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SWFL ENews: May 2007 SWFL ENews:
May 2007 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Southwest Florida Drought: Alligators Feel The Impact
Kevin Lollar /News Press /May 9
As southern Florida's drought continues, some alligators are running short of water to ride low in, and that will probably have a negative impact on this year's mating season. The drought will not, however, hurt the alligator population, said Lindsey Hord, a biologist for the state's Alligator Management Program. Alligators start moving around and looking for mates in late April and early May as water temperatures get warm. They mate through June. "Reproductively, droughts have a big effect," Hord said. "Once water levels drop to a certain point, alligators start feeling the stress of low water, and their reproductive system shuts down. We'll probably see thatin South Florida. We're seeing it Lake Okeechobee. But that's just the way it goes." Alligators have evolved to deal with drought, and the species' population does not depend on a s ...

Dead Florida panther on east coast means its branching out
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 9
The death of a reclusive female panther Tuesday night on U.S. 1 in southern Miami-Dade County may signal that the rare species is expanding its territory, astate biologist said Wednesday. The 3-year-old panther was hit by a vehicle about 10 miles east of Everglades National Park, where a small cluster of panthers roam amid marshes and soggy pine forests. “It’s kind of far away from where the rest of the population is in Everglades National Park,” said Mark Lotz of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “It’s plausible that was a regular part of her home range.” Panthers once ranged across the southeastern U.S. until pressure from hunters and bulldozers chased what remained of their numbers into Southwest Florida. By 1995, scientists estimated that only one male panther inhabited the Everglades and that the total population numbered about 30 c ...

U.S. Senate begins debate on massive water bill
Amie Parnes /Naples Daily News /May 10
WASHINGTON — Sen. Mel Martinez tried to persuade his colleagues Thursday to support a vital water bill that holds more than $375 million for the Picayune Strand and other critical Everglades restoration projects. On the first day of debate on the issue, Martinez, the Florida Republican, said the legislation will restore the Picayune Strand property — formerly known as Southern Golden Gate Estates — back to its original self, by removing harmful drain annual canals that have made the area prone to wildfires and invasive species like ferns and Brazilian pepper. A more than 17,000 acre brush fire continued to rage in the Picayune Strand State Forest on Thursday. The legislation will also enhance habitat for endangered species like the Florida panther and Florida black bear. Restoring the Everglades, he added, would help repair the natural flow of water acro ...

5 fires burn more than 16,000 acres in Big Cypress preserve
staff /Naples Daily News /May 15
Five separate fires have scorched about 16,250 acres so far in Big Cypress National Preserve, a park spokesman said today. Here is a look at the ongoing fire activity: • The Strickland fire, north of Interstate 75 and west of Levee 28 Interceptor near the Collier-Broward county line, has burned 10,000 acres. • The Midrest fire, just west of the Strickland fire, has burned 3,900 acres. • The FT6 fire, north of U.S. 41 East and east of the Florida National Scenic Trail, has blackened 1,900 acres. • The Trail fire, south of I-75 and north of the FT6 fire, is now at 450 acres. • No acreage was given for the HP fire, south of U.S. 41 East near the Turner River Canoe Trail. ...

New group of fires burn 17,200 acres in Big Cypress preserve
Ryan Mills /Naples Daily News /May 15
Rain has finally come, but the wildfires in Collier County rage on. After fighting an 18,000-acre blaze in the Picayune Strand State Forest last week, firefighters now are focusing on five fires that have scorched about 17,200 acres in the Big Cypress National Preserve. All five Big Cypress fires were started by lightning more than a week ago, but on Monday the acreage they were burning more than doubled, park spokesman Bob DeGross said. The increase in acreage was due to increased winds and the fires moving into areas with more fuel, he said. “We had an increase of about 10,000 acres” on Monday, DeGross said. The largest of the five fires, called the Strickland fire, has burned more than 10,000 acres north of Interstate 75 and west of the Levee 28 Interceptor Canal near the Collier-Broward county line, officials said. The fire is burning near anumber of ho ...

Senate passes water bill that includes Golden Gate Estates funding
Amie Parnes /Naples Daily News /May 16
WASHINGTON — After nearly two days of debate, the U.S. Senate passed a long overdue water bill Wednesday that includes funding for the Picayune Strand StateForest in Collier County and other critical Everglades restoration projects. The Water Resources Development Act, which cleared the chamber by a vote of 91-4, will now go to a conference committee where lawmakers from the Senate and House will sort out the differences of their respective bills. The bill holds more than $375 million for the Picayune Strand and other Everglades projects. Lawmakers have tried to pass the legislation for more than six years — includingmost recently in December — but were unable to reach a consensus about the legislation’s final price tag. On Wednesday, Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, aRepublican, said they were pleased the bill cleared both chambers at a rela ...

Waiting on the rain
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 23
As recently as eight months ago, gin-colored water swelled to the top of the Faka Union Canal’s banks at the northern end of Golden Gate Estates. Now, that water is gone, replaced by a grass-filled depression that could stand some mowing. Fires have eaten a city-size swath of Big Cypress National Preserve, leaving a sickly, yellowish film hanging over the region. Across Southwest Florida, alligators dodge traffic in search of somewhere wet. And the few remaining wood storks and ibises pick at easy meals in the remnants of marshes and streams. The 16-month drought goes on, despite last week’s isolated downpours, meteorologists said Wednesday. In fact, with a rain shortage of 6 to 7 inches inLee and Collier counties so far this year, the drought may continue into 2008 unless the rainy season more than lives up to its name. “Just because we’re starting the rainy seaso ...

49,000 acres burned so far
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /May 24
Three weeks after lightning ignited five fires in the Big Cypress National Preserve, two of the fires are still raging and more than 49,000 acres have beenblackened. The drought-stoked flames have produced the largest blaze in 26 yearsin the preserve.More than 200 firefighters and support personnel from the National Park Service as well as from federal, state, county and tribal land management agencies are actively fighting the infernos. The two most active fires are the Midrest and the Strickland. The former is a few miles east of State Road 29 and north of Alligator Alley; the latter is westof the Levee 28 Interceptor, straddling the Alley. By 8:30 p.m. Thursday the Strickland fire had burned about 29,000 acres of the 729,000 acre preserve. The Midrest fire has burned about 16,900 acres, said Chris Worth, a U.S. Forestry Service spokesman. Three smaller fires in the p ...

At Big Cypress, crews fight fire with fire
Erika Bolstad /Miami Herald /May 25
This swamp fire doesn't roar. It sizzles and crackles, searing through parched grass, fallen palm fronds and pine needles. In seconds, flames course through the undergrowth, shriveling dense palmetto clumps to charred stalks and reducing the verdant landscape to a smoking black. ''Beautiful black,'' said Nat Lancaster, walking along the fire line. His elite fire crew, the Utah-based Bonneville Hotshots, nod in approval. These firefighters, specially trained in wildfires, are among the dozens from all over the United States fighting fire with fire in the northwest corner of the 40,000-acre blaze deep in the Big Cypress National Preserve between Fort Lauderdale and Naples. Their mission: to herd the flames away from remote hunting camps and homes in the preserve and to keep it from spreading north onto the Seminole reservation. They do ...

Preserves starved for water
Joel Moroney /News Press /May 27
Alligators tramp muddy trails through the sawgrass in the Everglades while thousands of acres of forest burn in Big Cypress National Preserve. The vast uninhabited conservation areas that dominate South Florida havetaken a beating through a year of record drought and may be the last to recover once rains begin. Authorities say a return of water flowing south will be critical to the health of one of the nation’s most precious ecosystems. “The Everglades is a wetland and water is required to maintain aquatic life,” said Dave Hallac, chief of biological resources for the Everglades. “To be honest with you we are always concerned. The park is significantly impacted based on the effects of drainage.” Distasteful option While the South Florida Water Management District has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to draw water conser ...

Big Cypress fire grows to nearly 57,000 acres
Ryan Mills /Naples Daily News /May 29
The biggest blaze in more than 25 years in the Big Cypress National Preserve continued to grow over Memorial Day weekend, and Collier County residents could be increasingly seeing its effects as early as today, officials said. The fire in the preserve is actually five individual fires that together have burned 56,992 acres, said Art Wirtz, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service incident management team that is fighting the blaze. The largest of the fires, known as the Strickland fire, has burned about 30,000 acres a few miles east of State Road 29 and north of Alligator Alley. A second large fire, known as the Midrest fire, has burned about 19,000 acres west of the Levee 28 Interceptor and straddling the Alley. Three smaller fires, which also burned in the preserve, have been contained and died down. Lightning strikes ignited all five on May 4, about 23 miles north ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

SW Fla. gets $100 million
B Cotterell & A Deslatte /News Press /May 1
TALLAHASSEE — With a day to spare, House and Senate leaders distributed their final compromise on a $71.9 billion state budget Monday, starting the annual countdown toward adjournment of the 2007 session this week. House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, declined to discuss prospects of an extended session, or recalling lawmakers to the Capitol, if he and Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, are unable to come to terms on property tax relief. Both men were optimistic of keeping things harmonious in negotiations on several big bills remaining before the 60-day session runs out Friday. Gov. Charlie Crist’s first state budget — the only bill legislators constitutionally must pass — was overhauled in weeks of committee hearings and House-Senate negotiations. Lawmakers added a 5 percent tuition increase for universities and community colleg ...

Bill will help restore Caloosahatchee
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /May 6
Local leaders are ecstatic about the Legislature’s passage last week of a bill that will provide millions to help restore the Caloosahatchee Estuary, which hasbeen plagued by a variety of water-quality problems for years. The Northern Everglades restoration bill designates $200 million in the first year and at least $100 million for the next 12 years to improve water quality inLake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. “We’re thrilled,” said Lee County commissioner Tammy Hall. “This piece of legislation is the first of its kind that really looks at estuaries.” The bill provides state money but places much of the responsibility for carryingout the restoration on the shoulders of local governments and the South Florida Water Management District. The district is up to the challenge, said Phil Flood, director of the district’sLower West Coast region.“We ...

Everglades, Lake O, rivers targeted
Joel Moroney /News Press /May 12
Bob and Dianne Barry spend nine months of the year on their boat, much of that time on the Caloosahatchee River. “We love the river,” said Bob Barry, 69, of Colorado. “It’s beautiful. The thought of the water being polluted is not very pleasing.” Two years after billions of gallons of hurricane rainwater from Lake Okeechobee reeked environmental havoc as it was flushed down theCaloosahatchee River, lawmakers last week passed more than $400 million worth of environmental aid — along with a new title that designates as the Northern Everglades a triangular area around Lake Okeechobee, including the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers.More than $200 million goes to expanding Everglades restoration through 2020 and another $100 million is coming to the aid of the rivers. “This is what we’ve been waiting for — now we have the money to address the problems,” said Ph ...

A big win for our river
Editorial /News Press /May 15
The battle to save Lee County's estuaries is far from over — it will never end — but a major victory was won last week. Gov. Charlie Crist still has to sign it, but the Legislature OK'd more than $400 million in additional South Florida environmental cleanup money, and — even more important —designated a Northern Everglades area, including Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers aspart of the Everglades system. That confers new, equal status and protection to the rivers and their tributaries, which have often been treated as dumping grounds for polluted lake water. This legislation gives the right scope to "Everglades restoration," including now the lake, the rivers that flow into and out of it, and the coastal estuaries affected by them, as well as the Everglades itself. Credit goes to several leaders — Lee County commission ...

Urge EPA to protect river and estuaries
OP- David Guest /News Press /May 24
Enough is enough! That's what citizens told U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officialsat a public hearing in Fort Myers earlier this month. Enough polluted water flowing out of Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River, poisoning our estuary. Enough dead manatees and dolphins floating belly-up on our shores. Enough red tide causing nasty fish kills and chasing people off our beaches. Thankfully, the Florida Legislature passed The Northern Everglades restoration bill, which designates $200 million in the first year and atleast $100 million for the next 12 years to improve water quality in Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Five million dollars a year will go to projects within the Caloosahatchee watershed. It will take political will, not just money, to help stop this pollution. Thirty-five years ago, you could see a white, ...

Yet another director leaves SFWMD’s west coast office
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /May 23
The South Florida Water Management District’s west coast office is on its seventh director in as many years. Number six, Rhonda Haag resigned this week to take a job with The Quantum Leadership Group, Inc., headed by Alvin Jackson, a former deputy director of thewater management district. As vice president of outreach services, Haag’s new job won’t keep her too far from the district. She’ll directly consult with the district to train workers and attract small business contractors for district projects, such as the massive C-43 reservoir being built in Hendry County, the Picayune Stand restoration and other Everglades restoration projects.“I saw this position as an opportunity to learn a great deal about the west coast and use it as a stepping stone to do other opportunities and still remain connected with the west coast,” Haag said. Since Chip M ...

Officials warn there's still a drought
Joel Moroney /News Press /May 24
Standing in a fire-ravaged and water-starved portion of rural CollierCounty on Wednesday, authorities pleaded with the public not to confuse the dawning of rainy season with an end to South Florida's drought or wildfire dangers. "We're not out of the woods yet," said Hank Graham, manager of the Caloosahatchee District for the Florida Division of Forestry. "Conditions are ripe for a continued fire season." So far this year 188 wildfires have burned in the district, which encompasses Lee, Collier and Hendry counties — 167 of those in the last three months. The annual average is about 330."We're way over the top there," Graham said. "We need people, especiallywith the upcoming holidays and summer season, to conserve water and prevent wildfires." Weather National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Molleda expects the beginning of rainy season with ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Lake Okeechobee nearing record low
Rachel Simmonsen /Palm Beach Post /May 1
OKEECHOBEE — The pier once stretched into Lake Okeechobee. Today it hovers above dry land, the latest backdrop for water managers to deliver what has become a well-known refrain: This is a serious drought. Speaking to reporters today at Jaycee Park along the lake's north shore, water managers and forecasters stressed that Lake Okeechobee, a backup water supply for much of South Florida, is nearing record low levels. And even a good soaking from tropical depressions this summer likely won't be enough to pull the region out of drought. ...

Lake cleanup planned while water is low
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 1
As the waters of Lake Okeechobee recede toward an uncharted low, state water managers said Tuesday they would try to mine something good out of an increasingly grim situation. They're planning to spend $7 million to move backhoes and dump trucks into western portions of the lake bed to excavate and haul away a festering source of pollution -- a black ooze of sediment, decaying plants and algae laced with pollutants from farms, cattle pastures and suburbs. That way, the water may be a little cleaner and clearer as rain refills the lake. But the prospects for the lake rising again anytime soon don't look promising. The lake, at 9.65 feet above sea level on Tuesday, was on pace to drop more than a foot over the next three weeks to a month and break a record low -- a recession compounded by windy, sunny days thathave amped up evaporation rates. ...

Plan would reroute Lake O water
Jason Schultz /Palm Beach Post /May 2
STUART — Environmentalists and Martin County commissioners hope the south shall flood again - at least the land south of Lake Okeechobee - in order to clean up the St. Lucie River. Commissioners unanimously endorsed a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal that would restore a natural flow-way for storm water to drain south out of Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades instead of being released into the river. Heavy lake releases in recent years have polluted the St. Lucie River and endangered fish, oysters and sea grass. "This is the only viable solution for the St. Lucie River," said Chuck Locke, a member of the Rivers Coalition, a group of business and recreation groups aiming to clean up the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. ...

Lake Okeechobee's low water is `a mixed blessing'
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 1
It may be hard to tell by the pontoon boats resting on muddy creek bottoms and the sagging business at marinas and bait shops, but there may a bright side to the low water in Florida's largest lake. The drought has inadvertently given Lake Okeechobee -- strangled by dark, polluted water over the last few years -- a chance to breath again, to soak in sunlight and sprout sprigs of green life. State water managers said Tuesday they will put $7 million into projects to help speed a revival of aquatic plants and shorelinemarshes that -- when the waters do rise again -- could produce cleaner, clearer waters and, in coming years, healthier populations of fish and wildlife in the lake. The key work will entail driving bulldozers and dump trucks onto a lake bed where bass boats usually float, to scrape up and haul away a dried and cracked layer of an ooze chu ...

Officials devise plan to deal with dike-break at Lake Okeechobee
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /May 2
On the same day forecasters declared no end in sight to a drought that has left Lake Okeechobee at historic lows, emergency managers gathered Tuesday to plan for the day when a brimming lake could lead to a New Orleans-style breach of thelevee that protects South Florida. State and local officials held a daylong "catastrophic recovery" workshop aimed at planning how to respond to the lake's 70-year-old earthen dike giving way andflooding a swath of Palm Beach County from Pahokee to Loxahatchee. Last May, a report from the South Florida Water Management District warned that lake erosion threatened to weaken the dike and that the structure "poses a graveand imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida."In response, local officials continue to update evacuation and recovery plans, even with the lake less than a foot above the record low of 8.97 feet above ...

Lake Okeechobee nearing record low, but drought will help ecosystem
Gabriel Margasak /Orlando Sentinel /May 2
Lake Okeechobee · Tammy Clark wistfully remembered swimming here as a child as she fed bread to the birds Tuesday with her 2½-year-old daughter Chloe. Her memory of a sandy shore is now a puzzle of cracked muck where water once lapped against the lake's windswept banks. "It looks crazy," said the Stuart resident, who grew up by the lake. "The boats are all tilting on the dry land. It's really kind of sad, you know, and here it looks like pastureland almost in some places." This was exactly the image that water managers wanted to show residents as they warned that water conservation is a key to withstanding one of Florida's worst droughts. The drought is expected to last much longer, the water supply is furtherthreatened in some areas and the region's tourist-dependent economy is suffering, officials said during a Tuesday briefing at the lake. Yet thenear-record low lake ...

Water managers move ahead with cleaning Lake O
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /May 9
OKEECHOBEE — Water managers said Wednesday they're speeding ahead with $11 million worth of projects to scrape noxious muck from Lake Okeechobee, seizing on one of the ecological bright spots of the region's shriveling drought. The work is aimed at gouging a total of 3.8 million cubic yards of muck from various spots around the lake - approximately enough to bury the Kravis Center under a 240-foot-tall pile. At the same time, the projects will remove a little less than 1 percent of the polluting phosphorus coating the 730-square-mile lake's bottom. And it will unclog some navigation canals near Belle Glade's marina. The projects are possible because 18 months of abnormally dry weather have dropped the lake to within 4.5 inches of its all-time record low water level. That means much of the lake's bottom is now dry, muddy beach - accessible to trucks and bulldozers, not boats. ...

Lock schedule on Lake O changing for area
staff /TCPalm /May 10
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, is beginning a new lock schedule on the St. Lucie Lock on the Okeechobee Waterway because of the continued decline in water levels of Lake Okeechobee. The St. Lucie and Franklin locks on the Okeechobee Waterway will lock boats through only at 9 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., with one lockage in each direction. The lock schedule change will remain in effect as long as needed. Conditions will be re-evaluated on a weekly basis. ...

Lake Okeechobee dike study backed by Senate
Larry Lipman /Palm Beach Post /May 11
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $1.5'million study of the Herbert Hoover Dike system to determine the risk of flooding from Lake Okeechobee. The action came as senators began considering a water resources development bill authorizing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects around the nation. A final vote could occur early next week. The House passed a similar bill last month that did not include the dike study, but the two versions would have to be resolved in a conference committee. The Senate bill, like the House bill, also includes an authorization of more than $1.3 billion for the planned cleanup of the Indian River Lagoon, a key component in the $10.9 billion Everglades restoration project. And the Senate bill includes authorization for nearly $81 million for a deep storage reservoir in Palm Beach County, $375 million for restoration of ...

Pray for rain and an aging earthen dike
Fred Grim /Miami Herald /May 13
Last May, residents around Belle Glade were contemplating the ''imminent probability'' that 1.6 trillion gallons of lake waterwould burst through the Herbert Hoover Dike and reprise the killer flood of 1928. ''Jesus help me if that thing breaks,'' one local told me. She knew that if the deluge 79 years ago took 2,500 lives in the sparselypopulated farm communities around Lake Okeechobee, a modern day flood would kill 10 times that many. Engineers hired by the state had issued a report warning that the aging earthen dike around Lake Okeechobee was in perilous condition. If some tropical storm raised the lake level above 18 feet, the region risked another hellish catastrophe. Residents sent me to the Belle Glade library to see that harrowing Ferenc Varga sculpture of a doomed family -- a father, mother, baby, a young boy clinging to his parents' leg ...

Lake, rivers get help
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /May 14
Ailing Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries on Florida's east and west coasts that often are the dumping ground for the lake's dirty waters got a big boost from the state's lawmakers this year, with two bills that could speed cleanup and prevent continued pollution. Legislators approved a bill that mandates planning to help clean the lake and protect the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. The measuThe South Florida Water Management District, in cooperation with the Departments of Environmental Protection and Agriculture and governments in Lee and Martin counties, must develop plans to protect both estuaries and figure out the amount of water storage water managers should provide north of the lake. Without storage areas, lake managers now dump most excess lake water into the coastal rivers. ...

Let's use Florida as a bad example
Eric Sharp /Detroit Free Press /May 17
While we've created some ecological messes in Michigan, we can take comfort thatat least we're not in Florida. That state is in far deeper environmentaltrouble, the result of short-sighted and corrupt political leaders turning blindeyes to impending threats for decades while truckling to developers. I got to musing about that after reading that fish biologists in Wisconsin were stunned last week to find a lethal new disease not in Lake Michigan, where it was expected to appear next, but in two inland lakes 50 miles up the Fox River. Like Florida, Michigan has an incredible resource in its waters, and like Florida, Michigan has treated its waters shamefully. The appearance of viral hemorrhagic septicemia in the Great Lakes and now inland lakes should be a warning: To avoid an environmental disaster on the scale that we see in Florida,we need to take steps to protect tho ...

Drought brings opportunity for restoration of Lake Okeechobee
Brian Skoloff /Sun Sentinel /May 23
WEST PALM BEACH -- State water and wildlife managers are taking advantage of unprecedented drought conditions by removing enough life-choking muck along LakeOkeechobee's shoreline to fill Dolphin Stadium from the field to its highest seat. The 500,000 cubic yards of rotted, dead plant life and sediment will be trucked from the southwest portion of the lake starting Thursday to pastures fordisposal. Its removal over several months will return the lake's bottom along its shoreline in that area to a more natural sandy base and create clearer waterand better habitat for plants and wildlife. Lake Okeechobee is a back-up drinking water source for millions in South Floridaand the lifeblood of the Everglades. It has dropped to a near record low after amonths-long drought that experts say is the worst the region has ever seen. While the drought has led to severe water restrictio ...

With Lake Okeechobee low, muck scraped away
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /May 25
Bulldozers replaced bass boats on a dried patch of Lake Okeechobee on Thursday, scraping away muck-caked consequences of turning the once pristine lake into Florida's largest retention pond. Taking advantage of near-record-low water during a drought, water managers have work crews digging out pollution-laden muck -- enough to fill Dolphin Stadium --from exposed lakebeds in the western and southern parts of the lake. The muck that coats much of the bottom is the result of phosphorus, nitrogen andother pollutants washing off farms and lawns into a drainage system built decades ago to funnel storm water into the lake.Removing up to two feet of muck restores the lake's natural sandy bottom and, when water returns, allows tape grass, bulrushes and other native plants needed for fish to spawn and birds to feed. "This is our bright spot in terms of the drought," said Susa ...

Drought Allows Florida to Clean Bottom of Lake Okeechobee
Terry Aguayo /NY Times /May 26
MIAMI, May 25 — The severe drought in South Florida had an upside for state water management officials who took advantage of the low water levels in Lake Okeechobee and began giving the lake bed a good cleaning. At an almost record low of 9.2 feet, the lake’s water level exposed areas where oozy and polluted muck sediment containing decomposed organic matter hadaccumulated, covering most of the lake bed at depths of more than a foot. Officials from the South Florida Water Management District brought in bulldozersand dump trucks to several sites around the lake on Thursday to scrape the muck and expose the natural bottom in an effort to promote the regrowth of submerged aquatic vegetation and shoreline marshes, which had been suffering since the active 2004 hurricane season. The hurricanes that hit the state in 2004 and 2005 stirred up the muck, keeping sunlight fro ...

Lake Okeechobee nears lowest level ever
Evan Benn /Miami Herald /May 29
With Lake Okeechobee losing about a half-inch each rainless day, South Florida's massive water-supply reservoir is expected to bust the all-time low mark by Wednesday. ''With these dry and windy conditions, we'll certainly see the lake reach a new low level in the next day or two,'' Julie Huber, a spokeswoman for the South Florida Water Management District, said Monday. The lake was 9.03 feet above sea level, less than three-quarters of an inch from the record of 8.97 feet set May 24, 2001. Because little rain is forecast before the weekend, the water level of the giant lake will likely continue to drop for the foreseeable future, Huber said. It has been losing about a half-inch every dry day. ''We hope that once the rainy season kicks in, that will help usmaintain the lake level,'' she said. An 18-month-long drought has left much of South ...

Lake Okeechobee nears record low
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /May 29
How low can drought-stricken Lake Okeechobee go? We're about to find out. The state's largest lake scraped within a dewdrop of its all-time low water level Tuesday, leaving it poised to tie or break the record it set six years ago during the region's last drought. The lake is expected to hit that milestone Wednesday. Not bad enough for you? OK: The lake is also on fire. A 2,000-acre blaze broke out Monday in the dry, grassy lake bed near its northwest shore. It threatened no buildings, state foresters said, and it could help the lake's ecology by clearing away noxious pest plants. But the smoke offered even more ammunition Tuesday to water managers who warned residents not to expect any quick end to the historic shortage. ...

Drought strips cover off centuries-old Lake O secret
Kelly Wolfe /Palm Beach Post /May 31
The lake kept its secret as long as the rain fell. The remains rested in the soft, black muck for hundreds of years - buried beneath the water of Lake Okeechobee. But the drought tore open the ancient grave, and a local man happened upon it. The bodies have been discovered. But the mystery is just beginning. "It's a mixed blessing," State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler said. "The lower lake levels give us a chance to learn - which is good to know because of demucking projects - but the site was probably better-protected under water." There are still many unanswered questions about this recently uncovered archaeological site, a menagerie of boats and bodies. Who are these people? Where did they live? Why did they die? Wheeler said he has issued Palm Beach County a research permit and expects answers to those questions when the county's study is complete. The artifacts at ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

S. Fla. ponders year-round water rules
AP /Florida Today /May 1
OKEECHOBEE — Florida’s worsening drought conditions — one of the driest periods on record — could result in year-round water restrictions for residents and farmers as forecasters say no real relief is in sight. Lake Okeechobee, a backup drinking water source for millions in South Florida and the lifeblood of the Everglades, is nearing a record low at 9.6 feet, four feet below average. “Maybe the time is right to look at year-round restrictions,” Chip Merriam, deputy executive director of the South Florida Water ManagementDistrict, said Tuesday. Last month, the district instituted temporary water restrictions aimed at cutting residential use by up to 30 percent, mostly outside watering of lawns and gardens. Farmers have had to cut back 50 percent. The state also announced that the fragile Everglades ecosystem would be cut off for anynew or additional wate ...

Environmentalist to join water board
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 1
An environmentalist with a decade of experience in the trenches of Everglades restoration battles has been named to the board of the South Florida Water Management District by Gov. Charlie Crist. Shannon Estenoz, 39, a Plantation resident and regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, will join the governor-appointed board overseeing the agency that manages water for 16 counties and directs Everglades restoration and cleanup. ''Her background in civil engineering and her experience with water and environmental resource management and policy make her uniquely qualified to serve the people of South Florida in this position,'' Crist said in a statement. The appointment, which must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, gives the environmental community its strongest influence in a decade on the powerful, often controversial agen ...

River of Greed, Part 2
Bob Norman /Broward Palm Beach /May 3
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Interior Department — faced off last week with Mayor Eric Hersh and education officials about an ill-conceived school siteon the edge of the Everglades. Beforehand, Hersh had been adamantly in favor of the 45-acre site, most of it owned by wealthy developer and major School Board campaign contributor Ronnie Bergeron, for a high school now dubbed only "MMM." The fact that a school there would encroach on the massive $10.5 billionEverglades restoration project and set up a fight between the School Board and the state and federal officials didn't deter Hersh from supporting the plan. Nordid the fact that the land was expected to cost as much as $40 million. He went into the meeting last Monday at Weston City Hall ready to duel. But by the time it was over, he flinched. The contending officials, headed by the South Florida Water Manageme ...

Save water now -- or else
Daphne Sashin /Orlando Sentinel /May 3
KISSIMMEE -- Water managers urge residents to redouble their conservation efforts, as meteorologists predict no quick end to the dry conditions. Surface water and groundwater levels remain just above water-shortage triggers in the South Florida Water Management District, which serves portions of Osceolaand Orange counties in Central Florida. But several Osceola and Orange utilitiesalready have implemented twice-a-week lawn-watering schedules to conserve water from the Floridan Aquifer for drinking purposes as the region's population grows. In Polk County, the Southwest Florida Management District has ordered residents to cut lawn watering to one day per week through July. The lack of rainfall in Central Florida is exacerbating a water shortage in South Florida because water flowing from the Kissimmee River valley is needed torecharge Lake Okeechobee, the primary or bac ...

Chairman of South Florida Water Management District resigns
Dianna Cahn /Sun Sentinel /May 4
WEST PALM BEACH -- South Florida Water Management District Chairman Kevin McCarty tendered his resignation this week amidst a severe drought, to make roomfor the new governor's appointment, McCarty said on Friday. McCarty, who has just completed his first four-year term, had hoped to stay on for a second term and submitted his application to the governor's office. But last week he learned that Gov. Charlie Crist wants to install his own appointments on the board. "I made the decision last Thursday or Friday and I sent in a letter on Monday withdrawing my application," McCarty said. McCarty's position is unpaid as are all the district's governing board positions. He remains on the job until the governor appoints a replacement. McCarty's resignation comes at a time of strain for the water managementdistrict, which is facing the most severe drought in south F ...

Water board's leader leaving
Stacey Singer /Palm Beach Post /May 4
With a severe drought bearing down on the region, the chairman of the South Florida Water Management District's governing board, Kevin McCarty, said Thursday he's stepping down to make way for a new gubernatorial appointment. McCarty sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday withdrawing his name for reappointment. Former Gov. Jeb Bush put McCarty on the board in 2003, and he was voted chairman in March 2005. The district's board constantly weighs the conflicting water demands of development, agriculture, flood control and the environment. As Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty's husband, a Republican Party stalwart and managing partner of Bear Stearns in Boca Raton, Kevin McCarty tilted the governing board's balance toward the agenda of businesses, observers said. Mary McCarty said her husband stressed the importance of giving businesses quick answers on whether ...

Upcoming rainy season probably won't end South Florida's drought
Ken Kaye /Sun Sentinel /May 4
MIAMI - The approaching rainy season probably won't provide enough of the wet stuff to pull us out of the drought, a weather expert said Friday. Meteorologist Robert Molleda, of the National Weather Service in Miami, said therainy season, which usually runs from May 20 to mid-October, produces 35 to 45 inches of rain, or about 70 percent of South Florida's yearly total of rain. To pull us out of the present drought, Molleda said some area would need at least 60 inches, or about 15 inches more than normal and he said that's unlikely. He said there is a 50-percent chance the rainy season will produce more precipitation than normal. As a result, Molleda projects the drought, which started in January 2006, will continue into the New Year. ...

Rainy season may not bring relief, meteorologist says
Ken Kaye /Sun Sentinel /May 4
With one of the most severe droughts in state history threatening to get worse, it's possible the upcoming rainy season could deliver enough downpours to bring water levels back to normal. But don't count on it. The region has become so parched and Lake Okeechobee's levels have dropped so low that even if the heavens open up over the next five months, the drought might be eased but not erased, the National Weather Service in Miami said Friday. "The rain is definitely going to kick in," meteorologist Robert Molleda said. "But chances are, we're going to be dealing with a rainfall deficit into early next year." Then again, Molleda said, if South Florida were to be swamped by a couple of hurricanes, as was the case in both the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons, it would certainly help -- the water shortage, at least. Because of the drought, South Florida has been place ...

Chairman of water district to leave board
Dianna Cahn /Sun Sentinel /May 5
The chairman of the South Florida Water Management District is stepping down, even as a worsening drought has sent Lake Okeechobee water levels toward a historic low and forced South Florida residents to endure water restrictions. Kevin McCarty, who has served as chairman for the past two years, said Friday that he withdrew his reappointment application to Gov. Charlie Crist after learning that the governor has a policy of installing his own appointments on boards. McCarty had hoped to stay on for a second term and submitted his application to the governor's office before he learned of the policy. "I made the decision last Thursday or Friday and I sent in a letter on Monday withdrawing my application," he said. McCarty said he liked the position, but it was stressful, especially during the drought. He endured scathing criticism last month after the district issued ...

Fern threatens to devour the Everglades
Carol J Williams /LA Times /May 6
The Old World climbing fern, known to botanists as Lygodium microphyllum, spreads its asphyxiating fronds like fingers around the necks of native cypress and mangroves. It smothers the flora of the glades' unique tree islands and starves out the endangered wood storks and other fauna. "You can't cut it because it grows right back. You can't burn it without harmingwhat it covers. You can't kill it with water because it survives varyinghydrologies," said Bill Miller, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. And, Miller laments, "nothing in the Everglades feeds on lygodium." The fern and other invasive plants now cover more than 2 million acres of the Everglades, including 70% of this national refuge and ever-expanding stretches of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and the Seminole andMiccosukee reservations.When environmentalists talk about in ...

State officials testing plans for storm season
AP /Miami Herald /May 8
State officials testing plans for storm season (AP) -- State emergency preparedness and response officials started a four-day practice exercise Monday for possible scenarios they may face this hurricane season. Officials were working at the emergency operations center in Tallahassee as if they were dealing with a real hurricane, making decisions on how to respond to various scenarios. One of the problems that will arise in the mock disaster is a ''massive'' dike failure at Lake Okeechobee. The state has been working on a plan with counties around the lake for how to deal with such a breach, and that plan is being tested during the exercise, said Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency operations director. In reality, the lake level and breach threat are extremely low right now because of the current drought in Florida. State emergency ...

Lawn watering may be cut to once a week as drought worsens in S. Florida
Andy Reid and Thomas Monnay /Sun Sentinel /May 9
Facing a worsening drought, water managers on Tuesday called for imposing the toughest water restrictions in South Florida history in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Residents and businesses in the two counties would be limited to once-a-week watering under a proposal going before the South Florida Water Management District on Thursday. The new restrictions were expected to start next week, butthe exact date would not be finalized until the Thursday vote. While April and early May showers helped water levels in Miami-Dade County, occasional rains have not been enough to ease conditions in Palm Beach and Broward counties, district spokesman Jesus Rodriguez said. "It is going to be a little more surgical," Rodriguez said about the proposed restrictions. "It appears that Broward and Palm Beach are in a lot worse shape."In addition to calling for residents ...

Drought forces 2 coastal cities to clamp wells
Stacey Singer /Palm Beach Post /May 9
Water managers battling the drought have shut down public wells in Lantana and Lake Worth to protect them from saltwater contamination. With the South Florida Water Management District expected to order the wells turned off Thursday, the communities' utility directors flipped the switch early. Lake Worth shut down one of 16 wells Monday, Utilities Director Samy Faried said Tuesday. Lantana began shutting down four of its seven working wells last week. The wells will be shut down for at least 60 days. "It's a little bit worrisome, but we've got to do what we've got to do," said Jerry Darr, Lantana's utilities director. The combined forces of drought and rapid development are draining the region's freshwater aquifer, putting coastal wells at risk of saltwater intrusion. Water supplies for Lantana and Lake Worth are considered the most vulnerable in Palm Beach County. Although som ...

Sour on sugar
Editorial /Orlando Sentinel /May 9
As Congress puts together another five-year farm-policy plan this year, the sugar industry will be at the table looking for another heaping helping of government goodies. Lawmakers need to say no. Current policy caters to the sugar industry with limits on foreign imports and other measures to prop up its prices. U.S. consumers end up paying much more than the world price for sugar. In March, for example, the U.S. price of 20.85 cents per pound compared with the world price of 11.44 cents, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Higher prices for U.S. sugar also mean higher prices for food manufactured from it. The General Accounting Office estimated the additional cost for consumers in2000 at nearly $2 billion. That's toughest on the poor, who pay a greater share of their income for food. U.S. food manufacturers who use sugar also take their lumps. Steeper ...

District OKs once-a-week watering for Broward, Palm Beach
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /May 10
Water managers on Thursday imposed once-a-week watering restrictions on Broward and Palm Beach counties, setting the toughest limits ever in response to one of the worst droughts in history. The new rules start May 16. They allow odd numbered addresses to water yards on Saturdays, between 4 and 8 a.m, with hand watering also allowed between 5 and 7 p.m. Even numbered addresses are allowed to water between the same times on Sundays.Residents in Martin and St. Lucie counties will be allowed to water outside plants and lawns twice a week. Four utilities, in Lake Worth, Lantana, Dania Beach and Hallendale, have also been told to stop using some coastal wells, which are in danger of beingcontaminated by saltwater seeping in due to low groundwater levels. ``If we don't shut them down and the salt gets in the wells, they won't recover for decades,'' said spokeswoman Julie Huber ...

Specific district water restrictions by geographic area
staff /Sun Sentinel /May 10
Here are the specific Phase III water restrictions by geographic area that the South Florida Water Management District set on Thursday.Eastern Palm Beach, Broward, and a small portion of Martin County served by Tequesta Water Utilities – Phase III Mandatory Water Use Restrictions Phase III water restrictions target outdoor water use, limiting lawn watering and car washing to one day a week: Saturdays from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. for odd-numbered addresses; Sundays from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. for even-numbered addresses. ...

Fines begin for water wasters
C Rabin, C Morgan, A Sherman /Miami Herald /May 12
A mishmash of enforcement approaches has resulted in dozens of citations for violating water-use restrictions in some parts of South Florida -- and none in others. In Fort Lauderdale, officers have imposed only one fine, but in Cooper City, enforcement is running at a feverish pace: 195 citations dished out. In Pinecrest, nearly 70 people have been cited for breaking the rules. While in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, the number as of Thursday night: three. Deborah Ward lives near Country Walk. She called her $75 fine on May 3 a ''misunderstanding.'' A hired hand who was fixing a sprinkler head was supposed to turn the system off, she said. ''Oh, lucky me,'' Ward said of learning she was one of the unlucky few cited. In coming days -- as restrictions tighten in Broward County, andwith no rain in sight -- expect to see more citations. ''What t ...

Overcrowding? Nature will fix that
Carl Hiaasen /Miami Herald /May 13
In the absence of a sane growth-management policy, nature isbecoming the great equalizer in Florida.A 17-month drought has made a puddle of Lake Okeechobee and has parched the Biscayne Aquifer. Parts of the Everglades are drying up, while advancing seawater endangers the well fields that serve hundreds of thousands of residents in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Water managers warn that, unless consumption is drastically reduced, the taps could run dry -- or, at the least, start spitting salt -- in several coastal communities. Forget about watering your lawn; you won't be able to water your kids. The emergency is so dire that even a busy hurricane season may not make it go away. Florida, one of the wettest states in the country, is running dry. Drought cycles here are nothing new, but this is the first one to occur with 18 million people enc ...

Cities scramble to shield water
Stacey Singer /Palm Beach Post /May 13
The most critical map in the water district's war room shows a solid orange line stretching from Tequesta to Hallandale Beach, the leading edge of an underground enemy that threatens coastal communities' wells: As water managers combat the drought, their top priority is defending well fields east of that line from subterranean saltwater intrusion. Ocean water is three times saltier than human blood, and it tastes unpleasant. Drinking too much can lead to death. It corrodes pipes and damages equipment. Once a well goes salty, it's useless. Well fields in Riviera Beach, Manalapan, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Boca Raton all sit inside or near the map's orange saltwater-intrusion line. A wedge runs from the ocean into the porous coastal rock, where it lurks beneath a layer of fresh water that supplies the wells. A prolonged lack of rainfall increases the risk that ...

Drought forces tighter restrictions in Broward, Palm Beach
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /May 11
Marshes in the Everglades have turned brittle and burned. Farmers and nurseries have watched hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops and plants wilt. Pontoon boats have been marooned on mud in fish camps along Lake Okeechobee. Under a new round of unprecedented water-use cutbacks approved Thursday, residents of Broward and Palm Beach counties are underorders to start sharing more of the pain being produced by one of the worst droughts on record in South Florida. Homeowners in both counties will be slashed to a single, potentially lawn-killing day of watering each week, starting next Wednesday.That's the most severe restriction imposed on residential areas since the South Florida Water Management District drew up water shortage rules more than two decades ago. Miami-Dade, with normal rainfall and higher groundwater levels so far this year, w ...

Wetter by inches; but drought conditions persist
Joel Moroney /News Press /May 16
Whether you get wet this week likely depends on where you stand and how long you wait. What it will not mean is an end to South Florida’s record drought. Low groundwater levels will persist, wildfire dangers will not wane and the risk of salt water intruding inland will remain until daily rains returnto the area — hopefully sometime in the next month. Monday’s storms pounded Page Field with 4.4 inches of rain — 3.46 inchesmore than had fallen there all year. Tuesday, another 0.22 of an inch fell at the south Fort Myers airport.But just .01 of an inch fell 9 miles away at Southwest Florida International Airport. No measurements were available from there Tuesday. “It just depended on whether you got under one of those downpours,” saidNBC2 Meteorologist Haley Webb. Scattered storms are expected through the rest of the week with drier weather returning this weekend ...

Senate bill would give Everglades a major boost
Lesley Clark /Miami Herald /May 16
Everglades restoration efforts would get a major boost, Miami-Dade'sport would get cash for widening and deepening, and the crumbling dam along Lake Okeechobee would be studied under a massive water-projects bill that cleared the U.S. Senate on Wednesday -- but still faces hurdles. The measure, which passed the Senate by a vote of 91-4, includes$1.5 million to study the Herbert Hoover Dike system to determine the risk of flooding from Lake Okeechobee, $125 million to both widen and deepen Miami's harbor, more than $1.35 billion for thecleanup of the Indian River Lagoon, $375 million for the restoration of the Picayune Strand, $95 million for Everglades restoration and water conservation and more than $80 million for a project aimed at improving the quality of water that flows into the Everglades. ''No single bill Congress approves will have as much pos ...

Bill boosts Everglades cash
Lesley Clark /Miami Herald /May 17
Everglades restoration efforts would get a major boost, Miami-Dade'sport would get cash for widening and deepening, and the crumbling dam along Lake Okeechobee would be studied under a massive water-projects bill that cleared the U.S. Senate on Wednesday -- but still faces hurdles. The measure, which passed the Senate by a vote of 91-4, includes$1.5 million to study the Herbert Hoover Dike system to determine the risk of flooding from Lake Okeechobee, $125 million to both widen and deepen Miami's harbor, more than $1.35 billion for thecleanup of the Indian River Lagoon, $375 million for the restoration of the Picayune Strand, $95 million for Everglades restoration and water conservation and more than $80 million for a project aimed at improving the quality of water that flows into the Everglades. ''No single bill Congress approves will have as much pos ...

Rains pound South Florida, but it won't help drought
Editorial /Miami Herald /May 20
Rains pound South Florida, but it won't help droughtRain drenched parts of South Florida on Sunday, but the water likely won't impact the region's drought, weather officials said. National Weather Service officials issued several flash flood warnings Sunday morning and one part of Miami-Dade County may have gotten up to 7 inches of rain during morning hours, according tometeorologist Brad Diehl at the National Weather Service in Miami. However, the rain was largely along the coast instead of inland and in the area of Lake Okeechobee, the region's primary reservoir. "This is probably going to have very little effect on the drought," said Bob Ebaugh of the National Weather Service in Miami. "If itwere over Lake Okeechobee we'd be in a much better picture." ...

Water for the Everglades
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /May 19
Maybe South Florida's drought will spur Congress to finish the long-awaited water bill - and persuade a reluctant President Bush to sign it. If he does, Everglades restoration will be back on track with a true federal partner in what is supposed to be a 50-50, federal-state deal.With a shove from Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez of Florida, the U.S. Senate this week followed the House in approving a $14 billion Water Resources Development Act, which would be the first in seven years. It would authorize $2.4 billion in Everglades projects, including $1.37 billion for Indian River Lagoon restoration that would restore natural areas to hold and clean water and help to alleviate As Gov. Crist said, "Florida has been waiting a long time for this bill." The White House, though, has opposed both House and Senate versions of the legislation, saying that it's too expensive. Last year, both chambers a ...

Rainy season begins earlier this year
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /May 21
Rejoice, drought-weary Floridians: The 2007 rainy season has begun. In fact, it began May 14, the National Weather Service's Miami office announced today. "This is six days earlier than the median start date of May 20," according to a statement from meteorologist Robert Molleda. He said it's the earliest start to the rainy season since 1995, when the season began on April 25. That wound up being one of the region's rainiest years since the 1930s. But not even an early-starting rainy season might be enough to end South Florida's lingering drought, water managers warn. They note that rainy seasons typically bring 2 to 4 feet of rain to the region. And they say the region needs significantly above-average rain, especially in the interior north of Lake Okeechobee. ...

Everglades' poor stewards
Editorial /ST Pete Times /May 21
You can't save the Everglades by destroying its life-giving wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should understand that better than anyone. It is the corps that is charged by law with protecting and restoring the beleaguered Riverof Grass. Yet it is also the corps that recently reversed itself on a dredge-and-fill permit and will now allow a developer to wipe out 650 acres of wetlands in the western Everglades. Just 18 months ago, the corps rejected the application for the Mirasol project -800 homes and two golf courses in Collier County - saying it would have "significant adverse impacts" on Everglades water quality and wildlife. As St. Petersburg Times staff writers Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite reported Friday, the corps changed its mind despite warnings from environmental agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still thinks the Mirasol project raises ...

Water policy shake-up is Crist's, if he wants it
OPED /Palm Beach Post /May 22
It is an opportunity Gov. Crist did not expect, but it is one he can use to transform the most important public agency in South Florida.The new governor now will appoint a majority of the South Florida Water Management District's nine governing board members, who represent areas and interests throughout the district's 16 counties. The governor's first choices have been: Eric Beurmann, a Republican lawyer with business experience and environmental credentials from Miami-Dade County; Charles Dauray, a west coast developer who has heThose choices alone help to balance a board that under Jeb Bush had no credible environmental representation. But Gov. Crist still must name a board member from Palm Beach County after Kevin McCarty's resignation. The unexpected resignation of Lennart Lindahl also opens a spot for a Treasure Coast member. Rumors abound that Gov. Crist will appoint Patrick R ...

Floridians Say No to New Coal Plant Near Everglades
PR /Earth Justice /May 23
Tallahassee, FL -- The Florida Wildlife Federation, Earthjustice and Environment Florida today urged Florida's Public Service Commission to deny a request to build the largest new coal plant in the United States at the edge of the Florida Everglades. "This proposed Florida Power and Light plant would spew mercury and global-warming gasses into one of the most environmentally sensitive places in the United States -- a place that taxpayers are spending billions to clean up," said Earthjustice attorney David Guest. "Instead of allowing a huge new dirty coal plant, Florida should take the lead from other states that are working to reduce electricity demand through energy efficiency and alternative fuels," said Manley Fuller, chairman of the Florida Wildlife Federation. New documents from the PSC show that Florida utilities have done essentially nothing to reduce electricity d ...

Corps is sued over Everglades fix
Jane Musgrave /Palm Beach Post /May 25
WEST PALM BEACH — Three national environmental groups sued the Army Corps of Engineers this week, asking a federal judge to make sure the multibillion-dollar Everglades restoration project isn't just a ruse to fuel massive development and farming that would destroy Florida's famed and fragile River of Grass. In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, the groups claim the corps is ignoring safeguards Congress put in place to ensure the billions being spent will provide much-needed water to revitalize the parched Everglades and not merely provide drinking water and irrigation for future farms and home sites. The tone of the 27-page lawsuit, which became public Thursday, is stern. It quotes National Park Service biologists as saying the loss of wetlands, the disappearance of wading birds and the threatened extinction of animals, such as the Florida panther, "warn of a system under ...

Senseless logic on water
AJ Rabinowitz /Sun Sentinel /May 26
At last, rain has been falling and in a matter of weeks, the drought will be over. We'll breathe a sigh of relief and begin getting ready for the hurricane season and our water needs will have been solved. Or will they? Now is the time to plan on the new Florida reservoirs. Yes, our population is exploding as new homes are being built and develoeprs find new acreage untapped.Our depending on Lake Okeechobee will not satisfy our needs. Arrangements for overflow and hurricane downpours should be made into reservoirs, so that we willnot face future droughts. It requires long-range plans and funds, and should start now. ...

Environmentalists Laud Crist's Picks
Mike Salinero /Tampa Bay Tribune /May 28
TAMPA - Gov. Charlie Crist's appointment of Shannon Estenoz to the board of the South Florida Water Management District sent a jolt of excitement through Florida's environmental community. In contrast to former Gov. Jeb Bush's appointees, Estenoz is a former national co-chairwoman of the Everglades Coalition and Sun Coast regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association."She's a dramatic departure from the people Bush appointed," said Nathaniel Reed, a former board member of the water management district and currently vice chairman of the Everglades Foundation. Since taking office, Crist has appointed more than a dozen people to various boards and agencies overseeing Florida's environment. Conservation groups say many of those appointees have environmental backgrounds, signaling the governor's intention to balance the needs of Florida's natural systems with the tr ...



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