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Thursday, June 14th, 2012 #1336
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 | A smile at just the right time
can be as moving as a beautiful sunset.
Harns Marsh -- Mark Renz photo & words
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Florida Moving Forward with Plan to Improve Water Quality in America's Everglades
by MsNicolePR
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection today received notification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the permit and associated projects the Department submitted on June 6, 2012, satisfy all of EPA's previous objections and are sufficient to achieve the stringent water quality requirements for the Everglades. This action paves the way for the Department to move forward with the state's permitting process to implement a historic plan - including an achievable strategy and enforceable schedule for constructing an array of treatment projects and associated water storage - to improve water quality in the Everglades.
Last October, Governor Rick Scott directed DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr., and South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Melissa L. Meeker to work collaboratively with EPA to expand water quality improvement projects and achieve the ultra-low state water quality standard established for the Everglades. Months of scientific and technical discussions led to the comprehensive plan, which the Department will enforce through state-issued permits and consent orders that include milestones for project completion, as well as enforcement mechanisms to ensure the milestones are met. The plan calls for the District to construct approximately 6,500 acres of additional state-of-the-art stormwater treatment areas and close to 110,000 acre-feet of associated water storage. Many core project components will be designed, constructed and operational within six years.
"Governor Scott recognizes both the environmental and economic importance of a healthy Everglades, which is why he made Everglades restoration a top priority for the state," said Secretary Vinyard. "Thanks to EPA's expeditious review of our revised permit, we are moving forward on a comprehensive plan that is in the best interest of the Everglades and Florida's taxpayers."
As part of the implementation process, the Department last week submitted to EPA a revised National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, along with an associated consent order, that authorizes the operation of 57,000 acres of existing Stormwater Treatment Areas south of Lake Okeechobee. Because EPA reviewed and agreed the revised permit meets the previous objections, the state will continue to move forward with its open and transparent permitting process. Next, the Department will issue a Notice of Draft, followed by Notice of Intent to Issue the Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and state-issued Everglades Forever Act permit and associated consent orders, which are subject to administrative review under state law.
"This integrated plan will clean up water to protect the unique wetland system that makes up the Everglades Protection Area," said District Executive Director Meeker. "With a firm commitment to design, construct and operate a comprehensive and science-based suite of remedies, the District is taking a landmark step toward meeting the water quality needs of America's Everglades. We will continue to work closely with our federal partners to finalize and implement these important projects."
Highlights of the strategies include:
- Design, construction and completion of 90 percent (99,000 acre-feet) of the required associated storage within four years. Capable of storing 32 billion gallons of water, the Flow Equalization Basins will be located adjacent to existing stormwater treatment areas in the Everglades. This advanced combination of "green" technologies will better optimize water deliveries to new and existing treatment facilities, allowing water managers to treat runoff to extremely low levels of phosphorus for the first time in the state's environmental history.
- Doubling the size of Stormwater Treatment Area 1-West adjacent to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. The District will construct 4,700 acres of additional treatment by 2018 and start construction on another 1,800 acres that same year. This expansion spanning ten square miles will increase by 50 percent the treatment capacity of water quality facilities currently discharging into the Refuge.
- Improving treatment in the western Everglades by adding 11,000 acre-feet of associated storage in the C-139 Basin that is capable of storing 3.5 billion gallons.
- Improving the operation of existing treatment wetlands in the western Everglades by retrofitting 800 acres of constructed wetlands in Stormwater Treatment Area 5.
- State-issued and enforceable Everglades Forever Act and Clean Water Act permits, including stringent discharge limits, for each of the District's stormwater treatment areas.
- A robust science plan to ensure continued biological, ecological and operational research to improve and optimize the performance of water quality treatment technologies. The District's constructed wetlands and flow equalization basins utilize cutting-edge science and engineering and are the largest of their kind in the nation.
- Utilizing thousands of acres of land already in public ownership, which minimizes impacts to Florida's agricultural-based economy and accelerating construction of new projects.
- Regional source controls in areas of the eastern Everglades where phosphorus levels in runoff has been historically higher.
Creation of approximately 1,550 direct jobs and 15,350 indirect jobs through construction of these facilities.
To protect the Everglades' unique makeup of flora and fauna, the Department established a stringent phosphorus water quality standard of 10 parts per billion (ppb). This ultra-low phosphorus limit for the Everglades is six times cleaner than rainfall and 100 times lower than limits established for discharges from industrial facilities.
To reduce nutrient pollution to the Everglades and achieve state and federal water quality requirements, the District constructed massive treatment wetlands known as Stormwater Treatment Areas that use plants to naturally remove phosphorus from water flowing into the Everglades. State law also requires best management practices on the 640,000 acres of agricultural land south of Lake Okeechobee.
More than 45,000 acres-or 70 square miles-of treatment area are today operational and treating water to average phosphorus levels of less than 40 ppb and as low as 12 ppb. The District is completing construction of an additional 11,500 acres this month. Together with best farming practices, stormwater treatment areas have prevented more than 3,800 tons of phosphorus from entering the Everglades since 1994. This past year, the treatment wetlands treated 735,000 acre-feet of water and reduced the total phosphorus loads to the Everglades Protection Area by 79 percent.
This plan to improve water quality builds upon Florida's $1.8 billion investment in Everglades water quality improvements to ensure achievement of the 10 ppb ambient water quality standard for the Everglades Protection Area. The schedule for implementing new projects balances economic realities with engineering, permitting, science and construction limitations. The plan proposes to utilize a combination of state and district revenues to complete the projects.
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South Florida Water Management District
GOVERNING BOARD MEETING AGENDA
This meeting is open to the public
June 14, 2012
9:00 AM
Okeechobee County Commission Chambers
304 NW 2nd Street, 2nd Floor
Okeechobee, Florida 34972
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Caloosahatchee River's advocates await SFWMD meeting
Using water from south of Lake Okeechobee to protect the health of the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary is an option the South Florida Water Management District will present to its governing board Thursday in Okeechobee.
District staffers have been working for months on a plan for the Caloosahatchee and aired their results recently in Fort Myers at a meeting of the advisory body to the district governing board.
Their efforts stem from long-term concerns about the river and estuary and the effect water, or lack of it, from Lake Okeechobee has on salinity and algal levels in the river system.
A continuous supply of fresh water is important to the health of the Caloosahatchee. Without that supply during droughts, salt water moves up the river and kills tape grass, an important component of the upper river's ecology. Over the past 11 years, high salinity has killed 600 acres of tape grass in the river.
In April the river received a 3.87-billion-gallon freshwater injection intended to prevent harmful algal blooms. Earlier in the year, the water district recommended against the release of fresh water down the Caloosahatchee to protect water levels in Lake O, but the board approved the releases after an outcry from Southwest Florida environmentalists and politicians. Salinity levels dropped dramatically after the flushing started.
Dan DeLisi, Southwest Florida's representative on the water district's governing board, said keeping the river healthy is vital for the area's $3 billion tourist industry as well as for anglers, boaters, environmentalists and others. "That depends on good water quality in the Caloosahatchee," he said.
DeLisi said information from the district's studies shows that the use of water from south of Lake O - called water supply augmentation -wouldn't change nutrient levels in the lake or the river.
An aspect of that option has runoff from the area south of Lake O - the Everglades Agricultural Area - flowing to the lake during specific conditions in order to increase water storage and supply during low water periods.
Water coming from the south has less phosphorus," DeLisi said. Phosphorus - a byproduct of fertilizer use by agricultural and other industries - is a big issue as the nutrient at high levels triggers algal blooms.
A question presented by district staff during the local meeting last week asked how much water was needed to cut salinity in the estuary during high salinity months. The answer was a substantial volume in excess of current availability and requiring more water storage.
Questions needed
Rae Ann Wessel, natural resources policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, said there are a lot of questions to be dealt with involving the river plan. Wessel said she plans to be at the meeting.
"It is important to have an opportunity to discuss the options," she said. "This is a case where the devil is in the details."
Melissa Meeker, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, said that the point of the meeting Thursday is for the governing board to provide some direction to the district.
"It certainly is not a quick process," she said, but expressed optimism that some sort of solution could be up and running by the next dry season.
"We literally looked at thousands of different ideas and made thousands of computer model runs," said Calvin Neidrauer, chief engineer in the district's Water Control Operations Bureau.
Neidrauer said one aspect of supplemental water augmentation - pumps used to push the water back into Lake O - are already in place.
"They were placed there in the 1940s and '50s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," he said.
Neidrauer said a difficulty in formulating the option was ensuring that something bad didn't happen while trying to make a positive effect.
For example, he said, "We have to make sure that too much water is not put back into Lake O."
Projects started
DeLisi said there are several projects already started that will ultimately help protect the river and estuary. Those include restoration of Lake Hicpochee - historical headwaters for the Caloosahatchee - for water storage, a water quality treatment testing project in Glades County and the Powell Creek filter marsh.
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 | Learn from deserved criticism.
Let the rest roll off your back.
American Coot -- Mark Renz photo
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Committee to Review EPA's Economic Analysis of Final Water Quality Standards for Nutrients for Lakes and Flowing Waters in Florida
The Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of the costs associated with implementing numeric nutrient criteria in Florida's waterways was significantly lower than many stakeholders expected. This discrepancy was due, in part, to the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis considered only the incremental cost of reducing nutrients in waters it considered "newly impaired" as a result of the new criteria-not the total cost of improving water quality in Florida. The incremental approach is appropriate for this type of assessment, but the Environmental Protection Agency's cost analysis would have been more accurate if it better described the differences between the new numeric criteria rule and the narrative rule it would replace, and how the differences affect the costs of implementing nutrient reductions over time, instead of at a fixed time point. Such an analysis would have more accurately described which pollutant sources, for example municipal wastewater treatment plants or agricultural operations, would bear the costs over time under the different rules and would have better illuminated the uncertainties in making such cost estimates.
Link compliments of Bob Mooney |
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Water Choices V at University of Florida
The latest installment of Florida Earth's Water Choices Forum Series, Water Choices V, will be held at the Straughn IFAS Extension Center on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville on September 21. Water Choices V will look at engaging the private sector in solutions to water issues and challenges to the State of Florida and how divergent State and Federal programs can work together. Go to http://floridaearth.org/waterchoicesV
for more information and registration or call the Florida Earth office at (561) 686-3688.
and Kirk Martin of CDM Smith. Stu retired on May 3, 2012 as the Chief of the Planning and Policy Division for the Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is responsible for developing and administering the District's water resources planning program in the State of Florida, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. He is also responsible for working with Corps higher authority and sponsors to frame and resolve policy issues that affect execution of the Jacksonville District's program. Prior to assuming his present position, Stu was Chief of the Everglades Division from 2007 to 2011 with responsibility for overseeing the south Florida Everglades ecosystem restoration program. He also previously served as Chief of the Planning Division from 2005 to 2007. He led the interagency team that developed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan that was submitted to Congress in 1999. He was also responsible for developing the programmatic regulations that guides implementation of the restoration plan. Stu has received numerous awards from the Corps of Engineers and others for his work on Everglades restoration. He began his career with the Corps of Engineers in July 1977 in the Baltimore District and has been with the Jacksonville District since July 1988. Stu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York and a Master of Science degree in Water Resources Engineering from the George Washington University. He is currently employed by Arcadis, a full service consulting and engineering firm headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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Alligators and Litigators: A Recent History of Everglades Regulation and Litigation
by Keith W. Rizzardi
To many Florida lawyers, litigation in the Everglades seems as old as the Everglades itself. Its history can be traced back to the 1800s when Hamilton Disston and Henry Flagler were draining, dredging, and filling Florida's land while fighting in the courts with shareholders, speculators, and state land administrators.1 The modern history of litigation in the Everglades is dominated by agricultural interests, environmental interest groups, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, and state and federal agencies. Along the way, important precedents have been created, affecting the Everglades as well as Florida administrative and environmental law in general.
U.S. vs. South Florida Water Management District
The recent history of Everglades litigation really begins in 1988, when the federal government, through then acting U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen, sued the South Florida Water Management District and the then Florida Department of Environmental Regulation (DER), now known as the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The lawsuit alleged violations of state water quality standards, particularly phosphorus, in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park.2
Numerous agricultural groups, including the Florida Sugar Cane League, sought to intervene in the federal suit against the water management district. The trial court initially denied intervention but was overturned by the appellate court, which ruled that the farmers had the right to participate in proceedings that would translate the local water quality standards from existing narrative standards to more specific numeric criteria.3
With litigation continuing to expand, Governor Lawton Chiles walked into the federal courthouse in Miami on May 21, 1991, and announced that the State of Florida was prepared to put an end to the litigation:
I came here today convinced that continuing the litigation does little to solve the problems or restore the Everglades. I am more convinced than ever of that . . . . We talked about water in the glass . . . . I am ready to stipulate today that water is dirty. I think that is [what this is] about, Your Honor, is how do we get clean water? What is the fastest way to do that? I am here and I brought my sword. I want to find out who I can give that sword to and I want to be able to give that sword up and have our troops start the reparation, the clean up . . . . We want to surrender. We want to plead that the water is dirty. We want the water to be clean, and the question is how can we get it the quickest.4.....
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 | You don't have to be a giant to be looked up to.
Virginia creeper -- Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve
Mark Renz photo
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http://www.phosphateaeis.org/
The Corps recognizes that there is a public and private need for phosphate, and that phosphate rock production from the CFPD is an integral element of worldwide and national provision of this mineral. The basic purpose of all four of the applicants' projects is to extract phosphate ore from the mineral reserves located in the CFPD and to construct the associated infrastructure required to extract and process the phosphate ore at a separation/beneficiation facility. This AEIS will address regionally-relevant technical issues associated with phosphate mining, and specifically will evaluate the relative environmental effects of the proposed projects and comparably-scaled alternatives.
Issues
The primary areas of environmental concern that are proposed to be addressed by the AEIS are the loss of wetland functions and value, mitigation of such losses, the effect of proposed mining on groundwater and surface water quality, and potential cumulative effects of mining on water supply, and on the water quantity and quality of river water deliveries to the Charlotte Harbor Estuary. A high level of concern has also been expressed by the public regarding understanding the regional socioeconomic effects of the phosphate mining industry. Additional issues raised during the public scoping process that will be addressed within the AEIS will include: mining effects on Federally listed threatened and endangered species, mine reclamation effects on future land uses, potential effects on downstream water body suitability for recreational uses, and potential public health concerns related to environmental conditions following mine reclamation.
Welcome to the USACE public website regarding the Areawide EIS on phosphate mining within the Central Florida Phosphate District (CFPD).
This website is intended to:
- Provide visitors with an easy way to obtain background information on the AEIS
- Review project updates, and
- Provide connectivity to the AEIS Team if you have questions or comments.
Clicking on the tabs across the top of this page will take you to brief summaries of information related to those topics. We invite your use of this site to help you track our progress as the Areawide EIS work activities proceed.
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Big Sugar holds sway in Congress
By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -
Looks like Florida's Big Sugar industry will survive another five years. The controversial sugar price-support program - which restricts foreign imports to prop up domestic prices and keep the industry alive - is included in a farm bill headed for passage in the U.S. Senate as early as this week. The House is expected to add its approval. Despite opposition from consumer groups, Everglades advocates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and candy makers, sugar growers in Florida and their powerful farming allies in Congress are prepared to fend off amendments that would repeal or scale back price supports. "The sugar industry is united," said Robert Coker, senior vice president of U.S. Sugar, one of several major sugarcane growers in the fertile agricultural belt south of Lake Okeechobee. "Sugar speaks for sugar, but the farm-bill group that works together is a big coalition. Whether you are in corn, soybeans, cotton, rice, peanuts or whatever, we all work together. And we try to support each other when we can." Continuation of price supports will preserve a Florida industry that produces 13,000 jobs, more than $2 billion of economic activity and nearly 2 million metric tons of sugar in a good year, Coker said. "In the event we had a disruption in sugar policy, a lot of growers would be vulnerable," he said. Critics in Congress and elsewhere say the program artificially raises sugar prices - sometimes to nearly double the world market price - while fouling Florida waters with phosphorous-laden fertilizers. The program over many years has raised consumer prices, though the per-person impact is tiny when spread among millions of shoppers. Consumer advocates - citing a study last year by agriculture economic experts at Iowa State University - estimate that ending price supports would save consumers $3.5 billion a year. The cost is largely hidden because it may amount to a few cents per shopping trip. The Iowa State study estimated that the sugar program costs the average consumer $9 to $11 per year, or about $40 for a family of four. "It's not an enormous cost per person, but in the aggregate it impacts consumers all across the country," said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. "Because over time, consumers are spending more than they would if this was a market-based program. It is hitting consumers in the pocketbook on a continuous basis." The consumer group sent a letter to senators on Tuesday, saying that sugar prices have averaged 71 cents per pound this year, almost 40 percent higher than when the program was renewed in 2008. The program is intended to provide a reliable supply of sugar - which is included in a wide array of products - and avoid wild price swings. It indirectly props up prices to protect sugarcane growers in Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and Texas as well as beet growers in the Midwest and West. Coker said price supports allow companies like his to survive by countering government payments in other countries. "I can't compete with a foreign government that subsidizes their growers," he said. To maintain the domestic price, U.S. officials use tariffs and quotas to limit imported sugar. The industry points to its own studies indicating that U.S. prices are sometimes lower than those in other developed nations. "If asked, few consumers can even guess the price of a pound of sugar," The American Sugar Alliance, an industry group, said in prepared testimony to the House Agriculture Committee last month. "This is the way it should be: Reliable sugar supplies at reasonable prices and a non-issue for American consumers." The industry's most effective argument in Congress is that price supports - unlike crop subsidies - cost nothing to the government and its taxpayers. But critics contend that Americans do pay by spending more on groceries and in indirect ways, including government spending to clean up pollution that washes from sugar fields into Florida's waterways. "The 400,000 acres of sugar production at the top of the Everglades has disrupted normal water flow, causing problems all of the way to Florida Bay," Larry Graham, chairman of the Coalition for Sugar Reform, told the Agriculture Committee last month. Critics remain hopeful that Congress will reform the sugar program, but their lobbyists privately acknowledge that they face an uphill struggle in the Senate and even more so when the House considers a similar bill. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to study the sugar amendments before announcing his intentions, a spokesman said. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., did not return requests for comment. wgibson@tribune.com or 202-824-8256 Copyright © 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel |
Approved Budge Reflects State Directives
The FY2012 budget of $576.1 million
reflects Governor and Legislative direction
to all water management districts to focus
on core responsibilities, improve efficiency
and reduce the tax burden on Florida
property owners.
The 2011 Florida Legislature appropriated $26 million to help
keep Everglades progress on track. By utilizing those state funds
and other sources, the approved budget dedicates more than
70 percent of agency revenues to benefit restoration, protect
South Florida's resources and enhance flood control operations
.
Key expenditures include:
_ $50 million for refurbishment of the regional flood control network of
2,600 miles of canals and levees.
_ $10.3 million to complete construction of stormwater treatment
areas to further improve the quality of water flowing into the
Everglades. Since 2006, the District has invested more than $270
million to expand the state's 45,000-acre network of treatment
wetlands south of Lake Okeechobee by an additional 13,500 acres.
_ $38 million to initiate pump construction that will deliver water to
help restore the Loxahatchee River and enhance water supplies.
_ $14.3 million to provide water retention/storage in the northern
Everglades through public-private partnerships.
_ $3.7 million to complete construction of the $35.8 million Lakeside
Ranch Stormwater Treatment Area that will clean water flowing into
Lake Okeechobee.
_ $930,000 to substantially complete construction of the C-111
Spreader Canal and the first phase of the Biscayne Bay Coastal
Wetlands project. The District has invested close to $36.5 million to
complete construction of these restoration projects that will benefit
Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and the Everglades.
_ $2 million to begin water quality treatment and storage projects in
the Caloosahatchee watershed. |
- Bioenergy Articles from The Bioenergy Site
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Flamingo -- Mark Renz photo
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