"What lies beneath" @miamiherald

OUR OPINION: No time to waste in updating Miami-Dade’s water and sewer system

By The Miami Herald Editorial

For retirees on a fixed income and struggling families scraping by in this economy the thought of having to pay more for their water and sewer bill will seem like another thoughtless government assault on their pocketbook.

The needed upgrades to the county’s system could exceed $12 billion over 15 years, according to Water and Sewer Director John Renfrow.

As it is, the immediate need is likely to be $1.4 billion to update three water-treatment plants in Goulds, North Miami and Virginia Key and replace brittle water lines that are in some cases 50 years old throughout the county — all to meet federal and state regulators’ demands that the county stop violating the Clean Water Act and the terms of the discharge permit.

That’s Step. 1. There is no alternative but to pay up and get going after decades of neglect and a county penchant for taking money out of the sewer fund to balance the county’s overall budget.

Step. 2: The county needs a long-range plan that is continuously updating water and sewer lines.

Right now, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has projected a 9-percent rate hike in the water bill for the 2013-14 fiscal year, followed by 6 percent increases for three years after that. But for this year, no increase, which should be reconsidered. As Commissioner Lynda Bell suggested at a recent meeting, increasing water rates gradually, starting now, would be best.

A mix of bonds and higher water bills will have to cover the costs of this long-term project, and build reserves so that in another 20 years the county isn’t scrambling again to catch up and creating a potential public health crisis in the process.

Mr. Renfrow said the first bond issue of $300 million, which commissioners would have to approve, would be needed by this coming spring. That money would be used to start work on the most critical portions in disrepair, those now in federal regulators’ crosshairs.

Mr. Gimenez, a fiscal conservative, has to lead on this issue if he wants to attract new industries to the county that offer better paying jobs. Sunshine and surf only go so far. The mayor and county commissioners would be wise to have a consistent get-the-word-out campaign to constituents about why the upgrades are needed and what’s at stake if we delay.

Tourism, for one, would be a bust if pipes keep failing. Imagine what a major break in sewer lines would do to Miami Beach, which already has experienced several sewer breakdowns in the past few years. Imagine that it would happen during the winter months when international tourists come for arts festivals and shows. About 100 miles of substandard piping laid out by a now-defunct company, including the sewer main running under Government Cut to Virginia Key, are a catastrophe in the making for this area’s tourism.

There’s no time to waste, and the cities that run their own systems must work with the county in a coordinated way to get it done.

Just in the past two years alone, the county’s antiquated system of 7,500 miles of sewer lines has ruptured more than 65 times, with 47 million gallons of untreated human waste seeping onto streets and into waterways from far South Dade to the Broward County line, according to environmental regulators. The health of Biscayne Bay, a recreational draw for locals and tourists alike, is imperiled, too.

Upgrading the entire system — and keeping up with repairs as needed into the future — is a public health issue and an economic imperative. Get going.

"Former water board members urge Scott to restore funding" @MiamiHerald

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

Twenty former governing board members of Florida’s water management districts are urging Gov. Rick Scott to reverse another round of pending budget cuts.

In a letter sent to Scott Monday, they urged the governor to “restore adequate funding’’ for the five regional agencies responsible for the water supply, flood control and many environmental protection projects, including Everglades restoration.

The Florida Legislature this year removed a year-old revenue cap that had slashed district budgets statewide by 30 percent, a move environmental groups had hoped would restore some of the lost funding. Instead, water district governing boards, who are appointed by the governor, have continued cutting back, rather than holding the line or raising property tax rates to previous levels.

The South Florida Water Management District, for example, which just settled a long-running federal lawsuit by agreeing to $880 million in new projects to reduce the flow of pollution in the Everglades, gave preliminary approval to a $600 million budget that includes another 2 percent cut in its property tax rate. That follows a $100 million cut last year. A final budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25.

The former board members, including Miami attorney Eric Buermann, who was the South Florida district’s chairman under former Gov. Charlie Crist, argued the cuts save property owners a small amount at a large cost for important programs like Glades restoration, and alternative water supply projects. A Miami-Dade property owner of a $150,000 home paid $62.40 in district taxes in 2011. This latest proposed roll-back will reduce that to $42.89.

The governor’s office did not respond to a call and an email for comment about the letter, which echoes complaints from environmental groups. But in announcing final state approval last week of the Everglades pollution cleanup plan reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott said the plan was to pay for the work with existing state and district revenues “without raising or creating new costs for Floridians.’’

Miami Herald Opinion - "Save a park, sell your Caddy"

BY FRED GRIMM

FGRIMM@MIAMIHERALD.COM

MiamiHerald.com/columnists

Selling off our national parks to private developers…. well, you got to give it to Cliff Stearns. That’s just good modern Republican business sense. Sell ’em. Drill ’em. Frack ’em. Turn the Grand Tetons into a ski resort. Hang a zip line over the Grand Canyon. Convert Yosemite into a corporate retreat. Strip mine the Smokies. Erect drill rigs in the Everglades.

But comparing a sell-off of so much scrubby parkland to getting rid of the family Caddy — that’s near about blaspheme where I’m from.

Stearns, a ranking congressman from Ocala (better known, lately, as a Florida’s most prominent birther), uttered his slander on the most sacred of down-home family values last month at constituent meeting in Belleview. He was railing against a proposed new national trail commemorating the route Buffalo Soldiers rode through California back at the turn of the last century. The black Army outfit, essentially America’s first park rangers, patrolled the newly created Sequoia and Yosemite national parks, protecting the federal land from wildlife poachers, timber rustlers and illegal grazing.

“Would you want to walk 200 miles?” Stearns asked his constituents. (That suggests that, if Stearns had been around in 1921, he’d have been even less enthused by the construction of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Would you want to walk 2,181 miles?)

Stearns said that “we don’t need more national parks in this country. We need to actually sell off some of our national parks, and try and do what a normal family would do.”

Normal families usually don’t have national parks in their domestic portfolio. But Stearns persisted. “They wouldn’t ask Uncle Joe for a loan, they would sell their Cadillac.”

This was too much. Back where I’m from, in West Virginia, rednecks with Caddies would sooner sell their kids (a relatively plentiful commodity) than part with an Eldorado. If it happened to be the 1959 model with soaring fins and Marilyn Monroe bumpers, well, he’d consider tossing the wife and her momma into the negotiations.

Previously, Rep. Stearns’ peculiar interest in the national parks system had focused on legislation to rescind the ban on firearms inside the parks. But other Republican members of Congress have lately proposed selling off chunks of parkland and national forests. Or opening up parks to oil and gas exploration. The new Smokey the Bear poster comes with either of two mottos: either “Don’t Shoot” or “Drill, baby bear, drill.”

Under Gov. Rick Scott, Florida’s state parks have similarly been re-imagined as commodities. Last year, Gov. Scott’s administration, pushing a flurry of new proposals to reengineer state government as a business enterprise, decided that the state’s 160 parks should each be self-sufficient — or else. The state park service decided 53 “unprofitable” state parks would be shut down. Private operators would be able to build campgrounds, with RV hook-ups, inside another 56 parks. Another proposal would allow a single, well-connected company to construct and operate fancy golf courses in other parks.

The public, which tends to regard a state park somewhat differently than, say, a strip shopping center in Kendall, was not amused. A great howl ensued. Scott suddenly decided he didn’t mind the unprofitable park system so much.

This past session the Legislature did pass bills allowing commercial advertising along state scenic trails, giving “scenic” an odd new definition, but opponents managed to limit the damage to just seven trails. A bill to allow gas and oil drilling in state parks died a worthy death.

No one, in the past session, proposed selling off the state’s oceanfront parks to condo developers. Maybe the Legislature’s big dogs are only waiting for the real estate market to recover. In the new Florida, you gotta think like a entrepreneur.

Oddly enough, Cliff Stearns’ antipathy toward the creation of new historic parks was not so apparent in 2006, when the onetime operator of a small motel chain pushed through federal legislation (and funding) to designate Fort King, site of a major dust-up in the Second Seminole War, as a national historic landmark.

On July 1, 2008, Stearns rightfully took full credit for the dedication of the 39-acre national historic site, which — I’m sure this is just a coincidence — happens to be located right there on 39th Avenue in his hometown of Ocala. “Our nation is rich in natural resources, scenic wonders and historic events and locations” he said.

When Stearns said “rich,” who knew he was speaking as a real estate speculator?

I bet Fort King would make a dandy location for a new motel. Do I hear bids? Anyone want to swap their old Caddy?

 

"FIU is committed to protecting natural resources" - Letters to the Editor @miamiherald #fiu

Re the March 7 editorial, Hands off our water: I would like to address a few key points regarding discussions with our partners to find a new site for the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition, which currently is located on land adjacent to our Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

Particularly, I’d like to emphasize that FIU has never proposed to move the Urban Development Boundary or pursue incompatible land use outside of it. This university has always been committed to protecting the natural resources of our region. Indeed, our faculty is made up of some of the foremost experts on Everglades restoration and protection. Our sole purpose has been to find an available and agreeable site for relocation of the fair, so that FIU may grow into the 86 acres the fair currently occupies, just south   of FIU’s campus. The Bird Drive Basin site also presents an opportunity to establish a new legacy park for area residents on the rest of the property.

The Bird Drive Basin property, located about six miles west of campus, was originally acquired by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for the purpose of water management and conservation. As we explored — together with county and fair officials — 16 possible new locations for the fair, we learned that the SFWMD had placed the Bird Drive Basin property on the surplus land list. In November 2011, we began discussions with them about the possibility of relocating the fair to a section of that property.

We look forward to ongoing talks with Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, county commissioners, state legislators and fair officials as well as a public process to find a win-win resolution that will allow this community’s only public research university to grow, prosper and provide access while preserving the fair and protecting our precious natural resources.

Mark B. Rosenberg,

president, FIU

 

 

via miamiherald.com

 

On hidden island, exotic plants a threat to gopher tortoises

Volunteers will descend on Deerfield Island, a little-known Broward County park, in hopes of clearing a path for the rebound of the gopher tortoises that live there.

Anti-environmental bills make me want to scream - Other Views

Being an adult I can’t throw myself on the floor and scream, but I sure would like to after reviewing the anti-environmental legislation proposed by the Florida Legislature during the current session.

Bills have been proposed to:

• Steal public lands and waters.

• Drill for oil and gas on public lands. Put advertising signs on greenways and trails.

• Eliminate septic tank inspections.

• Eliminate concurrency for schools and transportation for new development.

• Support water quality rules that will allow continued nutrient degradation of our waters.

• Move control to Tallahassee of water management funding.

• Stop registering greenhouse gas emitters.

And, funding has been withheld for Florida Forever environmental land acquisition and Everglades restoration, two programs that have been the hallmark of Florida’s environmental programs for decades.

Every company, business or landowner in the state of Florida, represented by high-paid lobbyists, that wants something that otherwise would not be legal or acceptable has come out from under a rock with a bill written to get what he wants at the expense of the public. It is insane.

Legislators are acting like the boys in Lord of the Flies. They need adult supervision.

Hypocrisy is rampant. The Climate Protection Act doesn’t protect us from our changing climate. It undoes more of what former Gov. Charlie Crist got passed to make Florida a leader in responding to climate change. Environmental resource permitting makes it easier to get a permit and does not advance the protection of our natural resources as the name might imply.

The sad thing is that the public understands very little about what is happening. But what is going on is bad for Florida. It is bad for you and over time the cost of doing business in this state will increase because of the decisions made by this legislature.

Your waters will continue to deteriorate. Do you like beach closures Memorial Day Weekend or on July 4th because of high bacterial counts or slimy green algae?

North Florida’s waters will end up in South Florida. Hope you don’t mind paying for water supply for Polk County. Your taxes will go up as you are asked to pay for the cost and impacts of development that developers will no longer pay.

Oil and gas wells will appear on public lands and the associated pollution will make it very unpleasant and unhealthy to visit these sites, not to mention that an oil well will never look or smell like a tree.

Advertisers will place sponsorship signs at trail heads and you will be reminded to eat your Twinkie. And, to heck with a Zen experience in state parks. There will be no more public land acquisition and paving will gradually stretch from coast to coast and north to south and with all the paving will come increasing electric bills.

You think all this is an exaggeration? I wouldn’t bet against these predictions.

Here is the real rub. Florida has some serious environmental problems that need to be fixed, but our legislature is busy undoing the past 40 years of environmental safeguards that have served us well. This anti-environmental agenda is unacceptable. It is bad for Florida’s economy. It is bad for jobs. It is bad for our children.

In the future as things worsen in this state, as they will with these kinds of bills, businesses will not want to locate here.

Where is our governor in all this? Oh that’s right, Gov. Rick Scott hasn’t read the bills yet.

Pamela McVety, who worked for the Department of Environmental Regulation and various other environmental agencies in Tallahassee over 30 years, retired in 2003. She is a member of the Florida Conservation Coalition.

via miamiherald.com

Anti-environmental bills make me want to scream - Other Views

Being an adult I can’t throw myself on the floor and scream, but I sure would like to after reviewing the anti-environmental legislation proposed by the Florida Legislature during the current session.

Bills have been proposed to:

• Steal public lands and waters.

• Drill for oil and gas on public lands. Put advertising signs on greenways and trails.

• Eliminate septic tank inspections.

• Eliminate concurrency for schools and transportation for new development.

• Support water quality rules that will allow continued nutrient degradation of our waters.

• Move control to Tallahassee of water management funding.

• Stop registering greenhouse gas emitters.

And, funding has been withheld for Florida Forever environmental land acquisition and Everglades restoration, two programs that have been the hallmark of Florida’s environmental programs for decades.

Every company, business or landowner in the state of Florida, represented by high-paid lobbyists, that wants something that otherwise would not be legal or acceptable has come out from under a rock with a bill written to get what he wants at the expense of the public. It is insane.

Legislators are acting like the boys in Lord of the Flies. They need adult supervision.

Hypocrisy is rampant. The Climate Protection Act doesn’t protect us from our changing climate. It undoes more of what former Gov. Charlie Crist got passed to make Florida a leader in responding to climate change. Environmental resource permitting makes it easier to get a permit and does not advance the protection of our natural resources as the name might imply.

The sad thing is that the public understands very little about what is happening. But what is going on is bad for Florida. It is bad for you and over time the cost of doing business in this state will increase because of the decisions made by this legislature.

Your waters will continue to deteriorate. Do you like beach closures Memorial Day Weekend or on July 4th because of high bacterial counts or slimy green algae?

North Florida’s waters will end up in South Florida. Hope you don’t mind paying for water supply for Polk County. Your taxes will go up as you are asked to pay for the cost and impacts of development that developers will no longer pay.

Oil and gas wells will appear on public lands and the associated pollution will make it very unpleasant and unhealthy to visit these sites, not to mention that an oil well will never look or smell like a tree.

Advertisers will place sponsorship signs at trail heads and you will be reminded to eat your Twinkie. And, to heck with a Zen experience in state parks. There will be no more public land acquisition and paving will gradually stretch from coast to coast and north to south and with all the paving will come increasing electric bills.

You think all this is an exaggeration? I wouldn’t bet against these predictions.

Here is the real rub. Florida has some serious environmental problems that need to be fixed, but our legislature is busy undoing the past 40 years of environmental safeguards that have served us well. This anti-environmental agenda is unacceptable. It is bad for Florida’s economy. It is bad for jobs. It is bad for our children.

In the future as things worsen in this state, as they will with these kinds of bills, businesses will not want to locate here.

Where is our governor in all this? Oh that’s right, Gov. Rick Scott hasn’t read the bills yet.

Pamela McVety, who worked for the Department of Environmental Regulation and various other environmental agencies in Tallahassee over 30 years, retired in 2003. She is a member of the Florida Conservation Coalition.

via miamiherald.com

Port of Miami project gets help from Tallahassee - Political Currents

TALLAHASSEE -- A bill that won the support of the Florida House on Thursday could jump-start the stalled Port of Miami Deep Dredge.

The proposed legislation — which passed by a 110-5 vote — has to do with permits for storm-water management systems.

But earlier this week, House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, tacked on language about permits for deep-water ports. The amendment requires legal challenges to dredging projects to be heard within 30 days of the motion being filed.

The revised version of the bill could come in handy for the $150 million Port of Miami project, which is being held up by challenges from environmental groups and the community of Fisher Island.

An administrative law judge in Tallahassee recently ordered a hearing for August — putting the dredging and blasting scheduled to start this summer on indefinite hold.

During a trip to Tallahassee last week, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez asked members of the Miami-Dade delegation to help get the dredge underway as soon as possible.

“We need to speed this up,” Gimenez said.

Lopez-Cantera said opponents of the dredge had employed “delay tactics” and were afforded ample opportunity to have their voices heard.

“The economic impact to our community is too important to let a small group of obstructionists delay it any longer than necessary,” he said.

But Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society, said the amendment sounded like an effort to circumvent legal procedure. She pointed out that the groups had already scheduled mediation hearings next month with Florida regulators in addition to the hearing set for August.

“We have a date scheduled and now we’re seeing this sort of an end run,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the aim wasn’t to derail a project that port managers say could create thousands of jobs, but to ensure that the work doesn’t come at the expense of the surrounding marine environment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she said, had rejected what she called “minimal” protections for things like water quality originally requested by the state.

“We have no delusions about stopping the port expansion,” she said. “We just want to protect Biscayne Bay.”

In a meeting Thursday with members of The Miami Herald’s Editorial Board, Corps project managers insisted the environmental impacts of the project would be short-lived and minimized by closely monitoring turbidity and temporarily shutting down buckets or cutters to prevent dense, damaging plumes from forming.

Terri Jordan-Sellers, the port’s biologist for the project, said critics had exaggerated the impacts from blasting.

“They think of bombs going off in the bay,” she said. “That’s not what we have here.”

Corps contractors would use special “confined” blasting techniques, which cap the small charges to direct impacts to the rocky channel bed and greatly reduce the underwater pressure waves that can hurt marine life.

Similar techniques were used in a 2005 dredging of another section of the port and follow-up surveys of sea grass and reefs showed no damage from silting, Jordan-Sellers said.

The Corps said no manatees, dolphins or turtles were killed during blasting and an average of 14 dead fish were recovered after each of 40 rounds of blasting — most of them small bait fish. There were also no complaints of vibration or damage from residents on Fisher Island or other nearby communities, Jordan-Sellers said.

via miamiherald.com

No need to rush deep dredge at port - Letters to the Editor

Bill Johnson, the director of the Port of Miami, characterized environmental groups, two Fisher Island condominium associations and me as “lunatics” for challenging the viability of the port’s deep-dredge plan. Johnson, as a high-ranking public servant, demeans concerned citizens who have raised serious issues with the project’s viability.

This language is not only uncalled for, it also degrades Miami-Dade residents who value the continued health and well-being of Biscayne Bay.

His statement, “Time is money. . . . One thing we cannot do, which is delay the dredge,” shows that money will always trump sound decisions. Biscayne Bay is too important a resource to rush ahead with a project that, if executed with the same disregard for the bay as were the last three dredging projects, will destroy this finite resource.

For the past 13 years, I have known the challenges of executing a project of this size. I have been intimately involved in the planning long before Johnson showed up on the scene. My past positions as a Biscayne Bay Management Committee member, city of Miami Waterfront Board Vice Chairman, Florida Marine Fisheries Commissioner and Biscayne Bay Regional Restoration Coordination Team member place me in a unique position to appreciate the complexities of the issue.

I haven’t taken my commitment to do the right thing for Biscayne Bay lightly.

As a lifelong resident of Miami-Dade County, I have seen many “build it, and they will come” schemes, usually with disastrous results. This time, Johnson will have to wait until the parties involved reach a settlement in the negotiations that begin next month or take his chances with an administrative judge in Tallahassee who has deemed our concerns credible enough to schedule a hearing date.

This time maybe money won’t trump good judgment, especially when the viability and vitality of Biscayne Bay is on the line.

Dan Kipnis, Miami Beach

via miamiherald.com