So now, what about pollution, Gov. Scott? ... by gimleteye

On the environment, Gov. Charlie Crist didn't always make the right calls, but with Rick Scott in the governor's mansion there is reason to be concerned that Florida has done a U-turn back to the days of Jeb Bush when all the wrong calls were made, regularly, with great confidence whether laws were being broken or not.

In the governor's race, the environment didn't figure very high up on the mainstream media radar. In fact, the usual token question on the environment was dropped in the TV debates. Knowing candidates' positions on jobs and the economy was deemed just too important to waste valuable minutes "educating" voters on the category of other "social" issues.

While the environment may not have been a high priority for Florida voters, make no mistake: it is the single most important issue to a major segment of political donors-- land speculators like the Fanjuls (Big Sugar) for example-- who believe that current political conditions are the best in a generation to knock out government agencies, missions, and especially the federal role in protecting our nation's water and air. What "jobs" are to ordinary people, "profits" are to campaign contributors and once demand revives, it is their intent to make as much money as possible with as few regulations, or as many as they can knock out in Florida during the next four years.

Friends of the Everglades, the environmental group founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (and of which I am vice president of conservation) has been involved, as a plaintiff, in litigation in federal district court of Judge Alan Gold. I have held back from using Eyeonmiami to express views related to ongoing litigation. There is plenty else to write about: the everyday corruption in Florida that is so pervasive that even law enforcement agencies shrug. I've been at this game for more than 20 years, as a civic activist, and I am losing patience, too.

Friends and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians prevailed in 2008 judgement against the U.S. EPA for violations of the Clean Water Act. Sorting out, who and which government agency should do what, and for how much, and with what funds-- totaling at least $1.5 billion-- has absorbed two years of hearings and proposals for added pollution cleanup measures being considered in another federal courtroom, where the state and federal consent decree has been continuously monitored for more than 15 years. (Please click, 'read more')

The Miami Herald wrote an excellent update of the simmering controversy, last week.
Along this line, an anonymous comment posted on the Herald website. I don't know the writer, or, at least can't imagine who the writer would be. But this "insider's" views might have been explored by the media during the campaign.

Here is what he or she wrote:

"And so are you seeing WHY Rick Scott, Bondi, and Putnam ALL got big figured money from Fanjul's and US Sugar. Jeb Bush's 2006 DEP emails to Carol Wehle and DEP Castille and Mike Sole showed the 10-25% decrease in property values with a 5 year projection into 2011 for the fla water management boards. It was NOT an accident that finally, Carol Wehle came out and said she doesnt have the money. She knew. That's why Crist's $1.7 BIL Everglades purchase anouncement was a joke. She wanted to increase her budget 25% when the property values had decreased over 10%.

Of the $1.2 BILLION in State water projects Carol is tooting in her Judge Gold EPA letter,, remember that $400,000 MILLION was a failed rock mining "water hole" that Carol bought. She did it at Jeb's insistance to quiet the DOJ, DOI, 1994 remand order and Dexter indians lawsuits, as well as an EPA review. They pretended they were "trying" to be in compliance with gthe federal law and federal lawsuits.

That is why Castille and Mike Sole FIRED Tom White DEP Lab tech of 20 years in 2006. He told them in 2006 that phosphorus was off the charts, and they ( Fla DEP) tied him up in Human Relations Board as a whistleblower, for over 2 YEARS as the DEP tried to make Jeb's "Fla. water basin averaging rules."

Point and NON POINT source testing is the law everywhere else in America. It is scientific. Tell me why Jeb at the international level, and federal level tried to remove the Everglades from the impaired waterways list?? US Sugar dhoubled their capacity, and they were in violation before the Fla expansion. get it?

The very companies that pollute heavily just BOUGHT the ag commissioner, AG, and Governor's office in heavy donations.

You get it now, what I have been saying for over 4 YEARS? "The house that Jeb built." And he is busy now, setting up Rick Scott's transition team. Get it?! "As Florida Slept."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/05/1909496/water-managers-blast-federal-everglades.html#ixzz14damcAOq

Interesting. Eyeonmiami wrote about that failed multi-hundred million hole in the ground that Jeb Bush bought, here. And here. But you might want to start reading about it here, on December 31, 2007: I save my best for the last day of the year. This one was called: Rock Mining, the Everglades and public corruption.