JEB's Environmental record - a compilation of policies and their effects on the state
I am an oceanographer and avid environmentalist.
I thought that I would review the changes in environmental policies
under Jeb and their effects on the State. I posted this on the
St. Petersburg Times forum under the nickname SeaHunt and on the
Democratic Underground under the nickname Seasat. Some of the
Republicans thought it was an official campaign release until I posted
a disclaimer in another post. I thought y'all might be
interested in this compilation with sources.
The good things that Jeb has supported are few.
He supported the removal of the Rodman Dam. The mixed bag things
are just a couple, opposition to offshore drilling, continuation of
the Florida Forever program, and his support of the Everglades
restoration. His negatives are many, replacing top scientists at
DEP with people supportive of development, weakening clean water
standards, letting TECO off with minimal fines for air pollution
violations, eliminating emissions testing, cement plant next to the
Ichetucknee, failure to protect the manatee, support of cruise
industry's preferred regulations for offshore dumping, and ignoring
growing environmental problems such as coral reef decline or pollution
in Lake Okeechobee.
The opposition to offshore drilling and drilling in big
Cyprus was a good thing but the result was not exactly perfect from a
fiscal point of view. The Collier family is a large contributor to the
Republican party LINK.
The Federal government paid about 100 million more than the value of
the mineral rights and land in Big Cypress. They are allowed to
keep their existing wells in operation for the next ten years LINK.
Jeb even held interest in a firm that was interested in drilling in
the Gulf LINK.
The Preservation 2000 program was started originally by
Bob Martinez and continued with a constitutional amendment in '98. Link
He did block cuts to the program this year but allowed 75 million in
cuts in the previous year. Jeb did vow to not let it happen again
after the first time.
From Miami Herald Article: "To patch the holes in
its Swiss-cheese budget, the Florida Legislature has brazenly plotted
to loot $100 million dedicated for the purchase of endangered lands.
For the second year in a row, lawmakers have done what
they vowed never to do: raid the popular Preservation 2000 trust and
funnel the money elsewhere.
Launched more than 10 years ago by Gov. Bob Martinez,
the program sells bonds that generate $300 million annually for
acquiring sensitive wetlands, forests, hammocks and beaches."
The Everglades Preservation is quite a mixed bag for
the environment. The plan was guided from the original plan
supported by Chiles, Graham and others to a development project for S.
Florida (Washington
Post expose). He even recently voted to put a golf course in
glades but was voted down by 3 members of the cabinet LINK.
>From Washington Post article: "But now
President Bush's aides are finalizing the regulations required by the
plan to ensure "restoration success," and Jeb Bush's aides
-- backed by almost every Florida interest except environmental ones
-- are lobbying to keep them as vague as possible."
Slate summarized the Washington Post expose LINK:
"So this massive Everglades restoration initiative
is a lot vaguer than its supporters say. That's one myth. Here's the
other: It's not purely an Everglades restoration initiative. That is
just its green façade. The CERP is also by law an urban and
agricultural water-supply initiative, as well as an economic growth
and flood-control initiative. The Clinton administration tried to
insert a formal guarantee that environmental restoration would be the
top priority of the CERP, but it was deleted. A Clinton proposal to
guarantee extra water to meet the needs of the national park, the
diseased heart of the ecosystem, was also rejected. So was an effort
to prohibit construction of an intrusive international airport at the
edge of the Everglades. But a proposal to let the rock-mining industry
dig up 20,000 acres of additional Everglades wetlands was included.
And while the CERP does assure much more water for South Florida as a
whole, it does not yet specify how much of the extra water will go to
the Everglades and how much to additional agriculture and development
that will put even more pressure on the Everglades. In general, most
of the water-supply elements of the plan are scheduled sooner, the
restoration efforts later, and Florida officials are now lobbying to
make sure that water guarantees for the natural system are kept out of
the regulations being drafted for implementing the plan."
The proposal supported by Jeb will not meet the
required water quality standard in the short run LINK
and may risk part of the funding since they have not set a requirement
that at least 80% of the water should be used for the Everglades
instead of growth in the area LINK.
Struhs and Bush even started negotiating with a
subsidiary of Enron for an unprecedented 30 year water deal in
exchange for aquifer storage LINK
From Naples News Article: "Even as Bush's
secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection was settling
into his office in February 1999, top executives of Enron's new water
venture, Azurix Corp., were seeking audiences with the new governor
and his DEP chief David Struhs. Although Bush generally kept his
distance from Azurix, his man Struhs stood on the sidelines like a
cheerleader throughout Enron-Azurix's unsuccessful two-year attempt to
privatize Florida's water market.
Struhs promoted two ideas near and dear to Azurix:
auctioning off blocks of water to the highest bidder, and boosting
underground water and storing it there for later withdrawal, a process
called aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR."
Now the ASR or Aquifer Storage Method LINKof
the plan is very controversial. It may be the best way to
accomplish the goal but was originally proposed without sufficient
study. Jeb and associates immediately jumped on this idea due to
its low cost and lower use of land but were rebuffed when
environmentalists and citizens became upset over it. Notice that
on this
page they rate the South Florida region as a high vulnerability
area for contamination of drinking water.
Here are some of the questions scientists have about
deep well injection LINK
This led to groups that had formerly endorsed Jeb
turning to criticizing him LINK.
From Article: "TALLAHASSEE -- A coalition of
environmental groups criticized Gov. Jeb Bush Thursday for the
environmental achievement it once praised, the one he touts the most
in his re-election campaign: restoration of the Everglades. ...
"It's really the powerful corporations that
Gov. Bush is listening to over and above the natural resources of the
state of Florida," said Jonathan Ullman of the Sierra Club."
When Jeb first placed Struhs in charge of the Florida's
Department of Environmental Protection, he was heavily criticized due
to the removal of long term scientists that had risen to management
positions in the agency LINK.
A real estate attorney replaced a 20 year respected scientist as
manager in the Tampa Bay area. This has continued into recent
times. With massive growth in the NW Florida area LINK
the firings of employees with environmentalist leanings has continued LINK.
From article: "So much for being green
Rohlke, the DEP's former compliance and enforcement
manager, doesn't allay environmental activists' or developers' fears.
His last day is Sept. 16. Rohlke says current supervisors Amy Porto,
Gary Woodiwiss and Steve Andrews all have fewer than four years
experience. He expects big projects at St. Joe Co., which owns 70,000
acres north of Panama City, and other projects to greatly overwhelm
Northwest Florida regulators.
"The environment goes to hell," he predicts.
"It's obvious to me the (Gov. Jeb Bush) administration wants no
regulatory responsibility."
Recently the Bush administration has set out to
redefine what waters are determined as needing critical environmental
attention. This redefinition is viewed as a weakening of the
regulations LINK.
From PIRG: "32.5 percent of industrial and
municipal facilities across Florida exceeded their Clean Water Act
permits for toxic chemicals over the three year period studied.
Florida ranks 15th in the country for percentage of facilities
exceeding their permits for these high-hazard chemicals.
Also from PIRG: "The new report, Cleaning up
Florida's Water: The Case For a Stronger Impaired Waters Rule LINK,
analyzes water quality data from throughout the state over the past
ten years and details examples of how the proposed rule would allow
the DEP to ignore pollution problems. These loopholes include:
The exemption of polluted waterways when unenforceable
cleanup promises are made."
The DEP is even lax in monitoring coastal waters LINK.
From article: "The Sunshine state received 40 of
the 70 designated "beach bums" from the report by the
Natural Resources Defense Council, which gives the tag to U.S. beaches
where waters are not monitored, that don't use EPA-recommended
criteria and that have known sources of pollutants."
The EPA had concluded that Tampa Electric Co had
violated a number of provisions of the clean air act. The DEP
under Jeb tried to let them off with much lower requirements and fines
but the EPA stepped in and over road their recommendations LINK.
TECO is a large contributor to the FL Republican Party and its
director was on Enron's board LINK.
Jeb ended emissions testing in major cities in Florida LINK.
This one really bugged me since as soon as the requirement ended that
year, tons of old smoggers showed up on the road. At the same
time Jeb's DEP director, Strohs, was telling the EPA that our air
quality standards did not meet with new federal guidelines LINK.
From article: "Florida's top regulator tells the
EPA that the area doesn't meet new federal guidelines.
On the same day that auto emissions testing ended in
Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the state's top environmental
regulator confirmed that the Tampa Bay area is one of two spots in the
state with air so bad that new regulations may be required to combat
pollution.
A letter dated Thursday and sent to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency named the Tampa-St.
Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and the Pensacola metropolitan
area as the two places in the state that flunked a tough new federal
air-quality standard."
The granting of the permit for the cement plant next to
the Ichetucknee was especially bad. After agreeing to turn down
the permit of a plant that had numerous environmental violations, Jeb
reversed course and approved it LINK.
The parent company of Anderson Columbia also contributed nealy
$190,000.00 to both the State and National Republican Party two days
after the link was concluded LINK.
An aide to former FL Speaker of the house, Thrasher, was accused of
illegal lobbying for the cement company LINK.
Jeb's administration purchased a mine from them for 23 million using
Florida Forever funds. The land was estimated to have a value
significantly less. They were allowed to increase the size of a
nearby mine from 100 acres to 800 acres. The economic benefit would
only be about 100 jobs. The potential damage can be severe. A
bad dust collector at the cement plant can release tons of caustic
lime that can eat up trees for miles around the plant. The fuel
burnt to fire the kiln dumps huge amounts of ash in the air and
mercury pollution can be released into the water http://www.ichetucknee.org/Tampa.html.
Jeb, who stated that the manatee is his favorite animal
has delayed creating protection zones for them http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editorial/3788280.htm.
He approved a controversial marina expansion in Sarasota in an area
that manatees frequent after stating he would deny the permit. LINK.
From article: "Saying that manatees were his
"favorite mammal," Gov. Jeb Bush four months ago slammed the
door on a Sarasota Yacht Club marina expansion because Sarasota County
had not completed a manatee protection plan.
In fact, Bush said, he would not approve any marina
expansions in any county that was not at least working on a plan to
help the endangered animal avoid being wiped out.
"There's an endangered species that's close to
being extinct in Florida waters, and I don't want to be part of
that," Bush said then.
On Wednesday, though, the governor and Cabinet quietly
approved the same Sarasota Yacht Club project they had blocked in July
- even though Sarasota County still does not have a manatee protection
plan."
State manatees deaths occurred at record rates in
Florida this year <a http://www.naplesnews.com/02/10/naples/d798760a.htm
You can find more information here at the Save the Manatee
organization home page http://www.savethemanatee.org/
The cruise industry has enjoyed a great relationship
with Jeb. The cruise industry has recently had to settle a
number of government complaints regarding illegal dumping. One
of the cruise lines had to set up oceanographic monitoring labs
onboard and provide free space for scientists as part of the
settlement LINK.
From Times article: "Cruise Industry Trust Fund,
$515,000. Florida is America's cruise ship capital and the industry
praised Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to tighten security at Florida ports.
Last year, the governor killed a proposal to tax Miami cruises to pay
for a new Miami stadium. Florida is the only state embracing industry
guidelines for monitoring waste and pollution from cruise ships."
The reefs in the Florida Keys have been threatened.
High amounts of algal growth have smothered reefs due to the
introduction of nutrients. One of the problems is from human
waste released in from the land. Most scientists recommend
tertiary water treatment for the sewage on the keys and the
elimination of septic tanks. Nutrients are also introduced from
Florida Bay. High amount of nutrient rich water pouring in from
sugar farms and development in South Florida resulting in water in
Florida Bay so full of algae, that most of the sea grass has died and
much of this pollution makes it to the reefs LINK.
Florida needs government leadership to address promote preservation of
the valuable natural resource of the Florida reefs.
High phosphorous inputs in the dammed up Lake
Okeechobee have resulted in the destruction of most of the lake LINK.
Huge blooms of algae have blocked out like to the grasses at the lake.
The once plentiful bass fishing has declined tremendously. This
lake has turned into more of a reservoir for the local sugar and
citrus farms. It needs to be returned to a more natural state.
The Everglades restoration may address some of the concerns about Lake
Okeechobee but it will never be near its natural state until the
non-point sources of pollution are addressed.
The three environmental groups that are able to
endorse candidate have endorsed Bill McBride over Jeb http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4257423.htm.
If someone is seriously concerned about the environment, then they
would have to vote for Bill McBride. Jeb has been a disaster for
Florida's environment.
... posted by seabass / seahunt; 10/29/02
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