150731-b
Teen scientist finds solution to tackle water quality issues
News-Medical.net
July 31, 2015
Remember the science fair ?
For some of us it was an exciting time of creative experimentation. For others it was a time of botched and badly displayed data. For 16-year-old Maria Elena Grimmett, it's a blast. And she isn't peddling baking soda and vinegar volcanoes.
Grimmett is tackling serious water quality issues that threaten the health of rivers, streams and groundwater. When she was just 14 years old, Grimmett was the youngest person published in the Journal of Environmental Quality. Now at 16, she has just put the final touches on her research of a plastic adsorbent that removes pharmaceutical drugs from water sources.
Grimmett's parents aren't water scientists. Her interest in science is self-propelled. The journey to publication was a product of gumption, passion, and a supportive scientific community. It began with a collection of events that led her to water quality research. Grimmett remembers classroom experiments in the third grade. "My science teacher really made experiments fun," says Grimmett, "I started to look forward to the science fair."
In search for an interesting project for the sixth grade science fair, Grimmett noticed that the well water at her house was looking brown. After some research, she discovered she could remove the water stains using resins--tiny chains of plastic that attract contaminants, causing them to "stick" to the resins. While presenting her board at the county science fair (at which she won first place in the Environmental Science category), she noticed another student's work on the contamination of the Everglades by pharmaceuticals. Grimmett was horrified that most water treatment filters don't remove these drugs. Armed with purpose, she embarked on a research project to do something about it.
"It's scary that 80% of rivers, streams, and groundwater in this country are contaminated by at least one organic contaminant," says Grimmett. Modern water treatment tactics are good for removing common contaminants, but many pharmaceuticals and other chemicals escape treatment simply due to their extreme diversity. The drugs get into the water after excretion by humans and animals that take them medicinally. One drug in particular, sulfamethazine, is a common antibiotic fed to livestock to promote growth and to prevent diseases. "Ninety percent of it is not metabolized and ends up in water sources," says Grimmett.
For six years, Grimmett used her summers to experiment with sulfamethazine and specific types of polymer resins, which she describes as "just small plastic beads with tiny gaps." Water is passed through a container loaded with resins. The offending drug clings to the tiny spaces in the resins, leaving the water to flow out drug-free.
Grimmett hopes to see her research employed in the real world by water engineers. "Resins are so versatile," she says. "I've only been testing for sulfamethazine, but I bet they are capable of removing more than just the one pharmaceutical." The technique applies at any scale, from household to city water treatment.
Because of a rule restricting lab use by anyone under 16, Grimmett commandeered her family's garage and the dining room for her experiments. Her proud parents didn't resent the invasion of pipettes and test tubes too much, mostly because Grimmett was willing to do all the work herself.
"She was able to do it all at home due to her determination, multiple contacts with scientists and companies, and I suppose my wife and I who were willing to play ball," says Grimmett's father, Michael.
Grimmett has no trouble being taken seriously by her peers in the science community. "Everyone is so supportive," she says, "Whenever I read articles and have questions for the author, they are always responsive and helpful."
Talking to the right people, asking the right questions, and working hard on solutions has paid off. Grimmett has a lot more access to materials and expertise as a result. "It takes a village to raise a child," says Michael Grimmett, "For Maria Elena, the 'village' was her global network with PhD researchers that she contacted from published articles, and forward thinking company presidents and CEOs who believed in her."
For Grimmett, the chance to work with passionate water scientists has been one of the best parts of her work. "I love going to water conferences," she says.
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150731-c
Water district flip flops on tax cut
Sun Sentinel - by Andy Reid
July 31, 2015
Owing to political pressure, South Florida water managers Friday backtracked on their budget stand and agreed to cut property taxes.
The cutback comes even as the South Florida Water Management District, which guards against flooding and leads Everglades restoration, faces a $7 million budget shortfall.
Just two weeks ago, district board members decided the agency couldn't afford to cut taxes about 8 percent and opted to keep the same tax rate.
Keeping the same tax rate would generate about $21 million more for the district due to rising property values, while adding a few dollars a year to most residents' tax bills.
But state leaders favor cutting the tax rate so that government agencies don't make more money when property values rise. The governor can veto the district's budget and the state Legislature gets a big say in district spending.
During the past two weeks there was a "level of frustration" from state officials about the district board's initial decision not to cut the tax rate, board Chairman Daniel O'Keefe said.
"The message was communicated," O'Keefe said.
At the urging of state leaders, district officials on Friday held a special budget meeting and agreed to cut the property tax rate for the fifth year in a row.
District officials already planned to spend nearly $200 million of reserves to balance the agency's $754 million budget. Now they plan to dip deeper into reserves to be able to afford the tax cut and avoid a budget shortfall.
"We can do it with reserves," said O'Keefe, who always favored cutting the district tax rate, but was initially outvoted on July 16. State officials, O'Keefe said, "don't want to impose tax increases when they don't have to."
Environmental groups opposed the tax cut, saying past state spending cuts have already hamstrung efforts to restore the Everglades and, by extension, boost South Florida drinking water supplies.
"There isn't a way to sugarcoat the financial reality [district officials] are facing," said Tabitha Cale, of Audubon Florida. "We need to accelerate Everglades restoration, not slow down."
The district's new proposed property tax rate for southeast Florida would be about 36 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value.
At the new tax rate, a home in Broward or Palm Beach counties valued at $250,000 and eligible for a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay about $71 a year for water management district property taxes.
Had the district stuck with the current property tax rate, the same home would have paid about $6 more.
District officials take their final vote on the budget in September, but they can't exceed the tax rate approved Friday.
The district's nine-member board plans to push for the Legislature to help pay for past Everglades restoration debts and to transfer some water storage costs to other state agencies.
District officials say reducing the tax rate won't slow Everglades restoration efforts.
"I feel a lot better about where we are and where we are going," Board Member Melanie Peterson said about the board's tax rate flip flop.
But with growing costs, this is no time to cut taxes, countered Board Member Sandy Batchelor, who cast the only vote Friday against the tax cut.
"We are chipping away at the financial foundation of this great agency," Batchelor said.
The South Florida Water Management District has about 1,530 employees overseeing water supplies and flood control in 16 counties reaching from Orlando to Key West.
District cutbacks started in 2011 when the legislature slashed the agency's budget by $100 million, leading to more than 100 layoffs. The board has cut the district's tax rate every year since.
"Stop allowing Tallahassee to continue cutting the district," Laura Reynolds, of Tropical Audubon, told district officials Friday, warning of "death by a thousand cuts."
Related:           South Florida water managers flipflop on tax cut      MiamiHerald (by J. Staletovich)

150730-a
Another water district cut will hurt Everglades
Sun Sentinel - by Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida
July 30, 2015
Now is not the time to cut back millage rate.
The South Florida Water Management District is facing a funding crisis. Shortfalls in funds from the Florida Legislature, combined with declining tax revenues and dwindling reserves, have put the district in a difficult position.
Now it may not able to fulfill one of its basic obligations: keeping people dry in wet weather.
On July 16, the governing board of the district voted 6-2 to stop the bleeding and hold the 2016 tax rate steady. It was a courageous and historic vote. It means the district will have more funds for Everglades restoration and protecting our water supply.
But not everyone agreed with this decision.
Now Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jon Steverson and district Board Chairman Daniel O'Keefe have called the governing board back to West Palm Beach today to vote on the millage rate again. The agency charged with Everglades restoration, managing our water supply and flood protection for 16 counties is being pressured to cut spending for the fifth year in a row.
If the board votes for the cut, the savings would be incredibly small for the average South Florida family. For example, the owner of a $200,000 home would save less than $6 per year.
This should have been an easy year for environmental budgets. Voters approved Amendment 1, which dedicated funds to land acquisition, water protection and fixing the Everglades. Gov. Rick Scott recognized the need for stable funding by unveiling a 20-year, $5 billion plan to commit to Everglades restoration.
In his 2016 budget, the governor requested $150 million to get the ball rolling, including funds for building the reservoirs necessary to help coastal estuaries.
Yet, by the time the Legislature approved the state budget, nearly $50 million for South Florida water projects was missing. By holding the tax rate steady, the water district will generate $21 million that can help fill this funding gap.
The district is responsible for maintaining the network of canals and pumps that keep the area dry during wet weather and supplied with water year round. The district also protects natural systems and takes care of large areas of natural wetlands.
The district was forced to start cutting its annual budget in 2011 when property values dropped and the state mandated a one-third cut in property tax. Agency leaders cut fat and used reserves to get through a few years. Four years later, there is little fat left to cut.
During the period of cuts, Scott and the Legislature promised more state funds for the district. But as this year's budget showed, the Legislature is inconsistent.
The bigger problem is the district governing board feels pressured to continue cutting tax rates.
Another tax cut could further slow the already sluggish pace of restoration efforts and impact the district's ability to maintain and operate the flood control infrastructure.
The six members of the governing board who voted to hold the tax rate got it right the first time around. They voted in the best interest of South Florida's environment.
I urge the district governing board to keep the millage rate steady and allow the water district's budget to grow along with the costs and responsibilities of managing South Florida's water.

150730-b
EPA Water Rule heads to court
WaterOnline - by Sara Jerome
July 30, 2015
Let the litigation begin.
The ink has barely dried on the federal government’s new Clean Water Act regulation, but stakeholders are already suing over the new standards.
A group of attorneys general from conservative and conservative-leaning states is contesting the recent Clean Water Act update on the grounds that it represents government overreach. The suit claims the new regulation is “an attempt by two agencies of the federal government to usurp the States’ primary responsibility for the management, protection, and care of intrastate waters and lands.”
West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, and Georgia all joined the suit against the new mandate from the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers. The attorneys general from these states are all Republican, “except Kentucky Democrat Jack Conway, who is running for governor,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The attorneys filed a federal lawsuit “that could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court,” The Journal-Constitution reported.
“Filed in federal court in the Southern District of Georgia, the suit challenges a new regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would allow the government to regulate tributaries to rivers and streams under the Clean Water Act,” the report said.
In addition, “18 other states filed three similar suits over the highly contested rule, which the states claim unfairly expands the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ protected by the Clean Water Act, defies previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings, oversteps states' rights to regulate their own waterways and harms businesses and landowners,” Law 360 reported.
The complaints do not end there. Even proponents of environmental regulation give the rule a mixed review. Despite praising many aspects of the new rule, a coalition of environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity is criticizing it on the grounds that it does not go far enough. The groups say the regulation is rife with concessions to industry:
The new rule reaffirms longstanding federal protections for some types of waters, but largely as a result of industry pressure, arbitrarily exempts and removes safeguards for critically important streams, wetlands and other waterways, many of which had been protected since the 1970s. These unprecedented exemptions are contrary to clear scientific evidence demonstrating the importance of these waterways for drinking water, recreation, fisheries and wildlife.
For their part, “the EPA and Corps have said that it makes the scope of their jurisdiction narrower than it was under previous regulations,” according to Law 360.
Some stakeholders have spoken out favorably about the new rule, praising regulators for compromise, including local and county elected officials.
West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser said, per the Charleston Gazette-Mail: “The Clean Water Rule doesn’t go as far as we’d like, but it’s better than no rule at all. Despite its shortcomings, it brings necessary regulatory clarity for our headwater streams… in today’s political climate, great compromise is required to get anything done.”
The EPA argues that the rule is necessary to protect waterways and because Supreme Court decisions make it unclear what the agency may regulate under the Clean Water Act.

150730-c
Jeb Bush takes positions on climate change, EPA rules, other energy issues
Bloomberg BNA - from Energy and Climate Report
July 30, 2015
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) acknowledges human activity contributes to climate change but cautioned against actions that would harm the U.S. economy. In written answers to Bloomberg BNA, Bush said the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan is “irresponsible and ineffective” and “oversteps state authority.” He also tells Bloomberg BNA reporter Anthony Adragna that phasing out the renewable fuel standard “over time” is the “proper thing to do.” Bush, who served as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, also called approving the proposed Keystone XL pipeline a “no brainer.” Bloomberg BNA has reached out to all presidential campaigns and will publish other substantive responses in the days ahead. 
Bloomberg BNA:  Is climate change occurring? If so, does human activity significantly contribute to it?
Bush: The climate is changing; I don’t think anybody can argue it’s not. Human activity has contributed to it. I think we have a responsibility to adapt to what the possibilities are without destroying our economy, without hollowing out our industrial core.
I think it’s appropriate to recognize this and invest in the proper research to find solutions over the long haul but not be alarmists about it. We should not say the end is near, not deindustrialize the country, not create barriers for higher growth, not just totally obliterate family budgets, which some on the left advocate by saying we should raise the price of energy so high that renewables then become viable.
U.S. emissions of greenhouse gasses are down to the same levels emitted in the mid-1990s, even though we have 50 million more people. A big reason for this success is the energy revolution which was created by American ingenuity—not federal regulations.
Bloomberg BNA:  Should the Keystone XL pipeline be approved?
Bush: Yes. Construction of the Keystone pipeline is a no brainer. It moves us toward energy independence and creates jobs. The President’s politically motivated veto of the pipeline is an example of how this administration supports policies that suppress economic growth.
Bloomberg BNA:  Do you support the renewable fuel standard?
Bush: The law that was passed in 2007 has worked, look at the increase in production. It has been a benefit to us as we’ve reduced our dependency on foreign sources of oil. We need to level the playing field for all sources of energy. As we move forward over the long haul, there should be certainty for people to invest and we ought to continue to innovate to create the lowest cost energy sources in the world. Ultimately if you can compete in an open market place, then you’ll thrive; we need to make sure there is market access. I do think that phasing out, getting to a place where we don’t pick winners and losers and we don’t create mandates, over time, is the proper thing to do. 2022 is the law and is probably the good break point.  
Bloomberg BNA:  What role should renewable energies, including solar and wind, play in our domestic energy supply?
Bush: I support an approach that uses diverse sources—such as wind, solar, other renewables, nuclear, natural gas and coal—for this country’s energy needs. Power generation should reflect, as much as possible, the diverse attributes and needs of states and their citizens. The federal government should not be dictating what types of power should be used where. It should not be picking winners and losers.
Bloomberg BNA:  Do you support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan? What should the next step be for states?
Bush: Obama’s carbon rule is irresponsible and ineffective. First, it does virtually nothing to address the risk of climate change. Second, it oversteps state authority. Third, EPA has gone far beyond its statutory authority, regulating how people consume energy. Fourth, it threatens the reliability of the electricity grid. Finally, as proposed, it will unnecessarily increase energy costs on hard-working families and will cause job losses in many states.
Bloomberg BNA:How do you view actions taken by President Barack Obama’s EPA? Is that agency acting within its authority as envisioned by Congress?
Bush: The Obama EPA seems intent on pushing its authority beyond legal limits. The culture of Washington is so bad that even when it’s discovered that the EPA initiated a lobbying campaign on behalf of the rules it sought to propagate, nobody batted an eyelash. A government that lobbies for its own expansion is a government that is out of control—and I intend to change that.
Bloomberg BNA:  Are there any other energy and environmental issues of particular concern in your campaign?
Bush:  Generally, I think as conservatives we should embrace innovation, embrace technology, embrace science. It's the source of a lot more solutions than any government-imposed idea and sometimes I sense that we pull back from the embrace of these things. We shouldn't. We're the party that should be the party of discovery, the party of science, the party of innovation and tear down the barriers so that those things can accelerate in our lives to find solutions for all these things. For example, with North American resources and American ingenuity we can finally achieve energy security for this nation—and with presidential leadership, we can make it happen within five years.
Economic growth leads to environmental protection. As the governor of Florida I achieved 4.4% percent economic growth while forging an historic 50/50 state-federal partnership to save the Everglades: the world’s largest intergovernmental watershed restoration effort. I spearheaded “Florida Forever,” the largest collaborative land protection program in the country. We collaboratively acquired over 1 million acres of land, including critical habitat, ecological greenways, recreational trails and fragile coastline. These actions protected 190 rare and endangered species and 700 historic sites.
Instead of saying how bad that things are, I think we should be celebrating the potential to reindustrialize the country, to lower prices for consumers and create higher wage jobs, to use natural gas and to give the middle class the best deal in terms of lower utility prices and lower gasoline prices.  

150730-d
Obama will use veto to defend climate change plan if necessary
The Guardian – by Suzanne Goldberg
July 30, 2015
President will use all powers available to push through Clean Power Plan to cut carbon emissions from power stations, says White House
Barack Obama will use all of his powers – including his veto – to defend his plan to fight climate change, the White House said, on the eve of new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants.
Obama is expected to unveil the new rules as early as Monday, according to those familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan.
The final version will give states and electricity companies an extra two years – until 2022 – before they need to start cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The delay was seen as an attempt to defuse opposition from Republicans in Congress and industry to the rules.
But the White House said on Wednesday it was still gearing up to do battle over the new rules.
“When it comes to the Clean Power Plan, let me say this: We will not back down. We will finalise a stronger rule. We will veto ideological riders to stop this plan and undercut our bedrock environmental laws, and we will move forward on behalf of the American people with the vision set forward by the president,” Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said on Wednesday.
He said the time lag would not weaken the power plant rules or stop the US from meeting its global commitments to fight climate change.
Power plants are the single largest source of carbon pollution in the US. The EPA rules are critical to meeting Obama’s promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025 and, by extension, shoring up Obama’s efforts to reach a global agreement to fight climate change in Paris at the end of the year.
“Given the president’s legacy, I can’t imagine the EPA would go through this huge stakeholder effort and not follow through,” said Bill Becker, director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
So far, half a dozen states including Texas and Oklahoma have declared they will not go along with the EPA rules and could take the agency to court.
However, Becker said many states were already preparing to put their carbon-cutting plans in place.
Republicans in Congress this week attached riders to must-pass funding bills that would delay the EPA rules or block them entirely.
Meanwhile, power companies, especially those that rely heavily on coal, claim the EPA rules would drive up household electricity bills.
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McDonough said the opposition came straight from the “well-worn playbook of scare tactics”, but he said the White House would not retreat. “There is no doubt we will be focused on all this and be forced to battle back.”
The White House official also dismissed fears the EPA delay would weaken efforts to fight climate change.
After receiving more than 4.3 million public comments – the most ever to any environmental rule – the EPA is now expected to give states until 2022 to start cutting emissions, according to those familiar with the final rule.
Under the original draft, states were required to submit an initial carbon-cutting plan by September 2016. That deadline has now been extended into 2018.
The agency is also believed to have reduced targets for some states, in the hopes of getting more support later on.
The EPA is believed to have offered incentives to states that hit the original deadline – which McDonough said would ultimately strengthen the rules.
“It will be stronger in many ways than the proposed rule put forward by the EPA by encouraging rapid deployment of the cleanest form of energy,” McDonough told a forum hosted by the New Republic and the Center for American Progress.
However, some campaign groups were openly concerned about the time lag. Ken Kimmell, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the states did not need more time to put their plans in place. “States are already on track to cut their emissions through actions they’ve put in place,” he said.
“If the EPA does decide to delay compliance timelines, I’ll be looking for assurance that the overall emission reductions achieved by the rule stay strong, early action by states is incentivized, and any delay won’t jeopardize the US’s 2025 international commitment.”
The American Lung Association, which has been a solid supporter of the EPA rules, said it was reassured by reports of incentives for states to act quickly. “The final plan ... appears to be a robust approach to reduce carbon pollution from power plants,” said CEO Harold Wimmer.
Related:           Obama unveils historic rules to reduce coal pollution by 30%
New EPA rules spur prospects for deal to end climate change as climate groups welcome 'momentous development'
Everything you need to know about the Paris climate summit and UN talks
As UN climate negotiations resume in Bonn, we look at why the crunch Paris climate conference from 30 November to 11 December is so important

150730-e
Rising waters
TheNews.com – by Pete Dolack
July 30, 2015
Even if humanity were to stop throwing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere today, a catastrophic rise in sea levels of six meters may be inevitable. Two previous prehistoric interglacial periods, in which the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was believed to be about what it is today, resulted in dramatic rising of the oceans.
High-latitude ice sheets are melting, and given that global warming is most pronounced in the Arctic, it may already be too late to stop a rise in sea levels that would flood out hundreds of millions around the world. Two new papers, the latest in a series of scientific studies, paint a picture considerably less rosy than conventional ideas that major damage can still be avoided.
One of these papers, a nine-scientist report led by geologist Andrea Dutton at the University of Florida published in the journal Science, found that modest rises in global temperatures in the past led to sea levels rising at least six meters. She summarised the findings this way to Climate Central:
“Even if we meet that 2 degrees C target, in the past with those types of temperatures, we may be committing ourselves to this level of sea level rise in the long term. The decisions we make now about where we want to be in 2100 commit us on a pathway where we can’t go back. Once these ice sheets start to melt, the changes become irreversible.”
Professor Dutton was referencing the widely held belief that catastrophic damage can be avoided if global warming is held to no more than 2 degrees C. from pre-industrial levels. The ‘permissible’ level may be less than that, however. More sophisticated ‘sea-level reconstructions’ through interdisciplinary studies of geological evidence and better understanding of the behaviour of ice sheets enabled the paper’s authors to infer that temperatures only slightly higher than what we are experiencing today upset the climatic balance.
More alarming, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere then was lower than it is today. Although geological forces pushing and pulling Earth’s surface can’t be precisely calculated, and thus introduce uncertainty in the actual level of the oceans in the geologic record, the greater uncertainty lies at the higher level of estimates. The paper’s summary said: “Noticeably, during these two periods, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained around 280 parts per million (ppm). The scientists also looked at sea level during the Pliocene, three million years ago, when carbon dioxide levels reached around 400 ppm – similar to today’s levels. They hypothesized that sea level was at least 6 metres higher than today and potentially substantially higher. … While the global average temperature rises of 1 to 3°C seem small, they were, like today, linked with magnified temperature increases in the polar regions which sustained over many thousands of years.”
A second paper, State of the Climate in 2014, reports that Arctic sea-surface temperatures are rising faster than overall global temperatures, ice caps across the Northern Hemisphere continue to shrink, record high permafrost temperatures are being recorded in northern Alaska and melting of the Greenland ice cap is accelerating. The paper, a collaboration of 413 scientists from 58 countries, reports that, even if greenhouse gases were frozen at current levels, the oceans would continue to warm for centuries and thus lead to rising sea levels.
Carbon dioxide thrown into the air stays in the atmosphere for a long time and warming oceans will retain added heat and transfer that back to the atmosphere. This is already leading to warming oceans, State of the Climate reports: “Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are preventing heat radiated from Earth’s surface from escaping into space as freely as it used to; most of the excess heat is being stored in the upper ocean. As a result, upper ocean heat content has increased significantly over the past two decades.”
The Science and State of the Climate papers back previous studies that conclude “there is no going back” – the excess heat stored in oceans will be released back into the atmosphere for centuries to come – and that Earth is crossing multiple points of no return.
Two worrisome trends are that the eight lowest Arctic Ocean sea-ice extents have all occurred in the past eight years, and that the extent of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet during summer 2014 was faster than the 1981-to-2000 average 90 percent of the time. Antarctic ice is not yet showing accelerated melting, State of the Climate reports, but the paper does note that short-term extremes in temperatures have become more frequent on the continent.
Nor does that mean that all is well in Antarctica. Two scientific papers published in 2014 suggest the West Antarctic ice sheet has become dangerously weakened. One finds that a “large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet … has passed the point of no return” and the other finds that the ice sheet has become sufficiently unstable to possibly collapse in as few as 200 years. That is a long time by ordinary human standards, but very brief in geological terms, and would add greatly to rising sea levels.
So what would a six-meter increase in ocean levels mean? More than 440,000 square miles (1.14 million square kilometres), where 375 million people, would go under water, according to Climate Central.
The current path humanity is walking is to throw more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Current plans by political leaders to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 and completely by 2100 are woefully inadequate, but even those goals will be difficult to achieve.
This article has been excerpted from: ‘We may have already committed ourselves to 6-meter sea-level rise’. Courtesy: Counterpunch.org

150730-f
Swiftmud:  Plan to protect Peace River flow OK'd
The Ledger - by Tom Palmer
July 30, 2015
TAMPA | Work to allow water managers to raise the level of Lake Hancock is completed, which means some landowners along the lake's shore and along Saddle Creek can now expect more standing water and the Peace River will be getting more water during dry periods.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board on Tuesday also approved plans to resume formal rulemaking to make sure future water supply projects don't undo the effects of the Lake Hancock project to restore minimum flows in the river.
"We're protecting what we've done," said board member Paul Senft of Haines City.
The Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority is the only utility that withdraws water from the river, but Polk County officials have discussed tapping the river as part of an overall plan to supplement future water supplies.
Polk County Utilities Director Marjorie Craig said the new rules will give her and her staff an idea of what the limits would be on future withdrawals.
Swiftmud officials set minimum flows for the river at Bartow, Fort Meade and Zolfo Springs in 2002, but held off on completing formal rulemaking begun in 2006 until the Lake Hancock project was completed, said Randy Smith, program manager of the agency's Surface Water Improvement and Management program.
The new rules are expected to be in place by December.
Smith said the action was necessary because that portion of the river had not met its minimum flow most of the time over the past 30 years.
Sections of the river were regularly running dry during winter and spring because drops in aquifer levels mean groundwater no longer replenishes the river as it did historically because of increased water pumping in the area from the aquifer.
Even when water is flowing, the flow at Fort Meade often doesn't meet minimum flows because water flows into openings in the riverbed before reaching Fort Meade, Smith said, explaining restoring flow there is the focus of the project.
The solution, which was approved in 2007, was to replace a water control structure south of the 4,519-acre lake — Polk's fourth largest — to allow it to hold the lake level higher so that more water would be available to release downstream to maintain flow.
Under the plan, the lake's regulated lake level would rise from 98.7 feet to 100 feet above sea level.
That required spending $130 million to buy land or flowage easements on land around the lake and along Saddle Creek north of the lake.
Landowners from whom easements were purchased received letters last week advising them the project was completed and they could expect to see more water on their property during wet periods, Smith said.
Smith said Swiftmud officials also are coordinating with Polk County officials in connection with work to build a recreational trail around the east side of the lake that would involve building bridges over areas that will be affected by the lake level rise.
That trail would connect the Fort Fraser Trail to the Marshall Hampton Reserve via a route that crosses the water control structure before passing treatment wetlands and lakefront areas.
The trail was tentatively scheduled to open by the end of this year.
Smith told board members that storing more water in Lake Hancock is projected to meet minimum flows in the river 89 percent of the time.
He said results will continue to be monitored before any recommendation is made about an additional project, which would involve building barriers around some of the riverbed openings to maintain higher flow during dry periods.
Smith said that is expected to improve the results to 95 percent.
Board member Carlos Beruff asked why the staff needed to do more studies of something they already studied.
Smith said they first wanted to see what were the results of the Lake Hancock project.
Mark Hammond, the agency's resource management director, said some residents consider allowing water to go down into the aquifer a benefit, adding he thought the assessment would be better using real data rather than modeling.
"I like observed data,'' Beruff said.

150729-a
Burmese python bagged in Everglades measures 18 feet, 3 inches and 133 pounds
Tampa Bay Times – by Jenny Staletovich
July 29, 2015
A massive python slithering along the tram road at Shark Valley in Everglades National Park may be one for the record books.Nabbed by University of Florida researchers studying invasive species in the park earlier this month, the female measured 18 feet, three inches and weighed 133 pounds. That's three inches shy of the record-holder — beheaded by a man riding an ATV in Florida City in 2013 — but five pounds heavier than previous snakes captured in the Florida wild.
UF wildlife biologist Brad Metzger and intern Sky Button spotted the snake July 9 after wrapping up an evening survey, said UF Professor Frank Mazzotti.
"They finished their survey and kind of looked at each other and said let's take one more turn around Shark River," he said. "I'm sure they were pretty excited."
First introduced as escaped pets, Burmese pythons have taken over as the top predator in the southern Everglades, driving down populations of small mammals and threatening to permanently change the ecosystem. In their native range, they can grow to 20 feet. Eighteen feet is big, but not unheard of, said Tylan Dean, chief of the park's biological research branch.
"It's a top 1 percent, but it's also within the known size range. So we expect over time to encounter these large animals," he said.
A necropsy showed the snake had not laid any eggs in a year — good news since a typical clutch can number as many as 100. Most adult pythons are typically captured in the summer months along levees and roads in the marshes where they come to sun themselves. But females can also be found in summer months on the move after eggs hatch, Mazzotti said.
Dean speculated the snake could have been lured into the open by the cool evening air. Over the years, researchers who started their work in 2008, have caught between 95 and 100 of the stealthy snakes which have proved efficient at avoiding capture, Mazzotti said. Dean said the park does not track sizes because measurements matter less than the number of snakes recorded. However, state wildlife officials do.

150729-b
Florida environmental groups say Amendment 1 funds being misused
WJCT.org - by Mary McIntyre
July 29, 2015
Environmental groups in Northeast Florida are criticizing state legislators on how they are shifting funds for an amendment passed last November.
The groups say Amendment 1’s original purpose was to fund the Land Acquisition Trust Fund which would then acquire, restore and manage conservation lands.
But now representatives from groups like the North Florida Land Trust are concerned legislators are using funds from Amendment for things other than land purchases.
The North Florida Land Trust purchases land for conservation and preservation.
During an appearance on WJCT's “First Coast Connect,” Executive Director of North Florida Land Trust Jim McCarthy talked about Amendment 1 and land conservation in Northeast Florida.
“We were big supporters of Amendment 1,” McCarthy said. “It’s very clear legislative language. It simply says it was to acquire land and water.”
He says state legislators have decided to use the fund on salaries and operational costs for the Department of Environmental Protection.
“We lost six projects that will likely turn to developers because we can’t come up with the money,” McCarthy said. “Because Amendment 1 was just gutted by the state legislature.”
McCarthy says some environmental groups are taking legal action against the legislature, but he’s not sure how that will turn out.
He says the North Florida Land Trust is organizing for 2016 elections.
“We need to do a better job of educating the legislature on what the voters intended,” McCarthy said.
He says the group has a little over 3,000 acres of Florida land under protection.

150728-a
Florida leads nation in property at risk from climate change
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
July 28, 2015
Florida has more private property at risk from flooding linked to climate change than any other state, an amount that could double in the next four decades, according to a new report by the Risky Business Project.
By 2030, $69 billion in coastal property in Florida could flood at high tide that is not at risk today, the report found. That amount is projected to climb to $152 billion by 2050.
While projections for rising seas are not new, for the first time researchers tried to quantify the economic damage wrought by climate change by better understanding the risks to business and a rebounding economy. Growth in manufacturing and energy production have created a mini boom in the Southeast and Texas, the report said. But climate change threatens to undo that progress and cause widespread damage to the region’s economic pillars: manufacturing, agriculture and energy.
For Florida, the blows are significant and not only for property. Higher temperatures and rising seas could slow labor productivity, stress the energy industry and dry up cash pumped into the state by tourists.
“The sea-rise numbers are out there. The heat numbers are out there. What this study has done for the first time is really look at this from a business perspective,” former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who co-chaired the project, said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
The report arrives as the Obama administration makes a new push on climate policies in advance of the United Nation’s fall talks in Paris — on Monday 13 companies including Alcoa and Walmart committed to cutting pollution and investing in green energy. But by looking at the bottom line, Paulson said the project tries to leave aside the politics that frequently make climate change a partisan issue.
Co-chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer and Paulson, the Risky Business Project is a collection of business and policy leaders that crosses political lines. This year’s committee included former University of Miami President Donna Shalala, a Clinton administration alum, and George Shultz, who served in the Nixon and Reagan administrations. Rutgers University climate scientists Robert Kopp and University of California, Berkeley, economist Solomon Hsiang led the team using climate modeling, private sector risk assessment and economic data.
“We approach this not on a partisan or political basis. We are not recommending any government policy solution,” Paulson said. “We are just simply looking at the risk.”
Whether Florida Republicans heed the message remains to be seen. State employees have said Gov. Rick Scott’s administration warned them not to use the phrase climate change in state documents. And in South Florida, where a four-county compact has been working for years to address risks, Miami-Dade County only this year agreed to have Mayor Carlos Gimenez draft a plan.
“Paulson gets it. When you have assets (public or private ) that are in jeopardy, it makes good business sense that you can add substantial value by investing in resiliency,” said County Clerk Harvey Ruvin, who led the county’s climate change task force.
According to the study, storm-related losses linked to climate change are expected to increase an average of $1.3 billion every year by 2030, or by $4 billion yearly on average by 2050. Even at mean sea level, more property could flood with rising seas: up to about $15 billion worth by 2030, the report said.
Rising temperatures also mean the number of days over 95 degrees will increase from about seven per year to 32 between 2020 and 2039, the report said. By mid-century, the number of 95-degree days could reach 76, or more than two and a half straight months of scorching, AC-busting days.
Yet the real estate industry, which potentially faces the greatest risk, has not widely addressed solutions to climate change, said Andrew Frey, a land-use attorney and residential developer.
“It’s all driven by the buyers. So if the long-term owner of the shopping center or apartment community or detached single family home doesn’t care about sea-level rise, then the developer is not going to spend the money on it,” he said. “However, if they do care, the developer will spend it if [the buyers are] willing to cover the extra cost.”
Saying he’s as much to blame as any developer, Frey explained the bigger problem is tackling the suburban sprawl that helps generate greenhouse gases that trigger climate change.
“We’ve skipped over one [solution] and jumped straight to another,” he said.
The report, titled “Come Heat and High Water: Climate Risk in the Southeastern U.S. and Texas,” is the second this year to focus on a region — in January the group looked at the Midwest.
Paulson said the group found that while many businesses are considering energy efficiency in building new plants or factories, and taking a closer look at supply chains to locate facilities more strategically, they are not including climate change in risk assessments.
The report is intended to convey the seriousness of not acting, he said. Once the industry is convinced, Paulson said, he hopes it will do more to lobby politicians to act and then publicly disclose the risks.
“There’s really well-intentioned people who have reasonable doubts and don’t have certainty. But the risks are very real,” he said. “When you look at the outcomes we’re facing, it’s just hard to come up with any reasonable justification for not acting.”

150728-b
USF Researchers find reasons behind increases in urban flooding
Florida Water Daily - from the USF Press Release
July 28, 2015
Scientists at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science investigating the increasing risk of ‘compound flooding’ for major U.S. cities have found that flooding risk is greatest for cities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts when strong storm surge and high rainfall amounts occur together. While rising sea levels are the main driver for increasing flood risk, storm surges caused by weather patterns that favor high precipitation exacerbates flood potential.
The paper describing their research on the causes of compound flooding in urban areas of the U.S will appear in Nature Climate Change (Vol. 5, August, 2015) and is now available online.
“Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population resides in coastal counties,” said study lead author Thomas Wahl of the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and the University of Siegen in Germany. “Flooding can have devastating impacts for these low-lying, densely populated and heavily developed regions and have wide-ranging social, economic and environmental consequences.”
Their analysis focused on the joint occurrence of the two distinct flooding sources in coastal regions – storm surge and high precipitation – that can result in direct run-off (pluvial) and increased river discharge (fluvial).
The research team also identified three key compound flooding mechanisms: elevated water levels in estuarine regions; storm surge flooding that worsens with heavy rainfall and; moderate storm surge that blocks or slows down drainage.
They concluded that “the complex interplay between storm surge and precipitation can lead to, or exacerbate, the impacts of flooding in coastal zones through multiple mechanisms.”
“Whether or not all of these mechanisms are relevant at a particular site strongly depends on the local setting,” explained Wahl who, along with colleagues from the University of South Florida (USF), the University of Maine, and the University of Siegen, in Germany, collected and analyzed data sets for storm surge and rainfall for over 30 American cities along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts. Their analysis included many of the 17 U.S. port cities with populations over one million, for which the occurrence of compound flooding had not been previously assessed.
Armed with data reaching back into the 1950s, and some data from the beginning 20th century for some sites, they determined that the risk for compound flooding was higher for cities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts than for those on the Pacific coast. Consequently, they looked more closely at selected regions along the Atlantic coast.
When they analyzed the data specific for New York City in greater detail, the researchers determined that storm surges in New York City (where compound flooding events are increasing) are accompanied by heavy precipitation when a high pressure system stretches from Newfoundland south over the North Atlantic from where moist air is transported into the low-pressure system causing the storm surge. They also noted that the extreme flooding in that region during “Hurricane Sandy” in 2012 was the result of extreme storm surge but that the rainfall during that storm was (fortunately) “small in the historical context for such an event.”
Overall, they found that the number of compound flooding events has been steadily increasing over the past century along many stretches of coastline.
“Our results demonstrate the importance of assessing compound flooding and its links to weather and climate, but we need more research at local scales to determine impacts,” concluded Wahl and his colleagues. “That research will require complex, integrated modeling experiments that investigate surface and drainage flows and include storm surge, rainfall and river discharge. In light of climate variability and change, it will be important to develop a detailed understanding of future patterns of storm surge and high precipitation amounts occurring in tandem.”
Related:           Scientists find cause for rise in urban flooding          Blue & Green Tomorrow
Scientists Find Cause of Major Flood Surges            Regal Tribune
Scientists Detect Unfortunate Mix of Events that Can push Flooding ...WallStreet OTC
Climate Change Increases Flooding Risk in US         I4U News

150727-a
Florida DEP provides $4.4 Million in funding for Oyster Cultch Placement Project
EP Newswire
July 27, 2015
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today awarded the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) a $4.4 million grant for the Oyster Cultch Placement project, which will rehabilitate oyster beds in Apalachicola, Pensacola and St. Andrew Bays.
The project is in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, for which BP agreed to provide $1 billion for early restoration funds on April 20, 2011. These funds are managed by the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees, and the Oyster Cultch Placement project is part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Phase III.
The project actually marks the end of Florida’s $100 million portion of the funding, though officials will continue proposing projects for federal funding.
The project will help revive oyster beds by placing cultch material for larva to settle onto, which will allow for colonization.
Pensacola Bay and St. Andrew Bay will have 12,000 cubic yards of cultch material spread over 60 acres, while Apalachicola Bay will have 18,000 cubic yards spread over 90 acres. Because oysters serve a filtration function, the water quality and ecosystems in the bays will be improved through this project.

150727-b
Florida environmentalists cheer land conservation deal
Public News Service – by Suzanne Potter
July 27, 2015
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Environmental advocates are applauding a bipartisan deal announced last Wednesday in the U.S. Senate to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
It's a 50-year-old program that diverts a small part of the money from oil and gas development and invests it in natural recreation areas.
Jenny Conner Nelms, director of federal government relations for the Nature Conservancy in Florida, says the fund has been worth almost $1 billion to the Sunshine State over the past 50 years.
"In Florida, we've protected places such as Everglades National Park, Canaveral National Seashore, Florida National Scenic Trail, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge,” she points out. “They're literally all over the map for Florida."
Over the past few years, the fund has also sent $10 million to Florida via the Forest Legacy Program, which protects working forests that support the sustainable timber industry and recreational access to the forests.
Connor Nelms says maintaining Florida's natural beauty is in the state's best interest.
"Outdoor recreation is essential to our economy here in Florida,” she stresses. “It generates over $38 billion per year and then it accounts for close to 330,000 Florida jobs."
The Land and Water Conservation Fund is set to expire Sept. 30 – so backers are now working feverishly to attach it to a bill and put it to a vote in Congress before the deadline.

150727-c
Gov. Rick Scott as environmental champion ? Yes, says foundation headed by developer
Tampa Bay Times – by Craig Pittman
July 27, 2015
Gov. Rick Scott, whose administration has pushed to open the parks to cattle grazing and timber harvesting, offered polluters ways to get out of fines and sharply cut back staffing and regulations designed to protect Florida's natural resources, is getting an award for being a friend to the environment.
The award, announced via e-mail last week, is being given to Scott later this year by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, which functions as a support group for the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is run by gubernatorial appointees.
In the announcement, the foundation's chairman, Miami real estate developer and lobbyist Rodney Barreto, hailed Scott for being "instrumental in helping develop a strong connection between fish and wildlife conservation and traditional outdoor activities like hunting and especially fishing."
The governor will share the award with First Lady Ann Scott, who, Barreto said, "is an outdoors enthusiast in her own right, dedicated to getting our kids outdoors. Together they provide leadership for effective conservation and youth engagement in Florida."
The Sierra Club's Frank Jackalone reacted to the news of Scott's award with laughter.
"No one in their right mind would give Rick Scott an award for protecting wildlife," he said.
Brett Boston, the foundation's executive director, said the award, which has no name, is intended to salute Scott for his support of the Florida Youth Conservation Centers, the foundation sponsors.
"We are very apolitical," Boston said. He acknowledged Scott might be a controversial pick for the award, but said other selections might be too.
"People complained about Mother Teresa," he said.
The foundation set up a booth at a boating industry event recently for an event promoting fishing in Florida, and posted a photo on its Facebook page showing that Scott stopped by to visit. None of the four comments below the photo were complimentary toward Scott. One just said, "Ugh!"
Scott has touted his increased spending on Everglades restoration projects and springs restoration — although Politifact rated his claim of "record funding" for the environment to be "Pants on Fire."
Scott has cut funding for the state's water districts, vetoed funding for all the state's regional planning councils, and eliminated money for a University of Florida lab considered key to stopping invasive species from ruining the state's agriculture and environment.
In addition, Scott's Department of Environmental Protection has shifted away from punishing polluters with fines and other penalties to instead assisting polluters with getting back into compliance. Scott praised the DEP last year for cutting the amount of time it takes to get a permit to a mere two days — down from 44 days when Jeb Bush was governor.
Scott's DEP has also made several controversial moves to alter the award-winning state park system — selling off some land as surplus, for instance, or opening some parks to timber harvesting and cattle grazing or even hunting.
The governor has long questioned whether climate change is real, despite having scientists meet with him personally to explain it. According to some former DEP employees, he has banned state officials from using that term, although his office has denied that.
The award for Scott and his wife is to be given to the state's first couple at the foundation's annual BlueGreen Event on November 14. The list of sponsors include Bass Pro Shops, TECO Energy, Florida Power & Light, Gulf Power, the St. Joe Co., the Florida Wildlife Federation, Mote Marine Laboratory and Audubon of Florida.
The event is scheduled to be held on a ranch owned by state wildlife commissioner Ron "Alligator" Bergeron, a developer, paving contractor and rodeo champion who nearly lost several fingers wrestling an alligator. Bergeron was the only one of the appointees on the wildlife commission to vote against bringing back bear hunting in Florida for the first time since 1994.
Prior winners of the foundation's award include state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who Boston said was honored for his work on state water policy, which was popular with business and agriculture officials but not with environmental groups and water experts.

150727-d
Seagrass hints at Indian River Lagoon rebound
Florida Today – by Jim Waymer
July 27, 2015
Green shoots of recovery are sprouting up throughout the Indian River Lagoon.
A three-year, $110,000 experiment has offered hints of hope that the lagoon's seagrass can recover from a freefall, triggered by a 100-mile-long algae bloom in 2011.
In still-barren spots where scientists transplanted seagrass from healthier areas of the lagoon, grass grew back, but often, not for long.
Some of the transplants couldn't withstand the voracious appetites of manatees, sea turtles and other marine grazers. The small transplants, encircled within plastic fences or metal cages, became salad bars for long-famished grazers that have for years faced slim pickings for seagrass. Manatees often munched up what grew back once protective metal cages or plastic fences were removed, or pinfish swam through openings in the plastic fences for a meal. But the bottom line was what scientists had hoped to prove.
"If seagrass gets there, can it survive? The answer seems to be 'yes,' a pretty definitive 'yes,' in absence of grazing," said Bob Virnstein, an environmental consultant with Seagrass Ecosystems Analysts in Palatka.The Gulf Coast saved its dying seagrass ... why can't we?
Officials think larger-scale transplants might overcome the grazing pressure.
But they're unsure whether such transplants would be worth the cost, which can run hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre, or if it makes more sense to let the grass recover on its own. Transplants may be an option to jump start seagrass in Melbourne, Palm Bay and other areas now barren of grass. A final report on the project is due in September.
Cloudy waters and hungry grazers were among the biggest challenges to growing back the grass, the scientists say.
On a trip Wednesday to a transplant site in Palm Bay, Lori Morris ducked underwater to run her fingers through lush strands of shoal grass inside the protective plastic cages.
The water is so cloudy that the thin blades of grass can't be seen from the surface in water only a few feet deep.
"This was a gorgeous bed," said Morris, a scientist with the St. Johns River Water Management District, in waist deep water.
They run into another Catch-22 when trying to grow back seagrass. The plant needs clear water so that sunlight it requires to grow reaches the bottom. But without seagrass, more sediment stirs up from the bottom, clouding up the water and blocking sunlight.
Lagoon health hinges on canal project
They call this transplant spot, just south of Ozzie's Crabhouse in Palm Bay, the Exxon site, because it's near a gas station.Fewer crabs crawl around these parts in recent years, since massive algae blooms over several consecutive years took over.
But something's getting through small openings in the fences that protect the seagrass transplants, maybe pinfish or some other small fish, the scientists suspect.
"No one's seen it happen," said Chuck Jacoby, a supervising environmental scientist with the water management district.
Nearby, a car engine block, covered in barnacles and algae barely breaks the water's surface. Someone dumped it there, maybe as a mooring to anchor a boat. Fish seem to like it.
Marine critters like the seagrass transplants, too. They find them fast.
"The amount of grazing was a surprise," said Bob Chamberlain, a scientist with the district, which is wrapping up its seagrass transplanting study. "The grazing was very important to the lack of recovery."
Some Palm Bay residents are concerned that herbicides used to control aquatic plants in the C-1 canal may be adding to the muck problem in the Indian River Lagoon near Turkey Creek.
Two transplant sites along the shoals of Sebastian Inlet faced similar grazing pressure, but fared better because of the clearer water near the inlet.
The scientists use shoal grass, because it's among the fastest growers.
They temporarily placed metal "manatee cages" over many of the transplants to keep ravenous seacows from chomping their experiment bare. But after environmental consultants planted some early tufts of grass, they returned later the same day and found evidence a seacow had made a snack of their work.
The inlet's effort was part of a larger project that transplanted grass at several sites in the lagoon, including sites in Wabasso, the Banana River, the Exxon site and three sites in Sebastian Inlet.
"Manatees, crabs and turtles is I think the combination. Everything kind of got
to it," said Martin Smithson, administrator for the Sebastian Inlet District.
"It doesn't appear to be conducive to a widespread public effort at this time."
Crabs and waves rooted up the transplant on the north side of the channel, but the other two sites at the interior of the inlet's shoals withstood the grazing, said Don Deis, a senior scientist with Atkins North America, the inlet district's consultant.
"We just have to wait. I keep predicting 10 to 20 years before we start seeing the mix of seagrasses that we saw before the die-off," Deis said.
"We see grazed areas, but they're not a major problem to the coming back of the species that were once significant in the shoals," he added.
Seagrass provides prime habitat for fish, crabs and other marine life and is considered a key barometer of the estuary's overall health. Each acre of seagrass supports about 10,000 fish and $5,000 to $10,000 in economic activity in the lagoon region, according to St. Johns River Water Management District and other studies.
Transplants are just one way biologists hope to restore some 74 square miles of seagrass lost since 2009, much of it clouded out by algae.
The scientists harvest the seagrass with hand tools only — no machinery — and manually install the grass at the recipient study sites.
Similar grass transplants in recent years have shown success along Sebastian
Inlet's interior, patching boat propeller scars and other barren spots. The inlet district saw grass thrive after it had to transplant grass to make up for seagrass impacted by an August 2007 dredging of the channel. But large influxes of algae-ridden water from the north wiped out most of the grass along the inlet shoals, scientists said.
The lagoon has undergone severe seagrass loss since 2011, when an unprecedented phytoplankton "superbloom" clouded out the sunlight seagrasses need to grow. Then a brown tide bloom hit the northern lagoon and southern Mosquito Lagoon.
The same algae species bloomed almost eight years in a row in Laguna Madre, Texas, making it the longest harmful algae bloom ever recorded.
In the aftermath of the blooms here, more than 135 manatees, 75 bottlenose dolphins and 250 brown pelicans died.
One positive sign scientists find at Sebastian Inlet is the emergence of Johnson's seagrass, listed federally as a "threatened" species.
It's pioneering roots typically precede a seagrass rebirth, providing substrate for other species of seagrass to latch onto and grow.
Spots farther from any inlet face a much longer road to recovery.
At the Exxon site in Palm Bay, what appears to be a small crab scampers across the bottom of one of the fenced-in grass transplants.
A pair of much larger, fist-sized crabs cling to one of the other fences.
Meanwhile, the researchers cling to hopes that more green shoots will soon sprout, enough to fend off all the grazers.
"There is recruitment," Morris said of the recent natural sprouting up of seagrass near the transplants. "It's just going to take a lot longer."

150727-e
Where does all the carbon dioxide in the Everglades go ?
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
July 27, 2015
Barclay Shoemaker kneels down in a sawgrass prairie, grabs a handful of dried algae and breaks the fibrous patty into pieces.
“This is periphyton,” he says. “It’s a good algae for the Everglades. And as the site dries out it builds a little bit of topography, which is important for an area facing sea level rise.”
Shoemaker, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, is part of a team of experts documenting how carbon dioxide works its way through South Florida’s atmosphere. He works at the Florida Water Science Center in Davie and spends several days a year repairing computer and solar power systems that collect measurements like temperature, humidity and the presence of carbon dioxide and other gasses.
Work on this day includes troubleshooting an outage at a 120-foot tower deep in the woods of Big Cypress National Preserve.
Knee-high muck boots and mosquito nets are everyday attire here during the summer months, but collecting the information is worth the physical suffering, though, because it may give scientists clues about how Everglades National Park and other areas south of Lake Okeechobee will weather rising sea levels.
“A lot of CO2 in the atmosphere gets used by the trees during photosynthesis, converted into leaves, and it falls to the ground and creates organic matter,” Shoemaker says on a particularly hot but oddly-bugless afternoon. “It builds the peat soils that sustain everything, really.”
The tower sits about 200 yards west of Loop Road in Collier County and was hit recently by lightning. Shoemaker realizes that when he smells burnt wires, packs up his gear and heads to the next tower.
The work is part of the Land Carbon Project, a nationwide assessment of how greenhouse gases flow in and out of natural systems. The project stemmed from the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act and includes all land and water in the nation’s 50 states.
Scientists know very little about atmospheric exchanges of greenhouse gasses in forested subtropical wetlands. These ecosystems turn carbon dioxide into usable substrate in a process that also releases oxygen and methane, another problematic greenhouse gas.
The data Shoemaker and others at USGS are producing and recording is used by various government agencies to guide short-term water management and restore the Everglades.
 “The information goes mostly into science publications that are distributed around the world,” Shoemaker said. “Some of the results are used by managers to help make decisions about moving water around the park.”
South Florida has been drained over the past century or so by using a system of dikes and canals. The idea was to drain the Everglades for farming and development.
The drainage system works too well in some instances. In recent decades scientists have discovered that pushing water off the land unnaturally leads to a variety of ecological issues — from encouraging invasive plants to take over the landscape to feeding toxic red tide blooms.
“It’s good for them to understand how well their plant community is doing, whether it’s net gain or net loss in terms of biomass,” said Jim Beever, a former state biologist and now planner at the Southwest Florida Planning Council. “But overall, all the habitats are going to migrate landward and in Florida, northward.”
Beever is a local sea level rise expert who has documented inward migrations of wetland systems in Southwest Florida.
Though some don’t seem to believe in sea level rise — even though it’s been documented by federal agencies for more than a century — sea levels are rising across most of the globe.
“As the water gets warmer, it expands itself,” said Jonathan Smith, who helps manage the Land Carbon Project. As ocean waters warm “ice melts and that water goes into the oceans, which is one reason why we think this may be related to sea level rise.”
Smith said there are no proven correlations between carbon emissions from humans and sea level rise.
From a hydrology perspective, Everglades National Park is plagued with water restraints, and the Army Corps of Engineers, with input from the South Florida Water Management District, is part of a $10 billion restoration effort that aims to restore more natural flows.
That periphyton Shoemaker crumbled in his hands is a crucial part of the Everglades ecology.
The algae grow during the wet summer months, dry during the winter and the end product is basically dirt. Not only does it help create habitat and deliver nutrients to the ecosystem, but periphyton also releases dissolved oxygen, which is crucial for marine creatures.
Extended dry conditions can kill periphyton, and those conditions are much more prevalent in today’s partially developed Everglades because the landscape has been designed and built to send water to the ocean as fast as physically possible.
How quickly the region will absorb rising carbon dioxide levels is unknown.
Smith said areas such as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve are good at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but not quite as efficient as the slow-growth forest of Washington and Oregon.
“Wetlands are pretty good (carbon filters) if they’re in their natural state, where human impact has been limited,” Smith said.
Land Carbon Project
338 - Feet sea levels have risen in the past 20,000 years
400.9 - Parts per million of global carbon dioxide in 2015
398.5 - Parts per million of global carbon dioxide in 2014
164 - Million people in America live in coastal areas
1.2 - Million people move annually from inland areas to the coast in America
60,000 - Miles of coastal roads expected to be impacted by sea level rise
Sources: United States Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
site: http://www.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/land_carbon/
For more information: http://landcarbon.org/
Related:           USGS tracks carbon absorption in the Everglades - The News-Press            The News-Press

150726-a
Environmental groups raise concerns over Florida's new hunt for oil
Associated Press
July 26, 2015
MIAMI –  Renewed hunts for oil in sensitive Florida ecosystems have environmental groups raising questions about the state's regulation of the oil and gas industry.
A Miami company, Kanter Real Estate LLC, has submitted a permit application to drill an exploratory oil well on the eastern edge of the Everglades.
Meanwhile, federal approval is pending for a seismic survey meant to locate new areas for drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a freshwater swamp whose health is vital to the neighboring Everglades and to native wildlife, including the endangered Florida panther.
The state recently issued a wetlands activity permit to Fort Worth, Texas-based Burnett Oil Co. Inc. for the survey that would cover 110 square miles within the preserve. Florida and the National Park Service are requiring a number of steps to ensure minimal harm to wildlife and the environment, but the proposal worries critics who have complained that lax oversight of previous drilling operations left ecologically sensitive areas vulnerable to contamination.
From 2012 to 2014, Florida issued three environmental violations for oil and gas operations in the state, according to violations data analyzed by The Associated Press.
The three violations occurred in 2014 after Collier County officials raised concerns about another Texas oil company's use of a fracking-like oil recovery practice at a well near panther habitat.
The Department of Environmental Protection — the state's oil and gas regulator — say the number doesn't show lax law enforcement, but rather that Florida's strict inspections keep well operators in compliance.
"During the 2014 calendar year, DEP's inspectors conducted 2,472 inspections on the 160 active wells in the state. Due to the frequency of these inspections, potential problems are identified and remedied before a violation occurs or a compliance action is required," said DEP spokeswoman Lauren Engel said in a statement.
Environmental groups argue that Florida's regulations currently only cover conventional drilling methods, not the "acid stimulation" that prompted last year's violations or other advanced extraction techniques.
"We've learned that Florida's oil and gas laws are extremely antiquated and rudimentary and don't address new techniques such as fracking," said Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resource policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Drilling has been a part of the Big Cypress since before it became a national preserve in 1974. The first wells were dug in the 1940s, and drilling continues to this day, as new technologies may improve the efficiency of extracting oil from deposits running underground from Fort Myers to Miami.
The Burnett survey would be scheduled for Florida's winter dry season and produce vibrations created by plates attached to thumper trucks driving across a grid.
The state has gone on record opposing some methods of seismic testing, but it has not objected to the Burnett project.
DEP sent a letter to the Obama administration opposing new rules allowing seismic surveys for oil and gas off the state's Atlantic coast because not enough was known about the surveys' effects on marine life. The seismic survey in the Big Cypress, however, has to comply with Florida laws, said Engel.
"With onshore seismic, we have regulatory authority through this permitting program," she said.
Burnett says it's prepared to address concerns about the survey's environmental impact. The wetlands activity permit issued by DEP requires the company to restore "using hand tools" any habitat damaged by the survey vehicles, and it encourages crews to remove any invasive plant species they encounter.
The survey trucks' wide, balloon tires will be less damaging than off-road vehicle tires, said Burnett spokesman Ryan Duffy.
The survey would cover an area between active well fields in the eastern and northwestern parts of the preserve, far from recreational areas. In addition to the state permit, the park service could impose additional stipulations on Burnett to mitigate any environmental damage, said Ron Clark, the preserve's chief resource manager.
Drilling has been a rarity east of the Big Cypress. In 1985, a Texas company drilled in western Broward County, but that well was plugged and abandoned the same year, according to DEP.
The Kanter permit application calls for a 5-acre operation to drill down 11,800 feet.
In a statement, John Kanter said the application is "one of the first steps in a long-term plan that includes proposed mining, as well as water storage and water quality improvement components that have the potential for assisting with Everglades Restoration."
His family has owned the Broward County property slated for exploratory drilling for over 50 years. "As stewards of this land, we are fully invested in ensuring this project provides maximum public benefit while also providing Florida with solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida," he said.
Environmental groups and some local elected officials say any drilling expansion threatens the region's water supply and Everglades restoration plans.
"Florida law asks the driller to do the best job possible, but it doesn't say you can't drill for oil in wetlands, in the Everglades, in panther habitat," said Matt Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association.
In Miramar, the city 5 miles from the where Kanter wants to drill, the mayor and city commission recently voted to oppose the plan because of the threat to their drinking water.
Bonita Springs is over 30 miles from the Big Cypress and hasn't been a target for drilling, but the city council last week unanimously approved an ordinance banning fracking within city limits.
Related:           New Hunt For Oil in Florida Raises Environmental Concerns          Chem.Info
Teams that are environment raise issues over the fresh search for oil ...         Observer News
Oil and Gas News: New hunt for oil in Florida raises environmental ...        PennEnergy
Sinkhole Swallows Citrus Well Drilling Rig  Florida Water Daily

150726-b










Jon STEVERSON -
will he be confirmed to
lead the FL-DEP ?

150726-b
Pick to lead state DEP still unconfirmed
Daytona News Journal - by Dinah Voyles Pulver
July 26, 2015
Controversy surrounds Scott appointment for top environmental post.
Seven months after Gov. Rick Scott appointed Jon Steverson as secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, that appointment remains unconfirmed and mired in controversy.
More than 300 letters have been sent to the Florida Cabinet urging its members not to reappoint Steverson. Most were form letters generated by a new group, Florida Parks in Peril, formed in response to the department looking into the possibility of increasing cattle leasing and timber harvesting in state parks.
Steverson was not confirmed by the Florida Senate, as required, during a legislative session mired in political infighting. Later, the Florida Cabinet also declined to confirm the interim secretary, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she was considering other candidates. However, Steverson may have caught a break last week.
On Thursday, Bondi announced she no longer planned to bring forward a candidate and would agree to set a public interview for the interim secretary. She plans to discuss that at the next Cabinet meeting.
Steverson said he respects the Cabinet process.
“I’m doing my best every day to prove that I belong in the job,” Steverson said Thursday. “I really do care about this state and will do everything I can to make it better.”
He has said he has the best interests of Florida at heart and wants to make the department run as efficiently as possible while “continuing to safeguard Florida’s natural resources.”
But his detractors disagree.
“What is most needed in DEP at this juncture is exceptional leadership and someone that will inspire park staffs, not threaten their jobs if they speak out,” wrote Robert Dye of Nokomis, a retired state park manager and district manager, in his letter to the cabinet.
Critics argue Steverson is charged with making it easier to implement the governor’s pro-growth and jobs agenda. They worry about the interim secretary’s stated goal of trying to make Florida’s nationally award-winning state parks system more financially self-sustaining.
The form letters to Cabinet members pointed out the park service was created to acquire portions of original Florida and to conserve those natural values “for all time.”
“Please opt for a department head that understands why this is vital to preserving and protecting our natural heritage,” the form letter urged. “Jon Steverson has blatantly demonstrated that he does not.”
Longtime environmental advocates, as well as many current and former department employees, also are concerned about turnover and reorganizations at DEP.
Since Jan. 1, nearly 10 percent of the department’s workforce has departed. Some 243 employees have left, including 78 who retired, 35 who went to the private sector and 74 who left for “other” unexplained reasons.
DEP’s $1.5 billion budget was cut this year by about 5% and roughly 120 positions, many of which were vacant, were cut, department officials said. 
Environmental advocates have raised concerns about the reorganization of a division that oversaw water resources and beach and coastal management.
The Sea Turtle Conservancy is among those. "We are concerned about the latest round of resignations and the reorganizing of the beach management responsibilities and staff within DEP and hope it does not result in loss of continuity, institutional expertise and resource protections," policy coordinator Gary Appelson said last week. 
Steverson said the division is being reorganized to get all the bureaus that issue grants together in one place, so they can move forward more quickly with assisting local governments with money for needed projects, such as coastal restoration and springs protection.
The interim secretary thinks the department’s efforts to streamline and be more efficient are being mischaracterized by critics, including some longtime former employees, who don’t want to see any changes. Steverson said he “will always challenge (staff) to look at ways to do things better.”
In Central Florida, Steverson’s role was questioned in the forced resignations of at least five senior staffers at the St. Johns River Water Management District, including a scientist who had expressed concern about potential impacts of overpumping groundwater and a widely respected department head who oversaw the agency’s award-winning land acquisition program, Robert Christiansen. Christiansen said he was told his name was on a list targeted by Steverson. But the district’s then acting director, Mike Register, said the decisions were his.
Steverson was serving as the executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District when appointed to the $150,000-a-year secretary position. He previously worked at DEP, overseeing massive staffing cuts ordered by the Florida Legislature at the five water districts shortly after Scott took office in 2011.
Sonny Vergara, former executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, is among those concerned. He said: “Jon Steverson is purposefully carrying out what Rick Scott set out to do in 2011, which was to tear the capacity to do the jobs they were charged to do for over 40 years out of every regulatory agency in Florida, take control of them and render them ineffective.”
Scott stands behind the interim secretary, saying he is proud of the work Steverson has done so far.
“Jon has dedicated his career to serving Floridians through the protection of our state's water and natural resources and he is committed to our goal of protecting Florida's natural treasures so future generations and millions of tourists can enjoy our state's beauty,” the governor’s office stated last week.
Agriculture Commissioner and Cabinet member Adam Putnam also received at least four letters of support for Steverson, including letters and emails from Deseret Ranches, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and the Florida Limerock and Aggregate Institute.
When Steverson was selected, “his unique insight and perspective were felt immediately amongst all who work with the department,” wrote Michael Murtha, president of the Concrete Coalition of Florida. “His leadership will be critical in optimizing the Department’s effectiveness and in meeting and succeeding our State’s most vital objectives.”
The form letters from the Parks in Peril group were triggered in part when news surfaced that the department was looking into a plan to allow cattle grazing on 6,500 acres of the roughly 37,000-acre Myakka River State Park. Park officials are exploring limited grazing on former pasture land across the road from the main park. A proposal to also consider cattle grazing at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park has prompted an online petition drive to protest grazing.
The possibility of adding cattle on or near environmentally sensitive lands, as well as a proposed sole-source contract with a private forestry consulting company to look at timber management on the Cross-Florida Barge Canal Greenway, raised concerns statewide, especially on the heels of earlier proposals from the Scott administration to consider golf courses in state parks and other privatization of state park services. 
Jono Morris, who helped organize Parks in Peril, said the concern is that parks “are supposed to be about conservation and recreation, and they’re trying to make them into profit centers.”

150725-a
Lake Water Authority eyeing 100 acres on Lake Norris
DailyCommecial.com – by Scott Callahan
July 25, 2015
EUSTIS — The Lake County Water Authority is interested in buying nearly 100 acres along Lake Norris if it can find a willing partner.
The property owned by Brian Richards on Lake Norris Road was last listed for sale earlier this month at $893,900.
It’s not what the authority wants to do with the land as much as what it doesn’t want to see done there.
The property has the potential for residential development “which could affect the hydrology that currently exists with water moving off of the Bear Track Preserve onto the Richards property heading to the direction of Lake Norris,” according to Patricia Burgos, the authority’s environmental program manager.
The land, with 2,800 feet of shoreline, is not only located adjacent to the authority’s 185-acre preserve, but also has the Seminole State Forest on the other side.
Water authority staff is recommending a potential purchase partner be found such as the Florida Forestry Service, which could assume management responsibility, or the St. Johns Water Management District, since it is tasked with protecting the lake.
As for the authority, it wants to acquire the property to have better access to the western side of the preserve to straighten out the boundary line and place fire lanes there to conduct prescribed burns, Burgos said.
Obtaining the land also would “diminish the historic problem that staff has had with poaching within the preserve from this property,” and “diminish the feral hog damage that has occurred at the preserve wetland due to the split ownership of the wetland,” she said.

150725-b
Parks and wildlife department: Rains boost lakes, fishing stock
JacksonvilleProgress.com
July 25, 2015
ATHENS – Wide-spread rains in May and June did more than end the drought and raise lakes to levels not seen in years. Many lakes that had been scheduled for stocking contingent on significant spring rains were able to be stocked to take advantage of improved habitat.
Fortunately, TPWD freshwater fish hatcheries had a better-than-expected production year for such popular species as Florida largemouth bass, blue catfish, striped bass and palmetto bass (hybrid striped bass), making more fish available.
TPWD has five inland fish hatcheries. One is currently closed because of water supply problems caused by drought.
In 2015 TPWD hatcheries produced and stocked almost 500,000 channel catfish fingerlings; 800,000 blue catfish fingerlings; 4.8 million striped bass and hybrid striped bass fingerlings and 4.7 million fry; 157,000 Guadalupe bass fingerlings; 55,000 smallmouth bass fingerlings; 129,000 bluegill fingerlings and 7.5 million largemouth bass fingerlings.
The good news doesn’t stop there. Spring rains brought many reservoirs to levels not seen in several years, so the hatchery fish were stocked into great habitat.
When reservoir levels go down for several years, vegetation grows up in the dry lake bottom.
When levels rise, the flooded vegetation gives little fish a place to hide from predators and, as it decays, releases nutrients into the water that jumpstart the food chain.
Water level rises came to many lakes in time for spawns from resident fish to enjoy good habitat conditions, adding to the bounty.
Those water level rises benefit all species of fish, which means that fishing should see significant improvement in the next several years, and predator species like bass, striped bass and hybrid striped bass will have plenty to eat and grow quickly.

150724-a
Blue-green algae bloom near Lake O contains toxins, state says
Palm Beach Post
July 24, 2015
PORT MAYACA — A blue-green algae bloom spotted this week along Lake Okeechobee contains toxins, the Florida Department of Health in Martin County said Friday.
The bloom, found at the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam, contains microcystin, a toxin that can cause nausea and vomiting if ingested and lead to a rash or hay-fever symptoms if touched or inhaled.
Anyone traveling near the lock and dam is urged to avoid contact with any algae they can see, authorities said. Sunlight, temperatures, physical conditions, precipitation and the water’s nutrients contribute to the formation of algae.
Anyone who sees blue-green algae is urged to contact the Florida Department of Environmental Protection at 561-681.6600.
The South Florida Water Management District observed the bloom this week and asked for the state tests.

150724-b
Give water district more liquid assets
Sun Sentinel – by Editorial Board
District is too important to ignore.
A single-Starbucks tax cut is not worth more damage to the region's most important public agency.
Ten days ago, the board of the South Florida Water Management District rejected a staff proposal that would lower the district's tax rate yet again and cost the agency another $21 million. A district that has been on rations since 2015 doesn't need a starvation diet.
The 6-2 vote was heroic. It also may be short-lived.
The district is responsible for flood control and water supply, without which South Florida as we know it doesn't exist. Local drainage districts also play a key role, but everything starts with the water management district's system of canals and pumps. Add to that mission environmental preservation, such as Everglades restoration, and sea level rise. Everyone from tree-huggers to Realtors can see that this is not an agency we want crippled.
Yet in an interview, Florida Audubon Executive Director Eric Draper said the last four years had left the district "on its way to not being able to fulfill its basic obligation: keeping people dry in wet weather." That's because Gov. Rick Scott mistakenly used the water management district to look like a tax-cutter.
Campaigning in 2010, Scott pledged $2 billion in tax cuts even as Florida just was starting to recover from the Great Recession. Once in office, however, Scott found that his options were limited. Florida has no income tax. He wasn't going to touch the 6 percent sales tax.
So Scott and the Legislature played a trick. The five water management districts had operated independently of Tallahassee, though the governor — who appoints the board members — retained oversight, through the Department of Environmental Protection. In 2011, however, the Legislature and Scott made the districts' budgets part of the state budget and gave the Legislature final review of those budgets. Scott touted a $308 million statewide tax cut, but $200 million-plus came from cuts to four of the five water districts.
The largest chunk of that $200 million came from the South Florida district. It is the largest, spread over 16 counties from south of Orlando through the Keys. For the 2012 budget year, its property tax revenue dropped from $400 million to $270 million. Scott also installed a new executive director and demanded staff cuts.
The pattern has continued. Property values have been rising, but the district's property tax revenue for this year is about $265 million because the board — at the Scott administration's urging — has kept whittling at the tax rate. The district workforce of about 1,500 is 400 less than 2011. The owner of a homestead appraised at $200,000 pays about $80 per year in water district taxes.
To keep giving those tiny tax breaks and keep fulfilling its mission, the district has raided reserves, draining at least $420 million in the last four years. For the pre-Scott 2011 budget, the district used no reserves.
Even fiscal conservatives on the board, Draper said, saw that the district would deplete its reserves by 2017 without more revenue. More important, the district needs to repair canals — there are 2,100 miles of them — and replace pump stations, gates and locks that are part of the man-made hydrological system for the southern half of the state. Though water supply levels remain adequate, the district also is the agency that sets water restrictions and gets the region through droughts.
Readers may recall that Scott and the Legislature touted budget allocations for, among other things, Everglades restoration and water quality projects. One example is the program to store and cleanse water released from Lake Okeechobee before it can foul the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.
Important as those projects are, the money for them is separate from the district's daily work of making sure residents have water only where they want it, and that they have enough of it. The staff budget proposal would have saved the owner of that $200,000 home about $6. Is that worth the worry of potentially weaker flood protection?
One of the two district board members who voted to cut the tax rate referred to "political reality." Department of Environmental Protection officials had been lobbying board members to reduce spending, however, counterintuitive that sounds. We are told that the lobbying has continued. There now is a special board meeting scheduled for Friday. On the agenda is the tax rate, and the board may reverse its vote.
Draper acknowledges that since 2011 the district has achieved "efficiencies" that have reduced expenses without compromising the mission. Computers operate pump stations. Salaries and benefits are lower. The focus now should be on giving the district enough resources to do its vital work. Any tax vote Friday should be the same as the last one.

150724-c
South Florida water budget back in play
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
July 24, 2015
A week after a surprise vote not to cut taxes, South Florida water managers have called a surprise meeting to revisit next year’s $754 million budget.
The announcement comes after a 6-2 vote July 16 to keep the South Florida Water Management District tax rate the same, pumping $21 million into next year’s budget. The rate, which still must undergo two public hearings in September, would keep the district from having to dip into reserves.
District spokesman Randy Smith declined to comment on the workshop and special meeting set to begin at 9 a.m. Friday at the district’s West Palm Beach headquarters.
But Eric Draper, Audubon Florida’s executive director, fears the board is caving to pressure from Tallahassee to cut taxes.
 “We’re concerned that the Legislature provided much less money ... than what Gov. (Rick) Scott asked for, less by roughly $60 million,” for Everglades restoration, Draper said. “So the district is strapped and they’re digging deep in reserves.”
The 16-county district is funded by a combination of property taxes, local and federal money, permit fees, grants and agricultural taxes. The governing board sets the rate for the special taxing district in its own jurisdiction. At the July 16 meeting, the board voted to keep the tax rate the same.
If the rate remains the same, it will mark the first time in five years that board members have not cut taxes.
Related:           Water district may backtrack on tax stand     Sun Sentinel

150724-d
The Everglades and oil drills shouldn't mix
Sun Sentinel – by Michael Mayo
July 24, 2015
s there black gold in them there swamps? Will drilling or fracking soon come near our precious River of Grass?
Interest in oil exploration near the Everglades is percolating, with permit applications pending for remote areas of Broward and Collier counties.
The Broward land, about five miles west of the outer reaches of Miramar, is owned by the Kanter family, descendants of developer Joseph Kanter, who founded Lauderhill and other South Florida communities. Kanter Real Estate has filed an application with the state to drill a well more than two miles deep to see if oil can be extracted.
The Collier land is in the Big Cypress National Preserve, closer to Florida's west coast, near an area where there has been limited oil drilling and production since the 1940s. Burnett Oil, a Texas company, has leased oil and gas rights on the land and wants to conduct a "non-invasive" geological survey using 3-D seismic technology to assess the potential for oil production.
"Why now? It's always been ripe for opportunity," Burnett president Charles Nagel III said in an interview Friday. "This is not something that's a new idea. I bet most people don't even know there's already been oil production going on in Big Cypress since 1943."
But is expanded oil activity in such environmentally sensitive areas a good idea?
Especially since Floridians have seen how terribly wrong things can go deep beneath the surface with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? And since we've been spending billions to restore and replenish the Everglades over the last few decades, and South Florida's drinking supply depends on critical aquifers near these proposed projects?
And especially because this seems like very 20th-century thinking for Florida (drill baby drill!), instead of 21st century (solar/wind).
Both projects seek to explore an underground series of oil deposits 12,000 feet below Florida's surface known as the Sunniland Trend, which stretches from Fort Myers to Miami.
"We have not asked for a drilling permit," Nagel told me. "It may happen; it may not happen." He said it depends on what the seismic survey shows.
If oil production is feasible and drilling is permitted, Nagel assured me that the Collier land is "a long way from the Everglades – 30 to 40 miles away," and that there would be no chemicals or fracking involved. He said the company would apply to pump oil using "fairly straight vertical wells – not horizontal."
The Kanter family has released a statement saying, "We understand and value Florida's precious natural resources and believe the team of experts we have hired will allow us to complete the project safely while protecting Florida's environment."
Nagel said Burnett Oil also prides itself on being "great stewards of the land." The privately-held company has gas and oil operations in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, including on federal lands. Nagel said the company has a Texas horse and cattle ranch that coexists with oil wells.
"We've never had an accident," Nagel said.
In a worst-case scenario, I asked, could there be a below-ground oil disaster that reaches the Everglades and spoils aquifers?
He wouldn't answer the question.
Not exactly confidence-inspiring.
Maybe Florida should be looking up – to the sun and wind – not down. There are some things that just shouldn't be messed with.
Related:           New hunt for oil in Florida raises environmental concerns    Colorado Springs Gazette

150723-a












Jose
The FANJULS
Alfy

150723-a
A sweet deal: The royal family of cane benefits from political giving
AlJazeera.com - by Amy Bracken
July 23, 2015
The sugar barons of America, the Fanjul brothers, have a cozy relationship with the U.S. government.
This is the second story in a two-part series. Read the first story, about the working conditions of the cane cutters on Dominican sugar plantations violating labor law, here. 
WASHINGTON — Charlotte Ponticelli used to work for the State Department, but when she describes a recent visit to sugarcane plantations in the Dominican Republic, she ditches the diplomat speak.
“What I saw made me sick,” she says of the laborers’ living conditions. “[The cane workers] were skeletons wearing rags. One old man told us, ‘We have no access to anything from our pensions.’ They had worked for 40 to 50 years, and nothing … I wanted to cry all the way home. I thought, ‘After … all this work, this is how these people live?’”
By “all this work,” Ponticelli means the United States Department of Labor’s push to improve conditions for cane workers in the DR, one of the top sugar exporters to the U.S. As part of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR, which went into effect in the Caribbean nation in 2007, signatory countries were required to enforce their own labor laws. The deal was promoted as a tool to improve worker conditions — just as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is being advertised now — but such promises are frequently broken. Four years into CAFTA-DR, an activist priest filed a complaint under the treaty about an alleged “laundry list” of abuses on Dominican sugar plantations, from work-hour and wage violations to unhygienic living conditions. Ponticelli, who previously headed the DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, facilitated meetings between Rev. Christopher Hartley and her old staff in Washington.
In 2013, after a two-year investigation, the department issued a report expressing concern that the Dominican government might be failing to protect sugar workers. The report was followed by three reviews, one every six months, that found working conditions still lacking. But as the DOL pushed for reform in Dominican sugar, members of Congress and other politicians maintained lucrative relationships with the royal family of cane: the Fanjuls.
The four Fanjul brothers have an outsize presence in both the Dominican Republic and the United States. In the DR, their American company, Central Romana, produces most of the country’s sugar. In the U.S., the Fanjuls also grow cane and spend heavily in Washington, ranking among the sugar industry’s top political donors and biggest spenders on lobbying. As big players in both countries, they benefit from a highly profitable combination of factors: In the DR, Central Romana pays some of the lowest wages in the country, produces most of the country’s allotment of sugar exported to the U.S. and, thanks to CAFTA-DR, pays dwindling tariffs for those exports. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Fanjuls sell their sugar at sometimes two to three times the global market price, thanks to import limits and price supports.
It’s the consummate immigrant success story. The Fanjul brothers and one sister, Alfonso, José, Andres, Alexander and Lian, come from a long line of powerful Cuban sugar producers. After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the family fled to Florida. They began growing cane in and around the Everglades and in the 1980s expanded production to the Dominican Republic, where their company is now the country’s largest private landowner and employer.
In the United States, too, the Fanjuls are among the biggest cane growers, and they co-own the world’s largest refining company, American Sugar Refining, also known as ASR, which markets its product under the brand names Domino, C&H, Redpath, Tate & Lyle and Florida Crystals. The group owns or is a major shareholder in refineries in four U.S. states and six other countries. While the brothers run the business, Lian tends to the charities she founded to help people living in poverty near the Fanjuls’ business operations in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Representatives of the Fanjuls, including their companies and charities in the DR and Florida, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Despite their international holdings, the Fanjuls have kept their focus on ensuring that their U.S. operations are as secure and profitable as possible, with little pushback from the government. In last year’s election cycle, the Florida Crystals political action committee and the company’s employees together contributed more than $860,000 to candidates and political spending groups. Also in 2014, Florida Crystals spent more than $1 million lobbying Congress, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, largely on import tariffs and policies on biofuels and clean water.
The sugar industry, too, is a heavy donor. According to the nonpartisan research group Center for Responsive Politics, the industry gave more than $5 million to members of Congress in the last election cycle, an all-time high. What the industry gets in return for all this are domestic controls and import tariffs that keep prices up and profits high for U.S. sugar producers, perpetuating a controversial system.
Sugar Money in Politics
Political contributions by cane and beet sugar industries to Congressional candidates
Sugar is “more dependent on government support or protection than any other agricultural industry in this country,” says Daniel Pearson, senior fellow of trade policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Government has tended to look out for them, so it is a symbiotic relationship.” The price support system, known as the sugar program, is reinserted into the U.S. farm bill every time it comes up for renewal. The program limits the amount of sugar on the U.S. market, whether imported or grown domestically, to keep prices higher than they are everywhere else. And if there is a glut in the market, the U.S. government buys the surplus, which can cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Critics of the program claim the elevated prices constitute a redistribution of money from consumers to wealthy sugar companies and that they have driven thousands of candy-making jobs out of the country. Still, the program continues, and according to Pearson, the elevated sugar prices add billions to sugar companies’ profits. In the face of efforts by some legislators to reform the sugar program, cane and beet growers say the U.S. sugar policy is needed to keep the domestic sweetener competitive and has allowed for the creation of thousands of jobs.
Program keeps prices high
'Sugar Program' ensures prices in the U.S. are higher than in the rest of the world
As exporters to the United States, the Fanjuls have some objectives that the rest of the U.S. sugar industry doesn’t. “They have a balancing act in lobbying,” says Vincent Smith, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University and visiting scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank. According to Smith, the Fanjuls have an interest in limiting imports on sugar to keep domestic prices high, but also for the DR to have the highest proportion of those imports. The tariff rate quota, or TRQ, is the amount a country can export to the U.S. with reduced tariffs. The DR is consistently among the top exporters of sugar to the U.S., and it has the highest TRQ of any country, taking 17 percent of the share. (Brazil is second with 13.7 percent.) Sixty-three percent of the DR’s quota is allocated to the Fanjuls’ company, Central Romana.
Still, what the DR exports to the U.S. is not enough to depress domestic prices. In recent years, the Caribbean country has been far from filling its TRQ because of reduced production due to drought and increased exports to Europe. But even if it did, that wouldn’t lower the price of sugar in the U.S., say analysts. Most of the sugar Americans consume is produced domestically, and the big import threat comes not from the DR, but from Mexico — which is exempt from quotas under the North American Free Trade Agreement. In their lobbying on NAFTA, the Fanjuls’ Florida Crystals and other domestic producers have the same interests. Last fall, U.S. sugar was able to convince the Department of Commerce to impose a tariff on Mexican sugar imports in an ongoing anti-dumping case, in which U.S. sugar representatives claim, ironically, that Mexico is violating NAFTA by subsidizing its sugar. (The tariffs were struck down last winter but replaced with a price floor.)
The Fanjul family donates to legislators of both parties as well. Alfonso, aka Alfy, consistently supports Democratic candidates and causes, while his younger brother José, aka Pepe, does the same for Republicans. And two longtime family favorites are current presidential candidates: Hillary Clinton and Sen. Marco Rubio. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Florida Crystals’ employees and dependents rank among Rubio’s top five contributors since 2009.
Ahead of the 2008 presidential elections, Andres directly contributed almost three times as much as Alfy did to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but Alfonso’s relationship with the Clintons is more well-known. The Alfonso Fanjul-Bill Clinton friendship dates to Clinton’s first run for president in 1992, when Fanjul co-chaired his campaign in Florida. And after Fanjul visited Cuba in 2012 and 2013, he reportedly told then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that his views — once staunchly pro-embargo — were changing. Alfy and Andres also signed letters to President Barack Obama over the past year, urging increased engagement with Cuba.
In January, Bill and Hillary Clinton visited their old friend and campaign donor Alfy at Casa de Campo, the Fanjuls’ 7,000-acre residential resort in the DR, where the Fanjuls have a second home. The resort’s website says that over dinner they chatted about Hillary’s possible presidential run.
In addition to the Clintons, Casa de Campo has hosted both George Bushes and Donald Rumsfeld, as well as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. According to an April corruption indictment, Menendez was repeatedly flown to Casa de Campo on the private jet of his friend Dr. Salomon Melgen, who has a house there and with whom he stands accused of swapping favors.
Casa de Campo, which Dominican-American author Junot Díaz once called “The Resort That Shame Forgot,” is one of Central Romana’s signature properties in the DR. As the Fanjuls have expanded their Dominican business beyond sugar, Central Romana has become a significant player in tourism and real estate. Here, more than 80 houses are on sale for millions of dollars apiece, including a mansion for $19.5 million that features an elevator, a museum, a gym and a private beach. The over-the-top wealth of Casa de Campo’s predominantly white residents and visitors is also on display in the pages of CasaLife magazine, the resort’s English-language glossy, with photos of VIP parties and sporting events alongside advertorials for cigars, yachts and private jets.
The contrast between Casa de Campo and the conditions in cane plantations just outside, where cane workers, most of whom are immigrants, make a few dollars a day and live in tiny homes without electricity, is stark. But are those conditions illegal? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are many reasons to believe they are. The fact that, as Ponticelli notes, there are elderly cane cutters who paid into social security but have been unable to access their pensions is only one of several problems cited in the DOL report. Other concerns include excessive work hours; children toiling in the fields; workers not getting health and safety protections and making too little money to eat; and conditions that the DOL says could constitute forced labor. But the Dominican government and sugar industry have denied these allegations, so the DOL is reduced to conducting inspections, reaching out to individual government and industry leaders and performing the semiannual reviews — with little response.
Critics say that’s because the sanctions allowed under CAFTA-DR are so minor that the interested parties tend to see more benefit in protracted negotiation than in confrontation. “There’s always a little bit of a mention of the labor standards, but there’s no teeth in any of these agreements,” says Brian Finnegan of the AFL-CIO International Department. The AFL-CIO opposed CAFTA-DR but, after it was passed, joined forces with Guatemalan unions to file a complaint under the deal about the treatment of workers there. Last fall, after more than six years, that case made it to the arbitration phase — the furthest any labor case has ever made it under a U.S. trade deal. Still, Finnegan is not confident that a win would bring change.
Charlotte Ponticelli, meanwhile, is convinced the United States can and should be doing more. “If you have international agreements, you should be able to verify compliance,” she says. “Otherwise the agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
Living conditions on Central Romana’s plantations are not necessarily the worst among Dominican sugar growers. They’re generally more likely to have functioning latrines, potable water, primary schools and adequately constructed homes than the independently owned plantations from which the company buys its cane. And one cane cutter pointed to Lian Fanjul de Azqueta’s local charity, which runs three schools, as proof that the family is made up of people “with a good heart.”
If the workers don’t blame Central Romana or the other sugar companies for their grinding poverty or shabby living conditions, the U.S. Department of Labor doesn’t single them out, either. Finnegan wonders what would happen if it did. “What can the U.S. do with a U.S. company like that?” he asks.
Meanwhile, last fall Obama announced that his administration is developing a national action plan to ensure that U.S. companies uphold certain standards overseas, including respecting the human rights of their workers. Finnegan says that what the government is doing is “a step in the right direction,” as long as — unlike with CAFTA-DR — those standards are binding. But Eston Pierre, a 63-year-old cane cutter on a Central Romana plantation, is fatalistic. When asked who has the power to change his working conditions, he points to the sky and says, “Only God.”
Additional reporting by Euclides Cordero Nuel.
Reporting for this article was funded by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

150723-b
Manipulating Florida’s environmental agenda: The Everglades Foundation and Everglades Trust
BizPackReview.com - by Chris Leggatt
July 23, 2015
Think that there are dozens of independent environmental groups operating in South Florida, working their own individual issues, fighting to preserve Florida’s unique environment? Think again.
It is a deception worthy of a Hollywood script – A shadowy organization forming advocacy groups to work on their behalf, manipulating citizens and governments, toppling the will of the people for their own twisted agenda– under the banner of environmental good. If it were in the movies, it might be exciting, but in real life, it would be unscrupulous and unacceptable. Even worse, it’s already happening.
Since 2009, the Everglades Foundation has contributed over $6 million to other organizations that promote a Stepford-like “anti-sugar” agenda, use the same language and generally advocate the exact same policy outcomes on issues. Groups such as the Clean Water Fund of Florida, Florida Wildlife Federation, Sanibel-Captiva Conservations Fund, Tropical Audubon Society, and other advocacy organizations have received a large portion of their annual budget from the Everglades Foundation. As for Audubon of Florida and the much-vaunted Everglades Law Center, they appear to be nearly wholly owned subsidiaries of the Foundation with almost 75% of their operating budgets consisting of Everglades Foundation contributions. In 2009 alone, Audubon of Florida received 98% of its total revenue from the Everglades Foundation.
Like a pair of octopi, The Everglades Foundation and the Everglades Trust use their “arms” (organizations that receive funds) to advocate for various issues, manipulating the media by offering up quotes and outrage from numerous “organizations” as “sources”.
One in the Same – Two Organizations, One Controlling Board
On paper, the Everglades Foundation and the Everglades Trust seem to appear as two separate organizations, but a more in-depth look rips away that deception – Erik Eikenberg is the current CEO of the Everglades Foundation, but also serves as Board Member for the Everglades Trust. Kirk Fordham is the FORMER CEO of the Everglades Foundation, and serves as a Board Member for the Everglades Trust. Mary Barley, whose husband George Barley founded the Everglades Foundation, served as both Chairman and Vice-Chair of the Everglades Foundation, and now serves as President and Treasurer of the Everglades Trust.
Is anyone else sensing a pattern here ?
It’s a Grudge, not the Environment
The primary target of attacks by these two environmental juggernauts appears to be the U.S. Sugar Corp. In the last few months, the Everglades Trust and Everglades Foundation, with the help of various environmental groups they finance, attempted to strong-arm the Florida Legislature into a costly and ineffective purchase of lands owned by the US Sugar Corp. One of these groups went so far as to launch a smearing mail campaign against a number of sitting Florida Representatives. The efforts to coerce the Legislature failed. Now, these same groups are attempting to attack US Sugar Corporation and other sugar farmers for using state approved harvesting methods, by attempting to scare Florida residents with pronouncements of doom, pollution, and toxic gases, combined with images of fire, smoke and machinery. All with the intent of shutting down one specific agricultural business that is complying with every state and federal environmental regulation. Ironically, Palm Beach County, where the majority of the sugarcane fields are located, has some of the highest air quality in the state.

150723-c
What recourse do citizens have ?
TBO.com - Letter of the Day by Vivienne Handy, Wimauma, FL
July 23, 2015
I couldn’t agree more with Mark Ferrulo’s piece on Rick Scott’s blatant disregard for wildlife and environmental protections (“Speak up about Scott razing environmental, wildlife protections,” Other Views, July 16). We do need to speak up, but to whom?
The citizens of Florida have already expressed their overwhelming support for the conservation and management of Florida’s lands and water via the approval of Amendment 1. Sadly, this support has been largely ignored by our so-called representatives, as demonstrated by the lack of adequate funding for the measures covered under Amendment 1. Similarly, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received 100,000 comments opposing the vote to allow hunting of the Florida black bear, yet still sided with minority hunting interests in spite of the lack of scientific data to support the hunt. In response to the letters of opposition, Commission Chairman Richard Corbett, a mall developer, added insult to injury with his arrogant response that we citizens of Florida don’t know what we’re talking about and “have never been in the woods.”
Dozens of my co-workers and associates and I in the environmental, wildlife and habitat management fields wrote letters to oppose the bear hunt, and I can assure you that all of us have not only been in the woods, but know far more about this issue than a mall developer.
Many others and I have contacted commission members, state representatives and the governor about the bear hunt, Florida panther and Amendment 1 issues, all to no avail. What recourse do we citizens have in the face of such blatant disrespect and disregard for public opinion, science and common sense?

150723-d
Working hard to balance what’s best for wildlife and people
TBO.com - Nick Wiley, a certified wildlife biologist, is executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
July 23, 2015
In response to recent articles criticizing wildlife management and Gov. Rick Scott’s conservation platform (“Speak up about Scott razing environmental, wildlife protections,” Other Views, July 16), I wanted to provide some accurate information that reflects what actually is going on.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission appreciates the governor’s strong support for conservation. Florida’s diverse natural resources include more than 575 species of wildlife, more than 200 native species of freshwater fish and more than 500 native species of saltwater fish.
The FWC has a history of supporting responsible measures to protect and conserve these fish and wildlife in ways that enhance the quality of life in Florida for approximately 20 million residents and nearly 100 million annual visitors. In fact, one of the primary reasons so many people want to live in and visit Florida is the abundance, diversity and health of the Sunshine State’s fish, wildlife and habitats.
The state has been, and continues to be, a leader in panther conservation. Even before the panther was federally listed, the FWC has led on-the-ground panther conservation efforts, working with partner agencies on panther research, rescue, management, education and outreach. Because of this work, as well as habitat restoration efforts, seeing a wild Florida panther has gone from an extremely rare occurrence to one that is happening with surprising frequency for outdoorsmen, ranchers and even suburban residents.
The FWC is not seeking to reduce protections for panthers. In reality, we are actively monitoring the much-improved panther population to more clearly define and prioritize the FWC’s role in reaching the ultimate goal — full recovery of Florida panthers.
Scott has taken a leadership role in environmental conservation and protection. This year, he proposed $150 million that included substantial protections for the Florida panther. He also dedicated $106 million to Everglades restoration as well as $71.5 million for land acquisition and management.
We are fortunate to have so many conservation successes in Florida, but these successes sometimes come with challenges. The FWC will continue to work hard addressing these challenges, always seeking to balance what’s best for wildlife with what works for the people of Florida and our visitors.

150722-a
Earth’s most famous climate scientist issues bombshell sea level warning
Slate.com – by Eric Holthaus
July 22, 2015
In what may prove to be a turning point for political action on climate change, a breathtaking new study casts extreme doubt about the near-term stability of global sea levels.
The study - written by James Hansen, NASA\u2019s former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields\u2014concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate.
Hansen, who is known for being alarmist and also right, acknowledges that his study implies change far beyond previous consensus estimates. In a conference call with reporters, he said he hoped the new findings would be substantially more persuasive than anything previously published. I certainly find them to be.
To come to their findings, the authors used a mixture of paleoclimate records, computer models, and observations of current rates of sea level rise, but the real world is moving somewhat faster than the model Hansen says.
Hansen’s study does not attempt to predict the precise timing of the feedback loop, only that it is likely to occur this century. The implications are mindboggling: In the study likely scenario, NewYork City - and every other coastal city on the planet - may only have a few more decades of habitability left. That dire prediction, in Hansen’s view, requires “cemergency cooperation among nations”.
We conclude that continued high emissions will make multi-meter sea level rise practically unavoidable and likely to occur this century. Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the fabric of civilization.
The science of ice melt rates is advancing so fast, scientists have generally been reluctant to put a number to what is essentially an unpredictable, nonlinear response of ice sheets to a steadily warming ocean. With Hansen’s new study, that changes in a dramatic way. One of the study\u2019s co-authors is Eric Rignot, whose own study last year found that glacial melt from West Antarctica now appears to be “unstoppable”.  Chris Mooney, writing for Mother Jones, called that study a “holy shit”  moment for the climate.
One necessary note of caution: Hansen’s study comes via a nontraditional publishing decision by its authors. The study will be published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an open-access
Chris Mooney, writing for Mother Jones, called that study a “holy shit” moment for the climate. One necessary note of caution: Hansen’s study comes via a nontraditional publishing decision by its authors. The study will be published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an open-access “discussion” journal, and will not have formal peer review prior to its appearance online later this week.  The complete discussion draft circulated to journalists was 66 pages long, and included more than 300 references. The peer review will take place in real time, with responses to the work by other scientists also published online. Hansen said this publishing timeline was necessary to make the work public as soon as possible before global negotiators meet in Paris later this year.  Still, the lack of traditional peer review and the fact that this study’s results go far beyond what\u2019s been previously published will likely bring increased scrutiny.  On Twitter, Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist whose work focuses on Greenland and the Arctic, was skeptical of such enormous rates of near-term sea level rise, though she defended Hansen’s decision to publish in a nontraditional way.
In 2013, Hansen left his post at NASA to become a climate activist because, in his words, “as a government employee, you can’t testify against the government.”  In a wide-ranging December 2013 study, conducted to support Our Children’s Trust, a group advancing legal challenges to lax greenhouse gas emissions policies on behalf of minors, Hansen called for a “human tipping point” - essentially, a social revolution - as one of the most effective ways of combating climate change, though he still favors a bilateral carbon tax agreed upon by the United States and China as the best near-term climate policy. In the new study, Hansen writes, "there is no morally defensible excuse to delay phase-out of fossil fuel emissions as rapidly as possible."
Asked whether Hansen has plans to personally present the new research to world leaders, he said: “Yes, but I can’t talk about that today”.  What’s still uncertain is whether, like with so many previous dire warnings, world leaders will be willing to listen.

150722-b
EPA, blasted for going too far in water rule, now sued for not going far enough
Bradenton.com - by Chris Adams McClatchy Newspapers
July 22, 2015
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been getting battered by industry and farm groups – as well as half the states in the nation – for allegedly going too far in its recent clean water rule.
Now the agency is getting sued for not going far enough.
A coalition of conservation groups on Wednesday filed suit in federal court, indicating that the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pulled punches in the recently finalized “Waters of the United States” rule. The suit was filed in a federal appeals court based in San Francisco.
The rule, in development for more than a year, was published last month. States and industry groups immediately pounced, calling it a massive overreach by federal regulators – one that will make private property owners “subject to the unpredictable, unsound and often Byzantine regulatory regime of the EPA,” in the words of one attorney general.
Farm groups have also been vocal critics of the rule; they say it will make it more difficult to farm, to change a farming operation, or to remain competitive while doing so.
The rule was proposed by the two federal agencies to simplify and clarify the meaning of the Clean Water Act. That law covers rivers, lakes and year-round wetlands. But it was less clear about how to handle certain streams that dry up part of the year – or wetlands that are only wet during springtime months. Since the Clean Water Act requires permits for developing or discharging into covered waters, the rule is of vital importance to farmers and other landowners.
Wednesday’s lawsuit came from the opposite direction than the earlier industry and state lawsuits.
The coalition includes Waterkeeper Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, Turtle Island Restoration Network and other organizations.
According to the coalition, the EPA and Army Corps – which have different roles in overseeing the Clean Water Act – sought to placate industry groups in publishing their final rule. In doing so, the coalition said they failed to ensure that exemptions placed into the rule don’t jeopardize the survival of hundreds of endangered species.
“Endangered salmon and sturgeon on both coasts, California red-legged frogs, and bog turtles are among the many species that depend on clean, unpolluted water and will be harmed by the exemptions created by this rule,” the coalition said in a statement.
The coalition said last-minute exemptions for industries put into the rule “could open the door to more pollution of wetlands, streams and other waterways.”
Under the rule, for example, the coalition said wetlands, ponds and other small water bodies can only be protected if they are within 4,000 feet of a stream or river. But if a wetland “is just one foot over the arbitrary 4,000-foot line, it cannot be protected — even if it is vitally important in preserving downstream water quality,” the coalition said.

150722-c
Florida’s war on invasive species drags on
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
July 22, 2015
In the war with invasive species, Florida is winning some skirmishes but far from vanquishing its formidable enemies.
On Wednesday, researchers and government agencies gathered in Davie for an annual summit to talk about the latest findings on exotic threats to Florida, from slimy New Guinea flatworms that threaten native snails to the poster snake for invasive species, the Burmese python.
They got good news and bad.
While some efforts are making progress — vast swaths of the Everglades have been cleared of invasive melaleuca and Australian pines have been cleared from the marsh’s edges — maintaining that progress takes constant work.
 “The important point is it’s still out there on the landscape just waiting for us to turn our backs on it,” said LeRoy Rodgers, a senior scientist with the South Florida Water Management District.
State efforts to wipe out African rock pythons in South Miami-Dade County appear to be working, but Argentine tegus have spread beyond the rock pits and Homestead trailer park where they were originally spotted less than a decade ago.
The two-day meeting that continues Thursday is intended to bring together various agencies and researchers wrestling with invasive species to better coordinate work. Many projects are already joint efforts. But getting support for species that don’t make headlines can be a struggle.
“You’re chronically under-resourced,” said Shannon Estenoz, director of Everglades Restoration for the U.S. Department of Interior. “The effort is almost taken for granted.”
Among the latest findings presented:
▪ Burmese pythons are moving north and hatching their young earlier in the year. A dead female with eggs was found on Alligator Alley, the farthest north documented for a breeding female, said Florida Fish and Freshwater Fish Commission biologist Jenny Ketterlin Eckles. In southwest Florida, early research shows pythons using armadillo and tortoise burrows as love shacks, mating and sheltering in the holes. Researchers found one burrow with a gopher tortoise — likely traumatized — trapped beneath the mating snakes.
▪  Nile monitor lizards have spread from Palm Beach County on Florida’s East Coast. On May 6, state workers captured one in Southwest Ranches, but a day later another sighting in the same neighborhood was reported.
▪  Lionfish have infested waters well beyond Florida and now pose a threat to the entire Southeast. But efforts to clear reefs with spearfishing rodeos show success, so the state has launched an adopt-a-reef program.
▪  Brazilian pepper continues to choke out native plants and Old World climbing fern has spread from Palm Beach County south to Cape Sable, Rodgers said. In the good news column: After nearly a decade battling cattails strangling wetlands and damaging habitat for wading birds, the water management district might have finally found the right combination of herbicides and fire treatment to control the plants.
▪ Not all mangroves are good. Several invasive species have escaped the Kampong in Coral Gables and spread north.
Throughout the day, scientists spoke again and again of the need for early action to battle species and efforts to improve public involvement, from the IveGot1 app to enticing lobster hunters to bag lionfish.
“No question there’s been tremendous progress … but I wouldn’t be patting ourselves on the backs too much,” said University of Florida wildlife biologist Frank Mazzotti. “This is not like Little League where if we try our best and we don’t win, it’s OK. If we try our best and we don’t win, the implications are very serious.”

150722-d
Is agriculture compatible with clean water ?
Duluth News Tribune - Local View by Dick Osgood
July 22, 2015
Agriculture and related activities pollute our lakes, streams and groundwater.
Numerous state agency analyses provide sobering conclusions, including that 73 percent of the nitrogen in surface water and groundwater statewide are from agricultural lands, that less than half the waters in watersheds dominated by agricultural lands meet state phosphorus standards, and that nitrate concentrations in groundwater are three times higher in agricultural lands compared to urban lands and 175 times higher than in undeveloped lands.
Agriculture makes up the majority of Minnesota’s land use: It’s 50 percent under cultivated alone. Agricultural lands comprise an even greater percentage beyond the relatively pristine Arrowhead region of the state.
It’s not surprising then that agriculture has a huge impact on Minnesota’s economy and culture — as well as on our landscape and environment.
We’ve long struggled to reconcile our agricultural economy with clean water. In 2001, David Tilman, professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota, co-published an article that cited increasing worldwide trends in nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer use, and increasing pastureland and pesticide use. To keep up with increasing populations, they forecasted the need for an additional 2.5 billion acres of agricultural land by 2051, and, they wrote, “Agriculture has the potential to have massive, irreversible environmental impacts.”
To achieve clean water, our underlying agricultural system must change. But trends are going the wrong way. The state’s latest report (“Swimmable, fishable, fixable ?”) said, “In watersheds, where agriculture dominates the landscape, prominent strategies include stream buffers, nutrient and manure management, wetland restorations and other forms of water storage, and stream channel stabilization.”
These are not systemic changes.
A new law requiring vegetated buffers along waterways involves an estimated 111,000 acres of land. However, this is less than half of 1 percent of the agricultural lands in Minnesota. Other strategies also are tweaks. Manure management and wetland restorations, etc., are a tiny part of a huge water-quality problem. In addition, many of these management practices may address one problem, such as surface water, but worsen another problem. For example, infiltration techniques reduce surface water runoff but divert the pollution to groundwater.
Here’s a case for the immediate challenges ahead: the Yahara Watershed, upstream from the Madison, Wis., chain of lakes. This agricultural watershed received intensive management to reduce polluted runoff. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, Wisconsin provided cost-share programs. From 1998 through 2008, this watershed was one of the state’s “priority watersheds,” meaning it received intensive continued management. Yet, despite this, University of Wisconsin ecologists Richard Lathrop and Stephen Carpenter published an analysis in 2013 that concluded: “Long-term trends in water quality are not significant despite considerable effort to mitigate eutrophication.”
There are remedies. The city of Edgerton, Minn., treats its drinking water, and many residents use bottled water. There are cases from Florida, where polluted runoff is collected and treated prior to being discharged into lakes, in much the same way we treat sewage. Such workarounds may not be politically palatable, but they are often economically and technologically feasible.
My point is not a criticism of our agricultural culture. I know efforts are being made and of cases where improvements have been made. However, these improvements tend to be small in scale and are exceptions, especially compared to the overwhelming impacts of agriculture on Minnesota’s waters.
My point is to provide perspective and a reality check. Agriculture in Minnesota provides huge benefits by feeding people worldwide. To achieve that, we have developed a substantial economy and culture, one that will be difficult to change. Demanding clean water may be asking too much. Even the Clean Water Act exempts agriculture from regulation.
Against this backdrop, unless major system changes occur, we have to recognize that current agricultural practices are incompatible with clean water.

150722-e
Public needs to urge officials to restore health of Everglades, estuaries and water resources
Pine Island Eagle - Guest Opinion by Ray Judah,  former Lee County Commissioner and long-time environmental activist.
July 22, 2015
Recently, residents in Lee and Collier counties were advised that the smokey smell in the air was a result of a muck fire in the Everglades, which is experiencing historically low water levels.
Furthermore, severe drought conditions have been declared in Palm Beach County, and coastal areas of Miami-Dade and Broward counties are now in the extreme drought category.
A major contributing factor that continues to intensify extreme dry/wet cycles in South Florida is a flawed water management system that limits surface water flow to the Everglades and diverts billions of gallons of water to tide on the west and east coast of South Florida during the wet season. At the heart of the problem is the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) including approximately 440,000 acres of sugar cane fields, south of Lake Okeechobee that has severed the hydrological connection between the lake and the Everglades.
Unfortunately, the governor, state Legislature and South Florida Water Management District recently decided not to pursue the state option with U.S. Sugar to purchase 46,800 acres south of Lake Okeechobee with Amendment 1 funds. The land is of paramount importance to the restoration of a central flow way south of Lake Okeechobee that is critical to recharging the Biscayne Aquifer to ensure adequate water supply for millions of people on the east coast, provide for proper flow rate and volume of water to renourish the Everglades and alleviate the massive releases of polluted water currently being redirected to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie resulting in the destruction of the estuaries on the west and east coast of south Florida.
The catastrophic damage to the South Florida ecosystem and tourism and real estate-based economy along with devastating collateral impacts to water supply and public health will continue to escalate unabated until our elected and water management officials initiate proactive action to effectively and efficiently manage our precious water resources.
People throughout South Florida are starting to recognize that the South Florida Water Management District's focus on maintaining water levels in the EAA at approximately 18 to 24 inches below ground to maximize optimum growing conditions for sugar cane, regardless of seasonal fluctuations, is not only devastating to the estuaries on the west and east coast of South Florida but is restricting the movement of water flow to the south resulting in drier than normal conditions impacting public and private utility well fields and depriving the Everglades of water to minimize fire hazardous conditions.
The state Legislature will be convening in January 2016 and have the opportunity to do the "right thing" in appropriating sufficient funds to acquire lands south of Lake Okeechobee needed to complete the final piece of the puzzle for meaningful comprehensive Everglades restoration.
Silence is consent, or the public can communicate with their elected representatives and insist that the governor and Legislature act responsibly and purchase the necessary land south of Lake Okeechobee to restore the health of our Everglades, coastal estuaries and water resources.

150721-a
Army Corps of Engineers accepting water resources project proposals
Florida Water Daily
July 21, 2015
From the Army Corps Headquarters (link):
Section 7001 of WRRDA 2014 requires that the Secretary of the Army annually submit to the Congress a report that identifies for potential congressional authorization completed feasibility reports, proposed feasibility studies, and proposed modifications to authorized projects or studies that meet all the following criteria:
Are related to the missions and authorities of the Corps of Engineers (USACE). USACE primary missions are navigation, flood risk management, and aquatic ecosystem restoration.  Recreation,hydropower and/or water supply will be considered “related” when it is performed in conjunction with one or more of the primary mission(s).
Require specific congressional authorization.
Have not been congressionally authorized.
Have not been included in the main table of a previous annual report.
If authorized could be carried out by the Corps of Engineers.
The annual Report to Congress on Future Water Resources Development is to be based, in part, upon annual requests for proposals for authorization from non-Federal interests for proposed feasibility studies and proposed modifications to authorized projects or studies that require authorization for the Corps of Engineers to proceed.
The Corps is now accepting proposals for inclusion in the 2015 Report to Congress. Please see the May 26 Federal Register notice for more information.
Section 7001 requires that the Secretary certify that the proposals included in the annual report meet the criteria established by Congress, listed above. Any proposals that do not meet the criteria will be included in the Report’s appendix. Inclusion in the Annual Report to Congress does not provide authorization or appropriation for a study or project.
Click here to Submit a Proposal.
Preparing a Proposal
Please see the Federal Register Notice for details on how the proposals will be reviewed.  For inclusion in the 2015 Report, proposals must be received by September 23, 2015.
Submit proposals online at http://www.wrrda7001proposals.us/.  Please submit one form for each study or modification to a study or project being proposed. We recommend completing the proposal form in one sitting and having all letters of support assembled before completing the form. You will need the following information:
The name of the proposal.
The name of all non-Federal interests planning to act as the study or project sponsor, including any non-Federal interests that have contributed or are expected to contribute toward the non-Federal share of the proposed feasibility study or modification.
Whether the proposal is for a feasibility study or a modification to an authorized USACE waterresources development project or feasibility study and, if a modification, the name of the authorizedwater resources development project or study.
Clearly articulate the specific project  purpose(s) of the proposed study or modification. Demonstrate that the proposal is related to USACE mission and authorities and specifically address why additional or new authorization is needed. USACE missions and authorities are primarily focused onflood and storm damage reduction, commercial navigation, or aquatic ecosystem restoration. Following long-standing USACE practice, related proposals such as for recreation, hydropower, orwater supply will be considered for inclusion if undertaken in conjunction with such a project or effort.
An estimate, to the extent practicable, of the total cost, and the Federal and non-Federal share of those costs, of the proposed study and, separately, and estimate of the cost of construction or modification.
A description, to the extent practicable, the anticipated monetary and non­ monetary benefits of the proposal including benefits to the protection of human life and property; improvement to transportation; the national economy; the environment; or the national security interests of the United States.
A description of local support for the proposal.
Confirmation of the non-Federal interest’s financial ability to provide for the required cost share.
Letter or statement of support from each non-Federal interest.
All information submitted as part of the proposal may be included in the Annual Report to Congress.  Please do not include information that is Confidential Business Information, information whose disclosure is restricted by statute, or other information that you would not want to appear in the annual report.

150721-b
Drought is hammering migratory species and wetlands
DailyAstorian.com - Editorial
July 21, 2015
It’s time for personal and agency action to save birds
ational Geographic, authoritative observer of the world’s wonders, on July 16 published a sad online story detailing drought’s impacts on the birds that migrate through West Coast states.
Much attention has been given to dying and struggling salmon, but NatGeo highlights how species without much obvious commercial value are losing a battle against bleak conditions.
“Birds Are Dying As Drought Ravages Avian Highways” (tinyurl.com/BirdsDying) portrays an elaborate tapestry of life that is fading, tattering and being eaten away by big holes as vital wetlands dry up and blow away. This isn’t just in California, but metastasizing up into Oregon. With 98 percent of Washington declared last week to be in severe drought, there will be fewer and fewer oases where birds, insects, amphibians or other creatures can find refuge.
The Klamath Basin in southern Oregon and northern California, described as the Everglades of the West, is a crucial link in an interconnected web of habitat essential to migratory birds and local wetland life. In 2013, a diversion of water to help salmon resulted in a short-term disaster:
“For six weeks in August and September, the refuge, which is typically filled with thousands of western sandpipers, greater white-fronted geese, snow geese and northern shovelers, stood desolate. ‘It was just quiet and dusty. There was not a drop of water. It was quite a sad scene,’” a scientist told NatGeo. Without enough flow to flush contaminants, avian botulism killed countless birds. In 2015, the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges are again expected to dry up. Federal legislation to help the situation is stalled in Congress, to no one’s surprise.
Rebuilding tidal marsh and shallow ponds is making a noticeable difference for birds around San Francisco Bay. In our area on the Columbia River estuary, similar projects — big and small — have been completed, planned and contemplated. These will become increasingly important gathering places for birds and wildlife as inland watersheds become less reliable.
On an individual level, regional writers offer worthwhile thoughts about what we can do as landowners to mitigate the life-and-death struggles of creatures that add infinite richness to the natural world:
In her blog, Long Beach (Wash.) Peninsula garden expert Rebecca Hart urges immediate action:
“In view of record heat in the western states, please do all you can to put water out for small creatures. Weighted saucers with water — keep water in shade and refill as necessary. For bees and insects, a shallow dish with marbles for footing helps, too.
“And please join me to put out birdseed, particularly the high protein and black-oil sunflower seeds, because with the hot temps a lot of seed and food crops are burning up and blowing away. I typically don’t feed until October, but I’m buying a 50-pound bag at my local best-price store, for $19. And I will continue to put out seed until further notice.”
We can personally help alleviate suffering and death. Let’s do so.

150721-c
South Florida scientists fear mass exodus as sea level rise worsens
Weather.com - by Sean Breslin
July 21 2015
As our seas continue to rise, some cities, like Miami, are planning to spend billions on revamping infrastructure. But some scientists say sea level rise will lead to another phenomenon in South Florida, and local leaders need to start preparing for it now.
The region that's home to thousands of high-priced homes nestled against the water is expected to be threatened directly by the rising seas in the coming decades, and when the harsh reality sets in, a mass exodus could commence. That's the warning some scientists are giving to authorities, the Globe and Mail reported.
In short, there's no way to save South Florida, and lawmakers should start to prepare for millions to move north.
(MORE: Why South Florida Wants To Secede From North Florida)
Here's why researchers have focused in on South Florida. More than 2.4 million people live within 4 feet of the local high-tide line, and according to Climate Central, the risk of storm surge flooding will be far higher by 2030. That's well within the time frame of many 30-year mortgages currently in place, Climate Central notes.
"This is not a future problem. It’s a current problem," Leonard Berry, director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University, told PBS.
Now, scientists must convince politicians that this problem is coming sooner than previously thought, and failing to develop a solution could create havoc in the Sunshine State when millions pack up and look for a place to live.
"Sooner or later, this city, as you see it right now, won’t be like this," Henry Briceño, a water-quality researcher at Florida International University, told the Globe and Mail. "Miami and the whole of South Florida is not going to be like this any more. So we have to develop a way to plan and supply services in a changing scenario, and that’s not easy. And then, sooner or later, we’ll have to move. Most of the population will have to move."
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Miami's New High-Water Line (pictures).

150720-a
“Building Strong” relationships, ACOE. St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon
JacquiThurlowLippisch.com – by Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
July 20, 2015
This past Thursday, at 5:30 PM in Jacksonville, Florida, was the farewell celebration for Col. Alan Dodd who has served the ACOE Jacksonville District the past three years. During his tenure he faced almost immediately the “Lost Sumer” of 2013. Something very positive that was born of that disaster was that communication between the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corp of Engineers improved. This is a tremendous achievement. As all War College graduates know, you cannot win a war with out good communication.
Col Dodd and Lt Col Greco are now retired I believe. Or determining their futures. Thank you. The Jacksonville office of the US ACOE will now be led by Col. Jason A Kirk along with two Lt. Cols. Mark R Himes, and Jennifer A Renyolds. Lt Col Renyolds will be our main point of contact as she will oversee South Florida and be stationed here in West Palm Beach. Many have already met her. She is very popular.
I wish I had been at the celebration. I wish I had been a fly on the wall. Over a couple of beers, I wonder what the conversations were like:
Army War College….Engineering….Bosnia….Kosovo….Iraq….Afghanistan….Fort Hood…West Point…West Palm Beach….Jacksonville…St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon…Calooshahatchee…Everglades Restoration…Agriculture…the EAA…U.S. Sugar…the Florida Legislature…
That says it all doesn’t it?
I encourage everyone to reach out and introduce yourself to this new leadership team.  Yes, there is a conundrum in that now these leaders are in charge of “opening the gates” to allow the polluted waters of Lake Okeechobee to ravage our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. They have a job to do. To listen to Congress and the Dept of the Interior. Safety. Flood Control. More recently, the Environment. A job whose history, responsibility, and direction predates us. As is so often the case in this life, they are charged with managing and undoing what was done by our forefathers in an era where “man over nature” reigned supreme.
Can the same agency that historically destroyed our waterways through the building of drainage canals help to undo this mess? I think so. The Kissimmee River restoration is a testament to that.
This does not come easily or quickly but it can come. And through our passion we can win the hearts of these modern-day warriors, a step at a time…a year at a time. A disaster at a time.
Yes they have outstanding resumes and wide experiences but in the end, they are human like everybody else. I am certain they want a better future for their children. This is the key.
Their  mission is stated as follows:
Jacksonville District provides quality planning, engineering, construction and operations products and services to meet the needs of the Armed Forces and the nation.
Our missions include five broad areas:
• Water resources
• Environment
• Infrastructure
• Homeland security
• Warfighting
Within these mission areas, our programs and projects:
• Ensure navigable harbors and channels
• Provide flood damage reduction
• Restore ecosystems
• Protect wetlands
• Stabilize shorelines
• Provide recreational opportunities
• Respond to natural disasters and in emergency situations
• Provide technical services to other local, state, federal and international agencies on a reimbursable basis
Welcome ACOE Warriors! Yes, the River Warriors and the River Movement of Martin and St Lucie Counties truly welcome you! We are relying on you to protect us and our river the best you can.
______________________________________________
BIOGRAPHIES, click on name: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Leadership.aspx)
ACOE Jacksonville website:(http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/)

150720-b
No oil drilling in Everglades
HeraldTribune.com - Editorial
July 20, 2015
Environmentalists fretted — and rightfully so — over the Legislature's chicanery with Amendment 1 funding for land conservation projects. One initiative high on their ultimately thwarted list was the purchase of nearly 47,000 acres in the Everglades owned by U.S. Sugar.
The property, south of Lake Okeechobee, would have cost $350 million. The South Florida Water Management District governors rejected the purchase in April, citing the cost. The Legislature declined to fund it through Amendment 1 during the elongated budget process. ...
One reason lawmakers and water managers balked was that Gov. Rick Scott had announced in January a 20-year, $5 billion Everglades restoration plan, kicked off with a proposed $150 million in the 2016 budget. President Barack Obama followed up a week later by highlighting $195 million in new Everglades money in the federal budget. Obama even underscored the point by making an Earth Day visit to the Everglades, saying in a commentary on climate change, "You can see what makes this unique landscape so magical. ... And if we don't act, there may not be an Everglades as we know it." ...
If all agree that the Everglades is too vital a resource to be overcome by pollution, and agree that we cannot renege on years of work and billions of taxpayer dollars already spent to clean up this treasure, why on earth would state officials allow anyone to drill for oil there?
According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, a family-owned company called Kanter Real Estate LLC recently submitted a plan to the state to sink a well on a small patch of 20,000 undeveloped acres in the southwestern corner of Broward County.
Their proposal calls for digging more than two miles deep from a 5-acre spot within the site, the Sun Sentinel reports. The oil rig would be exploratory only, for the moment.
Reportedly the Kanters, who own the land, hope to strike black gold in a bank of oil deposits known as the Sunniland Trend, which stretches from Fort Myers to Miami. ...
Good grief. They're hoping sell the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on wildcat oil wells as a way to save the Everglades watershed.
Domestic oil production, as we know, has boomed in recent years, primarily from strikes in the upper Midwest. And Big Oil is relentless in attempting to slake its thirst for more, whether seeking to drill in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska, shipping crude from Canada through a transcontinental pipeline, or investigating possible gushers off the Atlantic Coast.
To its credit, the industry's efforts have turned America from one of the world's biggest oil importers to an exporter. Nearly 40 percent of the oil we consume is now produced domestically. The industry's initiatives have made us less reliant on the often hostile forces in the Middle East.
But we must set limits. And if the Everglades isn't one of them, how could we say no anywhere else? This proposal surfaced just days after the state learned it would get $3.25 billion from BP for the massive Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, which Sen. Bill Nelson called "the worst environmental disaster in history." We cannot say emphatically enough to DEP that it should reject this application, and announce that the Everglades is forever off limits to oil exploration, thus closing off for good the risk that we might have a new Deepwater tragedy on shore.

150720-c
Porter joins Rookery Bay Reserve staff
NaplesNews.com
Jul 20, 2015
Emily Porter joins Rookery Bay Reserve as Coastal Training Program coordinator.
Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve has named Emily Porter as Coastal Training Program Coordinator. In her new role, Porter will be responsible for working with the CTP team to design, organize and conduct technical training programs for decision-makers and environmental professionals.
Porter, who is originally from Kentucky, most recently worked at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she taught Environmental Biology, Environmental Policy, and related classes, and worked with the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education. Porter earned her Master’s degree at FGCU from the Department of Marine and Ecological Science, having conducted her thesis research on sustainable seafood practices in Southwest Florida. Prior to moving to Florida in 2009, she earned her Science Degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, managed by Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Coastal Office in cooperation with NOAA, encompasses 110,000 acres of coastal lands and waters on the Gulf coast between Naples and Everglades National Park. It serves as an outdoor classroom and laboratory for students and scientists from around the world. For more information visit www.rookerybay.org

150720-d
Proposed greenway through 'Glades inspires protests
Sun Sentinel – by Deborah Work
July 20, 2015
The 12- to 14-foot-wide path would stretch from Naples to Miami.
Betty Osceola recalls a childhood growing up on ancestral Miccosukee tribal lands that included fishing in the Everglades, her brothers hunting deer, and eating the fruits and vegetables supplied by her mother's garden.
"We ate mainly off the land. We grew pumpkin and corn, and, at that time, you were able to survive off the land. But now there is too much mercury and phosphorus in the water," said Osceola, 47. "Back in the '70s, they let everyone know not to drink the water or eat the food from the Everglades more than once a week, because you could get sick. And when you try to plant something, nothing really wants to grow. Chemicals have changed the ground."
Steady development continues to impinge on the native Americans' traditional way of life, and the latest threat comes in the form of the River of Grass Greenway (ROGG), a proposed 76-mile, paved bicycle path designed to cut across the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades. The 12- to 14-foot-wide path would stretch alongside the Tamiami Trail (U.S. Hwy. 41) from Naples to Miami, at an estimated initial cost to taxpayers of $140 million.
The Miccosukee and other indigenous South Florida tribes and residents are rallying against this plan, stating that it will only further the destruction of a fragile Everglades. And environmental activists agree.
Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association in Fort Lauderdale, said they already have their hands full trying to improve water flow in the Everglades, stymied since the construction of the Tamiami Trail in the 1920s.
Schwartz described the Tamiami Trail as "a major problem," acting as a dam across the flow of water to Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress National Preserve, with too much water held behind the levies and not enough getting through to the southwest side. One need only drive across the Tamiami Trail to see that the area south of the trail is drying out, he said.
"[Tamiami Trail] cuts right across the heart of some of the most protected land not only in South Florida, but in the United States," Schwartz said. "These are unique ecosystems, and I have grave concerns about the Tamiami Trail in general. This ROGG is an additional road which we don't need. We already have a huge ecological problem in the Everglades; we don't need this distraction."
Proponents of the trail call it an attraction to draw residents and visitors outside to appreciate nature.
"Look, we love people getting outdoors, biking, hiking and paddling the Everglades, but the No. 1 priority should be getting the water flowing, not building a bike path," Schwartz said. "There are already hundreds of miles of levees open to biking all over the Everglades. The ROGG is not enough of a reason to warrant hundreds of millions of dollars when that money can be used to solve this hydrological problem."
The controversial greenway was proposed in 2006 by cyclists from Naples. According to their website, the path would provide "opportunities for education, stewardship and preservation of the environmental, historic and cultural assets of this unique area."
In 2010, the National Park Service won two federal grants totalling $1.5 million to look into constructing the trail and asked Miami-Dade County to take over planning. It could take several years before a feasibility study examines the cultural and environmental impacts and concludes whether the project should be approved, said Mark Heinicke, senior park planner for Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces..
But opponents say they worry that the bicycle path could not only cut through six protected parks and the Collier Seminole and Turner River battlefields, but also further devastate wetlands, weaken restoration efforts and lead to commercialization.
Their most recent protest took place earlier this month outside downtown Miami-Dade County's Stephen P. Clark Center, where dozens chanted and carried protest signs. In March, a five-day Walk for Mother Earth, was headed by Betty Osceola of the Miccosukee Tribe and Bobby C. Billie, spiritual leader and clan leader of the Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples, who led protesters the 76 miles across the Everglades, from Miami-Dade County to Collier County.
Billie, who grew up just north of the Tamiami Trail, , advocates for the protection of what's left of the distressed Everglades.
"When you try to control the natural system, the system must seek to protect itself," Billie said on his Walk for the Earth website. "If mistreated, it can fail us. And if that happens, all the knowledge you have, all the power you have, all the technology you have, all the money you have will be useless.
"What I see is nothing but roads, building after building, city after city. What we see is no future. What you are doing is wrong. You are not protecting your future generations."

150720-e
Tegus on list of Sunshine State's most aggressive invasive species
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
This month, a two-foot tegu identified as No. 1125 scampered through a bramble of thick sawgrass in the southern Everglades, a tiny backpack carrying a GPS tracker attached to her back and a string of purple party beads secured around her belly.
No. 1125 has a mission: to reveal the secret life of Argentine tegus.
First spotted in the wild near a Homestead trailer park and rock pits in south Miami-Dade County less than a decade ago, the black and white reptiles have staked their claim as Florida's latest, most aggressive invasive species.
With their numbers climbing, they have expanded their range from the south end of Miami-Dade, west to Collier County and north to Hillsborough County. In 2009, when biologists first began trapping them in South Florida, they captured just 13 tegus. This year that number is fast approaching 500.
Such a rapid rise has wildlife biologists starting to ask a scary question: could tegus be the next Burmese python?
"You'd have to rate them right up there," said University of Florida biologist Frank Mazzotti, who is part of a team trapping and tracking tegus but worries the reptiles have slipped beyond "containment zones."
"We have not been able to muster enough resources to deal with this problem," he said.
A team of University of Florida wildlife biologists is tracking a large invasive lizard in the Everglades that is threatening native birds, alligators and crocodiles, raising fears that they could be as destructive as the Burmese python.
Tegus are still readily available in pet stores.
Trapping and selling is legal — just last week Mazzotti and another UF wildlife biologist, Mike Rockford, came across a private trap off Southwest 424th Street, not far from their research traps.
The state, which is working with UF and shares the cost with the South Florida Water Management District, is paying closer attention, said Kristen Penney Sommers, a section leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
But so far, the state is not planning to restrict tegus, she said.
"We know we are seeing them in areas where we weren't seeing them before, which would indicate there's more of them," she said.
To get a handle on the threat, biologists enlisted, or rather drafted, No. 1125.
The female tegu was captured last month by two biologists on Mazzotti's team, Lindsey Garner and Kyle Allen, in a trap on a rutted dirt road that runs through state lands in the southern Everglades, not far from a home for delinquent boys on Southwest 424th Street.
The area has been the epicenter of the tegu invasion.
Like with pythons, biologists believe the first tegu - native to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay — was either a freed or escaped pet.
Tegus live in burrows and forage around water, so they found plenty of hospitable habitat in the marshes that border Florida City and Homestead.
They also eat almost anything: fruits, seeds, eggs, insects and small mammals.
When biologists opened up the guts of 124 captured along the Miami's urban fringes, they found frogs, toads, lizards, snakes and turtles.
But unlike pythons, hardy tegus can survive in the cold, as low as 35 degrees, meaning they could potentially threaten a broader range of native species.
A population of endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrows is less than ten miles from where the UF team is trapping tegus. Last week, the team found two American crocodile nests off the same dirt road where they trap tegus.
"There is no debate about tegus. All of Florida is at risk," Mazzotti said.
So, where's the recipe for Tegus ? Are they edible ? If so, give all welfare recipients a harvesting licence for 10 each.
For the last year, Garner and Allen have been crisscrossing the southern Everglades trapping the tegus in attempt to contain them and monitor eight females released with trackers. At any given time, the team has between 30 and 40 traps, along with camouflaged cameras, scattered along the roads, tucked into the sawgrass in areas that look especially tegu-ish.
They use raccoon traps, like Have-A-Hearts, baited with chicken eggs from the supermarket. Allen said they experimented with papaya, turkey meat and cat food, keeping tabs on the capture-to-bait ratio.
"These are what get the highest catch effort," Allen said holding up an egg.
The team also tried out smaller traps - PVC pipe covered with chicken wiring - to catch younger tegus sneaking into the larger traps to steal eggs.
During winters, tegu slip into a kind of reptile hibernation called brumation. So - deer flies be damned - Garner and Allen spend every week day in spring and summer checking traps. They have clearly gotten better at trapping - a fact that Mazzotti said can not be ignored in analyzing numbers.
They average five catches a day. Their record remains one week in April when they caught 31tegus in three days.
"For me, the most surprising thing is just how many there are," said Allen, who said the biggest tegu was nearly five feet long.
Aside from removing the lizards from the wild, trapping is also helping them understand how the tegus are adapting to South Florida.
In a study published earlier this year, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey looked at the relationship between tegus and altered habitat. Researchers know that Florida has more invasive species partly because its native forests and wetlands, that might otherwise have withstood marauding Brazilian peppers, Australian pines, Nile monitors and rock pythons, have been weakened by being drained, paved and subdivided.
The study found that tegus on the periphery of the Everglades moved more than those in its dense middle. Where there were roads and drained wetlands, tegus moved more freely. They also found tegus liked to hang out near trees and shrubs, suggesting they may be hunting bird eggs.
Another scary fact: tegus are capable of prolific breeding. In April, Garner and Allen discovered two nests, each holding 27 eggs. Mazzotti said tegus aren't necessarily social, but tend to clump together. More than once, his team have found multiple tegus in a single trap. They also know females guard nests.
Armed with this information, they are now tracking the eight females - in white, pink and blue party beads to better identify those photographed - hoping to detect a pattern to better manage trapping efforts. While biologists suspect numbers are going up, they still have no good population estimates, Mazzotti said, meaning they can't even be sure whether trapping is slowing down growth. More importantly, the state needs to formalize a plan for dealing with invasive species in the future. The state's "rapid" assessment of the tegu took two years, he said.
On Wednesday, Sommers said the team will give an update on efforts at the Everglades Invasive Species Summit in Davie, the yearly meeting where biologists from state and federal agencies meet with researchers and others to coordinate efforts.
"It's a legitimate question: what affect are we having," Mazzotti said. "If the number we're trapping is too small, the population will compensate. If we're not trapping enough females, we may not be having the desired affects…..We have convincing data on python's impact on mammals. We don't have the same on tegus."

150719-a
No surprise
Ocala.com - Editorial
July 19, 2015
When the St. Johns River Water Management Governing Board voted unanimously this week to approve a permit allowing Sleepy Creek Lands to pump 1.46 million gallons a day from the aquifer to irrigate pasturelands for grass-fed cattle, the reaction was predictably mixed.
Opponents, who had fought in the town square and the courtroom for more than three years to block the permit, were obviously disappointed.
Supporters of the permit were surely relieved, although far from celebratory, since they have more permits to go, with actual resistance from water managers.
And then there was resignation by the general public. Of course, the permit was approved. They always — always — are, even when an iconic natural asset like Silver Springs is threatened by said permit.
Amazingly, the board said it based its unanimous vote on “science.” Water district scientists said the “science” showed the Sleepy Creek withdrawal would not harm the aquifer, Silver Springs, the Silver River or the Ocklawaha River.
What seemed to be omitted, forgotten or simply ignored, are the dozens of scientific studies that show Silver Springs’ flow is down one-third from historical levels, its nitrate levels are 3½ times the state limits, and algae covers most of the spring and river floors. We wonder where that science was as the water board deliberated.
And never mind that, while Sleepy Creek officials reduced their request from 13 million gallons a day to 1.46 million gallons — with more requests to come, we might add — they also acquired farms in neighboring counties in order to spread their operation and need for water around. So, in the end, Sleepy Creek is using far more than 1.46 million gallons a day across North Florida.
The Sleepy Creek Lands, formerly Adena Springs Ranch, permit request did, however, achieve one important thing: It proved to be a rallying point for all of Florida’s water advocates. They recognize, as do we, that continuing down the same policy path Florida is traveling will lead to the destruction of our waterways and, ultimately, our water supply if changes are not made. And soon. As we have said from the outset, if we cannot save Silver Springs, what can we save?
That said, public pressure did change the dynamic of this permit process. It was delayed repeatedly while water officials sought more information and required Sleepy Creek to make more modifications. High-ranking staff, who were mildly supportive of limiting Sleepy Creek’s water haul, were earlier this year ousted from the St. Johns offices by a governor who simply does not get the gravity of Florida’s water crisis. And, because the permit forced close examination into just how strained Marion County’s water supply is, we learned that our community is overpermitted — there is more water consumption permitted than there is water. Fortunately, most of the permit holders are using less than their permit allows.
Yet, while Sleepy Creek’s billionaire owner, Frank Stronach, has promised a bounty of economic benefits from his sprawling 30,000-acre spread, the sad reality is it will take increasingly scarce water to grow grass for cattle and dump tons of new nutrients into the ground and, ultimately, Silver Springs and the ecosystem.

150719-b
Water, water everywhere in Florida, but whose is it ?
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
July 19, 2015
Florida is watery world — oceans, bays, rivers, creeks and lakes cover the Sunshine State.
The state gets several feet of rain each year, and tropical storms and hurricanes can greatly add to that average.
And yet sometimes water supplies run short. But in the dry season, wildlife habitats and animals suffer, wells run dry and water restrictions hit homeowners harder.
So it’s a resource that’s everywhere but sometimes in high demand or not readily available.
Which brings up the question: Who owns water in Florida? From the time rain falls on the landscape until it either reaches the oceans or trickles into below-ground aquifers, who can lay claim to it ? And who or what should be given priority to fresh water as the state continues to grow?
“It is a public resource,” said Dawn Shirreffs, policy adviser for the Everglades Foundation. “That said, the environment is not considered a legal user, so there’s an issue. If we carve up the pie amongst legal users, is there anything else left at the end of the day (for plants, animals and drinking water aquifers)? That’s a conversation that’s constantly ongoing and shifting.”
It may seem that Florida is blessed with an endless resource (prior to drainage, the Everglades was one of the largest freshwater producing systems on the planet), but water here is now a limited resource.
“We end up getting a get out of jail card because we get a lot rain,” said Rae Ann Wessel, with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. “If you have enough water, everybody is happy. If you don’t have enough water, something should change.”
That fictitious card may not be available in the future, though, as Florida continues to develop.
At close to 20 million people, Florida is the third largest state in the Union, and it seems the state is experiencing another growth spurt in the wake of a recovering economy.
More people means more demands on water supply.
That reality has hit hard in some Western states, which are experiencing an extreme drought.
Colorado has some of the most strict water laws in the nation: It’s illegal to collect rainwater on your own land because that water may have been already allocated long ago to a downstream user.
It’s a first-come, first-serve approach that has led to countless lawsuits. States west of the Mississippi are dealing with one of the worst droughts on record, so demand is growing at a time when the resource has shrunk.
Think those problems couldn’t happen here? Problems have been creeping up in Florida for years.
Residents of rural Pasco and Hernando counties fought big entities such as Pinellas County and the city of St. Petersburg as they bought vast tracts of land and used it to pump water to those municipalities. They thought: Why should we lose water to big municipalities who should be cutting back consumption or limiting their growth. They lost.
Even now, Pinellas is battling Pasco over a tax bill on the 12,400 acres Pinellas owns near Land O’ Lakes. It’s a strange case of one county taxing another county.
To help preserve the resource here, the South Florida Water Management District has encouraged local utilities and municipalities to explore alternative water sources and develop a plan for future needs.
District spokesman Randy Smith said water belongs to the public and that the district gives permits based on need.
“Under state statutes water management districts do not issue permits for the environment and water bodies,” Smith said in an email. “They are permanently protected by the legal process of rule making for minimum flows and level and reservation which set aside water for environmental benefit.”
Cape Coral has become a worldwide leader in reverse osmosis and Naples has been lauded for its non-potable water irrigation recycling program – which takes water that doesn’t meet drinking water standards and allows it to be used for irrigating. But residents aren’t the only people or life that requires fresh water.
Some groups have pushed the state to be more restrictive in giving out large water use permits. They fear the state may eventually give permit holders more water than they need, and that those companies will then be able to sell that water.
That situation involves private companies selling a public resource, said Linda Young, with the Florida Clean Water Network.
“The water currently belongs to all of us and no entity is allowed to sell it to someone else,” Young said. “I think it should stay that way, with one caveat. I think it should belong to people who live in Florida. Water bottling companies, mining, pulp and paper, agriculture, etc. all take an enormous amount of our water, at the expense of our natural resources and often return it to us in an extremely polluted condition.”
There are ways of battling the growing water demands: Technologies like desalination, reverse osmosis and recycled water are used around the world — Israel reuses about 70 percent of its waste water while more than 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water comes from desalination, according to a UNESCO report.
Wessel said the state should create a water budget that shows precipitation and the various uses of that water, as well as water stored underground in aquifers.
That approach, she said, would insure the environment gets its fair share. She said permitted users are granted water before the ecology, a situation that pits growth against conservation.
“We have to be very clear how it’s supposed to work,” Wessel said. “When you have shortage, everyone should be cut back. You don’t give water to one user. Everyone gets less than they want, but it’s the only fair way to divy it up.”
Fresh water demand in Florida - By the numbers (2010) :
•131: Million gallons used daily in Lee
•212: Million gallons used daily in Collier
•15: Billion gallons used daily across state
•8.5: Billion gallons of saline water used daily for power generation
•526: Thousand users in Lee
•277: Thousand users in Collier
•70: Gallons per capita use in Lee
•132: Gallons per capita use in Collier
(Source: United States Geological Survey)
Fresh Water demand worldwide - By the numbers:
•1.1: Billion people don’t have access to safe water
•3.5: Number of Earths needed to produce water to meet current demands worldwide
•0.5: Percent of fresh water that can be used for human consumption
•1.6: Million deaths per year attributed to dirty water, poor sanitation
(Sources: United Stated Geological Survey, World Health Organization, United Nations)

150718-a
Before drilling in Everglades, regulate, regulate, regulate
Sun Sentinel - Editorial Board
Oil well proposed for Broward Everglades needs careful review.
The first reaction to applications to drill for oil in or near the Everglades is fear. So much can go wrong. The Everglades is a natural treasure that defines Florida. The ecosystem supplies the water that South Florida needs to thrive.
Kanter Corp. has applied to drill about 5 miles west of Miramar to explore for oil. The well would be more than 2 miles deep and would be on Everglades land acquired 50 years ago for possible development.
Contempt for environmental regulation by Gov. Rick Scott and members of the Florida Legislature — who have gutted the Department of Environmental Protection — compound the fear. They seem not to realize that absolute dedication to strong, effective regulation is the only possible path to sustained oil and gas exploration in sensitive areas.
" Skeletor " has been " Paid " well by the Energy companies to destroy Florida for oil. And we vote for this evil-doer for Governor. You get the government you so richly deserve along with the devastation of our land and water !
Not long ago, the Dan A. Hughes company demonstrated the need for vigilant regulation when, without proper permitting, it used a process similar to fracking to drill in Collier County. The DEP, goaded into action, last year fined and sued the company. But even in the face of widespread outrage, lawmakers considered bills this past session that would have encouraged fracking under the guise of regulating it, and would have allowed energy companies to keep secret the chemicals used in fracking. If there's no cause for concern, why hide which chemicals are being used in fracking?
Scott and the Legislature did not help matters by ignoring voters' obvious intent on Amendment 1. Instead of using the $750 million provided to acquire significant environmental lands, they diverted too much of the money to other uses. In doing so, they missed a crucial opportunity to show Floridians they are dedicated to protecting the Everglades. Such a missed opportunity significantly increases distrust.
Further — and this is the scenario that creates the most intense fear — a lack of proper regulation and monitoring inevitably will lead to a catastrophe that would halt all exploration and, in addition to potential incalculable environmental damage, cost the oil companies all of their investments.
It is up to the energy companies and governmental regulators to answer in detail every question and objection that environmentalists raise.
At the same time, it is up to environmentalists to carefully evaluate the answers provided. Relatively small scale oil drilling has been going on in the region since the 1940s with no major problems. But interest is increasing. In an addition to Kanter and Hughes, Burnett Oil is interested in searching for oil in the Big Cypress Preserve.
The Kanter proposal is not "fracking," which some fear could damage the aquifer by breaking up oil and gas deposits by injecting water into the ground. In fact, the Kanter family, which also is interested in mining in the area, claims to offer potential benefits for Everglades restoration, including "solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida."
A family spokesman said, "We understand and value Florida's precious natural resources" and are "fully invested in ensuring this project provides the maximum public benefit."
The idea that energy operations once considered without environmental merit could have environmental benefits is nothing new. Nuclear energy, for all the issues it raises, has huge potential benefits in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.
This is a good time for all sides to reevaluate stereotypes. Environmentalists are not "tree huggers" raising irrational objections. They back up their concerns not just with passion, but with hard science.
Energy companies are not just "profiteers" with gutless regulators and politicians in their pockets. Energy independence for America is a vital goal for national security. While wind, solar, wave and thermal can and should be part of the mix, they cannot at this point replace the nation's reliance on oil and gas, particularly if at the same time we are reducing coal consumption.
To pursue the national security goal of energy independence, we must challenge the assumption that energy exploration and environmental conservation are mutually exclusive. We have to genuinely seek ways they can be made compatible.
If fear is the first reaction to drilling for oil in sensitive areas, the second reaction should be: Come back when effective regulations are in place and we'll talk.

150718-b
Once part of county clean-water plan, stormwater ponds threatened due to cost
StAugustine.com - by Steve Patterson
July 18, 2015
The single budget cut that St. Johns County commissioners agreed on this month is worrying some county officials who fear it could hurt a yearslong effort to meet federal clean-water rules.
“It’s a requirement of our permit,” said Neal Shinkre, the county’s public works director, whose department has an October 2017 deadline to stop about 20,000 pounds of nitrogen per year from washing into the St. Johns River along with rainwater.
Nitrogen, a main ingredient in fertilizer, feeds algae growth in the river, which can choke underwater grasses used by fish and manatees. That algae can also sometimes harm people, and Duval County’s public health department last week advised people to avoid contact with algae.
St. Johns County calculated it had finished as much as 90 percent of the work required by a 2008 agreement with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, although the state isn’t giving credit for some of that work yet.
Shinkre had expected to meet the rest of the agreement by building a large holding pond near Elkton that would catch and filter rainwater running off farmland and into Parker Canal, a drainage route running toward the river.
But during a budget workshop focused on filling a projected $700,000 budget gap next year, commissioners told County Administrator Michael Wanchick that they didn’t want to fund the project.
Wanchick is scheduled to recommend a 2016 budget Tuesday, and told commissioners that an $800,000 line item for Parker Canal — half county money, half from the St. Johns River Water Management District — would be left out.
Commissioners have scheduled an Aug. 4 workshop to talk more about Parker Canal and other ponds, formally called regional stormwater treatment sites, or RSTs, that have been built or planned in farming areas in the county’s southwest corner.
What they decide, if anything, could matter to the county’s plans to keep providing water as its population grows, and could also be important if more nitrogen removal is needed in the future. In March, a consultant told the county that stormwater from RSTs could supplement county water supplies. A pilot project is being planned to harvest stormwater and reuse it at a Hastings farm.
But making Parker Canal a place for large-scale water cleaning and reuse could cost as much as $13.8 million to set up and as much as $800,000 yearly to maintain, according to a study of the project last year. Shinkre’s plan for Parker Canal is a smaller first phase of that big vision, projected to cost $2.7 million over two years, although the water management cost-sharing might (or might not) continue over the second year, as well.
The county needs to really think hard about what RSTs cost before starting any more projects, said Commissioner Jeb Smith, who challenged plans for Parker Canal last week.
A pond east of Hastings that the water management district built and the county manages, known variously as the Yarborough property or Deep Creek West, is being rebuilt now because it didn’t work as well as it could. Water moved through the site too fast for wetland plants there to absorb all the nitrogen, so big earth-moving equipment was brought in to reshape the property and increase the “residency time” that water spends there.
Another RST, Masters Tract along the edge of Deep Creek, hasn’t needed a redo, but a final report on how well it cleans water isn’t due until 2018.
“It’s a big risk,” Smith, a farmer with deep roots in that area, said during a tour of the area Monday with recently appointed Commissioner Jimmy Johns. Shaking one hand like he held invisible dice, he made his point: “It’s a gamble.”
It’s already expensive.
Masters Tract was once forecast to cost $9 million, although the water management district agreed to cover $2.6 million of that in a cost-sharing agreement. Shinkre said the actual price for the project’s first phase, already built, and for a second phase that’s out for bid now is expected to total $7.5 million.
But the reality is that water-cleanup projects are expensive legal requirements, and communities sometimes do a lot to satisfy state and federal environmental agencies.
Jacksonville officials agreed this year to pay their own utility, JEA, $2.9 million to lease credit for cleanup of 30 metric tons of nitrogen even though that lease expires at the end of 2016. The city will have to find new ways to meet those cleanup goals after that, and pay for it, too.
By comparison, St. Johns County looks like it got off easy, so far.
Because of grants and cost-sharing deals, Shinkre said his agency has so far spent about $5.8 million from county taxpayers, as well as $4.2 million from the state and the water management district, to meet requirements rooted in the federal Clean Water Act.
He said the county landed almost half the cleanup credit it needed by operating ongoing public education efforts and by getting credits that Seminole Electric, operator of a large power plant in Putnam County, gave St. Johns outright. The other RSTs also helped cover the difference.
In Shinkre’s public works office, where people talk about projects being one lane, two or three, he says he needs half a lane to complete the nitrogen removals the state requires.
The state has a different reckoning.
A DEP spokeswoman, Dee Ann Miller, said her agency’s system for tracking water cleanups indicates the county still has to remove another 5,700 pounds of nitrogen per year by 2017, instead of the roughly 2,000 pounds the county is focused on cleaning.
“The department has no reason to believe at this juncture that St. Johns County will be unable to meet its requirements,” Miller said by email.
But she added that agreements counties make “are enforceable instruments and the department continues to hold stakeholders accountable for meeting their reduction schedules.”
Shinkre said the state isn’t giving credit yet — but will eventually — for construction still being done at Deep Creek West and a second phase of work at Masters Tract moving through the county’s bid process.
To get the last of the credit it needs, the county looked into doing five other projects — installing baffle boxes designed to catch nitrogen-rich sediment, mostly in Fruit Cove. A few baffle boxes had been installed years before in other culverts.
Shinkre said the new boxes would have cost about $2 million total to remove about 1,320 pounds of nitrogen per year, but he had rejected those because he considered Parker Canal a better value.
A consulting company the county hired, Jones Edmunds & Associates of Gainesville, said the canal project could remove 4,800 pounds of nitrogen per year.
The creek project could also lower nitrogen levels a lot more if the county recycled water from the RST back to farmers’ fields, the company said. Harvesting water from a 19-acre pond that county officials labeled a first phase for Parker Canal could raise the nitrogen-removal to 13,000 pounds per year, but adding necessary equipment would cost $6.5 million, Jones Edmunds estimated.
The pond could be expanded to as large as 93 acres and capture as much as 20,000 pounds of nitrogen yearly, but that would depend on the county spending $13.8 million to build the pond and equip it to harvest stormwater, a company report said.
That potential for water harvesting was a part of what interested the water management district, said agency spokeswoman Teresa Monson.
The project “offers both short- and long-term water supply benefits,” she said. It could mean farmers wouldn’t need to take as much groundwater — lowering risks of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer — and could help the county meet supply needs that will grow with development.
But that potential is just a concept, and Shinkre said the county wants to test stormwater harvesting first at a pilot project at Masters Branch. He said the county has tentatively agreed to send stormwater to fields of a nearby business, Tater Farms LLC, but said approval from the commission is needed before more steps are taken.
Smith and Johns visited the farm during their tour, which Johns said he needed to familiarize himself with places and issues he’ll face in the commission seat Gov. Rick Scott appointed him to fill in April.
Johns said the site visits helped him see subjects like RSTs as real-world issues, but haven’t led him to commit to any position on them.
Shinkre said his office will try at the workshop to carefully explain the county’s interest in the ponds and the obligations it faces under clean-water rules.
Smith said he’s unsure how much clean-water benefit the ponds will truly have, noting that farmers already are required to follow best-management rules that should minimize the amount of nitrogen flowing off their fields.
Smith said he wants other commissioners and county staff to talk through the potential and uncertainties around RSTs before they make decisions that could be expensive and important for the county.

150717-a
Florida Roundup: Is there oil in the Everglades ?
WLRN.org - by Julia Duba
July 17, 2015
A South Florida company is asking for permission to explore the Everglades west of Broward for oil. Environmentalists say it's a bad idea and some experts argue that there isn't enough oil in Florida to make it worth the effort. 
Miramar city officials oppose the plan to drill just west of the area, citing concerns of contaminating drinking water.
But proponents of a plan that moved forward last year to drill in the Everglades say that new technologies for drilling oil can minimize environmental impact.
(In the original article there is an interactive FL map of oil wells in use, denied and dry, across the state)

150716-a

Idle pumps as water
is needed

150716-a
Drought concerns trigger fight over possible Lake O pumping
Sun Sentinel - by Andy Reid
July 16, 2015
The South Florida Water Management District says federal officials are blocking permits needed for pumps that could keep Lake Okeechobee water flowing south during a drought.
South Florida officials say the feds are blocking pumps needed to keep Lake Okeechobee water flowing.
Allowing temporary Lake Okeechobee pumping during a drought could threaten endangered birds.
After months of draining away Lake Okeechobee water to ease flooding fears, state and federal officials now are clashing over emergency lake pumping proposed to deal with a drought threat.
State officials need federal permission to install emergency pumps during a drought. The pumps would keep lake water flowing to irrigate South Florida farms, supply the Seminole Tribe and restock drinking water for West Palm Beach and other cities.
But environmental concerns about the lake dropping too low if lingering dry weather continues are making it harder for the state to get federal permits for the pumps because dry conditions could affect the Everglades snail kite.
Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District board authorized a legal fight if the Army Corps of Engineers doesn't OK pumps before a permit application expires in August.
"This should have been a routine matter," said district Board Member James Moran, who called the permit delay federal "overreach." "The current position is unacceptable."
Talks are continuing to try "to move forward with a defensible permit decision," according to Army Corps representative Nakeir Nobles, adding that the state could get more time to try to address the permit concerns.
The permit showdown illustrates just how quickly South Florida's water fortunes can change with the weather.
From January until early June, elevated lake levels prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to drain hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water out to sea for flood control. The idea was to ease the strain on the troubled dike that protects lakeside communities from flooding and to make room for more water expected from summer storms.
But the usual stormy season has yet to come, and now lake levels are dropping below normal. The Army Corps tries to keep the lake between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level. On Friday, the lake was at 11.9 feet.
If the lake drops to 10.2 feet, emergency pumps are required to move water into canals south of the lake. Those canals feed water to sugar cane fields and other farms. They also restock the lakes that provide West Palm Beach's drinking water.
The water management district wants permission to install 10 pumps on the south end of the lake.
Environmental groups have raised concerns about past emergency pumping, saying growers and other water users should have been required to conserve more before the state starts pulling water from the lake.
In 2011, Audubon Florida blamed excess pumping for hurting endangered Everglades snail kites on Lake Okeechobee.
Now district officials say concerns about protecting snail kites are making it harder to get the permits needed to install the temporary pumps.
Federal officials have suggested requiring extra monitoring of snail kite nests if lake pumping resumes. And the pumping could be slowed if too many snail kites are hurt by the draining.
"It is just ridiculous that we are in this position," district Executive Director Blake Guillory said.
Instead of filing legal challenges, state officials should learn from 2011 and require cutbacks sooner to conserve the supply of water, Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said.
"Don't put yourself into the crisis," Draper said.
Shrinking Everglades habitat as well as manmade manipulations of South Florida water levels have killed off apple snails — the staple of the finicky Everglades snail kite's diet.
Losing those snails as well as nesting grounds have hurt the endangered birds of prey, which are typically about 14 to 19 inches tall with wingspans that can reach nearly 4 feet. The birds have narrow, curved bills ideal for scooping apple snails out of their shells.
There were just about 800 Everglades snail kites in 2008, but the population has rebounded to about 1,200 birds in recent years.
"We have a moral and a legal obligation to protect that species," said Tom Van Lent, of the Everglades Foundation.
District officials Thursday said they still hope to reach a compromise with the Army Corps.
Related:           Lake Okeechobee draining wastes water for other needs      Sun Sentinel
River water woes come with Lake Okeechobee draining      Sun Sentinel

150716-b
Miramar takes stand against Everglades oil drilling
Sun-Sentinel - by Brian Ballou
July 16, 2015
Officials here moved quickly to oppose plans by a Miami-based company to conduct exploratory oil drilling five miles west of the city, saying it would hurt the Everglades and the region's water supply.
"Plans to drill just minutes away from our city is alarming, because of the potential impact it could have not only to the Everglades but to drinking water," said Mayor Wayne Messam.
He and other commissioners Wednesday night voted against plans submitted to the state last week by Kantor Real Estate LLC. That company owns about 20,000 acres of Everglades land and is planning to drill as deep as two miles to assess the feasibility of extracting oil.
"Any mishap in the exploration or production could affect our water supply," Messam said.
The company issued a statement days ago saying the project would be environmentally-friendly.
"As stewards of this land, we are fully invested in ensuring this project provides the maximum public benefit while also providing Florida with solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida," the statement said.
He plans as soon as Monday to start contacting other Broward mayors to ask for support in opposing the project. Messam is also on the Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources steering committee of the National League of Cities and plans to seek support from that organization as well.
Miramar is permitted by the state to draw 13 million gallons of water a day from the Biscayne Aquifer, which runs through the area where the drilling is planned, according to Jody Kirkman, assistant utilities director. Other cities and towns in the region also draw heavily from that aquifer.
"Because there is such a heavy dependence on that aquifer, there needs to be strict protection of the system," Kirkman said.
Environmentalist groups have already denounced the drilling plans, saying it would threaten the water supply, destroy wildlife habitat and complicate the restoration of the Everglades.
Related:           Oil well proposed for Broward Everglades
Twitter:            Miramar is permitted to draw 13 million gallons of water daily from the Biscayne Aquifer
Mayor Messam plans to ask other mayors in Broward County to support their opposition to drilling plans
Miami-based company filed drilling application last week with state

150716-c
Water district balks at property tax cut despite state pressure
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
July 16, 2015
Bucking political pressure from Tallahassee, the South Florida Water Management District Thursday decided to hold off on cutting property taxes.
The agency that guards against flooding and leads Everglades restoration had been cutting its property tax rate for four years in a row at the urging of state leaders pushing for cutbacks.
Environmental groups opposed another round of tax cuts, saying the district shouldn't sacrifice millions of dollars that could help jump start slow-moving Everglades restoration in order to shave a few dollars off residents' individual tax bills.
Instead of supporting another cutback, the district's board opted to stick with the current tax rate. Cutting the tax rate would have required the district to dip even deeper into reserve funds to avoid a budget shortfall.
"I do have concerns about where we are at [financially]," said district Board Member Mitch Hutchcraft, who supported staying at the current tax rate. "We have a budgetary challenge."
Even though the tax rate stays the same, the district would generate about $21 million more due to rising property values. That money could be spent on Everglades restoration projects or other district expenses.
"That's one for the history books," Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said about the board's decision not to support another tax cut. "We just saw the water management district stand up. ... They will be under tremendous pressure from Tallahassee to undo this decision."
Environmentalists understand that their celebration could be short lived.
The governor, who appoints the district board, has veto power over the district's budget and state lawmakers also have a big say in how the district spends its money.
Also, the district board could still opt to lower the tax rate during the final votes on the agency's $754 million budget in September.
"There is a political reality here that we are ignoring," said Board Member James Moran, who voted against the proposal to maintain the current tax rate.
Under the current proposal, the district's property tax rate for southeast Florida would remain about 38 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value.
At that tax rate, a home in Broward or Palm Beach counties valued at $250,000 and eligible for a $50,000 Homestead Exemption would pay about $77 a year for water management district property taxes.
That's about $6 more a year than would be owed under the district's previous plan to reduce the tax rate about 8 percent. Cutting the tax rate would have allowed the district to generate as much money as the previous year, due to rising property values.
State leaders since 2011 have emphasized rolling back the district's tax rate and making other spending cuts at the agency that oversees water supplies and flood control in 16 counties reaching from Orlando to Key West.
The cutbacks started in 2011 with slashing the district's budget by about $100 million, leading to more than 100 layoffs. The district now has about 1,530 employees, about 400 less than in 2011.
Every year since 2011, district officials have reduced property tax rate to further rein in costs.
The district's new budget proposal already calls for using nearly $200 million in reserves to cover expenses. Cutting the tax rate again would have required taking another $7 million more from reserves to avoid a budget shortfall, according to district estimates.
A tax cut doesn't help address the district's "revenue problems," Board Member Sandy Batchelor said. "We just shouldn't be spending down our reserves."
Another district property tax cut was of particular concern to environmental groups because the district this year didn't get as much money from the Legislature for Everglades restoration as expected.
Instead of the $150 million requested for the Everglades by Gov. Rick Scott, lawmakers approved closer to $100 million.
After years of suffering from draining to make way for South Florida farming and development, the Everglades can't afford more funding delays for restoration efforts, according to environmental advocates.
They say the district and the state need to be investing more to build reservoirs and treatment areas that could hold onto rainwater that now gets drained away for flood control. That water could instead help replenish the Everglades and boost South Florida drinking water supplies.
Environmentalists argued that spending reserve funds to help finance a tax cut isn't worth the potential cost to Everglades restoration.
"There's more and more work to be done," said Cara Capp, Everglades Coalition national co-chairwoman.
But allowing a tax break doesn't have to mean sacrificing Everglades restoration efforts, according to District Board Chairman Daniel O'Keefe, who favored reducing the tax rate.
"If we have the reserves to make the budget work ... I'm comfortable with doing that," said O'Keefe, who in September could try again to lower the tax rate. "We can find the funding."

150715-a
Florida City bans fracking
Newsweek.com - by Victoria Bekiempis
BREAKING: Bonita Springs city council votes unanimously to pass anti-fracking ordinance. Crowd is applauding. — Patrick Riley.
The city council of Bonita Springs, Florida, voted unanimously Wednesday to prohibit the controversial petroleum extraction technique, according to attendees.
Bonita Springs is the second Florida city to enact a fracking ban, local reporter Patrick Riley said.
The ordinance doesn’t ban “conventional oil drilling and routine well cleaning,” he writes.
Although Florida is generally not known for its oil and gas industry, there has been small-scale petroleum production since 1943. In the past several years, prospectors have viewed Florida’s untapped crude as a potential game-changer for the industry.  
Unlike many oil producing epicenters that were long ago decimated by pollution, oil exploration in South Florida poses particular risks because much of the undeveloped area is still relatively pristine and environmentally sensitive. South Florida is both the endangered Florida panther’s habitat and the watershed that feeds Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades. The watershed also fills aquifers from where millions of South Floridians get drinking water, Newsweek reported. 
Karen Dwyer, president and founder of local activist group Stonecrab Alliance, which has been part of the coalition leading anti-fracking efforts in Florida, tells Newsweek advocates hope other localities follow suit, describing the ban as “well timed and the right thing to do.”
South Florida’s environment and urban centers constantly contend with water shortages, Dwyer explains. Meanwhile, the economy is largely based on two water-dependent industries: tourism and agriculture.
"Preserving our water supply is the No. 1 priority in Florida,” she says. “Water really fuels our economy—not oil.”
Collier Resources Company, an outfit that controls much of South Florida’s land and mineral resources, has vehemently opposed the ban. Collier leases mineral rights on its lands to oil companies. Collier's attorney Ronald Weaver says the company is “deeply disappointed by the city of Bonita Springs’s decision."
“Our client believes, for a number of reasons, the city should have allowed state and federal regulators to determine the appropriate course of action,” he tells Newsweek.
The company also said in a statement:
“Prior to this decision, CRC made assurances to the City Council that had we been granted a continuance at today’s meeting, CRC would have made certain that any future lessees would have been limited to oil production using only conventional approaches that have been well accepted and understood in Florida since 1943 until such a time that clear regulations regarding high-pressure well stimulation techniques were established either by legislation or the Department of Environmental Protection.”
Weaver says Collier “is exploring its legal and other recourse,” but wouldn’t say whether the company would sue, adding: “We do not comment on litigation.”
Related:           Bonita Springs City Council votes to pass anti-fracking ordinance   Naples Daily News

150715-b
Group vows to fight Everglades oil drilling
PublicNewsService.org – by Suzanne Potter
July 15, 2015
Tallahassee, FL - Activists are blasting the idea of drilling for oil in the Everglades - after a longtime Florida firm, Kanter Real Estate, filed for a permit to allow oil exploration on land it owns near Miramar. Comments from Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association.
An environmental group is vowing to fight a potential oil-drilling site proposed for the Everglades. This week, Kanter Real Estate filed for a permit with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to pave a five-acre parcel of land the company owns, and drill for 60 to 80 days to explore for oil in marshes outside of Miramar. Matthew Schwartz with the South Florida Wildlands Association says the plan has the potential not only for harm to the environment, but to the local water system.
"Clearly there is risk involved with an oil well in the middle of the Everglades punching through the water supply for millions of people."
The Kanter family, which has owned the land for decades, also said it might want to dig for limestone on the 20-thousand-acre property. The family-owned company has pledged to conduct its operations in an environmentally safe manner.
Kanter is likely to need additional permits from the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers. Schwartz says his group will be there to fight it, all the way down the line.
"There is an obligation to make sure that the environmental impacts are acceptable, and I think the bar is going to be too high. And we're going to make that point to all of the agencies that are doing the permitting."
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has 30 days to determine if the application is complete or ask for additional information.
An environmental group is vowing to fight a potential oil-drilling site proposed for the Everglades.

150715-c
Health officials issue public warning on algal blooms
Jacksonville.com - by Teresa Stepzinski
July 15, 2015
Public health officials are offering safety tips to help people avoid exposure to algal blooms in Clay County and other Northeast Florida waters, including the St. Johns River.
Composed of clumps of floating green algae, a bloom was reported growing on Doctors Lake by scientists with the St. Johns River Water Management District doing routine water sampling on July 8. Samples were collected and sent for identification to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health in Duval County is recommending people avoid exposure to algal blooms.
■ People should refrain from recreational water uses that might result in ingesting, or exposing skin, to the blooms.
■ Children and pets shouldn’t be allowed to play along the shoreline where they might be exposed to clumps of algae.
■ People and pets shouldn’t drink from the river or other waters with blooms.
■ The health department recommends people don’t eat fish caught in or near the bloom.
Blue-green algae is a group of organisms that can live in fresh water, salt water or brackish water. Commonly known as pond scum or cyanobacteria, most types of blue-green algae don’t produce chemicals harmful to people or animals. However, some types produce natural substances called cyanotoxins, which over time become diluted, eventually break down and disappear, according to the health department.
Boiling the water doesn’t remove or destroy those toxins.
The toxins can affect the liver, nervous system and skin. Many problems occur after water containing high amounts of those substances is ingested. If untreated surface water containing the toxins is swallowed it can result in abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Direct contact or breathing in droplets containing high levels of algal toxins during swimming or showering can irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat. Rashes can result when skin is exposed to algae, the health department said.

150715-d
Springs spending
SouthLakePress.com
July 15, 2015
Florida is spending more money on springs, but often fails to spend that money wisely.
Gov. Rick Scott has touted his support of record funding for springs restoration, including $45 million in the state budget he signed last month. It follows $25 million for springs in the current fiscal year’s budget, boosted to a total of $69 million due to additional funding from the water management districts and other public and private sources.
A letter this week from the Florida Springs Council to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection made a compelling case that the level of private contributions and type of projects being funded fail to truly restore springs.
“Last year’s projects were heavily tilted toward subsidies for those who are the largest contributors to the water depletion and nutrient pollution which are choking our springs,” wrote council legislative chair Bob Palmer and legislative committee member Heather Culp.
The letter cites a project aimed at reducing water use by the PotashCorp PCS phosphate mine near White Springs. The state and Suwannee River Water Management District funded $3.37 million of that $3.6 million project while PotashCorp contributed just $230,000.
That cost share was about 6 percent, while the letter said that the average agricultural cost share in the district was only 17 percent. The cost shares “are so low that the water users are probably saving money in the long run with more effective taxpayer-funded equipment and practices,” the letter said.
The springs council recommends that the burden for fixing springs be more equitably shared and alternative policy options be considered.
The council is right: Our depleted and polluted springs are never really going to be restored unless the state reverses a trend toward more and more groundwater pumping and nutrient pollution.
Paying farmers and other interests to cut water and fertilizer use won’t work if, at the same time, the state and water districts are permitting other users to do even more of the same.
Legislation that would have created protection zones, cutting down on such practices around springs, was watered down before dying when the legislative session was cut short. Lawmakers also refused to adequately fund the acquisition of conservation land, ignoring the intent of voters who passed Amendment 1.
As the letter notes, the state pushed dairies out of South Florida due to the pollution they were contributing to Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. The state could similarly buy out dairies in the most sensitive areas around springs or pay for conservation easements.
No degraded spring in the state is on a realistic schedule for restoration, according to the letter. It calls on the state to at least do so with one springshed and show it can be done.
“To our knowledge, DEP’s current approach — a weak regulatory regime coupled with subsidies to the largest polluters — is not expected to lead to the restoration of a single Florida spring in the foreseeable future,” the council members wrote.

150714-a
Eco-Village looks to expand Miami-Dade development boundary
WLRN.org - by Eleonora Edreva
July 14, 2015
A new development project, Green City, just released its plans to build a 860 acre eco-friendly village in west Miami-Dade county.
The ambitious project is slated to be built over the next two decades and calls for the inclusion of, among other things, 1.36 million square feet of retail, 11,401 new homes (a portion of which will be set aside for affordable housing), a sports village, and a hydroponics facility.
The idea behind this development is to create "a self-sufficient and self-sustainable urban development center in West Kendall,” says Mario Garcia-Serra, the representative for the property owners. It’s hoped that having an urban hub in the western part of the county will relieve highway congestion from daily commutes east for jobs or retail needs.
The catch is that the project’s developers are requesting to move the county’s urban development boundary (UDB) one mile to the west, crossing into currently protected Everglades territory. For this to happen, county commissioners must approve the request with a supermajority vote.
The first step in the approval process will be a consideration of the developer’s application and a subsequent recommendation by the County Planning Division to the Board of County Commissioners to aid them in their decision.
“Ultimately this department will prepare an initial recommendation on whether or not the Board of County Commissioners should approve it, approve it with changes, or deny the application,” says Mark Woerner, chief of the County Planning Division. “We will prepare and post that report by August 25.”
Once the recommendation is made, the commissioners are set to discuss the development at a hearing on November 18.
Garcia-Serra admits that the project is ambitious, but he also believes that it’s necessary. The county’s population is quickly growing, and this project is a creative, pre-emptive solution to address a future problem. “We definitely have to be looking at what the need will be twenty years down the road.”
According to Woerner, it’s still too early to predict what will happen with this proposal, but he admits that the last time the commission approved moving the UDB for a residential-type development like this one was over 20 years ago.

150714-b
Environmentalists say tax cut imperils Everglades
Sun Sentinel - by Andy Reid
July 14, 2015
The South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration, proposes cutting property tax rates. Environmental groups say instead of cutbacks, the district should spend more to help the Everglades.Environmental groups want South Florida officials to spend more on Everglades restoration, not cut taxes.
The South Florida Water Management District proposes cutting property tax rates for the fifth year in a row.
A South Florida property tax cut isn't worth sacrificing money to help the Everglades, according to warnings from environmental advocates.
The agency that guards against South Florida flooding and leads Everglades restoration proposes cutting its property tax rate about 8 percent. That could leave a little more money in residents' pockets, but at the expense of raising millions to help build reservoirs and beef up levees to hold water for replenishing the Everglades and boosting South Florida's water supply.
Buying more Big Sugar land for Everglades restoration could cost taxpayers up to $700 million and slow other efforts to save Florida's River of Grass, South Florida water managers warned Thursday.
If approved, this would be the fifth year in a row that the South Florida Water Management District cut property taxes.
"It handcuffs the water management district," Sierra Club spokesman Frank Jackalone said about the proposed tax cut. "It is undercutting Everglades restoration."
District officials Tuesday declined to comment on the proposed tax rate cut, which goes before the district board for a vote Thursday.
In a budget proposal to the Florida Legislature, Executive Director Blake Guillory wrote that the tax rate cutback in the district's $720 million spending plan "continues the commitment to maintain lower taxes" and help "reduce the burden on South Florida property owners."
The district's proposed property tax rate for southeast Florida would be about 36 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value.
At the new tax rate, a home in Broward or Palm Beach counties valued at $250,000 and eligible for a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay about $71 a year for water management district property taxes. That's about $5 less than the previous year.
State officials in recent years have pushed for spending cutbacks at the water management district, which has 1,600 employees and oversees flood control and water supplies from Orlando to Key West.
The cutbacks started in 2011 with slashing the district's budget by about $100 million, leading to more than 100 layoffs. Every year since, district officials have trimmed their property tax rate to rein in costs that get reviewed by the Legislature.
This year, rising property values enable the district to cut the property tax rate to the point that generates the same amount of tax money it raised last year.
Doing the same thing last year cost the district about $17 million in additional tax revenue that could have been spent on Everglades restoration or other expenses.
The district needs more money, not more cutbacks, to jump start slow-moving Everglades restoration, according to Audubon Florida.
The district should be raising its property tax rate to generate more money to help pay for buying land, storing water and other efforts to reinvigorate the Everglades, according to Audubon Florida.
"It's going to interfere with their ability to meet their mission," Audubon's Tabitha Cale said about the proposed tax cut. "Something is going to be left
behind."
The Everglades' suffers from decades of draining to make way for South Florida development and farming.
Multibillion-dollar proposals to store and clean up more rainwater, instead of draining it out to sea for flood control, are supposed protect what remains of Everglades habitat while also boosting South Florida drinking water supplies.
Funding delays, construction problems and court fights have bogged down Everglades restoration. Most of the projects in a state and federal restoration plan unveiled in 2000 have yet to be completed.
The state's new budget includes more than $80 million for Everglades restoration efforts, but environmental advocates were counting on getting nearly twice as much this year.
Cost concerns are one of the reasons that water management district officials have balked at a chance this year to buy nearly 50,000 additional acres of sugar industry land for Everglades restoration.
South Florida's water supply future is "tied up with Everglades restoration and the water benefits that will provide," said Jackalone, of the Sierra Club. Tax cuts at the water management district don't help get that done, he said.
"We are far away from restoring the Everglades," Jackalone said.
The South Florida Water Management District's board, appointed by the governor, takes its final vote on the proposed budget and tax rate in September.
Related:           Water district balks at Everglades land deal  - Andy Reid
Water district balks at Everglades land deal  - Andy Reid

150714-c
Water district OKs permit for Sleepy Creek farm
Ocala.com - by Dinah Voyles Pulver
July 14, 2015
PALATKA — Despite emotional pleas from nearly two dozen speakers, the St. Johns River Water Management District's governing board unanimously approved a water use permit Tuesday for Sleepy Creek Lands, a Marion County cattle farming operation.
The permit, once final, will allow the grass-fed beef ranch, owned by Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach, to use up to 1.46 million gallons of water a day.
Opponents argue the water use by the ranch, formerly known as Adena Springs Ranch, will damage the flow and quality of the water flowing from Silver Springs.
The permit has been the subject of debate and legal proceedings for a couple of years, but district officials said it combines two existing water-use permits and will not allow any increase in water use by the ranch.
The ranch will be required to shift about 0.96 million gallons of its water withdrawals further away from Silver Springs, which district scientists say could be beneficial to the springs.
Opponents — the Sierra Club, St. Johns Riverkeeper and two private citizens, Jerri Baldwin and Karen Ahlers — challenged the permit through an administrative hearing process last year. However, they failed to prevail with the hearing judge, who issued a final order recommending the permit be approved in April.
On Tuesday, Thomas Hawkins, executive director of Florida Defenders of the Environment, disputed the water district's assertion that the permit isn't an increase. In reality, Hawkins said the ranch will be allowed to use five times more water than typically used under the existing permit.
Sleepy Creek attorney John Wharton, meanwhile, argued its water use will not cause any negative impacts to the springs and "little or no impact" to nearby waterways.
The St. Johns district's governing board allowed dozens of speakers two minutes each to comment on the proposed order. A majority spoke against it.
"This permit is not in the public interest," said Lucinda Merritt of the Florida Springs Council. "We do not need to eat beef to survive. We all need water."
Whitey Markle with the Suwannee/St. Johns Sierra Club urged the board to deny the permit and "stop worshipping the sacred cow of agriculture, which uses 40 percent of the water."
Several members of the region's agriculture community spoke in favor of the permit, including two Marion County farmers and two representatives of Farm Bureaus.
Marion County peanut farmer Danny Colvin was among those, saying he supported the permit "on principle."
"The rest of us that farm and make a living off the land, it's critical for us to have water to be able to make a living," Colvin said.
The ranch has a second, separate permit request on file. The request was originally for 13 million gallons a day but was reduced to 1.12 million gallons a day. The district staff has recommended against approving that permit, and that application is on hold at the ranch's request.
In other business Tuesday, the water district adopted a tentative budget for the coming year, which the board said would allow the district to continue improving water quality and conservation.
The budget also will allow the district to "fund more cooperative projects that benefit our shared water resources," stated Board Chairman John Miklos.
The board unanimously approved a tax rate of 30.23 cents for every $1,000 of taxable property value, a decrease of about 4.5 percent from the current tax rate. That tentative rate is the rolled back rate, the rate expected to raise the same amount of money as the current year's tax rate, minus any new construction across the district.
At that rate, the owner of a $150,000 home with the full homestead exemption would be billed about $30. The rate would raise an estimated $82.8 million throughout the 18-county district, including $2.9 million in Marion County and $2.5 million in Alachua County.
The total budget, which also includes state legislative appropriations, timber sales, cattle leases and permit fees, is tentatively set at $162.1 million for the coming year.
Public hearings on the budget will take place at district headquarters at 5:05 p.m. on Sept. 8 and Sept. 22.
Related:           Regulators allow ranch to draw water from Silver Springs - Sarasota ...       Sarasota Herald-Tribune

150713-a
Algal blooms observed at Doctors Lake in Clay County
SJRWMD.com – News Release
July 13, 2015
Routine sampling discovers algal bloom
Water Technology
PALATKA, Fla., July 9, 2015 -- St. Johns River Water Management District scientists conducting routine weekly water sampling in the Lower St. Johns River Basin on July 8, 2015, observed an algal bloom in Doctors Lake, in Clay County. Samples were collected by the District and are being sent to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for species identification.
District scientists routinely collect water and algae samples, particularly during periods when conditions are right for algal blooms. When an algal bloom is observed, samples are collected, and additional tests are conducted to determine the algal species and whether algal toxins are present.
An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the density of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms sometimes are natural phenomena, but their frequency, duration and intensity are increased by nutrient pollution. Algae can multiply quickly in waterways with an overabundance of nitrogen and phosphorus, particularly when the water is warm and the weather is calm. Reduction in nutrients can help to reduce the occurrence and intensity of harmful algal blooms. The District, DEP, local governments and utilities focus much of their work on the reduction of nutrient pollution entering water bodies.
Additionally, since 2009, the District, DEP, the Florida Department of Health (which is responsible for sharing information with county health units) and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have operated under a coordinated plan to respond to potentially harmful algal blooms.
For information about human health issues associated with algal blooms, contact your local health department. To report a fish kill or for information about potential impacts to wildlife, contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
For results of the lab analysis, subscribe to DEP's algal bloom email updates here.

150713-b
Climate change: scientists warn water levels may rise up yo 20 feet
HNGN.com - by Suzette Gutierrez
July 13, 2015
The present global average temperature may cause sea levels to rise up to 20 feet even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius.
Global warming brought about by climate change may cause water levels to rise up to 20 feet. That's what scientists are saying in a study published in the journal Science on July 10.
Based on past climate patterns, sea levels increased to 20 feet at least twice in the last 3 million years when the global temperature reached the same level as it has today. In other words, the pattern shows that sea levels increased dramatically in the past when Earth was as warm as it is today.
"Modern atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are equivalent to those about 3 million years ago, when sea level was at least 6 meters higher because the ice sheets were greatly reduced," said Anders Carlson, co-author of the study and a glacial geologist and paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University, CBS News reports.
"It takes time for the warming to whittle down the ice sheets, but it doesn't take forever. There is evidence that we are likely seeing that transformation begin to take place now," he added.
The loss of ice mass from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets in the continuing climate change trends is expected to give the greatest contribution to the global mean sea level.
"Studies have shown that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contributed significantly to this sea level rise above modern levels," Carlson explained.
"Ice sheets as we see them today appear to be out of equilibrium with the present climate," said Andrea Dutton, lead author of the study and a geochemist at the University of Florida, The Guardian reports
Dutton also said said that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius will not stop the sea levels from rising.
"Even if we meet that 2 degrees Celsius target, in the past with those types of temperatures, we may be committing ourselves to this level of sea level rise in the long term," Dutton said. "The decisions we make now about where we want to be in 2100 commit us on a pathway where we can't go back. Once these ice sheets start to melt, the changes become irreversible."
The study showed that sea levels increased 20 to 30 feet 125,000 years ago when the global average temperature reached 1 degree Celsius, and they rose 20 to 40 feet 400,000 years ago when the global average temperature was estimated to have reached 1 to 2 degrees Celsius.
The atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during those times were 280 parts per million. Today they are 400 parts per million, and they continue to rise, according to The Guardan.
If the sea levels should rise as the study predicts, millions of coastal residents will be put at risk of flooding and storm surges, according to CBS News.
"Understanding which are the most vulnerable sectors of polar ice sheets is critical to projecting future pattern of sea level rise regionally," said Dutton.
She also explained that recent models show that the melting Antarctic ice sheet alone can lead to sea levels rising several meters within a decade, which is faster than previously thought.
"There are some recent modeling efforts that now show you could get a section of the Antarctic ice sheet, several meters worth of sea level rise, to go in a decade. We used to think it was centuries," Dutton said.
The authors of the study acknowledged that the actual rate of sea level rise brought about by the loss of polar ice sheets is yet to be determined. Knowing which ice sheets were most susceptible and how fast they melted based on past records could help governments plan better for sea level change in their region, according to University of Florida news.

150713-c
Dockery Amendment 1 analysis makes points; let me add mine
TheLedger.com - by Tom Palmer
July 13, 2015
Columnist Paula Dockery did a good job in her piece over the weekend exposing the weaknesses in Sen. Alan Hays’ recent op-ed pieces defending the Florida Legislature’s record on implementing the voter-approved the Florida Land And Water Legacy Amendment, also known as Amendment 1.
I’d add that  there’s another argument to be made in response to Hays’ dismissing comparisons between what happened with Florida Lottery and Amendment 1 funding. The criticism was never about whether it was new revenue or reallocation of existing revenue. It was about deception, about the people voting for one thing and the folks in Tallahassee doing something else.
When the Polk County Environmental Lands referendum passed in 1994, the County Commission was asked by a representative of the  local business community not to  impose the tax because “the voters didn’t know what they were voting for.”
To their credit, commissioners–even the ones who actively opposed the amendment–rejected the idea that we should not abide by the results of elections.
Instead, what the commission leadership tried to do initially was to provide the program with no staff , which appeared to be a back-door attempt to kill it.
After I researched the issue and  wrote a front-page article documenting  that having staff is necessary and customary for all such programs, the game was up and they hired staff, very capable and dedicated staff.
As a result, the program has been a great success.
That is why it’s important to hold these politicians accountable and to make sure we get what we asked for and what we paid for, whether it’s in Bartow or Tallahassee.

150713-d
South Florida experiencing worst drought in decades
Florida Water Daily ·
July 13, 2015
From the Washington Post (link):
Unfortunately the outlook for the next three months does not offer much reason for optimism, nor does the likely onset of a strong El Niño, as there is typically not much of a precipitation signal in this region.
The prolonged precipitation deficit is leaving its mark on the region’s significant source of fresh water, Lake Okeechobee. The large shallow lake has an obvious seasonal cycle, lagging the precipitation cycle by a few months, but by this time of year, it should be increasing and it is still decreasing. The lake level is managed through a network of canals, but without sufficient rainfall to replenish it, human demands and evaporation will bring it down.
From the Sun Sentinel (link):
After receiving only 25 percent of its normal rain this wet season, South Florida is the driest it’s been in six decades, leading to severe to extreme drought conditions across most of the region.
Yet water supplies remain fairly healthy and the South Florida Water Management District has no plans to tighten water restrictions at this point.

150712-a
Brevard businessman seeks understanding from EPA
Florida Today – by Wayne T. Price
July 12, 2015
MELBOURNE – Scott Lewit is looking for some friends in high places.
He needs them as tries to poke through the fortress known as the Environmental Protection Agency and get a little regulatory relief. At the least he'd like a fair hearing.
Lewit, founder and president of Compsys Inc. — a manufacturer of composite products that use a patented substance called Prisma — already has U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, on his side.
And to keep things bi-partisan, Lewit earlier this month gave a personal tour of his manufacturing on Dow Road in Melbourne to U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.
Murphy, by the way, is the leading Democrat contending for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio.
Lewit is no fly-by-night entrepreneur. A graduate of the Florida Institute of Technology, he has been in the research and manufacturing game for a couple decades in Brevard County. The U.S. Navy picked up on one of his designs, building a prototype of a utility boat that is 40 percent lighter, more fuel-efficient and less likely to injure its crew when it crashes into waves.
And Lewit also is a notable figure with the National Marine Manufacturing Association.
To understand Lewit's position with the EPA, you have to put on your science hat for a moment.
To produce Prisma coating, Compsys needs a refrigerant and blowing agent called 134a. The EPA, in one of its attempts to reduce greenhouse gasses, last year placed limits on 134a because of the carbon dioxide equivalents it contains.
"So (the EPA) takes a very simple view and says if eliminate 134a with materials that have lower greenhouse gas, we help the environment, period end of story," Lewit said. "Simple, but incorrect."
At left, U.S. Congressman Patrick Murphy, (D), representing Florida's 18th Congressional district, took a tour of Compsys, Inc. on Dow Road, Melbourne, lead by the company president, Scott Lewit, at right. (Photo: TIM SHORTT/FLORIDA TODAY)
"For Compsys and Prisma, we depend on 134a to produce Prisma. We have no reasonable alternative at this time," Lewit said. "Also significant is, we save so much weight and make products last so much longer and are more efficient we can show that we save on greenhouse gasses through less materials used, better fuel efficiency etc. Add to all this, the 134a in our foam is encapsulated in composite so it cannot escape."
Lewit says the National Marine Manufacturing Association, as well as the American Composites Manufacturers Association — and some members of Congress — have been trying to get the EPA to understand the difference between "non-recurring pollution and recurring pollution with regard to our product" for some time.
Lewit also offers this example:
"In 1996 we did a Sea Ray boat that won an award. It had a 50 percent lighter hull that allowed them to use a V-6 engine versus a V-8," Lewit said. "This reduced the cost of the boat, reduced the fuel it needs, reduced the weight and cost of the trailer and allowed a smaller less costly tow vehicle, which would get better gas mileage.
"Without Prisma the boat would have cost more to purchase, more to run, more to tow and it all would have made more greenhouse gasses."
For reference using one gallon of fuel creates 22.39 pounds of carbon dioxide, so making a lighter more efficient product uses less fuel and thus creates less pollution, Lewit said. He presented his findings to the EPA and essentially got nowhere.
"I talk to them," Lewit said, "but they will not talk back to me."
That's where guys like Posey and Murphy hopefully can, and will, step up. Lewit understands and appreciates the EPA's mission. But it is a powerful bureaucracy that can make things rough for business operators, large and small.
Lewit, who also has the U.S. Small Business Administration helping with his case, desperately needs to get the EPA folks to understand that a one-size-fits-all policy painfully burdens small manufacturers and muzzles growth and jobs.
Murphy, an advocate of repairing the ecological damage on the Indian River and Florida Everglades, was sympathetic.
"The bureaucracy in Washington is stifling growth in many areas," said Murphy, who earlier in the year while on a tour of the Everglades with President Obama presented the president with a jar of muck from the Indian River to illustrate the need to focus more efforts on the waterway's recovery.
"Oftentimes people get in this conversation of too much regulation, or not enough," Murphy added. "To me it's smarter regulation. It's addressing the key issues at hand and not painting it as a one size fits all."
From his lips to the EPA's ears.
Related:           States, industry groups sue EPA, Army Corps           Farm and Dairy

150712-b
Eight people rescued from three airboats stranded in Everglades
Sun Sentinel - by Brian Ballou
January 12, 2015
An airboat that ran aground in the Everglades touched off two failed rescues over the weekend by friends and family, leaving eight people stranded until a Broward Sheriff's Office helicopter plucked them to safety.
"It was a long and hot day and fortunately everything ended good for everybody," said Mike Jachles, spokesman for Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue.
Three people were on the first airboat: Grant Cook, Christine Karpowitz and Cook's 11-year-old grandson Jeremy Jr. The boat, which launched at mile marker 35, had run aground Saturday afternoon because of dry conditions. The three passengers had dinner but ran out of water, said Jeremy Cook Sr., Grant Cook's son.
Cook Sr. received a call from his father at 4 p.m. Saturday. Dad had run aground and was low on fuel.
Cook Sr. and friend Fernando Gonzalez, of Pembroke Pines, launched an airboat from mile marker 41 and reached the grounded vessel at 9 p.m. Saturday.
The newly arrived airboat had a supply of gas and a few bottles of water and soda. The drinks didn't last long.
Both airboats trudged over dry land for about 12 miles, looking for a way out, said Cook Sr., of Fort Lauderdale.
"I called another friend, Jesse Stewart," told him to bring lots of gas," Cook Sr. said.
Stewart, of Fort Lauderdale, along with friends Scott Bednar, of Davie, and Darryl Gregory, of Plantation, launched from mile marker 41 at 11 p.m. Saturday night, carrying 40 gallons of gas.
But Stewart couldn't find the two airboats, and eventually he too ran aground.
All three airboats spent the night in the Everglades, Cook Sr. said.
A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue helicopter helped rescue eight people from three airboats stranded in the Everglades on Sunday. 
Early Sunday morning, Cook Sr. went looking for Stewart's boat, still navigating his own over mostly dry land.
"My dad has had a lot of health problems over the past year, and he takes a lot of medication," Cook Sr. said. During a phone call about noon, Cook Sr. told his father to call 911.
At 12:45 p.m. Sunday, authorities received a call about the three stranded vessels.
"I've been stuck before but I ain't never been stranded. When you push 10 feet and you get stuck and then you push another 10 feet, you're running out of energy. It's not fun," Bednar told news crews after the rescue.
All three boats were stranded south of Interstate 75, in western Broward County near the Collier County line, at least 25 miles west of Weston, Jachles said.
The airboats were located with the help of cell phone and GPS coordinates.
A medic was lowered from the helicopter to check the health of each passenger.
After seven rescue helicopter flights, the stranded airboaters were all brought to safety. They were in good health, and no one went to a hospital.
BSO's air rescue and marine units and the Miccosukee Police assisted in the rescues, Jachles said.
"That was the first time something like this has ever happened to my father, and he's been going out there for many, many years," Cook Sr. said. "It was a mistake on his behalf, but I'm sure he'll pay more attention the next time."

150712-c
Oil well proposed for Broward Everglades
Sun Sentinel – by David Fleshler
July 12, 2015
Miami company has applied for a permit to drill for oil in the Everglades of western Broward County, setting off a likely fight with environmentalists over a remote area inhabited by wading birds, alligators and other wildlife.
As second-generation Floridians and owners of this property for over 50 years, we are excited about the opportunities this land and these resources will provide for Florida- John Kanter
Kanter Real Estate LLC, which owns 20,000 undeveloped acres of the Everglades in far southwestern Broward County, filed applications with the state to drill a well more than two miles deep to assess the feasibility of extracting oil. The well would stand about five miles west of Miramar.
The company said the application filed this week is "one of the first steps in a long-term plan that includes proposed mining, as well as water storage and water quality improvement components that have the potential for assisting with Everglades restoration."
The land was originally acquired by Joseph Kanter, a Miami banker, real estate developer and philanthropist who helped found Lauderhill and several other communities. His plans to build a town on the Everglades land never materialized. The South Florida Water Management District acquired the rights to control the water flowing over the land, as part of its management of the Everglades.
Kanter's son John said in a written statement the company plans to develop its holding in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Oil drilling is not historically compatible with protecting the water supply and Everglades restoration.- Lisa Interlandi, Everglades Law Center
"As second-generation Floridians and owners of this property for over 50 years, we are excited about the opportunities this land and these resources will provide for Florida," he said. "We understand and value Florida's precious natural resources and believe the team of experts we have hired will allow us to complete the project safely while protecting Florida's environment. As stewards of this land, we are fully invested in ensuring this project provides the maximum public benefit while also providing Florida with solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida."
Corporations desire only profits,they have no comprehension or compassion for the people they affect. I don't blame them since it is what they are. They will go to whatever lengths they legally can in order to maximize profits. In many cases they are aware of only the potential fines...
princessgail
The land rests on an underground series of oil deposits called the Sunniland Trend, which runs from Fort Myers to Miami, where South Florida's modest oil business has quietly gone on since the 1940s. In the past few years, there has been greater interest in looking for additional Sunniland oil deposits, including a pending plan for seismic exploration at Big Cypress National Preserve, where oil wells have been active in two locations for years.
Environmentalists, who only learned of the proposal Friday, said that drilling that area would threaten the region's water supply, destroy wildlife habitat and complicate the restoration of the Everglades.
"I can tell you categorically it's a big concern," said Lisa Interlandi, staff attorney for the Everglades Law Center. "Oil drilling is not historically compatible with protecting the water supply and Everglades restoration."
Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, said he would fight the proposal but that the state's regulators tend to rubber-stamp oil drilling applications. He said the work would expose the Biscayne aquifer, the porous layer of underground limestone that serves as a source of South Florida's drinking water.
"It's ludicrous to consider doing this to the Everglades and the water supply," he said. "This is the recharge area for the Biscayne Aquifer. Any rock mining or oil drilling is going to cut through the Biscayne Aquifer."
The plan filed with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection calls for a five-acre oil pad, with the drill reaching 11,800 feet. Once up and running, the drilling would take place 24 hours a day for 60 to 80 days. A crew of 12 to 18 people would work on site.
The well would be exploratory only. There are no plans yet for pipelines or other means of transporting the oil.
Related:           Miami company applies to drill for oil in Everglades WFLA.com – by Associated Press
Miami company applies to drill for oil in Everglades | News ...         Daytona Beach News-Journal
Miami company applies to drill for oil in Everglades - GreenwichTime        Greenwich Time
Company Wants Exploratory Oil Well West Of Miramar      CBS Local

150711-a
Voter-approved Everglades repair work long overdue
PBdailyNews.com - by John Arthur Marshall, Special to the Daily News
July 11, 2015
On June 11, 1981, the comprehensive proposal “To Repair the Everglades” was taken to the South Florida Water Management District governing board. The proposal came in the form of a four-page petition published as a Friends of the Everglades newsletter and an eight-page amplification of multiple benefits directed to the district.Aided and abetted by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and Johnny and Marianna Jones, former governing board member Art Marshall Jr. became the people’s ecologist, acting as coalition spokesman for over 30 conservationist organizations in science-based advocacy to repair the Everglades.Johnny Jones dubbed the repair plan the Marshall Plan in tribute to Marshall’s service on Omaha Beach and European service, with Capt. Marshall’s unit being the first to liberate a German concentration camp in April 1945.Art Marshall’s journey is a story right out of Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation Speaks (pages 10-13), which specifically discusses the Omaha Beach landings by the 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion. As Brokaw posits, there was much more to come from this greatest generation stories untold.Art Marshall continued to push the Marshall Plan until his untimely death in 1985. Arguably Marshall knew and understood the complexities of the Everglades ecosystem and what was needed for repair; simply summarized: restoration of sheet flow from the Kissimmee basin to Florida Bay.A field of luminaries continued to support the general premises of the Marshall Plan, such as Nat Reed, Maggie Hurchalla and many others too numerous to mention. A must-add to the list of VIPs formulating the Marshall Plan: Susan U. Wilson, Art Marshall’s girl Friday. Every time “restore” was mentioned, there was a stern correction to say “repair.”So here we are 34 years later: The benefit-to-cost of restoring the Everglades ecosystem has been shown to be more than favorable; Amendment 1 funds can be made available to finish the job as an execution of the process of democracy, and the four citizen-scientist luminaries who came up with the 1981 Marshall Plan to repair/restore the Everglades, have all passed away, with tributes for their endeavors, and there appears no visible replacement of the Everglades repairman, in a dysfunction where politics prevail.Art Marshall was a strong believer in the process of democracy as he noted: “The kinds of decisions we face cannot be made by agencies of government alone, nor by educational institutions alone, nor by the business community alone. They must be made by those who are affected by the results of those decisions — the people of Florida. Though the public decision-making process is imperfect, it is democratic, it solicits participation by those affected by the decision.”Along comes Amendment 1 through the process of democracy. How much longer do citizens of Florida have to wait on the process of democracy to prevail?

150711-b
Water management budget must grow with region’s needs
PalmBeachPost.com – Commentary by Carol Timmis, a board member of Audobon Florida residing in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.
July 11, 2015
A promising start this year for investing in South Florida’s water resources turned sour with the final state budget. Even with newly available funds from passage of Amendment 1, the Legislature turned stingy with funding for the Everglades, estuaries and other South Florida water management priorities.
Now the agency in charge of flood protection, water supply and environmental restoration faces tough decisions. Each year since 2011, the South Florida Water Management District’s budget has declined. Now the devastating budget cuts are reaching a crisis point.
As the agency’s nine-person appointed governing board prepares to meet on Thursday, it is time to stop the bleeding, and allow the budget to increase and meet growing water management challenges. The smartest move would be to set the budget at a level that makes up for the $60 million the Legislature shorted the water management district this year. But a stubborn insistence born out of strange logic that not cutting taxes is the same as a tax increase may force a fifth budget cut in as many years.
The crisis started with deep and ill-conceived cuts to the water district’s property tax rate in 2011. The newly elected Gov. Rick Scott had promised to cut taxes and SFWMD was an easy target to fulfill his campaign promise. But the unheard of one-third cut, combined with shrinking property values, knocked the agency off its game, putting South Florida residents at risk.
Everglades restoration projects, science, land management and planning all fell victim. Yes, the agency was a bit fat, but cuts severely damaged the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission. Budget reserves and delays in projects and repairs to a decaying infrastructure hid the pending crisis.
The governor and Legislature created the mess, but instead of helping to craft solutions, they have imposed greater expectations with fewer funds. The best example is a project approved in 2003 to comply with federal court orders to clean up water pollution from sugarcane farms. The $880 million dollar plan predicted that growing SFWMD tax collections would pay for most of the new costs.
However, agency leaders were forced instead to cut the annual tax collections. The cuts were made in spite of increasing operating cost for the network of canal and pumps that keep South Florida dry during tropical weather and supplied with water in dry months. The budget cuts took a toll on both operations and staff.
The latest harm comes from the 2016 state budget. The Legislature all but ignored the Governor’s budget request to put $150 million into the district’s plans to fix the Everglades and clean up polluted water, and allow more natural flows of freshwater south of Lake Okeechobee and to coastal estuaries. Those flows help protect water supplies and keep saltwater from pushing inland. The Legislature provided only $82 million — more than a third of which is restricted to pay to clean up pollution from sugarcane farms is unavailable for other priorities.
Faced with such a significant shortfall, the SFWMD’s governing board faces some tough decisions when it meets Thursday to set annual property tax rates and project a budget for 2016. A millage rate increase of only 10 percent along with not rolling back rates further would allow the budget to grow by $50 million over the next year – not quite what the Legislature cut, but enough to start addressing the district’s maintenance backlog and staffing problems. Total annual tax collections would still be far less than just five years ago.
Anything less than allowing the water budget to grow as South Florida grows will continue the downward water management spiral of the last four years

150710-a
Big Sugar: Hiding in plain sight
CounterPunch.com - by Alan Farago, President of Friends of the Everglades 
July 10, 2015
In Florida the Fox News copycat commentariat is an online web source called Sunshine State News. Nancy Smith, a retired newspaper reporter, leads the operation. With Fox, company ownership is public record. Not Sunshine State.
During the session of the 2015 Florida legislature, the web based source led the counter attack against an outpouring of public support for land acquisition via a major funding source approved by Florida voters in a November 2014 state referendum. So, who is Sunshine State News ?
A 2011 report by the Tampa Bay Times asked the same question. “Editors at Sunshine have repeatedly declined to identify the owner of the news service that frequently praises Republican Gov. Rick Scott and routinely trashes Democrats and the mainstream media…  A study completed in July by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism ranks Sunshine as the least transparent news website in journalism’s new Internet-based landscape.” (“Mystery ownership of Sunshine State News identified as CNN, but it’s not”, Tampa Bay Times, Oct. 5, 2011)
Through chief editorial writer Nancy Smith, Sunshine State regularly railed against supporters of Amendment 1, the constitutional amendment intended to secure funding for purchase environmentally sensitive lands like those owned by Big Sugar in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
Civic petitions and protests were squashed by state GOP leaders who needed little cover beyond Smith’s calling Amendment 1, a “bait and switch scam”.  On other issues like aquifer storage and recovery wells to substitute for converting sugar farms to water treatment marshes, Sunshine State News editorials read like policy statements written by Big Sugar.
So who is Sunshine State News ?  Sunshine State News, according to the Tampa Bay Times, “was initially formed by Justin Sayfie, a former staffer of Gov. Jeb Bush  … He formed the corporation but says he signed it over to Lane Wright, a former reporter for Sunshine who is now Gov. Scott’s press secretary. … Sayfie said no money changed hands; he just decided he didn’t want to pursue the business.” According to current records, the manager of Sunshine State News, LLC is Nancy Smith.
“Sunshine State News is always evolving,” claims its website, “always … looking for ways to make ourselves not just content, but a community for Floridians who care deeply about how and what our leaders are doing to improve our lives.”
But the principal place of business of Sunshine State News is not in Florida at all: it is 3009 Sweetgum Avenue in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The telephone contact for Sunshine State News has an area code in Mississippi. The address is an 1890 square foot single family home with two bathrooms. Nancy Smith is listed as one of its owners.
Public records disclose a second corporation: Sunshine State News Holdings, LLC.
Its address is 222 Lakeview Avenue, Suite 1000, West Palm Beach. Its registered agent and manager is Florida Property Investors, Inc., at the identical address. Florida Property Investors, Inc. lists one officer and manager; David L. Perry Jr., a senior partner with Holland and Knight. The law firm’s West Palm Beach offices are recorded at the same address: 222 Lakeview Avenue, Suite 1000.
Previously, Mr. Perry was an attorney with the Miami law firm, Steel Hector & Davis. Steel Hector for many years was the primary law firm on Everglades related litigation on behalf of Big Sugar billionaires, the Fanjuls of Coral Gables and Palm Beach.
The Fanjuls’ corporate vehicles include Flo-Sun, Inc., Okeelanta Corporation, and Florida Sugar Crystals, trademarked in 1991.
David L. Perry Jr., now of Holland and Knight and registered manager of Sunshine State News Holdings, LLC, was correspondent attorney when he worked for Steel Hector for the Fanjul trademark registration of Florida Sugar Crystals.

It could be that Jeb Bush’s confidante, Justin Sayfie, handed Sunshine State News, with no concern for money at all, to MS. Ms. Nancy Smith.  Only Holland and Knight or the Fanjuls could disclose whether Sunshine State News Holdings LLC is an owner of Sunshine State News LLC, based in Mississippi.
The bottom line: Sunshine State News is the friendly fire of Big Sugar. In 2015 it laid down a steady patter of attacks against environmentalists as unreasonable and driven by emotion, misrepresenting the strong support of qualified scientists for the buyout of lands owned by Big Sugar. That friendly fire gave cover to politicians doing Big Sugar’s business in Florida, who otherwise faced a daily barrage of critical editorials by mainstream news.
Other qualifications of Sunshine State staff include working for Fox News, a former “senior media analyst for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance” in Washington, DC, and and a former organizer for the Florida operations of Americans For Prosperity. Both light up in the network of right wing entities masquerading as the Tea Party and funded by the Koch Brothers.
The Sunshine News website plainly states, “… we strive to cut through the jargon” and that doesn’t take long: the drive from the registered office of Sunshine State News Holdings, LLC to Florida Crystals in West Palm Beach, Florida takes three minutes.

150710-b
Down, but not out
Cape Coral Daily Breeze - Editorial
July 10, 2015
Despite a deeply disappointing legislative session, local environmentalists have not given up their quest for improved water quality.
This Sunday, a clean water rally will be held at Crescent Beach Family Park at noon in memory of one of Lee County's quiet heroes, Jo Finney of Fort Myers Beach.
Ms. Finney, who is credited with being the behind-the-scenes organizer of numerous such rallies, died in a house fire over the Memorial Day weekend.
The day-long event will feature a hands-across-the-sand line of people, a moment of silence in remembrance of Ms. Finney, a march on the beachfront, a concert to support the cause and activities for children.
Participants are asked to meet at the park at 1100 Estero Blvd, Fort Myers Beach, between noon and 1 p.m. at which time the "Hands Across the Sand" line will form on the beachfront.
Chants, sign-holding and other peaceful measures will alert people about the need for restoring and protecting the Caloosahatchee and its estuaries from harmful pollutants caused by high flow regulatory freshwater releases discharged from Lake Okeechobee.
A march down the beach to the Diamond Head Beach Resort will follow about half an hour later. Marchers will then circle back to The Beach Pub to take part in a Clean Water Concert at 2:30 p.m. In addition to the live music, speakers will address environmental issues and pass out literature and petitions, including one on how to become part of a class action lawsuit regarding the state's legislative failure concerning the constitutional mandate provisions of Amendment 1.
For children, there will be an "eco-art" area.
It's a worthy event for a cause that impacts all of us.
The budget package passed this go-around may have those who voted for The Water and Land Conservation Amendment down, but it's events like these that show Amendment 1 supporters are not out.
We thank the organizers for their efforts and urge Southwest Floridians to get involved, if not in this event then in the effort to force our state representatives to more aggressively deal with both the pollution-laden forced discharges from Lake O that affect local waters and the continued issues that plague the water-starved Everglades

150710-c
FDEP authorizes SFWMD C-139 Annex Restoration Project
Florida Water Daily
July 10, 2015
From the FDEP Press Release (link):
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has authorized the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) to begin the C-139 Annex Restoration Project (also known as the Sam Jones/Abiaki Prairie) in Hendry County. The project will provide benefits to groundwater, surface water and water supply as well as complement other efforts to improve water quality for the Everglades’ Western Basins region.
“The department is committed to working closely with the South Florida Water Management District to restore the Everglades and the larger South Florida ecosystem,” said DEP Deputy Secretary for Ecosystem Restoration Drew Bartlett. “This project will provide numerous benefits and significantly improves water flows to the Everglades’ Western Basins region.”
The project’s goals include restoring 17,904 acres of former citrus groves; restoring natural wet prairie habitat; expanding habitat area for native plant and animal species; promoting the restoration of a self-sustaining ecosystem; and maintaining the current level of flood protection for surrounding properties while contributing to the improvement of water quality in the Everglades. Historically, environmental features on the site included an Everglades mosaic of wet prairie, sloughs, depression marshes and tree islands, as well as a drier prairie, wet flatwoods, oak hammocks and cypress swamp.
To restore the site, which is located north of the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in the Western Basins region, work will encompass removing citrus trees and other agricultural features, backfilling of Lateral Canal L-15, controlling exotic/invasive vegetation and making drainage refinements. This will be followed by large-scale planting of native vegetation that was historically present on the C-139 Annex Restoration Project site.
The restoration will occur in two major phases, with the completion of the first smaller phase supplying the native plant material for the much larger second phase. It is anticipated that the major restoration work will begin in 2015 and be completed by 2020. Once restoration is completed, the site will be evaluated for recreational opportunities compatible with permitting requirements and the purposes of the project.

150710-d
Smoky smell caused by a muck fire in Everglades District
News-Press – by Michael Braun
July 10, 2015
A pervasive, smoky smell throughout south Lee County, Estero and into Cape Coral Thursday was the result of a muck fire in the Everglades District, according to the Florida Forestry Service.
Samantha Quinn, a spokesman for the FFS, said a service pilot flying over the district spotted the blaze, which she said was started by a lightning strike Wednesday.
"It's in the swamp, in the middles of nowhere," she said.
She said the mucky, swampy area burning was causing the acrid smell area residents were experiencing Thursday.Acreage of that fire was difficult to assess, Quinn said, but best guesses were in the 100 to 200-acre range. She said the fire would be controlled by flooding the area.
First reports blamed the smell on a controlled burn at Estero Bay State Preserve on Wednesday, fire officials said.
That 35-acre burn involved a lot of wet material, she said.
The preserve controlled burn was located in an area near the preserve off West Broadway.
Related:           Muck fire brings smokey odor to portions of SWFL - ABC-7.com ...

150709-a
Gimenez backs off push for Everglades air show
Miami Herald - by Douglas Hanks
July 9, 2015
After flying to Paris to tout a commercial air show his administration planned for the Everglades, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has vetoed the idea in favor of trying again to put it in Homestead.
Gimenez said Thursday that he has concluded a remote county airstrip can’t be converted into a temporary expo space for the western version of the Paris Air Show. Environmentalists howled at the idea of bringing 150,000 people to the old Jetport site, given its location deep within the Everglades. Gimenez did not mention environmental concerns when explaining the shift, but said logistics were the problem.
“You really can’t do a Paris Air Show there, in the Everglades,” Gimenez said during a meeting with the Miami Herald Editorial Board. “You need this huge space. We couldn’t even hold the Paris Air Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The only place you can really have it is at the Homestead air base.”
Laura Reynolds, director of the Tropical Audubon Society, said in a statement that “it is wonderful to see Miami-Dade County responding to the wishes of its citizens. I hope to see more of that in the near future as we face the effects of sea-level rise due to climate change.”
Gimenez’s new course on the air show, first reported by Fox News Latino’s Miami office, comes weeks after he led a local delegation to the Paris show as part of a trade mission to France. Unlike a civilian air show focused on aerial aerobatics, a commercial show pairs jet makers and other sellers in the aviation industry with major buyers, including military officials.
Miami-Dade had been trying for years to launch a Western Hemisphere version of the Paris show at the Homestead base, but the Pentagon nixed the idea in 2011 because it didn’t want commercial activities on military property. Joshua Salpeter, legislative director for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said he wasn’t aware of a new try for Homestead, which he described as a firm no-go from military brass when the Republican congresswoman was pushing for it.
“They were explicit in their denial,” Salpeter said. “We pushed that about as hard as we could. We got nowhere.”
With Homestead seemingly off the table four years ago, Miami-Dade shifted its attention to the old Jetport site. Once slated to be the world’s largest airport, the remote site was the target of an epic environmental battle in the 1970s. Conservationists won, and Miami-Dade ended up establishing a small airport there. The Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport sits about 50 miles west of downtown Miami, and most of it falls within Collier County.
Gimenez was featured in a brochure touting a potential Miami air show at the Dade-Collier site when he led a Miami-Dade delegation to the Paris Air Show in 2013. No brochure was made for the 2015 show, but the Gimenez administration was moving quickly to determine whether Dade-Collier could work for an air show.
Internal documents from his aviation and economic-development teams show active planning throughout 2014 and 2015 for an air show to be held at Dade-Collier in January 2017. The next step would have been a formal recommendation from the mayor to county commissioners to proceed with a show.
Gimenez said on Thursday that he thought a fresh approach with military officials could revive the idea for a Homestead show. He also noted the 2016 presidential election would mean new senior leadership at the Pentagon — including the possibility of a president from Miami-Dade should Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio take the White House.
Related:           Officials Scrap Plans for Controversial Air Show in Everglades       Latin American Herald Tribune

150709-b
Two Florida families among country's largest landowners, according to Forbes
Naples Daily News – by Adelie Pojzman-Pontay
Juyl 9, 2015
Two local families ranked among the country’s largest landowners, according to Forbes: the Lykes family from Tampa, who ranked No. 3, and the Collier family from Naples, No. 8.
Agustino Fontevecchia, who put together the list for Forbes, explained that the list referenced “land that was used for the land itself: preservation, ranching, agriculture or oil exploitation.” Metropolitan properties or land used for urban developments were not included.
The Collier family owns approximately 280,000 acres in Southwest Florida. Their net worth is estimated at $2.3 billion, which makes them the 119th wealthiest family in the United States, according to Forbes.
Originally from Memphis, Baron Gift Collier Sr. made his fortune in streetcar advertising. Collier first visited Florida in 1911 and later bought Useppa island for $100,000 before acquiring more than a million acres in Southwest Florida. He transformed the area, notably building the Tamiami Trail and draining the Everglades, according to Barron Collier Companies’ website. Collier County was created in his honor by the state government in 1923.
Collier’s legacy today is divided among two major companies that have ventures in real estate, agribusiness, oil and golf courses.
The Lykes family ranked third among the country’s largest landowners, with more than 600,000 acres across South Florida and Texas. According to Forbes, they are the 193rd richest family in the country with their net worth estimated at $1.2 billion.
Howell Tyson Lykes first worked as a doctor before he moved to Tampa in 1904 with his family. He invested in citrus production and cattle ranching. The family is the biggest citrus producer in Florida, according to the company’s website. They own 30,000 acres of groves in the state, while the Lykes Pasco citrus-processing plant is estimated at $15 million. Lykes Bros Inc. also has investments in insurance and real estate.

150708-a
Conserve water or we'll wind up drinking from the toilet
Flagpole.com - by Tom Crawford
July 8, 2015
This is what’s happening in California, as the state tries to cope with a record-breaking drought now in its fourth year. Some state officials are proposing that the Golden State implement a water-recycling policy that is known as “direct potable reuse.”
Direct potable reuse involves taking sewer water, treating it through a three-step process and then pumping it directly back into the water supply, so that it can be used for drinking. Critics of the concept refer to it somewhat distastefully as “toilet to tap.”
In California, we could be looking at the future of water supplies in Georgia, where there have been two serious droughts over the past 15 years. Readers may remember that the second drought was so prolonged, then-governor Sonny Perdue held a rally on the Capitol steps to pray for rain.
These droughts are a result of global warming, which means we will likely see more of them in the future. I don’t relish the thought of having reclaimed sewer water pour out of my tap during the next drought, but what’s the alternative?  
One step would be to enact a stronger package of conservation regulations, so that the water we do have can last longer. “Conservation” is a bad word with much of Georgia’s political leadership. If you talk about requiring the use of plumbing fixtures that are more water-efficient, they’ll complain about “burdensome” government regulations. The attitude of our elected leaders has been that it’s better to spend billions of dollars to impound reservoirs or inject water into underground aquifers than to encourage people to use less of it.
Here’s the dirty little secret: We do a good job of conserving water when we set our minds to it. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey shows that during the period from 1980–2010, Georgia’s water use decreased by 30 percent, even though its population increased by more than 70 percent. The withdrawals from water sources dropped from 6.7 billion gallons per day to 4.7 billion gallons per day.
Part of that decrease resulted from people doing a better job of conserving water. Part of it happened because electric utilities shut down several coal-fired generation plants, which use large amounts of water, and replaced them with natural gas facilities that use less.
There are some simple measures that could keep that trend going.
Instead of spending tax dollars to fight an expensive water war with Florida and Alabama, Georgia could settle the litigation by lowering its demands for water from reservoirs and rivers. The money spent on legal fees could be used on programs to encourage more conservation. The person overseeing the federal case has warned Georgia’s lawyers they should think about this.
“We are talking a lot of money and a result you may not like,” special master Ralph Lancaster said recently. “I’m going to urge you to discuss a settlement seriously.”
Georgia Power should be commended for closing down so many of its coal-fired power plants, but another drain on water supplies is the operation of nuclear power plants.
Two nuclear reactors are being built at Plant Vogtle, but they are plagued by cost overruns and are 39 months behind schedule. The Public Service Commission could terminate the Vogtle project—which it has the authority to do—and instruct Georgia Power to build a gas-fired plant that uses less water.
All of these steps could feasibly be accomplished, although there would be tremendous political pressure brought to bear by the utilities and the business lobbyists.
On the other hand, if you would rather drink water that comes from a river than from a sewer line, you might want to think about taking these actions.

150708-b
Florida Springs Council seeks ‘Seat at the table’ on State spending
Florida Water Daily
July 8, 2015
From Politico (link):
The Florida Springs Council is preparing to hammer Florida’s current process for doling out springs restoration funding, which it says helps “the largest polluters,” according to a letter the group will send to top state environmental regulators.
The letter, dated July 7, will be sent to Drew Bartlett, deputy secretary for water policy at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Along with criticizing the current process, the group is asking for a “seat at the table” when determining how to spend $45 million for spring’s conservation approved by lawmakers.
From the Gainesville Sun (link):
The Florida Springs Council also questioned the accuracy of the projected benefits of the projects, saying that “unsubstantiated estimates of pounds of nitrogen or groundwater reductions do not meet the standard of normal professional practices.”
Palmer said the group feels that teeth should be added to regulations that cover fertilizer use and operations at dairies and agricultural businesses and suggested purchasing conservation easements at polluting farms.
From the Florida Springs Council Press Release (link):
On July 7, 2015, the Florida Springs Council sent a letter to DEP Deputy Secretary for Water Policy, Drew Bartlett, requesting that the State make several changes to the selection process for springs protection and restoration projects. The letter requests that the State’s prioritization of projects be transparent and that the enforcement of cost-sharing requirements be more consistent between the State-run Water Management Districts and water users. The Council noted that last year’s projects heavily favored granting subsidies to water users that are largely responsible for the depletion and pollution of Florida’s water supply, and recommended that projects be compared to each other as well as additional policy options with long-term springs restoration in mind (e.g., dialing back existing permits, charging moderate water use fees, or mandating fertilizer restrictions). The Council also recommended several new funding approaches to ensure meaningful springs protection and restoration.

150708-c
Ralliers needed for water quality cause
Fort Myers Beach Bulletin, Fort Myers Beach Observer - To the Editor by John G Heim, Fort Myers Beach
July 8, 2015
Join the major Clean Water Rally on July 12, at noon. Crescent Beach Family Park is the starting point.
We will form a Hands Across The Sand line with humans arm in arm linked as a bond for ending the Lake O discharges and demanding clean water for our local waters and community at large.
On rally day, we will march to The Beach Pub to be there for the clean water concert that starts at 2 p.m. until sunset with live music and great eco-minded speakers during this day. It's an all-island, all-community outreach for community action event not to be missed.
As official non-profit status now, the Jo Finney Clean Water Rally invites all of Southwest Florida to attend for the sake of clean water and to save Fort Myers Beach from our water quality issues that could very well kill our main lifeline in tourism, real estate and the very real quality of our lives as Beach residents.
The only way we stand up for our community is to be involved in our community. If we don't stand up for something, then we choose to fall for everything. And if we choose to ignore the problems, then the problems still exist. We will not turn a blind eye to our very real water quality issues as a community of FMB because we will not allow big business and dirty politics ruin our local waters for their own personal profits. We end up blind if we as a community do not open our eyes to save FMB from the Lake O discharges. We are not protestors.  We are not activists.  We are the same ordinary people as you and I who simply care about home and want to protect our homes on the Beach. Join us as the Jo Finney Clean Water Rally on July 12. Without you then there can be no US. See y'all there as one human family of FMB for clean water !

150708-d
Voters need to bring accountability back to Florida
Pine Island Eagle - To the Editor by Rene Leininger, St. James City
July 8, 2015
Thank you for publishing the article by Craig Garrett regarding the diversion of funds earmarked for direct conservation efforts. He cited and provided information regarding the initiative to restrict fresh water overflow from the Caloosahatchee River as well as efforts to restore/repair environmental damage to the fresh water Everglades. Both of those initiatives have been undermined by the state Legislature and possibly by various County Commissions. Pine Island residents are also concerned regarding the recent purchases of vast amounts of land by big venture corporations and the ensuing efforts in Lee County to change plans/ordinances put in place years ago to protect and preserve the last remaining unincorporated island on the west coast.
Conservation appears to be a high priority to the citizenry of Florida who have voted to have their tax money used for certain purposes. Yet, those in charge of setting priorities (and budgets) seem unwilling to carry out the wishes of the people who voted them into office. Could it possibly be that we are voting the wrong people into policy making positions in Florida? Are we paying enough attention during our elections to know who will do what? Or are we, as the taxpayers, being swayed by the huge (and ever growing) negative ad campaigns being thrust upon us through the media?
Since the Supreme Court gutted campaign finance laws with the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, a moderately ridiculous situation has become not only unbearable but unethical and dangerous. Unrestricted (and unending) amounts of big money are now influencing who we vote into office. The predictions of dark money funding for the 2016 elections are beyond the scope of the imagination. How can we possibly sort out the pertinent information when our elections are a three-ring circus of smear campaigns, attack ads and out-of-context misinformation?
The injection of big money into our election processes cannot possibly be justified through the tenant of "free speech" as supporters of dark money purport. It would behoove us as voters to determine which local, state and national policy makers and candidates support unlimited/unidentified money in our elections and to put an end to it.
A major national initiative to "End Citizens United" is under way and information can be easily found on the Internet. Most average voters want to return our election campaigns to reasonable, informational and productive processes but now that the Supreme Court has spoken, it will necessitate a Constitutional amendment to do so. We should all sign on and support this effort and bring accountability back to Florida.

Amendment 1 was a major focus of debate on the budget in both houses. Supporters of the budget argued that Amendment 1 did not provide new revenue and did not require funds to be spent on land conservation. Other lawmakers questioned what seemed to be a lack of funds for Everglades and Florida Forever which appears to violate the stated intent of the voters. Supporters and opponents read from the ballot language and from documents provided by the initiative sponsors to support their positions. In the Senate, both President Andy Gardiner and Appropriations Chief Tom Lee noted this will be a 20-year program and that they anticipated more efforts for Everglades and Florida Forever in future years.
On June 22, three environmental interest groups and a citizen filed a judicial challenge to Amendment 1 funding, seeking a determination that it is contrary to the intent of the voters.
The act became effective on July 1, 2015; Chapter 2015-229
Growth Management
CS/CS/SB 1216 relating to community development was the major growth management bill to be passed by both houses and approved by the Governor. The bill makes a number of changes to the growth management process – primarily as it affects large community developments such as sector plans and developments of regional impact (DRIs).
Sector Plans
For sector plans, the bill clarifies that amendments to master plans and detailed special area plans shall be processed through the requirements for coordinated state review. It further clarifies that agricultural or silvicultural uses within a sector plan may be authorized if consistent with the long-term master plan. Sector plans require provisions for conservation of sensitive areas; the bill provides that conservation easements may be used for mitigation and defined through digital photography.
RPCs
The Legislature continued its trend of reducing responsibilities of regional planning councils (RPCs). The bill eliminates the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council and essentially removes the role of regional planning councils from the DRI process.
DRIs
To that end, the bill subjects DRIs to the state coordinated review process so that new DRIs are not required to have specific review by the regional planning council.
Other
The bill also addresses a number of other growth management issues. It eliminates some findings regarding compatibility with adjacent military installations and exempts some small local governments that use less than 1 percent of a public water utility's total permitted allocation from having to amend its comprehensive plan in response to an updated regional water supply plan. The bill also creates a 10-year "connected city corridor" program for Pasco County that makes it easier to tie mixed-use developments to transportation corridors. The bill also adds "sinkholes" to a list of characteristics of blighted areas for the purposes of community redevelopment areas.
Left Out
There were several controversial provisions of the bill that did not survive. One provision would have required local governments to add a private property rights element to their comprehensive plan. A second would have restricted local control of "constrained agricultural lands," and a third would have limited certain concurrency fees.
The act became effective on May 15, 2015; Chapter No. 2015-30.
Land Application of Septage
The land application of septage is scheduled to be prohibited as of January 1, 2016. Measures filed during the regular session (SB 648 and HB 687) would have repealed the ban, while other proposals would have extended the date. None of these measures were enacted; however, one of the implementing bills passed during the special session (SB 2502-A) extends the effective date to July 1, 2016.  
The act became effective on July 1, 2015; Chapter No. 2015-222
Property Rights
CS/HB 383 makes clarifications to the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act and creates a new cause of action independent of the act for property owners subject to unlawful exactions of the type dealt with in 2013 by the United States Supreme Court in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. Under the bill, a property owner is required to provide advance notice of the intent to file a suit seeking damages for a prohibited exaction and provide an estimate of the owner's damages. The governmental entity must then justify the exaction as proportionate or offer to remove or reduce the exaction. At trial, the governmental entity will have the burden of proving that the exaction has the requisite nexus to a legitimate public purpose and is proportionate. The property owner will have the burden of proving damages. Attorneys' fees and costs may be awarded to the governmental entity, but the court is required to award attorneys' fees and costs to the property owner if it is determined that the exaction has no nexus to a legitimate public purpose. The bill clarifies that it is applicable only to action taken directly on the property owner's land and not activities that are authorized on adjoining or adjacent properties.1
The act becomes effective on Oct. 1, 2015. Chapter No. 2015-142
Ratification of DEP C&D Liner Rule
HB 7083 ratifies the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) rules requiring liners and leachate collection systems at construction and demolition debris disposal facilities.
The act became effective on June 11, 2015. Chapter No. 2015-164
Ratification of MFLs
HB 7081 was adopted in order to expedite the effective date of minimum flows and levels (MFLs) for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and associated priority springs. The St. Johns River Water Management District asked DEP to adopt a rule implementing the MFLs due to cross-basin impacts originating outside the district. DEP also proposed regulatory flow recovery provisions since the current flow data showed significant declines from historic levels. A challenge to the DEP-proposed rule was filed with the Division of Administrative Hearings, thus delaying the effective date of the rule. The Legislature passed HB 7081 to allow prompt implementation.
The act became effective on June 10, 2015. Chapter 2015-128
SLAPP
CS/SB 1312 amends provisions relating to strategic lawsuits against public participation (often referred to as "SLAPP suits") thought to be brought to silence critics, particularly in the environmental arena. Under existing law, only governmental entities are prohibited from filing such suits to retaliate against persons or groups exercising rights to participate in government activities. The bill extends the applicability of the anti-SLAPP statute to suits filed by anyone – not just governmental entities. The bill protects free speech in connection with public issues in two categories: (1) speech made before a governmental entity in connection with an issue that the governmental entity is considering or has under review; and (2) speech in connection with a play, movie, television program, radio broadcast, audiovisual work, book, magazine article, musical work, news report or similar works. The second category does not require any connection to a governmental proceeding. The bill provides for expeditious resolution of a suit that is claimed to be a SLAPP suit.
The act becomes effective on July 1, 2015. Chapter No. 2015-70.
Surveillance by a Drone
CS/CS/SB 766 prohibits any person from using a drone to capture an image of privately owned real property or of the owner, tenant, occupant, invitee or licensee of such property with the intent to conduct surveillance without his or her written consent if a reasonable expectation of privacy exists. The bill authorizes the use of a drone by a person or a business licensed by the state, or a contractor thereof as long as such use is to perform reasonable tasks within the scope of practice. Such licensed professions include real estate brokers, real estate appraisers, land surveyors and construction contractors. The bill allows property appraisers to use drones solely for assessing property for ad valorem taxes. The bill also allows the capturing of images by or for a utility for the operation and maintenance of its facilities, the inspection related to construction of its facilities, the assessment of vegetation growth on rights-of-way and conducting environmental monitoring. In addition, the bill allows aerial mapping and cargo delivery if the person is operating in compliance with FAA regulations.
The act becomes effective on July 1, 2015. Chapter No. 2015-26.
BILLS THAT DIED
Agritourism
SB 594 would have prohibited local government enforcement (and not merely adoption) of an ordinance, regulation or rule that would have placed limits on agritourism. The bill died on the Senate calendar.
Contaminated Sites
HB 841/SB 1302 would have provided clarification for the use of risk-based corrective action (RBCA) and the authorization of alternative cleanup target levels without requiring institutional controls. The bills would have expanded the definition of "background concentration" to include some anthropogenic sources. The bills would have created a mechanism for approving long-term natural attenuation for more than five years. The bills also would have revised the cleanup target levels for surface water as long as groundwater contaminants did not cause water quality exceedances in the surface water. Both bills died on the House calendar, but look for these to be reintroduced in the 2016 legislative session.
Environmental Control
HB 653 and SB 714 started out as the annual "environmental train," addressing a potpourri of environmental issues that were generally not controversial. These included various organizational changes within the DEP. The bills would have: prohibited permitting agencies from modifying permitted water allocations during the term of the permit under certain conditions; prohibited water management districts from reducing permitted allocations during the term of the consumptive use permit for agricultural irrigation under certain conditions; directed the water management districts to adopt rules providing water conservation incentives, including permit extensions; and required the water management districts to promote expanded cost-sharing criteria for additional water conservation practices. In addition, the bills would have provided that the reclamation timing requirements for phosphate mines and the required financial assurance do not apply to constructed clay-settling areas where their beneficial use has been extended. Finally, the bills included several provisions dealing with solid waste, including: (1) the creation of a solid waste landfill closure account to provide funding for the closing and long-term care of solid waste management facilities; and (2) providing that for local flow control ordinances, resource recovery facility does not include a landfill gas-to-gas energy system or facility. The House bill was amended on the floor to include most of the House water bill, HB 7003, and then died in the Senate without having been considered.
Two-Year Extension of Certain Permits
HB 7067, a comprehensive economic development measure, included a provision that would have provided for yet another two-year extension of certain environmental resource permits. The measure passed the House but died in the Senate.
Oil and Gas Regulation
The Legislature attempted to deal with hydraulic fracturing during the regular session, but the bills fell victim to the early adjournment by the House and the impasse over the budget. HB 1205 and SB 1468 would have preempted permitting of the so-called high-pressure well stimulation activities and would have established that these activities are subject to the same permitting requirements that apply to drilling an oil and gas well. The bills would have required DEP to conduct a study on high-pressure well stimulation and required the agency to designate the national chemical registry as the state's registry for disclosure of chemicals utilized in the process. HB 1209 and SB 1582 would have provided a limited public records exemption for the information required to be submitted on chemical utilization with exceptions. SB 166 and HB 169 would have prohibited hydraulic fracturing in Florida. This issue is likely to return for the 2016 Session beginning in January.
Petroleum Restoration
SB 314/HB 733 would have expanded the Abandoned Tank Restoration Program and increased the number of sites eligible for state-funded remediation, including sites where a property owner knew of petroleum contamination at the time of purchase. The bills would have changed the name from Low Score Site Initiative (LSSI) to Low-Risk Site Initiative (LRSI). The bills also would have removed certain criteria and increased the funding limit and time frames in which the LRSI assessment and groundwater monitoring must be completed. The bills also would have increased the annual funding allocation for the Advanced Cleanup Program from $15 million to $25 million and allowed a property owner or responsible party to enter into a voluntary cost-sharing agreement to bundle the assessment and remediation of multiple sites. Both bills died on the Senate calendar.
Private Property Rights Elements
HB 551/SB 1424 would have required local governments to include private property rights protections within their comprehensive plans. The property rights element would have required establishment of principles, guidelines, standards and strategies to guide local government decisions on proposed developments. The bills died in committee. There was also an unsuccessful effort to add this language to the growth management bill.
Public Records/Public Agency Contracts
HB 163/SB 224 would have revised the procedures for obtaining public records relating to a public agency’s contract for services with a private contractor. Among other things, the bills would have required all public records requests relating to these contracts to be made directly to the agency, rather than the contractor. The bills also would have allowed for the award of attorneys' fees in actions to enforce a public records request only if the plaintiff provided the prescribed prior notice to the contractor or agency. The Senate bill passed the Senate, was amended in the House and died in returning messages.
Water/Policy/Springs Protection
SB 918/HB 7003/HB 653 addressed water policy generally and particularly springs protection and rehabilitation. The Outstanding Florida Springs established by SB 918 included first magnitude springs and a number of named springs. The House version designated Priority Florida Springs to include first and second magnitude springs, though it does not name any springs. Both bills addressed the integrated nature of springs and aquifer systems, and various provisions were identified for protecting and restoring impaired springs. These provisions included use of MFLs and basin management action plans, particularly for "priority focus areas" within spring sheds where the aquifer is most vulnerable to pollution from the surface or shallow water table conditions. Both bills directed DEP to investigate designated springs and develop strategies to rehabilitate or protect the springs and implement the statute. The bills also addressed the Everglades and related river systems, employing best management practices and basin management action plans. Finally, the Senate bill codified the Central Florida Water Initiative objectives of protecting stressed groundwater systems and developing alternative water supplies.
Notes
1 This is consistent with the majority opinion in City of Jacksonville v. Smith, 159 So. 3d 888 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015), questions certified and jurisdiction accepted, Smith v. City of Jacksonville, Case No. SC15-534 (Fla. May 22, 2015), but contrary to the majority opinion in FINR v. Hardee County, 40 FLW D1355 (Fla. 2d DCA June 10, 2015) (conflict certified).

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Florida families on Forbes list of largest landowners
News-Press.com – by Casey Clogan
July 7, 2015
Two Florida families have landed on a Forbes magazine list of the biggest landowners in the nation.
The Collier family ranks No. 8, with the Lykes family in the third spot.
The Collier family, with an estimated 30 members, owns roughly 280,000 acres in Southwest Florida. Their net worth is $2.3 billion, ranking them No. 119 on the list of America’s richest families. The Barron Collier Companies and Collier Enterprises are based in Naples.
The Lykes family, with an estimated 250 members, owns more than 600,000 acres in Florida and Texas. Their net worth is $1.2 billion, ranking them No. 193 on the list of the country’s richest families. Lykes Bros. Inc. is based in Tampa.
Barron Gift Collier Sr., founder of the county and the company that bears his name, made his fortune in streetcar advertising. After his first visit in 1911, he bought Useppa Island for $100,000, and eventually acquired 1.3 million acres of land in Southwest Florida.
Collier brought the first telephone service, railroad, newspapers and bus company to the area. He also built the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades, from the Lee County line to the Dade County line.
The Barron Collier Companies has grown from a land holding company to one of the largest diversified companies in the area, with business ventures including agricultural operations, commercial and residential real estate development, and oil exploration and mineral management.
Blake Gable, president of Barron Collier Companies, was out of town Tuesday and unable to comment, according to an email response.
Doctor-turned-rancher Howell Tyson Lykes moved his family to Tampa and in 1904 founded Lykes Brothers with his seven children. They concentrated on citrus production and cattle ranching. Today, the family is one of the largest producers of citrus with over 30,000 acres of groves in Florida.
The Lykes Ranch in Glades and Highlands counties covers 337,000 acres and is one of the largest contiguous pieces of land in the state. The property is home to integrated cow-calf, forestry, sugar cane and landscape operations.
Tracy Whirls, executive director of the Glades County Economic Development Council, called agribusiness a blessing for rural Florida that can sometimes bring challenges.
“In some respects having large ag interests can constrain growth because there has not historically been a desire to develop the property,” she said. “On the other hand, just as Lykes has diversified from cattle to cane to citrus to sod, in many respects over the last 10 years they’ve diversified into other types of development such as real estate.”
No. 1 on the Forbes list? The Reed family owns about 1.4 million acres in Washington, Oregon and California. Their net worth is $1.7 billion.

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Industry should pay more to restore springs, advocacy group says
Ocala.com - by Christopher Curry, Staff writer
July 7, 2015
An Alachua County-based coalition of springs advocacy groups says the state’s current approach to springs restoration is flawed and relies too heavily on funding projects that should be the responsibility of private industry.
This week, the Florida Springs Council, an organization representing more than two dozen springs groups, sent the Florida Department of Environmental Protection a letter pushing for more consistency among the state’s five water management districts in determining how much money private industry is required to put toward projects to reduce water use and pollution that are often largely taxpayer-funded.
“Last year’s projects were heavily tilted toward subsidies for those who are the largest contributors to the water depletion and nutrient pollution which are choking our springs,” Bob Palmer, the Florida Springs Council’s legislative committee chair, wrote to DEP officials.
“We recognize that as a practical matter, mitigating damage to springs must involve reducing the footprint of those most responsible for the damage,” he wrote. “But the burden for fixing the problems should be much more equitably shared.”
The Florida Springs Council also questioned the accuracy of the projected benefits of the projects, saying that “unsubstantiated estimates of pounds of nitrogen or groundwater reductions do not meet the standard of normal professional practices.”
FDEP released this statement in response to the Florida Springs Council letter:
“Over the past two years, Governor Scott has secured record funding for Florida’s springs — in addition to securing $45 million in funding this year.
“By partnering with the water management districts and local communities, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been able to leverage $35 million in grants into $106 million in combined funding to implement 37 springs restoration projects over the last two years.
“And last year alone, springs projects statewide provided 36 million gallons of water per day back to aquifers. These projects will eliminate 2.7 million pounds per year of nutrient pollution from entering springs.
“These projects are developed publicly through the Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) process, the local county commission and city council process, and through water management district governing boards. Through that development process, every project has the opportunity for public and stakeholder input.”
The Springs Council letter noted that, while the state and the water management districts often share costs 50-50 with utilities and businesses on projects intended to cut water use, recharge the aquifer or reduce pollution, the Suwannee River Water Management District and the state carried the bulk of the financial burden on projects to reduce water use and cut nutrient pollution at agricultural businesses and dairies within the district.
The FDEP springs project list for the 2014-15 budget year listed a combined $6 million for projects to conserve water by upgrading irrigation systems at nurseries and farms, to cut nutrient seepage into the groundwater at dairies by improvements to lagoons and irrigation systems and to cut nitrate pollution at agricultural operations by putting in more efficient fertilizer application systems.
State government and the water management district covered approximately $5 million or 84 percent of the costs for those projects.
“The cost share is very low and you’re paying someone to put in more efficient irrigation systems, which in my mind, is something they should do on their own,” Palmer said. “I think the outcome of reducing water use is fine. But is it equitable when they are being paid to reduce their water use, which is probably something they should do anyway?”
In an email for a prior article on the projects to cut the flow of nitrates into the groundwater at dairies in the Suwannee River district, Charlie Smith, with Alliance Dairies’ Piedmont Dairy in Gilchrist County, wrote that the company was in compliance with its state-required plan for managing nutrients and its state permits so there might not be an incentive to make the on-site improvements without the partnership and financial assistance of the water management district.
In an interview for that article, Kevin Wright, a professional engineer with the Suwannee River district, said the projects receive significant public funding because cutting nitrate pollution and reducing water usage in order to protect springs are in the public interest.
The Florida Springs Council’s concerns about taxpayer money covering the substantial amount of the tab for cost-share projects in the Suwannee River district also touched on the project at the PotashCorp PCS phosphate mine in the White Springs area to reduce water use and nutrient pollution by recirculating and reusing water from the mining operation that would otherwise discharge into Swift Creek and the Upper Suwannee River.
An FDEP description of springs projects for the 2014-15 budget year said the state and water management district funded $3.37 million of that $3.6 million project and PotashCorp contributed $230,000.
Mike Williams, a public affairs manager with PotashCorp in White Springs, said after the approval of the project, the company voluntarily cut its groundwater pumping permit by 20 million gallons a day, or 23.8 percent. That followed a prior voluntary 10 percent reduction in 2012, he said.
He said the company followed the same application process as any other business seeking cost-share funding and received no special treatment.
The Florida Springs Council also questioned the accuracy of the projected benefits of the projects, saying that “unsubstantiated estimates of pounds of nitrogen or groundwater reductions do not meet the standard of normal professional practices.”
Palmer said the group feels that teeth should be added to regulations that cover fertilizer use and operations at dairies and agricultural businesses and suggested purchasing conservation easements at polluting farms.
He said the group also feels that denying groundwater pumping permit applications and reducing the allowable pumping amounts when permits come up for renewal are effective ways of cutting water use.
Last year, the state put $25 million toward springs projects, with water management districts and other sources upping the total to $69 million.
The approved 2015-16 state budget includes an approximately $38 million line item for springs restoration projects, and the state says other areas of funding in the budget will put the total state share to $45 million.

150706-a
Attorneys general call to kill “Waters of the United States” rule
AgriView.com
July 6, 2015
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin has joined eight other state Attorneys General in a lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down the “Waters of the United States” rule.
“This rule could have dire consequences for homeowners, farmers and other entities by forcing them to navigate a complex federal bureaucracy and obtain costly permits in order to perform everyday tasks like digging ditches, building fences or spraying fertilizers,” stated Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel.
“Wisconsin already has strong clean water regulations and these proposed duplicative regulations will serve only to harm farmers and landowners by substantially increasing costs and delaying permits,” Schimel stated.
The Attorneys General of West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin argued that the final rule violates the Clean Water Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution. They also argued that the rule usurps the States’ primary responsibility for the management, protection and care of intrastate waters and lands.
The complaint – filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia – asked a federal judge to declare the rule illegal and issue an injunction to prevent the agencies from enforcing it. It also asked the judge to order the agencies to draft a new rule that complies with the law and honors States’ rights.
Related:           Industry groups add to lawsuits against EPA's water rule     AgProfessional.com

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Floridan aquifer concerns could affect Coastal Georgia
The Brunswick News – by Gordon Jackson
July 6, 2015
ST. MARYS — State Sen. William Ligon’s proposed legislation to prohibit the injection of groundwater into the Floridan aquifer may not be enough to protect South Georgia residents.
Two heavily populated North Florida water management districts bordering Georgia are considering projects that may include expanded use of reclaimed water, storm water and peak surface water flows to replenish the aquifer.
Aquifer storage and recovery is when treated surface water is injected into and underground freshwater source to be recovered later when fresh water sources like rivers and lakes are low. A moratorium prohibiting the practice in effect since 1999 expired in 2014.
“They’ve already been doing this in Florida,” Ligon said.
The problem, some fear, is much of what Florida officials are doing could impact Georgians dependent on the aquifer as their source of fresh water.
“This doesn’t protect us from what Florida does,” Ligon said. “A lot may depend on where they do these things.”
Ligon isn’t the only one concerned about Florida’s attempts to provide fresh drinking water for a growing population.
Alice Keyes, associate director of the environmental group 100 Miles, said any attempt to store water in the aquifer could impact residents in surrounding states dependent on the underground water supply.
“Any attempts to pump surface water or wastewater into this pristine resource concerns 100 Miles and other community activists,” she said. “Once the groundwater is contaminated, there is no going back.”
Keyes said studies show the practice of aquifer storage and recovery can increase arsenic in groundwater supplies that exceed EPA water quality standards.
“Additionally, bacteria and pathogens can be introduced to groundwater,” she said. “For decades, our communities have grown and thrived with such reliable water source. We have too much to lose if this important water resource is contaminated.”
The technology is improving, but there is still much scientists do not know about the aquifer, such as how ground water moves, how contamination spreads and the connectivity of different layers of the aquifer, which covers 100,000 square miles across South Georgia and North Florida.
“We do know that there are very real dangers associated with pumping into the Floridan aquifer,” Keyes said. “(Aquifer storage and recovery) has been practiced in Florida and in South Carolina for years, but the safety and effectiveness of the projects are not reassuring.”
She said 59 percent of the projects have been abandoned or suspended in Florida due to arsenic contamination or the inability to recover stored water. In South Carolina, projects have been abandoned because of clogging and dangerous levels of bacteria contamination, she said.
Ligon’s proposed legislation to place a permanent moratorium on the practice is supported by 100 Miles and other environmental organizations, she said. The legislation has also received the support of local municipalities such as St. Marys, whose city council recently approved a resolution supporting a ban on injecting and storing groundwater in the aquifer.
“We fully support this moratorium and appreciate Senator Ligon’s leadership in protecting our communities,” Keyes said. “Local leaders throughout the coast are voicing support for protecting our aquifer.”
David Kyler, executive director for Center for a Sustainable Coast, said natural resources including groundwater seldom follow state boundaries.
“Depending on where exactly the Florida water is injected, where that water moves once underground, and what effects it has, Georgian’s could be adversely affected,” he said. “I am very wary of the ability of any agency to carefully ‘experiment’ with such practices because there are so many possibilities for error and so little is understood about underground resources.”
He cautioned Georgians to carefully observe the effects in Florida and be “extremely cautious” about drawing comparisons that aren’t justified.
“Advocates here who oppose aquifer injection should share their concerns with colleagues in Florida — including specifying explicit criteria for monitoring any experimental use of the method, then analyzing and accurately reporting results,” Kyler said.
But others, like Jim Reichard, professor of geology at Georgia Southern University, say projects in Florida may not have much impact in Coastal Georgia.
“Any effects on the Floridan aquifer would be more localized in the area in which it’s taking place,” he said. “However, there could possibly be some impact across the border with Jacksonville depending on the placement of the injection wells.”
The biggest risk to Georgians is when highly oxygenated surface water is injected in the oxygen-poor environment of the aquifer, causing chemical reactions with minerals in the aquifer that release arsenic, Reichard said.
He questioned the effectiveness of trying to replenish the aquifer with groundwater.
“Yes, in some cases you can inject/store water from a different aquifer rather than injecting treated surface water,” he said. “However, here you’re spending energy/money to simply move water from one aquifer to another, hence you’re really not adding new groundwater supply.”
There are better ways to address the growing need for a source of fresh water, he said.
“I’d prefer that they bank/store the water in a deeper, saline aquifer as opposed to our primary water supply source,” he said. “If an unforeseen problem occurs, having it occur in a saline or non-drinking water source is obviously better than in a pristine aquifer like the Upper Floridan.”

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Audubon declares areas in and around the Florida Keys a birder's paradise
Forbes.com – by Lea Lane
July 5, 2015
You already know about great fishing in the Florida Keys; but are you aware of the winged riches there? The National Audubon Society has just recognized Florida’s Everglades and Biscayne Bay as “Globally Significant Important Bird Areas,” measured by a set of peer-reviewed, scientific criteria.
In the occasional freshwater ponds, tidal lagoons and in the undisturbed Florida Bay by Everglades National Park, resident and migrating warblers, vireos, tanagers and thrushes share the habitat with white-crowned pigeons, year-round tidal waders and spring-nesting sea birds. And that’s just for starters.
Living only an hour north of the Keys, I often escape for a weekday or two to enjoy nature both under and above the water. The Gulf and the Atlantic — and the mangroves between — are magnets for birds as well as sea life. And to pull it together, the 12-county, 116-site Great Florida Birding Trail opened in 2006 and was renamed the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail in 2011.
The South Florida segment of the trail includes a dozen Keys native habitat stops such as the National Key Deer Refuge, Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, Long Key State Park and Dry Tortugas National Park, a remote birders’ paradise located 70 miles off Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. (For trail information, visit here.)
In the Lower Keys, the National Key Deer Refuge‘s 9,000-plus acres of mangrove forests, freshwater and salt marsh wetlands, pine rockland forests and tropical hardwood hammocks are an annual stopping point for thousands of migratory birds, and a winter home to many North American bird species. The refuge lies off U.S. Highway 1 at mile marker (MM) 30.5 bayside on Big Pine Key.
At Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, located on Route 905 at MM 106 bayside, birders can view breeding populations of black-whiskered vireos as well as migrating species such as warblers, white-crowned pigeons, terns, noddies, boobies and other unique Keys shorebirds and songbirds. Rare sightings of the LaSagra’s Flycatcher, thick-billed vireo and Zenaida dove also have been reported.
At Long Key State Park at MM 67.5, you can explore mangrove swamp, mudflat, rockland hammock, beach and coastal berm habitats. At low tide, the Roseate Spoonbill may be spotted dipping its round-tipped bill into the shallows searching for a meal, joined by reddish and other egrets.
The Tortugas are the first dry land sighted by trans-Gulf migratory species, so migratory fallouts during late April and early May often become once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Birders have recorded 25-warbler mornings and regularly sighted an Antillean short-eared owl. Common sightings include frigate birds, peregrine falcons and the ruddy turnstone — and the Tortugas’ Bush Key is home to America’s only notable breeding colony of sooty terns.
Known for its underwater splendor, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, located at MM 102.5, offers birders nearly 3,000 acres of natural mangrove swamp, hardwood hammock and rocky coast. Walking trails lead to gray kingbirds, short-tailed hawks and other locals such as mangrove cuckoos.
From a perch at the Middle Keys’ Curry Hammock State Park, MM 56.2 oceanside, the Florida Keys Hawkwatch team monitors the southernmost migration flights of record numbers of peregrine falcons and other raptors in the continental United States. Hawk watchers count the thousands of buteos, accipiters, raptors and eagles that fly through the Keys as well as peregrine falcons, whose annual migratory numbers are thought to surpass any other location in the U.S.
Yes, for birders and for any of us who love nature, The Keys are a sub-tropical nature preserve just an hour south of Miami. To find guided and unguided walks, boat and kayak adventures to explore some of the Keys’ wildest places, visit  this site.

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5-year-old girl dies after being struck by leaping sturgeon in Suwannee River
Tampa Bay Times
July 4, 2015
LAKE CITY — A 5-year-old Chiefland girl has died after a sturgeon leaped into her family's boat along the Suwannee River and struck her.
Wildlife officials said Jaylon Rippy died after being struck Thursday night. Her mother, Tanya Rippy, and her 9-year-old brother were injured and were taken to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.
Tanya Rippy sustained injuries to her face, mostly around her eyes, and her son's arm was broken, according to WCJB-TV in Gainesville.
Family and friends have set up an account for the Rippys at Drummond Community Bank. They also have set up a page on GoFundMe.com to raise money for Jaylon's funeral and medical costs related to the accident.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said this is the first fatality recorded from a sturgeon strike on the Suwannee River. Four people have been injured by jumping sturgeon this year, including two boaters who were taken to the hospital Friday.
Wildlife officials say Colleen Harvey, 42, and her husband, Charles, 41, were struck while boating along the Santa Fe River. Last month, a 14-year-old was knocked unconscious by a sturgeon while boating with her family.
The fish are famous for leaping more than 7 feet above the water, and they have injured many people boating on the North Florida river over the years.
The large, prehistoric-looking sturgeon have hard plates along their backs. They can grow up to 8 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds.
In 2007, a leaping sturgeon severely injured a 50-year-old woman from St. Petersburg as she was riding a personal watercraft along the Suwannee River. She suffered a ruptured spleen and had three fingers reattached by surgeons, but she lost her left pinkie finger and a tooth.
The fish usually return to the area in the spring, but their acrobatics often depend on the water levels. This year's low levels are causing the sturgeon to jump more frequently than in recent years. Biologists aren't sure why they jump, but they assure boaters that the fish aren't trying to attack people.
Boaters are urged to wear life jackets and avoid the bow of the boat to avoid injury.

150704-b
Florida Bay needs our help
Keysnet.com – by Tabitha Cale, Everglades policy associate, Audubon Florida, Miami
July 4, 2015 
Florida Bay is known for its incredible natural beauty. Beautiful teal waters filled with fish, dotted with mangrove islands filled with birds.
For years canals and other structures have drained water away from the Everglades wetlands that flow into Florida Bay. As a result, not enough freshwater reaches the bay, leaving water too salty.
Much of the seagrass that serves as a nursery area for fish has died off, and the populations of wading birds and other wildlife that eat those fish have been dramatically reduced.
The good news is that taxpayers have invested in infrastructure that is helping reroute this water back to the natural areas where it belongs. Three restoration projects south of Tamiami Trail are nearly complete and will soon change the way water flows towards the Everglades.
The goal of these projects is to move more water toward Shark River Slough and Taylor Slough, rehydrating the parched wetlands of Everglades National Park, and improving conditions in Florida Bay.
The bad news is that as a result of outside pressure to use restoration projects for flood control rather than ecological benefits, the first two year-long test run of these projects could actually make conditions even worse for Florida Bay.
The government agencies in charge of restoration will meet on Tuesday to discuss this operational test that will begin this summer. More water will move into Shark River Slough — which will benefit the wetlands of the western half of Everglades National Park.
Unfortunately, less water may end up in Taylor Slough to the east, cutting off some of the water going to Florida Bay.
This test is the first in a series of three. Audubon believes remaining tests must prioritize bringing freshwater to the Southern Everglades.
If we get it wrong, fish and wading bird populations will continue to decline.
Taxpayers have invested a lot of money in Everglades restoration infrastructure. This is because there are so many benefits -- for people and for wildlife.
Restoration efforts will ensure protection of unique habitats, help recharge the Biscayne Aquifer, delay the impacts of sea level rise, and protect the commercial and recreational fishing industries in Florida Bay.
These benefits will not be realized if government agencies continue to bow to pressure to drain the water away from the Everglades. Restoration is about putting water in the right place for the right reasons.

150704-c
What happened to that $1.8B surplus ?
Florida Today – by Paula Dockery, a syndicated columnist who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years as a Republican from Lakeland
July 4, 2015
Now that some time has passed since the Florida Legislature produced a budget and the governor cut $461 million from it, we're starting to see the results.
Tax cuts will be bragged about; 840,000 Floridians, many the working poor, are still uninsured, and the voters' will on Amendment One, the water and land conservation measure, was completely ignored.
In a state of almost 20 million residents, 100 million tourists and a $78 billion annual budget, how we collect and spend our revenues is important.
We are a low-tax state with no state income tax. A good portion of our revenues come from the sales tax, which means tourists contribute quite a bit to our funding of government services.
When the real estate market is buzzing, documentary stamp revenues increase, creating a perfect nexus for funding environmental projects and infrastructure with dollars generated from increased development.
And as the housing industry rebounds, so, too, do home values, producing more property tax revenues for local governments without elected officials raising tax rates. Don't get me wrong, property owners are paying more but their properties will be worth more.
Unfortunately, cities and counties don't get all of the additional revenue to meet the backlog of infrastructure needs and government services for a growing population.
Why not ?
For one example, remember that big bump in education funding that Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature boasted about? A portion of that was funded by the increase in property tax revenue through a budget calculation known as "required local effort."
Local property taxes account for a large percentage of education funding. An Education Law Center report suggested Florida's school districts get 32 percent of their K-12 funding from state sources, well below the national average of 44 percent.
Despite funding well under half of the education budget, the state attaches many strings and removes a lot of discretion from the counties and local school boards — but I digress.
So if you thought the Legislature was being benevolent on education funding using revenue solely generated by the state, you would be mistaken.
Let's skip over the fact that the Legislature has only one bill it must pass — the budget — and failed to do so in its 60-day session and had to meet in overtime for another try. Let's get right to what it had to work with.
The revenue estimators believed that there would be an additional $1.8 billion over last year's revenues, which many refer to as a surplus. That gave the Legislature the ability to increase spending, put some money in savings or return some to taxpayers.
Additionally, the Legislature had the opportunity to access $2.2 billion in federal revenue to expand its Medicaid program and to do it in a way that was unique to Florida's needs. It was estimated that there were more than 800,000 residents that could have been covered with no state revenues needed. The Senate wanted to, the House and governor refused.
This would have freed up more money from state and local coffers since less would be needed to fund the Low Income Pool (LIP) to cover charity care. Instead, the state had to fill the hole in funding with hundreds of millions of dollars, local governments had to chip in more and hospitals saw a cut in their future reimbursements.
To add insult to injury, Gov. Scott vetoed $9.5 million for free clinics, causing layoffs and perhaps some clinic closures.
And while documentary stamp revenue continued to grow, the Legislature refused to follow the will of the voters and spend one-third of it — $740 million — on land and water preservation, conservation and management as Amendment 1 required.
Did I mention that Amendment 1 passed with 75 percent of the vote, surpassing every other statewide issue or candidate on the ballot?
Instead, the Legislature moved money around and used the "new funds" to replace existing funding to pay for salaries, their pet projects and anything else they thought might loosely fit the amendment language.
The Legislature knew what the voters expected with the amendment's passage but spitefully ignored them. Now proponents are suing on behalf of the voters and the Legislature will use tax dollars to defend its actions.
Meanwhile, the positive effects, economic and environmental, will remain unrealized.
And while the state started off with a generous surplus, tolls are being increased on our highways, court clerks are cutting personnel and services because of budget cuts, state employees continue to work without raises and our tourist welcome centers will cease to provide Florida-grown juice to our visitors.
It's odd that one of our top industries — tourism — is ceasing to showcase a product from another — agriculture. And a third cog in our economic engine — construction and development — is generating additional tax revenue that is not being invested in our infrastructure or in our environment and quality of life — as the Constitution now requires.
Will voters remember in 2016 ?

150703-
Lawsuit filed to overturn ‘Waters of the United States’ rule
News-Daily.com
July 3, 2015
ATLANTA — Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black is applauding the action taken this week by Attorney General Sam Olens to join eight other state attorneys general in a lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down a new rule from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency that unlawfully expands the federal government’s regulatory reach over local streams, lands and farms.
The rule, known generally as the “Waters of the United States” rule, would extend the EPA and Corps of Engineers’ regulatory reach to an untold number of small bodies of water and could have dire consequences for Georgia farmers. The commmissioner said it would force farmers to navigate a complex federal bureaucracy and obtain costly permits in order to perform everyday tasks like digging ditches, building fences or spraying fertilizers.
“Through the finalization of this rule, a clear punitive overreach of the government’s power has taken place,” said Black. “I view this as a frontal assault on private property rights; federal overreach on steroids. My sincere hope is that through this joint complaint, we will thwart yet another blatant overreach of the federal government.”
In the complaint, the Attorneys General of West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin argue the final rule put forward by the EPA and Corps of Engineers violates the Clean Water Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution, and usurps the states’ primary responsibility for the management, protection and care of intrastate waters and lands.
“The scope of the ‘Waters of the United States’ rule is breathtaking and will directly impact the everyday lives of Georgians, from farmers to homeowners,” said Olens. “Under this excessive and expensive rule, a farm pond or even a homeowner’s backyard could be subject to federal regulation. As the federal government continues to issue burdensome and unconstitutional executive directives at an alarming rate, I remain steadfast in my commitment to protect and defend the interests of Georgians.”
While the Clean Water Act gave the EPA and Corps authority to regulate “navigable waters” – defined as “waters of the United States” – Congress made sure that states would retain their constitutional, sovereign responsibility over non-navigable, intrastate lands and waters. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice rejected the agencies’ attempts to expand their authority.
The complaint asks a federal judge to declare the rule illegal and issue an injunction to prevent the agencies from enforcing it. It also asks the judge to order the agencies to draft a new rule that complies with the law.

150702-a
$25 million to create more nature trails goes into effect today
MiamiNewTimes - by Clarissa Buch
July 2, 2015
Florida has done little to distinguish itself as a bike and pedestrian friendly state; in fact, it's consistently ranked among the most dangerous in America for the two-wheeled set and for walkers.  
So it's notable that among the hundreds of bills that went into effect this week is one that will funnel millions in state money toward new bike and pedestrian trails. But this is Florida, so the plan is not without controversy and detractors — even among biking advocates.
Senate Bill 2514-A requires the Department of Transportation to allot $25 million in annual funding for The Florida Shared-Use Nonmotorized Trail Network, also known as SunTrail, which aims to create a statewide network of bicycle and pedestrian paths. The hope, lawmakers say, is to help Floridians now have a safer system of biking and walking trails that are physically separated from roadways.
Earlier this year, lawmakers proposed $50 million for SunTrail, with half coming from an existing motor vehicle tax and the other from Amendment 1, which was approved by voters to direct certain tax revenue toward land acquisition and land improvements on conservation lands. Amendment 1 funding proved to be too controversial during the budget process, though, and that plan eventually faltered. The funding, instead, will only come from a motor vehicle tax.
Some are applauding the move, like executive director of Audubon Florida Eric Draper. He says the trails will make nature more accessible for residents and tourists. “One of my favorite things is to travel through nature and get outdoors,” says Draper. “This will definitely do just that.”
However the funding does little to address arguably the biggest issue of bike safety: the lack of safe lanes for those daily urban commuters who ride bikes for day-to-day life. Draper hopes the government will look at ways to continue the expansion of off-road trails and find a solution to create more and safer city bike lanes as well.
“These trails don’t tend to be for people to get to work,” explains Draper. “They’re really just meant to be off-road connectors.”
There's also plenty of disagreement about the trails themselves. Among the trails eventually proposed for a statewide circuit is the so-called River of Grass Greenway that would stretch across the Everglades. Environmentalists and Native American activists have all protested that plan.
But according to the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation, most of the SunTrail will follow abandoned railways, canal banks, scenic highways or utility transmission lines. The foundation would like the bridge the gaps between trails and use the creation of SunTrail to make exploring Florida’s nature safer for all.
Related:           Outdoorsmen and Native Americans Pair Up to Oppose a Bike Path Through the Everglades
FPL's $1.2B power plant in Okeechobee could impact Indian River ...        TCPalm

150702-b
BP agrees to pay $18.7 billion for Gulf oil disaster
Environment News Service
July 2, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC, July 2, 2015 (ENS) – British oil giant BP has reached agreements with the United States, five States and many local governments totaling $18.7 billion to settle all civil claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
To be made in stages over 18 years, the payments will compensate the United States for Clean Water Act violations and natural resource damages and cover economic claims made by state and local governments.
BP’s U.S. upstream subsidiary, BP Exploration and Production Inc., BPXP, today executed the agreements with the U.S. government, five Gulf Coast states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and more than 400 local governments.
Sunlight illuminated the BP oil spill off the Mississippi Delta, May 24, 2010. (Image captured by the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.)
Known as agreements in principle, these deals are to be followed by definitive agreements, including a Consent Decree with the United States and the five Gulf states that will be subject to public comment and final court approval.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill – the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry – began on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-owned, Transocean-operated Macondo Prospect about 40 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta.
Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on July 15, 2010. Eleven men from the rig were never found.
The U.S. government estimated the total oil discharge at 4.9 million barrels, or 210 million gallons of crude oil. After several failed efforts to contain the gusher, the well was declared sealed on September 19, 2010, but not before oil had fouled thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico shoreline in five states and the waters of the Gulf, with profound environmental and economic consequences.
Today, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, “Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – the largest environmental disaster in our nation’s history – the Justice Department has been fully committed to holding BP accountable, to achieving justice for the American people and to restoring the environment and the economy of the Gulf region at the expense of those responsible and not the American taxpayer.”
U.S. Coast Guard members stand by as response vessels flare spilled oil and gas and work to kill the broken oil well a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf, July 8, 2010. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson courtesy USCG)
In December 2010, then Attorney General Eric Holder filed a civil lawsuit against BP and its co-defendants. Lynch said that during that lawsuit the Justice Department proved that “BP’s gross negligence resulted in the Deepwater disaster.”
“If approved by the court, this settlement would be the largest settlement with a single entity in American history,” Lynch said. “It would help repair the damage done to the Gulf economy, fisheries, wetlands and wildlife; and it would bring lasting benefits to the Gulf region for generations to come.”
Lynch expressed gratitude to the Deepwater civil trial team, made up of men and women from the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Civil Division. She credited the departments of Homeland Security, Interior, Commerce and Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the state leaders and environmental professionals “who collaborated to advance this agreement in principle.”
Some environmentalists were less appreciative of the agreements.
“While BP can write a fat check and think it’s putting this disaster behind it, the Gulf is still far from recovered,” said Miyoko Sakashita of the Center for Biological Diversity. “For the thousands of dolphins, turtles, birds and fish that died – plus the 11 men who died in the explosion – there is no coming back.”
Sakashita says the Obama Administration should have done more to prevent future marine oil spills.
“The Obama Administration has yet to implement significant reforms to make sure this never happens again,” she said. “In fact, the administration has been pushing for more offshore drilling in the Gulf and the Atlantic, and fracking existing wells to maximize their flow. I hate to say it, but there’s a good chance we’ll see something like the BP disaster again in the not-so-distant future.”
If the agreements announced today are approved, payments will extend over 18 years.
BPXP is to pay the United States a civil penalty of $5.5 billion under the Clean Water Act, payable over 15 years.
BPXP will pay $7.1 billion to the United States and the five Gulf states over 15 years for natural resource damages. This is in addition to the $1 billion already committed for early restoration.
BPXP will also set aside an additional amount of $232 million to be added to the natural resource damages interest payment at the end of the payment period to cover any further natural resource damages that are unknown at the time of the agreement.
A total of $4.9 billion will be paid over 18 years to settle economic and other claims made by the five Gulf Coast states.
Up to $1 billion will be paid to resolve claims made by more than 400 local government entities.
The expected impact of these agreements would be to increase the cumulative pre-tax charge associated with the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill by around $10 billion from $43.8 billion at the end of the first quarter to a total of about $53.8 billion.
Natural resource damages and Clean Water Act payments are scheduled to start 12 months after the agreements become final.
Total payments for natural resource damages, Clean Water Act and State claims will be made at a rate of around $1.1 billion a year for the majority of the payment period.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP’s chairman, said, “Five years ago we committed to restore the Gulf economy and environment and we have worked ever since to deliver on that promise. We have made significant progress, and with this agreement we provide a path to closure for BP and the Gulf. It resolves the company’s largest remaining legal exposures, provides clarity on costs and creates certainty of payment for all parties involved.
“In deciding to follow this path, the Board has balanced the risks, timing and consequences associated with many years of litigation against its wish for the company to be able to set a clear course for the future,” said Svanberg.
Bob Dudley, BP’s group chief executive, said, “For BP, this agreement will resolve the largest liabilities remaining from the tragic accident and enable BP to focus on safely delivering the energy the world needs.”
BP’s chief financial officer, Brian Gilvary, said, “The impact of the settlement on our balance sheet and cashflow will be manageable and enables BP to continue to invest in and grow its business, underpinned by a resilient and robust financial framework.”
Some environmentalists say BP has proposed to pay just a fraction of what the company should pay.
Oceana’s vice president for the United States, Jacqueline Savitz, called the agreements “a disappointment to those who believe that the company should pay the full cost of the damages it caused. $18.7 billion may sound like a lot of money, and it is, but it pales in comparison to what BP really owes.”
The Clean Water Act violations alone should have amounted to $13.7 billion, since the court found in January that BP was “grossly negligent,” said Savitz.
“Later this year, a judge was expected to rule on how much BP would have had to pay under this statute, which could have gone as high as $13.7 billion. However, if the court approves today’s proposal, BP will only be paying $5.5 billion of this amount, falling well short of what it should have been fined given the negligence finding,” Savitz said.
Under the Oil Pollution Act, BP must pay to restore the natural resources it damaged. The exact amount is still being calculated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but based on the amount paid for the much smaller Exxon Valdez oil spill, these damages could be much higher than the $7.1 billion BP is proposing to pay in this settlement, she said.
“For these two payments alone, Clean Water Act violations and natural resource damages, BP would be getting away with less than half of what the law justifies,” said Savitz.
The agreements announced today do not cover the remaining costs of the 2012 class action settlements with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for economic and property damage and medical claims.
They also do not cover claims by individuals and businesses that opted out of the 2012 settlements and/or whose claims were excluded from them. BP will continue to defend those claims, the company said. Today’s agreements in principle also do not resolve private securities litigation pending.
BP has already settled criminal charges related to the oil spill. In November 2012, BP pleaded guilty to 11 felony manslaughter charges, environmental crimes, and obstruction of Congress and was sentenced to pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties, restitution and community service.
Related:           After a long legal fight, BP agrees to largest environmental ...          NET Website
BP to Pay $18.7B to Settle Oil Spill Claims  CRIENGLISH.com
Florida to get over $3 billion in BP settlement           NBC2 News
Bay County expecting nearly $35 million from oil spill settlement    The News Herald

150702-c
Cleaner water now flowing on the Treasure Coast
WPBF.com
July 2, 2015
Ten Mile Creek project became operational Thursday
STUART, Fla. —Rep. Patrick E. Murphy (D-Fla.) was joined by U.S. Army Corps and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) officials to witness a vital water project that has sat unused for years finally come online.
The Ten Mile Creek project became operational Thursday morning.
"The fight for clean water can't take a vacation.  That's why today I was thrilled to see first-hand how the SFWMD plans to operate the Ten Mile Creek project that has sat empty for too long to help store local run-off water before it can flow into our fragile estuaries," said Murphy.
This project was built to store excessive run-off during wet seasons to help improve water quality in the region.  However due to construction issues, the project has remained unused for many years.
Following a meeting last month Murphy held with the head of the U.S. Army Corps Jo-Ellen Darcy and the SFWMD Executive Director Blake Guillory, the Corps and the SFWMD agreed to begin an operational test that will last through the wet season.
Murphy has been actively engaged on this issue, and has continuously called for a resolution to get the project online.
Earlier this year he introduced a bill to de-authorize the project and also called for the Army Corps to hand over the project so the SFWMD could operate it.

150702-d
FPL wants to build $1.2 billion natural gas plant in Okeechobee
Palm Beach Post – by Susan Salisbury
July 2, 2015
Florida Power & Light Co. said today it plans to build a new $1.2 billion combined cycle natural gas-fired plant in northeastern Okeechobee County on 2,800 acres of pasture land that it already owns.
If approved by regulators, the plant would begin producing 1,600 megawatts, enough electricity to power more than 300,000 homes, in 2019. The plant would occupy about 200 acres at the site.
The facility would complement other major system improvements, including the three new large-scale solar power plants Juno Beach-based FPL is building before the end of 2016.
The plant will be  similar to  FPL’s modernized plants in Riviera Beach, Cape Canaveral and at Port Everglades in Hollywood.  Its Cape Canaveral plant went into service in 2013, and Riviera Beach in 2014, with Port Everglades scheduled to begin operating in 2016.
“We’re building on our successful strategy of phasing out older, inefficient facilities and replacing them with advanced, high-efficiency clean-energy technology in a way that ensures we can meet the growing energy needs of Floridians while keeping their electric rates low,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. “The strategy is working: our system is among the cleanest and most fuel-efficient in the U.S., and our typical customer bills are about 30 percent lower than the national average.”
Okeechobee County Commission vice chairman Bryant Culpepper, said today, “I am excited beyond explanation. Okeechobee is a small county in the inner part of the state. We have been struggling economically.”
FPL said the plant will provide an average of 300 jobs during two years of construction, and  more than 30 jobs when it is completed.
Okeechobee County is a  725-square-mile largely rural county with a permanent population of around 40,000 that swells to by another 15,000 to 20,000 during the winter. It’s known for fishing on Lake Okeechobee, cattle ranching and dairy farming.
Culpepper, who moved from Palm Beach County 13 years ago, said in addition to providing jobs, the plant will most likely attract other industrial-type businesses.
“I don’t see a single negative to this whole project. It is going to be a boom for Okeechobee as far as bringing some things we need here, such as additional jobs,” Culpepper said.
The proposed site is also ideal because it is on the natural gas line that will serve it.
“It does not have a negative impact,” Culpepper said. “It is in a remote area on the other side (east) of the turnpike.”
John Williams, a seventh-generation Florida cattle rancher who chairs the Okeechobee Economic Council, said, “It is a nice fit for an agricultural community. It is up in a section of the county cut off by the Turnpike. Access to it will come from Highway 60 from Indian River County.”
Williams said he could not recall anything similar that has drawn as much community support as the proposed plant.
Before the plant can be built, plans must undergo comprehensive reviews by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Public Service Commission and a number of other county, state and federal government agencies. That process is expected to take 14 to 16 months.
FPL serves approximately 4.8 million customer accounts in Florida and expects to have 5 million customer accounts serving more than 10 million people by 2019.

150702-e
State budget architect says Amendment 1 goals met
NaplesNews.com - Guest commentary by Sen. Alan Hays
July 2, 2015
In November 2014, 4.2 million Floridians, roughly 20 percent, or one in five of the nearly 20 million people who call our state home, voted in favor of the Water and Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment 1).
As stated in the ballot summary, the amendment dedicates 33 percent of documentary stamp tax revenue to “acquire, restore, improve, and manage conservation lands including wetlands and forests; fish and wildlife habitat; lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, and the water quality of rivers, lakes, and streams; beaches and shores; outdoor recreational lands; working farms and ranches; and historic or geologic sites,” for 20 years.
The Legislature has worked diligently to implement this amendment, which will set aside $741.8 million from existing revenue this year. It is projected to generate $22.3 billion over the next 20 years.
The good news is the Legislature did not wait for the passage of Amendment 1 to renew its dedication to funding Florida’s environment, nor did we limit funding for this purpose to the mandatory $741.8 million.
Recovering from a recession that impacted every area of the budget, last year the Legislature appropriated well over $3 billion in funding for environmental programs, dedicating approximately 21 percent of documentary stamp revenue as well as general revenue, federal grants and other state funds to conserve, protect and enhance the natural resources we Floridians treasure.
This tremendous level of funding demonstrates the long-term and broad-based commitment to conservation by our local, state and federal governments that has led to the purchase of more than 10 million total government-owned acres across Florida, a commitment clearly reflected in the balanced budget the Legislature passed in June.
The 2015-16 budget provides substantial funding for land acquisition, springs protection, recreational trails and restoration of the Everglades. The budget provides nearly $200 million to pay for existing debt the state owes within Florida Forever, the Everglades and the Florida Keys.
In addition to dedicating more than $50 million toward the purchase of even more conservation land, the budget dedicates hundreds of millions to improve the management of and expand public access to lands the taxpayers already own. We also dedicated tens of millions to nourish Florida’s beaches, restore our lakes and protect rural and family lands from development.
We set aside funds to protect endangered plants and to mitigate the harm caused by invasive species that threaten various habitats across Florida. We also allocated significant funding to improve the quality of our water resources.
As you can see, there is a whole lot more to being a conservationist than acquiring property.
And while the proponents of Amendment 1 would now like us to believe their purpose was to require the state to purchase more land, the ballot language above clearly shows there is no requirement to spend a specific portion solely on land acquisition. Neither does the language indicate the entire sum is to be used for new purchases. Rather, the actual text of the amendment recognizes the broader responsibility in protecting and improving the state’s natural resources.
In fact, arguing in favor of Amendment 1 before its passage, proponents contended the amendment would not require cuts to other programs or increases in revenues since nothing in the amendment prevented the use of funds for existing programs, including operating expenses.
Some have compared Amendment 1 funding for the environment to the Florida Lottery funding dedicated to education. Let’s be clear, the lottery generated new funding for the state. Amendment 1 does not generate any new funding. Rather it mandates the allocation of an existing revenue stream now be set aside to fund environmental purposes.
Currently, approximately 21 percent of documentary stamp revenue supports environmental programs, and these expenditures were continued. Amendment 1 required an increase to 33 percent, so the general revenue fund that supports our school system, health care and other state needs was reduced by $174 million to implement the amendment.
Addressing Florida’s environmental needs is a marathon, not a sprint. Our budget not only meets, but by every measure exceeds the requirements of Amendment 1 which, unlike the current rhetoric, recognizes that being good stewards of Florida’s natural beauty means more than simply buying land.
Sen. Alan Hays represents District 11, which consists of parts of Lake, Marion, Orange and Sumter counties. He has served the last three terms as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government, which includes Agriculture and Natural Resources.

150702-f
Water quality clear along the Gulf Coast
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
July 2, 2015
Beachgoers and boaters should see nice conditions along the coast over the holiday weekend, although water temperatures may not feel refreshing at almost 90 degrees.
Blue-green algal blooms have been documented in the freshwater portions of the Caloosahatchee River, but most coastal areas are ripe for recreation.
"Sanibel causeway and the beaches look pretty good," said Rick Bartleson, a water quality scientist at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. "The water is clear, blue. But last week there were piles of drift algae on Fort Myers Beach, and that may have cleared up this week."
A blue-green outbreak in Pine Island Sound may cause a die-off of sea grass soon.
"(Wednesday) morning on the north side of the river you could see the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) clumps, light green clumps mixed into the water. It's pretty fresh there."
Algal blooms have also been reported at the Olga water plant.
Reservoir in the works
The Caloosahatchee Reservoir is becoming a reality after the South Florida Water Management District put the initial phases of construction up for bid this week.
An Everglades restoration project, the reservoir will one day hold 170,000 acre-feet of water, or about 55 billion gallons. The idea is to capture stormwater run-off from the Caloosahatchee River watershed, store that water and then release it back to the river when needed.
Work in this first phase includes demolishing farm features like buried pipes and irrigation pump stations; constructing seven above-ground 56 foot tall mounds to support future structures; moving about 1.8 million cubic yards of fill dirt; and preparing the foundation of the site for a 16-mile dam that will surround the reservoir.
The district has pumped more than 4 million gallons of water since 2012, water that would have flown down the Caloosahatchee and its estuary.
The reservoir is being built on about 10,000 acres of former farm land and is expected to cost nearly $600 million.
Picayune pumping
Pump stations at Picayune Strand — likely to be the first Everglades restoration project online — will soon start moving water as the state and federal government continue work aimed at moving water south of Tamiami Trail.
Picayune Strand was once the site of one of Florida's great swampland scams. In the 1960s, developers pitched Southern Golden Gate Estates as the largest community in the United States.
Hundreds of lots were sold, largely to Europeans who'd been shown the land during the dry season. The problem was that the developers never provided infrastructure — no water or power lines.
The state and federal government spent years tracking down and buying out the owners through an eminent domain project. Agencies have since removed 65 miles of roads and canals, filled ditches and rebuilt flow ways.
The pumps are located in the Big Cypress Basin in Collier County and will be capable of pushing 810 cubic feet per second of water.
Replumbing Picayune is expecting to improve wildlife habitat and conditions in the Everglades system, although less freshwater will be flowing through Port of the Isles. That means the 300 or so manatees that winter at Port of the Isles may need to find another winter refuge.

150701-a
Budget, ‘by every measure,’ exceeds Amendment 1 mandates
TBO.com – by Alan Hays, FL Senator
July 1, 2015
In November, 4.2 million Floridians, roughly 20 percent, or one in five of the nearly 20 million people who call our state home, voted in favor of the Water and Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment 1).
As stated in the ballot summary, the amendment dedicates 33 percent of documentary stamp tax revenue to “acquire, restore, improve, and manage conservation lands including wetlands and forests; fish and wildlife habitat; lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, and the water quality of rivers, lakes and streams; beaches and shores; outdoor recreational lands; working farms and ranches; and historic or geologic sites,” for 20 years.
The Legislature has worked diligently to implement this amendment, which will set aside $741.8 million from existing revenue this year. It is projected to generate $22.3 billion over the next 20 years.
The good news is the Legislature did not wait for the passage of Amendment 1 to renew its dedication to funding Florida’s environment, nor did we limit funding for this purpose to the mandatory $741.8 million.
Recovering from a recession that impacted every area of the budget, last year the Legislature appropriated well over $3 billion for environmental programs, dedicating about 21 percent of documentary stamp revenue as well as general revenue, federal grants and other state funds to conserve, protect and enhance the natural resources we Floridians treasure.
This tremendous level of funding demonstrates the long-term and broad-based commitment to conservation by our local, state and federal governments that has led to the purchase of more than 10 million government-owned acres across Florida, a commitment clearly reflected in the balanced budget the Legislature passed last month.
The 2015-16 budget provides substantial funding for land acquisition, springs protection, recreational trails and restoration of the Everglades. The budget provides nearly $200 million to pay for existing debt the state owes within Florida Forever, the Everglades and the Florida Keys. In addition to dedicating more than $50 million toward the purchase of even more conversation land, the budget dedicates hundreds of millions to improve the management of and expand public access to lands the taxpayers already own. We also dedicated tens of millions to nourish Florida’s beaches, restore our lakes and protect rural and family lands from development. We set aside funds to protect endangered plants and to mitigate the harm caused by invasive species that threaten various habitats across Florida. We also allocated significant funding to improve the quality of our water resources.
As you can see, there is a whole lot more to being a conservationist than acquiring property.
And although the proponents of Amendment 1 would now like us to believe its purpose was to require the state to purchase more land, the ballot language above clearly shows there is no requirement to spend a specific portion solely on land acquisition. Nor does the language indicate the entire sum is to be used for new purchases. Rather, the actual text of the amendment recognizes the broader responsibility in protecting and improving the state’s natural resources. In fact, arguing in favor of Amendment 1 before its passage, proponents contended the amendment would not require cuts to other programs or increases in revenues since nothing in the amendment prevented the use of funds for existing programs, including operating expenses.
Some have compared Amendment 1 funding for the environment to the Florida Lottery funding dedicated to education. Let’s be clear: The Lottery generated new funding for the state. Amendment 1 does not generate any new funding. Rather, it mandates the allocation of an existing revenue stream to fund environmental purposes. Currently, about 21 percent of documentary stamp revenue supports environmental programs, and these expenditures were continued. Amendment 1 required an increase to 33 percent, so the general revenue fund that supports our school system, health care and other state needs was reduced by $174 million to implement the amendment.
Addressing Florida’s environmental needs is a marathon, not a sprint. Our budget not only meets, but by every measure exceeds the requirements of Amendment 1, which, unlike the current rhetoric, recognizes that being good stewards of Florida’s natural beauty means more than simply buying land.
Sen. Alan Hays represents District 11, which consists of parts of Lake, Marion, Orange and Sumter counties. He has served the last three terms as chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government, which includes Agriculture and Natural Resources.

150701-b
Everglades ranked the top place to fish and boat in country
PR Newswire - by Bruna Carincotte
July 1, 2015
The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and its Take Me Fishing™ campaign unveiled the 2015 Top 100 Family-Friendly Places to Fish and Boat, which ranks Florida’s Everglades National Park as the No. 1 place to fish and boat in the U.S.! The Top 100 list is being released just in time to celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week, June 6–14.
“Fishing and boating are great ways to spend time with family and friends; and most people aren’t even aware that by participating in the sport, they’re actually helping to conserve our environment,” said RBFF President and CEO, Frank Peterson. “We’re encouraging outdoor enthusiasts across the country to pick a park on our Top 100 list, get out on the water with family and friends and create lifelong memories during National Fishing and Boating Week.”
As part of a sweepstakes, anglers and boaters cast more than 280,000 votes online to help develop the 2015 list of Top 100 Family-Friendly Places to Fish and Boat. The criteria for the Top 100 included having a public body of water within an hour of a major city, good fishing opportunities, and family-friendly amenities.
Who Reeled In The Top 10 Spots:
1 )  Everglades National Park, FL
2 )  Bahia Honda State Park, Big Pine Key, FL
3 )  Blue Springs State Park, Orange City, FL
4 )  Kissimmee State Park, Lake Wales, FL
5 )  Keystone State Park, Derry, PA
6 )  Clear Lake State Park, Kelseyville, CA
7 )  Skyway Fishing Pier State Park, St Petersburg, FL
8 ) Galveston Island State Park, Galveston, TX
9 )  Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA
10) Lackawanna State Park, North Abington, PA
Further Fishing Facts:
●  The Everglades – ranked number five last year – was joined by four of its fellow Floridians in the top 10 list this year; the state held the same number of top 10 spots as last year.
●  In addition to Florida, other states that appeared in the top 10 two years in a row are California and Texas.
●  Pennsylvania only appeared in the top 10 once last year, but the state secured three spots on the coveted short list in 2015!
●  In fact, Pennsylvania tied with Florida and California in having the most appearances on the list, as each state appeared seven times.
People are encouraged to celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week, June 6–14, by visiting their local parks and other fishing spots, perhaps one of the Top 100. Here are some other ways to celebrate:
#FirstCatch: Create and capture moments fishing with family and friends, then share them with others online using #FirstCatch. #FirstCatch is Take Me Fishing’s initiative to create a common platform for people to come together and revel in the joys of fishing and boating by sharing their first fishing and boating memories – first catch of the day, first fish of the season or even the first catch of a lifetime.
Free Fishing Days: Perfect for those who are new to the sport or who want to mentor others, most states offer Free Fishing Days that allow the public to fish without having to purchase a fishing license.
Conservation through Participation: Buying a fishing license and registering a boat helps fund efforts to conserve our natural waterways through projects such as fisheries research, habitat improvement, fish stocking, aquatic education and fishing and boating access facilities such as docks and boat ramps.
Special Events: Sites all over the country will host events, such as fishing derbies, regattas, boating demonstrations, festivals and more.
Kids’ Activities: TakeMeFishing.org’s Little Lunkers section offers games and information to learn before getting out on the water, and even certificates to commemorate their catch.
For additional details on National Fishing and Boating Week, including your state’s Free Fishing Days, visit TakeMeFishing.org. The site, along with its Spanish language counterpart, VamosAPescar.org, is a one-stop resource for fishing license and boat registration information, fishing and boating locations nationwide and ‘how-to’ information to help plan fishing and boating adventures. Both sites give people of all ages and experience levels everything they need to learn, plan and equip for a successful day on the water.
About the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF)
RBFF is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase participation in recreational angling and boating, thereby protecting and restoring the nation’s aquatic natural resources. RBFF developed the award-winning Take Me Fishing™ and Vamos A Pescar™ campaigns to create awareness around boating, fishing and conservation, and educate people about the benefits of participation. Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar help boaters and anglers of all ages and experience levels learn, plan and equip for a day on the water. The campaign websites, TakeMeFishing.org, and VamosAPescar.org, feature how-to videos, information on how to get a fishing license and boat registration, and an interactive state-by-state map that allows visitors to find local boating and fishing spots

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Florida AG joins multi-state lawsuit against EPA's ‘Clean Water Rule’
WJCT.org - by Jessica Palombo
July 1, 2015
Florida has joined a multi-state lawsuit against a new federal water-pollution rule.
Industry groups support the suit — which refers to the rule as a “significant overreach” by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi joined the suit this week. In a news release, Bondi calls the rule burdensome and said it would negatively affect business, governments and households across Florida. Her statements echo what Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam warned last year before the rule went into effect.
“Folks, your front yard is mushy in North Florida right now,” Putnam said. “Should that be subject to Corps of Engineers regulation?”
But Florida environmentalists say the backlash is unwarranted. And the EPA’s Ken Kopocis reacted last month.  
“Rather than creating any new permitting requirements, especially for farmers, the Clean Water Rule will provide greater clarity and certainty and does not add any economic burdens,” Kopocis said.
Federal regulators say the rule was necessary to clear up competing Supreme Court rulings about what qualify as protected headwaters. Those are areas where water starts before flowing into streams that become lakes or rivers. The lawsuit says the rule violates states’ rights to govern their own waters.
Related:           AG Schmidt files lawsuit asking court to overturn EPA clean water rule     Hutchinson News
South Carolina joins 8 states to challenge EPA water rule     ABC NEWS 4
Florida Joins Lawsuit Against EPA's Clean Water Rule        Southeast AgNet

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Picayune pump station delivers first gallons of water for restoration
Florida Water Daily – SFWMD News Release
July 1, 2015
The new Merritt Pump Station began delivering water in June. Source: SFWMD
Rising out of the flat Everglades landscape in southwest Florida, a massive new pump station has begun sending the first gallons of water to help restore 55,000 acres in the Picayune Strand. Restoration of this area is a joint effort between the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
“Sending water into an area that was left dry and unnatural by long-gone development is another sign of our restoration progress,” said SFWMD Executive Director Blake Guillory. “Work in the Picayune Strand has been an ongoing partnership that is producing visible results.”
The Merritt Pump Station, officially designated as S-488, is the first of three pump stations to be completed for restoring Picayune wetlands and wildlife habitat and also to improve the health of downstream estuaries in the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
The pump station, located in Collier County’s Big Cypress Basin, was completed by the Army Corps in September. It can pump 810 cubic feet of water per second to provide both flood control for communities north of Picayune and sheetflow south needed for environmental restoration.
Work to allow this sheetflow of water to move south across a broad expanse of the landscape was completed in 2006, when numerous culverts were constructed under U.S. 41 to allow water movement.
“The Picayune Strand Restoration Project continues to serve as an example of what can be accomplished when we work together,” said Col. Alan Dodd, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District Commander. “In October, the Corps and our partners at the South Florida Water Management District celebrated the completion of the Merritt Pump Station. Now, we are seeing
restoration in action.”
Additionally, work to plug 10 miles of the Merritt Canal was completed this month, spreading water across the landscape, rehydrating the area south of Interstate 75 and north of U.S. 41, between the Belle Meade area and the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park.
Scientists expect to see beneficial changes in local vegetation and wildlife habitat begin to emerge as early as this year.
Manatee Protection
Approximately 300 manatees currently use the Port of the Islands Basin as a warm water refuge during the colder months of the year. Scientists believe this refuge was created by freshwater discharged from the current canal system in Picayune Strand. Unfortunately, restoration efforts that will enhance wildlife habitat in the region will
reduce freshwater flow into this specific area.
In April, the SFWMD approved a contract to construct a new manatee refuge that is compatible with restoration efforts. Work will include creation of three deep pools, 100 feet in diameter and about 20 feet deep. Construction of the refuge began on June 25 with clearing of the site, and work is scheduled to be complete in April 2016.
Picayune Strand Background and Restoration Goals
Southern Golden Gate Estates was originally designed and marketed as the largest suburban development in the country in the late 1960’s. The developer dredged 48 miles of canals, built approximately 270 miles of shell-rock roads and sold thousands of lots before going bankrupt.
Florida and its federal partners set out to restore the region to a more natural state. The objective is to restore and enhance wetlands in Picayune Strand and adjacent public lands by reducing over-drainage, and to improve the water quality of coastal estuaries by moderating the large salinity fluctuations caused by point discharge of freshwater
from the Faka Union Canal.
Authorized by Congress in 2007, the Picayune Strand Restoration Project became the first Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan project to begin construction. Restoration will help connect publically owned and protected lands in the area, including:
●  Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve ~75,000 acres
●  Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge ~26,000 acres
●  Collier-Seminole State Park ~6,500 acres
●  Big Cypress National Preserve ~730,000 acres
●  Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge ~35,000 acres
Completed Restoration Work
To date, the Picayune Strand Restoration Project has reached several milestones, including:
●  Prairie Canal Plugging and Road Removal (SFWMD): This included backfilling and plugging 7 miles of the Prairie Canal using fill from spoil along the canal and removing 65 miles of roads to restore the natural historical grade.
●  Tamiami Trail Culvert Construction (SFWMD): Work included installation of 9 culverts under the Tamiami Trail to help restore overland flows in the Picayune Strand.
●  Merritt Pump Station and Road Removal (USACE): Pump Station construction started in February 2010 and was completed in September 2014. Work included plugging 10 miles of the Merritt Canal.

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