In Miami-Dade, Republican Politics Continue To Damage Taxpayers ... and it's worse than you think ... by gimleteye

Today, the Miami-Dade County Commission may rubber stamp an agreement with Florida Power and Light, the monopolistic supplier of electricity to South Florida. The plan -- to re-use wastewater -- is touted as a "win-win". That's spin.

The plan, they claim, is a public good that will stop the outflow of the county's polluted waste water to the ocean and solve the Turkey Point cooling canal disaster at the same time. The cooling canals have been failing for many years, ladling hundreds of tons of super salty water per day into Florida's fragile drinking water aquifer and the waters of a national park.

Here is where the joint agreement falls flat on its face. FPL has neatly camouflaged its claim the waste water will be "clean" by writing the agreement in such a way that water quality standards cannot be enforceable.

It has done so, with broad recognition -- if not by the broader public -- that FPL has run circles for decades around regulators for the state who regularly show up in the revolving door between the company and government. (Mike Sole, former chief Florida environmental regulator, is now the public face of FPL -- and an influential member of the board of the Everglades Foundation.)

At the county level, FPL's arm twisting has been blatant.

If you haven't already noticed (cf. Trump White House and US EPA), the only intact principle of the GOP is protecting the right of polluters to profit at the public expense. It is, for example, the reason that Trump brightly defends Scott Pruitt, an EPA administrator who understands his responsibility to be the dismantling of federal authority to protect the nation's air and water. Gov. Rick Scott? He is right in line with the polluters.

Here is what this acidic observation has to do with today's county commission decision. It is a point of view that the Miami Herald ought to consider amplifying: how the insidious creep of deregulation is leaving taxpayers naked.

The county commissioners, the mayor, and big polluters like FPL understand the new playing field created by the GOP: when you stop environmental regulation at the federal level, and when you cripple rules and regulations at the state level, what you are left with is major decision-making involving difficult science and complexity at the local level: Miami Dade county, where environmental staffers are handed bows and arrows to fight lightning bolts. Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the politically ambitious chairman, Esteban Bovo, are apparently fine with that.

The premise of federal authority is that it is the place where the playing field can be level. Now, with the knee-capping of state regulatory authority -- Gov. Rick Scott and GOP'ers like Adam Putnam fired that metaphorical gun -- taxpayers can only watch the outcomes. That's how state road 836 is going to be extended, along with the rights of developers, further towards the Everglades and over critical farmland and wetlands we know are needed for a safe, secure future for taxpayers. It's also how FPL can get away scott-free, to claim it is delivering "clean" re-use water to badly damaged Biscayne Bay and a national park.

These events don't happen by coincidence. Very smart lawyers and lobbyists are paid handsomely to deliver results for their clients, and they require the acquiescence of elected officials to cross the "t's" and to dot the "i's". The rationales are cooked to perfection like a dulce de leche millefoile birthday cake where everyone wants second helpings. Doubters, ask this question: why is Florida swimming in a sea of pollution today? It is no coincidence. This is what you voted for. The polluters call this "intelligent design" and barring a miracle of sound judgment descending over County Hall -- another example is going to be delivered today.

Guest Blog: "Sham" Congressional field hearing on Biscayne National Park is par for the environmental course ...

Gimleteye comment: Sad to say, when members of Congress hold "field hearings" to gauge public responses to policy proposals, they have already made up their minds.

My first experience of Congressional field hearings on the environment, however, was different. The year was 1989. The place was Key Colony Beach in the Florida Keys. The occasion was a Congressional field hearing for the expansion of protections for the Keys national wildlife refuges through a new national marine sanctuary program, then in its planning stages. The hearing was managed by a handsome, rugged young Congressman (Democratic) from northern California: George Miller.

After a forty year career in Congress, Miller retired in 2010. He was a giant for progressive causes. At that field hearing in 1989, he not only had a command of fact but he paid particularly close attention to the testimony of citizens. I talked with him after and thanked him for being unfazed by rancor being spread, at the hearing, by the Florida Keys branch of the right-wing Sagebrush Rebellion; birthed during the Reagan presidency by well-funded Republican conservatives.

Miller knew what he was up against, and for me, it was the first and last Congressional hearing I attended in Florida where the public voice appeared to count. The Huffington Post published an interview with Miller on his retirement: "I was told a long time ago by my former chief of staff, John Lawrence, that in politics, nothing is permanent. There are no permanent victories and when you win something tonight, you have to defend it tomorrow morning," Miller said.

Such is the case, especially, with the environment. Three decades on, it requires a caveat: while there are no permanent victories, the reality of climate change is that there are permanent losses. In Florida, generations of environmental warriors have staked their faith on the belief in the regenerative capacity of nature. In other words, given adequate breathing space from commercial exploitation and greed, even the Everglades and its component ecosystems can recover.

That is why each skirmish -- whether for Biscayne National Park or the marine stadium in the City of Miami or the shallow water reefs affected by the Port of Miami, or the Lake Belt in West Miami Dade and encroachment by wealthy rock miners, or the fight for the Urban Development Boundary -- is important.

But even as community activists struggle to protect baselines and to use governmental processes to improve the chances for the environment, for parks and public participation, well-funded adversaries who dominate the political spectrum are hard at work to justify their own imperatives as "enough", as "fact-based", as "highest and best use". Over three decades, it hasn't been a pretty exercise in democracy.

Congressional field hearings on the environment are a tried and true recipe for frustrating and alienating voters. Guest Blogger Mark Bonaparte's observations fit this conclusion with respect to three GOP members of Congress -- Ros Lehtinen, Curbelo, and Diaz-Balart -- , otherwise noted in the companion cartoon: why vote? Because it is the only way, short of revolution, to make democracy work.

From: Mark Bonaparte [mailto:MarkBonaparte@att.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 11:27 PM
Subject: A skewed Joint Oversight Field Hearing Regarding Biscayne National Park

Hello,

Yesterday, my wife Dorothy A Rider and I attended the House Natural Resources Committee and Small Business Committee Joint Field Hearing on recreational and commercial fishing access in Biscayne National Park. (Please find Rep. CurBelo's follow up release below).

The National Park Service's recently decided to create a "no-fishing" marine reserve for the Biscayne National Park in Miami, Florida because of collapsing fish populations and the degraded reef ecology. For years fishing, heavy boat traffic, anchors and traps lines and have crushed corals and raked the seagrass. The park adopted a new Fisheries Management Plan that would reduce and phase out Biscayne National Park's current levels of commercial fishing. Then corral reefs and fish populations can recover.
ad more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article23137869.html#storylink=cpy

U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo called for this "fact finding" meeting but from the type of questions, tone, slant and demeanor of Rep. Ros-Lehtinen it soon became obvious to me that Reps. Ros-Lehtinen already had her mind made up. Then, at the end of the meeting it was revealed that she had already proposed legislation! ....... Then why the sham of pretending to have an open meeting? She and the purpose of the meeting were disingenuous!

Reps. Curbelo is more concerned with commercial fishing and the impact to the areas small business, than the health of Biscayne National Park. So I bear witness. I have been a certified SCUBA diver since 1967. Prior to that I was a snorkler since I was 3 years old. I have personally seen the degradation of un-managed reefs and un-regulated commercial fishing in the Caribbean and South Florida. I have also seen damaged reef systems and fish populations restored when the natural ecology is restored by the implementation of preserves and parks.

If Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo intentions are to have fishing, boating and tourism, then the park needs to be healthy and right now Biscayne National Park needs CPR, not political favoritism. Don't try to re-invent the wheel. The science is there from all over the world. Well managed ecologically focused parks are GREAT for people, business and the environment.

Thank you,
Mark Bonaparte

CC: Sierra Club, South Florida Wildlands Association, Tropical Audubon Society, National Parks Conservation Association, Miami Herald


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Brittany Martinez at (202) 225-2778 or Curbelopress@mail.house.gov

Rep. Curbelo Participates in Joint Oversight Field Hearing Regarding Biscayne National Park

Homestead, FL—Yesterday, Florida Reps. Curbelo, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, and Jolly were joined by Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia and Chairman Rob Bishop of Utah, who all participated in a House Natural Resources Committee and Small Business Committee Joint Field Hearing on recreational and commercial fishing access in Biscayne National Park. Rep. Curbelo (FL-26) issued the following statement after the field hearing.

“It was enlightening to hear testimony from witnesses during yesterday’s Joint Hearing. While I share the National Park Service’s commitment to protecting Biscayne National Park’s coral reefs and fishery resources, I continue to be concerned that the final General Management Plan unnecessarily restricts the public’s access to the park and negatively affects fishermen and other small businesses. Also, further studies must be done to learn if the Park’s removal of artificial reefs within the proposed Marine Reserve has had a negative impact on the health and vibrancy of fish populations. We must find common ground to protect this South Florida heritage site that works for fishermen, divers, and conservationists.”


For a great overview of this subject see: http://archive.mailermailer.com/view/101286005s-7cd318f7*1140417h-2fe2629e

County Commissioner Barbara Jordan: What the hell is going on? By Geniusofdespair

I don't think we got an environmental vote from Commission Barbara Jordan since 2004, that is when Betty T. Ferguson left office and Jordan came in. She has been a member of our unreformable majority forever, never agreeing with environmentalists.

So if we never got a good vote from Barbara Jordan in a decade, the whole time she has been in office, imagine my shock when she sponsored this for the December 16th County Commission Meeting:

RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE CREATION OF A MARINE RESERVE WITHIN BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK IN ORDER TO BETTER ENSURE THE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION OF THE MARINE RESOURCES IN BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK; URGING THE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE SOUTH EAST REGION OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, AND THE SUPERINTENDENT OF BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK TO CREATE SUCH A MARINE RESERVE WITHIN BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK

All I have to say: What is she up to? Her district is as far as you can get from the park. Does she have cancer or something? I can't imagine why she has so radically changed to put this on the agenda. She has a rental property in Key West. Did that make her suddenly interested in protecting coral reefs and mutton snapper? She calls the National Park a "job creator" and an "economic driver." Is she dating the park manager? I am flamboozled by this one. Yes, I know it is only a feel good resolution -- but from her? She has never made me feel good: EVER. Anyone have an answer?

The body of the legislative text:

FPL: Let no crisis go to waste on its march to new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point… by gimleteye

For the past few days, EOM has written about serious problems in FPL's Turkey Point nuclear reactors. The recent "uprating" of the aging nuclear reactors -- built in the 1970's -- has increased stresses on a massive cooling canal system, already failing to perform according to binding legal commitments to the state. For many years, state regulators have been aware that salt water intrusion and the radioactive marker tritium have been moving westward toward population centers because of a cooling canal system malfunction, although the company has gone to great lengths to dilute its responsibilities. Now, a toxic algae bloom is clogging the canal system, elevating temperatures to the edge of the red line for safe operation of the reactors.

The Miami Herald reports the story, today: "Rising water temperatures and severe algae blooms in cooling canals have threatened to force the shutdown of two nuclear reactors at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point plant over the last few weeks." (http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/16/4239899/hot-weather-threatens-cooling.html#storylink=cpy)

The Herald report clearly simplifies a complex topic: the role of the cooling canals in maintaining the safe operation of the nuclear reactors. The Herald notes that FPL and the state have agreed to the emergency measure of spraying chemicals in the canal system to reduce the algae bloom and are planning a further unprecedented measure: to use deep aquifer brackish water to dilute the hyper saline conditions in the canal that FPL acknowledges, in its roundabout way, significantly cause saltwater migration westward.

But the Herald report misses the key point: this crisis -- a real and present danger to the safety of South Floridians -- serves a further purpose for FPL. What FPL is proposing is not just to pull rabbits out of its hat to solve the cooling canal problem, but to dramatically alter the terms of its accountability to government agencies in Florida so that if the rabbits turn out to be confetti, no big deal.

The corporation's lobbyists and attorneys have been working behind closed doors with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to offer a new agreement to the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District in the near future. The plan will offer the patina of corporate remedies to address the cooling canal mess. But beneath the surficial detail, what the plan does in its broad concept is free FPL from a history of consent agreements it signed with the State of Florida, and in particular from the supervision of scientists of the South Florida Water Management District.

Prior agreements and promises made by FPL to the public in its 1972 operating permit, that the operation of the nuclear reactors including the cooling canal system, would not harm either people or the environment would now give way to a much clearer path for FPL to take whatever water it needs to cool the new and proposed nuclear reactors. What FPL appears to be saying to the public is: you want nuclear power and more nuclear power at Turkey Point, but we have evidence that we need more fresh water to run our reactors safely, and even if the water is more than we thought we needed forty years ago and even if there are real environmental impacts -- they are not all our fault -- we are just going to have to get our water before anyone else gets theirs.

Better to rewrite pesky promises made in the distant past, before the state and corporation march to the NRC for the new proposed nuclear reactors, Six and Seven, that would make Turkey Point the largest nuclear power generator in the nation, in a state judged most vulnerable in the nation to the impacts of climate change.

Something is wrong at FPL's Turkey Point Nuclear … by gimleteye

Florida Power and Light's water quality problems at its Turkey Point nuclear facility are well established by the record of inaction and the failure of the state of Florida to stop FPL's hyper-saline coolant water traveling underground, in the direction of Homestead and Florida City population centers, from the Turkey Point cooling canal system (CCS).

Now there is another issue, requiring extraordinary measures to keep the nuclear reactors working. Apparently, severe algae blooms in the plant's cooling canals are threatening the plant operation. In the last few weeks, a flurry of correspondence between the South Florida Water Management District and Biscayne National Park have disclosed anxiety about the solutions proposed by FPL and accepted by the state without public input: the massive application of chemical treatment and the emergency use of deep aquifer water to cool down the water before it enters Biscayne National Park.

In its original plans for the two nuclear reactors, FPL had intended to dump its very hot, saline coolant water directly into Biscayne National Park. A lawsuit and intervention by environmental groups resulted in an important FPL concession to water quality concerns. The nuclear facility is required to operate hundreds of miles of cooling canals under an agreement with the state agency, the South Florida Water Management District.

Part of the agreement is the assurance by FPL to monitor and to mitigate any performance failures of the cooling canals. Although FPL successfully maintains its "good neighbor" marketing program to the public, it has been less than truthful about significant problems in containing the canals' hyper saline water.

According to its website FPL is a really good environmental steward, "About nine-tenths of the Turkey Point property remains in its natural state of mangroves and fresh water wetlands. There are more than 60 known species of birds and animals that inhabit the property. Of these, 17 are endangered. The endangered American crocodile enjoys a favorable habitat in the plant cooling canal system. We protect the crocodile and conduct research by counting crocodile nests annually to record population changes. More than 3,000 crocodiles have been marked and released, and FPL is committed to continuing protection of the species while encouraging ongoing public education. This program and the plant's unique habitat for crocodiles has attracted national attention by CNN Headline News, Disney and National Geographic."

Perhaps CNN Headline News ought to report the June 25 correspondence from the acting superintendent of Biscyane National Park, George McHugh,

"... We are concerned about water quality in the Turkey Point cooling canals and the apparent ongoing trend in decreasing water quality. We would like to know the status of investigations and negotiations that may be in process to evaluate the issues associated with poor water quality in the cooling canals. We would like to see further investigation and review by a multi-agency technical team to understand the apparently broad poor water quality trends, their source, and potential solutions. Given that the cooling canal area has hydrologic connections to surrounding groundwater and thus surface waters, including Biscayne National Park, we see this as a critical water quality issue for the Park. We believe that this phenomena and any resulting actions by Florida Power and Light with respect to addressing water quality on site at the Turkey Point Power Plant site, including treatment to plant structures, should be reviewed by the regulatory agencies responsible for oversight. These agencies would include but not be limited to Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Miami-Dade County Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER), U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

On July 11th, the South Florida Water Management District responded in its typical style of scrubbing bad news: first, decline to admit there is any data revealing environmental problems then acknowledge extraordinary measures are being taken to address the problems that might have sprung up from nowhere: "A review of several years’ worth of data collected under the monitoring program has not indicated any adverse impacts to the waters of Biscayne Bay from the CCS (FPL cooling canal system). As your staff is aware, monitoring data has shown that hypersaline water from the CCS has migrated westward at depth in the groundwater. (EOM italics) The Department and the SFWMD have put FPL on notice that abatement measures must be implemented and we anticipate issuance of an Administrative Order in the near future to address these issues. (EOM note: foot-dragging by FPL and the corporation's refusal to substantively correct violations of its agreement with the state has gone on for many years.)

FPL recently has reached out to a number of agencies for assistance, including the Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and SFWMD, regarding a recent increase in CCS water temperature, which has been exacerbated by the presence of algae blooms in the canal. Agency staff inspections of the facility in response to reports of the current algae bloom indicate the bloom is limited to the CCS itself. It is not unusual for wastewater treatment ponds to exhibit algae growth in the hot summer months--hot weather and lack of rainfall likely have contributed to the bloom.

The current severity of the bloom and its potential impact on FPL’s ability to generate electricity for South Florida required immediate actions to be taken. To that end, on June 27 the Department approved FPL’s request to use a combination of copper sulfate, hydrogen peroxide and bio-stimulants (copper sulfate blend) in the CCS to address the current algae bloom; which are commonly used to treat algae blooms in aquatic systems. ... Also on June 27, the SFWMD supported FPL’s request to temporarily use groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer that had previously been permitted for use as process and process cooling water, to decrease the temperature in the CCS. (EOM emphasis) This support was memorialized in an amendment to Turkey Point’s site license, issued by the Siting Coordination Office. ... FPL will continue to evaluate the causes of the recent algae bloom and CCS temperature increase, and will identify, develop, and implement a more long term solution."

It is remarkable for the state to first admit that FPL is failing to meet its obligations in the first instance with respect to groundwater violations -- while completely avoiding why it has failed to enforce against the corporation -- and then to immediately take the corporation's side in assuring that the corporations will be responsible sometime in the future on problems with the cooling water in the canal system itself.

The use of Floridan aquifer water is of particular concern because Miami-Dade County has dumped billions of gallons of scarcely treated municipal wastewater into the Florida aquifer only a few miles away through so-called "injection control wells". The South Dade Wastewater Treatment facility -- only a few miles from Turkey Point -- takes the torrent of used water filled with human discharges, water from cruise ships, waste from industrial and hospital applications, from mortuaries to kitchens to satisfy demands for low-cost growth for construction and the massive development of population centers while maintaining a scrim of environmental responsibility. At the bare minimum, FPL and the state of Florida should report to the public exactly the water quality statistics and data from the use of Floridan water and regularly update the public on the FPL emergency.

CNN and news organizations should also report this issue in the context of FPL's ambitions to build two new nuclear reactors at the lowest-lying, most climate-change threatened area of coastline in the nation. Although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ought to consider the new permits -- due for consideration by 2016 after an EIS is completed -- in the context of severe problems with the operation of the existing nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, so far these issues have been segregated as though they were in their own cooling canals waiting for the critics to melt away.

FPL Nuclear and Bipolar Disorder: what happened yesterday at the county commission ... by gimleteye

Miami-Dade environmentalists turned out at the county commission yesterday to object to two "unusual use permits" sought by FPL for its $20 billion new nuclear reactors. They never got the chance.

It was a curious performance by the county commission. One observer noted, "First, three or four commissioners call in saying they will not attend. Then it takes until 10:15 AM before Barbara Jordan shows up so they have a quorum of seven. Then, nobody noticed that the acting chair disappeared about 11:00AM so they no longer had a quorum. Finally, when they were down to about four, they realized they did not have a quorum and postponed the meeting. And this was not a zoning meeting about some one's fence or tool shed; this was about billions of dollars of nuclear energy at Turkey Point."

Yesterday I wrote that citizen objectors to zoning by the county commission never participate in the back room dealing that points to predetermined outcomes. A bare quorum of the county commission indicated that nothing would happen at the meeting of substance. That is exactly what happened when FPL made its forty five minute presentation and a few commissioners vanished from the dais when citizens began to testify.

Having lost the quorum, the meeting was adjourned with a milk-toast apology by Commissioner Bovo to the objectors who sat, absorbing what had just happened. It is not a pretty picture.

Paying attention, you can read between the lines. This is a "quasi-judicial" proceeding, meaning that FPL is not supposed to talk directly with elected officials, and elected officials, of course, are not supposed to talk among themselves. FPL has spent a lot of time with county staff, and county staff act as intermediaries with the elected officials.

Just listening to the presentations: FPL is trying to ram permits through the county, for a water re-use plant, to provide cooling water for the new nukes, in high quality wetlands. That is an industrial use that violates the Dade County master plan. FPL is also trying to get the county to approve a scheme for back up water supply for the new nukes.

Over the past six years, FPL has muscled its plan for new nuclear forward, not just with county staff, but also with the state and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. By yesterday, the deal had not yet been cooked with the county.

The county commission was not ready to roll over for FPL, and if it managed to irritate the environmentalists by dragging them to county hall then refusing them the chance to offer their testimony, then the commission was killing two birds with one stone. Some day the environmentalists will sue: they are already locking procedural horns with FPL. Either way, it was no skin off FPL's back.

To be sure, the cost of assorted consultants and payroll to FPL was expensive: an exercise is building pension portfolios for the assorted lawyers, consultants and experts.

So what are we to do? We adore the electricity the utility provides. Can't live without it. Talk about hiding in the tall weeds of complexity. We are all uniquely compromised by our dependencies. The grand bargain confers unreasonable power to corporate executives who themselves are causing massive harm to the public through the unique forms of bipolar disorder connecting corporate mandates for profit to the implacable realities of global warming.

It was mildly entertaining to listen to the FPL attorney and consultants insist, in relation to the so-called radial collector wells -- the backup water supply -- that state authority pre-empts Miami-Dade County. When it is convenient, FPL routinely insists that county has the right to its jurisdiction, never mind what the state does. After all, as the attorneys pointed out: in 2007 the county commission "approved" the new nuclear reactors. At the same time, FPL has frustrated the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) with incomplete information, data, and submittals.

State environmental agencies continue to turn a blind eye to legal, binding agreements made with FPL decades ago that require the company to prevent the intrusion of hyper saline water, inland in south from its existing, two nuclear reactors. The salt water intrusion issue in South Dade is a cluster-fuck of enormous proportions. (If those wellfields turn to salt, it serves South Dade right; all those bankers, farmers and commissioners who made tossed salad of environmental concerns over the years and decades will have earned the result.)

In other words, FPL puts light to the struggle between states rights and federal interests, and issues of county jurisdiction. It is great fodder for political gridlock, but it is disinformation of the nation's most powerful utilities.

That said, I have a certain feeling for The Leviathan. Yes, it sounds perverse. The Leviathan has a planning horizon of decades, and know we do not have decades before our economic stability is eroded by rising seas. There is a role for nuclear -- in my opinion -- because of global warming. Just not at sea level and not in South Florida. This dance with the nuclear devil is a disgrace, but climate change is over-running our capacity to adapt.

What FPL is attempting at Turkey Point is wrong. Very smart people are being paid a small fortune to carry out bad plans and decisions of executives at the top.

We do have an energy policy crisis at the national level. If you think that FPL is intractable; try out the fossil fuel industries for size and comparison. Trying to offer a clear picture is a form of pleading: the nation's utilities are part of the problem, and there is no solution without them.

The struggle over the new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point is a waste of precious time, talent and money. Early cost recovery -- approved by the GOP legislature -- allows everyone involved (except the environmentalists, of course) to feather their nests while the years drag us along.

In my opinion, there is zero chance new nuclear reactors will be built at Turkey Point, but this will take years to become clear. Adversaries who might better cooperate to address the realities of retreating from coastlines while providing safe passage for the economy are like hamsters on a wheel. And if new reactors are built there is a high likelihood that the costs will triple when they will have to be decommissioned because of rising seas during their service lifetimes.

That won't stop the Miami-Dade county commission from rolling over, when the coast is clear. (That could be in early January, when the commission is scheduled to meet again and allow testimony from those who wasted their time, yesterday.) It won't stop the state of Florida from rolling over, either.

So what will stop the reactors? It could be extreme weather. It could be extreme flooding and storms. It could be the will of Congress. It could be federal lawsuits by environmentalists. But what it should be, is the nation's utilities coming together to demand a sea change to their own profit models.

There are plenty of top utility executives who understand the status quo that makes them rich is unsustainable. If they have a shred of integrity they will use the attached video as a preamble to a conference where they apply human capital, based on their own need for survival, to come up with a sustainable energy portfolio for the nation that makes economic sense and gradually reduces carbon emissions to zero.

Also read: For citizen objectors, what it is like to testify at a county commission zoning hearing.

Biscayne National Park Wants to Dispel Rumors. By Geniusofdespair

Mark Lewis, Superintendent of Biscayne National Park (a marine park), wrote a letter to the Miami Herald about the new Management Plan. Some fisherman are in an uproar because they say that the plan bans them from fishing in most of the park. In response Lewis says:

"The park is proposing that only 7 percent of the waters be included in the marine reserve. This leaves the vast majority of the park — 151,000 acres — open to fishing."

I am including the whole letter because I don't like rumors (unless I make them up):

Florida Keys -- shifting baselines ... by gimleteye

I received my introduction to Florida politics and the environment in Key West. In the late 1980's, one of my initial forays as an advocate was to help support the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. On Keys-wide cable I hosted a talk show on the Sanctuary with the first sanctuary manager, Billy Causey.

Causey was quoted in a press account last week related to a new study by the Marine Sanctuary: "Condition Report 2011". "Today we know more about coral reefs than ever before in history," Causey said. "We see ['Conditions Report 2011'] as a baseline. We will make it better from here."

I understand it is important to build public interest and support for public investments necessary to protect the Everglades and Florida Bay. But I also strongly oppose sugar-coating the rapid destruction of natural resources in Florida. By sugar-coating, one avoids the facts how the costs of pollution are shifted by industry and legislatures onto the backs of taxpayers.

Causey calls the new study a "baseline", but the marine sanctuary established in 1990 was also supposed to be a baseline. What happened to that baseline? Shifting goal posts is the unavoidable legacy of efforts to restore Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and the Everglades.

Get Outdoors! here is a really good thing to do with your kids... by gimleteye

National Geographic Society and National Park Service NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACTS: Carol Seitz Linda Friar
(202) 775-6186 (305) 242 7714
cseitz@ngs.org
Linda_Friar@nps.gov

BISCAYNE BIOBLITZ: Taking stock of Miami’s closest national park
Public invited to help with 24-hour race to discover and record species

HOMESTEAD, FL (April 12, 2010) – Grab your gear and join the National Park
Service and the National Geographic Society at the Biscayne BioBlitz. On
April 30 and May 1, teams of scientists, naturalists, community leaders,
students, and the public will join forces to discover and inventory every
living plant and creature in and out of the water at Biscayne National
Park.


This free, two-day, round-the-clock event is part scientific endeavor, part
festival and part outdoor classroom. The BioBlitz’s goals are to record as
many living organisms in the park as possible in 24 hours, to increase
awareness of the diverse species found in Miami’s closest national park and
to better understand how to protect the natural environment in the future.

Sylvia Earle, renowned oceanographer and National Geographic
Explorer-in-Residence, and Kenny Broad, a National Geographic Emerging
Explorer and director of the University of Miami’s Leonard and Jayne Abess
Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, are among the participating
scientists.

The “Celebrate Biodiversity Festival” will follow the species count on May
1, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Highlights of the festival include family
activities, live music, demonstrations, displays, presentations and
opportunities to talk with scientists and see them in action. The
“Endangered World” art exhibition, with Miami artist Xavier Cortada, will
also be featured at the festival.

“Explorers” of all ages are invited. Activities will be ongoing throughout
the two-day event at the main “base camp” located at Biscayne National
Park’s Dante Fascell Visitor Center and at a smaller “base camp” on Elliott
Key. Advance registration is required to reserve a spot on a snorkeling
boat or “ferry” to Elliott Key, where many of the inventories will take
place. No registration is needed to participate in the base camp activities
or for the festival, both of which will be held at Biscayne’s Visitor
Center complex. All parking for the event will be off-site, with shuttle
transportation provided. To learn more about the Biscayne BioBlitz or to
register, log on to www.nationalgeographic.com/bioblitz or call (800)
638-6400 ext. 6186.

No more fish? Let the people eat cake ... by gimleteye

A noteworthy report in The New York Times, "In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local", makes the case obvious to anyone with half a brain in their heads over the past fifty years: the vision of the oceans to be the world's future breadbasket is rapidly fading in the rear view mirror. I grew up with that vision. I can remember it in my fourth grade social studies because we were tested on it: where will our future food come from? From the oceans.

Damien Cave reports from the Florida Keys, that special bastion of ignorance when it comes to measuring the impact and calibrating the response of rules and regulations meant to protect natural resources. Cave notes how little fish consumed in the Keys actually comes from Florida waters. We haven't been able to protect our fisheries because we live in an age of Idiocy where the reality of scarcer resources we need to survive provokes the opposite of conservation-- it provokes the impulses of greed: get what you can, while it lasts. We live in a time when being "for" a rule or regulation to protect the long term interest-- which surely, the health of oceans is-- instantly summons a hail of spitfire and brimstone from Fox News acolytes and dittoheads fueled by corporate interests. Instead of common sense and wisdom, we get a race to the bottom where crabs and scavengers flourish. That's freedom.

"Jerald S. Ault, a marine biologist at the University of Miami and an expert in statistical assessment of underwater populations, acknowledged that scientists were still struggling to assess the damage from coastal condominiums and houses, which have destroyed many of the mangroves where fish develop." Well, yes: the scientists and agency officials will not only study, they will spend millions of dollars meeting in hotel rooms and banquet halls to build careers and devise new reports that will take decades to accomplish and end up on some county commissioner's shelf, who doesn't like its conclusions because they don't please her campaign contributors. (I'm talking about county commission Natacha Seijas (VNS), from Hialeah, who killed the South Dade Watershed Study-- the most exhaustive study of a water shed in the US, shelved after objections by local bankers and the engineering and development cartel. What is so stupid about Seijas' reign of power is that her positions against environmental rules protecting shorelines and wetlands don't mesh with the considerable interest of Cuban Americans in fishing. Oh well: we get the democracy we deserve.)

You don't have to look any further than Biscayne Bay, where until the mid-1950's a highly productive fishery provided both food and incomes for MIami and beyond. It has all been fished out, and the fish have been prevented from coming back by the destruction of breeding habitat on mangrove coastlines sacrificed to development. “Unfortunately,” he (Ault) said of today’s fishermen, “certain people have to pay a price for other people not paying attention to the resource.” The people not paying attention to the resource would be all of us and the Idiocracy that passes for elected officials and their legislatures over a very long period of time. It would be all of us who keep blindly putting deposits in banks and financial institutions whose shareholders couldn't care less about protecting a resource if it affects their bottom lines. Then, they pass of their own net worth issues as grandly important to the broader public interest; in "jobs, jobs, jobs" or some other hooey.

I have empathy for fishermen. In large part, the joy of fishing and Florida's bays brought me here. I have spent the better part of 20 years fighting with conservation groups so that future generations might have the same joys I have experienced, fishing on Florida's bays. I have learned, too, that many of the people and interests on the other side, also love to fish. Just not here, anymore.

Right now, the US EPA is trying to impose standards on nutrient pollution in Florida; one of the very most important measures to heal the food chain that fisheries depend on. This important effort has been opposed by the state of Florida for decades, fortified by campaign cash. The energy for this opposition comes from Florida's agricultural industry, from developers, and the Chamber of Commerce: all of whose constituents take their own fishing away from Florida to the Bahamas, or Gulf of Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica for predictable reasons. Nowadays, if you want to eat fish in the Florida Keys, more likely than not it is frozen from one of those places our own gold-plated standards have not touched. God bless, America.


March 30, 2010
In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local
By DAMIEN CAVE
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — The postcard Florida experience: sun, fun and plenty of local seafood. It was the latter that brought Gary and Vicki Haller from Kansas to Wahoo’s here last week, with its waterfront views, toucan colors and promise of fresh food “from our docks.”

“We live in cow country,” Mr. Haller said. “Here we eat fish.”

But the fish in his “belly buster” sandwich actually traveled farther than he did. It was Pangasius, a freshwater catfish from Vietnam. The grouper and tuna were also imports, according to Wahoo’s managers. And the “local” label on the menu? It still applied, they insisted, because their distributor was down the road.

Florida, from sea to plate, just is not the seafood buffet it once was. Reeling from a record, fish-killing cold snap and tougher federal limits on what can be caught, commercial fishermen and charter-boat captains are struggling. Distributors and restaurants are relying more and more on imported seafood — some of it clearly labeled, a lot of it not.

Federal fisheries managers say that a law reauthorized by Congress in 2006 now requires them to take more aggressive action against overfishing. They cut back the legal catch for some kinds of snapper last year, and 11 species of grouper are now off limits from January through April on the Atlantic coast. It is the longest ban on record for grouper and the first to include both commercial and recreational fleets.

In a state that bills itself as “the fishing capital of the world” — with a commercial industry worth $5.2 billion and a recreational one worth $4.4 billion — thousands of anglers are angry.

“For a fisherman that works 12 months a year, you’ve just taken a third of his livelihood,” said Tom Hill, whose family has owned Key Largo Fisheries since 1972. “You’ve also taken away the ability of someone who comes here to enjoy a local piece of fish.”

Last month, several thousand fishermen from all over the country held a “sea party” protest in Washington to demand that federal fishing limits be loosened.

They were especially concerned about a series of proposals that would continue a ban on catching red snapper in federal waters, as well as close off an area from North Carolina through the Florida Keys to bottom fishing for all 73 species of fish in the “snapper grouper complex.”

The proposed area for closing has since been shrunk by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, but fishermen who depend on the 6,161-square-mile area of water from Savannah, Ga., to Melbourne, Fla., remain fearful of bankruptcy.

Robert Johnson, the owner of Jodie Lynn Charters in St. Augustine, Fla., estimated that if the closing plans are approved this spring, at least 600 boats and 1,800 fishing jobs would be lost — more if bait shops, marinas and dockside bars are included.

“They’re not just saying you can’t catch red snapper; if that was it, we might survive,” Mr. Johnson said. “But when you come in and say you can’t even fish where they live because you might catch one, we can’t.”

Fishermen also argue that the science driving the fisheries’ decisions comes from limited models that exaggerate declines in fish stocks and the role fishing plays.

Jerald S. Ault, a marine biologist at the University of Miami and an expert in statistical assessment of underwater populations, acknowledged that scientists were still struggling to assess the damage from coastal condominiums and houses, which have destroyed many of the mangroves where fish develop.

But he said that peer-reviewed statistical models showed clear reason for concern. Populations of most of the snapper and grouper species once so common in Florida waters are down 30 percent or more from their historic highs, according to recent estimates.

Keeping hooks and nets out of the water is simply the clearest path to improvement, Mr. Ault said. He noted that while the state’s commercial fleet had declined by 11 percent since the 1960s, to about 24,000 registered vessels, the number of recreational fishing vessels had soared to 944,000 in 2009, up from 128,000, in 1964.

“Unfortunately,” he said of today’s fishermen, “certain people have to pay a price for other people not paying attention to the resource.”

The result — and the disconnect between marketing materials and reality — is evident not just on restaurant menus, but at fish houses like Mr. Hill’s.

Sitting on the edge of a marina, it is an open warehouse with melting ice on concrete floors, brochures bragging about Florida fish and very little actual fish from Florida. Workers in white coats were busy on a recent morning cutting snapper flown in from Mexico, and on the blue sign for shoppers, nearly everything came from far away.

Mr. Hill, 59, a serious-sounding man in a flowered shirt, ran down the list. The salmon was from Norway. The yellowfin tuna? Frozen, from Ecuador. And the dolphin, or mahi mahi? Ecuador as well, Mr. Hill said, adding that in about a month, it could be caught locally.

It was a similar scene in the coolers at Independent Seafood in West Palm Beach, where the salmon came from Scotland and the largest crates stamped Florida held frogs’ legs and alligator meat. The food from Independent Seafood will end up on white tablecloths at some of the area’s fanciest restaurants, from South Beach to Palm Beach. But most of it will have come from abroad.

“We’re sourcing stuff all over the world,” said Mike Molina, a co-owner. “If you have product that’s not readily available all the time, the restaurants don’t put them on the menu.”

Does it matter? Some say no. “It’s still good fish,” said Luis Garcia, the owner of Garcia’s, a seafood restaurant on the Miami River that buys its grouper from Mexico.

But others, like Doug Gregory, a marine biologist with the University of Florida, say that overall quality has decreased because of looser regulations in other countries and longer shipping times — if you can even believe what the menu says.

Since 2006, grouper prices have climbed, and it has become one of the most commonly misrepresented food items on Florida menus, with 241 complaints investigated by state inspectors. Even the Eatz Capital Cafe a floor below the Florida Department of Agriculture was found in 2007 to have been selling a “catch of the day” that was supposedly grouper. In fact, it was catfish.

Mr. Gregory said he had almost stopped eating seafood because of the problems. Others, like the Hallers from Kansas, may feel differently. When told of his fish sandwich’s provenance, at first Mr. Haller was appalled.

“Well that’s not good,” he said. Then he took a bite.

“It’s pretty good fish,” he added. And at least he was still in Florida.


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