141129-a
Climate Change Policy ? What climate change policy ?
Sunshine State News - by Nancy Smith
November 29, 2014 3:55 AM
The cheer that went up Wednesday among NextGen activisits when Herschel Vinyard announced his departure was pretty silly. Anybody who thinks a new Florida Department of Environmental Protection secretary means a new climate-change policy is living in Cloud Cuckooland.
Vinyard's climate policies of the last four years -- and go to the head of the class if you can find any -- came straight from the top. So will the ones embraced during the next four.
When Gov. Rick Scott appointed him in early 2011, Vinyard had solid executive experience. But he wasn't a scientist. He had been an executive with a military contractor called BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards; before that, he was a corporate lawyer specializing in regulatory issues.
Certainly Vinyard was unlike Gov. Charlie Crist's two successive heads of the DEP. Both were trained scientists; I'm betting both would have earned a NextGen Seal of Approval, had there been such a thing in 2007 or 2009.
Asked to describe the DEP's mission, one of Crist’s secretaries explained it would be primarily concerned with “ensuring Florida’s dynamic natural resources, state lands, waterbodies and beaches are protected”; Crist himself challenged the department to create “a strategy to protect our state from the effects of climate change.”
Gov. Scott, on the other hand,  had other priorities in 2010, and he made them clear.  He believed regulations were choking the Florida economy. He knew exactly what he wanted in a new secretary when he appointed Vinyard.
Soon after Vinyard came aboard, as the department shed scores of what the governor considered were business-blocking regulations, every initiative related to climate change was dropped.
Compare the priorities of Crist's DEP to Scott's:  Vinyard’s mission, explained the current administration when he was appointed, is to “protect the natural resources of Florida, while creating the best possible mechanisms for job creation in the state.”
Certainly, Scott's policy has evolved in the face of environmental, canary-in-the-mineshaft realities during his first term. He is entirely up to speed on the state's critical water issues now and puts them near the top of his priority list. But I can't find anywhere -- and I've looked and asked -- where that policy includes a mention of climate change. 
In May, when the Miami Herald asked Scott about his views on climate change, Scott responded, “Well, I’m not a scientist. But let’s talk about what we’ve done” -- before launching into an overview of his administration’s flood prevention spending. When the Herald reporter pressed him further, Scott talked again about protecting the Everglades and preventing flooding. Not a word about climate.
Scott also omitted climate change in his future environmental plans: in August, the governor unveiled a re-election plan for environmental issues, which outlined $1 billion in investments. Again, not a word about climate change.
I have seen no evidence anywhere that Scott doesn't believe the climate is changing or that human beings have created it. I think he has simply made a conscientious decision to ignore it while other priorities are more pressing.
My point is this: If and when the Scotties put a dime of state resources on the effects of greenhouse gases on Florida, the decision will have nothing to do with the next incarnation of DEP secretary -- whether it's new interim appointee Cliff Wilson, Vinyard's deputy secretary for regulatory programs, or Wilson's "permanent" successor.
The head of DEP will get his marching orders from Gov. Rick Scott himself and the three members of the Florida Cabinet, for whom he works.

141129-b
Strong stand for Everglades
TBO.com - Editorial
November 29, 2014
Prior to the election, many thought that if Gov. Rick Scott won re-election, U.S. Sugar’s proposal to build a massive city between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades would be a slam dunk.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who once sought to buy U.S. Sugar holdings to protect the Everglades, was considered to be more concerned about the project’s threat.
Many environmental activists dismissed Scott’s promises to protect the Everglades as campaign posturing.
They looked to have underestimated the governor’s sincerity.
In a Nov. 1 letter, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity rejected the plan by U.S. Sugar and Hilliard Brothers, another sugar firm, to develop more than 43,000 acres — 67 square miles — in Hendry County. The Hendry County Commission had already endorsed the proposal.
This was no grandstanding political move. The state’s position was not publicized until after the election. It indicates the governor is willing to stand up to the powerful sugar industry.
The proposed “Sugar Hill” development intended to construct 18,000 homes on the tract, parts of which had been targeted for preservation by the state.
But a number of state agencies objected to the sprawling venture.
The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported last month the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection raised concerns about the project creating a “suburban road block to Everglades restoration.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Department of Transportation also faulted the plan.
Consequently, the Department of Economic Opportunity raised 34 objections about the development to the Hendry County Commission, which has sought state approval for changes in its land-use plan. The Department of Economic Opportunity exercises what little planning oversight the state retained after lawmakers jettisoned growth management laws a few years ago.
The agency faulted the plan for “providing no assurances of natural resource protection, infrastructure provision or intergovernmental coordination.”
Among its objections: developing acreage that had been targeted for possible Everglades restoration; extensive building in the 100-year flood zone; not adequately providing for conservation easements; lack of meaningful guidelines and standards in the transportation analysis; and failure to sufficiently address water supply.
The process is not over. Hendry County has 180 days to address the objections. But planning experts say it is unlikely the county could adequately address the state’s laundry list of concerns within that time frame. Perhaps the state’s stand will cause the sugar companies to abandon this irresponsible venture.
In any event, the Scott administration is not looking like the development patsy it was accused of being during the campaign.

141128-a
Florida environmental protection secretary resigns
WINKnews.com
November 28, 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is stepping down.
Gov. Rick Scott's office announced Wednesday that Secretary Herschel Vinyard is resigning Dec. 1.
Scott appointed Vinyard in January 2011. Vinyard praised Scott in his letter of resignation for improving water quality in the Everglades, investing more in springs and improving state parks.
Scott named Clifford Wilson III as interim secretary. Wilson serves as the deputy secretary for regulatory programs and previously served as assistant deputy secretary of land and recreation.

141128-b
Florida, nation cannot ignore climate change
TampaBayTimes - Editorial
November 28, 2014
No one needs to be a scientist to grasp the dire implications that a warming Earth poses to everyday life. That's the message from the latest in a yearlong series of reports from the world's leading science body, which finds that climate change is "clear and growing" and an immediate risk to people and ecosystems. The report should be wakeup call to industrial nations and coastal states such as Florida to start seriously addressing climate change before the impacts pose even greater threats to security, population centers and the food and water supply.
The report released last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an agency formed by the United Nations that brings 195-member states together with the world's leading scientists, found that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases were the highest in history, that warming is unequivocally happening and that the changes since the 1950s have been the greatest in thousands of years. Each of the last three decades was successively hotter than any preceding decade since 1850. And the last 30-year period was the warmest in the Northern Hemisphere in 1,400 years. The issue is not whether the climate is warming but what the world will do to curb the "irreversible" impacts to human life.
The industrialized states need to lead by cutting their reliance on fossil fuels, investing in the clean energy sector and becoming more serious about conservation and more efficient urban design. The developing world will not curb its growth by holding back on fossil fuels if the richer nations don't set an example that clean energy can propel the economy. This report lays a foundation for the international community to agree on action at the next U.N. climate conference this month in Peru.
The midterm elections were a setback, as Republicans skeptical about climate change increased their hold on Congress and as Gov. Rick Scott won re-election. President Barack Obama should continue to press clean energy initiatives that can keep moving the nation away from dirtier fuels. Scott, who has said he is not convinced of man-made climate change and met with climate scientists only late in his re-election campaign, needs to address the reality that more extreme weather, rising sea levels, heat waves and drought poses to this coastal state.
The panel's report frames the risks of climate change in the most compelling language the global panel has ever used. It shuts down the nonsense that global warming is a theory and a problem for some future generation to confront. And it raises the urgency of the conversation by framing the risks of climate change in terms of national security. Rising sea levels, drought, and the impacts that extreme weather will bring to farmland and fisheries will threaten the world's food and water supply — creating more instability in the most volatile parts of the world. The United States and the world have a responsibility to those future generations to address climate change before the costs only continue to grow.

141128-c
We must protect our water
TheLedger.com - by Guy Tavormina, Lakeland, FL
November 28, 2014
As our population in Florida continues to grow, one of our biggest challenges will be fresh water.
An 87-year-old friend of mine, George, has long worked with the phosphate industry.
He has for years preached that the old phosphate mines should be turned into reservoirs to collect the billions of gallons of fresh water that flow into our rivers, then into the ocean.
He also advocates that the water be pumped into the aquifer. If we keep pumping water out of the aquifer, the salt water from the ocean will eventually flow into it.
Certainly we must have some elected officials who also are concerned about this problem. If any of them would like to meet with George, I would be happy to arrange the meeting.
We must act now to ensure our fresh water for the future.

141127-









Herschel VINYARD
FDEP Secretary
resignes

141127-
DEP chief resigns at critical time for Florida environment
Times/Herald – by Steve Bousquet, Tallahassee Bureau
November 26, 2014
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott's top environmental adviser, Herschel Vinyard Jr., resigned Wednesday, ending a four-year run of controversy over protecting Florida's fragile water and land resources.
Vinyard leaves the Department of Environmental Protection at a critical juncture: The agency will guide Scott and the Legislature through implementing Amendment 1, which had overwhelming support from voters and requires a $20 billion investment to protect water and land over the next 20 years.
As a candidate for re-election, Scott placed a heightened emphasis on the environment, promising to protect springs and punish polluters. In his first campaign four years ago, Scott proposed scaling back environmental rules and merging the DEP with other agencies. As governor he advocated privately run golf courses in state parks, repealed a septic tank inspection program and ended state funding of the Florida Forever land acquisition program.
Vinyard, a former Jacksonville shipbuilding executive, will be replaced on Dec. 1 on an interim basis by Cliff Wilson, 35, the DEP's deputy secretary for regulatory programs.
The departure of Vinyard had been anticipated for months. The selection of Wilson, even as a caretaker, caught environmentalists by surprise because he has been there for only three years and is not well known outside the agency.
"We don't know much about Cliff or his background," said Eric Draper, the lobbyist for Audubon of Florida. "Not much has happened there to distinguish him."
Wilson graduated from Florida State University with a civil engineering degree in 2005, and spent six years at Preble-Rish, a consulting engineering firm in the Florida Panhandle.
The DEP did not respond to the Times/Herald's request to interview Wilson on Wednesday.
Wilson will become Scott's third interim secretary of a large state agency, joining Mike Carroll at the Department of Children and Families and Tim Cannon at the Department of Corrections.
Carroll has run the DCF since last spring and Cannon was named interim corrections secretary on Monday, hours after prisons chief Mike Crews announced his retirement. At least two more agency heads are expected to depart in the coming weeks.
"It's certainly not uncommon when a governor begins a new term that you see new leadership at the agencies," said Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.
Vinyard earned $141,000 a year as DEP secretary, one of several agency heads who report to both the governor and the three elected Cabinet members.
Wilson currently earns $125,000 a year.
Collier County Commissioner Tom Henning praised Wilson's work in helping to resolve a tense controversy between the county and a private drilling company using untested technology to explore for oil near Naples.
"He was the lead guy. I think he did a wonderful job," Henning said. "He got the job done."
Frank Jackalone, Florida staff director of the Sierra Club, said he hoped Wilson would play a positive role in the state's adoption of rules under the EPA's so-called clean power plan to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
"He has been receptive," Jackalone said of Wilson. "He's probably just as favorable to the industry as to the environment, but he's receptive, and he listens to us. We've been happy with our limited experience with him."
In a resignation letter, Vinyard cited improved Everglades water quality, a nutrient reduction program for waterways and a national award for Florida's parks system.
Under Vinyard, the DEP gave bonuses to employees who issued development permits more quickly and a round of 58 layoffs two years ago was followed by a series of top-level hires from private industries. The agency's top wetlands expert was relieved of duty for objecting to a proposed wetlands credit project in Northeast Florida, and a judge later sided with the expert.
Audubon's Draper said DEP staffers are demoralized over Vinyard's policies.
"DEP needs an upgrade," Draper said. "It's a moment for significant leadership. You would think the governor would put one of his best people in that job."
Related:           Florida environmental protection secretary Vinyard resigns; Gov ... Greenfield Daily Reporter
Florida environmental head resigns; Scott names interim      Palm Beach Post

141126-a
FDACS requests $27.9 M for projects
Highlands Today – by John Buchanan
November 26, 2014
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has asked the state legislature to provide $27.9 million in funding for the 2015-16 budget year in order to continue critical Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services projects aimed at restoring and protecting the state’s water resources.
“Water is our state’s most important natural resource,” Putnam said in a letter to directors of the Governor’s Office of Policy and Budget, the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee. “Not only is it one of Florida’s defining characteristics, but we need a healthy and abundant supply of water to grow and thrive as a state. Therefore, we must work to restore the health and conserve our supply of water – and we must do so with a policy and budget that is flexible, comprehensive and long-term.”
Water conservation and management was among Putnam’s top priorities during his first term as agriculture commissioner. Now that he has been reelected, he will continue those efforts -- which focus heavily on agricultural water use.
So far, more than 10 million acres of agricultural land in Florida have adopted water-saving techniques and implemented new technologies to protect and conserve Florida’s water supply. Collectively, agricultural producers saved more than 1 billion gallons of water last year. “
And that one billion gallon figure is just from last year,” said Rich Budell, director of FDACS’s director of agricultural water policy. “The cumulative effect of those conservation programs over the last four years has been in the neighborhood of six or seven billion gallons of water.” The major projects to be funded include $15 million to support restoration projects around Lake Okeechobee, including water retention and nutrient reduction efforts impacting Lake Okeechobee, St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee River watersheds; $5 million for the Springs Initiative; $5 million for the Northern Everglades and Estuaries Protection Program Area, with the goal of increasing acreage of agricultural lands that are implementing best management practices to reduce impact on the environment; $1.5 million for agricultural water supply planning, and $1.4 million for partnership agreements with water management districts and soil and water conservation districts. “
All five of those initiatives are important to us,” said Drew Bartlett, deputy secretary for water policy at Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which worked closely with FDACS, water management districts and other state agencies to set the 2015-16 funding priorities.
“We have our challenges in Florida with water quality and we are starting to encounter some challenges with water quantity, mostly around the issue of nutrient impairment,” Bartlett said. “And the way we have our water management programs set up, everybody comes together to try to solve those challenges. Agriculture is a key component of the things we’re doing.”
Over last four years, FDACS has focused on programs that improve the efficiency of the agricultural industry when it comes to water use and management, Budell said.
“We want the industry to get the maximum effect from every drop of water used,” he said. “And for next budget year, we’re continuing to do that by making sure that local water management districts and local governments do the best job they can do in conserving water and ensuring it is used effectively.”
Budell said one major factor in the success of FDACS’s efforts has been growing awareness and support among the state’s farmers and ranchers.
“There is an incredibly heightened awareness among the ag community,” he said.
“Farmers and ranchers are embracing our programs to offer them conservation tools and techniques that help them be more efficient in their use of water. And one of the things that promotes that the most is that they hear from their peers, their colleagues, that being more efficient in water use saves energy, saves fertilizer, and uses less electricity or other fuel to irrigate your crops.
“For example, you’re able to keep the fertilizer in the root zone longer. You get a better yield on your crops. There are a number of ancillary benefits that go along with water conservation. And awareness of those benefits is now growing throughout the ag community,” he said.
Bartlett said that the cooperation of farmers and ranchers has made state efforts more effective. “One thing that we are very proud of is that agriculture is absolutely a partner in our efforts and they do come to the table with ideas for change and progress,” he said. “And based on that, I’d say that within the next few years, we’ll have one of the most advanced agricultural industries in the country when it comes to water management and conservation.”
One current example of such progress, Bartlett said, is the mobile irrigation labs that are being deployed in spring areas to dramatically improve the efficiency of irrigation.
Innovations like that keep Florida at the forefront of ag water management, Bartlett said.
“I think we are positioned to get the entire state retrofitted with the most sophisticated equipment available today,” he said.
The ultimate goal is “a sustainable agricultural community that fits in nicely with the environmental expectations that our citizens have,” Bartlett said. “And that then means agriculture can continue without any kind of criticism [about how it uses natural resources such as water].” - See more at: http://highlandstoday.com/list/highlands-agri-leader-news/fdacs-requests-279-m-for-projects-20141126/#sthash.XASNbPrz.dpuf

141126-b
Indian River Lagoon seagrass showing signs of recovery
Florida Today – by Jim Waymer
November 26, 2014
Despite entering its dormant season, seagrass is showing signs of recovery in the Indian River Lagoon.
The bottom plant that provides a key barometer of the lagoon's overall health is stable in the south-central Indian River Lagoon, data released this month shows.
St. Johns River Water Management District surveys near Wabasso and Vero Beach found that seagrass coverage has remained stable since October.
The news comes on the heels of district reports last month that lagoon seagrass had increased by 4,700 acres, or 12 percent, between 2011 and 2013.
Seagrass is the lagoon's prime nursery for fish and other marine life that helps drive $3.7 billion in annual economic activity.
Despite recent improvements, seagrass remains well below what it was just two years before a 2011 algae "superbloom." That event and subsequent algae blooms killed some 47,000 acres of lagoon seagrass, about 60 percent of the lagoon's total coverage.
Hundreds of manatees, pelicans and dolphins died in the fallout from the seagrass loss.
In October and early November, fish deaths were reported in the Merritt Island-Sykes Creek area of the lagoon. No algae blooms have been identified, district officials said.
But in late October, state wildlife officials found a bloom of a type of algae that can trigger fish kills and turn some pufferfish and other marine life toxic to humans. When stirred at night, the algae causes the water to glow brightly, a phenomenon called bioluminescence.
Seagrass the district transplanted last year throughout the lagoon has shown mixed results, with natural seagrass growth outpacing the transplants. The district plans to spend about $85,000 on the three-year transplant project.
The Sebastian Inlet District — which pioneered seagrass transplant methods in the lagoon — chipped in about another $25,000 for similar efforts near the inlet, with positive results so far.
"We have had great success on the shoals with the acreage of seagrasses going from nine acres in 2012 to currently having 84 acres on the shoals," said Don Deis, a senior scientist with Atkins North America, a consultant to the inlet district.
Recent data from the St. Johns district shows seagrass coverage in Volusia, Brevard and Indian River counties is still almost 40 percent less than what it was before the 2011 superbloom.
Seagrass grew from just over 38,300 acres in that region in 2011 to more than 43,000 acres last year.
But the increase may only reflect normal year-to-year variations, district officials said.
Just two years before the 2011 superbloom, lagoon seagrass thrived at levels not seen since the 1940s. Restoration efforts finally seemed to be paying off, with some help from drought, which meant less polluting runoff into the waterway.
But drought, coupled with record cold winter temperatures, also was among the major driving factors that fueled the superbloom and subsequent brown algae blooms, according to scientists at the University of Florida and the district.
Extreme cold in December 2010 and January 2011 killed tiny marine organisms that graze on algae, allowing the superbloom to thrive, the researchers concluded in a recent research paper published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts. Drought also drove lagoon salt levels into the ideal range for the algae species that bloomed in recent years, the researchers concluded.
Officials expect seagrass to rebound more quickly near inlets. But grass beds near cities could take much longer.
"It is showing good signs that it has the ability to recover," said Martin Smithson, director of Sebastian Inlet District.
"In the urban areas, it will probably take six to 10 years."

141126-c
Museum exhibition focuses on climate change, sea level rise
Community Newspapers.com - by Tania Longest
November 26, 2014
The Coral Gables Museum is hosting “Miami 2100: Envisioning a Resilient Second Century,” an exhibit about planning for climate change and sea level rise in Greater Miami, presented by Florida International University’s School of Architecture.
The exhibit, which opened Nov. 7 will continue through Mar. 1, 2015.
“Climate change and sea level rise are topics that cannot be ignored and yet many residents, developers and government officials seem to turn a blind eye,” said Christine Rupp, director of the Coral Gables Museum. “Our hope is to educate and rally the public through the exhibit and related events so that we can all get on the same page when it comes to taking action to protect our city.”
Miami 2100 is a solution-oriented exhibit of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design strategies that can support the adaptation and transformation of existing infrastructure, neighborhoods, structures and regulations to ensure resilient future development. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Cejas Family Foundation, the exhibit integrates broad expert and community voices as it poses key questions regarding climate science, while presenting both the challenges and the opportunities created by changing environmental conditions and rising sea levels.
Miami 2100 incorporates projects completed over a three-year period through graduate research studios and seminars in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Florida International University.
FIU Professors and exhibit curators Marta Canavés and Marilys Nepomechie directed academic explorations that can inform important community planning that will allow Miami to remain a vibrant and increasingly desirable place to live for years to come.
South Florida is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its history of development. Miami was developed just above sea level on a porous limestone base; incorporating artificial islands, extensive areas of coastal landfill, and substantial terrain re-claimed from Everglades wetlands. Experts predict that over the next 100 years, significant portions of the city will be substantively affected by rising sea levels.
Complementing the exhibit is a program of events including a curator’s tour, panel discussions about sea level rise and designing a resilient city and a design presentation by FIU School of Architecture faculty and students. In addition to FIU, the exhibit’s program partners include the American Institute of Architects, Miami Chapter; National Science Foundation, Dutch Consulate of Miami and French Consulate of Miami.
For more information about educational programs or volunteering at the Coral Gables Museum, visit online at www.coralgablesmuseum.org.

141126-d
Objectors file against U.S. Sugar giant city plan
SWFlorida.blogspot.ca – by Don Browne
November 27, 2014
A state agency released a blistering 24-page rebuke of a proposed massive city in the Everglades while environmentalists renewed calls for the state to purchase sugar land to send water south.
Among 34 major objections to the project, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO) report called U.S Sugar’s proposal “vague,” with “no assurances of natural resource protection,” and puts “significant urban development” in an area without flood protection.
The proposed 67-square-mile city called “Sugar Hill” includes 18,000 residential units and more than 25 million square feet of commercial development southwest of Lake Okeechobee on land vital to Everglades Restoration.
The FDEO report comes on top of two also highly-critical responses from state environmental agencies. The South Florida Water Management District recommended against the plan saying it threatened Everglades Restoration, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection wrote it “does not adequately protect against adverse impacts to important state resources, including the Florida Everglades.”
The report was surprising because the FDEO is essentially an economic development agency that Governor Scott created to replace the Department of Community Affairs, the growth management agency he dismantled. The report also comes amid news reports that U.S Sugar has been taking Florida politicians, including the Governor Scott, on hunting trips to the King Ranch in Texas.
The Sugar Hill project has been widely condemned by the environmental community. Sierra Club and allies held simultaneous rallies and press conferences opposing the city and urging the state to buy sugar land instead.
Environmentalists want land bought now
The proposed city reinforces the need to buy sugar land now. The U.S Sugar land purchase of 2010 enabled 26,000 acres to be purchased with an option for the remaining 153,000 acres. The next deadline of October 2015, allows a block of 46,800 acres to be purchased at market prices. Much of the land lies within the Sugar Hill proposal. If Sugar Hill were approved, the land would be immediately more valuable as land slated for development rather than agricultural uses, making it more difficult for the public to acquire.
Governor Rick Scott has repeatedly ignored deadlines to buy sugar land. Last year he allowed the state’s exclusive rights to buy US Sugar land to expire. He opposed U.S. Sugar’s purchase as a candidate in 2010.
The enormity and grave consequences of this sprawling city cannot be overstated. It would wall off the Everglades from half of its overland water source – Lake Okeechobee. It would also end efforts to purchase the next parcel of sugar land for restoration – either for direct use or through swaps with other sugar lands farther east.
The final rejection of this city will serve as a wakeup call.  A restored Everglades and healthy estuaries require more sugar land. Governor Scott and his appointees at South Florida Water Management District should lay the groundwork for the purchase now.
U.S. Sugar has until May 1, 2015, to revise and resubmit the Sugar Hill city plan. The deadline to purchase 48,600 acres is Oct. 12, 2015.

141126-e
Two draft proposals hope to keep Florida from becoming fracking’s new frontier
OrlandoWeekly.com - by Erin Sullivan
November 26, 2014
Could Florida become the next frontier for hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”)? Environmentalists, who are already concerned about the state’s fragile water supply, fear that it could, and this week they’re trying to get out ahead of the situation before the 2015 Legislative session begins in Tallahassee.
Last week, two independent efforts to draft legislation to regulate fracking in Florida were unveiled in Orlando. One, drafted by state Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, would ban the practice outright, declaring that “a person may not engage in hydraulic fracturing in this state.” The other, drafted by students at the Barry University School of Law and the League of Women Voters of Orange County, is a comprehensive proposal that would limit where, when and how fracking could take place in the state. Though it would not call for an outright ban on fracking, the measure includes a provision that would allow municipalities to prohibit it within their jurisdictions.
“We took a look at what other states have done, and we took components from those states and put them together,” says Chuck O’Neal, chair of the natural resources committee of the League of Women Voters of Orange County. Right now, he says, Florida does not have any rules or safeguards in place to regulate fracking, a controversial practice that uses chemicals injected deep into the earth to fracture shale and other rock formations to release natural gas or oil. O’Neal says that Florida has long had regulations in place to oversee traditional drilling for gas and oil – but they’re so old that they don’t address fracking, which wasn’t common until the ’90s. Though oil drilling comes with its own share of problems (see the Gulf oil spill of 2010, for instance), fracking comes with a whole slew of new concerns because it not only extracts things from the earth, it also sends chemicals into it. Among the hazards: air emissions, increase in release of greenhouse gases, high water consumption, increase in likelihood of minor earthquakes and, perhaps most concerning to Floridians, potential for chemicals used in fracking to seep into the water supply.
“When you have a flow of oil coming up from the ground and there’s a crack in the pipe, all you’re going to have happen is have water get into that pipe, and that’s not such a big deal,” he says. “But when you reverse the procedure and you put chemicals in there under very high pressure and send them down into the ground to break open deposits to extract oil and gas, and you have a crack in the pipe, it can send those chemicals shooting into the water supply. And we have no regulations on that practice.”
Residents of southwest Florida discovered that the hard way in late 2013, when it was discovered that the Dan A. Hughes Co. was drilling for oil in Collier County using a new process to get at deposits deep beneath the earth. The Texas company had applied for a “workover” permit to use chemicals to dissolve through rock so it could get at oil that lay beneath. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection asked the company to hold off while it reviewed the process, but the company went ahead and began the work anyway. The state had to issue a cease and desist order to get the Hughes Co. to stop, and it did (it was also slapped with a $25,000 fine for doing the work without waiting for approval). Things are quiet for now, O’Neal says, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way. There are other permits for fracking in Florida coming down the pipeline, he says, because Florida has “ample amounts” of oil and gas buried deep beneath its soil.
“Hughes pulled out of the state willingly, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be back, or that there aren’t other wildcatters waiting to get in,” O’Neal says. So students at Barry Law and League members drafted language for a bill that would spell out what companies would have to do to get fracking permits (visit orlandoweekly.com to view PDFs of the proposed legislation). O’Neal is now trying to find a sponsor for the bill, which he says he’d like to see introduced during the 2015 session.  
Sen. Darren Soto’s bill doesn’t attempt to regulate fracking at all – he says his bill would straight-up prohibit it anywhere in the state. He is working with Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, to get the bill introduced in December or January.
“What concerns me is that we get the vast majority of our drinking water from the Floridan aquifer, and fracking puts that water in jeopardy,” Soto says. The aquifer is already so threatened it’s not worth risking, he says. Soto’s proposal is not affiliated with the efforts of the law school and League of Women Voters, but O’Neal says the two draft bills are not at odds with one another, despite their different approaches. In fact, O’Neal says, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if both of them were to pass.
“Even if you put a moratorium in place, a moratorium can be lifted at any time,” O’Neal says. “And then you need to have those underlying regulations if that were to happen. We can’t just have anybody with a drilling rig coming in and doing this – wildcatters coming in, doing sloppy work … and then having them shoot these chemicals out into the aquifer for someone to get in their drinking water, or into our water supply. It’s just nightmarish.”

141126-f
Water storage project to help estuaries
Fort Myers Beach Bulletin, Fort Myers Beach Observer - by Bob Petcher
November 26, 2014
A water storage project with the space equivalent of 5,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools is expected to help in protecting water resources in Southwest Florida.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently awarded $3 million to the South Florida Water Management District to fund what is being called "the Early Start phase" of the Caloosahatchee River West Basin Storage Reservoir, also known as C-43 Reservoir. The project will create up to 11,000 additional acre-feet of water storage in the area.
The "Early Start phase" of the C-43 Reservoir project centers on components that will provide interim water storage until the full C-43 Reservoir can be completed. A temporary storage facility in the southwest corner of the reservoir, demolition of structures within the site's footprint and the construction of a small pump station and perimeter canal are parts of the components.
The cost-shared project between the federal government and the state of Florida is only one step towards improving water quality on both coasts of Florida.
"I think it will get us closer to having a bit more control over inflows into the Caloosahatchee estuary," said Town of Fort Myers Beach Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen. "We still need full funding on C-43 and several other projects in the water shed, but any little bit helps right now. Anything that will help us attenuate potentially damaging high season flows will help."
The full construction project was approved by President Barack Obama back in June 2014. On May 13, 2014, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson announced that the House and Senate committee overseeing the passage of the Water Resources Development Act -a bill authorizing federal funding for water projects nationwide- reached an agreement on the legislation.
The WRDA authorized the release of $626.6 million to finish construction of C-43. At the time, roughly $100 million was reported to be already spent in acquiring, designing and permitting the necessary land.
Upon completion, the early phase of the entire project will provide transitional water storage to a depth of roughly four feet on approximately 3,500 acres of the full C-43 Reservoir project site, according to the DEP report. It is expected to aid in the reduction of polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee to local waterways now that the rainy season has ended.
"It is critical we take full advantage now during the dry season to generate as much additional water storage and treatment capacity as we can in South Florida," said DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. "Governor Scott and the Florida Legislature understand this and that's why they've dedicated resources to grow our storage footprint and protect the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries."
Laakkonen echoed that sentiment.
"Potentially, it will help us in the dry season when we need to add more water to the estuary to prevent loss of tape grass in the upper estuary. Estuaries need balance," he said. "Hopefully any storage options will help us reduce some of the very intense fresh water episodes during high flows and reduce some of the very intense salt water episodes while we are not getting sufficient rainfall into the watershed or from flows from Lake Okeechobee."
South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Blake Guillory applauded DEP in its role.
"The district and the state put a priority on increasing water storage to protect south Florida's coastal estuaries," he said. "This funding support from DEP allows us to do just that by beginning early construction work on the C-43 Reservoir that provides increased storage onsite to protect the Caloosahatchee Estuary."
Each summer, heavy rains fill Lake Okeechobee causing high flow regulatory freshwater releases to be discharged from the lake into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. This creates a disproportionate mix of fresh and salt water that eventually creates damage to the estuaries' coastal habitats. The lake releases are also known to involve back-pumped, nutrient-rich water with large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen that negatively affects water quality.
SFWMD and the Army Corps of Engineers are known for owning a 50/50 partnership in managing the decisions for the large reservoir of the Greater Everglades system, which includes Lake O and many of its estuaries.
Long-term projects that are still being looked into include acquiring more land for the C-43 reservoir (designed to hold 170,000 acre feet of water) and Central Everglades Planning Project (reconnect Lake O south with Everglades National Park, but water needs to be treated/cleaned) and the restoration of Herbert Hoover Dike (to enhance structural integrity and provide additional storage).
According to the most recent "Caloosahatchee Condition Summary" provided by the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, flows to the estuary at the S79 WP Franklin Lock and Dam structure averaged 1,055 cubic feet per second. Flows are currently in the suitable range for tape grass in the upper estuary and oysters in the lower estuary, but light levels remain too low to sustain submerged aquatic vegetation at depth due to high colored dissolved organic matter. In the lower estuary, the salinity in the Iona/McGregor area was recorded at 18 psu (practical salinity units), known to be in the optimal range for oysters.
SCCF officials recommend the maintenance of flows between 800 and 1,000 CFS to meet established ecological targets within the estuary.
When completed, the C-43 Reservoir is said to help ensure a more natural, consistent flow of freshwater to the estuary. To restore and maintain the estuary during the dry season, the project will capture and store basin stormwater runoff, along with a portion of water discharged from Lake Okeechobee, and water will be slowly released into the Caloosahatchee, as needed. The release of water during the right time of year may also assist in maintaining optimal water flows and levels for the year-round health of the estuary and provide recreational benefits.
"We must continue to be proactive in the protection of our environment and better prepare for the inevitability of rain in Southwest Florida," said Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto. "It's extremely important that we take every opportunity to provide adequate water storage here in Southwest Florida, and the Early Start project helps do just that."
- See more at: http://www.fort-myers-beach-observer.com/page/content.detail/id/526362/Water-storage-project-to-help-estuaries.html?nav=5051#sthash.j01OGh9F.dpuf

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Miami-Dade County awards CH2M HILL program management contract
Water Technology
November 24, 2014
DENVER, November 20, 2014 – CH2M HILL
CH2M HILL has been awarded a program management contract for the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department’s $3.3 billion Ocean Outfall Legislation (OOL) Program. The 11-year OOL Program is the culmination of a regulatory mandate by the Florida Legislature to stop all wastewater discharge to the ocean by 2025.
As program manager, CH2M HILL will be entrusted with managing the overall delivery of a comprehensive, technically sound, long-term program that encompasses the design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of an estimated 28 capital projects. CH2M HILL will oversee all activities necessary to reverse the County’s wastewater system flows away from the ocean outfalls and reroute flows to a new membrane bioreactor treatment plant. The plant, when complete, will be one of the largest of its kind in the world—capable of treating more than 100 million gallons of wastewater each day and injecting the treated water into deep wells.
“CH2M HILL has a long history of working with Miami-Dade County, and has successfully delivered many important water and wastewater projects over the years,” said Bill Johnson, Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department Director. “We are delighted to continue working with CH2M HILL on this important regulatory program, which will yield significant benefits to the environment and County infrastructure, as well as benefit the local economy by creating thousands of direct jobs.”
The OOL Program is one component of the Miami Dade Water and Sewer Department’s comprehensive Capital Improvement Plan for numerous water and wastewater infrastructure projects. The projects are critical for the County to meet the service needs of its customers, accommodate future growth, as well as comply with Federal and State and local regulations.

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Steve CRISAFULLI
FL new House Speaker

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Five questions for new Florida House speaker Steve Crisafulli
TBO.com – by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
November 23, 2014
TALLAHASSEE — Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, formally moved into one of the most powerful jobs in the state last week, when he became House speaker. Crisafulli was a late pick for the job. Former Rep. Chris Dorworth was expected to become speaker this year but lost his House seat in 2012. Crisafulli this year led House GOP election efforts, which resulted in picking up six seats.
First elected in 2008, Crisafulli has chaired the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee, was deeply involved in redistricting efforts and served as House majority leader under former Speaker Will Weatherford.
After graduating from Brevard Community College and the University of Central Florida, Crisafulli began his long association with the Brevard County Farm Bureau, where he was both director and president.
Crisafulli is a seventh-generation Floridian and a member of a prominent citrus family. A cousin, the late Doyle E. Carlton, served as governor from 1929 to 1933, while one of Crisafulli’s grandfathers, Vassar B. Carlton, was chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
Crisafulli and his wife, Kristen, have two daughters.
The News Service of Florida asked Crisafulli five questions.
Q: What issues are your priorities, and what would you like to see accomplished under your leadership?
CRISAFULLI: Well, certainly it’s no secret that I have a great interest in water issues. And that comes from a background in agriculture, but also knowing that it’s important for the future of our state to have a clean, abundant water source. So that’s something I’m very focused on. I don’t believe for a minute that you solve those problems in one year. I think that’s something that you continue to work on — not just over the next two years that I have, but certainly a commitment to the future from this Legislature. So that’s something that I’m certainly focused on.
In the short term, I think that having an opportunity to have a good budget would allow us to do tax breaks and put money back in the pockets of those that actually send the money to Tallahassee, and that’s Florida’s working families. So I think there’s a great opportunity to do that. Obviously, we don’t know at this time exactly what our budget will look like. I mean, we have some ideas — but certainly believe that is something we would like to do as well.
Again, the campaign trail this year was full of conversations about jobs and the economy. And that’s certainly a focus of this Legislature and this governor, and we look forward to working with the governor to accomplish those goals.
Q: What message did you get from the voters via the easy passage of Amendment 1? What are your guidelines for implementing it?
Crisafulli: Well, that certainly goes to my priority, and Amendment 1 falls in place with the conversation of a comprehensive water package. And I see that as something that we do need to focus on — to your point that the voters voted heavily for it, but certainly recognizing that the Legislature still has a job to do, and that is to implement the amendment.
The concern we have is the limitations of what we can do, because we feel that we have made a great commitment to the environment in land and water acquisition over the last couple of years — and have continued to do that with a growing budget. So now we’re a little bit boxed in with the amendment, but we’re certainly focused on the end goal, and that’s to make sure that those resources go into the right places.
Q: We’ve heard some noises from Amendment 1 supporters who are concerned about how the implementation might go, that not all the money would go where they think it should.
Crisafulli: Well, you know, we have a process that we have to go through, and hopefully, at the end of the day, that money goes where it is supposed to go. It’s very clearly stated, “land and water acquisition and maintenance,” and that’s what we’re focused on, and we plan to implement it in that fashion.
Q: The gambling compact with the Seminole Indians is coming up. That’s mostly an issue for the governor, but where is the Legislature on this, and what would you like to see happen?
Crisafulli: Well, we’re approaching five years now on the original compact. It’s given us an opportunity to see how that compact has come into play, and it allows us to look at the results of that, to make a determination as we move forward. You know, there’s a process that we will go through to look at that and find out what the best position for the future of Florida will be.
Q: The House and Senate have gotten along pretty well for two years, but they’ve also clashed on occasion, such as over pension reform. Do you see any impediments to getting along?
Crisafulli: No, I really don’t. You know, from a personal-relationship standpoint with President (Andy) Gardiner, we have a great relationship. We’re good friends. And you know, we’re not scared to talk to each other, and be honest and frank. That’s important: making sure that you’re open and honest and having real conversations.
Now, from an issues standpoint, certainly there’s going to be things that we see differently than they do, and it’s a matter of finding compromise. Whether it’s with the Senate, or, you know, with our Democrat partners, we’re going to find places that we can compromise on certain issues. And whether it be (the Florida Retirement System) and that issue that continues to bubble up, we’ll have those conversations and try to find, you know, common ground. That said, the Senate is pretty much coming back with — well, they are coming back with the same membership. And for the House, we have different members with different things that they can apply to this process, and strengths and weaknesses, and we’re going to use those and continue to build on the conversations that we’ll have with the Senate.
Q: Now that your chamber has a supermajority and Gov. Scott was re-elected by a slender margin, will he have more difficulty getting his way with the Legislature as a lame duck?
Crisafulli: Not at all. I believe that the electorate voted for this governor knowing that he has a focus, and that’s a strong economy. And we’re certainly focused on working with him on that initiative.
With that said, however, I don’t believe that you abuse the privilege of a supermajority. To me, it’s a number. It’s a great number, certainly. But at the end of the day, we have a job to do, and that’s work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and try to find places that we can compromise. We’ll certainly have places of disagreement. But ultimately, we’ll try to work through those disagreements when we can, and if we can’t, then, you know, those issues will rise to a different level.

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From death, comes new life on the Indian River Lagoon
CBS12 News - by J. Israel Balderas
November 23, 2014
STUART, Fla. - Harmful algae continues to plague the Indian River Lagoon along the Treasure Coast.
Biologists still don't know why a diversity of fish suddenly died earlier this month.
In an effort to revitalize these waters, the City of Stuart in partnership with the Florida Oceanographic Society hope dead oysters can come to the rescue.
"The impact that you see on the environment, it's really something else," said Shawn Gerard, a volunteer with the Oyster Reef Restoration Project.
While some people enjoy their oysters fried while others like them raw, volunteers like Gerard and Mike McGee prefer oysters already eaten.
"It doesn't need to go into a landfill," said McGee, "it goes into the lagoon."
Think of oysters as Mother Nature's filtration system.
Discarded shells from local restaurants in Stuart are recycled inside bags, then they're deployed into the Indian River Lagoon as reefs.
"It takes time for these reefs that are going out there to have an impact," said Lewis Garrett, a retired environmental engineer. "And the bigger the reefs the more impact they have."
Once in the water, these oyster reefs will serve two purposes.
First, the stacked up bags floating in the water will help build a diversity of marine life.
"It's getting to a point where the upper Indian River Lagoon - the water quality - is coming around to where you can actually think about eating some of the shell fish," said McGee, "which is really good."
And second, baby oysters swimming in the lagoon will land on the shells. As they grow, oysters then help get rid of toxic algae.
"The oysters that grow on them will filter about 50 gallons of water a day a piece once they are mature," said Garrett.
There's a famous proverb that reads, "the world is one's oyster."
Thanks to this project and the volunteers who are living out such saying, the Indian River Lagoon is one its way to becoming a pearl.
"We did this in the lagoon and it was black smudge when we did it," said Gerard, "and now it's clear blue water."From death, comes new life on the Indian River Lagoon

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Legislators will decide Amendment 1's impact
Tampa Bay Times – by Mary Ellen Klas
November 23, 2014
TALLAHASSEE | Florida environmentalists say they were forced to go to voters to get permanent funding for land and water protection because legislators neglected the need for too many years. But now, even though Amendment 1 passed with 75 percent of the vote, the Legislature will get the last word.
House and Senate Republican leaders are preparing legislation to rewrite many of the state's existing environmental laws to respond to the amendment, which requires the Legislature and governor to set aside one-third of all taxes collected from the documentary tax on real estate transactions. Lawmakers warn that painful tradeoffs lie ahead.
How legislators make those tradeoffs will determine whether the implementation of Amendment 1 is a cordial affair — in which proponents and lawmakers agree to compromise — or the debate becomes a test of wills and, potentially, lawsuits.
"In this new reality, as we work to apply this new portion of our Constitution and faithfully implement the will of the voters, there is going to be some pain,'' said Senate President Andy Gardiner in a speech to the Senate last week during the swearing-in ceremony for members.
Gardiner conceded that the proposal to generate between $10 billion to $20 billion for environmental causes over the next 20 years could "make a significant impact on the future of water and natural resources," but emphasized that "implementing this amendment will be a chal­lenge."
Amendment 1 is expected to raise between $300 million and $500 million a year for projects intended to preserve environmentally sensitive land and protect and improve water quality. At its core, the amendment weakens the Legislature's most coveted power — the power of the purse — by taking away legislators' control of a small piece of the state's $75 billion budget.
As a result, Gardiner's message was directed at both environmental advocates, who drafted the amendment, and fellow lawmakers, whose power has been clipped by the proposal.
"We already spend hundreds of millions of dollars of doc stamp revenue and other state revenues on many initiatives that benefit Florida's environment and natural resources,'' Gardiner said in his speech. "The challenge facing this Senate is the impact Amendment 1 will have on transportation, afford­- able housing, and economic development, and other priorities which also receive doc stamp funding."
Environmental groups don't see these tradeoffs as an either/or. They argue that legislators should use the doc stamp revenues to restore full funding to environmental programs that are already in law, instead of drafting new legislation.
"All the programs are already in place," said Will Abberger, director of the Florida Water and Land Legacy, which put the amendment on the ballot. "They just need to be funded."
The groups also think that as the economy recovers and real estate transactions increase, revenues from doc stamp taxes will be enough to also expand housing and transportation programs.
The ballot initiative came about after Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature repeatedly cut programs that protect the state's vulnerable springs and watersheds.
Related:           Legislators will decide whether to limit impact of environmental ... MiamiHerald.com

141123-d
Reservoir resumes normal operations
TBNweekly.com
November 23, 2014
CLEARWATER - Tampa Bay Water’s 15.5-billion gallon regional reservoir is operating again at full capacity.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection approved the permit for Tampa Bay Water Nov. 5 to fill the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir to capacity and use the stored water as needed.
“We’re pleased that the renovation was completed on schedule,” said Matt Jordan, general manager for Tampa Bay Water. “Having our water savings account back in service makes the region’s water supply more reliable and drought-resistant.”
Tampa Bay Water saves surface water in the reservoir during wet times and withdraws that water for treatment during dry times. The facility helps Tampa Bay Water take advantage of Florida’s rainfall and makes the regional water supply system more reliable.
The reservoir was taken offline for renovation in February 2013. The multi-step renovation of the reservoir interior included adding a drainage system to alleviate the build-up of water pressure and adding thicker, stronger soil cement. In July 2014, Tampa Bay Water was authorized to fill the facility to the halfway point while construction crews completed construction around the reservoir crest.
Now that the reservoir is fully operational, the agency will wait for enough rain to increase river flows so it can fill the facility to capacity.
Tampa Bay Water provides wholesale water to the public utility systems of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, as well as the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
To learn more about Tampa Bay Water, visit www.tampabaywater.org.

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Water will become a top issue in 2015 with the help of Amendment 1
Ocala.com - by Bruce Ritchie, Special to the Star-Banner
November 23, 2014
OK, 2015 actually could be the “year of water” in the Florida Legislature.
Certain Capitol pundits earlier this year predicted that water would be a top issue during the 2014 session. But they were wrong because there wasn’t support in both chambers for dealing with the issue.
The Senate passed a springs bill that would have provided limited funding for projects to reduce groundwater pollution. But House leaders always had expressed reluctance because the Senate bill still was evolving, and they, instead, wanted a broader approach to water.
The difference this year, according to House and Senate leaders, is voter approval of Amendment 1 will drive a focus on water issues. Approved by 75 percent of voters, Amendment 1 is expected to provide more than $10 billion over the next 20 years for land and water conservation.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said soon after taking the gavel during Tuesday’s organizational session that water will be a policy and funding priority as the Legislature implements Amendment 1.
“A clean, abundant water source for the future is important, and we need to focus on that,” he told reporters.
New Senate President Andy Gardiner told reporters Amendment 1 is going to drive a lot of the debate about water legislation.
During the organizational session, Gardiner told senators that the challenge of Amendment 1 is not spending more on the environment. Instead, he said, the challenge is spending less on transportation, affordable housing and economic development because tax revenues are being diverted.
“There is going to be some pain — there is no doubt about that,” Gardiner said. “There is no question implementing this amendment will be a challenge.”
He told reporters that Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam also will be a part of the dialogue about water legislation.
“Everybody is going to come in with a water policy,” he said. “Our job as the Legislature is to kind of go through them and make sure we do what is right.”
But it’s still not at all clear what are the water problems that will be discussed or how the Legislature can address them.
I’ve been covering springs issues for more than 20 years, and I know there are a variety of threats to springs — pollution and over-pumping, for example — and they vary with each spring. I don’t expect the Legislature to throw out water-quality standards that the state, with support from industries and water utilities, adopted through an agreement with the federal government in 2013.
Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, said the Legislature will need to identify and prioritize issues that it faces with water quantity and quality for surface water bodies, such as lakes and rivers, as well as aquifers that feed springs.
“If we can stop the point source of contamination, then we’re going to be able to let the bodies heal themselves,” Hays said. “There’s no point in us pouring millions or hundreds of millions of dollars into cleaning up large water bodies when we’re continuing to contaminate them.”
But he also said he doesn’t see a need for new regulations to deal with those issues.
Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach and House Democratic leader, said he hopes there aren’t any policy differences with Republicans on water issues. But he added that he doesn’t know because those issues haven’t been discussed.
With 75 percent voter support, Amendment 1 is “a good litmus test perhaps for everything we’re moving forward doing in the next two years,” he said.
Bruce Ritchie is an independent journalist covering environment and growth management issues in Tallahassee. He also is editor of Floridaenvironments.com. Column courtesy of Context Florida.

141122-
Everglades alligators wasting away while Congress controls their fate
Tampa Bay Times – by Craig Pittman, Staff Writer
November 22, 2014
They are the symbol of the Everglades, the animal that for decades most tourists have anticipated seeing during a visit to the national park.
But the alligators that inhabit the Everglades are showing signs of serious trouble. Their population has dropped, and the ones that are still around tend to look starved.
Did invading pythons eat their lunch? Did they get into some bad sushi? No, the answer is more complicated, according to veteran biologist Frank Mazzotti — and it bodes ill for the Everglades as a whole.
Alligators have been called "the buffalo of the Everglades." They are an indicator of the overall health of the River of Grass. If they're not doing well, said Mazzotti, a University of Florida professor who has spent decades studying them, then neither is the Everglades.
Mazzotti is part of a team of biologists who have been trying to figure out what's afflicting them. The problem is the water — not the pollution in it, but the quantity of it, he said.
"That is the primary factor," he said.
In the rest of Florida, alligators are doing fine. Once considered an imperiled species, now state officials estimate there may be more than a million of them — although, as Mazzotti noted, "Who's going to count that ?"
There are enough that they sometimes wander out of their lakes and marshes and show up on doorsteps and at picnics, in one case even biting the bumper of a police car.
Hard work
Because of the alligator population boom, state wildlife officials have set up a network of freelance trappers to catch any that wander into a suburb and cause problems. It's called the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program — SNAP for short.
But the gator tale is very different in the Everglades.
Starting in 1948, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building a series of canals, levees and pumps that altered the natural flow of water, all in the name of controlling flooding along the rapidly developing coast.
That flood control system "disrupted the natural wet and dry pattern of the Everglades," Mazzotti said. And that was bad for alligators, and other species as well, because it disrupted the normal pattern for the fish that they usually eat.''
Normally there are times when the Everglades would be flooded and times when it would dry up. When it dried up, the water that was left would be concentrated in small areas, and so would the fish. During those dry times, the gators gorged on the fish "like shoppers on Black Friday," Mazzotti said.
So did the Everglades' wading birds — the herons, the egrets, the roseate spoonbills and wood storks. With the fish penned into smaller areas, food was easier for them to find, too.
But since the corps began manipulating the water levels, that's changed, a fact acknowledged by the corps' own scientists. Now there are fewer dry periods and the gators have to work a lot harder to get something to eat.
The wood storks and other wading birds can simply fly away to somewhere that offers better prey, Mazzotti said, but the alligators are stuck trying to eke out an existence without sufficient food. That affects both their body size and their population size.
Bigger is better
Nobody knows how many alligators there might be in the Everglades, Mazzotti said. In fact, Larry Perez of Everglades National Park said that in looking over 14 years of the park's data, they have not seen the decline that Mazzotti and his colleagues reported.
Mazzotti's team, which has been gathering data for a decade, count how many alligators they encounter within a kilometer, and the number they encounter in the Everglades is half what they'd find north of the River of Grass, he said.
"What we want are more alligators, and fatter alligators," he said.
Getting back in synch
Bringing the gators back from the brink of disappearing means bringing back the historic pattern of the ebb and flow of the River of Grass south of Lake Okeechobee, said Gina Paduano Ralph, chief of the corps' restoration and resources section.
That's the goal of the multibillion-dollar Everglades restoration project that Congress and the Florida Legislature approved in 2000. Mazzotti said monitoring the alligators' potential comeback would be one way to determine if the restoration project is successful.
But the Everglades project is already years behind schedule and the price tag has ballooned. One segment of the plan is focused exclusively on fixing the flow from Lake Okeechobee into the central Everglades, which would provide the greatest benefit to the park's alligator population. That segment's estimated price tag recently climbed by about $100 million to nearly $2 billion.
The state and federal government are splitting the cost, and so far Congress has not authorized spending any money building the central Everglades project, Ralph said. She would not speculate as to when Congress might take that step, but noted that it would be done as part of the recurring Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA for short.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Congress would pass a WRDA bill every two years to pay for various corps projects. But then the flow of money dried up just like the Everglades. Congress passed a WRDA in 2000, then waited until 2007 for another one. It passed one earlier this year, raising the specter of a long, long wait for the last of the starving gators for any help from Washington.
In the meantime, Mazzotti said, even the tourists have figured out that the alligators aren't around the way they used to be. "These days," he said, "the visitors to the park are asking to see the pythons."

141121-
Manatees start appearing in Broward
Sun Sentinel - by David Fleshler
November 21, 2014
Ten manatees were spotted in Broward County this week in the first aerial survey of the season.
Seven were seen in the cooling lakes of the Florida Power & Light plant west of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Two were seen in the Intracoastal Waterway north of Port Everglades. And the other one was in the south fork of the New River.
The survey was conducted Thursday by helicopter. Manatee season officially began Nov. 15, when slow-speed zones took effect on South Florida waterways to prevent the lumbering marine mammals from being hit by boats.
At the coldest times of the year, several hundred manatees have been counted gathered around the warm-water discharge zones of South Florida's power plants.
Pat Quinn, Broward County's manatee coordinator, said, "If the cold fronts continue moving south through the state, it is expected that the numbers of manatees in the county should quickly increase over the next few weeks."

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5-year study unlocks some red tide mysteries
StarFL.com
November 20, 2014
Last month, researchers at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) published new findings on Florida’s red tide organism, Karenia brevis, in a special issue of the scientific journal Harmful Algae. This publication is the culmination of an unprecedented collaboration on red tide research in the Gulf of Mexico led by the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
From this work, researchers unveiled that Karenia brevis uses a variety of nutrients from different sources, including offshore blooms of another algae species, Trichodesmium, as well as decaying fish that die during blooms. Researchers quantified the relative roles of these nutrient sources in affecting blooms.
They also confirmed the importance of physical forces in the occurrence of nearshore blooms of Karenia brevis. In 2010, this red tide organism did not bloom on the southwest Florida shelf because deeper water did not transport source populations to shore; this phenomenon was in stark contrast to 2008, 2009 and, particularly, 2007, when a massive bloom occurred.
Moreover, the work confirmed previous findings that blooms of this particular red tide species, Karenia brevis, are extremely complex and result from a particular suite of physical, chemical and biological factors. This study highlights that effective bloom management integrates short-term solutions of bloom prediction, such as the FWC/USFSP three-day forecasts, with longer-term solutions, including nutrient-reduction strategies.
This project and future projects like it are another step forward in understanding the red tide phenomenon.
“To obtain a comprehensive understanding of red tides in the Gulf of Mexico, we really needed to collaborate with experts across the many fields of marine science, as well as study variations in bloom conditions from year to year,” explained Matt Garrett, a research associate at FWRI. “We were able to put together the big picture of these blooms, which are clearly affected by the physics, chemistry and biology in the ocean.”
Lead investigators at the FWC brought together a diverse group of scientists that included algal biologists, physical oceanographers and chemists from six agencies and universities – the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Miami, Mote Marine Laboratory, Old Dominion University, University of South Florida and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science – to understand the physical and chemical drivers of red tides.
The uniqueness of the project came not only from its multidisciplinary nature, but also from its duration and spatial coverage: Between 2007 and 2010, four 14-day research cruises along the southwest Florida shelf, from St. Petersburg to Marco Island and 70 miles offshore, were conducted. The field work was paired with in-depth laboratory studies, which focused on the physiology and ecology of the organism. Most importantly, researchers were able to study bloom and nonbloom years to understand the physical and environmental forces that can cause red tides of the harmful species Karenia brevis.
For more information on red tide, visit MyFWC.com/Research and select “Red Tide.” Hard copies of the special issue of the Harmful Algae journal are available upon request by email to HABData@MyFWC.com.
Related:           Study unlocks mystery behind red tide          Tampa Bay Newspapers - Nov 19, 2014

141120-b
Did voters envision sewage plants when they voted for Amendment 1?
ClayTodayOnline.com - by Bruce Ritchie
November 20, 2014 - 06:00
Pipes vs. parks. Could that become the focus of debate over Amendment 1, the conservation lands amendment approved by 75 percent of voters on Nov. 4?
Amendment 1 would dedicate more than $10 billion during the next 20 years toward state purchases that could involve more than just state parks and forests. That’s probably what most people envision when they think about conservation lands. Among the other purchases, according to the ballot language, could be "lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, and the water quality of rivers, lakes and streams."
Does that include pipes to hook up homes that now are on septic tanks? What about expensive upgrades to existing sewage treatment plants to improve the quality of water eventually flowing to springs.
Will Abberger, campaign manager for the Florida’s Water and Land Legacy group behind Amendment 1, said the amendment sponsors don’t believe it should be used to pay for wastewater treatment.
"We look forward to working with the Legislature to implement Amendment 1 in a manner that is consistent with the voters’ intent," Abberger said.
Gov. Rick Scott recently left open the door for using the tax to pay for pipes as opposed to parks.
Asked whether he will support more spending on the environment with the passage of Amendment 1, he said the state already has been "stepping up on the environment."
He cited funding this year for springs projects, which actually include several sewage treatment plant and reclaimed water projects, along with projects to protect coral reefs, which involved $100 million for sewage treatment plants in the Florida Keys.
"We’re going to continue to do that," Scott said without mentioning how money in the budget to buy conservation lands has been slashed in recent years. "I look forward to working with the House and Senate to implement the amendment that passed."
State Sen. David Simmons (R-Altamonte Springs) said this week that Amendment 1 is an "essential ingredient" of legislation he is working on the preserve springs.
Last year he was sponsor of Senate Bill 1576, which initially would have provided an estimated $365 million per year for springs projects, including sewage treatment plan improvements and hooking up homes that now are on septic tanks. The bill passed the Senate 38-0 without from page 4
the dedicated funding before dying in the House without a vote.
Asked whether Amendment 1 revenue could go toward sewage plants and septic tank hookups, Simmons said, "I think we can assist local government."
Simmons said the idea that Amendment 1 was for the purchase of conservation lands "is simply not correct."
"What is the use of simply allocating all of the monies to purchase land when that will not solve the water resources problems we have?" Simmons said.
"I’m not saying all of this will be for water," he added. "I’m saying to you we are doing a water resource plan. And even a cursory review of the amendment shows it (the amendment language) is as broad as the Pacific Ocean."
And what about local water projects secured by legislators in the state budget, often involving water and wastewater pipes and stormwater treatment ponds? They counted for $88.5 million in the state budget this year. Will they receive money under Amendment 1 next year?
Simmons said it’s premature to discuss whether they will be included.
He said everyone involved in the issue should work together while also recognizing there will be competing ideas on how to spend the revenue dedicated under Amendment 1.
"The whole point is we welcome the debate," he said. "We look forward to having a robust debate on this with one objective: a clean and pristine environment not only for this generation but generations to come."

141119-a
Alligators in the Everglades are losing massive amounts of weight
BrowardPalmBeach.com - by Chris Joseph
November 19, 2014
A research crew from the University of Florida, led by a wildlife ecologist who has studied alligators for decades, has discovered that the alligators living in the Everglades are getting more and more emaciated.
"They're skinnier, they're fewer, they grow slower," U of F ecologist Frank Mazzotti told CBS News. "Most other places, if an alligator is 10 years old, it's easily six feet long -- not so in the Everglades. At 10 years [old], it's only four or five feet."
When observing the gators, Mazzotti notes, "Essentially it looks like a skeleton with skin hanging on it."
So what the hell is happening to the alligators?
See also: A Gay -- or "Two-Spirit" -- Miccosukee Man Fights for the Everglades
Not surprisingly, it turns out that people may be the reason the gators are getting skinnier every year. Scientists believe that building and expanding a city on top of a swamp might be contributing to the animals' poor health. A massive draining project built back in the 1950s in order to develop metropolitan South Florida has drained huge swaths of the Everglades into the ocean.
As a result, pollutants and fertilizers have streamed through the swampland and shrunken the habitat. Moreover, the drainage might also be limiting the gators' diet, since the farther north you go, the fatter the gators get.
Pumps that were constructed on the Everglades to drain them also polluted the habitat. Now, according to Mazzotti, only 50 percent of the original Everglades remains. And what remains is damaged.
So, even with billions being poured into restoring the Everglades, the consequences of infrastructure might be slowly killing the alligators.
Back in 2013, the Central Everglades Planning Project called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan "the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history."
"No one set out in the beginning of the 20th Century to destroy a world-class ecosystem," Shannon Estenoz, director of Everglades Restoration Initiatives, told CBS News. "There was just a lack of appreciation and understanding of the damage that was being done.
"Cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and other cities could not have grown in the way that they grew without this drainage project," Estenoz added. "It's the unintended consequences that it took us a few decades to figure out."
Meanwhile, Mazzotti says the gator population in the Everglades is less than half of what you'd expect in a thriving habitat.
"The best of them are skinny," he says in the report. "They weigh maybe 80 percent of what an alligator should weigh. But what is of much greater concern to us is the proportion of alligators that are emaciated."
"When they're not doing well, something is going wrong in the ecosystem," Estonez says. "They are the canary in the coal mine."

141119-b
It's a small world after all - and we're all connected
Huffington Post - by Alaina Bernard, UCF Forum columnist, UCF's assistant director of Landscape & Natural Resources.
November 19, 2014
We've probably all had the song "it's a small world" stuck in our heads after visiting Fantasyland at Walt Disney World. This simple song highlights how we all are connected, and was created to promote the message of international peace and inclusion of diversity. Walt Disney sped up the tempo from the original version and made it more cheery, but it is arguably a simple message that we continue to strive for decades later.
But there is more to that song than most realize.
Have you ever played "Six Degrees of Separation," in which you find connections between yourself and a famous individual, such as Kevin Bacon or Barack Obama? Think about it for a moment and I am sure you will discover that you know someone who knows someone who is connected to someone famous.
This concept is actually more than just a game or song, and has been studied by scientists for the past 50 years. Called "small-world networks" -- the idea that there are patterns to connections and that those patterns impact the way the overall systems respond -- has been heavily studied by disease specialist, food-web ecologist and engineers.
We experience this concept daily, such as when we use an online search engine, travel through airport hubs when flying, drive along roads or highways, socially interact, or connect parcels of land in nature.
For example, on the UCF campus, we recently completed a project to connect conservation lands on the east side of campus through a small corridor of green space that provides animals a place to travel between larger tracts of land. This simple project supports the larger idea that we need to create connections to sustain the natural world as we rapidly develop.
In the natural world we continue to break these connections, which greatly impacts the ability for species that we coexist with to move. Habitat fragmentation, an example of a human-caused disturbance, is the reduction of large habitats into many small isolated habitats. Fragmenting these natural lands greatly changes the ability of plants and animals to move into and out of previously connected areas, or have homes large enough to survive.
This would be similar to closing the road between your work and home, or your house being divided by a large impenetrable wall.
In the catastrophic events of 9/11, air travel became nearly impossible when large airports, such as in New York, were closed down. The airline system became rapidly impacted, affecting travelers globally. When our relied-upon connections were broken, travel became almost impossible until the airline hubs were restored.
The same impact can be seen in the natural world. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that the 48 contiguous states have lost about 55 percent of their wetlands in the past 200 years, and that we're now losing about 60 acres every hour nationally. Florida alone has lost 9.3 million acres of this important ecosystem.
Wetlands are nature's way of holding water, which allows filtration and other important functions prior to it seeping into our aquifer. The loss of this system, which would be comparable to closing airplane hubs, has a direct impact on humans. However, our failure to see this connection could impact water quality and availability in the near future.
So why is it so hard for us to develop policy and support for conservation initiatives that would promote maintaining these vital connections? In the recent elections, the approved Amendment 1 thankfully supported the concept of purchasing lands for conservation or recreation in Florida. However, it did not address the need to create or maintain the connections between these systems.
Our failure to plan sustainable development that would support and balance the needs of human and natural systems alike, could result in an overall crash of our resources. An example of this is clearly seen in the story of Easter Island, documented by scientist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond. Centuries ago, tribes of the small island in the South Pacific Ocean competitively used natural resources, resulting in an overall depletion of forests, which ultimately led to tribal warfare and near extinction of the human population on the island.
Author Aldous Huxley once said: "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach."
We need to start prioritizing the natural resources needed to sustain life and provide sustainable approaches to maintaining or creating vital connections. What we do now will impact generations to come, and our failure to apply these simple concepts could result in an overall collapse.
So I invite you to learn from the lessons of our past, make a new connection to the future, and remember that this is a small world after all.

141119-c
State seeks $77M in oil spill money for watersheds
Pensacola News Journal – by Kimberly Blair, Staff writer
November 19, 2014
The state is seeking $77 million of RESTORE Act funding on five proposals made up of 20 projects aimed at addressing high priority restoration needs in 10 major watersheds from Perdido Bay to Tampa Bay.
Gov. Rick Scott said the proposals were submitted to the to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council for consideration under what's called pot 2 of RESTORE Act (Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast Act of 2012) money.
The pot is one of five that will get shares of 80 percent of the Clean Water Act administrative and civil penalties from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Pot 2, managed by the Council, will receive 30 percent of the penalties.
So far, Transocean is the only entity to have paid into the pot, and there is roughly $150 million to $180 million available to share among 11 council members — the five Gulf Coast states and six federal agencies.
"We're committed to protecting and restoring Florida's estuaries, and these $77 million in projects would significantly bolster our efforts to protect and restore our natural treasures," Gov. Scott said in a prepared statement. "Our Department of Environmental Protection has worked closely with local leaders and environmental stakeholders to identify the projects that will best benefit our critical ecosystems."
One of the proposals, if funded, could send $15.9 million to Pensacola to improve water quality in Pensacola and East bays, a portion of Santa Rosa Sound and Bayou Chico through installation of living shorelines, a wastewater reuse project, a stormwater and wastewater improvement project and a contaminated sediment planning project.
Escambia County collaborated with Florida's Nature Conservancy on hammering out the proposal.
County Commissioner Grover Robinson said this is good news for Pensacola because the project was selected out of 1,200 submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and was OK'd by Scott.
But he said there's no guarantee the project will get funded.
Competition for this money is huge, he said. The state's five projects now will have to compete against 50 other projects from the four other Gulf States and six federal agencies, for a share of the $150 million to $180 million available.
"The good news is we already got over the hurdle with the governor. If we don't get funded here, it could be funded by other pots," he said about other RESTORE Act money that will be directed to Escambia County.
If the Pensacola Bay proposal gets funded, Robinson said, it would give a big boost to water quality in the area, especially after this week's announcement that Escambia County will receive $11 million of Deepwater Horizon oil spill dollars from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for projects to improve water quality in Bayou Chico and its tributaries.
As for pot 2, it will months before the Council will announce grant awards. Sometime in the spring to summer, a draft list of the Council's selections will be posted online for public review and comment. It's unclear when a final decision will be made.
Pensacola City Mayor Ashton Hayward thanked state officials for including a Pensacola project.
"Pensacola Bay is one of Florida's most important bays," he said in a prepared statement. "And I'm grateful to Gov. Scott, DEP Secretary Vinyard and Nick Wiley of Florida Fish and Wildlife for their hard work in recognizing that restoring this bay is top priority for the state of Florida."
About Pot 2
Pot 2 consists of 30 percent of the 80 percent of fine dollars from Transocean and eventually the same share of BP's fines.
Pot 2 will be dispersed by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, set up by the RESTORE Act, to the best projects that address water quality and habitat restoration presented from each of the five oil-impacted states.
Related:           Gov. Scott proposes $77 million in Gulf restoration projects

141118-a
And the top-paid lobbyists in Florida are …
Palm Beach Post – by Christine Stapleton
November 18, 2014
Third-quarter lobbying compensation data released on Monday show the top four lobbying firms raked in about $18 million – 20 percent of the money spent by companies, non-profits, governments and special interests to sway lawmakers so far this year.
Ballard Partners tops the list with an estimated $5.6 million. The firm is headed by powerful Republican fundraiser Brian Ballard, whose sister - former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty - went to prison on corruption charges. Ballard founded his lobbying firm in 1998 with his father-in-law Jim Smith, former Florida Attorney General as a Democrat and Secretary of State as a Republican.
Ballard’s firm brought in $1.8 million during the third quarter, comparable to amounts reported in the first two quarters of the year. Among his highest paying clients: Automated Healthcare Solutions, $227,000; U.S. Sugar, $135,000; Trump Organization, $105,000; and Investment Corporation of Palm Beach (controlled by the Rooney family, owners of the Pittsburgh Steeler’s and the Palm Beach Kennel Club),  $105,000.
Ballard’s Palm Beach County clients include the cities of Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Lantana, Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, which each paid Ballard’s firm $15,000. Florida Power and Light also paid the firm $45,000.
Just behind Ballard Partners is Southern Strategy Group, the former lobbying firm of John Thrasher – former senator and newly appointed president of Florida State University. Southern Strategy Group’s year-to-date total is $5.4 million, with $1.3 million coming in during the third quarter.
Clients and payments include: Teco Energy, $135,000; Mosaic Fertilizer, $75,000; Scripps Research Institute, $75,000; and the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, $30,000.
Super-lobbyist Ronald Book’s earnings to date are $4 million. Book’s clients include Ashbritt, the rapid response disaster recovery firm based in Deerfield Beach that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie awarded a no-bid contract to clean up mounts of debris after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Ashbritt paid Book $204,000 for his lobbying efforts. Book also received $168,000 from the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis.
Capital City Consulting is the fourth highest paid lobbying firm to date, receiving $3.2 million from clients such as: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, $105,000; Aetna, $135,000; Las Vegas Sands, $229,000; the Everglades Foundation, $75,000; the School District of Palm Beach County, $25,000.
The exact amounts received by lobbying firms is not known. Under Florida law, lobbying firms report their quarterly compensation totals in ranges: $0; $1 to $9,999; $10,000 to $19,999; $20,000 to $29,999; $30,000 to $39,999; $40,000 to $49,999; or $50,000 or more. If the category “$50,000 or more” is selected, the specific dollar amount of compensation must be reported. The amounts reported above are median figures.

141118-b
Land purchase helps conservation area expand
Gainesville.com - by Christopher Curry, Staff writer
November 18, 2014
A sprawling, unopened network of conservation properties in east Alachua County is growing.
To make up for the destruction of some wetlands from two Florida Department of Transportation construction projects, the 2,367 acres of adjoining conservation land along in the Little Orange Creek Preserve and Little Orange Creek Nature Park along Hawthorne Road will expand by at least 238 acres under a land purchase agreement that the St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board approved on Nov. 12.
But the full addition could be some 500 acres.
The nonprofit Alachua Conservation Trust, which will take over ownership and management of the property that the water management district purchased, is also looking to use private funding to buy another piece in the range of 237 acres.
And if the wetlands mitigation money from FDOT goes far enough, the St. Johns district could purchase an additional 39 acres to add to the footprint of the preserve.
The public cannot yet access the conservation land. Alachua Conservation Trust Executive Director Tom Kay said the goal is to open the property for horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking and possibly limited hunting by late 2016.
He said other partners in the effort to piece the large conservation area together over the years include the city of Hawthorne, the Putnam Land Conservancy, the Friends of Little Orange Creek, the Conservation Trust of Florida and the Alachua County Forever program.
State and federal grant programs have helped fund the land purchases. All the organizations and agencies involved have a cooperative agreement to manage the land together with the Alachua Conservation Trust taking the lead. Most of the land is in eastern Alachua County but some of the property stretches into west Putnam.
The purchase that the St. Johns River Water Management District board approved last week primarily used mitigation funds that state law required FDOT to pay because the widening of State Road 20 in Alachua and Putnam counties will cause the destruction of some wetlands at Fowler's Prairie and Little Orange Creek.
FDOT also paid some mitigation money because construction of the University of Florida Campus Greenway and Trail will mean the destruction of some wetlands near Lake Alice.
Under state law, FDOT pays $100,000 into a mitigation fund for each acre of wetlands impacted by a construction project, said Ray Bunton, the chief of the St. Johns River Water Management District's Bureau of Real Estate Services.
Using money from FDOT, the water management district oversees the wetlands mitigation program in its jurisdiction.
Under an agreement the district approved in August, Alachua Conservation Trust is allowed to evaluate and recommend properties for potential acquisition through the program.
If the Governing Board approves a purchase, the ACT will take over ownership and land management and be reimbursed all the money it spent on a private appraisal of the property.
If the district's Governing Board turns down a property, the ACT is reimbursed half of what it spent on an appraisal.
The Little Orange Creek tract is the first property acquired under that agreement, Kay said. The 238-acre tract is owned by Shianne Shimer and the Linda M. Smith family, according to county property records. The purchase price is $476,000.
Smith also owns the 39-acre piece the district is eyeing for purchase if there is enough money. Its purchase price is $117,000.

141117-b
Is Rick Scott going to do anything about climate change in Florida ?
Bloomberg.com
Nov 17, 2014
The Florida Governor will be forced to confront the issues he deflected during his campaign.
When Florida Governor Rick Scott won re-election Nov. 4, he triumphed over both his Democratic challenger and California billionaire Thomas Steyer, who spent $20 million painting him as a climate-change denier.
Scott, a 61-year-old Republican who during the campaign deflected questions about the topic by asserting that he isn’t a scientist, has little time to celebrate.
Environmental issues are washing onto his desk: Voters required lawmakers to devote about $1 billion annually to conservation; Florida must curb carbon emissions almost 40 percent under new federal rules; and rising seas are soaking Miami Beach even as Scott’s party blasts President Barack Obama’s deal last week with China setting emissions goals.
“Climate change isn’t going away."
(Alan Farago)
Scott’s predicament shows how Republican leaders from Alabama to Arizona are facing unwanted climate-change battles even as they question the effects of human activity on global temperatures. The governor must spend the money while placating members of his party and Mother Nature alike.
“Climate change isn’t going away,” said Alan Farago, president of Friends of the Everglades, a Miami environmental nonprofit. “It’s going to be incumbent on the Republicans to be responsible on an issue that affects everyone, and that they can’t run away from.”
Scott, a former health-care executive who spent $12.8 million of his own to combat Steyer’s spending, beat Democrat Charlie Crist by about 1 percentage point.
While most environmental groups endorsed Crist, they have pointed to voters’ 75 percent approval of the conservation referendum as the election’s only true mandate.
Green Money
The constitutional amendment, which sets aside almost $20 billion over 20 years, will create the nation’s largest state-based conservation program, and Scott will determine how to direct the money.
Environmentalists supported the amendment because Scott neglected the issue, said Will Abberger, director of Florida’s Water and Land Legacy, which spearheaded the initiative.
“I don’t think that we’ve changed anybody’s mind who did not believe that climate change is human-caused,” he said. “But we have provided some very real and significant funding.”
The money, raised by a tax on real-estate sales, could be used to help restore the Florida Everglades, buy fragile land and pay for adaptation projects to protect from rising seas.
Earth Ark
Steyer’s group, NextGen Climate Action, said Scott sided with energy companies and the sugar industry in his first term. During the campaign, NextGen opened 21 offices in Florida, ran thousands of television commercials and deployed a rolling wooden vessel on a “Rick Scott’s Ark Tour.” The message: Scott would leave Florida families to deal with sea levels rising by as much as 2 feet (0.6 meters) by 2060.
Frank Collins, a spokesman for Scott, declined to comment on the political challenges that the governor faces on climate change.
Scott has defended his record, pointing to increased spending on Everglades restoration, flood mitigation, sand replacement on beaches and protection of natural springs.
“We have to continue to make strategic investments,” he told reporters Nov. 12. “Part of that is the environment.”
Under new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, Florida must reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 38 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Several Republican-led states have sued to block the regulations, and 15 governors sent Obama a letter in September saying the rules go beyond the scope of federal authority.
Scott didn’t sign the letter and Florida isn’t a party to the lawsuit.
Former Friend
Scott has lost some early supporters as he’s charted a moderate path. Karen Schoen, director of Panhandle Patriots, said his environmental policy is a betrayal of the Tea Party principles he espoused during his 2010 campaign.
“Governor Scott used us,” she said. “Governor Scott is doing what Governor Scott needed to do for Governor Scott to get elected.”
Scott’s Department of Environmental Protection has until 2016 to submit its plan.
“It’s the most significant regulation DEP has ever dealt with on carbon emissions,” said Tiffany Cowie, a spokeswoman for the agency in Tallahassee.
More could be coming. In China last week, Obama agreed to further reductions in U.S. emissions. The deal set up a showdown with Republicans, who are set to take control of Congress next year. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both vowed to fight the deal.
Breaking Away
Meanwhile, in South Florida, high tides regularly wash onto streets. Republican and Democratic local officials have asked state lawmakers for assistance.
Four Southeast Florida counties have created a regional compact, urging lawmakers to address rising seas. Other solutions are more radical: The city of South Miami approved a resolution last month seeking to split the state in two, citing a lack of support from the capital for climate-change challenges.
During this century, sea-level rise will intensify storm surge along the coastline, according to the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force. Flooding and insurance costs will force residents to abandon neighborhoods, the group said in a July report.
Common Cause
“You’ve got a growing general awareness down here that sea-level rise is a now problem, not a future problem,” said Leonard Berry, former director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. “That creates a different atmosphere right across the political spectrum.”
Steyer’s group has pledged to continue pressuring lawmakers. His ability to spend millions will have an impact, said Berry. Steyer, founder of hedge fund Farallon Capital Management LLC, is worth $2.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“The fight against climate change in Florida is just beginning,” NextGen’s Florida director Jackie Lee said in a Nov. 7 memo. “NextGen Climate will remain engaged and continue to keep climate on the ballot.”
For Related News and Information: Republican Scott Beats Party-Switcher Crist for Florida Governor Steyer Deploys Ark to Show Menace of Climate Change in Florida In Florida, $70 Million Buys TV Rancor as Crist Challenges Scott Stories about Florida: TNI FLA BN Top state and local stories: TOPM
Related:           Florida Gov. Scott Facing Rising Seas, Climate Change Politics      Insurance Journal
Scott Navigates Climate Politics as Rising Seas Menace Florida       Businessweek

141117-c
We’re running out of water
FastCompany.com - by Jon Gertner
November 17, 2014
It's a global problem—but the greatest minds in Silicon Valley don't seem interested in fixing the problem. Why not?
Maybe it started last January, when California Governor Jerry Brown said that his state would need to cut back its water use by 20% or face "terrible consequences." Or maybe it was in August, when the town of East Porterville literally went dry, forcing the state to truck in water to residents so they could have flushing toilets. Or maybe it was in September, when a scientific study noted that the worst for California was yet to come: an epic "megadrought" that, says one researcher, could be "worse than anything seen during the last 2,000 years."
Whatever the turning point, by this fall it was apparent that the future health of California was in jeopardy. The state's vaunted tech culture can do a lot of things, but it can't make it rain.
Or can it ?  As California's drought worsened, just north of San Diego a massive seawater desalination plant—that is, a plant that sucks in ocean water, filters out the salt, and then pumps the resulting freshwater into municipal pipes for residents to use—moved closer to completion. The Carlsbad plant, as it's known, will cost $1 billion and will be up and running by late next year. Its cost, energy requirements, and potential environmental impact have been debated for a decade. When it finally comes online, though, Carlsbad will produce 50 million gallons of freshwater every day, making it the largest desalination plant in North America. What's more, the plant will demonstrate something vitally important to the rest of California, as well as to residents of America's south and southwest, who also happen to be suffering through devastating droughts: For the first time in decades, a substantial new source of drinking water will be added to a system that has been running lower and lower each year.
Still, Carlsbad won't come close to slaking California's thirst, especially as climate change threatens to further erode its freshwater supplies. The projection is for the plant to supply about 7% of San Diego's drinking water. It is, so to speak, just a few very expensive drops in the bucket. And that has left a question on the minds of many drought-stricken Californians: With ocean water all around, why can't more—or better—technology solve this problem?
One of the most inconvenient facts for humanity is that about 97% of the water on earth is saltwater—not all of it as briny as the Atlantic or Pacific, but to varying extents clouded by minerals that make it too brackish to drink or use for agriculture. But we're also lucky. The earth works like a big desalination plant: Freshwater evaporates from the oceans; the vapor collects in clouds; and it falls as rain or snow that in time is collected in reservoirs or runs back to the sea. Oceans are salty, in fact, because rainwater combined with minerals from land and then poured into the sea over hundreds of millions of years.
For decades, the main technology for desalination worked a lot like this natural process: Engineers built plants that could heat up huge pools of seawater so that freshwater evaporates, gets captured, and is then directed into a municipal water supply. Many of these plants still exist—most notably in the Middle East, which has relied on desalination for decades. But in the early 1960s, some scientists at UCLA came up with a new type of filter (or membrane, as it's known in the business) that made a better kind of desalination process, known as reverse osmosis, or RO for short, feasible. Essentially, ocean water could be pumped through the membrane at a pressure around 15 times what comes out of your faucet at home. What passes through is freshwater. What doesn't get through is the salt, which is diverted and sent back to the ocean.
Over the past 50 years, RO systems have become a fixture in the water business. They're used in big seawater plants like Carlsbad and in ordinary water-treatment plants, on yachts and submarines, and as a crucial step for industries (such as pharmaceuticals or high-tech) that require exceedingly pure water for manufacturing. An RO membrane is now a commodity that costs about a dollar a foot. "It will remove 99.8% of the salt and last five years, or in some cases 10 years," says Tom Pankratz, an industry veteran and desalination analyst. "There may be some small improvements to come, but we're not going to get a whole lot cheaper, in my opinion."
It's almost certainly the case that water is a specialty technology beyond the reach—and, probably, the interest—of most mavericks or upstarts.
This is another way of saying that RO is a "mature technology." It's a term that repels California's entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, who prefer to focus on the heady prospect of a startup that will improve an existing technology by, say, a factor of 10. Recently, there have been calls in California newspapers for entrepreneurs like Elon Musk to apply their talents to the desalination game, but it's almost certainly the case that water is a specialty technology that is beyond the reach—and, probably, the interest—of most mavericks or upstarts. "When you look at the fundamental amount of energy for desalination, there isn't that much difference between what they're doing now and the amount of energy that is theoretically required," says Tom Davis, who runs the Center for Inland Desalination Systems at the University of Texas at El Paso. Davis says that the trend now is to create filters from a new, wondrously hard material known as graphene. But he is skeptical. He has peered down the pipeline, he says. "And I have not encountered a revolutionary technology."
The difficulty of improving water systems is akin to the difficulty of changing energy or transportation systems: the existing technologies are so well established that it's economically difficult to introduce anything new—or anything risky. For instance, "forward osmosis" is a new idea in the water biz. Rather than pushing saltwater through a membrane, it allows the natural physical properties of water to separate the salts out without a high-pressure process. Several U.S. startups, most notably the Boston firm Oasys Water and a Bay Area startup called Trevi Systems, are at the forefront of this technology. The upside is the process uses less energy and is—at least theoretically—less expensive. (The downside is that an MIT study recently cast doubt on the energy savings.) Forward osmosis is still being adjusted in small, experimental plants, such as one that Trevi is involved with in the United Arab Emirates. So even if it works, it might take years before it's widely implemented.
If the water industry were like the pharmaceutical industry, "it would be as if they hadn't invented a new drug in 30 years," says Jensen.
But it may be the case that big leaps forward come from changing the components inside desalination systems and not just by changing the process itself. One Danish company, Aquaporin, has begun manufacturing membranes that mimic the function of the human kidney, with provocative results. Located in a gleaming new building at the edge of the University of Copenhagen, Aquaporin is led by a young Danish scientist named Peter Holme Jensen. "When we started in 2005," Jensen explains, "we said, 'Let's try to exploit and reuse nature, because if we're looking for sustainability, we don't think we can do better than nature.'" These membranes—they look and feel a lot like thin sheets of white paper, with a glossy coating on top—can be employed in systems that use either reverse osmosis or forward osmosis. (Soon, they will be tested by NASA as a way to recycle wastewater in space; as Jensen says, you can actually pee through its membrane and drink what comes out the other side.) The membranes could eventually reduce the costs of desalination by perhaps as much as 15%. In an industry where very little changes, that would be transformative.
If the water industry were like the pharmaceutical industry, Jensen says, "it would be as if they hadn't invented a new drug in 30 years." Within such a conservative market, he adds, it may take years before his technology can have a big impact. That would likely be too far in the future to solve California's immediate water problems. And not everyone thinks of desalination as the only solution to how some regions are "drying out." Heather Cooley, of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, notes that the Carlsbad plant will not only create a new freshwater supply that costs about double the amount Southern Californians already pay for water, but could potentially have a rebound effect. Some plants—in Australia and in Florida—have come online, only to find they aren't completely necessary. In some cases, drought situations can ease; at other times, a higher price of water from the desalination process can incite consumers to use less, thus obviating the need for a big, new supplemental plant in the first place. "There tends to be a risk in building desal plants that are too large, or building them too soon," Cooley says.
There's also the potential that a plant may significantly impact fish populations harmed by the intake pipes or the supersalty discharge from the desalination process. Still, experts like Pankratz see it as an inevitable choice. "Desalination is like insurance," says Pankratz. "The water situation is pretty bad in Southern California. But until things hit catastrophic proportions, people are going to be talking about how expensive desalination is and how much energy it uses." Eventually, he says, they'll be ready to pay—because by then, there may be no other options.

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Collier commissioners to review new codes in the wake of Dan. A Hughes oil drilling dust-up
NaplesNews.com – by June Fletcher
November 16, 2014
NAPLES, Fla. - The Dan A. Hughes Co. may have exited Southwest Florida, but the issues the Texas oil driller raised during its troubled tenure endure.
So at its Tuesday hearing, Collier County commissioners will consider a consultant’s report that suggests strengthening zoning codes and state regulations regarding future oil exploration and drilling along the Sunniland Trend, the hot dog-shaped, 145-mile oil-rich swath that runs from Lee to Dade counties.
Commissioner authorized the report Sept. 9 to explore the environmental impacts of the now-abandoned Collier Hogan well, south of Lake Trafford near Immokalee, as well as other existing and future wells, and to help them formulate recommendations for tougher state regulations.
It was submitted by the Fort Myers office of AECOM, a Los Angeles-based technical and management support services firm.
Among the review’s findings: the largest risk to the region’s water supply from new drilling comes from surface spills that may arise.
DOCUMENT: Read the AECOM report.
The study also looked into what happened during the suspected fracking of the Collier Hogan well at the end of 2013, which resulted in state sanctions, public outcry and the eventual departure of the Hughes company from Southwest Florida.
It concluded there was not sufficient data to know whether rock was actually fractured.
The report delineated seven suggestions for tightening construction standards for drilling. It makes 11 recommendations for improving oversight.
Recommendations include a call for an on-site inspector who has authority to stop work; more groundwater monitoring wells; higher bonds for drillers to cover the cost of possible contamination; better communication between the county and state; safer disposal of drilling fluids and solid waste; and a closer look at older, abandoned wells that may not be properly plugged.
But it stopped short of suggesting a ban or moratorium on drilling in the county, even though many questions remain about the effect on the water supply of abandoned wells, which could serve as conduits for contaminants when new wells are drilled nearby.
Those always pose a potential risk, said William Lorenz, director of the county growth management division’s engineering and resource department in an email, but they are “an acceptable risk as long as construction and operations are properly regulated.”
Through spokeswoman Lyndsey Cruley, Collier Resources Company senior vice president Tom Jones said “there are a number of AECOM’s recommendations that we can support during the 2015 legislative session,” although he did not specify which.
Regarding environmentalists’ claims that the activities at Collier Hogan polluted the aquifer, Jones responded “we are confident that the modeling conducted by CRC’s consultants, paired with the sampling performed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, clearly demonstrates that is not the case.”
While the DEP’s early sampling at Collier Hogan did not show surface contamination, the agency promised commissioners in September that it would install a 1,850-foot-deep groundwater monitoring well at the site that will reach the base of the county’s underground source of drinking water.
Since then, it has secured a contractor for the installation, Layne Christensen Company of Lakeland, Florida, and has staked out the well pad, well, berms and silt fencing, said DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller.
The DEP also promised to analyze flowback material — fluids that came up from the well after the procedure took place — which it has received from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. The agency is working with the Conservancy to establish a testing protocol, Miller said.
The commission also will hear from environmentalists such as Jennifer Hecker, the Conservancy’s director of natural resource policy. Having reviewed the report, she says more concerns need to be addressed to protect vulnerable public resources as well as homeowners who live near drilling sites.
Specifically, she’d like to see more information shared with the public about toxic chemicals used at the wells; higher fines in the case of mishaps and bond requirements of at least $1 million per well; and more technical information shared with emergency responders so they can protect the public should accidents occur.
She also recommended that there be a buffer zone established between residences and oil wells, an issue that reached a boiling point last spring when the Hughes company proposed putting a well within 1,000 feet of rural residences near Golden Gate Estates.
That proposal was crushed in July by massive public opposition, but that does not prevent other drillers from occupying the same spot, she said, particularly since there are no state rules as to how far oil wells can be from homes.
“We aren’t against drilling,” she said. “But we think the rights of the public should be balanced against the rights of private mineral rights holders.”

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FDOT, Manatee County to mitigate removal of wetlands during I-75 construction
Bradenton Herald – by Sara Kennedy
November 16, 2014
MANATEE -- Those who drink water in Manatee County will benefit if officials finalize an agreement to mitigate removal of wetlands along Interstate 75 during construction of new interchanges, such as University Parkway's "diverging diamond."
The deal calls for a handful of wetland acres to be paved over during road projects, but then to be mitigated, or restored, at East Manatee's Duette Preserve.
"It's a win for all of us who draw a glass of water every day, ensuring that the quality and quantity of water in that glass will always be available," said Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County's director of parks and natural resources.
It's also a win for road travelers and those who pay taxes for roads, because a mitigation arrangement will cost less, he added.
FDOT, which will be rebuilding interchanges and widening parts of I-75, is required to provide mitigation for wetlands its construction projects disturb.
"The wetland impacts are associated with planned I-75 interchange improvements at
U.S. 301, state roads 64 and 70, and at University Parkway," Hunsicker said.
FDOT will have to mitigate 2.88 acres of forested wetlands and 2.28 ares of herbaceous wetland, for a total of 5.16 acres, said Susanna Martinez Tarokh, public information officer for the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
The purpose of mitigation is to replace the ecological function lost as a result of impacts to wetlands from construction.
The state transportation agency's arrangement with Manatee County calls for it to re-establish 75 to 100 acres of damaged wetlands at Duette Preserve, reimbursing the county $2 million during an initial phase.
"The value of the state-funded work at Duette Preserve has also saved us more than $2.5 million, money that we would have paid to complete the work ourselves over a much longer period of time," said Hunsicker. "This doesn't even count the savings to the state for not having to purchase valuable real estate along interstate frontage to accomplish the same requirement."
The 23,000-acre preserve, just upstream from the Lake Manatee Reservoir, retains and filters water, and helps to provide a dependable drinking water supply during periods of drought, according to Hunsicker.
The project has already won what he calls "conceptual approvals" from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Wetlands affected by construction are within the I-75 right-of-way between University Parkway and Fruitville Road.
The majority of wetlands are located around bridge crossings at Cooper Creek and Foley Creek, the northeast quadrant of the University Parkway interchange, and south of University Parkway and west of the interstate near the new Mall at University Town Center, said Brent Setchell, an FDOT district environmental permitting engineer.
Duette Preserve is located in an area of the county with the highest quality and most productive, deep groundwater of the Floridan Aquifer, according to the county website.
Bodies of water and/or wetlands existing on the property include both the north and east forks of the Manatee River, numerous streams and creeks, wet weather ponds and sloughs.
The Manatee County mitigation plan has yet to be submitted for review by the water district, said Martinez Tarokh. If the plan is approved, county officials will be required to start construction of the mitigation area within 30 days of the wetland impacts.
"We will be doing restoration enhancement of wetland marsh systems, marsh creation and adjoining upland restoration," said Alissa Power, the county's environmental program manager.
The mitigation area north of State Road 64 and near Duette Road is still functioning as a "highly disturbed" wetland, she said. But the habitat has been damaged over many years by agricultural activities.
Over five years, the county plans to first start with exotic plant removal; by the end of 2015, it will be in an earth-moving phase lasting six months or so, followed by another round of removal of exotic, non-native plants. Toward the end of the project, officials will be re-establishing upland and wetland plantings.
Among the wildlife they expect to see returning once the restoration is complete will be wading birds, herons, egrets, woodstorks, amphibians like frogs, perhaps the endangered indigo snake, Power said.
"It's cool stuff," said Manatee County Commissioner John Chappie, who also is a member of the board for the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Sarasota-Manatee. "It's saving money, improving the environment, improving our water supply.
"It's a tremendous benefit all the way around for both Manatee and Sarasota counties."

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Florida lawmakers focus on several issues
Ocala.com - by Lloyd Dunkelberger, Halifax Media Services
November 16, 2014
TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers convene in their organizational session on Tuesday. These are some of the issues facing the new Legislature over the next two years:
WATER
Legislative leaders say establishing a state water policy will be at the top of their agenda, including efforts to save Florida's springs, restore the Everglades, improve water quality in estuaries like the St. Lucie River and promote water supplies for a growing population.
GAMBLING
The state gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe ends in July, meaning Gov. Rick Scott is likely to reach a new accord with the tribe that will have to be ratified by the Legislature. The debate over a new Seminole agreement will prompt efforts by major casino owners to gain a foothold in Florida as well as an effort by Florida-based horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons to win tax breaks and a chance to expand their gambling establishments.
SCHOOLS
Scott will push lawmakers to increase per-student funding in public schools to $7,126 or higher — exceeding the K-12 system's all-time high. Conservative lawmakers, angered over a legal challenge from a teachers union, are also likely to consider expanding the use of vouchers to send low-income students to private schools and the greater use of charter schools.
TAX CUTS
Scott has promised $1 billion in new tax cuts over the next two years. Lawmakers are likely to comply, although they will have their own ideas about where the cuts should be made. The tax cut possibilities include a further reduction in motorist fees, a cut in the state tax on cellphones and cable services and a reduction in the state corporate income.
AMENDMENT 1
Lawmakers will have to implement a constitutional amendment that requires a third of the annual tax on real estate transactions go for environmental programs. The requirement may well come into play as lawmakers develop their water policy over the next two sessions.
BUDGET
Having passed a record $77 billion budget for this year, lawmakers will have more money to work with in the coming year as a result of a recovering state economy. But it won't be a large windfall, with economists estimating the surplus in the range of $336 million. Lawmakers will have to weigh the competing needs for schools, health care and the new environmental provision as they craft the 2015-16 state budget that takes effect in July.
MEDICAID
Medicaid expansion under the federal health care act is likely to remain stalled in the Legislature. The Senate has previously advanced an expansion plan that died in the House. Scott, who doesn't like Obamacare, says he will support an expansion only if the federal government picks up the entire cost.

141116-d
Future growth makes water conservation vital
Orlando Sentinel - Editorial
November 16, 2014
It's too soon to declare victory in the war to conserve water in Central Florida.
Future growth and development in Central Florida will make water conservation essential.
Floridians got some encouraging environmental news recently. Over the past decade, we pumped less water out of the ground even as the state's population grew by nearly 3 million. Conservation was cited as one of several factors that afforded relief to our stressed water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Before toasting such success with a glass of our finest drawn from deep in the Floridan Aquifer, however, we should delve into the future of Florida's drinking water supply. Here the outlook becomes more sobering.
While the study proves personal conservation works, other factors cited for the decline in consumption include rainfall, strong water-use regulation and slowing economic conditions (for the period 2000-2010). In a related national report, water use was down overall with much of the savings credited to improvements in agricultural irrigation and industrial use. Individual consumers have little or no control over those factors.
The issue is of obvious importance to Floridians. Earlier this month voters overwhelmingly adopted a constitutional amendment that will oblige lawmakers to spend a significant amount of money on land and water conservation. Such projects should help protect the state's water supply, but it will be money wasted if not spent wisely. The reason: A fresh onslaught of population and development growth is almost certainly headed our way, and aggressive water demand will follow.
That conclusion is reached by another recent study, this one particularly relevant to Central Florida. Population growth in Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Polk and southern Lake counties will soar by nearly 50 percent during the next two decades, according to the Central Florida Water Initiative's 2014 report. The result: Total water demand will grow at such a rate "that fresh groundwater resources alone cannot meet future water demands . . . without resulting in unacceptable impacts to water resources and related natural systems," the report states.
It's a plausible scenario that Central Floridians would be wise to prepare for. While nearly every respondent to a 2014 University of Florida poll ranked clean drinking water as one of the most important issues facing the state, support for conservation measures grew squishy if they entailed personal sacrifice. While 90 percent of those polled said they run their washing machine only when full, only 29 percent said they would time their showers to save water. Nearly half admitted to letting the faucet run continuously at least some of the time when washing dishes.
Each of us will need to be better stewards of the finite and irreplaceable resource that is Florida's water supply. We will need to demand that our government officials stiffen their resolve to stop wasteful water use and reckless development. Otherwise, recent gains in conservation become an excuse for inaction.

141116-e
Legislature must heed will of the voters
Miami Herald – by Paula Dockery
November 16, 2014
The biggest winner of the Nov. 4 election was Amendment 1. Not only was it the only one of three amendments on the ballot to pass, but it also passed with an incredible 75 percent of the vote. Voters sent a clear message about the strength of their support for water and land conservation and, in doing so, set the only true mandate of the election.
A constitutional amendment needs to receive 60 percent of the vote — a tough threshold to meet. Take, for example, the other statewide races: Gov. Rick Scott won re-election with just 48 percent of the vote and, while all three Cabinet officials easily won re-election, they each fell short of 60 percent.
Amendment 1 seemed to transcend partisan politics in an unusual way.
Ironically, while signaling their strong commitment to protecting Florida’s natural resources, voters also returned to office individuals whose actions led to the need for the constitutional amendment. Now we are dependent on those same individuals to implement it in the manner that was intended.
Unfortunately, past history does not bode well for that to happen. Take, for example, the high-speed rail amendment that was later repealed, the class-size amendment whose implementation has been revised numerous times and underfunded, and the fair-district amendments that proponents argue were not adhered to. The redistricting maps are still being challenged in the courts.
A little history: We’ve been fortunate in Florida to have governors of both parties who supported environmental programs and funding. Democratic Gov. Bob Graham has long been heralded as an environmental champion. Preservation 2000 started under Republican Gov. Bob Martinez and was nurtured under Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. Florida Forever prospered during the eight years under Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
Then the national recession hit. To his credit, then Republican Gov. Charlie Crist managed to fully fund Florida Forever at $300 million his first two years in office, during the worst of the recession. But with the state budget facing a $6 billion shortfall, the Florida Legislature did not fund the program the last two years of Crist’s term.
During Scott’s first term as governor, environmental programs such as Florida Forever and Water Sustainability received little to no funding despite a much-improved economy. In fact, Gov. Scott vetoed the Florida Forever funding that the Legislature budgeted.
Despite rising state revenues, including the healthy growth in documentary-stamp collections, environmental funding was not restored. Disappointed natural resource advocates, frustrated by the inability to return to historical and reliable levels of funding, brought the issue to the voters.
After collecting signatures, clearing court review, placing the initiative on the ballot, raising money, leading the campaign and getting an incredible 75 percent of votes, is the hard part ending or just beginning?
The revenue projections are good. This year documentary stamp revenue is projected to be $1.8 billion, next year $1.98 billion and by 2020 $2.65 billion.
Amendment 1 requires 33 percent of net revenues of this excise tax to be placed in the Land Acquisition Trust fund and used to acquire, restore, improve and manage conservation lands. This year, after deducting the generous service charge and administrative fees, 33 percent of the net should equal approximately $597 million.
The Legislature should fully fund Florida Forever at $300 million and Water Sustainability at $100 million and use the remaining $197 million for Everglades restoration, springs protection and a healthy annual boost to our underfunded state park system for land-management and capital projects and maintenance.
It would be easy, but unwise, for the Legislature to slow down or circumvent the amendment’s intent. The budget-making process offers opportunities to disguise funding or to play shell games with environmental programs and funding.
Attempts to fund development, shift costs or move toward privatizing water could be disguised as new environmental programs. Voters should be on the lookout. Creative bookkeeping and increased administrative costs, service charges and trust fund transfers should be guarded against.
Gov. Scott campaigned on increasing environmental funding. Let’s give him the chance to prove it.

141116-f
Park, environmental funding should not be a zero sum game
TheLedger.com - by Tom Palmer
November 16, 2014
Funding for parks and recreation and environmental lands is being turned into a zero sum game in Polk County.
That’s the way things look in the scenarios laid out earlier this month  by a consultant the County Commission has hired to guide its strategic planning decisions.
The strategic planning scenarios apparently all start from the assumption that there will be no change in the overall property tax rate, regardless of the impact on services, at least when it comes to this part of the county’s infrastructure.
That creates the zero sum game in which the County Commission will decide who gets which part of the 62 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value that’s levied for these programs.
Right now 42 cents goes to parks and recreation and 20 cents goes to environmental lands.
The decision is coming now because the 20-year authorization for the 20 cents that Polk voters approved in 1994 for environmental lands is set to expire.
The discussion couldn’t come at a better time.
It is clear the public values protection of Florida’s remaining natural areas.
On Nov. 4 Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to guarantee state conservation land funding for the next 20 years.
It passed in every precinct in Polk County.
In 1994, Polk County voters approved a small property tax to buy and manage environmentally significant areas in Polk County.
It passed despite official indifference and organized opposition and has been the only local tax measure to pass on a general election ballot in Polk County since voters agreed 40 years to tax themselves for fire protection in unincorporated Polk County.
One of the Polk County Environmental Lands Program’s chief fiscal accomplishments has been its ability to leverage local tax money to get money from state, water management district and federal programs to contribute to the purchase of the approximately 25,000 acres that makes up the county’s environmental lands network.
There’s a good argument to be made for keeping some funding for the program.
As it stands now, there are no further proposed major land purchases pending.
Instead, the next phase consists of two approaches.
One is to purchase inholdings, isolated parcels or groups of parcels surrounded by conservation land that are typically in old undeveloped subdivisions where lots were sold years ago but never developed. Acquiring these parcels will make management easier and protect additional land containing rare or endangered species.
The other goal is to acquire corridors to connect existing conservation lands where practical either through outright purchase or through the purchase of conservation easements from willing private property owners.
The costs of implementing these goals will be unknown until planning is further down the road.
The fact that there is limited property tax millage for parks was a public policy decision the County Commission made.
After the Florida Legislature mandated property tax limits sometime around 2008, commissioners decided to make the cuts in the parks and library taxes so they could leave the tax levied for development-related road improvements intact.
All three property taxes were imposed in 2005 as part of an effort to erase the county’s infrastructure gap and to make up for the fact that impact fees had been inadequate to non-existent.
Now, in the wake of the defeat of the sales tax referendum for roads and transit, county officials are discussing approval of a higher property tax to cover shortfalls in road maintenance and construction funds.
The question that needs to be asked is why the impulse to increase taxes to meet increased road expenses shouldn’t also apply to the portion of the county tax levy devoted to park funding, another part of Polk’s ongoing infrastructure deficit.
Cannibalizing environmental lands revenue can’t be the only alternative.
NATURE FUN DAY
“Thank A Land Manager”will be the theme of today’s Nature Fun Day at Circle B Bar Reserve.
The free event, which begins at 1:30 p.m.,  will celebrate the various professionals who are involve in natural areas management.
They will include people involved in stewardship, prescribed fire, water management, invasive species management and biological monitoring.
Participants include Polk County Environmental Lands, Ridge Rangers, Florida Forest Service, Polk County Invasive Plant Management, Bok Tower, Polk County Fire Services and Audubon,
The event will feature a professional wildlife firefighter obstacle course.
Circle B Bar Reserve is located at 4399 Winter Lake Road, Lakeland.

141115-
Indian River Lagoon funding getting closer
Florida Today – by Ledyard King
November 15, 2014
WASHINGTON The Indian River Lagoon is one step closer to getting federal help.
The House Wednesday passed a bill reauthorizing funding for the nation’s estuaries. Included in the legislation was a bipartisan proposal (co-sponsored by two Floridians — Republican Bill Posey and Democrat Patrick Murphy) that would reallocate program money to estuaries needing immediate assistance.
That includes the Indian River Lagoon, which has been choked with algae blooms.
The program, created in 1987 under the Clean Water Act, was designed to help “estuaries of national significance.” This bill would authorize $27 million in fiscal year 2015 for those 28 estuaries, although appropriators will have the final say on how much actually gets funded.
Under the Posey-Murphy measure, 15 percent of appropriated funds would be made available for the additional competitive awards to estuaries with urgent needs. The bill also gives direction to the EPA to ensure that no less than 80 percent of the funding is reserved for estuary base grants.
“Our lagoon’s natural beauty has always been central to our community as a key to improving our quality of life, as a recreational area for fishing and boating with friends and family, and as a significant contributor to our local economy,” Posey, R-Rockledge, said on the House floor before the voice vote. “I raised my family along this 156-mile lagoon and know firsthand how important this legislation is to making our local estuary program a success.”
The bill heads to the Senate for consideration.

141114-a
A third of Natural World Heritage Sites are in danger
Smithsonian.com - by Sarah Zielinski
November 14, 2014
From the Florida Everglades to Africa's first national park, many crucial protected areas are in serious trouble.
SYDNEY—A third of the United Nations World Heritage sites valued for their geology, biodiversity or natural beauty are in danger. And 8 percent of all the sites—including Everglades National Park in Florida—are now considered to be in critical condition, according to an assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The IUCN plays an advisory role in the UNESCO World Heritage program, which maintains a list of international sites of cultural or natural significance. Once a site is listed, it is up to the nation where it is located to maintain and preserve the site. Being listed in the program is deemed incredibly valuable for tourism, so the threat of de-listing can prompt countries to take action to better protect a site.
Just because some sites are now listed as critical doesn’t mean “the situation can’t be fixed, that we need to resign ourselves to failure. We need to fix it,” says Cyril Kormos, vice-chair for world heritage at the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
Until now, most assessments of World Heritage sites have been reactionary, undertaken only when threats have been identified. This is the first report to look at all of the 228 natural and "mixed" sites in the program, ignoring those of only cultural value, such as the Statue of Liberty. The final report, released November 13 at the IUCN World Parks Congress, ranks sites in one of four categories: “good”, “good with some concerns”, “significant concern” and “critical”.
The majority of natural World Heritage sites are doing well, the report finds, but many are dealing with threats such as invasive species and the impacts of mismanaged tourism, dams, hunting and fishing. The pressure on these sites is only increasing as the world's climate warms. Climate change was one of the threats that landed the Great Barrier Reef in the "significant concern" category, along with coastal development, shipping, runoff and fishing. The region’s effective management is what spared it from a critical listing. “Certainly climate change is the main potential threat to natural world heritage globally," says Elana Osipova, a world heritage monitoring officer at the IUCN.
Everglades National Park was listed as critical mainly due to water issues. “Current threats related to reduced water flows, water pollution and shifting habitat are affecting the health of the site and the amount and quality of habitat,” the assessment notes. “Some of these losses cannot be restored, as habitat features have taken decades to centuries to develop.” Addressing these threats is difficult because regional water management officials have not prioritized the park.
Overall, conservation in North America, Europe, South America and Oceana tends to being doing well. More than half of the sites in Africa, however, are ranked as "significant concern" or "critical". Among the latter category is Africa’s oldest national park, Virunga National Park in Congo, which is home to endangered mountain gorillas. The "critical" list also includes Lake Turkana National Parks in Kenya, where fossils of many human ancestors have been found.
The full assessment, which will be repeated in three years, is available online with details of each site’s values, threats and management programs. The creators hope that the website will be a tool for partners and managers to find solutions and improve protections. “A site manager who’s confronting a problem in the field can now get on the website and try to find a site around the world that’s addressed a similar concern and look at the solutions that were put into place to solve the problem,” says Kormos.
The results of the assessment shouldn’t be viewed as a failure, he adds, but as an opportunity. “World Heritage is really a litmus test,” says Kormos. “If we fail with the most iconic, important and valuable protected areas on the planet, then we fail as a conservation community.”

141114-b
Florida DEP executes 10 land and water conservation fund contracts
SEagNet.com - by Randall
November 14, 2014
From the Florida Department of Environmental Protection:
TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has executed 10 Land and Water Conservation Fund contracts in nine counties. The projects were approved by the United States Department of the Interior through the National Park Service and total more than $1.8 million.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund is a federal competitive grant program, which provides matching grants to help local communities protect parks and develop recreational resources. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has benefited nearly every county in America, supporting more than 41,000 projects.
In Florida, eight of the 10 projects were funded at the maximum grant request of $200,000. The remaining two were funded at the applicant requested amounts of $175,000 and $50,000. The matching ratio is one applicant dollar to one federal dollar for all grant awards.
“Local governments recognize the importance of providing outdoor recreation options to their residents and utilize grant match programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund to invest in their community,” said Rick Mercer, director of DEP’s Office of Operations. “We are thrilled that these 10 projects are executed and we join the nation in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.”
From building hiking and biking trails, to improving community parks, playgrounds and ball fields, this grant-matching program is the primary federal investment tool to ensure families have easy access to public, open spaces.
Some examples of the projects funded in Florida during this cycle include:
• Construction of a playground/play area, nature trail, picnic pavilion, boardwalk, observation deck and related facilities including parking and signage at Keaton Beach Coastal Park, Taylor County;
• Construction of an observation deck with walkway access, picnic pavilions and shelters, kayak and canoe launch, horseshoe court, and other related facilities at Legacy Park in the city of Venice, Sarasota County; and
• Development of an expanded pedestrian trail, a floating boat dock, an off-road bike trail, restroom renovations, an expanded parking lot and other related facilities at Hampton Pines Park in the city of North Lauderdale, Broward County.
The Land and Recreation Grants Section within the Bureau of Financial Management administers the Land and Water Conservation Fund on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service. Eligible participants include all local governmental entities with the legal responsibility for the provision of outdoor recreational sites and facilities for the use and benefit of the public.

141114-c
Nutrients that feed red tide "under the microscope" in major study
EnvironmentalResearchWeb.org
November 14, 2014
The "food" sources that support Florida red tides are more diverse and complex than previously realized, according to five years' worth of research on red tide and nutrients published recently as an entire special edition of the scientific journal Harmful Algae.
The multi-partner project was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ECOHAB program* (described below) and included 14 research papers from seven institutions.
The research team studied four red tide blooms caused by the harmful algae species Karenia brevis in 2001, '07, '08 and '09, plus the non-bloom year 2010. Their goal was to understand which nutrients supported these red tides and the extent to which coastal pollution might contribute, helping reveal what drives red tide in southwest Florida.
Study partners documented 12 sources of nutrients in southwest Florida waters – including some never before associated with K. brevis. Results supported the consensus that blooms start 10-40 miles offshore, away from the direct influence of land-based nutrient pollution, but once moved inshore blooms can use both human-contributed and natural nutrients for growth.
The project documented the microbiology, physiology, ecology and physical oceanography factors affecting red tides in new detail, provided a synthesis of results and offered suggestions for resource managers addressing red tide in the coastal waters of southwest Florida.
Florida red tide blooms – which occur naturally in the Gulf of Mexico and most frequently off southwest Florida – are higher-than-normal concentrations of the microscopic algae species K. brevis, a plant-like organism whose toxins can kill fish and other marine species, make shellfish toxic to eat and cause respiratory irritation in humans. These blooms occurred centuries before the mid-to-late twentieth century population boom along Florida's coast. Now, with large numbers of coastal residents and visitors in Florida, blooms can significantly affect public health and the economy.
Public information and short-term forecasts help mitigate red tide impacts, but ongoing research is critical to inform resource managers working to understand and potentially reduce nutrients available to blooms.
"Data go a long way toward increasing our understanding," said Cynthia Heil, Senior Research Scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, who co-edited the special issue of Harmful Algae and was formerly with FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. "This report, which includes data from four different red tides and numerous laboratory studies and modeling efforts by biological, chemical and physical oceanographers, shows the collaborative efforts needed to understand why Florida red tides are so frequent and harmful in this region."
Co-editor Judith O'Neil, Research Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, added, "We learned that K. brevis is an adaptable and flexible organism. We identified 12 different sources of nutrients that it can take up and use. One of the most interesting things that hadn't previously been taken into account is this organism's ability to not just use sunlight, like plants, but to also consume other single-celled organisms as a nutrient source. Additionally, its migratory behavior and directed swimming allows K. brevis access to nutrient sources everywhere it finds them – at the surface, bottom and throughout the water column."
According to the study, K. brevis can get the nutrients nitrogen and/or phosphorous from the following sources (bold sources were newly linked to K. brevis blooms through the ECOHAB project):
● Undersea sediments
● Decaying fish
● Water flowing out of estuaries
● Deposits from the atmosphere
● Nitrogen from the air prepared, or "fixed," into a more nutritious form by blue-green algae called Trichodesmium
● Waste from zooplankton – small aquatic animals visible to the naked eye.  The "grazing" of smaller zooplankton, dubbed "microzooplankton" because they can only be seen under a microscope. (Grazing includes their "sloppy eating" of other tiny life forms, along with their waste.)
● Picoplankton – tiny life forms that K. brevis consumes
● Bacteria in the water producing useful forms of nitrogen
● Light creating available nutrients from natural, dissolved compounds like tannins in the water
● Decay of Trichodesmium algae (newly documented as a long-term nutrient source for K. brevis blooms)
● Nitrogen from the air "fixed" by other life forms that are NOT Trichodesmium algae
The researchers concluded that many of these nutrient sources are individually more than enough to support observed blooms, but no singlenutrient source is solely responsible.??The blue-green algae called Trichodesmium provided the most nitrogen, but not all, for blooms developing offshore. Nearer to shore and within estuaries, major nitrogen sources believed to support blooms included estuary water carrying land-based nutrients to sea, underwater sediments and dead fish decomposing, in addition to other sources.
A few coastal sources – estuary water, deposits from the atmosphere and underwater sediments – are known to carry natural nutrients as well as some enhanced levels due to human activity. With other nutrient sources – such as microscopic life forms – connections with human activities are less direct, so it is harder to predict how they might be influencing red tides.
"Nature is messy, but this project has put several new pieces in place," said Dr. Kellie Dixon, Senior Scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory and Co-Principal Investigator for the ECOHAB project. "Until now we had not looked at this many of the 12 sources and their specific quantities simultaneously. Some of the sources, like nutrients released from the sediments, had never been measured in southwest Florida's coastal waters until we studied them for ECOHAB." The project blended nutrient studies with physical oceanography, shedding new light on how blooms are brought to shore.
"Until now, effective management of harmful algal blooms caused by K. brevis was complicated because we didn't know enough about how different nutrient sources and forms taken up by K. brevis interacted with the physical environment," said Matt Garrett of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, who managed the ECOHAB project. "This project provides data that can help inform management recommendations on how to control nutrient sources and possibly improve forecasting models.
The special issue of Harmful Algae includes the following management recommendations:
Maximize efforts to reduce potentially controllable nutrient inputs and sources that contribute to K. brevis blooms.
Monitor for known physical conditions that favor/disfavor the initiation, transport and export of K. brevis blooms in the southwest Florida region.
Identify and provide necessary funding at state and federal levels to maintain the southwest Florida coastal observing system infrastructure on an operational basis.
Source: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

141113-a
Freebies can't buy Pam Bondi's ear
Jacksonville.com – Opinion by Ron Littlepage
November 13, 2014
Come on, people. Get real.
Do you honestly believe that our fine attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was just re-elected, could be influenced by getting $51,000 in fabulous gifts?
Who among you doesn’t regularly receive free top-of-the-line meals and free trips to luxurious resorts and comfortable rides on chartered flights?
And does that make you slightly more attentive to those handing out the goodies when they come asking for something in return?
Of course not.
Besides that free trip to Kona, Hawaii, wasn’t to make nice with lobbyists who have a stake in what Bondi’s office does, which she did, she went there — and the flight from Florida was long and grueling — to study the effects of climate change and sea level rise.
It was only after she arrived at the resort in Hawaii that she realized she isn’t a scientist.
And that free trip to Mackinac Island, Mich.?
Honest mistake. When she got on the plane, she thought she was headed to Sanibel Island.
Once there, however, who wouldn’t sample the island’s world famous fudge? Be truthful.
But is there a fudge factor when a lobbyist who was there comes calling in Florida to mention how a client would never be engaged in deceptive trade practices or other dubious deeds?
Don’t be ridiculous.
Everybody knows that government in Florida doesn’t work in such devious ways.
As for letting a lobbyist stay in her Tampa home while recuperating from an injury, what’s the big deal?
Bondi would do that for anyone who was hurting in Tampa and needed a place to stay.
Not long ago, there was all that fuss in the state’s newspapers about Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, plus an all-star list of Republican legislative leaders, taking hunting trips to the exclusive King Ranch in Texas.
Does it matter that U.S. Sugar was the host?
Does it matter that they were treated like royalty?
Do you actually believe that these public servants could be swayed by the generosity of Big Sugar, which only cares about what’s good for Florida, especially the Everglades?
If so, you obviously don’t know that Scott, Putnam and folks like House Speaker Will Weatherford and incoming Speaker Steve Crisafulli were just following in the hallowed tradition of Davy Crockett, William Barret Travis and Jim Bowie.
When Texas was in need in the 1800s, these patriots left their homes and answered the call.
Texas is in trouble again today.
Deer are out of control and overrunning the state.
Our modern-day heroes who trekked to Texas with hunting licenses in hand were just trying to help out.
It is shameful that it has come to this, but the next thing you know people are going to suggest that the millions of dollars people like the Koch brothers and corporations like U.S. Sugar pour into political campaigns buy access and influence.
How sad.
Bondi set the record straight earlier this week when reporters in Tallahassee asked her about the freebies she received during her first term in office.
“No lobbyist,” she said, “no person, no corporation, no individual will ever compromise what we do in our office regarding unfair deceptive trade practices, nor how we protect consumers of the state of Florida.”
If you can’t believe Bondi, who can you believe?
By the way, I hear the fudge is good.

141113-b
Palm Beach County voters deliver big support for environmental land buying
Sun Sentinel - by Andy Reid, reporter
November 13, 2013
Palm Beach County voters seem to love real estate shopping, especially when taxpayers are buying. On Election Day, they gave the biggest stamp of approval in the state to buying more land to protect the environment.
The county's 85 percent approval for Amendment 1 was the largest percentage of "Yes" votes among Florida's 67 counties for the measure to buy more land for conservation and to clean up water pollution.
Now local environmental advocates say they will be asking the state to spend some of that money from Amendment 1 on land in Palm Beach County. And others say that with growing development pressures in the county's Agricultural Reserve, Amendment 1's success could mean local voters would support another ballot initiative to buy more farmland for preservation.
"Once you pave over farmland, you can't get it back," said former county commissioner Karen Marcus, who championed past local bond measures and also thinks voters would support another one.
Locally, Amendment 1 money could be used for farmland that stretches across western Palm Beach County and other property that could boost Everglades restoration.
Also, supporters said more of the money could be used to revive the Lake Worth Lagoon, get water flowing to the Loxahatchee River, and to help Lake Okeechobee, said Rob Robbins, the county's director of Environmental Resources Management.
The county next year will also likely be asking the state for more money to try to get rid of invading exotic plants and to re-create wetlands on preservation land the county already owns, he said.
The amendment specifically mentions the possibility of using some of the money to buy "working farms and ranches."
Its approval comes at the same time that the Palm Beach County Commission is considering a proposal from landowners to ease building limits in the Agricultural Reserve.
During the review of Agricultural Reserve building rules, the county buying more farmland either with state or local money "is certainly one option" to consider, County Commissioner Steven Abrams said.
County Mayor Priscilla Taylor says buying more land in the Agricultural Reserve should be one of the options considered.
"That is the only way we are going to preserve it," Taylor said.
Amendment 1 calls for using 33 percent of Florida's existing real estate taxes to buy land for water conservation and to fight water pollution. It was approved by 75 percent of voters statewide, and for 20 years could pump more money into the state's land-buying fund.
That could translate to the state spending about $700 million in 2015 on preserving land and tackling more efforts to clean up the state's rivers, lakes and streams.
Local backers say the amendment's support is another sign that preservation remains a priority for voters in Palm Beach County, where development and farming struggle to coexist on the edge of the Everglades.
"People in Palm Beach County see the value of the environment," said Drew Martin of the Sierra Club. "People don't want us to look like Broward County and Miami-Dade."
Palm Beach County has used state and local money to buy or lease about 31,000 acres of land kept as natural areas:
•In 1991, Palm Beach County voters in a nearly 2-1 margin passed a $100 million bond issue proposal to pay for preserving environmentally sensitive land.
•In 1999, county voters by more than a 2-1 margin agreed to spend $50 million to preserve more environmental lands and another $100 million to protect land for farming in the Agricultural Reserve. The Agricultural Reserve measure led to protecting about 2,400 acres from development in the 20,000-acre, prime farming region west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.
•In 2004, 68 percent of county voters supported borrowing $50 million to buy marina development rights and invest in boat ramps, parking and other improvements in order to keep high-rise condos from squeezing out public access to the waterfront.
Marcus, who as a commissioner supported land buying measures, this month launched a not-for-profit advocacy group, Sustainable Solutions P.B.C. Inc, to weigh in on growth and development issues such as the future of the Agricultural Reserve.
"There needs to be some financial package [available] as part of the continued preservation," Marcus said. "Everything is on the table still."

141113-c
Pembroke Pines OKs green plan
Sun Sentinel - by Fallan Patterson, Forum Publishing Group
November 13, 2014
City's green plan features conservation and waste reduction goals
Pembroke Pines commissioners recently approved a green plan as a roadmap for environmentally friendly development.
The plan outlines goals — and how the city will achieve them — in six areas, including conservation, waste reduction and community outreach. City staff spent more than a year on the plan, said Michael Stamm, planning and economic development director.
"This green plan leads toward quality of life," he said. "We have to set goals that are feasible, things that are going to break the bank to becoming more eco-friendly."
That includes creating a resident-led Green Team that will assist the city.
"This is probably the most important part of the plan," Stamm said of community outreach. "How we empower our residents to be more eco-friendly is crucial."
Protecting natural resources and the 620 acres of Everglades inside Pines' borders is paramount to the plan, with a specific focus on the first bald eagle nesting site in Broward County in 50 years.
City staff is currently rewriting the landscaping code to ensure all properties include native plants. Stamm said the changes will go before the commission in January.
The city also plans to increase its tree canopy by 2030 to protect air quality, explore designating a site to add to the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail and encourage water conservation.
The plan also has a transportation component. There's an emphasis on creating "walkable neighborhoods," increasing mass transit routes, bicycle lanes and pedestrian access to shopping plazas.
Another area is recycling. There are plans to pair recycling bins with public trash receptacles, start a residential composting program and consider a community food waste recycling program.
"The city has to be the driver and lead by example," Stamm said. "The good thing is we've already started with some of these things."
The city has already implemented some green initiatives, such as introducing paperless billing, downsizing fleet vehicles and opening the organic community garden.
A point of contention arose when Commissioner Angelo Castillo, the lone vote against the plan, attempted to strike the historic preservation portion, arguing the topic has "nothing to do with being green."
Castillo's issue has to do with the city designating Perry Airport a historic site for its role during World War II. Castillo is spearheading an effort to have the airport closed.

141112-a
Florida sinkholes threaten homes and cars
NBC News
November 12, 2014
A pair of sinkholes have opened up in a Florida mobile home park, forcing families to evacuate amid fears a third hole could gobble up homes.
The first hole formed Monday in Pasco County, growing to 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep and swallowing a Hyundai. The second opened Tuesday in a roadway and swelled to 10 feet wide. No other cars or property were damaged and no injuries have been reported. Six families have been evacuated from the area.
Officials told NBC affiliate WFLA that it appeared a third sinkhole could open up at the mobile home park. "There's no way I would have come down to Florida if I thought my house was gonna go," Penny Sharpe, who lives in a house right next to the spot where geologists say a third hole could open up. "No. I came down for some R-and-R and good times."
Sharpe and many evacuees from seven mobile homes are staying at the nearby Fairfield Inn, with the park's owners picking up the tab.
"About to lose your home, you couldn't get insurance on it. So, what do you do?" she said, sitting in the Fairfield Inn lobby.
Exactly why these sinkholes are here now is a mystery but geologists testing the soil have a prime suspect: pumping for a new storm sewer system, right next door.
"Whatever has stimulated this, it could have been the pumping, they were de-watering, so they were lowering the water table , that changed the hydraulics, the pressures in the ground and that might have been the trigger," said Sandy Nettles.
Late Tuesday night an official with Pasco County Utilities revealed they would temporarily suspend work in the area near the sinkholes.
Spokesperson Doug Tobin stated, "Pasco Utilities is taking this action in the spirit of mutual cooperation into what is causing the depressions in the area."
Tobin said the county was working on a sewer lift station in the area.

141112-b
Floridians want to preserve and protect Florida
News-Press. com - Editorial
November 12, 2014
Floridians spoke clearly, with three-quarters of all voters approving of the constitutional amendment to dedicate money for conservation and recreation.
The 2014 midterm election exposed some sharp divisions among Floridians. Gov. Rick Scott won re-election by drawing fewer than half of the votes cast, only 1.1 percentage point ahead of challenger Charlie Crist. Gwen Graham knocked U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland out of office by just a little more than 2,000 votes. Even in the one-sided CFO and agriculture commissioner races, Jeff Atwater and Adam Putnam each got less than 60 percent of the vote.
Then there was Amendment 1.
Floridians spoke clearly, with three-quarters (74.95 percent) of all voters approving of the constitutional amendment to dedicate money for conservation and recreation. We might be divided on medical marijuana and Obamacare and any number of other issues, but Floridians realize the importance of land and water to our health, to our tourism industry and to the quality of life we enjoy in the Sunshine State.
Protecting Florida’s natural resources has been a bipartisan concern since 1963, when the Legislature created the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to support the purchase of parks. Over the years, the state’s land-purchasing efforts changed in name, funding sources and approval processes. Yet, as the pressures to develop lands increased, so did the state’s efforts to protect them — through Preservation 2000 and then Florida Forever.
But with the start of the recession in 2008, that effort ground to a halt. And even as the economy rebounded, the spending on conservation did not. Florida now has more than 6 million acres of protected land, but it also is losing about 165,000 acres of land to development every year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Floridians were not happy, and Amendment 1 — a citizen initiative — was born.
Amendment 1 directs that the state dedicate 33 percent of net revenues from doc stamps on property purchases over the next 20 years to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, to acquire and improve forests, wetlands and other sensitive habitats. The money can be used only for these purposes and may not be “commingled with the General Revenue Fund.” Translation: No more raids.
The language that will now be part of the Florida Constitution says these acquisitions will include “lands that protect water resources and drinking water sources, including lands protecting the water quality and quantity of rivers, lakes, streams, springsheds, and lands providing recharge for groundwater and aquifer systems.”
It’s a powerful mandate.
What Amendment 1 does not do is change behavior.
Nearly 20 million people live in Florida, and short of kicking them all out and building a fence around the state, we and our neighbors will continue to have an impact on the environment.
Every time we flush a toilet or scatter fertilizer on the front lawn, we add to the pollution that is strangling our springs and rivers and even poisoning our drinking water. In his exhibition “Springs Eternal,” photographer John Moran has documented the ill health of Florida’s springs, from out-of-the-way spots to tourist destinations such as Ichetucknee Springs.
Mr. Moran calls for a new “environmental patriotism.” That can be simple, for example refraining from fertilizing or watering your lawn. It can be expensive, when forgoing septic tanks for central sewer systems. It can be politically dangerous, when it’s time to put pressure on big agriculture to clean up its act.
But we can change. Mr. Moran points to the way recycling has become an everyday activity or the way littering, once common, now is frowned upon. And we have success stories, such as cleaning up Tampa Bay and Lake Apopka.
At stake is not just the beauty we Floridians love but the tourism industry that attracted 90 million visitors and $65 billion last year. If sunshine alone were enough, Mr. Moran points out, then the Sahara Desert would be a prime tourist destination. In a 1972 speech, Gov. Reubin Askew said, “Ecological destruction in Florida is nothing less than economic suicide.”
It’s wonderful that three-quarters of those who voted last week don’t want our state to commit ecological or economic suicide. It’s a significant step. But keeping our waters clean will require a lot more than just checking “Yes” on a ballot.

141112-c
South Florida farmers going extra mile for Everglades conservation
GrowingProduce.com - by Frank Giles
November 12, 2014
As Florida looks to 2015 and what many believe will be a momentous year for statewide water policy, it is worth studying one part of the state that already is one of the most regulated places in America and perhaps the world when it comes to water. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) has a turbulent history, but also a remarkable story to tell.
In October, the Conservation Technology Information Center hosted its annual Conservation In Action Tour in the EAA. More than 150 growers, policymakers, regulators, and allied industry from across the nation attended the event. The tour crossed the EAA with numerous stops showcasing how farmers there have stepped up to the water challenge and far exceeded all expectations.
This isn’t a new issue, of course, water also set South Florida on a contentious and litigious battle royale in the late 1980s and 1990s as interests debated the fate of the Everglades and how it would be restored. While fingers pointed in different directions on who was to blame for its environmental degradation, all could agree enemy No. 1 was, and remains, phosphorous entering the delicate environment. The Everglades, by its very design, is a low-phosphorous “River of Grass” system.
Since the 1920s, efforts have been made to tame Lake Okeechobee. By and large, they were successful, though with some pretty major hiccups along the way as the system went between flood and drought cycles. The hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 reminded people of the power of the wet times. Almost 2,000 people were killed during the 1928 storm, which pushed water over the lake’s southern banks and dikes. In the 1940s, a prolonged dry period brought on muck fires that burned the high-organic soils for three years, only to be followed by the flood of 1947, which inundated South Florida from Orlando down the peninsula.
Looking for new missions after World War II, the Army Corps Of Engineers was put to work in 1948 when Congress passed the Flood Control Act, which included the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Projects.
“They were celebrating this project,”said Tom MacVicar. The engineer, who has spent the past 20 years consulting on water challenges in South Florida, added: “It worked for the high land value on the East Coast and they used the land to build shopping malls and homes. It virtually stopped 100% of the muck fires that had plagued the Everglades for decades.”
MacVicar said these flood control projects are the reason there is an Everglades to restore and the key to making it all work is the EAA.
“Florida’s condition is generally too much water,” he said. “The farms in the EAA produce 1 million acre-feet of runoff to the Everglades per year. This is what keeps the Everglades wet and recharges it. When Lake Okeechobee goes up, the water has to go somewhere and the farms take 24% of the outflow from the lake every year, which is very important. It all works together, and the EAA is key to the economy, providing many jobs. It is a very big deal to South Florida.”
A Lot Of Lawyers Got Rich
While the EAA is a big deal to the state’s economy, it also has been a point of contention in environmental squabbles over the years. Bill Donovan, a senior engineer with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), said when you put a large population next to an agricultural area and a world-renowned natural treasure, conflicts are bound to occur.
“Think of placing Yellowstone National Park right next to New York City,” he said. “It is a good comparison to South Florida and there are going to be problems.
“The phosphorus entering the system basically fertilized the whole Everglades. It was a sawgrass system, which acted as a filter to clean the water coming out of Lake Okeechobee as it flowed slowly toward the bay. So we fertilized the Everglades and it changed the plant structure and the cattails, Australian pine, and other plants started growing.”
Those environmental conflicts have carried on for years and continue today. The late ’80s and early ’90s were particularly litigious, and as one attendee of the EAA tour put it, “A lot of lawyers got rich.”
The decade-long legal battles finally culminated in the passage of the Everglades Forever Act by the state of Florida in 1994.
“It really all came together with the passage of the Act,” said Terrie Bates, who manages environmental research for the SFWMD. “This law pretty much captured every piece of what we have to solve problems. It focused on water quality and managing the water going into the Everglades and improving its hydrology.”
Huge Hurdle
The standards laid out in the Everglades Forever Act appeared insurmountable when first proposed. The Act called for water entering the national park to carry only 10 parts per billion (ppb) of phosphorous. That’s equivalent to ¼ teaspoon poured into an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
It mandated that farmers in the EAA reduce phosphorous loads in water leaving the area by 25% of pre-BMP levels. Growers also were required to pay a $25 per-acre, per-year Everglades Privilege Tax. The tax is aimed at funding public works projects, which is the other major component of the law. Storm water treatment areas (STAs) are a big part of the plan to clean phosphorous out water as it slowly drains toward Everglades National Park.
Originally, the EAA was about 700,000 acres. Since restoration efforts began, the state has purchased about 100,000 of those acres and converted the land into environmental conservation projects.
Because of a lawsuit consent decree and the Everglades Forever Act, growers were initially held out of the loop in determining what phosphorous reduction levels would be.
Malcolm “Bubba” Wade, senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development for U.S. Sugar, said growers in the area were shocked at first by the phosphorous reduction targets.
“When this all started happening and the research on the BMPs was being developed, everyone was doing research,” he said. “We were at U.S. Sugar, UF/IFAS, and other farms were all doing research. As part of the litigation settlement back then, the SFWMD hired UF/IFAS as a consultant to develop the targets. So, the growers were limited in how closely they could work with them in coming up with the ultimate targets. “When they announced the farms should achieve a 25% reduction in phosphorous, growers almost were ready to run the UF/IFAS guys off the roof, because we had no idea if we could achieve that kind of reduction.”
But, the scientists’ predictions proved right and growers have been able pass the phosphorous-reduction target — and then some. “We have learned over the years they [UF/IFAS] knew what they were talking about,” Wade said. “The sediment controls worked, and for the past 19 years, we have averaged a 55% reduction of phosphorous in water leaving the EAA. We are very proud of this program and what we have done here. And, we are proud of the work of UF/IFAS and the BMP program that has been put in place.”
Every year, the phosphorous is measured and compared against the pre-BMP level, which was 285 metric tons coming off the EAA. This year, growers kept phosphorous down to 104 metric tons — a 63% load reduction.
Unlike other areas in the state, the EAA BMPs are mandatory and growers must test water being pumped off the farm to prove they are meeting the standard. The BMPs are built around nutrient management, sediment controls, and water management. Growers can choose from a number of practices in each area for their BMP permit. It does provide some flexibility and is not one size fits all.
In addition, growers in the area have imposed a $5 per-acre, per-year tax on themselves to fund research to further improve their productivity while protecting the local environment.
Wade told attendees growers are now banding fertilizer and soil tests are used to ensure fertilizer needs are met, but not exceeded. In addition, there’s a great deal of emphasis placed on sediment control and water management. “One of the things to keep in mind is the muck soil in the EAA is basically decayed plant matter and is high in phosphorous,” he said. “The soil is about 800,000 to 2 million ppb. Put that in comparison with 10 ppb, which is the ultimate standard going down to the Everglades.
“What did that tell us? It told us our main strategy was not just dealing with fertilizer like we read in the newspapers back in the 1990s about this fertilizer-laden water going down to the Everglades causing the cattails and all that. We found out we needed to keep these high-phosphorous muck soils out of the ditches and canals where it could ultimately end up in the water column heading to the Everglades.”
South-Bound Train
Water leaving the EAA moves into STAs where it is cleaned even more. The water comes in at about 150 ppb and the target for the STAs is to reduce phosphorous to 13 ppb.
The STAs act as a huge filter to remove nutrients from water. The system relies on emergent plants like cattails, pickerel weed, and bulrush to remove the nutrients and store them in peat-like soils as they decay. Submerged plants like hydrilla, southern naiad, and chara take phosphorous directly from the water in the STAs. Algae and bacteria on or in these plants also play an important role in cleaning the water.
“Right now, we are not quite getting there with the STAs,” said Larry Gerry, STA coordinator for SFWMD. “We are getting the water down to about 20 ppb of phosphorous, which is close, but no cigar.”
To remedy this, the STAs are going to be expanded. Currently, the treatment areas cover more than 57,000 acres. The expansion will add 6,500 acres of new treatment area to the project. And, 110,000 acre-feet of additional water storage through the construction of flow equalization basins will be added. “We have spent about $1 billion on these STAs and will spend another $880 million on the expansion,” Gerry said. “That investment is to get us from the 20 ppb down to our target 13 ppb.”
Gerry emphasized that the BMPs in the EAA are a critical part of the equation, removing at least half of the nutrient load out of the water that would otherwise have come to the STAs. And, he said the STAs always are evolving and no instruction manual comes with them. “There is no other place like this in the world,” he said. “It is a giant experiment and there is ongoing science to study and improve these challenges.”
Hitting The Sweet Spot
Water flows from the STAs into several massive water conservation areas covering 865,000 acres. These areas clean the water further and are designed for water storage, flood protection, and propagating fish and wildlife.
So after billions have been spent on public works projects and growers have gone all in to help reduce nutrients, is the target of 10 ppb phosphorous being met for water that enters Everglades National Park ? Yes.
“By the time the water gets down to the park, it is about 7 to 10 ppb, so we are generally in compliance,” Gerry said. “Where we struggle a little is more on the top end where the water comes out of the STAs into the conservation areas. But, that is where the expansion project will hopefully help us.”
Local Scientific Approach
During the tour, one theme was reinforced many times: That challenges are best solved at the local level with sound science to back it up. Heading into a year charged with the politics of water, this approach should be remembered and repeated.
As grower Paul Orsenigo puts it: “EAA growers are very proud of the positive results we have achieved here over the past 25 years, especially considering all the unknowns in the early days and relative lack of research on the subject at the time.
“By proactively cooperating with local agencies and making huge investments in technology, science-based research, and on-farm BMPs, EAA growers have shown their commitment to the Everglades and the South Florida environment.”
Barn Owl Boxes
One stop during the Conservation In Action Tour ventured away from water to feature the barn owl boxes that are an important pest control tool in the area. The tall poles with wooden boxes on top checker the landscape in the EAA.
The boxes make a perfect home for barn owls, which have a voracious appetite for the rodents that do damage to the crops grown in the area. The conservation program provides the owls a home, and they return the favor by keeping rodent populations in check.
Local students help build the boxes and learn about conservation in the EAA in the process

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Workshop on water supply to be held in Palatka
St.Augustine Record
November 12, 2014
Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will host a public workshop Thursday about a bill passed to address the water supply in Florida.
Senate Bill 536, which passed in the 2014 legislative session, requires the department to conduct a comprehensive study and submit a report on the expansion of using reclaimed water, stormwater and excess surface water in the state, according to the department. The purpose of a meeting Thursday in Palatka is to provide an overview of feedback received to date, and to get more input from the public, according to a news release.
Among other things, the water report will look for ways to efficiently reuse water and will identify areas in the state where traditional water supply sources are limited and where use of reclaimed water is necessary.
The report will also examine the feasibility and cost of providing the infrastructure for reclaiming and re-using water.
DEP officials are seeking public input before the bill is implemented and to make informed decisions about where to best allocate state funds.
According to the release, “areas of Florida continue to pump water out of the aquifer faster than natural processes can replace it,” and officials are trying to find ways to reverse that trend. The initiative seeks to find ways to preserve groundwater and replenish the aquifer.
People can make comments about the study by sending an email to sb536study@dep.state.fl.us. 
Information about the study and workshop presentations are available online.  
If you go
What: Workshop regarding the 2014 Senate bill that was passed to address the Florida aquifer’s diminishing water supply
Where: St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board Room, 4049 Reid St., Highway 100 West, Palatka.
When: 1 p.m. Thursday.

141111-
Voters had good reason to approve Amendment 1
Sun Sentinel – by Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation
November 11, 2014
There were three proposed constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot. Voters were discerning. One was rejected. A second came just short of approval. The third – Amendment 1 – was overwhelmingly approved.
More than 4.2 million people – 75 percent of the votes cast – agreed to a historic 20 year commitment to environmental preservation and restoration of America’s Everglades.
This extraordinary vote was a clear message from Floridians that they value our natural resources, are concerned about our environmental future, and are willing to make the necessary investment to protect the natural wonders of the Sunshine State.
It will now be up to Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature to decide how best to spend the money set aside by voters to improve our environment and America’s Everglades. It is estimated that in the first year, beginning July 1, 2015, more than $600 million will be set aside from the existing tax on real estate transactions commonly called the documentary or “doc” stamp.
Passage of Amendment 1 also means the state will be making a significant investment in strengthening Florida’s economy with design and construction jobs related to Everglades restoration. In addition, tourism, recreational and commercial fishing, hunting, boating, real estate, and other related industries will all benefit from Amendment One.
Nearly 8 million Floridians and millions of visitors depend on America’s Everglades for their water supply. Amendment 1 will help ensure that we can construct the needed projects to improve water quality and ensure abundant drinking water for our growing population.
As decision makers move forward, we urge that one of their priorities be the critical need to move water south from Lake Okeechobee, store it, clean it, and let it flow through the Central Everglades and finally into Florida Bay and Everglades National Park.
Moving water south also is critical to reducing discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers and estuaries. We must do all we can to end the environmental and economic destruction caused by these discharges. Wise use of the dollars provided by Amendment One can do just that.
Remarkably, 65 of Florida 67 counties voted in favor of Amendment 1. Only the small counties of Lafayette and Holmes failed to have a majority vote for Amendment 1. And even in those counties the vote was close.
During the campaign, restoring America’s Everglades was an important part of the discussion with voters. The Everglades Foundation looks forward to continuing to work with Governor Scott and the Legislature to build upon their past support for important Everglades restoration projects.  
By their vote, Floridians have given us a remarkable opportunity to preserve our environment and America’s Everglades. They will, and should, insist that we get it right.

141110-a
Go green, governor
Ocala.com - Editorial
November 10, 2014
The biggest contradiction of last Tuesday’s election was that Florida voters approved a land and water conservation initiative while re-electing a governor whose awful environmental record make that initiative necessary.
We’ll leave it to political scientists and other pundits to answer the question of how Amendment 1 could get nearly 75 percent of the vote while Gov. Rick Scott narrowly won a second term.
More important is the message that the amendment’s overwhelming support should send to Scott and the Legislature.
Scott and lawmakers spent most of his first term rolling back environmental protections and slashing funding for conservation programs. Only as this year’s election loomed did Scott alter his approach to the environment, and even then it amounted to empty rhetoric.
Take springs protection, an issue that hits home here in Ocala/Marion County and North Florida. Our natural springs are polluted and depleted due to lax regulations and permitting by agency boards now stacked with Scott appointees.
The issue is important not only for the recreational value our springs provide, but because they reflect the conditions in the aquifer that supplies our drinking water.
State water management districts have estimated that they would need $120 million in the first year alone to get serious about springs restoration. Springs experts say restoration efforts need to include new rules restricting pollution near springs from agriculture, septic tanks and other sources.
This year’s legislative session offered promise in the form of a bill that would have created springs protection zones and dedicated about $365 million annually for springs restoration.
Instead, lawmakers gutted protections in the measure, whittled down funding to a one-time infusion of $30 million, and pledged to make tougher decisions next session. It’s always next year, it seems.
Scott had promised more for springs protection in his budget but offered zero leadership on the issue. In August, the governor announced a grand environmental plan that includes $500 million for springs restoration over 10 years. Never mind that Scott will only be in office for another four years and failed to identify a funding source for the money.
Amendment 1 dedicates one-third of an existing tax on real estate sales over 20 years for purchasing, managing and restoring conservation land. It would generate $648 million its first year to those efforts.
Lawmakers should view that figure as a floor, not a ceiling. With big-ticket items such as continuing the restoration of the Everglades on the agenda, springs can’t get short shrift.
But buying land isn’t enough. Florida also must implement statewide, mandatory water conservation measures and stricter controls on pollution.
We’re skeptical about the prospects of the governor suddenly going green. But we hold out hope that Scott will recognize the economic benefits of protecting the natural beauty that draws people to this state.
Amendment 1 should serve as a wake-up call for Scott and the Legislature. Either they can address the problem, or voters will do it without them.

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State officials turn down development plan in Hendry County to safeguard Everglades restoration
WGCU.org – Ashley Lopez
November 10, 2014
In an unusual move, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity objected to a proposed development plan in Hendry County.
The Sugar Hill development plan, which was backed by U.S. Sugar, raised a lot of eyebrows.
Environmentalists, as well as a slew of state agencies, were worried the plan could jeopardize Everglades’ restoration efforts. That’s because the proposed site would sit in the middle of land set aside for water flow south from Lake Okeechobee.
These concerns, and others, are why a state agency tasked with signing-off on economic development projects objected. Proponents of the plan said it would bring much needed housing and construction projects to a part of the state with the highest unemployment rates.
Craig Pittman with The Tampa Bay Times reported, this was a rare move for the agency, because it has “approved almost every development project submitted to it.”
Pittman said the plan became controversial when officials and environmentalists noticed it could be bad for the Everglades.
“I think it was hard to make that argument with a straight face that it wouldn’t harm Everglades’ restoration,” he said. “So, when I talked to the folks from U.S. Sugar, their argument was ‘well, we are not doing it right now.’ So if that’s the strongest argument you got for letting this proceed, well that’s not a very strong argument.”
Other state agencies also raised concerns about water supply and transportation. Pittman said this isn’t the end of the road, though. U.S. Sugar has about six months to address the roughly 34 objections raised throughout the approval process. He said it will be really hard to get that all done in time.
“But it’s U.S. Sugar,” Pittman explained. “They are one of the most powerful corporations in the state-- not to mention the country. So, if anyone can do it, they could.”
Activists in Fort Myers and Fort Pierce held rallies last month asking state officials to turn down the Sugar Hill Plan. 

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Broader horizon for Gov. Scott
TBO.com - Editorial
November 9, 2014
Gov, Rick Scott can credit both of his narrow campaign victories to a compelling message about creating jobs in a state devastated by the economic recession.
He deserves credit for effectively seizing on the one issue that most affects the well-being of the state’s 19 million residents. Under his watch, the state cut its unemployment rate nearly in half, and if he can’t claim all the credit for that rebound, he surely deserves some of it.
But now that revenues are rising along with the housing market, and the tourism industry is generating record tax receipts, it’s time for Scott to expand his focus beyond jobs.
To his credit, he appeared during the campaign to be moving in that direction. He pledged if re-elected to fund education at record levels and to dedicate millions to the Everglades and springs restoration efforts.
No doubt that foresighted tone helped him win another term. Now it’s time to deliver on those pledges.
His record on education remains mixed. He cut billions in his first budget, turned the education secretary job into a revolving door, called for an education summit he didn’t bother to attend, and is overseeing the implementation of a new standardized test without the proper vetting.
Yet after that first year, he has also pushed for additional education funds and, in particular, has fought to make higher education affordable for all families.
Scott now needs to push the Legislature to deliver the support he’s promised, and he should listen to the superintendents in school districts across the state who are pleading for more time to adjust to the new state standardized test. Why risk a train wreck related to standardized tests and school grades?
At the same time, he should continue to recognize that families should be able to pick the education option that works best for their children. Vouchers and charter schools should be part of the mix.
On the environment, Scott early on gutted regulatory agencies that protected taxpayers and natural resources from the ill effects of haphazard growth. No doubt there was too much red tape, but this went too far. Now, with rapid growth returning, Scott should recognize the state needs to ensure development doesn’t prove costly and destructive.
It is encouraging the governor supports funding springs restoration efforts and cleaning up the Everglades and other waterways.
Those efforts should be aided by the passage Tuesday of Amendment 1, which dedicates as much as $800 million a year to restoration and protection of our natural resources.
It received far more votes (4.2 million) than any race on the statewide ballot, with nearly 75 percent support.
There should be no doubt about what voters want. Scott would bolster his environmental legacy if he demands that lawmakers spend the revenue properly on conservation programs and not attempt any diversion of the funds.
The governor, a former health care executive, also can influence the debate over the billions of dollars in Medicaid money the federal government offered Florida under Obamacare.
The money can provide health care to nearly 1 million Floridians. He appeared ready at one point to go along with other Republican governors who initially rejected the money but later decided to accept the funding. But he disappeared from the debate when Republican leaders in the House refused to take the money. They feared the Obama administration would not live up to its fiscal commitment.
Scott should use his health care expertise to develop a plan that would ease lawmakers’ fears. The federal government has, surprisingly, shown a willingness to accept proposals by states to revise the plan. Studies show expanding Medicaid would create jobs and be good for the economy. It has the backing of business leaders, and Scott can make an economic argument to take the money, particularly if he offers a more conservative strategy.
On energy, Scott should push for programs that incentivize solar projects, rather than allow the utilities to dictate renewable energy efforts. Citizens need more energy choices.
And he also should add his voice to the drumbeat in Pinellas and Pasco counties to change an anti-consumer law that allows Duke Energy to charge its customers for the cost of a nuclear plant that never will be built. That affects people’s pocketbooks, just as taxes do.
On transportation, Scott has unveiled plans to build a number of toll roads to relieve congestion in the state. That is appropriate, but he also should look for other ways to ease congestion without imposing tolls, including supporting transit in urban areas.
We know the governor will continue to excel at recruiting new businesses and promoting tourism. We can count on him to pursue a leaner, more efficient government and to ease the tax burden on citizens and businesses.
It’s easy to forget that Scott didn’t move to Florida until 2003. It takes a while for transplants to fully appreciate all the diverse needs of this beautiful state.
But the governor’s outlook clearly evolved during his first term. We hope he further broadens his horizon in the second.

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Passing of Amendment 1 significant for conservation
News-Press.com – by Rob Moher, president and CEO, Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
November 9, 2014
We as a conservation community accomplished something of lasting significance Tuesday — the passage of the largest conservation constitutional amendment in U.S. history. On behalf of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, I would like to thank the citizens of Southwest Florida for your support, commitment and vote to protect our natural resources.
The amendment needed 60 percent of the vote to pass. When the votes were counted, the amendment received just over 74 percent, or 4,218,651 votes.
This sends a strong message to our Legislature regarding the importance voters place on conservation and the environment. Many of you have been instrumental in this effort. Whether you joined us in gathering signatures for ballot qualification, attended one of our public forums, volunteered on the campaign, or simply voted Yes on 1, thank you.
Amendment 1 will provide a significant dedicated stream of funding for restoring water quality, restoring land acquisition efforts, Everglades restoration, protecting key wildlife habitat areas, and management of existing public lands for recreational access and enjoyment, without any increase in tax dollars. The Conservancy will remain deeply engaged in supporting the final and most important phase of this initiative, implementation. When Florida lawmakers begin allocating Amendment 1 dollars, we will be working on behalf of you to ensure our voices are heard loud and clear.
The Amendment 1 statewide leadership team led by Will Abberger from Trust for Public Lands did an outstanding job coordinating with hundreds of local, regional and statewide organizations in marshaling support. As part of our mission to protect Southwest Florida's water, land, wildlife and future, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida dedicated significant resources in time, dollars, staff and volunteers to educate Southwest Florida voters about the significance of Amendment 1, in order to protect our precious environment for future generations.
This is a great example of what we can accomplish together to protect Florida's most cherished waters and natural areas. Thank you for your continued commitment to protecting our environment which supports the underpinnings of our economy and quality of life.
Onward!

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Time to see if Tallahassee is serious about the environment
TBO.org - by Joe Henderso,| Tribune Staff
November 9, 2014
In the just-completed election, more than 4.2 million Floridians voted to approve the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative — Amendment 1, for short.
That’s more votes than anything else on the ballot received. That’s 1.3 million votes more than Rick Scott got in winning re-election as our state’s governor. The message was unmistakable.
People want the state to protect more land from development, and they authorized spending 33 percent of the money the state gets from the existing excise tax on documents to do so. They want wetlands restored. They want wildlife protected. They want Florida’s freshwater springs renewed. They want clean beaches and parks.
They just told the state to get it done.
Better read the fine print, though.
This measure could be worth $18 billion over the next 20 years, and Florida will greatly benefit if it is spent as the voters directed.
❖ ❖ ❖
That’s a big pot of money, though, and the law gives some wiggle room to legislators who might have a wider idea about what constitutes conservation come crunch time in Tallahassee’s annual cash grab. If the Legislature starts playing budget parlor games in a few years, the will of the people could wind up being ignored.
“I’d say the Legislature should carefully read the amendment from the point of view of the 4.2 million people who walked into the booth and voted yes,” Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said. “The Legislature is going to do some shuffling of the budget because of this, and we expect that. But we expect them to do it in a way that’s true to the amendment.”
Residents understand what a treasure we have in Florida, from the beaches inward to where wildlife still roams. The state has amazing parks, scenic rivers, forests and lakes. People want that lifestyle protected, even as the state’s population continues to swell and more land is paved over and built upon in the name of jobs and growth.
That’s why this amendment was needed. It is one of the most significant environmental laws ever passed here.
“It shows the people want Florida to always have a wild and natural side to it,” Sierra Club regional representative Phil Compton said. “If they live in the cities, they want to be able to get away and enjoy that natural part of Florida because, frankly, there’s no better way to unwind than being in the outdoors.”
During the gubernatorial campaign, Scott seized upon the issue by pledging $1 billion to buy land for conservation and address water issues in Florida’s streams and the Everglades. This amendment essentially ensures that Scott will be able to keep that promise.
He hasn’t always been a friend of the environment. Early in his first term, Scott cut funding for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, streamlined environmental permitting, wreaked havoc on environmental staffing and regulations, and so on.
Even now it could prove interesting to see how the governor balances his pro-business agenda against environmental concerns.
He says he will, and everyone wants to believe him. Everyone will benefit if he does.
“This law will have a huge impact,” Draper said. “Twenty years from now, it will be one of the most important things ever done for the Florida environment. Our water will be cleaner. We have a lot of good parks. Wildlife will be protected. We’re going to keep after them to make sure that’s what happens.”

141108-a
Scientists say red tide fueled by 12 sources
MarcoIslandFlorida.com
November 8, 2014
Scientists studying red tide have identified a dozen nutrient sources that feed blooms, but they say no single source is responsible for the toxic outbreaks.
Red tide in Southwest Florida is caused by Karenia brevis, a single-celled organism that releases powerful neurotoxins that can cause mass fish and marine mammal kills, render shellfish inedible and cause respiratory issues in humans. Low concentrations of Karenia brevis have been documented in Southwest Florida in the past week and a report released Friday afternoon shows a bloom, mostly offshore, from Charlotte Harbor south to Marco Island.
Scientists hope this latest research will help them better track future blooms, which can harm the marine ecosystem and Florida’s tourism industry.
Outbreaks have likely occurred for thousands of years and are a natural phenomena, but scientists haven’t pinpointed exactly what causes Karenia brevis to go from normal to deadly levels. Upward of 236 manatees were killed in Lee County by a red tide outbreak in 2013. Causes of death for some animals were undetermined but thought to be related to the red tide bloom. It occurs throughout the Gulf of Mexico but is most problematic in Southwest Florida.
“One of the most interesting things that hadn’t previously been taken into account is the organism’s ability to not just use sunlight, like plants, but also consume other single-celled organisms as a nutrient source,” researcher Judith O’Neil, a University of Maryland environmental sciences professor, wrote.
Other nutrient sources listed in the report include: bacteria transforming nitrogen in the water into more useful forms, decay of Trichodesmium blooms (identified as a long-term source) and nitrogen from the air.
“The things I hadn’t heard about red tide consuming before were small phytoplankton other than Trichodesmium and Synechococcus,” said Rick Bartleson, a water quality scientist at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. “The fact that they can consume organic matter was known, but what species they are consuming was not.”
Low-to-medium
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency that tracks red tide, reported Friday that low to medium concentrations were found at the north end of Captiva, Boca Grande Pass and the north end of Pine Island Sound and a large patch offshore of Bonita Beach, Naples and Marco Island.
Previously known sources include stormwater run-off, septic tanks, and excess nutrients from the upstream water management system, which starts south of Orlando and includes Lake Okeechobee.
The current bloom is mostly offshore of Lee and Collier County beaches and is 60 miles long and about 15 miles wide, FWC reports. Bartleson, who takes water quality samples at the Sanibel Causeway, Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island Sound, said high concentrations were found last week in Pine Island Sound and at the Sanibel Causeway.
“It started offshore and came into the passes, like Redfish and Boca Grande,” he said. “Concentrations are still higher in the north part of Pine Island Sound.”
Bartleson said he wasn’t surprised that red tide can subsist on a variety of nutrients, most of which are too small to be seen by the naked eye.
“I can see how they would discriminate based on particle size,” Bartleson said. “It’s not like they have brains and eyes to see what they’re eating.

141108-b
Stephen Colbert has the best translation of Republicans' new favorite catchphrase
Business Insider – by Kevin Loria
November 8, 2014,
When asked questions about climate change, many Republicans are in a tough spot.
If they say they know the scientific consensus is that human-caused climate change is real, they run the risk of alienating members of their base who don't believe that. But seeing as most Americans actually do recognize that climate change is occurring and is an issue, not all Republicans are willing to claim, like Oklahoma Sen. James Inhoffe, that facts generally accepted as true are a hoax.
So many default to what they must think of as a middle ground. They point out that they aren't scientists.
Of course, some have noted that this is absurd. As David Shiffman writes, lawmakers are willing to weigh in on all kinds of issues that aren't their personal area of expertise:
Do they have opinions on how to best maintain our nation's highways, bridges, and tunnels—or do they not because they're not civil engineers ? Do they refuse to talk about agriculture policy on the grounds that they're not farmers ? How do they think we should be addressing the threat of ISIS ? They wouldn't know, of course; they're not military generals.
No one would ever say these things, because they're ridiculous.
Yet, when it comes to climate change, the "I'm not a scientist" line somehow persists.
Stephen Colbert provided a whole montage of prominent Republicans making the claim during the Nov. 6 episode of the Colbert Report.
Take newly elected Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, nephew of George W. Bush. He admits that the Texas coastline is affected by rising sea levels, but when asked about whether or not human activity contributes to climate change, he responds "I'll leave that to the scientists..." He thinks human influence on climate ranges "everywhere from no impact at all to 100%."
Colbert also includes news clips of John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, and others uttering the same line.
So what does this really mean?
Colbert's translation is that "everyone who denies man-made climate change has the same stirring message. 'We don't know what the f*ck we're talking about.'"
And with the actual global warming denier James Inhofe very likely taking over the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Colbert has one more message for the young members of the audience.
"Remember kids, if you get unhooked on science early, maybe someday you could completely lack any understanding of science, and then grow up to be the Chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee."

141106-a
Conservation a hit with Florida voters
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
November 6, 2014
Floridians were divided on many issues and races on election day, but they overwhelmingly approved an amendment that will send millions of dollars to the state's land conservation and preservation program.
Nearly 75 percent of voters said "yes" on Amendment 1, or the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative. The money is generated by a real estate transaction document tax and will be used for land purchases and management for the next 20 years. Recent state estimates say the program will generate more than $600 million in its first year, which starts in July 2015.
Locally, the initiative is expected to fund Everglades restoration projects, water quality features such as the Caloosahatchee Reservoir, and to pay farmers for land easements that would increase panther habitat.
"Three out of four voters supported conservation. That's a strong message," said Nancy Payton, a Naples representative of the Florida Wildlife Federation. "For years conservation did get a nice chunk of those documentary stamp tax dollars, so it's just restoring a source of income for conservation."
Decades would have been a more appropriate measure of time since the state first adopted its land conservation program, known in recent years as Florida Forever.
Land acquisition has been funded nearly every year since 1963, through 11 administrations with various political affiliations. Florida Forever, the latest rendition of taxpayer-funded land-buying programs, had an annual budget of $300 million for nearly 20 years, securing more than 683,000 acres at a value of $2.87 billion since 2001.
But from 2009 through 2012, a period that would have generated $1.2 billion under past regimes, administrations under Charlie Crist and Rick Scott set aside about $20 million combined for Florida Forever.
Payton said voters wanted the money set aside because past lawmakers gutted revenues for conservation lands.
"It is a lot of money, but Florida is growing," she said. "I can see money for Southwest Florida, CREW acquisitions, other land acquisitions that complement other established preserve lands. It could also be used to encourage land owners to maintain habitat for panther use. Could be expansion of the Panther Refuge or Fisheating Creek."
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida, described the passage of the amendment as a huge victory for the environment, especially areas of the historic Everglades.
"We have a backlog of 1.8 million acres that have been identified as possible preserve land, and a lot of that land is in South Florida," Draper said. "It's about finishing projects like CREW, where half the land is still needed to be purchased."
Legislators must still determine exactly how and when the money will be spent.
"We expect 25 to 30 percent of the money to be spent on the Everglades, and that would include some of the estuary projects — like the Caloosahatchee reservoir," Draper said. "We need to purchase land north of Lake Okeechobee to protect it and use it to store and treat water to restore wetlands."
Opponents included the Florida Chamber of Commerce and a few hunting rights groups. Many legislators were against the amendment as well.
"This doesn't have anything to do with the merits of land conservation and preservation," said Matt Caldwell, R-North Fort Myers. "I don't think any of the other issues that we end up voting on should go in our Constitution — from net bans to conservation programs to medical marijuana."
Caldwell said he only supports amendments that deal with basic human rights, like the right to privacy or to bear arms.
"They (the public) voted for it," Caldwell said. "It's just not the right venue, philosophically."
Caldwell said the state's approach to land conservation has been consistent.
"That has only faced difficulty in the recession, when we raise taxes or cut environmental funds or education funds," Caldwell said. "We didn't have enough money to pay the bills."
Related:           Some Good News From the Midterm Elections        SustainableBusiness.com
Florida Votes 'Yes' On Biggest Land Conservation Bill Ever           Gizmodo
Amendment 1 passage should send a message: Environment a ...     Daytona Beach News-Journal

141106-b
Pollution of Florida Everglades hampers Miccosukee tribal traditions
Fusion.net
November 6, 2014
Two centuries ago the Miccosukee Indians fled from settlers into the Florida Everglades, where they survived off the natural ecosystem with an abundance of wildlife found nowhere else.
Today, the Everglades serves as the main water supply for one in every three Floridians and is also a busy tourist destination.
But as urban developments and farms continue to spread across the state, the River of Grass is shrinking despite billions of dollars spent on restoration efforts.
​”It’s hard to live off the land like my grandparents used to,” said Houston Cypress, a Miccosukee descendant. His family used to live on tree islands. But changes in the land and water are “impeding open access to our sacred sites and making it difficult for us to maintain our traditions out here.”
​Cypress blames the polluted water that is running down from sugar and agriculture farms further north, making its way into the Everglades and right onto tribal land.
“We have a big problem here in the Miccosukee community with a canal that’s just near Alligator Alley. It’s called L-28…and it’s bringing a lot of phosphorus.”
The state of Florida has been draining the Everglades since Florida became a state to make way for urban development and farms. Soil in the Everglades doesn’t naturally support crops, so farms add fertilizer rich in phosphorus. It is an essential mineral, but in excess can do more harm than good to the natural environment.
Thousands of cattails began to appear and phosphorus was the culprit, according to Lawrence Gerry with the South Florida Water Management District. The cattails smother smaller native plants that wildlife rely on as a food sources, water movement is slowed and areas where water is supposed to flow freely are being choked.
Through its improved farming practices, the sugar industry reduced phosphorus by 63 percent in its latest monitoring period, according to water management officials.
Fusion sent several requests for comment from sugar companies, including Florida Crystals and Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. ​The largest sugar cane producer in the country, U.S. Sugar Coporation, told us it “has been a partner in Everglades restoration for nearly two decades, and we prove our commitment on the farm every day, cleaning water before it leaves our farms. In addition, we proudly support the state and federal restoration projects that will further protect our natural resources for future generations.
Thousands of water samples are tested at the South Florida Water Management District.
“If we are going to be discharging water in the Everglades, then we want to make sure that the water is good enough​,” said David Struve with the SFWMD.
“I don’t think there’s a doubt that we’re seeing some improvements in water quality, but there’s still a long way to go.”
“We are by far the leader in the world for ecosystem restoration. All eyes are on us​,” said Julie-Hill Gabriel, ​director of Everglades Policy with Audubon Florida. “As we start to complete projects and show progress, we are really showing the world that it can be done. It’s a challenge. We are trying to engineer nature and we constantly are running into new challenges that we hadn’t thought of before.
For Houston Cypress, the progress is not fast enough.
“For me this is home. This is my sacred placeI ’m really scared that over time, it’s gonna disappear.”

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Patrick MURPHY
Congressman

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Rep. Patrick Murphy: "Moderation" is key to success
Sun Sentinel - by William E. Gibson
November 6, 2014
Freshman Congressman Patrick Murphy’s convincing victory in a Republican-leaning district in South Florida is arguably the Democratic Party’s most revealing success story in this election year.
The youngest member of Congress, at 31, has got some advice for his party:
“I hope the Democrats see a little more moderation,” Murphy said in an interview.
“The business Democrats – the Clintonesque-type Democrats – have a real opportunity to grow, because you’ve got a lot of folks out there who are disappointed in both parties. Most of the (voters) I talk to are fiscally responsible and socially more accepting.”
Success, he said, means finding the political middle ground, being willing to compromise and focusing on solving problems, not making political points.
“A lot of folks look at the political calculation and then determine the policy,” he said. “I think that’s backward.
“Voters want to get things done. From either side of the aisle, they are tired of the finger-pointing, tired of the jockeying for political power. They want results.”
From the time he came to Washington two years ago, Murphy took a non-partisan stance and reminded anyone listening that he grew up in a Republican household in Fort Lauderdale before becoming a business-friendly Democrat. Once considered the most vulnerable Democrat in the House, he focused on local concerns that appealed to all parties.
Murphy, a businessman, jumped into politics in 2012 to challenge then-Congressman Allen West, a fire-breathing tea party favorite who offended Democrats, wowed conservatives and drew millions of dollars of campaign contributions from across the country.
But West’s swing district in Broward and Palm Beach counties was redrawn, which made it less favorable to a Republican. So West moved north to run in another district along the Treasure Coast in northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
Murphy followed him, moving from Fort Lauderdale to Jupiter to continue his challenge. He ran against the politics of division, confrontation and what he called extremism, just barely defeating West.
That made Murphy a hero to Democrats but also a top target for Republicans.
Murphy responded by seizing the middle ground and taking up the popular cause of Everglades restoration. In particular, he pressed for federal and state action to clean up polluted waterways that run through his district.
“Murphy has led on Everglades restoration, and his Republican voters turned out to support him,” said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, who once served as chief of staff to former Republican Congressman Clay Shaw.
The result: Murphy defeated Republican challenger Carl Domino, who spent more than a million dollars of his own money, by 60 percent to 40 percent.
Murphy said he hopes Congress will be more productive. He said the larger Republican majority in the House could dilute tea party influence and make it easier for GOP leaders to work with moderate Democrats and pass legislation.
“Let’s focus on our fiscal house, let’s get that right,” he said. “If we can be the first party to really do that, put forward that agenda and be willing to compromise, I think we’ll have good things to come for the country.”

141106-d
State Department of Economic Opportunity issues rare objection to U.S. Sugar development plan
Tampa Bay Times – by Craig Pittman, Staff Writer
November 6, 2014
A state agency that has approved almost every development project submitted to it has balked at U.S. Sugar's plans to develop land currently slated for Everglades restoration.
On 67 square miles of sugar land southwest of Lake Okeechobee in Hendry County, U.S. Sugar and Hilliard Brothers of Florida, another sugar company with adjoining property, have joined forces on a project called "Sugar Hill."
Their plan would plop 18,000 homes and 25 million square feet of stores, offices, warehouses and other commercial buildings amid the rural landscape, even though some of it is land the state has an option to buy to help restore the River of Grass.
Hendry County officials wasted little time in approving the Sugar Hill development in August. But then four state agencies — the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District and the Department of Transportation — all raised strong objections, as did environmental and planning groups.
Now the state Department of Economic Opportunity, which in its three years of existence has rarely objected to anything, has declined to approve the changes to Hendry County's land-use plan.
Instead, it noted that the changes sought for the Sugar Hill project provide "no assurances of natural resource protection." It said the plan can either ditch the idea of any development in areas designated for Everglades restoration, or some time in the next 180 days show "why these lands are no longer appropriate for conservation or Everglades restoration activities."
That was one of 34 specific objections, ranging from flood protection to farmworker housing, which need to be addressed in the next six months if Hendry County and the sugar companies want the plan approved, the agency said.
Opponents of the Sugar Hill plan hailed the agency's move. The plan was "poorly designed, would have caused irreparable harm to the environment, and at best was little more than a profit grab by developers at the expense of taxpayers," Erik Eikenberg of the Everglades Foundation said.
Charles Pattison of the growth management group 1,000 Friends of Florida, said he thinks the sugar companies and Hendry County will have a tough time revamping the plan so extensively in such a short time.
"You couldn't ask for a longer list of objections," he said. "It would be pretty daunting to cover all of it. I think that's going to be very difficult."
"It would appear that it's fatally flawed," the Everglades Law Center's Lisa Interlandi said. "The objections raised went to the heart of the (land-use) plan amendment."
U.S. Sugar spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said in an email that company officials are "reviewing in detail the very thorough … report from the Department of Economic Opportunity on the Sugar Hill Sector Plan, and we look forward to working with Hendry County, the DEO and the reviewing agencies to address the issues, recommendations and comments."
DEO officials said in an email that the list of objections "speak for themselves.''
The sugar companies submitted their plan while U.S. Sugar was busy taking Florida politicians on secret hunting trips to King Ranch in Texas. Among those who have attended: Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and incoming House Speaker Steve Crisafulli.
A Times/Herald analysis of campaign records found that since late 2011, U.S. Sugar paid more than $95,000 to the Republican Party of Florida for at least 20 weekend trips — destinations unspecified on public documents — within days of more than a dozen Florida politicians registering for Texas hunting licenses.
But U.S. Sugar, Republican Party officials and the politicians who took the trips have all been reluctant to say much about the trips, which were not mentioned in Scott's or Putnam's official schedules, or disclosed under the King Ranch name in RPOF documents. The silence prevented any public scrutiny of whether the sugar industry is using these trips to influence decisions on such issues as the future of the Everglades or state water policy, which is scheduled to be a key issue in next year's legislative session.

141105-a
Cape Sable canals pose a threat to bay
KeysNews.com - by Brian Bowden, Free Press Staff
November 5, 2014
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK -- The very remote Cape Sable, located at the southwesternmost point of mainland Florida, could hold the future health of Florida Bay in its dirty little hands.
"It's just astonishing to watch [the damage that is occurring at the cape]," said Tom Van Lent, a Key Largo resident who is the director of science and policy at the Everglades Foundation. "It's a frightening problem."
The problem Van Lent references deals directly with various canals on the cape that allow saltwater from the bay to wash into freshwater areas of the park during high tides and storms, where it kills vegetation and alters the ecosystem.
These six trenches spread out over a few miles were originally carved out about a century ago by Henry Flagler's land company in the hopes of draining the marshy wetland and attracting settlers farther south. That plan never panned out and it left behind a muddy, salty mess in the cape's previously freshwater Lake Ingraham, which park officials now describe as brackish.
The canals also allow extreme amounts of nutrient-laden runoff to flow back into the bay. And in this case nutrients released by decaying vegetation can spell bad news for the bay, according to Van Lent.
"The nutrient level is increasing [in the bay]," he said.
The canals, which were originally dug to be about 15 to 20 feet wide, have widened over time to more than 200 feet in some locations due to erosion. Two were plugged in 2011 thanks to $7 million in federal stimulus grants. Four more need the same kind of dams in the near future.
"We don't really know if the dams will solve all the problems," acting Everglades National Park Superintendent Bob Krumenaker said. "But it will definitely make it better."
Cape Sable and the surrounding area will never get back to normal "until the canals are dammed effectively," he added.
That effort, however, is on hold as the park has to first complete an environmental assessment before it can even receive grant money.
Krumenaker says the assessment will take over a year to complete. And after that, federal funding is not guaranteed.
"It will be a challenge to get the funding," he said. "But we are hopeful money will be available at that time."
The foundation for which Van Lent works last month provided the park with $143,000 to cover half the cost of the assessment in the hope it would speed up the process to restore Cape Sable and Lake Ingraham and prevent harm to the bay.
Fishermen familiar with 1992's massive algae bloom in the bay could see history repeat itself if work isn't eventually done to plug the remaining canals. Some scientists believe that nutrient runoff from that area was the main culprit in feeding the bloom, which dealt a major blow to the local commercial and recreational fishing industries.
"If it's a perfect storm, yes [it could happen again]," Van Lent said.
Either way, Van Lent, who was a research scientist for the park in 1992, said threats to the cape and the surrounding area will remain if something isn't done soon.
"Sometimes it's hard to see the effects," Van Lent said as he related the problem to a smoldering fire that never really goes out. "But it needs to be addressed."

141105-b
Conservation amendment passes; medical marijuana and judicial appointments fail
JAX Daily Record - by Jim Saunders and Tom Urban, The News Service of Florida
November 5, 2014
Little more than three months ago, Floridians appeared poised to overwhelmingly pass a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana.
But Tuesday, after a barrage of negative ads by opponents, the idea came crashing down.
According to the results, 57.5 percent of voters backed the proposed amendment — known as Amendment 2 — that would have allowed patients to receive the substance. But constitutional amendments require approval from 60 percent of voters to pass.
The pot proposal was one of three constitutional amendments on the ballot Tuesday.
Voters easily passed an amendment that will lead to increased funding for land conservation and other environmental projects. The results showed a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 74.93 percent in favor and 25.07 percent against.
Voters also rejected a third amendment that involved the appointment of Supreme Court justices and appeals-court judges. It didn’t even receive a simple majority — 47.9 percent voted in favor, while 52.1 percent disapproved.
The medical-marijuana initiative was spearheaded by Orlando attorney John Morgan, who is known throughout the state for his ubiquitous Morgan and Morgan law-firm television ads and billboards.
Opponents said the amendment included loopholes that would lead to a wide-open pot industry that would go far beyond helping patients who suffer from debilitating illnesses.
While the medical-marijuana initiative was highly controversial, the land-conservation amendment drew grumbling from Republican legislative leaders and some business groups but appeared to have no organized opposition.
The proposal, which was Amendment 1 on the ballot, will require the state to dedicate a portion of real-estate tax revenue over the next 20 years for environmental preservation. The proposal will generate billions of dollars from the existing tax, with the money going to buy or restore areas crucial to Florida’s water supply, such as the land around springs, and natural systems that have been despoiled, such as the Everglades..
The third amendment on the ballot was placed there by Republican lawmakers and involved a complicated question about the appointment of future Supreme Court justices and appeals-court judges. It received only about 48 percent support.
Related:           Florida Amendments Pass and Fail    WGCU News
Amendment 3: Conservation Measure Wins Big With Voters           The Ledger
Florida Voters Approve Constitutional Guarantee for Conservation ...         WJCT NEWS

141105-c
GOP advance in governorships could change climate policies
EEnews.net – by Christa Marshall and Nathanael Massey, E&E reporters
November 5, 2014
Echoing the GOP wave in the U.S. Senate, Republicans picked up or held several key governor's seats that could influence emissions trends and climate policies in some of the largest greenhouse gas-emitting states.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott held off a challenge from Democrat Charlie Crist, dealing a significant blow to environmental billionaire Tom Steyer, whose NextGen Climate Action political action committee poured money into the contest and conducted an "ark tour" to highlight coastal threats.
Incumbent Republican governors swept tight races in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and Maine, which also were targeted by Steyer. Governor's mansions flipped from Democrats to the GOP in Maryland, Arkansas and Massachusetts, which has not had a Republican governor since Mitt Romney in 2007.
"Tomorrow marks a new day. ... Florida is on a mission," said Scott in his victory speech.
While climate change came up in few races or debates, the outcomes could determine how states react to U.S. EPA's proposed emissions rule on existing power plants, as well as influence key land-use and appropriations decisions on everything from levee construction to electric vehicle stations. They also could play a role in 2016's presidential election, as popular governors can bring in votes at the national level.
Governor's races "may actually have more influence on the outcome" of the proposed EPA rule than Congress, even though much of the speculation around the rule's fate has focused on the midterm outcome in the Senate, said Bobby McKinstry, chairman of the Climate Change and Sustainability Initiative at law firm Ballard-Spahr.
EPA climate rule gives states wide latitude
Although emissions rate targets would be set forth by EPA under the Clean Power Plan, states have wide latitude in designing plans to meet those targets, he said. As chief executives with authority over state environmental departments, governors will play an important role in determining whether states act pre-emptively to accommodate the rule or oppose it, either by court challenge or by failure to create a state implementation plan
J.R. Tolbert, executive director of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, said his concern is that multiple governors might balk at complying with EPA, forcing the federal government to step in and essentially write state rules. If Congress were, in turn, to cut back on EPA's purse strings, that could slow down implementation of the entire process of curbing emissions on power plants, he said. "We think it's better if a state submits a plan," said Tolbert.
Several of the governors elected last night have vowed to fight the EPA rule.
For example, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) -- who won re-election last night -- has been a fierce critic of EPA and was signatory to a letter in September criticizing the proposed rule as a broad -- and possibly illegal -- federal overreach. The state's new attorney general, Republican Brad Schimel, campaigned in part on a promise to sue EPA over its proposed rule.
Had both elections gone differently, Wisconsin would likely have joined a coalition of states willing to work with EPA on its new standards, said Michael Kraft, professor emeritus of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. As it stands, the pairing of governor and attorney general mean that EPA can expect a strong degree of resistance from the state, he said.
In Arkansas, which flipped from Democratic to Republican, Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson vowed in a debate this year to also fight EPA partly for its burden on the state's coal-fired power plants, "because you don't even have the technology in place right now that can meet the EPA regulations."
The positions of other governors-elect are murkier. When asked about climate change and the EPA rule in a debate, new Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) called for more diversification of energy resources, including more development of wind and solar. "But I also believe we can be prudent in our energy development from more traditional resources," he said.
In Massachusetts, The Boston Globe reported this fall that Gov.-elect Charlie Baker privately expressed doubts about climate science several years ago to environmentalists. However, Baker told the paper he had a different recollection of that meeting. His campaign materials also emphasize renewables and efficiency, saying green investment is needed to "reduce our carbon footprint."
One analyst said that despite the New England GOP shift, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) -- a regional carbon-trading program in the Northeast -- likely would not be affected, as many state governments are reliant on money from carbon auctions. These candidates "are not Chris Christie," the analyst said, referring to the Republican New Jersey governor's removal of his state from the cap-and-trade program.
In other high-profile races last night, Gov. Paul LePage (R) won re-election in Maine, and Republican Larry Hogan scored a surprise victory in Maryland in the contest for a seat vacated by Democrat Martin O'Malley because of term limits. Gov. Sam Brownback (R) also won re-election in Kansas. As of press time, races in Alaska, Connecticut and Colorado were too close to call.
Was 'I am not a scientist' a winning ploy ?
The focal point for climate change in state races this year was Florida, where Gov. Scott faced repeated open letters from climate scientists about his prior statements of "I'm not a scientist" when pressed about climate change. On the EPA rule, Scott has been "coy" about his intentions but might also refuse to work with the federal agency, said Frank Jackalone, Florida staff director of the Sierra Club.
Scott won praise from conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity for his emphasis on economic growth and low electricity costs. Crist "promoted mandating more expensive energy [in an] effort to appease the solar industry," said Abbie MacIver, deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity, yesterday.
But Scott has been sharply criticized by greens for funding and regulatory decisions.
For example, he cut approximately $700 million from the state's water management districts, which play a key role in flood control in areas like Miami. He also required more economic considerations with state rulemaking -- a move praised by some businesses but criticized by others for slowing down plans for measures such as improving water conditions in Biscayne Bay.
Scott "will try to launch a new wave of residential growth in the state of Florida" that will worsen pollution, said Jackalone, referring to Scott's plan to build a massive transportation and urban network on existing farmland. There also will be little movement to remove restrictions on financing of solar, because of the influence of utilities with the governor, he said.
One bright spot for many environmentalists and Steyer came in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Tom Wolf won an early victory over Gov. Tom Corbett (R). While the race largely hinged on education and a gas severance tax, Wolf is on record as wanting to bring Pennsylvania into RGGI.
Because of Pennsylvania's status as the third-largest greenhouse gas-emitting state, such a move -- along with any shift in renewable or coal policy -- could have regional repercussions (ClimateWire, July 11). In September, the state Legislature passed a bill allowing either chamber to nix state plans to comply with EPA's Clean Power Plan.
However, the legislation that ultimately passed contained provisions allowing the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to still submit an EPA plan after any delay created by a vote, said Jackson Morris, an energy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. That means Wolf may be unaffected by the bill, he said.
The bill was "political theater," he said.

141105-d
Scientists use bugs against water hyacinth nuisance
eKantipur.com
November 5, 2014
KASKI, NOV 05 - Nepali scientists are using insects to control the rampant growth of water hyacinth at Begnas and Phewa lakes in Kaski. The exotic water plant, locally known as Jalkumbhi, has been taking over large sections of rivers and lakes across the country.
Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) in coordination with an American research institution introduced over 500 locally available beetle (Neochetina eichhorniae) to control the water hyacinth in the two lakes two months ago.
“We are experimenting with the biological control method using insects which are specific natural enemies to water hyacinth or destructive weeds in Phewa and Begnas,” said Yagya Raj Giri, principal scientist and chief at the NARC’s Entomology Division.
His team had conducted a pilot survey on the use of insect to control the growth of destructive aquatic weeds in Chitwan for almost two years before introducing it in Pokhara. According to Giri, a certain population of the insect has spread over in open areas in the lakes where they act as a control agent and feast on the invasive plant.
Similar biological way of controlling the growth of water hyacinth and hydrilla-like plants is on practice in the United States, Latin American countries and some parts of South Africa, Giri said.
He said two different weevil species have been introduced in Florida in the US to control the growth of aquatic weeds. “We were planning to bring the insect species from US earlier but later found a native species that could work as control agent on water hyacinth,” he said, adding, “The species from the US will be brought within February and we will test both of these insects to find the suitable species to give needed results.”
According to researchers working on this experiment, it will take time to see the impact on use of insects to control the encroachment of lakes by water hyacinth. They hope to control the invasive plant by almost 60 percent.

141104-a
Big green blob invades Everglades in water test
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
November 4, 2014
Scientists trying to unravel the mystery of Everglades plumbing turned a marsh west of Miami neon green Tuesday after releasing millions of gallons of dyed water into a swath left parched for the last half century.
The massive $10 million experiment, in the works for about eight years, should help hydrologists better understand how to reconnect sections of the Central Everglades carved decades ago into a network of flood-controlling canals, levees and other structures. For the next three months, scientists will record the movement of water, its depth and speed as well as amounts of sediment and harmful nutrients like phosphorus to study how its flow helps define the complicated topography of ridges, sloughs and tree islands.
Biologists will also track the surrounding ecosystem — the fish, wading birds and thick mats of vegetation — to find out what it takes to improve life in the nation’s largest ecological restoration project.
“You can do experiments in the lab, but until you get out in the field, you don’t really know what’s going to happen,” said Barry Rosen, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the project’s chief scientists.
On Tuesday, the scientists released the dye in a two-by-two-mile wide area known as the Pocket just north of the Tamiami Trail between two canals and twin levees. The canals were constructed in the 1960s to control flooding in towns to the east, such as Sweetwater. Minutes after South Florida Water Management District wetland scientist Eric Cline added the dye in the canal, a bright green blob bloomed in front of culverts connecting it to the marsh. About a half hour later, the dye could be seen floating through the sawgrass and rolling south down a slough.
Like a lot of other canals crisscrossing the Everglades, the L-67A and L-67C choked off the natural sheet flow of water that nourished the marshes and created the ridges and sloughs that filled in the wet season and slowly receded in dry months to concentrate fish and other prey for a thriving community of wading birds.
“If you have this highway of flow,” Rosen said, referring to the canals, “you move water straight down and it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.”
Marshes in the Pocket, fed only by rainfall and some water seeping from the canals, dried out and became prone to wildfires that eroded the land even more.
“It takes a thousand years to make an inch of soil and that’s gone in a flash,” said Fred Sklar, a scientist with the South Florida Water Management District.
Moving water south is the central component of the Everglades restoration authorized by Congress in 2000. But how that water is moved — and how segments of the vast ecosystem are restored and rejoined to the whole — has frequently sparked outrage from competing interests. Anglers want to keep bass-rich canals flowing, and the Miccosukee tribe has fought for clean water. Farmers need dry fields. Neighboring cities want flooding controlled.
To help balance demands, Sklar, who advises the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on environmental matters, suggested running a large-scale model to see more precisely what happens.
“You can’t build all that you want into a project up front because it’s not just an engineering question,” he said. “It’s also a biological question.”
So last year, after reworking the design to appease anglers, workers inserted ten culverts into the western canal and removed the levee that runs along the eastern canal. They removed the levee on the eastern side to allow water to continue flowing and also plugged and filled portions of the canal to study whether some canals could remain partially open to allow fishing.
On Tuesday, workers used drills to open gates on the culverts, allowing about 10 times as much water to flow into the Pocket, close to historical levels. Biologists then added fluoresce in, the same harmless dye injected into eyes during vision exams, and watched it spread. Within minutes, water that had only been moving at about .08 inches per second jumped to 1.2 inches per second. The gates will remain open until the end of December, although Rosen said scientists are hoping to extend the experiment into January. Gauges spread throughout the study area will also monitor water quality as well as measure the velocity and level of sediment.
Results of the experiment will “essentially inform what will happen later,” said Lt. Col. Tom Greco, the Corps’ deputy district commander for South Florida. “Before we spend millions on structures, you want to [know] as much as humanly possible.”
Related:           Green dye released into Everglades in experiment     WPTV

141104-b
Fraudster beats Faker as Florida Gov. Rick Scott wins re-election
Daily Beast – by Ben Jacobs
November 4, 2014
One guy changes positions more often than socks. The other is a certified “environmental disaster.” Only in Florida could these two compete for the statehouse.
It’s been years since the swing state of Florida was a reliably red state or a blue state. But with voters rejecting weirdly permatanned former Governor Charlie Crist in a second consecutive statewide election, it certainly isn't an orange state, either.
The narrow win of the incumbent Governor over the unnaturally-hued Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist isn’t a victory for ideology or a sign of a permanent partisan realignment in the Sunshine State. Instead, it’s a personal victory for Scott, who was able to return to the governor’s mansion despite being personally unpopular.
The campaign had been fought over a variety of issues---both serious, like Scott’s opposition to expanding Medicaid in Florida, and frivolous, like a nearly-canceled debate between the two nearly canceled over Crist bringing a fan on stage.  But, at the end of the race, the campaign ended up as a herky-jerky scramble between two deeply awkward men with profound flaws as candidates.
Scott, a former hospital CEO whose company was fined over $1.7 billion by the federal government over a massive Medicare fraud scheme, had eked out a victory in 2010 in a Republican wave, relying heavily on his own personal wealth. His good will with Floridians evaporated quickly with his support for strict voter ID regulation and his opposition to Medicaid expansion. Scott made matters worse when he pushed back against environmental protections to the Everglades supported by Jeb Bush; his record in office was labeled an environmental disaster by the Tampa Bay Tribune's editorial board.
Crist, for his part, was viewed even by many supporters as an amoral professional politician, uninterested in any ideology or political party save his own personal advancement. Butterflies emerging from cocoons underwent metamorphoses far less dramatic than the political one Crist underwent in the past four years. Crist, who was once a pro-life and anti-gay marriage Republican, now claims to be a socially liberal Democrat who supported a woman's right to choose and same-sex unions.
Stuck trying to choose between the lesser of two evils, Florida voters narrowly backed the socially distant Republican who bore a resemblance to Skeletor than warm, sociable orange-colored Democrat of convenience. 
The race though will have far more profound consequences than simply deciding which weird Floridian has to live in Tallahassee for four more years. With Scott in the statehouse, it will give Republicans a significant advantage in the Sunshine State in 2016 as they will be able to control the electoral machinery there. And as elections like 2000’s Bush-v-Gore show, sometimes the Florida Man in charge of those gears gets to pick the next President.
Related:           Editorial: Rick Scott wins re-election by moving toward center        Tampabay.com

141103-b
Leave already. All hail the great state of South Florida
Tallahassee.com - Mark Hinson, senior writer
November 3, 2014
In late October, the Mayor of South Miami and the South Miami City Commission drew up a proposal for the legal separation of Florida into two separate states: North Florida and South Florida.
The plan would basically saw the Sunshine State in half, starting in Orlando, but also including Tampa and St. Petersburg as part of the new 51st state of South Florida.
When I first heard the news, I shrugged. I am a fifth-generation, native North Floridian who is used to running into secessionist yahoos in the Capital City. They usually want to leave the Union because the South lost the Civil War or the state won’t let their toddlers take loaded AK-47 assault rifles to day-care. I was sure the South Florida secessionists had an equally absurd reason to divide the nation’s fourth largest population living on this long and ridiculous peninsula. Maybe they didn’t like boiled peanuts, or something.
As I read the rest of the story, though, I was surprised to learn that the South Miami politicos who drafted the resolution wanted to go their own way because the legislators here in Tallahassee were not doing enough about global warming.
Wait. There are politicians in Florida who actually believe in climate change?
According to my newspaper’s mothership publication, USA Today: “The resolution points out that the average elevation of North Florida is about 120-feet above sea level while the average elevation of South Florida is less than 50 feet. It is estimated that there will be a 3- to 6-foot sea level rise in the next 100 years, according to the resolution.”
Someone forgot to tell that to our science-impaired Gov. Rick Scott, whose $9.2-million mansion in Naples, which is way down south, is built 200 feet from the Gulf of Mexico. Next time, he might want to buy a mobile home on stilts, aka a Marianna sky-scraper.
“It’s very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean,” South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard is quoted as saying.
Well, that’s true but it’s not simply because the ice caps are melting and the basement is slowly flooding. South Florida should go its own way simply because it is so South Florida, you know. If your foot has gangrene, you should cut if off.
Let’s visit South Beach
The writer Somerset Maugham once described the French Riviera as “a sunny place for shady people” and the same thing applies for the South Florida’s largest city.
Miami was founded by swindlers and con artists who cashed in during the land boom of the early 1920s. That’s when the rape of the Everglades started, too, as greedy developers sold drained marsh lands to gullible Yankees who thought they were moving to a tropical paradise, not a mosquito-infested swamp. Later, Big Sugar moved in to further mutilate the irreplaceable Everglades in the name of progress and childhood obesity.
I spent a lot of time in Miami during the ’80s after one of my best friends, Matt Fuqua, moved there to work as an attorney. The whole city was as wild, unlawful and violent as the cantina scene from “Star Wars” (1977). The night that Matt moved from North Florida to Miami, he was greeted by a screaming, hysterical, naked woman running down the median of Biscayne Boulevard. No one stopped to help her.
“Nothing says, ‘Welcome to Miami,’ more than that,” Matt said.
In those days, glitzy South Beach was seedy and rundown. Most of the old Art Deco hotels were in disrepair. The beach population was half drug-dealers and half Snow Bird retirees from New York who ate dinner at 4:30 p.m. Matt once told me if you wanted to get rid of the Snow Birds, just outlaw Early Bird Specials at every buffet restaurant on the beach.
The Snow Birds of South Beach are long gone now, pushed aside by mobs of Euro-trash tourists, spray-tanned fashionistas, glandular freaks, surgically altered socialites, trust-fund troglodytes, thong-clad nudists, the cast of “Jersey Shore” and assorted Kardashians. When South Beach goes underwater, will anyone really miss it?
The Snow Birds flocked inland, where they drove up the rates of all the motels and clogged the roadways with their gas-guzzling Lincoln Continentals.
“During the Snow Bird season, trying to find a reasonably priced hotel in Miami is as difficult as trying to watch an episode of ‘Cops’ without seeing Miami on your TV screen,” according to my nephew, Michael, who travels on a tight budget in South Florida as part of his job.
“After two sleepless nights at a La Quinta Inn, which I’m convinced is Spanish for ‘meth and sheet rock,’ I had to find a new place to stay for $77 a night,” Michael said. “Thanks to an app, I found a place less than eight miles away, which, with traffic on I-95, is just shy of a two-day drive.”
Michael checked into The Forum, which sounded swanky but turned out to be a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation facility that rented out rooms on the side. When Michael asked for directions to the bar, the horrified desk clerk told him that there was no bar and that alcohol of any kind was forbidden on The Forum property.
“I explained to the clerk that I am what Dr. Phil would refer to as a ‘trigger’ and, having the self control of a Kennedy, I might compromise the entire operation,” Michael said.
It took an hour to get his money back and another two hours to drive back to La Quinta Inn.
“I said good night to the druggies, construction crew and domestic violence that I shared my walls with,” Michael said. “Sweet dreams, La Quinta, Miguel is home.”
Hurry up, statehood
So, when South Florida finally gets its independence from terrible ol’ Tallahassee, I can’t wait to see how the 51st state organizes itself.
The new South Florida state song will be “Pop That Coochie” by the 2 Live Crew. The official state reptile: the Burmese Python, of course. Aquatic mammal would be the rapper Pitbull. The state tree will no longer be the sabal palm but the punk tree, which was imported into the Everglades as landscaping to clog up the wetlands. The state motto: No Curb-Side Bottle Service After 3 a.m.
When the coral-colored South Florida Capitol is built on Hibiscus Island, I hope Gov. Scott will fly south, too. He’ll fit right in.
Scott likes to drive around Tallahassee in a convoy of three all-black SUVs that have smoked-out, tinted windows. When the governor and his scowling bodyguards roll up in front of Siam Sushi near Lake Ella, I always think that Pablo Escobar is about to step out.
The current governor is the perfect leader for the new state of South Florida because he is not originally from Florida and answers questions as if English were his second language.

141103-c
Wakulla County must protect its waters
Tallahassee Democrat – View by Madeleine H. Carr, retired from Tallahassee Community College and is a founding member and current president of Friends of Wakulla Springs State Park
November 3, 2014
Many years ago, public meetings, forums and particularly Leon and Wakulla county commission meetings raised the issue of clean water. The risk to the degradation of the water quality, and the noticeable chemical increase in nitrates and phosphates, did not stop at the Tallahassee sewage treatment plant.
The risk was from Wakulla County-sanctioned application of sludge from that water treatment plant. Heavy tanker trucks brought minimally treated Leon County waste to Wakulla to spray on a field next to Rehwinkle Road.
The risk was that citizens were inadequately and inaccurately informed about the enormous cave system funneling water to our Wakulla and Spring Creek springs. The risk was that nobody realized sinkholes were not safe places to throw car batteries, cars and household garbage.
Geologists, hydrogeologists, biologists and chemists presented facts. They appeared before elected officials with results of dye trace studies and ground-penetrating radar studies. Even that was not enough to open eyes.
These were red flags. Risks outweighed benefits of doing business as usual. When the tipping point came, it did not take a rocket scientist to understand the orange blob on the Wakulla County map next to Rehwinkel Road indicated unsafe nitrate levels.
Those nitrates were flowing into the Lost Creek area and underground south to the coast. They had been imported from Tallahassee.
Yet, some Wakulla commissioners insisted that there was no threat because all that water “just flows out into the Gulf.”
Thankfully, the risk to our wetlands, to our sinkholes, to the economic health of the county outweighed the naysayers. By 2005, citizens and scientists (sometimes the same) worked hours to create a local risk management ordinance. Their efforts convinced a majority of Wakulla commissioners to adopt the Wakulla Wetlands Protection Ordinance.
This ordinance was heralded throughout the state for its forward thinking about the future risks to our waters.
This protection took into account all possible risks, all scientific explorations and sinkhole cleanups. The conclusion: Federal and state protection zones or buffers were indeed inadequate for our particular county.
Why? The soil in Wakulla County is particularly porous. It is sand. Sand, without roots that hold it in place, without an adequate canopy above it, provides almost no vital protection to wetlands or the wildlife within.
Government buffers or setbacks in place are a “one size fits” all approach and are not good enough for Wakulla County.
Current Wakulla officials claim regulations are not always applied fairly and consistently. This unfair situation creates a risk, they state. It is a risk many will take to apply a fair standard to the protection of life. The Wetlands Protection Ordinance is pro-life. If anyone can do a proper risk analysis to determine what the actual cost to the loss of one developer might be versus the risk to the health of our fresh water, now is the time.
We are at risk of being bullied into believing there might be a lawsuit if voters reinstate the local protection zones or buffers our commissioners took away. We are at risk when a uniform state regulation (the same for South Florida’s concrete paradise as for Wakulla’s sensitive ecosystem) cannot sustain a clean water source for our fish nurseries.
Federal and state government have done a couple of things right: Almost five-sevenths of the county is protected with a wildlife refuge, state and national forests and state parks. Ask yourself why? If you listen to our elected officials the mere presence of these conservation lands poses a risk. Why? They cannot be developed.
Does that mean the rest of the county should be drained, filled, fragmented and degraded? If you are willing to take that risk, you do so knowing that the natural habitat that is destroyed will be insufficient to sustain our wildlife.
We risk diminishing our ecosystem only to have a higher cost later to try to restore what we lost. Or we realize that Wakulla County has the most scientifically researched spring system — or karst system — in the world. That research is valuable in its own right. Can we seriously risk shoving all that information aside? Can we really risk ignoring the job our buffers are doing now to filter impurities?
We must, for our grandchildren’s sake, continue to provide local control of what we hold dear in Wakulla County.
There is only one way for Wakulla County to keep and improve our unique ecosystem. We must reinstate local control by voting Yes on Referendum A.
We can also ask anyone running for office in Wakulla and Leon counties what they will do to protect our aquifer, and then hold them to it once elected.

141102-a
Environment could win or lose big Tuesday
TheLedger.com - by Tom Palmer
November 2, 2014
Florida’s environmental community has a lot riding on the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
The big issue is whether they succeed in persuading 60 percent of the voters to approve Amendment 1, which would guarantee the resumption of funding for conservation land purchases to complete a landmark land-acquisition program begun in the 1980s by Gov. Bob Martinez.
It would require no new taxes, but would simply reallocate money from taxes on real estate transactions that were supposed to be used for this purpose anyway before the Legislature diverted the money.
The proposal is a gamble in a way.
If it passes, it could provide evidence of the support environmental initiatives have with voters and the general public and give the environmental lobby a boost.
As the first Florida Corridor Expedition demonstrated, there’s still an intact natural corridor through this state that is incompletely protected through either purchases or conservation easements, but it may not be around forever and needs to be protected now.
If it fails, it could give the forces who oppose conservation land purchases and other environmental initiatives additional justification for their positions.
There are powerful groups who think Florida already has too much conservation land.
That view has been influential in Tallahassee in recent years, so it seemed clear the environmental community didn’t feel it had anything to lose.
The amendment has widespread support, though there have been a few holdouts who argued this kind of financial detail doesn’t belong in the Florida Constitution and should be handled legislatively instead.
The fact is we crossed that bridge a long time ago with amendments to implement and later to repeal high-speed rail, to change the state retirement system terms and to limit local governments’ taxing authority.
Proponents have argued Amendment 1 actually furthers goals already in the Florida Constitution relating to protection of state resources.
The real issue is that if the supposed people’s representatives won’t act, the people have to have some recourse. Amendment 1 fits that role.
Then there’s the governor’s race.
It’s no secret that Florida’s environmental community is not a big fan of Gov. Rick Scott and he’s done little to try to change their minds.
Environmentalists have criticized Scott for torpedoing growth management and  weakening state environmental regulation, two areas that once set Florida apart from many other states and whose passage in the 1970s and 1980s were considered monumental victories.
Now environmental enforcement has been become so politicized under the Scott administration that scientists have had to sue to get the agency to follow the law.
In addition, environmentalists have criticized Scott and his allies in the Florida Legislature for coming up with a misguided scheme to sell environmental land along a key corridor in the Green Swamp in Polk County to buy more land somewhere else for reasons that were never clear and for ignoring the potential effects of climate change and sea level rise.
The threat of sea level rise has been taken so seriously in low-lying sections of south Florida that local officials have broached the idea of trying to form their own state to take care of problems they say Tallahassee is ignoring.
When Crist was governor, he paid attention to climate change and was also active in coming up with a plan to buy out sugar farmers to advance Everglades restoration and in supporting local control for fertilizer restrictions to cut pollution, environmentalists say.
But other observers, such as Bruce Ritchie, author of the Context Florida blog, have made an issue of the fact that neither Crist nor Scott has had much to say during this year’s campaign on any of those issues and apparently it’s not an issue that political reporters have been pressing them to discuss.
Scott’s  apparent indifference to climate change has drawn outside money to opponents who are being bankrolled by California billionaire and environmental activist Thomas F. Steyer through an advocacy group called NextGen Climate.
Scott, who is quite wealthy in his own right, has pumped his own money into his campaign in response.
Although climate change is relatively new issue, the debate over how Florida’s natural resources should be managed and protected has been occurring for decades.
The results of Tuesday’s election should send a message one way or another on how important Floridians think these issues are.

141102-b
Overwhelmed Brevard sewers tax Indian River Lagoon
USAnews.net
November 2, 2014
Warning signs, such as this one at Goode Park, along Turkey Creek in Palm Bay, had been taken down on Thursday.(Photo: Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA Now)Obtain PhotoEven as local governments preached far better Indian River Lagoon stewardship, utilities spilled...
Warning signs, such as this one at Goode Park, along Turkey Creek in Palm Bay, had been taken down on Thursday.
Even as local governments preached far better Indian River Lagoon stewardship, utilities spilled millions of gallons of raw or semi-treated sewage into ponds, ditches, canals and tributaries, some of which lead to the ecologically battered lagoon.
How considerably of that wound up in the estuary is unknown. But this year alone, at least 25 million gallons of wastewater was released in the 5-county lagoon area, from Volusia by way of Martin County, according to state data obtained by FLORIDA Right now.
Practically two thirds of that wastewater flowed into the lagoon involving late September and early October, when 16 million gallons of raw sewage and rainwater overflowed immediately after a lift station in Indian Harbour Beach was inundated through heavy rains. Palm Bay sent five.7 million gallons of partially treated sewage toward the lagoon's Turkey Creek in a similar incident around the similar time.
FLORIDATODAY
Interactive map: 2014 sewage spills in Brevard
Utilities frequently blame storms for sewage spills. But breaks in old pipes, gear failures and other mishaps that come with aging sewer infrastructure are also amongst the top causes of spills, a FLORIDA Nowadays analysis of state databases and documents found.
Utility officials assure that they contain most spills. When sewage does reach the lagoon, they say, it dilutes speedily, and most of the significant rain-induced spills can't be prevented.
Nor can scientists point to specific or cumulative sewage spills as the bring about of the lagoon's recent ecological ills. Considerably additional sewage flowed into the lagoon ahead of Florida banned most direct discharges in the 1990s.
Sewage in waterways pose instant risks to humans due to the fact of bacteria and viruses. But the threat to the marine life comes additional from the nitrogen and phosphorous the sewage includes. These "nutrients" can feed algae blooms that can kill off seagrass, which provides crucial food and shelter to fish, crabs and other aquatic creatures.
FLORIDATODAY
4M gallons of wastewater flows to Turkey Creek
But sewage discharges, each big and small, have contributed to a death-by-1,000-cuts the lagoon has endured for decades. And utility officials say, in quite a few instances, only significantly higher sewer prices can quit all the bleeding of sewage from neighborhood systems.
A FLORIDA Today evaluation of state regulatory documents and databases from the past 5 years found:
• At least 38 million gallons of sewage or partially treated sewage was released in 221 incidents in Brevard County since 2010, sufficient to fill a lot more than 2,500 typical 15,000-gallon residential swimming pools. No volume estimate was offered for 21 of the reported spills, so the actual volume is probably larger.
Just about two-thirds of the estimated volume was spilled this year in 51 separate incidents, a lot of brought on by the ninth-highest September rainfall on record.
• A third of the 221 spills in Brevard given that 2010 had been attributed to broken sewer lines, and only 10 percent had been attributed to rain, although these have been by far the largest spills by volume. Other causes incorporated equipment failure, blockages and releases occurring in the course of technique repair.
• Although utilities have embarked on hundreds of millions of dollars in sewer infrastructure upgrades, thousands of faulty connections amongst Brevard's old properties and county and city sewer lines threaten to leak raw sewage into groundwater, canals and other waters.
FLORIDATODAY
Research show Lagoon grass gained 12 percent
"It really is like bombs waiting to go off," George Davies, of Satellite Beach, stated of the old tar-coated wood-pulp pipe that hyperlinks residences in his neighborhood to the sewer program.
In July, sewage backed up at his dwelling on Nautilus Drive. So he decided to take a look at the fiber conduit, named Orangeburg pipe, linking his home to the sewer technique.
"When we dug the pipe out, the whole bottom of the pipe was exposed," Davies stated. "About a foot down into the soil, which was the water table, was black gunk. So it must have been doing it for years."
Several of his neighbors have the exact same problem, Davies mentioned, so he believes sewage is seeping into the canal behind the residences, which leads to the Banana River. "All the sea squirts have died," Davies mentioned.
He fears the commonplace, aged pipe may be causing equivalent seepage all through the lagoon area.
Lagoon sewage exposure after worse
In 1986, 46 sewer plants discharged almost 55 million gallons of wastewater each day into the lagoon. A 1990 state law put a cease to most of these discharges by 1996. But quite a few cities are still allowed to discharge treated sewage when plant capacity is exceeded during storms, including plants in Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, Rockledge, Melbourne, Barefoot Bay and Brevard County's South Beaches plant.
"We can only dispose of so significantly water," said Bob Adolphe, director of Brevard Utility Solutions Division. "It is mostly rain water. It really is not optimal. We don't like it. There was really nothing at all we could do about it at that unique time," he stated of the discharge in Indian Harbour Beach.
Utility officials say most spills are contained and don't attain the lagoon or other fragile waters.
But some do.
FLORIDATODAY
Florida floats new Indian River Lagoon preserve plan
Brevard County's Sykes Creek sewer plant, a half-century old facility off Courtenay Parkway in Merritt Island, has had quite a few mishaps in recent years, sending sewage into the creek when pipes broke or manholes overflowed mainly because of blockage.
"We've got a system that is falling apart," Adolphe, said.
Brevard plans to devote $110 million in the next 5 years on sewer program improvements, like upgrades to sewer plants, replacing old pipe and other improvements.
Cash-strapped cities such as Palm Bay struggle to preserve up with sustaining 105 lift stations and sewer pipes properly past their prime.
So the city takes a proactive stance, by conducting smoke tests to find leaks, then coating cracks with an epoxy resin they pump into the pipes.
"We've all but eliminated spills in Palm Bay for the reason that we're out there actively looking for the causes," mentioned David Bryant, the city's wastewater collections superintendent.
But often, the causes are beyond the city's control.
On Sept. 24, Palm Bay started discharging 5.7 million gallons of partially treated sewage into a canal that feeds to Turkey Creek, when the city's sewer plant overflowed from current rains. The city posted signs warning not to swim or fish in the creek. Related warning indicators went up the prior month when one of the city's oldest lift stations failed and a manhole overflowed up to ten,000 gallons of raw sewage into Turkey Creek near the U.S. 1 bridge.
Utility officials say preventing rain-driven spills like these this previous September would require impractical, expensive increases to sewer plant capacity for climate events that take place only once each decade or so.
"There really is not much the facilities can do," mentioned David Smicherko, a DEP compliance supervisor. "It would be hard for them to engineer something that would take in the amount of rain in that quick period of time."
But at times even upgrades can go awry.
In March 2012, a broken gear in a sewage-therapy tank led to the greatest sewage spill in Cocoa Beach history. The gear failure shut down one of the city's two treatment plants. The other was already offline because of an ongoing $15 million upgrade. So the city had to pump 10 million gallons of partially treated sewage into ponds on the adjacent city-owned golf course off Minutemen Causeway. A ditch hyperlinks the series of ponds to the Banana River.
The city was not fined for the reason that the spill was not triggered by any negligence at the facility, DEP officials said.
At the time, the city acknowledged some sewage had reached the Banana River. But no one knows how substantially.
FLORIDATODAY
Is Indian River Lagoon OK for play ?
How spills happen
In many sewage spills, groundwater and sand infiltrate and clog old cracked pipes, top to overflows elsewhere in the program. Or roots intrude.
"In a lot of the older pipes, particularly the clay pipes, you are going to commence to have joints coming apart," stated Dennis Davis, vice president of client Service at Jones Edmunds, an environmental engineering consultant to Brevard County.
Saltier soils — in particular beachside — have a tendency to put on far more on sewer pipes.
"In Florida, you have this extremely corrosive environment," Adolphe stated.
Person spills are seldom linked to algae outbreaks.
"It would be a monumental spill to generate an algae bloom," Cunningham said.
But sewage spills can offer the last-straw nutrients for such blooms, when the water is currently at a tipping point.
"It really is sort of like pushing somebody off the edge of a cliff," stated John Windsor, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Florida Institute of Technology.
The American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 report card on the state of America's infrastructure — released every four years — gave Florida a "C" for sewage infrastructure, dropping from a B-minus.
Florida has $19.6 billion in sewer infrastructure requires more than the subsequent 20 years, according to the report.
To retain taxes low, Brevard held off for years on raising sewer prices to meet its sewage infrastructure demands, placing its rates at about 25 % beneath the state average.
But Brevard now plans $133 million in spending over the next 10 years, $110 million of that within the subsequent five years.
As a outcome, Brevard's rates will go up 20 % of extra more than the next five years, Adolphe says, to assistance the bonds necessary to fund all the sewage upgrades.
Household hookups pose a risk
But even when nearby governments upgrade sewer infrastructure, normally the hookups from homes are so old that sewage leaks are imminent.
Pipe known as Orangeburg — wood pulp covered in coal tar — links thousands of houses in Brevard to sewer systems. The pipe, applied in new airfields and military bases for the duration of World War II, also filled the post-war demand for very affordable piping when materials have been scarce soon after the war.
Demand for the pipe boomed in the 1950s and 1960s, till the advent of PVC in the 1970s.
According to county property appraiser information, some 52,000 single-household houses had been constructed amongst 1945 and 1975, when the pipe's use was widespread.
Davies, whose Satellite Beach residence backed up with sewage due to the fact of the pipe, said he had a plumber come out 3 instances, but in unclogging the pipe they poked gaping holes in it.
He says pipes must be inspected with cameras just before a sale and that household purchasers should really get a creating inspection report, not just a dwelling inspection report, which doesn't cover sewer pipes or pipes in the wall.
"Then you've got something you can go back on," Davies stated. "Now you can't go back on something … Everybody's finding income, and they just run. "Nobody checks it. If you see 'as is,' don't buy it."
Volume estimate of sewage spills by lagoon-region county
1. Brevard — 24,105,140 gallons
2. St. Lucie — 1,222,000 gallons
3. Martin — 220,one hundred gallons
4. Volusia — 40,600 gallons
five. Indian River — 38,112 gallons
Total — 25,625,952 gallons
*Estimates are primarily based on initial reports offered to the State Warning Point, which can differ from what's verified upon further investigation. Six spill reports did not contain volume estimates.
Supply: FLORIDA These days evaluation of Florida Department of Environmental Protection databases
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.

141101-a
The ignored issue
Gainesville.com - Editorial
November 1, 2014
Amid the spirited, often ugly rhetoric and refutations of Florida's gubernatorial campaign, one issue has received shamefully short shrift, despite its inevitability as a major challenge of the future: water.
Charlie Crist and Gov. Rick Scott have devoted millions of dollars to defending their records and making promises anew about jobs and education and taxes, but both men have ignored water, something that is a statewide crisis.
Crist and Scott address water on their websites, but both are short on detail.
Crist calls for a combination of voluntary conservation, best practices and, in some cases, stricter regulation to preserve Florida's water supply. He says significant infrastructure improvements are necessary to address both increasing demand and the impact of climate change on our water supply.
It falls woefully short, however, of stating the obvious: Florida needs a statewide, mandatory conservation program and stricter controls on pollution — now.
Scott, meanwhile, promises a $1 billion water program over the next 10 years, even though he only would serve four years. And Scott offers no clue where the $1 billion would come from.
So voters are left to look at the candidates' records on water to determine which one is most likely to effectively address a defining issue for Florida in the coming decade.
While Crist's water record is unremarkable, he did consistently appoint citizens to water boards who understood the importance of water sustainability. He also exhibited some big thinking when he proposed buying a massive chunk of U.S. Sugar's South Florida holdings to insulate the Everglades from destruction.
Scott has tried to paint himself as the environmental governor, but his record tells a much different story. He decimated Florida's growth planning and water management agencies. He put "business-friendly" appointees on water boards, leaving the regulated to do the regulating. Moreover, his administration's efforts to save our springs, rivers and lakes have been more show than substance, offering too little teeth and funding.
Depleted and polluted springs are the most visible sign of the problem in our region, but the whole state is in a similar or worse crisis. Half of Florida's waterway have been deemed "impaired." Salt water intrusion is widespread. And pollution is so bad algae blooms and wildlife kills are commonplace.
As Florida water author Cynthia Barnett noted recently, "For the first time since Florida passed its progressive water-management laws of 1972 and the United States passed the Clean Water Act that same year, the latest generation of Floridians is not inheriting waters as clean and abundant as when they were born."
And the men seeking to lead our state aren't even acknowledging it. How sad. What water crisis?

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