During 2012, (click here) EPA and the state of Florida reached consensus on
new water quality restoration strategies for improving water quality in
the Everglades. Discharge permits and consent orders issued by the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection require:
April 9, 2015
By Faith Gardner
...Last week, South Florida Water Management District held a meeting about the possible purchase of 46,000 acres of land that sits to the south of Lake Okeechobee, currently owned by U.S. Sugar and residents.
The intention (click here) is to use the land to recreate a large area of the Everglades ecosystem on the former farmland, and create a 26,000 acre system of lakes to store and remediate seriously contaminated run-off water from sugar farms, and so keep the nitrogen and phosphorus-rich water out of lakes, water courses, wetlands, springs and public water supply.
Thanks to the surfeit of nutrients, huge areas of open water and wetlands are regularly afflicted by outbreaks of stinking green slime - and the water district has come under growing pressure to act to stop the pollution and its severe consequences on local people and the Everglades....
Rick Scott was re-elected. Since when would Cecil's death ever bother a Republican in the USA?
September 9, 2014
By Susannah Nesmith
The Tampa Bay Times (click here) as been rolling out an impressive expose of secret hunting trips to Texas taken by more than a dozen current and former Florida lawmakers and officials including Gov. Rick Scott, who is in a tight race for reelection.
While the findings may strike some readers as business as usual in politics, the story involved some clever public records reporting and good follow-up by the Times’ Craig Pittman and Michael Van Sickler.
“I was thinking, I don’t have a lot of faith in Texas public records,” Van Sickler told me. “I shouldn’t have thought that. The people over there were very helpful.”...
- a science-based stringent discharge limit for phosphorus that will result in meeting the water quality standard
- an additional 6500 acres added to one of the wetlands dedicated to phosphorus treatment (called Stormwater Treatment Areas, or STAs)
- dedication of about 110,000 acre-feet of water storage areas (flow equalization basins) that will slowly release water to the STAs in order to maximize their performance
- an enforceable compliance schedule for $880 million of projects with completion dates of 2018 to 2025.
- a robust monitoring and research plan to confirm that the performance of all five STAs is optimized and restoration is moving forward
April 9, 2015
By Faith Gardner
...Last week, South Florida Water Management District held a meeting about the possible purchase of 46,000 acres of land that sits to the south of Lake Okeechobee, currently owned by U.S. Sugar and residents.
The intention (click here) is to use the land to recreate a large area of the Everglades ecosystem on the former farmland, and create a 26,000 acre system of lakes to store and remediate seriously contaminated run-off water from sugar farms, and so keep the nitrogen and phosphorus-rich water out of lakes, water courses, wetlands, springs and public water supply.
Thanks to the surfeit of nutrients, huge areas of open water and wetlands are regularly afflicted by outbreaks of stinking green slime - and the water district has come under growing pressure to act to stop the pollution and its severe consequences on local people and the Everglades....
Rick Scott was re-elected. Since when would Cecil's death ever bother a Republican in the USA?
September 9, 2014
By Susannah Nesmith
The Tampa Bay Times (click here) as been rolling out an impressive expose of secret hunting trips to Texas taken by more than a dozen current and former Florida lawmakers and officials including Gov. Rick Scott, who is in a tight race for reelection.
While the findings may strike some readers as business as usual in politics, the story involved some clever public records reporting and good follow-up by the Times’ Craig Pittman and Michael Van Sickler.
“I was thinking, I don’t have a lot of faith in Texas public records,” Van Sickler told me. “I shouldn’t have thought that. The people over there were very helpful.”...
