151031-a
New Everglades National Park plan now in effect but regulatory changes will be slow in coming
KeysNet.com – by Kevin Wadlow
October 31, 2015
Everglades National Park's updated general management plan, including new rules for the park's Florida Bay waters, became official Oct. 23.
"This is an important milestone to guide park decisions and priorities for many years to come," said National Park Service Southeast Regional Director Stan Austin, who signed the plan into effect.
About 200 square miles of water -- about a third of Florida Bay that lies inside the park -- will be designated for slower speeds or poling. Regulatory changes will be phased in.
"Implementing the plan will not happen all at once and is likely to take many years as funds and resources become available," Everglades Park Superintendent Pedro M. Ramos said in a Thursday statement.
"The more complex projects, especially those changing visitor use and access ... will not start before 2016, and may take several years to complete," Ramos said.
Those programs include a new boater-education program, shallow-water marine zoning and airboat zones.
"Our mission is clear -- protect and improve the resource conditions, and provide for the understanding and enjoyment of this special place," Ramos said.
The boater-education program is being designed. It likely will follow concepts outlined in the Eco-Mariner program created by the National Parks Conservation Association six years ago.
"Navigating [Florida] Bay is complicated and requires great care," the NPCA said. "Inexperienced or careless boaters can easily damage seagrasses and mud flats with their propellers, churning up sediment, suffocating plants and harming fish habitat."
The updated plan ran into some opposition over its Florida Bay go-slow zones. Park staff then worked with Florida Keys fishing guides to fine-tune area boundaries and designate navigation channels.
Other changes affecting the Keys include long-range redevelopment of the park's Flamingo base and opening the Joe Bay area for paddling and catch-and-release fishing.
"We look forward to working closely with the public and partner organizations on the important work we need to accomplish," Ramos said.
The approved plan, with maps, can be found at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/evergmp.

151031-b
Seeking justice on Amendment 1
TBO.com - Editorial
October 31, 2015
Conservationists want a judge to remedy the Legislature’s abuse of Amendment 1 by ordering the state to transfer $237 million to Florida’s acquisition trust fund.
We don’t know if the court will comply, or defer to the lawmakers’ authority to appropriate funds.
But we do know that the Legislature blatantly ignored the people’s will and the law’s directive, and if they can get away with such shenanigans, there is little hope the Legislature will ever comply with citizens’ initiatives.
Last year, 75 percent of Florida voters backed the referendum requiring the state to spend more on preserving land.
But imperious lawmakers ignored the vote and used the money for other purposes, including paying salaries and agency operating expenses.
The law, which requires one-third of the state’s existing documentary stamp revenues be used for conservation, did provide some flexibility in how the estimated $700 million a year it would raise could be used.
But the ballot language that voters overwhelmingly approved made absolutely clear the money would go toward land and water conservation:
“Funds the Land Acquisition Trust Fund 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, by dedicating 33 percent of net revenues from the existing excise tax on documents for 20 years.”
The amendment’s full text also is clear that the intent is to fund conservation.
Yet from the start of the session lawmakers treated the voter-enacted amendment with disdain and sought to weasel out of its requirements.
The Senate named Sen. Alan Hays of Umatilla, who has sought to block state and local land preservation efforts, to oversee Amendment 1 spending. Needless to say, the Legislature defied voters, making a mockery of the law and again shortchanging conservation.
The amendment had become necessary because the Legislature in recent years had virtually abandoned land preservation.
Advocates of the amendment had hoped the state would spend about $170 million this year on Florida Forever, the state’s premier land conservation program, but also felt Gov. Rick Scott’s $100 million recommendation was reasonable. Lawmakers approved a paltry $17 million.
So it’s no wonder supporters feel betrayed — as all voters should. Some are resorting to the courts; others are forming a political action group to advance the effort.
Lawmakers, who always manage to find millions for their pet projects, act as if spending more on conservation would shortchange other key state needs. But the amendment was intended to only restore land acquisition spending to traditional levels.
Preserving these lands — by either purchasing outright or buying development rights — protects the state’s appeal to residents and tourists. But it also protects its water supply and averts the costly pollution, flooding, traffic and other problems that occur when woodlands are paved over.
Moreover, with growth — more than 250,000 new residents a year — roaring in Florida again, the state can’t dawdle if it wants to save its natural heritage.
The courts understandably may be reluctant to get involved with legislative appropriations, but the Legislature should not be free to simply dismiss a constitutional amendment adopted by the public.
Regardless of how the litigation unfolds, citizens should not forget lawmakers’ deception.

151031-c
Thumb up: Survey shows water is Floridians’ top environmental concern
TCPalm.com – by Editorial Board
October 31, 2015
SURVEY HOLDS WATER: We're not surprised concerns about water ranked No. 1 among Florida residents asked to name the biggest environmental problem in Florida. It's why our Treasure Coast news organization is committed to remaining the regional authority on the Indian River Lagoon and connected waterways.
The 2015 Sunshine State Survey by the University of South Florida showed 38 percent of the 1,251 adult respondents statewide cited water problems, especially water quality, as their top environmental concern. The 2014 survey found a similar result. We think this survey should be a wake-up call to Gov. Scott and the Florida Legislature, spurring them to preserve our waterways by prioritizing funds to help end Lake Okeechobee discharges as well as restore the Everglades and preserve our beaches.

151030-a
Bush right to renounce sugar subsidies
TampaBay.com - Editorial
October 30, 2015
There is more to running for president than all sweetness and smiles during debates. There are serious policy questions, and former Gov. Jeb Bush has picked a good one by renouncing his sugar high. The longtime ally of Florida's sugar industry says he wants to phase out federal sugar subsidies, which serve no public purpose. That is smart policy as well as smart politics, and Sen. Marco Rubio should follow his lead.
American taxpayers routinely spend several hundred million dollars a year buying excess sugar to sell at a loss for use as ethanol, or backstopping industry loans. Consumers pay higher prices than necessary for foods made in America using sugar. State and federal taxpayers are paying billions to clean up the Everglades damaged by runoff from the cane fields.
Yet the sugar industry has long protected its subsidies through political contributions, including nearly $600,000 to Bush's campaign. No wonder it was caught off guard by Bush's call to phase out the subsidies.
Of course, proposing an end to sugar subsidies should please the corn farmers in Iowa, where the caucuses will kick off the 2016 election season. And it should be noticed by conservative activists who oppose such taxpayer giveaways and are cool to Bush. But it further distinguishes Bush from Rubio, who still supports the subsidies and is backed by the Fanjul family that controls one of the world's biggest sugar operations. Smart public policy positions should still count for something in elections, and Bush is right on this one.

151030-b
Everglades General Management Plan, Eastern Everglades Wilderness Study get final approval
NPT.com - by NPT Staff
October 30, 2015
More wilderness, more protection of Florida Bay's shallow waters, and a new paddling trail all are provided for in the general management plan approved for Everglades National Park.
The plan, combined with the East Everglades Wilderness Study, should take the park's management objectives forward for the next several decades. Overall, the two plans are designed to better protect and restore critical natural, cultural, and wilderness resources and provide improved visitor experiences. The park now is home to more than 1.5 million acres of official wilderness, the “largest designated wilderness area east of the Rocky Mountains.”
The last comprehensive management planning effort for Everglades National Park was completed in 1979, so an update was needed to address changes in visitation, boundaries, and improved understanding of resources and threats to those resources. 
“This is an important milestone to guide park decisions and priorities for many years to come. The need for the GMP is clear and the public’s support in developing the plan will go a long way toward its successful implementation,” said Stan Austin, director of the National Park Service's Southeast Region. Mr. Austin approved the plan October 23.
The plan is built around the concept of management zoning and collaborative techniques, such as adaptive management, user education, and an advisory committee. The management zones describe desired conditions for park resources and visitor experience throughout the park. Management zones range from the "Developed Zone" for the main visitor center facilities; the "Front Country Zone" easily accessible to visitors; the "Boat Access Zone" for recreational watercraft and motorboats; "Pole/Troll Zone" to protect vulnerable shallow marine areas of Florida Bay (submerged marine wilderness) – but allowing paddles, poles, or trolling motors; the "Pole/Roll/Idle Zone", which allows for combustion engines operating at idle speed in proper depths; the "Backcountry (non-motorized) Zones" for water or land in the wildest areas to provide wilderness experiences; and, finally, a "Special Protection Zone" for sensitive wildlife areas or areas that are part of long-term ecological benchmarks for research.
“Our mission is clear – protect and improve the resource conditions, and provide for the understanding and enjoyment of this special place," said Everglades Superintendent Pedro Ramos. "In addition to the ongoing work to restore the Everglades ecosystem, GMP implementation will bring measureable improvements to our fresh- and marine-water environments and enhance opportunities for visitors.”
The plan includes a number of new features. These include:  “1) a state-of-the-art marine-waters boater education program, 2) Florida Bay protection with over 140,000 acres of shallow-water zoning to enhance resource protection and an updated boat transit network, 3) an 85,300-acre expansion of the park’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness in the East Everglades Addition, 4) airboat zones for individual airboats and concession tours consistent with 1989 East Everglades Expansion Act, 5) the 120-mile Everglades Paddling Trail through the park’s western backcountry, 6) sustainable redevelopment of the park’s Flamingo and Everglades City sites, and 7) re-opening the Joe Bay area for paddling and catch-and-release fishing.”  
Full details of the plans can be found here.
How soon some of the changes are implemented is hard to say.
“Implementing the plan will not happen all at once and is likely to take many years, as funds and resources become available," said Superintendent Ramos. "The more complex projects, especially those changing visitor use and access (e.g., boater education program, shallow-water marine zoning, airboat zones), will not start before 2016, and may take several years to complete."
The GMP also calls for a comprehensive cultural resource management to inventory, document, and protect such resources, and improve ethnographic resources and interpretation in consultation with American Indian tribes and peoples traditionally associated with the park area.

151030-c
Red tide detected in and alongshore Pinellas County
TBNweekly.com – by Suzette Porter
October 30, 2015
The red tide found in Pinellas County is part of a larger bloom, one of two confirmed by Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission in September. FWC researchers announced Oct. 30 that they are monitoring two blooms along Florida’s Gulf coast, one located in northwest Florida and the other in southwest Florida.
“We confirmed the presence of both blooms in September, and they have persisted since that time,” said Alina Corcoran, FWC research scientist, in a media release. “The bloom in the Panhandle is currently affecting Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf counties. In southwest Florida, patchy blooms have been confirmed along Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties. Extensive fish kills and respiratory irritation have been associated with the bloom in the Panhandle but in southwest Florida the effects have been less.”
Results released Oct. 30 of four water samples collected Oct. 26, in and alongshore of Pinellas County showed evidence of red tide in two locations. Background concentrations were found at Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach and very low concentrations were found at Mullet Key; Gulf Pier. No red tide was found in samples taken at Clearwater Pass and Redington Pier.
Results from locations from that same southwest bloom showed background to low concentrations in 25 samples collected in and alongshore of Manatee, Charlotte, and Lee counties; and background to high concentrations in 24 samples collected in and alongshore of Sarasota County. 
Respiratory irritation and fish kills were reported from some beaches in Southwest Florida this week. Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides show little net movement of bloom patches over the next three days.
What is red tide ?
Red tide is feared in coastal communities like Pinellas that have a successful tourism industry. Blooms in 1971 and 2005-06 cost local governments thousands of dollars just to cleanup dead fish on the beaches. Thousands more dollars were lost as tourists fled the county due to the smell. Large numbers of marine animals died. The fishing industry suffered.
Florida red tide is a harmful algal bloom caused by an organism known as dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The organism produces a toxin that can kill fish, birds and marine mammals; cause health problems for humans; and adversely affect local economies.
The red tide organism releases a neurotoxin that directly affects animals that come in contact by breathing or ingesting it through food sources. The neurotoxin shuts down the nervous system.
The effect on humans is not as severe but red tide can cause eye, nose and throat irritation. People with severe or chronic respiratory conditions, such as asthma or chronic lung disease might want to avoid places where the bloom is more concentrated, as it is in northwest areas of the state such as the Panhandle. An Oct. 29 red tide report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed no current threat of potential respiratory problems in Pinellas County.
In areas with fish kills, which thus far does not include Pinellas, dead fish oftentimes wash ashore. Beachgoers are advised not to swim in water where dead fish are present. Skin irritation and rashes have been reported by people who have swam in red tide, and some swimmers have reported eye irritation from the sea foam.
Pets also should stay out of the water that contains red tide. If a pet does contact water with red tide, FWC advises to rinse off the fur and paws with fresh water right away. Do not let your pet eat the dead fish or drink the water.
Shellfish, including clams, oysters, and mussels can accumulate brevetoxins, which have no taste, smell, or color, and can’t be destroyed by cooking. If contaminated shellfish are eaten, people can become ill with Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning, according to a fact sheet from FCC.
Symptoms of NSP include abdominal pain; nausea; vomiting; diarrhea; reversal of hot/cold sensations; progressive sensations of tingling, pricking, or burning; lack of muscle control during voluntary movements; muscle pain; headache; and vertigo. In severe cases, an abnormally slowed heart rate may occur. FWC says the duration of NSP, which varies from person to person, typically lasts three days.
If conditions warrant, the state will ban recreational harvesting of bivalve mollusks such as hard clams, oysters and mussels in regulated areas. As of Oct. 29, no ban was in effect.
“Citizen scientists play a vital role in tracking blooms. Volunteers can provide the majority of water samples for bloom tracking in regions like the Panhandle,” said Corcoran.
There were no signs of trouble along Pinellas beaches, according to MOTE Marine Laboratory beach conditions report on Oct. 30. All locations from Fort De Soto to the south and Caladesi Island to the north were reporting no dead fish or respiratory irritation. Conditions were calm. The water was clear.
A mid-week red tide is expected on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with a full report to follow on Friday, Nov. 6. For more information, visit MyFWC.com/RedTide. To report fish kills, call the Fish Kill Hotline at 800-636-0511 or submit a report online.
Related:           Red tide detected in and alongshore Pinellas County            Tampa Bay Newspapers
Lionfish among red tide casualties     Pensacola News Journal
Red Tide Visits NWFL Waters          WUWF
'No swim' advisory issued for Sanibel's Blind Pass Beach     WZVN-TV
Health officials warn Sanibel beachgoers of bacteria Wink News

151030-d
Reporter looks back at 25 years of covering environment
News-Press.com – by Kevin Lollar
October 30, 2015
The idea behind the Environmental Reporter's Notebook, as envisioned a couple of years ago by News-Press editors, was for Chad Gillis and me to take turns writing about interesting things that happen on the environmental beat but that aren't newsworthy enough to merit a real story.
This week is my turn, so I'm going way back to March 1990.
I started working here as an environmental reporter March 5 that year, after three years covering various beats in South Dakota (brrrrr!) and three years as a features writer in California (dude!), and I knew nothing about Southwest Florida's environment.
On March 21, I got a call from Paul Hinchcliff, chief naturalist at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County; the conversation went something like this:
Paul: "The wood storks have started nesting."
Me: "OK. So?"
Paul: "Wood storks are endangered, and this is the first time they've nested since 1988."
Me: "OK. So?"
Paul: "Why don't you drive down here tomorrow, and I'll explain it to you?"
Next day, Paul took me and former News-Press photographer Kelly Pace out into the swamp (the storks weren't nesting near the sanctuary's boardwalk).
As we slogged through maidencane and bunch grass, Paul explained that Corkscrew is the largest wood stork nesting colony in North America, that wood storks will only breed there under a complicated set of meteorological and hydrologic conditions, which have been further complicated by human activity, that not breeding for a couple of years is bad for the wood stork population, that wood storks are an indicator species, which means that if wood storks aren't doing well, other species aren't either, and that when wood storks start building nests after skipping a breeding season, it's a big deal.
That's when I realized that being an environmental reporter in Southwest Florida was going to be very cool, that I had a lot to learn to do my job right, that being out in the environment with scientists is way more fun than being in the office with editors, and that I was going to get out of the office as often as possible.
Tony Tucker, program manager for Mote Marine Laboratory's Sea Turtle Research & Conservation Program prepares to put a dive computer on a green sea turtle that false crawled up on Casey Key Sunday morning. Mote is doing research on sea turtles which includes putting satellite tags and other tracking devices on them. The red light is used because sea turtles cannot see it as well as humans and it does not disorient them. The news-press spent Saturday night to Sunday morning documenting Mote Marine Laboratory scientists attaching tracking devices to sea turtles on Casey Key. A rare green sea turtle came to shore to lay her eggs but decided against it. On her way back to the Gulf of Mexico the scientists detained her briefly to replace a dive computer which had been attached the night before. Turtle volunteers and a few media were allowed to witness the event. Here are pictures from the night. a red light was used to photograph the turtle. They cannot see it as well as humans and it does not disorient them. 
Among the fun out-of-the-office stuff I've been lucky enough to do: Swim with whale sharks off Lee County and Holbox, Mexico, dive Lee County's artificial reefs, wrecks and natural ledges, dive for lobster, watch coral spawning, participate in a lionfish derby and dive with combat wounded veterans in the Keys, work as a volunteer digger during an excavation at the Pineland archaeological complex on Pine Island, go to work with commercial mullet, grouper, stone crab, blue crab and lobster fishermen, get involved in a mass Fraser's dolphin stranding in Estero Bay and a mass pilot whale stranding in the Keys (not standing around taking notes, but actually getting in the water to help the scientists with the animals), go on shark-tagging, sawfish-tagging, snook-tagging, tarpon-tagging, sea turtle-tagging, snake-hunting, Florida panther-tracking, alligator-counting, bird-counting, manatee-counting, fish-counting, marine sponge-counting, macroalgae-surveying, oyster-surveying, seagrass-surveying and orchid-surveying trips, and, yes, visit Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary when the wood storks start building nests.
Through it all, I've met some truly remarkable (and smart) people — scientists, environmentalists, students, teachers, volunteers and just plain folks — who have helped me do my job and enriched my life.
My one hope is that, over the past 25 years, I've helped readers understand a little about the spectacular environment that is South Florida, because, after 25 years at The News-Press, I've decided to retire so I can concentrate on fun stuff that I don't have to write about — retirement officially starts at the end of work Friday .
And, so, so long, y'all; I've had a ball.

151030-e
South Florida’s rising sea delusions seem awfully wet, deep and scary
Miami Herald – by Fred Grimm
October 30, 2015
It was the night of the blood moon. A clear evening. Not a hint of rain. I was riding my bike from the beach along Las Olas Boulevard when my imagination got the better of me.
Suddenly, I had this peculiar impression that large stretches of the road just west of the Intracoastal Waterway had simply disappeared. That the canals had overflowed. That I was pedaling blindly through 18 inches of water, the first time in three decades of biking down Fort Lauderdale’s most famous street that I had encountered so much flooding.
No doubt, those damn rogue climate scientists were indulging in mind control.
Apparently, most of Miami Beach has been suffering from similar delusions. The Herald’s Joey Flechas and Jenny Staletovich documented how the Beach has been re-engineering streets and seawalls and installing 80 pumps across the city in a frantic $500 million attempt to stave off the effects of a climate phenomenon that — as far as Congress is concerned — doesn’t exist.
And the complexities South Florida’s civic leaders anticipate go beyond flooded neighborhoods and impassable streets. They’re worried about salt water intrusion into the well fields, about gravity-powered drainage canals and sewer systems that only work if sea levels stay put. Staletovich reported that the new pumps on Miami Beach are polluting Biscayne Bay with phosphorus, nitrogen and street crap that’s murdering the bay’s ecology.
Congress thinks we’re making this up. (Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t believe us either. Last summer, Florida’s climate-change-skeptic-in-chief vetoed a $750,000 allocation for Miami Beach’s pumping program, declaring that flood control “does not provide a clear return on investment.”)
The problem’s that climate scientists (except for those on the payroll of Koch Industries and ExxonMobil) have been filling our silly heads with scary stuff about global warming and rising seas. Well, Congress knows how to deal with discomfiting scientific findings. Cut off the funding.
Last week, the New York Times reported on a harrowing and dangerous expedition onto the receding Greenland ice sheets, where hydrologists have discovered new, uncharted rivers rushing through ever-more-porous glaciers. It’s the kind of research that could tell South Florida how much sea rise to expect. And how soon.
But U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House science committee and a raving global warming skeptic, intends to cut $300 million from the federal budget for earth science research — including the Greenland project. Last month, just to harass uncooperative climate geeks, Smith issued a slew of subpoenas to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration demanding “all documents and communications” having to do with climate change.
Smith intends to stanch this unwelcome data stream. (Just as Congress — in homage to the NRA — used funding cuts to keep the Centers for Disease Control from researching gun violence.)
Oh yeah. That high tide that South Floridians thought was flooding their streets last week ? Obviously, they were up to their knees in misinformation.

151029-a
Army Corps: Work on C-44 reservoir to begin in November
TCPalm.com - by Tyler Treadway
October 29, 2015
STUART — Construction of the final phase of the long-awaited C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area will begin in late November.
Lt. Col. Jennifer A. Reynolds, the Army Corps of Engineers' deputy commander for South Florida, said Thursday work will begin on the facility's 16.5 billion-gallon reservoir after a groundbreaking Nov. 20.
At her first Rivers Coalition meeting since taking her post June 1, Reynolds said Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary for the Army's Civil Works division and head of the Army Corps, and "maybe a few other national leaders" will attend the ceremony.
The project east of Indiantown is designed to help keep water laden with harmful nutrients and silt out of the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. The reservoir will store water drawn from the farmland on both sides of the C-44, which connects Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River, and gradually release it into a stormwater treatment area, a man-made wetland to remove nitrogen and phosphorus.
The project will not stop discharges of Lake O water into the river and lagoon.
The C-44 project began in 2007 when the South Florida Water Management District spent $173 million and Martin County kicked in $27 million through a special 1-cent sales tax to buy and clear 12,000 acres for the facility.
In August 2014, the Corps finished building canals to move water onto and off the site.
The Corps was supposed to build the 6,300-acre stormwater treatment area after completing the reservoir. To speed up construction, the water district agreed to build the treatment area while the Corps built the reservoir.
Still, the entire project isn't scheduled to be fully constructed and tested until 2020. The total cost will be about $600 million.
Barnard Construction Co. Inc. of Bozeman, Montana, was awarded a $197 million contract to build the 3,400-acre reservoir in September.

151029-b
Environmental groups: No fracking way
News-Press.com – by Chad Gillis
October 29, 2015
Memo to Gov. Rick Scott: Keep the oil in the soil unless you want the bird dogs on your tail.
That was the message from environmental activists who have and are still fighting against oil extraction expansion in states like New York, Texas, Colorado and California.
"We showed up wherever the governor showed up with signs saying 'ban fracking,'" said Wes Gillingham, an anti-fracking activist with Catskill Mountainkeeper, adding that the group protested at school openings, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and other public events. "He could not go anywhere without seeing anti-fracking signs."
Rose Braz, with the Center for Biological Diversity, called the tactic "bird-dogging," and she encouraged several environmental groups and dozens of concerned citizens meeting Wednesday at the Holiday Inn near Florida Gulf Coast University to do the same.
"All the facts are on our side when it comes to stopping fracking," Braz said during a conference call. "People want clean water and it's a fundamental right. And I think this industry threatens that."
Groups like the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and others are formulating plans they hope will stop any fracking practices here until environmental assessments of the practice can be reviewed by geologists and hydrologists. They met all day Tuesday and Wednesday to get input from people who have successfully fought off fracking.
This type of oil extraction has increasingly become a concern in Florida in recent years as more and more companies apply for drilling permits. Legislative bills have been proposed in recent years to both allow and ban fracking across the Sunshine State.
Locally, Bonita Springs City Council members voted earlier this year to ban fracking operations inside the city limits, and the village of Estero did the same thing at a meeting there Wednesday.
The oil industry says fracking is safe and can be controlled in a way as to not impact drinking water aquifers.
"Hydraulic fracturing is safe and well-regulated by federal and state agencies," oil industry proponent Energy From Shale says on its website. "Fracking technologies and processes continue to be improved, guided by industry standards developed from experiences in the fracking field and which undergo rigorous review before adoption."
But Braz said the industry can't be trusted. She cited a situation in which an oil company earlier this year sold recycled oil waste water to a water supply district in California. That district then sold the water to farmers, who used it to water crops.
Allowing and regulating fracking, though, could stop or slow the process until information about the chemical makeup used to extract the low-grade oil is made public, Gillingham said.
Lax regulations could cripple the state's drinking water sources, ecology and tourism.
"The regulatory process can be a way to educate the public, to put a hold on the situation," Gillingham, said "Should you do regulation or should you do banning? If you’re going to regulate, you better have the capacity in your agency to regulate it very rigorously. Can you verify and inspect (the chemicals being injected into the ground)."
He said Florida is vulnerable until that decision is made and the public takes action to prevent fracking from impacting drinking water sources.
"Accidents happen (when companies prospect for oil). You must assume and you must address accidents. Maybe you tell them to put a mitigation fund (together) ahead of time and then anyone impacted by it can get the money without litigation," he said. "From what I’ve heard, in Florida you need a moratorium or ban until you get that route into place and into public policy."
State Sen. Garrett Richter, a Republican from Naples, introduced a bill last month that would prohibit communities in Florida from banning fracking. The bill would also void all existing bans — like ones in Bonita Springs and Estero.
Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat from Miami, held a media event in Estero that focused on a bill he has filed that would ban fracking.
“I believe that, given the chance, Florida voters will say ‘no thank you’ to the public health risk, environmental contamination and even seismic activity that fracking brings with it,” he said in a statement released earlier this week.
Both have been proposed in the past, and neither has garnered the necessary support to create laws and regulations for this type of oil extraction.
"The welcome mat ... is really already out in Florida," said Jennifer Hecker, with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. "Right now these techniques are being allowed with virtually no regulations with complete secrecy. We have different geology, which may leave us at even greater risk than other states."
Related:           Battle to Keep Florida Frack-Free Heats Up  DeSmog (blog)

151029-c
King tide and other Florida environmental news
Bocamag.com – by Randy Schultz
Oct 29th 2015
King Tide
This week—especially today—brings the latest reminder about South Florida’s vulnerability to sea level rise and the latest reason for an individual and collective response from local government.
Through Monday, some low-lying coastal areas will get more flooding than usual with the full moon. The cause is the King Tide, which happens when the moon, sun and Earth are in a particular alignment—usually in the fall.
Typically and admirably, Delray Beach sought to give residents as much information as possible. The city issued a news release to warn of the higher tides and explain city efforts to minimize the flooding. The release also noted that flooding is worse because the sea has risen roughly 10 inches in the last century. Higher levels, higher tides.
As I have written, sea level rise in this region is more problematic south of Boca Raton because the land is much lower. Miami Beach is developing what could become a very costly plan to protect some of the most valuable real estate in Florida. Areas near the beach in Fort Lauderdale suffer chronic flooding.
But so do portions of Palm Beach County. The difference is in the community response. Delray’s has been among the most aggressive.
Nearly two years ago, the city hired a sustainability officer, John Morgan. He had worked at the South Florida Water Management District, which helps local governments plan for sea level rise. Consultant Nancy Schneider works with the city’s Rising Waters Task Force. Delray Beach will give the county information about which parts of the city regularly flood, to help with the wider response to a changing climate.
In an email last week, Morgan told new Assistant City Manager David Scott about Delray’s response to the King Tide and sea level rise in general:
For this week, the city put barricades where salt water overflows storm drains and comes over seawalls. The city asks residents to photograph the flooding. Meanwhile, the county will be using drones to record the effects. Delray Beach Emergency Manager Steve Hynes is using the King Tide to help the city prepare for more serious flooding.
The problem is particularly bad at Delray Beach’s marina. Morgan said the city has installed flex valves at some stormwater outfalls; a contract to equip the remaining marina outfalls has been approved. During the current budget year, Morgan wants to give City Manager Don Cooper a cost estimate for installing the valves on all stormwater outfalls where high tides cause flooding.
The Rising Waters Task Force, Morgan said, will present “findings and recommendations” to the city commission in January. Staff also will present information from the Climate Compact Resilient Redesign workshops. Cooper told me in an email that while climate change won’t be part of the goal-setting session staff and commissioners hold today, rising seas will require more money in Delray’s Capital Improvement Plan.
Commissioner Shelly Petrolia has argued that the city should not allow more underground parking facilities, which extreme flooding could submerge. Atlantic Crossing would have one. The city could accomplish that with a “zoning in progress” ordinance that would prevent the approval of underground parking while Delray crafts a comprehensive sustainability plan.
Delray Beach’s big push on this issue started with the city’s decision in January 2014 to sign the mayors’ pledge, stating the city’s support for the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact. Signatories commit themselves to a program of public awareness and public improvements that will make themselves and thus the region more prepared for the effects of climate change.
Boca Raton has come much later to the issue than Delray Beach. The city has not signed the pledge, though Mayor Susan Haynie told me on Wednesday that Boca is “exploring” it. Staff members, Haynie said, are “examining the obligations and fiscal impact.”
According to a city spokeswoman, Boca finally has formed what the city calls an Environmental Sustainability Team, which reports to Assistant City Manager Michael Woika. The group, the spokeswoman said, will examine “air quality, regional cooperation and partnerships, open space, climate change/sea level rise, energy and renewable resources, water quality, transportation, preservation, recycling” and other topics.
To match Delray Beach, Boca must move quickly. I could find no information about the King Tide on Boca’s websites. Delray’s website had plenty, and it also offers information about Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps and the national flood insurance program. Last week, Delray Beach released the 2015 evaluation of its Floodplain Management Plan.
One could wish that the seas weren’t rising, but action is a better response. Delray Beach has set a good example for Boca Raton.

151029-d
Water policy:  Rising tide of interstate battles could swamp Supreme Court
EEnews.net – by Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter
October 29, 2015
Major decisions about how U.S. water is allocated among states are increasingly being made by nine lawyers who -- according to one of them -- "couldn't know less about it."
That was Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's take last year during oral arguments in litigation between Kansas and Nebraska over water from the Republican River.
The case was emblematic of what some see an alarming trend: the funneling of interstate water fights to the Supreme Court.
Lawsuits between states by rule head to the high court, which has "original jurisdiction" over such fights. And with a changing climate, growing populations and drought conditions ravaging the West, what was a trickle of water cases has become a steady stream.
There are four ongoing water fights at the Supreme Court -- between Texas and Mexico, Florida and Georgia, Montana and Wyoming, and Mississippi and Tennessee. The court has also ruled on two others involving Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the Nebraska-Kansas dispute, in the past two years. In each case, one state is either claiming its upstream neighbor is drawing down a shared river or outright stealing water from beyond its borders.
These cases typically take years to resolve once they reach the high court, raising concerns about whether it's best to leave crucial water-allocation decisions to the justices. But in large swaths of the country suffering shortages, water frequently becomes a hot-button political issue that makes compromise between states impossible. Litigation is the only option.
"It's a matter of time before parties get disgruntled," said Jen Pelz, the director of WildEarth Guardians' rivers program. "It's going to become a battle between the states."
There are typically two types of interstate water disputes at the Supreme Court. The first involves a state claiming another is unfairly depleting river flows that should cross the border.
Consider Florida v. Georgia. Florida is claiming its northern neighbor is pulling too much water out of the Apalachicola River Basin to serve the booming Atlanta metropolitan area, depriving the Sunshine State of water that typically flows to the estuary that was once home to a robust oyster industry (Greenwire, Nov. 3, 2014).
Similarly, in Mississippi v. Tennessee, Mississippi claims a Memphis utility is sucking groundwater under the state border (Greenwire, June 29).
The second -- and more common -- type of lawsuit is challenges to interstate water compacts. There are more than 20 such agreements across the country, divvying up water from 20 watersheds -- from the Colorado River to the Delaware River.
Water compacts have become fraught because many were negotiated by the states and ratified by Congress decades ago. In the current Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado case, for instance, Texas claims New Mexico is diverting too much water for irrigation out of the Rio Grande before it crosses the state line in violation of the 1939 compact (Greenwire, March 12, 2014).
Texas' other recent water case at the Supreme Court, Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, similarly involved a dispute over a 1980 compact allocating water from the Red River, which separates the two states (Greenwire, April 22, 2013).
The Montana-Wyoming case likewise deals with an interstate water agreement, addressing Montana's claims that Wyoming breached the Yellowstone River Compact.
Marathon legal battles
There is a long history of interstate water clashes at the Supreme Court.
In 1935, Arizona Gov. B.B. Moeur (D) deployed the National Guard to block construction of the Parker Dam on the Colorado River just below the Hoover Dam because the project would benefit Colorado and California.
As chronicled by author Marc Reisner in his 1986 history of water management in the West, "Cadillac Desert," Maj. F.I. Pomeroy of the Arizona National Guard stayed at the proposed dam site for seven months. The project became an embarrassment for Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, who put it on hold while the state's legal challenge played out.
Arizona, which had previously lost multiple attempts to block the Hoover Dam at the Supreme Court, prevailed. The high court sided with the state on the grounds that the project was not authorized by Congress. (After some concessions, however, the dam was built.)
About 20 years later, in 1952, Arizona again went to the Supreme Court to challenge California's bid to install new pumps to expand its share of Colorado River water over the amount allocated by its compact.
Arizona v. California became one of the longest-running cases in Supreme Court history, with rulings continuing through 2006.
Arizona won again. The justices held that California couldn't pull more water than it was allotted under the compact.
The latter Arizona case illustrates some of the concerns about water disputes ending up at the Supreme Court.
For one, they are seemingly interminable. Unlike most Supreme Court cases, where the high court issues a ruling within a calendar year of when it agreed to review the case, a different process applies to original jurisdiction lawsuits.
The court assigns a "special master" -- typically a federal judge or well-regarded attorney -- to conduct what amounts to a virtual trial.
Then the special master submits recommendations to the justices. But the states involved can object to those findings, filing "exceptions." The justices can then hold oral arguments before accepting the special master's report or agreeing to one side's exception to it.
The whole process can lead to decades of hard-fought legal wrangling. The current Montana-Wyoming case was filed more than eight years ago and has yet to be resolved.
And, as Reisner wrote in "Cadillac Desert," the Arizona-California lawsuit became so contentious that the special master in that case, New York attorney Simon Rifkind, had a heart attack in the middle of the proceedings despite only being in his 50s.
Attorneys who specialize in interstate water cases are confident -- and worried -- that this sort of litigation will become routine at the high court.
"They have been coming with more frequency, and it's likely to increase in the future," said John Draper, who has been representing states in water disputes for 25 years.
Is the system working ?
Many interstate water agreements are outdated.
The 1922 Colorado River Compact, for example, allocates 16.4 million acre-feet per year to seven states. In the last 15 years, about 12 million to 14 million acre-feet has been actually coming down the river. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons -- enough to cover an acre with water a foot deep, roughly a year's supply for a family household.)
Jennifer Cornejo, a Houston-based attorney with the firm Vinson & Elkins who follows interstate water cases, said Supreme Court cases can drag on while states need an answer for their water needs.
"It's completely drawn-out," she said. "They are trying to get these issues addressed, but it takes so long and the problem is now."
Others voiced concerns about whether it's wise to leave such complicated water accounting to the justices.
L. William Staudenmaier, a Phoenix-based attorney with the firm Snell & Wilmer, was involved in the Texas-Oklahoma dispute. He left oral arguments wondering how much the justices were comfortable with pertinent details.
"My sense was that the justices were really struggling to understand the water issues in context," he said. "I honestly think they are a little reluctant."
Draper disagreed, arguing that states are often in intractable positions and an arbiter like the Supreme Court is necessary.
"The system is functioning appropriately," he said. "Where you get changed circumstances and you have to figure out how an earlier compact should be applied to new developments, that's where the court is needed. I'm pleased the court is not shy about taking on that responsibility. That really is its responsibility."
He added that the Kansas-Nebraska dispute over whether Nebraska was taking too much water out of the Republican River for groundwater pumping showed that the justices can take a nuanced and shrewd approach to the cases.
The justices, he said, sought to enforce the 1943 compact as a contract -- trying to determine its intent and how it applied to Nebraska's groundwater irrigation scheme.
"That shows a quite robust approach to these interstate cases from the court," he said.
Lengthy -- and expensive -- legal battles could incentivize states to work out their water issues on their own and avoid litigation.
Colorado River states, for example, drafted guidelines in 2007 for reduced allocations should a drastic shortage occur.
At the time, no one thought such a shortage would take place for decades, said Gary Wockner of the nonprofit Save the Colorado. It almost would have this year, though, if it hadn't been for "miracle rains" in May.
If those guidelines need to be implemented, Wockner said, states may suddenly feel more litigious.
"Everyone sees an impending crisis," he said. "But we haven't hit the legal point of no return yet."
Further, Draper noted that there was one troubling sign for state negotiations in the Kansas-Nebraska decision. The high court agreed with the special master and changed a water accounting procedure from what was originally agreed to by the states in the compact.
That holding, Draper said, could have a "chilling effect" on states' willingness to renegotiate the terms of water compacts out of fear that the new terms could be eventually overruled or reversed by the Supreme Court.
Still, renegotiation seems to be what at least one Supreme Court justice would prefer.
Justice Breyer, again during the Kansas-Nebraska arguments, asked, "Is there any chance you all could work this out ?"

151028-a
County Commission raises environmental concern over Plum Creek project
WUFT.org - by Sofia Costas
October 28, 2015
As the amendment to annex around 1,200 acres into the city of Hawthorne moves forward, Alachua County staff are raising concerns over the potential impact on the county’s water resources.
The amendment to Alachua County’s Comprehensive Plan is part of a greater project called Envision Alachua, which works to bring economic development to eastern Alachua County.
The proposed amendment would change the designation of the land owned by Plum Creek Timber Company from “Rural/Agriculture” to a new category called “Envision Alachua-Hawthorne Mixed Use” for future land development. 
Right now the land is used primarily for agricultural and residential purposes with a focus on preserving important environmental areas and efficient use of public services, according to the Alachua County Growth Management department.
The change to the new designation would open the possibility of developing up to 2.85 million square feet of industrial space and 150,000 square feet of commercial space, according to the amendment documents.
In the report sent to Hawthorne’s leadership on Oct. 13, county staff raised concerns about the possible impact on the conservation of the 448 acres of wetlands that are part of the properties to be annexed.
“The county has what is considered fairly strict regulations for protecting wetlands, and our standards for the county are more strict than the state requires,” said Steve Lachnicht, director of the Alachua County Growth Management department.
He said the wetlands would have less protection once the properties become a part of the city of Hawthorne because minimum state and federal protections would apply.
As the county staff mentioned in the report, the wetlands have a significant impact on the region’s water quality because of their ability to filter drinking water. They also play an important role in wildlife habitat conservation.
The staff also noted there was a lack of potable water services and no centralized sanitary sewer facility in the area, and said that the city has no timetable for the construction of either. 
Hawthorne resident James Dick expressed his concern during an Oct. 20 County Commission meeting.
Dick said he isn’t opposed to development that is well planned and considers the needs of the people who are already there, but he doesn’t think the plan accomplishes that.
“Please make sure you understand the impact of what you are not just getting yourselves into, but getting all of us who are also taxpayers into,” he said. “You are going to turn a pristine, pure area that has got a lot of impact on our water supply into a living cesspool if you’re not careful.”
The city of Hawthorne has hearings set for Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 to continue the discussion on the implementation of the amendment. Afterward, the County Commission will have to decide how to proceed, Lachnicht said.
“We are recommending that the county considers this a concern,” Lachnicht said. “It is up to the County Commissioners to decide whether or not they want to go to court potentially to challenge the approval. We don’t know yet.”

151028-b
Effective advocacy needed for Everglades restoration
FIU News - by Evelyn Perez
October 28, 2015
When it comes to advocating for Everglades restoration, keep it local, don’t be afraid to follow-up and be willing to challenge policymakers.
This advice and more was shared by Bob Graham, a former United States senator and former Florida governor, along with his former press secretary Chris Hand during a service-to-activism workshop organized by FIU, the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, the Florida Conservation Coalition, and 1000 Friends of Florida earlier this month. The primary focus of the workshop was restoration of the Florida Everglades.
Nearly 75 percent of state voters approved the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative during the 2014 election. Amendment-1 called for spending one-third of real estate taxes, estimated at about $740 million, to acquire and protect wildlife habitats, water resources, trails and parks, rural and urban spaces, and water and land resources in the Everglades. A lawsuit filed by environmental groups in June 2015, however, accuses the Florida Legislature of misappropriation of funds intended to buy and conserve these natural resources.
Nearly 50 participants — including FIU students, alumni and staff, and representatives from the public, private and nonprofit sectors — listened to presentations from Everglades science, restoration, policy and litigation experts. Each attendee was also paired with a legislator with whom they will work to inform on decisions regarding the Everglades coming before the state legislature.
“This workshop is a premier model of linking science to policy,” said Evelyn Gaiser, executive director of the FIU School of Environment, Arts and Society and lead principal investigator of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) program. “It’s possible to influence change in environmental policy with a planned and consistent approach that connects our legislators with the information they need to make decision sthat benefit both the environment and society for the long-term.”
FIU was selected by the Bob Graham center to host the event because it is home to theFCE LTER program, the largest collection of faculty, students, nongovernmental organizations and other agencies conducting research on how the Everglades’ coastal ecosystems have changed over time in the face of climate change and increasing human demands. Supported by the National Science Foundation, their research spans across disciplines, including geology, hydrology, chemistry, ecology, and social and political sciences.
Alumna Jessica Lee spent her academic career studying the impacts of ongoing water restoration efforts in the Everglades. For Lee, the workshop was a means to bridge science with policy and activism in the next phase of her career in conservation.
“To hear 75 percent of those who voted in the election say they want to see more money go towards water and land conservation was amazing, but to the turn around and see the legislature approve a new budget that misappropriates a majority of the funds made my heart sink,” Lee said. “Senator Graham spoke about those moments when you feel concern or anger over a problem and how to use that passion to take action. I plan on using the tools they provided us to reach out to my legislator. Seeing the budget corrected is my motivation.”
Gaiser hopes to continue to work with The Bob Graham Center for Public Service to connect decision-makers in person and to provide them with hands-on experiences in the Florida Everglades so they can experience the issues impacting the environment directly.
“I hope the workshop participants walked away with an enthusiasm for working with their legislators to provide the information needed to make proactive environmental decisions,” Gaiser said. “I hope their efforts can make a difference for South Florida’s future.”

151028-c
President Obama to visit Florida Everglades on Wednesday
Naples Daily News
October 28, 2015
President Barack Obama plans to celebrate Earth Day this week with a visit to the Florida Everglades.
In his weekly radio address out Saturday, Obama says "there's no greater threat to our planet than climate change."
He says he'll visit the Everglades on Wednesday to talk about how global warming threatens the U.S. economy. He says rising sea levels are putting the "economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry" at risk.
Polls consistently show the public is skeptical that the steps Obama has taken to curb pollution are worth the cost to the economy. So Obama is aiming to put a spotlight on the costs of climate change.
Earlier this month Obama held an event in Washington linking climate change to health problems like allergies and asthma.
Related;           Before Everglades visit, Obama administration names SWFL one ...            Naples Daily News

151028-d
Protecting the sacred land and water of the Everglades
EarthIsland.org - by Jim W. Harper
October 28, 2015
In Conversation: Houston R. Cypress (Yahalétke)
Houston R. Cypress is an environmental activist and multimedia artist from southern Florida. He is a member of the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and lives on the Misccosukee reservation adjacent to Everglades National Park, the southernmost reservation in the US and the largest residential community affiliated with the park. He co-founded the Love the Everglades Movement, a nonprofit that works to restore the Everglades ecosystem, and runs Otter Vision production company. Cypress, whose name is Yahalétke in the Miccosukee language, is fighting now to prevent the construction of a new bicycle trail along the park's border due to both environmental and cultural concerns. A leader in the Universalist spiritual organization Medicine Signs, he says, "universalism permeates all that I do."
What was it like to grow up inside the Everglades, the wildest place in Florida ?
The name that we have in the Miccosukee language for the particular area where I grew up, and which I still call home, is Kahayatle. I like to translate it poetically as “shimmering waters,” or word for word, “the light in the water.” Or, as Marjorie Stoneman Douglas poetically describes it in here influential 1947 book on the Everglades, as the “river of grass.”
Growing up there as a kid, it was just a place to play! We would get dirty in the mud. We’d climb up trees and fall down. Our favorite thing to do as kids was to make trails. And we would chase snakes around, and watch the armadillos crawl around. Every now and then you'd see an otter peek its head out from behind some bushes. It was a place of play. A place of fun. That's how I grew up; in the bushes.
There are also tree islands out there that we would visit for gardening purposes, or that we would visit with our uncle or grandpa to collect medicinal plants, or maybe to hunt for deer, or ducks, or fish. We would visit these tree islands as resting places or to camp out. Those islands have been a refuge for my community throughout history. That's where people have died, and more importantly, that's where people have survived. And hopefully that's where people will thrive once again. We are part of a story that is alive, that is still being told, and that is still being passed on to the youngsters. There is a traditional indigenous narrative — that is our heritage.
I was also always taught to appreciate the distinction between our way of life and western civilization. I  was reminded that our community found refuge in this area from US soldiers who wanted to annihilate us. Those are stories that are handed down by my great-grandfather from the Indian War era.
When the park was established in 1947, our community of people was forced out of the area known as Everglades National Park at gunpoint. We were told, “You cannot live here in this area any more.” That was very painful, in terms of the stories and community memory that I was given. They said, “Remember this Houston.” 
Sometimes living on the reservation, which is right next door to the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park, the park kind of felt off-limits. Even though it was right there. I remember hearing about our uncles and our grandparents being kicked out of this area at gunpoint, and thinking that “it doesn't sound like any place I want to visit.” It always felt a little weird. There was this idea that the national park wasn’t for us, not anymore. It used to be our home, but it's been occupied. There was a feeling that we should stay away.
But as I grew up, I started to become familiar with it, and started to enjoy actually riding a bicycle through the Shark Valley loop. I became more aware of the way that my community has been involved in preserving the environment, first through our story telling, second through our science, and third through our litigation. As I learned how my community, the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, got involved in Everglades restoration, I started to see how the park is often at odds with what the Miccosukee tribe is pushing for in terms of preservation, strategy, and policy.
There was a lot of dissention between the park and tribe, but now, going though decades of learning from uncles and from a broader community of restoration activists, I'm starting to realize that as much as we have a history of disagreement, my role is really to build avenues of communication, connections, and relationships. So I like to visit the place more often.
My feelings about the park and what it means, have been influenced by my own personal history and my tribe's history, and have evolved over the past 20 years. As a park, as a region, all of these things color and influence my thinking and my feeling and my praying about Everglades National Park.
What changes have you noticed within your lifetime in the Everglades ?
I’ve noticed more and more animals disappearing, especially the smaller critters. And we’ve been hearing about water contamination, which limits the way you can eat. Now you can only eat so many fish per month or you'll get mercury poisoning.
My immediate family also started to re-inhabit some tree islands that my great-great-grandparents had abandoned. We set up a village. We went out there and cut down trees and brought in vegetables and fruit-bearing trees. Shortly after we did that, we came back to check on things and we saw that all of our plants had been ripped out. Signs from the state fish and wildlife agencies were posted on our structures, with really arrogant, aggressive language: "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
When the tribal council said, "this is legitimate and you can't harass these people," the agencies started backing off. That was in the early 1990s. I was thinking, "Wow, our tribe has been federally recognized since 1962." That was the whole reason we started to articulate our rights. The same shit is happening in the 1990s that happened decades ago. All these stories we thought were in the past are still the same struggles we're fighting today. We are just trying to go about our traditional way of life, but still we butt heads with the state and western civilization.
How do you feel about casual visitors to the Everglades ?
I say, “Hey, that's great.” I wish more people would come visit the park, then come right next store and visit our tribal tourist center. I wish there was a way that the Miccosukee and the national park could market themselves together. I want more people to come, but in ways that are respectful, and in ways that are not appropriating. In ways that are expressing solidarity with what the indigenous community is about.
"My feelings about the park and what it means...have evolved over the past 20 years," says Cypress."
I’ve heard that in your tradition, people are buried throughout the Everglades.
We have burial sites for rites of passage. And in wartime, a lot of people died in the Everglades. Those types of atrocities are serious, but we also understand that this shell that we are occupying right now, it has been made from earth and goes back to the earth. We look at the fact that the essence of the shells of our ancestors have been incorporated into the trees and the sawgrass. There's that feeling of family, and connection, and unity with the natural landscape. Of the earth we were made, and to the earth we shall return.
How are you fighting the proposed bike path across South Florida? Isn't biking a better form of transportation than cars ?
The so-called "River of Grass Greenway"? I say it in quotes, to emphasize the ridiculousness of the title it was given. It’s a 76-mile pathway from the eastern end of Naples to Krome Avenue in Miami, right near the Miccosukee resort and gaming area. Most of it runs parallel to Tamiami Trail — a state road along the park's northern border. This idea of a greenway is ridiculous — we're looking at parking lots being built along the way, restrooms and rest stops being constructed, and electricity lines being added.
We're currently examining the planning documents. The documents released so far do not include the appendix, and the appendix shows how the path could lead to further development. It's not necessarily an opportunity for bikers to enjoy the environment.
One instance of opposition to the bike path has been organized by Bobby C. Billie, whose community is not affiliated with the federally recognized tribes — in that sense, his message has more authority and represents less of a compromise than the message of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes. He says that, according to the laws of the breathmaker, the creator, we are responsible for taking care of the land, the water, and the plants. We're just passing through, he says, and we have to take care of the land. We also echo his message by saying the Everglades are a sacred place. It's sacred land, and it must be protected as such.
The Everglades has been strained at its very foundation with water contamination, which trickles up and down the food chain. It needs time to restore itself. We need to leave it alone so the plant and animal life can bounce back.
The bike path supporters respond by saying, "point out the burial sites and we'll avoid them." But it's all sacred because of our belief in the philosophy of the circle of life. We don't put our deceased in caskets so they can return to the Everglades. When we look at the trees and the sawgrass, elements of our ancestors are imbued in the natural environment. These are some of the spiritual points of view.
In terms of Everglades restoration, this path could interfere with ongoing restoration efforts. We're really concerned that this bike path and parking lots will become an impediment to the process. Let's use this $140 million investment in the bike path for restoration instead. We have a restoration process that is haphazard, done on a willy-nilly basis, without a sense of order. What happened to the restoration plan? Why aren't we following it? My community talks a lot about how water quality is not being addressed fast enough. Let's clean up the water first. 
How did the Love the Everglades Movement get started ?
My buddy Jean and I met in college at the Art Institute and became friends. Since we met, he's become more open with spirituality and brought ceremony into his life. Because of that process, this vision for the Love the Everglades Movement dawned on him, and he brought it up to me.
"Hey, you live in the Everglades, why don't we do this? Maybe we can find a way to get people to care about the area, and give the water the respect it deserves," he said. "I didn't really care until I went out there myself. Maybe we can take people out there to see it, and love it." We were at dinner and it was late, around 1 a.m. and I said, "Hey let's give it a shot."
Our first Love of the Everglades Movement excursion was with friends and family during the winter solstice of 2012. It worked well, so we decided to keep doing it. We started planning outings two times a month and began building a community. As our outreach grew, we started to bring more people into the circle, including artists, researchers, and marketing friends. We were just doing excursions out in the Everglades — we didn’t want to call them tours. We don't want this to be tourism. It is more than that.
Around the summer of 2013, an artist named Benoit Izard inscribed "love" in the ground, and he inspired us to "Love the Everglades," which is where we got our name. Soon after that, the group was formally introduced to the Florida activist community at an art and activism networking event in Miami.
Over time we started to articulate this approach, the full spectrum approach. It's inspired by the community of researchers doing integral theory. What that means is, we work on the level of body, mind, and spirit and use all the tools available to us, including art, spirituality, science, politics, and the best information. It is very eclectic. Everybody brings their own talents. 
We want to diversify this movement. To be frank, that's one of the big problems with environmental movements and Everglades related work: It's too old, and it's too white, and people only speak English. Tropical Audubon Society noted that problem and they're trying to address it, and so are we. We've already made a few mistakes in our outreach, and we have to be respectful, so we're not dictating, we're listening more. It's hard, but we feel it's the only way to move forward. 
We've had prayer circles in cities, art exhibitions, collaborated with cleanup projects, and supported indigenous movements. We're having our second annual symposium in August, and partnering with an Everglades Awareness Benefit Concert in its eight year. We're really proud to be working with world-class artists, like Lloyd Goradesky, who created the world's biggest alligator art installation in Biscayne Bay.
What can an average person do to help Love the Everglades ?
The world is watching what is happening with Everglades restoration, because it's like a big experiment. Lots of technologies and methodologies are being tested here and then applied to other projects around the world.
We can also look at how indigenous communities are being consulted, and integrated into restoration. How have Miccosukee, and Seminole, and independent communities been treated here? How can we improve our relationships in other localities?
We'd like to encourage people to find ways to connect with their bioregions and watersheds. How are other people doing that? What types of recreational and spiritual activities are available, what sorts of policy are being implemented? Communities around the world are doing really awesome things that we're being inspired by. I think it's Bolivia's constitution that recognizes the rights of Mother Earth, which inspired us to focus on the Rights of the Water during our symposium this past summer.
What can people do? Talk about the Everglades and help spread the word. Contribute to the work we're doing. Pray for us. Stand in solidarity with us. Come and visit us. Contact us and share your ideas.
Finally, what about this idea of wild lands ?
It's a little bit frought. What I mean is that, I was talking with this woman, at a poetry workshop in Miami, and she was saying, “Look, even the way we talk about these areas highlight ways of thinking that are colonized.” She said that we used to call these places “natural areas” or “outdoors.” Sometimes it feels like "wild lands" are designated as such to prohibit human interaction with the landscape. 
Sometimes we have to look at the language and it can reveal our intentions and political orientations. There's a lot bound up in the language. As a poet, I love language, I appreciate the history and the etymology, and I embrace the terms too. We just have to give space to talk about those histories and those narratives. 
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

151027-a
Gov. Scott to pledge billions for Everglades restoration
Naples Daily News
October 27, 2015
MIAMI (AP) — Florida Gov. Rick Scott is promising to dedicate tens of millions to helping the Everglades.
Scott is scheduled on Tuesday to announce that he wants to create a source of money for Everglades restoration that would result in $5 billion going to help the famed River of Grass over the next 20 years.
Scott will include the proposal in his budget recommendations that he will submit this week to the Florida Legislature.
Those recommendations will also include a proposal to set aside $150 million to acquire environmentally-sensitive lands including land that would provide habitat for the Florida panther.
The money for Everglades restoration would include the state's share of restoring the Kissimmee River and constructing two reservoirs. Those projects would help deal with discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee.

151027-b
King tides washing into flood-prone South Florida areas
Associated Press – NewsChannel 5's Charlie Keegan contributed
October 27, 2015
MIAMI (AP) -- The annual king tide will likely make things a little more soggy for low-lying areas along Florida's southeastern coastline.
Forecasters say higher than normal king tides will roll in on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Last month, a supermoon powered an early high tide, soaking flood-prone areas across South Florida. Three-foot high tides are expected to swell in the Miami area around 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
Flooding has affected Marine Way in Delray Beach in the historic marina district. The road is covered in about a foot of water that spilled from the Intracoastal Waterway. 
King tides are typically the highest astronomical tides of the year, generally occurring in the fall.
The Miami Herald reports that some scientists say the king tides have gotten worse in recent years as the effects of climate change are starting to show through sea level rise.
Related:           King tide causes flooding in parts of South Florida   Miami Herald
Coastal flood warning in affect this week      TV Newsroom
Street, neighborhood flooding a hassle, but no significant damage   Palm Beach Post (blog)
King Tide Brings On More Flooding In South Florida          CBS Local

151026-a
Florida survey finds widespread water concerns
Sun Sentinel – by William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
October 26, 2015
A plurality of Floridians surveyed called state assistance to the disabled "poor."
— Floridians have water woes on their minds, and many are bracing for potential disaster from oil drilling, sinkholes and rising seas.
Water concerns topped the list when 1,251 adults statewide were asked to name the biggest environmental problem facing Florida.
Water-related problems, especially the quality and shortage of supplies, were named by 38 percent of respondents, according to a Sunshine State Survey released Monday by the University of South Florida.
That includes concerns about the Everglades, beaches and springs. The 2014 survey found a similar result.
About 18 percent of those surveyed this year listed various potential disasters, human or nature-driven, as the top environmental threat, including offshore drilling, climate change, storms, sinkholes and invasive species.
Far behind was air pollution, named by 8 percent, and over-development, named by 6 percent.
"For a second year, water has been the No. 1 issue, which I think will get a lot of legislators' attention," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at USF, who supervised the survey. "This may be one of those issues they can agree on."
Concerns appear to be rising partly because of widespread publicity about climate change, drilling offshore and in the Everglades and polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Several low-lying Florida communities already are moving their water systems inland to prepare for rising seas and salt-water intrusion.
A big part of Everglades restoration depends on storing water to filter out pollutants and releasing it in dry seasons.
The survey also found that two in three Floridians — 66 percent — believe the state should impose stricter environmental regulations. Even more, 72 percent, favor stricter water-quality rules.
Opinions on offshore oil drilling were more divided, with 42 percent calling that the wrong direction and 38 percent calling it the right direction.
"Florida is much more of a pro-environment state than others with Republican leaders," MacManus said. "The more development you have, the more concern about quality of water. And with the economic recovery, concerns about water go up."
The survey also asked about educational and health concerns.
When asked about the most serious concern for today's college graduates, 79 percent cited student debt, a lack of good-paying jobs or a lack of preparation to meet today's job requirements.
A plurality of Floridians surveyed — 33 percent — called state assistance to the mentally and physically disabled "poor," and 29 percent rated it as "fair." Only 25 percent called it "good" or "excellent." The rest had no opinion.
When asked about the top priority for local schools, 36 percent called for higher teacher pay, followed by 15 percent for improved classroom discipline, 13 percent for better financial management, 11 percent for raising standards, 11 percent for reducing class size, with the rest in single-digits.
The survey, conducted by The Nielsen Company, was based on 1,251 telephone interviews of Florida adults July 30 to Aug. 16. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.77 percentage points.

151026-b
Tampa Bay calls out Rubio on climate change
LiberationNews.com - by Bryan Ellis
October 26, 2015
On October 14, Tampa Bay joined 135 cities across the country in the People’s Climate Movement day of action. Labor unions, immigrants, students and faith groups came together to demand action on climate change and to link local action to global action ahead of the Paris climate talks this December.
The day marked one year since the historic People’s Climate March, where 400,000 people took to the streets of New York City for environmental justice and action on climate change. Around the world, climate change is already increasing heat-related deaths and illnesses, inflicting economic damage, and making storms and droughts more frequent and severe, to name a few of its effects.
The rally marched to Sen. Marco Rubio’s Tampa office to correct him on his dangerous climate change denial, urging him to take action to protect the state. People at the rally wore life vests and pool floaties to highlight the threat rising sea levels pose to Florida. One man carried over his head a surf board painted with the words “WAKE UP”.
“Climate change and the threats to Tampa Bay and the whole Tampa Bay area are real but we also have solutions,” said Jennifer Rubiello, the director of Environment Florida. “Solutions include everything from solar powered cars to zero energy homes to a massive increase in public transit. The big picture is we need to move away from dirty fossil fuels and towards cleaner sources of energy like solar.
“We are calling on Senator Rubio to join the fight and take immediate and responsive action to address climate change. That includes limiting dirty carbon emissions from power plants, which are actually the single largest contributor to global warming and pollution,” said Rubiello.
Sen. Rubio has called for expanding offshore oil and gas drilling and for reversing limits on greenhouse gas emissions. He also supports hydraulic fracking, a process which releases natural gas in rock formations while contaminating water supplies and the atmosphere.
Sen. Rubio’s climate denial reflects that of the same corporate interests backing his rise on the national political stage. Major corporations, especially in the energy sector, invest heavily in lobbying and PR campaigns to deny climate change, in order to avoid regulations and competition from renewable energy. Independent studies by groups such as InfluenceMap show how corporate influence is a key reason for the relatively slow progress on national-level climate legislation and United Nations climate change conferences.
Tim Heberlein, organizing representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, emphasized the need to move away from fossil fuels pushed by the major corporations.
“Carbon pollution is the number one contributor to climate change. We have two main producers of carbon pollution: one is in our tail pipes, and the second is in our power production. The biggest culprit is coal. We’ve actually retired over 202 coal plants, one about every ten days, in the United States and we’re looking to move the U.S. entirely off coal by 2050,” said Heberlein.
Liberation News also spoke with Juliana Musheyev, a New College of Florida graduate who recently attended the Climate Reality Project conference held in Miami. Musheyev uses her time outside of work to advocate for the Floridians for Solar Choice ballot initiative, which aims to remove the barriers to solar energy put in place by Koch-backed energy monopolies in Florida.
“The time to reverse the effects of climate change passed a long time ago. So we are mitigating—trying not to let it become completely
catastrophic—and we’re adapting. In Miami Beach, for instance, they’ve raised a lot of the streets about five feet. And they’ve installed water pumps, because there’s flooding in the streets,” said Musheyev.
“It’s crazy the stuff that’s happening right now—the occurrence of more droughts, one-in-a thousand-year floods, political instability that’s caused by climate change, what’s happening to our oceans…Sometimes it’s hard to handle,” said Musheyev. “But if we take action, if we use our voices, if we understand that we have solutions and we just need to put pressure on our legislators to use those solutions, and fight against the wealthy class that’s trying to maintain its monopoly on energy, then I think the future looks okay.”

151025-a
Beyond the high tides, South Florida water is changing
Miami Herald – by Jenny Staletovich, section 2/2
October 25, 2015
Miami Beach has put into action an aggressive and expensive plan to combat the effects of sea level rise. As some streets keep flooding from recent king tide events, the city continues rolling out its plan of attack and will spend between $400-$500 million over the next five years doing so.
Every fall when the king tides roll in, the most obvious sign of climate change asserts itself in South Florida: flooding everywhere, from submerged roads in Miami to waves washing across neighborhoods in the Keys to swamped docks and yards in Fort Lauderdale’s canal-side homes.
But beyond the flooding, a more insidious problem is at work. South Florida’s water is changing.
Under climate change projections, beaches and bays that draw tourists and anglers and help fuel a booming real estate industry could grow saltier and more polluted.
Underground saltwater is already spoiling the aquifer and moving closer to drinking water supplies for six million residents. If the Everglades dries up more than it already has, peat soil that provides the scaffolding for an entire ecosystem could collapse. This summer, a dangerous fog of yellow sulfur appeared in Florida Bay, triggered by a regional drought that under climate change projections would occur more often. And just this month, scientists reported that a massive coral bleaching event in the Pacific triggered by rising ocean temperatures had spread to the Caribbean.
“It’s really mind boggling to witness it happening that fast, in less than a human lifetime,” said Chris Bergh, South Florida conservation director for the Nature Conservancy. “No question we’ll adapt. The question is when and how much it will cost.”
And whether the increasingly stressed environment can tolerate our presence.
Last year, when Miami Beach turned on four new pumps — the first of dozens planned to keep the city dry — FIU hydrologist Henry Briceno sent a team to sample water in Biscayne Bay to see whether the mass flushing had any effect. Samples revealed a sixfold increase in pollution in some parts of the bay. Phosphorus, nitrogen and other agents were being carried by groundwater pushed up through soil loaded with fertilizers and dog poop and onto dirty streets. Pumps then carried the water, filtered for debris like plastic bottles but otherwise untreated, into the bay.
“People think that when they see the city flooded by seawater, it’s water from the beach. It’s not,” he said. “Those waters are problematic. They are not good.”
Briceno’s team will be back out this week when another king tide is forecast, gathering water samples that will help clear up the still murky impacts. Miami-Dade County and the Beach are still working out a plan to monitor environmental impacts.
Beyond urban Miami, scientists say inshore waters are also changing. Since 1996, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has monitored water about 1,600 feet from shore around the Florida Keys for signs of waste that could pollute fragile marine areas. As expected, the level of nutrients has been high, creating what scientists call a halo zone.
In the short term, the high tides may actually help flush damaging nutrients from nearshore waters, said Billy Causey, NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries regional director. But that’s a temporary boon more than offset by rising ocean temperatures. With high temps increasing salinity and lowering oxygen, fewer nutrients can cause a lot more damage, particularly to coral.
“We don’t give water temperatures enough blame for what’s happening to our system,” he said. “It’s one of the real impacts on coral reef ecosystems.”
CREEPING IN
Sea rise also will increasingly challenge the region’s massive network of flood control structures that play a key role in protecting South Florida’s precious fresh water supply, much of it in the underground Biscayne Aquifer.
Since 1955, the U.S. Geological Survey has tracked the westward creep of underground saltwater. Because South Florida’s drinking water supply sits above heavier saltwater in pocked limestone — imagine a hardened sponge — water can easily flow back and forth. To keep saltwater out, South Florida water managers maintain canals higher than the ocean — creating a wall of water — to separate fresh water and sea water with a system of massive coastal gates.
As sea level inches up, keeping out that salt water will become more challenging because canals can be raised only so far without crippling their ability to control flooding. The drainage capacity of the entire system, which relies on pumps and gravity to slough storm water into the bay, is also slowly decreasing as sea levels rise.
The last time the South Florida Water Management District assessed that risk was in 2009. According to a document provided by the district, 20 flood control structures were expected to fail with as little as a half foot rise in sea level, the levels now projected for the region in 15 years. Another nine were in danger if seas rise between a half foot and five feet.
The inland creep of saltwater has already put some wellfields in Broward County out of service. The county has stopped using two southern wellfields, said Mike Zygnerski, a hydrologist with the county’s water resources assessment section. Deerfield Beach closed its eastern wells. Hallandale no longer uses six of its eight wells and Dania moved a wellfield west. Hollywood only uses two of its three wellfields, he said.
Imagine what will happen with a higher sea level.
“It’s physics. The higher the water level, the easier it is for wellfields to be compromised,” Zygnerski said.
With most of its wellfields located farther west, Miami-Dade County is on safer ground, said Virginia Walsh, the county’s chief hydrogeologist. But that’s not to say officials aren’t worried. Four new wells are now being installed to monitor the salt front, Walsh said. Staff is also closely watching the south end of the county, where in just 10 years the front has moved nearly two miles closer to a wellfield that is the only source of freshwater in the Keys. A handful of county wells that use the field are being phased out, Walsh said.
When the county modeled the progress of the front last year, using old sea rise projections of nine to 24 inches by 2060, scientists found wellfields “in pretty good shape,” Walsh said. Whether that holds with new projections now being fed into the models remains to be seen.
Modeling groundwater flow through the Biscayne aquifer, one of the most porous on the planet, can be complicated and only as good as the information fed into it, said Dorothy Sifuentes, a supervisory hydrologist with USGS’s Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center in Davie. The limestone rock that forms the aquifer is filled with holes in limitless sizes. Saltwater can dissolve the limestone, which could open new conduits that allow the salt front to move even faster and farther inland. And if oceans become more acidic, the question becomes: Could limestone erode faster ?
IF THE PEAT GOES
In the Everglades, scientists are just starting to understand what could happen if the freshwater marshes get saltier. At the foundation of the marsh is a boggy soil called peat, made of decomposed sawgrass and other plants held together by plant roots and very little actual soil. If salt gets into the peat, it can act like a detergent and loosen the soil to break apart the peat, said University of Florida biogeochemist Todd Osborne.
“It doesn’t dissolve, it just becomes more oozy,” he said.
Peat also forms very slowly, at about one millimeter a year. A strong storm surge could potentially wipe out a foot of peat. “That’s 250 years of soil-building lost in a matter of days,” he said.
Up until now, most peat loss — what scientists call subsidence — has been attributed to flood controls that drained large parts of the upper Everglades to make way for farming. But if enough saltwater creeps into the lower range, Florida’s marshy tip could disappear.
While loss of habitat would obviously wreak havoc on the ecosystem, scientists are considering another more ominous problem in the climate change equation. The spongy soil traps huge amounts of carbon. If seas overtake the marshes, carbon stashed in the peat would move into the atmosphere’s worsening carbon loop. The carbon also carries nutrients that could make warming oceans more vulnerable to toxic algae blooms. Early signs of an algae bloom have already been spotted in Florida Bay, where a summer drought helped kill at least 13 square miles of seagrass and left a cloud of yellow sulfur that scientists fear could spread to 75 square miles.
“It’s a double bad for Florida Bay and for us and the environment,” Osborne said. “It’s a one-two punch.”
‘ON THE VERGE’
If it were only water on the streets and in canals that needed to be pumped, addressing climate change in South Florida might be easier. But there are more complicated problems — with trickier solutions that involve policy as much as science — that are still being understood by scientists.
At Turkey Point, cooling canals used to keep Florida Power & Light’s two nuclear reactors chugging have been getting warmer, helping fuel a massive algae bloom that makes it hard for water to cool and do its job. The canals are contributing to an underground plume of saltwater, which led Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami and environmental groups to sue to force the utility to control the plume. Biscayne National Park officials also fear the plume may be making the bay saltier. Last month, the utility proposed using injection wells to pump escaping canal water deep beneath the Biscayne aquifer.
Rising global temperatures also mean South Florida could see 20 percent less annual rainfall. Less rain means more droughts. For Florida Bay, which depends heavily on rainfall to help freshen the bay’s mini basins, that could increase the frequency of seagrass die-offs. And if grasses die, scientists fear the return of the kind of slimy algae bloom that sickened the bay for years after a 1992 event.
“I’m concerned we’re on the verge of it happening again,” Causey said.
Biscayne Bay will also face challenges. Miami-Dade County has been sampling water at 87 spots around the bay for the last 37 years. Scientists look for an array of things, but pay particular attention to the two chemicals that trigger algae blooms, nitrogen and phosphorus, and signs of fecal matter. Overall the bay is healthier than years past because of tougher regulations, said Jamie Monty, who oversees water sampling. But for several years now, an algae bloom has persisted in the central part of the bay between Dinner Key and the Coral Gables Waterway, she said.
Fecal matter also tends to increase during wet, summer months when more stormwater washes into the bay, she said. And that could spell trouble if seas rise and more streets are flooded, a likely scenario under the latest sea rise projections.
Just this month, the Southeast Florida Regional Compact — the four-county partnership formed to address climate change — doubled the rise of sea level expected in the next 15 years to between six and 10 inches. By 2060, that number could rise as high as 26 inches and more than double that, to 61 inches, by 2100.
Predictions are even more dire in a study that appeared earlier this month in the peer reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Princeton ecologist Benjamin Strauss. By mapping out unavoidable sea level rise — the levels already projected regardless of greenhouse gas reductions — he predicts 414 cities across the U.S. will be underwater by 2100. Of those, Florida stands to lose the most, with 40 percent of its population affected by rising seas.
“We’re already seeing changes in our weather patterns. We’re seeing some of the most massive organics on the planet — coral reefs — around the globe affected in a very predictable pattern. We can predict it two weeks out,” Causey said. “That tells you something. That makes a statement that this is real.”
MAKING A PLAN
How the region addresses these problems remains to be seen.
Miami-Dade County officials have long incorporated changes in tidal flooding into infrastructure plans, but are not ready to buy into online mapping tools that show huge swaths of the county underwater, depicting with grim effect flooding in tony parts of Coral Gables, fast-building Doral and Miami Springs.
“Any forecasts for higher tidal elevations, sea level rise if you want to call it that, but it’s just tidal elevation, is being put into the current master plan modeling,” said Marina Blanco-Pape, director of stormwater planning for the county.
Blanco-Pape said the models oversimplify and amplify problems, and she predicts most of the inundation will be confined to the coast and uninhabited southern reaches.
“The county in the developed areas is not just a big bathtub that you put water in and the level rises,” she said.
With projections shifting and sometimes uncertain, the county plans on sticking with numbers adopted by the compact and adjusting projects based on their location and their use.
“We’re constantly going to be changing what we do based on new information. And we can’t plan now for 2100,” said Nicole Hefty, chief of the county’s sustainability office. “It’s going to be a very stepwise process for the rest of our time here in the county. This is the new way we’re going to be doing things.”
In Monroe County, officials holding workshops with residents to talk about sea rise got caught off-guard by the September king tide, which triggered heavy flooding all along the island chain and left parts of Key Largo in knee-deep water for more than two weeks. Furious residents are wondering why they can’t have Miami Beach-style pumps.
“It’s not a simple matter. Remember we’re an island and when you elevate a road it doesn’t necessarily solve your problems,” said Sustainability Chief Rhonda Haag. “Are we going to have to look at different ways [for people] to get to their houses? Are they going to have to use skiffs to get to the house ? We don’t know.”
That is not the answer Frank Garces was looking for.
“That’s insane,” said Garces, a Miami native, who moved into a new house with his wife four months ago with no warning about flooding risks. After being swamped for a week, Garces rented a truck for his wife to avoid damaging her 2013 Mercedes-Benz sedan, and then, tired of seeing trash cans toppled by waves and garbage tangled in mangroves, he started a petition to get the county to fix the flooding. His wife, an attorney, is looking into a class-action lawsuit against the county on behalf of residents, he said.
“They can’t reasonably turn the Keys into the United States of Venice,” he said. “I’m sure there’s no easy solution or else it would have been done by now, but certainly smarter people than me can sit down and figure things out.”
Related:
Rising sea levels are expected to drive saltwater intrusion westward, threatening drinking water
Beaches and bay could become saltier and more polluted as seas rise and oceans get warmer
A projected decrease in rain will only make matters worse

151025-b
Threat of losing local development control is real, environmental lawyer says
Palm Beach Post – by Sally Swartz, a former member of The Editorial Board
October 25, 2015
It’s almost unbelievable. New developments with thousands of homes in preserve areas that now provide drinking water for cities, and water for a wild and scenic river.
Ten-lane and 12-lane highways, including double-deck, high-rise roads and elevated interchanges that still can’t handle all the traffic.
And the worst blow of all: Counties have no choice. Florida lawmakers allow the new development and counties are forced to go along.
It already is happening in northwest Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state, Lisa Interlandi told Martin County Conservation Alliance members last week.
And it soon could happen in Martin County or anywhere else in Florida, said Interlandi, a land use and environmental lawyer with the Everglades Law Center. The nonprofit law center represents individuals, communities and neighborhood groups on Everglades or large-scale environmental issues.
Developers of the 3,800-acre Minto property, in western Palm Beach County, wanted to build on their land and got the state legislature to designate it as an agricultural enclave, Interlandi said. That gave them the right to develop at a special rate and took control away from the county.
“Palm Beach County tried to say no,” Interlandi said. Instead, Minto got additional commercial space designated. Roads aren’t adequate to handle the traffic new development will generate.
Developers have to pay a share toward improving roadways, but paying for all the impacts a development creates “is no longer a development problem,” she said.
Next, GL Homes tried to get the Florida Legislature to OK its plans to develop 5,000 acres south and west of North Lake Boulevard.  Palm Beach County fought it, and the developer didn’t win. But now the county “is supposed to negotiate,” Interlandi said. It has an incentive to not say no “because the county could get a worse project forced by the state.”
The development would generate 46,000 new trips per day on local roads. Minto would add a similar number.
Developers of another project, Avenir, 4,700 acres south of Bee Line Highway and west of Palm Beach Gardens, agreed to set aside preserve land, but the projects proposed are larger than North Palm Beach and Wellington. They still would generate almost 80,000 new trips per day.
For Palm Beach County, the projects mean 12-laning North Lake Boulevard, 10 lanes for Bee Line Highway and raised urban interchanges. Other area roads would go to six and eight lanes.
“That’s nuts,” said Laurie Odlum, summing up the sentiments of about 25 people at the Conservation Alliance meeting.
“It’s too much growth in an area that never was intended for growth,” Interlandi said. “Even with these improvements the roads would be the worst functioning in the county.”
Building 12-lane roads or elevated highways through natural areas  — including the Grassy Waters area that provides drinking water for West Palm Beach and Palm Beach — creates problems over rights-of-way and pollution from spills on roads. The projects could pollute the federally designated wild and scenic Loxahatchee River, which extends into Martin County.
“Depending on what happens in Palm Beach County,” Interlandi said, Martin and other Florida counties could face similar problems. “Losing local control is a big issue.”
Even Martin County, with its strong and protective growth plan, isn’t immune from developers using the state to override county control. Under Gov. Rick Scott, almost all state controls on growth are history.
“We’re going to have to build a wall,” joked Martin activist Jackie Trancynger.
Interlandi wished Conservation Alliance members good luck.
“I don’t think anything could stop it from happening here,” she said.

151024-
Climate change cannot be a partisan issue
Miami Herald - by Carlos Curbelo
October 24, 2015
Each side of the aisle must acknowledge changes in climate.
The search should be for market-based solutions.
Now more than ever, it is crucial that we acknowledge the reality that is the Earth’s changing climate. Without question, this is one of the major challenges of our time and directly threatens the communities of South Florida. If left unaddressed, the consequences of a changing climate have the potential to adversely affect not only our families and neighbors, but the entire country.
To view climate change through partisan lenses only detracts from efforts to discover practical solutions. This debate should not devolve into a petty competition between Republicans and Democrats.
Instead, it should consist of a constructive dialogue focusing on the implementation of policies that encourage the growth and development of clean alternative energy sources that will complement traditional ones.
Rising sea levels and the erosion of our coastal communities have made it abundantly clear that South Florida is at the frontline of climate change. Florida’s obvious vulnerability to these effects should be enough to spur interest in the numerous benefits offered by increased investment in clean energy.
For one, expanding the use of clean energy will reduce air pollution, thus improving public health. The accelerated growth of clean energy also galvanizes American innovation to create employment opportunities, positively affecting our communities by giving them the economic capacity to thrive. Of equal importance is the fact that this transition will bring our country closer to true energy independence and put us in a position of leadership in addressing global environmental issues.
If we want to diminish the impact that greenhouse gases will continually have on our planet over the next century, the effort to constrain carbon emissions must be expanded.
By promoting clean energy as a way to thoughtfully manage the potential risk of climate change, we are laying the foundation for its eventual mitigation. The progress already seen in the development of new energy technologies disproves the notion that centralized power is the only practical solution to addressing climate change, affirming that every problem cannot be solved through the rulemaking of a heavy-handed bureaucracy.
To efficiently and effectively address this issue, we need an approach that is market-based as opposed to one driven by an increase in top-down government regulation. Enacting policies that encourage the private sector to invest, not only in general infrastructure projects, but long-term visionary technologies, will lead to economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Tax incentives for developing energy sources like solar, wind and hydropower are just one way of encouraging America’s innovators to develop advanced solutions. And this energy transition cannot exclude low-income Americans.
Last month I joined 10 of my House colleagues in introducing a resolution that calls for increased environmental stewardship through economically viable solutions to address changes in our climate. It is vital for Congress to acknowledge the reality of climate change as a legitimate issue requiring feasible solutions, and we need leaders on both sides of the aisle to pursue policies that will make a difference. I am confident this House resolution takes an important first step in seeking outcomes that make America a healthier, safer and more prosperous place.
I understand the reluctance that some of my Congressional colleagues and fellow Americans have about investing in renewable energy sources to address a problem whose impacts are not immediately noticeable. However, accelerating clean energy efforts in the present will minimize the risk of serious climate-change effects and overbearing regulations in the future. This cannot be viewed as only a “coastal” issue, as it will inevitably become a global burden for future generations.
As a husband and a father, I want to ensure that my family and future generations can enjoy the magnificence of places such as the Everglades and Biscayne National Park, which could disappear if climate change is ignored.

151023-a
Another nail in Florida's coffin
TampaBay.com - Letter by Ronald Thuemler, Tampa
October 23, 2015
Mormons' plan in Florida: homes for 500,000 people - Oct. 19, Related News/Archive
Another day, another coffin nail for Florida. This story's headline is just the newest twist on the sad history of Florida's destruction.
The Mormon Church-owned Deseret Ranch plans to, over the next several decades, convert (read: pave over) an area six times the size of Manhattan from ranchlands, prairies, wetlands and woods into endless suburbs.
As sad as this is for Florida's future, the saddest part is that at least one "environmental group" has caved in to the church, stating that the plan shifts population growth to the east of the county's urban core, rather than south where it would pose a threat to the Everglades headwaters.
That's like having four of your back teeth knocked out and saying, "Well, at least they're not my front teeth." Either way, Florida's flora and fauna lose again. Having "possibilities for preservation" doesn't convince me that any lands will be preserved — it's just a "possibility."
Up to 500,000 more people are coming in. How many more can we cram in here ? And the projected "economic impact" is several hundred million dollars. But at what cost to Florida ?
I, like most reading this, will be long gone to greener pastures by 2080, when this plan fully "blossoms." I wouldn't want to be in whatever is going to be left of Florida anyway, trying to survive in an overpopulated, water-starved and ecologically decimated state.

151023-b
Environmental groups want judge to force finance officer to transfer $237 million to Amendment 1
Naples Daily News – by Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
October 23, 2015
Environmental activists are asking a judge to order the state’s top financial officer to transfer more than $237 million to Florida’s land acquisition trust fund, the latest move in a lawsuit claiming the state misused money available for land and water conservation.
Conservation groups have asked a judge to rule the state Legislature violated the constitution by spending a portion of the $740 million from Amendment 1 to pay for the salaries and other expenses of environmental agencies, which in the past were funded with money primarily from the state’s general revenue. The complaint also calls on Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds to require Jeff Atwater, the state’s chief financial officer, to transfer $237 million of the state’s general revenue surplus to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund.
 “This is a long standing issue for us, that we would have long-term funding for conservation land acquisition,” said Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, which is one of the groups involved in the suit initially filed in June and amended in August. “We think it’s critical, and we don’t think the state is doing the job. We think the Legislature misappropriated funds.”
Both the legislative parties and Atwater have filed motions to dismiss the suit.
Amendment 1, a land and water conservation provision sponsored by Florida’s Water and Land Legacy, passed with 75 percent of the vote in November. The measure sets aside one-third of money collected through taxes on real estate documentary stamps to protect environmentally sensitive areas for the next 20 years.
The group had hoped the state would dedicated $170 million to Florida Forever, a state program to buy land for preservation, to protect and maintain conservation lands and local parks. This year, lawmakers set aside $17.4 million, not all of which came from Amendment 1 money, for Florida Forever.
Of the 14 environmental organizations that were part of the amendment’s steering committee, two — the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club — have joined the lawsuit now challenging the Legislature’s handling of the money.
In a Sept. 8 filing on behalf of the state Legislature, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner, attorneys said the lawsuit’s request “ignores the separation of powers and the Legislature’s exclusive authority” to appropriate public funds.
The legislative filing goes on to say the court has “no authority to redistribute public funds,” and that an order to transfer funds would be “a quintessentially legislative function and violate the Legislature’s long-settled, exclusive authority to control public funds.”
Atwater, in his Oct. 7 motion to dismiss, said his office has no independent authority to draw money from the state treasury or re-balance trust funds.
“Simply stated, the general revenue fund is not a piggy bank from which the CFO may draw funds as he sees fit. Yet this erroneous metaphor is how the plaintiffs would have the court visualize the CFO’s role in the administration of the State Treasury,” the Department of Financial Services said in its motion.
David Guest, an attorney at Earthjustice, which filed the suit on behalf of environmental groups, said the courts have ruled in the past on whether the Legislature misappropriated money. In some cases, Guest said the appropriation was invalidated or struck from the books. Requiring the comptroller to repay the fund, however, hasn’t been done before.
Guest said the suit doesn’t ask Atwater to set aside money to be spent for a specific purpose. Instead, they’re asking that the $237 million be transferred into the Land Acquisition Trust fund and reserved for uses permissible under the state constitution.
But what is permissible remains in question. Lawmakers said they acted within the law by using money for salaries and other expenses, while conservation groups have said the money was intended to be used to buy more conservation land.
Guest said he hopes the court gives guidance on how lawmakers should allocate money from the amendment during its next legislative session, which begins in January. Environmental organizations, will also be pushing lawmakers to increase environmental spending in the coming year.
“The hope is always that the Legislature will abide by the requirements of the constitution that 75 percent (of voters) told them to do,” said Guest. “We have not seen yet any signal from the Legislature that they intend to mend their ways. One would hope they would.”
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 3.

151023-c
Fracking fears surface in North Florida
Tallahassee.com - Jeff Burlew, Democrat senior writer
Environmental groups worry the exploration for oil and gas in Calhoun and Gulf counties could lead to drilling and fracking.
A Texas oil company’s plan to search for oil and gas in North Florida is stoking fears that drilling and possibly even fracking could come to areas around the fragile Apalachicola and Chipola rivers.
Cholla Petroleum, a family-owned oil and gas company based in Dallas, Texas, is seeking state permits to begin seismic testing using small underground charges as soon as December on private land in Calhoun and Gulf counties in a possible prelude to future drilling.
It’s an exploratory phase only. No permits have been issued. And it’s far too early to know whether production, let alone fracking, will ever happen.
But the prospects of oil production just north of Apalachicola Bay has led to apprehension among some residents, environmental groups and elected officials. They're worried testing could lead to drilling, which could bring further harm to a coast that’s teetered on the edge of collapse for years.
“I’d just as soon they stay in Texas,” said Leon Morris after a morning of fishing on the Dead Lakes, a hidden-away section of the Chipola River speckled with old Cypress stumps and located within the testing area. “I kind of like things the way they are. And it’s going to change if you come in here and start drilling.”
Leon Morris of Wewahitchka returns to shore after a morning of fishing on the Dead River. Morris isn't keen on possible oil drilling in Gulf and Calhoun counties. "We like it ... peaceful and quiet," he said.
Cholla's applications prompted Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Tallahassee, to send letters to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection saying oil and gas production in general, and fracking in particular, pose “a great threat” because of risks including water contamination. She said fracking and its use of mass quantities of water “seem incompatible” with Florida’s most important industries, agriculture and tourism.
“Our region knows all too well the harm an environmental disaster can cause,” Graham wrote. “The BP oil spill inflicted tremendous harm on our economy, and the Apalachicola Bay’s ecology has been under attack for years. I’m fighting in Congress to protect North Florida’s springs and oceans — and worry fracking presents yet another threat to our North Florida way of life.”
But David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, said the oil and gas industry has had an excellent environmental track record since oil was discovered in 1943 in the Sunniland Trend in South Florida. He said the testing amounts to a geological sonogram or MRI.
“Oil and gas activity creates the quality of life that we have in the United States,” he said. “We can produce jobs, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas and we can produce that energy right here at home. It’s irresponsible to have concerns about basic science research because there’s so much to be gained from it – not just oil and gas but for all of our understanding of where we live.”
Fueling the fears are GOP-backed bills moving through the Legislature that would create a regulatory framework for fracking in Florida. The controversial drilling technique is actually legal now, but it’s believed to have occurred only once in the state near the Everglades. Democrats, meanwhile, are offering bills that would ban fracking, though similar measures have gotten little traction in the past.
The fracking legislation comes at a time of renewed interest in oil and gas exploration in Florida. Energy companies are hoping to conduct seismic testing in the Big Cypress National Preserve and exploratory drilling in the Everglades.
'Minimal' impacts from seismic testing
Cholla (pronounced choy-uh) Petroleum, named after a cactus found in the southwest, wants sign-off from the DEP and other agencies to begin testing in a swath of land stretching from about 17 miles south of Blountstown in Calhoun County to immediately north of Wewahitchka in coastal Gulf County. Roughly a third of the testing area consists of wetlands, with the rest uplands, just west of the Apalachicola River.
All of the land is in private hands, with most of it held by the Neal Land & Timber Company in Blountstown. The business has given Cholla permission to access about 85 percent of the surface and below-ground minerals within the project area, and consultants say remaining permissions from land owners will be in hand before field work begins.
Cholla, working with Dawson Geophysical Company of Midland, Texas, plans to drill shot holes 100 feet deep in about 1,000 spots along crisscrossing lines totaling 63 miles. Crews will drop small explosive charges into the holes and detonate them one at a time.
The explosions send acoustic waves into rock layers, faults and folds deep underground, which bounce back to the surface, where they’re recorded by more than 6,000 receivers called geophones. The data is analyzed to find potential oil and gas prospects.
Representatives from Lampl Herbert, a Tallahassee consulting firm working with Cholla, said the testing is safe, with minimal and only temporary impacts to the environment and wildlife. The firm has submitted detailed plans to avoid and protect wildlife and cultural resources during the testing. And observers approved by DEP will monitor the testing to make sure it complies with regulations.
After the testing, crews will fill in the holes and clean up the area. It’s a simple process consisting mostly of pulling up stakes and raking out and repairing ruts.
“After a couple of rainfalls, it’s unlikely that you’d notice there had been testing there,” said Linda Lampl, president and CEO of the consulting firm.
'Potential for contamination'
But others are unconvinced the testing won’t lead to wildlife disturbances and possible damage to the Floridan Aquifer, the source of the state’s drinking water. Craig Diamond, president of the Apalachicola Bay and Riverkeeper board, said the consultants have asserted all of the testing will be done within the shallow aquifer.
“They’ve given us some assurances that the drilling and the blasting itself will not result in any cross-contamination between the (shallow) aquifer and the underlying ground water,” he said. “They’re telling us that, but I don’t have the greatest confidence in it.”
Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, said seismic testing poses a number of risks, including the spread of invasive plant species by off-road vehicles and the contamination of water supplies.
“You’re putting chemical explosives underground and setting them off,” he said. “There’s always strong potential for contamination of both underground water supplies and surface water supplies.”
Dee Ann Miller, a spokeswoman for DEP, said the testing is beneficial in defining targets for subsequent exploratory drilling.
“Refining drilling targets with geophysical data greatly reduces overall surface impacts by reducing the number of exploratory wells necessary to discover new oil and gas fields,” she said.
'No indication' fracking will occur
Scientists have reason to believe oil and gas may be located Gulf and Calhoun counties based on logs from exploratory wells drilled in the area between the 1940s and late 1980s. A basin located 15,000 feet underground appears similar to areas in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties that produce significant amounts of oil from the Smackover formation.
If data from the seismic testing is promising, Cholla would come back to conduct exploratory drilling, the consulting firm said. If oil and gas is found, the company would almost certainly begin drilling in earnest. Exploratory drilling and actual production would require new rounds of permit applications and reviews and approvals from DEP.
Cholla, which according to media reports has fracked wells in Texas, hasn’t signaled whether it would do the same thing in Florida. But the company hasn’t ruled it out, either. Consultants suggested it was unlikely, in part because the state’s porous geology doesn’t require fracking to extract oil and gas.
“It’s premature to even talk about drilling a well,” Lampl said. “And the main reason is that you don’t know where you’re going until you start getting that data. (But) there’s been no indication that it would be anything other than conventional drilling.”
Fracking has become a common practice in the United States — more than 1 million wells have been hydraulically fractured to extract oil and gas. But it’s generated controversy because of concerns over pollution, groundwater contamination and health problems. The process involves the injection of mass quantities of water along with chemicals and sand under immense pressures to fracture rock formations deep underground.
'We just don't need it'
Cholla’s exploration for oil and gas has prompted a new round of debate over the safety of fracking and whether it should ever happen again in Florida.
Dr. Ron Saff, a Tallahassee allergist and member of Physicians for Social Justice, and others have been appearing before county commissions to ask them to pass their own fracking bans.
“Fracking requires hundreds of chemicals, dozens of which are carcinogens and are used to lubricate the drill bit as it bores deep down into the earth’s surface,” he said. “The oil companies state that fracking will bring some jobs. They are correct. Grave diggers, morticians, funeral-home directors and coffin makers will likely see some job growth.”
Others say it’s perfectly safe. Roger Williams, a retired cable-television worker who lives in Gulf County, has firsthand experience with the drilling technique — an energy company has been fracking for natural gas on his family’s farmland in West Virginia since 2008, paying him royalties along the way.
 “I wouldn’t care if they fracked here because no one has ever proven that fracking is the cause of any damage to anyone’s wells,” he said. “That was the whole problem in the beginning -- people were claiming that their water wells were being tainted by fracking. But it’s untrue. After studies were done, it showed that maybe two wells out of a thousand were actually tainted by fracking.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft report in June finding no widespread, systematic impacts to drinking-water supplies from fracking. The agency found instances where well integrity and waste-water management related to fracking did affect drinking water, but the report says they were comparatively small in number. The EPA noted, however, a number of risks to water supplies from fracking, including possible spills of fracking fluids and waste water.
Dan Tonsmeire, the Apalachicola riverkeeper, said he opposes oil and gas production in the area in part because of major spills and accidents that have occurred over the years, from the Deepwater Horizon disaster to mishaps in Yellowstone National Park and Alaska.
“Everywhere they’re working is a mess,” he said. “And they often want to leave a mess behind. And the people who live in these communities, they’re the ones left with the aftermath. People are still suffering from these oil companies making these huge mistakes. And I don’t want that to happen here again. We just don’t need it.”
Oil and gas production in Florida
The state has two areas that have produced oil and gas for decades through conventional drilling: the Sunniland Trend, located in Collier, Hendry, Lee and Miami-Dade counties, and the Jay Field, located in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The state has produced roughly 600 million barrels — about 25 billion gallons — since 1943. Production peaked in the late 1970s and has been on a general decline since then.

151023-d
Miami Beach waging a battle against sea level rise
Miami Herald - by Joey Flechas and Jenny Staletovich
October 23, 2015
This is the first of a two-part series on sea level rise. Up next: How climate change affects the make up of South Florida’s water.
Miami Beach has put into action an aggressive and expensive plan to combat the effects of sea level rise. As some streets keep flooding from recent king tide events, the city continues rolling out its plan of attack and will spend between $400-$500 million over the next five years doing so.
The sea started boiling up into the street. A major Miami Beach road was under water. Tourists sloshed to hotels through saltwater up to their shins, pants rolled up, suitcases in one hand, shoes in the other.
But one corner of Miami Beach stayed perfectly dry. In Sunset Harbour, which has historically flooded during seasonal high tides, the water was held at bay last month by a radically re-engineered streetscape that will be put to the test again this week with another king tide.
The design — featuring a street and sidewalk perched on an upper tier, 2 ½ feet above the front doors of roadside businesses, and backed by a hulking nearby pump house — represents what one city engineer called "the street of tomorrow."
This foundation for Miami Beach’s future is actually a complicated and expensive experiment: As much as $500 million to install 80 pumps and raise roads and seawalls across the city. A first phase appears to be working, at least for now. But just one year into a massive public works project that could take six more, it’s way too soon to say whether and for how long it can keep the staggeringly valuable real estate of an international tourist mecca dry — especially in the face of sea level rise projections that seem to only get scarier with every new analysis.
"We don’t have a playbook for this," said Betsy Wheaton, assistant building director for environment and sustainability in Miami Beach.
But in many ways, Miami Beach is writing just that — the first engineering manual for adapting South Florida’s urban landscape to rising seas. The entire southern tip of the peninsula tops climate change risk lists but Beach leaders have acted with the most urgency, waiving competitive bidding and approving contracts on an emergency basis to fast-track the work. Tidal flooding lapping at posh shops and the yards of pricey homes makes a persuasive argument that climate change isn’t only real, but a clear and present threat.
Read more about Miami Beach fast-tracking sea level rise projects without competitive bids
The vulnerability of the low-lying western edge of the "billion dollar sandbar’’ — real estate that pioneering developer Carl Fisher literally dredged up from Biscayne Bay —is topped only by the Florida Keys, where even a half-foot more ocean will inundate large chunks of some islands like Big Pine. That’s sobering when a conservative projection from a regional climate change compact predicts at least two feet by 2060. A study released this month, factoring in new data on unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, predicts a potential five-foot rise.
"We’re looking at fairly substantial, very hard decisions," said Rhonda Haag, Monroe County’s chief of sustainability. "All is not lost. We’re good for the next 15 years but we’re doing as much as we can to prepare in advance.”
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, along with Monroe, are part of a landmark 2009 compact that acknowledged the reality of climate change — a major achievement on a politically divisive issue. But on the mainland, where it may take a few more decades to see the inland thrust of tidal flooding already happening in the Keys and on the Beach, there has been a lot more talking than doing.
That’s largely because — as the Beach’s ambitious endeavor underlines — rebuilding South Florida to survive rising seas will come at considerable cost. Each Beach pumps runs $2 to $3 million, a relative pittance. Overhauling major flood canal gates and pumps along the Miami-Dade coast could be hundreds of times more costly. In the long term looms the daunting, big-dollars prospect of raising homes, roads, buildings. It will all add up to billions.
Then there are the ripple effects of years of construction, traffic jams and potential environmental damage — the still undetermined consequences of pumping runoff tainted by fertilizer, dog poop and road spills into Biscayne Bay or deep underground beneath a fresh water aquifer that will also shrink as the ocean encroaches. Just trying to coordinate such a massive effort between governments can be hugely complex.
“You look around and say show me a project and we still have a hard time,” said Jennifer Jurado, director of Broward County’s division of Natural Resources Planning and Management. “Part of the problem is it’s not uniform or comprehensive in the approach.”
For now, the effort on the Beach is the best test of the potential for pumps, pipes and asphalt to keep the rest of South Florida dry into the next century.
Old problem getting worse
Any Beach old-timer will tell you the city has flooded for decades during king tides — the same thing happens in much of low-lying Florida. But all the data and tide gauges confirm it’s getting worse.
"The king tides have gotten higher in recent years," said Colin Polsky, director of the center for environmental studies at Florida Atlantic University. "And the king tides we’re seeing more recently have been higher than they were predicted to be."
On the Beach, damage to cars, businesses and homes from flooding — both from high tides and rains — had steadily mounted. "During a flash flood in June 2009, we lost 47 vehicles in our garage," said Ron Wolff, who lives at the Mirador 1200 condo tower on West Avenue.
With flooding growing from occasional annoyance to economic concern, in 2012 the city crafted a bold blueprint for overhauling an antiquated stormwater system that relied on gravity to drain into the bay. Higher tides increasingly backed up the drain pipes and even reversed the flow, turning the system into a conduit to pump seawater up through sewer grates onto heavily traveled arteries like Alton Road.
A new commission and mayor in 2013 has pushed to replumb the city even faster, dropping an initial idea to drill underground injection wells with fewer environmental risks. The new system collects flood waters, screens out large debris like plastic bottles and pumps it back out into Biscayne Bay through one-way valves known as backflow preventers that keep rising Biscayne Bay waters from flooding drainage pipes. The plan also calls for raising seawalls, most of which are on private property, and raising some roads.
The first new pumps, powerful enough to constantly slurp the flooding tide and spit it back out into Biscayne Bay, were installed last year in some of the city’s worst hot spots: Alton Road, West Avenue, Sunset Harbour and Crespi Boulevard in North Beach. They’ve kept roads dry through a first round of fall tides.
But even Mayor Philip Levine, the biggest cheerleader of efforts to "rise above” sea level rise, would acknowledge that pumps alone represent a temporary fix – a 30- to 40-year buffer. If future projections hold true, more roads will have to be raised — along with buildings — as the rising sea pushes up through the porous limestone sponge underlying much of South Florida. First floors might have to be vacated, rusting infrastructure replaced, codes and building elevations dramatically beefed up.
Flooding in other neighborhoods during high tides also makes it clear there’s a long way to go beyond the $100 million first phase.
"We haven’t solved anything yet," said Miami Beach Public Works Director Eric Carpenter. "We’re getting there, and we’re trying to deal with as many neighborhoods as we can."
The scope of work needed even for a relatively small city like Miami Beach, home to about 90,000 permanent residents but far more visitors, is huge, requiring tearing up streets and disrupting traffic across the barrier island.
West Avenue will be raised next. Upcoming drainage work: Lower North Bay Road, Normandy Isle, La Gorce, and Palm, Hibiscus & Venetian Islands
The seawall along Indian Creek Drive — the city’s new ground zero for what Levine calls "sunny-day flooding" — also needs to be replaced. Property owners across the street are responsible for most of the wall, so owners will have to work with the city to make the upgrades. Indian Creek Drive and Collins Avenue are maintained by the state, so the Florida Department of Transportation has to step in. DOT spokeswoman Ivette Ruiz-Paz said in an email that five pump stations are currently under analysis but the agency hasn’t produced cost estimates yet or said when its analysis will be done.
The daunting cost of resiliency
So far, despite the mounting science and the flooding scenes playing out in South Florida, Tallahassee has largely ignored resiliency planning and projects, particularly the costs. Just this year, Gov. Rick Scott — who has largely dodged the climate change issue throughout his tenure — vetoed $750,000 for the Beach’s pump program.
The reason ? The project "does not provide a clear return on investment."
Scott might be well served by talking to Beach hotel and business owners. During one of the tidal floods last month, a supervisor at the Alden Hotel on Indian Creek Drive handed out plastic trash bags for guests to wrap around their legs as they stepped down into floodwaters in front of the hotel. The higher-than predicted floods hurt profits.
"We’ve had cancellations. Some people have left early," said Jennifer Hernandez, adding that she couldn’t blame them. "They came here on vacation, and this is what they get."
$400-$500 millionis the estimated cost of Miami Beach’s sea rise projects
Beyond the strident politics of climate change, the high cost of re-engineering and rebuilding for impacts still decades down the road represents the biggest hurdle for policy makers and planners. Most notably, Miami-Dade County decided to rebuild an aging and leak-prone sewage plant on Virginia Key — as vulnerable to sea rise as Miami Beach — because moving it would cost an additional $3 billion. It took considerable pressure from environmental groups during Miami-Dade’s recent budget process to get $300,000 earmarked for engineering work to help the county prepare its infrastructure. That’s just money for planning, not actually building anything.
On the Beach, problems were big enough that political leaders were willing to risk raising rates on residents to pay for it. What was initially projected as a $200 million overhaul is now estimated at between $400 and $500 million. The money will come from residents who pay stormwater fees, taxes and — if there is political support — from the state and federal governments.
Beach commissioners raised stormwater rates by 84 percent last year to secure $90 million worth of bonds to start work in the fall of 2014, when pumps quickly went in along the southwestern shore of the barrier island. The cost to the typical resident rose from $9.06 to $16.67 per month.
And those rates will likely keep going up in the future. Bond rating agency Moody’s gave the bond issuance a negative outlook because of anticipated debt in the future, coupled with a need for rate hikes. This could ultimately impact the city’s credit rating.
Though the Beach is far out front, most experts believe the entire region will require a massive investment. Harvey Ruvin, Miami-Dade County’s clerk of courts and chair of a county task force on sea level rise, told a room full of real estate agents at a recent conference that regional leaders need to start planning now and implementing solutions now.
People all over the world want a piece of South Florida. But will they still want it if they don’t think we can keep our heads above water?
"We have too much at stake to question whether we should embark upon this adaptation mission," he said. "We got $6 trillion worth of built environment."
A model for South Florida’s future
The rest of coastal South Florida is closely watching what works — and doesn’t — on the Beach.
Sandwiched between the ocean and the low-lying Everglades, the mainland response to climate change will be far trickier. It’s not just a matter of stopping floods. The region will also have to take steps to protect its water supply — the Biscayne aquifer is one of the most porous on the planet, highly vulnerable to saltwater intrusion. Any flood control measures will also have to factor in $10 billion in Everglades restoration work intended to fix the ailing river of grass that once supplied much of the region’s freshwater and has withered to less than half its historic flow.
South Florida sits atop the Biscayne aquifer, made of porous limestone, which is vulnerable to saltwater intrusion
On top of that, efforts need to be coordinated so that one city’s efforts don’t undo work by say, water managers. A big step will come when governments start changing building codes, something that will take a lot of political will.
“Developers have said to me, ‘We will not self regulate. We need leadership from our government,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who was elected last year and is teaming up with Commissioner Rebecca Sosa to bridge the political divide and move forward on a suite of resolutions Miami-Dade County passed earlier this year.
What’s still lacking, said Levine Cava, who was in Washington this week meeting with lawmakers and the Everglades caucus, is a sense of urgency.
“It’s not so much denial that it’s not true,” she said. “It’s denying the urgency.”
But nature seems to be increasingly making the case. This past king tide, parts of Key Largo were flooded with knee deep water for more than two weeks. One angry resident, a lawyer, is investigating a class action. A recent model by the U.S. Geological Survey shows saltwater intrusion within a half mile of the South Dade wellfields that supply freshwater to all of the Keys.
“We’re getting to the point where we can determine that there are certain areas where certain influences are stronger than others,” said Dorothy Sifuentes, a supervisory hydrologist at USGS’s Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center in Davie.
What that means is that in some areas, saltwater may sneak into the aquifer through canals. In others, it may push in from the ocean.
The South Florida Water Management District, whose pumps and flood control structures play a key role in keeping the region dry and drinking water safe, identified 20 vulnerable pumps six years ago. But with five years of budget cuts, only one pump has been fixed. The district is now in the midst of a second study to assess structures at risk.
“We need to understand what is the true level of service today with this changed
condition, and when I say changed I mean land use now —not what they used at the
time — and sea level rise. Perhaps the rainfall patterns have changed too,” said
Jayantha Obeysekera, who oversees modeling for the district. “Before we come up with the solution. we need to understand the present vulnerabilities of the system.”
Knowing the general threat from sea level rise is one thing. But now governments find themselves trying to nail down the nitty gritty needed for specific changes.
“It is a lengthy, laborious planning process but if you don’t have those types of investments made how do you defend against projects and increasing costs so it just doesn’t seem arbitrary,” Jurado said.
The ripple effects of resiliency
So far, the work on the Beach has succeeded at keeping more streets dry. But questions and ripple effects abound.
Critics of the pumps — including residents who have seen clouds of murky bay water near the outfalls — have argued that pumping water without chemical treatment will cause problems for marine life in Biscayne Bay.
City officials say the murk is simply sediment kicked up as pumps gush water at high pressure into the bay. They also argue the drainage system is cleaner than the old one, now at least screening out gutter trash like bags and plastic bottles.
Preliminary water sampling late last year by Florida International University researchers showed nutrient levels in some parts of the bay were six times higher than before high tides kicked on the pumps, which could trigger toxic algae blooms. Scientists will be out there again on Tuesday, during the next king tide, to test pollution levels.
"We want to know if the waters are good quality," said FIU hydrologist Henry
Briceño, who is working with the city to examine the test results. "If there’s any problem, the city will have to do something."Then there is the nightmare of seemingly unending construction.
The Beach has long had traffic issues, especially on weekends. But the storm water overhaul has made jams an everyday occurrence, particularly in South Beach. Torn up sidewalks and roaring construction equipment have turned strolls to the store into loud, dusty, unpleasant treks.
Building the "street of the future," it turns out, has made for a difficult present for many businesses.
"It was tedious, with the construction, to keep the numbers up," said Antonio Villa del Rey, manager at Azul Spirits and Wines at 1414 20th Street. The sidewalk outside his front door now lies two feet below the road. He was at first skeptical, worried the flooding would fill the lower walkway. But road and sidewalk remained dry during the most recent high tide.
"Surprisingly, the system seems to be holding up," he said.

151022-b
Marco Rubio's misleading claim about the EPA and the Clean Water Act
Miami Herald – by Amy Sherman, Staff Writer
October 22, 2015
On the presidential campaign trail in Ohio, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called for reversing some of President Barack Obama’s environmental policies and vowed to allow more drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
 Rubio argued that Environmental Protection Agency rules are too burdensome, pointing to two businesspeople who joined him at his speech, James Mackall, president of Artex Oil, and Tom Mackall, president of East Fairfield Coal.
"The EPA has unilaterally changed how the Clean Water Act is interpreted. Now it not only protects rivers and lakes, but also drainage ditches and private retaining ponds. So when mining or drilling, Jerry and Tom now have to take caution not to disturb bodies of water barely bigger than a puddle."
We wondered: Does the Clean Water Act allow the government to regulate how mining and drilling affects bodies of water "barely bigger than a puddle ?"
Related:           Marco Rubio says EPA rule covers 'water barely bigger than a puddle'

151021-a
Feds propose protection for rare species
KeysNews.com – by Robert Silk, Free Press Staff
October 21, 2015
BIG PINE KEY — The Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge is already home to 17 federally endangered species. But that number could soon climb to an even 20.
Late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed three resident plants of the refuge’s rare pine rockland habitat for endangered species designation.USFWS also proposed a fourth refuge plant species, a shrub called Blodgett’s silverbush, for designation as federally threatened.
Cumulatively, the population of the four species have declined by about 80 percent over the last two decades, USFWS estimates.
The three species that are under consideration for the endangered designation are a shrub called the Big Pine partridge pea, and the herbs wedge spurge and sand flax. Habitat loss is their biggest threat, as 90 percent of South Florida’s historic pine rockland community has been destroyed by urban and agricultural development. 
The remaining pine rocklands, in which relatively open slash pine forests tower over patchy understories of palms and shrubs, are located almost entirely within Everglades National Park and the Keys. Like other South Florida natural communities, pine rocklands are also threatened by sea level rise.
Of the three candidates for endangered listing, the partridge pea is most commonly seen in the Key deer preserve, refuge biologist Adam Emerick said. Able to grow to approximately 30 inches in height, it is only found on Big Pine and Cudjoe keys. The shrub has five-petal yellow flowers and pea-shaped fruit.
Wedge spurge occurs only on Big Pine Key. It has a silver appearance but is difficult to see even when standing right above it, Emerick said. Its largest specimens can still fit in the palm of one’s hand, he said.
Sand flax, which is found in the pine rocklands of the Keys and the South Florida mainland, can grow to approximately 18 inches in height. The herb has a small, yellow buttercup-shaped flower. Within the refuge, only a few small patches of sand flax are known, said Emerick, all of them on Big Pine Key.
Emerick said that not enough research has been done for scientists to know what specific role those three species, as well as the Blodgett’s silverbush, play in the pine rocklands ecosystem. But their flowers are pollinated, so they are serving as food for butterflies or other insects. They also stabilize soils and add to the habitat’s general diversity.
The USFWS is accepting public comment on the proposed listings of the Big Pine partridge pea, wedge spurge, sand flax and Blodgett’s silverbush through Nov. 30. After that, federal scientists will pour over the new information before issuing a binding decision.
“Typically, we’d like to make a decision over whether those proposed listings should be final within a year,” USFWS spokesman Ken Warren said.
The proposed listings are a result of a 2011 legal settlement between USFWS and the the non-profit advocacy group the Center for Biological Diversity. The deal required USFWS to make initial or final Endanger Species Act listing decisions on 757 plant or animal species by 2018. The four pine rockland plants have been candidates for listing since 1980.
Though the plants don’t capture the attention of many, Jaclyn Lopez, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Florida director, said people should care about their continued existence.
“These plants represent wild Florida,” she said. “They’re only found in places where we haven’t paved over the landscape and for that reason are a sort of time capsule reflecting what Florida looked like before it was covered with roads and strip malls. The truth is, most people live in Florida because we love the picturesque landscapes, remarkable sunsets and unique species of plants and animals.”
Public comments on the proposed listings can be submitted at reguluation.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on Docket Number FWS-R4-ES-2015-0137.

151021-b
Miami-Dade Clerk Of Courts calls for sea-level rise superfund
WLRN.org – by Alyssa Mendez Batista
October 21, 2015
Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin sent a letter last week to South Florida members of Congress urging for the creation of a Federal Resiliency Superfund.
This is another instance of South Florida’s local governments seeking to plan ahead for the effects of sea-level rise.
Ruvin says: “The proposal basically calls upon the federal government to play a part in what has to be an intergovernmental partnership to attack issues from climate change impact such as sea level rise."
He says changes in ocean levels threaten $6 trillion worth state property as well as the lives of the millions of South Floridians.
Ruvin says there is no specific amount of money the superfund should have for sea-level rise management projects.
“We’re looking at a whole redoing of the water management district systems for controlling the water. Once we get that all together, we’ll be able to do the math,” Ruvin says.  
With the Superfund, Ruvin expects the creation of a jobs program that will enhance the economy and reduce financial pressure on FEMA in the long term.
At the moment, Ruvin has not received any response from state congressional members. He says his office has also reached out to several groups in Washington that represent local governments.

151021-c
Process extends phosphate reserves, eliminates waste
PowderBulkSolids.com
October 21, 2015
Phosphorus is essential for the biological processes of life. Phosphorus in its phosphate form is deposited in ancient, relatively shallow sedimentary basins rich with phosphate containing fossils of marine and terrestrial animals. Phosphate rock is mined and beneficiated to produce a raw material for fertilizer that farmers apply to their fields. The process begins with the excavation of a raw phosphate “matrix,” a mix of equal parts sand, clay, and phosphate mineral. Beneficiation of the matrix, consisting of washing, sizing, and flotation, makes it usable for the chemical processes needed to make fertilizer.
The phosphate in phosphate rock is insoluble in water and requires chemical modification for a plant to use it. The process for allowing the nutrient values to be liberated for plant use is called the Wet Acid Process. This process takes high-grade phosphate rock and acidulates it with sulfuric acid to make phosphoric acid and large amounts of waste phosphogypsum. The phosphoric acid is used to make fertilizers. The waste is stockpiled and managed much like a landfill.
Phosphate is a non-renewable natural resource and central Florida has the largest known reserves in the U.S. However, experts believe it could be mined out in coming decades. Finding a way to extend these reserves is important for this industry that has an estimated economic impact of $10 billion each year.
Manufacturing Phosphoric Acid
JDC Phosphate, Fort Meade, FL, has patented a new way to make phosphoric acid. JDC’s "Improved Hard Process" (IHP) will enable current reserves of low-grade phosphate rock, and wastes from previously processed rock, to be converted to usable products for agriculture and industry. As a result, IHP has the potential to nearly triple the amount of phosphate reserves available for fertilizer production in Florida. It also has the potential to eliminate the production of phosphogysum and save millions annually in landfill management costs in Florida. Globally, IHP is expected to dramatically change this industry by producing high-purity phosphoric acid from low-grade phosphate rock at a lower cost than current processing, without the high volume waste.
“We are well on the way to commercializing a breakthrough that will allow the mining of phosphate resources that haven’t been suitable for agriculture,” said JDC Phosphate’s chief executive officer Tip Fowler. “We think this will offer phosphate manufacturers a tremendous savings, not just in Florida, but globally, because of IHP’s ability to expand limited natural resources worldwide.”
JDC’s IHP was patented by Dr. Joseph Megy in 2008, and the company was founded on this propriety technology. It soon attracted investments that enabled the design and construction of a demonstration plant in 2012, to focus on demonstrating the commercial viability of IHP. Since then, validation of IHP became the focus as JDC sought to determine the particular processing parameters for phosphoric acid production.  
IHP Demonstration Plant Needed Drying Expertise
Since drying was a key process requirement for IHP, JDC turned to Bühler Aeroglide for a dryer design that would be versatile enough for intermediate scale testing. Bühler also had the expertise to support equipment requirements for a full scale processing line. Prior to finalizing the demo plant design, testing was conducted at Bühler Aeroglide’s North Carolina Tech Center. JDC needed to dry an agglomerated mix of ground phosphate ore, clay, sand, petroleum coke, binder, and water to less than one percent moisture at 250°F. The mix was in the form of balls or spheres that needed to pass a number of crush tests to ensure adequate strength to maintain shape and integrity during rigorous processing downstream.
“Bringing a product to life is a journey through a variety of trials and errors,” said Bühler Aeroglide senior engineer Les Horton. “Dr. Megy had a vision that we understood and once we identified the desired product attributes, testing addressed the critical high-level requirements that thermal processing could meet.”
A multi-zone AeroDry dryer was designed and built by Bühler Aeroglide for the demo plant. It was installed after a balling-drum operation where the principle bonding mechanism was the tension of water augmented by a binder, rotating the mix to create 3/8-in. spheres. The dryer bed measured 32 x 7 ft, and could load up to 120 lb/cu ft of the ‘gunshot’-sized balls. It was designed to remove 2500 lb/hr of water from the small agglomerated spheres.
“The AeroDry gave us a robust but gentle way to dry the feed spheres after the balling drum,” said Fowler. “And we needed to find out how each formulation would hold together when it went through the remainder of the process.”
Dozens of tests were conducted to validate the drying process and each time the sphere was observed to see how it held together after drying. Researchers looked for any fines that might be created, they observed how the sphere was stabilizing and adjustments were made as needed. The demo plant dryer was designed to dry 12 tn/hr at 10% moisture. Now, the demo plant is testing IHP with product made from phosphate rock from Florida, Australia, Africa, and other parts of the world, while plant operators observe a variety of new formulations.
“For IHP to work efficiently, it’s vital that we have a continuous operation that ensures uniform drying to product specifications,” said Fowler. “When the spheres exit the dryer, they are conveyed to a rotary kiln where the spheres are heated to liberate the phosphorous gas which is converted in a conventional hydrator to phosphoric acid of high quality.”
Meanwhile, the Fort Meade demo plant is accumulating data to design larger, commercially sized plants. The demonstration plant is designed to produce an estimated 12,000 tons of phosphoric acid a year, and will provide JDC with a robust tool in its path toward full commercialization of the IHP technology. The next step is to design and construct a full-scale commercial IHP plant with a capacity between 100,000 and 200,000 tons of phosphoric acid per year, in conjunction with a licensor or project partner.
As a result, this technology holds great promise for phosphate companies to enhance and extend their operations and to continue to serve the needs of agriculture and industry. The dryer from Bühler Aeroglide combined with the collaborative nature of Buhler has given JDC the flexibility it needed to demonstrate IHP.
“We can now work with JDC to increase capacity and this means adding zone modules, adding heat and adding air flow scaled to production,” said Horton. “We are proud to be able to work with customers during testing, giving them the tools and engineering expertise to make adaptations that meet a market need.”
History of the Improved Hard Process
IHP is a follow-up to work previously conducted by Dr. Megy and his mentor, Dr. Robert Hard, while both men were working for Occidental Chemicals nearly 30 years earlier. Their efforts resulted in the patented Hard Process (named after Dr. Hard) that used heat integration to produce phosphoric acid directly from phosphate rock using a high temperature reduction reaction. The Hard Process proved to be technically viable but was not sufficiently cost effective to develop on a commercial scale.
Following a successful career as a noted scientist, engineer and entrepreneur, Dr. Megy returned to his process development roots in 2001, using his own funds and grants from the US Department of Agriculture to optimize the Hard Process. The results of his improvements quintupled throughput and resulted in the patenting of IHP. Two other patents have since been granted to Dr. Megy for IHP, and the company has further developed his technology and applied for another significant patent.

151021-d
Sunscreen chemical Oxybenzone blamed for harm to coral reefs
ABC.net.au
Ocober 21, 2015
Sunscreen contains a chemical that scientists believe is causing massive damage to coral reefs worldwide and that threatens their very existence, researchers have warned.
Oxybenzone — also known as BP-3 or Benzophenone-3 — is found in more than 3,500 sunscreen products, said the study, published in the latest edition of the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.
The chemical gets into the water via swimmers and wastewater from coastal septic systems.
Oxybenzone, which blocks ultraviolet rays, causes "gross deformities" in baby coral, "damages their DNA, and, most alarmingly, acts as an endocrine disruptor", the study said.
The effect is forcing "the coral to encase itself in its own skeleton, leading to death".
The study was led by marine scientists from Virginia, Florida, Israel, the US National Aquarium and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"The use of oxybenzone-containing products needs to be seriously deliberated in islands and areas where coral reef conservation is a critical issue," said lead author Craig Downs of the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory in Virginia.
"Everyone wants to build coral nurseries for reef restoration, but this will achieve little if the factors that originally killed off the reef remain or intensify in the environment."
Oxybenzone is not only found in sunscreens, but also lipstick, mascara and shampoo.
The European Union's International Chemical Secretariat has already established it as a threat to human health and called for it to be replaced with another, safer ingredient.
Tonnes of sunscreen lotion emitted into reef areas each year
Worryingly for coral, scientists observed the harmful effects of oxybenzone even when it was highly diluted — as low as 62 parts per trillion, or the same as "a drop of water in six-and-a-half Olympic-sized swimming pools", the study found.
Far higher concentrations of oxybenzone were measured near coral reefs in Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands, ranging from 800 parts per trillion to 1.4 parts per million.
"This is over 12 times higher than the concentrations necessary to impact on coral," the study said.
Researchers estimate that between 6,000 and 14,000 tonnes of sunscreen lotion are emitted into coral reef areas each year.
Oxybenzone makes up between 1 and 10 per cent of those lotions.
Since not all reefs are located near tourist areas, scientists believe about 10 per cent of global reefs are at high risk of exposure to sunscreen lotion damage.
Global scientists announced earlier this month that a massive global coral bleaching event was already under way, made worse in some parts of the world by warming waters brought on by El Nino.
Coral reefs have been in decline for decades and face multiple threats including pollution, climate change, storms and disease.
Related:           Third mass coral bleaching to occur in early 2016, experts say
Half of all marine life lost in 40 years: WWF report
Australia's deep-sea coral reefs could be dead within 50 years: CSIRO scientist
Coral at risk of widespread bleaching            Miami Herald

151020-b
Florida lawmakers set to try again on statewide water policy
PalmBeachPost.com
October 20, 2015
TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers appear closer to patching up differences on new statewide water policies which failed to advance earlier this year.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli told reporters on Wednesday that talks were well underway to solve “minor technical hang-ups.” Two days later, measures dealing with the issue were filed in both chambers. The proposals contain most of the elements included in a business-friendly plan approved by the House last year but which failed to win Senate support.
The measures seek to establish water flow levels for the state’s natural springs and define the Central Florida Water Initiative. The bills also include further management action plans for Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee Estuary, and the St. Lucie River and Estuary, the inland portion of the Caloosahatchee River watershed.
The proposals (SB 552, PCB SAC 16-01) also would require the Office of Economic
and Demographic Research to provide an annual assessment of the state’s water resources and conservation lands, something that was not included in the House’s plan this spring.
Senate President Andy Gardiner said that having state economists “a little more involved” gives him more comfort about the plans. The Senate’s push to include an oversight council to rate potential water projects was one of the sticking points earlier this year.
 “That certainly gives me a comfort that there is somebody besides just the political side of the decision making,” Gardiner, R-Orlando, said Monday.
The House water proposal — backed by the state’s agriculture industry and influential business groups — earlier this year failed to get approval from the Senate, whose members had their own ideas about changing the state’s water policies to meet the demands of a voter-approved constitutional amendment about land and water conservation.
The Senate moved closer to the House’s proposed expansion of best-management practices — such as advanced stormwater management, erosion controls and specific fertilizing procedures — beyond the 470,000-acre farming region south of Lake Okeechobee to all lands around Lake Okeechobee and the state’s natural springs.
But before the session was scuttled over the state budget, the Senate reaffirmed its support to include two measures that had been opposed by the House — a pedestrian trail network backed by Gardiner and an oversight council to rate potential water projects.
The bike trail network, known as SunTrail, was settled when it was worked into the final budget that was approved in a special session in June.
House State Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Matt Caldwell, whose committee will discuss the water proposal on Thursday, called the inclusion of the state economists a compromise.
“We came to a resolution,” Caldwell, R-North Fort Myers, said on Monday. “The Senate felt very strongly about a council proposal, and we instead agreed upon this (Office of Economic and Demographic Research) report.”
Otherwise, the 2016 proposals mostly start where the House measure died at the end of the 2015 session, Caldwell said.
The current measures also include a Senate plan that Audubon Florida executive director Eric Draper said would give the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services “more teeth” regarding water quality than what was initially proposed by the House at the beginning of the year.
“It gives more certainty that ag producers will do a better job controlling pollution,” Draper said.
On Wednesday, Crisafulli told reporters that the policy changes are needed before water issues become a crisis for the state.
“We have to look no further than California to know what these challenges could look like — a state experiencing a drought that has left them with potentially, as they say today, one year of reserves, an agricultural industry that is losing billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs, that has really no contingency in place,” Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said.
Speaking at the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Future of Florida Forum late last month, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam mirrored Crisafulli’s assessment of the differences between the House and Senate.
Putnam also drew upon near-apocalyptic images of drought-plagued California and Florida’s growing population — which could potentially create a one billion gallon-per-day shortfall by 2030 — as reasons lawmakers need to close their remaining “minor” differences over water policy.
Putnam told the chamber that the key parts of the proposed legislation will help avoid local governmental fights over water rights that dominated some regions in the 1980s and that could hamper the state’s business recruitment efforts.
“You can’t expect world class attractions in Orlando to put billions of dollars into their parks if they don’t know whether they’re going to get an allocation for their newest water-based features,” Putnam said. “You can’t expect to bring in a Boeing, a Mercedes, whatever shiny economic-development prize that we want, if there is some question about whether the most fundamental element in economic development will be available to them.”

151018-a
Author to speak on future of Florida’s water
TBNweekly.com
October 18, 2015
Cynthia Barnett Journalist offers two free lectures on Oct. 20.
On a peninsula surrounded by beaches on three sides with thousands of rivers, lakes and streams, water defines what it means to live in Florida. But, will all that water still be as clean and abundant for future generations of Floridians?
That’s the topic of journalist Cynthia Barnett’s upcoming talk in Pinellas County, “Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for Florida and America.” The author will appear twice on Tuesday, Oct. 20, first at Brooker Creek Preserve and then at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Barnett is an award-winning author whose books include “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.,” “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis” and “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History.”
Barnett’s free talks will take place at the following times and locations:
Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center, 3940 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Meet-and-greet begins at 11:30 a.m. and the seminar starts at noon with discussion afterward.
Coffee and desserts will be provided by the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve. Bring a lunch. To register, visit: www.eventbrite.com/e/blue-revolution-a-water-ethic-for-florida-america-tickets-18354270116.
USF St. Petersburg Student Life Center Ballroom, 140 Seventh Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Check in starts at 5:30 p.m. and the seminar starts at 6 p.m. with community discussion to follow.
This special program is part of USF St. Petersburg’s 50th anniversary celebration. To register, visit: www.eventbrite.com/e/blue-revolution-a-water-ethic-for-florida-america-tickets-18350030435?aff=erellivorg.
Barnett’s talk is being organized by UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County, USF St. Petersburg, and the Environmental Science and Sustainability Club. 
For more information about Barnett, visit www.cynthiabarnett.net.

151018-b
Mormon ranch in Florida to replace cattle with humans
Associated Press
October 18, 2015
DESERET RANCH, Fla.  — Under one of the biggest land development plans ever proposed in Florida, a tract more than six times the size of Manhattan could be transformed from a home for cows and alligators into new housing developments for half a million people.
Over the next six decades, the plan being developed by the Mormon church-owned Deseret Ranch promises to convert the largest undeveloped section of metro Orlando into more than a dozen bustling neighborhoods. In the process, it would radically reshape Osceola County, a suburb that has been transitioning from cowboy culture into a major destination for Puerto Ricans moving to the mainland.
Opponents say the plan to convert cattle pastures to cul-de-sacs could destroy tens of thousands of acres of important habitat near the headwaters of the St. Johns River flowing north and the Kissimmee River flowing south. They also worry that Osceola County has been doing the bidding of Deseret Ranch, one of the nation's largest ranches. County commissioners approved the ranch's plan unanimously in September and now it awaits a state review.
"There are no checks and balances happening," said Karina Veaudry, a landscape architect, who is with the Florida Native Plants Society. "The county has been bending over backward pretty much to do whatever they say."
But other environmentalists who once opposed Deseret's proposal have dropped their objections, saying the plan shifts population growth to east of the county's urban core, rather than to its south where development might pose a greater threat to the headwaters of the Everglades. They also say it's better to have a comprehensive plan rather than breaking off 1,000-acre tracts at a time for piecemeal development. Osceola County currently is about three-quarters rural.
"The future of that property is better with this plan, than the plan not being there," said Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon Florida. "Doing it on a large scale gives you a lot of possibilities for preservation."
The plan looks ahead six decades for property that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began purchasing more than six decades ago. The church began acquiring ranchlands in 1950 to have resources for food production in times of need. The ranch now has 42,000 cattle and more than 80 workers, and straddles three counties in an area nestled between two of central Florida's iconic institutions: Walt Disney World to its west and the Kennedy Space Center to its northeast.
"This is the way we're going to grow for the next 60 years, maybe 100 years," said Commissioner Fred Hawkins before the vote.
Deseret Ranch general manager Erik Jacobsen called the development plan a way to meet growth pressures smartly in what's expected to be one of the nation's fastest growing regions in the coming decades. He said it will be bicycle- and-pedestrian-friendly and an economic boon, connecting Orlando's medical research hub south of the airport with tech companies along the Space Coast. The county, one of the nation's fastest-growing, currently has a population of 310,000, expanding by 15 percent since 2010.
"It provides a very important framework for the future," Jacobsen told commissioner before the vote.
The first shovel of dirt won't be turned for another two decades and the 133,000 acres of pastures, citrus groves, and woodlands slotted for development make up less than half of the ranch's nearly 300,000 acres.
Deseret would likely rely on outside developers. By 2080, the former ranch land could accommodate up to half a million residents, which would make it Florida's 10th largest metropolitan area in today's population. In a best-case scenario, the plan could lead to a quarter million jobs and have an economic impact worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more, said Jeff Jones, the county's economic development chief.
An independent environmental review commissioned by Osceola County recommended setting aside 19,000 acres more land for conservation on top of the current 56,000 acres planned for conservation and agriculture. But the final written plan doesn't include it, to the dismay of Veaudry.
Audubon Florida originally opposed the plan but dropped its opposition after Deseret tweaked some of the more controversial proposals. Some 19,000 acres are being set aside for parks and trails. Language greenlighting the construction of a causeway through a conservation tract was made more tentative. A proposal to allow two creeks to be dammed to build a second reservoir on the property now requires approval from state and federal regulators.
Veaudry isn't buying the compromises, especially the proposal of a second reservoir.
"Why do they need another reservoir?" she said. "They're trying to get future water rights."
Deseret already is in six-year a legal battle with state regulators over whether it can charge public utilities in central Florida to use the water from a reservoir on its property.
"Deseret has had a vision for a long time of being a producer of potable water to sell to others," Lee said.
Hardly any of today's planners likely will be around when the land is built out by 2080. Because of that, observers say it will be an ambitious task to make sure that what is proposed in 2015 is carried out by 2080.
"It's a big, complicated project on a tremendous scale," said Jay Exum, an ecologist who co-wrote the independent environmental review. "The size, scale and location of the project justifies a lot of attention."
Related: Development Plans for Mormon Cattle Ranch In Osceola Stirs ...    WGCU News
Development plans for Mormon cattle ranch stirs controversy          Huntsville Item
Massive Mormon ranch plan in Florida draws scrutiny          SaintPetersBlog (blog)

151018-c
The time for bold water policy is now
Ocala.com - by Adam Putnam, Special to the Star-Banner
October 18, 2015
In response to the Star-Banner's Oct. 5 editorial, “Water policies need real change,” I couldn’t agree more, which is exactly why I have traveled throughout our state imploring all Floridians, including the general public, legislators and the media, to take seriously the one-billion-gallon-per-day shortfall we will face by 2030 if we do nothing. And I have offered thoughtful, science-based proposals on how to take a comprehensive, statewide approach to securing our long-term water quality and supply.
In a state as diverse as Florida, water is our common identity. And as a fifth-generation Floridian, I am dedicated to protecting this precious resource, which many take for granted yet all of us rely on.
Fortunately, in relatively recent years, Florida has built a strong foundation in law for the protection and management of our precious water resources. From the Water Resources Act of 1972, which established our five water management districts, to the Water Protection and Sustainability Act of 2005, we’ve seen measurable improvement in the health and supply of our water. Those achievements span more than 30 years. But there is clearly more work to be done. Our water supply and quality challenges span from Apalachicola to the Everglades and Keys. It’s no longer “us against them.”
I am motivated by a sense of urgency. However, it will take a combination of us forging ahead with policy now based on the data and research we currently have and relying on the best and brightest young minds to develop the next generation of soil sensors, sod varieties, pollution removal and water recycling tools. The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has already developed drought-tolerant lawns that are attractive and require far less water. Additionally, new technologies in homes have reduced water usage while still meeting people’s daily water needs.
By criticizing tidbits from speeches I’ve given that included positive comments about our progress as a state, the Star-Banner editorial implies that it is disappointed to hear that it isn’t all bad news. The good news is that despite explosive population growth, per capita water consumption in Florida fell from 123 gallons per capita in 1995 to 89 gallons in 2010. In agriculture, investment in drip or other low volume irrigation technologies has resulted in 12 billion fewer gallons of water per year being used to grow our food and support the $123 billion industry. At the same time, best management practices in the Everglades Agricultural Area resulted in a 79 percent phosphorous reduction.
Much more remains to be done, though. Our springs have played second fiddle to South Florida’s complex and expensive plumbing issues for too long. These first magnitude springs are a global treasure and the original tourist destinations. The St. Johns River, Apalachicola Bay and Northern Everglades all face their own unique challenges. This is truly a statewide concern, and the time to act is now.
To suggest that pushing a bold, statewide water policy is maintaining the status quo, as the Star-Banner did, is off base. If we take care of our natural systems, we are taking care of our urban water supply needs. If we restore our springs, we are supporting tourism and forestry and the many jobs that benefit from healthy ecosystems and a high quality of life.
Water is Florida’s “golden goose.” It is vital to every industry in every corner of our state. We need to put the policy — and the money — in place to do this right, and to do it now.

151018-d
Water district plan won’t help Everglades
Palm Beach Post – Letter Opinion – by Kenny Hinkle, Stuart, FL, president of BullSugar.Org.
Oct. 18, 2015
The Post Oct. 11 editorial, “New water district chief smart to focus on Everglades fixes,” on the new executive director for the South Florida Water Management District was weirdly optimistic. You appeared to applaud the fact that the director, Pete Antonacci, chosen by Gov. Rick Scottwas going to concentrate on finishing existing projects.
The editorial indicated that Antonacci will be the governor’s enforcer to make sure that is the only thing that the SFWMD considers.
Scientists who know a lot about the hydrology of South Florida have stated that Everglades restoration won’t work if we refuse to implement the project, included in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), that allows us to send water south. If we don’t move forward on the project to send water south, the Everglades will die, Miami will lose its water supply, and the St. Lucie River will die.
One governor, who doesn’t know or care about hydrology or the environment, has decreed that we will not send the water south. Sugar doesn’t want us to.
Antonacci says there will be lots of ground-breakings. That means lots of “photo ops” for politicians. But none of the present projects will save the coastal estuaries or the Everglades.
Has the state of Florida turned the federal restoration plan into a vast boondoggle to supply water to agriculture and developers, at the expense of federal taxpayers?

151017-
Saving the Glades and Bay for our future
Miami Herald – by Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation
October 17, 2015
The alarming Oct. 3 article Dying seagrass and ‘yellow fog’ signal trouble for Florida Bay detailed deteriorating conditions in the bay not seen since the early 1990s. During that time, a lack of freshwater flow through the Everglades south to the brackish bay triggered a massive seagrass die-off and algae bloom that persisted for years.
Now the summer drought and record high temperatures, combined with lack of restored freshwater from the Everglades, have created a familiar but potentially worse situation. Our science staff reports historically high salinity levels and we are alarmed that we could be nearing another catastrophic algae bloom if conditions continue to decline.
Sadly, there is no short-term solution.
In order to protect Florida Bay, we must jump-start stalled Everglades restoration projects designed to store, treat and send clean freshwater south unimpeded through the central Everglades and into Florida Bay. Priority should be given to ensuring that projects already constructed like the C-111 spreader canal are operated to increase flow to the bay.
We must advance with the Central Everglades Planning Project and begin construction on the next 2.5 miles of bridge along Tamiami Trail to remove obstructions to getting freshwater where it is most needed.
Florida Bay is a world-class fishing destination that creates thousands of jobs and generates $700 million a year for South Florida. . The science and planning are complete, but dedicated funding and political will are needed to finish the job of restoring America’s Everglades and Florida Bay.
America’s Everglades suffers from a threat of adverse water quality and a lack of water quantity. The crisis developing in Florida Bay should rally all to come together and protect an ecological and economic jewel.

151016-a
A conversation with Pete Antonacci, South Florida's new water guru
Sun Sentinel - Editorial Board
October 16, 2015
New SWFMD director talks about priorities in new role.
Meet Pete Antonacci, the new executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. A former attorney for Gov. Rick Scott and a former state attorney in Palm Beach County, Antonacci is the fourth person in four years to lead the 16-county agency that is charged with managing flooding, keeping canals clear and restoring the Everglades.
Days into his job, which began the first week of October, Antonacci met with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board to discuss his priorities, which start with ensuring the agency is efficiently run and securing more state and federal money for water projects in South and Central Florida.
We covered the waterfront in our interview, from taking on a traumatized agency that's faced revolving-door leadership, budget cuts and layoffs; to dealing with aging infrastructure and sea-level rise; to sending water south from Lake Okeechobee through the central Everglades; to managing a governor who wants tax cuts amid public concerns that the district is going broke.
Here, edited for space, is a peek at our conversation.
What are your first impressions ?
The district is not effective at getting its message out about what this organization does and how critical this organization is to South Florida. At the district are scientists and engineers that monitor thousands of pumps that keep South Florida dry. If it wasn't for these pumps running every day, we would be huddled along U.S. 1, habitating all together, all 8 million of us who live in South Florida, because there would be no place to live outside of the flood-control capabilities of the district. I think people have lost sight of how critical the function is. I want to help blow the bullhorn about the good work that the board does and the men and women that work in the district, all 1,400 of them, who are running the pumps every day to make sure this part of
South Florida remains hospitable.
Given the recent flooding events in South Florida, how would rate the district's performance ?
Everything is a work in progress with flood control. Every house that is built, you are adding impervious surface to the ecosystem and the impervious surface means there is that much less percolation and drainage, and it is that much more challenging to keep the water moving through the system.
Did you identify any weak spots during the flooding ?
It can always get better. Even these recent events, you have to stay on top of them, you have to figure out where the engineering deficits are. We work with the local districts and municipalities — several hundred small districts — and find out where the problems are and identify what additional work has to be done and do it. Remember, part of our biggest challenge, and some of our commissioners have made this their issue, is maintenance. The big system began construction in the 1940s, so you have to keep on top of that all the time. Some of these little systems were built long before that, and there is constant maintenance that must take place to keep the smaller systems working.
How do you plan to address the challenge of aging infrastructure ?
A very large percentage of our budget every year goes to operations and maintenance. A rough figure is around 20 percent is maintenance-related. That means everything from digging the canals, making sure canals are cleared, widening them, hundreds of small things. It's expensive. It's the responsibility of the board and the board's funders, which is the Legislature and property owners in the district, to make sure that happens. It is always something that people are concerned about, because you always have to look to the future to see where your problems are. I think right now we have a pretty good handle on maintaining our $13 billion worth of investment to keep the water moving out.
Staff is concerned about hurricanes. There are a series of canals, particularly in the big three South Florida counties, where there has been insufficient maintenance or incursion. People plant their ficus trees on the canal bank. The experts in our organization worry that if there is a hurricane, one canal that is blocked up can create a disaster.
Without more revenue, your predecessor said the agency will "go off a cliff."
Many people fear the district is going broke. Is it ?
That's a pessimistic view of things. We have a good, strong budget this year. The board just acted on it in September and approved an operating budget. I think it gets all of our responsibilities done. Our budget is about $750 million.
Tell us your take on the recent dust-up that led to your arrival. From what we know, the board voted to keep the property tax rate steady, which apparently didn't sit well with Gov. Scott. Two weeks later, the board met again and voted to cut the tax rate. With that, the prior director was out and you were in. Fill in the details.
The budget part of it, I think, is good news, pretty good news. If you start with the supposition that there is never enough money, there is no public entity that ever says, 'We have enough money, we don't want to do more things.' That's just the nature of government. But the amount of money the board has to allocate this year is sufficient to do the job.
Don't the demands of aging infrastructure demand more money ?
We are always concerned about how things are going to look five years from now, but we work on an annual budget cycle, we have enough money this year to get the job done, the multi-phase flood control, the Everglades restoration, the many other things the district does.
If you think back to 1988, when the Justice Department filed suit against the district over water quality issues, there have been vast strides made to correct the water quality issues, while at the same time maintaining flood control.
 [Board member James Moran, who joined Antonacci in the discussion, said the district spent $2 billion to get phosphorous counts down to 20 parts per billion, and two years ago dedicatedanother $880 million to reduce it to 10 parts per billion, as required by the feds.]
The goal remains to send fresh water south from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades, right ?
That is certainly the shared objective of the Army Corps of Engineers, our federal partners and our district — to avoid pumping water outside (to the St. Lucie River, which feeds into the Indian River Lagoon, and the Caloosahatchee River, which drains westward toward Fort Myers.) And to manage the lake to keep water down through the rest of the peninsula.
Also, to make sure the Corps and Congress continue doing what they are doing because the lake is being held at a much lower level than historically it ever has, because the dike is in distress at various parts along the system. The Corps started repairing, and is probably four or five years away from finishing, to prevent the dike from breaching. That is the big issue. All of the water
users in the system depend on the lake having sufficient water.
When will the water be clean enough to flow into the Everglades again ?
 [About eight years, Moran said.]
What about the board's decision to spend down the agency's reserves ?
As a governmental entity, it goes against the grain to pile up huge amounts of money without having anything in particular to do with it. I don't think it is enough for the general public to say you're going to take a certain amount of taxes every year and put it in a kitty for some future project that you can't tell me what it is.
You're the fourth executive director of the agency in four years.
OK, I didn't know that. I'll take your word for it. If I do the math, that's true.
Seems like a revolving door for such a critical agency. What should the public
make of it ?
I'm not going to speak to the history of it, because you can fashion an argument out of any of it. I can tell you what my objective is, and I told the board this. We have a number of very important projects that need to be completed. Every distraction that takes place, saps the energy out of the agency, makes projects fall off completion schedule. I pledged to the board to keep the distractions down and get the projects done.
How did you happen to get this job ?
I am going to say I am blessed that I have the job. I am forward-looking, and I am going to work real hard to help accomplish the board's objectives and get the projects done. And that is all I am prepared to say.
Mr. Moran, did the board do a public search ?
He has the connections and experience in Tallahassee that will allow us to cut through the bureaucracy and get right to the decision-makers, including the governor, and allow us to expedite all of our projects and let Tallahassee know what we need and work on our behalf to get it done.
Mr. Antonacci, what should the district do about sea-level rise ?
One thing that is pretty interesting about this agency is that it is a science-based industry. We've got 70-odd Ph.D.s, 50 professional engineers, lots of professional geologists. And the agency has never been shy about working with local governments on the issue of sea-level rise. There has been a lot of scientific work and data collected with the help of the water management district to monitor what is happening with sea-level rise in South Florida, to prepare for sea-level rise at any level.
Do you believe sea-level rise is due to man-made climate change ?
That is not our job. Our job is to deal with consequence.
What is the political landscape in Tallahassee ?
We face a very receptive Legislature for water policies. There will be a water bill passed this year that will primarily deal with relationships between agencies, so that we are all taking to each other, cooperating and working with stakeholders to make sure there is enough water supply and that our sensitive areas are taken care of. We are in competition. We are five water management districts, and it's a big state and when you get into the Capitol, there are a lot of interests that have to say grace over the pot of money that is available. I think South Florida can continue to make a very good case to get its proper allocation of the money, because of the magnitude of the problems we have.
If you look six months out, what are the key issues ?
Making sure we have the project money we need. And, of course, as always, preventing harm — making sure nothing bad happens. And you don't know what bad is until you see it.
What is your legislative agenda this year ?
Funding.
What's your pitch ?
We haven't had the board say grace over it yet, so I would be speaking out of place. I can say that when the projects are identified we want to prioritize, and I will advocate for them as vigorously as I can.
You've got some catching up to do, with committees meeting now, right ?
The water bill was postponed until next month. … The thing we have to play off, in order for consistency, we have to see what the governor's budget recommendations are going to be. Those come out the first week of December.
How often do you talk to the governor ?
I don't want to get into my relationship with the governor. It's good. It's positive. That's all I can say.
Related:           New water district chief focused on finishing projects; that's not ... TCPalm

151016-b
Can America's Everglades catch a break: Soon we will see
Huff Post – by Alan Farago, Writer and environmental activist
October 16, 2015
A State of Florida website laconically refers to the project known as "Mod Waters" this way: "The Modified Water Deliveries Project  is a federal ecological restoration project in south Florida designed to improve water delivery to Everglades National Park. The completion of Mod Waters is required before the implementation of portions of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Mod Waters is being implemented by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."
Let's make this clear: everything you know about the plan to fix the dying Everglades --signed into law by Congress and the President in 2000 -- depends on protecting water quality and fixing water flows into the eastern side of Everglades National Park, close to Miami-Dade county farming and development. That plan was a 1989 deal, put together after years of controversy, and it is just coming online now.
For decades environmentalists clamored for additional fresh water deliveries to the eastern side of Everglades National Park with an important caveat: the water has to be clean enough to meet the requirements of the Everglades ecosystem including Florida Bay waters. In the meantime, the Everglades is still gorgeous to the eye, there are opportunities to see remarkable wildlife in America's only subtropical water wilderness, but for its advocates -- grown old and weary from one of the nation's most enduring environmental battles, pitting panthers, wood storks, and snail kites against billionaire sugar farmers, sprawl developers and their phalanxes of lawyers and lobbyists -- today the Everglades might be viewed as an iconic ecosystem on life support, with all the bells and whistles of a multi-billion dollar scramble to prove that, yes we can revive both the Everglades and promises worn down by politicians to their nubs.
The flow of Everglades waters have been blocked by Tamiami Trail and large scale farming at the edge of the Everglades, creating flood protection conflicts with land owners, spurred by idiotic developments like the 8.5 Square Mile Area in western Miami-Dade County sticking like a sore thumb into the middle of Everglades wetlands. To move water south, water managers have built a multi-hundred million work-around. Great if you are a property owner in a place where government should never have allowed development in the first place, lousy if you are a nesting roseate spoonbill.
Mod Waters has three major components:
1) The elevation of Tamiami Trail, to increase flow into Everglades National Park;
2) Isolating 8.5 Square Mile Area from surface water flows, to provide flood protection for developments in the area; and
3) Conveyance and Seepage Control, to reconnect freshwater flows and to control the loss of water from seepage eastward into the urban areas.
Each of these components, including the construction and alteration of water management structures, turned out to be much more expensive that originally forecast. The pace of Mod Waters resembles a snail's crawl.
Miami-Dade County government, over the years, played a major role in delaying, obstructing and thwarting expedited efforts to restore water flow to Everglades National Park and also to Biscayne National Park too. Some Miami-Dade county commissioners either owned in name or through proxies in the 8.5 Square Mile Area, creating a unique subclass of special interests demanding 100 percent certainty that their property and illegal structures would not be flooded if the Everglades water supply was improved, or, very high buyout prices from the government.
The original cost of Mod Waters was $81.3 million in 1990. By 2007, the cost had soared to $398 million, including $200 million for acquisition of private properties. It most certainly is approaching $500 million today.
As if that weren't enough of a drag, after twenty five years, now news arrives of a massive, toxic algae bloom forming in Florida Bay; exactly the catastrophic ecological damage that Mod Waters was intended to prevent.
The legion of nay-sayers, stirred up by Big Sugar's interests in keeping upstream water management priorities for its own benefits, have been steadily laying the groundwork to fight whatever results emerge from Mod Waters. Through Sunshine State News, a local faux news surrogate, Big Sugar is already claiming that more water into Florida Bay will only cause more damage to the ecosystem, pointing away from the dismal results of its own role as Florida's shadow government in the mismanagement of water resources.
Environmentalists have always said that restoration of the Everglades depends on the the right volumes of fresh waters back into the park at the right times of year and with the right water quality. Meanwhile polluters and special interests have spent three decades trying to undermine the science and benefits of fresh water restoration, disrupting the missions and work of state and federal agencies in the process.
A former director of Friends of the Everglades once said, "Restoring the Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet." So much time has been lost. So much energy. Fundamentally, the words of Joe Podgor -- then Friends' executive director -- turned into one of the century's great cautionary warnings.
We are not reacting fast enough to the changes we observe and confirmed by science. The speed with which natural processes overwhelm our political ones should give voters pause and reason to reflect on the true costs of unresponsive democracy.

151016-c
Will a tax cut feel good if the water starts rising ?
Sun Sentinel - Opinion by Randy Schultz
October 16, 2015
New water management director must make the case for more moneyIf what happened in South Carolina happened in South Florida, could the agency that keeps us dry handle it? Or at least come close ?
What if Fort Lauderdale got 16.4 inches of rain in five days, as happened in Charleston this month? What if Miami simultaneously got 20 inches and Wellington got 24? What if Boca Raton got nine inches in one day during that period?
In our man-made region, the agency most responsible for flood control is the South Florida Water Management District. That South Carolina scenario shows why the main qualification for running the district should be expertise in engineering, not politics.
Yet last month Gov. Rick Scott forced out Executive Director Blake Guillory and replaced him with Peter Antonacci. Guillory is an engineer. Antonacci is a lawyer, most recently Scott's general counsel. Never has the person running this agency lacked direct experience related to the agency's work.
Antonacci's presence might be less worrisome if Scott had sent him to fix serious management problems. Instead, Scott ran off Guillory for doing his job — warning that Scott's tax-cutting agenda threatened the mission.
That mission is vital and increasingly difficult. The district must help to provide water from south of Orlando to the Keys. As demand for water grows, development shrinks the space to find and store it. As population increases, so does the need for flood protection, which puts more pressure on that system of canals, pumps and levees.
Oh, and the district also is Florida's lead agency on Everglades restoration.
After South Carolina's biblical rains, a Washington Post article examined whether climate change had caused them. For South Florida, the conclusion matters:
The world is warming. Warmer seas produce more water vapor, putting more moisture into the atmosphere. Changes to the jet stream, likely from Arctic ice melting, can cause weather systems to stall — as happened over South Carolina.
Storms happen in a new environment that can supercharge them. Steering currents and other factors affect track and duration, but the thermodynamics of climate change can turn what once was severe weather into catastrophic weather.
Flash back three years. Though Isaac was "only" a tropical storm, it inundated parts of Florida, especially western Palm Beach County. The water district considers 15 inches over three days to be a one-in-100-year rainfall. Isaac brought that.
Is the system better? Reservoirs that are part of Everglades restoration will help, because they store water. The district just opened one off U.S. 27 in western Palm Beach County. Another one farther east will open soon. Work has begun on a smaller reservoir to improve flood protection for Weston, which once was Everglades marsh. Many others are coming
A spokesman, however, said the district has not run a simulation to test how the system might respond to rains like those that drenched South Carolina. All but nine of that state's 46 counties got at least 20 inches during the first week of October. That would be over a landmass slightly larger than the water district's.
For years, the district's work drew the bright and dedicated. But under Scott, district governing board members — he appoints them — have cut the budget and revenue even as the economy improved. This year's budget includes possible bonuses, but employees have received no raises in four years. The count of 1,530 remains about where it was when Scott ordered layoffs after taking office.
Through the board, the governor always has had authority over the district. And other governors have tried to set policy. Charlie Crist wanted the district to buy out U.S. Sugar, when the company wanted to sell. Scott, though, has risked crippling the agency just to brag about tax cuts.
Flood control depends on a system that starts with homeowner associations — keep those neighborhood canals clean — and rises through local drainage districts. At the top, though, is the South Florida Water Management District.
Antonacci doesn't know civil engineering, but he obviously knows the governor.
Last summer, Guillory told the board that the agency could "go off a cliff" next year without more money. Antonacci must now make the argument started by the man he replaced. Running the water management district on the cheap would be a mistake of biblical proportion.
Randy Schultz is the former editorial page editor of The Palm Beach Post. He also blogs for Boca Raton Magazine.

151015-b
MOTE tracking uptick in red tide
Longboat Key News
October 15, 2015
Mote Marine Laboratory scientists in Southwest Florida and others along Florida’s Gulf Coast are closely monitoring counts of red tide algae, after noting low-level increases of these algae cells in multiple seawater samples during the past two weeks.
K. brevis, the single-celled, harmful algae that causes Florida red tide, occurs naturally in background concentrations in the Gulf. Recently, some samples in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle have revealed “low” or “very low” counts of K. brevis, which are greater than the normal “background” levels.  (See below).
Algae are a valuable part of marine ecosystems, producing half of the oxygen we breathe and providing food for marine wildlife. However, harmful algae can be a nuisance or even a health concern.
When K. brevis algae cells accumulate in high abundances, their toxins may affect marine life and people. These toxins can enter the air and cause respiratory irritation among beachgoers, such as coughing, sneezing or a scratchy throat. These symptoms are temporary and often considered an annoyance, but people with asthma, COPD or other chronic respiratory conditions should avoid areas with red tide algae, since the toxins can trigger their symptoms. Low or very low concentrations of the organism may cause respiratory irritation, particularly if winds blow onshore. Low concentrations also can kill fish. Many factors, including algae distribution, currents and winds, can determine whether the effects are noticeable.
Recent monitoring results are summarized in the chart.
Visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC’s) red tide status page (www.myfwc.com/redtidestatus) for the statewide red tide status each Friday. Status updates include tables, static maps and interactive Google Earth maps. Mid-week updates are also provided each Wednesday during red tides. Results from the FWC-Mote Red Tide Cooperative Program are included in these updates.
In Sarasota County, beach water is sampled weekly at 16 locations by the Sarasota Healthy Beaches program of the Florida Department of Health and analyzed for K. brevis cells by Mote. Mote scientists partner with FWC through the FWC-Mote Red Tide Cooperative Program to monitor and study K. brevis. In addition, Mote operates the Beach Conditions Reporting System (www.mote.org/beaches), which provides daily updates of beach conditions for multiple Gulf Coast beaches.

151015-c
Plans to restore Rainbow Springs undergoing revision
WUFT.org - by Kortney Sweeney
October 15, 2015
Rainbow Springs is Florida’s fourth-largest spring system and attracts thousands of visitors every year. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Rainbow Springs BMAP aims to reduce the amount of nitrate present in the water to improve water quality and decrease algae populations. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Korhnak.
In past decades, visitors to Rainbow River enjoyed crystal-clear water and sandy, rocky river bottoms. Today’s visitors will find something else — portions of the river filled with a slimy aquatic plant.
Since the 1990s, Rainbow River has experienced elevated levels of a native algae species that overcrowds areas of the middle and lower river. Many experts attribute this growing algae population to rising nitrate concentrations in the water.
The algae and nitrate imbalances are affecting the water quality and plant diversity of the river and are causing concern among experts and visitors, said Todd Osborne, assistant professor in the UF Soil and Water Science Department.
These threats may negatively impact the system in the long run unless action is taken, Osborne said.
The Rainbow Springs springshed, which spreads into northwest Marion County and eastern Levy County, is Florida’s fourth-largest spring, according to the Rainbow Springs State Park website. The river is formed by the springs, which are fed by the same underground aquifer that helps supply Florida’s drinking water, Osborne said.
Rainbow Springs park manager Charles Smith said the park welcomed 398,808 visitors and generated $1,091,511 in 2014. The springs are a popular recreational destination and an economic engine for the surrounding communities. They are also home to an abundance of wildlife vital to Florida’s culture.
“The long-term view is that if the springs aren’t maintained or restored to their function and their beauty, that we lose out on a lot of fronts,” Osborne said. “We lose the habitat and the environment, we lose the cultural aspect and we lose the economic aspect.”
He said nitrate naturally enters the springshed, the area surrounding the springs, when rainfall seeps into the ground, joins the aquifer and eventually empties into the springs. The human contribution to the nitrate increase in the springs occurs when fertilizers, septic tanks and agricultural practices release nitrate into the groundwater.
Combined, horse and cattle farms along with fertilizer application to crops release about 66 percent of the nitrate currently in the aquifer that feeds the springs, according to a study done by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Sky Notestein, senior environmental scientist for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said nitrate levels have been increasing for the past 70 years. He attributes the rise to Florida’s growing population.
Southwest Florida Water Management District’s most recent nitrate measurement for Rainbow Springs and Rainbow River is from April and has a concentration of 2.29 mg/L, Notestein said. 
Although the drinking water standard allows for levels of nitrate of up to 10 mg/L before it is considered a health risk, the current and continually increasing nitrate levels are still cause for concern.
“The drinking water is coming from a shared source, same as the water going through the river, so any pollution or increased nutrients we see in the river are also potentially in our drinking water, and it’s in everyone’s interest to keep nutrients and other pollutants at as low of a level as possible,” Notestein said.
Nitrate is a vital nutrient source for plants but is best for the environment when maintained at a certain level. When levels start to rise, plant species tend to grow in population because there is more food available, Notestein said.
Aggressive plant species like algae compete with other plants for space and light and push out other native species. In Rainbow River, this process threatens the river’s aquatic diversity, he said.
The algae is threatening desirable native plants like eelgrass, which is an important habitat and food source for fish, insect, turtle and crustacean populations. Its thin blades leave the river bottom with plenty of room for fish and other aquatic life to nest and lay their eggs, he said.
Unlike algae, Eelgrass also has roots that grow into the river’s soil and stabilize sediments. This tends to improve water clarity, he said.
In contrast to plants like eelgrass that make the water look greenish-blue, algae is a thick, slimy plant that makes the water appear grayish-black and hides the river’s white sand and rocky bottom. It isn’t aesthetically pleasing to tourists.
“You know, [visitors] have memories particularly in the past, and they would like their kids or their relatives to have those same fun memories or opportunities to swim and play in clean water that’s not choked full of algae,” Notestein said.
Nelson Anderson, a master’s student at the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation, said a large drop in Rainbow Springs’ water output may also be causing the algae growth downstream.
“The algae problem has been around for awhile, and the nitrate is so high right now,” he said. “It’s really going to be hard to reduce it, and we really don’t have any proof that reducing it will reverse the effects of the algae appearing.”
Although not everyone agrees on the proper solution for the springs’ pollution or all of the damage this pollution causes, they agree it’s crucial to take action now to prevent future harm.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is a major force that is currently taking action. It is in the final stages of adopting a long-term basin management action plan, or BMAP, which aims to decrease the springs’ high nitrate levels. The department believes this will improve water quality and stabilize or even decrease the algae population.
The department first determined the ideal level of nitrate concentration for the Rainbow Springs system to perform at its best, said Terry Hansen, an environmental consultant for the FDEP. It came up with a total maximum daily load, or TDML, of .35 mg/L of nitrate, which means nitrate levels in the springs will have to decrease by at least 82 percent of its current level of 2.29 mg/L to reach this goal.
The BMAP outlines 98 plans of action that focus on reducing the springs’ levels of nitrate toward the TDML. Examples include decreased fertilizer usage, the replacement of septic tank usage for sewer systems that more efficiently filter nitrate, and the abandonment of some package plants in Marion County to improve wastewater treatment facility emission, he said.
Hansen said the long-term plan will be reviewed and evaluated after five years, at which point the BMAP will be re-evaluated to see what worked and what didn’t before it is modified as a phase-two BMAP. The changes won’t happen overnight.
“This isn’t designed to be a quick fix; this is a long term project,” he said. “You want people to be committed and invested in it.”

151015-d
WLRN interviews director of Federal Everglades Restoration Initiatives
Florida Water Daily
October 15, 2015
Join us for Wednesday’s Topical Currents, when we revisit the status of the Florida Everglades after decades-long efforts to restore natural water flow and habitats to Florida’s unique ecosystem.
Water quality and land-use issues still plague the project. We’ll hear from the federal government’s senior director of the Everglades Restoration Initiatives, Shannon Estenoz and take your calls.

151014-a
Predictions put some of South Florida under water by 2025
CBSlocal.com
October 14, 2015
MIAMI (CBSMiami) — With the ever-encroaching threat of climate change, some prognosticators have recommended that South Floridians better learn to swim.
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, Miami and Hollywood are two of the dozens of coastal cities in the U.S. predicted to be washed away by rising sea levels this century.
“Some cities appear to be already lost,” study lead author Benjamin Strauss told CBS News.
Miami is one of those. Like New Orleans, the findings consider both cities past the point of no return.
“For New Orleans, there are levees, it’s possible to build levees higher and stronger for some time, but that’s not necessarily safe or sustainable in the long run. We’ve already seen what can happen when levees break, when the sea level gets higher, the bigger the tragedy can be.”
Research suggests that at the current pace, carbon emissions could increase the sea level at least 14 feet by the year 2100. That puts 1,800 municipalities along the coast in danger, including 21 cities with populations of more than 100,000 residents.
Strauss’ data has calculated the “lock-in date” for these cities, or the year at which carbon emission levels have essentially sealed a city’s fate and would put them under water.
Hollywood has a lock-in date of 2025. New York City is at 2095.
But for cities with the more distant lock-in dates like Wilmington, N.C., and Bridgeport, Conn., there’s still hope. The findings also indicate that “aggressive carbon cuts” could have an impact in slowing down coastal flooding decimation.
“We are not talking about a sea level rise happening tomorrow,” Strauss reiterated to CBS News. “Instead, we are talking about what could happen if the genie we let out of the bottle continues to grow. We are talking about what could happen if we continue to emit this much carbon into the atmosphere.”
Although the carbon emissions issue is one of climate policy, Strauss stressed that the findings from these kinds of studies should continue to offer a wake-up call about our energy consumption.
“In the long run, each gallon (of gasoline) we burn eventually ads 400 gallons of water to the ocean,” Strauss noted.
However, he added that not only does the U.S. have the ways and means of reversing these trends, the country could even profit by helping others reduce their coastal flooding impact.
“We have a lot of resources, a lot of money compared to most places at risk. I think we have an opportunity to invest, to find an economic opportunity and reduce the pain of loss,” he said. “We can pioneer those kinds of measures that could become an expertise we could export to the world. It could be a service.
Related :          New Orleans, Miami, And 414 Other Cities Will Be Under Water In ...      The Inquisitor
The US cities that will stay above sea level after global warming ...  Quartz
Rising sea levels put over 400 US cities 'past the point of no return ...          Daily Mail
Miami Is Sinking but Might Just Teach the World to Deal With Sea ...        Miami New
414 American Cities Will Soon Be Underwater         World Report Now

151014-b
Steve Crisafulli says it’s amazing “anything” gets passed in GOP-led Legislature
SaintPetersBlog - by Mitch Perry
October 14, 2015
The intense divide between the Florida House and Senate this year was so intense that House Speaker Steve Crisafulli led his members out of the chambers three days prematurely this past April, leading for the first of a series of special sessions in 2015.
Speculation surfaced that the enmity between Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner was still present, after it was announced that for the first time in recent years, the House Speaker and Senate President  would not meet the press jointly at the AP Florida Legislative Planning session held in the state Capitol Wednesday in Tallahassee, but Crisafulli insisted on Wednesday that nothing should be read into that when meeting with reporters.
“Senator Gardiner and I are good friends,” Crisafulli insisted.
But he then went on to say for various reasons, such as the age of legislators, experience and size of their respective districts, that it’s “extraordinary” that anything gets done in the Capitol.
Left unsaid was that this isn’t a partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats as is the case in Washington – but an internecine battle among Republicans who have controlled the legislative agenda in Tallahassee for well over a decade now.
The 44-year-old House Speaker then weighed in on a variety of issues that he expects to be issues in 2016, without getting too specific about any of them. He said one of his top goals is to help in the passage of legislation for aid to disabled Floridians, a top priority for Gardiner as it was in 2015.
His other top issue is tackling water policy, where he invoked the drought in California as a reason why the Legislature must act this year. When the House broke early from session in April, they failed to pass a water bill, though the Senate companion was approved on a 39-1 vote.
The major divide between the two legislative bodies last regular session was the House’s intense opposition to any form of Medicaid expansion, refusing to look a hybrid plan that required federal approval for a never-before sought waiver under a privately-run health insurance plan called the Florida Health Insurance Exchange, or FHIX.
“We remain steadfastly opposed to any efforts, even those disguised as free-market proposals, to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, ” the House Speaker declared. “Let’s be clear. The House believes the solution to health care is innovation and choice, and not big government entitlement programs.”
Last year, Governor Scott and the House proposed $673 million in tax cuts. Ultimately, that became a $400 million cut that was approved. However,  Scott said again on Wednesday that he’ll propose a similar $673 million in cuts this year, and Crisafulli said on “potentially” the House may do the same. “That conversation will take place,” he promised.
Crisafulli pushed backed that he personally had done anything wrong in the whole congressional redistricting imbroglio, saying that the Supreme Court’s rejection of the legislature’s maps in 2012 preceded him.
Afterwards, the House Speaker said that the odds on passing something on the gambling compact was “good.”

151014-c
Withdrawing water from St. Johns River report based on outdated data, Riverkeeper says
Jacksonville.com - by David Bauerlein
October 14, 2015
Water from river looked at as supply for Orlando growth.
Critics of withdrawing water from the St. Johns River argue a Central Florida Water Initiative report relies on outdated statistics to show the Orlando area will need far more water in the next 20 years than it actually will.
The case for withdrawing water from the river is based on “highly inflated” projections for future water demand, St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman told the Jacksonville Waterways Commission on Wednesday.
Rinaman spoke after St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Ann Shortelle gave the waterways commission an overview of the draft plan put forward by the Central Florida Water Initiative.
Shortelle said river withdrawals are just an option in the plan, which outlines ways to meet future water needs for growth in a five-county area including Orlando. She repeatedly said that greater water efficiency is the best and least expensive way to confront that challenge.
“Water conservation is the first line of defense for water supply planning,” Shortelle said.
“At the end of the day, conservation is the most economical way to solve this issue,” said Robert Beltran, executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Rinaman countered that the plan low-balls what can be achieved by tougher conservation measures.
The draft plan says the five-county area covered by the Central Florida Water Initiative uses about 800 million gallons of water daily and by 2035, it will need another 300 million gallons a day for population growth. Aquifer wells can handle about 50 million gallons of future water needs, and the rest would come from water conservation and “alternative sources,” which possibly would include up to 155 million gallons from the St. Johns River.
The report identifies how conservation can reduce demand by 36 million gallons, which Rinaman said isn’t enough.
In addition, she said that based on information from a water management district workshop this week, Central Florida’s current water use is around 700 million gallons a day, not 800 million gallons.
She said the reduced consumption likewise translates to a slower rate of growth in overall water needs in the next 20 years, but the report’s use of “outdated data” portrays a dire situation that would justify using the river for water.
Shortelle said after the waterways commission meeting that the report, which has been many years in the making, does not use the most current data, but the planning had to have a cut-off point for that data collection. She said the report will be updated in 2020.
“That’s why we have the five-year refresh,” she said.
The report will come up for votes in November before the St. Johns River Water Management District, Southwest Florida Management District and South Florida Water Management District. Each district overlaps a portion of the Central Florida Water Initiative.
The St. Johns River Water Management District will get the first crack at the report when it meets Nov. 10 in Palatka. For information about the report, go to cfwiwater.com.

151013-
Water conservation to get $4 million boost in North, Central Florida
WGCU.org - by Ryan Benk
October 13, 2015
Central and North Florida springs are getting an extra $4 million to help supplement ongoing water conservation efforts.
The St. Johns River Water Management District board voted Tuesday to allow the district’s executive director to use the funds the Florida Legislature allocated.
Some environmentalists worry the board signed away its authority to choose which projects get the funds, which could hinder transparency.
Lisa Rinaman with the St. Johns Riverkeeper is all for that extra money, but she’s worried about giving one person so much power.
“We always want to make sure there’s as much transparency as possible on these decisions that are going to be made to potentially help our natural resources and so this will force the public to be a little bit more engaged,” Rinaman said.
Rinaman said granting the executive director sole authority to choose projects hinders the public’s ability to vet them.
But Director of Springs Protection for water management district, Casey Fitzgerald, said proposed projects will have to clear a high bar to receive a piece of the 4 million dollars.
“We’ll have some criteria that will be approved by DEP, ourselves and the other water management districts,” Fitzgerald said. “We will then review the applications relative to that criteria and make a recommendation to our executive director.”
Fitzgerald said the district’s focus will be on helping public utilities and springs communities with limited means.
Still, Rinaman said the $4 million is just a drop in the bucket compared to what could be spent on water conservation in Central and North Florida.

151012-a
Florida Ag Commissioner talks water shortage in Israel
NBC-2.com
October 12, 2015
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is in Israel this week to discuss the challenges facing the world's water supply
The International Conference on Water brings together government officials and business leaders from around the world. The event also features the latest innovations and technologies to develop new fresh water supplies.
Putnam says Florida faces unique water resource management challenges and that state leaders must plan for the needs of a growing population while also protecting natural resources.
He's slated to meet with the ministry of foreign affairs and the minister of agriculture Monday.
On Tuesday, he'll participate in a discussion about solutions to water scarcity problems and the importance of collecting data on water supply and use.

151012-b
The Need For A New Economic System - Part 1: Limits to Growth
AxixOfLogic.com - by John Scales Avery, Countercurrents
October 12, 2015
LIMITS TO GROWTH
Introduction: The need for reform
The Industrial Revolution marked the start of massive human use of fossil fuels. The stored energy from several hundred million years of plant growth began to be used at roughly a million times the rate at which it had been formed. The effect on human society was like that of a narcotic. There was a euphoric (and totally unsustainable) surge of growth of both population and industrial production. Meanwhile, the carbon released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels began to duplicate the conditions which led to the 5 geologically-observed mass extinctions, during each of which more than half of all living species disappeared forever.
Economists (with a few notable exceptions) have long behaved as though growth were synonymous with economic health. If the gross national product of a country increases steadily by 4% per year, most economists express approval and say that the economy is healthy. If the economy could be made to grow still faster (they maintain), it would be still more healthy. If the growth rate should fall, economic illness would be diagnosed.
However, it is obvious that on a finite Earth, neither population growth nor economic growth can continue indefinitely. A 4% rate of growth corresponds to an increase by a factor of 50 every century. No one can maintain that this is sustainable in the long run except by refusing to look more than a short distance into the future.
Of course, it is necessary to distinguish between industrial growth, and growth of culture and knowledge, which can and should continue to grow. Qualitative improvements in human society are possible and desirable, but resource-using and pollution-producing industrial growth is reaching its limits, both because of ecological constraints and because of the exhaustion of petroleum, natural gas and other non-renewable resources, such as metals. The threat of catastrophic climate change makes it imperative for us to stop using fossil fuels within very few decades.
Today, as economic growth falters, the defects and injustices of our banking system have come sharply into focus, and light has also been thrown onto the much-too-cozy relationship between banking and government. The collapse of banks during the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008 and their subsequent bailout by means of the taxpayer's money can give us an insight into both phenomena - the faults of our banking system and its infiltration into the halls of government. The same can be said of the present national debt crisis in the Euro zone and elsewhere.
One feature of banking that cries out for reform is “fractional reserve banking", i.e. the practice whereby private banks keep only a tiny fraction of the money entrusted to them by their depositors, and lend out all the remaining amount. By doing so, the banks are in effect coining their own money and putting it into circulation, a prerogative that ought to be reserved for governments. Under the system of fractional reserve banking, profits from any expansion of the money supply go to private banks rather than being used by the government to provide social services. This is basically fraudulent and unjust; the banks are in effect issuing their own counterfeit money.
When the economy contracts instead of expanding, the effect of fractional reserve banking is still worse. In that case the depositors ask the banks for their money, which it is their right to do. But the banks do not have the money; they have lent it out, and thus they fail. However, the bankers have insured themselves against this eventuality by buying the votes of government officials. Thus the banks are bailed out and the taxpayers are left with the bill, as in the recent example in which the US Federal Reserve secretly gave 7.7 trillion of the taxpayers' dollars to bail out various banks.
In a later section (on entropy and economics) we will discuss in detail Frederick Soddy's criticisms of the fractional reserve banking system, and his proposals for monetary reform.
The fact that our fractional reserve banking system is stable when the economy is expanding, but collapses when the economy contracts explains, in part, the irrational and almost religious belief of governments and economists in perpetual growth. Also contributing to growth-worship are the unearned profits that investors reap when they own property in growing cities, or shares of growing businesses. But growth cannot continue forever. It is destroying the earth.
Pope Francis has called for economic reform. Our battered earth calls for it. The case of Greece shows clearly that our present economic system is not working; it is destroying nature and at the same time producing human misery. We need something else.
The Club of Rome
In 1968 Aurelio Pecci, Thorkil Kristensen and others founded the Club of Rome, an organization of economists and scientists devoted to studying the predicament of human society. One of the first acts of the organization was to commission an MIT study of future trends using computer models. The result was a book entitled “Limits to Growth”, published in 1972. From the outset the book was controversial, but it became a best-seller. It was translated into many languages and sold 30 million copies.The book made use of an exponential index for resources, i.e. the number of years that a resource would last if used at an exponentially increasing rate.
Today the more accurate Hubbert Peak model is used instead to predict rate of use of a scarce resource as a function of time. Although the specific predictions of resource availability in “Limits to Growth” lacked accuracy, its basic thesis, that unlimited industrial growth on a finite planet is impossible, was indisputably correct. Nevertheless the book was greeted with anger and disbelief by the community of economists, and these emotions still surface when it is mentioned.
Economic activity is usually divided into two categories, 1) production of goods and 2) provision of services. It is the rate of production of goods that will be limited by the carrying capacity of the global environment. Services that have no environmental impact will not be constrained in this way. Thus a smooth transition to a sustainable economy will involve a shift of a large fraction the work force from the production of goods to the provision of services.
In his recent popular book “The Rise of the Creative Class” the economist Richard Florida points out that in a number of prosperous cities, for example Stockholm, a large fraction of the population is already engaged in what might be called creative work, a type of work that uses few resources, and produces few waste products, work which develops knowledge and culture rather than producing material goods. For example, producing computer software requires few resources and results in few waste products. Thus it is an activity with a very small ecological footprint.
Similarly, education, research, music, literature and art are all activities that do not weigh heavily on the carrying capacity of the global environment. Furthermore, cultural activities lead in a natural way to global cooperation and internationalism, since cultural achievements are shared by the people of the entire world. Indeed, the shared human inheritance of culture and knowledge is growing faster than ever before.
Florida sees this as a pattern for the future, and maintains that everyone is capable of creativity. He visualizes the transition to a sustainable future economy as one in which a large fraction of the work force moves from industrial jobs to information-related work. Meanwhile, as Florida acknowledges, industrial workers feel uneasy and threatened by such trends.
Biological Carrying capacity and Economics
Classical economists pictured the world as largely empty of human activities. According to the empty-world picture of economics, the limiting factors in the production of food and goods are shortages of human capital and labor. The land, forests, fossil fuels, minerals, oceans filled with fish, and other natural resources upon which human labor and capital operate, are assumed to be present in such large quantities that they are not limiting factors. In this picture, there is no naturally-determined upper limit to the total size of the human economy. It can continue to grow as long as new capital is accumulated, as long as new labor is provided by population growth, and as long as new technology replaces labor by automation.
Biology, on the other hand, presents us with a very different picture. Biologists remind us that if any species, including our own, makes demands on its environment which exceed the environment's carrying capacity, the result is a catastrophic collapse both of the environment and of the population which it supports. Only demands which are within the carrying capacity are sustainable. For example, there is a limit to regenerative powers of a forest.
It is possible to continue to cut trees in excess of this limit, but only at the cost of a loss of forest size, and ultimately the collapse and degradation of the forest. Similarly, cattle populations may for some time exceed the carrying capacity of grasslands, but the ultimate penalty for overgrazing will be degradation or desertification of the land. Thus, in biology, the concept of the carrying capacity of an environment is extremely important; but in economic theory this concept has not yet been given the weight which it deserves.
Exponential growth of human population and economic activity have brought us, in a surprisingly short time, from the empty-world situation in which he lived to a full-world situation. In today's world, we are pressing against the absolute limits of the earth's carrying capacity, and further growth carries with it the danger of future collapse.
Full-world economics, the economics of the future, will no longer be able to rely on industrial growth to give profits to stockbrokers or to solve problems of unemployment or to alleviate poverty. In the long run, neither the growth of industry nor that of population is sustainable; and we have now reached or exceeded the sustainable limits.
The limiting factors in economics are no longer the supply of capital or human labor or even technology. The limiting factors are the rapidly vanishing supplies of petroleum and metal ores, the forests damaged by acid rain, the diminishing catches from over-fished oceans, and the cropland degraded by erosion or salination, or lost to agriculture under a cover of asphalt.
Neoclassical economists have maintained that it is generally possible to substitute man-made capital for natural resources; but a closer examination shows that there are only very few cases where this is really practical. (See G.E. Tverberg, “Thoughts on why energy use and CO2 emissions are rising as fast as GDP”, www.ourfiniteworld.com, November 30, (2011).)
The size of the human economy is, of course, the product of two factors the total number of humans, and the consumption per capita. If we are to achieve a sustainable global society in the future, a society whose demands are within the carrying capacity of of the global environment, then both these factors must be reduced.
The responsibility for achieving sustainability is thus evenly divided between the North and the South: Where there is excessively high consumption per capita, it must be reduced; and this is primarily the responsibility of the industrialized countries. High birth rates must also be reduced; and this is primarily the responsibility of the developing countries. Both of these somewhat painful changes are necessary for sustainability; but both will be extremely difficult to achieve because of the inertia of institutions, customs and ways of thought which are deeply embedded in society, in both the North and the South.
Population and food supply
Let us look first at the problem of high birth rates: The recent spread of modern medical techniques throughout the world has caused death rates to drop sharply; but since social customs and attitudes are slow to change, birth rates have remained high. As a result, between 1930 and 2011, the population of the world increased with explosive speed from two billion to seven billion.
During the last few decades, the number of food-deficit countries has lengthened; and it now reads almost like a United Nations roster
The food-importing nations are dependent, almost exclusively, on a single food-exporting region, the grain belt of North America. In the future, this region may be vulnerable to droughts produced by global warming.
An analysis of the global ratio of population to cropland shows that we probably already have exceeded the sustainable limit of population through our dependence on petroleum: Between 1950 and 1982, the use of cheap petroleum-derived fertilizers increased by a factor of 8, and much of our present agricultural output depends their use. Furthermore, petroleum-derived synthetic fibers have reduced the amount of cropland needed for growing natural fibers, and petroleum-driven tractors have replaced draft animals which required cropland for pasturage. Also, petroleum fuels have replaced fuelwood and other fuels derived for biomass. The reverse transition, from fossil fuels back to renewable energy sources, will require a considerable diversion of land from food production to energy production.
As population increases, the cropland per person will continue to fall, and we will be forced to make still heavier use of fertilizers to increase output per hectare. Also marginal land will be used in agriculture, with the probable result that much land will be degraded through erosion or salination.
Reserves of oil are likely to be exhausted by the middle of this century. Thus there is a danger that just as global population reaches the unprecedented level of 9 billion or more, the agricultural base for supporting it may suddenly collapse. The resulting ecological catastrophe, possibly compounded by war and other disorders, could produce famine and death on a scale unprecedented in history, a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, involving billions rather than millions of people. The present tragic famine in Africa is to this possible future disaster what Hiroshima is to the threat of thermonuclear war a tragedy of smaller scale, whose horrors should be sufficient, if we are wise, to make us take steps to avoid the larger catastrophe.
At present a child dies from starvation every six seconds. Five million children die from hunger every year. Over a billion people in today's world are chronically undernourished. There is a threat that unless prompt and well-informed action is taken by the international community, the tragic loss of life that is already being experienced will increase to unimaginable proportions.
As glaciers melt in the Himalayas, threatening the summer water supplies of India and China; as ocean levels rise, drowning the fertile rice-growing river deltas of Asia; as aridity begins to decrease the harvests of Africa, North America and Europe; as populations grow; as aquifers are overdrawn; as cropland is lost to desertification and urban growth; and as energy prices increase, the billion people who now are undernourished but still survive, might not survive. They might become the victims of a famine whose proportions could exceed anything that the world has previously experienced.
It is vital for the world to stabilize its population, not only because of the threat of a catastrophic future famine, but also because rapid population growth is closely linked with poverty. Today, a large fraction of the world's people live in near-poverty or absolute poverty, lacking safe water, sanitation, elementary education, primary health care and proper nutrition. Governments struggling to solve these problems, and to provide roads, schools, jobs and medical help for all their citizens, find themselves defeated by the rapid doubling times of populations. For example, in Liberia, the rate of population growth is 4% per year, which means that the population of Liberia doubles in size every eighteen years.
Under such circumstances, despite the most ambitious development programs, the infrastructure per capita decreases. Also, since new jobs must be found for the new millions added to the population, the introduction of efficient modern methods in industry and agriculture aggravates the already-serious problem of unemployment.
Education of women and higher status for women are vitally important measures, not only for their own sake, but also because in many countries these social reforms have proved to be strongly correlated with lower birth rates. Religious leaders who oppose programs for the education of women and for family planning on “ethical” grounds should think carefully about the scope and consequences of the catastrophic global famine which will undoubtedly occur within the next 50 years if population is allowed to increase unchecked.
One of the most important keys to controlling the global population explosion is giving women better education and equal rights. These goals are desirable for the sake of increased human happiness, and for the sake of the uniquely life-oriented point of view which women can give us; but in addition, education and improved status for women have shown themselves to be closely connected with lowered birth rates.
When women lack education and independent careers outside the home, they can be forced into the role of baby-producing machines by men who do not share in the drudgery of cooking, washing and cleaning; but when women have educational, legal, economic, social and political equality with men, experience has shown that they choose to limit their families to a moderate size.
Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University has pointed out that the changes needed to break the cycle of overpopulation and poverty are all desirable in themselves. Besides education and higher status for women, they include state-provided social security for old people, provision of water supplies near to dwellings, provision of health services to all, abolition of child labor and general economic development.
Social Values and Levels of Consumption
Let us next turn to the problem of reducing the per-capita consumption in the industrialized countries. The whole structure of western society seems designed to push its citizens in the opposite direction, towards ever-increasing levels of consumption. The mass media hold before us continually the ideal of a personal utopia filled with material goods.
Every young man in a modern industrial society feels that he is a failure unless he fights his way to the “top”; and in recent years, women too have been drawn into this competition. Of course not everyone can reach the top; there would not be room for everyone; but society urges all us to try, and we feel a sense of failure if we do not reach the goal. Thus, modern life has become a struggle of all against all for power and possessions.
One of the central problems in reducing consumption is that in our present economic and social theory, consumption has no upper bound; there is no definition of what is enough; there is no concept of a state where all of the real needs of a person have been satisfied. In our growth-oriented present-day economics, it is assumed that, no matter how much a person earns, he or she is always driven by a desire for more.
The phrase “conspicuous consumption” was invented by the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) in order to describe the way in which our society uses economic waste as a symbol of social status. In “The Theory of the Leisure Class”, first published in 1899, Veblen pointed out that it wrong to believe that human economic behavior is rational, or that it can be understood in terms of classical economic theory. To understand it, Veblen maintained, one might better make use of insights gained from anthropology, psychology, sociology, and history.
The sensation caused by the publication of Veblen's book, and the fact that his phrase, “conspicuous consumption”, has become part of our language, indicate that his theory did not completely miss its mark. In fact, modern advertisers seem to be following Veblen's advice: Realizing that much of the output of our economy will be used for the purpose of establishing the social status of consumers, advertising agencies hire psychologists to appeal to the consumer's longing for a higher social position.
When possessions are used for the purpose of social competition, demand has no natural upper limit; it is then limited only by the size of the human ego, which, as we know, is boundless. This would be all to the good if unlimited economic growth were desirable. But today, when further industrial growth implies future collapse, western society urgently needs to find new values to replace our worship of power, our restless chase after excitement, and our admiration of excessive consumption.
The values which we need, both to protect nature from civilization and to protect civilization from itself, are perhaps not new: Perhaps it would be more correct to say that we need to rediscover ethical values which once were part of human culture, but which were lost during the process of industrialization when technology allowed us to break traditional environmental constraints.
Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, living in close contact with nature, and respecting the laws and limitations of nature. There are many hunter-gatherer cultures existing today, from whose values and outlook we could learn much. Unfortunately, instead of learning from them, we often move in with our bulldozers and make it impossible for their way of life to continue. During the past several decades, for example, approximately one tribe of South American forest Indians has died out every year. Of the 6000 human languages now spoken, it is estimated that half will vanish during the next 50 years.
In some parts of Africa, before cutting down a tree, a man will offer a prayer of apology to the spirit of the tree, explaining why necessity has driven him to such an act. The attitude involved in this ritual is something which industrialized society needs to learn, or relearn.
Older cultures have much to teach industrial society because they already have experience with full-world situation which we are fast approaching. In a traditional culture, where change is extremely slow, population has an opportunity to expand to the limits which the traditional way of life allows, so that it reaches an equilibrium with the environment. For example, in a hunter-gatherer culture, population has expanded to the limits which can be supported without the introduction of agriculture. The density of population is, of course, extremely low, but nevertheless it is pressing against the limits of sustainability. Overhunting or overfishing would endanger the future. Respect for the environment is thus necessary for the survival of such a culture.
Similarly, in a stable, traditional agricultural society which has reached an equilibrium with its environment, population is pressing against the limits of sustainability. In such a culture, one can usually find expressed as a strong ethical principle the rule that the land must not be degraded, but must be left fertile for the use of future generations.
Today, the whole world seems to be adopting values, fashions, and standards of behavior presented in the mass media of western society. The unsustainable, power-worshiping, consumption-oriented values of western society are so strongly propagandized by television, films and advertising, that they overpower and sweep aside the wisdom of older societies. This is unfortunate, since besides showing us unsustainable levels of affluence and economic waste, the western mass media depict values and behavior patterns which are hardly worthy of imitation. We need to reverse this trend. The industrialized countries must learn from the values of older traditional cultures.
The wisdom of our ancestors, their respect for nature and their hospitable traditions of sharing, can help us to create a new economic system founded on social and environmental ethics.
John Avery received a B.Sc. in theoretical physics from MIT and an M.Sc. from the University of Chicago. He later studied theoretical chemistry at the University of London, and was awarded a Ph.D. there in 1965. He is now Lektor Emeritus, Associate Professor, at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen.

Adam Putnam responds to criticism over his water supply plan:
In response to The Sun’s Oct. 4 editorial, “Real leadership needed on water policy,” I couldn’t agree more, which is exactly why I have traveled throughout our state imploring all Floridians, including the general public, legislators and the media, to take seriously the one-billion-gallon-per-day shortfall we will face by 2030 if we do nothing. And I have offered thoughtful, science-based proposals on how to take a comprehensive, statewide approach to securing our long-term water quality and supply.

The Tampa Tribune Editorial Board discusses the lost opportunities of Amendment 1:
Floridians should not forget how lawmakers blissfully ignored 75 percent of voters last year who endorsed the Amendment 1 ballot initiative requiring the state to spend more on land and water conservation.
Instead, lawmakers spent the money on salaries, insurance and other nonconservation purposes and continued to shortchange land preservation.
It was a shameful display — one that is hurting our economy and quality of life.

The Tampa Tribune Editorial Board discusses the Mosaic Company Settlement:
Politicians who complain about environmental regulations and call for the elimination of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should consider the $1.8 billion settlement the EPA reached with Mosaic, one of the world’s largest fertilizer companies with extensive operations in Central Florida.
The arrangement will improve protections for people and resources but does not cripple a well-regarded company that employs 4,000 workers in Florida.
Indeed, it underscores that even the most reputable companies can have lapses and illustrates why oversight is required.

151011-a
Adam H. Putnam: The time for bold water policy is now
Gainesville.com - by Adam H. Putnam
October 11, 2015
In response to The Sun’s Oct. 4 editorial, “Real leadership needed on water policy,” I couldn’t agree more, which is exactly why I have traveled throughout our state imploring all Floridians, including the general public, legislators and the media, to take seriously the one-billion-gallon-per-day shortfall we will face by 2030 if we do nothing. And I have offered thoughtful, science-based proposals on how to take a comprehensive, statewide approach to securing our long-term water quality and supply.
In a state as diverse as Florida, water is our common identity. And as a fifth-generation Floridian, I am dedicated to protecting this precious resource, which many take for granted yet all of us rely on.
Fortunately, in relatively recent years, Florida has built a strong foundation in law for the protection and management of our precious water resources. From the Water Resources Act of 1972, which established our five water management districts, to the Water Protection and Sustainability Act of 2005, we’ve seen measurable improvement in the health and supply of our water. Those achievements span more than 30 years. But there is clearly more work to be done. Our water supply and quality challenges span from Apalachicola to the Everglades and Keys. It’s no longer “us against them.”
I am motivated by a sense of urgency. However, it will take a combination of us forging ahead with policy now based on the data and research we currently have and relying on the best and brightest young minds, many of which are at the University of Florida, to develop the next generation of soil sensors, sod varieties, pollution removal and water recycling tools. UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has already developed drought-tolerant lawns that are attractive and require far less water. Additionally, new technologies in homes have reduced water usage while still meeting people’s daily water needs.
By criticizing tidbits from speeches I’ve given that included positive comments about our progress as a state, The Sun editorial implies that it is disappointed to hear that it isn’t all bad news. The good news is that despite explosive population growth, per capita water consumption in Florida fell from 123 gallons per capita in 1995 to 89 gallons in 2010. In agriculture, investment in drip or other low volume irrigation technologies has resulted in 12 billion fewer gallons of water per year being used to grow our food and support the $123 billion industry. At the same time, best management practices in the Everglades Agricultural Area resulted in a 79 percent phosphorous reduction.
Much more remains to be done, though. Our springs have played second fiddle to South Florida’s complex and expensive plumbing issues for too long. These first magnitude springs are a global treasure and the original tourist destinations. The St. Johns River, Apalachicola Bay and Northern Everglades all face their own unique challenges. This is truly a statewide concern, and the time to act is now.
To suggest that pushing a bold, statewide water policy is maintaining the status quo, as The Sun did, is off base. If we take care of our natural systems, we are taking care of our urban water supply needs. If we restore our springs, we are supporting tourism and forestry and the many jobs that benefit from healthy ecosystems and a high quality of life.
Water is Florida’s “golden goose.” It is vital to every industry in every corner of our state. We need to put the policy — and the money — in place to do this right, and to do it now.

151011-b
Early sign of algae bloom detected in Florida Bay.
Miami Herald – by Jenny Staletovich
October 11, 2015
Severe drought kills miles of seagrass meadows
The die-off coincided with a massive yellow fog of toxic sulfide.
Scientists meet to look for ways to stop the spread.
In late September, state biologists navigated through mats of dead seagrass in Florida Bay. About 13 square miles of seagrass meadows died over the summer with early signs of an algae bloom now appearing near Rankin Lake and Garfield Bight. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
A slimy toxic algae bloom in Florida Bay that researchers thought was years in the future might be just around the corner.
South Florida Water Management District scientist Fred Sklar told district board members last week that levels of chlorophyll are starting to rise in shallow water where miles of seagrass meadows died over the summer. The last time so much grass died in 1987, it took five years for algae blooms to erupt that would devastate the bay for two decades.
Toxic sulfide has turned parts of Floriday Bay stinky yellow as miles of seagrass have started dying around Johnson Key and Rankin Lake. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
If this bloom worsens, it will have taken just months to appear.
“We’re not sure there is a cure,” Sklar told the board. “Once something like this starts, we don’t know what makes it stop.”
The crisis in Florida Bay also has escalated a prolonged fight over water in South Miami-Dade. Farmers have long complained that groundwater is being kept too high, drowning crops. Scientists and environmentalists argue that the bay, which desperately needs more water to flow in from the Everglades, is being sacrificed to save farms.
“You just can’t let … Florida Bay die,” said Jerry Lorenz, Audubon Florida's state director of research. “It’s far more important to get water into Florida Bay and try to mitigate to farms than the other way around.”
At nearly 1,000 square miles, Florida Bay is one of the planet’s most complicated ecosystems with a patchwork of about 24 different basins separated by mud banks. It is also a vital part of the region’s economy and a $723 million a year fishing industry.
The 1990s algae bloom started with the death of more than 15.5 square miles of seagrass after a prolonged drought. So far, scientists have recorded about 13 square miles of dead seagrass around Johnson Key and in Rankin Lake, a shallow bight tucked into a horseshoe-shaped mud bank now beginning to show signs of an algae bloom.
The die-off also coincided with a cloud of yellow sulfide — something Sklar said scientists have never before documented in the bay — that spread across 25 square miles.
“We’re talking between 50 and 75 square miles of seagrass beds that could potentially die,” he said.
A team of researchers who have been monitoring the bay and are now trying to find a solution say that the brewing crisis is no surprise. Years of flood control have robbed the bay of historic sheet flow that fanned across rocky glades from two sloughs in Everglades National Park. What little trickled out of five creeks into the bay in August dropped to the lowest level recorded since gauges were installed in 1996. Worse, a second year of dry weather spiraled into a severe drought. Salinity in some areas reached more than double the concentration of sea water.
The district tried to manage the situation by moving more water south “making it less likely to go into a cascade,” Sklar said. And recent rain — more than 10 inches fell in September — helped flush salt. But it was too late.
 “Once the train leaves the station, we don’t know when it stops,” he said.
Yellow fog spreads across Florida Bay
As Florida Bay wilted over the summer during a deepening drought, scientists arrived to find miles of dead seagrass smelling like rotten eggs in a cloud of yellow sulfide. They suspect hot, salty water from adjacent mud banks slid into the bay and created a lid that trapped sulfide in the muddy bottom and kept oxygen out.
Another complication: Pollution from vast sugar fields south of Lake Okeechobee must be cleaned. Billions of dollars in efforts have made the water cleaner — but not enough for the sensitive Everglades. Farmers and state officials increasingly hostile to environmentalists have for years blamed the mandate, part of a federal court ruling, for holding up restoration. District board member Jim Moran called it “the gorilla in the room,” that should be relaxed.
“Too much deference is being given to park staff and the NGOs,” Mike Collins, a fishing guide and former board member, complained during the meeting. “If you don’t have science and you don’t have engineering, go sit in the corner and shut up. We don’t have the ability to allow political science to drive this issue any more.”
Environmentalists shot back that Everglades restoration was largely due to their efforts.
“I didn’t realize we built the Tamiami Trial,” which blocked water, said Drew Martin, a conservation chair for the Sierra Club. “We didn’t blow up the Miami falls. We didn’t drain the [Everglades Agriculture Area]. All these things were changes done not by the NGOs but by the development of Florida.”

151011-c
Land conservation as Florida voters demanded on a constituional amendment? No, just another bait and switch
Bradenton Herald – Editorial
October 11, 2015
Florida voters approved the conservation lands constitutional Amendment One by 75 percent in November. State government did not approve. Nor are officials inclined to obey the new law.
History bears this out. Florida lawmakers loathe voters who tell them what to do. That has proven true time and time again. "We the people" is just a pesky phrase to those who warm the seats in the Florida Senate and House chambers and also warm the seats with campaign donors -- mostly deep-pocketed companies and people who want their voices heard more loudly than the majority of voters. The Legislature is currently mired in legal entanglements over two voter-approved constitutional amendments, the Fair District laws that outlaw gerrymandering on congressional and state political districts. Those elected officials hate that citizens "meddle" in their affairs so they can no longer rig the system -- and actually serve all the people, not just the chosen. Our Founding Fathers would no doubt applaud the Fair District amendments and be appalled at the political battle to subvert the will of the people. The latest example of Tallahassee abuse of the voters' "we the people" demand comes with Amendment One. For whoever voted for this demand for land conservation, did you know you were voting for new cars for a state agency?
The 2014 ballot language stipulated that the state invest $10 billion over 20 years toward purchases of "lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, and the water quality of rivers, lakes and streams." That overwhelming public support came in response to Tallahassee's years-long funding neglect of a very popular program known as Florida Forever, the state's once-heralded way to acquire and protect sensitive property.
So, in the face of overwhelming voter approval of Amendment One, the tone-deaf Legislature allocated a nothing budget of $50 million for new land purchases. Florida's Land Acquisition Trust Fund was stocked with $550 million that could -- and should -- have been used to acquire unspoiled habitat and recreational lands. Voters intended 33 percent of the revenues from existing real-estate stamp taxes be spent on buying conservation and recreation lands, as well as the restoration of older state-owned lands.
Instead, lawmakers are violating the public trust. Land acquisition? Good luck with that.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, an oft-mentioned candidate for governor, proposes spending several million dollars deposited into the Land Acquisition Trust Fund on purchasing cars, fixing roads and state forest service technology.
This was exactly the fear of many Floridians who distrust politicians to pay heed to voters' wishes. We got that message with the false promise of the Florida lottery revenue putting extra dollars into eduction when that money only supplanted the state's allocation. That bait and switch is exactly what appears to be occurring with Amendment One.
Cars instead of land acquisition ? How could this possibly be justified with the 4 million voters who approved Amendment One? Would any Floridian go for this?
Spending on vehicles should come out of Putnam's department budget from the state, not land conservation dollars. "We the people" are apparently once again dupes to untrustworthy politicians. We must fight back. And basically scream at Tallahassee that this abuse of "we the people" is unacceptable.

151011-d
Meet Florida’s most invasive species. Hint: It’s us
Tallahassee Democrat – by Mark Hinson, Senior Writer
October 11, 2015
Late Wednesday night, Cynthia Mullvain was doing laundry at her home on Sawdust Circle in Ocoee, a small town south of Apopka in the belly button of Florida.
She heard a growling, hissing sound coming from behind the clothes dryer and knew it was not the Air Fluff Cycle.
“I don’t freak out with snakes but I started getting a little antsy after about the fourth hiss,” Mullvain told WESH.com on Thursday.
Mullvain called officers from the Orange County Animal Services, who quickly discovered an agitated, highly venomous king cobra hiding in the wash room. One of the witnesses said when the 10-foot-long snake reared up to show that it meant business, the serpent was taller than one of critter-wranglers.
“I’m about 5-foot-6, 5-foot-7, and he was about eye level with me,” officer Jennifer Porter said.
It was no easy feat capturing the non-indigenous, runaway reptile, which was in no mood to be grabbed with snake tongs.
As it turns out, the king cobra was a pet named Elvis. It belonged to Mike Kennedy, the star of a reality-TV show called “Airplane Repo.” In early September, Elvis escaped from its cage at Kennedy’s place called Dragon Ranch Sanctuary, about a half mile up the road from Mullvain’s home.
Valerie Kennedy, the wife of the “Repo” man, was happy to have Elvis home but
concerned about the reptile’s condition.
“The poor thing was in pretty bad shape,” she told the FOX411 channel. “His eyes are fogged over. He hasn’t eaten a thing since he was captured.”
Perhaps she could feed Elvis an elephant? A king cobra’s venom is capable of dropping a pachyderm, or at least one of those 1,140-pound wild boars running crazy in the woods of nearby Leesburg.
Naturally, by the time the snake drama was all over, Elvis had a page on
Instagram, complete with a jailhouse mug shot.
Sometimes I think that God loves the Sunshine State so much that he spread an extra coating of crazy on top of it all.
Jake the snake-killer
Killer cobras wandering around loose in Florida are nothing new.When I was in college at the University of Florida in the early ‘80s, a fellow student who lived in a trailer park off ArcherRoad owned one of the deadly serpents and kept it a secret.
The trailer park had one of those cemetery names, like Restful Acres or Valley View, and was within easy walking distance of my apartment at Mount Vernon (aka Mount Vermin). Two of my friends — Andy and Kenneth — lived in Valley View, too.
They owned a pet ferret named Jake.
Naturally, this being Florida and all, the cobra escaped from its glass cage, slid down an air-conditioning vent and disappeared into the tall grass. The Valley View neighborhood freaked out. It’s never a good idea to go knocking on doors asking people if they’ve seen a missing pet cobra that goes by the name of Mr. Chompers.
Meanwhile, Andy was enjoying his modular-housing bachelor pad and new water bed, which was a very expensive and hip thing for a college student to have in those days. Jake also took a shine to the water bed. The little varmint crawled beneath the plastic bubble of water and decided to enjoy a cool drink by gnawing a hole the size of a quarter. When Andy got home that day, the carpet was extra squishy.
After Andy drained his bank account to buy a new aquatic mattress, he tried to keep Jake from weaseling his way back into the bedroom. Ferrets are clever rascals, though. Late one night, Andy, Kenneth and I came home from the disco to discover that Jake had taken another drink from the water bed Fountain of Youth. Andy snapped.
“Go out there and catch that cobra, you stupid (bleep) little mongoose,” Andy said as he opened the front door and returned Jake into the wild.
According to Andy, Jake was last seen in a hobo camp near Paynes Prairie carrying a stick with a little bandana tied on the end.
That same fall, in another trailer park not far away, a student who owned a 12-foot boa constrictor was showing off in front of his friends by feeding a live rabbit to the giant snake. The student made the mistake of cradling the doomed bunny close to his chin. The boa picked up the rabbit scent on his master’s shirt and, on the first strike, latched onto the student’s head. The snake unhinged his jaws and was swallowing his owner’s cranium whole when the panicked friends stepped in and killed the boa. The student, who required more than 100 stitches on his face and noggin, later berated the friends for murdering his snake.
Don’t tell anyone but the cobras and the boas are not the only invasive species in Florida.
Florida of the future
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Midwesterner who also is not native to the Sunshine State, was once called an “Aztec snake god” by comedian Stephen Colbert. Maybe the governor escaped from the Dragon Ranch Sanctuary, too, and is hiding behind the dryer at the Governor’s Mansion? Somebody fetch the snake tongs, pronto.
Reptile jokes aside, the governor is not exactly Florida-friendly when it comes to protecting the state’s indigenous wildlife. Instead of declaring a jihad on the enormous wild hogs that are destroying crops and the rogue Burmese pythons that are eating all the native critters in the Everglades, Scott is doing nothing to stop this month’s hunting season on the state’s 3,000 black bears.
I guess the trash cans and bird feeders at all the private beach houses along St. Teresa and Alligator Point must be protected from plundering bears at any cost. Floridians are the only people who will build a home smack dab in the middle of prime black-bear habitat and then holler bloody murder when a bear walks up on the front porch. Isn’t that like moving to the beach and demanding that all the sand be removed?
At this rate, why don’t we just go out in the woods and shoot the remaining 160 wild Florida panthers with buckshot and save the big cats the hassle and indignities of survival in Flori-duh.
Nature will soon exact its revenge on the Sunshine State, though. If this peculiar peninsula doesn’t sink back into the ocean thanks to climate change (shhh, don’t let the governor hear you say that out loud), the invasive animals will have their way. The Giant African Snails will eat all the lawns and stucco homes in South Florida before spreading diseases to humans through the rat lungworm parasites. The Tegu lizards from Argentina will take care of the poultry industry. The Burmese pythons will decimate the mammals and birds of South Florida before moving on to the playgrounds at day-care centers.
On the bright side, though, the roving gangs of king cobras will finally take care of those damn wild boars.

151011-e
New water district chief smart to focus on Everglades fixes
Palm Beach Post - Editorial
October 11, 2015
The new executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, Gov. Rick Scott’s former general counsel, Pete Antonacci, never filled out an application for the job. He never interviewed for it. The job, in fact, was never posted.
He received a phone call, and he took “about 30 seconds” to consider whether to walk away from his lucrative new position as a shareholder and lobbyist with GrayRobinson, in Tallahassee, in return for a job that paid a fraction.
“The opportunity arose and now I’m here,” he told The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board on Tuesday, his second day on the job.
He did it, he said, “Because I think potentially this is the best public service job in Florida. Because the opportunity to impact people’s lives is so great.”
Antonacci is spot-on correct about that.
It’s the careful management of South Florida’s heavy wet-season rains and prolonged dry-season water shortages that enables 8 million people and billions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products to thrive within the water district’s boundaries.
Given the importance of water, the executive director job is by definition a political one that requires carefully balancing the needs of agriculture with those of developers, the environment and local residents.
Big Ag likes water levels in Lake Okeechobee and the canals to be kept higher, as insurance that it can irrigate during times of drought. But flood safety dictates that the water levels in the lake must be kept lower given the condition of the Herbert Hoover Dike.
The needs of the multiple endangered species and sensitive estuaries add still another consideration, as does the need of the tribes whose land is within the water district’s purview. Lawsuits are the key vehicle those varied interests have used to claim their water rights.
Antonacci clearly understands the multiple pressures, and what’s at stake. But which of the constituencies will have Antonacci’s ear ? He says all of them will.
“If you shake one end of the system, you can darn well be sure that someone on the other end of the system is going to say ‘Ouch,’ ” he said.
He wants to minimize the litigation that encumbers everything the agency does, and maximize the speed with which the agency completes the dozens of unfinished Everglades restoration and water clean-up projects already launched.
Billions have been spent on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, but none of the 68 projects has been completed.
“You look at the time that has passed and the billions that have been spent, and we haven’t really brought them on line,” he said. “There are going to be some ribbon cuttings in 2016,” he vowed.
It’s tough to judge, one week in, whether Antonacci will prove to be the best possible steward of the enormously important agency he’s now charged with shepherding, or whether he’ll simply be the governor’s hired gun.
Those familiar with the agency’s inner politics say the leadership change was ordered by Scott’s office after former executive director Blake Guillory failed to make the case to board members, as instructed, that there should be another year of tax cuts. Antonacci, meanwhile, has earned a reputation for being a loyal soldier for the governor.
But Antonacci, 68, said he’s no longer a shareholder at GrayRobinson. He’s here not to cash in, but because the agency has a profound impact on the lives of everyone in South Florida, a place he was raised.
“I’ve told all the board members individually, if I can make a difference, I will stay. If I cannot make a difference, I will go. I don’t have a contract. I don’t have a car. I am here for service.”
Scott’s been prone to focus on growth and jobs to the exclusion of other considerations. At the water district, though, blinders aren’t an option.
Antonacci’s focus on making progress with Everglades restoration is a prudent approach, one that should benefit all parties.

151010-a
Construction nears finish on major Everglades water quality project
SFWMD Release
October 10, 2015
A-1 shallow reservoir is set to be the first project completed for the State's Restoration Strategies plan
West Palm Beach, FL - With 16,500 cubic yards of concrete, 2,100 tons of steel and 21 miles of levees, a massive new South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) project to improve Everglades water quality is nearing completion and set to start operations.
Water already has begun flowing into the A-1 Flow Equalization Basin (FEB), which will help optimize wetlands that clean phosphorus from water before it reaches the Everglades. The basin will be the first project completed as part of the State's Restoration Strategies plan to improve water quality for the River of Grass.
"Completing this significant project and continuing progress on others is how we achieve water quality goals," said Jeff Kivett, SFWMD Director of Operations, Engineering and Construction. "The A-1 will soon be fully operating and providing its intended critical restoration benefits to the Everglades."
A-1: How it Works
With the capacity to hold 60,000 acre-feet of water at a site west of U.S. 27 in Palm Beach County, the A-1 was designed to capture and store peak stormwater flows during the wet season or during heavy rainfall events.
Emergent vegetation such as bulrush and cattail planted within the site will help reduce the concentration of phosphorus in the water.
A system of 21 miles of earthen levees and 15 water control structures - 10 with solar power - within A-1 gives water managers the new ability to deliver water at the right time and in the right quantity to the vast Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) 2 and 3/4 to the south and east.
Achieving optimal water flow to these constructed wetlands enables emergent and submerged aquatic vegetation such as southern naiad to most effectively and naturally remove nutrients from the water that eventually flows to Everglades National Park.
The District operates a network of five STAs south of Lake Okeechobee with an effective treatment area of 57,000 acres. Since 1994, the treatment areas have retained more than 2,012 metric tons of total phosphorus that would have otherwise entered the Everglades.
Fast Facts
Construction of the A-1 required massive amounts of land, material and heavy equipment, including,
●  15,000-acre footprint
●  1.6 million cubic yards of fill material, all mined on-site
●  3.1 million cubic yards of muck was degraded and used as topsoil
●  23 massive, 40-ton articulated dump trucks
●  150 construction personnel on-site each day
Construction of the A-1 benefited from significant work already completed at the site for a reservoir originally planned to provide deep water storage, known as the EAA Reservoir.
Restoration Strategies Background
In June 2012, the State of Florida and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a consensus on new strategies for improving water quality in America's Everglades.
Based on months of scientific and technical discussions, these strategies will expand water quality improvement projects to achieve the ultralow phosphorus water quality standard established for the Everglades.
Key features of the plan include:
●  Design and construction of 116,000 acre-feet of additional storage adjacent to existing Everglades STAs, better controlling water flow into the treatment wetlands and thereby improving their performance. These storage areas, known as Flow Equalization Basins, will be designed to assist all five Everglades STAs.
●  Design and construction of the Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West expansion, increasing by 50 percent the treatment capacity of water quality facilities currently discharging into the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
●  Additional sub-regional source controls in areas of the eastern EAA where phosphorus levels in runoff have been historically higher, building on the District's existing Best Management Practices (BMPs) Regulatory Program.
For more information:
Improving Water Quality 
Restoration Strategies for Clean Water for the Everglades 
BMPs and Source Controls 

151010-b
Critics say budget cuts, hand-picked leaders have hurt water districts
Ocala.com - by Christopher Curry, Staff Writer
October 10, 2015
In June 2011, Gov. Rick Scott ventured to the South Florida Water Management District’s office in West Palm Beach to sign legislation mandating tax cuts and more Tallahassee budget control for the state’s water management districts.
The ceremonial bill-signing took place at a district where the cuts would later lead to 135 layoffs.
More than four years later, Scott’s administration continues to hold what some environmentalists and former water management district officials consider unprecedented and unhealthy influence over the districts.
There are five water districts in Florida; two of them, the Suwannee River and St. Johns River water management districts, create water policy that governs Alachua County.
All five water districts, created in the 1970s, operate under the auspices of the state's Department of Environmental Protection. The districts shape such policies as lawn watering rules, plans for countering water shortages during drought, and regulating who can pump water — and how much — from the underground aquifer that supplies most of Florida's water.
When Scott’s environmental policy coordinator Noah Valenstein takes over as executive director of the Suwannee River Water Management District, the leaders of four of the five districts will be former Scott administration officials.
One had no prior environmental experience. In early September, Scott’s former general counsel, Peter Antonacci, who had a central role in the controversial ouster of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s former head, was named executive director of the South Florida Water Management District without a search. Antonacci was named director after Blake Guillory, who’d previously overseen a major staff reduction as director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, abruptly resigned after he did not push through a property tax cut the governor sought.
The five water management districts have now had 16 directors during Scott’s five years in office, with officials moving from the Scott administration to the districts or shuffling from district to district.
In the St. Johns, and South Florida districts, directors who started during the first year of the administration to oversee budget cuts and layoffs of senior staff have themselves resigned abruptly with little or no explanation and have been replaced.
In the rural Suwannee district, Ann Shortelle, a former Florida Department of Environmental Protection water policy official with the Scott administration and a member of his transition team when taking office, was selected as executive director in 2012 after the ouster of former director David Still.
Earlier this year, Shortelle moved on to become the director of the larger St. Johns River Water Management District after Hans Tanzler III, who had overseen budget cuts and staff reductions early in the Scott administration, resigned at the start of another purge of senior staff.
The Suwannee district’s initial deadline for applications to replace Shortelle was Aug. 14. On Aug. 14, the Suwannee district announced the deadline was extended until Aug. 20. Valenstein then applied on Aug. 20.
The district's governing board selected him from among four finalists with no public discussion in early September.
The governor’s office, which did not return a message seeking comment, has previously said that Scott and the FDEP are not orchestrating staff moves and the decisions to hire directors are made by water management district governing board members.
Valenstein, who has an environmental policy degree, a law degree and previously worked for the Everglades Foundation and as an environmental consultant on Scott’s 2014 campaign, declined to comment until he officially starts with the district.
Don Quincey, the chairman of the Suwannee River Water Management District board, did not return messages seeking comment.
Some former district officials say the Scott administration’s assertion that it is not behind changes in executive directors and other purges of high-level, experienced staff is dubious.
Sonny Vergara, the former executive director of the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said the governor always had the authority to appoint governing board members and DEP had oversight authority but “it was never exercised as a dictatorial control over the water management districts."
“He changed the whole landscape,” Vergara said. “Right now, Tallahassee is in such tight control. Scott took away the institutional memory at the major scientific and leadership positions, the ultimate result of which is to change the very culture of the water management districts from science-based to purely political.”
Charlie Houder, a now-retired longtime administrator with the Suwannee River district who served as interim director for a few months during Scott’s administration, said there was more Tallahassee scrutiny over budgets and a push to move the permitting process along more quickly for groundwater withdrawals and other matters. Houder said there was not a push from DEP to approve specific permits or bad projects but “definitely a push to get an answer for applicants.”
“There was never a policy memo 'we’re pulling everything into Tallahassee' but it seems pretty clear that has happened over the last several years,” Houder said.
Richard Hamann, a water and environmental law expert at the University of Florida and past president of Florida Defenders of the Environment, was a St. Johns River district governing board member whom Scott did not reappoint in 2013.
Hamann said while Scott was in office directives came from Tallahassee on budgets, land acquisitions and groundwater pumping permitting, including a requirement to give officials in Tallahassee an explanation if staff was requesting more information from applicants before considering an application.
Hamann said once Scott had enough of his own appointees on a board, purges of high-ranking officials followed.
“They wanted to have people who were political allies,” he said. “It’s become far more political.”
High-level resignations under pressure at the St. Johns district occurred in 2011 and in May with the departure of five senior officials, including Tanzler. Two indicated they resigned to avoid termination. One, Robert Christianson, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that he was told DEP Secretary Jon Steverson was behind the push to have the officials resign.
A political outsider when he ran in 2010, Scott rode a wave of Tea Party support to office on a campaign that promised smaller government and lower taxes.
In his first budget year, the water management districts became targets for those budget and tax cuts. As Scott signed that 2011 bill mandating district budget and tax cuts into law, his office sent out a press release lauding the legislation as property tax relief that reduced taxes by $210.5 million statewide.
Additional budget and tax cuts have followed that impacted the districts but might not bring significant savings to a lot of homeowners.
From 2010-11, the last budget year before Scott was in office, to the 2015-16 budget year, the St. Johns River Water Management District's budget has declined from about $254.7 million to $169.4 million, with its property tax rate declining from approximately $41.58 for a home valued at $100,000 to $30.23.
Over that time, the district has gone from 717 positions to 582.
For the Suwannee district, the budget declined from $56.5 million in 2010-11 to $43.34 million for the 2015-16 budget year, with the property tax rate declining from about $44 for a home valued at $100,000 to $41.
In his application for the Suwannee job, Valenstein gave an indication of how much influence the governor’s office now has over the water management districts. Describing his duties as Scott’s environmental policy director, he wrote that he “oversees the budgets and significant policy decisions for all of the water management districts and five state agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.”
Having the governor take more control over property tax rates and budgets instead of appointed governing board members is not bad news to all.
“We do believe in general that if a body can raise taxes, they should be elected, not appointed,” said Kurt Wenner, the vice president for research with watchdog group Florida TaxWatch. “An elected official is accountable and answerable to the voters.”
During Scott’s time in office, his appointees to the district governing boards have primarily been representatives of industry and business and environmentalists say the boards now lack members with a primary focus on environmental protection.
In the Suwannee district where the majority of groundwater pumping is for agriculture, the board has heavy representation from agricultural industries such as timber, farming and cattle.
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, with the environmental groups Our Santa Fe River and Save Our Suwannee, said the last few years have brought less focus on the acquisition of conservation lands and more spending on projects that provide taxpayer money to dairies, farms and other businesses to use less water or reduce pollution.
The district’s spent about $5.4 million in Florida Forever funds for conservation purchases in 2010-11, the budget year before Scott took office, according to an annual report on that program. The district’s Florida Forever expenditures for conservation purchases dropped to nothing the next year and have remained there, with no projected purchases with program funding through 2019, the report showed.
One project that environmental groups such as the Florida Springs Council pointed to as something industry should have funded is the $3.6 million project at 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.
The state and water management district funded $3.37 million of that $3.6 million project and PotashCorp contributed $230,000.
Paul Still, with the Bradford Soil and Water Conservation District, said there has been a push during Scott’s time in office to spend millions on those types of “public private partnerships.”
Often, Still said he sees companies receiving public funds to take on water conservation or pollution reduction projects he feels should be required as part of the permitting process.
“It’s corporate welfare,” he said.

151010-c
Open carry for less corrupt Fla.
Pensacola News Journal – by Andy Marlette, Cartoonist
October 10, 2015
We can’t deservedly be called the “Gunshine State” if all our pretty pistols have to be hidden from the public eye. So the dad and son duo of state Sen. Don Gaetz and state Rep. Matt Gaetz are pushing to make Florida an open carry state. If they succeed with their proposed legislation, Floridians with a concealed-weapons permit will be totally free to walk down Palafox Street with their favorite firearm — loaded and even unholstered. Gallery Nights are about to get way more exciting!
Now, before the namby-pamby liberals get all flustered about Florida turning into a Tarantino movie, the fact is that open carry is actually pretty commonplace throughout our republic. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that thirty-one states allow open-carry without a permit and only Florida, along with four other states and the District of Columbia, prohibit openly carrying guns.
Furthermore, the Gaetz boys armed themselves with U.S. Department of Justice statistics that show less violent crime in open carry states. Presumably, the theory is that if the local yokels are packing heat out in public, the would-be scumbags of the world are less likely to do dirty and dastardly deeds. The punks feel less lucky.
The Gaetz boys might be on to something, but let’s take it a step further. If open carry can reduce violent crime, let’s see if it can put a stop to the non-violent crime that’s run rampant throughout the state — political corruption.
Florida politics is proof positive of what ol’ Woody Guthrie observed about the world of men: “Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.” Our state is downright famous for corruption. Our politicians do it better than any others in the country. Heck, our governor got rich off it back in his Medicare-defrauding hospital days. Here in the Sunshine State, being a dirty, lying cheat isn’t just a hobby, it’s a prerequisite for elected office.
That’s another thing Sen. Gaetz is trying to change. Regular readers will recall that a few weeks ago, Gaetz was quick to sign on as a sponsor for Gannett’s Florida newspapers’ push for legislation that will end the “corruption tax” that we Floridians have the pleasure of paying. Basically, it’s all the cash we the peeps get scammed out of by shady public officials and government contractors — from the state level on down to the city. Politicians can be busted for it, but due to loose language in state law, the contractors aren’t held to the same standard. That needs to change.
Gaetz is making it happen in the Senate and last week, he issued a joint announcement with Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, who will push it in the House. “We are pleased to join in sponsoring legislation to strengthen State Attorneys’ ability to prosecute bribery, bid-rigging and fraud in government contracting,” the legislators wrote. “Billions of tax dollars paid by Floridians are used by state agencies and local governments to purchase services and equipment from private companies, many of which rely on government for all or most of their revenue... Unfortunately, there are too many examples of the contracting process being corrupted by bid-splitting, cronyism, favoritism, and outright fraud by contractors and public servants.”
“Current law requires that courts find defendants had corrupt thoughts or intent. We believe it is redundant and unnecessary to prove that a bribe was done with corrupt intent. A bribe, in and of itself, is corrupt and those who give or receive bribes should be judged under the law as criminals.”
You tell ‘em fellas! “Corrupt thoughts or intent” is just a loophole. To pervert the words of Willie Shakespeare, a crook by any other name would smell as stank.
Which brings us back to open carry. Maybe all these government crooks would be a little less crooked if we expanded the Gaetzes’ open carry law into government buildings. A taxpayer toting a 12-gauge would be a marvelous deterrent to any elected official with “thoughts or intent” of thwarting the will of the people.
Say the governor had a secret meeting with Big Sugar executives. Then imagine if there were a couple environmentalists strapped with semi-automatics in the room. The best interests of the Everglades would be protected simply by their lawfully permitted presence.
Or pretend the Florida Department of Education was pondering polcies regarding school grades, funding and its bungled statewide student testing. The oversight of a few-dozen, hardworking, public school teachers with .22’s would undoubtedly enhance the decision making process.
Or what if a small platoon of Florida’s uninsured, working poor had stood by shouldering over-and-unders while the House set about debating state health care expansion. The previous legislative session just might have come to a much more amicable and fruitful ending.
Besides, whatever is legally permitted for all citizens — in our public streets and in the name of public safety — ought to be first and foremost, permitted in our places of government. Wouldn’t that be real rights? Wouldn’t that be full freedom? If we’re going open carry, let’s go all the way.
So lock and load, fellow taxpayers! Who knows? It might just make for a less corrupt and more accountable Florida.

151010-d
Scientists predict current global coral bleaching event will kill off
Herald Current - by David Walton
October 10, 2015
“The XL Catlin Seaview Survey team will be at COP21 with this imagery”, Vevers said.
“We may be looking at losing somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 percent of the coral reefs this year”, NOAA coral reef watch coordinator Mark Eakin said.
An underwater phenomenon known as El Niño that warms waters at a drastic rate is said to be the cause of recent coral bleaching seen around the globe. Acting on NOAA’s dire predictions for this year, they captured images of the event unfolding. That bleaches the reefs – a few corals can bounce back when temperatures fall but many die from long-lasting whitening.
According to the experts, including the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), similar alerts regarding damage to reefs had been issued only in 2010 and 1998, both of which were extremely hot years. “And it’s on all the islands”.
Now scientists are warning that it’s not just Hawaii but the entire world that is in the midst of the worst coral die off in history.
Problems in the US started in the Florida Keys and South Florida in August, although NOAA scientists expect bleaching conditions there to diminish.
Warm water causes bleaching and ocean temperatures are at record high levels, partly because of steady manmade global warming and partly because of the El Nino, which is an occasional warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide, Eakin said. It said that corals, including in Hawaii, have been harmed by a huge mass of warm water called “The Blob” in the north eastern Pacific has harmed. The second bleaching event was triggered by the El Niño of 2010.
So far the 1998 bleaching was worse, but that was the second year of an El Nino and we’re in the first of two years now, Eakin said. However, it’s going to be one of the worsts, with areas such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef predicted to be hit the hardest.
“If conditions continue to worsen, the Great Barrier Reef is set to suffer from widespread coral bleaching and subsequent mortality, the most common effect of rising sea temperatures”, said the university’s Global Change Institute director Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.
Coral reefs cover only 1/10th of 1 percent of the world’s ocean floor, but they help support approximately 25 percent of all marine species. Dead reefs quickly degrade and erode-meaning less shoreline protection from storms and loss of habitat for fish and other marine life as well as serious impacts on tourist income and those half a billion people around the world who rely on reefs for food. Now they are just trying to get the word out to save the world’s coral reefs before it’s too late.
Related:           Record Ocean Temperatures Could Wipe Out World's Coral Reefs ...         Tech Times

151009-a
Adam Putnam travels to Tel Aviv for international water conference
SaintPetersBlog - by Phil Ammann
October 9, 2015
 Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam travels to Tel Aviv this weekend to take part in a discussion on strategies for the world’s water and ecological systems.
WATEC Israel 2015 is a biennial conference and exhibition that brings together thousands of leading business executives, decision makers, and researchers, and features the latest technical innovations to develop new fresh water supplies.
“Florida faces unique water resource management challenges, and we must plan for accommodating the needs of our expanding population and growing economy while protecting our natural resources,” Putnam said in a statement before leaving for Israel on Friday.
While in Tel Aviv, Putnam will participate in “Implementation of Water Scarcity Solutions Worldwide – Lessons Learned from Different Regions” on Oct. 13. As part of his address, the commissioner will discuss Florida programs and technologies to restore and conserve the state’s water supply.
While in Israel, Putnam’s Sunday agenda includes a tour of IDE Technologies’ Sorek Desalinization Project, which provides clean, potable water to more than 1.5 million people — 20 percent of Israel’s municipal water. He will also tour Netafim, a smart drip and micro-irrigation solutions company, and meet with manufacturers and trade associations.
On Monday, Putnam will hold meetings with with researchers, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Agriculture and U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro.
In addition to his speech on Tuesday, Putnam will meet with incoming Consul General of Israel to Florida Lior Haiat and visit Woosh Water, a municipal service that allows cleaning and refilling of bottles with purified, chilled drinking water “on the go.” He will also visit the Israel Export Institute, an Israeli governmental trade agency, and Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.

151009-b
Amendment 1 event hosted by League of Women Voters
Florida Today
October 9, 2015
This recent early morning sunrise near Oak Hill on the Mosquito Lagoon, part of the Indian River Lagoon system, which has suffered severe algae blooms in recent years that have killed seagrass and wildlife. Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere plan to join the recently formed Indian River Lagoon Council, tasked with cleaning up the estuary.
The League of Women Voters of the Space Coast will host a luncheon titled, "Florida Voters Betrayed - Amendment 1 - Water & Land Conservation Update," at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 21 at the Crown Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront, 2605 N. Highway A1A, Melbourne.
The event includes guest speakers from three nonprofit environmental groups, among those suing to force Florida to use more tax money from real estate transactions to buy conservation lands.
Guest speakers include Lisa Rinaman, St. Johns Riverkeeper; Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation; and David Guest, managing attorney of Earthjustice's Florida's regional office.
The panel, moderated by Chairman Vince Lamb of Preserve Brevard, Inc., will discuss the history behind Amendment 1, which in November passed with 75 percent voter approval.  The amendment enables the state to use 33 percent of the revenues from the doc stamp tax on real estate transactions to buy conservation lands.
They'll discuss the Legislature's failure to use sufficient doc stamp revenues to buy conservation land. The panel also will discuss a pending lawsuit to force the Legislature to spend more of the revenues on land-buying.
The public is invited.  Cost is $22.  RSVP to Doreen Archer at 321-622-4071 or darcher14@cfl.rr.com by Oct. 15, with name, phone number and choice of entrée: medallions of beef, mahi with tropical salsa or vegetarian. Visit www.lwv-spacecoast.org.

151009-c
Appeals Court blocks EPA Water Rule nationwide
WallStreetJournal – by Jacob Gershman
October 9, 2015
After a federal court in August blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing new water pollution rules in 13 states, the Obama administration vowed to press forward and enforce the rules in rest of the country.
A federal appeals court on Friday nixed that plan, blocking the rule from the taking effect in any state. Reports WSJ’s Brent Kendall:
The Cincinnati-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in a split ruling, said it was prudent to block the regulation while litigation continued over whether the Obama administration’s effort was legal.
“A stay temporarily silences the whirlwind of confusion that springs from uncertainty about the requirements of the new rule and whether they will survive legal testing,” the court said.
The court’s order was a preliminary boost for a group of 18 states that challenged the EPA regulation, which seeks to add smaller bodies of water under federal water rules.
U.S. trial judges previously have reached conflicting conclusions on whether the EPA’s efforts should be put on hold.
The appellate ruling involved a different lawsuit, a multi-district case brought by 18 other states.
It follows the preliminary injunction that North Dakota federal judge Ralph Erickson issued in August against the regulations, which seek to put more small bodies of water and wetlands under federal protection. The judge agreed with the states suing the Obama administration that the regulations overreached by giving the federal government control over ditches and streams remote from navigable waters where it has jurisdiction.
Related:           Sixth Circuit blocks EPA water rule nationwide        Hot Air-18 hours ago
Court blocks EPA Water Rule            Wisfarmer
US Appeals Court Blocks Enforcement of the EPA's Waters of the US ...  Peach Pundit
Appeals court blocks EPA's clean water rule Washington Examiner-Oct 9, 2015
Court blocks Obama's water rule nationwide The Hill-Oct 9, 2015

151009-d
Everglades REC is unveiling a new and improved soil testing lab
University of Florida
October 09, 2015
For decades, whenever farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area needed help figuring out what fertilizers to use in their fields, they turned to the University of Florida’s Everglades Research and Education Center for soil testing and lab work.
The building that houses the EREC’s soil testing laboratory was built at the height of the Vietnam War and originally housed the facility’s library.  More than 15 years ago, it was turned into the lab and, this month, an expansion and improvements are being unveiled.
An open house of the updated facility is scheduled for Thursday, October 22 at 3 p.m.
A second soil drying room has been added, which doubles their capacity to air-dry soil samples in ventilated drying cabinets at 90-100 °F. In addition, there is new instrumentation for some of the analysis, which improves processing time. Researchers look for levels of pH, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and silicon in soil extracts.
“This is the busiest planting period for vegetables and sugarcane in the EAA,”said Mabry McCray, an associate scientist in agronomy, who specializes in sugarcane. “The organic soils in this area require different methods and different fertilizer recommendations as compared to mineral soils.”
The lab began running soil tests in 1938 and has analyzed as many as 8,000 to 10,000 soil samples every year.  These additions and improvements could at least double that.
“This is an increase in samples per week and also, with shorter turnaround time, the growers can have fertilizer recommendations quickly for planting needs, as well as best management practices requirements,” McCray said.
The lab has several packages of soil analyses, which clients choose from depending on the crop they are planting and their specific needs. These packages range in price from $9 to $18 per sample.

151009-e
New water district director angling for state help
Sun Sentinel – by Andy Reid
October 9, 2015
xpect more cost cutting and improved relations with Tallahassee at the South Florida Water Management District, according to the new head of the agency that guards against flooding and leads Everglades restoration.
Gov. Rick Scott's former top lawyer, Peter Antonacci, this week started as executive director of the far-reaching agency that oversees water supplies from Orlando to Key West.
Antonacci's predecessor, Blake Guillory, abruptly stepped aside last month after pressure from state leaders for the district to keep cutting taxes — despite mounting costs to finish Everglades restoration projects and fix up aging canals, pumps and levees.
Antonacci, the district's fourth leader since 2011, told the Sun Sentinel editorial board on Friday that his focus will be to "keep the distractions down and get the projects done."
The water management district's latest distraction was the leadership shake-up that put Antonacci in the agency's top spot.
It started when the district board in July initially balked at lowering the tax rate about 8 percent because of concerns about growing expenses.
But two weeks later, pressure from state leaders who have pushed for reducing property tax rates convinced the board to backtrack and cut taxes.
Soon after, Guillory resigned following just two years heading the district. The same day Guillory's resignation was announced, the district board — which is appointed by the governor — approved Antonacci as the new executive director.
Antonacci on Friday said he would not discuss the district's recent history of leadership changes, how he was picked to fill the district's top job or even how often he talks to the governor.
"I don't want to get into my relationship with the governor," Antonacci said. "It's good. It's positive."
While Antonacci is a former board member for the Northwest Florida Water Management District, his professional experience is in the legal field.
Antonacci is Scott's former general counsel who had been working in Tallahassee for the law firm Gray Robinson before being tapped to head the water management district.
He started as a state prosecutor and was appointed as a special prosecutor by former Gov. Bob Graham. Antonacci served as the state's deputy attorney general in the 1990s and has been a member of the state Ethics Commission.
In 2012, Scott appointed Antonacci to fill a temporary vacancy as the state attorney in Palm Beach County.
Now he heads the largest of the state's five water management districts, overseeing an agency with a $750 million budget and 1,500 employees. Dealing with district costs will be a big part of his new job.
The district's budget has been slashed by more than 30 percent since Scott took office, triggering more than 100 layoffs in 2011.
Since then, at the direction of state leaders, district officials have been cutting property taxes and spending stockpiled reserves to cover expenses.
This year the district plans to spend nearly $230 million of reserves and is cutting the tax rate for the fifth year in a row.
Environmental groups have warned that continued spending cuts at the water management district threaten to slow down efforts to clean up water pollution and restore more water flows south to the Everglades.
"Just because they changed directors, the budget problems didn't go away," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida.
Antonacci maintains that the district can afford to keep Everglades restoration and other district priorities on track.
He acknowledges that one of the district's infrastructure challenges is dealing with sea level rise. But Antonacci won't comment on whether he thinks man-made pollution is worsening the effects of climate change.
"Our job is to deal with the consequences," Antonacci said. "Others can debate."
Antonacci said he is challenging district managers to justify their staffing levels and other expenses, though he doesn't anticipate more layoffs this year.
"We have enough money this year to get the job done" Antonacci said about the budget. "It goes against the grain to pile up huge amounts of money without [something specific] to do with it. ... There should be minimal reserves every year."
But future expenses are a mounting concern at the water management district. The district's board expects Antonacci's experience in Tallahassee to help the agency get more state help to deal with an anticipated budget squeeze.
"We have a lot of bosses in Tallahassee," said District Board Member James Moran, who anticipates that Antonacci's connections will "help cut through that bureaucracy."

151009-f
Septic tank pollution plagues Indian River Lagoon
Florida Today – by Jim Waymer
October 9, 2015
Lauren Herren, a biological scientist, of FAU's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and graduate student Alison Feibel were out at Shortys Pocket in the Thousand Islands testing water quality in the Banana River. Herren retrieves samples of water from the river in background Feibel is waiting to mark sample and store on ice.
MERRITT ISLAND — Every day, human waste seeps from thousands of septic tanks toward the Indian River Lagoon.
Nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens in the waste, coupled with high water tables and sandy soils, make for a toxic recipe. Rain sends plumes pulsing from septic tank drain fields to the lagoon, fueling algae blooms, fish kills and other marine deaths and diseases.
Scientists estimate 300,000 septic tanks are in the five counties that hug the lagoon, 140,000 of them within the drainage basin that flows to the estuary. Untold thousands fail, or were installed improperly or under old rules that failed to protect groundwater.
Brevard, alone, harbors 67,000 to 95,000 septic tanks. No one knows exactly how many. The densest concentration — more than 27,000 tanks — are in Palm Bay. Like many cities along the lagoon's watershed, urban growth outpaced the ability of local governments and private utilities to provide sewer service. Or homeowners balked at costly sewer hookups, which can run $2,500 to $20,000, depending on the location.
So the lagoon pays a heavy price.
Scientists spar over the relative role septic tanks play in the lagoon's ecological problems, compared to fertilizers, sewage spills and other sources of excess nitrogen and phosphorus. But they agree that when septic tanks fail, the local impact can be significant.
Waste pools up in drain fields and runs off into ditches, canals and tributaries that lead to the lagoon. Heavy rains also push septic system plumes to the estuary, where each pound of phosphorus can grow 500 pounds of algae, suffocating seagrass and other lagoon life. Meanwhile, conservationists say Florida legislators fiddle while the lagoon burns. In 2012, state lawmakers reneged on a law to force septic tank inspections and pump-outs and have since failed to enact strong solutions to the problem.

151009-g
Storing water and restoring wetlands
News-Press.com by Kevin Kollar
October 9, 2015
Surrounded by various species of marsh grass, the great egret stood mirrored in the clear, shallow water of the 300-acre Halfway Pond Preserve in Lehigh Acres.
Four years ago, the preserve, also known as Mirror Lake, was lifeless dry sand, scarred by all-terrain vehicle tracks.
But Phase 1 of a partnership between the South Florida Water Management District and the Lehigh Municipal Services Improvement District has turned dry sand into a wetland.
"To me, it's spectacular to see water standing on the ground out here," said Phil Flood, director of the water district's Lower West Coast Service Center. "Cypress trees are starting to come up; they used to be here, now they have an opportunity to come back. This is changing from a dry desert habitat to wetland habitat."
Historically, the preserve was a natural wetland known as Halfway Pond (cowboys used to stop to water cattle at the pond, which is roughly halfway between Immokalee and Punta Rassa).
In the 1950s, more than 300 miles of canals were dug to drain the Lehigh area, including the Halfway Pond wetland, for development.
Digging all those canals seemed like a good idea at the time: Standing water stands in the way of development, so the best thing to do is get rid of it.
But the canals had negative impacts.
Not only did they drain wetlands, which are now considered extremely valuable habitats, but they also continue to dump nutrient-laden fresh water into the Orange and Caloosahatchee rivers — excess fresh water can kill seagrasses and oysters in the Calooshatchee estuary; tannins darken water in the river, reducing sunlight to seagrass and freshwater vegetation; excess nutrients can cause micro- and macroalgal blooms, which can smother seagrasses and cause fish kills.
Over the years, the dry preserve, which is owned by the Lehigh district, became an illegal camping and ATV hot spot.
"We put up fences, but people came in at night and stole the fence posts," said Michael Cook, assistant manager of the Lehigh improvement district. "Then they'd tear up the preserve with their ATVs. We had sheriff's deputies coming out at night and busting people."
In 2012, the water district and Lehigh district joined forces to rehydrate the Halfway Pond wetland and help the Caloosahatchee at the same time.
The water district built a pump station on Panther Canal, at a cost of $390,000; during the wet season, the pump, which is operated by the Lehigh district, moves water from the canal into the preserve, which accomplishes three things:
It restores the wetland, which brings wildlife back to the area.
The water slowly percolates into the ground, thus recharging the aquifer.
Every gallon of water pumped out of Panther Canal is a gallon of nutrient-rich fresh water that doesn't flow into the Caloosahatchee.
In 2013, 841 acre feet (274 million gallons) of water were pumped into the preserve; in 2014, it was 2,230 acre feet (726.6 million gallons); this year, 990 acre feet (322.59 million gallons) have been pumped into the preserve.
Before Lehigh was developed, water naturally moved south; with the canal system, water now moves north.
Phase 2 of the project, which is still in the planning stages, will move water to the Green Meadows Wellfield area south of State Road 82, where it will restore wetlands and recharge the aquifer.
During a swamp buggy ride at Halfway Pond Preserve this week, David Lindsay, manager of the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, sometimes had trouble getting his bearings because he wasn't used to all the water.
"It looks so different out here," Lindsay said. "I don't know where we are."

151008-
Miami-Dade settles Turkey Point dispute over cooling canals
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
October 8, 2015
Polluted water would be pumped into a deep aquifer, far from drinking water supplies
Environmentalists say settlement fails to address dwindling water supplies
Miami-Dade County ended its fight with Florida Power & Light this week over the troubled cooling canal system at Turkey Point by agreeing to a plan that sends the algae-choked, super salty water deep into the aquifer, far from drinking water supplies.
For environmentalists, the plan falls short of fixing looming problems in a region threatened by dwindling water supplies.
“It doesn’t solve the perpetual demand on water. It doesn’t solve the salt load on the aquifer. And it doesn’t solve the damage to Biscayne Bay,” said Tropical Audubon Executive Director Laura Reynolds. “They could have dug their heels in and gotten more from FPL.”
Controversy over the 40-year-old canals erupted last summer when water temperatures soared and threatened to shut down the plant’s two nuclear reactors. While FPL officials say this summer’s temperatures have been lower, the increasingly salty canals may have taken a toll: The number of crocodile nests along the canals dropped from 22 a year ago to nine this year, University of Florida researchers reported last month. The number of baby crocs fell from 400 to 100.
Under the deal, signed a day after the county officially cited the utility for violating county water standards in at least four wells, FPL agreed to begin taking steps to lower the salinity in canals, which at one point climbed to three times the levels in nearby Biscayne Bay. The utility must also stop the water from spreading and polluting nearby groundwater.
In striking the deal, FPL officials acknowledged damage caused by the canals.
“We do not contest this notice of violation and are committed to taking the appropriate actions to address the concerns raised,” spokesman Greg Brostowicz said.
The plan lays out a complicated fix that involves the short-term use of sea water and water from a nearby drainage canal. For the long-term, FPL will consider using reclaimed wastewater from a nearby county water and sewer treatment plant. A bigger fix requires the injection wells that would catch and pump heavier, saltier canal water deep into the Floridan aquifer into an area called the boulder zone. The county uses the same method to dispose of wastewater, said Lee Hefty, director of the county’s Division of Environmental Resources Management.
“We‘re talking about sucking water out of the shallow porous aquifer and pumping it deep down below to the confining layers where it won’t communicate with the porous layers,” he said.
The utility will also begin looking at changes to a barrier canal dug years ago and intended to keep cooling water from migrating west. The county, along with environmentalists and scientists, have repeatedly complained that the canal, called an interceptor ditch, has long failed as water in the closed canals of the cooling system grew saltier and heavier, passing under the barrier canal.
The canals work like a massive radiator but began running hotter after the utility completed work to increase power generated by the plant. FPL officials have said temperatures spiked not from the expansion, called an up-rating, but because a temporary shutdown during work allowed the algae bloom to spread.
FPL obtained permission from nuclear regulators to run the canals at a higher temperature to keep the canals operating. But the hotter water worsened a the festering bloom. When the utility asked state water managers for permission to pump canal water from a nearby drainage canal to help clean up the canals, the request drew more attention to another, potentially more critical problem: the growing underwater plume of saltwater.
While the plan may keep the plume from spreading, Reynolds says it does nothing to correct pressure from the 5,900-acre canal system on the aquifer directly below it or keep saltier canal water from moving east and polluting Biscayne Bay. Tropical Audubon, along with nearby rock mining company and the city of Miami have taken legal steps on several fronts to force the utility to clean up the canals. Two cases are set to begin next week and in November.
“It’s a heavy lift for a small group like Tropical,” Reynolds said, “but we are holding their feet to the fire on the damages to Biscayne Bay and we’re the only party really concerned with that.”

151007-a
An enlightening Mosaic settlement
TBO.com - Editorial
October 7, 2015
Politicians who complain about environmental regulations and call for the elimination of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should consider the $1.8 billion settlement the EPA reached with Mosaic, one of the world’s largest fertilizer companies with extensive operations in Central Florida.
The arrangement will improve protections for people and resources but does not cripple a well-regarded company that employs 4,000 workers in Florida.
Indeed, it underscores that even the most reputable companies can have lapses and illustrates why oversight is required.
The bulk of the money will be used to clean and properly maintain Mosaic’s fertilizer manufacturing facilities in Florida and Louisiana. Most of the focus will be on the massive gypsum stacks, where the slightly radioactive byproduct of fertilizer manufacturing is stored.
As the Tribune’s Jerome Stockfisch reports, the EPA claimed Mosaic was mixing certain types of corrosive substances that are considered hazardous waste from its fertilizer operations with phosphogypsum and wastewater from its mineral processing.
This violated federal and state hazardous waste laws.
Mosaic will contribute to environmental mitigation programs in Florida and Louisiana and pay a $5 million fine to the federal government, a $1.55 million fine to Louisiana and $1.45 million fine to Florida.
The agreement also calls for the company to better treat the ammonia that goes into the stacks.
Fertilizer operations controlled by Mosaic have had a series of mishaps through the years. Years ago the plant on the Alafia River was a constant source of pollution, and in 1988 an acid spill caused a massive fish kill.
But that event brought about a major environmental commitment by Cargill, which then owned the Riverview plant. It invested $200 million in overhauling the operation and made environmental stewardship a priority.
Mosaic has continued that commitment. It has earned a reputation as a good corporate citizen, one that contributes to community causes and invests in its workers. It has won awards for its wildlife friendly phosphate mine reclamation work.
But there is no way around it: The phosphate industry is a dirty business, one that scars the Earth, uses toxic chemicals and stockpiles hazardous waste. Even small missteps — a breach in a berm, a leaking pipe — can cause a disaster. And events may occur that no one expects.
In 2004, for instance, hurricane winds pushed waves of acidic wastewater over the side of the gypsum stack, causing a 65-millon-gallon spill into Tampa Bay. Company officials had not foreseen the possibility of those large waves and had to spend $30 million to increase water storage capacity at the plant.
Mistakes, misjudgments and simple bad luck are inevitable in any human activity.
But thanks to regulations adopted through the years, companies know they will be held accountable for the damage they cause.
Mosaic executives did not complain about the settlement, but simply vowed to put even greater emphasis on their stewardship efforts. We doubt the outcome would have been as satisfying for all involved if federal and state regulators had taken a hands-off attitude toward the industry.

151007-b
BP to pay more than $20 billion in Gulf oil spill settlement
Ledger Gazette - by Shaun Bartel
October 7, 2015
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the government was counting a few coastline restoration money that BP did not count.
In July, the Department of Justice and BP announced an agreement for $18.7bn.
A New Orleans judge will have to approve the consent decree after a 60-day public comment period before BP and the federal government can officially resolve their long-running legal battles over the massive 2010 oil spill.
The settlement totals $20.8 billion, with $5.5 billion tagged for federal Clean Water Act penalties, $8.1 billion for natural resource damage and up to $700 million to address any concerns that are yet to be discovered.
It also requires the company to pay $8.1 billion in natural resource damages, with funds going toward Gulf restoration projects such as support for coastal wetland and fish and birds. This work will be guided by a comprehensive restoration plan that we are also announcing today and which was developed by a Trustee Council made up of four federal agencies and trustees from all five Gulf states.
“This agreement brings renewed hope for a fully restored Gulf of Mexico to millions of Americans who value the Gulf for its contributions to our economy, our environment and plentiful recreational opportunities”, Jewell said.
BP’s shares closed 4.7pc higher at 368p as investors welcomed the move, which effectively settled all large claims arising from the spill. The company said its total pre-tax charge for the spill is now around $53.8bn.
Florida stands to receive $2 billion for economic damages, the most of any Gulf Coast state, and $680 million for restoration projects.
“This settlement resolves the largest litigation liabilities remaining from the tragic accident, providing BP certainty with respect to its financial obligations and allowing us to focus on safely delivering the energy the world needs”, Morrell said in a statement. The settlement will be used to fix damage to the area’s economies and ecosystems.
This settlement provides BP a way forward in paying off damages from the Deepwater Horizon spill, and McCarthy, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, said that the government would now be able to lift the suspension on doing business with BP.
Oil from the spill was deposited onto at least 1,036 square kilometres of the sea floor and washed up onto more than 3,000 kilometres of shoreline from Texas to Florida.
The Clean Water Act fine was by far the largest in history, amounting to $1,725 a barrel.
Related:           BP to Pay $20.8bn Gulf Oil Spill Settlement Environmental Leader
BP's Going to Have to Shell Out $20 Billion for the 2010 Oil Spill ...          RYOT

151007-d
Water watchdogs sound the alarm on nitrogen pollution
Ft.Myers Florida Weekly – by Roger Williams
Officials responsible for reducing nitrogen levels from storm-water runoff each year into the Caloosahatchee River and Charlotte Harbor are not only failing, but failing to acknowledge the problems fully or budget for them, according to watchdog groups pushing for a more aggressive cleanup on the southwest coast.
Although waters in both Collier and Charlotte counties are also polluted, the epicenter of the cleanup failure is in Lee County, says John Cassani, chairman of the Southwest Florida Watershed Council, a nonprofit group of clean-water advocates.
“We’re way above the total maximum load of nitrogen the water can handle, so the state developed an action plan with about eight entities that signed agreements — one of them is Lee County,” he explains. Each is responsible to reduce their loads a bit each year.
Some have been meeting or exceeding the standards they agreed to, but not Lee County, he says. Dirty water is killing seagrass and fish populations, while choking off both profits and pleasure for property and business owners.
A trade organization, Florida Realtors, announced in May that Lee County property values could be more than $540 million higher per year if the water quality improved along the coast, a sum that would generate $9.2 million in yearly property taxes, according to the county property appraiser.
The problem has become so bad where storm water runs off into coastal waters from Cape Coral that in August the Department of Environmental Protection declared Matlacha Pass, a 12,500-acre State Aquatic Preserve, “impaired” for nutrients — a humiliating and unfortunate first in the region, water advocates say. Forty-five State Aquatic Preserves preserves exist in Florida.
“The water’s worse than it used to be — and part of it’s that there is a lot less regulation than there used to be,” says Thomas Hecker, CEO of the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center in Punta Gorda, which leads regular wading tours.
The DEP lost a significant portion of its data collection and regulatory enforcement arm in 2011. Scores of DEP employees were fired by Gov. Rick Scott and his administrators, who insisted that regulation was hurting business.
But now, unencumbered by strict regulatory enforcement, officials are fudging the lines of state and federal regulations for clean water, Mr. Cassani says.
“They’re taking flood control projects like clean-and-snag and calling them water quality projects — and they’re not,” he argues.
“They say they are in compliance with the action plan, but they aren’t.”
The official effort and its critics
Lee County officials vigorously defend their cleanup efforts, aimed at restoring water clarity so light can penetrate to a historic depth of about 2.2 meters or almost seven feet, nurturing sea grass beds.
In a recent note to Mr. Cassani and other water advocates, Lee Commissioner Brian Hamman insisted that officials are meeting the annual standards.
“Lee County is in compliance with meeting pollutant load reductions as required and scheduled for phase 1 (2012 to 2017) of the Basin Management Action Plans for the tidal Caloosahatchee, Hendry Creek and Imperial River,” he wrote.
He did not respond to an interview request last week, but Commissioner Frank Mann said officials are making a good-faith effort.
“It would be inaccurate to say we’re ignoring the various mandates,” he explained. “And when the county adopted the fertilizer ordinance about three years ago, we got a lot of credit for that from various parties.”
Fertilizer for lawns and golf courses is a significant local cause of nitrogen, about 60 percent of which comes downstream from Lake Okeechobee and sources east of the Franklin Locks, says Marisa Carrozzo, a natural resource specialist at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, based in Naples.
“We’d like to see the state and local governments take a holistic approach. To solve this, urban areas need to insure that best management practices are in place, and their runoff will not contribute to the problem.”
That might include filter marshes, preserved wetlands, or land protected from development, she explained.
Arguing the numbers
Mr. Cassani, an aquatic biologist who retired from the Lee County Hyacinth Control District in 2014 after 36 years, says the county has consistently dropped the ball in its part of a holistic or team approach to water pollution.
All eight local governments or organizations in the action plan, together, are required to reduce total nitrogen going into the water by 71 metric tons each year, he notes.
Lee County’s portion for the fiveyear first phase is 25.8 metric tons per year. But the county has only achieved 80 percent of that required goal, or 20.8 metric tons. That figure is based on water tests published in the action plan report.
In addition, says Mr. Cassani, county officials have permitted new large housing developments such as River Hall without budgeting or planning for the additional effect developments will have by draining into the Caloosahatchee.
Mr. Hamman noted that “the development community has reached out and worked with staff in establishing water quality plans and practices,” but did not say how, in his letter.
Other state, county and local officials, meanwhile, either wouldn’t talk about the problems with Florida Weekly last week, or insisted they were doing the right thing and meeting the mandated goals.
“This is a big task. It takes a long time to get it to where it is now, and a long time to get it to complete restoration,” said Elizabeth Alvi, state Department of Environmental Protection administrator for Florida’s Water Quality Restoration Program.
“I think local governments are being extremely cooperative, and they continue to do so. We meet with them annually. We work with them to help them plan farther.”
But she was unable to talk specifically about Lee County nitrogen reduction numbers.
The Cape problem
There are two related problems, Mr. Cassani says: one, the failure of Lee County officials to reduce the amount of nitrogen significantly enough each year; and two, the failure of Cape Coral officials to control storm water runoff as required by a permit they hold from the state.
As a result, the city poured so much pollution into Matlacha Pass that in August the state DEP finally declared it an “impaired water” — polluted with nutrients actively killing aquatic life.
Mr. Cassani attributes that in part to a decision by Cape officials in 2008 to give boats in the city’s northwest canal system direct access to Matlacha Pass.
“Removing the barrier was like pulling the plug on a bathtub of dirty water, (and) DEP officials won’t even talk about it,” he has written.
Florida’s top official in charge of reducing storm-water runoff, Borja Crane-Amores, an administrator at the Division of Water Resource Management, told a reporter last week he was unaware of the problem, or of the impaired Matlacha Pass (“How do you spell that?” he asked, after exchanging a series of emails about it last month with Mr. Cassani and other water advocates).
Cape Coral officials won’t talk about it either, as of last week.
“We’re now in litigation over this, so we can’t comment,” says Connie Barron, a city spokeswoman.
That leaves only the words of former County Commissioner Bob Janes, who died in 2010, to speak specifically and officially for Matlacha Pass, and perhaps for all of the region’s waters.
Mr. Janes called Matlacha Pass “the essence of the Southwest Florida estuary — teeming with life, exquisite in form and extremely sensitive to human caused impacts. It is one of our many jewels in Southwest Florida and we have a duty to protect (it).”

151006-a
Everglades restoration initiatives
WLRN - by Joseph Cooper, Bonnie Berman, Richard Ives & Paul Leary
October 6, 2015
10/07/15 - Join us for Wednesday’s Topical Currents, when we revisit the status of the Florida Everglades after decades-long efforts to restore natural water flow and habitats to Florida’s unique ecosystem. 
Water quality and land-use issues still plague the project. We’ll hear from the federal government’s senior director of the Everglades Restoration Initiatives, Shannon Estenoz and take your calls. That’s Topical Currents, Wednesday at 1pm.

151006-b
SWFWMD approves millage and budget
TBNweekly.com
October 6, 2015
TAMPA - The Governing Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District adopted a FY2015-16 millage rate of 0.3488 mill, 4.6 percent lower than the current fiscal year at a Sept. 29 budget hearing in Tampa.
For the owner of a $150,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption, the tax would be $34.88 a year, or about $2.91 per month. The fiscal year runs from Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2016. The total FY2015-16 proposed budget for the district is $184.3 million.
The budget continues the district’s commitment to protect Florida’s water resources and to improve Florida’s economic vitality, according to media release. All programs and projects are dedicated to the core mission of the district and designed to provide the highest quality service to residents.
The budget includes more than $109 million for cooperative funding initiatives and district projects. District funds are leveraged with its partners’ resulting in a total investment of more than $150 million for water resource management projects.
This budget includes $22.7 million for springs protection, including $13.4 million in state funding, leveraged with an additional $5.5 million from local cooperators, resulting in a $28.2 million investment for the northern coastal springs systems.
Other key budget highlights include $25 million for reclaimed water projects, which reduce reliance on groundwater sources; $8 million for the restoration of impacted lands to improve water quality and re-establish wetland and upland natural systems; and $12 million for storm water improvement projects to improve water quality of SWIM priority water bodies.

151006-c
Well water creates unexpected concerns
NBC-2.com - by Dave Elias, Chief political reporter
October 6, 2015
Many of us assume the safety of the water we drink, but that may not always be wise -- especially with well water.
Thousands of homes in Southwest Florida have private wells, and a family recently discovered their water contaminated enough to prompt hospitalization for their 7-month-old daughter.
 “She had an extremely bad diaper rash. She had spots all over her. A fever of 104 and she didn't eat for three days,” said Destiny Golio. “That's when we realized she had salmonella and thrush. We didn't realize that giving her a bath would make her sick."
The family’s well water contained e-Coli and other bacteria, which was confirmed by a test after the child got sick.
A neighbor was also notified not to drink the water when the landlord hung a sign warning that it was contaminated.
Turns out it's the responsibility of the homeowner or renter to make sure the quality of well water is where it needs to be.
Stephanie Fuentes lives nearby in Lehigh Acres and said her water most often smells like rotten eggs. Fuentes has a 3-week-old daughter and worries that she may get sick if precautions aren’t taken.
“I'm very concerned about her contracting something similar,” said Fuentes.
To prevent any illness, she boils everything with which her baby comes in contact.
“If the town could do something to regulate (wells) then maybe we could have safe drinking water,” said Fuentes.
In fact, Florida well water is not regulated. The state department of health offers suggestions on its website to help keep families safe.
‘We recommend annual checking of your wells to ensure the safety of the potable water supply,” said Dianne Holmes of the Florida Department of Health.
Holmes suggested families have their water tested even more often during the rainy season.
“If there is flooding that can create contamination beyond all the normal things, that might cause contamination to a private well,” said Holmes.
Water treatment companies like Culligan suggest using a filtration system.
“There are filters that can make the water not smell. If you're concerned about bacteria you need to introduce chlorine into the system,” said Tony Mast.
It's advice Golio hopes many families will follow.
“I think everybody should test their water regularly,” said Golio.
Water treatment can cost as little as $30 a month.
Systems can also be rented if you're renting your home.
If you'd like to have your water tested, you can pick up a kit at the Lee County environmental lab for $20.

151005-a
Amendment 1’s lost opportunities
TBO.com - Editorial
October 5, 2015
Floridians should not forget how lawmakers blissfully ignored 75 percent of voters last year who endorsed the Amendment 1 ballot initiative requiring the state to spend more on land and water conservation.
Instead, lawmakers spent the money on salaries, insurance and other nonconservation purposes and continued to shortchange land preservation.
It was a shameful display — one that is hurting our economy and quality of life.
Consider how Amendment 1 could have been used to acquire land that would have helped alleviate the widespread pollution of coastal waters that occurs when excess water is released from Lake Okeechobee.
The nutrient-rich water is routed into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and flows into estuaries on both coasts, polluting the water, creating fish-killing algae blooms and creating a smelly mess for coastal residents and visitors that threatens home values and tourism.
The water is not dumped with evil intent, but to guard against Lake Okeechobee water levels breaching its 143-mile earthen dike.
But the results are devastating to the environment, destroying the health of estuaries that depend on a blend of fresh and salt water.
The impacts drew national attention when water officials dumped 136 billion gallons of water during 2013’s rainy season. Even The New York Times took note as oysters, manatees, shellfish, sea grasses and reefs were damaged by the influx of nutrient-rich water.
“These coastal estuaries cannot take this,” Mark D. Perry, the executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, based in Stuart, told the Times. “Enough is enough. This cannot continue to happen. These estuaries are so important to us, our environment and our economies.”
If lawmakers had followed the intent of the law, Amendment 1 funds could have been used to purchase lands for a reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area, where polluted water from Lake Okeechobee could be stored and filtered and then released into the Everglades.
Advocates say this would not only cut pollution and flooding threats but recharge the aquifer that provides drinking water to 8 million Floridians.
The funds also could be used to buy wilderness areas north of Lake Okeechobee, considered the Northern Everglades, that are being targeted for development. Paving over such areas will increase the polluted runoff coursing into the lake.
But none of this will be possible this year thanks to the arrogance of lawmakers, who dismissed voters’ will and diverted Amendment 1 dollars — which should have generated $700 million for preserving land and water — to other expenses.
The amendment did not raise taxes, but directed that 33 percent of the proceeds from an existing real-estate tax be used on conservation. It sunsets after 20 years.
Citizens understood the urgent need to protect Florida’s natural wonders as rapid development returns to a state that already has 20 million residents.
Lawmakers, sadly, were not so enlightened. So now the chances to save special places and protect our waters are being lost daily.

151005-b
Florida cities most vulnerable to storm surge
InsuranceJournal - by Amy O' Connor
October 5, 2015
Four of the top eight cities most vulnerable to a major storm surge are located in Florida, according to a new report released by Karen Clark & Company (KCC).
The 2015 “Most Vulnerable U.S. Cities to Storm Surge Flooding” study released by the company in August names Tampa as the most vulnerable U.S. city with loss estimates of $175 billion to residential, commercial and industrial properties in the event of a 100-year hurricane. Miami came in at No. 4 with estimated losses of $80 billion; Fort Myers came in at No. 5 with estimated losses of $70 billion; and Sarasota came in at No. 7 with losses estimated at $50 billion.
The other cities identified in the study included New Orleans (No. 2); New York (No. 3); Galveston-Houston, Texas (No. 6); and Charleston, S.C., (No. 8).
“While much attention has been focused on New York and New Orleans, the Tampa/St. Petersburg metropolitan area is the most vulnerable to large losses from storm surge flooding,” the report states. “This is due to unique coastline features, local bathymetry, and the low coastal elevations.”
The KCC report, which determined the most vulnerable cities using its KCC RiskInsight high resolution coastal flooding model, defined storm surge as the rise in sea surface along the coast caused by a tropical cyclone. Factors that influence the magnitude of the increase in water level – i.e. the height of the storm surge – include the intensity of the winds, the track angle relative to coastal orientation, and the local bathymetry, according to the report.
“Interestingly, while the intensity of the winds is the strongest meteorological impact on the increase in the sea surface, there is not high correlation between wind speed and the magnitude of storm surge,” the report states.
The report also found that wider, more gently sloping continental shelves with large shallow water areas – such as Florida’s coastline – will produce larger storm surges, as will the shape of the coastline and the presence of inlets and bays, which can create a funneling effect.
“When water is forced into these narrow channels by the power of strong winds, it has nowhere to go but up,” said the report. “This is one reason why the storm surge potential changes so rapidly along the coastline.”
In Tampa, the 100-year hurricane would be a strong Category 4 storm with peak winds of 150 mph, according to the report. The city’s continental shelf is relatively wide off the coast, which means the local bathymetry will accentuate the rise in sea surface from a major hurricane, according to the report. It also notes that Tampa Bay creates a large funnel, particularly for a hurricane with its radius of maximum winds near the mouth of the bay.
“A severe storm with the right track orientation will cause an enormous buildup of water that will become trapped in the bay and inundate large areas of Tampa and St. Petersburg,” with 50 percent of the population in the area living on ground elevations less than 10 feet.
Miami’s coastal features are actually less favorable to storm surge than many other areas because the continental shelf falls off very steeply and the coastline is “relatively free of significant bays or other features that would create channeling effects,” the report says. But the high property values near the coast along with low coastal elevations perpetuate its vulnerability. It is also one of the most likely areas for a direct hit from a severe Category 5 storm.
In Fort Myers, its location on the west coast of Florida where the continental shelf is wide means that Fort Myers will “likely experience very high surge heights from a major hurricane making landfall north the city. Its population also mostly resides below 10 feet elevation.
The amount of property value at low elevation is also a factor that makes the No. 7 city Sarasota vulnerable to storm surge losses.
KCC said the report’s decision on the top cities was based on the magnitude of the property losses resulting from storm surge caused by the 100-year hurricanes. The RiskInsight model provides 30 meter resolution flood footprints for over 2,000 events that can be superimposed on an insurer’s portfolio of properties to estimate losses.
The 2015 storm surge study used KCC’s RiskInsight high resolution coastal flooding model and databases of property exposures to estimate the storm surge impacts for over 300 events at 10-mile spaced landfall points. Cities were then ranked by the estimated property damage, including building, contents, and time element losses.

151005-c
The American Water Resources Association awards more than $7,000 in scholarships
PRweb.com
October 5, 2015
Six students have been awarded more than $7000 from the Richard A. Herbert Memorial
Middleburg, VA (PRWEB) October 05, 2015
The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is excited to announce the recipients of our 2015-16 Richard A. Herbert Memorial Scholarship Fund awards. Established in 1980 and considered by AWRA members to be one of the organization’s greatest accomplishments, the scholarship fund has helped 47 students continue with their studies in water resources management.
The 2015-16 AWRA Richard A. Herbert Memorial Scholarship Fund recipients are:
Alice Alonso, 2015-2016 recipient of the Graduate (Ph.D.) Student Award ($2,000)
Alice is a Ph.D. student in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Florida. Her research project focuses on the Tempisque watershed in Costa Rica. At the end of her project, the collected database will be publicly released, and the instrumentation network will remain in place, with OTS encouraged to continue the monitoring process. “I believe we can provide water security for all while managing and using natural resources in a sustainable fashion, but there is still a pressing need to further understand and develop tools that encompass the complexity of those systems. This is for me one of the biggest challenges of our century, and I am willing to participate in meeting it.”
Jacqueline Gerson, 2015-2016 recipient of the Graduate (M.S.) Student Award ($2,000)
Jacqueline is currently studying environmental engineering science as a master’s candidate at the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University. Her research focus is examining the implications of increased productivity in Adirondack lakes, with the prediction that altered nutrient limitation patterns associated with decreased acid deposition could change trophic structure within these lakes. “Science has always been the outlet for my interminable curiosity and my source of explanation for environmental phenomena. I strive to share this passion and knowledge with others so they, too, can engage in scientific exploration.”
Anna Radke, 2015-2016 recipient of the Undergraduate Student Award ($2,000)
Anna is currently majoring in hydrology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She is most interested in water chemistry, specifically the interactions of water and soil with agricultural fertilizers and pesticides. To that end, she has added minors in chemistry and soil science. “I am currently exploring my options for graduate school in water or environmental chemistry... I’d especially like to pursue research relating the groundwater hydrology of watersheds to their dominant species of nutrient pollution. We humans need to learn to live with the planet, not just on it.”
In addition, due to the continued generosity of our members, AWRA was able to award three ancillary scholarships. Recipients are:
    Molly Welsh, SUNY-ESF – Ph.D. Student
    Christopher Groff, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee – M.S. Student
    JD Coffee, Abilene Christian University – Undergraduate Student
Application packets for 2016-2017 may be submitted starting in January 2016.
If you would like to show your support for our next generation of water resources managers, consider donating to our scholarship program. You do not need to be a member of AWRA to donate.
About AWRA
Since 1964, American Water Resources Association has been dedicated to the advancement of water resources management, research and education, as well as a balanced approach toward solving water resources challenges. AWRA’s membership is comprised of professionals who share a common interest in working and learning across a wide range of disciplines focused on water resources policy, practice and education. Visit AWRA.

151004-a
Continued development along Florida coast threatens sea turtle comeback
Epoch Times - by Arleen Richards
October 4, 2015
Sea turtles have been around for millions of years so they know how to adapt to changing environments like moving land and shifting shorelines. The system of survival they’ve developed has been working for them, but sea level rise, beachfront real estate, and manmade walls are encroaching on their habitat, making it harder for them to nest and for their hatchlings to survive.
In Florida, the nonprofit Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) is particularly concerned about three species of sea turtles that regularly nest in Florida: loggerheads, green turtles, and leatherbacks, all of which are listed as endangered or threatened in the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Although the turtles are now increasing in number as a result of conservation efforts, the conservancy is concerned that their recovery may be short-lived.
STC has been tracking the survival of these ancient ocean dwellers for 50 years, and is working on a documentary to alert the public about coastal management issues such as sea level rise and increased frequency of severe coastal storms along the Atlantic Coast, which is contributing to the destruction of sea turtle habitats.
But executive director of STC David Godfrey says these coastal issues are compounded by increased building of beachfront homes and the seawalls being put up to protect the homes from flooding.
With the threats of climate change affecting Florida’s coasts, Godfrey wonders why governments and municipalities would encourage more development.
Disrupted Habitats
Not much is known about sea turtles because they are generally loners that remain underwater. But through decades of study, the STC does know that this solitary reptile is a creature of habit. During nesting, which normally occurs once or twice a year depending on the species, most females return to the same beach and often within a few hundred yards of where they last nested.
The loggerhead sea turtles, for example, nest by the thousands on some beaches, but you scarcely see them on identical looking beaches at different locations. The STC attributes this nesting distribution to conditions that existed centuries ago such as temperature, beach profiles, and lack of predation that made them preferable.
Sea turtles crawl to a dry part of the beach where they dig a hole called an egg cavity in which they lay 80 to 100 eggs. The eggs are covered up with packed sand and left to incubate for 60 days. Hatched turtles face numerous obstacles as soon as they climb out of the sand, from hungry birds and dehydration on land, to hungry fish and plastic garbage in the water—resulting in only 1 in 1,000 reaching adulthood.
But, the STC says climate change is yet another problem for sea turtles, which is eliminating their nesting habitats. “We’ve been trying to raise awareness about these issues and stay engaged on these coastal management sort of issues for a while,” Godfrey said.
As it is, rising sea levels wash away beach sand making it more difficult for turtles to find dry land to nest on, but increased development along the Atlantic Coast is yet another issue to contend with. 
Sea Level Rise
Bio-climatologist Laurence Kalkstein says he doesn’t know if humans are really causing climate change, but agrees that weather conditions along the coasts of Florida are becoming more severe and increased development is not helping.
Kalkstein, a professor at the University of Miami and a researcher at the Synoptic Climatology Lab, says it is inevitable that tropical storms and hurricanes will occur and they will be more damaging. “What is going to happen is if a hurricane today hits, … if it’s the same magnitude hurricane of 50 years ago, the water level will be higher and more damaging today,” he said.
In a 2010 report, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said short-lived storm surges reach higher and penetrate farther inland as sea levels rise. And even without storms, sea level changes are continuously affecting all of Florida’s shorelines wetted by tides. According to the report, there is no scientific evidence showing that sea level will stabilize. 
“Sea level is rising and is likely to rise faster as each decade passes, continuing for a considerable period of time,” it states.
Increased erosion, algae blooms, and depletion of oxygen are all byproducts of overdevelopment.
Kalkstein said that’s why seawalls are built adjacent to homes along the coast, but added that increasing density of development is not a positive thing because coasts were never meant to be inhabited like they are now. Increased erosion, algae blooms, and depletion of oxygen are all byproducts of overdevelopment.
“Think of people fertilizing their lawns, golf courses, all these things that are along the coast, all of those things go into the water,” he said.
Development
Despite the high risks of flooding and an altered landscape, property owners can still enjoy the benefits of living by the roaring ocean and a white sandy beaches because the threats are mitigated: new sand is pumped onto the beaches annually, seawalls are built, and there is flood insurance.
“We keep pumping sand from offshore or trucking it onto the beach and dumping it on there to create dry beach because it’s commercially advantageous to do so,” said Godfrey. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states in a 2002 report that the state spends $30 million per year on beach replenishment.
Moreover, he says annual beach re-nourishment and the state and federal flood insurance are actually incentives to keep building.
The National Flood Insurance Program makes the purchase, of government subsidized flood insurance mandatory for people who live in flood-prone areas.
“People are actually able to build in incredibly risky places at taxpayer expense,” Godfrey says, “and thus encroach even further on sea turtle habitat at a time when the vulnerability of that development is increasing because of climate change.”
Florida state law seems to frown upon coastal building prohibiting construction within 50 feet of the “line of mean high water,” which is where the land is subject to unpredictable weather conditions. The state’s Coastal Construction Control Line Program sets stringent standards for siting of property and design criteria.
Yet, property owners are still able to get permits from the EPA for seaward construction of homes and seawalls.
“If you look at many beaches in Florida, it’s just a wall,” said Godfrey.
The property survives, but the beach is lost. — EPA
Kalkstein said where he lives, in Marco Island, Fla., it has been mandatory for coastal homeowners to have seawalls since 1964. “If there’s no seawall, slowly but surely land would erode away and eventually get to the house and damage it,” he said.
The EPA reported that most owners of property along bay shores in many states protect their homes with wooden walls or piles of rock. “The property survives, but the beach is lost,” says the EPA.
So why do they still build? For some cities, it’s a catch-22 situation.
In Miami Beach, which is highly vulnerable to flooding, Mayor Philip Levine welcomes the additional property tax collected from high-value beach front property to help fill the city’s coffers to pay for, ironically, a $300-million storm water project, according to a Washington Post article.
The city plans to pump out up to 14,000 gallons of seawater per minute with 80 new storm pumps, pushing the water back into Biscayne Bay.
So it seems beach properties will always be in high demand, which is good for property values, but bad for beaches, and ultimately bad for the sea turtles.

151004-b
Millions of dollars are ready to be invested in revitalizing Palmetto parks
Bradenton.com – by Mark Young
October 4, 2015
Palmetto officials have been busy partnering with federal and state agencies, garnering millions of dollars in grants as they pursue their goal to transform Palmetto into a destination for outdoor enthusiasts.
In the past five years, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency has been awarded funds to revitalize and rebuild the boat ramp area of Riverside Drive Park West, with more work scheduled to reconstruct existing facilities into a bait shop, retail and concession area. Continued boat ramp improvements include a boardwalk that will extend toward the Manatee River over the existing mangrove shoreline for outstanding views.
The CRA also was awarded $1 million from the Florida Department of Transportation to construct a multi-modal trail from the Green Bridge down Riverside Drive West to 10th Avenue as the first phase of a walking and biking trail that will eventually connect every park in the city. According to Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant, that construction is expected to begin sometime after Jan. 1.
In 2014, the CRA secured $900,000 in cooperative funding from the Southwest Florida Water Management District to incorporate stormwater treatment opportunities into the multi-modal trail project.
Bryant said the first phase of the multi-modal trail from the Green Bridge is "just part of the bigger picture" of Palmetto's transformation in the next five years.
In August, the city declared about 1,300 feet of
its seawall east of the Green Bridge stretching westward along Riverside Drive Park to be a public hazard.
The CRA is initiating a $500,000 loan for repair work scheduled to begin soon. What wasn't announced at the time is the city's intention to have the replacement safety barrier be a "living seawall."
"It's a relatively new thing," Bryant said. "The designer will pre-assemble the wall and attach a material that attracts wildlife and plants to create an ecosystem while protecting the shore from tides."
The first phase of the multi-modal trail is one of six CRA grant applications for a larger trail. Those applications were not only awarded future dollars, but ranked as the top six applications for funding by the Florida Department of Transportation and Southwest Florida Water Management District for functionality and environmentally friendly construction.
"The end product will be a completely sustainable, new waterfront with historic lighting, a wide red brick paver walk/bike path with shaded trees, landscaping, benches and safety features including cameras," said CRA Director Jeff Burton.
The CRA was recently pledged $7 million for the remainder of its multi-modal trail that will not only construct a red brick paver trail but re-do streets along the path. FDOT initially was going to fund one phase a year, but recently opted to do the remainder of the phases all at once beginning in 2021.
"It's a good thing," Bryant said.
"It gives us an opportunity to take a closer look as far as new streets, curbing and sidewalks that could be included. Phase one will begin in 2016, and when work finishes in 2021, we'll have completely new streets."
Burton said the CRA will pay around 50 cents for every dollar spent in the initial phase that will cost around $3 million, including the seawall. Park improvements continue to be planned with the most recent partnership between the CRA and Florida Power & Light for significant opportunities at Estuary Park, another destination for the future multi-modal trail.
"This is a game changer for Palmetto," Bryant said.

151004-c
Precise water usage boosts nutrient uptake
GrowingProduce.com – by Lauren María Alexander
October 4, 2015
The relationship between nutrient management and soil moisture is a very close one. As fertilizer gets more and more expensive, proper management of this input is critical to help you maintain profitability.
George Hochmuth, professor at the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida, describes the dynamics of the relationship between soil moisture and fertilizer management, and outlines ways to improve your crops’ nutrient uptake through more precise irrigation.
Know Your Soil
So why is the relationship between soil moisture and fertilizer so important?
“It has to do with the nutrients that are relatively mobile in the soil,” he says. “As the water moves downward through the soil profile, nutrients will be solubilized, and they’ll move with the water.”
Problems occur, Hochmuth says, if growers irrigate too much or if there are heavy rains, making the nutrients move too far below the root zone and become unavailable to the crop — also known as leaching.
Knowing the soil types at your operation is a key starting point for managing soil moisture, crop water use, and for preventing a loss of nutrients, Hochmuth says.
The two primary variables that affect moisture retention in soil are soil texture and organic matter. “Soil texture describes the relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay.
Soils with more silt and clay are generally referred to as finer textured soils because the particles are very, very small. They have an increased ability to hold moisture,” Hochmuth explains.
Organic matter can attract and hold water as well. If there are two soils with the same texture, and one has more organic matter than the other, the one with more organic matter will hold more moisture.
Monitor Your Irrigation
In order to prevent your nutrients from leaching, Hochmuth suggests paying careful attention to irrigation management. Specifically, this involves avoiding over-irrigating, timing the irrigation so the soil can hold all of the water you’re applying, and not re-applying irrigation water until the soil is able to hold the water.
“These techniques are best managed by knowing the crop water requirements, how much water the soil can hold, and how much water the plant needs at any one particular time, and paying attention to the weather forecast,” he says.
Having access to weather information is key, he stresses. “It enables you to ask ‘Do I really need to irrigate today, or can I wait another day and let Mother Nature irrigate my crops?’”
To further help with this assessment, Hochmuth suggests using a soil moisture monitoring tool such as a tensiometer, but says a thorough knowledge of the technology is key to reaping its benefits.
“You should really know the proper ranges of the tensiometer before you irrigate,” he says. “The tensiometer can tell you something about the moisture status of the soil, but you need to go a little further before you can really know how much water you should apply. For example, growers should be thinking along the lines of ‘OK, if it’s at this setting on the gauge and if I irrigate for 40 or 50 minutes with a drip irrigation system, that will replenish the moisture in the soil without over-irrigating.’”
The Water Budget Approach
In addition to using tensiometers to monitor moisture, Hochmuth advises using “the water budget approach,” which addresses evapotranspiration (ET), as a more well-rounded method to calculate irrigation needs.
“[The water budget approach] takes into account how much water is actually being used by the crop, and what’s being evaporated from the soil,” he says. “On average, about 98% of the water taken up by the crop is actually is transpired from the leaves, and about 2% to 3% of it is used in growing the crop.”  
FIVE FERTILIZER MANAGEMENT TIPS
According to George Hochmuth, professor at the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida, these five management practices should be the backbone of your nutrient management plan.
1. Know your soil fertility status through soil testing.
2. Know your soil type: both texture and, organic matter content.
3. Understand the “Four R’s”: right rate, right placement, right timing, and right source.
4. Understand crop evapotranspiration and how to manage those values without over-irrigating.
5. Pay attention to other production aspects that can change nutrient uptake such as insects and diseases.

151003-
Researchers wary as crocodile nests, hatchlings drop at FPL nuke plant
Palm Beach Post - by Susan Salisbury, Staff Writer
October 3, 2015
Florida Power & Light Co. has long lauded its Turkey Point nuclear power plant as a habitat for the American crocodile. It even features the crocodile in a children’s coloring book about the protected species that lives in the plant’s cooling canals.
“Can you help the baby crocodile swim through the cooling canals?” one page with a maze states. “Crocodiles love living in and around the canals that provide a perfect habitat for the reptiles because they are full of food and nesting areas.”
But now a severe drop in the number of crocodile nests and hatchlings in the 168-mile looping network of cooling canals has increased concerns from government, environmental groups and others over the salinity levels, temperatures, algae blooms and conditions in the canals.
“The numbers have been steadily decreasing. The latest event is the first time we have seen any signs of a significant difference in the population,” said Frank Mazzotti, a Fort Lauderdale-based University of Florida professor.
The issue goes beyond any impact on the light gray cousin of the alligator and other wildlife to the fact that the salty water has seeped into the Floridan Aquifer that supplies water to millions of people and has spread in an underground plume roughly 4 miles west.
The water in the cooling canals at the plant on the edge of Biscayne Bay and near Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park has been too hot and too salty because of rising temperatures and sparse rainfall. Since June 1, about 1.5 billion gallons of water have been drawn from the nearby L-31E canal in hopes of fixing the problem.
Still, during the crocodile nesting season that ended in August, there have been the fewest babies and nests seen in at least a decade. The number of nests dropped from 22 a year ago to nine, and the number of hatchlings declined from more than 400 last year to approximately 100, said Mazzotti, who has been studying the crocodiles since the 1970s.
Mazzotti said that crocodiles can tolerate salinity levels as high as 40 parts per thousand. The cooling canals have reached as high as 90 parts per thousand.
Mazzotti said it is difficult to say whether increased salinity is a direct cause of the nest and hatchling decline, but the decline correlates with the rapid rise in salinity.
FPL says it has not seen a noticeable drop in crocodiles living in its canals.
“Although we believe the canal conditions of increased salinity has reduced the number of crocodiles spending time in the system, these animals move in and out of the cooling system regularly,” said FPL spokesman Greg Brostowicz. “We continue to see large numbers of crocodiles on our property, and biologists estimate there are about 400 crocodiles at Turkey Point itself.”
Since June 1, FPL has been withdrawing millions of gallons of water from the L-31E Canal system, and the salinity level dropped to 70 parts per thousand, and after recent rain, reached 60, according to reports submitted to the South Florida Water Management District. That permit expires Nov. 1. There is still a long way to go to get the salinity level in alignment with Biscayne Bay’s, which is what the state is requiring by the end of 2018.
“We have seen that without the addition of lower salinity water and challenging environmental conditions such as heat, no rain and algae, the salinity level can quickly rise,” Brostowicz said. Juno Beach-based FPL can withdraw the water only after Biscayne Bay receives its required 164.3 million gallons a day reserved for fish and wildlife.
Barry White, president of Citizens Allied for Safety Energy in Miami, said, “CASE members cannot reconcile the gross insult to the rare Turkey Point wetlands as a place to produce energy. There is not enough freshwater and the canals have exacerbated saltwater intrusion, spread toxic water into the area, and as we see, have just about eliminated the crocodile and all of the other species on which it depends in the canals.”
White said that FPL’s expansion of the plant’s two reactors, known as units 3 and 4, has pushed the cooling canals beyond their capability. FPL spokesman Brostowicz said a lack of rain is the cause.
The rise in salinity levels has certainly caught the attention of other entities, from environmental groups to local government to the nearby national park.
Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society, said that since 2009 the salinity has doubled, and algae blooms have occurred. “The algae eats up the oxygen, then they use chemicals to kill it. The cooling canals went from clear to green and now they are brown. It is a disaster,” Reynolds said.
Miami-Dade County spokeswoman Tere Florin said, “The county is concerned about the migration of hyper-saline water from cooling canal water into other water bodies outside the cooling canal system, and we’re evaluating this issue and considering action.”
Martha Musgrove, regional director of the Florida Wildlife Federation, said, “The rise in temperatures of the cooling canal and resulting increase in salinity is devastating. There has been no explanation as to why the sudden increase in temperature of the discharges from FPL It was treated as an emergency that it was, but since then the “solution has been dilution” which is increased pumping from the L-31 and aquifer that is unsustainable if we are going to meet the needs of the Biscayne National Park and Biscayne Bay and the urban population.”
Pedro Ramos, superintendent, Everglades National Park, said he isn’t familiar with the crocodile issues at Turkey Point, but said, “We are, however, experiencing high salinity levels in Florida Bay within the park and have been concerned about it in the context of all species of animals and plants that use the Bay as their home. Our hope is that the recent rainfall increase will alleviate the problem.”
American crocodiles in Florida
The crocodile once lived along the coast as far north as Palm Beach County, but its habitat was lost due to development.
It is now found primarily in Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Crocodile Lake National Refuge in Key Largo and at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point Power Plant 25 miles south of Miami.
The reptile was reclassified from endangered to threatened in 2007.
Due to its sensitivity to salinity, it is an indicator species of the ecosystem’s response to Everglades restoration.
Turkey Point is important because it is a place where crocodiles never nested historically.
An estimated 2,000 crocodiles live in South Florida, with 10 to 20 percent residing at Turkey Point.
(Source: University of Florida)           Related:
Drop seen in number of crocodiles in Florida canals near nuke plant ...WJXT Jacksonville

151002-a
Dying seagrass and 'yellow fog' signal trouble for Florida Bay
Miami Herald - by Jenny Staletovich
October 2, 2015
The seagrass in Florida Bay is dying, a sign that the ailing bay could be going from bad to catastrophic.
Years of flood control on top of a prolonged drought wilted the bay over the summer, making already hot water twice as salty as it should be. When scientists hustled out to investigate last month, they found miles of dead seagrass: up to 6 square miles in Rankin Bight and 7 square miles in meadows around Johnson Key, a flat once famed for redfish and snook. A cloud of sulfur had spread in water just off the Flamingo Visitor Center, leaving behind a stinky stain scientists call "yellow fog." It may cover 25 square miles already.
But what really concerns them is this: the last time the bay looked so bad, a massive algae bloom followed. The bloom lasted for years, turning gin clear water a sickly pea green and unleashing a scourge in Everglades National Park that anglers and scientists still regard as a turning point for the bay.
Imagine if a third of Yellowstone National Park suddenly died.
To emphasize the severity of conditions, scientist Fred Sklar, who monitors the Everglades for the South Florida Water Management District, titled a presentation made last month, "Florida Bay Conditions: Another Perfect Storm?"
"I don't think there's anything we can do to stop this. The question might be, is there something we can do to slow it down," he said. "The train is moving and the only thing we can do is put roadblocks in the way."
Seagrass scientists who began monitoring the bay in 1995 after the unprecedented bloom threatened to derail the region's $723 million fishing industry are just as worried.
"It looks like this die-off will be every bit as extensive as the episode in the 1980s," said Paul Carlson, a marine ecologist with the state's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, who investigated the earlier crash. "There's places where dead turtle grass...covers the bottom a foot deep."
And it's not just the grass that's suffering. In July, when salinity peaked at 65 parts per thousand, toadfish that lurk on the bay bottom waiting to ambush prey died in Rankin Bight, said Chris Kelble, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
"My hypothesis is they don't swim away like other fish and the double whammy of extreme high (salinity) and temperature just took them out," he said.
This year's winter fish counts turned up no freshwater minnows, the first link in a complicated food chain. Sea trout, a fish perfectly engineered to reflect the health of the bay, failed to show in last's year count. Researchers caught juveniles this year, but in numbers "nowhere near where they should be or where their numbers have been in the past," Kelble said.
How the bay got to this point is as much about human meddling as mother nature. For decades, water managers have been struggling to undo damage from the C-111 canal, which was built in the 1960s to barge rocket engines from Homestead to the coast and shifted a vital flow of Everglades water away from northeast Florida Bay.
Another factor may also be at work: climate change.
With models showing a 10 to 20 percent decrease in rainfall over South Florida, heat waves and droughts will likely become more common, making water scarcer and creating Florida Bay's equivalent of a California wildfire. Climate forecasts also call for fewer hurricanes, which help flush out salty water by stirring up the bay.
"It's just like the fire analogy in the west," said Ben Kirtman, a climate scientist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The water managers will have to make decisions based on that."
And that means the fight for water — and whether to save the fish or keep the farms or both — could become more heated.
"That's sort of the elephant in the room that we don't really talk about," he said.
Because it is such a complex ecosystem, scientists have struggled to understand how to fix the bay. At 850 square miles, it is actually made up of about 24 different basins, divided by mud banks. Each basin has its own distinct level of salinity, influenced by water from the Everglades, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, along with years of man-made changes going back to Flagler's plans to build a railroad across the bay and drain coastal marshes in an attempt to lure ranchers to the mosquito-infested wetlands. Knowing the right mix of groundwater and surface water could be the key to keeping salinity in check, Sklar said. But so far, the balance remains uncertain, he said.
What scientists do know is that to avert an algae outbreak, they need to get it right before time runs out. In the 1980s, a massive die-off spread across five basins. Five years later, an algae bloom unfolded. Most likely, the dead seagrass loaded the shallow bay with nutrients that triggered the bloom.
It took more than 12 years for the grass, considered a key indicator of the bay's health, to begin recovering. The grass is also critical to maintaining the ecosystem: the rolling meadows provide both food and shelter for sea life and stabilize the muddy bottom to keep water clear.
"These kinds of things have probably been happening periodically over time," said Margaret "Penny" Hall, a state seagrass expert overseeing a team investigating the die-off. "It's not a new phenomenon, but there was a perfect storm where it took off in 1987, probably exacerbated by water management decisions."
After the 1980s disaster, the state began monitoring 17 spots in the bay, trying to understand what set of conditions might trigger a die-off. They focused on turtle grass, which was hit hardest and grows more slowly, and shoal grass, which can grow faster in harsher conditions. Knowing which grass grows where can give them a good idea of what's going on in the water. In 1997, as grass began recovering, researchers found the amount of shoal grass had taken over western Rabbit Key basin after the turtle grass died. Overall, shoal grass more than doubled, an indication of harsher conditions.
Over the summer, on the heals of a dry winter that spiked salinity in Taylor Slough, a biologist at Everglades National Park spotted what she suspected was the beginning of a die-off and contacted the researchers who had studied the 1980s event, Carlson said.
When Hall's team got there, they found two of the five basins hit hardest in the 1980s dead or dying. A third showed signs of trouble.
They think this is what happened: Without rain, the hot water turned saltier and heavier, creating a kind of lid, trapping sulfur in mud and keeping oxygen out. Seagrass can normally tolerate low levels of sulfide, the sulfur that occurs naturally in the mud. But the higher levels caused it to die. Once dead, the decaying grass released even more nutrients and continued the cycle.
"The sulfur is both cause and affect," Carlson said.
Had more restoration projects been complete, scientists believe the extra water would have helped buffer the harsh drought. But lack of funding, bureaucratic delays and the demands of competing interests have delayed work that might have brought more water south.
This summer, for example, when the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers announced plans to conduct a two-year test on a series of canals, gates and flood control structures to restore water flows, the agency enraged environmentalists by opting for a plan environmentalists say favored farmers. The Corps decided to continue using a pump to keep farmland dry, a decision the Everglades Law Center called as "arbitrary and capricious as it is based on unsupported assertions."
"We should be doing everything we can to benefit the bay right now," said staff attorney Julie Dick. The Corps was unable to say whether an environmental study would be done when reached late Friday.
Even with restoration, park superintendent Pedro Ramos said the bay "relies on higher rainfall, which we have not been getting."
And given climate change projections, he worried that keeping the bay healthy will only become more difficult.
"Things are changing for sure," he said in a text message. "New territory for everyone, including scientists, and weather seems to just be getting more and more difficult to forecast."
Recent rain — September had more than 10 inches — is may help some, but also changed conditions too quickly. Monitors at Buoy Key show salinity in parts per thousand dropping from the mid 40s to the high 30s in the last few days. Normal ocean conditions are 30 parts per thousand.
But scientists worry the bay is already in a downward spiral — and anglers have long reported seeing fewer fish.
"It's the largest fish kill I've ever seen in the park," said Capt. Dave Denkert, a guide who has fished the bay since the 1970s and spotted dead pinfish and snapper through out the summer. "It goes from real salinity to almost completely fresh. It's extreme one way and extreme the other. It all has to come together."
When conditions go bad, some fear the fish will simply leave. Already the stock of bonefish, a catch that draws anglers from around the world, are "below the 30 percent threshold considered sustainable," said Jerry Ault, a University of Miami fish ecologist, who warned that Florida Bay may be a microcosm of bigger problems to come.
"You get to where you really listen to the fisherman because they're usually the first ones to find something wrong," Hall said. "They may not know the name of the seagrass, but they know what it looked like."

151002-b
Oil and water: Clashes between Gov. Rick Scott, Adam Putnam roil state politics
Times/Herald – by Steve Bousquet, Tallahassee Bureau
October 2, 2015
That's about the extent of the common ground between Gov. Rick Scott and state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, the odd couple in Florida politics.
As one of three elected Cabinet members, Putnam works with Scott to shape policy and supervise state agencies. While Scott fervently sticks to his message of more jobs, Putnam insists the state's greatest long-term need is more water.
Like oil and water, the two men don't mix. They no longer try to conceal their dislike for each other.
"They're not exactly drinking buddies," said lobbyist and Republican strategist J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich.
Their clashes have become more frequent, and more trouble could be ahead as Putnam builds a political base in advance of what's likely to be a long campaign to replace Scott in 2018.
Tensions between the two boiled over in June when Scott approved pay raises for driver's license examiners and some state troopers, but used his veto pen to reject Putnam's request for $2,000 raises for state forestry firefighters who on average earn about $27,000 a year.
The sudden veto came after Scott ignored Putnam's written request for a meeting to discuss it. Scott's people said there was no time.
"I'm profoundly disappointed," Putnam said.
But after repeated disagreements and staff-level clashes, Stipanovich said, Putnam should not have been surprised by Scott's action.
"In every walk of life, relationships matter," said the former chief of staff to Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. "It matters whether you get the benefit of the doubt. The governor and agriculture commissioner don't have a warm personal relationship."
Undeterred, Putnam two weeks ago asked the Legislature to approve the firefighter raises next year — in effect daring Scott to veto it twice, which would antagonize senators still seething over Scott's vetoes of their items.
"It's a failure to communicate," said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, whose own relationship with Scott has soured. "Adam didn't have the opportunity to make his case and now feelings are hurt."
Troubles between Scott and Putnam surfaced soon after they both took office on the same day in January 2011.
Scott was determined to keep a campaign promise to ditch two airplanes used by state officials. That forced Putnam to drive to far-flung places while Scott soars above in his personal executive jet.
"It certainly presents some challenges," Putnam said at the time. "But it is what it is."
When Scott visits Miami for a jobs announcement, his sleek Cessna Citation has him there in less than an hour. When Putnam has to visit South Florida to talk about threats from citrus greening or giant land snails, he typically straps himself in his pickup truck for a seven-hour drive.
After many miles traveled, Scott and Putnam squared off again.
Scott, who was elected without the support of Florida's law enforcement establishment, pushed a police consolidation plan in 2011. Putnam pushed back, defending the 266 sworn officers under his command as essential to Florida's welfare.
When Scott made a surprise reversal to embrace Medicaid expansion in 2013, Putnam quickly voiced his opposition, calling Scott's view "naive" and sending a message to the conservative wing of the Republican Party that Scott made a mistake.
"Adam gave the governor a pretty sharp elbow," Stipanovich recalled, and that led to political speculation that Putnam might challenge Scott's re-election.
He didn't. But things went from bad to worse.
Last spring, in the wake of Scott's decision to force Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey to retire, Putnam was Scott's loudest critic, saying his staff was "misled" by Scott's people about his intentions. Putnam led the push to hold agency heads more accountable in public.
Behind the scenes, Putnam earlier this year hired Meredith O'Rourke, a well-connected Republican, to be the chief fund-raiser for his political committee, Florida Grown. O'Rourke had held the same job at Scott's committee, Let's Get to Work, which the governor may keep as a springboard to run for U.S. Senate in 2018.
Scott and Putnam are both Republicans, but the similarities end there.
Putnam has a puckish style and peppers his talks with football analogies, preferably dressed in a denim shirt and jeans, a uniform that reflects his roots and his job.
The message-driven Scott is a career boardroom CEO with a formal manner, still finding his way on the political stage.
Scott, 63, spent much of his life in the Midwest building the nation's largest for-profit hospital empire before he moved to Naples in 2003. A political unknown who barely met Florida's seven-year residency requirement to run for governor, he used his lavish personal fortune to win by close margins in 2010 and again last year.
Putnam, 41, is a fifth-generation Floridian and proud Gator whose red hair and early political start earned him the nickname "Opie," but he made people take him seriously.
Elected to the Legislature at 22 and to Congress at 26, he rose to No. 3 leader in the U.S. House GOP hierarchy before coming home in 2010 to win the agriculture job, positioning him as a serious contender to take Scott's place in 2018.
"Different kinds of guys," said Gaetz, a friend of Putnam's who twice campaigned for Scott in the Panhandle, an area that was crucial to both Scott victories.
Gaetz recalled Scott as "very programmed" in a roomful of voters and called Putnam "natural. He wasn't trying to sell anything."
Scott and Putnam are conspicuously icy to each other in public settings, and their negative body language is obvious.
At the endless photo-ops at Cabinet meetings with students, teachers and even stray dogs, the two men rarely stand next to each other. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater conveniently sits between them in the Cabinet's long-standing seating arrangement.
When Attorney General Pam Bondi lavished Scott with praise at a Cabinet meeting last week for the state's improving employment numbers, Putnam, his lips pursed, stayed silent.
Some political insiders do not see obvious friction between Scott and Putnam.
"I have never gotten the sense that there's any personal animus or a lack of collegiality. Zero," said Chris Kise, a lawyer and lobbyist who was a member of Scott's transition team and has contributed money to both men.
Putnam declined to be interviewed for this article.
His office issued a statement that said: "The governor and I have enjoyed a positive and dynamic working relationship."
There's little upside for the ambitious Putnam to be seen antagonizing Scott's supporters as he works to build a stronger statewide base of support.
In the past, Putnam sought to downplay their differences.
"I don't believe that there is a strain in our ability to work with the governor and the rest of the Cabinet," Putnam told the Times/Herald in February. "I've made it clear I didn't approve of the way Jerry Bailey was treated. That's one issue of dozens that I'll continue to work with the governor on."
When asked to comment for this story, Scott's office issued a statement that said that he "has enjoyed working with Commissioner Putnam for the past four-and-a-half years to make Florida the best state for families to live their dreams."
Asked for examples, Scott's office cited their efforts to make it easier for military personnel to get concealed weapons licenses and a $10 million increase in a program for conservation easements, managed by Putnam's agency, to protect diminishing farmland from commercial development.
That very conservation program was at the center of the latest clash between Scott and Putnam.
At a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday, Putnam outmaneuvered Scott in approving a $4.1 million easement to protect a century-old ranch in suburban Orlando.
Scott insisted that the state pay no more than 90 percent of the lower appraised value of the Kilbee Ranch in Seminole County and spoke of the need to protect taxpayers.
"That's what I would do in my business life, and that's what I think we should do for the taxpayer," said Scott, hinting that Putnam wasn't acting in the taxpayers' best interest.
Putnam called Scott's position "unrealistic" and contradictory to long-standing state policy on appraisals and said landowners deserve fair value for giving up some property rights.
Putnam's persistence helped get Bondi to switch her vote, and Scott was on the short end of a 3-1 decision, a rare defeat for the governor, who controls the Cabinet agenda.
As the meeting ended, the two men quickly took off in opposite directions.

151002-c
Southwest Florida scientists tracking changes in red tide
Boca Beacon - Letter by Haley Ruger Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium Sarasota
October 2, 2015
Mote Marine Laboratory scientists in Southwest Florida and others along Florida’s Gulf Coast are closely monitoring counts of red tide algae, after noting low-level increases of these algae cells in multiple seawater samples during the past two weeks.
K. brevis, the single-celled, harmful algae that causes Florida red tide, occurs naturally in background concentrations in the Gulf. Recently, some samples in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle have revealed “low” or “very low” counts of K. brevis, which are greater than the normal “background” levels.
Algae are a valuable part of marine ecosystems, producing half of the oxygen we breathe and providing food for marine wildlife. However, harmful algae can be a nuisance or even a health concern.
When K. brevis algae cells accumulate in high abundances, their toxins may affect marine life and people. These toxins can enter the air and cause respiratory irritation among beachgoers, such as coughing, sneezing or a scratchy throat. These symptoms are temporary and often considered an annoyance, but people with asthma, COPD or other chronic respiratory conditions should avoid areas with red tide algae, since the toxins can trigger their symptoms.
Low or very low concentrations of the organism may cause respiratory irritation, particularly if winds blow onshore. Low concentrations also can kill fish. Many factors, including algae distribution, currents and winds, can determine whether the effects are noticeable.
Visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC’s) red tide status page (myfwc.com/redtidestatus) for the statewide red tide status each Friday. Status updates include tables, static maps and interactive Google Earth maps. Mid-week updates are also provided each Wednesday during red tides. Results from the FWC-Mote Red Tide Cooperative Program are included in these updates.
In Sarasota County, beach water is sampled weekly at 16 locations by the Sarasota Healthy Beaches program of the Florida Department of Health and analyzed for K. brevis cells by Mote. Mote scientists partner with FWC through the FWC-Mote Red Tide Cooperative Program to monitor and study K. brevis. In addition, Mote operates the Beach Conditions Reporting System (mote.org/beaches), which provides daily updates of beach conditions for multiple Gulf Coast beaches.
As of Tuesday evening, Sept. 29, Mote’s Beach Conditions Reporting System was NOT showing respiratory irritation among beachgoers and was NOT showing dead fish along monitored beaches in Sarasota or Manatee counties, or any other participating areas.
Red tide monitoring in Florida is accomplished through a unique collaboration between FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Mote Marine Laboratory, the University of South Florida, county agencies, other private non-profit agencies and citizen volunteers (i.e., the Red Tide Offshore Monitoring Program). The Sept. 25 statewide report from FWC includes the water samples collected and/or analyzed by these partners around Florida last week. A brief update will be available Wednesday, Sept. 30, followed by a full report on Friday, Oct. 2 at myfwc.com/redtidestatus.
Related:           Shellfish harvest area closed due to red tide  The News Herald

151001-a
Damn sugar farmers just won't do what they're told
SunshineStateNews - by Nancy Smith
October 1, 2015
What are you going to do with Florida sugar farmers? First they insist on keeping the land they own. How selfish is that? Then they go and meet annual Everglades pollution reduction requirements when everybody knows they're poisoning the planet.  
Now guess what they're doing? You probably heard: Those sons-of-a-seabiscuit are poisoning the air as well. They audaciously told the media Wednesday they're going to control-burn their crops -- even though the Sierra Club told them not to.
They're going to defy Sierra, the Everglades Foundation, Earthjustice, litigation-loving enviros of every description. 
What it's going to cost them is a lawsuit. (The Sierras have established a website, stopsugarburning.org.)
Sugar farmers say controlled agricultural burning allows more efficient sugarcane harvesting in the field and improves sugar quality and recovery in the factory. The residue contributes very little to the production of sugar, they say, and has little or no economic value.
What's niggling at the enviros is that they shared their best business advice: Instead of burning, they'll allow cutting away the leafy portions of sugar cane and using it to mulch the fields. Or they'll allow trucking away grassy material to burn as biofuel in processing plants that have more pollution controls. That's fair enough, isn't it?
If the 85-year-old Florida sugar industry was going to listen, it probably wouldn't have called Wednesday's phone press conference.
Barbara Miedema, vice president for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, says the enviros' advice is plain not do-able: Trucking away sugar cane leftovers to burn at processing plants would lead to more vehicle emissions. And chopping and mulching instead of burning "is just not feasible" on South Florida's muck soils, Miedema told the Sun-Sentinel, because of concerns that the mulching would smother the next crop.
Sugar farmers -- the insolent devils -- choose to listen not to the enviros' business advice, but to the state Departments of Health, Environmental Protection, Agriculture and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, all of which have fairly vigorous burn monitoring programs and none of which claims the air is polluted during the weeks of crop burns, either within the agricultural area or in the cities along the coast.
Which is getting me quickly to the point:
For the $1-plus million since 2003 the Everglades Foundation purportedly has donated to the Sierra Club to make this court "case" happen -- if it's true, and there really is litigation around the corner -- this is going to be as absurdly silly and frivolous a lawsuit as I've ever seen. 
In the first place, Sierra representatives are  apparently going door to door in the most affected towns, drumming up "sick" people -- asthmatics and lung cases, mostly -- trying to create something they can pass off as a disease cluster. Try to picture it. This approach is no more scientific than Neanderthal Man was when he looked out at the ocean and concluded the Earth is flat.   
In the second place, Pat Dobbins, a former medical officer for the Florida DOH in Hendry and Glades counties, told the media Wednesday that Hendry and Glades have the second and third best air quality in Florida -- before, during and after the burns. The health community, she said, is “unanimous in agreeing that cane burning does not pose a threat to the health of the communities near where it occurs” and South Florida’s agricultural areas are “as clean as any other part of the state.”
In the third place, as Judy Sanchez, senior director of communications for U.S. Sugar Corp., said Wednesday, "Complaints (about the burning) have averaged less than two a year."
And finanlly, state and federal governments both use a prescribed burn program to maintain their park systems, preserves, forests and other holdings. It's an important part of managing natural resources.
In the end, the only thing a lawsuit about burning will do is feed more lawyers and further hassle sugar farmers large and small. But if you're a South Florida environmentalist, that's probably objective enough.

151001-b
End of an era: Everglades airboats to be phased out
CBS news
October 1, 2015
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK- Some of the most familiar sights in Everglades National Park — the largest sub-tropical wilderness in the United States — are heading for extinction.
Keith Price is right at home riding on the river of grass. As president of the Airboat Association of Florida, he’s fighting for the rights of future generations.
“I’ll be one of the ones grandfathered in,” Price told CBS News.
He says he’s fighting for his kids to be grandfathered in as well.
For over 85 years, airboaters have used an 110,000 acre parcel of the Everglades as their playground. But in 1989, it was added to the Everglades National Park where airboating has been off limits.
For the last 26 years, airboaters have been fighting with the National Park Service. They want to pass along their hobby to their children and grandchildren. But Congress says, when they die, recreational airboating does too.
Twenty-one-year-old Taylor Rhodes says he’s grown up on airboats. Now, he’s among those who will be banned.
“It’s like a dying breed. My grandpa took me out here when I was a kid,” Rhodes told CBS News.
But John Adornato, regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, says, “the Everglades National Park is not just the backyard of a few local folks.”
He believes the Everglades require Congressional protection.
“Airboats are loud and noisy machines that can run through the Everglades scaring birds out of their nests and leaving preferential pathways for water flow that wouldn’t naturally be there,” Adornato tells CBS News.
Using a Google map, Adornato showed CBS News the pathways airboats are creating — jeopardizing, he says, the health of the entire Everglades ecosystem.
But Price insists a ban is not necessary.
“Why not make us custodians of the Everglades. We were doing it before the National Park Service was here,” he says.
Price says the ashes of at least 30 airboaters are scattered there — and he’s not giving up.
“I haven’t lost until they throw a chain out there on the gate in front of my club and tell me I can’t go in any more. And even then, I’m still going to make enough noise to be heard,” Price told CBS News.
One thing that will continue on the Everglades, official government guided tours, which will be operated by the National Park Service.
There are almost a million other acres outside of the National Park that gladesmen are free to run their airboats. The rules go into effect as soon as October 1.
Related:           Broward, Palm Beach firefighters sue FWC after airboat crash        Sun Sentinel

151001-c
Flood waters keep coming as king tides continue
Sun Sentinel – by Larry Barszewski, Reporter
October 1, 2015
Tidal valves installed in two Fort Lauderdale isle communities were not a match for this week’s King Tides that were amplified by a Supermoon. Both Riviera Isles and Hendricks Isle saw it’s share of flooding.
Tidal valves can stop a rising tide, but maybe not during a supermoon with king tides.
King tides continue to push water over sea walls and up through drains near South Florida's coastal waterways, even overwhelming places that have taken aggressive action to protect against flooding.
The fall tides, typically the highest of the year, have been even higher this week because they coincide with the supermoon — so named because the moon is at its closest point to earth this year.
While the king tides are expected to end Friday, there's a possibility distant Hurricane Joaquin could cause additional flooding over the weekend.
In Fort Lauderdale, the Riviera Isles and Hendricks Isle communities that installed tidal protection valves in recent years couldn't keep the water at bay. Water also poured over sea walls along Las Olas Boulevard, inundating sections of the road.
The Marina Historic District in Delray Beach has been flooded all week, with water 10 inches deep on some properties.
And temporary pumps in Miami Beach were no match for the extreme tides in the Indian Creek Drive area, forcing the city to close that road.
Hurricane Joaquin curves north, away from land
Ken Kaye
A powerful Hurricane Joaquin shifted north to a path that would appear to spare the northeastern United States and Canada, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
With sustained winds of 130 mph, the Category 4 storm was "extremely dangerous," according to the center's...
A powerful Hurricane Joaquin shifted north to a path that would appear to spare
the northeastern United States and Canada, according to the latest advisory from
the National Hurricane Center.
"We haven't seen much flooding in a long time, but the whole street is just overwhelmed with the amount of water," said Dr. John Golia, who lives on Fort Lauderdale's Hendricks Isle. "It literally seeps up. It comes from all the drains. It just can't handle it."
In Delray Beach, Claudia Willis had water almost a foot deep on portions of her property in the marina historic district.
"I have put a lot of money into not having flooding issues," Willis said, including raising her lawn and driveway and adding brick edging to prevent gravel from floating away from her 1940 home. Her problems have been exacerbated by "gawkers" who drive through the neighborhood and create wakes that push the water closer to the homes.
Wet walking conditions
Rolando Otero / Sun Sentinel
Las Olas Boulevard near Southeast 25th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale has water rising onto the sidewalk during high tide on Thursday, October 1, 2015.
Delray Beach is adding three flex valves into some sea walls to allow fresh water to exit and prevent saltwater from entering city drainage systems. But these are effective only if the tides stay lower than the sea wall, said John Morgan, the city's sustainability officer.
Riviera Isles was the first Fort Lauderdale community to install one-way valves that allow stormwater to flow out but block rising seawater. Residents there haven't seen such flooding since the area's brush with Hurricane Sandy three years ago.
"The valves are working. It's akin to trying to pump water out of a glass that is underwater," said Duke Siotkas, president of the Riviera Isles Homeowner Association.
"It's almost as bad as Sandy, but Sandy was worse because there were other contributing factors." Siotkas said. "The intense low pressure and the winds contributed to raising our sea level, not only the high tides."
Those memories have waterfront homeowners casting a wary eye eastward to where Joaquin is churning. Joaquin is forecast to take a track eerily similar to that of Sandy — which wiped out a stretch of State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale and eroded miles of beaches from Boca Raton to Juno Beach — as it passed near Florida. Both hit the central Bahamas and aimed north.
However, when Sandy was about 300 miles southeast of Miami, it was a Category 2 system with top winds of 105 mph. Joaquin is forecast to be at or near Category 4 strength when it's in the same area Friday.
Because Joaquin has a much smaller, tighter circulation, it's unlikely to generate the same large waves and coastal flooding that Sandy did, said meteorologist Kim Brabander of the National Weather Service in Miami.
"We certainly expect to have some moderate to large swells with Joaquin," Brabander said. "But it shouldn't cause near the problems that Sandy did."
He added that high surf advisories likely will be posted on Friday or Saturday because of Joaquin.
And cities are also bracing for more rounds of king tides Oct. 24-31 and Nov. 24-27.
The new systems being used in South Florida to combat flooding didn't fail, they were just overwhelmed at times, officials and residents say.
Jay Fink, Miami Beach's assistant public works director, said the permanent pumps that have been installed did keep the bay waters from inundating the stormwater system and removing water accumulating on the streets.
"In a few cases, the levels of the canals has exceeded the elevations of the sea walls and is pouring into city streets," Fink said. Most pumps were able to keep the roadways passable, although some could not eliminate the accumulated water until after the tides receded.
That was the story with Fort Lauderdale's tidal valves, which can't stop seawater from rushing over sea walls but helped drain the area faster once the tides receded.
"When that water starts coming over the wall, it literally rushes down the street like a river," Siotkas said.
Fort Lauderdale even installed a new tidal valve on Rio Del Mar near Southeast 23rd Avenue on Monday night and saw some instant relief. The installation had already been planned, but the project was expedited because of the king tide flooding, city spokeswoman Shannon Vezina said.
The valves cost the city between $20,000 and $50,000 each to design, buy and install, Vezina said, depending on the age and type of existing pipes. The city is spending $8.5 million over a five-year period on tidal and stormwater improvements in about a dozen isle neighborhoods.
Tamara Tennant, a Riviera Isles resident instrumental in getting the tidal valves installed, said the next big effort has to be making sure sea walls are high enough and in good condition.
"When you have something like this, there's nothing the valves can do," Tennant said. "We have water pouring over sea walls, through sea walls."
Staff writers Ken Kaye and Lois Solomon contributed to this report.

151001-d
Love birds ? So do these folks at the Audubon Society of the Everglades
Palm Beach Post – by Janis Fontaine
October 1, 2015
Birds tend to bicker and fight.
But bird watchers apparently don’t.
Linda Humphries, who has served on the Audubon Society of the Everglades board for nearly a dozen years now — including two terms as president — praises its board of directors for its contributions. “We have a wonderful board. We all work together. It’s the board that makes our organization what it is.”
The ASE has been around since the 1950s, and it was incorporated in 1966. (Its members will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2016). Its territory is from Jupiter/Tequesta south to Boca Raton – basically all of Palm Beach County. The club meets on the first Tuesday of the month at the FAU’s Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, 6301 Summit Blvd. in West Palm Beach.
Each meeting includes a lecture by an ornithology expert and well-known local birder Clive Pinnock usually comes and talks about the bird of the month, Humphries says. There’s also time set aside for sharing stories and photos, and for networking and refreshments. On Tuesday, Dr. Dale Gawlik, a professor of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University, will speak about wading birds in a changing Everglades. Meetings are open to the public.
The ASE welcomed Humphries when she moved to Palm Beach County full time in 2003. The group elected her president twice, and now she’s on her second term as vice president. In addition to the monthly meetings, the members and board plan and guide nearly 150 bird watching walks and trips every year.
Because of its friendly relationship with the South Florida Water Management District, the ASE has received special permission to take field trips to two of the five Stormwater Treatment Areas that rim the Everglades. They visit STA 1E, 5,000 acres northeast of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, about once a month, as well as STA 2, 15,500 acres west of Fort Lauderdale.
They added the Broward trip last year when a flamboyance of flamingos (yes, that’s what it’s called) decided to do its one-legged roost there. These members-only trips are one advantage of ASE membership; STAs are otherwise off-limits to the public. “We ran 13 tours and took over 600 people to see the flamingos last year,” Humphries said.
Humphries says it’s the board members’ lasting relationships with the folks at the SFWMD that have garnered these opportunities for the club. “We don’t try to reinvent the wheel,” Humphries said. “We work with other organizations, like the Water Management District and the main library, on common goals.”
At the main Palm Beach County library on Summit Boulevard in West Palm Beach, a special Audubon Collection contains thousands of books, field guides, maps, and pamphlets detailing the birds that live or migrate through South Florida. The ASE’s Library Committee continues to add the best new books on birds and birding to the collection each year using money from bequests and donations to the ASE. Opened in 1979, it’s become one of the most complete collections of bird books in Florida.
The club has even attracted a celebrity or two, including James Currie, a nationally-known birding expert, conservation advocate, and the host of Nikon’s “Birding Adventures TV” and Nat Geo Wild’s “Aerial Assassins.”
“He’s led trips for us and been a speaker at our meetings. He’s got an unbelievable personality and he’s invested in our chapter,” Humphries said.
One of her favorite places to bird watch is Snook Island in Lake Worth. “This area has seen a flood of new bird activity. I think it’s the quality of the water. We’ve seen American oystercatchers nesting there.” (Snook Island is on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway at the foot of the Lake Worth bridge, opposite of Bryant Park. Watch for the signs marking the trail and boardwalk.)
Every February, the club co-sponsors the annual Everglades Day Festival at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in western Boynton Beach. This free event highlights the importance of this unique ecosystem that supports a treasure trove of bird, aquatic and animal life.
The society also publishes a monthly newsletter, and has an active Facebook page. Their website is a real work of art-meets-technology, with incredible photos taken by members, a snappy, easy-to-read layout and tons of great information.
Today, the Audubon Society has almost 300 local members. “I’m so proud of how far we’re come,” Humphries said. New members are always welcome, and the annual dues are inexpensive: $15 for seniors, $20 for adults, and $25 for families. Visit www.auduboneverglades.org for information.
Upcoming birding events
STA 1E — 7:30 a.m. Saturday. A car pool tour. Reservations and release required. Leader: Mark Cook.
Riverbend Park — 8 a.m. Sunday, 9060 Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Leader: Chuck Weber.
Tall Cypress Natural Area — 8 a.m. Sunday, 3700 Turtle Run Blvd., Coral Springs. Leader: Bruce Pickholtz.
Presentation: Not Your Grandma’s Audubon — 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. James Currie will speak at Mounts Botanical Garden, 531 S. Military Trail, West Palm Beach. Tickets: $20 members of Mounts and the ASE, $25 nonmembers.
MacArthur Beach State Park — 8 a.m. Oct. 10. Meet at the A1A bridge (300 yards south of the entrance). Park entry fee required. Leader: Jim Howe.
Florida Audubon Eagle Watch Training ARM Loxahatchee NWR — 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 10, 10216 Lee Road, Boynton Beach. Park entrance fee waived for attendees. Reservations required at asetripinfo@gmail.com
Green Cay Wetlands — 5 p.m. Oct. 11, 12800 Hagen Ranch Road, Boynton Beach. Leader: Valleri Brauer.
Seacrest Scrub — 8 a.m. Oct. 11, S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach. Leaders: Chadda and John Shelly.
Spanish River Park, Boca Raton — 8 a.m. Oct 17, 3001 A1A, Boca Raton. Leaders: Brian Hope and Al Pelligrinelli.
STA 2 — 8 a.m. Oct. 17. Reservations required.
Florida Keys Hawk Watch — Oct 17-18. Reservations required at birdpaddy@yahoo.com. Leader: Paddy Cunningham.
Mangrove Park — 8 a.m. Oct. 18, Lantana Preserve, South Palm Beach. Leader: Sue Young.
Birds & Mangrove Ecology: A presentation by Clive Pinnock — 8:30 am. Oct. 21, MacArthur Beach State Park, North Palm Beach. Meet outside nature center. Park entry fee required.
America’s Everglades: “The Unseen Everglades: Inside a Legendary Wilderness” — 6 p.m. Oct. 21, at Palm Beach County main library, Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach. A joint presentation with Sierra Club featuring a movie and panel discussion.
Frenchman’s Forest Natural Area — 8 a.m. Oct. 24, 125th Street N., Palm Beach Gardens. Leaders: Melanie & Steve Garcia.
Everglades National Park — 7:30 a.m. Oct. 24. Meet in parking lot Coe Visitor Center, Homestead. Hosted by the Tropical Audubon Society. Leader: John Boyd.
Spanish River Park, Boca Raton — 8 a.m. Oct. 25, 3001 A1A, Boca Raton. Leaders: Lee and David Haase.
Pine Glades Natural Area — 6:45 a.m. Oct. 31, 14122 West Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Leader: Chuck Weber.
Want to bird watch?
What can people do to attract more birds to their yard ? What can they expect to see ?
Planting native plants is important so the birds have food, and providing water. I like the tiny little millet. I have birds at my feeder all the time. Blue jays, cardinals, downy woodpeckers, and warblers.
What’s the best time to bird watch ?
Early in the morning or in the late afternoon.
Are there any misconception about birds?
We do not have American crows in Palm Beach County, but you can see them in Broward. We have fish crows.

151001-e
Phosphate giant Mosaic agrees to pay nearly $2 billion over mishandling of hazardous waste
TampaBayTimes – by Craig Pittman, Staff Writer
October 1, 2015
Mosaic Fertilizer, the world's largest phosphate mining company, has agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to settle a federal lawsuit over hazardous waste and to clean up operations at six Florida sites and two in Louisiana, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday.
"The 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste addressed in this case is the largest amount ever covered by a federal or state . . . settlement and will ensure that wastewater at Mosaic's facilities is properly managed and does not pose a threat to groundwater resources," the EPA said.
The EPA had accused Mosaic of improper storage and disposal of waste from the production of phosphoric and sulfuric acids, key components of fertilizers, at Mosaic's facilities in Bartow, New Wales, Mulberry, Riverview, South Pierce and Green Bay in Florida, as well as two sites in Louisiana.
The EPA said it had discovered Mosaic employees were mixing highly corrosive substances from its fertilizer operations with the solid waste and wastewater from mineral processing, in violation of federal and state hazardous waste laws.
"This case is a major victory for clean water, public health and communities across Florida and Louisiana," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
Mosaic CEO Joc O'Rourke said the company is "pleased to be bringing this matter to a close" and pledged to be a good environmental steward. The Minnesota-based company was formed in 2004 by a merger of IMC Global with the crop nutrition division of Cargill.
Mosaic officials in Florida said the EPA investigation and negotiations for a settlement have been going on for eight years over practices that everyone in the phosphate industry was doing as well.
The settlement with the EPA, the Justice Department, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality will have no impact on Mosaic's continued employment or on its future mining expansion plans in DeSoto, Hardee and Manatee counties, they said.
Thursday's settlement will become final upon approval by the court. The first step in this process is a 30-day public comment period, which is now open, said Julia Valentine, an EPA spokeswoman.
First discovered by an Army Corps of Engineers captain in 1881, Florida's phosphate deposits today are the basis of an $85 billion industry that supplies three-fourths of the phosphate used in the United States. Although phosphate mining provides a major financial boon to the small communities in which the mines are located, it also leaves behind a major environmental mess.
The miners use a dragline with a bucket the size of a truck to scoop up the top 30 feet of earth and dump it to the side of the mine. Then the dragline scoops out the underlying section of earth, which contains phosphate rocks mixed with clay and sand.
The bucket dumps this in a pit where high-pressure water guns create a slurry that can be pumped to a plant up to 10 miles away.
At the plant, the phosphate is separated from the sand and clay. The clay slurry is pumped to a settling pond, and the phosphate is sent to a chemical processing plant where it is converted for use in fertilizer and other products. The sand is sent back to the mine site to fill in the hole after all the phosphate is removed.
A byproduct, called phosphogypsum, is slightly radioactive so it cannot be easily disposed. The only thing the miners can do with it is stack it into mountainous piles next to the plant. Florida is such a flat state that the 150-foot-tall "gyp stacks" are usually the highest point in the landscape for miles around. They contain large pools of highly acidic wastewater on top.
"Mining and mineral processing facilities generate more toxic and hazardous waste than any other industrial sector," Giles said. "Reducing environmental impacts from large fertilizer manufacturers operations is a national priority for EPA."
Mosaic's production of pollution is so great that in 2012, the Southwest Florida Water Management District granted the company a permit to pump up to 70 million gallons of water a day out of the ground for the next 20 years. Mosaic is using some of that water to dilute the pollution it dumps into area creeks and streams so it won't violate state regulations.
The EPA investigation was prompted by a 2003 incident in which the Piney Point phosphate plant, near the southern end of the Sunshine Skyway bridge, leaked some of waste from atop its gyp stack into the edge of Tampa Bay after its owners walked away.
That prompted EPA to launch a national review of phosphate mining facilities, Valentine said. That's how inspectors found workers were mixing the corrosive substances from the fertilizer operations with the phosphogypsum and wastewater from the mineral processing, she said.
That mixing was something everyone in the industry did, according to Richard Ghent of Mosaic's Florida operations. The EPA said that violated both state and federal law and put groundwater at risk. It has previously gotten settlements from two other companies, one of which, CF Industries, has since been taken over by Mosaic.
Despite the mishandling of the waste, Debra Waters, Mosaic's director of environmental regulatory affairs in Florida, said the company has seen no change in the area's groundwater, which EPA officials said was correct.
The fact that the negotiations have been going on for so many years, Waters said, "should indicate that there's no imminent threat."
The company will invest at least $170 million at its fertilizer manufacturing facilities to keep those substances separate from now on. Mosaic will also put money aside for the safe future closure of the gypsum stacks using a $630 million trust fund it is creating under the settlement. That money will be invested until it reaches $1.8 billion, which will pay for the closures.
The South Pierce and Green Bay plants, both in Polk County, will soon shut down, with the closure of the gyp stacks already underway, Waters said.
Mosaic will also pay a $5 million civil penalty to the federal government, a $1.55 million penalty to the state of Louisiana and $1.45 million to Florida, and it will be required to spend $2.2 million on local environmental projects to make up for what it has done.
Mosaic, which runs television ads touting its importance in growing crops to feed the world, has donated to both the Florida Republican and Democratic parties, and to state lawmakers such as Rep. Dana Young, Rep. Jake Raburn and Rep. Ben Albritton.
The company has previously run afoul of the EPA on its air pollution standards. Meanwhile, though, it was rated one of the top 50 employers in America based on salary and job satisfaction. Mosaic employs about 1,200 people in Hillsborough County alone.
MOSAIC COMPANY
Headquarters: Plymouth, Minn.,  Florida HQ: Lithia
Employees: 9,000 in six countries
Claim to fame: Largest producer of phosphate in the world.
Business operation: Mines phosphate from nearly 200,000 acres of Mosaic-owned land in Central Florida. Also mines potash from four mines in the U.S. and Canada.
History: Formed in 2004 by merger of IMC Global and crop nutrition division of Cargill.
Web site: http://www.mosaicco.com/
Related:           Mosaic, feds reach $2B settlement in waste case       Bradenton Herald
Mosaic, feds reach $2B settlement in waste case       Bradenton Herald

151001-f
What is the Atlantic blob ? And should we worry?
Christian Sci. Monitor - by Lisa Suhay, Correspondent
October 1, 2015
A region of cold, fresh water in the North Atlantic could lead to bigger storm surges from Hurricane Joaquin, say experts.
A chart by Old Dominion University researchers shows a possible correlation between the slowing of the Gulfstream and local flooding estimates which have a one-foot anomaly researchers there say harkens back to the Atlantic 'blob.'
Norfolk, Va. — Those preparing for Hurricane Joaquin might want to know that some researchers say a foot has been added on to the usual tidal flooding estimates.
But don't blame Joaquin entirely. The extra tidal boost is coming from the Atlantic ‘blob’ – a body of cold, fresh water that has been puzzling scientists.
Researchers say that the slowing down of the planet’s oceanic circulatory system is being felt particularly along the Atlantic coast of the United States.
The Atlantic ‘blob’ is a patch of unusually cold surface waters in the North Atlantic just south of Greenland. It is not to be confused with the Northern Pacific ‘blob’ of warm waters.
Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University climate change expert writes in an email that this is likely “a signature of ongoing slowdown of the Atlantic ‘conveyor belt’ circulation.”
A study published in March in the journal Nature by Dr. Mann and his colleagues suggested that the introduction of freshwater from melting Greenland ice into the North Atlantic could be playing a key role in the slowdown.
“The most significant impact, however, might be on the conditions (deep convection of the ocean) that are responsible for the surface nutrients that make the extratropical North Atlantic one of the most productive regions of the world’s oceans,” Mann writes. “That would have negative repercussions for the entire food web, and could severely impact fish populations we rely upon for food.”
For humans this weekend, the most significant impacts are likely to be flooded cars and basements.
Old Dominion University oceanographer Larry P. Atkinson works as part of a global team of scientists taking part in the Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative. “There are things going on up in the North Atlantic – that big climate scale process – as that changes, there are all kinds of other things that happen," he says in an interview. "Like this sea level rise, [the] gulfstream slowdown, and I’m sure there are other things going on.”
Oceanographer Tal Ezer, who works with Professor Atkinson at Old Dominion and on the rising seas initiative, says, “We found [a] relation between the slowing down of the Gulf Stream and sea level rise in the Mid-Atlantic area. Whenever the Gulf Stream slows down we have an increase in sea level rise and more tidal flooding.”
A cable stretched across the Florida Straits, satellites, and floats provide data on the Gulf Stream that Professor Ezer and his colleagues are using to model the changes in ocean circulation, which are  connected to the large-scale circulation pattern known as the "conveyor belt."
Dr. Ezer adds, “This week, right now, in fact, we are looking at the data coming in and seeing a  significant slowdown in the Gulf Stream off Florida, which may relate to Hurricane Joaquin and the offshore storm that passed the region over the past week; Norfolk has seen significant flooding last week.’”
“We often see an acceleration of sea level rise and we show that whenever we have flooding here for a prolonged period of time we often see the Gulf Stream in the trend of slowing down,” Ezer says. “There is no storm in the area but still we see the water level about one foot above the official prediction and the only reason we can find is that the Gulfstream, offshore, is slowing down. Even without any wind we get minor tidal flooding.”
Penn. State's Mann says he agrees with the Old Dominion team's findings, up to a point, adding, “One potential impact of the slowing of the conveyor belt is indeed greater rise in sea level along the mid-Atlantic coast than the global average. We think this is part of the reason that global sea level is rising faster (nearly 1 foot already) than the rest of the globe. But the effect at this point can be measured in a few inches, not a whole foot.”
Other effects already felt, Mann says may include the relatively cool summer experienced by those in Canada and in some neighboring regions in the United States, “despite it being the warmest year on record for the globe,” Mann writes.
Atkinson says that in order to more effectively study the symptoms of the slowdown, more cables and tidal measuring instruments need to be put in place all along the whole North Atlantic current and the Gulfstream
“I mean, we can find water on Mars but we don’t know where the water is moving on Earth.” says Atkinson.
Mann concludes, “Well – if this is indeed a consequence of human-caused climate change, then the only solution is to attack the problem at the source – i.e. to reduce carbon emissions and stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and avert dangerous warming of the planet.”

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