150531-a
Monday is the official start of Hurricane Season 2015
Pensacola News Journal - Editorial
May 31, 2015
In nearly six weeks, it will be the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Dennis making landfall near Navarre Beach in Santa Rosa County. Though it didn't linger through Northwest Florida like its predecessor, Ivan, in September 2004, it wreaked havoc throughout both counties.
Here are excerpts of the official report on Dennis from the National Hurricane Center:
"Dennis formed from a tropical wave that moved westward across the coast of Africa on June 29. A tropical depression developed from the wave on July 4 near the southern Windward Islands. The cyclone moved west-northwestward across the eastern and central Caribbean sea, became a tropical storm on July 5, and strengthened into a hurricane early on July 6 about 245 miles east-southeast of Jamaica.
"Dennis intensified over the next two days, becoming a major hurricane on July 7 and a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph the next day .... Dennis passed over Cabo Cruz, Cuba, early on July 8 with winds of 135 mph, and then made landfall along the south-central coast of Cuba that afternoon.
"Although Dennis reintensified into a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph early on July 10 over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, it weakened to Category 3 strength before making landfall over the western Florida Panhandle near Navarre Beach late that day.
Eight days later, it weakened over southeastern Canada, the report said.
"Dennis caused 42 deaths – 22 in Haiti, 16 in Cuba, 3 in the United States, and 1 in Jamaica. The hurricane caused considerable damage across central and eastern Cuba as well as the western Florida Panhandle, including widespread utility and communications outages. Considerable storm surge-related damage also occurred near St. Marks, Fla., well to the east of the landfall location. The damage associated with Dennis in the United States is estimated at $2.23 billion. Damage in Jamaica is estimated at ... approximately $31.7 million."
The last thing this community needed was another powerful storm. After all, many neighborhoods were still reeling from Ivan's pounding 10 months earlier. But, as a community, we picked up and helped our neighbors recover.
We learned a great deal from that storm, particularly the need for every residence to be prepared for 72 hours following the storm. That means enough water – a gallon per person per day – as well as food, batteries and emergency supplies. It's vital to start the hurricane kit now to prevent a rush on stores once a storm enters the Gulf.
Being self-sustained allows law enforcement, emergency responders and recovery teams, especially Gulf Power, to get about getting us back on our feet. They don't need people on the roads looking for food, water and other supplies.
Newcomers who have moved here during the last few storm-free years should take heed and begin preparing.
Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Ana hugged the eastern seaboard of the United States from May 8-10. Ana will be followed by Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor and Wanda. We hope it's a quiet season that officially begins Monday.
As always we hope for the best, but it's important to prepare for the worst.
Want more info ?
For complete information on hurricane preparation, see our Hurricane Guide in today's Pensacola News Journal.

150531-b
We need to make the most of our water
PensacolaNewsJ. – Viewpoint by Bart Weiss, president of WateReuse Florida, Hillsborough County
May 31, 2015
Florida gets 54 inches of rainfall in an average year. To the average person that doesn't mean much, but to water managers everywhere it means a lot: it means there's plenty of water for a great quality of life that includes showers and lush lawns, flushing and brushing and laundry … yes, laundry.
Except that an average year is just that. Some years we have more rainfall, some years, much less. And, either way, our state is rainfall dependent. That means our quality of life and our drinking water comes from rainfall. And, just look around you … there's plenty of water that we can see as well as the vast underground aquifers that store rainfall.
Florida's subtropical environment is also sustained by rainfall. That's the balance for water managers: provide enough water for our needs while protecting the environment.
However, that job is getting tougher and tougher to do. So, we have to make the most of the water we have – all of it – rainfall and stormwater runoff, lakes, aquifers, canals and ponds and rivers.
But, Florida already makes use of a very valuable water resource: reuse. Florida has led the nation in recycling or using reuse water for decades. We use it to irrigate lawns and golf courses, we use it for industry. We rehydrate wetlands and, in some places, reuse is being used to help stop saltwater intrusion. This didn't happen overnight. It took decades and tremendous foresight and investment from local governments, utilities and the water management districts. It will take this same investment and leadership to ensure the state meets its future water resource needs in economically feasible and environmentally sustainable ways.
Water is water. It needs to be judged by its quality, not by its history. We can treat virtually any water to drinking water standards – for a price. Already, utilities throughout Florida are treating their wastewater to very high standards. In many cases, after it's treated it's discharged. In short, it's just thrown away.
The state of Florida is looking for a better way. In 2014, the Florida Legislature ordered the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to report on reuse throughout Florida. Part inventory, part assessment and part plan, this report can help the state take the steps necessary to smartly meet its future needs. The report is due before the end of 2015.
No matter what we call it, it's clear that weather patterns are changing and long-term drought is a reality for western states, now.
This matched with ever-increasing demand for water and an imperative to protect the environment and our way of life, we cannot afford to overlook the vital, available, sustainable and drought proof source of water: reuse. The good news is that we are not.
To learn more visit www.FloridaRecyclesWater.com.

150531-c
Women credited for better Environment
The Ledger – by Tom Palmer
May 31, 2015
Even before they could vote, Florida women were affecting the public policy debate on environmental issues that ranged from stopping the plume trade’s slaughter to early efforts to protect the Everglades.
In modern times women have been leaders in fighting for cleaner air, stopping environmentally destructive public works projects and leading state and federal regulatory agencies.
Their stories and in some cases their belated recognition are contained in a new book, “Saving Florida: Women’s Fight For The Environment in the Twentieth Century” by Leslie Kemp Poole. (University Press of Florida, 274 pages, $34.95).
Poole is an adjunct professor of environmental studies and history at Rollins College in Winter Park who formerly worked as a reporter for The Ledger.
The narrative begins in 1900 in a living room in Maitland, a community near Orlando, where a group led by Clara Dommerich raised funds and organized community members into what would become Florida Audubon. Its early mission was to stop the slaughter of egrets, spoonbills and any other bird whose feathers might be used to decorate women’s hats.
The plume trade nearly wiped out some species of wading birds in sections of Florida for decades.
Dommerich and the women who succeeded her in Audubon’s leadership, such as Mary Barr Munroe, Harriet Vanderpool and Laura Norcross Marrs, spent years fighting the plume trade and trying to persuade women to abandon this fashion fad.
The effort was also aided by the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, whose active and influential members — many were the wives of influential men, including governors — were astute enough to successfully navigate the male-dominated political world of those days.
Their attention was not confined to the plight of wading birds.
Katherine Bell Tippetts, another early activist, fought for the protection of species ranging from meadowlarks to robins, urged people to build bird houses and pushed in 1913 for a law requiring cats to be licensed to control their killing of birds, a problem that gets a lot of press today that was recognized even then.
After women were given the right to vote in 1920, Tippetts was one of the first women to run for a seat in the Florida Legislature and nearly won.
Kemp writes that one historian gave these women a lot of credit for getting conservation moving in Florida, concluding, “Without the female protagonists, conservation in Florida would have languished at the level of resource conservation and game protection.”
The campaign to save the birds was followed by a campaign to save forests at a time when wood production involved clearcutting entire forests and moving on. Women pushed for better logging practices, arguing correctly that not only were current forestry practices poor land management but that they also were dramatically reducing wildlife habitat in much of the state.
One of the leaders in that campaign and a later campaign to establish what would eventually become Everglades National Park was May Mann Jennings, one of Florida’s former first ladies.
She also argued Florida needed a state natural resource agency to oversee forestry and conservation programs, though it would be many years before any such agency was formed.
Everglades National Park began as Royal Palm Hammock State Park near the present-day park’s main entrance to protect the namesake palm grove and to try to stem the rampant orchid thievery that was occurring unregulated at the time.
Early women activists also worked to plant trees and create parks in cities to make them more attractive and livable, and were involved in the initial fights against commercial roadside signs that were the precursors of today’s billboards.
After these early fights to secure some of the most fundamental environmental protections for wildlife and wildlife habitat in Florida, the action turned to more specific issues.
STOPPING CANAL AND JETPORT
Poole discusses the role of Marjorie Harris Carr, whose biography was recently published, in stopping the Cross-Florida Barge Canal; and the role of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whose iconic book introduced millions to the Everglades, in helping to stop the Everglades Jetport.
She also discusses how the writings of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings alerted the public to the decline in the Florida panther and other iconic Florida wildlife. Poole also credits a woman named Doris Leeper, even though she received no formal credit, for the preservation of Canaveral National Seashore, the longest undeveloped stretch of beach in the state.
Her list of women environmental leaders even included someone from Polk County named Harriet Lightfoot.
Lightfoot was active in the 1960s as a member of the Lakeland Woman’s Club in pushing for air pollution controls at a time when there were few restrictions on industrial stacks, particularly in the phosphate industry, whose emissions were blamed for damage to public health, citrus groves and cattle.
Later a woman named Gloria Rains formed a group called ManaSota-88 to fight what she considered the phosphate industry’s excesses as well as poor planning decisions in the Sarasota area.
The late 1960s and 1970s brought more women into politics, including seats in the Florida Legislature where they worked with the male majority to push for stronger state environmental regulations. They included Mary Grizzle, Pat Frank and Helen Gordon Davis.
Other Florida women such as Carol Browner and Victoria Tschinkel headed state environmental agencies that oversaw increased environmental protection in Florida after the passage of Florida’s first major environmental regulations in the 1970s.
This book was based on a mixture of historical documents and interviews with some of the women mentioned in the book and includes extensive end notes.
It is a worthwhile addition to the discussion of Florida’s environmental history.

150530-a
If we fail the Everglades, we fail Florida’s future
Miami Herald – Opinion by Bob Graham, former FL governor
May 30 2015
On Dec. 6, 1947, President Harry S Truman was in Florida to celebrate the end of a 30-year struggle — and to warn us about the future. “Today we marked the achievement of another greatconservation victory,” said Truman in a speech dedicating Everglades National Park.
“The battle for conservation cannot be limited to the winning of new conquests,” he warned. “Like liberty itself, conservation must be fought for unceasingly to protect earlier victories.”
Never have a president’s words of caution — the need to protect earlier victories — been more appropriate than today. Unfortunately, in the decades since that 1947 victory, America’s Everglades is reeling from abuse, neglect and a failure of policy leaders to fully understand the economic and environmental consequences of not restoring and protecting this critical ecosystem.
The Everglades is the water supply for almost 8 million Floridians, and millions of visitors. What was once one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems has seen a dramatic decline in wildlife, sea life and flora.
This started out as the year of good news for America’s Everglades:
▪ Plan A, a science-based plan, was developed to move more water south into the heart of America’s Everglades.
▪ The state had negotiated with U.S. Sugar for a crucial option to buy 46,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee. This land would allow water from the lake to be stored, cleaned and flow south. The date of execution of the option: Oct. 15, 2015.
▪ The passage of Amendment 1 in 2014 assuring that money would available to complete the U.S. Sugar purchase and other projects necessary for Everglades restoration.Suddenly, without warning, the South Florida Water Management District said, “No.” Voting unanimously, the members of the district board simply tore up the contract with U.S. Sugar, choosing to ignore the facts.
They chose, instead, to say “No” to thousands of people whose homes and businesses are being harmed by discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee because the only place the water can now be dumped is into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries.
They chose to say “No” to the safety of people living near Lake Okeechobee who must worry about the fragile condition of the dike surrounding the lake. It is imperative that pressure on the dike be relieved by having the ability to move water south. A breach of the dike would cause a Katrina-like disaster in the middle of South Florida.
They chose to say “No” to preventing saltwater intrusion of our fresh water supply.
Restoration of America’s Everglades, with the massive amount of fresh water it will add to the interior of Florida, is the most significant strategic initiative available to us to mitigate even deeper intrusion caused by rising sea levels.
Now what ?
The board members tossed out Plan A. What is their plan? What is Plan B ?
Everyone who has studied the issues of restoring the Everglades believes land is desperately needed south of Lake Okeechobee. Where will the district find that land ?  How will the district acquire it ?
Last November, 75 percent of Florida voters approved Amendment 1. This overwhelming support for Everglades restoration and land acquisition is a clear mandate that we will not tolerate this failure to act. The people of Florida demand that when the state Legislature returns on June 1, it should authorize bonding the proceeds of Amendment One. This has been the practice in state land-acquisition programs since the 1970s. At least $300 million of the proceeds should be allocated to conservation land acquisition and the amount necessary to purchase critical water cleanup and storage sites south of Lake Okeechobee.
As a former governor, it pains me to say this: The Water Management District has failed us. It appears unable to fulfill its responsibilities, especially land acquisition. The state and its federal partner should reconsider the 2000 decision to grant to the now-rudderless Water Management District the authority to purchase land for Everglades restoration and place it in the hands of Everglades National Park’s guardian, the U.S. Department of Interior.
We began the year with great promise for the future of America’s Everglades. We can still end the year fulfilling that promise. Our leaders just need the will to act.  Whatever happens, we must heed Truman’s words by continuing to fight “unceasingly to protect earlier victories.”

150530-b
Protestors make a push for lawmakers to spend more on land conservation
FOX 13 News - by Kim Kuizon
May 30, 2015
BRADENTON (FOX 13) -
Protestors gathered in Manatee County Saturday to make sure politicians hold up their end of the deal on Amendment 1.
Last year, the Land and Water Conservation Act passed with 75 percent in favor, but it was never followed through in the regular session.
Nearly 75 people showed up in Bradenton to protest, hoping it will help catch the attention of local leaders.
"I'm very worried because the reason why people live here is the water and the land and the opportunity for recreation outdoor enjoyment,” said Mary Hrenda with the Sierra Club. “If that isn't here people won't come here.”
Amendment one was supposed to keep drinking water clean, protect rivers, lakes and springs and to restore areas like the Everglades, but supporters say nothing has been done.
"This was just thumbing their nose at the people of Florida and thumbing their nose of what people hold dear," said Barbara Hines.
Now they hope their rallies will push the legislation during a special session that begins Monday.
"There is no reason that the legislator has to tie itself in pretzels trying to write implementing legislation when the amendment is written directing funding to programs that already exist in law in Florida," said Hrenda.
They said something needs to happen before it is too late.
"I think we just have to wake up and realize if we don't protect the environment and once it's gone in Florida it's gone," said Dennis Kowal.
Rallies were held in ten cities across the state, including Tampa and Bradenton.

150530-c
Special session opportunity to purchase sugar land
News-Press.com – Opinion by Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation
May 30, 2015
Last month, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) voted to forgo purchasing U.S. Sugar-owned land to build a vital reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). This decision is a setback to Everglades restoration and communities enduring damaging discharges of polluted Lake Okeechobee water along Florida’s east and west coasts.
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was signed into law in 2000 with bi-partisan support and specifically called for a reservoir to store water in the EAA. The EAA Reservoir has been a part of CERP since Day One — a project so crucial to Everglades restoration that it was put on a fast-track list by Governor Bush a decade ago.
Everglades restoration is a good investment in Florida’s future. Every dollar spent on restoration generates a four-dollar return. Additionally, a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee in the EAA would qualify for a 50/50 cost share with Washington.
Water storage is the heart of Everglades restoration and vital to Florida’s water supply. Nearly 8 million Floridians and millions of tourists who visit every year depend on the Everglades for their drinking water. Without the EAA reservoir, we will continue to waste billions of gallons of freshwater; while, paradoxically, the Everglades and Florida Bay are starved for water. We have a responsibility and an opportunity to reduce pollution and toxic algae in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries to protect local businesses, tourism and home values.
There is nothing more conservative than conservation and protecting our resources. A reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee is essential to protecting the Everglades for generations to come.
Communities are suffering right now. The Everglades is threatened right now. The public has been waiting for more than 15 years for tangible restoration of the Everglades and is demanding action right now. The state needs to identify and acquire land in the EAA to build this critical reservoir as promised in CERP.
The Everglades Foundation looks forward to working with Governor Rick Scott, the Florida Legislature, and SFWMD to finish what we’ve started and find a viable alternative site for this critical Everglades restoration project.

150529-a
Amendment 1 Backers Rally for Land Buying
WUSF.usf.edu - by Jim Turner, the News Service of Florida
May 29, 2015
Environmentalists plan to hold rallies across Florida this weekend, again calling on lawmakers to boost the amount of money for land acquisition, Everglades restoration and natural-springs protection.
Supporters of the 2014 ballot initiative known as "Amendment 1" have announced 10 locations --- Bradenton, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Miami, Ocala, Orlando, Sarasota County, Stuart and Tampa --- where they intend to hold rallies Saturday. That is two days before lawmakers start a special legislative session to negotiate a budget.
"Hopefully legislators will see that people care about how Amendment 1 dollars are spent," Audubon Executive Director Eric Draper, a lobbyist on environmental issues, said in an email.
Land buying wasn't a priority for Republican legislative leaders during this spring's regular session, which ended abruptly last month with the House and Senate at an impasse on health-care issues.
Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, was among lawmakers noting that the Amendment 1 funding will be addressed during budget conference talks during the special session.
Draper will participate Wednesday in a media call with officials from the Everglades Trust and the Florida Oceanographic Society to discuss how the state could move forward in buying land south of Lake Okeechobee.
The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board voted May 14 to terminate an option to purchase 46,800 acres in the Everglades from U.S. Sugar Corp.
Environmentalists had called the land vital in helping to reduce pollutants out of Lake Okeechobee and to bring more water through the Everglades.
Similar land-buying calls, which included a brief concert outside the Capitol in April featuring musician Jimmy Buffett, were attempted with little success during the regular session.
The voter-approved Amendment 1 is projected to generate more than $700 million during the upcoming next fiscal year for land and water conservation, about $200 million more than what lawmakers allocated for such uses in the current year.
The House and Senate have proposed using large chunks of the money to continue the daily operations of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
As for land acquisition, during the regular session the House proposed selling $205 million in bonds for the Florida Forever program, with about half of the money going toward water resources, the state's natural springs, Kissimmee River restoration, and ranchland preservation.
The Senate offered $37 million for land acquisition, which included Kissimmee River restoration and springs preservation.
While environmental sought more money for land-buying, they also have other concerns about the legislative proposals.
Janet Bowman of The Nature Conservancy had hoped for a higher base level of funding to manage existing lands in state hands.
"In evaluating Amendment 1 spending it is important to look at the specific functions funded with Amendment 1 money and whether the functions are integral to achieving the purposes set forth in the amendment," Bowman said in an email. "For example, DEP can't buy land under the Florida Forever program if it doesn't have staff to process the land deals and manage the program. Similarly, increasing the amount of prescribed fire on conservation land requires additional equipment and personnel costs to accomplish."
The House has pitched $18 million for water-management districts to manage land, while the Senate didn't specify a similar proposal in its spending plan during the regular session. The House also offered a $25 million line item for the Rural and Family Land Protection Program, an item that the Senate didn't include in its proposed budget.
Meanwhile, the Senate proposed $38.5 million to control invasive plants, with the House offering $24.8 million.
"The folks that voted for Amendment 1 expect new land and water resource protection beyond the status quo and the Florida Legislature still has the opportunity to meet this expectation in a number of ways --- through increased funding above 2014 levels for land management, Rural and Family Lands and Florida Forever funding and springs protection," Bowman said in the email.
Supporters of the 2014 constitutional amendment pitched it as a 20-year funding plan to replenish the Florida Forever program. Florida Forever, which uses bonds backed with revenue from the documentary stamps, authorizes lawmakers to spend up to $300 million a year for preservation.
The special session will start Monday and could last through June 20.

150529-b
Local groups react to EPA’s Clean Water Rules
Florida Water Daily
May 29, 2015
From the Bradenton Herald (link):
The rule is intended to take into consideration two U.S. Supreme Court cases from the 2000s and to lay out standards for which waters should be covered. The Clean Water Act requires permits for developing or discharging into covered waters, making the rule of vital importance to farmers, and to landowners in general.
“People think it’s only going to affect certain people, but it’s going to affect everybody,” said Barbara Anson, real estate broker and wife of Manatee County hay farmer Bob Anson. She said the Clean Water Act rule will affect the real estate industry and new construction.
From WFSU (link):
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is blasting the Obama Administration for expanding EPA’s reach and failing to clear up the confusion.
But Earth Justice Attorney David Guest says the rule does just the opposite. It clarifies EPA’s authority to enforce the 1972 Clean Water Act as spelled out by the Supreme Court decision. He says it’s based on the court’s test of whether one water body has a quote, “significant nexus” to another.
Guest says critics of the new rule are really opposed to the Clean Water Act. They’re angry because the rules will be harder to challenge because the Supreme Court has already ruled.
From the Sunshine State News (link):
The leadership of the Sunshine State’s business community also came out swinging at the new regulations. Former U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., the president and CEO of the Associated Industries of Florida (AIF), criticized the ruling on Wednesday, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that will harm Florida’s economy.
“The EPA has set a dangerous precedent by moving forward with a plan that significantly expands the scope of federal oversight over water,” Feeney said. “If the rule is allowed to come to pass, it would have far-reaching, negative consequences for Florida businesses and fundamentally redefine what citizens can or cannot do on their own property. Once again, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is showing the heavy hand of Washington by offering a punitive, one-size-fits-no-one solution. Because of Florida’s flat terrain, coastline, and aquifer system, this rule will have a much greater impact on us than most other states, and the agencies’ rule leaves no discretion for implementation by states, like Florida, that have unique geography.
More information on the new Clean Water Rules are provided in this previous post

150528-a
Hurricane outlook 2015: El Niño could hinder Atlantic storms
CNN - by Jason Hanna
May 28, 2015
 (CNN) - - The coming Atlantic hurricane season probably will have fewer storms than normal for the third year running -- thanks in part to El Niño, forecasters say.
The Atlantic season, which starts Monday, probably will offer six to 11 named storms, forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center said Wednesday.
Three to six of them could become hurricanes, the center predicted.
Both estimates are below the median -- about 12 named storms and 6.5 hurricanes, according to Colorado State University's Tropical Meteorology Project.
What could hold hurricane formation back? That would be warm waters in the ocean to the west, said Gerry Bell, NOAA's lead hurricane season forecaster.
The phenomenon known as El Niño is back this year. The event, involving the warming of water in the equatorial Pacific, increases strong wind shear in the Atlantic.
That reduces the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes and prevents other systems from becoming powerful enough to be named storms.
"What El Niño does is it suppresses the hurricane season mainly during the peak months of the season, which are August, September and October," Bell told reporters during a news conference in New Orleans on Wednesday.
The outlook does not predict how many storms will hit land. Bell warned that the forecast shouldn't lull people in coastal areas.
"Six to 11 named storms is still a fair amount, so be prepared" to evacuate if ordered, he said.
NOAA pointed to 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which was one of only seven named Atlantic storms that year. It devastated South Florida, killing at least 26 people and causing $26.5 billion in damage.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs though November 30. The region includes the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the north Atlantic Ocean.
Last season featured eight named storms and six hurricanes.
The Eastern Pacific hurricane outlook calls for an above-average season -- 15 to 22 named storms, with seven to 12 hurricanes, the Climate Prediction Center said.
It is rare for an Eastern Pacific hurricane to affect the U.S. mainland, though some do have an influence on Hawaii.

Click here to monitor Lake Okeechobee releases

150528-b
Lake O discharges to stop Friday
TCPlam.com – by Tyler Treadway
May 28, 2015
Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon will stop at 7 a.m. Friday, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
"That’s great news," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. "It was good the corps cut discharges last week, but this is even better."
For the last week, the corps’ goal has been to discharge from Lake O to the river at an average of 107.6 million gallons a day. On Wednesday, 21.3 million gallons of Lake O water poured through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam into the St. Lucie River.
After suspending discharges for most of April, the corps started sending Lake O water to the St. Lucie in early May, despite a large toxic algae bloom along the lake’s eastern shore. By the middle of May, small algae blooms were reported in the river’s South Fork and in creeks and canals around it. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the river blooms weren’t toxic.
No algae blooms have been reported in or around the river this week.
"Hopefully, we’ll see some real recovery," Perry said. "Salinity in the river’s
estuary is still too low, but stopping the discharges should really help."
CLOSE TO GOAL
On Thursday morning, the lake elevation was 12 feet 10 1/2 inches. As a rule of thumb, the corps wants the lake to be at 12 feet 6 inches each June 1 so there’s capacity to safely hold water entering the lake during the upcoming summer rainy season. The corps prefers the lake elevation go no higher than 15 feet 6 inches.
The lake elevation has been dropping by about three-quarters of an inch a day. If that continues, the lake will be less than 2 inches above the desired elevation on June 1, which is Monday.
"The lake dropped more than a quarter of a foot over the last week, which triggered new release guidance under our water control plan," said Jim Jeffords, the corps operations chief for Florida. "How long flows stay at this level is dependent on the weather over the coming days and weeks."
Tony Cristaldi, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Melbourne, said rain chances are expected to increase to the 40- to 50-percent range over the weekend and during the middle of next week.
"It looks like we’ll be getting into a wetter weather pattern in early June," Cristaldi said.
He hesitated to declare the beginning of the rainy season, which is signaled by increased temperatures and humidity leading to frequent afternoon showers and thunderstorms.
"We had kind of a false start to the rainy season in April, when we had quite a bit of rain," he said. "But then it dried out significantly. "
LOT OF WATER
Since the discharges started Jan. 16, an estimated 32 billion gallons of Lake O water has entered the river at the St. Lucie Lock and Dam.
While that’s enough to cover the city of Stuart with 18 feet of water, it lowers the 720-square-mile lake elevation by only about 2 1/2 inches.
Evaporation drops the lake level by a lot more. According to the corps, the lake dropped nearly a quarter of an inch Wednesday through evaporation.
The corps also will reduce Lake O discharges west to the Caloosahatchee River from about 645.9 million gallons a day to 403.6 million gallons a day.
The Caloosahatchee estuary needs some flow from the lake to hold back excessive saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Lucie estuary does not need any extra freshwater from the lake.
Click on the link to see graphic on how much Lake O water is released daily and where you can monitor lake levels.

150528-c
Rising sea poses big threat to Florida's coast
Associated Press – by Jason dearen and Jennifer Kay
May 28, 2015
Governor puts aside task of preparing for emergency
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — America's oldest city is slowly drowning.
St. Augustine's centuries-old Spanish fortress sits feet from the encroaching Atlantic, whose waters already flood the city's narrow streets about 10 times a year — a problem worsening as sea levels rise. The city relies on tourism, but visitors might someday have to wear waders at high tide.
"If you want to benefit from the fact we've been here for 450 years, you have the responsibility to look forward to the next 450," said Bill Hamilton, whose family has lived in the city since the 1950s. "Is St. Augustine even going to be here ? We owe it to the people coming after us to leave the city in good shape."
St. Augustine is one of many chronically flooded communities along Florida's coast, and officials in these diverse places share a concern: They're afraid their buildings and economies will be further inundated by rising seas in just a couple of decades. The effects are a daily reality in much of Florida. Drinking water wells are fouled by seawater. Higher tides and storm surges make for more frequent road flooding from Jacksonville to Key West — and they're overburdening aging flood-control systems.
But the state has yet to offer a clear plan or coordination to address what local officials across Florida's coast see as a slow-moving emergency. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is skeptical of man-made climate change and has put aside the task of preparing for sea level rise, an Associated Press review of thousands of emails and documents pertaining to the state's preparations for rising seas found.
Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists, skepticism over sea level projections and climate change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of government, the records showed. Florida's environmental agencies under Scott have been downsized, making them less effective at coordinating sea level rise planning in the state, documents showed.
"If I were governor, I'd be out there talking about it (sea level rise) every day," said Eric Buermann, former general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida and a former water district governing board member. "Unless you're going to build a sea wall around South Florida, what's the plan?"
The issue presents a public works challenge that could cost billions here and nationwide.
Communities like St. Augustine can do only so much alone. Cities lack the technology, money and manpower to keep back the seas by themselves.
In a brief interview with the AP in March, Scott wouldn't address whether the state had a long-range plan. He cited his support for Everglades restoration and some flood-control projects as progress but said cities and counties should contact environmental and water agencies to find answers — though Scott and a GOP-led legislature have slashed billions from those agencies. Spokespeople for the water districts and other agencies disputed that cuts have affected their abilities to plan.
In a statement, Scott said the state will continue investing in Florida's environment.
Florida's Department of Environmental Protection is in charge of protecting the state environment and water but has taken no official position on sea level rise, according to documents.
In St. Augustine, flooding has long been problematic, but residents say it's worsened over the past 20 years. St. Augustine's civil engineer says the low-lying village will probably need a pumping system to keep water out — but the state has been unhelpful.
"There's no guidance. ... Everything I've found to help I've gotten by searching the Internet," engineer Reuben Franklin said.
Water quality is one of the biggest concerns. It's especially bad in South Florida — Hallandale Beach has abandoned six of eight drinking water wells because of saltwater intrusion.
While South Florida water officials have led the charge in addressing concerns in their area, their attempt to organize a statewide group was unsuccessful, documents show. Scott's administration has organized just a few conference calls to coordinate local efforts, records show.
Meanwhile, government officials have been adamant that employees and scientists not "assign cause" in public statements about global warming, government emails show.
For example, a 2014 email approving a Department of Environmental Protection scientist's request to participate in a National Geographic story came with a warning: "Approved. Make no claims as to cause ... stay with the research you are doing, of course," the department manager, Pamela Phillips, warned.
"I know the drill," responded Mike Shirley, the state scientist.
Department spokeswoman Lauren Engel said Phillips was a lower-level staffer whose views did not necessarily reflect the entire administration. Scott refuted allegations that his administrations urges scientists not to assign cause when discussing climate change.
Scott administration officials are moving forward on a five-year plan that will provide basic guidance to cities dealing with sea level rise.
The Department of Economic Opportunity has received nearly $1 million in federal grants for the plan. More than half has been spent on staff time and travel or hasn't yet been allocated, according to documents. The rest, about $450,000, went to contract researchers who are helping create the document, due in 2016.

150527-a
Environmentalists optimistic over Everglades reservoir money
CBSMiami.com
May 27, 2015
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — Environmentalists will be pushing to get money from Florida lawmakers for a reservoir in the Everglades this upcoming special legislative session and they’re optimistic about getting it.
But so far, only a handful of legislative leaders have proposed such funding as they prepare to return to Tallahassee on Monday to work on the state budget.
Members of the Everglades Trust, the Everglades Foundation and Florida Audubon said Wednesday they will approach the special session with a goal of securing money to build a 40,000-acre to 60,000-acre reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. They also will seek written directions from lawmakers that the South Florida Water Management District find the needed acres and establish a timeline to build the reservoir.
“We cannot and we will not give up on the goal of buying land for a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee,” Audubon Executive Director Eric Draper said during a news conference Wednesday. “We know that we need to get some type of project south of Lake Okeechobee so we can take that water out of the lake, we can treat it, we can deliver it to the Everglades, where it can help to recharge the water supply and make the Everglades wetter.”
Environmentalists are seeking to divert polluted water being sent into estuaries east and west of the lake. But the special session comes after the water management district’s Governing Board voted May 14th to terminate an expiring option to purchase 46,800 acres in the Everglades from U.S. Sugar Corp.
The environmentalists point to a University of Florida Water Institute study released in March that highlighted the need to complete needed reservoirs east and west of Lake Okeechobee. The study also recommended building additional water storage and treatment north and south of the lake, creating deep wells to reduce the flow of polluted water from the lake and readjusting scheduled releases from the lake to the estuaries east and west.
Tom Van Lent, Everglades Foundation director of science and policy, said during the news conference the reservoir is direly needed as the Everglades is starving for fresh water and the current storage options have been reduced to “Band-Aid fixes.”
“The real concrete solutions are not in the pipeline,” Van Lent. “Right now, we don’t see the path forward to fix the problems in the estuaries, the Everglades and for our water users.”
Draper said funding efforts during the regular session failed because proponents were focused on completing the U.S. Sugar deal.
“I think with that off the table we have a new situation, and we even have some indications that people from the business side of things, from the sugar farmers, are open to the idea that something more needs to be done in the Everglades Agricultural Area,” Draper said.
Environmentalists had called the U.S. Sugar land vital in helping to reduce pollutants out of Lake Okeechobee and to bring more water through the Everglades. But U.S. Sugar Corp. soured on the below-market deal that needed to be completed by October. Also, a number of lawmakers overseeing environmental spending have questioned the state’s ability to maintain land already in public hands.
However, after the water management district killed the reservoir deal, U.S. Sugar issued a release declaring an intention to keep working on Everglades restoration efforts with the state and federal governments as outlined in Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign proposal to spend $5 billion for Everglades projects over the next 20 years.
The U.S. Sugar land was estimated to cost as much as $500 million, a price tag that far exceeded the proposed spending levels lawmakers put forward in the regular session for land acquisition under the voter-approved initiative known as Amendment 1. That initiative, passed in November, requires the state to set aside increased amounts of money for land and water management and acquisition.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, whose districts have been heavily impacted by the release of polluted waters from the lake, have proposed using more of the Amendment 1 dollars to meet the costs of reservoir space in the Everglades. But so far, the word from the Capitol is that Amendment 1 funding will simply be addressed in budget conference talks during the special session.
Related:           Don't miss the chance to redo Amendment 1 plans: Editorial           Orlando Sentinel
Environmentalists Continue Push for Everglades Reservoir Naples Herald
Greens Want River Of Cash For 'River Of Grass'      WFSU
Environmental Groups Plan Rallies for Amendment 1 Land Purchases        Florida Water Daily

150527-b
Environmentalists renew call for Everglades land buy before special Florida session
Miami Herald – by Jennny Staletovich
May 27, 205
Environmentalists say they are not giving up the battle to secure land south of Lake Okeechobee for Everglades restoration. They’re just changing tracts.
With lawmakers scheduled to meet Monday for the start of a 20-day special session, several of the state’s most influential conservation groups on Wednesday renewed calls to buy land needed to store water and move it to the thirsty southern Everglades. They also want lawmakers to order the South Florida Water Management District to set a schedule for designing and building a reservoir.
“We have a path forward,” said Mary Barley, president of the Everglades Trust. “The cost of inaction could be catastrophic.”
Over the dry winter, Florida Bay withered as salinity shot up. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was also forced to release dirty lake water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers to protect the lake’s aging dike. The dirty lake water triggered a toxic algae bloom two summers ago that killed fish and made the rivers off-limits for months.
The groups had hoped to complete a deal to buy about 46,000 acres from U.S. Sugar before it expired in October using money from Amendment 1, a November constitutional measure that 75 percent of voters supported. But the deal fell apart after the company backed off the plan and water managers instead voted to endorse a vague budget plan by Gov. Rick Scott to spend $500 million on restoration efforts. With that controversial deal behind them, group leaders said they were hopeful Wednesday that opposition would also fade.

150527-d
From wastewater to fish farm ?
MyFoxTampaBay.com - by Steve Nichols, FOX 13 Pinellas Bureau Reporter
May 27, 2015
ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Downtown St. Petersburg's waterfront wastewater treatment plant might become an urban fish farm. City Development Administrator Alan DeLisle confirmed a private aquaculture company has approached the city with a proposal to use the plant's large tanks and other infrastructure to grow commercially viable seafood.
"We have done a fair amount of research...and we are definitely intrigued by the proposal," DeLisle told FOX 13 News, then cautioned, "we are really just at the stage of understanding whether or not to move forward with a feasibility study."
The Albert Whitted Treatment Plant is in the process of being decommissioned, and current plans call for demolishing it at a cost of more than $3 million.
The facility occupies about seven acres on the southeastern corner of Albert Whitted Airport, adjacent to a heavily-secured Coast Guard station. It is also very close to St. Petersburg's port and its cluster of marine science entities.
"Probably the most important thing for me is the relationship to a targeted industry here in St. Petersburg, which is the marine science industry," DeLisle said.
He initially spoke with several members of that community and "...they thought we should keep looking at it."
Dr. Bill Hogarth, director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography, told FOX 13 News he has participated in conference calls with the unidentified aquaculture company. Hogarth said from what he has learned, he thinks the company "...has a great background, they've got a lot of expertise and experience in this type of aquaculture, they've got contracts for everything that they grow."
Hogarth envisions partnerships with USF's College of Marine Science, a planned marine science education center, and research into more efficient fish farming.
"There's a lot of different fin fish that feed the market, grow quickly and get to the market quickly," he said, calling on his previous experiences with the National Marine Fisheries Service. "Cobia's one, and red snapper is one I've heard discussion about. But scallop is also another good product you could do."
The chairman of the Albert Whitted Airport Advisory Committee is initially opposed.
"It's a non-aeronautical use," Jack Tunstill said, and his group thinks the acreage should be reclaimed by the airport. "[After] 25 years here, I'm skeptical when I hear these things that come up with 'We want to help you out at the airport by you giving up your land.' No."
One potential mitigator: The water department currently rents the treatment plant's land, contributing about $200,000 a year to the airport fund. The fish farm would also pay rent, but no one can say what that amount would be, and Tunstill declined to answer an unspecified hypothetical.
DeLisle said he does not think the aquaculture company wants the entire site, and that could be a positive.
"That could leave some room for other uses and it is part of the airport and there are some ideas related to some other opportunities there, so it may give us the opportunity to explore both," he added.

150527-e
Nicodemus Slough begins supplying needed water to the Caloosahatchee River
Florida Water Daily - SFWMD Press Release (link):
May 27, 2015
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has begun supplying water for the first time from the Nicodemus Slough water storage area in Glades County to benefit the health of the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary and local agricultural fields.
“Nicodemus Slough successfully provided some relief from high discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries when there was too much water earlier this year,” said Jeff Kivett, SFWMD Director of the Operations, Engineering and Construction Division. “Now, the project is proving its potential to also provide water supply to the regional system, including flows needed to maintain healthy salinity levels in one of the region’s vital waterways.”
Water Supply
With Lake Okeechobee’s level falling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake, announced last week it was following its federal guidelines by reducing flows from the lake to the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary. District engineers, in coordination with the Corps, determined water could be moved from Nicodemus Slough to the river to replace some of the decreased, but needed water.
Water is currently moving by gravity through gates at the site at about 1.3 million gallons-an-hour, with potential to increase the water deliveries. From there, it follows a route through the C-19 Canal and into Lake Hicpochee, which will see some rehydration benefits, and into the river.
Operations at Nicodemus Slough will continue until it’s no longer environmentally desirable or the water can no longer be delivered via gravity.
Water Storage
Located south of Fisheating Creek on the western bank of the lake, the Nicodemus Slough project was intended to provide interim water storage until projects such as the Caloosahatchee River (C-43) West Basin Storage Reservoir are completed. In a cooperative agreement with Lykes Brothers, the District is leasing the property for an investment of $2 million a year for 8 years, with an option to extend the agreement.
The project can store an annual average of 34,000 acre-feet of water, or about 11 billion gallons.
In response to high water levels in Lake Okeechobee in January, the SFWMD began operation of Nicodemus Slough to capture some of the water being released by the Corps from the lake before it reached the river and estuary.
Full-capacity pumping sent water onto the 16,000-acre project area, utilizing four pumps moving more than 30,000 gallons of water each per minute.
Nicodemus Slough is one of multiple actions the SFWMD has taken to expand water storage opportunities. Since 2005, the District and a variety of partners worked together to enhance water storage opportunities on private and public lands through the agency’s Dispersed Water Management Program.
Approximately 87,000 acre-feet of water retention and storage has been made available in the greater Everglades system through the program, with the majority located in the Lake Okeechobee watershed. Nearly 100,000 acre-feet of additional storage, including six new projects approved in December 2014, are under development.
For More Information:          Water Storage Strategies
Interactive “Moving Water South” map

150527-f
Sea level rise conclusions are irrefutable
News-Press.com – by David Trecker, a chemist and retired executive of Pfizer
May 27, 2015
The sky isn’t falling. But, to be sure, the oceans are rising.
That was the message from speaker after speaker at the recent Southwest Florida Sea Level Rise Summit in Estero.
The data is overwhelming and the conclusions are irrefutable. The question is what to do about it – if anything.
Harold Wanless of the University of Miami offered this doomsday scenario: Accelerated melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctica glaciers will cause a 1.3-2.1-foot ocean rise by 2050 and a 4.1-6.6-foot rise by 2100. (Other, more hysterical models, predict increases of up to 79 feet.)
And here’s the kicker. We can’t do anything about it. It’s going to happen. Buying an electric car won’t help. Wanless said if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere would keep warming the planet for at least another 30 years.
Forecasts from the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change are more dire: “Stabilization [of man-made emissions] would result in an ongoing global warming for many centuries. Warming would continue beyond 2100 under nearly all model scenarios.”
Jim Beever of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council showed the effects of ocean rise on the west coast. Collier County would be hit first, with substantial flooding by 2050. By 2100, much of Naples would be swamped. The effects on the more heavily populated east coast are even more dramatic.
Wanless showed maps indicating huge losses of land masses, with much of south Florida – particularly the coastal areas – under water by 2200.
What can we do about it? Precious little. Here are some possibilities.
•Armor the shoreline with seawalls and dykes
•Elevate buildings
•Allow selective incursions to protect key areas (reshape the shoreline)
•Add sand and plant mangroves in a gradual retreat
•Manage relocation (euphemism for moving away)
Only the last of these – moving to higher ground – makes sense. The cost of armoring the shoreline would exceed the value of the property it protected (Beever). Further, our limestone and sand underpinnings are too porous and permeable for dykes and levees to work (Wanless).
So where does that leave us? What are the take-home messages?
First, cutting back on greenhouse emissions may slow the rate of ocean rise, but nothing will stop it. The geography of Florida is going to change.
Second, for residents and businesses, when things get bad the only practical solution will be to pack up, leave the shoreline and move inland or go north.
Third, and most important, this will all happen very gradually. We’re not talking about a tsunami with a great wall of water pouring over us. This will happen a few inches at a time, almost imperceptibly.
And therein lies the problem. There will be few immediate effects. Flood insurance premiums will rise. Building codes will change. But nothing very dramatic. And so most people won’t worry about it. There won’t be any sell off of waterfront property. In fact, more is being built and values are going up, not down.
A few local governments are beginning to think about the problems – the effect on water supply, roadways, beach erosion. But it’s not high priority. It’s not imminent. Jobs, education, growth, traffic are immediate issues. Ocean rise is not.

150527-g
US Army Engineers pull out of blue-green algae testing effort
TechTimes - by Anu Passary, Tech Times
May 27, 7:39 AM
The U.S. Army Engineers have withdrawn from the statewide health agency, pulling out of the testing efforts for blue-green algae blooms. Going forward the corps will not send alerts pertaining to potentially toxic blooms.
The U.S. Army Engineers have pulled out of the testing efforts for blue-green algae and will not send alerts pertaining to potentially toxic blooms.
The corps managed the blooms that occur during the summer in Oregon lakes, warning people regarding the algae blooms. They were responsible for sampling the blue-green algae blooms to find out which algae was poisonous as all blooms are not toxic.
However, the poisonous blooms create byproducts such as neurotoxins that interfere with the human body's ability to send signals and inform the lungs to breathe, as well as the heart to beat.
The corps has withdrawn from the statewide health agency which was pivotal in alerting people and is sure of their decision and will not reconsider the same.
Public health experts have expressed their concern as they believe that plenty of issues can be created if one does not know if a particular bloom is poisonous or not. Microbiology professor Theo Dreher is of the opinion that the corps should at least test out blooms in popular spots such as Dorena, Dexter, Cottage Grove and Fern Ridge in Lane County as these are frequented by a large number of people in summer.
"It would be far better to know whether a bloom is toxic or not," per Dreher. If people are not aware then it would be "unwise and problematical."
The U.S. Army Engineers, however, have another solution to offer - posting signs alerting people. The corps said that they will put up metal signs which will detail how one can figure out if a blue-green algae bloom is potentially toxic. These signs will be put up at the popular spots such as beaches and boat ramps.
These signs will replace the practice of testing blooms individually, issuing public warning systems and particular warning signs as decided by the corps last fall. The old system alerted people not to touch or drink the water, as well as desist from inhaling the droplets.
People are concerned how effective the new warning signs will be and fear they may blend into the background and possibly ignored.
The U.S. Army Engineers were responsible for managing several lakes in Willamette Valley, which are prone to algae blooms during the summer. The algae blooms, however, are not limited to this area and are also found in several other water bodies that are managed by different agencies.
While the U.S. Army Engineers will discontinue their testing effort, the water bodies that are managed by the U.S. Forest Service, as well as several state and country park agencies, will continue to have advisories and testing.

150527-h
What to look for in the special session
Miami Herald – Op-Ed by Paula Dockery
May 27, 2015
I’m willing to bet that the majority of Floridians are not eagerly awaiting the upcoming 20-day special session of the Legislature. In fact, I’m pretty sure the vast majority of the state’s residents don’t even know it is occurring.
But it is, and it’s important. It’s too bad more voters aren’t paying attention.
During that brief time, beginning on June 1, the Florida lawmakers will craft the state budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year that begins on July 1. Because the Florida Constitution requires a balanced budget, the Legislature must account for $77 billion-$80 billion in revenue, depending on whether it accepts federal funding for healthcare expansion.
In their joint proclamation announcing the Special Session, Senate President Andy Gardiner and Speaker of the House Steve Crisafulli laid out the scope of the session.
Gardiner and Crisafulli listed 16 items primarily related to the budget. The first two, identified by bill number from the regular session, are the budget itself and the implementing bill. These are the two that must pass.
Next they listed a series of conforming bills — bills that change policy in order to conform to the monies appropriated in the budget. Over the years, these conforming bills have grown in number — exceeding both the original use and intent.
The issues included as conforming bills relate to state employees, the Florida Business Information Portal, Community-based Care Lead Agencies, the State Administered Retirement Systems, the Department of Transportation, the use of the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, the implementation of Amendment 1 and the expansion and modification of Medicaid and the health insurance affordability exchange.
And, of course, there will be consideration of a tax-cut package after the major spending issues have been decided. Much of the work of the Special Session has and will continue to take place prior to its official start. The plan outlined above limits and defines what can be considered.
Here’s what I’m hoping will come of the session that would, in my opinion, best serve Floridians:
▪ Funding education at levels that allow public-school students and teachers to excel.
▪ Properly funding our chronically shortchanged prison system to create a safer environment for prison staff, probation officers and inmates. Funds are needed for additional staff, equipment and training, facility repair and investigations. An investment into reentry programs, faith-based initiatives, mental-health services and substance-abuse programs would benefit inmates, their families and the community while decreasing costly recidivism.
▪ Honoring the voters’ directive to protect and preserve our water and lands by spending the $750 million constitutionally required by Amendment 1 on land acquisition, springs protection, Everglades restoration and land management. This is best done by fully funding the existing environmental programs like Florida Forever at $300 million, water sustainability at $100 million and Everglades restoration at $100 million.
▪ Expanding healthcare coverage to over 800,000 of Florida’s working poor by accepting the federal funding and passing an alternative form of Medicaid expansion. The Senate has already shown a willingness to modify its FHIX plan in an effort to compromise with the House leadership. The House has put forth some long-term healthcare fixes that won’t have an immediate effect but should be considered.
▪ Last, the Legislature should return some tax dollars to average Floridians through broad-based tax relief that benefit as many taxpayers as possible.
Related:           Legislature will best serve Floridians by addressing these issues in ...           TBO.com

150526-a
Perhaps DEP’s Jon Steverson will tell the Cabinet what is going on in Palatka
SaintPetersBlog - by Bruce Ritchie
May 26, 2015
DEP Secretary Jon Steverson says he has never fired anyone for enforcing the law. Yet his fingerprints – or at least tacit backing – are all over the ouster of top staff at the St. Johns River Water Management District.
The resignations of Executive Director Hans Tanzler and four top staff members at the district, based in Palatka, has prompted criticism from environmentalists and newspaper editorial writers about political interference from Tallahassee.
Dinah Voyles Pulver of the Daytona Beach News Journal reported on May 8 that the departures prompted concerns that Gov. Rick Scott and his administration may be working to further limit the agency’s power and authority.
“On March 24, I met with Hans (Tanzler), at which time he informed me he was going to resign,” Robert Christianson, director of the district’s strategic planning and financial services division, told the News Journal. “He also shared that the secretary of DEP informed him that the administration wanted a new culture in the leadership of the St. Johns district and that other senior staff would be let go.”
Former water district board member Richard Hamann said the moves were part of a pattern by Scott’s administration.
“They want to make the districts instrumentalities of DEP, and thus, the governor’s office, and they definitely want them to be reduced in terms of their influence,” said Hamann, an attorney in the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida.
But John Miklos, agency chairman and Orlando consultant for developers on environmental matters, described the departures as a common trend when a new executive director arrives, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
“To act like it’s some kind of conspiracy is asinine,” he said in a May 21 article.
Similar house-cleaning occurred five years ago at DEP soon after Scott took office. Steverson became a DEP special counsel and a deputy secretary overseeing water management district policy and budgets.
All five chiefs of the state’s water management districts had resigned by March 2012, when Doug Barr left after 20 years as executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District. Steverson replaced Barr, then was tapped by Scott last December to lead DEP.
During a Senate confirmation hearing in April, Steverson was asked by audience member Amy Datz of the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus whether he could change the mindset at DEP, where she said employees fear for their jobs because they are enforcing state environmental laws.
“No, I have never fired anyone for enforcing the law, not for any job I have ever held,” Steverson responded to the Senate committee. “First and foremost I will always follow the law.
“I have never engendered a spirit of if you don’t do this the way I said, you’re gone. Or if you follow the law, you’re gone.”
He began to explain further but was cut off by Sen. Charlie Dean, a Republican from Inverness who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation.
“Mr. Secretary, that is sufficient,” Dean said.
Steverson was among dozens of Scott appointees not confirmed by the Senate before the legislative session ended on May 1. He was reappointed by the governor on May 5.
This time, the Cabinet will fill the position, Scott said, after conducting a nationwide search. Steverson, through a department spokeswoman, has been vague in answering whether he plans to reapply by the May 31 deadline.
Perhaps if Steverson goes before the Cabinet for the appointment, he’ll be asked by Cabinet members about the resignations at the St. Johns River Water Management District. Maybe he can explain how they will help the district or whether he had anything to do with it, since neither the department nor the water management district will say.
And maybe this time he won’t be cut off during his response.

150526-b
River water woes come with Lake Okeechobee draining
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
May 27, 2015
The Army Corps of Engineers since January has been draining Lake Okeechobee water to the east and west to ease the strain on the troubled dike relied on to protect South Florida from flooding.
Algae blooms pose human health risks in rivers that have become Lake Okeechobee dumping grounds.
Draining Lake Okeechobee protects South Florida from flooding, but can cause problems in coastal waters.
"Toxic" and "scum" are not words that the Chamber of Commerce likes to see associated with Florida's waterfront lifestyle.
Yet draining Lake Okeechobee to protect South Florida from flooding has been blamed by coastal communities for portions of rivers, near Fort Myers and Stuart, periodically being off limits to swimmers, fishermen and others due to health risks.
The Army Corps of Engineers is in a race to lower the lake in time for the summer storm season that officially begins June 1. Lowering the lake now creates more room to hold water expected during the rainy months to come.
An algae bloom Friday put the brakes on draining more Lake Okeechobee water to the East Coast.
That involves dumping lake water west into the Caloosahatchee River and east into the St. Lucie River, which can bring unintended consequences.
On Friday, the W.P. Franklin South Recreation Area along the Caloosahatchee River was closed to swimmers due to a toxic algae bloom found in "scum" hugging the surface and at risk of reaching the waterfront park in the path of the lake draining.
Rash, nausea and even liver damage are among the human health risks of toxic algae blooms.
"Public safety is our highest priority," Steve Dunham, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers' Florida office, which controls Lake Okeechobee draining, said in a statement released Friday. "We will request (state officials) to conduct weekly  tests until the issue is resolved."Despite the water-quality problems, the Army Corps is continuing to drain Lake Okeechobee water to the east and west and out to sea because of the flooding risk the lake poses to South Florida.
The Army Corps this week is draining about 1 billion gallons of water per day to the east and west total. That's enough to fill nearly 1,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools per day.
"The discharges from the lake (are) bringing the algae with it," said Mark Perry, of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, where lake water drains out to sea. "If the water is green, stay away from it. ... It is a health risk."
The Army Corps maintains that algae blooms, which can kill fish and seagrass beds as well as pose a human health risk, can occur anywhere and are not necessarily happening because of draining Lake Okeechobee.
Lowering the lake, and easing the strain on the troubled dike that protects South Florida from flooding, has to be the top public safety concern, according to the Army Corps.
"With everything, there is a risk and reward," Army Corps spokesman John Campbell said about the need to keep lowering the lake. "Lake Okeechobee is not the only place that has algae blooms."

150525-a
Developers pushing growth on environmentally-sensitive South Lee land
Florida Water Daily - from the Naples News (link)
May 25, 2015
Since the early 1990s, South Lee’s sprawling suburbs stayed left of an invisible county firewall known locally as the DRGR, which stands for Density Reduction Groundwater Resource area. Lee created the DRGR, in part, to protect the county’s drinking water supply.
But as Lee’s population creeps toward more than 1 million residents by 2040, county officials are contemplating a shift in the way they control growth and conservation in rural southeastern Lee.
The county has offered two developers legal pathways to increase the number of homes they can build on DRGR land. In exchange, the developers are promising millions of dollars worth of environmental perks, such as wildlife corridors and pricey wetland restoration projects.

150525-b
Diagnosis of the artificial intelligence-based predictions of flow regime in a constructed wetland for stormwater pollution control
Ecological Informatics – by Ni-Bin Chang et al.
May 25, 2015
Journal article Abstract - - Monitoring the velocity field and stage variations in heterogeneous aquatic environments, such as constructed wetlands, is critical for understanding hydrodynamic patterns, nutrient removal capacity, and hydrographic impact on the wetland ecosystem. Obtaining low velocity measurements representative of the entire wetland system may be challenging, expensive, and even infeasible in some cases. Data-driven modeling techniques in the computational intelligence regime may provide fast predictions of the velocity field based on a handful of local measurements. They can be a convenient tool to visualize the general spatial and temporal distribution of flow magnitude and direction with reasonable accurancy when regular hydraulic models suffer from insufficient baseline information and longer run time. In this paper, comparison between two types of bio-inspired computational intelligence models including Genetic Programming (GP) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were conducted to predict the velocity field within a constructed wetland (i.e., the Stormwater Treatment Area in South Florida) in the Everglades, Florida. Two different ANN-based models, including back propagation algorithm and extreme learning machine, were used. Model calibration and validation were driven by data collected from a local sensor network of Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADVs) and weather stations. In general, the two ANN-based models outperform the GP model in terms of several indices. Findings may contribute to improving the design and operation strategies for similar wetland systems.

150525-c
Florida republican Congressman calls for action on climate change
MiamiNewTimes - by Jessica Weiss
May 25, 2015
Florida Republicans haven’t exactly been making headlines for their progressive stance on climate change. But a lone Republican has begun to push for action within his party. Representative Carlos Curbelo, who represents Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which stretches from Miami to Key West, says he understands climate change is “a major challenge and threat we all face, especially in South Florida.”
“I have objectively taken a look at the information out there, and it’s evident the climate is changing,” Curbelo told New Times. “Certainly human beings are having an effect on the climate.”
His positions are a far cry from those of other Florida Republicans, including former Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, who have both expressed doubt as to whether human activity is causing climate change. Governor Rick Scott reportedly forbids his staff from even mentioning the words climate change.
Curbelo, a Hialeah native, says he doesn’t view climate change as an ideological question, of conservative versus liberal, but rather a “real issue that demands real solutions.”
“I actually believe that more people agree with me in my party than they’d like to admit,” Curbelo says. “Unfortunately it’s become part of the political game.”
On Earth Day, Curbelo accompanied President Obama on Air Force One to the Everglades, where the President gave a speech on climate change. There, in Homestead, Curbelo pledged to “put party politics aside and seek bipartisan solutions to climate change and sea level rise.” For his pledge, Curbelo was invited back to Homestead in early May, to the Gateway Environmental Learning Center, to receive a “Climate Hero’s Welcome” from hundreds of fifth grade students, who presented more than 200 handwritten thank you letters.
Curbelo says he’s impressed and inspired by the interest shown by young people towards the environment—a divergence from the tone in Washington, where “most people in government are older and aren’t really thinking 20 or 30 years ahead.”
Curbelo, who is 35, says we all need to prepare for the “inevitable effects” of climate change in South Florida, like rising sea levels. He wants to see investments in things like infrastructure, Everglades restoration and building codes.
Given that Miami has become a major economic driver for the country’s economy, and a trade hub and Latin American banking capital, “Miami being at risk is not just a local issue,” he says. “It’s a national one.” 

150524-a
Experts predict light hurricane season; Manatee County officials encourage preparedness
Bradenton.com - by Kate Kirby
May 24, 2015 
MANATEE -- Though experts predict 2015 will be light on hurricanes and tropical storms, Manatee County officials encourage people not to grow complacent.
"We've had 10 years of really mild, quiet time -- there have been storms but nothing has really impacted Florida to any major extent. This year they are talking about a less than average season," said Don Hermey, Manatee County emergency management chief. "However, as we like to remind people, it only takes one. One in our season is going to be a challenge, particularly if it's a major Category 3 or greater storm."
Meteorologists have predicted seven main storms in the 2015 hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30. Those predictions are based on activity in the Atlantic Ocean, so they don't predict what states might be hit by storms.
Manatee County evacuation procedures have not changed and neither has the evacuation levels map, Her
mey said.
Floridians should make sure they have an evacuation plan for their family, including pets, batteries, flashlights, a week's worth of food and water and a radio, officials stress.
Florida provided a state sales tax holiday on items meant for hurricane preparedness in 2014, but it's unclear if the same tax holiday will exist this year. Last year, people could buy flashlights, batteries, radios, waterproof sheeting, gas tanks and first-aid kits sans sales tax June 1-12.
Manatee County was last hit with a major hurricane in 1926, but Hermey stressed several times long periods without storms don't mean people should be at ease or not prepare.
"When you talk to experts and look at areas of the country as far as an impact is concerned, Tampa Bay is long overdue for the impact of a major storm, statistically speaking," Hermey said.

150524-b
Karst estuaries are governed by interactions between inland hydrological conditions and sea level
Journal of Hydrology – by Damian M. Menning et al.
May 24, 2015
Article Summary- - Karst estuaries represent unique systems created by freshwater inputs that flow directly into the sea through karst conduits and/or matrices. In order to determine the characteristics of a karst estuary resulting from the brackish discharge of Double Keyhole Spring into the Gulf of Mexico, we monitored short-term tidal fluctuations, long-term rainfall patterns, aquifer levels, spring discharge, and multiple geochemical parameters along a transect from the spring through the estuary. We monitored four sites along a spring/estuary transect and a nearby inland freshwater spring to represent the freshwater portion of the Upper Floridan Aquifer. Datasondes were deployed in Double Keyhole Spring to measure discharge volume, tidal fluctuations, and physical water parameters for two years. Water samples were collected quarterly from both springs and the surrounding surface sites over the same time period. An isotopic/trace element mass balance tracer method was used to determine the hydrogeological components of the spring discharge from three possible sources: 1) freshwater from the upper portion of the Upper Floridan aquifer, 2) freshwater from the lower portion of the Upper Floridan aquifer, and 3) saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico. Within the water column of the submarine spring conduit, there were no significant differences of the sampled parameters over short sampling distances (<400 m) and periods (<1 hr). Spring discharge directly correlated to aquifer level and negatively correlated to tidal level. The brackish nature of the spring discharge is due to simple mixing between Gulf of Mexico saltwater and freshwater from the lower portion of the Upper Floridan aquifer. The composition of the spring discharge varied seasonally, showing increased marine influence during the wet season. In June 2012, Tropical Storm Debby resulted in measurable freshwater inputs from the upper portion of the Upper Floridan aquifer that discharged directly to the estuary and bypassed the spring. The number of spring reversals (salt water intrusion events) into Double Keyhole Spring increased as the dry season progressed, stopped immediately after Tropical Storm Debby, and then gradually increased into the next dry season. Statistically significant geochemical differences were found along the spring/estuary transect on each collection date and seasonally at the individual sites. Our data shows that this karst estuary system is governed by the interactions between inland hydrological conditions and sea level.

150523-a
Are rising sea levels a real threat to Florida’s coastal cities ?
Palm Beach Post – by staff
May 23, 2015
The threat to Florida’s coasts from sea level rise is real. Street flooding in the state’s coastal communities at high tide is real. Saltwater incursion in South Florida wellfields is real.
All of this leads to a natural question: Why won’t Gov. Rick Scott take the issue of sea level rise more seriously?
For years now, at least since the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact was organized in 2009, state lawmakers have had access not only to scientific evidence of rising seas but Florida’s vulnerability from the climate phenomenon. The Compact, by the way, has been recognized by the White House as a leading voice on climate action.
Yet, as we sit on the cusp of another hurricane season with scientists warning of a higher risk of storm surge damage due to rising sea levels and warm ocean temperatures, officials in coastal communities from St. Augustine to Hallandale Beach are left to fend for themselves.
It’s high time Scott and Republican legislators set aside their ideological animus toward the term “climate change,” because the increased flooding now seen in some low-lying areas at high tide will only get worse.
Indeed, there are few areas in the country that are more threatened by global climate change than Florida. Already we face monumental tasks in slowing the erosion of our beaches and preserving our groundwater from the increasing danger of saltwater intrusion.
Although legislative leaders have shown themselves to be just as tone deaf about rising seas, it falls to Scott to show the leadership needed to push the issue out front. Rather than proclaiming that he’s “not a scientist,” Scott should muster all the power of his office to draw attention to the dangers we face. Instead, he chooses to join the choir of climate change deniers that attempts to muddle and confuse Americans about the settled science in this area.
Meanwhile, the historic city of St. Augustine faces severe flooding, which is slowly drowning the city. The streets of Miami Beach’s South Beach regularly flood with sea water at high tide. Six of Hallandale Beach’s eight drinking water wells have been lost to saltwater intrusion.
To be sure climate change is a global problem. It’s also long-term. That doesn’t mean, however, that Florida leaders can’t take steps now — such as creating a statewide comprehensive strategy and plan — to deal with the impact of rising sea levels here. That includes dedicating resources such as pumping systems and sea walls, and science to help preserve our threatened coast.
St. Augustine’s civil engineer, Reuben Franklin, told the Associated Press that the state has provided no guidance. “Everything I’ve found to help I’ve gotten by searching the Internet,” Franklin said.
That’s pathetic.

150523-b
Bad water holding down property values
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
May 23, 2015
Could chocolate-colored coastal waters limit the value of your home, or force you to sell at a loss ?
Florida Realtors says yes to both in a recent report that says property values were suppressed by nearly $1 billion a year because of poor water quality.
Improved water quality in Lee County would increase property values by an estimated $541 million while Martin County’s property value would increase by an estimated $428 million, the report says.
Overall, property values are rising in both counties, but they’re being “severely dampened” by poor water quality, the report says.
“What is happening is that, while one algal bloom is not alarming in isolation, the recurrence of the algal blooms on a regular basis is showing up in the one-year models,” the report reads. “This regular recurrence is what is concerning home buyers and sellers. That is, a one-time event may not have a detrimental effect, but multiple times is a big problem.”
Water issues here are mostly caused by excess nutrients, which come from the local watershed (lands north and south of the Caloosahatchee) and from Lake Okeechobee discharges. The two combined, especially during heavy rains, can crippled the estuary, force health officials to close swimming beaches, cause fish kills and scare off tourists.
The Lee County Appraiser’s Office says an increase of $500 million would generate nearly $9.2 million in property taxes for a county that had a taxable value of $54.6 billion in 2012. Collier was not included in the Realtors’ report.
“When we have those high water events, the turbidity gets worse and you can’t see six inches in the water,” said Shane Spring, a Sanibel Realtor. “This shows that water degradation does decrease property values.”
Researchers started the study last summer, finished it earlier this year and looked at all waterfront and nearby homes along the Caloosahatchee River at Franklin Lock and Dam to San Carlos Bay near Fort Myers Beach. Spring said the numbers don’t account for tourism and home rental impacts.
“We lost sales,” Spring said. “We lost rentals. People were saying they spent their first time in Southwest Florida and they will not come back because of the poor water quality.”
Poor water quality most recently perked up in public perception during the 2013 rainy season, a record-setting summer that included swimming beach closures, oyster and sea grass bed kills and a chocolate-colored freshwater plume that blasted at least 15 miles off Sanibel.
Some locals have long speculated that water-quality issues hamper property values, but no entity or agency has tried to quantify how degraded waterways impact home prices and the willingness of potential buyers to pull the trigger.
“What was clearly found was that the ongoing problem of polluted water in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries has indeed resulted in a negative impact on home values,” the report reads.
The report was aimed at quantifying the ambient water quality as “perceived by potential home buyers and sellers” and considered: age of home, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, tax rates, local school scores, flood risks and proximity to the water. Chlorophyll-a readings, dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity and other water quality measurement tools were used.
Each home sale between 2010 and 2013 was added to those and other metrics and compared to values one month before purchase and one year before purchase.
The report says short-term sales may not be impacted as much because algal blooms and other water-quality problems typically clear up in a matter of weeks. But long-term sales are being impacted by the region’s growing notoriety for yucky, harmful, toxic outbreaks.
It may seem strange for a Realtor’s association to conduct water quality studies here and in St. Lucie County, but long-time biologist and planner Jim Beever, with the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, read the report and says it has merit.
“I think it’s a valid approach for ecosystem value calculation,” Beever said. “They’re able to show both the benefits for water quality and the detriments if water quality goes down.”
Beever said he’s read similar reports from other areas of the country where water quality was an issue. He said the study demonstrates a correlation between home prices and sour waters.
“The clear thing about the study is it shows positive water quality increases value,” Beever said. “That’s why people want to be on Captiva and Sanibel and with aquatic preserves around them. That’s why people who live up North around polluted waterways want to come down here.”
Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson hasn’t read the report, he said, but is familiar with its claims. He seemed skeptical the report is an actual reflection of home-buying decisions in relation to water quality. There are many other factors in pricing land.
“You don’t know if there is impact from the clarity,” Wilkinson said. “Even if you could come up with a number, how did you attribute it to the clarity and only the clarity. Everybody lost market value from January (of 2007).”
Findings include:
•Poor water quality leads to lower home values.
•A 1-foot increase in water clarity would raise Lee’s property values by $541 million.
•Beaches and other waterfront are the most valuable and most vulnerable to low values due to poor water quality.
•Tourists are and will be angry, and they’ll likely never come back to Lee or Martin.
•Waterfront home values along the Calooshatchee would increase by about 15 percent with better water quality.
•Any bias would make the numbers worse, not better.
By the numbers
•$54.6: Billion in value for Lee County in 2012.
•$541: Million less than values would be if water clarity increased by 1 foot.
•$9.2: Million a year that $541 million would generate in Lee.
•15: Percent increase in waterfront homes along Caloosahatchee with better water quality.
(Source: Florida REALTORS)

150522-
Corps to reduce flows from Lake Okeechobee
NewsZap.com - Special to the Okeechobee News
May 22, 2015
LAKE OKEECHOBEE -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District will reduce flows from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries over the coming week.
The adjustment in discharges will take place Friday, May 22. The new target flow for the Caloosahatchee Estuary will be a seven-day average of 1,400 cubic feet per second (cfs) as measured at W.P. Franklin Lock (S-79) near Fort Myers.
The new target flow for the St. Lucie Estuary will be a seven-day average of 200 cfs as measured at St. Lucie Lock & Dam (S-80) near Stuart. Flows at the Franklin and St. Lucie locations could occasionally be exceeded by runoff from rain that accumulates in the Caloosahatchee or St. Lucie basins.
In other related news, South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) Governing Board will not exercise the option to purchase roughly 46,800 acres of U.S. Sugar-owned land in Hendry County.
The decision was made at the board’s last regular meeting on May 14. The option to purchase the land, which would have been used to store water from Lake Okeechobee that would have otherwise been sent to the Caloosahatchee or St. Lucie estuaries, was set to expire this October.
Environmental groups had been advocating for the purchase of the land to send water south to the Everglades.
U.S. Sugar Corporation had previously cited that the land in question was not large enough to store enough water to make the costly option viable.
Judy Sanchez, senior director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for U.S. Sugar, called the potential water storage capability of the 46,800 acres a “drop in the bucket.”
SFWMD board members said the decision was made in part because the board wanted to spend money completing Everglades Restoration projects already under way in numerous locations throughout South Florida.
In a statement, U.S. Sugar officials stated they weren’t surprised SFWMD declined the option to purchase its land.
“It is not surprising that the Governing Board’s legal action last week formalized what the district, the governor and the legislature have been saying for several years -- that their priority for Everglades and estuary ecosystem restoration is completing a $5 billion slate of projects that are already planned and approved and will provide real benefits for the environment throughout the 16-county region. U.S. Sugar intends to continue to partner in Everglades restoration efforts. In fact, we commit to working with state and federal parties, as well as willing environmental organizations, in advancing the restoration projects outlined in the governor’s 20-year plan,” said the company in a statement released May 18.

150521-a
Amendment 1 money must be spent properly
Sun Sentinel - Gerry Katz, Weston, FL
May 21, 2015
Thank you for the story by David Fleshler regarding misappropriates of public funds that should be used for voter-mandated desires.
The voters determined it was best for Florida to acquire property to preserve water quality in this state. Now, both the Florida Senate and House have determined voters like me should be completely ignored and the money we approved last November will be spent as our legislators deem fit — ignoring our mandate.
Our legislators also have not passed a state budget. And Gov. Scott has not done what he should have to bring in federal money for our health care systems.
I'd love to see some wealthy individual begin legal actions against the Florida Senate, House and governor for their misfeasance and malfeasance. The are supposed to serve the needs of the public, and it is time they understand who they work for.

150521-b
Researchers uncover Shark River mysteries with Jeff Corwin
FIUnews.edu - by Evelyn Perez
May 21, 2015
FIU researchers have teamed up with conservationist and TV personality Jeff Corwin to share their mission of protecting the Florida Everglades on the latest installment of “Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin.”
The episode, titled “The Predators of Shark River,” will bring viewers face-to-face with the Everglades’ most important predators, including bull sharks, snook and the American alligator. It will air 9:30 a.m., Saturday, May 23, on ABC.
Environmental Sciences Professor Jennifer Rehage and Ph.D. student Ross Boucek will show viewers how they examine and add tracking tags to fish before releasing them back into the water. This data-collection method is part of their studies on the effects of climate change on fish populations in the vast tropical wetlands. College of Arts & Sciences Dean Mike Heithaus and researcher Adam Rosenblatt, will explain why the once-endangered American alligator is important to understanding the Everglades ecosystem. Heithaus is known internationally for his research on predator-prey interactions on community dynamics in marine systems and the ecological role of large sharks in Australian and Florida waters.
Past episodes of “Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin” can be viewed here.

150521-c
St. Johns River water district approves Suwannee water executive as new agency chief
St.AugustineRecord - by Steve Patterson
May 21, 2015
PALATKA ­— The St. Johns River Water Management District’s governing board finalized its selection Thursday of Ann Shortelle as the next executive director for the 18-county district.
Shortelle has been executive director of the neighboring Suwannee River district since 2012. She will start at the new $175,000-a-year post June 1.
“This district is going to move forward in a big way,” Shortelle told the board, saying she wanted to focus on priorities including conservation and assuring sustainable water supplies for uses in homes, businesses and agriculture.
The St. Johns district regulates water use in an area from Nassau County to the Orlando area.
After a succession of board members praised her leadership abilities and work record, Shortelle said she was humbled by the selection. “I hope I can live up to the hype,” she said.
Shortelle directed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Water Policy before joining the Suwannee water district. At DEP, she worked on policies involving water supply planning, water reuse and conservation, and alternative water supplies, a label that includes using water from rivers and lakes as drinking water.
An interim head, Mike Register, has run the St. Johns district since the start of the month, when former Executive Director Hans Tanzler stepped down.
Thursday’s unanimous approval was expected.
The St. Johns district’s governing board talked about Shortelle as a likely pick last week and only held off acting that day because several members said they hadn’t talked to Shortelle or seen her resume. The 15-county Suwannee district, based in Live Oak, named an interim head last week in expectation that Shortelle would leave.

150521-e
Water concerns in Osceola County could echo across Florida
MyNews13.com - by Bailey Myers, Osceola County Reporter
May 21, 2015
KISSIMMEE -- Water is everywhere in Florida, but recently environmentalists have grown concerned that the “unlimited supply” will be scarce as people move into the state.
“We aren’t going to have enough water if we don’t conserve,” said Osceola County environmentalist Jenny Welch.
Water conservation has local environmental advocates like Welch concerned.
During this week’s Central Florida Water Initiative meeting, representatives from across the area came out to discuss the future of our water supply.
Osceola County said in recent surveys they project another 4 million people could move to the Central Florida area in the next 50 years.
In anticipation of this growth, a new city development in east Osceola County is in the works. The new development would be built on what is now Deseret Ranches.
By 2060, the county expects about 350,000 people to move to Osceola County and specifically the new development.
Right now it’s an area that local environmental advocates said is crucial to the ecosystem and water conservation.
“There isn’t enough conservation land being put aside,” Welch said.
While thousands of acres are going to conservation, some are concerned it’s not enough because a recent survey shows at least another 19,000 acres should be protected.
This week Deseret Ranches submitted their tentative plans to the state for review without including the 19,000 additional acres.
However Deseret Ranches' representative said any plans are in the early stages.
County leaders said if a new city is developed, its impact on the water supply in Florida will be taken into account.
“When that project gets to the permitting stage it will be evaluated both on its water resources impacts, and for local residents how it would flood and how water quality would be impacted,” said Chuck Walter the regional administrator for South Florida Water Management District.

150520-a
FDEP issues list of critical funding needs
Florida Water Daily
May 20, 2015
From Floridaenvironments.com (link):
Florida would be forced to close state parks without approval of a new state budget that provides for at least “critical” spending, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
DEP on Monday issued a list of critical funding needs as requested last week by Gov. Rick Scott in advance of a June 1-20 legislative special session.
The Florida House adjourned their annual session three days early in April without passing a budget, which is required by the Florida Constitution. Therefore, a special session is necessary to pass the budget and address other unfinished business.
From Floridapolitics.com (link):
Last week, Scott sent a memo to agency heads identifying a list of critical services that the Office of Planning and Budgeting has identified for the upcoming year, beginning July 1. He asked the agencies to prepare a list of critical services they deem are important “in the event Florida is forced into a government shutdown on July 1,” according to the memo.
Scott has consistently said since the Legislature left Tallahassee that he is working on a “continuation” or “base” budget for the state to avoid a government shutdown.
FDEP’s list is on page 25 of this document on the Governor’s Website.

150520-b
Groups jockeying to shape EPA water rule
TheHill.com – by Timothy Cama
May 20, 2015
More than 100 advocates representing dozens of industry groups, companies and environmental organizations are flocking to the White House in a last-ditch effort to influence controversial regulations that would redefine the reach of the federal government’s water pollution enforcement.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has in recent days disclosed 16 meetings about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal since early April, when the OMB started its final regulatory review of the plan.
The people lobbying on the rule represented residential developers, utilities, manufacturers, miners, farmers, and environmental and conservation groups, among others.
The meetings are a chance for lobbyists to influence development of the EPA’s contentious “waters of the United States” rule, which the Obama administration plans to make final soon.
Congressional Republicans want the proposal scrapped. They deride the rule as a massive federal overreach that would put the government in charge of puddles, dry creek beds, ditches, man-made ponds, occasionally wet land and other areas that do not need federal water quality standards.
Though many business groups echo that criticism, their participation in the White House meetings signals an effort to help shape the rule’s final language if they can’t stop it altogether.  
“What we were hoping to get out of the meetings is a clear understanding on the part of the White House staff, the EPA and the Corps of Engineers what the practical implications of this expansion would be,” said Jerry Howard, chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders.
His group brought construction companies from areas including the Southwest and central Florida to say that expanding federal authority could require federal permits for routine construction activities.
“We brought in people with real-world experience to show what the real-world problems would be,” he said. “It’s a very convoluted process to get a building permit in every jurisdiction in America.”
Farmers and ranchers, meanwhile, are seeking to protect exemptions for agriculture that ensure ditches, ponds and other common agricultural activities are not newly regulated.
On the other side, environmentalists are arguing in favor of the most stringent possible protections for streams, ponds and wetlands to ensure downstream water protection. 
Navis Bermudez, deputy legislative director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, participated in a meeting with other environmental groups to make sure that certain isolated ponds are covered by the rule, which was not clear in the draft proposal.
“We just reiterated to the folks we met with there to make the case that the EPA could go further than they had in their draft rule and there was enough scientific evidence to include these types of waters in waters covered,” she said.
OMB and other administration officials are obligated to take meetings with stakeholders who request them during the review process. Officials representing the administration rarely speak or give any other indications about what will be in the final rule.
The American Forest and Paper Association participated in meetings with other business groups that are worried the EPA’s rule could cover man-made manufacturing ponds at paper mills and elsewhere that are isolated.
“We informed them that water is an important component of our manufacturing process and that mills are very often sighted by water bodies,” Schwartz said. “And that because of these expansive definitions, there’s uncertainty that’s created by the proposed rule, specifically with respect to the waters on our facilities that are not clearly exempt by the wastewater treatment exemption.”
The fight centers on the reach of the Clean Water Act, which sets standards for water quality that apply to navigable waters.
Upstream waterways must be protected to ensure that pollution does not go downstream. But for decades, the federal government has been wrestling with how far to go and what the law allows.
Environmentalists, sportsmen’s groups and conservationists sought to counter businesses’ attacks on the rule and argue that without it, important bodies of water will be at risk.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership brought in local, regional and national sportsmen’s groups to argue that stream headwaters and wetlands support fish, birds and other wildlife that are essential to outdoor recreation and hunting.
Jimmy Hague, director of the group’s Center for Water Resources, said the draft rule was pretty good but could be stronger in protecting wetlands.
“The message going into OMB meetings and our public comments essentially has been ‘good job with the tributaries discussions,’ but when it comes to some of these wetlands the waterfowl depend upon, the science points to a more definitive treatment than what they did in the proposed rule,” he said.
As the OMB met with stakeholders, congressional Republicans and other opponents of the rule worked to undermine it.
In the Senate, opponents are focusing on a bill that would repeal the rule and give the EPA specific instructions and a deadline to rewrite it in a way that protects farmers and ranchers from regulation.
The House passed a bill last week to overturn the regulation and stop the EPA from making it final.

150520-c
Obama: Climate change deniers endanger national security
Associated Press - by Nancy Benac
May 20, 2015
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) - President Barack Obama said Wednesday the threat posed by climate change is evident all around and that those who deny the "indisputable" science that it is real are putting at risk the security of the United States and the military sworn to defend it.
Obama said refusing to act to slow the effects of global warming, including rising seas, amounts to a "dereliction of duty" and undermines the readiness of U.S. forces, including of the 218 graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, where he delivered the commencement address.
"I'm here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate threat to our national security," Obama said, focusing his remarks on an issue that he told the cadets cuts to the "very core of your service."
"It will impact how our military defends our country. We need to act and we need to act now," he added. "Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces."
The president has pressed in recent months for action on climate change as a matter of health, as a matter of environmental protection and as a matter of international obligation. He's even couched it as a family matter, linking it to the worry he felt when one his daughters had an asthma attack as a preschooler.
But with the Republican-led Congress indifferent to Obama's entreaties, the president has been doing what he can to combat climate change on his own through executive orders to cut greenhouse gas emissions and through the powers of persuasion. His climate change agenda also has drawn strong political opposition and legal challenges, and many of the GOP presidential candidates have said that taking unilateral steps to address climate change could hurt the U.S. economy.
Obama focused his speech to the cadets on what he says are immediate risks to national security, including contributing to more natural disasters that cause humanitarian crises and potential new flows of "climate change" refugees. Further, the president sees climate change as aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence.
Obama said the cadets will be among the first generation of officers to begin their service in a world where it is increasingly clear that "climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure."
"This is not just a problem for countries on the coast. Climate change will impact every country on the planet," he said on a crisp, sunny morning on Cadet Memorial Field, where the cadets sat in their white uniforms with friends and family looking on from the bleachers.
As for the impact in the U.S., Obama pointed to streets in Miami and Charleston, South Carolina, that flood at high tide and to military bases around the country already feeling negative effects.
"Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base," Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. "In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on."
Obama's appearance at the academy was his second and final commencement address of the season, after speaking earlier this month at a community college in South Dakota. The president traditionally delivers a commencement address every year to one of the military service academies.
After the address, Obama was traveling to Stamford, Connecticut, to attend a Democratic fundraiser at a private home with about 30 supporters contributing up to $33,400 each.

150519-a
Climate change altering frequency, intensity of hurricanes: Study
Newsroom America – by Staff
19 May 14:33
(Newsroom America) -- Climate change may be the driving force behind fewer, yet more powerful hurricanes and tropical storms, says a Florida State geography professor.
In a paper published by Nature Climate Change, Professor Jim Elsner and his former graduate student Namyoung Kang found that rising ocean temperatures are having an effect on how many tropical storms and hurricanes develop each year.
"We're seeing fewer hurricanes, but the ones we do see are more intense," Elsner said. "When one comes, all hell can break loose."
Prior to this research, there had been some discussions among scientists about how warmer ocean temperatures affected the intensity of a hurricane. Elsner and Kang wanted to further explore that concept as well as the number of storms that occurred each year.
Hurricanes can form when ocean waters are 79 degrees Fahrenheit or more. As the warm water evaporates, it provides the energy a storm needs to become a hurricane. Higher temperatures mean higher levels of energy, which would ultimately affect wind speed.
Specifically, Elsner and Kang projected that over the past 30 years, storm speeds have increased on average by 1.3 meters per second -- or 3 miles per hour -- and there were 6.1 fewer storms than there would have been if land and water temperatures had remained constant.
"It's basically a tradeoff between frequency and intensity," Elsner said.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Earth is roughly 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was last century.
Elsner and Kang said the yearly temperatures can also be a good indicator of what's yet to come in a given storm season.
"In a warmer year, stronger but fewer tropical cyclones are likely to occur," said Kang, now deputy director of the National Typhoon Center in South Korea. "In a colder year, on the other hand, weaker but more tropical cyclones."
For the 2015 Atlantic storm season, which begins June 1, the Weather Channel has projected a total of nine named storms, five hurricanes and one major hurricane. The 30-year average is 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute at Florida State supported this research.
Related:           Global Warming Trades Cyclone Frequency For Intensity    ReportingClimateScience.com
Climate change boosting hurricane intensity, making tropical storms ...        Economic Times
Climate change boosts hurricane intensity      The Statesman (press release)

150519-b
Decision delayed on relocating Swiftmud headquarters from Brooksville to Tampa
Tampa Bay Times - by Steve Contorno
May 20, 2015
TAMPA — The Southwest Florida Water Management District's governing board on Tuesday put off for at least 60 days a decision to move its headquarters from Brooksville to Tampa.
The board will use the time to engage with Brooksville and Hernando County officials, who said they were unaware about the plan until just days before Tuesday's meeting and were scrambling to respond.
The agenda for Tuesday did not mention the proposal. It was included under discussion of the business plan for Swiftmud, which regulates water supply and quality and plans for flood protection in the region.
Brooksville City Councilwoman Natalie Kahler said officials in her city were up all night drafting a letter denouncing a move. The Brooksville office has served as Swiftmud's headquarters since the district's founding in 1961.
"We're saddened and dismayed and frustrated that county leaders were not informed earlier," said Hernando County Commissioner Diane Rowden.
For some time, Swiftmud staff has studied whether to designate the Tampa office, located near U.S. 301 north of Interstate 4, as the headquarters. In agreeing to hold off on a decision for at least two months, Swiftmud board members admitted a failure to communicate with localities on that effort.
But there was strong belief among many board members that the headquarters should eventually shift to the district's Tampa office.
Chairman Michael Babb said the board must "take out the politics and the emotions and do what is in the best interest of Swiftmud."
Designating Tampa the headquarters would centralize operations and better position the agency to recruit replacements for an aging workforce, said chief of staff David Rathke. Nearly all of Swiftmud's employees will retire in the next five to 10 years, according to a staff presentation Tuesday.
"I'm under the impression that the young people like the bright lights and the big city," board member Paul Senft said. "We would have a better chance of recruiting them if we set, with a label, that headquarters was Tampa."
Rathke assured that the Brooksville location will remain open and that no employees will be asked to relocate to Hillsborough. The Brooksville office employs 337 of the agency's 574 employees, though the head regulator, the legal division and most board meetings have already shifted to the Tampa office. There are also offices in Sarasota and Bartow.
If Swiftmud moves ahead with the proposal, Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, whose district includes all of Hernando, told board members he will push the Legislature to fight it.
"I would suggest that if you decide to go ahead and move forward then the Legislature will look at this and take all options into consideration," Simpson said.
Related:           Water management district may make Tampa its headquarters          TBO.com
Potential SWFMD move worries Brooksville            WTSP 10 News

150519-c
FPL needs more water to run Turkey Point
Miami Herald – by Jenny Staletovich
May 19, 2015
With a steamy summer around the corner, Florida Power & Light is once again wrestling with its troubled cooling canals at Turkey Point.
The utility obtained an emergency permit Tuesday from the South Florida Water Management District to pump more water into the 5,900-acre loop used to cool the plant’s two nuclear reactors. But Miami-Dade County Commissioners added a strict caveat: they agreed to provide a permit to pump the water across sensitive wetlands only for a year and only if the utility comes up with a long-term fix.
 “You're a good corporate citizen but we need to get this one right,” said Commissioner Dennis Moss. “At the end of the day, our responsibility is to protect the environment and the people who have to use that water."
The canals first began running hot last summer after the utility completed work to increase power coming from the plant on southern Biscayne Bay. The hotter and increasingly saltier canals triggered persistent algae blooms, threatened to shut down the reactors and forced the utility to scramble to find ways to better control the system.
But finding a solution has proved tricky and set off debates over South Florida’s fragile water supply, with the county, the city of Miami, Biscayne National Park, environmentalists and even rock miners raising objections.In addition to raising the risk of power outages, the canals have pushed an underground saltwater plume closer to drinking water supplies.
Last summer, after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to allow operating temperatures to rise to 104 degrees, the hottest in the nation, FPL began looking for water to cool and freshen the canals. The company won temporary permission to pull water from the nearby L-31 canal — between August and October, the utility pumped 1,135 million gallons or about four times what all of Miami-Dade County uses in a day. The utility hoped to find a more permanent solution by drilling six new wells to pump up to 14 million gallons of water a day from the Floridan aquifer, a source deep beneath the shallow Biscayne Aquifer that supplies most of the county’s drinking water.
But local government officials and environmental groups have fought FPL’s plans, filing appeals and arguing that diverting water to the plant could derail Everglades restoration efforts intended to revive Biscayne Bay, where increasing salinity threatens marine life. County staff also said adding freshwater could also worsen the movement of underground saltwater.“I don’t know that they have a lot of options quite frankly to gain control of the cooling canal at this point,” said Lee Hefty, director of the county’s division of environmental resources. “Unfortunately, it’s not one silver bullet.”
But FPL says it is working to find a solution and contends that objections have only stalled work.
“The issue here is about time,” said Steven Scroggs, FPL senior director for development. “We know the Floridan aquifer can be drilled, but it’s being held up.”
Scroggs also said summer 2015 could be even more challenging because a power plant at Port Everglades is undergoing renovations and unavailable to help generate power locally. Of the power used by South Florida, 50 percent comes over transmission lines and 50 percent is generated locally, he said.
Pulling water from the L-31, he explained, is intended to keep the canals working only until six wells can be drilled to pump water from the Floridan for long-term relief. FPL is also now talking with the county about piping reclaimed water from the county’s southern sewer treatment plant — water it also intends to use to cool two new reactors now being considered by the NRC. However, that water must be cleaned first and Scroggs said the utility has not yet determined the standards for its use.
Commissioners, clearly frustrated that another year passed without a solution, gave FPL six months to come up with a comprehensive fix or risk losing the permit for the pipes.
“It is really interesting that we keep going round and round,” said Commissioner Javier Souto. “It’s the blind leading the blind.”
Staff writer Doug Hanks contributed to this report.

150519-d
Possible toxic algae spreading in Palm City
WPBF.com - by John Dzenitis
May 19, 2015
Residents notice thick strands of bright-green algae in water.
Two weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to resume discharging Lake Okeechobee water east toward the St. Lucie Estuary despite a toxic algae bloom in the lake and C-44 canal in Port Mayaca.
In a teleconference, the Corps said they expected the algae to die off when it reached water with higher salinity. However, concerned environmentalists and conservationists questioned the plan and demanded that the Corps hold off on sending water east.
On Sunday, Palm City residents who live along a canal on Conch Cove Lane started noticing thick strands of bright green algae in the water.
Now the concern is whether the algae could expand into a full-out bloom as it did in the summer of 2013 and devastate local waters. Toxins in blue-green algae can kill fish and also block out sunlight for seagrass and other underwater food sources for marine life.
Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, said there's little doubt that the algae in Palm City is a result of the discharges.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been sampling water at Port Mayaca since the bloom appeared.
WPBF 25 News reached out to the DEP Tuesday morning to determine whether they are looking into the Palm City algae, and we are still waiting for a complete response. A spokesperson said they expect to send WPBF 25 News an update sometime Tuesday afternoon with the "most up-to-date and comprehensive information possible to provide."
WPBF 25 News received the following response from the Army Corps of Engineers:
"The Corps is aware of potential algae in Palm City.  We received notification of this yesterday.  We immediately notified the FL Department of Environmental Protection.  I would refer you to them for any information on the reported bloom.
The Corps has started gathering input for its routine weekly decision-making cycle.  Additional information will be gathered tomorrow, and we will likely announce another decision on Thursday (as has been the norm for most of the winter and spring)."

150518-a
Ammonia removal from landfill leachate by struvite precipitation/coated silica sand filtration
InderscienceOnline.com – by Matthew Hendrix
May 18, 2015
Abstract of Article - - The objective of this study was to investigate onsite physicochemical systems for the treatment of landfill leachate with high ammonia content. A laboratory scale magnesium ammonium phosphate (struvite or MAP) precipitation system was tested and ammonia removal under various operational conditions was evaluated. For landfill leachate treatment by MAP precipitation, magnesium salts are a major economic constraint. It was demonstrated in this research that Mg2+, NH4+ and PO4 3&minus; stoichiometry and pH impacted MAP precipitation and subsequent ammonia removal. With the application of filtration in goethite–coated silica, ammonia removal can be dramatically improved. From this research, it was also discovered that goethite–coated silica sand can be used to remove excess phosphorous for the treatment of landfill leachate by struvite precipitation.

150518-b
Environmentalists criticize conservation spending proposals
WGCU.org - by Amy Green
May 18, 2015
When the Florida Legislature reconvenes in two weeks in a special session centered on the state budget a large part of the debate will be about Amendment 1.
That's the state constitutional amendment that mandates a 20-year, $22 billion conservation effort, the nation's largest ever. 75% of voters supported the amendment in November.
But now environmentalists say lawmakers want to spend the money in ways voters never intended. 
Scott Taylor steps among waist-deep palmettos. Pines and oaks soar high above. Taylor is a retired businessman who cares deeply for Florida's open spaces. Not only does he live on more than 400 acres.
It's a farm, and so we have, we raise horses, we have citrus and we have cattle", Taylor said.
He's an Audubon of Florida board member, and three years ago as this expanse in Lake County of wetlands and bear habitat faced a future of hundreds of homes Taylor and a partner bought the land themselves. Then they sold it to the state at a loss for conservation.
"The property is virtually untouched by man and represents a tremendous example of what properties we're attempting to restore should look like and should be, with palmetto, scrub, pines, oak", described Taylor. "All of these features are here."
Taylor and other environmentalists envision the land as part of a massive wildlife corridor stretching from Ocala National Forest to Rock Springs Run State Reserve. The region is home to the state's largest black bear population, but so far only a small part of the land is under state protection. It's the kind of thing environmentalists hope Amendment 1 will fund.
"It's time for the Legislature to recognize that the voters, 75% of the voters in this state said we want to protect our lands", Taylor said. "We want to protect our water supply. We know it's going to take the acquisition of lands and efforts that take money, and we want that money well-spent."
But many lawmakers including Governor Rick Scott say they would rather invest in existing state lands, not buy new.
"There's clearly lands we need to buy, and we have money in the budget for that. But we've got to finish projects. When I ran in 2010 I heard time and time again that we were not finishing environmental projects", Scott said.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli of Merritt Island says it's irresponsible for the state to buy lands without any management plan. Senator David Simmons of Altamonte Springs says lawmakers ought to focus instead on the state's most pressing environmental concern: water.
"Buying land just for the purpose of buying land is not the solution", said Simmons. "It's buying land that is essential to the preservation of our resources."
In fast-growing Florida where one study suggests the booming population will consume 7 million pristine acres in the next 50 years, few grassroots-led constitutional amendments have attracted more voter support than Amendment 1.
The amendment primarily is designed to restore Florida Forever. The state's land-buying program was the nation's largest and considered a model, but funding dwindled during the recession. Amendment 1 dedicates existing tax revenue toward conservation, an estimated $750 million this year alone. It directs the Legislature to allocate the money.
But Aliki Moncrief says environmentalists wanted to do more than shore up Florida Forever. She's executive director of Florida's Water and Land Legacy, the sponsoring organization of Amendment 1.
"The amendment did not put money directly into the Florida Forever trust fund because the idea was not only to support Florida Forever, right? It's to support Florida Forever, Everglades, springs restoration", Moncrief said.
At the forefront of the debate are the Everglades and 46,000 acres of US Sugar land environmentalists want for restoration. A state option on the land expires in October. Environmentalists invested in a statewide media campaign.
And they got Jimmy Buffett to perform for their cause at a rally in Tallahassee. At another event detractors hired actors to pose as protesters in West Palm Beach. But current state budget proposals don't include funding for the US Sugar land, and it looks unlikely the state will buy it.
Moncrief says the budget proposals put too much money toward things like employee salaries and almost nothing toward Florida Forever.
"The thing that is most concerning to us is that in both the House and Senate proposals more than $230 million is actually being proposed to go to existing operations. So it's not new land management or new restoration or new acquisition", Moncrief said.
Senator Thad Altman of Cape Canaveral says Amendment 1 will be part of the special session. He supports more land acquisition.
"The people have spoken", said Altman. "I agree with the people, and our constitution, we do have a constitutional requirement as elected officials to follow and adhere to the constitution."
Back among the palmettos he bought and sold to the state to ensure their preservation Scott Taylor is frustrated.
"Currently I'm completely baffled as to how it's possible for our legislators to look at an amendment to our constitution and not understand what voters meant when 75% of them said, do this", said Taylor. "I'm puzzled. I'm disappointed."
He says if lawmakers fail to follow the will of voters environmentalists will continue their campaign, but they'll face lawmakers who say Florida's open spaces already are enough.

150518-c
Everglades answer clear, not murky
Palm Beach Post - Letter by Lynne Pine, Jensen Beach, FL
May 18, 2015
The Post editorial on Friday, “Next chapter to save Everglades must start now,” about killing the sugar land purchase, is like the South Florida Water Management District: It hides behind claims that solutions to the Everglades’ problems are “multifaceted and complex.”
Granted. However, the University of Florida study did make it clear that only one solution will provide enough water to Miami and the Everglades and stop the damaging discharges: buying land in the Everglades Agricultural Area to store water so that we can send Lake Okeechobee water south.
You urged the district to make good on promises to complete existing projects. But you missed three important points:
1) The major projects they promise to complete are about supplying water to agriculture and cleaning the runoff from sugar fields.
2) It is all the district is planning to do for the next 20 years.
3) The SFWMD has no intention — at least for 20 years — of spending any money on land acquisition south of the lake.
The Post also echoed the SFWMD Governing Board’s accusation that “much of the pollution in the Indian River Lagoon — septic tanks and lawn fertilizer” is Martin County’s fault. You are familiar with our stormwater, wetlands and septic-tank policies. You know better.

150518-d
Florida's water was House Speaker Crisafulli's top priority; now it waits
Tampa Bay Times
May 18, 2015
Last year saw a rare alignment of political forces in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott, several powerful state senators, a coalition of environmental groups and a consortium of business and industry groups all said the Legislature needed to do something about fixing Florida's water.They all agreed that the pollution is too pervasive, the flow too endangered and the perils too great to the state's future to ignore it any longer.
Members of the Senate pushed a solution, but the House, under departing Speaker Will Weatherford, blocked it. Wait a year, they said, because incoming House Speaker Steve Crisafulli wanted to rewrite the state's water policies, starting with the 2015 session.
But the 2015 regular session ended in chaos last month as Crisafulli adjourned the House three days early without passing a budget, the only duty the Legislature is required to carry out. A special session begins June 1 to get the budget done.
Will Crisafulli's top priority be part of that 20-day marathon? Late Friday the answer arrived: No, it will not. The budget, taxes and Medicaid will be the topics of conversation — not water.
Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, did not respond to calls seeking comment.However, the sponsor of the water-policy bill that the House passed this year was not surprised there will be no further action on the issue before next year.
"No need to add more pressure to an already complicated budget session," Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, said.
The business community would have liked to have it brought back up, said Brewster Bevis of Associated Industries of Florida, "but passing a budget is obviously the No. 1 priority of the Legislature right now."
Environmental activist Linda Young had been hoping the special session wouldn't touch on water at all, based on what was in Caldwell's bill.
That bill "would radically change water policy in Florida in so many harmful ways that I can't even fathom all the repercussions," said Young, who runs the Clean Water Network.
As Crisafulli's top priority, House Bill 7003, the water policy rewrite sponsored by Caldwell, was the first bill to pass the House this year. It cleared the lower chamber in early March with a 106-9 vote — but that's as far as it went. The Senate had its own water bill that differed from the House version. Both fell victim to the early adjournment on April 28.
That was fine with Estus Whitfield of the Florida Conservation Coalition, which in 2012 delivered to Tallahassee a petition, signed by more than 15,000 people, demanding swift action in restoring the state's ailing springs — a petition that the Legislature has largely ignored.
"Best to leave water policy law alone if the Legislature is unable to substantially strengthen it," he said.
Caldwell's bill called for the state's water management districts overseeing Central Florida to implement uniform supply planning, water-use permits and water-quality protection programs. The bill also called for the state to conduct new water-quality assessments of the springs.
And, in its most controversial provision, it required farmers, ranchers and other potential polluters to employ "best management practices" to curtail pollution flowing into Lake Okeechobee and other waterways.
Environmental activists warned that requiring best management practices was not as effective as setting pollution limits through issuing permits. If someone with a permit fails to follow the rules, the state can impose fines or revoke the permit, they noted. State agencies have no comparable way to enforce those best management practices if pollution turns up.
Caldwell's bill was strongly backed not only by Crisafulli and the business community, but also by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. His agency would be in charge of dealing with the best management practices — thus taking some regulatory power away from Scott, who oversees the state Department of Environmental Protection and the water districts.

150518-e
What environmentalists say about Wellington’s idea for Strazzulla
Palm Beach Post – Kristen M. Clark
May 18, 2015
WELLINGTON — As I reported in today’s Palm Beach Post, Wellington is exploring the possibility of acquiring the Strazzulla marsh south of the village — not for development, but to use it as a nature area to improve water quality, provide extra flood protection and even store water during dry times.
But when Wellington projects director Mike O’Dell broached the village’s idea during public comment at a South Florida Water Management District meeting last week, he faced a tough crowd from several environmental activists and Everglades supporters in attendance. (They were there primarily because of the controversial U.S. Sugar land deal, which was also on the day’s agenda).
“With all do respect to the village of Wellington, that’s not the best use of this property. It should be used for wildlife refuge purposes,” said Lisa Interlandi, senior staff counsel with the Everglades Law Center.
“If Wellington gets this piece of of property, it won’t be similar,” said Drew Martin, conservation chairman for the Loxahatchee group of the Sierra Club. “They’re going to cut down the trees; it’ll be different.”
“They need to change how they do things – and I don’t think giving them Strazzulla is going to make that much difference in the long run if they don’t change how they’re operating,” Martin added. “We have to get passed the idea of having these treatment areas separate from everything else.”
Wellington officials said they’ve previously talked with district officials at least twice about their idea for Strazzulla but haven’t received much positive feedback. That’s largely because the district has long been in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Interior to swap Strazzulla for a federal snail farm — a deal that the district’s governing board endorsed last week.

150517-a
Florida gov’t weekly roundup: Whose special session is it anyway ?
NorthEscambia.com - by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
May 17, 2015
There was a time, as recently as the meltdown of the regular legislative session, when Gov. Rick Scott was accused of taking a hands-off approach to running the state.
House and Senate lawmakers were in a standoff about expanding health-care coverage. Scott, meanwhile, was flying to California to promote Florida and making appearances to tout the opening of a Wawa convenience store in Fort Myers and the Orlando Eye, a giant Ferris wheel.
Now, some people in the Capitol might be looking back at those times fondly.
SCOTT WINS THE HEADLINES
Legislative budget chiefs quietly sat down this week to start working out the details of an upcoming special session and, more important, to determine if detente is possible in the state’s cold war over health-care funding.
But it is Scott who has been trying to set the tone for the special session. And he’s been doing so in a manner that warms the hearts of headline writers.
After earlier calling for hospitals to share profits like Major League Baseball teams, Scott, a well-heeled former hospital executive, kicked off this week by cobbling together a commission — made up mostly by people with limited medical experience — to examine the economics of health care and hospitals in Florida.
Scott would later give hospitals and health insurers less than a week to provide a wide range of data, including information about local tax revenues and average costs per patient per day, to help the commission in its research.
Scott also went to Washington, D.C., where he got U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., to agree to have the House Energy & Commerce Committee look into the governor’s allegations that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is trying to illegally coerce Florida into accepting Medicaid expansion.
“They want us to take on more of Obamacare,” Scott said in a release. “They want us to adopt their policy the way they want us to — or else. This is the Sopranos.”
Scott also stopped by FOX News while in Washington, where he said that a massive tax-cut package and his push for a “historic” increase in education funding could be in jeopardy due to the Legislature’s health care-fueled budget impasse.
“We’ll just do what we’ve done this last year,” Scott said during an interview with Greta Van Susteren. “We won’t put more money into schools, which I wanted to do. We won’t cut taxes, which I wanted to do. We’ll just leave the money there and deal with it in our next session, which starts in January.”
Once back in the Sunshine State, Scott raised the possibility that state government could shut down July 1 because of the impasse. He also called on state agency leaders to outline essential services that would need to be funded through what he calls a “continuation budget” if lawmakers fail to craft a fiscal plan, and he took an apparent preemptive shot at the Senate for the budget problems.
“While we have asked the federal government for guidance on what health-care access proposals they would approve at no cost to Florida taxpayers, it is possible that Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner and the Florida Senate will not agree to any budget without the specific expansion of Medicaid (at a cost to state taxpayers of $5 billion over 10 years),” Scott wrote in his letter to agency heads.
Scott has sided with the House in opposing a Senate plan that would use federal Medicaid money to offer private health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income residents. The Senate plan stems, at least in part, from the scheduled June 30 expiration of the $2.2 billion Low Income Pool program, which sends money to hospitals and other medical providers that care for large numbers of low-income patients.
Earlier this month, the governor filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration to attempt to block federal officials from factoring whether the state has expanded Medicaid into their decision about extending the so-called LIP program. Federal officials say that they don’t want LIP to pay for the medical expenses of Floridians who could otherwise be covered by Medicaid.
But there has been a lot of head-scratching in Tallahassee as to Scott’s ultimate endgame.
“Florida’s constitution assigns the role of developing a state budget to the Legislature,” Katie Betta, a spokesman for Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, wrote in an email.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, told the Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau that Scott’s approach is “unfortunate.”
“Raising the specter of a government shutdown is not necessary at this point, and it’s meant to put political pressure on the Senate. … It’s hard for the governor to be a broker for a solution when he takes one side like this,” Latvala told the Times/Herald.
WATER OFFICIALS DOUSE CHARLIE’S SWEET DEAL
For months, legislative leaders have voiced opposition to moving forward with a deal worked out by former Gov. Charlie Crist to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. land in the Everglades.
Still, the door never appeared completely closed to environmentalists and South Florida residents, who continued to press to use money from the voter-approved constitutional initiative known as Amendment 1 to buy the land — with an estimated cost of $500 million — south of Lake Okeechobee before an October deadline.
That was until Thursday.
The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board unanimously voted to terminate an option for the U.S. Sugar land that was part of Crist’s $1 billion Everglades restoration proposal.
Board member James Moran, a Wellington attorney appointed by Scott, called the deal “a boondoggle from the day it was signed.”
“The initial purchase that was exercised in 2010 was for almost $200 million — most of which we took from our reserves here — and we ended up with land which we couldn’t even use for the purpose for which it was purchased,” Moran said.
Everglades Foundation Chief Executive Officer Eric Eikenberg said efforts will continue to restore the Everglades, to find land to serve as reservoirs and flow ways and to move more water south from the lake. But he added that the district’s action would have better served the state back in January.
“I think we would have had more time to come up with an alternative plan,” Eikenberg said. “Now what happens is this puts more of a spotlight on the upcoming special session and what steps we’re going to take with this important project.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We’re clearly not going to see anything in regards to reforming the program in the special session. But I’m hopeful that, while we continue to work on updating and reforming the program, that we won’t allow it to die on the vine in the first place.” — Gus Corbella, chairman of the Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Council, holding out hope that lawmakers will improve incentives for film and television production in the state.

150517-b
Taking on the unavoidable subject of stupid
Ocala.com - by Diane Roberts for the Star Banner
May 17, 2015
OCCUPIED TALLAHASSEE — Which is worse: stupid and evil, or smart and evil?
It’s a thought experiment; you can apply it to, say, Gov. Rick Scott and Adam Putnam, the Florida House and — lordy, those idiots don’t deserve to be in the same paragraph as the word “thought.”
But while we’re on the unavoidable subject of stupid, remember the amendment to the state constitution passed by an overwhelming margin last year? You probably voted for it.
In addition to the $1 billion surplus the delusional Scott claims he helped create (yeah, and I keep the sun revolving around Earth), Florida should have about $750 million of doc stamp tax to spend on the environment. With that kind of cash (it’s still less than 1 percent of the state’s overall budget), we should be able to buy critical Everglades land, fully fund Florida Forever and start getting serious about springs protection.
Yet, because the Florida Legislature is mostly populated by venal twits who’d rather see the Everglades paved and Dade County drowned than let themselves be accused of the slightest tinge of green, instead the House passed a water bill written by Big Shug, Big Ag and Big Development to benefit Big Shug, Big Ag and Big Development — not water.
And you know those state parks we’re so proud of ? They win awards, they’re visited by 27 million people a year, they generate over $2 billion per year, but Scott, the Florida Legislature and Florida’s Department of Environmental Prostitution wants to force my parks, your parks, to become nothing but commercial enterprises. They’ll graze cattle on land that belongs to you. They’ll cut trees that belong to you. They’ll put up cell towers in wild places that belong to you.
Or used to belong to you.
The parks make 77 percent of the money needed to run them, but the new head of DEP, Jon Steverson, late of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, thinks the parks should pay for themselves and turn a tidy profit, too. Why should a bunch of stupid nature get in the way of bidness? Shift it, panther! Out of the way, there, scrub jay! Scroungers.
Because — repeat after me, kids — MONEY IS ALL THAT MATTERS.
Happily, the bills that would have turned our parks into crass enterprise zones croaked when the House flounced out of town before the end of the session. They feared their heads would explode if they had to agree with the Senate that, yes, it might be a good idea to expand Medicaid for upwards of a million impoverished Floridians.
If God liked those people, he would buy them insurance. But he doesn’t. So he won’t. All that matters is that we stick it to President Barack Hussein Obama.
Of course, there will be another session — a “special” session they call it, special in that it will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Scott may even visit Tallahassee in between going around insulting other states and licking the boots of the Kochs as he campaigns robotically for the United States Senate.
If we don’t have a budget by the first of July, Florida is, well, a verb I can’t use in a family paper like this.
Will we have a budget?
Remember how on opening day of the 2012 session, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FratHouse, tweeted, “With all of the lovely flowers in the House Chamber, I can barely smell the Occupy people outside”? Here’s one from 2015 about the lawsuit filed by Florida Democrats against the Florida House for ignoring the Florida Constitution, claiming the suit “reads like it was researched and drafted by Sen. Joyner ... and spell checked by Sen. Bullard.”
Hilarious. Yet his wit failed him when the Supreme Court ruled that the Democrats’ suit was correct, and though the members could not be rounded up like nuisance dogs and hauled back to Tallahassee to do the job for which they were elected, the House did indeed violate the state constitution.
Master Matt’s manners failed him, too: Gaetz didn’t even apologize properly. Now, boys and girls, he’s running for the District 1 state Senate seat in 2016. That’s the one now occupied by his daddy. His stated reason for running (as opposed to his real reason, which is to set himself up for a cabinet post, then Congress or the Governor’s Mansion)? He wants to make the Senate more conservative. Just like the House.
So much to look forward to: denuded state forests, algae-choked rivers, emergency rooms full of sick poor people, Miami drinking salt water, no public education. Florida — the rules really are different here.

150516-
Fracking in Florida – A presentation by the Sierra Club
Naples Herald - by Kelly Fitzgerald
May 16, 2015
On Wednesday night I attended an open lecture on fracking in Florida at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium in Fort Myers. The lecture was hosted by the Sierra Club Calusa Group and covered the topics of fracking, the effects it could have on Florida, and how to get involved locally.
In the presence of many political and environmental activists, there were two keynote speakers who led the lecture. The first was Dr. Karen Dwyer, of the Stone Crab Alliance, who spoke on the volatile effects of fracking and other similar drilling techniques that have already begun in Collier County in recent years. Dr. Dwyer recapped the drilling that occurred at the hands of the Dan A. Hughes Co. near Naples of the western edge of the Everglades in December of 2013. At the time, Hughes and state officials quarreled over the methods being used and whether it would be a danger to the county’s public health, environment, and drinking water.
Dwyer mentioned the lack of regulations around drilling state and local lawmakers have in place.
“We (Florida) are still recovering from the BP oil spill; a minor spill in our area would be catastrophic.”
Dwyer said one well can use over 11,000 different chemicals and these chemicals do not have to be reported under the law. This is due to the Haliburton loophole, a nickname given to a loophole that allows the injection of hazardous materials, unchecked, into or adjacent to drinking water supplies underground. Dr. Dwyer also mentioned that once drinking water is contaminated it cannot be cleaned and reused. An audience member pointed out that this is especially dangerous in the state of Florida because the state gets the majority of its drinking water from underground sources and does not have access to other bodies of water like reservoirs.
The second speaker was Brian Lee, of Rethink Energy Florida, a non-profit that aims to educate, engage, and empower energy independence in a healthy, more sustainable environment. Lee was dynamic in explaining what exactly fracking is – the act of injecting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into the Earth at high pressure, allowing gas to flow out. Fracking also has several names and types. The most common in Florida is acidic fracking, also known as: acidization and hydraulic fracking. He went on describe that fracking is very temporary, with 10% of well casings (the spot where they’ve drilled for oil) fail within the first year; 50% in 25 years.
Next Lee spoke about the damage associated with fracking. Physicians for Social Responsibility tell us that 75% of chemicals used in fracking cause skin, eye, and other sensory organ damage. Additionally, fracking causes accidents, spills, water contamination, and most recently, the possibility of earthquakes. It also causes personal property value to plummet. Lee explained that fracking causes what he referred to as a “Boomtown,” where the surrounding areas are hit with high activity levels, followed by increased social and public health costs. After fracking leaves town because of its limited time frame, towns are left with increased rates of crime, substance abuse, and unemployment.
Both speakers emphasized the importance of informing the Florida legislature about the pitfalls of fracking and the desires of the municipalities to ban fracking. Regulations have proven to be lackluster and missing the most important objectives, leading many to push for the ban on fracking.
The lecture was inspiring, informative, and shines light on a topic often forgotten in Florida: the environment.
The speakers mentioned, “If clean drinking water in Florida is important to you, this issue should be important to you.”

150515-a
South Florida celebrates 100 years of Audubon presence
CommunityNewspapers
May 15, 2015
As 2015 unfolds, Tropical Audubon Society (TAS) is marking the 100th anniversary of local, organized Audubon activity in Miami-Dade County in many meaningful ways.
From environmental advocacy to providing ornithological education, TAS and its predecessors have long been on the front lines of the local conservation movement. Indeed, TAS has come to be known as “South Florida’s Voice of Conservation.”
Audubon activism here can be traced to the birth of the Coconut Grove Audubon Society (CGAS) on Apr. 16, 1915, 10 years after the infamous murder of Game Warden Guy Bradley by a plume hunter near Flamingo. Alocal and national hero who was the first Audubon-funded game warden in the Everglades, Bradley is considered the first martyr of the American environmental movement.
His dramatic death compelled the fledgling CGAS to lobby for more game wardens to enforce Florida’s bird protection laws and hunting regulations. Recognizing the pressing need to protect plume birds in the Everglades, CGAS also provided informational brochures and presentations to local schools, and supported the newly designated Royal Palm State Park in the Everglades. By the early 1930s, CGAS threw its weight behind making Royal Palm State Park the nucleus of an eventual Everglades National Park.
During the first half of the 20th Century, a few other Audubon and ornithological organizations formed in what was then called Dade County, but eventually became defunct. Even CGAS went inactive during World War II. In its wake, a group of conservation-minded men and women met on Jan. 21, 1947, to establish a new Dade chapter of Audubon, which was named Tropical Audubon Society. The last CGAS president transferred the group’s remaining funds and considerable library to the new chapter. The torch formally had been passed.
Looking back, 1947 proved to be a seminal year in the history of South Florida conservation. Along with Tropical Audubon Society’s founding, 1947 saw the publication of The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the longawaited dedication of Everglades National Park. These three milestones soon brought regional environmental struggles into sharper focus.
Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, TAS became increasingly involved in protecting the South Florida environment, particularly the Everglades and Biscayne Bay ecosystems. Significant environmental victories were achieved during this period, including the creation of Biscayne National Park (originally Biscayne National Monument), which essentially blocked the proposed SeaDade and Islandia projects, and the establishment of Big Cypress National Preserve, which laid the proposed Everglades Jetport to rest. TAS also became a founding member of the Everglades Coalition during this era.
In the 1990s, when a plan was introduced to convert Homestead Air Reserve Base, devastated by Hurricane Andrew, into an airport for commercial aviation, TAS and other environmental groups organized to defeat the proposal.
The environmental leadership role TAS had assumed during this turbulent time was made possible in part by a benefactor who looms large in local Audubon lore.
In the mid-1970s, Arden Hayes “Doc” Thomas, a TAS member and prominent South Miami pharmacist, deeded his unique house and property to the society for use as offices and nature center. Located on Sunset Drive east of Red Road in the unincorporated High Pines neighborhood, the property is in an especially convenient location, sandwiched as it is between the South Miami and south Gables business districts, and within walking distance to Metrorail. Shortly after Doc Thomas died on Dec. 31, 1975, TAS received the property and set about restoring the house. While these efforts were underway, TAS commissioned a memorial plaque in honor of Guy Bradley, installing it at the Flamingo Visitors Center in Everglades National Park and dedicating it in March 1976.
By 1977, the charming Doc Thomas House began operations as TAS headquarters. Completed in 1932, it has enjoyed Miami-Dade County Historic designation status since 1982, and in 2014 earned a coveted place on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique Rustic Style and Wood Frame vernacular architecture.
Those not yet familiar with its cozy confines should become acquainted with the historic Doc Thomas House and grounds (now known as the Steinberg Nature Center) in this centennial year of celebration.
In the 21st Century, TAS has ratcheted up its environmental advocacy role. Defending Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary; developing a more comprehensive public transportation system; bridging Tamiami Trail to completion; expanding the Biscayne Bay Coalition to further benefit Biscayne Bay, and protecting water resources, rare habitats and endangered/threatened species are among the current priorities.
By spreading its wings beyond ornithological programming to also encompass historic preservation and protection of the precious South Florida environment on which all our lives depend, TAS will continue to amplify its “Voice of Conservation” over the next 100 years.
Dan Jones spent more than four decades as an educator in Miami-Dade County, retiring as a principal in 1998, and subsequently consulting with the school district for the next dozen years. The longtime High Pines resident has served Tropical Audubon Society both as historian and advisor since 2013. Most recently, Jones tackled the formidable task of researching and documenting the history of Audubon presence in South Florida.

150514-a
As sea level rises, idiot Rick Scott continues to ignore climate change
RingOfFireRadio.com
May 14, 2015
Florida is one of the states severely threatened by rising sea levels, a symptom of climate change. Despite the pleas of scientists and engineers, Florida Gov. Rick Scott refuses to do anything to address rising sea levels in Florida, reported The Boston Globe.
Residents of St. Augustine are really feeling the hurt because their city floods about 10 times a year, and the problem is getting worse.
“If you want to benefit from the fact we’ve been here for 450 years, you have the responsibility to look forward to the next 450,” said Bill Hamilton, long-time resident of St. Augustine. “Is St. Augustine even going to he here? We owe it to the people coming here after us to leave the city in good shape.”
Cities all along Florida’s Atlantic coast have experienced chronic flooding that has only increased within the last several years. Roads flood and drinking water wells became contaminated because of the constant flooding. These occurrences put Gov. Scott in a prime position to act and help Floridians.
Yet, Rick Scott does nothing.
Thousands of documents uncovered Scott’s total unwillingness to act as rising sea levels brought on by climate change continue to damage the Florida coast.
Scott has even downsized Florida’s environmental agencies, making it nearly impossible for such groups to create any plans to help the Florida coast.
If the problem persists, south Florida stands to suffer $33 billion in flood damage by the year 2030. Some Florida cities lack the resources to address the problem on their own and must get help from the state. Considering that Scott is the Florida head of state, no help will be given.
The governor has already ignored the advice of several climate experts from Florida’s universities and he remains silent on whether or not he actually has a plan. Scott says cities and towns should ask the environmental groups for help.
“There’s no guidance . . . Everything I’ve found to help, I’ve gotten by searching the Internet,” said St. Augustine’s civil engineer, Reuben Franklin.
With Gov. Scott being stagnant and ineffectual, where are Florida communities supposed to go for help? Because of Scott, the state of Florida is way behind where it needs to be in protecting itself from the effects of climate change.
Related:           Are We Watching As Our Oldest City Slowly Drowns?       GroundReport

150514-b
Florida takes billions more from Washington than it gives, Rep. Debbie Mayfield says
PolitiFact.com - by Joshua Gillin
May 14th, 2015
Florida House members left the 2015 legislative session early over health care funding, but they’ve kept on railing against Medicaid expansion while waiting to reconvene to discuss a state budget.
Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, argued against taking federal money to expand Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the very poor, saying it wasn’t Florida’s money to take.  
"FL is NOT a donor state. Get the facts on federal spending and Medicaid expansion in FL," she tweeted. The tweet included an infographic that read, "Florida sends $135 billion and D.C. returns $150 billion. It's not your hard-earned tax dollars! It's borrowed against your children’s future!"
Other House Republicans shared the same infographic, including Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. We wondered where they were getting their numbers.
Tax totals
House communications director Michael Williams said the amount Florida sends comes from Internal Revenue Service gross tax collections in the state ($154 billion in 2014) minus average tax refunds, ending up at $135 billion.
The amount Washington sent back came from USASpending.gov, a website that tracks federal contracts, loans, grants and public assistance. The site says the federal government spent $150 billion in Florida in fiscal year 2014.
Subtract $135 billion from $150 billion, and that accounts for Florida getting $15 billion more than it puts in.
But tax policy experts told us there are different ways to calculate the numbers, so it’s not as cut and dried as the House makes it out to be.
Steve Ellis, vice president of watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the House’s methodology is generally sound, but he would suggest using actual tax refunds instead of average refunds. He said that would push Florida’s payout total even lower than $135 billion.
On the spending side, National Priorities Project research director Lindsay Koshgarian points out that data from USASpending.gov does not give the most reliable picture available. Koshgarian said that among the site’s issues is that it does not include all grants or federal employees and operations in state spending totals. She suggested using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau would yield a more accurate total.
So federal tax totals paid out of Florida may be lower than what the House is saying, while federal spending could be even higher. But our experts said that comparison still doesn’t paint a good picture of the state’s nuances.
For example, Social Security and Medicare costs are disproportionately high in Florida because of the retiree population, which already paid into the system, but likely in another state. Florida has the third-largest uninsured pool in the country, with a public assistance budget to match. Also, there’s a lot of that $150 billion in Washington cash that isn’t as controversial in the House as Medicaid spending, like money for infrastructure or federal contracts for businesses like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
"I doubt these folks are saying the state should not be taking federal highway money, just because they are taking in more than they spend," said Paul Van De Water, a senior fellow with the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Differences between states make it difficult to make direct comparisons, Koshgarian said. She cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to illustrate her point. "We all need one CDC, but we don't need one in every state, so the dollars have to go somewhere," she said.
Koshgarian said that in 2013, the last year with complete Census data, Florida received the fourth-highest total of federal grants to state government with $23.5 billion (the bulk of which was Medicaid), but was 48th among states for federal grant dollars per resident -- only Nevada and Virginia ranked lower. Those numbers mostly reflect Florida’s status as one of the more populous states.
Ellis added that there’s one other thing to keep in mind to put Mayfield’s point in context: The U.S. government is always in the red these days.
"In my opinion, no state is a donor state when you consider that the budget deficit is nearly half a trillion dollars, so no one is paying their way," he said.
Our ruling
Mayfield said, "Florida sends $135 billion and D.C. returns $150 billion."
Tax policy experts told us the House’s numbers were one way to look at it, but different data sources could yield different totals. They also said such a comparison really doesn’t illustrate the nuances of what federal money is used for in Florida or why. We rate the statement Mostly True.

150514-c
Private, $1.7 M study would end water wars
WFSU.org - by Jim Ash
May 14, 2015
Duking it out in the U.S. Supreme Court isn’t the best way to settle a water war between Florida, Alabama and Georgia, says a private group. As Jim Ash reports, ACF Stakeholders is pushing an exhaustive report filled with potential solutions.
ACF Stakeholders is a private group named after the Appalachicola, Chattahootchee, and Flint rivers. The rivers generate electricity in Alabama, sustain an iconic oyster industry in Florida and slake Georgia’s thirst.
Competition for the water has kept the three states tied up in court since 1990. There’s a way to head that off, says group board member Greg Euston.  
“A trans-boundary water management institute is really the best avenue for basin wide cooperation on water issues, particularly on planning and information gathering and it’s also the place to begin conflict resolution.”
Governor Rick Scott’s lawyers want the nation’s highest court to force Georgia to release more water. They say Appalachicola’s crippled oyster industry is at stake .
The report asks the Army Corps of Engineers to jolt the Appalachicola River with two major releases from Lake Lenier in May and July. The report also suggests longer term solutions, Euston says.
“Well the recommendations to the states asks them to continuously work to conserve more water, to track and measure that conservation as well.”
The group raised 1.7 million dollars privately to pay for the five-year study. Its findings aren’t binding.
Related:           Group Says It Has Plan To End 'Water Wars'            GPB

150514-d
Water district rejects buying sugar land for Everglades restoration
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
May 14, 2015
The push to buy more Big Sugar land for Everglades restoration hit a big roadblock Thursday.
The agency that leads Everglades restoration rejected the chance to buy another 46,800 acres of farmland south of Lake Okeechobee. That land could be used to store water for replenishing the Everglades.
A five-year-old deal with U.S. Sugar Corp. gives the state until October to follow through on buying the land.
But Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District board opted to end the deal for the land, which could cost as much as $700 million to buy.
In addition to the property cost, building a reservoir on the land could cost $2.5 billion, according to the district. That expense could sidetrack other overdue Everglades restoration projects, which district officials said should be the priority.
"I don't want to go spend a couple billion dollars and not solve the problem," district Board Chairman Daniel O'Keefe said. "This can't be the shiny thing that distracts us from getting the projects done."
Yet environmental advocates say the cost is worth the chance to use the land to move more water south — replenishing the parched Everglades and also boosting South Florida drinking water supplies.
And they say the state can afford it, thanks to voters in November approving a measure to dedicate more money to environmental land buying.
"We have the public support. We have the money," said Caitlin Weber, of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. "All we need now is the political leadership. We are running out of time."
Supporters of the land deal point out that district officials are objecting to the costs and terms of a land deal that both the district and U.S. Sugar supported in 2010.
The real reason the district doesn't want to pursue the deal is that U.S. Sugar no longer wants to sell, according to Frank Jackalone, of the Sierra Club.
He said the Sierra Club will push for the governor to replace the district board and reverse the land deal decision.
"They have abandoned Everglades restoration," Jackalone said.
Buying land is a big part of slow-moving Everglades restoration.
The Everglades suffers from decades of draining to make way for farming and development. Land is needed to build reservoirs and water pollution treatment areas to restore water flows between Lake Okeechobee and what remains of the Everglades.
In 2010, the water management district, at the urging of then-Gov. Charlie Crist, struck a land deal with U.S. Sugar that was billed as a historic opportunity to acquire strategically located property to help the Everglades.
The district in 2010 paid $197 million to buy 26,800 acres from U.S. Sugar to be used for restoration. The deal also included a 10-year option for the district to buy U.S. Sugar's remaining 153,200 acres.
"This U.S. Sugar contract was a boondoggle from the day it was signed," said district Board Member James Moran, appointed after 2010 deal was approved. "That was a political decision ... and it was wrong."
As an alternative to buying all of the remaining land, the deal gave the district until October to buy just the 46,800 acres.
Backing away from the deal to buy the 46,800 acres this year could still allow the district to buy U.S. Sugar's entire remaining 153,200 acres by 2020.
Support for continuing the U.S. Sugar deal faded when Gov. Rick Scott took office. Scott opposed the original U.S. Sugar deal as a candidate in 2010. Now as governor he gets to appoint the water management district's board members.
Also, five years after agreeing to potentially sell all of its land to the state, U.S. Sugar now prefers to keep the property. The sugar-producing giant has also proposed long-term plans to potentially build homes and businesses on farmland that the environmental groups want for Everglades restoration.
U.S. Sugar released a statement Thursday saying that the district rejecting the additional land buy wasn't surprising and follows the state's focus on prioritizing existing Everglades restoration plans.
"U.S. Sugar intends to continue to partner in Everglades restoration efforts," the statement said.
Buying more U.S. Sugar land would come with costly strings attached.
Because of the configuration of the properties involved, the district anticipated using about 21,000 acres to build a reservoir, yet the deal requires buying the entire 46,800 acres.
The district would have also had to pay for moving the roads, rail lines and power lines that cross the property.
Also, the deal gives U.S. Sugar the right to lease much of the land to keep farming for 20 years or more. The district would have only about 11,300 acres to use until 2030.
Despite the expense and other hurdles, supporters of the U.S. Sugar land buy say the proposed deal still offers the best opportunity to getting more water moving south.
Until that happens, Lake Okeechobee water that once naturally flowed south to the Everglades will continue to be drained out to sea for South Florida flood control.
That wastes water that could replenish the Everglades. Also, big lake discharges to the east and west hurt coastal fishing grounds and can fuel toxic algae blooms that make waterways unsafe for swimming.
"This really is the only way forward," Everglades Foundation scientist Tom Van Lent said about the proposed land deal.
The state and federal government have already spent about $3.1 billion on Everglades restoration efforts agreed to in 2000, but have yet to complete dozens of projects intended to clean up water pollution and get more water flowing south. That spending includes buying about 200,000 acres.
Scott and the Legislature have so far balked at buying more land for Everglades restoration, instead favoring using existing publicly owned property.
Because lawmakers couldn't agree on a budget during their annual session that ended May 1, supporters of the U.S. Sugar land deal had hoped to continue their sales pitch for the land buy when the Legislature reconvenes in June.
If the Legislature won't approve buying more U.S. Sugar property, environmentalists say lawmakers should approve money for buying land elsewhere south of the lake to build a reservoir.
"We cannot delay. We have to move forward," said Jackalone, of the Sierra Club. "We are not giving up on this."

150514-e
We must create a statewide plan to restore, protect all environmentally sensitive areas
ClayTodayOnline - Sen. Wilton Simpson
May 14, 2015
By Wilton Simpson
A few days ago we saw an unfortunate failure of leadership in the Florida Legislature. As a businessman still somewhat new to the process, I was disappointed that the will of the majority was by-passed. By putting politics before the work of the people, too many important issues were left stuck in the balance.
One of these issues is the future of our environment, particularly the protection and management of our water. Because of the impasse, no comprehensive legislation relating to Amendment 1 has yet been passed. I remain confident that in the budget consideration over the next several weeks, we will have another opportunity to work to ensure protection of Florida’s natural resources. There are differing views on how to accomplish this goal.
Some people believe the only way to honor the intent of Amendment 1 is to purchase specific land owned by a sugar company in South Florida near the Everglades. Others, like me, see Amendment 1 as a holistic, statewide strategy to create longlasting protections from the Panhandle to the Keys. I absolutely believe the Everglades are an important ecosystem worthy of preservation and protection; that is why during my first year in the Florida Senate I championed the Everglades Restoration Act. This act, which became law in 2013, affirmed our commitment to adequately fund the Everglades Restoration plan that was agreed to by the state of Florida and the federal government.
With that legislation, we set aside $880 million to fund Everglades restoration. It’s a multi-year project that was thoughtfully considered and analyzed before passage. For that reason legislators from both parties came together, unanimously passing this legislation, putting politics aside in the interest of good environmental policy.
Voters all over Florida didn’t support Amendment 1 for the purpose of preserving one isolated area of the state. We have to evaluate and prioritize the usage and management of all of Florida’s water supply, not any one region.
Amendment 1 will be in effect for 20 years. It is critical that we get the implementation right by using the best science. If any one area of the state becomes the solitary focus of this funding source, we have all missed the point.
We must create a statewide plan to restore and protect all environmentally sensitive areas. In my district extending into Central Florida we have watersheds fed by springs. Across the state there are from page 4
beaches whose preservation fuels tourism economies. The quality of water in the Kissimmee River basin feeds areas to the south. The health of estuaries like the Indian River Lagoon matter; so too does the St. Johns River in Northeast Florida. All of these systems deserve to be made a part of Amendment 1 consideration.
For Florida’s future, for clean water and an environment that generations can live a high quality of life in, I am committed to getting this right.
State Sen. Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) represents District 18, which stretches across parts of Hernando, Pasco and Sumter counties. His column appears courtesy of Context Florida.

150513-a
America's oldest city is slowly drowning
AOL.com
May 13, 2015
Rising waters from the Atlantic Ocean are threatening to submerge America's oldest city and all its historical sights.
Founded by the Spanish in the mid-16th century, St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest continously occupied city in the U.S., and runs on a powerful tourism industry of visitors seeking out living history, such as the Castillo de San Marcos fortress.
Waters from the Atlantic regularly flood the city, but residents and officials agree that sea level rise is getting worse.
"If you want to benefit from the fact we've been here for 450 years, you have the responsibility to look forward to the next 450," Bill Hamilton, a 63-year-old horticulturist whose family has lived in the city since the 1950s, said. "Is St. Augustine even going to be here? We owe it to the people coming after us to leave the city in good shape."
St. Augustine is one of many chronically flooded communities along Florida's 1,200-mile coastline, and officials in these diverse places share a common concern: They're afraid their buildings and economies will be further inundated by rising seas in just a couple of decades. The effects are a daily reality in much of Florida. Drinking water wells are fouled by seawater. Higher tides and storm surges make for more frequent road flooding from Jacksonville to Key West, and they're overburdening aging flood-control systems.
But the state has yet to offer a clear plan or coordination to address what local officials across Florida's coast see as a slow-moving emergency. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is skeptical of manmade climate change and has put aside the task of preparing for sea level rise, an Associated Press review of thousands of emails and documents pertaining to the state's preparations for rising seas found.
Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists about risks to cities and drinking water, skepticism over sea-level projections and climate-change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of government, the records showed. Florida's environmental agencies under Scott have been downsized and retooled, making them less effective at coordinating sea-level-rise planning in the state, the documents showed.
"If I were governor, I'd be out there talking about it (sea -level rise) every day," said Eric Buermann, the former general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida who also served as a water district governing board member.
"I think he's really got to grab ahold of this, set a vision, a long-term vision, and rally the people behind it. Unless you're going to build a sea wall around South Florida, what's the plan ?"
The issue presents a public works challenge that could cost billions here and nationwide. In the third-most populous U.S. state, where most residents live near a coast, municipalities say they need statewide coordination and aid to prepare for the costly road ahead.
Communities like St. Augustine can do only so much alone. If one city builds a seawall, it might divert water to a neighbor. Cities also lack the technology, money and manpower to keep back the seas by themselves.
In a brief interview with the AP in March, Scott wouldn't address whether the state had a long-range plan. He cited his support for Everglades restoration and some flood-control projects as progress, but said cities and counties should contact environmental and water agencies to find answers - though Scott and a GOP-led Legislature have slashed billions in funding from those agencies. Spokespeople for the water districts and other agencies disputed that cuts have affected their abilities to plan.
"We will continue to make investments and find solutions to protect our environment and preserve Florida's natural beauty for our future generations," the governor said in a statement.
Florida's Department of Environmental Protection is in charge of protecting the state environment and water, but has taken no official position on sea- level rise, according to documents. DEP spokeswoman Lauren Engel said the agency's strategy is to aid local communities and others through the state's routine beach-nourishment and water-monitoring programs.
In St. Augustine, downtown streets around 19th century buildings built by oil tycoon Henry Flagler often close during nor'easters because of flooding. While the city's proximity to the sea has made flooding a problem, residents say it's worsened over the past 15 to 20 years.
St. Augustine's civil engineer says that the low-lying village will probably need a New Orleans-style pumping system to keep water out - but that but no one knows exactly what to do and the state's been unhelpful.
"Only when the frequency of flooding increases will people get nervous about it, and by then it will be too late," engineer Reuben Franklin said. "There's no guidance from the state or federal level. ... Everything I've found to help I've gotten by searching the Internet."
Across coastal Florida, sea levels are rising faster than previously measured, according to federal estimates. In addition to more flooding at high tide, increasing sea levels also mean higher surges during tropical storms and hurricanes, and more inundation of drinking wells throughout Florida.
Water quality is a big concern for many communities. It's especially bad in South Florida - just north of Miami, Hallandale Beach has abandoned six of eight drinking water wells because of saltwater intrusion. Wells in northeast and Central Florida are deemed at risk, too.
While South Florida water officials have led the charge in addressing sea level rise concerns in their area, their attempt to organize a statewide plan was met with indifference, documents show. The Scott administration has organized just a few conference calls to coordinate local efforts, records show. Those came only after Florida's water district managers asked DEP for help.
In a recent visit to Everglades National Park, President Barack Obama said the wetlands, vital to Florida's tourism economy and drinking-water supply, are threatened by infusions of saltwater from rising seas.
The list of other problems across the state is growing. Miami Beach is spending $400 million on new stormwater pumps to keep seawater from overwhelming an outdated sewer system.
(MORE: South Florida Wants to Split from North Florida to Form Two Separate States)
In St. Augustine, homes built on sand dunes teeter over open space as erosion eats at the foundations. Beachside hotel owners worry about their livelihoods.
Tampa and Miami are particularly vulnerable to rising seas - many roads and bridges weren't designed to handle higher tides, according to the National Climate Change Assessment. Officials say Daytona Beach roads, too, flood more often than in the 1990s.
South Miami passed a resolution calling for South Florida to secede from the more conservative northern half of the state so it could deal with climate change itself.
Insurance giant Swiss Re has estimated that the economy in southeast Florida could sustain $33 billion in damage from rising seas and other climate-related damage in 2030, according to the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force.
Most towns say they cannot afford the cost of climate-change studies or regional coordination.
"For us, it's a reality, it's not a political issue," said Courtney Barker, city manager of Satellite Beach. The town near Cape Canaveral used to flood during tropical weather, but now just a heavy rainstorm can make roads impassable for commuters.
"When you have to listen to that mantra, 'Climate change, is it real or not?' you kind of chuckle, because you see it," Barker said.
Scott administration officials are moving forward on a five-year plan that will provide basic guidance to cities dealing with sea level rise. Scott has appointed the Department of Economic Opportunity as the lead agency overseeing the project.
The DEO has received nearly $1 million in federal grants for the plan. More than half has been spent on staff time and travel or hasn't yet been allocated, according to documents. The rest, about $450,000, went to contract researchers who are helping create the document, due in 2016.
Agency spokeswoman Jessica Sims wouldn't comment and refused requests for the program's manager to be interviewed.

150513-b
Eco-Friendly: Amendment “Won”
FIUSM.com
May 13, 2015
Where there is water there is life, and nowhere is that more true than here in South Florida. Everyone from north of Ft. Lauderdale to Key West gets their water from the same place, our only source of fresh water, the Biscayne Aquifer. That means if you are washing your hands in a bathroom at Biscayne Bay Campus or drinking from a water fountain at Madesto Madique, you are using the same exact water. But this water is also necessary for farming, industrial processing and wildlife management. And without appropriate regulations and legislation, this water can be threatened.
Amendment 1, also known as the Water and Land Conservation Amendment, was passed during our midterm elections last October. It passed with 4.2 million votes, which means 75 percent of voters supported the bill – a lot more support than Governor Rick Scott received.
Amendment 1 finances the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, which has the responsibility of acquiring and improving land, water areas and related property interests by dedicating 33 percent of net revenues from the existing excise tax on documents for 20 years.
In a nutshell, it helps make sure there will be funding for the next 20 years to keep the water and land in South Florida clean. The money will be generated from one-third of the tax paid when real estate is sold. So, when calculated, it comes out to billions of dollars with which the state will ensure the maintenance of a clean environment. They drew up the bill, we voted for it, now we just have to implement it. Sounds great right?
Well, in Florida, nothing is that easy.
Florida has a very unique process in how it receives its water. All of the fresh water that flows through our beautiful state is directly from precipitation, making our wetlands the only wetlands in the world created solely through rain. During our wet season, we receive an annual amount of about five feet of rain. Unlike other parts of the country, we do not have four stationary seasons. We only have two: wet and dry, characterized by floods and drought, respectively. During our dry season, October to April, we receive only about a foot of rain. In the wet season, May to September, we receive almost a foot of rain per month. It is because of this unique system that proper management of our water is so dire to balance the thin line of supply and demand.
This leads us to our main issue. The reason we need bills like Amendment 1 is because the quality of our water is constantly under attack. The state government is the entity in charge of making sure we are protected, but it constantly fails. Even currently, the federal government is suing the state of Florida over constant violations of the Everglades Forever Act, which requires the phosphorus levels from agriculture runoff in the water to be below a certain level. But when your governor and his party aren’t very environmentally friendly, to the point that no one associated with the administration is allowed to use the phrase “climate change”, it becomes a daunting task. But the governor isn’t the only problem.
To Be Continued May 14, 2015

150513-c
Fracking in Florida
WGCU.org - by John Davis
Hydraulic Fracturing or ‘fracking’ is a technique for releasing oil and natural gas from underground by fracturing deep rock formations with pressurized water, sand and other chemicals. The process remains controversial in Florida and around the nation. Proponents point to fracking’s economic benefits and say it can help provide energy here in Florida, where about 60% of the overall electricity produced comes from natural gas. Opponents highlight Florida’s unique geology and hydrology saying the scientific data to show that fracking is safe isn’t there. 
They also point to environmental concerns such as the risks of groundwater contamination and the amount of water used in the process. State Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Fort Myers, sponsored legislation this year that would have required companies to inform the state Department of Environmental Protection of the chemicals they use in fracking activity to be listed in a national registry. Another measure sponsored by Rep. Rodrigues would have allowed DEP officials to exempt any chemicals used in fracking from public disclosure as company trade secrets. Neither of those bills made it through this year’s legislative session, leaving hydraulic fracturing unregulated in Florida. We’ll explore the benefits and risks and the future of fracking in Florida. 
Guests:
Jennifer Hecker, Director of Natural Resource Policy at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida
State Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Fort Myers representing District 76

150513-d
Paradise at risk
Miami Herald – Letter by Judith Hancock Sandoval, Miami
May 13, 2015
Back in 1983, artist Christo’s “Surrounded Islands” project on Biscayne Bay got world-wide publicity and huge artistic and financial benefits for Miami.
The project went through more than a year of rigorous scrutiny by federal, state and local government agencies to make sure that it would not cause environmental damage to Biscayne Bay and the islands.
I participated in those meetings representing the New World Festival, the sponsor of the Christo project.
It is unbelievable that the Miami International Boat Show proposed for Virginia Key at the Marine Stadium site should not receive this kind of scrutiny. Virginia Key has most of the fauna in the Everglades along with much of our native flora, carefully being restored and enhanced by experts over decades.
The prospect of the environmental ruin of the area near the stadium as described in the May 7 article, Federal review adds to Miami boat show debate, is counter to what Miami once was and should remain, a tropical paradise.

150513-e
Protecting Florida farms from EPA power grab
RealEstateRama
May 13, 2015
U.S. Representative Tom Rooney (FL-17) issued the following statement on legislation under consideration in the House today to block an EPA proposal that would give the agency unprecedented new authority to regulate bodies of water on private property, including ditches and farm ponds Washington, DC – May 13, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Representative Tom Rooney (FL-17) issued the following statement on legislation under consideration in the House today to block an EPA proposal that would give the agency unprecedented new authority to regulate bodies of water on private property, including ditches and farm ponds. “Floridians understand and respect our waterways unlike any other state,” Rooney said. “Environmentalists, farmers and businesses have come together to protect our environment and eliminate water pollutants, and their efforts are working. It’s time for the federal government to learn from this functioning dynamic. “We all want clean water, but for the EPA to start regulating farm ponds and puddles would be laughable if the costs weren’t so high. Complying with the EPA’s new rules would cost Florida farmers, families and local governments billions of dollars. It will slow our economic recovery, kill jobs in our state, and hurt our farmers’ ability to feed the nation.” The House is scheduled to vote today on H.R. 1732, the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act, which would require the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw the current proposed rule and develop a new proposal that takes into account comments received, economic analysis, and recommendations from state and local officials, stakeholders, and other interested parties. - See more at:
http://florida.realestaterama.com/2015/05/13/protecting-florida-farms-from-epa-power-grab-ID01650.html#sthash.Gxs38v6f.dpuf

150513-f
Tampa Bay seagrass recovers; 40,000 acres most in 60 years
WMNF.org
May 13, 2015
There are more acres seagrass in the Tampa Bay estuary than any time in the last sixty years; the Southwest Florida Water Management District announced Wednesday that the bay now supports more than 40,000 acres of seagrass beds.
WMNF News interviewed Kris Kaufman, a senior environmental scientist with SWFWMD.
Kaufman said their study found a 16.3 percent increase in seagrass coverage in Tampa Bay from 2012 to 2014. She said seagrass recovery requires relatively clean water and congratulated the community for making an effort to cut back on pollution.
Kaufman said the best recovery is in Old Tampa Bay (the location of the three bridges from Hillsborough County to Pinellas) where there are now three thousand acres more seagrass. Next is Hillsborough Bay, near the urban and industrial parts of Tampa.
Related:           Tampa Bay seagrass beds expand, show water is now as clean as it ...

150512-a
Gov. Rick Scott sparks resistance and confusion with call for 'continuation' budget
Times/Herald - by Steve Bousquet, Michael Auslen and Alex Leary, Tallahassee Bureau
May 12, 2015
WASHINGTON — Gov. Rick Scott's call for a status quo or "continuation" state budget faces growing resistance from leaders of the Florida Legislature, who say they can still resolve an impasse and produce a budget by July 1.
Taking direct aim at President Barack Obama, Scott took his case to Washington on Tuesday where he met with Republican members of Congress, a day after a TV interview in which he sounded resigned to adopting a "continuation budget," an idea met with opposition and bewilderment back home.
"What I believe is going to happen is this," Scott said on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. "We'll just have a continuation budget, which will mean we'll have about an $8 billion surplus. … We'll just do what we've done this last year. We won't put more money into schools, which I wanted to do. We won't cut taxes, which I wanted to do. We'll just leave the money there, and deal with it in our next session, which starts in January."
(Scott's spokeswoman later said he meant to say the surplus is $1.8 billion, which budget analysts say is a correct figure.)
When he ran for re-election last year, the governor promised Florida voters a big round of tax relief and a "historic" boost in per-student funding in schools. Now, Scott is abandoning those pledges, even though legislative leaders are refusing to follow him.
Though divided during a tumultuous regular session, the Senate and House are steadfast about adopting a budget during a special session next month. They remain mystified in any case by Scott's sudden insistence on a continuation budget.
"I don't think anybody really understands what a continuation budget is and how that would work," said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando. "We've always intended to come back and do the budget."
In a statement, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said: "The House would prefer to have a joint call with the Florida Senate to complete a budget before the July 1 deadline. The House is working hard toward that goal."
The Legislature has called a special session from June 1-20 to resolve differences in advance of the July 1 start of the fiscal year. The Senate insists on using state tax dollars to plug a federal hole to compensate hospitals for the cost of treating the poor, a program known as the low-income pool, and wants to use federal money to expand health care to the uninsured. The House opposes health care expansion that relies on Medicaid money.
As the stalemate drags on, Scott's "continuation" rhetoric is complicating things. "I'm not sure a continuation budget has ever been adopted," said Jerry McDaniel, a former budget director for Scott, two previous governors and three attorneys general. Scott hasn't made clear in public statements or private conversations with legislators how his "continuation" spending plan would work or address critical needs that have emerged.
The current budget is $77 billion, but Florida's growth puts pressure on lawmakers to spend more money each year.
For example, the state projects 15,000 additional public school students next fall. If a continuation budget means holding the line on schools, the cost of those extra students would have to be spread among all 67 school districts.
Pinellas superintendent of schools Mike Grego said he was "extremely disappointed in the outlook" portrayed by Scott in a year when Florida has a projected $1 billion surplus.
"The spending he tried to get and was taking the lead on is certainly needed," Grego said. "I thought it was a priority to restore funding to the 2007-08 levels."
"It will certainly create challenges for us if they don't come up with a solution in the next month and a half," said Jeff Eakins, Hillsborough's acting school superintendent.
Scott has not said how a continuation budget would resolve a crisis in the deficit-ridden prison system, where the Senate wants to spend $16.5 million to fill critical vacancies among correctional officer positions.
A continuation budget would not address workload increases in agencies, waiting lists for critical services or pay increases for state workers.
And it is unclear how basic programs, such as road construction, would be affected. Transportation spokesman Dick Kane referred questions to Scott's office.
Nor has Scott explained how a continuation budget would carry out the will of 75 percent of Florida voters who approved Amendment 1, the water and land protection ballot initiative. He said Tuesday Amendment 1 would be included, but provided no details.
A continuation budget also would mean no tax relief for Floridians — a goal most legislators want — and no new local projects in lawmakers' hometowns that help them curry favor with their constituents.
That is why Scott's call to, in effect, kick the can down the road is seen as a slight by lawmakers, who have known since March that their chasm on health care policy was so wide they probably could not agree on a budget by the May 1 end of the regular session.
"Halfway through session, the speaker and I knew we would have to come back for the budget," Gardiner said. "We're the appropriators. We write the budget. We're all pretty committed to doing that. The only person that I've heard talking about shutting down the government is the governor." While in Washington, Scott huddled with more than a dozen members of the Florida congressional delegation, all of them Republicans.
Asked why he did not seek meetings with Democrats, Scott said: "They want Obamacare expanded. They're not going to be helpful to me."
Scott likened the Obama administration to a fictitious TV organized crime family by claiming it is using coercion to link continued federal funding of the low-income hospital pool to an expansion of Medicaid that he opposes.
"This is the Sopranos," Scott said repeating a reference he made in April.
At Scott's suggestion, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees Medicaid, agreed to hold a hearing on changes to low-income pool funding "in the coming months," a committee spokesman said.

150512-b
House votes to block EPA regulation of streams, wetlands
Associated Press - by Mary Clare Jalonick
May 12, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans on Tuesday voted to block government rules that would clarify which streams, tributaries and wetlands should be protected from pollution and development under the Clean Water Act.
The rules proposed last year by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have fueled political anger in the country's heartland, becoming a top issue of concern for many farmers and landowners who say there are already too many government regulations affecting their businesses.
The House bill, approved 261-155, would force the EPA to withdraw the rules and further consult with state and local officials before rewriting it. The White House has threatened to veto the legislation.
The EPA says its water rules simply clarify - and don't expand - what smaller bodies of water are regulated under the Clean Water Act. Administrator Gina McCarthy says one out of three Americans gets their drinking water from sources that aren't clearly protected, and the rules would make sure those waters aren't polluted.
Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he believes the proposed EPA and Army Corps rules are "purposely vague" and that they would expand the government's authority over these small bodies of water, despite what the agency says.
"Not all waters need to be subject to federal jurisdiction," Shuster said
EPA officials have acknowledged they may not have written the proposal clearly enough, and said final rules expected in the coming months will better define which waters would fall under the law.
"I want to tell you up front that I wish we had done a better job of rolling out our clean water rule," McCarthy told the National Farmers Union in March.
The agency says the rules are necessary to make clear which waters are regulated under the Clean Water Act in the wake of decades-long uncertainty and two U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the issue. The 2001 and 2006 decisions limited regulators' reach but left unclear the scope of authority over some small waterways, like those that flow intermittently.
Democrats said blocking the rules could mean even more uncertainty for landowners who don't know if waters on their land are regulated. They said the GOP bill is premature because the EPA and Army Corps have not yet released the revised, final version of the rules.
"We're being asked to vote on killing something that nobody has read," said Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.
Across the Capitol, several senators introduced a bill last month that would lay out what bodies of water should be covered under the rules and force the EPA to rewrite them by the end of next year. Sponsors included Democrats who have heard from their constituents on the proposal and said it is aggravating longstanding trust issues between rural areas and the federal government.
"It's the perfect example of the disconnect between Washington and rural areas," said Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly of the rules. Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who also backs the Senate bill, says the water rule is the number one issue she hears about from farmers.
Broadly, the EPA's proposed rules would assert federal regulatory authority over streams, tributaries, wetlands and other flowing waters that significantly affect other protected waters downstream. That means landowners would have to obtain permits for practices or development that may pollute or destroy the waters.
"We're making a targeted effort to protect the waters that matter most," McCarthy told the National Farmers Union audience.
Farm groups are particularly concerned over what they say is an overly broad definition of tributary and whether common farm ditches would be regulated. EPA says it would only regulate farm ditches that are constructed through wetlands or streams and flow year-round.
The EPA has been working to clear up misconceptions, putting to rest rumors that puddles in your back yard would be regulated, for example. Farming practices that are currently exempted from the Clean Water Act - plowing, seeding and minor drainage, among other things - will continue to be exempted.
Many landowners aren't swayed.
Missouri rancher David Luker says he's already spent thousands of dollars trying to comply with the Clean Water Act because several shallow streams run through his farm. "It seems like you can't do anything anymore without some agency being in control or having oversight over what you are doing," Luker says.

150512-c
St. Johns River Water Management District mulling hiring away Suwannee River executive
StAugustineRecord
May 12, 2015
PALATKA — The executive director for the Suwannee River Water Management District became the first pick Tuesday to replace the head of the counterpart agency overseeing water around the St. Johns River.
The St. Johns River Water Management District’s governing board considered hiring Ann Shortelle on the spot, based solely on recommendations from other board members, but dissenters convinced them to meet again May 21, so members would have time to research her.
“How can I vote for someone I’ve never met with a clear conscience?” member Maryam Ghyabi asked after Chairman John Miklos said he had talked with Shortelle and she’d take the job if it was offered.
Ghyabi said she hadn’t even seen Shortelle’s resume, and contrasted the debate this week with a process she said she was proud of for selecting the last executive director in 2011. That last pick, former district general counsel Hans Tanzler, left the agency at the beginning of the month.
Miklos said he was concerned about potentially bringing Shortelle into the job late in the process of budgeting for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
Shortelle has worked since 2012 for the Suwannee district, which crosses 15 counties.
Before that, she was the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s director of water policy.
An agenda for Tuesday’s meeting listed “the selection and/or selection process” to find an executive director, but there had been no process set for considering candidates.
The meeting was the first since four senior staff members resigned or retired last week, two saying they would have been fired if they didn’t, and the handful of non-employees at the meeting included people seeking an explanation for the departures.
Environmental activists had argued the house clearing cost the agency technical knowledge and familiarity with land and waterways that taxpayer money has paid to preserve.
“It is reported recently that there is a desire for a ‘new culture,’” at the agency, St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman told the board. “What is that culture?”
State Sen. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, wrote to the agency last week that he thought the departures put agency goals such as protecting springs “in grave jeopardy,” and asked for copies of any records relating to the terminations.
Water Management District Acting Executive Director Mike Register wrote back Monday that the resignation letters were the only documentation the agency had.
“Please be assured that it was my decision to accept their requested resignations,” Register wrote, “and that I did so because I believed it was in the best interests of the district.”
Register declined to elaborate Tuesday.
Related:           St. Johns water district pursues new leader    Orlando Sentinel

150511-a
Big Sugar weasels out of land deal
FloridaToday – by Carl Hiaasen
May 11, 2015
In Tallahassee you can be a gutsy champion for the Everglades, or just another lame shill for Big Sugar.
You can't be both, though some politicians try to pretend....
In Tallahassee you can be a gutsy champion for the Everglades, or just another lame shill for Big Sugar.
You can't be both, though some politicians try to pretend.
Check out Steve Crisafulli, the Republican speaker of the Florida House. He comes from a citrus family, once headed the Brevard County Farm Bureau and has his eye on becoming state agricultural commissioner.
Crisafulli lives on Merritt Island, which is bordered by the Indian River Lagoon, a 156-mile-long body of water whose southern end is being devastated by agricultural pollutants pumped recklessly from Lake Okeechobee.
Right now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is flushing an average 614 million gallons of nitrogen- and phosphorus-tainted lake water every day into the St. Lucie River, which flows into the Indian River Lagoon through the St. Lucie Estuary.
The idea is to regulate the levels in Lake Okeechobee so it won't overflow during in the rainy season. However, the water-dumping causes massive algae blooms, fish kills and a nightmare for marine and tourist businesses along the Treasure Coast.
Because of where he lives, Crisafulli would seem a likely crusader for the Indian River Lagoon, a person who'd fight for those whose livelihoods depend on it. As House speaker, he can guide funds for the acquisition of key land near Lake Okeechobee to be used for cleaning the polluted farm runoff and sending it south through the Everglades.
One problem: That land is owned by U.S. Sugar, and U.S. Sugar has Crisafulli on a short puppet string.
Crisafulli and his political action committee took $94,500 from company sources during the last two election cycles. U.S. Sugar board directors (and their wives) gave him $500 checks.
He was also one of several Florida politicians, including Gov. Rick Scott, who went on secret hunting trips to Texas arranged by U.S. Sugar. Those hunts took place at the King Ranch, also a major holder of cane acreage near Lake Okeechobee.
When a Herald/Times reporter tried to reach Crisafulli last year, he referred all questions about the U.S. Sugar junkets to a media spokesman who also happens to work for the sugar growers' coalition.
This indicates a troubling lack of independence by Crisafulli, or at the very least, a lack of shame.
Last fall, Floridians in a landslide approved Amendment One, which calls for the use of existing real-estate stamp taxes to buy lands vital for conservation and improving water quality.
It will generate at least $750 million a year, filling the hole left by the Legislature's gutting of the Florida Forever program.
The purchase so important to saving the Indian River Lagoon and replenishing the Everglades was agreed to by U.S. Sugar seven years ago — 46,800 total acres near Clewiston, valued at $350 million.
One parcel, 26,100 acres, is well situated to be a reservoir for filtering the dirty water before letting it flow south. A recent University of Florida water study, commissioned by the Senate, endorsed that concept.
U.S. Sugar said it was a terrific idea back in 2008, when the company gave the state an option to purchase the tracts. The option is due to expire in October and, now that Amendment One funds are available, U.S. Sugar wants to weasel out of the deal.
Last fall, the company presented a development plan for the acreage that envisions 18,000 homes and 25 million square feet of offices, warehouses and retail space. U.S. Sugar says such a project is years away, but the negative effect of killing the state's land deal would be immediate.
Voters want the Amendment One funds to be spent exactly on projects like the Lake Okeechobee cleanup, but allocating the money is up to lawmakers and the governor. The prospects look grim.
While Crisafulli is a huge beneficiary of U.S. Sugar donations, the company has been generous to practically every major player in Tallahassee. Last year, U.S. Sugar interests donated $2.2 million statewide to GOP candidates.
Gov. Scott, who once denounced the taint of Big Sugar's money, hungrily took millions from the industry for his re-election campaign.
Killing the U.S. Sugar land deal is easy for Scott and lawmakers. All they've got to do is leave the Clewiston-area property off the list of conservation purchases until the option lapses.
That's what U.S. Sugar assumes they'll do, because that's the kind of obedience the company expects when they give gobs of money to a politician. No one was under more pressure to roll over than Crisafulli, and no one had more to gain politically by standing up to do the right thing.
Not happening.

150511-b
Farmland management changes can boost carbon sequestration rates
UGA.edu – by J. Merritt Melancon
May 11, 2015
Changes can add organic matter to soils much faster than previously thought
Athens, Ga. - Well-maintained pastures prevent erosion, protect water and, as it turns out, can restore the soil's organic matter much more quickly than previously thought, according to a team of researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida.
Soil contains the largest terrestrial reservoir of carbon. Tilling fields every year to plant crops releases soil carbon into the atmosphere. It's been known for a long time that transitioning cropland to pastureland where livestock grazes replenishes the soil's carbon, but their study showed that the process can be much more rapid than scientists previously thought.
"What is really striking is just how fast these farms gain soil organic matter," said Aaron Thompson, associate professor of environmental soil chemistry and senior author on the study. "In less than a decade, management-intensive grazing restores these soils to levels of organic matter they had as native forests. These farms accumulate soil carbon at rates as fast as ever measured globally."
The rate of carbon increase was so high for the first six years that capturing carbon in the soil could also help offset the planet's rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Converting to pastures managed using intensive grazing principles can capture up to 8 metric tons of carbon per hectare, or 3.6 tons per acre, per year in the soil. This makes the soils more nutrient-rich and allows them to hold more water.
The study, funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and published in the May edition of the journal Nature Communications, tracked changes in soil organic matter on Georgia farms that had changed within the last six years from growing row crops to producing milk as grass-fed dairies.
On most North American dairies, hay and silage crops are cultivated in fields separated from the cows' pasture and then fed to the herd as needed. But in management-intensive grazing, the cows spend 90 percent of their time out on pasture.
"We found that converting cropland to rotational grazing systems can increase soil organic matter and improve soil quality at rates much faster than previously thought possible in a system that sustains food production," said the study's lead author, Megan Machmuller, who worked on the three-year project as a doctoral student in UGA's Odum School of Ecology. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University.
Management-intensive grazing, a practice growing in popularity among Southeastern dairy farmers and pasture-based beef cattle farmers, allows producers to efficiently use the nutrition provided in their pastures. In addition to emphasizing pasture quality and quantity for the cattle, these management-intensive grazing practices also feed the biological activity within the soil. This fosters the development of organic matter, thus capturing larger quantities of carbon that would be otherwise released into the atmosphere.
"These systems are proliferating throughout sub-tropical regions that allow year-round grazing—which increases their profitability. They could offer a rare win-win in land management—providing profitable food production with rapid soil restoration and short-term climate mitigation," said study co-author Nick Hill, a professor of crop physiology at UGA.
"In Georgia, the number of pasture-based dairies has expanded rapidly since 2005. Many of these farmers are using pastureland that was once devoted to row crops," said study co-author Dennis Hancock, an associate professor and UGA Extension forage specialist. "Once their pasture-based operations were up and running, they began reporting that they were seeing less need for fertilizer and irrigation in order to maintain their forage crops.
"The carbon accumulation in soils under pasture-based dairy production in Georgia has major implications in the Southeast, as it shows the ‘carbon footprint' of these dairy systems is far more positive than previously thought."
The team made additional soil quality measurements after hearing the farmers' anecdotal evidence. They also found that after six years of management intensive grazing, the soil could retain 95 percent more nutrients and 34 percent more water. The impacts of this system on soil fertility and quality is potentially greatest for heavily degraded soils, like those in the Southeast.
Dairymen who farm sandy soils like we have in the coastal plain of the Southeastern U.S. need all the help that they can get with these soil properties, according to Hancock. Often, having good soil organic matter and the benefits that come from it can be the difference between losing and making money.
Most future land use change is expected to take place in existing agricultural and pastoral lands, said study co-author Marc Kramer, an associate professor in the soil and water science department at the University of Florida.
"Emerging land use activities such as intensive grazing show what is achievable in terms of profitable farming with clear carbon cycle and soil fertility benefits," he said. "It is the tip of the iceberg really."
The study is available online at http://t.co/e0p4XUKw1e. Taylor Cyle, a master's student in crop and soil science at UGA, was a co-author.
To learn more about sustainable agriculture research at UGA, visit www.caes.uga.edu/topics/sustainag. For more on the Odum School of Ecology, visit http://ecology.uga.edu/.

150511-c
Florida Republican bucks his party on climate, calls for action
EEnews.net – by Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter
May 11, 2015
Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo says it's "vital" that lawmakers begin working on legislation to address climate change, which he says could damage both the economy and environment of his district in South Florida.
His views diverge sharply from those of other Republican lawmakers, including the state's two presidential aspirants in former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio. And although Curbelo has not endorsed a policy by which to reduce carbon emissions, some observers describe his openness to the issue as a thawing moment in the seemingly frozen congressional debate over global warming.
"I have concerns about the ecological impact that climate change has on our planet, especially as it relates to rising sea-levels," Curbelo said in a statement to ClimateWire. "It is vital Congress works in a bipartisan manner to mitigate the effects of climate change and I'm proud to be a pro-environment voice in the Republican Party."
Curbelo's remarks coincided with his visit Friday to a public school south of Miami where 200 fifth-graders gave him thank you letters for pledging to address warming last month. On Earth Day, Curbelo hitched a ride aboard Air Force One to the Everglades, where he attended President Obama's speech on climate change.
That appears to be the first time that Curbelo talked publicly about addressing rising seas and other climate impacts since he took office in January after defeating Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia by 3 percentage points. He said then that he's "committed to finding common ground to mitigate the effects of climate change."
Curbelo's positions outdistance those of his party's leaders. Rubio questions the extent to which human activity will alter the climate, and he says any action to reduce emissions will badly harm the economy. Bush recently said he's concerned about warming but didn't address whether it's man-made.
Late last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became perhaps the only potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination to acknowledge that humans are having an impact.
"I think global warming is real," he said in New Hampshire on Thursday. "I don't think that's deniable. And I do think human activity contributes to it."
School on the 'front line'
Nelson Diaz, chairman of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County, acknowledges that Curbelo's views deviate from the Republican mainstream. Yet, he indicated that the party is willing to accept them, even as other Republicans openly reject the science behind the greenhouse effect.
"I think a lot of Republicans agree that there is some sort of climate change occurring," Diaz said. "The big debate is the cause of it. There is lots of room in the Republican Party for varying opinions within the debate on climate change."
Curbelo, 35, also stakes out other positions that are unusual for his party. He supports gay marriage and has endorsed the idea of eventually granting legal citizenship to many of the undocumented immigrants in the United States.
It was Curbelo's willingness to disengage from his party's climate positions that prompted the fifth-grade letter-writing project at Gateway Environmental Learning Center in Homestead, Fla. A student brought a local newspaper clip about the congressman's Earth Day remarks to Denise Mendoza, a science teacher at the public school outfitted with an educational wetlands.
That sparked her to assign 30 students in her "Earth Buddies Club" to thank Curbelo in writing. It spread to other classes, until every fifth-grade student at the public school had written a letter.
"It just kind of snowballed," Mendoza said during her lunch break Friday, noting that the school is 5 miles away from the Everglades. "We are in the front lines" of climate change, she added.
Curbelo's comments might have a similar effect on the voters in his district, particularly among Hispanics, according to Jon Krosnick, a Stanford University professor who polls the public on its attitudes about climate change.
A sign of movement, or just an outlier?
More Hispanics support government action on climate change than whites, according to a survey conducted in January by Stanford, The New York Times and Resources for the Future. Sixty-three percent of Hispanics said the government should do a great deal or a lot, compared with 49 percent of whites. Also, 80 percent of Hispanics support a carbon tax on emitting companies, compared with 63 percent of whites.
Krosnick said Curbelo's choice of words make his comments more persuasive. The lawmaker skipped any discussion about the science behind warming and jumped directly to action, supplanting an important debate for skeptical conservatives.
"He's saying it's inevitable, there will be effects of climate change, and we need to reduce those effects," Krosnick said, also noticing that Curbelo proudly claims to be pro-environment.
"There is a certain boldness to that, which I do think is part of a wave of what we're starting to see coming from the Republican side, an increasing willingness to embrace this type of message," Krosnick said.
Other polls have found that more Hispanics than whites believe humans are affecting the climate. This is perhaps in part to their median age, which at 27 is 15 years younger than whites, according to a recent Pew Center poll. It might also have to do with their feeling of being more exposed to climate impacts and their alignment with the Democratic Party.
Taken together, 70 percent of Hispanics say the Earth is warming because of humans, compared with 44 percent of whites.
But Greg Hamra was excited about a much smaller number: one. As an environmental activist in South Florida who gives speeches on sustainability to schoolchildren, he believes Curbelo's comments could be a watershed moment.
"He's bucking the trend in his party," he said. "I want to buy him a beer."

150511-d
Marine sanctuary's wrong science accelerated Florida's coral reef destruction
SunshineStateNews.com - by Nancy Smith
May 11, 2015
At exactly the time I should have been paying the closest attention, Florida was suffering probably the biggest environmental disaster in its history. It happened on my watch but I wasn't watching.
During the early 1990s through 1995, 38 percent of the once-abundant living coral in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary had died. 
It was what marine biologist Michael J. Risk of McMaster University called "regional mass extinction" and what his colleague Brian Lapointe from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute called "one of the worst environmental disasters in modern history."
I'm ashamed of my ignorance. I was managing editor of The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News at the time. In 1994 I was president of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. I had what I think was a special responsibility to know and report such a cataclysmic event.
But scientists are telling me now, unless I'd been living in the Keys, or unless I was a diver and had seen the "before and after," I would never have known anyway. Management at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary kept it under wraps, consistently denying there was a water quality problem in the Keys.
The National Marine Sanctuary was calling for fresh water to be shipped down canals operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and sent into Florida Bay. They still are to this day, and that's my interest in this now. Sanctuary scientists, who long ago reeled in the Everglades Foundation founders as their disciples, continue to ignore the connection between nitrogen and phosphorus -- deadly to coral in combination -- because they fertilize algae and invite red tides.
Billy Causey is the southeast regional director for the National Marine Sanctuary. Causey is the man most responsible for keeping the faulty hypothesis alive and well. Scary when you consider he failed to earn his doctorate, so in 2006 the University of South Florida gave him an honorary one anyway. "Oh, he likes to be called Doctor," one his staff told me. "We have to call him Doctor."
Causey has been the lead National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official in the development of the management plan for the Keys sanctuary -- and the Keys sanctuary is the third largest marine protected area in the United States. I'm not sure if Causey's long tenure is more a statement about NOAA -- an arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce -- or about the sanctuary itself.
In an earlier interview, Lapointe told me, "They (sanctuary scientists) kept saying we need more fresh water from the Everglades. Their theory was hypersalinity -- too much salt water -- was killing the reefs. The fact is -- all the research shows -- what we needed wasn't fresh water, it was clean water."
Lapointe and a handful of his colleagues insisted the algae blooms could be explained by the bay's Petrie dish effect, that you always get your biggest growth response when you add nitrogen and phosphorous together. It's eutrophication, or over-enrichment by nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and silica -- the chemicals that come from sewage outfalls, industrial and agricultural runoff -- that create the algae.
If you want to see proof, look at the Shark River flows and nitrogen-loading data from Lapointe's studies. What you'll see is ramped up water flows between 1991 and 1995. Why did that happen ?   Because the South Florida Water Management District bought into the flawed "hypersalinity" hypothesis by increasing water deliveries to Shark River and Taylor Slough. That took Florida Bay and the Keys over a eutrophication "tipping point."
The Keys already had a major problem with sewage -- thousands of cesspits, 30,000 septic tanks, and 1,200 shallow injection wells and nearshore impacts, but these massive flows from the mainland, both agricultural and urban nutrients, triggered the explosive regional water quality deterioration.  That manifested itself in algal blooms in Florida Bay and loss of coral in downstream waters of the Keys.
At the peak of the flows in 1995, a major toxic red tide developed on the Gulf side of the Keys, killing off an enormous amount of wildlife. Over the next four years, as I mentioned earlier, 38 percent of the living coral died in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Nice work, Causey and scientists Jay Zieman and Ron Jones.
"It's the saddest thing when you love something," Don DeMaria told me. "It's like watching a dear friend die." 
DeMaria, who owns Sea Samples, a company that collects samples for analysis, previously served on a sanctuary advisory board. He said the algae is no less a problem now than it was in the '90s -- in fact, it's back just off Big Pine, 3 feet deep in mid-channel  and he isn't entirely sure sanctuary management sees a problem.
"I don't understand what they're doing," he told me. "I reported a sponge die-off off Ramrod Key last week, but NOAA hasn't weighed in yet.
"What is the sanctuary preserving?"  They allow some commercial fishermen with nets to come in and, for instance, take ballyhoo. These are supposed to be preservation areas. They're not preservation areas, they're special privilege areas." 
DeMaria concluded, "Fresh water isn't the answer, it's only going to accelerate the coral death. You can't clean nitrogen out of water like you can phosphorus. That's the truth of it."
Commercial fisherman Mike Laucinda, who has been fishing off the Keys since 1969, said the water was pristine and clear until about 1974 and has been worsening ever since. "Within the last six or seven years a new algae has been showing up," he told me. "It pulls my trap lines, it smothers everything, I can't pull it off, I have to cut it. It's about 5 feet deep on the bottom in 20-25 feet of water in Hobbs Channel."
DeMaria said, "The chamber of commerce talks about 'the emerald green water of the Florida Keys. ... Well, in the old days they talked about it as it should be 'crystal clear and blue.'" 
Meanwhile, I still feel responsible for not knowing the crisis afoot in Florida Bay in 1994 and 1995 failing to sound the alarm The clearly stated mission of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Act of 1990 is simple: Protect living coral. Instead, wrong science -- or should I say, bad science by the wrong scientists -- killed it. 

150511-e
Rising ocean threatens tourism in a state that banned talk of climate change
Associated Press – by Jason Dearen and Jennifer Kay
May 11, 2015
America’s oldest city is slowly drowning.
St. Augustine’s centuries-old Spanish fortress and other national landmarks sit feet from the encroaching Atlantic, whose waters already flood the city’s narrow, brick-paved streets about 10 times a year — a problem worsening as sea levels rise. The city has long relied on tourism, but visitors to the fortress and Ponce de Leon’s mythical Fountain of Youth might someday have to wear waders at high tide.
 “If you want to benefit from the fact we’ve been here for 450 years, you have the responsibility to look forward to the next 450,” said Bill Hamilton, a 63-year-old horticulturist whose family has lived in the city since the 1950s. “Is St. Augustine even going to be here? We owe it to the people coming after us to leave the city in good shape.”
St. Augustine is one of many chronically flooded communities along Florida’s 1,200-mile coastline, and officials in these diverse places share a common concern: They’re afraid their buildings and economies will be further inundated by rising seas in just a couple of decades. The effects are a daily reality in much of Florida. Drinking water wells are fouled by seawater. Higher tides and storm surges make for more frequent road flooding from Jacksonville to Key West, and they’re overburdening aging flood-control systems.
But the state has yet to offer a clear plan or coordination to address what local officials across Florida’s coast see as a slow-moving emergency. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is skeptical of man-made climate change and has put aside the task of preparing for sea level rise, an Associated Press review of thousands of emails and documents pertaining to the state’s preparations for rising seas found.
Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists about risks to cities and drinking water, skepticism over sea level projections and climate change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of government, the records showed. Florida’s environmental agencies under Scott have been downsized and retooled, making them less effective at coordinating sea level rise planning in the state, the documents showed.
“If I were governor, I’d be out there talking about it (sea level rise) every day,” said Eric Buermann, the former general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida who also served as a water district governing board member. “I think he’s really got to grab ahold of this, set a vision, a long-term vision, and rally the people behind it. Unless you’re going to build a sea wall around South Florida, what’s the plan?”
The issue presents a public works challenge that could cost billions here and nationwide. In the third-most populous U.S. state, where most residents live near a coast, municipalities say they need statewide coordination and aid to prepare for the costly road ahead.
Communities like St. Augustine can do only so much alone. If one city builds a seawall, it might divert water to a neighbor. Cities also lack the technology, money and manpower to keep back the seas by themselves.
In a brief interview with the AP in March, Scott wouldn’t address whether the state had a long-range plan. He cited his support for Everglades restoration and some flood-control projects as progress but said cities and counties should contact environmental and water agencies to find answers — though Scott and a GOP-led legislature have slashed billions in funding from those agencies. Spokespeople for the water districts and other agencies disputed that cuts have affected their abilities to plan.
“We will continue to make investments and find solutions to protect our environment and preserve Florida’s natural beauty for our future generations,” the governor said in a statement.
Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection is in charge of protecting the state environment and water but has taken no official position on sea level rise, according to documents. DEP spokeswoman Lauren Engel said the agency’s strategy is to aid local communities and others through the state’s routine beach-nourishment and water-monitoring programs.
In St. Augustine, downtown streets around 19th century buildings built by oil tycoon Henry Flagler often close during nor’easters because of flooding. While the city’s proximity to the sea has always made flooding a problem, residents say it’s worsened over the past 15 to 20 years.
St. Augustine’s civil engineer says that the low-lying village will probably need a New Orleans-style pumping system to keep water out — but that but no one knows exactly what to do and the state’s been unhelpful.
“Only when the frequency of flooding increases will people get nervous about it, and by then it will be too late,” engineer Reuben Franklin said. “There’s no guidance from the state or federal level. … Everything I’ve found to help I’ve gotten by searching the Internet.”
Across coastal Florida, sea levels are rising faster than previously measured, according to federal estimates. In addition to more flooding at high tide, increasing sea levels also mean higher surges during tropical storms and hurricanes, and more inundation of drinking wells throughout Florida.
Water quality is a big concern for many communities. It’s especially bad in South Florida — just north of Miami, Hallandale Beach has abandoned six of eight drinking water wells because of saltwater intrusion. Wells in northeast and central Florida are deemed at risk too.
While South Florida water officials have led the charge in addressing sea level rise concerns in their area, their attempt to organize a statewide plan was met with indifference, documents show. The Scott administration has organized just a few conference calls to coordinate local efforts, records show. Those came only after Florida’s water district managers asked DEP for help.
In a recent visit to Everglades National Park, President Barack Obama said the wetlands, vital to Florida’s tourism economy and drinking-water supply, already are threatened by infusions of saltwater from rising seas.
The list of other problems across the state is growing. Miami Beach is spending $400 million on new stormwater pumps to keep seawater from overwhelming an outdated sewer system.
In St. Augustine, homes built on sand dunes teeter over open space as erosion eats at the foundations. Beachside hotel owners worry about their livelihoods.
Tampa and Miami are particularly vulnerable to rising seas — many roads and bridges weren’t designed to handle higher tides, according to the National Climate Change Assessment. Officials say Daytona Beach roads, too, flood more often than in the 1990s.
South Miami passed a resolution calling for South Florida to secede from the more conservative northern half of the state so it could deal with climate change itself.
Insurance giant Swiss Re has estimated that the economy in southeast Florida could sustain $33 billion in damage from rising seas and other climate-related damage in 2030, according to the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force.
Cities like St. Augustine have looked for help, but Scott’s disregard for climate change science has created a culture of fear among state employees, records show.
The administration has been adamant that employees, including scientists, not “assign cause” in public statements about global warming or sea level rise, internal government emails show.
For example, an April 28, 2014, email approving a DEP scientist’s request to participate in a National Geographic story came with a warning: “Approved. Make no claims as to cause … stay with the research you are doing, of course,” the DEP manager, Pamela Phillips, warned.
“I know the drill,” responded Mike Shirley, manager of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve near St. Augustine.
Agency spokeswoman Engel said Phillips was a lower-level staffer whose views didn’t necessarily reflect the entire administration. When asked whether staffers are told not to assign cause, Scott’s office said “the allegations are not true”.
Most towns say they cannot afford the cost of climate change studies or regional coordination.
“For us, it’s a reality, it’s not a political issue,” said Courtney Barker, city manager of Satellite Beach. The town near Cape Canaveral used to flood during tropical weather, but now just a heavy rainstorm can make roads impassable for commuters.
“When you have to listen to that mantra, ‘Climate change, is it real or not?’ you kind of chuckle, because you see it,” Barker said.
Scott administration officials are moving forward on a five-year plan that will provide basic guidance to cities dealing with sea level rise. Scott has appointed the Department of Economic Opportunity as the lead agency overseeing the project.
The DEO has received nearly $1 million in federal grants for the plan. More than half has been spent on staff time and travel or hasn’t yet been allocated, according to documents. The rest, about $450,000, went to contract researchers who are helping create the document, due in 2016. Agency spokeswoman Jessica Sims wouldn’t comment and refused requests for the program’s manager to be interviewed.
In one grant-funded study, Florida State University researchers asked local leaders about sea rise. Some officials complained to researchers about the “poisonous political atmosphere” over climate change hampering progress. The AP obtained the report in a public records request.
“In some cases, especially at the local level, planners are constrained by perceptions among elected officials that there is a lack of reliable scientific information to support the existence of sea level rise,” report authors summarized.
Scott’s office again said “the allegations are not true” when asked about the political atmosphere in government agencies.
As for concerns over drinking water, water district officials said they were happy with the state’s funding. But internal emails show frustration among those working behind the scenes to better organize a statewide sea level rise planning group.
“I often worry about the next generations; I think they will survive in spite of us,” Dave DeWitt, a staffer at the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said in an email to colleagues. A district spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on policy beyond the district.
St. Augustine officials say they need state-level coordination, or in coming decades much of historic downtown could be ankle-deep in water at high tide.
Franklin, the engineer, said, “Are we going to be early to the game in terms of planning for this, or late ?”
Related:           Sea rise threatens Florida coast, but no statewide plan          WTSP 10 News
Sea rise threatens Florida coast           Brunswick News
Trespassing Atlantic Ocean raises alarm in Florida    Tribune-Review

150511-f
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USFWS, sued for flooding Cape Sable sparrow habitat at Everglades
Nat.Parks Traveler - by NPT Staff
May 11, 2015 - 12:00am
A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for flooding Everglades National Park habitat relied upon by the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, an endangered species.
The lawsuit was brought by Dr. Stuart Pimm, the Center for Biological Diversity and former National Park Service scientist Sonny Bass. According to the lawsuit, the two agencies violated the Endangered Species Act through water releases that place the sparrow at serious risk of extinction and which, in the process, has altered vegetation across a broad swath of the national park. Last year, sparrows dropped to one of their lowest levels on record, according to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.
“We filed suit today because the Army Corps of Engineers has pushed the Cape Sable seaside sparrow to the precipice of extinction," said Noah Greenwald, the Center’s endangered species director. “For too long the Army Corps has been dumping water in the wrong place at the wrong time, hurting both the sparrow and Everglades National Park.”
Since 1993 the Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing large amounts of water during what should be the dry season through a series of gates, called the “S12s,” and flooding the western portion of Everglades National Park, the Center charged.
"The area in question once harbored the world’s largest population of Cape Sable seaside sparrows, with more than 3,000 birds, but flooding has decimated the population, and in recent years there have been fewer than 300 birds in the population," the release added. "As the only population west of Shark River Slough, this population provides the species as a whole with a crucial buffer against extinction should a fire or other catastrophe wipe out the other populations, all east of the Slough. In addition to hurting the sparrows, flooding of the park has eliminated a large area of marl prairie, the most diverse plant community in the Everglades."
“The Army Corps needs to get the water right not just to save the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, but the dozens of wildlife species that depend on a healthy Everglades,” said Dr. Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke professor of conservation ecology at Duke University and long-time sparrow researcher. “It’s unconscionable that flooding of Everglades National Park and the sparrow’s habitat has been allowed to go on for so long.”
The Army Corps and Fish and Wildlife Service have long promised that the Central Everglades Restoration Project would solve problems with flooding of the park by directing flows back to the southeast, along their historic path, but when or exactly how this will occur remains largely speculative, the Center's release said.
"The Army Corps has known what's needed to save the Cape Sable seaside sparrow and restore Everglades National Park for years, but has just failed to do it,” said Sonny Bass, former supervisory wildlife biologist for Everglades National Park. “It’s long past time to fix this problem.”

150510-
Good faith in Tallahassee? Good luck
News-Press.com – Editorial
May 10, 2015
Using a word that was part of the message delivered by members of the local legislative delegation to The News-Press Editorial Board this week, "hostage" negotiations begin June 1 for the Florida House and Senate.
The 120 House members, including five area representatives, and 40 senators, including the two that represent this region, will return to Tallahassee for a special session to build a final budget in 20 days. Both sides say they will have a balanced budget by the time they adjourn a second time. They have no choice. They are required by law to present a balanced budget to Gov. Rick Scott by June 30. They failed miserably at their one and only legal task over a week ago, when the House suddenly adjourned more than three days early, the Senate – without their House brothers and sisters to confer over remaining bills and finalize a budget – adjourned a day early. Our elected leaders, the people we entrust with our votes and our money, couldn't come to terms over funding for accepting federal Medicaid expansion money, leaving a $4 billion budget gap, and blew town.
Now they will try again – amid a backdrop of a lawsuit filed by Gov. Rick Scott to stop the federal government from threatening to pull Low Income Pool funding if the state doesn't take $50 billion worth of expansion money, a quickly put together order by Scott to form a special commission and look into health care costs and a Florida Supreme Court ruling that the House violated the state constitution by adjourning more than three days prior to the official, 60-day end of session.
We have an unprecedented legislative mess: Residents are upset; 800,000 uninsured Floridians are wondering if they will be able to get health insurance; and state hospitals are nervous that they will need to foot the bill on charity care for those who can't afford treatment.
The Legislature has a history of working together to find common ground and we urge both chambers to find that common ground this time, fund a health care program for the uninsured that works and doesn't jeopardize jobs. We urge members to keep your commitments to taxpayers and develop sound policy that distributes Amendment 1 money to the right projects.
The News-Press editorial board met with six of the seven members of Southwest Florida's legislative delegation Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the early adjournment, the impasse, the special session, how we got to this point, how it will be bridged and how a budget, satisfactory to both sides, will be completed. Legislative members who attended were Reps. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero; Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples; Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral; and Matt Caldwell, R-North Fort Myers, as well as Sens. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers; and Garrett Richter, R-Naples.
Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, declined our invitation, citing previous travel plans.
During our discussion with House members, the following was readily apparent:
•They had no problem adjourning early, believing no more could be accomplished. They had passed a $76.2 billion budget, the Senate was not relenting on taking federal Medicaid money and rejected the House plan to use state funds to help the uninsured.
•They don't trust the federal government to deliver federal Medicaid expansion funds over 10 years and 100 percent and then 90 percent levels, based on the feds' track record of reneging on funding for other programs, like Everglades restoration.
•That the session was a success. Over 200 bills were passed, the budget included $690 million in tax cuts, more money for education and transportation.
•That it was surprised the Senate suddenly brought Medcaid expansion funds into the budget process about five weeks into the session after, according to the members, not mentioning it as a priority before session started.
•And, according to Caldwell, only about $2 billion of the $76 billion is in question. The House is willing to make concessions, like "We will give up on guarantees on tax cuts and other member projects, set aside the cash (for LIP funding) and let's negotiate the rest of the budget."
According to Benacquisto and Richter:
•The House should not have been surprised Medicaid expansion would be part of their budget because they had been working on a similar plan for over two years. They had passed a $80.4 billion budget with expansion money included.
•That the House did violate the state constitution by adjourning so early.
•That the House plan to use state money to fund health insurance programs is unfair to taxpayers, who are essentially paying twice — once to the federal government for expansion dollars and then seeing their state money shifted from other programs to fund healthcare.
But the special session will include more than dissolving the impasse. It also will address money allocated from Amendment 1 (passed by voters last year) for environmental land acquisition and preservation, as well as funding for several key water quality projects, including the Caloosahatchee Reservoir. Right now, there really isn't a plan on how to distribute the $741 million in revenue expected to be collected next year. Many groups are vying for their slice, but water clean-up and preservation needs to be the front runner. We also suspect legislators will use the special session to revive bills through to be dead because of the early adjournment. But government leaders must keep their eye on the ball, pass the balanced budget, provide funding for the uninsured and appropriately allocated Amendment 1 money.
During our one and a half hours with House members and an hour with the Senators, we also discussed in more detail:
Early adjournment
•Eagle: "When the Speaker (Steve Crisafulli) decided that Tuesday that bills we were passing weren't coming back and being held hostage or coming back with amendments that significantly changed the bills we had passed, there was no reason for us to be there any longer. So rather than delay the inevitable, go home and clearer minds will prevail."
•Passidomo: "When you think about it, going home may not have been the worst decision we made. We would have been sitting up there in Tallahassee, spending additional (tax) dollars and not constitutionally concluding the job."
•Richter: "The sine die in my opinion was a despicable action."
Surprise on Medicaid expansion
•Caldwell: "The surprise was that it was an all-or-nothing part of the budget negotiations. They would not go to conference to debate the allocation. To fast forward on how much that flustered the House, you get to end of week eight, we made budget offer that relented on that whole point (LIP funding), and you are only talking $1 billion to $2 billion of a $76 (billion) budget. We were willing to give up on any guaranteed tax cuts ... and set aside this cash, so we could negotiate the rest of the budget."
 •Rodrigues: Regardless of how you feel about the issue, Medicaid expansion was not raised until session began. Regardless of how you feel about the issue, I think we are standing on principle and doing the right thing. What's most important here is the process. If we establish precedent here that either chamber is allowed to take the budget hostage over a policy position they want, then we are no longer functioning as an effective government. We are effectively Washington, D.C., in Tallahassee.
•Richter: "If they claim surprise, we were talking about this July of last year. We sat in a room with this editorial board came back and sat with our colleagues in the House. Washington had put Florida on notice that the LIP program would not be renewed, as it currently exists, and that it had a major impact on the budget in the state of Florida. If it is is not a priority for our colleagues, it should be a priority. I think it is a little bit disingenuous to say this came out of nowhere."
Reforming Medicaid
•Benacquisto: "I think most members of the Legislature, the Republicans, have stood firm on expansion of Medicaid in its traditional form — that it is broken. We are poised to offer solutions and have reform at the core, to focus on personal responsibility, have an investment in health and well being."
•Eagle: "Why would we expand a broken system? When can we look at alternatives? The House has looked at alternatives. Why would we send money to Washington that we don't get back. The answer is not Medicaid, but what can we do to lower the cost of insurance."
•Caldwell: "The state's combined Medicaid budget has more than doubled, but we are spending $4 billion less (for total state budget) than we did 10 years ago, so we have cut education, transportation and environment (funds) to ensure $4 billion to the federal government for Medicaid expansion. We are saying this program is a disaster and it is going to destroy everything else that is responsible for funding it — if we don't fix it."
Distrusting federal government
•Rodrigues: "The state bears 43 percent of the cost of (the Medicaid program) and the federal government 57 percent. When the program started, it was a 90 (feds), 10 (state) split. So what has happened over a decade is that as Medicaid progresses the federal government pushed more on the state, so how likely is it they will maintain a 90-10 split now. In 2000, with the Everglades Forever Act, the federal government promised a 50-50 split; they would match us dollar for dollar. A report from the Army Corps of Engineers last November said that 15 years into the program the federal government is only matching us 50 cents on the dollar. With the Disabilities Education Act, they promised they would fund 40 percent of the program, and 60 percent by the state. The most the federal government has ever funded is 18.5 percent. So we have two solid examples with decades of experience. Why would anyone trust them to honor a promise with Medicaid expansion?"
•Richter: They have kept their word on LIP funding. I don't think it is a question of trust because they are partners in 38 percent of our budget. That partnership exists."

150509-a
Eat you later alligator ! Price of unlikely dish soars in US after hit reality TV shows stimulate country's appetite
Mailonline - by Jay Akbar
May 2015
Price of alligator meat has doubled in America in the last three years alone 
Down to 'clever marketing' and the success of reality TV shows like Gator Boys
Over 400,000 alligators will be sustainably killed for the industry this year
The price of alligator meat in the United States has doubled in the last three years.
It was once an endangered species in the country but there are over three million living in America's two biggest alligator producing states, Florida and Louisiana. 
And the country's appetite for alligator has been peaked by the success of reality TV shows like Gator Boys and Swamp People, which follow hunters in the Florida everglades and Louisiana swamps respectively.
This combined with a 'clever marketing strategy' has stimulated the country's appetite, according to the owner of the thriving American Gator Products based in Hallandale, Florida.
Brian Wood said: 'Alligator has gone mainstream... I thought it was going to be one of those things that would be popular for a little while then drop out, but it's just gone the opposite way.
'I've been going to one particular seafood trade show for 18 years now. In the beginning we'd be frying things up and trying to give it to people to try and they'd say "Alligator? Ugh!"
'Now things have changed, and they come looking for us: "Where's the alligator? We want alligator," they say.'
Wood also skins the animals and turns them into luxury goods like belts, watch straps, wallets and golf club bags.
And he sells the skins to tanneries in Europe owned by luxury fashion brands Hermes and Louis Vuitton.
He added: 'They give us $500 for two gator hides, but it can end up as a Birkin bag selling for $50,000... We're just the bottom rung of the ladder.'
Alligator meat tastes like chicken - of course - but is leaner as well as being lower in cholesterol and fat, according to Jacqui Goddard in the Times. 
The meat sells for around $8.50 a pound at wholesale and up to $22 a pound on the retail market, the newspaper reported.
This year, hunters will take around 40,000 alligators from the wild and a further 400,000 will be killed on farms.
In order to keep the hunts sustainable, each state has wildlife officials who decide how many eggs can be taken from nests and raised on farms and how many alligators can be hunted.
Each farmer in Florida pays around $2 for each egg and the state's department of agriculture uses the money to 'promote the industry'. 
The damage wreaked on Louisiana's wetlands by Hurricane Katrina affected egg collection for years, the head of Florida Alligator Marketing and Education Committee has said.

150509-b
Florida lawmakers sour on Big Sugar land deal to aid Everglades
AlJazeeraAmerica - by David Martin
May 9, 2015
Florida lawmakers are poised to use hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked to help the Everglades for other projects
NEAR MIAMI – To a visitor's untrained eye, Florida's Everglades might look likethey're in good shape.
"They see all this water, they see all this grass, and to them it looks healthy," said Betty Osceola, who has long taught tourists about the Kahayatle –the Miccosukee tribe's name for the Everglades.
"I always tell people that Florida is the next California," she adds. "California has a situation where they don’t have water. Florida has a situation, they have water, but eventually you’re not going to be able to drink [it] because it’s too polluted."
For generations, the Miccosukee lived on tree islands they call hammocks, hunting and fishing in and around waters they know as well as anyone.
"You’re seeing a decline in the turtles and other types of native fish because the chemical in the water is affecting the food they eat, so it’s a trickledown effect," Osceola said. "The Everglades is being used as a vast sewer system."
There is a way the Everglades might be able to reverse years of neglect – a conservation project so big it was once compared to creating Yellowstone National Park.
But that deal – and more of the Everglades – could die if the Florida Legislature doesn’t act this summer. Last month, President Obama visited the Everglades, highlighting the effects of climate change on the endangered area and the risks to the drinking water for millions of Floridians.
“If we don’t act, there may not be an Everglades as we know it,” he said.
Water woes
Getting a close-up view of a vividly colored purple gallinule is a rare thrill for a visitor. But for Ray Judah, coordinator for the Florida Coastal & Ocean Coalition, the sight of this beautiful bird is more proof of troubled waters.
"There’s a lot of cattails growing in and amongst the sawgrass," he said, sitting on an airboat. "The phosphorous and nitrogen allows the cattails to flourish. The birds can’t move around because the cattails are so dense."
What's more, the water level this time of year should be 18 inches higher, Judah said.
The heart of Florida's agricultural industry, the land around Lake Okeechobee, is just 80 miles north of the Everglades. And farming interests control the flow of the lake. In the dry season, water is kept in the lake as a reserve for sugar cane growers and others. When there’s too much rain, Lake Okeechobee is flushed into estuaries east and west.
Quoting Will Aberger from : Florida's Water & Land Legacy:  “Valuable, environmentally sensitive lands are under threat from development if the state doesn’t acquire them now, they’ll be lost forever.”
But not enough water is allowed to follow its natural route south into the Everglades, where we met up with Ray Judah, coordinator for the Florida Coastal & Ocean Coalition.
"A lot of that primarily has to do with the way the South Florida Water Management District manages about 700,000 acres north of here," Judah said.
"They manage the water levels for optimum growing conditions for the sugar cane."
Sugarcane is a $500 million a year business for Florida. It’s also a major polluter of the state’s waterways. Its phosphorous-contaminated runoff causes massive algae blooms.
In 2008, then-Gov. Charlie Crist cut what looked like a sweet deal to rescue the Everglades. The state would buy land south of Lake Okeechobee from United States Sugar Corporation – one of Florida's two sugar makers. The land would be used to catch and clean the waters before sending the flow south to the Everglades.
The economic crisis struck soon after, dragging Florida into a deeper recession than almost anywhere in the country. The state’s interest in – and funds for –buying the land simply dried up.
A doomed deal ?
U.S. Sugar and its executives have already made more than $500,000 in campaign contributions to state candidates for their 2016 races, according to the Tampa Bay Times.America Tonight
Then, in 2010, a land deal that cost taxpayers nearly $200 million bought nearly 42 square miles from U.S. Sugar, allowing the South Florida Water Management District to move ahead with restoration efforts – and gave them an option to buy up to 240 more square miles of land from the company.
That option expires in October. And now that Florida's economy is surging again, U.S. Sugar no longer wants to sell the land.
But last year, the people of Florida spoke loudly. Amendment 1, an initiative on last November's ballot, earmarked more than $750 million a year for 20 years from an existing real estate tax for the state to buy and conserve land for critical environmental projects. It was the largest environmental ballot initiative in U.S. history.
It passed overwhelmingly, with 75 percent of Floridians voting in favor. The law guaranteed more than enough money to buy the U.S. Sugar land – that would cost around $350 million.
"Florida is growing and developing again now," said Will Abberger, who heads Florida's Water & Land Legacy, the group that spearheaded the campaign for Amendment 1. "Valuable, environmentally sensitive lands are under threat from development if the state doesn’t acquire them now, they’ll be lost forever."
But lawmakers still haven't approved the U.S. Sugar land funds. And with days left in Florida's legislative session, the deal looks doomed.
So far, the Republican-dominated Legislature in Tallahassee has declined to vote on the sugar land purchase, and has proposed more than  $200 million of Amendment 1 funds toward the operating and regulatory expenses of state agencies. The ballot initiative said Amendment 1 money could not be “commingled with the General Revenue Fund of the state.”
"The ballot language and actually the text of the amendment specifically says to acquire lands in the Everglades agricultural area, which is where the U.S. Sugar land in question is," said Abberger. "Instead, they’re funding a lot of existing programs, existing agency operations.
Gov. Rick Scott and other key Republican lawmakers declined America Tonight's repeated requests for interviews, but we tracked down House Speaker Steve Crisafulli to ask about plans for the Amendment 1 money.
"I think we need to be focused right now on the land management side of things,"
he told us. That means no sugar land deal.
America Tonight asked Crisafulli if using the funds to pay for state agencies’
operating and regulatory expenses was an appropriate use of Amendment 1 money.
"I think it goes toward the overall objectives of those agencies, yeah," the speaker told us.
Should the state's option to buy the land expire, the price would almost surely go up. The sugar industry usually gets what it wants from Florida lawmakers, thanks to generous campaign contributions, critics charge. U.S. Sugar and its executives have already made more than $500,000 in campaign contributions to state candidates for their 2016 races, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
If the deal doesn't go through, Osceola of the Miccosukee tribe fears it will be another step toward the death of the Everglades.
"It would be sadness for the Everglades because that’s another nail in her coffin," she said. "You hear the birds in the background, you hear the frogs, you even hear the trees over there, they’re rustling. They’re talking, they’re whispering, they all deserve a right to exist. They’re in distress and those of us that have the ability to do something about it, need to wake up and start doing something about it."

150509-c
For our waterways, let’s first finish what we started
Palm Beach Post - Commentary by Charles Gerardi
May 9, 2015
For the past five weeks, the Economic Council of Martin County has been delivering, via print advertisements and email, an advocacy message and citizen call to action in support of our local waterways. Under the common theme of “Let’s finish the job,” our advocacy has reflected the No. 1 recommendation of the University of Florida Water Institute report on reducing freshwater discharges to our local estuaries: “Accelerate funding and completion of approved projects.”
Our message is that our river must have immediate relief — nothing more and nothing less.
The Economic Council’s call to action has been to encourage Florida legislators to finish the essential water-quality projects that already have been approved; projects that we believe will have the most immediate positive impact in our local basin — CERP, CEPP, and Kissimmee River and Herbert Hoover Dike restoration projects. These projects include restoration strategies, and address water quality and storage, provide an opportunity to move water south and provide relief to the basins east and west. For more than two years now, the council’s advocacy has been consistent — finish the job that has been started. Investing in and preserving our local waterways is our top priority.
Clearly, these projects alone are not a “total solution.” The solution is enormous and complicated, and the challenges are many. We understand and agree that the ultimate water delivery system solution includes expanded water storage and treatment north, south, east and west of Lake Okeechobee — priority Nos. 2 and 3 in the UF report. Additionally, the council has consistently supported moving water south through the programs identified in the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) — all existing projects that must be completed. But our advocacy is focused on doing all we can to ensure that our children and grandchildren may enjoy healthy waters right here in our own backyard.
Our advocacy is to reinforce the path that the state adopted in 2000 — the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Fifteen years later, and with billions of dollars spent by the federal and state governments, only one of the 68 CERP projects identified to bring relief to the system has been completed — a laboratory to deal with melaleuca eradication.
As business leaders, we believe that these results are unacceptable. We encourage our friends and neighbors to join us in demanding results for our river. Our ability to enlist elevated support from other regions of Florida through the state Legislature and Congress will be reflected by how we deal with our own issues here.
And while it may be tempting to modify our message to gain broader acceptance in the market, we believe it’s our responsibility to stand up for our estuary. The Economic Council will continue advocating that we finish the job that has been started.
We must do a better job fighting for our river. As the UF report highlights: “To reduce damage to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries, freshwater inflow and nutrient loads (i.e. septic) from both Lake Okeechobee and the local basins must be reduced. On average, 70-80 percent of the freshwater discharge and 65-80 percent of the nutrient load to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries originates in the local basins, with the remaining balance contributed from Lake Okeechobee.”
We must demand more of ourselves and for our river. Let’s finish the job — now.

150509-d
One of the priorities for state land-buying money is the purchase of land around
Sun Sentinel - by David Fleshler
May 9, 2015
State budgets divert environmental money to routine expenses.
The directive from Florida voters was clear: By a 75 percent majority, they approved a proposal in November to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy and protect unspoiled land.
So what does the state Legislature plan to do with the money ?  Wages for officials who regulate fish farming, new patrol vehicles for wildlife officers, salaries in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, funds for law enforcement officers to ticket speeding boaters and other routine expenses.
Just a fraction of the anticipated $750 million land-buying fund would go toward the purchase of environmentally sensitive land, such as tropical hammocks in the Keys or ranchlands inhabited by Florida panthers.
The Republican-controlled House and Senate propose to channel the largest chunk of the land preservation money — more than $230 million — to routine expenses previously funded through other sources.
The Senate budget includes:
• $34.5 million for officers who enforce hunting, fishing and boating rules
• $10 million for salaries in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection
• $2.5 million for road and bridge maintenance by the Florida Forest Service
• $1.3 million to replace patrol vehicles for wildlife officers
• $220,000 for the Agriculture Department to regulate fish farms
Among the items in the House budget:
• $40 million for salaries in the Florida Forest Service
• $38 million for salaries in the Florida Park Service
• $4.9 million for technology and information services in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection
• $839,000 for firefighting equipment in Florida Forest Service
• $717,000 for salaries in the Division of Cultural Affairs
Sponsors of the amendment, who waged a long and difficult petition battle to get it on the ballot, say the spending shift defies the will of voters. They cite the ballot's title: "Water and Land Conservation: Dedicates funds to acquire and restore Florida conservation and recreation lands."
"I don't think the words 'Land Acquisition Trust Fund' could be any more clear," said Will Abberger, chairman of Florida's Water and Land Legacy, the committee that sponsored the amendment. "It's not the 'land management trust fund.' It's not the 'existing agencies operations trust fund.' It's the Land Acquisition Trust Fund."
Legislative leaders defend the money shuffle as legitimate spending for a broad range of conservation purposes. They say there's more to protecting the environment than simply accumulating land.
It's not the 'land management trust fund.' It's not the 'existing agencies operations trust fund.' It's the Land Acquisition Trust Fund.
Michael Williams, spokesman for House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said lawmakers have "responsibly funded the requirements of Amendment 1."
"The speaker does not believe we should purchase land just for the sake of purchasing land," he said in an email. "Buying up land we cannot care for that falls into disrepair or becomes a breeding ground for harmful invasive species is not a legacy he is interested in leaving. Instead, we should make sure we can maintain the 5.3 million acres of conservation lands we already own. We believe land should be purchased for strategic reasons, such as wildlife corridors and connecting existing state lands."
The roots of Amendment 1 go back to the recession, when real estate transaction revenue dried up, choking off the source of funds for the state's environmental land-buying program, known as Florida Forever. By the time the economy picked up, new legislators had come into office, and land-buying wasn't a priority for state leaders hungry for more development and jobs.

150507-a
How clean are the waterways in Southwest Florida ?
ABC-7.com - by Hollie Hojek, Reporter
May 7, 2015
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA -  We recently brought you a story about a man who lost his leg after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria.  It happened after he went in the water on Fort Myers Beach with a small cut on his foot.
Since then, our viewers have reached out to us voicing their concerns about how clean the waters are. We went straight to the experts to get you answers.
At any given time, Florida Fish and Wildlife heads out on the water to conduct marine sanitation details to make sure boaters are properly disposing of sewage and waste.
In March, FWC officers found at least a dozen boaters were illegally dumping their sewage and waste overboard.
One particular detail was in Charlotte and Lee Counties waterways in areas like the south end of Matanzas Pass and parts of Estero Bay.
“We're targeting those areas where those guys don't pay to moor their sailboats,” said Stuart Spoede with FWC.
Florida law requires some type of marine sanitation device or bathroom on a boat if it is over a certain size and if the boater lives on it.
“It's common knowledge fecal bacteria found in sewage is not healthy to humans, and they do dump in areas where people swim,” said Spoede.
We took the most recent sanitation findings to the Florida Department of Health in Lee County.
“We test every week 13 beaches for enerococctis bacteria,” said Diane Holm with the Florida Department of Health in Lee County.
Holm said the dumping results are not impacting our waterways. She said the latest flesh-eating bacteria in Lee County was also unrelated to the amount of illegal dumping found two months ago.
“I think it's highly unlikely it can be drawn together because the water is always moving. So it has too be more stationary for us to determine there is a problem in this particular area,” said Holm.
There is always at least a small percentage of bacteria in our waterways. Holm said there are no red flags right now.
“There's no more reason no to go to the beach today…a week ago,” said Holm.

150507-b
How climate science denial affects the scientific community
Phys.org
May 7, 2015
Climate change denial in public discourse may encourage climate scientists to over-emphasise scientific uncertainty and is also affecting how they themselves speak - and perhaps even think - about their own research, a new study from the University of Bristol, UK argues.
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, from Bristol's School of Experimental Psychology and the Cabot Institute, and colleagues from Harvard University and three institutions in Australia show how the language used by people who oppose the scientific consensus on climate change has seeped into scientists' discussion of the alleged recent 'hiatus' or 'pause' in global warming, and has thereby unwittingly reinforced a misleading message.
The idea that 'global warming has stopped' has been promoted in contrarian blogs and media articles for many years, and ultimately the idea of a 'pause' or 'hiatus' has become ensconced in the scientific literature, including in the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Multiple lines of evidence indicate that global warming continues unabated, which implies that talk of a 'pause' or 'hiatus' is misleading. Recent warming has been slower than the long term trend, but this fluctuation differs little from past fluctuations in warming rate, including past periods of more rapid than average warming. Crucially, on previous occasions when decadal warming was particularly rapid, the scientific community did not give short-term climate variability the attention it has now received, when decadal warming was slower. During earlier rapid warming there was no additional research effort directed at explaining 'catastrophic' warming. By contrast, the recent modest decrease in the rate of warming has elicited numerous articles and special issues of leading journals.
This asymmetry in response to fluctuations in the decadal warming trend likely reflects what the study's authors call the 'seepage' of contrarian claims into scientific work.
Professor Lewandowsky said: "It seems reasonable to conclude that the pressure of climate contrarians has contributed, at least to some degree, to scientists re-examining their own theory, data and models, even though all of them permit - indeed, expect - changes in the rate of warming over any arbitrarily chosen period."
So why might scientists be affected by contrarian public discourse? The study argues that three recognised psychological mechanisms are at work: 'stereotype threat', 'pluralistic ignorance' and the 'third-person effect'.
'Stereotype threat' refers to the emotional and behaviour responses when a person is reminded of an adverse stereotype against a group to which they belong. Thus, when scientists are stereotyped as 'alarmists', a predicted response would be for them to try to avoid seeming alarmist by downplaying the degree of threat. Several studies have indeed shown that scientists tend to avoid highlighting risks, lest they be seen as 'alarmist'.
'Pluralistic ignorance' describes the phenomenon which arises when a minority opinion is given disproportionate prominence in public debate, resulting in the majority of people incorrectly assuming their opinion is marginalised. Thus, a public discourse that asserts that the IPCC has exaggerated the threat of climate change may cause scientists who disagree to think their views are in the minority, and they may therefore feel inhibited from speaking out in public.
Research shows that people generally believe that persuasive communications exert a stronger effect on others than on themselves: this is known as the 'third-person effect'. However, in actual fact, people tend to be more affected by persuasive messages than they think. This suggests the scientific community may be susceptible to arguments against climate change even when they know them to be false.
Professor Lewandowsky said: "We scientists have a unique and crucial role in public policy: to communicate clearly and accurately the entire range of risks that we know about. The public has a right to be informed about risks, even if they are alarming.
"Climate scientists have done a great job pursuing their science under great political pressure and they have tirelessly rebutted pseudoscientific arguments against their work. However, sometimes scientists have inadvertently allowed contrarian claims to frame the language of their scientific thinking, leading us to overstate uncertainty and under-communicate knowledge.
"Knowing about one's own susceptibility to outside pressure is half the battle: our research may therefore enable scientists to recognise the potential for this seepage of contrarian arguments into their own language and thinking."

150507-d
Senior staff leave St. Johns River Water Management District; environmental worry over impact
St.Augustine Record - by Steve Patterson
May 7, 2015
Four senior staffers are abruptly leaving the St. Johns River Water Management District, alarming activists who say their knowledge is needed to protect the region’s water supplies.
“This is another move to dumb-down the district and erode our water-quality protection,” said St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman, who said there had been rumors of a push coming to clear out key staff.
Robert Christianson, a division director for strategic planning, and Tom Bartol, assistant director at another division who had overseen complicated water supply studies, resigned “in lieu of termination,” according to letters they filed Tuesday with the agency.
District Chief of Staff Jeffrey Cole also resigned, and Hal Wilkening, a division director whose work included overseeing a plan to supply water to Northeast Florida, filed notice that he was retiring after 32 years at the agency.
“I am proud of our accomplishments,” wrote Wilkening, who like the others will leave his job July 2.
The notices were signed the day after the acting executive director, Mike Register, took over the agency’s top staff post, succeeding former head Hans Tanzler.
“While I do not believe that it is productive or necessary to expound upon the reasons for the resignations, my decision to accept them was based upon my conclusion that it was in the best interest of the district,” Register said in a written statement.
Activists disputed that, saying the four have about a century of experience between them and their leaving creates knowledge gaps that will hurt the agency.
“It’s bleak,” said Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon Florida, who said it’s reasonable to think the house-cleaning was decided by someone higher in state government.
The water management district controls permits to pump water from the aquifer for homes, businesses and farms in an area covering 18 counties where close to 5 million people live.
It’s also responsible for protecting water levels that support Florida’s varied wildlife and plants, and ensuring aquifers aren’t harmed by excessive withdrawals.
Serving both goals has become harder over time, particularly in high-growth areas of Central Florida where communities have made plans to tap the St. Johns River as another source of water.
River advocates oppose that, saying loss of that water could affect the river’s ecology and shouldn’t be attempted without first cutting demand for water through conservation measures.
In the tug of those interests, the struggle to find the right balance can become more politicized, and activists see a hidden motive in changing the agency’s staff.
“This is a part of a larger pattern,” Lee said, adding the effect of the staff changes “would be to make it easier to make decisions that are … less science-based” and fit easily with short-range political goals.
Christianson, for example, negotiated agency purchases of land for conservation and Lee said eliminating his influence could make it easier to either sell off public land irresponsibly or slow down purchases of new land that had been envisioned when Florida voters last year approved Amendment 1, which dedicated part of a tax on real estate deals to conservation.
Agency board member George Robbins said he doubted the departures would significantly affect the agency’s work. The Jacksonville businessman said there are 591 district employees, and those people shape agency actions well beyond a few managers’ influence.
“In any organization, the decisions kind of bubble up,” Robbins said. “The science is done at many levels.”
State Senator Darren Soto, D-Orlando, sent a letter to the St. Johns Water Management District acting executive director on Thursday, seeking documents related to the abrupt resignations of the four executives, and the possible implications for the environmental restoration efforts currently underway.
Agency spokesman Hank Largin said Thursday he had no information on how or when replacements would be chosen for the departing staffers.
Related:           Six resignations at St. Johns water district spark charges of ...          Daytona Beach News-Journal

150507-e
U.S. Sugar land deal gets a second but unlikely shot
Miami Herald – by Jenny Staletovich
May 7, 2015
An option for the state to buy a huge chunk of sugar fields — a deal at the center of a dispute over how to spend money generated by a constitutional measure intended to preserve Florida lands — will get a surprising second chance before the South Florida Water Management board this month.
Don’t look for a resurrection.
The $500 million-plus deal, already turned down by water managers last month, is likely to be rejected again in a move that seems largely designed to send a message to Florida legislators. Namely, that the board appointed by Gov. Rick Scott stands behind the governor’s proposal to spend $5 billion over the 20-year life of Amendment 1 on Everglades restoration projects — but not on 46,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land.
 “It doesn’t make sense for us to continually have a loose end out there,”
District Chief of Staff Dan DeLisi said Thursday. “It’s really detracting from the discussion about the governor’s funding plan, which is really the important thing.”
The land, southwest of Lake Okeechobee, was originally part of a historic deal cut by former Gov. Charlie Crist to buy all 300-square miles of U.S. Sugar land. In 2010, a compromise forced by the state’s housing bust and economic decline gave the state an option to buy chunks of the sugar farms at fair market price.
Environmentalists pushed hard for the purchase with money from the landmark amendment, mounting protests that included a Tallahassee concert by Jimmy Buffett. But the sugar company also lobbied against it, and the water district and legislators backed away from using the new stream of money for the deal.
DeLisi said the land no longer represents the best option for storing water. A lease-back arrangement with U.S. Sugar would make most of the land unusable for a decade. It is also isolated from other projects, said Division Director Jeff Kivett, making it more expensive to operate.
 “As an engineer, I can build almost anything anywhere, but there’s also a cost associated with that,” he said.
So rather than rush to beat an October expiration date on the sugar deal, DeLisi said the district needs to create another planning project, similar to the Central Everglades Planning Project. That plan carved a suite of projects out of a larger 30-year Everglades restoration blueprint in an attempt to speed up some key work. The new package could identify the best land to solve storage and water-quality issues that have appeared in the years since former President Bill Clinton approved the 2000 plan, DeLisi said.
But environmentalists, frustrated by the slow progress and angered by efforts to divert Amendment 1 money to projects unrelated to land conservation — like municipal sewer projects — say taking time for more planning could result in more delays for an ecosystem in crisis. Starved of freshwater, Florida Bay has turned too salty over the dry winter and now risks passing levels set to insure the health of the bay. And on Friday, the U.S. Corps of Engineers will resume releasing water into the St. Lucie River, where polluted water periodically triggers toxic algae blooms.
 “If the district is going to come up with a plan to have water storage, then great,” said Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg. “But if this is a new charade that is moving chairs around the deck of the Titanic, it’s not going to work.”

150506-a
Environmentalist Nat Reed slams Rick Scott: "I'm getting scared about our State"
MiamiNewTimes - by Jessica Weiss
May 6, 2015
Legendary Florida environmentalist Nathaniel Reed has added his voice to the chorus of disapproval of Florida's Legislature. He says the body's failure to enact key legislation — as the house quit early over a Medicaid funding fight — has made the state “the laughingstock of the country.” 
Among the many bills that died as a result were laws to put into motion Amendment 1, which dedicates millions of dollars to acquire and restore conservation and recreation lands. “We’ve never had such a nonfunctioning legislature as we have now,” Reed tells New Times. 
Reed, who is now 81 years old, would know. He has served seven Florida governors and was assistant secretary of the interior for Fish & Wildlife and Parks in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He serves as chairman of the Commission on Florida's Environmental Future and sits on the board of directors of the Everglades Foundation. 
Because of what many say are worrying trends in conservation across the state, 75 percent of Florida’s voters took matters into their own hands last year when they voted for Amendment 1, which would divert millions to Florida Forever, a fund for conservation land acquisition.
The program was approved in 1999 and envisioned to raise $300 million a year, but it has been a target of budget cuts over the years. Since 2009, the program saw a 97 percent drop in funding. So last year, a coalition comprising more than a dozen groups devised a way to fund the program through part of a state real-estate tax. They gathered enough petitions to put Amendment 1 on ballots, and on November 4, voters approved it — overwhelmingly.
Amendment 1 is supposed to set aside about $750 million a year for land purchases to “keep drinking water clean, protect our rivers, lakes, and springs, restore natural treasures like the Everglades, and protect our beaches and shores — without any increase in taxes,” according to Florida’s Water and Land Legacy. No implementing legislation was required; the legislature simply needed to divvy up the funds.
Though environmental leaders had been preparing for cuts to the $750 million figure, they didn’t expect complete inaction in appropriations for the program. 
Now, Reed says that progress made under the governorships of Bob Martinez, Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles, and Jeb Bush is being lost all too rapidly under the administration of Rick Scott — where “growth is God again.”
Reed stresses the critical importance of funding a range of projects, such as getting more fresh water to flow south to the Biscayne Aquifer, the vast basin beneath South Florida that supplies drinking water to a huge portion of the state’s population. Because of development projects in the path of the water’s flow, not enough fresh water is getting to the aquifer. As sea level continues to rise, the drinking water of South Florida’s 7 million people is at risk.
“The governor has said twice that water must go south, yet he hasn’t done a single thing to accelerate that process,” Reed says. “Our children are going to pay for it.”
Reed says we should all be worried about the “growth-at-all-costs” mindset of the current administration.
“To them, whatever green land is left is developable,” he says. “I’m getting scared about our state.”
Lawmakers still have a chance to address Amendment 1 funding during the special session of the legislature that will begin at some point this spring.

150506-b
Governor should support more protection of springs
Jacksonville.com - Letter by John Moran, co-director, Springs Eternal Project, Alachua Conservation Trust
May 6, 2015
If I had Gov. Rick Scott’s ear, I’d encourage him to use the power of the bully pulpit to inspire us to embrace a new way of thinking about water in Florida.
Gov. Scott could give this speech:
“Dear Florida, we have a drinking problem. And we have a substance abuse problem.
“Yes, my fellow Floridians, we are pumping way too much groundwater, and we are using way too much fertilizer and other contaminants.
“As Mother Earth has shown us, she can no longer bear the abuse. We are killing our springs. And we are poisoning our drinking water.
“I call upon all Floridians to accept that resistance to change is no longer an option. And we shall start with the low-hanging fruit.
“I am today directing all state agencies and urging all Floridians to cease the use of landscaping fertilizer and irrigation, for the benefits of artificially-enhanced lawns and landscaping come at a cost too high, as seen in the sliming and depletion of our once-lovely springs.”
If I could have a word with our legislators, I would remind them that the business of government isn’t business; it is wellbeing.
And to our business leaders, I would contend that there can be no long-term wellbeing in Florida if we continue using and abusing water.
Restoring our springs isn’t complicated if that is our intention.
We can stop the overpumping.
We can stop the pollution at its source.
We can get serious about engaging in real environmental protection.
It’s time for a new water ethic in Florida with real conservation and civic water education at its core.
We need leadership from the top.
But we are all called to be agents of change.
Our water is our future.
And we get to decide that future.
What will our legacy be ?

150506-c
Lawmakers to return to return to work June 1
News4jax.com
May 6, 2015
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -  House and Senate leaders announced Wednesday that lawmakers would return to the Capitol June 1 to finish work on a state budget and other unfinished business.
The special legislative session is tentatively will June 1 and end June 20. By law, a budget before the July 1 start of the fiscal year.
Roughly 180 of over 1,600 bills filed actually passed the legislative session that abruptly ended when the House adjourned three days before the end of the regularly scheduled 60-day session.
Among the other bills needing attention are ones to buy Florida Everglades land to help clean up the water supply, legalizing medical marijuana, a bill to reform the Public Service Commission, bills to cut taxes and ban fracking in Florida.
Related:           Speaker and Senate President agree to special session dates SaintPetersBlog (blog)
Florida House and Senate agree to hold June special session            WZVN-TV
Special session could cost big bucks in meals, travel  Tallahassee.com

150506-d
'Pollute at Will' bill enjoys widespread support from House Republicans
InsideClimate News - by Katherine Bagley
May 6, 2015
Move to slash budgets for clean air, clean energy and climate change planning called 'totally backwards' by critics.
American lawmakers passed a bill last week that slashes funding for renewable energy, limits the federal government's ability to protect clean water, and prohibits agencies from planning for future climate impacts on infrastructure and military facilities. But it may prove only symbolic.
The legislation, known as the Energy and Water Appropriations bill, passed the House of Representatives 240-177, with 10 Democratic supporters, on May 1. It sets the 2016 budgets for the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and related agencies.
Representatives allocated $1.65 billion for renewable energy and energy efficiency, a $266 million drop from 2015 and $1 billion less than President Barack Obama had requested. Lawmakers increased funding for fossil fuel research and development by $34 million over the 2015 budget, for a total of $605 million next year.
"This bill has its priorities totally backwards," said Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director at the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental policy group. "At a time when climate change is already impacting communities across the country, it is just irresponsible to slash investments in clean energy and boost them for dirty energy."
Political experts said the legislation is unlikely to clear the Senate since six Democrats would need to cross party lines and vote "yes" on the anti-environment measures to reach the required 60 votes. Even if the Senate did adopt the bill, President Obama has already indicated he will veto it because of its anti-environmental measures and its spending limits. 
Even so, the budget bill demonstrates just how out of sync the Republican-controlled House is with the American public. Renewable energy is overwhelmingly popular in the United States, with more than 70 percent of the public, including the majority of conservatives, in favor of increasing wind and solar energy, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. Members of the Tea Party, the far-right wing of the GOP, have joined forces with environmentalists and business leaders in Florida and elsewhere to push for an increase in solar energy installation in the state.
"The appropriations process is important for the functioning of our government," said Dalal Aboulhosn, an expert on federal environmental policy at the Sierra Club. "The fact that Republicans are okay with loading it down with anti-environmental riders and dirty water riders...is a huge problem."
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report published Tuesday found that "solar energy holds the best potential for meeting humanity’s future long-term energy needs while cutting greenhouse gas emissions," but also noted the industry cannot reach its full potential without more support and investment from the private sector.
"Congress talks about an all-of-the-above energy strategy, but talk is cheap," said Todd Foley, chief strategy officer of the American Council on Renewable Energy. "Where is the support in the policy?"
Conservatives applauded the representatives' cost-cutting measures at the expense of the environment, but argued the bill still set a budget that is too high.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., called the spending "excessive" and said while cuts to renewable energy and energy efficiency are "in the right direction, they do not go nearly far enough." The foundation said that funding for fossil fuels should be decreased as well, arguing that the private sector, not the federal government, should drive investment in energy technology.
'You Can Go Pollute at Will'
In addition to slashing funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency, the House voted to prohibit the Obama administration's planned expansion of the Clean Water Act to regulate pollution in not just navigable waters, but all waters, including wetlands, headwaters and seasonal streams. The bill did so by preventing the Army Corps of Engineers, which reviews and approves permits to release dredged material and fill into waterways, from using any of its money to implement an expanded rule.
The Clean Water Act protects one in three Americans' drinking water, said Aboulhosn. "Instead of siding with their constituents, House Republicans are giving away freebies to the industry. They're saying, ‘You can go pollute at will without any regulations, any accountability.'"
The bill also prevents the Department of Energy and Army Corps of Engineers from implementing Federal Flood Risk Management Standards, which direct agencies to build all new federal investments, such as roads, bridges, research facilities and military bases, to withstand future climate impacts. The standards were established in January under Executive Order 13690.
This would mean that any projects initiated by the Energy Department, like building solar farms or an updated electrical grid, in the floodplain would consider only the flood risk for an area over the last 100 years––and not whether sea level rise could submerge the project by the end of the century. The same goes for the Army Corps of Engineers, which designs and manages projects as diverse as new military bases, flood mitigation systems and hydroelectric dams.
"I don't think anyone expected this opposition to making communities safer," said Rob Moore, head of the water and climate team at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We thought a lot of these people were fiscal conservatives, but apparently they support the idea of building things so they can be knocked down and we can build them again."
Environmentalists are hopeful that many of the worst anti-environmental measures will be stripped from the bill once it hits the Senate, in favor of a more moderate budget that appeals to at least a few Democrats.
"These kinds of provisions have absolutely no place in a spending bill," said Taurel.

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Steve Crisafulli: “Today is a very good day”
SaintPetersBlog - by Christine Jordan Sexton
May 6, 2015
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli called it a “very good day” after the House and Senate were able to agree on the first step in the budget special session: the dates.
“While significant discussions lay before us, today marks as very good day for Florida as we have reached agreement on dates for a budget Special session,” Crisafulli said in a press release. “We look forward to working with our partners in the Senate as we make continued progress in the weeks ahead.
The House and Senate Wednesday afternoon released a tentative schedule for Special Session A that has the Legislature meeting from June 1-20.
A proclamation will be released “in the near future” communications from the House and Senate show.
The Special Session announcement comes on the heels of Gov. Rick Scott‘s meeting with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Wednesday. The two met to discuss the Low Income Pool and Florida’s request to receive $2.2 billion in federal funding.
According to a press release issued by the Burwell’s department the secretary told Scott Florida’s request for $2.2 billion was too high. She also advised Scott that HHS would continue to engage with Florida on its LIP request.

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A water policy for all of Florida
Tampa Bay Times – Column by Wilton Simpson
May 5, 2015
A few days ago we saw an unfortunate failure of leadership in the Legislature.  As a businessman still somewhat new to the process, I was disappointed that the will of the majority was bypassed. By putting politics before the work of the people, too many important issues were left stuck in the balance.
One of these issues is the future of our environment, particularly the protection and management of our water. Because of the impasse, no comprehensive legislation relating to Amendment 1 has yet been passed. I remain confident that in the budget consideration over the next several weeks, we will have another opportunity to work to ensure protection of Florida's natural resources. There are differing views on how to accomplish this goal.
Some people believe the only way to honor the intent of Amendment 1 is to purchase specific land owned by a sugar company in South Florida near the Everglades. Others, like me, see Amendment 1 as a holistic, statewide strategy to create long-lasting protections from the Panhandle to the Keys. I absolutely believe the Everglades are an important ecosystem worthy of preservation and protection; that is why during my first year in the Florida Senate I championed the Everglades Restoration Act. This act, which became law in 2013, affirmed our commitment to adequately fund the Everglades Restoration plan that was agreed to by the state of Florida and the federal government.
With that legislation, we set aside $880 million to fund Everglades restoration. It's a multiyear project that was thoughtfully considered and analyzed before passage. For that reason legislators from both parties came together, unanimously passing this legislation, putting politics aside in the interest of good environmental policy.
Voters all over Florida didn't support Amendment 1 for the purpose of preserving one isolated area of the state. We have to evaluate and prioritize the usage and management of all of Florida's water supply, not any one region.
Amendment 1 will be in effect for 20 years. It is critical that we get the implementation right by using the best science. If any one area of the state becomes the solitary focus of this funding source, we have all missed the point.
We must create a statewide plan to restore and protect all environmentally sensitive areas. In my district extending into Central Florida we have watersheds fed by springs. Across the state there are beaches whose preservation fuels tourism economies. The quality of water in the Kissimmee River basin feeds areas to the south. The health of estuaries like the Indian River Lagoon matter; so too does the St. Johns River in Northeast Florida. All of these systems deserve to be made a part of Amendment 1 consideration.
For Florida's future, for clean water and an environment that generations can live a high quality of life in, I am committed to getting this right.
In the Florida Senate, Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, represents District 18, which stretches across parts of Hernando, Pasco and Sumter counties.

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Dry winter, slow progress on Everglades work puts Florida Bay at risk
Miami Herald, Bradenton_Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
May 4, 2015
Florida Bay is thirsty, and it’s starting to bug the fish.
Last month, while the rest of the state fretted over polluted water from Lake Okeechobee fouling nearby rivers, officials at the South Florida Water Management District reported that the southern Everglades was in trouble.
Salinity in Taylor Slough, a historic freshwater artery for the bay, had spiked for the second year in a row, threatening to violate targets set to protect the marshes and marine life. A withering winter had left the region parched. And that could be bad news for shallow estuaries and creeks that fringe the bay.
Freshwater minnows, the first link in a complicated food chain, were not showing up in winter counts of fish stock. Last year, scientists counted a record low number of spotted sea trout, a fish perfectly engineered to reflect changes in the bay.
“What I think we’re seeing there is a direct response,” said Chris Kelble, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration who studies the link between fish and the environment.
While spring rain is expected to drive down salinity in the short term, scientists fear the frequent swings from fresh to salt could be upsetting long-term stability and may hint that rising sea levels are trekking inland. Peat, the manna of Everglades marshes, could collapse. Coastal fringes that act as nurseries could become barren.
And the impacts would not just slam the ecosystem. A $7.6 billion recreational fishing industry could also be hurt. That includes an avid band of anglers who set their clocks by the annual spring migration of tarpon around the tip of Florida, synced precisely over millions of years to coincide with the wet season and freshwater that flowed from the north, University of Miami fisheries scientist Jerry Ault said.
“It’s an incredible choreography,” he said. “We’re putting the system into an imbalance that will play out over years, not just year to year.”
To keep the bay healthy, the South Florida Water Management District tries to balance flood control with water use and what the ecosystem needs to stay happy by setting minimum flow levels of freshwater, said Susan Gray, the district’s chief environmental scientist. Using models, they calculate how much freshwater is needed to keep units of salinity, called PSUs, in the right range: freshwater is 0 and ocean levels are 30.
But over the last two years, drought conditions have complicated that balance. Last month, for the first time, the district risked dropping below the required minimum flows for Taylor Slough. And for the second year in a row, the freshwater slough looked more like ocean water. Gauges in mangrove ponds have climbed up steadily from about 10 PSUs since the beginning of the year, while the amount of water in the slough has steadily dropped by more than half.
“We are not there yet, but we know we are very close,” Gray said last week.
Everglades restoration projects are intended to fix the problem. But so far, only one part of one of three critical projects aimed at increasing freshwater to the slough is working: the western half of the C-111 spreader canal.
The project was meant to undo decades of damage caused by the C-111 canal, a wide, long and deep canal dug in the 1960s. The canal completely upended the natural sheet flow of water across the Everglades by rerouting water from Taylor Slough — only a quarter of historic levels now move through the slough — to the drainage channel and out Barnes Sound. The spreader was supposed to suck water out of a nearby canal and allow it to flow more naturally. As with other restoration projects shared by the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, work stalled.
To speed things up, the state took over and completed the western half of the spreader in 2012. (An eastern project remains unfinished.)
Within a year, the ecosystem started responding. Underwater plants flourished, increasing their cover by five times as much. Freshwater flows into Taylor Slough doubled.
But when two abnormally dry winters hit the region, Jerry Lorenz, Audubon Florida’s state director of research, said he realized the C-111 spreader couldn’t work without water from the north to supplement rainfall. It had nothing to spread.
“We need upstream water up and running for it to function properly,” he said.
But that piece of the puzzle is complicated. A suite of projects aimed at getting water moving through the Central Everglades stalled last year after the U.S. Corps of Engineers failed to send a report in time to Congress. And farmers to the east have also increasingly complained that the spreader is sending too much water into their fields rather than west into the Everglades, drowning crops.
“Right now we can’t move the water where we need to until the projects are complete,” Gray said. “We don’t have the capacity to move the water effectively.”
Scientists say they may already be seeing impacts from the high salinity in places. Since 2011 when the district last surveyed patches of Ruppia, a type of sea grass that once dominated the bay, Gray said coverage dropped from about 40 percent to 10 to 20 percent. In his winter fish survey, which he is now compiling, Lorenz said scientists found no freshwater fish. Last year, 40 percent of all the fish collected were freshwater, he said.
Data collected from Everglades National Park indicate some high and very high levels of salinity in the last two weeks, biological branch chief Tylan Dean said. But none of the levels are unprecedented, he said.
“There are enough signals... out there that many of us are concerned, so we’re watching the system closely to see what happens,” he said.
Salinity tends to be highest in the center of the wide shallow bay because it’s too far from currents off the Gulf of Mexico that keep water moving through the western bay. But crucial estuaries at the north end of the bay have historically been hardest hit because swings in salinity can destabilize habitat. If salt is too high, salt-tolerant plants will start to grow. But when salinity drops, they die.
“You never get a standing crop of aquatic vegetation and without that, you don’t get habitat for prey-based food,” Lorenz said.
In its natural state, water flowed into the bay across transverse glades. But those were typically the first places where flood control structures were built, Ault said. Everglades restoration is meant to undo that. But just delivering water isn’t enough, he said. It has to be clean.
“In the natural flow system, a water particle in Lake Okeechobee today would be out on the coral reef in less than 90 days,” he said.
So finding a place to store the water is critical, Lorenz said. Lorenz’s bosses and environmentalists are waging a bitter battle in Tallahassee to convince lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott to use money from a constitutional amendment passed by voters in November to spend $10 billion over 20 years on environmental land.
A 2010 contract would allow the state to buy 46,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land. Of that, 26,000 acres south of the lake could be used for storage. Another 20,000 is too far west. A recent study by the University of Florida recommended the land be part of several storage solutions. But lawmakers opposed to the deal argue the state already owns too much land and Scott has said the state needs to finish the projects already started.
But of all the areas hit hard by damaging flood control measures, Everglades Foundation director of science and policy adviser Tom Van Lent said, Florida Bay may be most vulnerable.
“The bay is always on a kind of knife’s edge,” he said. “The single biggest input in the late dry season was this flow from the Everglades and it’s gone.”

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For environmentalists, House adjournment means do-over on water policy
WGCU.org
May 4, 2015
While some interest groups have nothing but complaints about the Florida House adjourning early and leaving unfinished business on the table. Environmentalists say it’s a good thing for the state’s ailing waterways. They say lawmakers now have second chance on reforming the state's water policy.
The water bill that was emerging included protections for the Everglades and springs and encouraged alternative water supplies.
Eric Draper of Audubon of Florida says the water bill that was emerging was a bad one.
"So that gives the Legislature a chance to come back and do a do-over on water policy", Draper said. "We need something that's going to help conserve water and to make sure that water's actually cleaned up, and that bill pretty much endorsed the status quo."
Draper says environmentalists opposed the measure because it failed to advance Lake Okeechobee clean-up and favored polluters.
He says lawmakers are unlikely to bring up the issue during a special session.

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New Lake Okeechobee discharges into St. Lucie River greeted by protests
WPTV.com – by Chris Stewart
May 4, 2015
Water discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River resume Monday, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The discharges were delayed after an algae bloom formed in Lake Okeechobee at the Port Mayaca Dam a week ago.
A handful of protesters were on hand at the St. Lucie Locks to oppose the new water releases. 
"Algal blooms need stagnant water to flourish,” said Col. Alan Dodd of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The discharges have become controversial because many blame them for causing toxic algae in Treasure Coast waters.
The Corps hopes by starting discharges the bloom will break up.
“Holding this water in the lake may result in a larger problem later.  We have consulted extensively with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District.  This decision represents the collective thinking of their scientists and those from the United States Geological Survey.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says they have to release water to the east to help drain Lake Okeechobee before the rainy season begins.
Related:           : More Toxic Water stories

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Today, Gulf looks fine, but wait until the next one hits
Miami Herald -  by Carl Hiaasen
May 4, 2015
Five years after the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, the Chandeleur Islands look alive off the coast of Louisiana.
The beaches are sugary white and unstained by oil. The water is green and full of fish. Birds are everywhere - laughing gulls, willets, terns, skimmers, egrets, oyster catchers and herons.
A rookery that some feared would be annihilated by the spill is thriving, the mangroves bobbing with hundreds of pelicans, old and young.
It's glorious to see, yet also deceiving. For 87 straight days in 2010, crude oil gushed nearby from a broken well in the Gulf of Mexico - 172 million gallons, according to the U.S. government, though nobody really knows how much.
And nobody can say how much of it remains in the water. Most of the oil has likely dissolved or evaporated, but panels of scientists assert that millions of gloppy gallons still spatter the sea floor.
The Chandeleurs, a crescent barrier chain that's part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, were among the first to get oiled after the BP blowout. It was also the first place where dying sea birds were found.
A six-foot sand berm was hastily constructed to contain the oil at the northernmost Chandeleurs. Whether it was because of that, the tides or favorable winds, the islands were not hit as brutally as some coastal areas.
Seeing all this life on the water at sunrise, one can't be blamed for thinking everything's fine, pretty much back to normal. That's what you hear from BP, too, but it's not entirely true.
Since the spill, bottle-nosed dolphins have been dying at about three times the normal rate in the northern Gulf. Deep-water corals have shown lasting damage. Oil traced to the BP blowout has been found in the livers of red snapper and tilefish. Unexplained lesions and tumors have been observed in bottom-dwelling fish.
BP says the seafood taken from the Gulf is safe to eat, and tests much lower for oil residues than is required by the Food and Drug Administration.
The oil giant has spent a fortune cleaning up its image and the mess in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, including $13.7 billion in claims and settlements. The company says its drilling operations are much safer now.
Because the whole world got to watch the Deepwater Horizon disaster live - literally streaming - politicians who favored more offshore exploration retreated temporarily. They were counting on Americans to have a short memory.
Then, in January, the Obama administration proposed a plan that would open offshore oil leases in the Atlantic Ocean, from Virginia to Georgia. Ten new leases would also be granted in the Gulf of Mexico; one is in the eastern zone near Florida, where opposition to coastal drilling traditionally has been fierce.
Yet, except for criticism from environmental groups, there hasn't been a loud public outcry over Obama's plan in Florida, or in any of the states with tourist economies that depend on clean, untarred beaches.
Virginia's two U.S. senators, both Democrats, praised the president's drilling program, saying it "should result in the safe, responsible development of energy resources."
Because big oil companies never screw up, right?
Apparently, five years is the political probation period after a man-made catastrophe. Obama has moved to allow seismic testing for possible offshore oil and gas reserves all the way from Delaware to Cape Canaveral.
The process involves the staccato firing of big compressed air guns deep in the ocean over periods of weeks. Prominent scientists from Duke, Cornell and other institutions say the method poses a "significant threat to marine life."
In a rare display of attentiveness, Florida's Department of Environmental Protection last month wrote to the feds, seeking postponement of seismic permits until more is known about how the blasting air guns affect whales, fish and sea turtles. (Negatively would be a good guess).
On a boat in the Chandeleurs, under a sky filled with birds, it's tempting to marvel at nature's rebound and push aside the dreadful images from the spring of five years ago.
There are no obvious signs of the BP spill here. Even the protective berm is gone, obliterated by Hurricane Isaac in 2012.
Yet the truth is that terrible damage was done by that 87-day flood of oil into the Gulf, and many communities suffered immensely. Since then, numerous spills have occurred both on land and in water in this country, none of them on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon but still a signal for extreme caution.
Nobody knows when the next big ocean blowout will happen.
Everything out there looks just fine.
Until one day it isn't.

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Governor must lead, buy U.S. Sugar land for Everglades
Palm Beach Post – Point of View
May 3, 2015
This eleventh-hour plea is to seek Gov. Rick Scott’s leadership to exercise the existing contract option to purchase 46,803 acres from U.S. Sugar, south of Lake Okeechobee, before Oct. 12.
This is a time-limited opportunity, and the acquisition and subsequent use of this land to store and treat discharges from the lake will provide benefits to roughly 50 percent of Florida residents.
Significant economic, environmental and water-supply benefits include:
1. Creating new jobs in restoration project construction and management.
2. Serving as an emergency relief to protect the integrity of the Herbert Hoover Dike during high lake stages, thereby increasing the safety of residents and
properties adjacent to the lake.
3. Increasing the flow of lake water south into the remnant Everglades and, hence:
a. restoring more natural flow into water-starved Everglades National Park and
Florida Bay, thereby restoring ecological values to these systems;
b. recharging the drinking-water aquifers of millions of Southeast Florida
residents; and
c. reducing saltwater intrusion into wellfields used by millions of residents.
4. Significantly reducing polluted lake discharges into the Caloosahatchee and
St. Lucie rivers, estuaries and coastal waters and, hence:
a. restoring ecological values to these ecosystems;
b. restoring jobs lost by lake discharges in the fishing (commercial and recreational), boating and tourism industries; and
c. restoring lost boating, fishing and swimming habitats.
Funding is available. The state had the opportunity to buy this land in October 2013 at $7,400 per acre, and the cost of delaying this acquisition is significant: South Florida Water Management District staff estimated the increase in cost to the public at $150 million to $350 million.
The state has two available funding mechanisms: 1. direct cash purchase using Amendment 1 funds, or 2. issuance of Certificate of Participation bonds. The state needs to buy the land from U.S. Sugar before Oct. 12. The acquisition and subsequent use of this land to store and treat discharges from Lake Okeechobee will provide significant benefits to current and future Florida
generations.
This action has scientific and engineering justification, and the state has available funding options. What is missing is leadership.
Signed:
JOSEPH L. GILIO, PALM CITY, retired wetlands scientist
KENNETH AMMONS, former deputy executive director, South Florida Water Management District
GARY GOFORTH, former chief consulting engineer, SFWMD
MARK PERRY, executive director, Florida Oceanographic Society
THOMAS VAN LENT, director of science and policy, Everglades Foundation
DONALD WISDOM, retired colonel, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District

150502-a
Abandoning Florida
Halifax Media Group
May 2, 2015
L istening to Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli on Tuesday, one would have thought he was leading a victory celebration as he unilaterally and abruptly ended his chamber’s 60-day annual session three days early. It was anything but a victory for the people of Florida or the Legislature, which still had a lot of important work to do — work that will now go by the wayside, thanks to Crisafulli’s petulant and arrogant actions.
Crisafulli’s declaration that “we have done all that we can do” was simply a lie. There was plenty for the House do, starting with trying to reach some sort of compromise with the Senate over the wedge issue that has divided the two chambers and kept them from agreeing on a state budget: a health care plan for low-income Floridians.
The feud is well-documented. The federal government has told the state it will cease paying some $1.3 billion annually in Low Income Pool funding to reimburse hospitals for treating uninsured patients who do not qualify for Medicaid. Instead, as part of the Affordable Health Care Act, the Obama administration has urged states to expand Medicaid, which 28 states have done.
The Senate crafted a model that would be Florida-centric, a private insurance plan subsidized with $50 billion in federal funding over the next decade. Participants would have had to pay a nominal monthly premium and been employed or in school, and the program would have created an estimated 20,000 new health care jobs. If the feds faltered on their end, the expansion would have been rescinded.
The House’s alternative was to supplant the LIP fund with state money, a proposal legislative analysts forecast would have cost 20,000 jobs. Beyond that, Crisafulli and his henchman, House budget chief Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, refused to budge.
The result was a $4 billion gap between the Senate and House budget proposals.
Done all we can do, Mr. Speaker? Not for the 800,000 uninsured Floridians. Not for the state water policy that died when the House left town. As did prison system reform, a gambling overhaul, hydraulic fracking regulations, even legislation providing care for retired police dogs.
And, if the House and Senate cannot reach a budget agreement by July 1, a disastrous shutdown of much of state government could result.
Crisafulli abrogated his leadership responsibilities and instead threw a hissy fit that embarrassed him and the chamber he leads. That House members cheered his behavior speaks to a broader leadership problem in our state capital.
And where is Gov. Rick Scott in stopping this public policy train wreck? Busy suing President Obama over the LIP, a suit he is almost certain to lose.
The political dysfunction in Tallahassee has reached a new low with Crisafulli’s damaging move. The House and Senate are both Republican led, yet unimaginably are at war. Hence, the people of Florida are not only denied sensible, reasonable leadership, but are also denied a long list of serious and needed public policies needed to make our state a better place. How sad.
Done all we can do? Because of Crisafulli’s and Scott’s outrageous and unprincipled abrogation of duty, there is more to do than ever.

150502-b
Everglades scores big in House Appropriations Bill -- but, cross your fingers
SunshineStateNews - by Nancy Smith
May 2, 2015
The massive Energy and Water Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, which passed the U.S. House 240-177 Friday, makes a big winner of the Florida Everglades. It earmarks $123 million for repair and restoration efforts within this national treasure, one of the largest wetlands in the world.
The spending plan even answers Gov. Rick Scott's call for the federal government to move more quickly on shoring up the deteriorating Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, by providing $64 million for the structure's repair. It's the dike's poor condition -- its risk of breaking -- that necessitates the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' damaging releases into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries during exceptionally rainy periods.
The problem is, the bill has significant hurdles to overcome for the appropriations to stay intact. Even if the Senate passes its version of the bill and is equally generous to the Everglades, President Obama has threatened to veto it. While he supports Everglades restoration -- and made a point of saying so when he visited the national park on Earth Day -- the legislation contains other provisions he particularly objects to, for example, funding cuts to alternative energy programs.
The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Florida Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, founder and co-chair of the Congressional Everglades Caucus, said this about the bill's passage in the House: “As Floridians, we are lucky to have the Everglades in our backyard, and we must do everything we can to restore it to its natural state for future generations. ... As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I have worked tirelessly with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to include full funding to restore the Everglades in this legislation, and I am very pleased with its passage."
Florida Congressman Tom Rooney, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill will provide critical funding for Everglades restoration, water infrastructure, and energy security projects, while cutting red tape.
“This bill includes funding I requested for Everglades restoration and water infrastructure projects, which are critical to keeping Florida beautiful and maintaining our state’s economic growth,” Rooney said. “In addition to funding vital water and restoration projects in Florida, our bill will help ensure the safety of our nation’s nuclear stockpile, advance energy independence, cut red tape, and strengthen our infrastructure, while meeting strict spending caps to save taxpayer money.”
Freshman Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo called the bill "a step in the right direction to ensuring that environmental cleanup and energy programs expand and thrive throughout the country."
He said $10 million provided to an environmental infrastructure account will help the Florida Keys Water Quality Improvement Program and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Here's a breakdown on some of the appropriations linked to Florida:
$35.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers
$64.1 million for Hoover Dike Seepage Control
$9.5 million for Tampa Harbor operation and maintenance
$2.75 million for the Okeechobee Waterway
$123.7 million for South Florida Ecosystem Restoration
$700,000 for Intracoastal Waterway operation and maintenance
$400,000 for Manatee Harbor operation and maintenance

150502-c
Florida Lawmakers Are Giving Away Our Natural Resources to Businesses
TheLedger.com – Letter by Sharon Allen, Lake Wales, FL
May 2, 2015
I am almost afraid to open The Ledger. The April 27 edition featured an article about the Florida Legislature wanting to give away our precious state parks to timber industries, cellphone towers and cattle grazing. The rationale was that the state is starved for cash and so the parks must generate their own operating expenses.
Not much was explained about the timber industries or the cellphone towers, but the proposed cattle grazing had the ranchers merely building a fence but not paying any monies to the state for the leasing privileges. Does this sound like the lawmakers in Tallahassee are pretending to be fiscally responsible while actually giving away vast natural resources to their rich benefactors? It certainly does to me.
The Ledger on April 28 brought news that "House Approves Controversial ‘Fracking' Bill" [B4, The News Service of Florida]. At least the word "controversial" was included.
Rep. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, reportedly said that he likes "electricity and … gasoline to put in my truck to come up here to visit with all my friends." Does anyone else wonder if that is a good enough reason to jeopardize safe drinking water and risk more people getting swallowed alive by sink holes so that Combee can drive his five-mpg truck to Tallahassee to visit friends?
When are you people in Florida going to wake up and stop rubber-stamping these buffoons to make our laws?

150501-a
Diaz-Balart successful in fully funding Everglades restoration in FY16 Appropriations Bill
RealEstateRama.com
May 1, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 1, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), founder and co-chair of the Congressional Everglades Caucus and chair of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, released the following statement after the passage of H.R. 2028, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2016. “The FY16 Energy and Water Appropriations bill provides for our nation’s waterways and energy infrastructure. As Floridians, we are lucky to have the Everglades in our backyard, and we must do everything we can to restore it to its natural state for future generations. This bill is significant to Florida, not only because of the Everglades restoration components, but it will improve our ports, channels, dams, and other infrastructure that supports our economy. Furthermore, Everglades restoration is critical for our drinking water supply in South Florida, while also providing a huge economic boost to our state. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I have worked tirelessly with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to include full funding to restore the Everglades in this legislation, and I am very pleased with its passage. “I am grateful to Chairman Simpson for his leadership on this bill, and most importantly, for helping continue the preservation of one of our nation’s greatest natural treasures.” Diaz-Balart founded the Congressional Everglades Caucus in 2005 with Congressman Alcee Hastings to provide a strong voice in Washington to advocate for these issues and increase awareness. Within the FY16 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, the following are specific to South Florida: $64 million for the Herbert Hoover Dike repair and restoration $123 million for Everglades restoration and construction projects for the Army Corps of Engineers $7 million for operation and maintenance of Army Corps of Engineers Projects.

150501-b
Florida needs new amendment to protect environment
Tampa Bay Times – Column by Bill Maxwell
May 1, 2015
In its familiar dissembling way, the Republican-led Florida Legislature is contravening the official will of the people.
Last November, a supermajority of voters approved Amendment 1. It was supposed to strengthen Florida Forever, substantially protect natural habitats and enable the purchase of vital land statewide. Most notably, Amendment 1 money would position the state to purchase 46,000 acres owned by U.S. Sugar Corp. that would be used to help restore the Everglades. The option to buy the land expires in October.
Republican conservatives and cowed Democrats in Tallahassee have no intention of using a fair share of the millions of dollars from the amendment's documentary stamp tax proceeds to buy land. They intend to spend a lot of it on wastewater projects and to clean up agriculture's pollution.
The Legislature's dismissal of Amendment 1 is yet another example of the voters' powerlessness and the need for drastic action. Citizens who understand the value of the natural environment must take back the state from the sycophants in Tallahassee who put wrongheaded ideology, campaign contributions and incumbency ahead of the state's greater good.
We must use our only viable weapon: another constitutional amendment.
I acknowledge that the Legislature has effectively ignored previous environment-related amendments, one of the most far-reaching being the 1996 "Polluter Pays" amendment. With nearly 70 percent voter approval, the amendment called for Big Sugar to pay its fair share of the then-estimated $2 billion to clean up water in the Everglades.
But with bought-and-paid-for members of the House and Senate, armies of lobbyists and lawyers and shills in the water management agencies, Big Sugar has yet to pay its fair share for cleanup. Taxpayers continue to be cheated.
So, what would we gain from yet another amendment ?
I am not a lawyer, but I wager that an amendment with incontrovertible language that gives Floridians a constitutional right to clean air, safe drinking water and a healthy environment would be a game-changer.
This is not a new concept. In her 1962 book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson argued that Americans have an inalienable right to a healthy environment. After all, a healthy environment is an apex human right.
Now consider the concept of the constitutional right to a healthy environment more broadly. In his book The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment, David R. Boyd, an internationally acclaimed environmental lawyer, writes that as of 2012, 177 of 193 United Nations member nations recognized the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions. The United States was not one of them. With all of our purported wisdom and sense of justice, we are in the company of China, Afghanistan and North Korea.
Boyd shows that in nations that have adopted environmental amendments, the outcomes have been remarkable, including stronger environmental laws, better enforcement of those laws, landmark court decisions, the cleanup of pollution hot spots and the provision of safe drinking water.
But merely stating in a constitution that a healthy environment is a human right is not enough. Countries with the most effective environmental rights in their constitutions crafted precise language describing shared responsibilities between the public and the government and gave courts the power of judicial review.
This movement is described by Erin Daly, a professor of environmental and constitutional law and the associate dean of faculty research at Widener University Law School.
"In many instances," she writes, "environmental rights are recognized not as substantive entitlements (which would allow litigants to sue if the government polluted their rivers or clear-cut their forests), but as procedural rights. Examples of procedural rights include imposing on governments the obligation to consult with communities before they take actions that will affect their environment or giving individuals the right to participate in governmental processes that will affect their environment. While procedural rights do not guarantee a particular outcome, they may be more effective in preventing environmental degradation."
The time has come for Florida voters to fight for a constitutional amendment that outlines clear procedural rights to a healthy environment. One result should be the option of eminent domain. Floridians should have the right, for example, to take Big Sugar land at a fair price to restore the Everglades.
Big Sugar's polluting practices must end. The industry should be forced to pay up with cash or land or both.

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House bill would fund Everglades; faces veto threat
Sun Sentinel - by William E. Gibson
May 1, 2015
The U.S. House passed a spending bill on Friday that provides $123 million for the Everglades, a sign that Congress will continue to pour money into South Florida restoration projects.
 The appropriations bill for next fiscal year also includes $64 million for repairing the Herbert Hoover Dike. Gov. Rick Scott has long complained that Uncle Sam has been slow to shore up the deteriorating dike around Lake Okeechobee.
 But the bill as a whole faces significant hurdles, including a veto threat by President Barack Obama. His administration supports Everglades restoration but objects to other provisions in the bill that would cut funding to energy programs.
 The Senate must still consider its version of the energy and water development bill for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
 South Florida Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, hailed passage of the measure.
 “This bill is significant to Florida, not only because of the Everglades restoration components, but it will improve our ports, channels, dams, and other infrastructure that supports our economy,” Diaz-Balart said.
 Diaz-Balart founded the Congressional Everglades Caucus in 2005 along with Congressman Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, mostly to promote restoration projects.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Kendall, called the bill "a step in the right direction to ensuring that environmental clean-up and energy programs expand and thrive throughout the country."
He said $10 million provided to an environmental infrastructure account will help the Florida Keys Water Quality Improvement Program and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
 The House passed the appropriations bill 240-177, divided along party lines. It would provide $35.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Related:           House bill would fund Everglades; faces veto threat Sun Sentinel (blog)
Fla. lawmakers shouldn't drop other priorities: Editorial        Orlando Sentinel

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US government sued over water released into sparrow habitat in Everglades National Park
Associated Press
May 1, 2015
MIAMI — The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the federal government over the flooding of habitat for the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow in Everglades National Park.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Washington says the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violate the Endangered Species Act by flooding the western part of the park during South Florida's dry season.
According to the lawsuit, since 1993, the flooding has altered vegetation across a broad swath of the park and puts the sparrow at risk of extinction.
Officials with the wildlife service and the corps' Jacksonville district say they are working with their partner agencies to protect the sparrow and continue Everglades restoration efforts that will benefit the bird and other species in the wetlands.
Related:           Lawsuit filed over bird habitat in Everglades National Park Naples Daily News
US government sued over water released into sparrow habitat in ... Greenfield Daily Reporter

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The Economy versus the Environment: The debate on Turkey Point units 6 & 7
South Dade News Leader – by Frank Maradiaga
May 1, 2015
Pro-Business interests came out in full force at last week's Nuclear Regulatory Commission public hearing of the Environmental Impact of the proposed Turkey Point Plant Units 6 & 7.
  One by one members of the community stepped to the microphone and gave politically charged monologues either pro or against the project. The majority of them were pro the expansion of Turkey Point, including the Mayors of Homestead and FloridaCity.
  The purpose of the meeting was to record public feed back on the draft of the Environmental Impact Study conducted by the NRC. The study is supposed to measure the impact to the surrounding area's water, ecology and socioeconomics.  
  FPL is seeking approval to construct two new reactors at its Turkey Point location.
Both reactors are said to produce about 2,200 megawatts of electricity.
  From the NRC's description of the reactors: "A closed-cycle wet-cooling system is proposed for both the circulating-water system and the service-water system. Reclaimed water from the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (MDWS) would supply makeup water for the circulating-water system. When reclaimed water is not available in sufficient quantity or quality, circulating-water system makeup water would be saltwater pumped from radial collector wells in the subsurface sediment of Biscayne Bay."
  Each reactor will have a dedicated radial collector well to pump water from the Biscayne Aquifer if the supply from MDWS is halted.
  Representing the city of Homestead, Mayor Jeff Porter praised the positive economic impact and additional power capacity Units 6 and 7 would represent.
  "From the prospective of the city council we feel very comfortable with their safety record, to respond appropriately to whatever may happen," Porter said.
  He also left a copy of a city resolution in support of the project.
  Captain Dan Kipnis from Miami Beach was completely against the Turkey Point site, as he says "all of South Florida is going to change in the future."
  "My objection to the site and the EIS, it doesn't take the new and updated sea level rise predictions into consideration," Kipnis said.  "One foot of sea level rise will put most of Homestead, Florida City, and Turkey Point under water.  Now that's not at high tide."
  This debate is long running. A week before the hearings the Mayors of Miami, South Miami and Pinecrest held a press conference to bring attention to these public meetings.
  South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard mentioned the 1 foot sea level rise at that press conference, and he also criticized FPL for their insufficient emergency plans.
  "One of the things you have to produce is an evacuation process," he said. "They fudged it, they fudged it very badly."
  "They made the assumption that nobody north of coral reef drive would evacuate in the event of a radiation leak. If people north of Coral Reef bail, the entire peninsula is gridlocked," Stoddard warned.
  If those are serious concerns or not, the NRC isn't raising red flags in its draft EIS.
  At the meeting representatives of the NRC categorized the impact to environment in general to be SMALL to MODERATE. 
  When broken down into specialized areas the EIS says:
  Impact to Water Resources would be SMALL. This reviewed the quality of both surface and ground water.
  Ecological Impacts would be MODERATE during construction and operation.
  Radiological Impacts would be SMALL to workers and wildlife.
  According to the NRC: Small is defined as minor but not destabilizing. Moderate is defined as sufficiently noticeable but not destabilizing.  Finally, Large is defined as clearly noticeable and sufficient to destabilize important attributes of the resource.
  Of four alternative sites to TurkeyPoint- the NRC concluded that "none of the feasible base load alternatives would be environmentally preferable.
  Yvonne Knowles of Homestead Main Street Program brought up the need for economic rebuilding at Homestead's core.
 "Hurricane Andrew wiped out Downtown Homestead, all the businesses left- the population dropped. We are rebuilding now, but we aren't there yet," Knowles said.
  "We need more jobs," she said.
  In their pro-building literature, FPL claims around 3,600 new jobs would be created at the peak of construction.
  After construction, the power company says about 800 high-paying jobs will permanently be created when the plant is operational.
  If you would like to have your opinion or concerns heard, the NRC is still taking comments up until May 22, 2015. Email at TurkeyPoint.COLEIS@nrc.gov.
  To review the full EIS go to: www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/turkey-point.html 

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Warring Chambers end Session
Flanews.com - by Matt Galka
May 1, 2015
Friday is the constitutional scheduled end to legislative session – but work stopped earlier this week because of a healthcare budget battle. As Matt Galka tells us, even with both chambers not getting anything done, there’s still plenty of political drama, and no love lost, between the two sides.
Day 60 of legislative session typically is filled with celebration, but that’s not the case in 2015.
The House quit early on the Senate Tuesday which deepened the divide between two Republican controlled chambers. It also prompted Senate Democrats to file suit with the state’s Supreme Court over the early adjournment and tried to force them to reconvene.
Sen. Darren Soto/(D) Kissimmee
“We face a constitutional crisis of can one chamber just leave early and leave the other in the lurch to do whatever they want?” said Sen. Darren Soto (D-Kissimmee).
The State’s supreme court denied their petition late Friday.
But it was Twitter sparking more drama between the two sides.  Prominent House Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted “the lawsuit reads like it was researched and drafted by Senator Joyner and spell checked by Senator Bullard.”
The tweet created a social media firestorm over whether or not it was racially motivated. Senators Arthenia Joyner and Dwight Bullard are both African-American.
“This is the work of a person who is immature and does not respect race, in my opinion,” said Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa).
The riff was one of many between the two sides who can’t agree on much this year.
So we won’t be getting the ceremonial hankey drop that ends regular session. An odd session ends with the state waiting for lawmakers to return and craft a budget.
The Supreme Court did say that what the House did was unconstitutional but forcing them back before midnight was fruitless. Senators say they will technically remain in session until 11:59 p.m. Friday night.  Meanwhile, Senators Joyner and Bullard say they’ve received no apology from Matt Gaetz over his comments, but he did tweet that he was sorry for another message he sent out about Obamacare.
Related:           Update: Early House departure unconstitutional       Tallahassee.com
Challenger wants Fla House member to return salary for quitting early        Tampabay.com (blog)
Legislative fiasco hurts Broward County       Sun Sentinel

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