Scott again faces decision on vetoing environmental restoration projectsBruce Ritchie, 03/21/2012 - 01:47 PMWhen he signed his first state budget as governor last year, Scott vetoed $10 million for St. Johns River restoration projects among $615 million in spending vetos. He didn't give a reason for vetoing the river projects but said Florida families were having to get by with less and so should state government.
The 2012-13 state budget passed by the Legislature has $19 million in water quality projects (Line 1683A) including $5.6 million for St. Johns River restoration, $3.5 million for a Hendry County airport utility system, and $2.3 million for a LaBelle sewage treatment plant.
An additional $400,000 was appropriated for an economic analysis of the St. Johns River by the University of North Florida. Another $4.8 million is appropriated (Line 1863A) for restoration projects for Lake Apopka north of Orlando, one of Florida's largest lakes.
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said Tuesday that he wants to get Scott onto the river, but not to press him on the budget item.
"I think we're going to be OK on the budget -- that's my gut feeling," Thrasher said. "We want to get him out there as governor soon, to see what we consider a real treasure for our area."
The St. Johns River has algal blooms caused by nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater treatment plants, discharges from farms and dairy operations and dirty stormwater runoff. The St. Johns River Water Management District is considering a 2011 list of projects that could receive some of the $5.6 million, district officials said.
Asked what criteria he will use to veto environmental projects, Scott told reporters Tuesday, "What I will do with anything in the budget having to do with the environment -- I will look at it (and) get advice from the Department of Environmental Protection to make sure it is money well spent."
In December, Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla and chairman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on General Government Appropriations, co-hosted the Lake Apopka Restoration Summit to review progress being made and discuss its future.
Lake Apopka lost 20,000 acres of shoreline wetlands to farming beginning in the 1940s and received high-phosphorus discharges from those farms until the late 1990s. The district purchased the farmland in the late 1990s and created a marsh treatment flow-way in 2003.
Recalling how Lake Apopka was a prized fishing lake before its ecological collapse, Hays told The Florida Current that the $4.8 million will be used to identify new technologies that can accelerate the lake's restoration. The budget language requires the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to submit a list of projects to the Legislature before it receives the money.
"I think it is incumbent on those of us who care about the health of Lake Apopka and about the health of the St. Johns River to impress upon the governor why those projects are important to the long term health of the state of Florida," Hays said. "I don't stand to gain a single thing out of either one of those."
Reporter Travis Pillow contributed to this report.