Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

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.

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.

Rural Miami-Dade residents and environmentalists have sued Miami-Dade County to stop a rock-mining expansion which they say was approved in violation of state law.

Rock mining operations just west of the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade County in 2007. (Miami Herald file photo)

 

• Photo

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

Three residents of rural Southwest Miami-Dade and three leading environmental groups have sued the county to stop an expansion of rock mining on agricultural land outside the urban development boundary that the plaintiffs say was approved in violation of state law.

The suit, filed in December in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, is the latest sally in long-running conflicts among homeowners and environmentalists on one side and companies that use blasting to extract limestone rock used in construction from a vast network of open mines on the western end of the county.

A host of state legislators from both sides of the aisle will announce the formation of a Florida Everglades Legislative Caucus at a press conference slated for 1 p.m. today.

The event, which will be held in Boynton Beach, will be hosted by state Rep. Steven Perman, D-Boca Raton, and Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera.

A hot topic in South Florida right now with serious implications for the Everglades and us all...

Florida issues new water pollution standards

By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Nov 02, 2011 05:07 PM

Nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen flow into waterways from fertilized lawns, golf courses, leaking septic tanks and malfunctioning sewer plants. In the past 30 years, nutrient pollution has become the most common water pollution problem in Florida —- but the state's rules for how much nitrogen and phosphorous are allowed in waterways were only vague guidelines. The EPA told all states in 1998 to set strict limits on nutrient pollution, and warned it would do it for them if no action was taken by 2004. DEP officials started working on new standards in 2001, but 2004 passed without any change. In 2008, Earthjustice and a coalition of other environmental groups sued the EPA to force it to take action in Florida. A year later, the agency settled the suit by agreeing to impose nutrient pollution standards -- and the complaints began boiling up from Florida industry leaders about costly, unnecessary federal regulations hurting the economy. Attorney General Pam Bondi, on behalf of Agriculture Commissioner Adam Hasner, sued to block implementation of the rules, and on Wednesday she filed a motion accusing the EPA of exaggerating the threat from nutrient pollution. EPA officials have said all along that they would drop their pollution limits if the state would come up with some new standards. In the EPA's letter Wednesday, agency officials said that if the state's Environmental Review Commission and the Legislature ratify the new state standards, and the EPA gives its formal approval of the final version, the agency would then withdraw its controversial pollution standards. Craig Pittman can be reached at craig@sptimes.com [Last modified: Nov 02, 2011 05:08 PM] Click here for reuse options! Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg Times

Have you ever looked at the ingredient list of your favorite fragrance? I guarantee you cannot pronounce most of the words. That can't be good. And did you also know that the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found 14 secret ingredients not even listed on the label -- they call them trade secrets. I call them synthetic chemicals. To make matters really worse, it's totally legal to omit those ingredients from the label.

It's unusual to find a household or personal-care product made without synthetic fragrances. You practically can't escape it. Recently I was putting on lipstick and I noticed it was perfumed. Why would I possibly want my lipstick to smell good? I call this "involuntary aromatherapy," and we're all exposed to it every day.

Fragrances may seem benign, but they can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. Many of the individual chemicals in perfumes and other fragrances can also potentially cause damage to the liver, kidney, immune and reproductive systems.

And virtually all fragrances are stabilized with phthalates -- yes, we've heard about them before. They're plasticizers and fragrance carriers that are banned in children's toys, but still used in a wide array of consumer products, especially those containing PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
They're in nail polishes, where they keep polishes flexible; in hair sprays, where they keep your hair from stiffening too much; and -- more importantly -- in the vast majority of fragrances, where they help to stabilize, or "fix" perfumes in products to make fragrances last longer.

Phthalates are especially dangerous to children. The Washington Toxic Coalition explains in no uncertain terms that a developing baby is extremely vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals. They develop at a breakneck pace in the womb, and that development is easily derailed by toxic chemicals. Unlike adults, babies also have a very limited ability to detoxify foreign chemicals.

Just last month, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that higher prenatal exposures to phthalates significantly increased the odds of motor and behavioral developmental delay during the preschool years. The Center for Health Environment and Justice summarizes the mounting evidence against phthalates in "This is Your Brain on PVC." The facts on trends in learning disabilities are startling:

• The incidence of learning and developmental disabilities appears to be rising, affecting about one in six children in the U.S.

• The number of children in special education programs classified with learning disabilities increased 191 percent from 1977 to 1994.

• Since the early 1990s, reported cases of autism spectrum disorder have increased tenfold. One in a hundred American children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorder in the United States. Recent evidence suggests the prevalence may be as high as 17 percent for all school children.

• The U.S. has seen a six-fold increase in ADHD between the years 1985 (0.7 million cases) and 2000 (4-5 million cases).

Many naysayers believe that these numbers are exaggerated -- that we are perhaps just better today at identifying these problems in children. I say that may be true in part, but the numbers speak for themselves and are way too staggering to dismiss.

But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud: Phthalates don't build up in our bodies. When the source of exposure is removed, levels decrease quickly.

You can begin making a difference for you and your family right now by skipping PVC plastic (vinyl) in products like shower curtains, food wrap and flooring, and checking ingredient lists to avoid "fragrance" and phthalates. You can find detailed information on thousands of products in the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database.

On a personal note, I stopped wearing perfume when I gave birth to my first child 11 years ago. It just didn't feel right when my infant smelled like Chanel No. 5. I may no longer smell like jasmine or spice, but I'm a lot safer.

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