Grounded freighter refloats self overnight; reef investigation continues
Robert Nolin /Sun Sentinel /May 18
BULLETIN: The Coast Guard said the Swedish freighter that grounded itself about a mile off Port Everglades on Wednesday refloated itself during tidal changes overnight and was freed completely by 1:30 a.m. The Spar Orion is now in anchorage off the port with no reports of damage. The ship is expected into port to unload its cement cargo on May 22. The Coast Guard and other agencies continue to investigate to determine if reefs in the area where the vessel grounded were damaged. A dive survey of the sea floor by state and federal agencies is scheduled for today to determine the extent of any damaged caused by the grounding. There were no injuries or pollution reported in conjunction with the grounding.Earlier report follows The Spar Orion had gone astray. Student divers piloting their research vessel noticed the freighter just offFort Lauderdale beach Wednesday mornin ...

Index number would chart eco-health
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 20
"Together, we will get the water right and, in the process, restore a uniqueecosystem," then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton told environmental activists at the Everglades Coalition's annual meeting in January 2003.Norton's remarks are among the 316 hits for the phrase "get the water right" and the word "Everglades" on the Internet search engine Google. Six years into the $11 billion Everglades restoration project, "get the water right" has become the sound bite of choice among politicians and scientists when describing the effort's aims. But those four words may no longer do the job.Besides water, an influential panel of scientists and policymakers would like to get the oysters, wading birds, alligators, water plants and several other environmental "indicators" — perhaps up to 14 — right as well. Their goal is to give Congress and taxpayers a relatively uncomplicated way ...

The story of the Everglades
Kate Spinner /Naples Daily News /May 21
WHAT THE AUTHOR SAYS: Grunwald reflects on why restoration is needed Q. Why is it important for people to know about the Everglades? A. There are a few reasons. The first is it's a spectacular and mysterious and unique place. God ain't making any more Everglades. But I would also say that even if you don't care about the panthers and the gators and the otters and the royal palms and the wild orchids and all the other magical things in there, if you live in South Florida, what's bad for the Everglades is probably bad for you. The aquifers that store South Florida's water, drinking water, sit right underneath the Everglades, and what I'm hearing more and more is as people have sprawled into the Everglades, it has hurt their own quality of life — sitting in traffic all day long, their kids are in overcrowded schools and you're starting to lose that sense of place that mad ...

Millions for Glades restoration in jeopardy
C Morgan & L Clark /Miami Herald /May 22
WASHINGTON - With a court-imposed deadline to clean up pollution in the Everglades seven months away, Florida officials -- led by Gov. Jeb Bush -- have pursued a public-relations blitz to tout the state's progress: Sharp drops in phosphorus from sugar-cane fields. About 41,000 acres of marshes built to treat runoff from farms, pastures and suburbs, and 18,000 more acres in the works. A pristine-water standard toprotect the sensitive ecosystem. More than $1 billion invested. At the same time that they trumpeted ''unprecedented success,'' Bush, environmental Secretary Colleen Castille and South Floridawater managers also pushed to end 14 years of oversight by federal judges in Miami and close the books on the landmark settlement that ordered the cleanup and set a date to get it done -- Dec. 31. But the months of high-level meetings with Washington lawmakers,White Hous ...

Digging deep for reason to mine rock
Joel Engelhart /Palm Beach Post /May 23
The mining company that wants to blast rock for the next 40 years in the middle of the Everglades Agricultural Area justifies its request as good for the environment. The company has to make its case that way. Palm Beach County zoning rules don't allow intense mining in the vast sugar cane fields unless it meets one of three standards. The one that applies, the mining company has decided, is "ecosystem restoration and regional water management uses." Stewart Mining Industries would blast up to 200 holes a day, weekdays only, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Stewart would use as much as 700 pounds a day of Bulk Emulsion Apex Gold explosives. It would haul away limestone, sand and rock by rail, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would carve up nearly 100 acres a year - for 43 years. The company would devour 72 percent of a 5,420-acre sugar cane field. When Supposedly, that's where the good fo ...

U.S. Sugar mine plan approved by county
Mitra Malek /Palm Beach Post /May 26
Nearly 4,000 acres of cane fields in western Palm Beach County will turn to stone. Over the next four decades, the soil will stop yielding sugar and machines will mine the rock underneath. That is, as long as United States Sugar Corp. can get environmental agencies to use the rock pits for water storage that will help the Everglades Agricultural Area.County commissioners Thursday voted unanimously to allow Stewart Mining Industries to mine U.S. Sugar's land, which lies along U.S. 98 between Palm Beach Aggregates and Pahokee. Residential developments are at least 10 miles away.U.S. Sugar has said it doesn't see any obstacles to water storage in the craters that would come. "South Florida Water Management District is trying to figure out ways to save water," said Malcolm "Bubba" Wade Jr., U.S. Sugar senior vice president. The district supports the idea of water storage for environm ...

Alligators abound in Florida as biologists perform yearly count
Brian Skoloff /Bradenton Tribune /May 27
ON LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. - To the unaided eye, the swampy wilderness seems to sleep at night. Only eerie murmurs, grunts and an occasional splash break the darkened silence. But light it up and the illusion fades. Alligators are everywhere, their red bulbous eyes glowing on thewater's black surface. White birds flutter through the haze of apowerful spotlight. Turtles rest on logs in the sawgrass. Snakesslither through weeds.On this balmy May evening, biologists took to the waters of LakeOkeechobee as part of Florida's annual alligator count, which isused to set the number of hunting permits issued in coming years. More hunters are expected this season after three people were killed in separate attacks earlier this month. Aboard two airboats sweeping across the sawgrass, the biologistscounted 754 gators in about three hours covering just a several square-mile portion of Lak ...

Rising sea is future threat
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 29
Much of the marine life in Biscayne and Florida bays is found in the shallowest places, on underwater banks carpeted with sea grass, dotted with sponges and inhabited by small creatures, from scuttling crabs to wee snapper fattening for a deeper future. Larger denizen from bonefish to blacktip shark prowl for food in the maze of shallow flats, where they, in turn, are pursued by anglers and fishing guides. That cycle, as regular as the change of tide from Cape Florida to Islamorada, could vanish in a century, along with almost every flat in Florida Bay and 80 percent of them in Biscayne Bay, according to a new report on the impacts of sea-level rise on the environment and fishing in nine key coastal zones in Florida. The report predicts dramatic changes along the state's coastline, with some of the biggest and fastest coming in the shallow basinbordered by the Evergl ...

Global warming threatens Everglades
Dan Vergano /USA Today /May 30
FLAMINGO, Fla. — The road to Paradise Prairie, site of a grand plan to develop cheap land in a drained Everglades, was supposed to go through this former fishing village. That plan went bust decades ago, and the future here looks very, very soggy. Now, Flamingo stands as the gateway to a more likely destiny: the coming century of global warming, one that climate researchers warn will bring higher temperatures, extreme weather and sea levels rising high enough to doom this toehold on the tip of South Florida. GOING HAYWIRE: Huge climate shifts happen like a boat tipping To experts studying such rising water levels, "Flamingo is kind of a canary in the coal mine," says Fred Herling, National Park Service planner for the Everglades and Dry Tortugas parks. Still covered in a gray mud from last year's hurricanes, Wilma and Katrina, condemned cottages and decrepit motel rooms await the wrec ...

EPA plans to ease rules on water transfers
staff /Miami Herald /Jun 2
WASHINGTON - In a move that could directly affect water quality in Lake Okeechobee, the Bush administration said Thursday that it plans to allow state water managers to transfer water from one place to another without meeting certain federal environmental standards.The South Florida Water Management District hailed the preliminary rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a ''common sense'' provision that would reduce the cost and bureaucracy involved with flood control management in the Everglades. The rule is expected to take effect after a 45-day public comment period. ''This is a very, very important landmark decision for all watermanagers across the country,'' Roberto Fabricio, media relationsmanager for the water District. LOCAL POWER Fabricio said the ruling would allow the district and local governments to make decisions about water levels ...

EPA to allow unfettered water transfers
Larry Lipman /Palm Beach Post /Jun 2
WASHINGTON — In a move that could directly affect water quality in Lake Okeechobee, the Bush administration said Thursday that it plans to allow water managers to transfer water from one place to another without requiring it to meet certain environmental standards. The South Florida Water Management District hailed the preliminary rule by the Environmental Protection Agency as a "common sense" provision that would reduce the cost and bureaucracy involved with flood control management in the Everglades ecosystem. The rule will take effect unless changed after a 45-day public comment period. "We're about to break out the champagne," said Roberto Fabricio, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District. "This is a very, very important landmark decision for all water managers across the country." Fabricio said the ruling would allow the district and local governments to m ...

Florida is restoring the River of Grass
Colleen Castille /Miami Herald /Jun 4
The state has made great strides since Gov. Lawton Chiles conceded the state's failure to enforce water-quality standards and entered into the 1992 settlement agreement with the federal government to restore water quality in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park. Today, Florida is in compliance with state and federal law and has fulfilled all of its legal commitments to date under the court order. As required by the agreement, Florida has constructed fivestorm-water treatment areas to clean water flowing into the Everglades. The 36,000 acres of man-made marsh are treating water to phosphorus levels as low as 12 parts per billion (ppb) -- more than four times cleaner than the phosphorus level of 50 ppb prescribed by the agreement. Also, the state is constructing an additional 18,000 acres of wetlands during the next four years ...

Nonsense -- it's dragging its feet
Juanita Greene /Miami Herald /Jun 4
Yes, less phosphorus is flowing from the sugarcane fields, but too much still enters Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. In truth, the Everglades is in worse shape today than it was when the settlement agreement was reached 14 years ago. The agreement was a compromise in a lawsuit brought in 1988 by Dexter Lehtinen when he was acting federal district attorney. He sued the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers for allowing pollution from the Everglades Agricultural Area, which was dominated by a sea of sugar cane, to damage the park and other federal property in the Everglades. Over the years, the agencies in charge of the cleanup have spentmore time and energy foot-dragging than aggressively moving ahead. They supported legislation extending the cleanup deadline so farthat it amounted to a change in water-quality standards. They ...

Lessons unlearned
Editorial /Bradenton Times /Jun 4
After the Katrina debacle last summer, most Floridians and theiremergency management officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, were feeling fairly cocky about their hurricane savviness. Hey, we're pros at this preparedness business, what with the lessons of Andrew, Charley, Jeanne, Ivan and Frances fresh in our brains, everyone in Florida thought or said with a touch of snobbish pity for the amateurs in Louisiana and Mississippi.Oh, yeah? Then why does the South Florida Water Management District fear for the lives of 40,000 residents below Lake Okeechobee because the huge lake's dike bears "a striking resemblance to Swiss cheese?" Why can't civil law enforcement officers communicate by phone orradio with emergency management officials who are monitoring weather conditions, evacuation efforts and damage reports? Why do state and local authorities permit people to rebuild in ...