draft District Water Supply Plan Tuesday, showing water demand projections exceed groundwater availability by 2035. The plan includes measures on promoting water conservation and finding alternative water sources.
And, the delegation held a workshop stressing that the protection of water resources is a top priority for the 2014 legislative session.
Rep. Marlene O’Toole, R-The Villages, Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange and Metz, are all part of the delegation.
Water experts said the challenge is finding an affordable alternative water source.
Another challenge, experts said, is ensuring regional entities are working together to meet their needs without competing for the same alternative water sources.
The Central Florida Water Initiative includes southern Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Polk counties, and is working to develop a unified process to address central Florida’s current long-term water supply needs.
It proposes tapping into brackish groundwater, surface water such as the St. Johns River and reclaimed water.
Water officials expressed optimism this week about finding a possible alternative water source for south Lake County.
Lake County Legislative Delegation
Metz, who moderated the workshop, said addressing the protection of water resources, including the springs and lakes, is now coming to the forefront because of the alarming projections.
Hays said while there is momentum for springs protection legislation he is cosponsoring with several other senators, it is simply a beginning point in a lengthy process.
Gov. Rick Scott recently recognized the need for funding for springs protection in his 2014-15 budget, Hays said.
“The state legislature is aware of the need for water,” he said. “Finally, it looks like we are going to have some discretionary money appropriated toward the solution. It is not going to be solved overnight.”
Hays said the legislature needs the flexibility to allocate funds in areas deemed appropriate.
The proposed Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment stands in the way of exercising that fiscal prudence, Hays said.
The amendment would require 33 percent of the documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions go toward conservation measures.
“If that amendment is passed, it will tie our hands,” he said. “It is exceptionally bad public policy to put that kind of fiscal micromanagement into the Constitution.”
Betsy Farner, district supervisor of the Lake Soil and Water Conservation District, said to the delegation, “We have a duty and obligation to make sure our resources are not wasted. Water consumption must be considered the serious reality that it is and can only be accomplished with your help.”
Parks stressed south Lake residents were equally concerned.
“Because quite frankly people come out to south Lake because of the beautiful lakes,” he said. “For economic prosperity, businesses have to have a reliable, predictable and affordable water supply.”
South Lake Regional Water Initiative
Forming a partnership two years ago, the SLRWI addresses “regional solutions in the areas of reclaimed water distribution, minimum flows and levels of the region’s lakes and rivers, and alternative water supplies and conservation.”
Loucks said it was important to fund the $300,000 study to look at alternative water sources in south Lake.
“These studies are going to get more expensive as time goes on,” he said. “Currently we only have a 6 percent reserve in our upper Floridan aquifer. If we don’t get on board, that is going to be long gone.”
Possible alternative water supplies for south Lake include using reclaimed water from Water Conserv II, the largest water reuse project in Orange County. Officials say Water Conserv II was a challenge because there is no real impetus from Conserv II officials to provide water resources to south Lake because of their own needs.
Meanwhile, the closest other alternative water sources are nine miles away.
However, Alan Oyler, consultant for St. Johns River Water Management District, expressed some optimism Thursday about exploring the idea of taking water from the lower Floridan Aquifer while seeking cost-effective treatment technology that makes it a viable source. The vast majority of water is pumped from the upper Floridan Aquifer.
Even so, the problem with withdrawing from the lower Floridan Aquifer is that the water quality is typically poorer, Oyler said.
“You have more dissolved solids in that water,” he said.
Challenges
Larry Walker, Mascotte public services director, came to the SLRWI meeting this week with some bad news.
The St. Johns River Water Management District, he said, has cut the city’s request to withdraw water from the upper Floridan Aquifer almost in half.
“The only way to have any new businesses, is you have to have those (water) capacities,” he said.
This is a situation future south Lake cities may face as they renew their permits, because the SJRWMD is reducing potential effects on wetlands caused by groundwater withdrawals, water officials stated.
Oyler said because Mascotte is part of the SLRWI, the neighboring cities are preparing to meet to help address Mascotte’s needs.
This is one example of why it is critical that municipalities and entities work together to find a solution, Oyler said.

140201-b
Manatee deaths unsolved amid effort to reverse Indian River collapse
Orlando Sentinel - by Kevin Spear
February 1, 2014
It's a vexing question: Why is the die-off of manatees in Brevard County's ailing Indian River Lagoon picking up speed again?
The death toll peaked last February and March, hitting several a day. It then eased to about one death every couple of weeks until last month, when six manatees were recovered, including two in one day. Perplexed researchers are bracing for another late-winter spike, knowing they would be powerless to stop it.
Scientists have probed for diseases, chemicals, pesticides, viral and bacterial agents and bio-toxins secreted by algae. But if they feel closer to a culprit today, it's only because scores of suspects have been ruled out.
"I've learned to be conservative because over the year we felt we were close many times and then it's two steps back again," said Martine de Wit, lead veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg.
The 126 manatee deaths since the summer of 2012 — three of those were in Volusia County — fall short of a statewide record but it's the biggest die-off authorities can't explain. It's also a symptom of a treasured estuary's collapse in recent years.
Stung by cold snaps and swings in saltiness, the Indian River's natural functions were knocked out by explosions of algae growth that turned waters murky. That blocked out sunlight, decimating more than 60 square miles of seagrasses that are food for manatees and shelter for countless other species.
Among the unfolding damage last year was a yet unexplained epidemic of brown pelican deaths. Authorities think as many 250 of the diving birds fell victim after becoming critically weakened and infested with parasites.
Also unexplained were nearly 80 dolphins found dead and emaciated.
While the pelicans and dolphins are thought to have declined in health for days or weeks, manatees succumbed suddenly and without warning. Investigators have repeatedly looked at whether the die-off of seagrasses left the mammals to eat seaweeds that may contain toxins.
"We can see signs of shock in the necropsy," de Wit said. "We see it in their blood vessels and their organs and in addition to the shock we see signs of drowning."
Katie Tripp, science director of the Save the Manatee Club, said among baffling evidence is that the dead manatees had been swimming, foraging and otherwise living alongside hundreds of others, and they hadn't been struggling from cold weather or other apparent stresses.
The victims are "usually robust, good looking animals with full bellies," Tripp said. "It just seems so random."
The toll on wildlife has exacerbated fears the lagoon has been wobbling toward disaster for a long time, abused by pollution and runoff changes brought when adjoining lands were carved up for streets, neighborhoods and agriculture.
A key question in the minds of lagoon advocates is whether the stretch of waters in Brevard County — the Indian River extends 156 miles from New Smyrna south to Jupiter — has declined so badly it will remain an ecosystem invalid indefinitely.
Troy Rice, director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, said positive signs include a letting up of algae growth, which typically happens when water temperatures drop during winter months.
Also encouraging is the surge in concern for the lagoon among environmental agencies and groups, local governments and area residents, which has helped speed scientific work on prescribing remedies, Rice said.
Leesa Souto, executive director of the Marine Resources Council, a longtime advocate of lagoon restoration, said the response has been impressive but needs focus.
"I think the community has figured that we are in crisis and has started to mobilize," Souto said. "Everybody is frantically trying to do something and there needs to be more synergy. But I think that's going to come."

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Rights, animal and mineral: conservation land could still be a drilling site
News-Press.com – by Steve Doane
February 1, 2014
Section Seven of township 47, range 27 is located in the northwest corner of Collier County. It doesn’t have a street address. That’s because there are no roads to the heavily forested 640-acre block.
It’s home to the Panther Island Mitigation Bank, a wetlands area paid to be restored by developers. It’s owned and managed by the National Audubon Society, which oversees the nearby Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, the location of the largest colony of endangered wood storks in North America.
The property is also smack in the middle of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, a 60,000-acre conservation area in Lee and Collier counties. The land is mostly owned by the South Florida Water Management District and managed by the CREW Land and Water Trust, a nonprofit established to oversee the watershed.
Underneath, however, is a different story.
A News-Press examination of property records in Lee and Collier counties found roughly 50,000 acres of the preserve do not include mineral rights. The majority of those rights were retained by their original owners. Approximately 34,000 of those have been leased to an energy companies, according to property and land records.
CREW Executive Director Brenda Brooks said she was unaware of the status of the mineral rights under the preserve.
“Any activity around or within CREW would concern me,” she said.
A mineral right is legal ownership of subsurface resources — oil, natural gas — of a certain parcel of land. In Florida, these rights can be split, or severed from the surface property and bought, sold or leased on their own.
Under CREW there are a couple big owners: Barron Collier Resources, LLP and Collier Land and Cattle Corporation. Collier Resources is the mineral extraction arm of the Barron Collier Cos.
According to information from Barron Collier Resources’ website, the company owns 800,000 mineral acres in Southwest Florida.
Collier Resources has been drilling in South Florida for decades, including in the Big Cypress National Preserve. The Raccoon Point field near the Collier/Miami-Dade line has been drilled since 1981. In that time it’s produced nearly 18 million barrels of oil, according to information on the company’s website.
More recently, Collier Resources Company leased 115,000 acres to the Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Co., according to an agreement filed with the Collier County clerk's office in June 2012
The property leased to Dan A. Hughes includes roughly 34,000 acres of CREW land in the northwestern portion of Collier County. The holdings in Lee County have not been leased, but in 2010 Barron Collier Resources sent notice to surface rights holders announcing its intent to explore its holdings in the county.
The Barron Collier Cos. created the Panther Island Mitigation Bank and plans to gift the property to the Audubon Society once restoration work is complete, according to the company’s website.
In April, the Hughes Company filed a permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection to drill an exploratory well on Collier lands near Golden Gate Estates.
The proximity of that proposed well to a residential area generated a protest movement among residents. Preserving Our Paradise, Inc. has attracted hundreds to protest meetings across the region.
Late last year, the state Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates oil and gas drilling in the state, forwarded a complaint from a resident to the Division of Administrative Hearings. A judge is set to hear the case in Fort Myers on Feb. 22-24. The location and time haven’t been scheduled.
Collier Resources Company did not respond to requests for comment.
CREW
The Corkscrew Watershed spans 60,000 acres in northwest Collier and southeast Lee counties. Proponents say it’s an important ecosystem to preserve because it recharges the aquifers in Southwest Florida and improves the water quality.
The CREW Land and Water Trust was formed in the 1980s to maintain the watershed in its entirety and through a patchwork of public and private entities has purchased 45,000 acres within it. Purchasers have included Lee County’s Conservation 20/20, Conservation Collier, the National Audubon Society and CREW.
None of the Conservation 20/20 properties across Lee County have had the mineral rights severed, said Conservation Lands Manager Cathy Olson.
By far the largest landholder is the South Florida Water Management District. The agency controls the water resources from Orlando to the Florida Keys and is a major player in the Everglades restoration and the Okeechobee runoff down the Caloosahatchee River. Part of the district’s mission includes preserving the Corkscrew Watershed. Since the 1980s it has purchased more than 28,000 acres in Lee and Collier counties.
For the most part, those purchases only include the surface holdings.
Ray Palmer, the real estate section leader at the water district said the agency is aware that big parts of its surface holdings do not include the underlying mineral rights, but they are generally more concerned what happens above ground.
“As long as we are comfortable those rights won’t interfere with the water flows on the surface we will consider it,” he said.
Almost none of the Conservation Collier Land includes the mineral rights, said Conservation Collier Manager Alexandra Sulecki.
“If those (mineral rights) were a sticking point, we’d be out of business,” she said.
“We can’t completely exclude properties without mineral rights, but we need a more balanced approach,” said Jennifer Hecker, Conservancy for Southwest Florida director of natural resource policy. “This means not sacrificing the surface resources to extract the subsurface resources.”
Conservation Collier, Collier County’s conservation land agency owns two properties that abut the CREW Lands. Both do not include portions of the mineral rights.
The two preserves, Pepper Ranch Preserve and the Caracara Prairie Preserve, comprise nearly 2,900 acres and were purchased for a combined $37.6 million in taxpayer money, according to county records.
This constitutes more than half of the program’s 4,060 acres.
At the Caracara Prairie Preserve, on the Lee/Collier border near Corkscrew Road, there is an active oil well at Pepper Ranch, north of Lake Trafford, there are a pair, she said.
These sites haven’t experienced any disruption of wildlife, even the endangered Florida panther, Sulecki said.
Nancy Payton, who works full time on panther conservation for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said oil drilling isn’t a big concern for the big cats.
“From our perspective these oil pads and oil wells aren’t the biggest threat,” she said. “It’s loss of habitat.”

140201-d
The Nature of Things: Invasive snail offers rare benefit to Fla.
TheLedger.com
February 1, 2014
Invasive exotic species that become established in Florida rarely have any positive qualities.
The island apple snail might be an exception, at least in one respect.
This aquarium snail, which escaped into the wild several years ago I saw the first egg clusters about 10 years ago has turned out to be a food bonanza for some aquatic birds.
I previously described the population surge of the limpkin, a brown marsh bird with white spots that was once less common locally. But recently I learned snail kites hook-billed birds of prey whose diet consists predominantly of apple snails have enjoyed a population increase as a result of this new food source, too.
When the exotic apple snails first were observed, there was some doubt about whether snail kites would be able to take advantage of them.
The island apple snails are considerably larger than the native apple snails. The issue was whether snail kites would be able, physically, to grab the snails and eat them easily.
Initially, field reports indicated the kites might have trouble doing this.
The birds appear to have adapted, according to more recent reports.
A few words about snail kites. When I first began serious birdwatching in the 1970s, the only dependable place to see snail kites was on the outskirts of Everglades National Park.
However, after the 1981 drought, which dried up some of their habitat in South Florida, the birds started appearing in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.
They're still there.
If you go to any lakefront park on Lake Kissimmee or Lake Tohokepaliga, you're likely to see some fly by. Polk County's Coleman Landing and Gobbler Ridge at Lake Kissimmee State Park are two good places to look. The birds, which are easily identified by their hooked bills and the white patch at the base of their tails, are known to be nomadic. Over the years, I've seen them on other lakes around Polk County in the Lake Wales, Haines City and Winter Haven areas.
Recently some have been reported around Lake Hancock, either at Circle B Bar Reserve or at a restoration area the Southwest Florida Water Management District is building south of the lake.
Earlier this year, there were reports of nesting at Edward Medard Park near Plant City.
Once snail kites were found as far north as the Tallahassee area and in many places in Central and North Florida, especially before 1910.
However, the core of its historic range in Florida these birds also are found in Cuba and Central America has been the Everglades and areas along the Kissimmee and St. Johns rivers.
The current range of the island apple snail includes parts of most of the Florida peninsula and into the St. Marks-Tallahassee area.
An intriguing question, which only future observations will be able to answer, is whether snail kites might eventually expand their ranges in suitable locations in Florida to take advantage of this new food source, as limpkins appear to have done in Central Florida.
HIKES COMING
The next Trek Ten Trails hike will be Saturday at Tenoroc Fish Management Area in Lakeland.
The hike begins at 9 a.m. Participants should meet at the office at 3829 Tenoroc Mine Road. The event is free.
Tenoroc is a former phosphate mine that is gradually being restored to a more natural landscape.
Also, the Polk County Extension Office will sponsor a hike Feb. 22 at Colt Creek State Park north of Lakeland, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Registration is limited to the first 20 people to sign up. Colt Creek Park is on State Road 471. To sign up, go to www.PolkNR.eventbrite.com [ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535. Read his blog on the environment at environment.blogs.theledger.com and his blog on county government atcounty.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @LedgerTom. ]
The island apple snail might be an exception, at least in one respect.This aquarium snail, which escaped into the wild several years ago — I saw the first egg clusters about 10 years ago ; has turned out to be a food bonanza for some aquatic birds.

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