A new Everglades restoration plan proposed by Gov. Rick Scott will delay restoration and will be unenforceable, according to the group Friends of the Everglades.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold has scheduled a July 18 hearing in Miami on a framework agreement for restoration proposed by Scott in 2011. The $880 million, 12-year agreement was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 13.

While Audubon Florida and the Everglades Foundation supported the proposal, Friends of the Everglades only had issued a short statement last month raising concerns.

Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians sued the federal agency in 2004 for failure to clean up sugar industry pollution flowing into the Everglades. Gold sided with the plaintiffs in 2008 and EPA issued an amended determination in 2010 ordering Florida and the South Florida Water Management District to construct additional stormwater treatment areas to treat phosphorus-rich water.

The new plan proposed by Florida calls for construction of 6,500 acres of additional stormwater treatment areas and water storage areas capable of holding 32 billion gallons, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Gold set the July 18 hearing date and required all of the parties in the case to file briefs in response this week.

In its filing, Friends of the Everglades said the proposed new timetable for restoration extends through 2025, five years longer than EPA had directed the state in 2010. The group also has concerns about technical shortcomings in the plan, its lack of interim standards and its enforceability.

In an opinion column submitted to news media, Friends of the Everglades President Alan Farago quoted President Ronald Reagan's approach to nuclear arms negotiations: "Trust, but verify."

"So far, what the state and EPA propose is a step in the right direction but lacks the iron-clad commitments that (Friends founder) Marjory Stoneman Douglas fought for and that our organization is determined to achieve for Florida and the nation’s interest in the Everglades," Farago wrote.

Spokespersons for the DEP and the EPA were invited to comment on Tuesday but had not provided responses by deadline.

DEP's federal court filing said the plan complies with a 2010 court order, EPA's amended determination and the federal Clean Water Act. DEP said no further discussions with EPA are necessary because the matters raised in previous court orders have been resolved.

The EPA said the timetable is based on estimates provided by the South Florida Water Management District for reliably financing and constructing the restoration projects. Assuming a consent order is approved in a timely fashion, all of the issues raised by the court will have been resolved, the federal agency said.

Related Research: Access pleadings and other documents filed in the Friends of the Everglades federal court case.

Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.

 

 

Rich Botta bags a python during a “Python Patrol” responder course on Thursday in Davie hosted by Florida Atlantic University’s Environmental Science Program in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Taimy Alvarez / Sun Sentinel

DAVIE – They came to Florida Atlantic University to learn about wading birds, but on Thursday, they got a lesson in slithering snakes.

About 17 environmental science students, most of whom are studying avian ecology, were trained on how to capture Burmese pythons, non-native snakes which have virtually wiped out raccoons, marsh rabbits and other mammals in the southern region of Everglades National Park.

PhD student Jennifer Chastant, 31, who had never handled a snake before, volunteered to go first.

"The trainers said [the snakes] were a little calm in the morning, so I decided I needed to take care of this now," she said. "It's a little scary. It's a wild animal, and you don't know what it's going to do."

Because many of the students trek through the Everglades for research, it's not unusual for them to encounter the non-venomous pythons, said Dale Gawlik, who heads FAU's environmental science program in Davie.

"We want students to be comfortable. We don't want them to panic and make bad decisions," he said. "And it's a chance to do something good for the Everglades. It's a chance to get some potentially dangerous, invasive species out of the ecosystem."

Trapped pythons are used for research and training, including Thursday's event, which was sponsored by the non-profit Nature Conservancy and several other agencies.

Jeffrey Fobb, who works for the venom response unit of Miami Dade Fire Rescue, used a few basic tools in his demonstration: a golf club-sized snake hook, a fabric bag and black adhesive tape. He showed the students how to pin the snake so it was startled and could be easily and gently grabbed.

"You don't' want to give him the Kung Fu grip," he said. "You want to have your fingers right up next to his jaws. The more force you use, the more resistance you're going to get."

The students each were able to secure a snake into a bag without any bites, although doctorate student Jessica Klassen, 27, had a close call. As she removed her snake from a bag, the animal turned its head several times as if to strike her.

"It was exhilarating, but I just gave it some time to relax and calm down," she said. "It all worked out in the end."

Wildlife officials believe there are tens of thousands of Burmese pythons in South Florida, although exact numbers are unknown. More than 1,800 have been captured over the 12 years.

The python course is not open to the public. Anyone who wants to learn how to identify and report invasive reptiles are encouraged to take a free, online reptile detection and documentation class, available at ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu (select REDDy training).

If a python, Nile monitor, tegu lizard or other invasive exotic animal is seen, people are encouraged to stay at a safe distance, take a photo, and report it to 1-888-IVE-GOT-1, online at http://www.IveGot1.org, or on the IveGot1 mobile apps for the iPhone and Android.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-fau-python-20120628,0,5615454.story#

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Florida's case in tri-state water dispute

Bruce Ritchie, 06/25/2012 - 05:28 PM

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The Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint river system. Map credit: Atlanta Regional Commission

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up an appeal filed by Florida in the case involving the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.

The decision not to hear Florida's request to review an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling could harm the Apalachicola River and bay, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said Monday.

Alabama, Florida and Georgia have been fighting in federal court over water since 1990. Alabama and Georgia want water for industry and growing cities, while Florida wants water for fish and wildlife along the Apalachicola River and to support the seafood industry in Apalachicola Bay.

Lake Lanier, a federal reservoir on the Chattahoochee River in north Georgia, has been the focus of the dispute because it provides 60 percent of the storage capacity among the reservoirs on the river system.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson in 2009 ruled that Congress must authorize Lake Lanier to provide water to Georgia cities. Without authorization, he ordered that water use be cut off in three years.

But the 11th Circuit overturned the decision and instead directed the Corps of Engineers to analyze its authority related to the Lake Lanier. 

Florida and Alabama in February asked the Supreme Court to review the case. The Supreme Court denied the petition on Monday without comment.

"The department is concerned that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision could result in unbalanced management of the reservoir system, diverting more water from Lake Lanier for local municipal purposes, and depriving Florida of the water flows needed to support the ecology and economy of the River and Bay," Florida DEP said in a statement. "This could allow further disruption of the biological productivity and unique ecosystem of the river and bay and adversely affect endangered species and the bay's hallmark oyster production."

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said the Supreme Court had affirmed that drinking water always was an authorized use of Lake Lanier.

"We can now move forward with this issue behind us, have the governors work together and come to a long-term agreement that will provide for the water needs of all three states," Deal said in a news release.

The environmental group Apalachicola Riverkeeper said it was disappointed by the decision. Dan Tonsmeire, the group's executive director, said the states now can either focus on sharing water throughout the river basin, as the ACF Stakeholders group has suggested, or begin a new round of litigation.

"I think the most sane thing is to try to sit down and use the best available science and see what we can work out," he said. "I hold out some optimism we will achieve that overall look at how water can be managed in the whole ACF basin."

DEP issues guidelines to water districts for buying, getting rid of state lands

Bruce Ritchie, 06/26/2012 - 01:10 PM

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Water management districts must receive Florida Department of Environmental Protection approval for major land purchases under guidelines published by DEP this month.

The DEP memo, posted on a department website last week, has received a mixed reaction from environmentalists. Some of them last year accused DEP and Gov. Rick Scott of launching a takeover of the districts, which were established by the Legislature in 1972.

Florida has purchased 2.5 million acres since 1990 under Florida Forever and a predecessor land-buying program. State law provides for 30 percent funding to be divided among the five water management districts, although funding has been sharply cut by the Legislature since 2009.

Three months after taking office in 2011, Scott directed DEP to supervise activities of the districts including review and oversight of land acquisition and disposition. Scott said the districts must focus on their core missions of water supply, flood control and resource protection.

The June 8 guidance memo says districts should focus on acquiring conservation easements, which involve paying landowners to conserve land rather than having the state outright buy the property. DEP also says districts should buy land at 90 percent of the appraised value and should find partner agencies to split the cost.

Related Research: Access the directive from Governor Scott and DEP's land acquisition guidelines.

The guidance document requires any purchase of more than $500,000 to be approved by the department. Any purchase below that amount must be approved by the department unless it is for 90 percent or less of the appraised value.

The document calls on districts to sell land that is no longer needed for conservation purposes. However, DEP cautions the districts against eliminating significant landscape linkages, conservation corridors, natural or cultural resources or public recreational opportunities including hunting.

Clay Henderson, a lawyer and member of the Florida Conservation Coalition, said the memo clearly will have a "chilling effect" on new land purchases by districts. He said the districts also are being pressured to sell their lands.

"I'm just tired of being on the defensive," Henderson said. "We are so well-known for our successes with these programs. They have protected some outstanding examples of conservation land across the state and commanded wide support from the public." 

Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon Florida, said he remains concerned about how the districts are identifying land to get rid of. But he said the guidelines have some good language, such as requiring a determination that lands are no longer needed for conservation and avoiding the elimination of conservation corridors and landscape linkages.

"The land acquisition provisions seem to give reasonable latitude for the districts to move forward with purchases, including the $500,000 purchases which don’t even have to be approved by DEP," Lee wrote in an email.

DEP spokesman Patrick Gillespie said department officials met with district representatives in February and they have been following informally following the guidance document since then.

"The purpose of the document is to provide guidance to the water management districts on purchasing land to support their core missions of water supply, water quality, flood control and natural resource protection while being judicious of Florida taxpayer dollars," Gillespie said in an email.

Under current projections, the Atlantic would swallow much of the Florida Keys and Miami-Dade in a century, according to experts at a sea-level rise summit

In this file photo, a picnic table in Everglades National Park sits in high water after a tropical storm dumped a ton of rain on South Florida. Extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels brought on by global warming could have a catastrophic effect on the state of Florida which will be ground-zero for global warming in the United States. David Walters / Herald Staff

By Curtis Morgan The Miami Herald

The subject of global warming has become so politically unpalatable over the last few years that neither party mentions it much anymore.

A conference on climate change sponsored by Florida Atlantic University made it clear that ignoring the threat has done nothing to slow it down — particularly in South Florida, which has more people and property at risk by rising sea levels than any place in the country.

The two-day summit in Boca Raton, which wrapped up Friday, painted a bleak and water-logged picture for much of coastal Florida.

Under current projections, the Atlantic Ocean would swallow much of the Florida Keys in 100 years. Miami-Dade, in turn, would eventually replace them as a chain of islands on the highest parts of the coastal limestone ridge, bordered by the ocean on one side and an Everglades turned into a salt water bay on the other.

Ben Strauss, chief operating officer of Climate Central, an independent research and journalism organization, warned that much of the southern peninsula south of Lake Okeechobee would be virtually uninhabitable within 250 years.

“There’s good reason to believe southern Florida will eventually have to be evacuated,” Strauss told some 275 scientists and climate and planning experts from government agencies, insurance companies, construction experts and other businesses likely to be impacted by rising seas.

While scientists can’t yet predict with certainty how fast and high seas will eventually rise, there is no disputing South Florida will be ground zero for the earliest major impacts, said Leonard Barry, director of FAU’s Florida Center for Environmental Studies.

“The sky is not falling, but the waters are rising,” he said. “We need to recognize that, prepare for that and begin to address it.’’

Four counties — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe — have begun to do that under a 2009 agreement to work together studying how to mitigate and adapt to the myriad ripple effects of rising seas.

Though it might take a century or more to flood people out, scientists warned that potential impacts will come long before in the form of increasing damage from hurricane storm surge and flooding, rising insurance rates and shrinking freshwater supplies as sea water taints coastal wells.

If the rate of rise increases, as some new studies suggest, all those impacts could come sooner — in decades, not centuries.

University of South Florida oceanographer Gary Mitchum said data from worldwide tide gauges suggest the sea level rise might be speeding up, jumping from about two millimeters a year from 1950 to 1992 to three millimeters since.

That amount, a little bit more than a tenth of an inch, adds up quickly in low-lying South Florida, according to expert analysis.

Six more inches, for instance, would compromise half of the South Florida Water Management flood control gates at high tide, potentially worsening flooding losses. Seven inches would consume 30 percent of Big Pine Key. At a foot, 60 percent of Monroe County’s land would disappear. At three feet, 85 percent would be inundated — along with a large swath of coastal Miami-Dade and Broward.

Overall, according to a “Surging Seas” report produced earlier this year by Climate Central, Florida easily ranks as the most vulnerable state to sea-level rise, with some 2.4 million people, 1.3 million homes and 107 cities at risk from a four-foot rise, according to the report. Louisiana, by comparison, has 65 cities below the four-foot mark.

Miami-Dade and Broward alone have more people at risk than any state except Florida and Louisiana, Strauss said. Lee and Pinellas counties also are at high risk.

It’s not just coastal areas either. Low-lying inland cities like Hialeah and Pembroke Pines could be flooded out by a rising, saltier Everglades.

Daniel Williams, an architect and post-disaster planner, said he envisions a future where Miami-Dade would be confined to islands on the highest points of an ancient coastal ridge that runs along the coast. Inundated homes and building along the coast might be left behind to serve as reefs.

The Climate Central study projects that under current trends, the most vulnerable areas could see increased flooding as early as 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international science panel, estimates the average sea level could rise from seven inches to about 24 inches by 2100 but notes it could be higher under some scenarios.

James Beever, a principal planner with the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, said the changes can already been seen in Florida’s landscape.

Some salt marshes, he said, had already moved inland by the length of a football field. In the Everglades, mangroves have also marched inland, as salt water transforms freshwater marshes.

“The things you read about in the literature that this is going to happen, it’s already happening,’’ he said.

 

MIAMI -- Python, wild boar and lion fish will be on the menu this weekend in Miami.

Three local chefs will participate Saturday night in a cook-off competition using the invasive species as key ingredients. The goal is to raise awareness about how the animals impact South Florida's ecology - and perhaps even generate an appetite for them.

Haven Gastro-Lounge executive chef Todd Erickson will be cooking braised python. He told the Miami Herald ( http://hrld.us/MMY33e) the event will show how these animals can be a "viable food source."

The other chefs cooking to be named the "Best Invasivore Chef" are: Bradley Herron of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and Timon Balloo of Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill.

Funds will also be raised for Fertile Earth Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to promoting environmental awareness.

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard. Photo Credit: Ana Goni-Lessan

DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. said Thursday he's concerned that establishing a committee to oversee springs issues could delay department efforts to protect water.

The comments were in response to statements Wednesday from former Sen. Bob Graham in a letter that he and other members of the Florida Conservation Coalition sent to Gov. Rick Scott. 

The letter cited dramatic declines in water flows to Silver and Rainbow springs in Marion County. Graham called on Scott to establish a resource planning and management committee as provided for under Florida law to oversee protection of springs in north Florida.

Vinyard said he shares Graham's sense of urgency in dealing with water issues. But Vinyard said establishing a committee could delay department efforts already under way, including two regional initiatives that are holding public meetings scheduled for next week. 

"To start from square one with a new committee or commission seems to be an opportunity for delay," Vinyard told The Florida Current. "And what I have is a sense of urgency. I want for both to move forward and move forward quickly."

The Central Florida Water Initiative includes only Seminole, Orange, Osceola Lake and Polk counties. Agencies involved in the initiative are hosting an open house Thursday in St. Cloud.

On Monday, the North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership holds its initial stakeholder advisory committee meeting at the St. Johns River Water Management District in Palatka. DEP and the Suwannee River Water Management District also are involved.

A third working group was established three weeks ago to share data on Silver and Rainbow springs, said Jennifer Diaz, DEP's press secretary. The agencies involved are DEP's Florida Geological Survey, the St. Johns River Water Management District and Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Graham told the Current on Thursday that the lack of setting "minimum flows and levels" to protect Silver Springs shows the state water regulatory system is not working. Adena Springs Ranch has applied to pump more than 13 million gallons per day of groundwater.

Vinyard said he doesn't know why the minimum flows haven't been set for those springs. The St. Johns River Water Management District says it will set minimum flows for Silver Springs in 2013, after the ranch permit could be issued.

After being appointed last year, Vinyard said he established DEP's first Office of Water Policy to improve the sharing of science among the state's water districts.

"Obviously I can't control what was done or not done in the previous 30 years," Vinyard said. "But I share the public's concern."

"We have some of the best scientists, really, in the world on water issues housed in our water management districts and housed at DEP. They certainly have our support to do the right thing to protect these resources. I'm encouraging them to move as quickly as the science allows."

Related Research: Read Monday's letter from the Florida Conservation Coalition.

Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.

 

In a progress report ordered by Congress, a team of independent scientists finds restoration is finally moving forward but more needs to be done faster.

By CURTIS MORGAN
Cmorgan@Miamiherald.com

Low water conditions because of the drought in Everglades Conservation area 2B west f Markham Park in Sunrise provide easy pickings for wading birds. Here an Everglades apple snail kite dives down to snare a snail for a meal in the last few pools of water in the area. Joe Rimkus Jr. / Miami Herald Staff

Everglades restoration is finally moving forward but the struggling system stills more water — and fast. That sums up a major progress report on the ambitious $13.5 billion project released Thursday.

The report from independent scientists appointed by the National Resource Council is more upbeat than previous reviews but also finds much to question in the joint state-federal effort launched in 2000.

After a dozen years, the report finds plenty of positive signs with eight projects under construction, a new $880 million state plan to clean up polluted farm and suburban runoff and efforts to reduce federal red tape that has delayed work for years.

But life in the vast interior Everglades, from tree islands to endangered snail kites, continues to decline for a lack of water, and restoration could stall again in the near future unless Congress signs off on pending projects and steps up with more money. The report finds that too much early work has focused on the edges of the Everglades, with water storage and flood-control projects intended to protect or benefit cities and farmers, while little has been done to revive the interior marshes and sloughs starving for more water.

“The key point is there is continuing degradation in ecosystems that will take decades or perhaps centuries to recover,’’ said William Boggess, an agricultural sciences professor at Oregon State University-Corvallis and chair of the committee of 14 scientists who wrote the congressionally mandated analysis.

The two-year progress report from the council, part of the nonprofit National Academy of Sciences, is the fourth in a series of independent assessments ordered by Congress of a restoration plan jointly managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.

Previous reports have been broadly critical of restoration efforts, particularly in 2008 when a blistering analysis found efforts paralyzed by delay, interagency turf battles, spiraling cost projections and indifferent political support. The agencies have used recommendations in past reports to overhaul plans.

The water district and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a joint statement saying the report “reaffirms the significant progress that has been made, including advances in scientific understanding, while recognizing the considerable work that lies ahead.”

The latest report points to an array of remaining science, engineering and money challenges for an ecological restoration project of unprecedented complexity and but also finds substantial movement over the last two years, citing “notable progress” on the eight construction projects, plus advances in science and improvements in water quality that are key to a healthy Everglades.

“There are signs of hope,’’ Boggess wrote in a preface to the 210-page report.

The report was completed before the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month finalized an $880 million state plan intended to dramatically reduce the flow of farm and suburban pollution into the Everglades.

But even without the additional projects, the report suggests the $1.8 billion the state has spent on a network of pollution-scrubbing marshes is having an effect. There are signs that concentrations of the damaging nutrient phosphorus are starting to stabilize. The spread of cattails — plants once dubbed by a scientist as “grave markers of the Everglades’’ because they crowd out native plants in polluted areas — has begun to slow.

The most pressing challenge, the report finds, is to move more quickly to restore natural flows to the parched sloughs of Everglades National Park and to sawgrass marshes and prairies between Tamiami Trail and the farms south of Lake Okeechobee.

Last year, agencies launched a Central Everglades project intended to speed up that work by reducing the typical planning period from six years to 18 months. An initial blueprint is expected by year’s end but where funding will come from remains uncertain.

Despite a deep recession and resulting budget shortages, both the state and federal government continue to support restoration and pollution control efforts — though the report notes that future funding on the federal side is uncertain unless Congress approves major legislation that typically funds large civil works projects across the nation.

Though funding has increased under the Obama administration, restoration remains far from the 50-50 cost-share it was supposed to be, the report finds. The state has outspent the federal government — $3 billion to $854 million — on specific restoration projections since 2002. On overall Glades spending, including pollution clean-up and previously approved projects, the gap is even larger, $10.1 billion in state funding to $3 billion in federal dollars.

Boggess, who was in Washington Thursday briefing agencies and congressional aides on the report, said “We’ve been encouraging the federal interests to pick up the slack and focus a bit more on the water quantity.’’