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Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 #1382 |
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Solitaire
Mark Renz photo
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CHNEP Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting
When: Wednesday, Aug 1, 2012
Where: Eco Living Center at Rutenberg Park (6490 S Pointe Blvd, Fort Myers, FL
Description: Citizens Advisory Committee: The CAC begins each meeting at 9:30 with networking. The meeting itself begins at 10 a.m. and often concludes by 12:30 p.m. |
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REMINDER: Project Delivery Team meeting for Central Everglades Planning Project - July 31***
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District will be holding a Project Delivery Team (PDT) meeting for the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) today, July 31 from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the South Florida Water Management District Headquarters in the Governing Board Auditorium, Building B-1, 3301 Gun Club Road in West Palm Beach.
PDT meetings enable federal, state and local agencies and tribal governments to provide their input into the Central Everglades Planning Project. Members of the public may attend the PDT meeting and provide public comment at the end of the meeting.
The agenda for the PDT meeting is available at:
https://www.cerpzone.org/documents/PublicMeeting/Agenda_PDT_CEPP_31%20July%202012%20Draft.pdf
Additional information on CEPP is available at:
www.evergladesplan.org/pm/projects/proj_51_cepp.aspx
Thank you for your interest and participation in the Central Everglades Planning Project, which is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
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R.L. Knight: Adena Springs Ranch in the Court of Public Opinion
Gainesville Sun - by Robert L. Knight, Director of the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute
July 28, 2012
When was the last time you saw a two-page ad in the Gainesville Sun? Probably not that long ago. It was bought by another billion dollar company. BP Oil has spent millions trying to convince us that the Gulf of Mexico was not harmed by more than 206 million gallons of crude oil from their Deep Water Horizon drilling platform. Now a lawyer working for Adena Springs Ranch, thinks a 2-page newspaper ad will convince the public that he can pump more than 13 million gallons per day (4.8 billion gallons per year) from the aquifer and cause no harmful affects on groundwater levels or flows at nearby Silver Springs
Adena's consultants estimated that the aquifer drawdown due to their 134 wells would not be measurable at nearby Silver Springs. What they don't reveal is that a groundwater decline of about 0.1 foot at Silver Springs equates to a flow decline of more than 5 million gallons per day. This reduction is more than the entire flow of Green Cove Springs, a second magnitude spring on the St. Johns River. It is neither trivial nor unmeasurable. This is about 4 percent of the entire flow of Silver Springs during the recent drought. At this rate it would only take 26 similar groundwater consumptive use permits to legally take all of the flow out of Silver Springs during the next drought.
By the way, there are already over 2,500 active groundwater permits in Marion, Lake, Sumter, Alachua, and Putnam Counties, the area that includes and immediately surrounds the groundwater basin feeding Silver Springs. These existing permits authorize the collective removal of 363 million gallons per day from the Floridan Aquifer, equal to 74 percent of the historic flow at Silver Springs. No wonder one environmental advocate recently warned that Silver Springs may dry up if the St. Johns River Water Management District continues to issue permits like the one Adena has requested.
Adena's ad also stated that the 10,000 acres of irrigated and fertilized pasture will not increase the existing nitrogen pollution in the groundwater that feeds Silver Springs.
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In 2006, District scientists reported that agricultural/pasture areas contributed an average of 48 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year to Silver Springs. Given the size of Adena's proposed cattle operation, the District's analysis indicates that more than 240 tons of additional nitrate will reach Silver Springs each year, a 50 percent increase over the existing nitrate load.
This is not surprising since 15,000 cows produce nitrogen waste equivalent to 165,000 people. None of this cow urine and manure will receive treatment, it will be spread on irrigated pastures where a large portion will inevitably seep into the aquifer. Florida regulators recently mandated a 79 percent nitrate load reduction for Silver Springs. Meeting this target will cost local utilities such as the City of Ocala millions of dollars to implement. Adena's ad assures us that they will prepare a "certified nutrient management plan" similar to plans used to manage water quality in the Everglades. What Adena's ad fails to mention is that over 2 billion tax-payer dollars has already been spent to clean up pollution from farms in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
Less water and more pollution in Marion County's groundwater and springs are not in the public interest.
And there are other misleading statements in Adena's advertisement. For example:
Adena claims that sinkholes and karst geology are "just not an issue". This statement is false. The whole area is mapped by the Florida Geological Survey as "more vulnerable" to groundwater contamination from the land surface, and there are karst features and relic sinkholes on the property.
In the current Adena proposal, there is no control mechanism to capture and treat surface runoff from the site flowing to wetlands, creeks, and the adjacent Ocklawaha River, an Outstanding Florida Water. Nutrients carried by this runoff are likely to be significant during summer downpours and tropical storms.
Adena says that reduced flows in the Silver River have re-appeared as increased flows in the Ocklawaha and Rainbow Rivers. This is false. The average flow in all three of these rivers has been steadily declining, providing strong evidence that flow declines are regional and are being caused by a combination of low rainfall and excessive groundwater pumping.
If you want science, take a look at the District's 50-Year Retrospective Study of Silver Springs http://www.floridaswater.com/technicalreports/pdfs/SP/SJ2007-SP4.pdf.
Don't look for real science in a paid advertisement from a high-priced water attorney working for a Canadian billionaire. If Frank Stronach was sincere when he gave his pledge to "have no negative effect on the environment", then he needs to visit Silver Springs and listen to the public's opinion
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Between two worlds
Click Mark Renz photo for lyrics about which of our worlds is the true reflection
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Ocala.com
July 29, 2012
Silver Springs was an obvious rallying point for those opposed to the Adena Springs Ranch consumptive-use permit request to pump 13 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer. After all, the famed but distressed springs are just a few miles from the ranch.
Turning Silver Springs and the Adena Springs debate into the symbol of all that is wrong with Florida's waterways and its water policies, however, took more than local residents' protests. That required someone, indeed something bigger and more far-reaching.
Enter former governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. The populist Graham saw opportunity in Silver Springs' image as one of Florida's great water resources and called on his friends and supporters in the environmental lobby to seize the moment and come together like they never had before.
They responded, and the Florida Conservation Coalition was formed, creating what is likely the most formidable environmental group ever to get behind a single issue in Florida. The organizations that are part of this consortium include Audubon Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, 1000 Friends of Florida, League of Women Voters, Sierra Club, St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. There are also 37 "affiliate" member organizations, including Rainbow River Conservation Inc. and the newly formed Silver Springs Alliance...... |
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Flows and MFLs: Control of water equals power here
By John Cassani
John Cassani is a founding member of Southwest Florida Watershed Council. He lives in Alva.
The recent fictional novel and now movie "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, where a postapocalyptic world is dominated by an evil president that maintains power by controlling the allocation of food to the surviving masses, creates an uncanny parallel to the struggle for control of fresh water in Florida and elsewhere.
The recent lawsuit filed by Earthjustice against the Army Corps of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for not providing essential water to the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary, sets the stage for this real-life struggle to control the most precious natural resource to Floridians, freshwater.
No other resource more importantly controls the economy and way of life in a state where water wars are far from fictional. One only needs to look back to the 1980s, when the water wars raged in the Tampa region that now depends heavily on expensive desalinization of seawater.
The "games" and their rules of play became abundantly clear in the early part of the last decade. The corps and SFWMD just could not supply enough water as outlined in the SFWMD's Minimum Flow Rule for the Caloosahatchee because the water was already over allocated, the river was in "recovery" and well, they just couldn't change the "sins of the past" and impact the existing "legal users" of the water. As a result, the Southwest Florida Watershed Council applied for a mock permit as a "legal user" for water supply to the Caloosahatchee, long denied adequate flows during the dry season. Of course the SFWMD overruled the request as inappropriate stating that there were statutes and rules to protect the public waters of the state and that a permit for such was unnecessary.
The Watershed Council then asked the SFWMD to begin rulemaking for a reservation of water for the Caloosahatchee as could be done under existing statute and rule. When the DEP, which oversees the SFWMD, started to focus on the Reservation of Water Statute, big special interest consumers of water in Florida took notice and filed for administrative hearing that went on for years, keeping the reservation statute in limbo and essentially blocking progress toward protecting the public waters from overconsumption.
Even some of the biggest developers, including a local one that marketed its developments as environmentally friendly, joined the petition. Why? Water supply controls the economic engine of Florida and they who control the water control almost every other facet of the economy. These special interests just could not take the chance that providing adequate water to our natural lakes, rivers, springs and estuaries, would leave enough water to supply more homes, more power generation and agriculture.
The irony here was that a big reason people wanted to come to Florida had a lot to do with the natural aesthetics of its water resources, which those big developers often featured as part of their sales marketing.
The water games are heating up now as Gov. Scott and the Legislature are gradually centralizing control of water in Tallahassee where the agenda is pretty obvious. Regional water basin boards have been dissolved and water management districts have been drastically reduced and many of their most experienced technical and scientific staff has been fired. The SFWMD budgets are now even more controlled by the legislature and the special interests that control it.
Last week, Bob Graham and the Florida Conservation Coalition presented 13,000 signed petitions intended for Governor Scott, who couldn't be there for the occasion, to stop the destruction of historic springs and rivers in Florida from overconsumption. A "Games" event that will likely continue as even the prospect of "restoration" becomes increasingly fictional.
Will Earth Justice and the public interest it represents become the "Mocking Jay" of the "Water Games"? A lot is at stake with the impacts of climate change creating more urgency than ever before. Hopefully Florida residents will do more than buy a ticket.
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The presentations from the GEER/Intecol Conference in June have been posted.
Speaker Presentations
Click on ○ Presentation link to open PDF of speaker presentations in a new window.
Use your browser's FIND function to locate specific authors, titles or topics.
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Asleep at the wheel Mark Renz photo
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Collier County Audubon Society
Bird Outing, Saturday, August 11, 2012
Sugden Park, Naples
8:00-12:00
Park is located on US 41 East, Tamiami Trail, at Avalon Dr./Lakewood Blvd.
(4284 Avalon Drive, Naples, FL 34112)
Meet at the back of park past bleachers on the lake. Easy walk around on the lake on a paved path.
Don't need to be a member, but we always accept new ones!
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Lake O Scientists' Conference Call: Estuaries/releases
Periodic Scientists Conference Call -
Lake Okeechobee/Estuaries
The next conference call is scheduled for Tuesday, 10:30am.
The call-in number is (877)322-9654 and the code is 842466.
Members of the public can "listen in" but are not participants in the discussion.
Public comment is accepted at the conclusion of the representatives' discussion.
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oceans/policy
National Ocean Policy
President Obama recognizes that America's stewardship of the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes is intimately linked to national prosperity, environmental sustainability, human health and well-being, adaptation to climate and other environmental change, social justice, foreign policy, and national and homeland security. The Executive Order adopts a National Policy that includes a set of overarching guiding principles for management decisions and actions toward achieving the vision of "an America whose stewardship ensures that the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes are healthy and resilient, safe and productive, and understood and treasured so as to promote the well-being, prosperity, and security of present and future generations." |
Audubon demands hearing over sugar producers' Everglades pollution
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The Florida Audubon Society took on the state's largest sugar producers on Friday, challenging recently issued permits that allow the pollution control practices the companies use on 234,932 acres of farmland in the Everglades.
The permits were issued after the South Florida Water Management District approved the companies' "best management practices," procedures growers undertake to reduce pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste and other pollutants that flow off from their fields.
Audubon filed a petition with the district Friday for an administrative law judge to intervene and deny the permits. The petition will be sent to the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings to determine whether to appoint a judge.
"Everglades water quality goals can be met more quickly and at less cost to the public if the district adhered to state law and required operators of the dirtiest farms to implement additional cleanup measures," said Audubon president Eric Draper. According to Audubon, a 2007 law requires the district to impose additional management practices for farms that contribute high levels of phosphorus to local waterways.
"The district should have inventoried farms producing high levels of phosphorus and should have required these individual farms to do more," said Charles Lee, Audubon's Director of Advocacy.
Judy Sanchez, spokesperson for U.S. Sugar, said the existing practices work "extremely well" and that Audubon's accusations "sound like a broken record." Sanchez pointed to a recent report from the district that showed farmers in the 470,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area achieved a 71-percent reduction in phosphorus leaving the farming region for the 2011-12 water year, almost three times better than required under Florida Everglades Forever Act.
"There are things that need to be done in the Everglades and the part that is working best is what the farmers are doing," Sanchez said. "There are so many other things that someone truly interested in the Everglades could spend their time and effort on."
The district cited also double-digit nutrient reductions during the best management practice program's 17-year-history, which has an overall average reduction of 55 percent - more than twice the amount required by state law.
However, Lee said the data are misleading.
"When the district trumpets a 71 percent reduction, you have to ask a reduction over what?" Lee said. The Everglades Forever Act requires a 25 percent annual reduction in phosphorus compared to baseline levels between 1978-1988 - a decade that saw very high phosphorus levels. The annual percent reduction cited by the district is an average of data collected from hundreds of farms throughout the region. Farms with high phosphorus loads are offset by farms with effective practices that put out small amounts of phosphorus, Lee said.
The goal is phosphorus levels below 10 parts per billion, he said. Some farms covered by the permit average as much as 400 parts per billion.
"For the farmers to crow about how well they're doing when individual farms are putting out 200 ppb and the standard is 10 ppb, I think that's a little disingenuous," Lee said.
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When spiders think big Mark Renz photo
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Watery Foundation has posted a new item |
In Blue Revolution, award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett reports on the many ways one of the most water-rich nations on the planet has squandered its way to scarcity, and argues the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for America. ... The first book to call for a national water ethic, Blue Revolution is also a powerful meditation on water and community in America. |
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Under mom's wing
Tri-colored heron chick
Mark Renz photo
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Eco-Voice, Inc.
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