‘Trouble in Paradise’ for Florida’s candidates
A coalition of environmental and other organizations is distributing a sternly worded report to all candidates in Florida for federal and state offices about worsening threats to the state’s natural resources.
On Wednesday, the alliance publicly released “Trouble in Paradise,” an initiative started by Nathaniel Pryor Reed, a conservationist and co-founder of 1,000 Friends of Florida, who died recently.
“Tragically, he did not live to see this report to fruition,” Paul Owens, president of 1,000 Friends of Florida, said during a media conference.
To complete Reed’s final initiative, the 1,000 Friends organization partnered with Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Defenders of Wildlife, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Florida Springs Council, Florida Wildlife Corridor, Florida Wildlife Federation, the Howard T. Odom Florida Springs Institute and the League of Women Voters of Florida.
The result is a document intended to educate this state’s potential elected officials about what Owens calls “the greatest challenges facing Florida’s environment.”
Although the organizations are making sure paper or email editions of the report reach candidates in upcoming state and federal elections, Owens said they encourage voters to make sure contenders in local races are also aware of the findings and recommendations.
“These are critical issues at every level of government in Florida,” Owens said.
The study outlines six priorities that the partnership contends need urgent attention as well as specific geographic areas it considers especially endangered, including the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, the Indian River Lagoon, Apalachicola River and Bay and several natural springs.
Throughout the report, the authors call for enforcing environmental protections “already in place,” sufficiently funding agencies responsible for overseeing those duties, appointing “strong and effective” agency leaders and passing legislation “to restore and improve workable programs and address current and future challenges.”
A closer look at the priorities:
1) Land conservation
The organizations say Florida could once boast about being a “leader in state funding for land conservation” with programs such as CARL (Conservation and Recreational Lands), the Florida Forever Act and the Preservation 2000 Act.
Frustrated with the Legislature’s failure to continue that tradition, 75 percent of Florida voters in 2014 approved a constitutional amendment dedicating 33 percent of documentary stamp tax revenue to land conservation, management and restoration for 20 years. Yet the Legislature appropriated millions of those dollars toward other purposes.
The report calls for fully funding the 2014 Water and Land Conservation Amendment, which will result in better water quality and flood control, protected wildlife habitats and support for a state economy where outdoor recreation generates $58.6 billion in consumer spending each year.
2) Managing water supply
Since 2011, the report states, Florida’s six water management districts have experienced cuts in revenue and staffing and seen “the diversity and autonomy of their governing boards curtailed.”
The group wants “stakeholders” such as the agriculture commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection secretary, local governments, regional planning councils and the “environmental community” to have “greater input” regarding appointments to the water management district boards.
It wants those boards to have more authority and to set property tax rates that “meet the needs of the resources today and prepare for the challenges of the future.”
The report also notes that there is no cost for bottlers and other users of Florida’s groundwater except for expenses associated with permit application fees and pumping.
“They don’t pay a penny for that water,” Owens said. “It’s free and overused.”
The organizations call for the appointment of a new commission that will incorporate “market principles into water allocations.”
3) Water conservation
Although Florida promotes water conservation by individuals, the report calls for “a more holistic approach.”
If the state’s “current patterns of development remain the same,” the authors say, its “development-related water demand” will more than double by 2070.
The groups want more incentives and updated building codes to achieve more indoor and outdoor “water efficiency standards ... This can include using more sustainable gardening practices to reduce or eliminate the use of irrigation, and maintaining and upgrading irrigation systems and toilets, washers, dishwashers, shower heads and other indoor fixtures when necessary.”
4) Water quality
“With alarming regularity, water quality is in the headlines, from cyanobacteria in algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee streaming into estuaries, to red tide outbreaks in Southwest Florida, to seepage from septic tanks flowing into once pristine springs,” the study notes.
The authors want to see more “cost sharing” by the Legislature to assist communities and the private sector in upgrading sewage treatment plants, getting households off septic tanks, doing crop conversions or forest restoration projects, adopting “best management practices” and taking steps to reduce nutrients going into waterways.
5) Growth management
In 2011, the Legislature eliminated the Department of Community Affairs and “significantly weakened Florida’s growth management process,” the report states. That legislation also gave local governments’ comprehensive land use plans “an expedited review” by the new Department of Economic Opportunity.
The organizations want to see “more compact patterns of development,” infill development, land conservation and regional transit.
They call for the re-establishment of “a department-level land management agency.” They want that state agency to work with other departments to identify lands appropriate and inappropriate for development and also address “the challenges of climate change and sea level rise.”
6) Climate change
“With approximately 75 percent of this state’s population in counties lining the coast, Florida must prepare for the increasingly severe weather and sea-level rise caused by climate change,” the report states. It quotes the real estate appraisal firm Zillow.com as predicting that a six-foot rise in sea levels by 2100 would cost Florida $413 billion in property losses.
The study calls for Florida to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, invest in renewable energy, harden vulnerable infrastructure, steer development away from “areas vulnerable to the impact of severe weather,” adopt building codes that promote higher energy efficiency, expand tax incentives for electric vehicles and oppose offshore drilling.
7) Threatened resources
“Trouble in Paradise” also lists “special resource areas” that the groups consider threatened and in dire need of attention.
Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay rely on flows from watersheds in Georgia, where agricultural operations pump that water for irrigation. Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls “multiple locks, dams and reservoirs on the Chattahoochee River, which makes up half the watershed that flows out of Georgia.”
Insufficient flows have resulted in a decline in Apalachicola fisheries and caused lost job opportunities in the oyster and seafood industries, the organizations say.
The Everglades makes the list because of more than 150 years of efforts to develop and cultivate its swamps and sawgrass marsh.
“While significant accomplishments have been made, Everglades restoration has a long and difficult journey ahead,” the report states. “Fifty percent of the Everglades has already been lost to agriculture and urban uses. Demands for flood protection and water to supply South Florida’s ever-growing population will inhibit restoration success.”
Runoff from fertilizers, cattle waste and septic tanks continue to endanger Lake Okeechobee, from which “high volumes of poor quality water are discharged from the lake to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers causing devastating damage to the east and west coast estuaries.”
The 156-mile Indian River Lagoon is “one of the major recipients of polluted waters from Lake Okeechobee.” Excessive nutrients have contributed to algae blooms, fish kills, seagrass declines and noxious odors.
Numerous springs mostly in north and central Florida also suffer from excessive nutrient pollution and human demands for groundwater.
In all of these cases, the report calls for better coordination on the federal, state and local levels to restore hydrological conditions and reduce nutrient runoff.
In conclusion, the organizations say they are making “a clarion call for leadership” to continue or resume “effective programs” that evolved because of past bipartisan support, appoint committed agency executives and initiate and fully fund “innovative new approaches” that protect Florida’s lands and waters.
According to the report’s closing sentence: “Our quality of life and Florida’s very economy depend on it.”