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SWFL ENews: Aug 8, 2006 SWFL ENews:
Aug 8, 2006 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Man vs. nature
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 23
Habitat for Humanity, meet Habitat for Panthers. That’s how the low-income home builder was greeted when it introduced plans to hammer and saw together a 400-home subdivision just south of Immokalee. The project, called Kaicasa, is the largest ever attempted by Habitat anywhere. “This will go a long way toward helping the affordable housing problem in Immokalee,” said Sam Durso, president of Habitat for Humanity’s Collier County chapter. Groundbreaking as it is, the development couldn’t escape the growing influence that stiff environmental regulations are having on Southwest Florida’s already steep housing costs. To appease federal wildlife managers, Habitat spent $2.2 million - 2-1/2 times what the organization paid for the 100-acre tract - to set aside habitat for the endangered Florida panther in southern Hendry County. The urban strip between the Gulf ...

ATV riders could see delay in land swap
staff /Naples Daily News /Jul 24
Off-roading enthusiasts face a longer delay in their quest to secure a tract of land suitable for their pastime in environmentally sensitive eastern CollierCounty. In June, state officials offered 750 acres of old tomato fields in Belle Meade, a largely state-owned swath east of Collier Boulevard and south of Interstate 75. The South Florida Water Management District offered the former farmland to the county to make good on a land swap involving an Everglades restoration project. But the land's owner, the state Department of Environmental Protection, needs more time to iron out environmental issues that have cropped up, said Clarence Tears of the Big Cypress Basin, an offshoot of the water management district. The state will ask for a 30-day extension Tuesday before an already impatient Collier County Commission. "We are having challenges finding a section ...

Collier threatens legal action over off-roading
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 25
Collier County commissioners threatened today to sue two state agencies unless they find at least 640 acres of land where off-road vehicles can frolic. The South Florida Water Management District and the state Department of Environmental Protection vowed in 2003 to give the land to the county. Nearly 10 months have passed since the agencies failed to meet the contract's Oct. 1, 2005, deadline. The delay raised the commission's ire today. Commissioners voted 5-0 to force a meeting between themselves and the water management district's governor-appointed board to resolve the matter. If that fails, the dispute will head to a courtroom. "It's not out of anger; it's out of frustration," Commissioner Fred Coyle said, explaining his support for legal action. "It's been three years and we stilldon't have a deal." The commission rejected the water management district's plea f ...

Ochopee outpost
Melanie Peeples /Naples Daily News /Jul 29
The Ochopee Post office is 7 feet 3 inches wide by 8 feet, 4 inches deep. Big enough to buy a stamp, weigh your package and turn around, but just barely. And not all at the same time. In fact, it’s so small, you don’t walk into the Ochopee post office. You step in. One step. More than that and you’d be sitting in Nanette Watson’s lap. And while Watson is a very friendly woman, her title is U.S. Postmaster, not Postmistress.She’s a brave woman, not just because she shows up for work in a shed in themiddle of the Everglades with alligators and panthers and mosquitoes with mouths like needles, but because she shows up for work with a plastic jumbo Thirstbuster cup filled with decaffeinated tea. America’s smallest post office has no bathroom. So out in the Everglades, under the blazing, summer sun, Watson has to balance the need to stay hydrated against the need to drive ...

Estates go under famed lens
Mary Wozniak /News Press /Jul 21
It was a perfect morning at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates andinternationally known photographer Clyde Butcher was burning daylight. The burly, bearded man, known more for tromping through swamps to capture the bloom of the elusive ghost orchid or the sweeping expanse of an Everglades horizon, looked satisfied with his feet planted on the estates’ landscaped lawns. “I got a shot just a few minutes ago when the light was all nice and diffused,” Butcher said, looking at the undulating roots at the base of a huge Mysore fig tree. In fact, he already had taken three shots in about two hours — nothingshort of amazing for a man who can spend hours with his large-format camera waiting for the perfect light to capture one image. Barbara Hill, executive director of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates Foundation, was willing to wait all day. Butcher and his wife, Niki, also ...

Panthers could delay I-75 bypass
John Henderson /Naples Daily News /Jul 16
Road planners are concerned an Interstate 75 bypass through Lee and Collier counties that would loop around Immokalee might be delayed by questions wildlife officials are raising.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has expressed concern that the new bypass section around Immokalee would disturb panther habitat.The proposed bypass could allow drivers to avoid congestion on I-75 by looping around Immokalee and traveling a back-door route through Collier and Lee counties. It’s a road project that Collier County transportation staff believes is sorely needed, but would take eight to 10 years to build even if everything goes smoothly. And it’s not going smoothly right now. Transportation officials worry that a Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study now won’t come to fruition this fiscal year as planned. “This could delay it,” Don Scott, who heads ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Best fishing right now? Off Charlotte County
Byron Stout /News Press /Jul 20
The biggest news on the fishing front is where not to go. Pine Island Sound and San Carlos Bay reports are of widespread devastation from red tide, with belly-up fish and people-choking vapors north to south. Good alternatives may be to try well up the Caloosahatchee River and upper Charlotte Harbor, including the Peace and Myakka rivers. Good reports also came in from inshore reefs to the south, and well offshore in the Gulf. Lake Okeechobee also has been very good lately, given the propensity for midsummer doldrums. Bluegill and bass have been biting pretty well on the Big O, although Lake Trafford remains low and essentially unfishable for boaters.OFFSHORE: Spanish mackerel and mangrove snapper have been biting for Fishbuster Charters customers fishing inshore reefs with Capt. Dave Hanson out of Bonita Beach. Wednesday produced a bunch of Spanish, 10 of which we ...

Southwest Florida feasibility study finally on track
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 23
The long-awaited Southwest Florida Feasibility Study is charging forward after years of languishing in a bureaucratic backlog. And the $12 million effort has battled back federal calls to incorporate projects that would reduce flooding problems and boost water supplies for urban and agricultural consumers. In February, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., urged the project’s local managers to revise the study’s focus. Instead of environmental restoration, they wanted more emphasis on drainage and water supply issues, said Janet Starnes, who is leading the study for the South Florida Water Management District.Over the next month, the project’s “middle managers” — as Starnes referred to herself and Debbie Peterson, the Army Corps’ planning technical lead in Jacksonville — discussed the proposition. Their conclusion? “(Restoration) ...

Water leaders tout Lake O reservoir 'test cells'
Kevin Lollar /News Press /Jul 29
Southwest Florida's water managers are excited about two tests they'vemade on the best way to build a reservoir to hold excess water from Lake Okeechobee. "Every site we approach for a reservoir has a different soil make-up,"Agnes Ramsey, assistant director of the South Florida Water ManagementDistrict's Acceler8 program, said Friday during a media event at the site of the tests. Water district officials call them "test cells." "We want to be sure of the best way to control seepage and other concerns such as erosion," Ramsey said. One Lee County commissioner said Friday money for the cells and reservoir would have been better spent flooding agricultural fields south of Lake Okeechobee. Next July, the water management district will begin construction on a $338 million reservoir in Hendry County that will store water during extremely wet seasons. The idea is to re ...

Mound Key mystique
Chad Gillis /Naples Daily News /Jul 16
From a shallow channel near Mound Key, the distant roar of boat engines is about the only reminder of civilization. It’s hard to believe these quiet waters were once the I-75 of South Florida, an aquatic thoroughfare that connected the mighty Calusa kings to their sprawling empire.The Calusa were one of Florida’s most dominant and advanced native societies. Bountiful fishing in Estero Bay and Pine Island Sound presented an easy foodsource. Unlike most native American cultures, the Calusa didn’t spend their days tending crops and gathering fruit. They netted fish a few hours and reserved their free time for thinking, constructing large communal houses, developing a complex political system and a wealth of art. The Calusa story itself is prime Florida lore, but Mound Key’s mystique doesn’t stop there. Missionaries, slavers, European immigrants, pirates, Spanish troops, a ...

Editorial: Everglades restoration
Editorial /Naples Daily News /Jul 31
It's good that Southwest Florida is getting some attention from the overall Everglades Restoration Project. After all, we're right next door, and what happens to the environment in one place exerts an impact on others. That is especially true when dealing with something as fluid and mobile as water. Environmental regulators have their priorities in the right places: Improvements to the Estero River and Naples Bay top the list. Still, even the most staunch environmentalist sees the flaw. If the Southwest Florida study isn't going to begin for two years, what's the use in doing it at all? By that time, areas that may be targeted for protection will already have been developed. The Everglades project could just save the $12 million earmarked for a futile exercise. Then again, growth watchdogs who take their craft seriously can take action regardless of what some study ma ...

State takes ownership of Babcock property
staff /Bradenton Herald /Jul 31
The state of Florida has taken ownership of 80 percent of the Babcock Ranch, which spans both Lee and Charlotte counties. The state paid $310 million of the $350 million total cost for 74,000 acres, with Lee County contributing more than $40 million to the acquisition, according to an announcement made today by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The purchase preserves the single largest tract of contiguous lands in the state's history, while at the same time protecting a vitally needed water-recharge area, Bush's press release said. The acquisition also brings to near completion a natural land corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. Babcock Ranch has large tracts of pine and scrubby flatwoods and a highly functional freshwater swamp system, called Telegraph Swamp. The ranch is also home to the Florida panther, Florida black bear and the crested ...

State acquires ranch tract, will save wilderness area
David Royse /Miami Herald /Aug 1
TALLAHASSEE - A working ranch and tens of thousands of acres of wilderness inhabited by bears, panthers and other species were handed over to the state Monday in Florida's biggest-ever purchase of land for environmental preservation. The $350 million purchase of the Babcock Ranch, including $310 million in state money and $40 million from Lee County, puts nearly 74,000 largely undeveloped acres in southwestern Florida -- or about 115 square miles -- into state hands to be conserved. It will create an almost unbroken stretch of brush and swamp wilderness extending from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.''This is just an awesome day,'' said State Lands Director Eva Armstrong, who choked back tears before a ceremonial accepting of the deed from developer Syd Kitson. The deal was hailed by several environmental groups.About a year ago, Kitson and Partners bought t ...

Scientists suggest risky plan to save manatees from red tide
Kate Spinner /Herald Tribune /Aug 3
When large numbers of manatees die, red tide is the customary culprit and the major killing fields are the Caloosahatchee estuaries, Lemon Bay and Charlotte Harbor. Within the past decade, the toxins produced by Florida red tide algae have killed 437 manatees. Scientists have learned that most died in Lee and Charlotte counties after eating bay grasses full of red tide toxins on their late-winter migration from rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.The problem prompted researchers to propose a risky solution to protect the hundreds of manatees that winter in the Caloosahatchee River: Open the floodgates that connect the river to Lake Okeechobee and let the water flow through if red tide is headed toward the river before the manatees migrate.Fresh water from the lake would dilute salinity in the river's bays and drive out the salt-loving red tide algae. But it also would infuse ...

Officials delay, algae blooms
Editorial /Naples Daily News /Aug 3
Surprise. Blue-green algae is back in the Caloosahatchee River as far west as downtown Fort Myers. Just like last year. Just great for downtown redevelopment, tourism and wildlife. It goes to show what will happen as long as official water regulators and managers at Lake Okeechobee doodle and dawdle.The bright colors so commonly associated with crayons in kindergarten and sunsplashed landscapes in Florida are not welcome in our waters.The recurrence makes it easy to understand why Sanibel Island and others in Lee County, and the rest of Southwest Florida, are ready and willing to join thefight, in the courtroom if necessary, to do what's right by our environment ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

County-approved ban may block new rock mines
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Jul 20
A two-year ban endorsed Wednesday could temporarily shut the door to new rock mines on western agricultural land that buffers the Everglades. Palm Beach County commissioners gave an initial approval to the temporary ban on new mining in the Everglades Agricultural Area. The ban would allow time to study concerns that digging and blasting for rock and sand could contaminateunderground water supplies. The proposal now goes to state regulators for review. Commissioners could give it final approval in November. Sugar cane growers, who own much of the agricultural area southeast of Lake Okeechobee, teamed with mining companies to try to stop the ban. They argued it could cut off potential sources of rock, sand and other materials used to build roads and homes. Mining representatives said the ban was unnecessary because they already go through a lengthy approval process ...

Discharge from Lake Okeechobee blamed for tainted river
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Jul 22
STUART — The bacterial bloom that kept residents out of the St. Lucie River last year likely was caused by discharges from Lake Okeechobee, according to a new study released Friday. Stuart officials received results of a $45,000 study by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution scientists, who tested the waters of the creeks and river three times — in June and November 2005 and in March — for potential septic tank leaks within city limits that could cause the bloom of fecal coliform bacteria. While leaks were possible near Krueger, Frazier, and Poppleton creeks and the Carolina Canal, the scientists concluded that the biggest cause ofwater quality problems was the polluted freshwater discharges flowing out the St. Lucie Canal. "It appears that it was the discharges of the lake into the river thatcaused all the problems," said Dave Peters, the city's assistant public work ...

Kissimmee River project in 2nd phase
Daphne Sashin /Orlando Sentinel /Jul 31
Navigation on part of the Kissimmee River on the Okeechobee-Highlands countyline will be interrupted for 18 months as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertakes the second phase of a $578-million river-restoration project. Today, crews will begin filling another 1.5 miles of the 56-mile canal dredged by the corps in the 1960s as a flood-control project. Navigation will be blocked on a roughly five-mile stretch of the river until Oct. 31, 2007, between theAvon Park Air Force Range boat ramp and a point two miles south of Weir 1. Aweir is a low dam. The first phase of construction, to fill in seven miles of the channel, began in 1999 and was finished in 2001. Scheduled for completion in four phases by 2012, the restoration project will return flow to 43 miles of the river's historic, meandering path. Besides providing habitat for hundreds of species of fish and wildlife, th ...

McCain derails dike study measure; Nelson hopeful for reconsideration
John Johnston /Boca Raton News /Jul 31
Senator John McCain, the well-known Arizona Republican -- and a man often said to be the GOP's best chance to retain the White House - hasn't helped his presidential aspirations with at least a portion of Florida voters. Literally with one minute left before a final Senate vote on a recently considered $1.2 billion water bill, McCain objected. That lone objection blocked inclusion of a floor manager's amendment. Tucked inside that amendment was a measure by U.S. Senator Bill Nelson that would require the Army Corp of Engineers to conduct an investigation on whether the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee could collapse and could cause catastrophic flooding in South Florida, as occurred when levees failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The measure would also require the Corps to report back Questions about the Lake Okeechobee dike's safety surfaced several month ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

U.S. Senate passes Water Resources Restoration bill
Amie Parnes /Naples Daily News /Jul 20
WASHINGTON — For Florida lawmakers, it took a long time — six years to be exact — but the day finally came. The much-anticipated Water Resources Restoration bill passed the Senate on Wednesday, pleasing the lawmakers who had long pushed for critical Everglades Restoration funding. The legislation, which passed the chamber without objection, authorizes hundreds of water projects around the country, including $1.2 billion for the Indian River Lagoon restoration on the Treasure Coast and $350 million for the Picayune Strand restoration project in eastern Collier County. The bill, commonly referred to as WRDA, is part of the $10.5 billion Everglades restoration plan that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to begin work on water quality issues, federal drainage projects and make major modifications to existing projects. The measure would help restore more than 160,00 ...

Foley urges continued push for lagoon cleanup measure
Rachel Simmonsen /Palm Beach Post /Jul 22
STUART — U.S. Rep. Mark Foley on Friday commended local citizens for pushing the Senate this week to approve a water resources bill key to restoring the Indian River Lagoon. But the Fort Pierce Republican said residents need to keep pressure on "in the 11th hour" to make sure the bill ends up on the president's desk. "This is the closest we've ever been, but we're not celebrating yet," Foley said, flanked by local officials on the edge of the St. Lucie River behind Stuart City Hall. "We need a little more to pull this over the finish line." Senators late Wednesday approved a massive water resources bill that includes more than $600 million for rehabilitating the Indian River Lagoon, a crucial part of the $10.5 billion Everglades restoration. According to the lagoon plan, which has languished for four years while lawmakers debated other issues, state and local government agencies woul ...

Alligator egg hunters wrap up best year ever
Meghan Meyer /Palm Beach Post /Jul 24
CLEWISTON — Disappointment settled over the hardy group of egg hunters as morning burned off Lake Okeechobee. With the coolest hours of the day behind them, the alligator farmers had found few nests, a slow spot in a season that would yield a record 46,000 fertile eggs gathered from public waters to be grown in captivity and sold for hides and meat. A signal came from the helicopter circling overhead. Lindsey Hord, supervisory biologist for the state's alligator management program, gunned his airboat onto an island and loped off through the muck. Following close behind, Tracy Rafferty grabbed a metal "gator pole" as tall as she was. So far, she hadn't needed to use it. They'd encountered no alligators. Until now. A throaty, prehistoric hiss rose from the underbrush. As the pair burst into a clearing, upon the mulch-like mound of leaves, sticks and dirt, there she was. Seven feet lon ...

Massive reservoir part of Everglades restoration
AP /News Press /Jul 24
IN THE EVERGLADES — Engineers next month will begin building one of the world’s largest man-made reservoirs — the size of a small city — as efforts continue to restore natural water flow to the Everglades. The reservoir, roughly 25 square miles in area, is set for completion in 2010. It will hold 62 billion gallons of water, equivalent to about 5.1 million residential swimming pools, and will be seven miles across at its widest point. It will sit 14 miles south of Lake Okeechobee in what amounts to the center of the Everglades. Most reservoirs are built amid mountains and valleys or where a natural water source feeds the pool. In this case, 30 million tons of earth will be dug from flat land and surrounded by a 26-foot high, 21-mile long levee, making it larger than any other reservoir not connected to a natural source, according to state officials. “When ...

How Florida senators voted on Corps reform amendments
Ericka D'Avanzo /TCPalm /Jul 29
At last, it appears the Treasure Coast will get long-overdue Everglades restoration projects after U.S. Senate passage of the Water Resources Development Act last week. WRDA contains two crucial restoration projects, including one that authorizes $1.2 billion for the Indian River Lagoon, which would mitigate environmental harm caused by federal drainage projects, restore more than 160,000 acres of wetlands, improve estuarine health, and help secure Florida's tourism and outdoor recreation economy. Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez voted for the act, which passed by voice vote. But how did Nelson and Martinez vote on amendments that addressed U.S.Army Corps of Engineers reform? Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., and three other co-sponsors were instrumental in leading a national effort for meaningful Corps reform. They offered amendments fo ...

Classes teach anxious alligator hunters the basics
Elizabeth Baier /Sun Sentinel /Jul 30
As Wildlife Biologist Steve Stiegler told about 100 hunters how to restrain,kill and harvest alligators, a Weston woman sat four rows from the back, eager. This year's harvest will be the first time Stephanie Swerdlin hunts the big reptile. In the middle of the night after Aug. 15, Swerdlin will board her 16-foot flats boat at the southeast side of Lake Okeechobee and try to catch an alligator with the help of her friend Jim Dixon, of Fort Lauderdale. She already hunts deer and is a member of a fishing club for women. Her motivation for embarking on a gator hunt? "It's the adrenaline, the experience," said Swerdlin. "I've learned to be afraid of [alligators.] They are big, nasty geckos with big teeth." On Saturday, Swerdlin attended an alligator-hunting class offered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for first-time hunters to learn how to safely catch ...

Lawsuit bad for Florida's rockin' economy
John Smith /Sun Sentinel /Jul 31
In a courtroom in Miami, arguments are now being heard in a case that could result in economic chaos for the entire state of Florida, and a huge setback in Everglades restoration. It's a complicated story involving a dispute over federal permits issued forlimestone excavation, but the end result could be disastrous for every resident and visitor to Florida: a complete stop to future limestone excavation for ayear and a half or more, and a screeching halt to our economy. That's because more than half of our state's total construction materials comes from limestone located in the northwest Miami-Dade area known as the Lake Belt. The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers in 2002,claiming that proper procedures were not followed in renewing permits to allow mining to continue where it has been for the last 50 years. Four years later, U.S. Distr ...

Busy year so far in water projects
Carol Ann Wehle /Sun Sentinel /Jul 31
2006 is proving to be a very good year for Everglades restoration. From the halls of Congress to the chambers of county commissions, Evergladesprojects continue to get the green light. Recent Senate passage of the WaterResources Development Act is, for me, icing on the cake of a very productiveyear. And it's only July. Here in South Florida, we have already started digging -- literally. Four groundbreakings in the past six months launched construction on critical reservoirs and treatment wetlands that will improve the Everglades ecosystem, our coastal estuaries and Lake Okeechobee. These projects are part of the state's Acceler8 initiative, an action-oriented plan for stepping up the pace on eight key restoration projects. Construction of the largest Acceler8 project begins when we turn dirt on a giant water storage reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area, south of La ...

Florida Seeks Authority over State Wetlands
James Taylor /Heartland /Aug 1
Buoyed by water quality that has dramatically improved under the Jeb Bush administration and an efficient wetlands permitting process, Florida officials are seeking greater autonomy from the federal government in regulating the state's wetlands. Dispelling any fears that removal of federal oversight would signal a lessening of state concern for its waterways, Gov. Bush (R) on June 15 signed into law a bill imposing more stringent pollution standards on stormwater runoff and expanding the state's definition of wetlands subject to environmental regulation. The process was set in motion on April 26, when Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Secretary Colleen Castille sent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Director Jimmy Palmer a letter seeking "advice on what further actions the state would need to take" to assume sole responsibili ...

Large reservoir dedicated to Everglades
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Aug 2
Gov. Jeb Bush wasn't settling for less than first place.The governor came to a former sugar cane field in far southwest Palm Beach County on Wednesday to help more than 200 people celebrate the groundbreaking of a 62-billion-gallon, $440 million reservoir aimed at helping restore and replenish the Everglades.But then White House environmental chairman James Connaughton faltered while rattling off a list of the project's impressive statistics: At 26 square miles, it will be just a bit smaller than Boca Raton. At its projected storage depth of 12 feet, it will hold enough water to fill more than 100,000 Olympic-size pools. In fact, Connaughton said, it will be the world's largest man-made reservoir. "If not the largest, it will be one of the largest," he hedged. "Oh hell," Bush interrupted, provoking laughter from the crowd. "It's the largest." Whoever was right, today's ceremony ma ...

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 ...

New water manager will focus on teamwork
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Aug 3
TROPICAL FARMS — As the new top federal water manager in the state, Army Corps Col. Paul Grosskruger is the final word on decisions regarding discharges from Lake Okeechobee. That makes him one of the most important people involved with the health of the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. And Grosskruger, who visited the St. Lucie Lock and Spillway structure on Wednesday, said his three-year term will focus on teamwork, communication and "good science" to begin implementing the local $1.2 billion Everglades restoration plan, new lake management rules and a major Herbert Hooverdike restoration project. Here are exerts from his conversation with Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers: Q: You mention that you enjoy outdoor sports such as fishing, kayaking and hiking. Do you have any environmental heroes? A: I grew up on a farm. I do have a connection with land a ...

Big reservoir, bigger job
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Aug 7
The new reservoir will cost $440 million and cover 26 square miles in water 12 feet deep. That makes it the world's largest "freestanding" manmade reservoir, with no natural source of water except rain and what water managers put into it Gov. Bush and White House environmental chairman James Connaughton bantered over the reservoir's record-breaking size at a groundbreaking last week in a former sugar cane field in southwest Palm Beach County. Designed to help restore the Everglades, the reservoir is part of a $1.5 billion state-financed program to speed up the $10.5 billion state-federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. A respected Audubon of Florida lobbyist, Charles Lee, injected a note of reality into the celebration, calling the reservoir "a modest start." The reservoir, and others in the state's accelerated plan, will provide water managers a place to send some of ...



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