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SWFL ENews: Dec 2006 SWFL ENews:
Dec 2006 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Land is more important than ATVs
Opinion /News Press /Dec 1
Rescuing great chunks of the Everglades from human misuse is one of the epic environmental stories in U.S. history, and despite grave problems in its conception and execution, it still stands a fair chance of succeeding.But use and misuse are different, and sorting them out continues to be a problem in the Everglades.For example, all-terrain vehicles or ATVs, are hard to fit in when you're trying to restore Eden, but sometimes their users have a fair claim onsome place to recreate. This week, state officials gathered at the Picayune Strand State Forest southeast of Naples to mark the anniversary of one of the first big projects in the mammoth Everglades restoration scheme. In Picayune Strand, the idea is essentially to rip out and reverse the effects of one of those huge subdivisions carved out of the Florida wilderness in the 1950s and 1960s, like Cape Coral. ...

County wants state protections for Big Cypress preserved
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /Nov 22
Collier County’s support Tuesday for a set of environmental protection rulesacross much of the county’s most remote areas raised new questions about howlong the rules will stay on the state’s books.County commissioners voted 4-0 Tuesday to oppose dropping the state’s Big Cypress Area of Critical State Concern designation. Commissioner Frank Halas was absent. The vote did not shut the door completely to removing the designation at some future point, and the state’s Area of Critical State Concern Administrator Clark Turner said after the vote that he would raise the issue with Gov.-elect Charlie Crist after his administration takes office. Tuesday’s vote capped two weeks of uncertainty that started when the state Department of Community Affairs declared the job of protecting the 830,000 acres within the area’s boundaries complete and proposed that Gov. Jeb Bush and the Ca ...

State's oil wells drying up
James Thorner /St Pete Times /Nov 30
Back in World War II, the federal government dangled cash rewards to encourage landowners to drill for oil to power America’s military machine. South Florida’s Collier family responded and in 1943 tapped the state’s first reservoir of smelly, molasses-like petroleum on the edge of Big Cypress National Preserve. The South Florida oil fields, combined with larger discoveries of black gold in the Florida Panhandle, represent the state’s little-heralded oil industry the past 63 years.But if this year’s production is any indication, the quantity of oil pumped from Florida has plunged about 20 percent. It’s an industry fading at a most inopportune time. ...

Project to restore natural water flow taking shape
staff /Sun Herald /Dec 3
Facing uncertainty at almost every turn, scientists and regulators at the South Florida Water Management District embarked two years ago on a solo mission. What was supposed to be a burden borne by the state and federal government, now would be theirs alone: reclaiming the world's largest subdivision in the name of restoring the fabled Everglades. Since then, crews have carted away half of the 160 structures that once dotted Southern Golden Gate Estates, nearly completed the filling of a seven-mile canal and begun removing more than 260 miles of roads. "It's so cool to see it happen," said project manager Janet Starnes, seated in the front seat of a helicopter hovering about 400 feet above the rapidly changing terrain. Despite the absence of federal involvement, Starnes and other state officials said Wednesday the one-of-a-kind restoration project is moving forward at an encouraging ...

Seminoles to buy Hard Rock International
Dec 7 /Orlando Sentinel /The Seminole Tr
Plc to buy its subsidiary, Orlando-based Hard Rock International Inc., for nearly $1 billion. The $965 million deal is expected to close in early March 2007. Corporate headquarters for the company will remain in Orlando. The Seminoles expect to fund the purchase price from a combination of debt issued by a new Hard Rock operating company and equity funding from the tribe's gaming division.The Seminole Tribe of Florida currently owns and operates two Seminole Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla., under terms of a license agreement with Hard Rock International. Hard Rock operates 124 Hard Rock Cafes in 45 countries and owns what is believed to be the world's largest collection of authentic music memorabilia. ...

Couple wants state to buy their forest property
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 9
Life in the middle of Picayune Strand State Forest is at times peaceful and aggravating, depending on the season and whether the overbearing cop from the agriculture department is on the beat. But after 24 years, Wayne Wood and his wife, Jackie, who joined him for the last 13 of those years, want out.Wood, a construction worker specializing in remodeling homes, was named senior pastor at Immokalee Ministries in April and wants to be closer to his flock.There’s just one problem with that. The state Department of Environmental Protection, the owner of the surrounding forest, refuses to buy the couple’s home and the 5 acres around it. They can’t sell to anyone else, they say, because the state won’t assure them in writing that the ecological restoration project next door won’t flood them out. The couple’s story offers a strange twist in the state’s 20-year effort ...

Everglades Blvd./I-75 exchange OK'd - but not for everyone
staff /Naples Daily News /Dec 11
A temporary interchange at Everglades Boulevard and Interstate 75 could open as early as next summer to expedite the construction of an Everglades restoration project. Sorry, Golden Gate Estates residents. This ramp isn't for you. The South Florida Water Management District plans to apply for permits earlynext year to construct a paved link between the interstate and Southern Golden Gate Estates. The interchange will allow construction vehicles to reach the 55,000-acre failed subdivision quicker once the pump stations are ready to be built, said Janet Starnes, a project manager with the water management district. Crews are tearing out miles of roads and canals to bring back nature in the area between I-75 and U.S. 41 East. The pump stations will siphon water out of three canals and spread it across the land, creating a shallow, ecologically friendly flow of water, exp ...

Panther boundaries tightened
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 18
New roads, homes and mines are now eligible to move into an area the size ofRhode Island across South Florida without encountering federal regulations used to protect Florida panthers.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service redrew the panther's habitat boundary earlier this month after developers and Collier County leaders complained that the old line was outdated. The tightened boundary reflects leaps forward in science and provides a more accurate picture of where panthers live, said Paul Souza, head of Fish and Wildlife's office in Vero Beach. "We did our best to capture where panthers are found," Souza said. "It's not an artifact of what existed 20 years ago; it's what actually exists." But some panther advocates question why Fish and Wildlife would shrink the "consultation area" at a time when the agency's own reports indicate the bigcats need more space. The new border ...

Florida's Black Bears Are On A Deadly Path
Neil Johnson /Tampa Bay /Dec 23
TAMPA - Bear No. 14 was a 120-pound male, 2 years old and just weaned from his mother's protection when he tried to cross State Road 40 in the Ocala National Forest. He didn't make it. The bear, tagged and collared as part of a four-year study that ended in 2003, died in 1999, one of scores killed on Florida highways each year. It's a trend line that has crept steadily upward.Holiday drivers this weekend will be traveling during the end of the most dangerous time for bears, which are moving over large areas to forage before winter.Researchers say the number of bears killed in the Ocala National Forest, 100 miles northeast of Tampa, probably is sustainable because it has the greatest concentration of the animals. Births can offset deaths in the 389,000-acre region of pines, palms and hardwoods. But even a few deaths raise the risk that bears will disappear from other areas they c ...

As muck is dredged away, Lake Trafford shows signs of life again
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 24
Frothy, oil-black water spews from a pipe into a cattail-choked pond that water managers call a containment disposal facility.This is the final destination for 1 million cubic yards of muck a contractor is dredging from the outer rim of Lake Trafford near Immokalee — the last leg of a $15.1 million restoration project.A mile away, what once was an environmental disaster now is showing signs ofcoming back to life. Roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets and wood storks line Lake Trafford's shore.Alligators sunbathe on makeshift beds. The first young bass to have been spotted in years are growing in number and size.After a six-month delay, a contractor began siphoning away the nutrient-richsludge around the edge of the lake on Dec. 1. In about six months, the largest natural freshwater lake south of Lake Okeechobee will be muck-free for the first time in decades."I wish my wife was al ...

Virile panther 'doing fine' at new home
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 25
He is the Florida panther that almost single-handedly (single-pawedly?) kept his species from disappearing by fathering at least 30 kittens over five years. No wonder he earned the nickname "Don Juan." Now, more than 10 months after his capture and removal from the wilderness in eastern Collier County, the big cat is "doing fine" and "in good health," his caretakers say. The 11-year-old panther resides in a small enclosure surrounded by a chain-link fence in an area out of public view at Tampa Bay Busch Gardens. The enclosure is connected to a larger, concrete-covered area where the cat likes to roam at night. "He's doing fine. There's really no change. He's in good health," said AimeeJeansonne Becka, a Busch Gardens spokeswoman. Although panthers and other cougar subspecies tend to acclimate well to captivity, biologists worried whether Don Juan would adjust to his n ...

Panther making East Naples his new home
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 28
Bobcats. Gopher tortoises. Bald eagles. Deer. Wild hogs. Raccoons. Brian Holley is fond of ticking off the medley of wildlife found in the woods around Naples Botanical Garden at the south end of Bayshore Drive. His list just got longer. Since late November, an orphaned male Florida panther has taken up residence in the yawning wilderness south of U.S. 41 East between Naples Bay and Collier Boulevard, state biologists say. “In some ways, I’m kind of excited about it,” said Holley, the botanical garden’s executive director. “It’s nice to have nature that close to us.” Such excursions into town are rare for the shy, elusive cats. But the behavior of FP147, as the panther is known, underscores the need to spare as much unpaved land as possible for the endangered cats, a federal biologist said. “We aren’t going to stop development in town, and these panthers aren’t ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Wrangling stalls SW Fla. projects
Larry Wheeler /News Press /Dec 5
WASHINGTON — Several Southwest Florida projects could be put on hold until next year. The Southwest Florida projects are part of nearly two dozen Florida projects worth more than $1 billion that are likely not to be funded this year. The fate of two big Everglades restoration projects will remain in limbo because House and Senate negotiators couldn't reach an agreement. Funding for a number of shore protection and port construction projects will be delayed.Money for the leaky Herbert Hoover Dike along Lake Okeechobee is pending. Florida lawmakers bemoaned the delay but held out hope that local and statewide projects will be funded after Democrats assume majority control of Congress in January. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, passed during the Clinton administration, continues to struggle for funding. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, said he is urgi ...

Charlotte will try to buy land that connects existing parks
Kate Spinner /Herald Tribune /Dec 5
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Conservation land makes up nearly 40 percent of the property in Charlotte County. Most of it sits under water in the rainy season. The new conservation tax, however, will likely lock up property that has more significant development potential, such as waterfront acreage and dry scrub land. Collier County, which has about the same amount of conserved land east of I-75 as Charlotte, has been buying areas under fierce development since itsconservation tax passed in 2002, said Bill Lorenz, environmental services director for Collier County. Usually, that land is in or near urban areas, where people readily see and feel the benefits of the program, Lorenz said. That focus makes the program popular. The Collier conservation tax passed in 2002 with 60 percent of the vote. This year, 82 percent of Collier voters chose to continue the land acquisitio ...

Pollution fears mar Estero Bay milestone
Denise L. Scott /News Press /Dec 7
The 40th anniversary of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve on Friday will be a bittersweet celebration for those fighting to stop its deteriorationfrom the effects of rapid development.Local environmental agencies have given the estuary a nearly failing grade for water quality. The outlook isn't much better for wildlife habitat. The Estero Bay basin, or watershed, covers more than 200,000 acres in Lee County. It is an area of land over which water flows and eventually ends up in the bay — along with all its pollutants.Jennifer Hecker, natural resources policy manager for The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, said the organization last year studied what portion of the watershed draining into the bay meets state water quality requirements. "Estero Bay got the poorest grade of 10 estuary watersheds we studied for water quality — D minus," she said. "A lot of pollutants are b ...

Study warns of looming urbanization of counties
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Dec 7
The growth explosion in Lee and Collier counties threatens to eat every acre of land that hasn’t been turned into concrete yet, a new study warns. The result: An unbroken urban wall will reach from the Gulf of Mexico to theHendry County line across northern Collier, and the only large development-free spot in Lee will be east of Estero. That will be the case unless state and local officials toughen growth rules, the head of the environmental group 1000 Friends of Florida said Wednesday. And it will happen relatively soon — some time between 2040 and 2060. The organization released a pair of studies Wednesday aimed at painting a picture of what Florida will look like in 2060, when its population is expected to double to 35.8 million people. “Collier basically fully develops and goes north and east” to fill parts of Hendry and Glades counties, 1000 Friends Executive Dir ...

Low concentrations of red tide still showing up in Lee
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /Dec 9
Just when anglers in Lee County thought they could breathe easier, red tide showed its six-month stint in the area isn’t over yet. For the first time since mid-June, test results taken Wednesday showed no evidence of red tide in waters off of Lee County. But true to its unpredictable form, the menacing organism that causes red tide showed up in low to medium concentrations in samples taken by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute on Friday. Though scientists disagree about whether red tide is becoming more common and lasting longer, many locals can’t remember blooms that stuck around for six months or more, as they have for the past three years. It used to be that when red tide occurred, it would start in October and last a few months until the water got cold, said Rick Bartelson, a scientist for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. Bartleson doe ...

Fair share spent on projects questioned
Jamie Page /News Press /Dec 10
Water managers say Lee County officials aren't giving them enough credit for how much bang for the buck Lee taxpayers are getting this year. When Lee County commissioners decided last week to send a legislative priority to Tallahassee for creating its own basin board, it was based on a figure that came from the South Florida Water Management District showing Lee might not be getting its fair share. But the water management district claims the number is wrong and is being misrepresented by Lee County. The district says a total of about $133 million in projects in and outside the county, within the same basin, will benefit Lee downstream this year. Reaction from several commissioners were like that of Commissioner BobJanes. "I have trouble believing that," he said. "We have always been a creditor county, a negative cash flow, as far as we are concerned."On Oct. 20, commission ...

We’re fouling our own golden goose
Opinion /News Press /Dec 13
Last week’s 40th anniversary of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve shouldhave been a happy reminder of this bay’s seminal role in the state aquatic preserve system. Instead, it was a dismal reminder of how miserably we have failed to take the steps — obvious, if costly ones — that could have preserved this and other pieces of the coastal paradise we inherited.On the initiative of citizens in Southwest Florida, Estero Bay was designated as Florida’s first aquatic preserve in 1966. It was a model for the 1975 Florida Aquatic Preserve Act, intended to protect “environmentally significant submerged lands, biological resources and waters for future generations,” according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. “Today, Florida’s 41 aquatic preserves encompass almost two million acres.” Well, at least some of them are in better shape than Estero Bay. Jennifer He ...

Legislators promise focus on water quality
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /Dec 18
Lee County has another ally in the battle to control excessive releases fromLake Okeechobee, and this one should have some power to change things.Florida's Senate president is very interested in the issue of water quality,local legislators said Monday during a Lee County legislatve delegation meeting in Fort Myers. That's good news for Lee County because four of county officials' top five funding priorities focus on improving water quality.Three county commissioners delivered to local legislators the county'spriorities, which total $2.25 million in funding from the state to clean up area creeks. Commissioner Ray Judah also asked that the county be allowed to set up its own basin board rather than continue to get what he said was an unfair return on its investment in the South Florida Water Management District. A separate basin board would allow all of the county's funds, alon ...

Lee County needs own water power
Editorial /News Press /Dec 26
The chances of Lee County getting its own water management board probably are nil, but it makes sense to keep pushing the idea, at least for symbolic effect. The legislative request renews for a new generation of leaders in Tallahassee our complaint that we are still, despite recent improvements, not getting the financial and policy attention we deserve here from the South Florida Water Management District. We are part of a vast system run by the district, including the Kissimmee River system north of Lake Okeechobee, the lake itself, the Caloosahatchee River, the huge agricultural areas south of the lake, the populous east coast cities, what's left of the Everglades and Florida Bay at the southern tip of the state. Southwest Florida has been a place to dump excess and polluted water from Lake Okeechobee, water that can't be moved south in its natural fa ...

Sanibel bay fishing dead
Kevin Lollar /News Press /Dec 27
Chugging around Tarpon Bay in his bait-shrimp boat Tuesday, Ralph Woodring’s concern was not so much what he saw as what he didn’t see. At this time of year, mullet should be popping out of the water like popcorn.“I haven’t seen a damn mullet jump in over a month,” said Woodring, 69, who was born on Sanibel and grew up on Tarpon Bay.Mullet, however, weren’t the only fish conspicuously absent from the bay. “A few months ago, we had red tide in here real bad, and everything in the bay died — mullet, snook, redfish, trout, everything,” said Woodring, who owns the Bait Box on Sanibel. “With red tide, you figure a week or a couple of weeks, and fish will move back in. But nothing came back. ...

Red tide taking its toll on pelican population
staff /Naples Daily News /Dec 29
A surge in sick pelicans this month along Collier County's shore is likely due to red tide, Conservancy of Southwest Florida officials said today. Since November, the Conservancy's wildlife rehabilitation center has treated 60 ailing pelicans, up from 17 during the same month last year. That influx represents 60 percent of all the pelicans brought to the facility this year.”They're very weak, they're disoriented, they're wobbly -- it's almost like they're drunk, They're so paralyzed they can't even blink, so even their eyes are stuck open," the rehabilitation center's manager Joanna Fitzgerald Vaught said in a statement. Five pelicans rescued off Naples Pier on Dec. 17 later died, she added. Overall, the center is having a 70-80 percent success rate in treating the pelicans. ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Does FPL's argument hold water?
Joel Engelhardt /Palm Beach Post /Dec 5
The first power plant to be built in Palm Beach County since 1963 will burn natural gas on the western outskirts of suburbia, suck down as much water as several small cities and plunge the briny wastewater deep underground. It will have enough backup diesel fuel on site to burn Atlanta. It will do all this next to a rock mine, where blasting is a daily occurrence, at the edge of a pristine wetland To the uninitiated, it seems scary. To the initiated, it's business as usual as Florida Power & Light Co. tries to keep up with South Florida's growth. Federal, state and local rules designed to prevent harmful emissions or poisoned drinking water will be followed strictly. An administrative law judge ruled in October that the utility had met all the requirements. On Dec. 19, Gov. Bush and the Flo A dedicated group of residents and environmentalists has been raising questions every step o ...

Scientists, cowboys cleaning up their acts
Suzanne Wentley /TC Palm /Dec 10
LAKE PLACID — A whip crack echoed across the ranch, as cowboys on horseback spotted a black cow running away from a dusty road inside Buck Island Ranch. "Watch that one behind you!" yelled Gene Lollis to his son, Laurent. And with a swift turn, they cornered the cow and forced it back into aherd of pregnant animals walking single-file into a field that separated them from the cows that have yet to be bred. In rural Central Florida where the majority of the land is cattle ranches, the scene is a common one. But not for long. As development rapidly transforms the landscape, Buck Island Ranch — a10,000-acre working ranch that doubles as a site for scientific experiments by biologists with the Archbold Biological Station — might be one of the local waterways' last hopes. There, scientists work along side cowboys to study new methods for keeping phosphorus pollution fro ...

Judge rules Lake Okeechobee pumping violates Clean Water Act
Curt Anderson /Bradenton Herald /Dec 11
MIAMI - A federal judge ruled Monday that Florida water managersviolated the federal Clean Water Act by pumping contaminated water from farmland into Lake Okeechobee and ordered further proceedings to determine what to do about it. The 107-page order from U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga,which followed a trial that began in January, concluded that theSouth Florida Water Management District failed to obtain the necessary Clean Water Act permits for its backpumping operations. The decision was a victory for Friends of the Everglades, the Florida Wildlife Federation and other environmental and conservation groups as well as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, which considers the lake and Everglades part of its ancestral home. "The finding of the judge was that the statute, the Clean Water Act, has a plain meaning. The meaning is that backpumping like this -water tran ...

Federal court ruling may reduce Lake Okeechobee pollution from sugar growers
Andy Reid /SFL Sun Sentinel /Dec 12
Environmentalists won a key victory Monday in their fight to stop water polluted by sugar cane fields from being pumped into Lake Okeechobee. A federal judge sided with the Friends of the Everglades and the Florida Wildlife Federation and ruled Monday that the South Florida Water ManagementDistrict needs a permit to dump the water. Getting that permit could mean cleaning up more of the pesticides, fertilizers and other pollutants in the water that otherwise get pumped into the lake. Those pollutants threaten the environmental health of the lake as well as the health of residents of South Florida communities that rely on the lake for drinking water, said David Guest, attorney for the Florida Wildlife Federation. "The South Florida Water Management District pumps profoundly polluted waterinto the lake just to get rid of it," Guest said. "It is terrible for the lake."Monday's ...

Will Kissimmee project ease pollution woes?
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Dec 10
ON THE KISSIMMEE RIVER — Strapped into airboats zooming past workers restoring the waterway's historic, winding path, water managers pointed out the soaring wood storks and other wildlife that will benefit from the massive restoration project.But Treasure Coast water quality advocates aren't impressed. While the $57.5 million project will give wading birds, fish and smallcritters more habitat in a section of the state that's increasingly attractive to developers, local environmentalists say river restoration won't help Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades or the St. Lucie Estuary. The same can be said, they add, for the billions of dollars worth of other Central Florida restoration work happening against a threatening backdrop of massive home-building projects, toll-road proposals and wet climatepredictions. Most scientists and activists agree the Kissimmee River valley ...

Water district backing away from $68.1 million land buy
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Dec 13
Think the art of the big land deal is dead? It isn't to Gerald W. Blakeley Jr. Even during a stagnant real-estate market, companies controlled by the retired Boston developer and his family are looking to make as much as a 130 percent profit from selling farmland and polo fields near Port Mayaca to the South Florida Water Management District. The district's board was set to vote this week on a proposal to pay the Blakeleys' companies $68.1 million for 2,270 acres east of Lake Okeechobee - even though water managers had no definite plans for how to use the tracts.The price comes to $30,000 an acre, more than double the $13,000 per acre that one of the Blakeleys' companies paid for much of the land just last year.But the agency's staff pulled the proposal late Tuesday, saying the money might need to go instead to efforts to protect the Herbert Hoover Dike or a court-ordered cleanup of run ...

River to get water from Okeechobee
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Dec 14
Pumping Lake Okeechobee water west to help the environment could come at theexpense of South Florida crops struggling through drought conditions, agricultural representatives warned Wednesday. The South Florida Water Management District next week plans to start 30 days of water releases to the Caloosahatchee River, which flows from the lake to thewest coast. This comes as district officials expect Lake Okeechobee's average depth to dip below 12 feet after this weekend following three months of below-normal rainfall. The Army Corps of Engineers and the water district try to keep the lake between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet, considered the optimum depths for the health of thelake. ...

A cattle drive across old Florida
Rachel Sauer /Palm Beach Post /Dec 16
For now, in this very moment as the sun dips into a cauldron of liquid bronze at the western horizon, let's not dwell on what Florida was or is becoming. No sighs or shrugs, only a distant rumble. The cattle are coming. A rippling, dappled needlepoint of brown and black and dirty white, they amble through the palmetto scrub in a tight ribbon. They crowd each other, occasionally bawling, stomping up a hazy cloud of beige dust that lingers over the shifting rug of their backs. The firecracker pop of a whip sends them into a pounding, jostling trot.Moo. Moooooooo. A dozen cow hunters on horseback — 2,000 miles to the west, they'd be called cowboys — yell and whoop, herding the cattle into a fenced pasture. After some aimless wandering, the 500 cattle settle into the serious business of eating. Then a hushed stillness. The tall prairie grass is tipped in gold. The crisp air is co ...

Lake O releases approved
Joel Moroney /Miami Herald /Dec 15
Water from Lake Okeechobee could begin trickling into the Caloosahatchee River after water managers agreed to freshwater releases despite low lake levels. Kurt Harclerode, operations manager for Lee County’s Division of Natural Resources, said the county requested the releases for the river’s health. The proposed low-volume releases are scheduled to take place over the next 30 days, the South Florida Water Management District said. Robert Chamberlain, the district’s lead environmental scientist, said the release would be about 2.3 billion gallons over three days followed byabout 163 million gallons per day until salinity content improves. That compares to more than 4 billion gallons per day released after Hurricane Wilma, which caused the opposite problem by driving salt content in the estuaries too low. The river’s estuaries are where salt water from the Gulf of Mexico ...

Drought could force Lake O pumping
staff /Florida Business Jou/Dec 14
Drought could force Lake O pumpingSouth Florida Business Journal - December 14, 2006 Palm Beach County could be home to three new pumping stations for LakeOkeechobee if the region's drought conditions don't improve. If they are required, the South Florida Water Management District has authorized emergency installation for the total of 14 electric pumps and one spare pump no later than March 1. The district said it paid $1.5 million for the 15 pumps. If they are not needed by the deadline, the pumps are to remain on standby for the remainder of district's 36-month contract with Lucas Marine ConstructionLLC, in case they become necessary. The pumps would draw water from Lake Okeechobee if the lake's water level drops below 10.2 feet. At that point, gravity would no longer direct the flow of water through existing structures.The pumps, capable of moving 100 cubic feet of ...

Dike project workers digging for answers
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Dec 17
In about a month, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin its newest attempt to plug the leaks in the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee. But it will take at least a few months more before the corps can begin to answer the questions many people most want to know: How long will the work take? How much will it cost? How many people will have to lose their homes to make way for the project? The corps is trying to generate some of those answers by drilling dozens of feet through the dike into the sand, peat and limestone beneath it, looking for clues to the region's hodgepodge geology. The results will tell the engineers how deep they must build an underground concrete wall aimed at blocking leaks - and how much land they'll need to place a gravel berm around the dike. Those answers are crucial for the Glades, especially for cities such as Pahokee, whose downtown lies near th ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Waterway restoration bill may die if deal not reached
C Moody & A Parnes /TCPalm /Dec 2
WASHINGTON — With only days left before the 109th Congress adjourns, time is running out for the Water Resources Development Act, a massive piece of legislation that would bring billions of dollars in environmental funding to Florida and the rest of the country. The bipartisan bill that passed through both chambers of Congress in July is being held up in conference committee meetings as the Senate and House try to resolve their differences over the legislation. It has taken five months for both chambers to come to a consensus and it will die if an agreement is not reached. "Everyone wants a bill," said Thomas Bean, press secretary for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, the Miami Republican. "The question is can a bill get puttogether in time with what days we have left?" ...

Southern flow way proposed by Rivers Coalition
Pete Gawda /Newszap /Dec 2006
A proposal to store water south of Okeechobee could cause a decrease in the unwanted discharges of excess lake water to the estuaries.The discussion of a storage flow way to the south of the lake was a major topic of discussion at the Thursday, Nov. 30, meeting of the Nine County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake Okeechobee, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries and Lake Worth Lagoon. The coalition is made up of commissioners representing Okeechobee, St. Lucie, Martin, Lee, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highland and Osceola counties. "Take the water south," insisted Karl Wickstrom of the Rivers Coalition Defense Fund. "Everything else is nonsense."The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has been experimenting with aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells, a process whereby excess water is injected into wells below the potable water level and recovered if needed. T ...

South Florida campaigns for rescue of Indian River Lagoon
William Gibson /Sun Sentinel /Dec 4
WASHINGTON · The once bountiful Indian River Lagoon, squeezed by housing development and polluted by toxic runoff, is dying. Its fish populations are deformed and declining. Property values along its banks are soaring, constantly raising the cost of buying land to save it. And unless the federal government acts soon to help, the state and local communities face the full burden of reviving this degraded waterway, the vital next step toward restoration of the Everglades. This is the fervent pitch some South Florida officials are delivering to Congress while pressing for passage this month of a bill that would authorize federal spending on Indian River and other water projects around the country. A conference committee of House and Senate members is nearing completion of a final compromise bill, but some aspects of the $11 billion package remain controversial, l ...

Congress unable to agree on funding
Larry Wheeler /Tallahassee Democrat/Dec 5
WASHINGTON - As Congress wraps up its work this week, nearly two dozen Florida projects worth more than $1 billion are likely to be put on hold until next year. The fate of two big Everglades-restoration projects will remain in limbo because House and Senate negotiators couldn't reach an agreement. Funding for a number of shore-protection and port-construction projects will be delayed. Money for the leaky Herbert Hoover Dike is pending. Legislation to build a $377.7 million Department of Veterans Affairs hospital near Orlando also will have to wait until the new Congress convenes in January. Florida lawmakers bemoaned the delay but held out hope that local and statewide projects eventually will be funded after Democrats assume majority control of Congress in January. ''I am extremely disappointed the House-passed legislation to give central Florida veterans a lon ...

State's projected population growth indicates grim, scary future may be ahead
Andy Reid /Orlando Sentinel /Sun Sentinel
Waves of future development threaten to leave Florida choked in gridlock andcovered from coast to coast by a sea of rooftops, according to new growth projections unveiled Wednesday. By the time today's kindergartners near retirement, the state's population should double to 36 million people and development could claim 7 million more acres of rural land, according to a University of Florida study. To avoid dooming Florida to a fate of roads clogged with traffic and subdivisions replacing open spaces, a coalition of growth watchdogs, developers and agricultural interests on Wednesday called for the state and localgovernments to change how they plan for the future. Without changes to growth guidelines, a projected doubling of the population in Southeast Florida by 2060 would send new subdivisions sprawling into the Everglades Agricultural Area. That would fuel a popula ...

WRDA water bill is ‘dead’
Amie Parnes /Naples Daily News /Dec 7
WASHINGTON — So close, yet so far.The massive water bill that would have poured billions of dollars into the area for Everglades restoration funding is “officially dead,” U.S. Senate leadersconfirmed Wednesday. The Water Resources Development Act, a bipartisan measure that contained $1.2 billion for the Indian River Lagoon and more than $360 million for the Picayune Strand restoration project, passed though both chambers of Congress in July but was held up in a conference committee where House and Senate members attempted to iron out their differences. But those differences were far-reaching and lawmakers couldn’t come to a consensus as the clock on the current congressional session ran down. “As of 1:47 p.m. (Tuesday when talks ended), WRDA is dead,” said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “We have a limited amount of ti ...

Corps backs Martin project
Jason Schultz /Palm Beach Post /Dec 8
STUART — Federal officials this week signed off on a proposed new development that includes more land than the city of Stuart, leaving a Martin County developer relieved and environmentalists angry. "This is bad news for the whole Everglades restoration plan," said former County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla after learning that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had issued permits to the developers of Harmony Ranch, a 4,500-acre project near Bridge and Pratt-Whitney roads west of Florida's Turnpike."I'm really disappointed in the corps and I'm even more disappointed in the (South Florida Water Management District)." The corps originally denied the permits last year that developers needed to build the project that would allow homes on 20-acre lots. That denial came because about 1,840 acres of the project are on land state and county officials wanted to buy as part of the effort to clean ...

Curbs on water use likely this dry season
Matthew Pinzur /Miami Herald /Dec 9
No one wanted another active hurricane season in 2006, but SouthFlorida's calm summer is having consequences. The lack of serious rain has left the region on the verge of a drought, and water managers could begin imposing mandatory restrictions next month on lawn watering and car washing. Regulators already have issued a water-shortage warning from Palm Beach County to Monroe County and asked residents to cut back voluntarily. Additional restrictions are likely for Broward, County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger said. ''We don't know when this is going to have to go into effect,'' she said. ``It will depend on how much rain we get this winter.'' Ordinary consumers can help with common-sense conservation: limit showers to five minutes; turn off the faucet while shaving and brushing teeth; don't run the hose constantly while washing cars. Water manage ...

Congress, corps hurtEverglades restoration
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Dec 13
More than a year after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a developer permits to build on Martin County land earmarked for Everglades restoration, the corps changed its mind, signing off on the 4,500-acre Harmony Ranch development west of Hobe Sound. It's a disappointing decision that is one more black mark against federal participation in the so-called 50-50 federal-state partnership to rest Last year, the corps correctly denied the permits because allowing houses on land designated for an environmental restoration project is not in the public interest. Last week, the agency did an about-face and gave in to a developer's demands. It sends a terrible message when the corps, with the collaboration of the South Florida Water Management District, approves residential development on land d The corps, under Col. Robert Carpenter, was correct when it denied Harmony Ranch's plan for ...

Bush's legacy on environment is successes, missed opportunities
Briank Skoloff /Bradenton Herald /Dec 14
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A snapshot of the land tells only so much about Gov. Jeb Bush's environmental footprint on Florida. By allaccounts, he's left a lasting one - either through action or apathy. It's a mixed bag of accomplishments and missed opportunities. He was the driving force behind Everglades restoration funding and land acquisition projects. But, some say, his leadership to curburban sprawl came too little, too late, and unbridled growth nowthreatens to reverse preservation efforts. Under Bush's eight-year watch, about 1.2 million acres of land were acquired for preservation, most notably the recent purchase of the Babcock Ranch, nearly 74,000 acres in southwest Florida. It was the largest-ever state purchase of land for environmental preservation. Last year, the Legislature approved the largest budget forenvironmental preservation in Florida history - mo ...

Record downpour causes sea of problems
R Gilken, R Hayes, R King /Palm Beach Post /Dec 15
Bill Saunders stood in knee-deep water in West Palm Beach's Pineapple Park neighborhood, his tow truck's headlights flashing a message to other motorists: Stay away. In the town of Palm Beach, where Army surplus vehicles rumbled to rescue stranded drivers, Jennifer Uhlinger waited outside the Brazilian Court Hotel for someone to tow her BMW. "My hair's fabulous," she joked, fresh from a stylist appointment, "but it's wet." The downpour dumped 7.85 inches of rain from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Palm Beach International Airport, the National Weather Service reported. That shattered the previous Dec. 14 record for that site, 3.75 inches in 1955. About 20,000 Florida Power & Light customers lost power, water crept up to front doors, and the American Red Cross opened a shelter as Palm Beach County residents awoke to a dark day that delivered the freakish winter storm. The rain - more than 8 inc ...

County considers reusing wastewater, a pricey endeavor
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /Dec 17
Under pressure from the state to overhaul its water supplypractices, Miami-Dade County is turning to a new source -- recycling waste water. The plan entails reclaiming tens of millions of gallons now lostevery day down sinks, sewers, tubs and toilets. After intensive treatment touted to produce something safe and clean enough to sell in a bottle, the water would recharge well fields and restore natural flows into southern Biscayne Bay. ''Reclaiming'' wastewater is the key strategy of a plan designed to keep the county from sucking up groundwater over the next 20 years to supply a swelling population. It would elevate Miami-Dade from one of the worst water-wasters in the state, ranked No. 56 out of 67 counties in percentage of water reuse, to among the biggest recyclers.''If they do all that, we'd be thrilled,'' said Carlyn Kowalsky,director of water supply for t ...

Cities, counties look up, down for water
B Wallman and D Fleshler /Sun Sentinel /Dec 20
FORT LAUDERDALE · The search for a new drinking water supply for many of Broward County's largest cities moves to northern Palm Beach County under a half-million-dollar study approved Tuesday. Fort Lauderdale will lead an effort to boost the regional water supply, under terms of a deal that brings together Hollywood, Plantation, Sunrise, PompanoBeach, and Broward and Palm Beach counties. Together the governments will pay engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer $445,000 to determine whether it is possible and practical to divert rainwater in northern Palm into a rock-pit reservoir called L-8. If so, officials plan to use it to recharge the Biscayne aquifer, South Florida's main source of drinking water. South Florida isn't lacking in water, just methods of obtaining it cheaply. Water planners say South Florida is using the cleanest and cheapest source of drinking wat ...

New Congressional blood calls for more Everglades effort
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Dec 21
Congress must stop shirking its share of the $10.9 billion Everglades restoration, incoming U.S. Reps. Tim Mahoney and Ron Klein said Wednesday while praising Florida's handling of the world's biggest environmental repair effort. "The state has done their job," Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, said after a 90-minute aerial tour of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee. "Now it's time for the federal government to step up." The tour also included state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who will oversee the state effort as chairman of the legislature's joint Everglades committee. During a news conference near Palm Beach International Airport, Mahoney and Klein, D-Boca Raton, said they'll push to make sure the new Democratic-led Congress fulfills the outgoing Republican leadership's promises of a 50-50 partnership between Florida and the feds. ...

New pumps divert Wellington's polluted stormwater away from Everglades
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Dec 29
Beginning today, new pumps should start steering Wellington's pollutedstormwater away from the Everglades. Days before the ball was set to drop on a New Year's Eve deadline imposed by the federal government, the village and state water managers completed work on pumps that can redirect polluted runoff water to treatment areas instead of dumping it directly into the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge --part of the northern reaches of the Everglades. Decades of environmental objections over polluted water flowing to theEverglades led to lawsuits, which prompted the Dec. 31 deadline. The new pumps are located south of Southern Boulevard, near Flying Cow Road. Now stormwater carrying pollutants washed off roads, lawns and the horse manure-laden fields in equestrian-friendly Wellington can be redirected to the South Florida Water Management District's ...



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