Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

Hurricane Sandy's weekend nudge to Lake Okeechobee's rising water levels add to flood control concerns with a month of storm season still to go.

Flooding threats from the fast-rising lake in September prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to start draining billions of gallons of lake water out to sea to ease the strain on its 70-year-old dike — considered one of the country's most at risk of failing. But lake water levels have actually gone up nearly one foot since the draining started Sept. 19. That's because South Florida's vast drainage system of canals, pumps and levees fills up the lake faster than it can lower it.

Letter: My governments have killed my St. Lucie River

The South Florida Water Management District announced more releases of Lake Okeechobee into our already stressed and filthy St. Lucie River.

This amazing estuary is home to hundreds of species and serves as a nursery for ocean species as well. So why has our government killed our river?

No politicians on a state or national level have done anything to stop this massive destruction, essentially taking the river, and the life it should sustain, away from me, you, and our children.

With all the talk these days of the economy, politicians and candidates choose to ignore the importance of a healthy river to our community and its members who make their living from it in so many ways.

I wonder if our politicians have been fishing here, paddle boarding, pulled their kids tubing or skiing, or looked for hermit crabs on the banks of our river.

I also wonder how much they've received in campaign contributions from Big Sugar, an industry catered to by our government, one with little interest in clean estuaries.

How is it that the state of Florida could fast-track millions of dollars to help a company make movies, yet they somehow can't come up with any money for Everglades restoration?

It's heartbreaking to watch the Army Corps of Engineers and water district destroy what they should be protecting. My government has killed my river, and I am angry.

-TCPalm

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam on Wednesday outlined what he called the "hard economic truths facing Florida agriculture" including the need for a "smart" immigration policy, dealing with invasive animals and plant diseases, improving Florida seaports to gain new overseas markets and ensuring future water supplies.

"These (issues) aren't separate silos," Putnam said during a speech to the Economic Club of Florida. "The future of agriculture and the future of Florida are entwined."

"Agriculture is present on two-thirds of the acreage of our state," he continued. "If that goes away, what replaces it that's better than what we have --Citrus groves along highway 27, the magnificent pine forests up and down I-10.

"What replaces that -- that gives you the same economic value, the same tax base stability and the same quality of life issues? Chances are it's not better than what you have right now in terms of a vibrant agriculture industry."

Florida's agriculture industry produces $100 billion in sales annually and provides 1 million jobs, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The agriculture commissioner said he views child nutrition as an economic issue because the state every year spends $1 billion on school nutrition programs with four million meals served each day. Taxpayers are helping pay for many free and reduced cost meals as well as the health care costs resulting from poor diets.

"If we are content to serve Tater Tots and ketchup and call it a starch and a vegetable, we will pay the economic consequences of doing that," he said.

Putnam said he has about 50 people now in Hialeah, Kendall and West Miami looking for the giant African land snails that can eat almost anything including the stucco off homes. Agriculture must factor for the increased threat from foreign species and agricultural diseases.

"When there is a breakdown at the federal government level at an airport or seaport it is frequently the state taxpayers who are asked to pick up the tab and clean up the mess," he said.

The planned widening of the Panama Canal, he said, could be a boost for Florida agriculture. He said the port could bring consumer products that now are unloaded from ships in California to Florida if the state is ready. And those ships could return with Florida agricultural products.

He also said a smart immigration policy is needed the "best human capital" from around the world to fill employment gaps.

"The simple fact is if we want to be a free nation that can feed itself and not be as dependent on others as we are for our fuel, we need that stable legal workforce," he said.

The biggest long-term economic challenge facing agriculture and the state, he said, is water. He said the lack of water flowing from federal reservoirs in Georgia into the Apalachicola River is having "devastating" consequences for oystermen and the seafood industry at Apalachicola Bay.

Water supply, he said, must be a substantial component of state programs in the future the way land acquisition has been in recent decades.

"It is that connection to the water," he said, "that not only gives us an identity but gives us the economic foundation for everything that flows from it."

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 famously wrote of pornography, "I know it when I see it."

His statement exemplified the difficulty of defining pornography, much less regulating it against constitutional protections for free speech.

A similar question of definition is slowly unfolding in Florida as a result of growth management law changes approved by the Legislature in 2011.
HB 7207 reduced the state's role in overseeing local government growth policies and future land-use map changes. But the bill also called on state government to continue "protecting the functions of important state resources and facilities."

While environmentalists said the law would unleash urban sprawl and threaten natural resources, supporters said the state would focus its reviews on natural areas deserving of state protection.

Now a Brevard County proposal to revise its wetlands protection policies has begun to reveal how the state will define those important natural resources worthy of state protection.

Planners last year were left asking what areas the state would protect in addition to obvious environmental areas, such as The Everglades.

"(HB 7207) did not give a definition of what it (important state resources) was," said Merle Bishop, immediate past president of the Florida chapter of the American Planning Association and senior planner with Kimley-Horn Associates in Lakeland. "It was kind of like, 'We'll know when we see it.'"

Brevard County now has perhaps the most stringent wetland protection ordinances in the state, said Ernest Brown, director of the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Office.

The Brevard County Commission directed its staff to develop comprehensive plan language that brings the county to a "level playing field" with surrounding counties, Brown said. The proposed changes, he said, would allow development in wetlands along certain roadways for commercial and industrial properties and in some areas with agricultural zoning.

In reviewing the proposals, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection identified important state resources as federal national wildlife refuges, state aquatic preserves, the Indian River and portions of the upper St. Johns River Basin that have been identified as "Outstanding Florida Waters" requiring protection under state law.

DEP asked the county to either not adopt the changes or to provide maps to identify areas that could be affected and demonstrate that resulting changes would be minimal. The St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also filed comments.

Charles Pattison, executive director of the 1000 Friends of Florida environmental group, said the state for the first time is identifying areas where development deserves comment, but he also wondered whether the state will object if the county moves forward to approve

"Now the question is are they going to do enough to say, 'It's an important state resource, are you (Brevard County) doing enough to protect it?' And are we OK with it?'" he said.

There remain questions about which less obvious state resources deserve protection and how the state defines those, said Bishop, who was the American Planning Association chapter president until this past week.

"Is it things that impact the Peace River? Probably," Bishop said. "But what about somebody's little stream or small wetland in their backyard?"

Brevard County has revised the proposal to include maps showing specific areas along roadways where protection policies will be relaxed and other areas where higher quality wetlands will remain protected, Brown said. The Brevard County Planning Commission will consider the revised proposal on Monday and the Brevard County Commission will consider final adoption on Oct. 9.

1000 Friends of Florida was still reviewing the revised proposal on Friday, Pattison said. Mary Sphar, a Sierra Club member from Cocoa, said she thinks the revised proposal is worse than the earlier proposal because it allows higher-quality wetlands to be developed if a project is found to be in the public interest for economic reasons.

Brown said Brevard County is attempting to promote "flexible and balanced stewardship" of its resources. He said he agrees the case is important in defining what important resources are protected by the state.

"I think we have achieved a pretty decent middle ground," he said. "I think it was healthy the state weighed in. They helped us further refine the proposed outcome."

-Bruce Ritchie

A letter to Gov. Rick Scott asks him to restore pending cuts to the budgets of Florida’s water management districts responsible for the water supply and Everglades restoration.

By CURTIS MORGAN