Wetlands in South Florida: a case of the runs ... by gimleteye

As president of Friends of the Everglades (note: at our request, there will be a status conference in the Miami courtroom of federal judge Alan S. Gold this morning, more than a year after the U.S. EPA and State of Florida pledged to expedite "enforceable remedies" according to the 2008 ruling in favor of Friends and co-plaintiff, the Miccosuckee Tribe), I know something about wetlands. For those who may be unaware, South Florida was once ALL wetlands except for the coral ridge; ie. Coconut Grove. We are fighting to maintain the environmental integrity of less than half the remnant wetlands; most is under federal and state protection, but a significant area-- influencing the East Everglades and Biscayne Bay-- is under county authority.

So I have been deeply concerned that the radical revolution undertaken by the Rick Scott administration and the GOP in Florida to "streamline" environmental regulations by eviscerating state authority in favor of local jurisdictions would cause a bloodbath. Last year, the Florida legislature-- endorsed by Scott-- took a cudgel to 40 years of regulatory authority under the cover of jobs! Never mind that a majority of Florida voters, in 1996, passed an amendment to the state constitution requiring the polluters to pay for the destruction of Everglades wetlands: it has never been enacted by the legislature.

Miami-Dade is a place where environmental protection is always elevated to a boil. That's because we have Biscayne National Park on one side, and Everglades National Park on the other: both are severely threatened and have already suffered massive losses of habitat and wilderness values. Furthermore, we have a local political culture that glorifies corruption; whether it is Medicare fraud (the highest in the nation), mortgage fraud (Homestead, anyone?), or environmental fraud (Miami-Dade police, anyone?). Fifteen years ago, an environmental champion-- the late Congressman Dante Fascell-- told me it would take 40,000 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to clean up Miami-Dade County. It will take you years if you want to get a dock permit in Miami-Dade, but if you want to destroy wetlands, you can do that with a snap of your fingers-- especially if you are politically connected.

The frustration is widely shared and boiled over at the recent annual Everglades Coalition Conference where a younger and less patient generation, represented by Everglades First!, demanded the resignation of the long-time head of Florida Audubon. It was a rare and notable moment. What the protest contains is the fruited seed of environmental failure in Florida on a massive scale, ubiquitous as mercury in the atmosphere making us all dumb as ox.

The big political lie, and one replicated across the states, is that environmental regulations at the federal level should be killed. This is manifest in the central plank of the current, virulent strain of Republicanism: that state authority is always better than federal authority and that local authority is better than the state. It is also the worst aspect of Libertarianism.

We have evidence to the contrary, and we have blogged about it for five long years: the "unreformable majority" of the Miami-Dade county commission. This -- the local level-- is the locus of political power that is supposed-- according to the GOP-- to best protect the public health, welfare, and environment. The list of reasons this logic is false is nearly as long as our archive, but for the sake of brevity, we can start with the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study.

To make a long story, short: several years ago, Miami-Dade initiated-- with the support of the South Florida Water Management District-- the most comprehensive and costly effort to plan future water use and development in the nation. It also involved thousands of volunteer hours of a committee; balanced in favor of farmers/land speculators, rock miners and the construction industry, but nonetheless included a few environmental representatives. After the committee submitted its final report, it was killed by the builders through their proxy; former county commissioner (the Queen of Mean) Natacha Seijas. The report sits on a shelf.

Yesterday I attended yet another iteration of "local control", GOP-style. It was a meeting held in a 2nd floor conference room of the former environmental agency re-branded as a result of the election of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. It doesn't have the name or the mission to protect the environment. The Miami Dade Wetlands Advisory Committee was hastily assembled by a new county commissioner, Lynda Bell, who had replaced the most reliable county commissioner (of 13) for the environment; Katy Sorenson. Bell's representative on the committee is Alice Pena, who encapsulates a strand of anti-environmental and anti-Everglades fervor that can be traced back to the 1980's and the Reagan Revolution manifest as the Wise Use Movement and the Sagebrush Rebellion; strongly supported by Big Sugar. In the audience, James Humble who made millions speculating on land with partners in the East Everglades.

There is not a single environmental representative on the committee charged with recommending changes to Miami-Dade's wetlands regulations. The committee is filled with lawyers and industry representatives determined to drive the point home, now that the State of Florida has essentially surrendered its own regulatory authority. It is every man and woman for him or herself, the environment be damned.

The representatives from the U.S. EPA and Florida Department of Environmental Protection-- who will be in Judge Gold's courtroom this morning-- ought to have been required to sit through yesterday's meeting and the meetings to soon take place. They would see the shambles being made by the radical revolution hiding behind the skirts of an historic economic crisis. In the view of the politically powerful, the housing bust-- and resultant loss of tax revenue-- is an unfortunate cyclical event. From the point of view of environmentalists, it was the predictable result of failing to adequately assess costs when they are incurred through growth-- including the massive loss of wetlands-- and instead shift the social costs to the benefit of private businesses. Our economic woes were substantially fortified by the same forces who remain in control of the levers of power in Florida and in the county. Accountability? A myth. Yesterday, after an hour I fled.

This morning I feel a little better. Judge Gold's hearing is three hours away.