Monday, April 11, 2016

I cannot tell a lie, I went to Confront Head On. By Geniusofdespair

Eric Eikenberg of the Everglades Foundation gave Senator Anitere Flores an enormous boost of green-washing.
FPL was there to counter all the bad press about tainting and taking our water. Who are these guys anyway?

Rather than boycott like some did, I went to Commissioner Daniella Levine's Miami Dade Water Summit to confront Eric Eikenberry a.k.a Eric Eikenberg. Anyway I did confront him. I didn't say "You're an Asshole Eric Eikenberg" even I can't get those words out of my mouth even though I was thinking it. But I did ask him why he sent a letter to Hawaii praising the company, considering  how bad FPL/Next Error aka ERA is, in Florida. He said in the jointly signed letter:
NextEra Energy is a company that doesn't hesitate to tell it like it is. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't settle for shortcuts. It is a company you want on your side because you can count on it, and it will count on you to share your expertise with it. 
NextEra Energy has been a valued collaborator and supporter of our organizations for many years. We hope Hawaii has the same experience.
FPL (NextEra)  is a company that is now pumping 14 million gallons daily from the aquifer for the Nuke cooling canals (they were the hottest cooling canals in the country) and is causing salt water intrusion into our water according to rock miner scientists (of all people) and county officials. The rock miners cannot sell rock tainted with salt water. I should have asked:
So, Eric, tell us about FPL’s use of water in the Model Lands, how they've lowered the water table by a foot in the SE Coastal Everglades, and how great your partner FPL is for unraveling the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in the Biscayne Bay watershed.
FPL sent this to customers.
What I did say is why did you write that letter to Hawaii (considering Next Error as their power company) when FPL threatens our water with tritium (a marker of their waste water which proves they are causing the salt water intrusion) and I said some other dribble.

Eric said something about the letter and solar. That made me so angry, look at FPL's own chart. I said "solar is 1%". Actually I was wrong: It is really .1% of the company's source of energy.
(In the letter to Hawaii Eric said: Electric utility operations require lots of water, and the Everglades and other ecosystems need fresh water. So our organizations go out of the way to make sure that Florida utilities are efficient, thrifty with water and prioritize solar energy.) Really Eric, prioritize Solar .1%, and 14 million gallons of water a day?

At this point Daniella Levine Cava said I was off topic. Well, Eric put us off topic not me.

FPL got up and said something about how good their renewal record was. I of course didn't listen to them.

The thing that made me most angry was the green-washing of Republican Senator Anitere Flores who for one thing, voted for Florida Coastal offshore oil drilling in 2009. Eric Eikenberg put her on the panel and gave her plenty of speaking time asking her question after question. She is up for reelection and her challenger Andrew Korge was in the audience. He has been green from the get go. She has been green since her district was redrawn.

I said to Flores it is good to see you here because we never saw you before in all the years you have been in office. i.e. she never gave a shit about the environment until redistricting when she got a lot of green people in her district.

All in all, it was a good trip. I had to call out the Republican Everglades Foundation. They can like FPL if they want since they get funds from them, but my GOD that letter supporting them was over the top and a lie about solar. Besides, the Everglades Foundation sucks up to Republicans and gives them much needed voice to stay in power. Someone had to say: "You are an asshole". 

I am still looking for the Woman's name in this photo,  I wrote it down. She came from North Miami with her children. In the middle is Andrew Korge who is running against Antitere Flores for State Senator. I am giving him space because this was obviously made into an event to greenwash a Republican by the Everglades Foundation.
See Barry White's response to FPL full-page ad and remember what Eric said about their use of water to Hawaii  (So our organizations go out of the way to make sure that Florida utilities are efficient, thrifty with water):

Mr. Silagy, are we to ignore the up to 100 million gallons per day of freshwater from the L-31E canal which the South Florida Water Management District has authorized FPL to withdraw and the over one billion gallons of it which it has used to bring the canals down to a very low but ultimately unsustainable level?

And, while the tritium you speak of, at that level is of more subtle harm to humans (see below), it is very harmful to mollusks and other sea life. But, more importantly, as a tracer, it confirms, what has already been well
documented, that water from the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System, classified by the State of Florida as an industrial waste facility (IWF) into which FPL dumps every type of noxious chemical, including the cleansing chemicals for the reactors, is flowing not only to the west, but also to he east into Biscayne National Park and into the Biscayne Bay Estuary carrying with it ammonia and phosphorus.

The energy of the beta particle emitted during radioactive decay of tritium is the lowest energy of any radioactive isotope. This means that your dead skin cells will absorb the particle before is causes any damage to living tissue, so exposure to elevated (above natural) levels of tritium outside the body is not of much concern. However drinking water with elevated levels of tritium could be a cause for concern because then the beta particle produced during decay is adsorb by living human tissue where it can cause damage to cells.

Nitrogen (ammonia) and phosphate are two key nutrients required to fuel algal growth and phytoplankton blooms in aquatic ecosystems. Elevated beyond natural levels, nutrients harm seagrass beds and corals by promoting the growth of algae and microgalgae that smother sea grass and choke out light preventing effective photosynthesis and ultimately die-off of seagrass beds. In Southeast Florida, plant and algal growth in the bay ecosystems is phosphate-limited and reef ecosystems nitrogen-limited. Thus, in Biscayne Bay, our greatest concern would be unnatural elevation in phosphate in nearshore waters. Elevation in phosphate is predicted to foster algal blooms that damage or kill seagrass beds in Biscayne Bay, the health of which are critical for a functioning marine ecosystem. For this reason, the leaching or flushing of phosphate from the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System into Biscayne Bay appears to represent a direct threat to the marine ecosystem health of Biscayne National Park.

So, what your Miami Herald public relations full page ad, paid for by your stock holders according to the ad,  did not say is far more important that what it did say. 

Bottom line, with which FPL is well acquainted: the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System is an insult and tragedy to the Turkey Point Wetland and to the wild life and ecology of the entire area (crocodiles have abandoned the canals) by increasing salt water intrusion directly and indirectly, by threatening the water supply for the entire Florida Keys, the agricultural and rock mining interests, the fishing industry for which Biscayne Bay is the nursery, and befouling the freshwater supply for two million people. What part of FPL’s facts and pride does this fit into?

Barry J. White
President - Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Inc/CASE - Miami

25 comments:

Andrew Korge said...

Anitere Flores voted for offshore oil drilling in 2009, a year before the bp oil spill. In 2013 She also voted to give big sugar a no-bid 30 year lease on critical land in the Everglades, and to make permits for a natural gas pipeline easier to attain. Now, during an election year, Flores "cares" about the environment.

WE MUST HOLD HER ACCOUNTABLE FOR DESTROYING OUR ENVIRONMENT!

If you care about our future, sign up at andrewkorge.com. We can beat her and she knows it!

Anonymous said...

Daniella is off topic. Is FP&L underwriting SAVEDADE, too? She needs to be more careful about her associations. As for Anitere, if redistricting has opened her eyes to green issues, that's great. She is a senior member of the Dade delegation and has the powerful to make positive change in Tallahassee. The climate issues are too important to be left to a bunch of white city officials.

ConcernedConch said...

We can not elect people who only care about the environment when its election time. We must elect people who always care about the environment, and who stand for something. Flores must go!

Plus, what is cava doing? I voted for her, and now she is helping a right wing nutjob? She may have lost my vote


Anonymous said...

FPL is an embarrassment to the community it serves. With Turkey Point (appropo name) polluting Biscayne Bay with radioactive material, creating a salt water plum corrupting our drinking water, and using precious fresh water to cool their canals every day when the output of the nuclear plan was increased, how do they have the nerve to say they are good corporate partners to the south Florida community? This money hungry corporation couldn't care less about the people it serves, just the bottom line of profit.

Geniusofdespair said...

Daniella had one panel the other was Eric's .

Anonymous said...

Daniella means the best, but she is new to this business and barely knows the players or their histories yet. And "Everglades Foundation" has such a wholesome name and mission. It's Sean McCrackine's job to keep Daniella out of the mud on SE Dade water issues and politics, since he is versed in both the science and the history. Did he warn Daniella or did she ignore his advice? We won't know. But let's hope she exercises more discretion in the future when deciding whether to provide political cover to the rogues gallery of Dade water and nuclear despoilers.

Anonymous said...

I like that term "green-washing." That's obviously what State Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla was demonstrating when he presented his FL Legislative accomplishments to the South Miami City Commission last week. The hapless Diaz de la Portilla slipped up and stated that the $200,000 sanitary sewer appropriation was needed for South Miami's "growth and expansion". South Miami's "green-washed" Mayor quickly corrected him and stated that the appropriation was intended for sanitary sewer because of the immediate threat of sea level rise in South Miami.

Anonymous said...

Daniella has a great heart, but she has been supporting Flores a lot on social media and in public. Is she going to publicly support Andrew Korge? If so, when? He is all over the district trying to beat republicans and Flores. Daniella - please stop supporting Flores and start supporting Andrew Korge! We must beat these crazy republicans like Lynda bell and anitere Flores!

Anonymous said...

So our local rock quarries cannot use limestone that has been tainted with saltwater...that's a good nugget of information to know.

Anonymous said...

Daniella is not inexperienced, she can pay hardball when she wants to, she has chosen to play not realizing that she's being used. She has aligned herself with the wrong side of issues from the beginning - she endorsed Gimenez long before she gave SAVEDADE the OK to endorse him 5 months ahead of the election, and people find that move pathetic. Shawn Macrakin? who's that?

Greenwashing, yes, that's what's happening with those legislators that are coming to save the environment now that their seats are in trouble. Shame on the Everglades Foundation! -

Anonymous said...

I read the letter. Pathetic. Both Audubon and The Everglades Foundation deserve 40 lashes.

Anonymous said...

Sean is Daniella's Chief of Staff even though she says he is not.

cyndi said...

Republican Everglades Foundation. hahahaha i love it. Everyone sucks up to him. He hired Sarah Bascoms pr company to do the website to buy the land. She also works for a bunch of Republicans including Joe Negron. She once put up a photo of a group that doesn't like us very much and call them the River Kidz. I have started a page of environmental candidates give me your best pics for down there.

Anonymous said...

Who is Andrew Korge but the son of uber developer, millionaire Chris Korge? He's only worked for his daddy. Give me a break!

Geniusofdespair said...

Well who is Lauren Book also running for State Senate? Only way to get Democrats elected because no one will fund them.

Anonymous said...

Daniella does care about the environment, she's the only commissioner who's doing anything about it. And she probably knows more about the players and issues than you think- she was a community organizer for decades. This event was organized long before the Turkey Point leaks story broke. She has to be able to talk to the SOBs to get anything fixed. If you turn on the few people of good will in the system then there won't be any left.

Aunt Bea said...

People of good will don't support a company that funds a petition drive to discourage solar energy use in our fair State.

Geniusofdespair said...

I agree Daniella Levine cares about all environmental issues. I do not believe the Everglades Foundation does. I think they stomp on some issues and look the other way, if the issues are not directly in their focus. And, I think they are way out of bounds with the Hawaii letter. If not for that letter, I wouldn't be writing about them. They stepped over the cliff and what goes down cannot get get back up.

Anonymous said...

Daniella, why are you supporting Flores and not Korge? Flores is against immigrants, choice, lgbt, environment, and loves the NRA. What is really going on here?

Anonymous said...

wait, who said levine-cava is supporting flores? just because they were on the same panel it doesnt mean they are friends. levine-cava is a well known lefty liberal, i'm sure she will support the democrat. (if he has even qualified yet?)

Anonymous said...

I think it's great that Flores and a bunch of other republicans are excited to ride on Daniella's environmental coat tails and show up at her events. It's on them that they are so eager to be seen embracing a "lefty liberal's" agenda...

Anonymous said...

@Last anon--this is Floriduh--there are virtually no liberals/progressives--other than Alan Grayson. Get with reality

el mamut said...

Off the top of my head: Kathy Castor, Nan Rich, Alcee Hastings, Phil Stoddard, Claude Pepper, Darren Soto, Lawton Chiles, Geraldine Thompson, Ted Deutch, Jeff Clemens, Dante Fascell, Dwight Bullard, Rick Kriseman, Frederica Wilson. Granted, some of them are dead, and a few had the temerity to work with Republicans or endorse a Clinton, but I think they all made important gains for the left. Liberalism is allowed in Florida, even for people who aren't potty-mouthed hedge fund millionaires like Grayson.

Anonymous said...

Daniella has been parading around with Flores at multiple events and on social media. As a south Dade voter, I got the impression she was supporting Flores. Then I read about Flores right wing record, and just became confused. I think Daniella should stop letting Flores use her to appear moderate and to get democratic votes.

Anonymous said...

Water table down 1 foot in SE everglades. Waiting for sink holes to start opening up. Will that happen?