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Febues
Friday, May 25th, 2012 #1316 |
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This digest brought to you by a sponsor of Eco-Voice
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Our success as a species should be measured by
how gently we interact with all life forms.
Mark Renz photo art & thoughts
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Lee County Powell Creek Preserve filter marsh. Florida Aerial Services Inc.
Powell Creek Preserve's filter marsh
Heavy equipment has turned almost a quarter of Powell Creek Preserve in North Fort Myers into a desert of browns and grays.
By August, though, those browns and grays will have become various shades of green as construction of an 18-acre filter marsh is completed on the 77-acre preserve.
Lee County bought Powell Creek Preserve for $618,000 in 2003 through its Conservation 20/20 program, which taxes county residents to buy and manage sensitive lands.
"When the county buys 20/20 properties, we're looking at certain criteria, one of which is the ability to improve water quality in the area," county operations manager Anura Karuna-Muni said......
The Powell Creek project is being financed by $1.06 million from Lee County, $440,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection and $300,000 from the South Florida Water Management District.....
Water managers have found a filter marsh traditionally removes 20 to 50 percent of the nitrogen and 40 to 70 percent of the phosphorus from water that flows into it..... |
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Apparently last night's storm, which pushed our total rain for the year to over 10" at Beautiful Island in the Caloosahatchee, disrupted internet service and caused failure of transmission for several hundred Eco-Voice subscribers. Sorry. For the 5/24 digest click here. As always, you can access the Eco-Voice digests on our Facebook page. |
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Water management district offers county 1,653 acres of land, cash for Mecca Farms site
by Christine Stapleton
The South Florida Water Management District wants to swap 1,653 acres of its land throughout the county, including the site of the Palm Beach Downs equestrian center west of Delray Beach and Riverbend Park in Jupiter, for the county-owned Mecca Farms.
Details of the land swap were revealed in a letter of intent sent to Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman on Tuesday.
The water management district wants all 1,919 acres of the former orange grove for its Loxahatchee River restoration project. Water could be stored on the property and then used to maintain minimum flow levels to the river, said Ernie Barnett, the district's director of Everglades Policy and Coordination.
The district would also give the county its 570-acre Pero Farms property, along with a 10.47-acre adjacent parcel called the Church Property. The 313-acre West Delray Regional Center and 256 acres along the Beeline Highway known as Bill's Property are also part of the swap.
The district would also give the county "cash in an amount that roughly equalizes the estimated values of the transaction parcels." In an email that Weisman sent to County Commissioners this morning, Weisman estimated that amount at $30 million.
"The additional land transfers proposed to supplement the cash includes agricultural income generating property, property with potential for sale for agricultural or limited commercial use and park/environmental property," Weisman wrote. "This is all very early in the process. We will bring this proposal to the Board in the near future for discussions."
The county purchased Mecca Farms for $60 million in 2004 as a potential site for The Scripps Florida Research Institute. Scripps eventually decided on another north county site for its biotech operations, and Mecca Farms has been sitting idle since.
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DEP is using science, data, to 'get the water right'
By Drew Bartlett
Special to The Sun
The future of Florida's environment and economy depend on the health of our waterways. That's why one of the top priorities of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is getting Florida's water right, in terms of quality and quantity.
As part of our efforts, DEP is taking additional action to protect Florida's water by improving our water quality standards and setting restoration goals.
Florida has always been a national leader in assessing and addressing the health of our waterways. Our efforts to advance environmental science account for 30 percent of the national water quality dataset, more than any other state in the nation.
We use this science to set standards, or thresholds, for the amount of nutrients or contaminants that can exist in a healthy body of water. These water quality standards are important to protecting public health and the aquatic life in Florida's waterbodies.
Many readers may remember DEP's efforts last year to set rules for the amount of nutrients in Florida's waterbodies. We're committed to implementing our rules, and will continue the effort this year by establishing criteria for Panhandle estuaries from Perdido to Apalachicola Bay.
DEP also is launching an effort to adopt new, Florida-specific water quality standards to protect our citizens from eating contaminated fish and to protect our fish from harmful low dissolved oxygen conditions.
Florida's current standards are based on science created more than 30 years ago. As you can imagine, our scientific knowledge has advanced greatly since then. Better data about our waters are available and the ways we protect water quality have changed. We intend to move forward with these new standards by using updated, Florida-specific research.
For example, because Floridians consume more seafood than the average U.S. resident, we need to develop a more protective water quality standard for fish consumption than states where residents eat less seafood.
Along these same lines, DEP is taking action to establish a mercury reduction goal (known as a TMDL) to address levels of mercury found in some Florida fish. When adopted, this will be the nation's first mercury TMDL that addresses both freshwater and marine fish on a statewide basis.
DEP also is working to update criteria related to the amount of oxygen needed in waterways to protect fish and other wildlife. The current standards are based on science that dates back to the 1960s and '70s. DEP has invested in an extensive effort to collect the data and science needed to develop a more accurate and protective standard. Our science has been peer-reviewed, and is the basis of our rule development process.
DEP is committed to using new information and science to improve the way we protect public health and aquatic life into the future. Public involvement will be vital in our rule-making process.
Last week, we held the first round of rule development workshops and are grateful to those who participated. There will be another opportunity for public participation during the second round of workshops, which we plan to hold in July.
I encourage Floridians to learn more about DEP's rules and efforts to protect water quality by visiting www.dep.state.fl.us. We can all play a role in getting Florida's water right.
Drew Bartlett is director of DEP's Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration.
Copyright © 2012 Gainesville.com - All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
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How most of us discuss our differences. Mottled ducks
Mark Renz photo art & observation
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In Sunday's
Gainesville Sun, Drew Bartlett, from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, wrote that his department is working to "get the water right" here in Florida. That totally makes sense because people come from all over the U.S. and the world to play on our beaches, fish in our bays, float on our rivers and swim in our springs. Clean, abundant water is hands down one of the most important factors to a healthy economy here in Florida.
I believe that at one time it was important to Bartlett's DEP and to the State of Florida, because over the years I have been to dozens of meetings where water quality standards were discussed, scientific studies were vetted and adopted to use as supporting documentation for rule making and even in some cases, plans were actually made to do something to improve water quality.
However, nothing has actually been done. Lots of meetings. No new rules. No numeric criteria. No plans for any. Politics are messing it up. The science is clear. Powerful lobbyists for polluters are twisting facts and making proclamations of doom about how much it will cost to keep our water clean that are overblown fiction and scare tactics. Just to make a few more cents.
The current "solutions" to all of the water quality issues are completely voluntary and most depend on federal or state grants to complete. If those grants aren't forthcoming, no cleanups.
From the start, Florida's leaders have tried to duck under actually doing something about cleaning up excessive nutrient pollution, of high mercury levels in our seafood and on preventing low dissolved oxygen levels in our natural water bodies. Cleaning up our act means that some industry or municipality would actually have to spend money to fix the problem. Because of that there is intense political pressure to let it drop.
Even here in our own back yard, the plans have gone beyond the public radar and behind closed gates. The TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) process was announced and all of the meetings were in the sunshine. Over the course of two years, rules were developed to clean up the Santa Fe River. When they adopted the Santa Fe River Basin Management Action Plan to clean up the river, it was by invitation only on a private farm. Those of us who attended meetings over the years on this issue only found out it was held by a post on Facebook.
Why did the FDEP want to keep it so quiet? Good question. I never got an answer...
If they want to get the water right, we also need to ask Bartlett about a new dairy that is going into the Ginnie Springs watershed soon. What is the FDEP going to do to prevent Ginnie Springs from looking just like Branford Spring?
I hope that Bartlett and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is willing to put their money where their mouth is. We need water quality protection yesterday, not down the road...
Annette Long,
Chiefland |
Water for the Caloosahatchee
Input from the scientists suggests that the ecology of the St. Lucie estuary is satisfactory while the Caloosahatchee estuary needs water. The evaluation by SFWMD for Caloosahatchee Estuary indicates that the 30-day average salinity at I-75 location will continue to exceed 5 psu within the next two weeks and there is less than 50% probability that Lake stage will fall below 11.0 ft during the dry season, and the Tributary Hydrologic Condition on Sunday, 20 May was normal. Therefore, the AP release guidance suggests "S-79 up to 300cfs, S-77 environmental water supply release to supplement as needed".
Therefore, USACE's decision is to begin a 10-day pulse release to the Caloosahatchee Estuary beginning when the current local runoff through S-79 falls to 500 cfs. The current local runoff discharges through S-79 is 1200 cfs. Discharges due to local runoff were 700 cfs, 780 cfs, 1280 cfs, and 1700 cfs on 20, 21, 22, and 23 May, respectively. The target flow for the pulse release to the Caloosahatchee Estuary is an average flow over the 10-day period of 300 cfs, measured at S-79. There will be no target flows to the St. Lucie Estuary through S-80. System conditions will continue to be closely monitored and assessed, if conditions change, a future recommendation email will be sent. |
| | | | Beautiful images of U.S. parks and recreation areas. |
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The next meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force will be held on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 in theMark Udall (formerly Yates) Auditorium which is located at Main Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240. The meeting will be held from 12:30 - 4:30PM. |
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Bluesy trio Great blue heron mom and chicks -- Mark Renz photo
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The South Florida Water Management District is committed to providing the public with the information and resources to participate fully in discussions and decisions on water resources.
Get started through the SFWMD Learning Center. Search for a variety of documents, including general-interest fact sheets, materials for teachers and students and in-depth publications on topics of interest to many residents and visitors. View the most popular materials, and discover how you can learn more and help preserve our shared water resources. |
http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/pls/portal/portal_apps.repository_lib_pkg.repository_browse
River of Interests: Water Management in South Florida and the Everglades, 1948-2010 (Updated 2012)
"River of Interests: Water Management in South Florida and the Everglades, 1948-2010," is a history of the construction of the C&SF Project and the project's unintended impacts on the environment, and the evolution of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
by Matthew C. Godfrey, Historian, Historical Research Associates, Inc. with contributions by Theodore Catton
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Project Delivery Team meeting for Central Everglades Planning Project
May 31st, 2012
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) will be holding a Project Delivery Team (PDT) meeting for the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) Thursday, May 31 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Main Library, 3650 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33406. |
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Southern hitman
(Mallophora orcina) -- Mark Renz photo
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