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


BIG CYPRESS

On the front lines of the big 60,000-acre Big Cypress fire
Ryan Mills /Naples Daily News /Jun 2
A light drizzle is falling on the Big Cypress National Preserve as a small alligator scurries across a dirt access road and into the thick brush to the east. Across the way, a doe is nibbling on green blades of grass that already have poked through the blackened earth. And down the road, off in a small pocket freeof vegetation, stands a man in a dirt-covered yellow jacket who takes the last drag off his cigarette and twists the butt into an empty can of Red Bull. Brannen Carter, 35, has spent the past week of his life rushing around the 729,000-acre preserve after traveling to Florida from his home in Boise, Idaho. Tall and lanky, with a dusty goatee, Carter is one of 384 firefighters and support staff from across the United States to descend on Southwest Florida to combat a more-than 60,000-acre fire that erupted in the preserve in early May. Carving fire ...

Neighbors, animal lovers team up to build safety pens in Estates
IM Stackel /Naples Daily News /Jun 2
It was much like an old-fashioned barn raising. Neighbors and wildlife lovers turned out in Golden Gate Estates today to help build chain-link enclosures to keep pets and livestock safe from predators such as panthers, coyotes or wild dogs. As part of an initiative sponsored by several wildlife agencies and organizations, the first pen was undertaken to protect Rebecca and BrianGalligan’s two pet dogs, Sable, 1, and Roscoe, 3. The couple lost a dog to predators in August. “I cried for a month,” Rebecca Galligan said Saturday. But all of her neighbors have lost pets or livestock. Last year, nearly 40 livestock were killed, she said.Sable and Roscoe live in the house at night, but during the day the Galligans want to let them out. “We both work during the day,” Rebecca Galligan said. Now the dogs will be safe in a cage that measures 10-feet by 16-feet and is ...

Drought runs deep in Collier
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jun 7
Groundwater levels plummeted to historic lows in the past few weeks at several locations across Collier County, a reflection of the depths to which thedrought-stricken region has sunk. Tropical Storm Barry’s arrival last week heralded the long-awaited return of Southwest Florida’s rainy season, meteorologists say. The storm left behind an average of 1.3 inches of rain in Collier, enough to boost levels in many wells afew inches but not enough to get them back on track. A monitoring well near the parking lot at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary reached an all-time low May 31 when its groundwater dropped to 6.29 feet below ground level. Records have been kept at the station since 1973.As of Thursday, water had crept up to within 6.19 feet of the surface. That’s still about 3 feet below its usual level for early June, according to a U.S. Geological Survey Web site. “Wat ...

Fighting fire with fire
Ryan Miles /Naples Daily News /Jun 9
The firefighters couldn’t believe their eyes. While battling the more than 60,000-acre blaze that erupted more than five weeksago in the Big Cypress National Preserve, they watched as plants and vegetation protruding from a marsh caught fire. The water appeared to be bursting into flames, said Pedro Ramos, deputy superintendent of the preserve. "The fire ... has been unlike what the firefighters that have been here for manyyears had ever seen," Ramos said. It started as a number of smaller fires on May 4, when a rash of lighting strikes hit the Everglades. Local firefighters were able to quickly contain and control fires that erupted south of Interstate 75, but two fires continued to grow north of the interstate. After about a week, land managers at the preserve realized they needed outside assistance to battle the flames and called in a national incident management ...

Conservation Groups Call on Park Service to Protect The Florida Panther
PR /Common Dreams /Jun 14
WASHINGTON - JUNE 14 - A coalition of conservation groups today called on the National Park Service (NPS) to close nearly twenty miles of recently re-opened motorized vehicle trails in southern Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The unnecessary trails are in the most sensitive habitat of the Bear Island Unit, an area in the northwest corner of Big Cypress frequented by the critically endangeThis recent trail mileage increase in Bear Island flies in the face of a ten year effort to curb massive, damaging off-road vehicle abuse in Big Cypress. The routes in question were closed in 2000 as the result of legal action in 1995 challenging NPS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failures to protect the fragile ecosystems of Big Cypress from excessive swamp buggy and all-terrain vehic“In Big Cypress and other public lands, off-road vehicle use has had well-documented and significant ...

Scientists say they have plan to battle 'evil weevil'
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jun 24
For 18 years, nursery owners, gardeners and biologists in southern Florida have been powerless to stop the voracious eating habits of a bromeliad-chewing insectso insidious, they dubbed it the “evil weevil.” Since its discovery in a Broward County nursery, the alien insect has been spotted as far north as Orlando and in the tangled wilds of Fakahatchee Strand and Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County and elsewhere. The damage alarmed state horticulturalists so much that they moved two native bromeliads — the Tillandsia utriculata and Tillandsia fasciculata — to the endangered species list.Finally, there’s hope in the battle against the dreaded Mexican bromeliad weevil: a tiny fly known only to inhabit the mountain rainforests of Central America.Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Florida Department of Agriculture signed off on a ...

Florida panther deaths on roads hit new high of 14
AP /The Ledger /Jun 30
The recent deaths of three Florida panthers on state roads brought this year's total to 14, exceeding the previous record of 11, wildlife officials said. The three panther deaths, which took place last week, involved collisions with vehicles, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Friday. A total of 11 panthers were killed by vehicles in 2006. In recent years, panthers have rebounded from the brink of extinction, from roughly 30 to about 100 on the southwestern edge of the Everglades. The commission said 139 panther deaths have been documented since 1997 - 63 of which were previously live-captured and equipped with radio collars for ongoing research. ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Judah ‘sugar obsessed’
Robert Coker /News Press /Jun 13
If Lee County wants to help solve the harmful estuary issues, they need better representation on the 10-county coalition for responsiblemanagement of Lake Okeechobee. At the most recent coalition meeting, Lee Commissioner Ray Judah acted like a robot, programmed to say only “Send more dirty water south,” no matter what facts were presented. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers analyzed a “spillway” through the dike around the lake to move water south. The idea was rejected because it significantly reduced storage capacity in the lake, which would increasedischarges to the estuaries. It was further shown that a spillway would completely destroy Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects already under way to clean up the Everglades. Ray Judah responded by again asking the Corps to explain why they couldn’t send more water south. Next, the South Florida Water ...

End threat to manatees
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Jun 13
Today, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission considers a statewide management plan for endangered manatees, the last step before the agency decides whether to change the manatee's status to "threatened." The plan has become no better with time. The second draft of the management plan does little to address the problems apparent in the first draft, which decided that a 30''percent decline in the manatee population over three generations would constitute "success." While the latest plan stresses that a drop in the manatee population would be unacceptable, it lacks specifics on what should be done to protect manatees. And changing their staThe plan does identify problems, such as the need to protect sea grasses manatees eat and find solutions to power plants closing warm-water discharge areas, where manatees gather on cold winter days. Better methods to monitor manatee po ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Businesses suffer as Lake Okeechobee dries up
Erika Bolstad /Miami Herald /Jun 1
There aren't many of them these days, but when the fishermen wander into Lake Okeechobee Bait and Tackle, they all have the same question for Jim Dorris: Where should I put in my boat? ''I tell them I don't want to recommend any place,'' Dorris said. ``I don't want them to blame me if they lose anything.''Added co-worker Debbie Holley: 'The only answer is, `Wherever there's water.' '' And that's the problem; there is no water. Drought and evaporation caused by warm, dry and windy days have reduced Lake Okeechobee to its lowest levels since record keeping began in 1931. The record was officially broken at 6:30 a.m. Thursday with an 8.94-foot reading, according to the South Florida Water Management District. Rain is forecast for this weekend, but it will take some extreme weather to raise the lake to its average level for this time of year: 13.5 fe ...

S. Florida awaits summer rains as Lake Okeechobee drops to record low
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Jun 1
Lake Okeechobee dipped to its all-time low on Thursday, worsening the strain on South Florida's primary backup water supply. How low it will go depends on how soon the summer rainy season begins its cycle of daily showers. "For the first time, the entire system from Orlando to Key West is in a drought," said Carole Ann Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. "Because Lake Okeechobee is so low ... their safety net is gone." The lake on Thursday dropped to 8.94 feet above sea level. That was 4 feet below normal and just under the previous low-water mark of 8.97 feet, set in May 2001 and tied on Wednesday. In 2001 it took a summer of drenching rains to bring Lake Okeechobee back to normal, and water managers are hoping for the same relief this year to lift the region out of one of the worst droughts in history. Some immediate relief could ...

AP finds 5 vulnerable hurricane areas
AP /Bradenton Times /Jun 1
Just because Katrina was the perfect storm, a catastrophic combo of the wrong hurricane in the wrong place at the wrong time, doesn't mean that history can't repeat itself, leaving another city obliterated by another tempest. It can. And as we enter what weather prognosticators are euphemistically calling another"active season," citizens and civil servants from Texas to New England are asking themselves: Where's the next New Orleans?The Associated Press has pinpointed five of the most vulnerable U.S. coastal spots. Among them: Galveston, Texas, sitting uneasily by the Gulf of Mexico, its residents limited to a single evacuation route; Miami, full of elderly people and others who might be trapped; and New York City, long spared a major storm but susceptible to a calamity of submerged subways and refugees caught in horrendous traffic jams.Like so many other p ...

Lake O businesses share one lament: 'When the lake gets broke, it hurts everyth ing'
Susan Salisbury /Palm Beach Post /May 4
OKEECHOBEE — Steve Siegel figures his timing couldn't have been worse. Three years ago, the avid bass fisherman decided to act on his long-held dream of owning a boat dealership. He opened the Okeechobee Marine Center in May 2004. "Now we're in the second-worst drought in Florida history," Siegel, 51, said recently, surrounded by 80 shiny new bass-fishing boats, with nary a customer in sight, at his business on Highway 78 in Okeechobee. To get an idea how bad things are right now, Siegel points to February 2006, a month in which he sold 22 complete packages - boat, motor and trailer - priced from $10,000 to $50,000. This February, he sold just one, to a customer in Fort Pierce. "I've sold one pontoon boat in Okeechobee this year," Siegel added. Just behind Siegel's shop sits the heart of the problem: Lake Okeechobee, the nation's second-largest freshwater lake at 730 square ...

Lake Okeechobee's cleanup crew isn't messing around
Jose De Wit /TCPalm /Jun 8
LAKE OKEECHOBEE — As record low water levels lay bare the shallow bottoms of Lake Okeechobee's outer shores, South Florida Water Management District crews are waging a race against time to remove 100,000 truckloads of noxious muck from the lake bed. The nutrient-laden muck chokes local species and is responsible for the algae blooms that littered the St. Lucie River causing economic damage and fish kills in 2005. Taking advantage of this year's low lake levels, thewater district's management board allocated $11 million in emergency money to pay for removing 2 million cubic yards of the muck from the lake bottom. The cleanup crew must rush to remove the muck before possible summer hurricanes and heavy rains replenish the lake's waters. If the crew doesn't act fast, it could lose its chance to undo decades of damage to the lake's ecosystem. "We're looking ...

Raise Lake O thinking before the next drought
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Jun 10
Managing Lake Okeechobee the "right way" calls for a crystal ball, a knowledge of history and a thick skin. Looking ahead to life after the drought, however, water managers should not return to a policy of unacceptably higher lake levels. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District manage Lake Okeechobee. They have been criticized for dumping billions of gallons from the lake after Hurricane Wilma. That decision, though, was sound. Lake marshes were drowning in polluted water stirred up by the 2004 hurricanes. The lake's weak dike has since been declared a "grave and imminent" danger, and still is. So, water managers dumped 1.5 feet in October 2005, what they now view as the start of the current drought. District board member Malcolm "Bubba" Wade, senior vice president of Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp., expressed his wish that the water were still in t ...

All eyes on Lake Okeechobee artifacts
Kelly Wolfe /Miami Herald /Jun 10
Officer David Burnsed is alone out here except for all the gators. And it's his job to keep it that way. He's an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, posted at the mucky gateway to 2,000 years of Florida history. He uses an airboat to pull over boats that get too close to the relics. ''The majority of people know the law and understand we have to do what we have to do,'' Burnsed said. He said he's caught a few people poking around the archaeological site. One person said he wasn't there for artifacts -- but for old Coke bottles. ''Riiiiigggghhhhht,'' Burnsed said. Burnsed is one of about a half-dozen officers patrolling an area in Lake Okeechobee where newly discovered Native American artifacts are located. There's already evidence of looting at the site, which is accessible only by airboat -- or a long, ...

Judge: Lake O practice violates Clean Water Act
AP /Naples Daily News /Jun 15
WEST PALM BEACH -- A federal judge ruled Friday that the state's practice of back-pumping polluted water into Lake Okeechobee without a permit violates the U.S. Clean Water Act. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga ordered the South Florida Water Management District to apply for permits "forthwith" but did not set a deadline,most likely because even the judge acknowledged in a December finding that therewas no quick fix to the decades-old practice. The ruling has no real teeth because it does not preclude the state fromback-pumping water into the lake tomorrow should the need arise. A permit request would eventually go through the state Department of Environmental Protection. "If and when we're asked, we'd be happy to evaluate that request to make the best decisions as to whether or not back-pumping should take place," said DEP spokeswoman Sarah Williams. ...

Naples couple fought coal plant for the sake of the lake
Jennifer Sutcliffe /Naples Daily News /Jun 16
As they sped to Lake Okeechobee last April, Bob and Jan Krasowski were primed for a fight. A coal-powered energy plant was in the works at the edge of the lake in Glades County, and the two “old hippies” from Naples, no strangers to environmental protection, wouldn’t have it. They burst onto the scene with an armory of their own research. The plant would destroy some of the nicest remaining land in Florida. It may quadruple the county’s revenue, but it would endanger fish and birds that thrived there. And there were other options for energy that didn’t involve building a coal plant near the Everglades. The Krasowskis won their case. On June 5, the Florida Public Service Commission unanimously voted against the proposal. The Krasowskis, unlike most of Glades County, weren’t surprised by the decision.“It was an unnecessary assault on that area,” said Bob Kraso ...

Up The Caloosahatchee: A Bird’s-eye View
Joel Moroney /News Press /Jun 16
This weekend’s predicted storms likely will signal the start of rainy season — alleviating concerns that a late start could punish a region already enduring record drought.“It looks like the overall pattern favors more showers and thunderstorms — every opportunity in the seven-day forecast shows a 30 percent chance orbetter,” said NBC-2 meteorologist Chris Lambert. “So it’s starting to get fired up — a very typical June pattern is setting up.” But a helicopter flight up the Caloosahatchee this week provided a reminder of the challenges ahead to rehabilitate the aquatic environmentof South Florida, which begins south of Orlando and stretches into the Florida Keys. Typically the wettest month of the year, June has brought about 2.5 inches of rain to Page Field in Fort Myers — about 1.5 inches below normal through the halfway point. Just shy of 10 inches ...

Even with recent rain, water managers still concerned about Lake
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Jun 14
Even as recent rains move South Florida residents closer to eased water restrictions, the continued drop of Lake Okeechobee has state officials considering pumping stormwater into the lake — despite pollution concerns. One of the worst droughts on record remained priority No. 1 at the SouthFlorida Water Management District Governing Board's meeting in Orlando on Thursday. With June on pace for above normal rainfall, SFWMD officials on Thursdaysaid before the end of the month they could move Broward and Palm Beach counties from once-a-week yard watering to twice-a-week watering. However, the rain has not been enough to stop lake water levels from dropping to an all-time low, continuing to strain South Florida's backupdrinking water supply as well as the source growers in the Everglades Agricultural Area tap for irrigation. The recent rains help sugar ca ...

New lake regulation schedule set
Pete Gawda /NewsZap /Jun 20
There is some relief in sight for those who have been complaining of large releases of lake water to the estuaries. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) recently announced that a new regulation schedule for Lake Okeechobee will soon go into effect that addresses this problem. Because the present schedule, known as WSE, is not suited to handle persistent high lake levels like we have had in recent years and because of seepage problems in the Herbert Hoover Dike, a study was initiated last year to revise the regulation schedule. According to Pete Milam, COE project manager, under the new schedule the lake will be managed a foot lower. The extreme ranges under the WSE are 9.4 feet to 18.5 feet. Under the proposed schedule the extremes will between 8.7 feet and 17.3 feet. Mr. Milam said one of the goals of the new schedule was a healthier lake. Lower lake levels are better for t ...

Lake Okeechobee: backpumping
Editorial /Sun Sentinel /Jun 19
ISSUE: Water managers consider pumping back water from agriculture lands. This one deserves a round of head-scratching. The South Florida Water Management District initially earmarked $11 million to dig polluted muck out of Lake Okeechobee. The program has been successful enoughthat the district has decided to invest more money in the effort. Yet, the district is also considering a plan to back pump storm water into Lake O, even though that water could be tainted. How does this make sense? It doesn't— at least not right now. Don't read us wrong. The muckraking program is money well spent, and it's been the lone silver lining in this drought, which could cost Florida's economy about$1 billion. The district is wise to spend the time and money to strip polluted soil out of the lake floor now that nature has presented an opportunity, by drying up the lake bed, to ...

Suburban sprawl threatens Lake Okeechobee
Kelli Kennedy /Miami Herald /Jun 21
Growth management must play a stronger role in Everglades restoration, especially in the rapidly growing counties north ofLake Okeechobee, state officials said Wednesday.Florida's increased development means more pollutants like lawn fertilizer, which creates runoff full of phosphorous and nitrogen that pumps into the Everglades, said Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Those nutrients will cause plants like cattails, that would not normally grow, to take over the area, she warned. Rising land costs also are impacting the state's ability to buy privately owned land needed for Everglades restoration projects.''Some of those sites if we don't move now could be targeted fordevelopment,'' Wehle said. Her agency met with the Department of Community Affairs and the Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee to discuss ...

Controversial Lake Okeechobee flowway stays on restoration list
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /Jun 27
A southern flowway for Lake Okeechobee runoff is still a possibility despite twostudies that recommend against it and a push by agricultural interests to removethe option from future consideration. The Lake Okeechobee Water Resources Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations to the board of the South Florida Water Management District, decided in Fort Myers on Wednesday to keep the lake’s natural flowway on a long list of restoration options. Studies by the Army Corps of Engineers and the water management districtindicate that completely restoring the flowway through the Everglades would be extremely expensive and likely not work.Still, leaders from Lee County and the east coast asked that all options remain on the table in hopes of reducing the damaging flows from the lake to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries. Building more reservoirs in the estuaries to ...

Shallow Okeechobee reveals pool of artifacts
A Burch and K McGregory /Miami Herald /Jun 27
The epic drought gripping Lake Okeechobee has opened a mud-spatteredwindow into Florida's prehistoric past. Since March, falling water levels have exposed 21 archaeologicalsites -- for now, the locations a secret to the public. Thousands of artifacts have been unearthed, including pieces of pottery, shell pendants, candleholders, arrowheads and fishing weights.Human bones, too. Archaeological teams from the state and Palm Beach County are hunting for still more relics before the rains take hold and they are lost to the lake again. ''It isn't exactly Indiana Jones,'' said Briana Delano, a state archaeologist. And yet, the endeavor evokes just that image. The journey to the sites starts in an airboat. Outfitted with backpacks and small computers, the team -- airboat captain, archaeologist, intern and consultant -- ventures forth from a small dock nea ...

Future brightens for lake
Monica Scandlen /Orlando Sentinel /Jun 28
Though the mile-long temporary fence along Lakeshore Drive might not provide the best view now, city officials say the project will improve East LakeTohopekaliga's water quality and aesthetics. The $1.5 million project has several components, assistant city engineer Kevin Felblinger said. These include expanding the dry retention ponds and converting them to wet ponds; removing invasive plant species that are overgrown and blocking views of the lake; and building arched bridges over the weirs so visitors can walk the perimeter of the new ponds and get closer to the lake. The wet ponds will total about 10 acres when complete, almost double the dry ponds' current size, and they be about 12 feet deep. They will help the lake's water quality by reducing the amount of pollutants flowing into the lake from stormwater runoff. "They're going to increase the amoun ...

Everglades restoration gets boost with new law
Brian Skoloff /Bradenton Herald /Jun 28
Everglades restoration got a boost Thursday with Gov. Charlie Crist's signing ofa law providing millions of additional dollars for cleanup efforts and granting the state new authority over pollution throughout the vast wetlands. "People all over the world recognize the importance of the Everglades," Crist said. "It's amazing how quickly Mother Nature comes back just by giving her a little bit of an assist." Florida is currently entrenched in a multibillion partnership with the federal government to restore the Everglades. Under that 2000 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, the state and Congress are supposed to each allocate $200 million a year toward cleanup efforts although Florida has committed more than $2 billion.The new law, among other things, authorizes the Legislature to allocate an additional $100 million a year to Everglades restoration pro ...

Crist signs off on 'big deal' for rivers, lake and Everglades
Rachel Simmonsen /Palm Beach Post /Jun 29
STUART — Gov. Charlie Crist stopped by city hall Thursday to sign a bill he called an "unbelievable commitment" to restoring the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. "This is a big deal," Crist said of the measure, which extends from 2010 to 2020the state's promise of $100 million a year to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The measure also calls for an additional $100 million to be spent each year on northern Everglades projects, including those that will store and cleanse more water north of Lake Okeechobee, said Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. "This really is a comprehensive approach," said Mike Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "It's not just focused on one solution." State officials and activists agreed the plan marks a dramatic shift ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Use science, not politics on state's water emergencies
Nathaniel Reed /Palm Beach Post /Jun 3
The five new members of the South Florida Water Management District governing board face awesome challenges, such as Everglades restoration, growth and potential natural disasters. Managing drinking water, drainage and the priceless environment of South Florida for future generations demands honesty and resolve. Many policy areas need new thinking, new purpose and new resolve. Excessive growth and water mismanagement have led to a crisis in the Everglades. Fortunately, a cadre of the brightest, well-trained, articulate scientists within and outside the agency can help the board address these problems - if board members agree to be led by science and not politics. First, the new board should repair the relationship between Florida and the federal government. "The feds aren't doing their part" has become a mantra that is counterproductive, demoralizing and intellectually dishonest. ...

With drought in force, conservation is key
Ron Littlepage /Florida Times-Union /Jun 3
With the hurricane season now upon us, I know a lot of folks are hoping the big one doesn't come our way. Me, too.But I also know a lot of people are rooting for a couple of tropical storms, nice ones with not much wind and a lot of rain. That would go a long way toward erasing the drought conditions plaguing this area. The National Weather Service labels the drought conditions on the First Coast and in South Georgia as extreme.Those fighting the forest fires wouldn't argue with that. Neither would those monitoring the abnormally high salinity levels in the St. Johns River and the effects they are having on fish and vegetation. Conditions are worse in parts of South Florida. The South Florida Water Management District reported last week that the water level in Lake Okeechobee had fallen to a record low. The drought there has water managers scrambling to ensure ad ...

Tropical Storm Barry Brings Rain, Strong Winds, Heavy Surf to Florida
Matt Sedensky /Insurance Journal /Jun 4
Tropical Storm Barry, since downgraded to a tropical depression, brought heavy rain to a parched Florida early Saturday, along with strong winds and heavy surfalong the state's Gulf coast. Rain was falling throughout the Peninsula, where droughts conditions have left Lake Okeechobee at its lowest recorded level and allowed an isolated brush fire on the Georgia-Florida border to burn for weeks."It'll help a little bit, but everyone is so far below rainfall that we're stillgoing to be under drought conditions,'' said Kim Brabander, a meteorologist withthe National Weather Service. "To really alleviate the drought conditions we're going to need anywhere from 30 to 40 inches of rain.'' At 5 a.m. EDT on June 2, Barry was centered in the Gulf of Mexico about 180 miles southwest of Tampa and about 175 west-northwest of Key West. It had sustained winds of about 50 mph and was movi ...

After storm, water use still restricted, lake low
Paola Iuspa-Abbott /Sun Sentinel /Jun 4
Tropical Storm Barry brought some relief to Lake Okeechobee's thirst but not enough to make a dent in South Florida's drought. About 2 inches of rain fell on the northern part of the lake, bringing the waterlevel to 9.01 feet above sea level as of Sunday morning, up from 8.9 feet Saturday, said Julie Huber, spokeswoman for the South Florida Water Management District. By Sunday, runoff still was flowing into the lake and raising the water level, said National Weather Service specialist Bob Ebaugh. "It is going to take more than this to bring the lake back to normal," he said. Lake Okeechobee still is 4 to 5 feet below its average levels, as the region endures a 10-inch rainfall deficit, Huber said. On Thursday, Lake Okeechobee reached a record low of 8.94 feet. Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in the Tampa Bay area Saturday morning and later weaken ...

Guest columnist: What we need, according to Reed
Nat Reed /TCPalm /Jun 5
A national environmental leader and 14-year member of the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District, Nathaniel Reed of Hobe Sound sent a fax in April to Charles Duncan, one of the newest members of the board. Some of Reed's insights were fascinating, and worth sharing. ON HIS SFWMD SERVICE: I was, as a Republican, appointed to the board by Gov. Bob Graham, as hebecame convinced that the then board was dominated by "Big Sugar" and that his hope for a level playing field was being undermined by board and senior staff members. ... There were many mornings ... on the way to theold District headquarters that I regretted ever wanting to serve. I knewin advance that it was going to be another pair of days defending unpopular positions and I would be slammed by board members and even staff members who marched to the drum beats of the developers a ...

State blocks coal-fired FPL plant on edge of Lake Okeechobee
Ian Katz /Sun Sentinel /Jun 6
The state Public Service Commission on Tuesday unanimously rejected Florida Power & Light Co.'s request to build a $5.7 billion coal-fired power plant on the western edge of Lake Okeechobee that opponents said would emit toxic mercuryand harm the Everglades.By voting 4-0 against the Glades County plant, the commission "made the right decision for the environment, the right decision for the Everglades and the right decision for Florida," Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement. But FPL President Armando Olivera said the decision could result in higher electricity rates for customers."It also increases the likelihood of electricity disruptions in the event that hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico disrupt the natural gas supply to Florida, as was the case with Katrina and Wilma in 2005," he said in a statement. FPL, the state's largest utility, said the plant would help ...

Water levels near coast up; Lake O remains low
Jennifer Sorentrue /Palm Beach Post /Jun 13
Water levels in Palm Beach County's coastal well fields have climbed back to normal levels as a result of recent rain showers, County Administrator Bob Weisman said today. In the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, which feeds wells for the southern half of the county, water levels were more than a half-foot above the acceptable level of 14 feet, according to Weisman. And in some areas, such as western Delray Beach, water levels have risen more than 6 feet in county monitoring wells. "Right now, as far as we are concerned, it's been a normal rainy season for the coastal areas," Weisman said. "We are in a safe position." But while the rain has helped ease the pain of the drought along the coast, the water level of Lake Okeechobee remains low. Today, the lake's level stood at 8.93 feet — roughly 3 feet below its average for this time of year.And Palm Bea ...

District drops first hints about easing water restrictions
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Jun 14
Even as recent rains move South Florida residents closer to eased water restrictions, the continued drop of Lake Okeechobee has state officials considering pumping stormwater into the lake -- despite pollution concerns. One of the worst droughts on record remained priority No. 1 at the South FloridaWater Management District Governing Board's meeting in Orlando on Thursday. With June on pace for above normal rainfall, South Florida Water Management District officials on Thursday said before the end of the month they could move Broward and Palm Beach counties from once-a-week yard watering to twice-a-week watering. However, the rain has not been enough to stop lake water levels from dropping toan all-time low, continuing to strain South Florida's backup drinking water supply as well as the source growers in the Everglades Agricultural Area tap forirrigation. The ...

Lawn-watering restrictions could ease soon
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Jun 14
ORLANDO — Most Palm Beach County residents could see their lawn-watering limits relaxed within a couple of weeks because recent rains have filled canals, wells and the Everglades, water managers said today. That doesn't mean an end to the drought, which water managers say could continue into 2008. But if current trends continue, watering could be allowed two days a week in almost all communities east of 20-Mile Bend, from Tequesta to Boca Raton, said Terrie Bates, an administrator at the South Florida Water Management District. The same relaxation is possible in Broward County. But the existing one-day-a-week restrictions might remain in some coastal cities, such as Lake Worth and Lantana, that rely on wells imperiled by salt water from the Atlantic. Others, such as West Palm Beach, might choose to retain the once-a-week limits they have imposed on their water customers. ...

Park has boaters on run
Steve Waters /Sun Sentinel /Jun 15
The four preliminary management alternatives for Everglades National Park offer a variety of options that range from sensible to scary if you like to fish from a powerboat. About 200 anglers attended a public workshop Wednesday evening at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in Dania Beach. All but a fraction of them told park superintendent Dan Kimball that of the four alternatives, they like the "noaction" one the best. That's Alternative A, which would maintain the park's current management trends and strategies. The primary reason anglers didn't like the other three alternatives was because they reduced access by creating areas open only to paddlers in canoes and kayaks, limited the size of boats that could operate in certain areas or prohibited the use of outboard motors in large sections of the park where the water depth is 3 feet or less. Some people I spoke ...

WPB water supply got boost from treated sewage water
Stacey Singer /Palm Beach Post /Jun 17
The plan evolved out of urgent necessity after water managers April 3 ordered the city to stop pumping from Lake Okeechobee, which was dangerously low. During dry times, Lake O often is used to replenish Clear Lake, the source for the city's water treatment plant.The city wasn't ready to handle a historic drought without backup water from Lake Okeechobee, said Mayor Lois Frankel. Its new state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant that recycled wastewater was still being tested. "Changing a system cannot be done overnight," she said. "We got a little bit blind-sided." ...

State agencies to better monitor growth that may harm Everglades
AP /Naples Daily News /Jun 20
MIAMI -- Growth management must play a stronger role in Everglades restoration, especially in the rapidly growing counties north of Lake Okeechobee, state officials said Wednesday. Florida's increased development means more pollutants like lawn fertilizer, which creates runoff full of phosphorous and nitrogen that pumps into the Everglades, said Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Those toxins will cause plants like cattails, that would not normally grow, to take over the area, she warned. Rising land costs also are impacting the state's ability to buy privately owned land needed for Everglades restoration projects."Some of those sites if we don't move now could be targeted for development," Wehle said. ...

Everglades park weighs limiting powerboats to cut down seagrass damage
David Fleshler /Sun Sentinel /Jun 21
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK A pair of bottlenose dolphins arch over the surface of Florida Bay, chasing some mullet. A few yards away, a three-foot hammerhead shark prowls the water above a bed of seagrass. Great white herons perch in twinmangrove islands, drying their feathers under the blazing morning sun. Along the bay's shallow bottom, the pristine image vanishes. Through the shag carpet of seagrass run rows of pale green lines, where boat propellers have scoured the vegetation from the bottom. In areas of heavy boat traffic, the bottom is crisscrossed with prop scars that resemble skid marks.The destruction of seagrass by powerboats is the most controversial issue as Everglades National Park prepares its first new management plan in more than 25 years. The park, which encompasses most of the bay, has proposed size and accesslimits on powerboats to try to limit the dam ...

'Loving Mother Nature to death?'
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jun 23
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK — In the summer, the labyrinthine waters of the Ten Thousand Islands are an especially lonely place. Mosquitoes, swelter and delugesdrum out all but the most zealous adherents to the backcountry lifestyle. What awaits those willing to venture beyond cell-phone range is a wilderness that looks much the way it did before the advent of the internal combustion engine and DEET.To get here, you have to navigate your way through mud-bottom bays and creeks that present myriad unseen hazards, including oyster bars and downed tree limbs.And if you make it as far as Florida Bay, you have to contend with thick mats ofsea grass and waters so shallow that even kayaks have been known to run aground.“It’s heaven on Earth for me,” John Payne, the owner of a vacation home on Chokoloskee, said one Saturday morning while his flats boat skipped through a bay ...

Rock pits could solve water goals, utilities say
Stacey Singer /Palm Beach Post /Jun 24
It also may test the ability of Broward and Palm Beach county politicians to cooperate on fundamental questions of growth, money and the environment, as they contemplate how to pay for such a massive public works project. "Palm Beach County residents could find themselves subsidizing Broward's growth," said Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus. "The question should be, how do we have a natural system and not charge existing residents to pay for future development?" Palm Beach Aggregates made $188 million in 2004 selling about a third of its 3,400-acre property to the South Florida Water Management District, to serve as a 14.6 billion-gallon reservoir for environmental projects. Home builder Lennar agreed to buy another third for a home project that it's now trying to cancel. The pits have proven most valuable so far to West Palm Beach. In May, the city drew 600 million gall ...

Drought a welcome reprieve for rivers
Rachel Simmonsen /Palm Beach Post /Jun 25
On land, the drought means shrinking ponds and lawns that crunch underfoot. For local rivers, it means relief. Months of below-normal rainfall have been a boon for the St. Lucie and Indian rivers, where toxic algae blooms, unhealthy levels of bacteria and chocolate-brown water were the norm two years ago. "The river really looks wonderful, the best it's looked in years," Kevin Stinnette, executive director of the Indian Riverkeeper group, said of the Indian River. "We're very thankful for this drought." Things also have improved in the St. Lucie River, where diminished rainfall and the lack of freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee have pushed up salinity levels and helped clear the water. Scientists now can see as far as 1.6 meters below the surface of the St. Lucie River, said Chris Ashworth, an environmental specialist with the Florida Department of Environmenta ...

Corps takes bigger role in Everglades restoration projects
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jun 27
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is quietly moving to assert a bigger role in the $10.9 billion Everglades restoration campaign. A few weeks ago, the South Florida Water Management District signed off on a corps proposal to have the federal government grab control of a water reservoir construction project in western Broward and Palm Beach counties. Up to then, thestate had spent $334 million to buy 10,000 acres and begin drawing up plans. Now, the corps wants to take over the largest project in terms of land size in the Everglades playbook: bringing nature back to Southern Golden Gate Estates inCollier County. According to marching orders handed down from Congress in 2000, the cost of fixing the River of Grass was supposed to be split 50-50 between the federal government and the state of Florida. But nearly eight years have passed since Congress passed legislation ...

Everglades just fine, U.N. says
David Fleshler /Sun Sentinel /Jun 26
If you're under the impression that Everglades National Park is in trouble, there's good news this week from the United Nations: The world body on Monday removed the park from its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations, meeting in New Zealand, praised the United States "for its investment of scientific and financial resources to rehabilitate the site." The organization puts sites on the list to mobilize support for saving them. News of the park's salvation generated few celebrations in South Florida, where scientists, government officials and environmentalists are trying to save the Everglades from pollution, water shortages and urban development. "I'm speechless," said Barbara Jean Powell of the Everglades Coordinating Council, a coalition of hunting clubs. "I woke up in the twilight zo ...

UF scientists hope exotic fly release will help curb 'evil weevils'
Day Greenberg /TCPalm /Jun 30
FORT PIERCE — All hope for saving Florida's dwindling population of bromeliad plants rests in the appetite of a bug the size of a housefly. The parasitoid tachinid fly is an insect that will eat only the larvae of the Mexican bromeliad weevil, a creature that specifically targets Florida's population of native and endangered bromeliad plants. Researchers now are counting on this three-link food chain to salvage a key part of Florida's environmental biodiversity. They set free 50 of these flies at Northwest Equestrian Park in Hillsborough County on Friday, after raising them at the University of Florida's Biological Control, Research and Containment Laboratory in Fort Pierce, part of the Indian River Research and Education Center. This is the first biological control agent to be released from the Fort Pierce lab — a groundbreaking achievement, said Ron Cave, an a ...

Southern 'flowway' not the right answer
George Wedgworth /TCPalm /Jun 30
We read with interest on June 5 Nathaniel Reed's opinion on water management, including his derogatory remarks regarding the Florida sugarindustry. I, too, have a long history is South Florida, founding Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in 1960 and still serve as the president and CEO.I, too, have closely followed water management activities. I grew up in the Glades and was here prior to the creation and during the construction of the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project. We closely follow actions taken by the South Florida Water Management District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Taking care of our natural resources is the only way that farming can besustainable. Understanding that we farm in an ecologically sensitive area, it behooves farmers to understand how farming, the urban environment and the naturalecosystem inte ...



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