Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

Two #AudubonOfFlorida Legal Success Stories..."Agreement ends decade-long fight to preserve north Collier wetlands" in @naplesnews

By ERIC STAATS

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/aug/22/Mirasol-develop-wetlands-north-collier-agreement/

NORTH NAPLES — A longstanding fight between developers and environmental groups over saving key wetlands in a northern Collier County slough has come to an end.

The final piece of the preservation puzzle fell into place when a coalition of five environmental groups reached a deal with landowner IM Collier Joint Venture over plans for Mirasol at the northwest corner of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard, the groups announced Tuesday.

Mirasol came to epitomize a decade-long push to stop new subdivisions that developers proposed putting in the middle of a flowway the groups wanted to protect for the sake of nearby Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and foraging habitat for endangered wood storks that nest there.

Since 2006, the groups filed a string of lawsuits and administrative challenges over Mirasol and two other projects, Parklands and Saturnia Falls, that together would have taken a 1,200-acre bite out of wetlands in the Cocohatchee Slough.

The groups came to a truce with G.L. Homes in 2010 over Parklands and Saturnia Falls after the developer agreed to cut back its development footprint and boost its wetlands preservation plans. The deal over Mirasol found similar common ground.

"I think this is a good ecological outcome for the region," said Brad Cornell, policy advocate for the Collier County Audubon Society, one of the groups in the coalition.

Other groups involved were the National Wildlife Federation, Audubon of Florida, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the Florida Wildlife Federation.

The groups were preparing to go back to court over Mirasol's new federal wetlands permit, issued in 2011 after a judge revoked an earlier version of the permit in 2009.

The deal averts another lawsuit and paves the way for IM Collier Joint Venture to sell the land for Mirasol to another partnership led by development company Taylor Morrison. Development is expected to start in 2013.

"We felt we could solve these issues if we put our heads together in a positive way and in the end we came up with a solution that was acceptable to everyone," said Dennis Gilkey, who has a minority interest in the new partnership and spearheaded negotiations with the groups.

Landowners are petitioning Collier County to amend its approvals for Mirasol to reflect the deal; state and federal permit modifications also are pending.

Mirasol, which will be renamed, is adding 80 acres to its 1,800-acre project, dropping one of two planned golf courses and building 1,121 units instead of the original 799 units, Gilkey said.

The new project still will destroy more than 550 acres of wetlands, but the project will preserve some 1,100 acres of wetlands.

The deal calls for a net increase of 170 acres of wetlands to be preserved on site and funds restoration of another 1,000 acres of off-site farm fields to the kind of shallow wetlands that are important for providing food to trigger wood stork nesting at Corkscrew. A decline in those wetlands has been blamed for wood storks not nesting at the sanctuary for five of the past six years.

In all, the settlements with G.L. Homes and IM Collier will protect 3,500 acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat in the Cocohatchee Slough, according to the groups' figures.

Case #2 -

Earlier this year, in Friedman/Starkman v. SFWMD, Audubon Florida supported the Defendant SFWMD through a brief amicus curiae. In this case, Plaintiff landowners had filed suit against the SFWMD, claiming that they had lost nearly all value of their land and should be compensated for the value of their property. The arguments in support of this claim were, among others, that their properties had been identified on maps showing potential future restoration projects and other property nearby had been purchased by the SFWMD from willing sellers. There was also an attempt to set a new precedent in Florida for compensating landowners under a theory of “precondemnation blight.” We felt strongly that establishing this cause of action in Florida would impact the ability or willingness for agencies and local governments to participate in proactive land use planning and made the decision to support the SFWMD. More information about the facts of the case can be found in the attached memo.

Recently, the 5^th District Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court and ruled in favor of SFWMD. The good news is that after some additional motions by the landowners, their motion for rehearing was denied and a mandate was issued effectively dismissing the appeal.

Thank you for your support, that enables us to participate in this important matter and help make sure this case didn’t open a new door of “precondemnation blight” litigation in Florida that would have severely hindered the ability to proactively plan for future land conservation and ecosystem restoration projects.

"Officials anxious to move forward with next phase of canal project in Indiantown" #AudubonFlorida

By Sade M. Gordon
Posted August 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

INDIANTOWN — With over a quarter of the first phase of the C-44 canal's construction complete, Martin County commissioners and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are even more anxious for the scheduled approval of the second contract for the canal's restoration project.

The first contract, which Congress funded as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project with more than $32 million in 2011, includes an intake canal, access roads, drainage canals and a new bridge on Citrus Boulevard. But it's the second contract, which kicks off construction of a huge stormwater reservoir, that Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, says will start making the big changes the St. Lucie Estuary needs to restore its natural balance of fresh and salt water.

Perry cited the recent Tropical Storm Isaac as clear proof of how necessary the reservoir is.

"Water shouldn't be pouring into the St. Lucie Estuary," he said. "It should be stored here."

Project Engineer Paul Sadowski of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said he estimated the first phase of the project to be "26 percent complete." The area has been cleared of trees and top soil, he said, while work on the bridge for the intake canal and relocation of the drainage canal are under way. There are about 120 workers on hand for the restoration project, but Sadowski couldn't confirm whether or not they were hired locally.

If all goes as planned, the first phase will be done by early 2014.

By August 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Martin County Commission hope to be awarded $270 million by Congress for the second portion. The second phase is a three-year endeavor that will result in 12,000 acres of above ground storage that would collect excess water from four different canals.

Perry expressed concern that the reservoir was going to store water above ground, however. The danger of above-ground storage is the weakness of the dikes that surround the water. He gave Lake Okeechobee's deteriorating dike as an example of what could eventually happen to the projected 2014 reservoir. Instead, he suggested using the surrounding orange groves upstream and making deals with farmers to create on-site underground storage and treatment.

Even so, he said, it was "critical that storage be put in place."

Eric Draper
Executive Director
Audubon of Florida

"Opinion: Vote to protect Florida’s land and water" in @miamiherald #everglades #eco

BY ERIC DRAPER

Florida lawmakers have cut conservation spending more deeply than any other part of government. That’s a fact.

Conservation is a value all Floridians deeply cherish across party lines. The Water and Land Legacy amendment simply seeks to hold the environment harmless.

Since 2009, the Florida Legislature has provided only $23 million for the landmark Florida Forever program, a 97.5 percent reduction from previous funding levels. State appropriations for land management and ecological restoration, including the Everglades, have suffered similar declines.

The news that conservationists have launched a grassroots campaign to amend the Florida Constitution to lock in 1 percent of the state’s budget for water and land conservation has produced some interesting responses from people who want to protect the status quo and oppose letting voters make this important decision.

We want to let the people decide if clean water and natural land are a legacy they want to leave for their children and grandchildren.

And that’s what this amendment is all about: conserving land and providing recreational opportunities for Florida’s residents and visitors for generations to come.

First, let’s be clear about what this proposed amendment would do.

For 20 years, beginning in 2015, the amendment would dedicate one-third of the net revenues from the existing excise tax on documents to restore the Everglades, protect drinking water sources and revive the state’s historic commitment to protecting natural lands and wildlife habitat through the Florida Forever Program.

The amendment would provide about $10 billion for water and land conservation in Florida over its 20-year life, without any tax increase. This dedicates less than 1 percent of our state’s annual budget to protect the drinking water sources important for human life, and the coastlines and natural lands that bring economically vital tourists to Florida.

Look at the numbers and you’ll find this is a common-sense proposal.

This year, the documentary stamp tax will generate about $1.3 billion. Of that, $622 million is already pledged to pay for existing environmental bonds and other programs linked to managing land and preserving water resources.

So almost half of “doc stamp” revenue is theoretically available for environmental spending, including paying off bonds. However, the Legislature doesn’t actually spend it all on land and water conservation programs. For the past several years, budget writers have raided environmental trust funds for other spending. The proposed amendment would commit just one-third of doc stamps to environmental purposes, and that hardly seems greedy.

Certainly, in lean times everything had to endure cuts. But environmental programs were cut disproportionately, despite the fact that respected leaders of both parties have long recognized that Floridians want to protect the water and land we rely on for our quality of life. If the Legislature follows through with current projections on the use of doc stamps, only $381 million – just 27 percent of doc stamps – will be available for land and water conservation.

If the Water and Land Legacy amendment is approved, then in the year it takes effect (2015) about $525 million will be available for parks, water resource protection, beach access and Everglades restoration. That is about 20 percent less money than will be spent on preservation bonds, land conservation, Everglades and management this year.

This all raises a common-sense question: What programs get cut, who gets hurt, if the Legislature is constitutionally restricted from diverting dollars that historically have been spent on the environment? The answer: No one gets hurt, no taxes go up and no programs get cut.

Last week the Florida Park Service celebrated a major increase in visitors to the state’s award-winning parks. Those parks did not buy themselves. They exist because 10 and 20 and 30 years ago voters and legislators had the wisdom to invest a small percentage of doc stamp taxes for that purpose.

Now, it’s just up to the voters.

Eric Draper is executive director of Audubon Florida.

FloridaWaterLandLegacy.org

"Environmental Groups Want Guaranteed $10 Billion Expenditure in State Constitution" in Sunshine State News

By: Michael Peltier News Service of Florida
Posted: August 8, 2012 3:55 AM

Eric Draper

Future funding for Everglades restoration and other environmental programs would be enshrined in the state Constitution under a ballot initative proposal to guarantee the spending of $10 billion on such programs over the next 20 years.

Frustrated over withering funds for the state's marquee land-buying program, Florida Forever, and sporadic funding for a host of other environmental concerns from drinking water and springs to beaches and historic sites, a coalition of environmental groups on Tuesday launched a volunteer effort to begin gathering signatures to put the issue on the ballot in 2014.

Dubbed the Florida Water and Land Legacy Campaign, the petition drive is being pushed by a coalition of groups that include the Trust for Public Land, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, 1000 Friends of Florida, and Defenders of Wildlife.

"We've been left with no options," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida.

For years, lawmakers set aside about $300 million a year for land-buying, but have rejected that type of spending in the economic downturn of the most recent few years. Since 2009, the state has set aside a total of $23 million for Florida Forever. In 2012, lawmakers earmarked only $8.5 million and prohibited state officials from buying new land.

“When it comes to dedicating funding to protect Florida’s environment, the Great Recession has led to a complete depression," said Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, in a statement. "State funding to protect our most precious natural resources has slowed to a trickle.”

The amendment would require that 33 percent of all document tax revenue be earmarked for Everglades restoration and other environmental programs for the next 20 years. The proposal would go into effect July 1, 2015. Collections would be deposited into the state's Land Acquisition Trust Fund, not general revenue.

Before any vote, the group must gather at least 676,811 signatures to put the issue on the ballot. The Florida Supreme Court would also have to approve the ballot title and summary and determine that it satisfies the state's single subject rule, which prohibits citizen petitions from encompassing multiple issues.

The court, however, won't review the ballot language until the coalition has turned in more than 67,811 signatures, a milestone Draper said the group hopes to complete by the end of the year. Once on the ballot, it would have to be approved by at least 60 percent of voters.

Since its inception, Florida Forever and its predecessor, Preservation 2000, have funded the purchase of more than 2.5 million acres of environmentally sensitive lands, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. Since July 2001, Florida Forever has acquired more than 682,000 acres of land at a cost of $2.9 billion.

"Despite progress, White House worried about “U-turn’’ in #Everglades" - in @miamiherald

Posted on Wed, Jul. 18, 2012

By CURTIS MORGAN
Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

Curtis Morgan / Miami Herald Staff - U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is aboard an airboat in the Everglades on trip to tout the Obama administration's progress on Everglades clean up.

From a helicopter over Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took in some of the daunting challenges of restoring the Everglades.
Down below, suburbs abut the refuge’s last cypress stands. Vast sugar farms loom to the north. Cattails, fueled by nutrient pollution, choke out native plants around its border. Massive man-made marshes filter dirty water flowing in, but not well enough. Giant pumps replicate a natural flow now blocked by canals and levees.

The visit to the western Palm Beach County refuge was intended to highlight Everglades restoration progress by the Obama administration, which has kick-started stalled projects with $1.5 billion in federal support over the last 3 1/2 years and struck an important pollution clean-up settlement last month with Florida.

But partisan election-year overtones buzzed almost as loudly as the cicadas. In what sounded an awful lot like Obama campaign talking points, Salazar ticked off a string of successes while also issuing a caution about the amount of work ahead and uncertain future state and federal support.

“Frankly, a great fear I have is there will be a U-turn,’’ Salazar told reporters after a chopper and airboat tour.

He questioned the long-term support of Republican Gov. Rick Scott for the deal, which will cost the state some $880 million to expand manmade marshes that reduce the flow of the damaging nutrient phosphorus.

“There has to be a continued commitment on the part of the state of Florida to get this thing done,’’ Salazar said. Scott, who had personally championed a settlement, released a statement saying his office has worked closely with federal agencies and environmentalists to secure the agreement.

“I would be shocked if Secretary Salazar said that, knowing how hard we’ve worked on our historic agreement to restore water quality and water flow to the Everglades,’’ he said. “I, along with all Floridians, care deeply about the Everglades and recognize it as an international treasure.’’

But notably absent from Salazar’s visit were representatives of the South Florida Water Management District, which is in charge of Everglades restoration for the state and headquartered a half-hour drive from the refuge. The district — which last week tentatively agreed to trim $100 million from its budget, money environmentalists argue should be put toward clean-up costs — referred questions to the governor’s office

Salazar, whose agency oversees federal parks and refuges, also warned that a budget drafted by Republicans in Congress would amount to a “death knell’’ for programs that fund conservation projects – not just Everglades restoration but nationwide.

“It’s not the kind of conservation agenda that Teddy Roosevelt or Barack Obama or I would support,’’ he said. “I will do everything I can to fight that, as will the president.’’

Salazar’s visit followed one last week to Orlando by four high-ranking administration aides to announce an $80 million purchase of “conservation easements’’ that will preserve 23,000 acres of rural wetlands in the Northern Everglades. Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a fellow Democrat facing a tough election battle this year, made a similar Glades-as-a-backdrop stop in Miami-Dade County in April.

Matt Connelly, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, accused the White House of using the Everglades to distract from more pressing national problems.

“It’s clearly a political move that highlights how desperate the president is to talk about anything besides his failed economic policies and political cronyism for campaign donors,” Connelly said.

Salazar insisted restoring the River of Grass had been his and the president’s top environmental priority from day one, Salazar said. He acknowledged there were decades of work ahead but argued “we have been able to move more the last 3 1/2 years than we have, I think, in the last 20 years."

The administration calculates that the $1.5 billion it has put into restoration in the president’s first term nearly matches the previous eight years under President George W. Bush — an uptick in federal funding that helped break ground on a number of long-stalled projects, including the bridging of Tamiami Trail. The White House banned the importation of the Burmese python that had invaded the Glades – an effort championed by Salazar – and after 18 months of intense negotiations cut a pollution clean-up deal with the state intended to resolve two long-running federal lawsuits.

How much Everglades support will resonate with typical Florida voters is uncertain but environmentalists heaped praise on the efforts by the administration. Historically, candidates from both parties have pledged to save the Everglades but so far Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney hasn’t taken a public position on continuing support for the $12.5 billion state and federal restoration project, said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida.

“It looks like Romney has ceded the Everglades to the president,’’ Draper said. “The message that Romney sends out about smaller government and less taxes is antithetical to Everglades restoration.’’

Miami Herald Staff Writer Marc Caputo contributed to the story.

via miamiherald.com

"Florida unveils new #Everglades restoration plan" in @sunsentinel

$1.5 billion proposal aims to clean up water pollution

June 5, 2012|By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

A new Everglades restoration deal disclosed Monday proposes to clean up water pollution and resolve decades of federal legal fights, with a more than $1.5 billion public price tag.

The plan that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Monday forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeks to correct Florida's failure to meet water-quality standards in stormwater that flows to the Everglades.

Building new water storage and treatment areas along with other improvements over more than a decade could cost about $880 million, according to the South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration for the state.

The full cost also includes about $700 million the district already spent on farmland and unfinished reservoirs from past sidetracked Everglades restoration projects.

If endorsed by the federal government and the courts, the deal could resolve more than 20 years of legal fights and revamp stymied Everglades restoration efforts.

"This is a very solid plan. It is scientifically based and it's affordable," said Joe Collins, chairman of the water management district board. "We certainly are committed to protecting the Everglades."

The proposal includes stricter discharge limits for water treatment areas that send water to the Everglades, with plans by 2025 to meet overdue federal water quality standards that were supposed to take effect in 2006.

Audubon of Florida and the Everglades Foundation on Monday praised the proposal as a welcome sign of progress that could benefit the environment, tourism and drinking water supplies.

"The plan is clearly a major step forward," said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida's executive director. "We are all going to benefit (from) this."

How to pay for the new plan remains a hurdle.

Florida has already invested about $1.8 billion building 57,000 acres of stormwater treatment areas to filter polluting phosphorous from water that flows off agricultural land and into the Everglades.

Big Sugar should be paying for more of the pollution clean up costs, not taxpayers, according to the environmental group Friends of the Everglades.

"We are skeptical," group representative Albert Slap said about the terms of the proposal disclosed Monday. "We consider it a step in the right direction (but) the problem is enforceability and funding."

The proposed deal is the result of months of negotiations started by Gov. Rick Scott, who in October flew to Washington, D.C., to push for a new restoration plan.

Without a deal, Florida faces the possibility of having to enact a plan proposed by the EPA and prompted by a federal judge that calls for adding more than 40,000 acres of additional stormwater treatment areas along with other enhancements the state estimates would cost $1.5 billion.

The new state proposal

includes more than 7,000 acres of expanded stormwater treatment areas — man-made marshes intended to filter phosphorus from stormwater that flows to the Everglades.

The deal calls for building a series of reservoirs near water treatment areas to hold onto more water that is now drained away for flood control and to better regulate its flow, so that the filter marshes can be effective.

The state's plan also calls for targeting pollution "hot spots," which would mean more pollution control requirements on pockets of farmland where fertilizer runoff and other agricultural practices boost phosphorus levels.

The plan would put to use some of the 26,800 acres the district in 2010 acquired from U.S. Sugar Corp. for $197 million. Old citrus groves in Hendry County would be turned into Everglades habitat, according to the proposal.

The new water storage areas in the plan would include making use of an unfinished 16,700-acre reservoir in southwestern Palm Beach County. That stalled project already cost taxpayers about $280 million before the project was shelved while the district pursued the U.S. Sugar land deal.

Similarly, the proposal calls for redirecting the water in a $217 million rock-mine-turned-reservoir west of Royal Palm Beach to help improve Everglades water quality standards. That water was intended to go north for restoration efforts, but the district has yet to build the $60 million pumps needed to deliver the water to the Loxahatchee River.

The $880 million in new costs could come from $220 million the district has in reserves, $290 million projected from property tax revenue from expected new growth as well as money from the Legislature, according to the district.

The EPA has about a month to review the state's proposed permit changes for water quality standards. State officials face upcoming court hearings June 25 and July 2, where they are supposed to show progress in restoration efforts.

More details are needed to justify the potential cost, said Barbara Miedema, vice president of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.

"How much more money are we going to spend to get how much more benefit?" Miedema asked.

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews.com

"State moving forward with new Everglades restoration permit after talks with federal agencies"

Bruce Ritchie, 06/04/2012 - 06:47 PM

South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Melissa Meeker on Monday described a tentative agreement reached with state and federal officials for proceeding on a revised plan for Everglades restoration.

In October, Gov. Rick Scott met with federal officials in Washington to propose a revised state plan to reduce Everglades phosphorus pollution. Meeker said the plan, with new construction projects and revised pollution measures, has been developed based on an augmented plan developed in October.

"We are still working through the final points of the actual language," Meeker told her district's governing board on Monday.

The plan provides $880 million in new projects through 2025, Meeker said, in addition to some projects already under way. The district, she said, now has $220 million in the bank toward such projects.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in July 2008 ordered state and federal agencies to stop issuing permits for stormwater treatment areas. He ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review state water quality standards for the Everglades.

In 2010, the federal EPA said that clean water standards for phosphorus were not being achieved in all parts of the Everglades and that further reductions of phosphorus pollution are needed south of Lake Okeechobee. High levels of phosphorus can convert sawgrass savannahs into a swamp full of cattails with less wildlife habitat.

Since Scott met with federal officials in October, state and federal agencies have been working on a revised plan, Meeker said. They have developed a technical plan that includes water quality-based pollution limits, new filter marshes and holding ponds to improve water treatment, and an implementation schedule through 2025.

DEP spokeswoman Jennifer Diaz said the state is submitting a revised permit to the Environmental Protection Agency by Wednesday and that it would be posted soon after on the state agency's website.

Meeker said the $880 million in new projects include new "flow equalization basins" that capture and store water and release it later into stormwater treatment areas during dry periods.

She also said the plan assumes a contribution from taxpayers statewide and that the governor's representatives have met with legislative leaders to discuss it.

Meeker agreed with a board member's suggestion that the cost estimate was conservative with about one-third of the money now in the bank.

"In terms of the appropriations I think it is well within the means with what we have gotten in the past," she said. "There are no guarantees. It is the state Legislature."

But based on conversations the governor's office has had with legislative leaders, Meeker said, "they (legislators) felt the amount of money we were asking for was very reasonable and very doable."

Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Larry Lincoln commended the state for its hard work and said the federal agency will quickly review the submittal to determine whether it meets federal Clean Water Act requirements.

"The most important thing is for on-the-ground work to begin as soon as possible so we can begin work on these projects, which are vital to restoring water quality in the Everglades," Lincoln said.

Representatives of Audubon Florida and the Everglades Foundation spoke in support whileU.S. Sugar Corp. issued a statement in support. But Friends of the Everglades, which filed the lawsuit pending in Gold's court, said it was suspicious.

"Our fear is that the state once again has declined to impose enforceable remedies, adequate financing and best farming practices to sharply curtail phosphorous pollution of the Everglades as required by law," Friends of the Everglades President Alan Farago said.

Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said his group was glad to hear that the state and federal agencies are working together.

"The plan is clearly a major step forward with helping us get fresh water into the Everglades, which is what we need to do," Draper said.