Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Why you should care about restoration of The Everglades


Most Floridians who live north of the town of Kissimmee consider the massively complex and perennial problems of The Everglades not of their making and therefore none of their concern.   

If this is how you feel, you’re way wrong and you need to know why.   

Jane Graham, Everglades Policy Associate for Florida Audubon, has written an enlightening opinion piece for the Huffington Post.  You should read it.  If you are already informed about what’s going on regarding the nation’s largest natural wetland being systematically destroyed by political paralysis and national neglect but know others who are not, send this to them.  If you know newcomers who are oblivious to what the Everglades stand for, do them a favor and send this to them as well.  It’s important to all of Florida, to all of us, and to our future. 

In her editorial, she gives a smattering of history and some eye-popping numbers that make an economic case the governor and legislature have lost sight of over the last few years and only just now, as re-election time nears, are starting to appreciate anew.   

To hope it is not too late is like hoping for an improbable miracle, but to simply accept the alternative would be devastating (a proposed 700,000 new minimum-wage jobs at Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Burger King notwithstanding).
                                                                 - Sandspur

Why You Should Care About Everglades Restoration

Jane Graham, Everglades Policy Associate, Audubon Florida
Published by the Huffington Post on 10.25.2013; 
Published here with the permission of the author.
___________________________________
This week, the U.S House of Representatives passed a bill to move forward several Everglades restoration projects. According to Audubon Florida's Director of Everglades Policy Julie Hill-Gabriel, if the water resources bill becomes law, four Everglades restoration projects will be eligible for federal funding for the first time.
Okay, I get it. The only alligator you like is the one on your Lacoste polo shirt. Your favorite bird is either barbequed or fried. And you utterly despise mosquitos.
Why then, you ask, should you care about Everglades restoration?

Your water. The Everglades is the primary source of drinking water for more than 7 million Americans -- more than a third of Florida's population.

And the economy. The Everglades cornerstone of the regional economy, supporting the state's estimated $67 billion tourism industry, a $13 billion outdoor recreation economy, and $100 billion agriculture sector.
These sound like talking points, you say? Let's take a quick look at the history to understand how and why it matters.
Almost everywhere you go in South Florida used to be part of the Everglades. Miami International Airport? A wetland. South Beach? Mangroves. Weston? Well, take a look at what is just little west of there. When we talk about the "Greater Everglades," it refers to the ecosystem from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes (close to Disney World), all the way south to Florida Bay by the Keys. Not just Everglades National Park in Miami Dade County.
Last century, conveniently after the invention of air conditioning and mosquito control, people started to settle in South Florida. After a few rainier than usual wet seasons and particularly nasty hurricanes in the 1940's, the Florida government asked the federal government for help to drain excess water off the landscape.
On this particular task, the federal government was quite effective. The project, known as the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project, transformed miles of wetlands into a regional water management system with thousands of miles of canals, thousands of levees and berms, dozens of pump stations and hundreds of water control structures and culverts. A gargantuan feat in human engineering.
The new water management system was so efficient that it drained too much water from the region -- water that otherwise would have gradually seeped into our aquifer to recharge public water supply and give life to the region's abundant ecosystems.
The severely altered ecosystem/man-made infrastructure remains today. During rainy periods, water is quickly flushed to tide. Approximately 1.7 billion gallons of water from the Everglades drains to the coasts each day. Conversely, this water is not available for use during dry periods.
This has some serious consequences for the region's ecosystem and economy. This summer, the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries were hammered by large releases of water from Lake Okeechobee, leading to widespread devastation of these ecosystems. Prior to human alterations to the ecosystem, this water would have naturally flowed south. Sadly and ironically, in one or two years from now, the same estuaries may need water from Lake Okeechobee to help sustain their ecosystems during the dry season, likely at the same time agriculture and public water supply users will compete for water allocations.
Fortunately, at the turn of the new millennium, a new plan emerged. Encouraged by the unusual coalition of environmentalists, agricultural interests, and public water utilities, the Federal and State Governments embarked on a groundbreaking plan, known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), or just "Everglades restoration" for short. This effort is known as one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects in the world.
The plan sets forth more than 60 different projects to store water, clean water, and flow water through the system. It is projected to take several decades to complete. The plan aims to restore ecosystems, provide flood protection for residents, and ensure clean and abundant water supplies for South Florida's residents.
Thirteen years into the plan, we are slowly trudging along. There are a few Everglades restoration projects that are nearing completion. The Picayune Strand project, which restores wetlands on drained and on Florida's southwest region is nearly complete. This past March, the 1st mile of Tamiami Trail Bridge opened.
Where do we go from here? Finish projects. Get new ones authorized. And keep an eye toward adaptive management. No one said this was easy. Or cheap. Or that we would get it right all the time. But for our water, for our economy, and for our future, we must keep going.
_________________________________________________
JANE GRAHAM is Everglades Policy Associate at Audubon Florida. At Audubon,  Jane advocates for Everglades restoration at the South Florida Water Management District, the Water Resources Advisory Commission, county commissions in South Florida , and various state and federal agencies. Jane focuses on Florida water policy and law, wildlife protection, and Everglades funding issues. Jane enjoys giving presentations to  schools, universities, and community groups about her work with Audubon. Prior to joining Audubon Florida in 2010, Jane clerked at the National Wildlife Federation Northeast Regional Office in Montpelier, Vermont, where she worked on cases related to the endangered species act and wetlands jurisdiction.
Jane is a licensed attorney in Florida and the U.S District Court, Southern District of Florida. She is a double Hurricane- receiving a J.D. in 2009 and a B.A. in History and Political Science in 2006 from the University of Miami.  After law school, Jane traveled to Vermont to receive an LL.M in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, where she focused on endangered species and climate change. Several of Jane’s articles have been published in journals, including her LL.M thesis on invasive species, “Snakes on a Plane, or in a Wetland: Fighting Back Invasive Non-Native Animals” the Tulane Environmental Law Journal.
Jane’s passion for Everglades restoration comes from her love of wildlife.  In her spare time, Jane enjoys spending time wildlife-watching with her husband Jon, and drawing (mostly birds!).                                                                                       Everglades Coalition

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Orland Sentinel asks questions. Gets responses.


Last week, Kevin Spear, reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, called and asked if I would respond to a few questions.  His article, published yesterday, can be found HERE.
What the Sentinel published was slightly shorter, 650 words, than my first response which was edited down from about 1000 words.  This is the longer version:
CFB: Gov. Scott’s administration has slashed budgets of the water-management districts and ordered them to adhere to core missions. What’s that about?
Vergara: It was a mistake the governor is now in the process of trying to repair in order to get re-elected.  Ignorant of the impact of his actions and pandering to right wing sympathies and special interests, he has gloated over his reducing government and taxes.  But, he significantly underestimated the complexities and cost of effectively managing the state’s natural environment in a manner that will protect and sustain what’s left of it, and it’s importance to the state’s future economy.   He is now tossing state and federal dollars at problems he first discounted, like The Everglades/Lake Okeechobee fiasco, the decimation and polluting of the state’s iconic springs, and the growing fear that there is not enough cheap groundwater to support future growth, to name just a few.  Frankly, he has severely handicapped the state’s ability to handle its truly complex and mounting environmental problems.  He and the right wing of the legislature will eventually realize, hopefully, that the regional water management taxes they cut are the logical sources of funding for these implacable regional problems.  It is foolish to believe they can be politically resolved by Tallahassee and paid for from state coffers, a lesson learned decades ago. 
CFB: How have state environmental protections been weakened and what do you fear the results will be?
Vergara: Tallahassee has directed hundreds of talented, nationally respected resource management scientists to be summarily fired.  Decades of critical institutional knowledge has been lost.  The districts can no longer raise enough funds to do what’s needed because the governor and legislature placed unreasonable limits on their constitution-based authority to levy an ad valorem tax.  The tea party’s allegiance to Grover Norquist’s idiocy is now going to prevent the return of this authority for a long time, even as problems mount.  In addition to cutting the state’s environmental muscle, it has weakened its tools.  The state’s entire body of environmental rules is being reviewed to accommodate the panting of special interests.  Rules and policies carefully developed over the last 50 years are being systematically weakened.  Other indicators of waning environmental concern by the governor and legislature include the cessation of environmental land acquisition and the continued introduction of narrow interest laws like the ones that would re-define the “Ordinary High Water Line” or move Florida’s public water resources toward private ownership. This annual right-wing legislative frenzy to reduce environmental protections has become a metastasizing cancer.  It is systemic and pervasive.  It has put every Floridian who cares even a little about Florida’s environment on high alert. 
CFB: Who are the winners as a result of Scott’s changes and what have they gained?
Vergara: Special interests, lobbyists, and the politicians who serve them are the winners.  They have gained a freehold on the future of the state all in the interest of greater profits at the public’s expense.  Any concern for public interest has become nearly equated to socialist thinking.  Private interests such as big agriculture, mining companies, power companies, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and other powerful Tallahassee entities have been elevated above the interests of the public. 
CFB: Critics have said the state water district’s grew arrogant and too powerful.
Vergara: This tired complaint is used universally by regulated interests to gain political control of regulators.  It will never go away because it makes good theater.  Regulators are only human, and face some of the most powerful corporate and legal firepower in the business world.  Regulators have to be smart and tough if they are to be effective in their jobs protecting the interests of the public.  It is difficult not to be defensive at times, often interpreted as arrogance and uncaring, in the face of the aggressiveness of certain powerful private applicants and their well–paid lawyers.  The largest majority of the regulators, by far, go out of their way to be courteous and helpful to the extent the law allows them.
CFB: If you were governor for a day, what changes would you bring to environmental safeguards?
Vergara: The biggest resource problem facing Florida today and into the future is obtaining enough sustainable and affordable water to meet the state’s growth demands and still maintain healthy natural ecosystems.  Continuing to have adequate and clean flows for sustaining natural water bodies and the natural biological systems that depend upon them will be a growing problem.  The water management districts were founded through the wisdom and shrewdness of governors and legislators of both parties over the last 50 years to address these problems on a regional basis.  I would apply every measure possible to return the districts to their original mission, along with the authority and resources to do the job … as a start.  Then I’d ask for another day to do more.
CFB: Is it possible to protect springs, wetlands, rivers and estuaries in a state that has 19 million residents and is expected to add millions more in coming years?
Vergara: It’ll be an increasingly complex and expensive job, but the state’s economic future is at risk if we do not.  People will not continue to hold Florida as a global destination just to visit its malls, endure its sprawl, and fight its crowded highways.  Florida is unique within the continental United States because of its tropical and subtropical climatic character and its associated environmental systems.  People will not want to visit polluted beaches, fish and swim in slimy lakes and rivers, drink from tainted aquifers or gasp polluted air.  So, is it possible to protect and sustain Florida’s unique ecology in light of Florida’s expected future growth?  The answer must be, yes, because there is no other acceptable alternative; but to get there, will require the current political direction to be quickly reversed.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Happy Birthday, Marines!


Happy Birthday, Marines

Today is the 238th anniversary of the formation of the United States Marine Corps. Around the world, Marines will slice a cake with an officer’s Mameluke Sword and sing the Marine Corps Hymn. It is a tradition that celebrates the pride and honor of being a member of one of the most effective military fighting organizations in the history of humankind.
Northern I Corps, Khe Sahn, Vietnam
1967


When that song is sung by some of the toughest men you might ever chance to meet, they sing it gruffly and off-key but with immense pride. When I hear it again and again on this day each year, November 10, I can still smell the always-leaking hydraulic fluid of an H-46 helicopter, the cosmoline of a freshly issued rifle, and even the unique odor that accompanies a half-dozen men as they rush up the back ramp after having been on patrol in the bush for a week. It is the smell of the jungle, not men. I can hear the chaos of the radio in my ears as men on the ground, rescue choppers, fighter support, and air traffic control - all on the same frequency - coordinate the pickup of a reconnaissance team in trouble or a wounded Marine in a gunfight. I can remember clearly the smell of burning sandalwood, the fuel of choice for heating and cooking throughout the country, and the rancid pervasiveness of the fish sauce they put on nearly everything they ate - noucnam.
"Yankee Tango"
The "Rock Pile", Northern I Corps, Vietnam
1967


My time in Vietnam was over 45 years ago and while the sensations and images that work their way out of the back recesses of my mind each year are still fresh, the actual memory of the experiences that caused them are, thankfully, no longer as tack sharp as they once were. While normally ignoring the occasional emotional ripples that might catch me by surprise during the rest of the year, on this day I quietly allow them, as many will, in honor of our comrades in arms who shared with us the unique fears and strange exhilarations of war.

Semper Fi, Marines, and Happy Birthday.

 

Sandspur

Friday, October 18, 2013

SWFWMD is allowing pumping violations. Is this "getting the water right?" Even legal?

Apparently, you can get a permit from SWFWMD and completely ignore any maximum pumping limitations as long as you believe you’re “doing what you think is right.”  Apparently, this is the case even if it impacts other legally permitted water users, is not in the public interest or harms the water resources of the area, according to a report in this morning’s Tampa Bay Times.

One grower near Brandon who is limited to pumping no more than 200,000 gallons per day, instead, pumped 1.6 million gallons to counter the effects of citrus greening even though there’s no scientific evidence supporting excessive irrigation as a valid way to fight the citrus tree disease.  Evidently, SWFWMD is not going to pursue its legal prerogatives to stop the violation and over-pumping. 

Scientists contacted by the Times say they’ve never heard of over-irrigating as means to fight the disease which is impacting Florida citrus growers statewide.

Robert Beltran, the new executive director at SWFWMD has a lot to learn about resource management.  He needs to realize that limits for pumping are based upon law and are established on specific permits for sound, technical, science-based reasons.  No permit holder can legally be allowed to exceed the limits of a valid permit without similar sound, technical, science-based reasons unless the law provides for it and the governing board makes the decision.  No infraction of a law can be legally allowed, as far as I know, simply because an executive director is "no expert" and because the permittee thinks "it's right."

Beltran needs to check with his lawyers ricky-tick.

There may be more to this story, however.  If it is not simple naiveté on the new ED’s part, it could certainly be a more insidious attempt to subvert critically needed resource protections by an ill-advised governor desperate to bolster his re-election poll numbers within the ag community. 
 
In any case, if it’s not blatantly illegal, it’s a pathetic thing to let happen. It’s also just one more reason to hold the CEO governor accountable in 2014 and get rid of the destructive sham leadership of Herschel Vinyard, the inept secretary of the state's flagship environmental protection agency, DEP.
 
Need to follow this closely.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

"Four Questions for Sonny Vergara"


Tom Swihart spent a career thinking about how Florida might best manage its water resources which are so critical to what the state is all about today and where it’s going to be in the years ahead.  He has written a book about it (Florida’s Water:  A Fragile Resource in a Vulnerable State).  A must-read for folks seriously interested in the importance of successful and smart management of Florida’s water resources.

Tom also publishes a blog about water, Watery Foundation, and you should check it out as well.  Reading his and this blog, SWFWMDmatters, over the past months, along with the growing din of editorial grumbling at all published levels, one clearly gets the idea that CEO Scott is a Florida natural resource management disaster in the making. 

A month or two ago, probably in a momentary lapse of good sense, Tom asked me to answer a few questions which I agreed to do.  My responses are way too long, but I offer no apology.  As is said, it is what it is and try as I might I wouldn’t change any of it except for the usual bad grammar, misspellings, and odd punctuation that reflect more guesswork than knowledge of sentence structure. Here, for what it's worth, is what he published:

 
Four Questions for Sonny Vergara

Emilio (Sonny) Vergara is the only person that has served as Executive Director of two Florida Water Management Districts (St. Johns River and Southwest Florida) and a Regional Water Supply Authority (Peace River/Manasota). He is active in the Florida Conservation Coalition and maintains the hard-hitting SWFWMD Matters blog. I very much appreciate that he agreed to answer four water management questions I posed to him. 

Q. What should be the key goals of Florida water management?

Before trying to answer directly, some historical context ...

To begin with, the question might be best answered by Herschel Vinyard and Jeff Littlejohn since they developed a public relations blitz based on getting districts “back” to their “core mission.”  Using the word back suggests they believe the districts have gone astray from what they were supposed to be doing over the last five decades and these two fellows somehow know better than anyone what the districts should have been doing but weren’t.  Getting the districts “back” (to somewhere) has since become their rallying cry for fundamentally changing them from what earlier Governors and legislatures have been directing them to do for the last 50 years.  It is becoming clear now that getting the districts back to their “core mission” was nothing but a subterfuge to allow Tallahassee to begin an immediate transformation process that has lasted three years now and has gone far beyond any reductions that might have been appropriate to reflect a struggling national economy.  While perhaps legitimate-sounding on the surface, it became clear that a much less legitimate intention was at hand.  

Plainly put, their true intent was to clear the way for big business (agriculture, power, mining, land development and – in short – the members of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Land Council) to be able to avoid having to deal with distracting and worrisome environmental and growth management regulations.  When this became apparent to certain well-heeled private sector parties, it released a pent up feeding frenzy by Tallahassee lobbyists to take as much advantage of the situation as possible and see how much “reduction” they could do to environmental and growth management regulations as well. 

The administration’s plan was first to stop, de-authorize and, in some cases, simply disregard environmental and growth management regulations at every opportunity. Then, the agencies themselves were to be dismantled and weakened by defunding their revenue sources and shredding their regulatory staffs to the point they now have very little capacity to function as they should.  Today, remaining agency scientists and staffers work in abject fear of their Tallahassee-installed supervisors and of losing their jobs in embarrassing ways, like how a very unprofessional reduction in force was carried out at the direction of Jeff Littlejohn and Herschel Vineyard at the Tampa office of DEP. 

Vinyard and Littlejohn are now forging new regulatory policies by letting regulated, private -sector entities write them.  If that concept isn’t bothersome enough, such actions are not only inappropriate but very likely illegal.  Chapter 120, F.S, requires that before implementing a policy with significant implications a regulatory agency must follow certain procedures, which include vetting the proposed policy’s potential impacts with the affected public and using rule adoption protocols to institute them.  The Highlands Ranch Mitigation Bank permit offers a case in point where a policy fundamental to all environmental permitting in Florida was simply replaced on the fly and implemented by DEP deputy secretary, Jeff Littlejohn. It was done with the only public input coming from the applicant’s attorney.  The existing policy, known as “reasonable assurance,” was declared inoperative and the new policy was immediately instated.  Certainly, any policy that will set the standard for complex and important public interest matters such as the safe and effective management of the state’s water resources and the unique natural systems that depend upon them, should be subjected to the procedures prescribed by Chapter 120. 

So, the claim that the districts needed to get back their core mission was essentially the new administration’s version of a Trojan Horse.  Saying changes were needed to reflect the state’s declining economy, while sounding reasonable, was actually nothing more than a disingenuous ruse to hide the real transformation they were pursuing which was to dismantle Florida’s carefully evolved environmental and growth protections to the maximum extent possible.

Historically, the statutory goals of the districts have morphed substantially from their primary focus on, for example, flood control.  There is no question about this.  The reasons for it, however, are obvious and sound.  Legislators and governors from both parties found it necessary to assign additional duties to the districts over the years because of the expanding needs of a growing population and a changing society that was demanding it.  The reason this was believed  to be the way to go was that the state could not afford the cost but the districts could, so it was delegated to them. 

For one significant example, an unfunded mandate that had enormous impact on the districts’ budgets and taxing levels resulted from passage of the Warren S. Henderson Wetlands Protection Act of 1984.  This act required DEP to begin regulating all dredge and fill operations.  The responsibility for implementing this new responsibility was quickly delegated to the districts, however, because elected state officials simply were not going to take the heat that would be generated by raising the taxes necessary to pay for it. 

Today we know that limiting regulation of pollution, flooding, water use, loss of wetlands, wildlife, wildlife habitat, recharge lands, and shorelines, simply because it might affect the state’s economy to some degree, will not lead to any long-term prosperity for the state.  We are realizing that absolute limits need to be set because, in the end, not setting them will result in irreparable harm to the state’s physical and economic well being.  In other words, we now have to draw clear and absolute lines in the sand.  Setting Minimum Flows and Levels and Total Maximum Daily Load limits are two examples where the attempts to achieve this are already underway.  It is endgame thinking.  If founded upon good science and wise policy, allowing maximum or minimum limits to be exceeded could cause negative impacts from which recovery might not be possible, could be very long–term, very expensive, or all the above. 

Therefore, I suggest the key goal of water management should be to have their authority, autonomy, and funding capacity returned at least to where it was before 2010.  Urbanization of the state has not stopped and everyday it continues the attendant resource problems grow more complex and solving them gets more expensive.  It is ridiculous to think that the key to the future is to create a weaker, more highly politicized, less science-driven, less experienced, Tallahassee-controlled resource management agency to replace what was in place before 2010.  As urbanization continues to threaten those aspects of natural Florida that, if destroyed, will have a devastating impact on its economic future, it is frightening to think what has become of the country’s most respected water management system.  It has become only a flimsy, filmy rendition of what it was and it will not be able to do the job.  Changes must be made.

More specifically, some goals for water management should include: 

1.     Remain as autonomous as possible from Tallahassee political interference.  The governor’s oversight and appointment authority is appropriate and adequate.  The legislature can initiate further direction by proposing and vetting laws needed to keep the districts’ abilities to solve problems in line with ever-changing statutory charges and priorities.  Governing board members are not incapable and should not have been completely marginalized as they have.  The way it is today, with all decisions being made in Tallahassee, there’s hardly any reason for them to continue to exist. 

2.     Return control of the districts’ constitutionally authorized ad valorem taxing authority to the governing boards.  In 2010 and 2011, most of it was taken from them by the legislature and the governor’s office.  Florida’s constitution prohibits property taxes levied at the state level.  The current level of legislative and gubernatorial control of district budgets may be encroaching upon that prohibition.  Governing boards were created to identify and prioritize resource problems and determine the funding needed to resolve them at the regional (non-state) level.  Today, however, any legislator who is friendly with an applicant can bring pressure upon a district’s regulatory decision-making processes. Lobbyists and their regulated clients are having a field day.  Also, while DEP has supervisory duties over the districts by statute, it was never intended that the secretary of the department should dictate what they are to do, how they are do it, or try to influence the issuance of permits  - all of which appears is to be happening today.  Governing board members know the problems within their districts and they know they will be among those paying the taxes levied to fix them. They should be able to generate their own budgets within reasonable millage caps set by the legislature, determine the optimum staffing levels needed to achieve their priorities, and hire their own executive director - none of which is happening today. 

3.     The idea that Florida’s water resources should be somehow made available to the private sector to sell to the highest bidder needs to be ended once and for all.  Recent covert attempts (City of Tampa; 2012; HB639; Dana Young) to become owners of water and be able to place a value on it beyond what it costs to develop, treat and transport it, should be halted.  While privatizing water might sound reasonable in some contexts, the bottom line is that its price will be market-driven and those who need it the most will have to pay the most.  In this kind of world, price control through competition will not work as public supplies become very limited and only a few control them.  Privatizing water supplies and selling it as a commodity will only create great wealth for a few at the expense of virtually the entire population of Florida, because every member of it must have it. 

4.     Remove the dollar caps placed upon the districts’ budgets and leave their ability to meet their statutory obligations alone.  Governing board members are appointed by the governor who has adequate oversight to keep district budgets in check.  The limits the legislature set on the abilities of the governing boards to support a budget capable of addressing known resource problems is preventing them from effectively carrying out their statutory duties. 

5.     Modify the millage caps set by the legislature in 2010 and 2011 back to what they were before. 

6.     Priorities for water management: 

a.      Return science as the basis for regulatory and resource management decisions instead of political doctrine or influence.  Science is no longer a primary consideration in the issuance of a permit as exemplified by: the Highlands Ranch Mitigation Bank permit;  no-bid leases to specific entities being dictated by the legislature; the continuing inability to stop additional withdrawals or pollution within the springsheds of major springs despite the obvious damage, and; the fact that the issuance of permits is routinely influenced by Tallahassee. 

b.     Co-partner with local governments on projects that are consistent with statutory directives and do not create conflicts of interest with the districts’ regulatory responsibilities.  Limit co-funding for local projects to the ad valorem taxes paid by those who will benefit from the project.  Establish a pathway for local input on projects to be undertaken and who is going to pay for them.  This was standard protocol in SWFWMD before its basin boards were eliminated and their governor-appointed members fired by the new Scott administration. 

c.      Aggressively continue setting absolute limitations designed to prevent damaging over-withdrawals from identified water bodies.  Good science and sound policies must be followed.  Politicizing the development of policies and its supporting science will only result in ineffective or dangerous decisions that can cause terrible mistakes and irreversible damage. 

d.     Aggressively continue setting absolute limitations designed to prevent identified water bodies from damaging pollution levels from point and non-point pollution sources.  But to restate, politicizing the process will only poison the credibility of the limits and their projected effectiveness. 

e.      Continue the acquisition of conservation lands, which has been functionally halted for the last three legislative sessions.  Acquisition of conservation lands is vital to the state’s future.  If significant funding ever again becomes available, public ownership in fee title should be the primary objective.  The current thinking is that ownership of conservation easements without ownership of the property is just as effective.  In the long term, it is not.  This should be resisted.  Any belief that acquisition of conservation easements is going to permanently preserve and protect natural Florida in perpetuity to the same extent as the public actually owning the property, is not valid.  In some cases, it may be the only alternative available to reach a conservation goal, but placing land in public ownership is always the better alternative.  Many times the cost of an easement is very near the actual market value of the land.  The purchase of certain rights vs. fee title becomes a windfall for the seller.  Conservation easements rarely sufficiently constrain the current uses of the landowners who remain in total control of the property  Usually, conservation rights preclude public rights of entry. This is not a bargain that serves the public’s best interests. 

f.      Aggressively continue to develop and require conservation of water.  Reduction of demand through conservation and reuse is going to be the only available answer for meeting the future water supply needs of many communities that have no other viable alternative.  Carry out and support efforts to research and develop cost effective alternative processes to treat water to drinking water standards.  Avoid perpetually supplementing the cost of developing, treating and distributing water.  Real and actual cost will be higher but it can substantially reduce per capita consumption by causing needed changes in water use behavior. This is not to preclude partnering by the districts with local entities on a one-time basis in order to incentivize their decision to use a process that has greater environmental value. 

g.     Carry out water supply planning and water resource management based upon surface and groundwater basins.  Planning should be based on the ability of a basin’s resources to support the plan.  Avoid inter-basin transfers that only serve the future of one community at the expense of another. This is neither good planning nor good government. 

h.     All policies and regulations should be aimed at protecting and preserving what’s left of Florida’s natural hydrologic and biologic systems. 

i.       Be leaders in resource monitoring (data gathering) and development of the sciences (research) needed to make informed water resource management decisions. 

j.       Maintain a vigorous public education and information program and solicit the support of a constantly changing population’s participation in the most effective water use practices.  The current thinking in Tallahassee is that “outreach” is inappropriate agency promotion.  In reality, it is a valuable strategy used to educate and obtain public support and participation in achieving water resource management objectives. For example, reducing per capita usage by an informed and motivated public from 120 gallons per day to 100 gallons per day for the population of Tampa Bay (which let’s assume is 4 million) would free up 80 million gallons every day to meet the demands of future growth and natural systems.  Public education through water management outreach has been seriously misunderstood by the current administration.  Outreach became one of the most targeted district activities for reduction by Tallahassee because it was considered unnecessary. 

k.     Reinstitute a quality growth management function for Florida and join it at the hip with comprehensive water resource planning.  Presently, the result of the legislature’s dismantling of the state’s primary planning agency, the Department of Community Affairs, has been to deny the state the ability to set a clear course for managing growth in the future.  It is a state where Tallahassee leaders have essentially washed their hands of the responsibility and set it adrift with no apparent concern that 67 individual and separate county commissions are now in charge of its future.  It is almost laughable, were not so idiotic, that Florida, the country’s fourth most populated state, has decided that having and following a master plan for its future growth was unnecessary.  It is ridiculous, and it should be embarrassing within all of our highest elected offices.  

l.       Be as frugal and effective as possible but avoid indiscriminant across the board budget cuts which can hinder resource management capabilities.  Cut only where appropriate and consistent with the district’s responsibilities and priorities. 

Q. What is the biggest Florida water problem? [[Or you could address also the second-biggest, third biggest, etc. Up to you.] 

The biggest Florida water problem today is the fact that the capacities of the districts have been curtailed to the point that they can no longer successfully and effectively achieve their many responsibilities.  They are underfunded and understaffed, which will give the legislature a perfect opportunity to declare them Passé and attempt to replace them with institutions of completely different responsibilities, authorities and funding sources  The objective being, to replace them with new institutions that cannot and will not be as effective as what the state had before 2010.  This situation is the result of vast ignorance finding itself in positions of great power with no knowledge of what needs doing or how to go about doing it, and having to rely on those who do know but who are guided only by short term, self-serving purposes and could not care less about Florida’s long term future.

The biggest problem tomorrow,  is obtaining enough sustainable and affordable water to meet the state’s future demands and still maintain healthy natural ecosystems consisting of adequate and clean flows for sustaining natural water bodies and the natural biological systems that depend upon them.

Q. What aspects of water management have gotten worst? 

Frankly, I can’t think of one aspect of water management in Florida that hasn’t gotten worse.  The scenarios depicted above pretty well describe what and why.

Q. What aspects of Florida water management have gotten better?

Frankly, I can’t think of one that has. The scenarios depicted above pretty well describe what and why.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Lake Okeechobee - Scott's Waterloo?


Seems our highest-ranking elected official in Florida is about to get a real-world snoot full of what it really takes to get Florida’s water “right.” 
For the last two years his minions, Herschel Vinyard and Jeff Littlejohn, have been mindlessly going about decimating the state’s water resource management capabilities, particularly at the South Florida Water Management District.  Meanwhile, Scott, with no idea what he or they are doing, is about to learn that getting the state’s water “right” is a whole lot more than having DEP spew endless news releases that shamelessly give him credit for things he didn’t do or that don’t amount to much.
At a meeting of the Water Resource Advisory Commission of the South Florida Water Management District held in Jensen Beach yesterday, it was reported that despite the fact that the Corps is releasing water from the lake as fast as possible, water can actually flow into it six times faster than it can be released.
Right now the lake is as high as it has been in eight years and the rainy season is just getting underway, not to mention the hurricane season.
Most of us on this side of the state don’t pay much attention to the Lake O problem but we should because it reflects the state’s growing incompetence at protecting the public’s health, safety and welfare as well as its natural systems.  Use to be, water management in Florida was science-based.  Now it’s who you know, not what you know, and lives are at risk.
Improperly managed water can be dangerous, vast ecosystems can be destroyed and human lives lost.  The situation down south is demonstrating this in spades.
Because the lake is so high and the rains keep coming, the US Army Corps of Engineers, as one would expect, is pulling all the stops and discharging all it can before the lake’s aged culverts and 143-mile weakened levy fail … an urgent and real concern. 
Lt. Col. Thomas Greco of the COE said the dike at the southern end of Lake Okeechobee is among the most at risk in the United States and needs immediate attention, according to Palm Beach Post reporter, Christine Stapleton, who reported on the meeting.  (Read the full article HERE.)
Mayor Phillip Roland of the city of Clewiston expressed concern that that this could be “another Katrina.”  Clewiston lies just outside the lake’s levy.
The Corps’ massive freshwater releases are causing major destruction to coastal natural systems, which are salt or brackish water dependent.  In addition, the water is loaded with nutrients and pesticides from the multitude of farms adjacent to the lake. Slime and algal blooms are becoming commonplace and the Indian River Lagoon may be facing total ecosystem failure.
Despite the hyperbole of the internet, this is one matter you should consider carefully and be legitimately concerned with because it is about much more than just southeast Florida.  Think about our own rivers, lakes, springs, coastal marshes, and freshwater aquifers.
Melissa Meeker is the most recent political appointee to the SFWMD to flee back to the private sector before, as one anonymous writer put it, her incompetence at handling one of the most complex water resource management challenges in the country was “found out.” 
Now Tallahassee has replaced her with another political appointee, Blake Guillory, who brings no apparent better management capabilities or insights. 
This may very well be Scott’s re-election Waterloo.  As much as it may seem irresponsible to suggest, a water management disaster as frightening as this, might be the price the state will have to pay to rid itself of his incompetence and return to the truly responsible resource management Florida urgently requires and once had before he dismantled it.