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SWFL ENews: May 16, 06 SWFL ENews:
May 16, 06 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Unwanted panther, kittens, can stay in Pinecrest
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 16
PINECREST — The sky, particularly blue on this Friday morning, is barely visible through the green canopy of cypress trees along Loop Road. What appears at first to be a pile of discarded tires on the side of the road turns out to be a mob of alligators. This untamed corner of South Florida is an ideal place to hide. Just ask themobsters, bootleggers or any of the other outlaws who have escaped to this swampy refuge over the years. But even here, a four-legged renegade — the Florida panther — is no longer welcome. A handful of residents and a nation of American Indians are calling for a female Florida panther, known as FP 124, and her offspring to be booted from their midst. They are tired of the panthers showing up in their back yards, at ceremonial tribal dances and at a children's education center run by the National Park Service.Despite the complaints, state and ...

Lake Trafford restoration completed
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /May 4
Alligators, an army of them, slide across Lake Trafford, only their backs and snouts poking above the dark surface. Lake Trafford Marina owner Ski Olesky said Wednesday he already can see the water getting clearer now that crews have finished a $10.4 million restoration project at the Immokalee fishing spot. As his airboat creeps closer, one of the gators drops out of sight, but Olesky, from his perch in the airboat driver’s seat, points into the lake’s rusty-colored shallows. “There he is!” Olesky said. “Three weeks ago, you couldn’t see him.” After years of stops and starts, the restoration project cranked up Nov. 3. Its aim was to rid the lake of tons of muck that had been choking it. The dredgeworked around-the-clock to finish the job last week.The South Florida Water Management District estimates crews have removed some 4 million cubic yards of muck — about 22 ...

State sets aside $3.6 million to improve region's waterways
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /May 14
The amount is more like a sprinkle than a good soaking, but Southwest Florida is in line for more money for projects to improve water quality in its rivers, bays and estuaries. During its 2006 session in Tallahassee, the state Legislature approved $3.6 million to be spread over five watershed initiatives and restoration projects in Collier and Lee counties. The projects still must survive Gov. Jeb Bush’s line-item veto pen. The legislative approval compares to more than $11.6 million that the South Florida Water Management District had requested for those projects — an $8 million shortfall that means some local priorities will go unfunded. In Collier County, for example, the water management district requested $3 million. Legislators approved $1.3 million. “It will help, but it will certainly leave a lot of issues out there,” said Gene Calvert, the county’s stormwater manag ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Wild critters faring fine in dry conditions
Byron Stout /News Press /Apr 29
Although Southwest Floridians may be struggling with dry wells and parched lawns in a month that's seen a third of an inch of rain, life for the wild things in Southwest Florida is going well. "The way things are at the moment, everything is in pretty good shape," said Mike Kemmerer, area biologist for the 100-square-mile Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area in Charlotte County. Kemmerer has been managing and studying the wildlife on "The Webb" for 211Ú2 years."Low water levels at this point to me aren't critical. I've seen it drier than this, a lot drier, and everything came back relatively quickly." Kemmerer and other scientists note Florida has two main seasons — wet and dry — and that's the way native plants and animals like it. It's a matter of natural balance. "The water levels are low, and some of the fish are dying, but the buzzards are eating them," said ...

Is a sugar-free landscape the answer to red tide?
Ben Bova /Naples Daily News /Apr 30
A couple of years ago, I suggested that agricultural runoff from the sugar farms below Lake Okeechobee was a major contributor to the red tide algal blooms that bedevil our beaches in Southwest Florida. Many people pooh-poohed the idea. But over the intervening months, evidence has mounted: Residues from fertilizers and pesticides sprayed on the sugar fields sink into the soil and are carried by streams and groundwater flow into the Gulf of Mexico.We think of that as pollution. The algae living in the Gulf think of it as food.They use the nutrients that the sugar growers so generously pour out to increase their numbers, and we get red tide blooms that kill fish, manatees and dolphins and cause respiratory problems among humans. As an asthmatic, I'm particularly sensitive to the toxins released by those little bugs, but non-asthmatics also cough, sneeze and suffer burnin ...

State Buys Babcock Ranch
staff /Florida Sportsman /May 2006
The cutting of cypress will stop, and the private hunting leases will end, opening the door to public access on one of Florida’s finest properties, the 74,000-acre Babcock Ranch. In the closing days and waning hours of this legislative session, cypress harvesting and private hunting leases were the two big sticking points that had sportsmen/conservationist and environmentalists working feverishly together to preserve the original agreement, which banned both.But fortunately, the original agreement was preserved in the Senate by Senator Paula Dockery and Senator Mike Bennett. “There are many to be thanked for saving Babcock Ranch for our children and grandchildren,” said Marion Hammer, legislative affairs director of the National Rifle Association in Florida and the United Sportsmen of Florida. “These include Governor Jeb Bush, Senate President Tom Lee, House Speaker Allan Bense, Co ...

Southwest Florida environmental plan delayed
staff /Naples Daily News /May 2006
Southwest Florida will have to wait at least four more years than originally thought for the completion of a $12 million blueprint for reversing decades of environmental destruction.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aiming to complete the massive study and submit it to Congress in February 2009. Those milestones should have been reached in March 2005, according to the Army Corps' estimate in 2002. "We thought it would be two years when we started and then four years, and now it's taken on a life of its own," said Bill Hammond, a Florida Gulf Coast University ecology professor and former South Florida Water Management District governing board member. The delay comes amid growing concerns about the health of the Caloosahatchee River, water supply shortages and the loss of environmentally sensitive land to new subdivisions -- all issues the study promises to address.On April 27, the ...

Cape could vote on tougher water restrictions
Don Ruane /News Press /May 15
A promising weather forecast might help Cape Coral refill its shrinking water supplies. The Cape Coral City Council, when it meets at 5:30 p.m. today may reduce the number of days residents can water from two to one. The meeting is in the city council chamber at City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Boulevard.City officials are concerned about reports of wells going dry and dropping canal levels. Canals support part of the firefighting system and the supply of irrigation water piped to some Cape Coral homes.The city’s own weather forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of rain Tuesday, dropping to 40 percent Tuesday tonight. The outlook is promising, said South Florida Water Management Districtspokesman Kurt Harclerode.“It’s looking pretty active for the next day and a half. It looks likeconditions are changing to get us into more of a wet season schedule,”Harclerode said. “If we ...

Study tracks where the water went
Greg Martin /Sun Herald /May 11
Scientists have known for a decade that the Peace River's flow has decreased 35 percent since the 1960s.What they don't know is how much of the decline is because of changes man wrought upon the natural landscape, and what to do to prevent further declines in the future. To answer those questions, the Legislature in 2003 directed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Southwest Florida Water Management District to conduct a cumulative impact study of the Peace River. The $750,000 study is expected to be completed by August. As the study nears completion, the district is holding several public workshops to gather input. The study will provide the technical basis for the DEP to adopt rules, regulations and goals to better steward the resource in the future, said Ron Basso, senior hydrologist for the water district. The first of the workshops is to be held fro ...

Scientists use algae to forecast hurricane season
staff /NBC2 News /May 11
Scientists know for a fact that it is red algae washing up on the beaches, but marine biologist Steve Bortone and his team are worried that there is so much of it. Bortone says warm water will help break up the algae, but warmer waters may mean a severe hurricane season. "If the open gulf temperatures are warmer than usual, we might see more severe hurricanes in the area," said Bortone. He explained that even a one-degree increase in water temperatures could mean a higher category of storm. Even though red algae is not dangerous, the team also wondered if there is any connection between it and the more harmful red tide organism. "It doesn't seem to be related to red tide so far," said Bortone. He said there are two reasons that led him to that conclusion. Red tide forms around 50 miles off of the shoreline whereas red algae forms a lot closer. Also, because it has not rai ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

10-foot gator bites wading fly fisherman
staff /News Zap /May 2006
With the weather warming up and breeding season having begun, alligators are becoming more active. This big guy enjoyed his dinner at the FWC dock on the Rim Canal. Okeechobee News/Lorna JablonskiBy Lorna Jablonski, Okeechobee News Sixty-six-year-old Sam Crutchfield of Fort Pierce was attacked by an alligator while fly fishing on Lake Istokpoga Monday afternoon. The alligator, which is believed to be at least 10 feet long, grabbed Mr. Crutchfield by the hip as he stood in 41-inch deep water. "I had been wade fishing off the south end of Big Island for over three-and-one-half hours without a bite. Around noon I moved into the deeper water. Suddenly, I was knocked sideways," said Mr. Crutchfield. "Something locked onto me by the right hip and wouldn't let go. I started punching him as hard as I could. He finally released me and I took off toward our flats boat. I called to my partner ...

Pumps send creek water into reservoir for cleaning
Jim Reeder /Palm Beach Post /Apr 29
FORT PIERCE — The water was dark brown and smelly, just the kind of stuff you wouldn't want to fish, swim or play in. Three pumps were started Friday to move that water out of Ten Mile Creek into a 550-acre reservoir where pollutants will be removed before the water is slowly released back to Ten Mile Creek to go to the St. Lucie River. The pumps moved 276,760 gallons of water per second out of the creek into the reservoir. People who watched the first water pour over a concrete spillway were delighted at the sight of water rushing into the reservoir. "It feels good when you complete a step," said Lt. Col. Andrew Goetz of the Army Corps of Engineers. Colleen Castille, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said similar projects have helped restore habitat for marine life and wading birds.She reminded the audience at Friday's ribbon-cutting event t ...

Bush meets with Homeland Security chief about Lake Okeechobee
Brent Kallestad /Sun Sentinel /May 2
TALLAHASSEE -- With another hurricane season bearing down on Florida in justfour weeks, Gov. Jeb Bush has asked the federal government to shore up a dike that keeps Lake Okeechobee from overflowing in the wake of a report that predicts ``a catastrophe for South Florida'' if the dike fails. The report by a state-hired panel of engineering experts said the uncontrolled flooding that could result from a breach or series of breaches could harm Big Cypress and the Everglades, perhaps irreversibly, and create tens of billions of dollars in damages. ``It needs to be fixed now, and it needs to be fixed right,'' the engineers wrote in their conclusion to an 82-page report. ``The region's future depends on it.'' A failure of the dike could also contaminate South Florida's drinking water supply and flood thousands of acres of farmland. ``It would be devastating to our economy ...

Lee County commissioner visits Martin to boost Lake O efforts
George Andreassi /TCPalm /May 2
STUART — Lee County Commission Chairwoman Tammara Hall visited with the Martin County Commission on Tuesday to boost the efforts of the two counties to protect the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries from damaging releases from Lake Okeechobee. The health of the estuaries should be as high a priority as any other consideration in the management of Lake Okeechobee, such as providing irrigation for agriculture, Hall said. Hall also encouraged the Martin County commissioners to support a bill in the state Legislature that would form a study group with $75,000 in funding to look at the management of Lake Okeechobee. The group would bring together people from the government agencies, environmental groups, agricultural operations and other business interests that rely on Lake Okeechobee, Hall said. ...

Lake Okeechobee dike could fail in hurricane, report warns
AP /Houston Chronicle /May 2
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The dike keeping the nation's second-largest lake from overflowing has a high chance of failing in the event of another hurricane and poses "a grave and imminent danger," according to a state-hired panel of engineering experts. Gov. Jeb Bush said today he was worried about the report, which noted that the dike has a one in six chance of being breached in the event of a hurricane. Bush said he would discuss the findings, issued late Monday, in a meeting today with Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and R. David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The engineering experts were hired to evaluate the dike's ability to withstand additional hurricanes after the beating it took from Hurricane Wilma last October, Bush said. Lake Okeechobee is surrounded by the 143-mile Herbert Hoover dike, which wasbuilt in the 1950s in part ...

Report warns that Lake Okeechobee dike could break open during hurricane
Marc Freeman /Sen Sentinel /May 3
With hurricane season approaching, Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday urged an immediate federal response to a report warning that the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee is in extreme danger of failing and devastating South Florida's environment,economy and quality of life. If the levee were to breach, it could rival Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans by flooding the surrounding region, risking the lives of 40,000 people and threatening urban water supplies to the southeast, the report predicts. While state officials said they're hurriedly updating an evacuation plan for the region, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insisted that the earthen levee it built more than 70 years ago remains safe and work is under way to make it safer. "There are serious problems with the dike," Bush said. "If a hurricane were to hit, there'd be a one-in-six chance of a breach. There needs to ...

Lake O locks open
staff /News Press /May 3
Because Lake Okeechobee's water levels are low enough, the South Florida Water Management District has opened several navigational locks leading into the lake.The locks are: J&S Fish Camp (S-135), Henry Creek (G-36), Taylor Creek(S-193) and Buckhead Ridge (S-127). The S-131 lock in Lakeport will remain open only during the day until work begins on a major overhaul later this month. The Lakeport ock is expected to be out of service until August 4, 2006. Boaters are urged to navigate carefully through the open locks as manatees often are sighted in and near our structures in Lake Okeechobee duringthis time of year. Manatees often gather at the Taylor Creek lock. IThe water level in Lake Okeechobee on Tuesday was at 13.41 feet. ...

Support grows for bolstering levee
Lesley Clark /Miami Herald /May 4
WASHINGTON - Members of Congress are joining forces with Gov. Jeb Bush to hasten efforts to bolster the aging levee surrounding Lake Okeechobee. U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Mark Foley, who represent cities and towns just south of the lake, said Wednesday they're backing legislation that would reclassify the dike as a dam in an effort to increase the amount of money available to upgrade the leaking levee. An engineering report released Tuesday by Gov. Bush's office called the levee around the massive lake an ''imminent and grave danger,'' not only to those who live along the lake's southern rim, but to all of South Florida. ''Every study suggests this dike may fail in a major storm,'' said Hastings, a Miramar Democrat, likening the warnings to those that accompanied the levees in New Orleans that were breached by Hurricane Katrina. Foley, a Jup ...

Signs cast Pahokee to same winds as New Orleans
Emily Minor /Palm Beach Post /May 4
PAHOKEE — When you've lived along Lake Okeechobee this long, you know things. Things the rest of us do not. You recognize the rumble of the trucks at 2 a.m., carting in boulders to shore up the dike. "They always do it at night," says Carol Peaden.You know about the little orange flags — the ones she thinks government officials punched into the ground, like cable TV guys, to signal a weak spot in the shore. And you know that, when the storm actually comes, as Wilma did last fall, you leave the yard dog behind and get your behind to your mother's in St. Cloud. "I don't stay here," Peaden says. "Not anymore." Peaden has lived on the same quiet spot in Pahokee since 1971 and has operated Carol's Hair Barn from this piece of lakefront land since 1985. After the sudden death of her husband that year, she raised the four kids alone, allowing them to climb the grassy berm and swim in the ...

Levee official says dike around lake is safe
Phil Long /Bradenton Herald /May 4
CLEWISTON - Though he agrees the dike around Lake Okeechobee needs upgrading, the man in charge of the day-to-day operations of thelevee around Lake Okeechobee said Thursday he has confidence in its stability.But a report from an independent engineering group released earlier this week suggested there was a 50-50 chance of at least one breach of the Herbert Hoover Dike in the next four years. The report called the dike an imminent and grave danger. Nothing in this report was new to me, said Steve Sullivan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operations manager at the dike, though he did not disagree that long-term improvements are necessary. I have a very high confidence in the levee, very high confidence, he said during a press conference at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Clewiston office, because I have a high confidence in how we manage the water levels, how ...

Bush seeks immediate fix on Lake Okeechobee dike
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 2
Alarmed by an engineering report that describes the aging and leaky dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee as an ''imminent and grave danger'' to the public and environment, Gov. Jeb Bush is calling for immediate federal action to shore it up.The report, produced by three experts hired by the state and released Tuesday by the governor's office, offers an unsettling assessment of the stability of the Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding the vast lake. The 82-page report details concerns about past failures, internal weakening from high water and hurricane batterings and the pace and inadequacy of current repair plans by the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers.The study, first reported Tuesday by the Palm Beach Post, predicts that a major collapse of the 140-mile-long earthen levee could have 'catastrophic' consequences for all of South Florida and produces losses that might ...

Ensure integrity of Okeechobee's dike
Editorial /Miami Herald /May 7
It is safe to say that a good portion of the five-million-plus residents of South Florida have little or no understanding of how much Lake Okeechobee's Herbert Hoover Dike and the region's well-being are intertwined. But you can be sure that SouthFloridians are very familiar with what can happen when a levee crumbles in the face of a major storm like Hurricane Katrina. If the lake's dike is as susceptible to breaching under a similar onslaught as New Orleans' levees were, we are all in trouble. As in New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains the Lake Okeechobee dike. The agency isn't exactly pooh-poohing the state-commissioned engineering report on the 70-year-old dike's condition, but Corps managers do call its terminology unnecessarily alarmist. In the post-Katrina world, however, residents inflood-prone regions will always want realistic assessments of ...

Manager has confidence in Lake Okeechobee levee
Phil Long /Miami Herald /May 5
CLEWISTON - The Army Corps of Engineers' man in charge of the earthen levee around Lake Okeechobee said Thursday he has ''veryhigh confidence'' the dike is safe, though he agrees it needs upgrading.A state-commissioned report released earlier this week said there was a 50-50 chance of at least one breach of the 140-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike in the next four years. ''Nothing in this report was new to me,'' said Steve Sullivan, operations manager at the dike. He added that he does not disagree with the report's conclusion that long-term improvements are necessary.Nevertheless, he was upbeat.''I have a very high confidence in the levee,'' he said during anews conference at the Corps' Clewiston office. ''I have a high confidence in how we manage the water levels,'' and in how the Corps maintains the dike. The engineering report triggered Gov. Jeb Bush to order a quic ...

President: Corps will strengthen 70-year-old dike
Phil Long /Miami Herald /May 11
ORLANDO - President Bush said Wednesday he, too, is concerned about the 70-year-old dike around Lake Okeechobee and will keep up thepressure to strengthen the earthen barrier to avoid the killer flood that happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The dike is a critical issue because a breach would jeopardize the safety of 40,000 residents nearest the lake and the welfare of hundreds of thousands more in South Florida who might be flooded, the president said. ''Unlike other locales, the federal government is 100 percent responsible,'' for the Okeechobee dike, Bush said. A state-commissioned engineering report released by Gov. Jeb Bush last week said the dike poses an ''imminent and grave danger'' to Floridians. The president said the federal budget has $40 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to tackle the dike project, and that the agency ...

Corps, Foley urge Lake O residents not to panic
Joel Moroney /News Press /May 12
Rep. Mark Foley and representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District were in Pahokee today urging residents not to panic over the recently released report outlining deficiencies in the dikes around Lake Okeechobee. Corps representatives said the report relied almost exclusively on Army Corps of Engineers data. The report caused Gov. Jeb Bush to declare that residents around the lake would be under mandatory evacuations during hurricanes. The corps representatives said they are well aware of the problems detailed in the report, and that the corps is on a 20-year path to spend more than $300 million to upgrade the 75-year-old Herbert Hoover Dike. Col. Robert Carpenter, area commander for the corps, said it's his responsibility to ensure the integrity of the dikes around the lake.He said the report "makes people mor ...

Lake dike danger should be chief concern
Darrell Harris /News Press /May 13
It was with great concern that residents of Hendry County read storiesthis week regarding safety issues related to the Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Reports of the potential for disastrous consequences to the people of Hendry County resulting from breeches in the dike is an issue that must be addressed at all levels. I applaud the leadership of Gov. Jeb Bush for bringing the public safety issues related to Lake Okeechobee to the forefront. We, as public officials, have a responsibility to do what is necessary to protect the lives and the property of those we serve. It will take a united effortamong the local, state and federal government to ensure that everything possible is done to provide as safe an environment as possible to our constituents. It is our duty to do no less. The likelihood of the failure of the Herbert Hoover Dike increases as water ...

1979 breach of smaller dike a hint of disaster
Rachel Simmonsen /Palm Beach Post /May 15
Tony Noe knew something was amiss when he heard the cattle bawling outside. It was Halloween morning 1979. About 3 a.m. Down the road, in another home along U.S. 441 just east of Lake Okeechobee, Lonnie Clay stumbled out of bed after a bright light flashed through the window. He hurried to the front door and squinted into a car's headlights. "It was a deputy sheriff I knew," recalled Clay, now 67. "He said, 'Lonnie, this whole country is going to be flooded.' " Sometime after midnight, part of the earthen dam surrounding the 6,700-acre cooling pond at the Florida Power & Light Co. plant in Indiantown collapsed, unleashing a 10-foot wave 200 feet wide. Within hours, the water had swallowed up sugar cane fields and surged across U.S. 441 toward Lake Okeechobee, where the Herbert Hoover Dike, which surrounds the lake,forced the water to move north toward Okeechobee. "You could see the c ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Crankbaits get job done
Susan Cocking /Miami Herald /Apr 30
Early this morning, scores of bass anglers will compete for a top prize of $1,200 in the annual S.A.F.E.R. fishing tournament at Everglades Holiday Park in west Broward.S.A.F.E.R., which stands for South Florida Anglers for Everglades Restoration, organizes anglers and raises money to try to prevent the closures of local canals to fishing. The tournament is beingheld on the L-67, one of the most prolific public bass fisheries in the state.The parallel L-67 A and C canals, which run 25 miles from central Broward to the Tamiami Trail, should be red hot, since water levels have dropped about three feet in the past month. The low water has driven bass from the protection of adjacent marshes into the canals, where anglers have been hooking up in the high double digits daily. On Wednesday, Hollywood bass guide Billy Bob Crosno and friend Larry Collins of Miami enjoy ...

Big bass hide at 'Glades
Steve Waters /Sun Sentinel /May 2
Lots of small bass have been biting in Everglade canals, but there are enough big bass out there to make things interesting. On a day when most of the 115-boat field caught limits of fish 2-3 pounds, Rick Burton and Jim Anderson caught five bass weighing 26.36 pounds to win the fifth annual "Save Our Canals" bass tournament Sunday held by the South Florida Anglers For Everglades Restoration out of Everglades Holiday Park. Burton, of Wellington, and Anderson, of Davie, said they fished in the L-67ACanal, which runs from Holiday Park to Tamiami Trail. They started off catching a limit of fish on Zara Spooks. When the topwater bite slowed as the sun came up, they switched to pitching and flipping a Berkley Power Craw around lily pads and tight to the reeds lining the canal. "We were running and gunning," Anderson said. "We caught fish at every stop that we made. We prob ...

Restore Glades as planned
John Adornato /Miami Herald /May 4
Re the April 25 story Delays, high costs plague Glades plan: Thefederal audit lacks appropriate historical context and misrepresents some of the problems that we have had for more than 15 years. However, it does clearly illustrate why the project needs urgent, decisive leadership. President Bush should seize the opportunity to direct the Department of Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to break through these impasses and to restore Everglades National Park as Congress intended. Significant challenges have delayed this project for the past five administrations, allowing a number of stakeholders to develop false expectations. Unfortunately, the federal government has tried tomake everyone happy, resulting in project delays, cost increases and threats to the greater Everglades-restoration plan. The NationalPark Service hasn't changed its goals; the federal ...

Financing offer lets public invest in Everglades' future and turn a profit
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 5
Attention investors: Housing market getting too soft for your liking? Are your stocks turning your stomach instead of a profit? Well, the South Florida Water Management District has a deal for you. A favorable interest rate awaits those who “rent” a piece of the Everglades.The water management district plans to spend up to $1.8 billion to hasten eight critical Everglades restoration projects, a list that includes digging a giant reservoir along the Caloosahatchee River and razing Southern Golden Gate Estates. Employing a rare — if unprecedented — financing strategy for an environmental restoration project, district officials are poised to issue certificates of participation. Such funding normally is reserved for new school buildings, government centers and athletic arenas. Governments use the land and buildings as collateral for the investors who put up the mon ...

Agencies' feud costs big bucks, slows Everglades restoration
Editorial /TCPalm /May 4
Bumbling federal bureaucrats are at it again. Their penchant for protecting their own turf and exercising tunnel vision in dealing with South Florida's water management problems has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Modified Water Deliveries Project, which would improve the flow of the Everglades, still hasn't begun after 17 years of discussions. This isn't some fanatic's analysis of the problem; it's the opinion of the inspector general of the Department of the U.S. Interior. Earl Devaney issued a report on the project, a key precursor of the state-federal Everglades restoration plan, that said in-fighting between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service has resulted in delays since 1989 and led to skyrocketing project costs, from $81 million to $400 million. Both agencies are within the Interior Department.Worse yet, Devan ...

Palm Beach County panel approves proposal to use sugar fields for rock mining
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /May 5
A massive rock mine could replace sugar cane fields in western Palm Beach County, raising concerns about gutting land that might be needed for Everglades restoration. The county's zoning commission on Thursday recommended approval of plans to mine most of 5,400 acres east of U.S. 98, about 2.5 miles north of U.S. 441. County commissioners vote on the proposal May 25. U.S. Sugar Corporation would allow Stewart Mining Industries to excavate dirt and limestone from 100 acres at a time for about 40 years, according to the plan. The dirt and rock is used to help build new roads and provide the infrastructure for growing neighborhoods. The plan calls for shipping it by railroad throughout central and eastern Florida. The pits left behind could become water reservoirs that would help Everglades restoration efforts, said Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for U.S. Sugar. But envi ...

Mining debate centers on risk, benefits
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 8
Does the prospect of road, school and hospital projects in SouthFlorida grinding to a halt outweigh contamination risks to drinking water for more than one million people? For a federal judge considering whether or how much rock mining should continue in Northwest Miami-Dade County, that's just one of the hard questions. The answers will not be simple, hinging on how he weighs very different public interests. In March, Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ordered a reassessment of permits opening 5,400 new acres of wetlands to mining, ruling that federal regulators had done a slipshod job of analyzing the impacts on the Everglades, the endangered wood stork and the county's largest well field. But the judge left open the critical issue of what, if anything, to do about ongoing mining operations while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Fish & Wildlife Serv ...

Southern Lake O flow way to get another look
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /May 10
Now they have a new reason to take up the cause: A state-commissioned engineering report that called the Herbert Hoover Dike a "grave and imminent danger" to human life. To lessen the risk of the leak-prone levee collapsing, the report's authors and Gov. Jeb Bush have urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lower water levels in the lake. The report also notes that the dike lacks a crucial safety factor that a typical dam would include: an emergency outlet to let rising waters escape. An expansion of the lake's southern floodgates could serve both functions, Everglades activists say. They're reviving their proposal for the creation of a marshy, shallow "flow way" linking the lake and the Everglades through western Palm Beach County's sugar cane country. Such a flow way would mirror the way nature worked for thousands of years, when the lake frequently spilled over its southern ...

Canals worth saving
Steve Waters /Sun Sentinel /May 12
Sandy Martin grew up fishing for bass on the St. Johns River, and she used to live within casting distance of Lake Okeechobee. So when Martin says that the canals in the Everglades are one of the best bass fisheries in the state, she knows what she's talking about. "People don't realize what kind of fishery is down here until they fish it,"Martin said. Martin, of Homestead, has had the pleasure of taking some people with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fishing in the Everglades during the annual South Florida Anglers For Everglades Restoration Save Our Canals tournament. SAFER has been working with the Corps to keep the canals open when the agency gets around to restoring the Everglades. The tournament was an eye-opener for Martin's anglers, who had no idea how good fishing can be in the canals and who caught plenty of bass. Thanks to those outings and SAFER's pr ...

Alligator mississippiensis
staff /Sun Sentinel /May 14
Common name derived from the Spanish el lagarto, meaning the lizard. What do they eat? Despite their huge jaws, alligators feed mostly on fish, insects, snails, turtles and other small prey. They also eat snakes, birds and small mammals.Large alligators can kill deer and wild hogs. When taking large mammals, alligators ambush them at water's edge, haul them under and go into a "deathroll" to drown them. How big get do they get? The largest confirmed length is 14 feet, 10 inches for a specimen found at Sebastian Inlet. The largest in the past 30 years was a 14-foot, 5/8-inch male caught in Lake Monroe in 1997. The biggest alligators are found in central and northern Florida, not the Everglades. South Florida's nutrient-poor water produces less plant life and therefore fewer fish, turtles and other prey. Also, northern alligators have dormant periods in cold weather ...

Water district plan costly
Melanie Payne /News Press /May 14
South Florida taxpayers could pay an extra $300 million to finance an accelerated Everglades restoration program because water managers didn't want to ask voters to use a cheaper method. The nine-member board of the South Florida Water Management District has approved selling $1.8 billion worth of special financing instruments called certificates of participation. Interest rates on those financial devices could be as much as 10 percent higher than voter-approved bonds. For example, if municipal bond interest rates are 5 percent the interest rate on the certificate of participation would be 5.5 percent. "This is a typical way for government officials to circumvent voters,"said Craig L. Johnson, a professor who specializes in public finance at The School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. And taxpayers in South Florida may not know they are o ...



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