Veto Effort To Gut Growth Management

Tribune Editorial Published: May 10, 2007

Bills that would shred Florida 's growth management efforts and create more costs for taxpayers should be at the top of Gov. Charlie Crist's veto list.

The more offensive measure would free the Florida Turnpike Enterprise of fiscal accountability or planning concerns. The scheme would eliminate the requirement that a toll road be able to repay half its bond debt within 12 years. It would extend the deadline for repaying all of its debt from 22 years to 30 years.

Eliminating the short-term payback requirement would allow toll roads to be built solely to encourage development in rural areas. If a road is not going to generate a reasonable return within a dozen or so years, then there is obviously no demand for it. And the state's focus should be on meeting the transportation needs of its population centers, not promoting expensive and hard-to-serve sprawling subdivisions.

At the same time, the Legislature also increased the bonding authority for turnpike projects from $4.5 billion to $9 billion, without any assurance that the money would be wisely spent. Increasing the bonding capacity while eliminating fiscal accountability is reckless. By vetoing the legislation, Crist would put the needs of Florida 's motorists ahead of the dreams of land speculators and developers.

Crist also should jettison another bill that would allow communities to change their growth plans without state oversight. Pinellas and Broward counties and the cities of Tampa , Jacksonville , Miami , Hialeah and Tallahassee would receive the exemption, purportedly because they are densely populated and do not require the attention that less developed areas need.

But oversight of local growth plans by the state Department of Community Affairs has proved invaluable in pressuring communities to fulfill their planning promises.

Crist should use his veto to remind lawmakers that smart planning saves tax dollars.

Florida finds voice on climate change

Alex Sink speaks at a conference in Tampa on global warming.

By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published May 10, 2007

TAMPA - Massachusetts , California and more than two dozen other states have been taking strong steps to deal with global warming in recent years - but not Florida .

"Florida's leaders have not been leading on the subject of climate change; we've just been on the sidelines," Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, told a crowd of about 300 gathered for a conference on global warming Wednesday.

Given the amount of coastline Florida has, that's not right, Sink said, pointing out that half of the state could wind up submerged by 2100 if some predictions of sea level rise prove true.

"We are the most vulnerable state to climate change," she said.

Florida joined 30 other states this week in a consortium that will measure and jointly track greenhouse gas emissions by major industries.

Sink said Florida should go even further, for instance pushing electric utilities to build environmentally friendly power plants. As a member of the state Cabinet, Sink gets a vote on where utilities build their plants, although not what kind.

Sink was the headline speaker at the first day of the three-day Climate Change Conference, jointly sponsored by the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University . The conference, the first of its kind ever held in Florida , drew officials from local, state and federal government agencies as well as professors, scientists and activists.

Conference organizers hope it will produce concrete recommendations for action that can be given to the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, the panel chaired by St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker that is supposed to help state leaders chart a course for the next 50 years. The commission's first report identified climate change as the most important issue for the state to deal with.

Florida is among the top 30 emitters of greenhouses gases in the world, according to Tom Peterson, executive director of the Center for Climate Strategies, and its emissions are growing faster than the national average. Florida ranks third, after Texas and California , as the state consuming the most energy, according to George Gonzalez of the University of Miami , author of The Politics of Air Pollution.

Peterson said 29 other states have come up with plans to deal with climate change, but Florida has not been one of them. However, Sink predicted that will quickly change. Gov. Charlie Crist has a strong interest in the issue, she said, noting that he wants to put solar panels on the Governor's Mansion and tools around Tallahassee in a car fueled by ethanol.

Crist has called a climate change conference of his own for July, Sink said. In his first State of the State speech in March, he talked about the need for Florida to deal with global warming. And in announcing Florida 's participation in the 31-state carbon registry, Crist said that "by effectively measuring the impacts of carbon emissions, we take the first steps towards addressing the impacts of climate change."

Sink said Florida residents and state officials began to realize the importance of the issue when the state was hit by four hurricanes in a single year. Some scientists believe global warming will lead to more hurricanes and more intense storms.

Among the 29 states that have taken steps to curb their contributions to global warming, some have been more active than others. Massachusetts sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and won a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court last month.

California , at the urging of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, passed the nation's most stringent emissions control legislation. California also worked with several New England states to set up the carbon registry.

Seeping seawater threatens Florida 's drinking supply

BY CURTIS MORGAN

With the drought elevating a perpetual problem into a critical concern, state water managers are poised today to impose severe new restrictions to combat a seeping front of sea water that threatens the water supply for hundreds of thousands of coastal residents.

All residents in Broward and Palm Beach counties would be ordered to slash lawn watering to once a week. Utilities in Hallandale Beach , Dania Beach , Lantana and Lake Worth could face shutting down wells where chloride readings, a red flag for salt water intrusion, have been rising for weeks.

Water managers defend such unprecedented steps as necessary to avert more disruptive and expensive damage -- salt contamination of coastal well fields that could force some cities to abandon primary drinking wells or install new treatment systems. At least eight more well fields, from South Miami-Dade to Palm Beach , also are considered ''at risk'' if groundwater levels fall low enough to allow an underground wedge of sea water to push deeper inland.

`A HUGE CONCERN'

''The threat of salt water intrusion is a huge concern,'' said Jesus Rodriguez, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which oversees the water supply for 16 counties.

The district's governing board will meet today in West Palm Beach to consider staff recommendations that would tighten what already rank as the toughest water-use restrictions in South Florida history.

While wildfires and wilted lawns, marshes and crops are the most visible effects of the 17-month long drought, salt intrusion looms as a major threat to the regional water supply -- already so low that drought effects could linger for years, even with a good rainy season.

If wells get too salty to supply water that meets state health standards, it could force cities to look for others sources and further strain a scare resource.

''Once that [salt] creeps in there, it could be years for the wells to be brought back on line,'' Rodriguez said. ``The scenario is a grim one. We could be talking about bottled water for the municipalities for a long time.''

The latest proposed cutbacks could prove costly for Broward and Palm Beach residents, particularly in four cities ordered to shut down major water supply wells.

In Dania Beach , public services director Dominic Orlando said the city still will be able to supply some 12,000 residents with water despite shutting down its two main wells just west of Ravenswood Road . But buying, blending and chemically treating water from Broward County and Hollywood will cost the city $100,000 more a month, an expense residents will see reflected in water bills.

''If we turn off our wells, just to break even we have to implement a surcharge of 60-plus percent,'' said Orlando . He argued that daily monitoring and a gradual decrease in pumping could protect the city's wells without punishing residents' pocketbooks.

''Just to tell us to shut down your system, geez, that's absurd,'' he said.

MORE RESTRICTIONS

Under the proposal, Miami-Dade would remain on twice-weekly watering restrictions -- for now. Above average rainfall in the county has buoyed levels in the southern portions of the Biscayne Aquifer , South Florida 's primary source of drinking water.

Still, the district considers a string of wells in South Miami-Dade, including ones that serve Florida City, the Florida Keys, Homestead and parts of the county, at potential risk because they're close to the salt water intrusion line. ''Right now, we're sort of on alert and certainly needing to conserve as a hedge against what may or may not happen over the next couple of months,'' said Doug Yoder, assistant director of Miami-Dade's Water and Sewer Department.

WAITING FOR RAIN

Though Broward and eastern Palm Beach also tap the Biscayne Aquifer, conditions are much drier there, Rodriguez said. Rainfall, despite a promising start in May, has remained well below average for a year and a half and groundwater levels continue to drop -- with no help of replenishment until the rainy season kicks in.

Lake Okeechobee serves as the region's storage reservoir, but at 9.42 feet above sea level Wednesday, it is too low to help. Last month, the district also capped withdrawals from the Everglades water conservation areas west of the suburbs, though water managers have asked federal permission to override environmental regulations to do emergency recharges of well fields.

The problem is that plunging groundwater levels along the coast could weaken what hydrologists call the ''head'' that holds back, or more accurately, slows ocean waters that have been creeping underground for decades.

The heavier salt water tends to wedge under the fresh water, forcing it inland and shrinking the aquifer's coastal boundary.

So far, salt concentrations, measured in chloride readings, remain below state health standards at the at-risk wells. But water managers say cutting local demand is a key to keeping things that way. That's why they're ordering the four most vulnerable cities to shut down pumping, Rodriquez said. A well pulling millions of gallons of water out of the ground can create a so-called cone of influence that helps pull salt water inland.

''We don't want to find ourselves in a scenario in a few weeks down the road where we're having to face a much more critical situation,'' Rodriguez said.

Intrusion is not a new concern. Utilities have been battling it since the 1930s, when new drainage canals and well fields pulled salt water deep into the Miami River .

In 1946, salinity-control gates were installed and the salt water pushed back. But a ''blob'' still remains trapped underground near Miami Springs, said Scott Prinos, a supervisory hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Over the years, engineers have learned to control the intrusion, but not stop it completely. The line has shifted in and out after droughts or heavy rains, but enough salt water has crept inland deep enough to turn a number of private and public wells brackish or too salty to use for drinking water.

MAN-MADE CANALS

The current intrusion line snakes six miles into deep Southeastern Miami-Dade, the result largely of drainage canals altering the flow of freshwater marshes. Though the line is thinner in Broward, a few miles at its widest, the risk is greater because more coastal wells were sunk near beachside cities.

Dania Beach , said Orlando , was already scouting locations for new wells farther inland. Drought concerns have expedited the search and upped investments in the water system. A contractor started drilling test wells Monday. The city also is constructing a huge new storage tank and a treatment plant that can handle more water from Broward.

He doesn't think there is any threat taps will run dry.

''The issue, I think, is that provided water is going to be a lot more expensive,'' said Orlando .

Miami Herald staff writer Jennifer Mooney Piedra contributed to this story

Charlie may be the guy to stop paving our state

Published May 10, 2007
Mike Thomas
I want you to know I am deeply committed to restoring the Everglades ecosystem. . . . I care so deeply about protecting her.

On Tuesday, I used Charlie Crist's words to blast his move toward socialized property insurance in Florida . Today, I come in praise.

That's the thing with Charlie. You think he's crazy one day and a savior the next. I don't know if he will save the environment, or at least what remains of it, primarily because the idea just seems so far-fetched.

When it comes to signing off on a good concrete pour, there are no Democrats or Republicans in Tallahassee . There only are politicians stuffing their hamster cheeks full of campaign contributions from the bulldozer lobby.

They pass feel-good greenie laws for public consumption. But then they hide the loopholes in the cracks and crevices, like Easter eggs, waiting to be discovered by the $750-an-hour land-use lawyers.

The porous laws go off to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Environmental Protection and the state's five water-management districts for interpretation. These agencies then create the field manuals for the bulldozers.

To gauge how truly green a governor is, you cannot listen to his words. You have to look at who he appoints to run the agencies.

So I was not sold by Charlie's quote. He seems to "care so deeply" about most everything; it's hard to fathom when it's real or just another Charlie moment.

Every Florida governor dating back to Bob Graham has pledged allegiance to the Everglades . And each one has stabbed this majestic swamp in the back.

But now look at Charlie's all-important appointments.

His pick to head the Department of Community Affairs -- the state's land-management agency -- is Tom Pelham. He is someone who actually thinks growth should be managed.

Crist's pick for secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, Michael Sole, actually thinks the environment should be protected.

Environmentalists were downright giddy about the choices, while development interests were downright quiet.

But Crist's appointments to the five water-management district boards are even more interesting. These people oversee the day-to-day regulation of Florida 's environment.

Governors traditionally stack the boards with flunkies from the regulated industries -- developers and their lawyers, farmers and so on. There is a permanent seat set aside for sugar growers on the South Florida board.

This sleazy system has been in place for so long that people simply have grown to accept it.

But now comes Charlie.

The pro-development chairman of the South Florida board, appointed by Jeb Bush, wanted to keep his job under Charlie. He even had connections to Charlie's inner circle.

Charlie bounced him.

So far, Charlie has appointed three members to the South Florida board. One is the regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, an activist group behind the Everglades restoration effort. Another is a leader in the Izaak Walton League conservation group.

This could not come at a more crucial time. Lake Okeechobee has turned septic. The Everglades restoration plan is a farce. The state's top priority should be preventing urban development from moving into the Everglades Agricultural Area.

Florida 's environment needs radical change to survive. Maybe Charlie really does care deeply enough to understand that.

Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com. His blog is OrlandoSentinel.com/mikethomas.

Toll road may cut at heart of nature

Environmentalists fear a new precedent if a path rises in protected Osceola wetlands.

Vicki Mcclure and Daphne Sashin
Sentinel Staff Writers

May 10, 2007

A developer's privately owned toll road could slice an Osceola County wetlands preserve in two, potentially damaging the habitat and jeopardizing future protection of similar preserves nationwide.

If the project clears government hurdles, it could mark the first time a conservation area of this type falls victim to bulldozers.

The 3,500-acre sanctuary is a state and federally regulated mitigation bank -- a wetland that's restored and managed through payments from developers who have been allowed to destroy other swamps in exchange. The banks are supposed to exist in perpetuity.

Osceola County officials, though, say they need to ease traffic congestion in Poinciana and cannot afford to do so on their own. They agreed to use their eminent-domain powers to seize some of the conserved land and hand it over to developer Avatar Holdings to construct what ultimately would be a six-lane highway. The project will help Avatar sell up to 89,000 new residences planned for the area.

Environmental regulators are studying how the highway would affect the swampy terrain's water flow and wildlife, such as the endangered panther. They must determine whether the road would destroy or diminish the bank's environmental value or if certain actions, such as spanning the wetlands with a bridge, would allow water and animals to move freely and keep the habitat functioning.

Design changes could make building the bridge too costly, or the bank's owner could fight the effort to take the land in court.

But with county support and federal approval granted long ago for part of Poinciana Parkway 's route, the proposed highway through Reedy Creek Mitigation Bank is poised to become a reality.

No road is known to have been built across a mitigation bank.

"Once we start that, then any mitigation bank we establish could be open for future development," said Tom Welborn, a chief wetlands regulator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We don't think that is a good idea."

In the past decade, mitigation banks have become a major free-market tool to help balance development with environmental preservation. The privately owned operations make money by restoring wetlands, then selling credits to developers that must replace the swamps they destroy. The Reedy Creek bank owners are negotiating with Avatar over compensation for the toll-road land and ecological damage.

The bank is part of a major wetland ecosystem that recharges the aquifer, filters pollutants from water flowing to the Everglades and serves as habitat for threatened and endangered species.

Osceola County Chairman Ken Shipley said he doesn't want to harm the preserve and prefers that a bridge be built -- the only way federal officials say the bank likely would remain intact. But the county did not demand the measure before agreeing to the project.

Avatar officials said a bridge would make the toll road too expensive, adding $70 million to a projected cost of $117 million. They maintain building more than a dozen water culverts and wildlife passages would preserve the bank's environmental role."We are trying to approach it in a responsible way," said Jeff Pashley, Avatar's vice president. "If [federal regulators] had their way, they would bridge everything."

Avatar has agreed to many road-building changes made by the South Florida Water Management District. It will add native plants and a 15-foot wall to cut down on noise. It also will collect and clean water runoff before it pollutes the wetlands.

Avatar wants to build about a 10-mile stretch but retain control over only a four-mile span across the bank to privately collect tolls and recoup construction costs. The remaining legs would be given to Osceola and Polk to operate and maintain. The parkway would connect to an existing county road, providing a quick route to Interstate 4.

With Osceola and Polk counties backing Avatar's toll road, state and federal regulators have less leeway to stop it from being built. Plans for a road in the area go back more than a decade. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the time approved part of the path before the mitigation bank existed, even though the company did not own the land.

"It is unfortunate that this road alignment was authorized back then, but we have to honor the road permit as best we can," said Stephen Brooker, a senior project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Poinciana's traffic congestion is rooted in the area's geography. The development largely sits on a swatch of high ground surrounded by wetlands and other water, known as Johnson's Island . The community's 65,000 residents have few routes out, and none easily connects to I-4.

It also stems in part from inadequate planning. County officials approved the community in the early 1970s, just as the state and federal governments were increasing development oversight. A decade later, Avatar persuaded the state to exempt Poinciana from reforms requiring more exhaustive studies and road plans. At buildout, the community could house about 250,000 people.

Charles Lee, an advocacy director with Audubon of Florida, is pressing regulators to get all agencies to cooperate in taking a larger view of the area's growth. An Osceola County plan calls for Avatar's toll road to connect to the expansion of State Road 417 -- a highway that would create a large southern loop through fast-growing Osceola and connect to I-4, Lee said.

A crush of development could follow and threaten additional environmentally sensitive areas.

"Lucrative economic agreements appear to be driving these decisions rather than a careful, studied effort to decide what is best for the environment and land use in this area," Lee said.

Brooker of the Corps said plans to join Avatar's toll road to a major highway expansion could change the project's scope that would warrant a more-expansive review. But for now, federal officials are considering keeping only part of the land as a mitigation bank to avoid setting a precedent that could put other such preserves at risk.

"We may have to cut off our nose to spite our face," Brooker said. "Perpetuity appears to have a date now."

The mitigation bank's owner, American Equities Ltd., is negotiating compensation.

The group has about $20 million in unsold state and federal credits and could gain another $5 million when another phase is completed, said Sheri Lewin, a representative of the mitigation bank. The preserve could lose some or all of its credits. It also could be forced to make up for the loss by purchases at other banks.

"Hopefully a settlement can be reached and we can avoid court proceedings and court costs," said J.A. Jurgens, the bank's attorney.

Vicki McClure can be reached at vmcclure@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5540. Daphne Sashin can be reached at 407-931-5944 or dsashin@orlandosentinel.com.      

Water plan moving forward

Joshua Davidovich
Staff Writer LEESBURG - A proposed alternative water supply system in Lake County may be one step closer to reality Wednesday after eight municipalities expressed interest in committing funds to the project.

However, some still have reservations.

Lady Lake , Tavares, Groveland, Fruitland Park , Clermont, Minneola, Montverde and Mount Dora all stated different levels of commitment to the project at a Lake County Water Alliance meeting.

The project is designed to bring surface water to Lake County to supplement a dwindling Florida aquifer.

 
"We're going to have a very viable project going forward," said Jerry Salsano of Taurent Consulting, who has been hired by the St. Johns River Water Management District to jump-start the project. Water suppliers must have an alternative supply by 2013.

Eustis, Umatilla, Howey-in-the-Hills and Lake County chose not to go along with the preliminary design study and Leesburg hasn't decided what course they will take. Also joining the study is The Villages, which is contractually obligated to join after a legal settlement last month involving water use permits.

Some cities said are still nervous. "We want to be part of it even though we don't like it," Groveland City Council member Allen Sherrod said.

Mount Dora Mayor James Yatsuk said the city was skeptical and didn't know why Lake County had abstained.

"It's the Lake County Water Alliance, we need to have Lake County here," he said. "There's some skepticism as to why its being pushed so hard. Is it to keep consultants in business?"

The water management district wants Lake County also to be a partner on a system in Yankee Lake in Seminole County , the Taylor Creek Reservoir in Orange and Osceola counties or Marion County 's Lower Ocklawaha River .

The more governments that join the project, the cheaper it will be. Winter Garden, in Orange County , has already committed to joining. A meeting on May 31 in Orlando may determine who else will.

The district has set a June 13 deadline for committing to the study.

Barclay Ave. supercenter shot down

By MICHAEL D. BATES
mbates@hernandotoday.com

BROOKSVILLE — Wal-Mart Wednesday lost its bid to build a fourth supercenter in Hernando County after commissioners voted 5-0 to reject a rezoning request from the retail juggernaut.

With four schools in a 1.5 mile radius of the proposed store and several nearby residential communities, the supercenter — proposed for the east side of Barclay Avenue, just north of Spring Hill Drive — would create too much congestion and is not a good fit, commissioners determined.

Although they didn’t say so Wednesday, most expect Wal-Mart to appeal the decision, especially since commissioners overruled an earlier vote by planning and zoning commissioners to approve the project.

In unanimously rejecting Wal-Mart’s request, the board also went against the advice of their own planning staffers who found the proposed Wal-Mart consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan for growth.

“I think we have a definite health, safety and welfare issue (at that site) right now without adding another 185,000 square feet of retail space,” said County Commissioner Diane Rowden, who made the motion for denial.

“It has nothing to do with the W word,” she stressed. “Wal-Mart isn’t the issue.”

Commissioner David Russell acknowledged that Wal-Mart had ample facts to support their position. But sometimes, the board is called on to make subjective decisions based on those facts, he said.

At least 200 people packed county commission chambers to protest the proposed store. Those who spoke came with prepared speeches, slide presentations and handouts for commissioners.

“This will be too high a cost for low prices,” Dave Houser of the Silverthorn subdivision said.

Wal-Mart may bring customers, “but they also bring congestion,” he said.

One damning video, taken from Pristine Place — across the street from the proposed Wal-Mart — showed students leaving Powell Middle School walking along the side of Barclay Avenue amid heavy dismissal-time traffic.

The video showed a pickup truck making a U-turn on Barclay, narrowly missing a pedestrian as the driver tried to avoid traffic.

“Why are we inviting these problems within a residential area only 1,500 feet from Powell Middle School ?” asked Al Cook of Pristine Place , another subdivision across the street from the proposed “big box” store.

Residents also worried that a supercenter would breed crime, despite assurances from Wal-Mart representatives there would be 24-hour security in the parking lot.

The six-hour hearing took on the aspects of a courtroom trial as Beth Krimsky, an attorney representing Wal-Mart, cross-examined almost everybody who spoke. She asked that most of the testimony from lay people be stricken from the record because of their lack of expertise in land planning, traffic control and other aspects related to the rezoning case.

The tone was set early when Krimsky asked Commissioners Russell and Chris Kingsley to excuse themselves from voting after stating in Hernando Today this week that they intended to vote against the master plan revision for Wal-Mart.

County Attorney Garth Coller found the argument groundless since neither board member chose to gain from the project.

Jim Porter, another attorney representing Wal-Mart, told commissioners his client has vested rights on the property because of a 1983 development of regional impact ordinance that allowed for commercial zoning on the property.

“We are asking you to follow the law (and) have a decision based on competent, substantial evidence,” Porter said.

But Kingsley said the 1983 ordinance is outdated and the framers of that DRI never envisioned the intensity of an 185,000-square-foot supercenter so close to schools and homes.

Commissioner Rose Rocco agreed and said she could not support a store of so great an intensity so close to a residential area.

Wal-Mart Project Engineer Peter Sutch said the store would be constructed so the light and noise would be filtered away from nearby homes. To further reduce noise, the supercenter would be built on the most easternmost part of the property and face south and away from Pristine Place , he said.

The entrances into the store would have specially designed turn lanes and a traffic signal at the corner of Minnie Drive and Barclay Avenue to facilitate traffic, engineer Christopher Hatton said.

Hatton also reminded commissioners that Barclay Avenue is scheduled to be four-laned from Powell Road to Spring Hill Drive, further buffering noise.

But none of that carried any weight with commissioners.

Rowden went so far as to call for a moratorium on any construction along that stretch until a thorough traffic study is completed.

Her colleagues did not seem inclined to go that far.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.

Neighbors call foul over ballfields plan

By THERESA BLACKWELL and CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published May 10, 2007

TRINITY - A stand of oak and scrub, 200 feet deep, is all that separates Martin Pijanow-ski's home in Fox Hollow from a looming fight over 46 acres of the Brooker Creek Preserve.

Just south of Trinity Boulevard and the Pasco County line is where Pinellas County is thinking of putting four fields for soccer, football and lacrosse.

It's a proposal that's infuriated neighbors in this stretch of the Fox Hollow community.

For one thing, neighbors charge that Pinellas officials didn't talk to them about any of these plans.

"It's disrespectful that they can do something like that without any thought to the people most affected, just because they live in another county, " said John Fernandez, president of the homeowners association at Fox Hollow's Bellerive neighborhood.

Pinellas' Board of Examiners is holding a hearing at 9 a.m. today that is the first step in considering changing the preserve's land use designation to allow for ballfields.

The county has had plans for the water treatment plant - called a blending facility - in the Brooker Creek Preserve for years.

But many Trinity residents didn't find out about the blending facility plans until last year, after the county had cleared the land. Officials promised residents they wouldn't see it or hear it.

But the price for building the facility came in higher than expected, so county officials are taking a second look at the project. Pinellas County Utilities will be bringing in a new analysis of options by May 19.

The momentum of recent discussion is toward building a facility smaller than originally planned, including at least a pumping station to replace the aging Keller plant.

Because a smaller facility would require less property, Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt suggested in late March that the remaining cleared land would make for good athletic fields.

To get the ball rolling, he asked the East Lake Youth Sports Association to apply for a land use change for those acres that would allow four all-purpose fields on part of the 46 cleared acres.

In early April, the sports association did just that, plus another request for more ballfields on 38.5 piney preserve acres off Old Keystone Road .

* * *

Like others in his neighborhood, Fernandez believes a nature preserve should not be used for active recreation.

"Philosophically, I don't have a problem with the field, " he said. "But I do have a problem with taking a preserve and then changing it. What's next, a nuclear power plant?"

Sam Goldberg, an 82-year-old resident, fears the noise and traffic that's going to come with the ballfields.

"I like ballparks. I like kids, " he said. "But we're at an age when we need quiet."

Pinellas officials like Paul Cozzie, bureau director of the Culture, Education and Leisure Department, say Trinity residents have little to worry about.

"As for the impact on those residents north of that site - the lights, the traffic, the noise - there's really not a lot to be concerned about, " Cozzie said.

Current lighting technology can pinpoint the lighting and reduce the glare and spill, he said, and trees will provide some screening.

The effect on traffic should be minimal, too, he said, because about 95 to 98 percent of participants will be coming from unincorporated Pinellas County to the south and activities will be held at nonpeak traffic times. Parking will be inside the complex, not on the road.

The fields would be at least 1, 000 yards from the closest homes, Cozzie estimated, so noise should be less than the noise on Trinity Boulevard .

* * *

Not good enough, Pijanowski said.

"Most games are at night, " the Fox Hollow resident said. "We can hear the band at Mitchell High School a good half-mile away. We can just about see (where the ballfields will be) through the woods."

Pijanowski could live with the water plant, he said. It wouldn't have made much noise and the community needs water. But not ballfields, he said.

Fernandez questioned whether the sports association, as a private entity, can be held accountable for problems as a public utility.

Cozzie said residents could call Pinellas officials if they have any complaints.

The fields may benefit some Pasco residents because organizations such as club soccer have no county residency restrictions.

Cozzie has had some discussions with Pasco officials on sports facilities already and plans to have more.

"They are short on ballfields, too, " Cozzie said.

But that's not the point, Fernandez said.

"I'd still have a problem with active recreation on a preservation, " he said.

Fernandez added that there is an existing field at nearby Starkey Wilderness Preserve.

"It's like shoving sand against the tide, " Goldberg said. "But we're solidly against it."

Fast Facts:

If you go

The first public hearing on the two land use changes sought by the East Lake Youth Sports Association will be held before the Pinellas County Board of Examiners at 9 a.m. today in the County Commission Assembly Room, Fifth Floor, 315 Court St., Clearwater. The audience is welcome to ask questions or comment. For additional information, call John Cueva, Pinellas County zoning manager of Building and Development Review Services, at (727) 464-3888.

Hernando officials rebuff Wal-Mart plan

By DAN DEWITT
Published May 10, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Defying the recommendation of its planners, the County Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to deny Wal-Mart's plan to build its fourth supercenter in Hernando on Barclay Avenue near Spring Hill Drive .

The vote drew loud applause from opponents who had packed the commission chamber. Before their decision, commissioners said they had the power to deny the project, even though county planners - and the county Planning and Zoning Commission - found that Wal-Mart had a clear right to build on the 22-acre parcel.

"We're here to analyze things subjectively as well as objectively, " Commissioner David Russell said. "We're here to make subjective decisions based on the facts we heard today."

Among the facts he and other commissioners cited: The property is too close to Pristine Place and other subdivisions; one entrance is only 1, 500 feet from an entrance to Powell Middle School , and three other schools are within 1 1/2 miles of the site.

They sided not only with the residents who attended the meeting but with 2, 100 who signed a petition opposing the store.

But commissioners said their vote was not to satisfy potential voters, nor was it directed against Wal-Mart.

"It doesn't have anything to do with the W-word, " Commissioner Diane Rowden said. "It has to do with the health, safety and welfare of our residents."

Representatives for Wal-Mart had earlier argued that the commission did not have the legal right to turn down the project. Commissioners also had a duty to base their decision on the law because the meeting was classified as a quasi-judicial proceeding, said James Porter, the Tampa lawyer representing the retailer.

"This is not a debate about whether Wal-Mart is good or bad, " Porter said. "This is a discussion about a vested development of regional impact that has zoning in place."

The county's comprehensive plan does not apply to the site, Porter said, because the land was approved as part of the Holland Springs development of regional impact in 1983, two years before the passage of the state law that mandated local comprehensive plans.

The planning department, in its recommendation, added that even if the site were not exempt from the comprehensive plan, it would meet its provisions.

Wal-Mart offered to make other improvements that it said would improve traffic safety. These included a pedestrian crossing on Barclay near the middle school and a traffic light at Minnie Drive .

Residents, however, didn't want to hear it.

"Representatives of Wal-Mart said they want to be a good neighbor. I say, be a good neighbor and move, " said Sylvia Brown of Pristine Place .

After the meeting, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Quenta Vettel declined to say whether the company would appeal the county's decision in court.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

Land was sandy, but not desolate

Hernando Times letters to the editor May 10, 2007

It has been interesting reading about the history of Spring Hill in the Hernando Times and how it has changed over the last 40 years. One of the articles quoted local people who described Spring Hill in 1967 as "nothing but sand, " "empty" and other phrases to that effect. This, of course, is true if you have the perspective that the only thing that matters is houses, businesses and golf courses.

I would like to offer a different perspective. Where Spring Hill is now did indeed have (and underneath the pavement and sod still has) lots of sand. A unique assemblage of plants and animals occupied that land, animals and plants that are becoming less common every day with each lot that is cleared for a new home, street or building. Gopher tortoises, beautiful native flowers such as lupine, golden asters, rose rush and many others have been there for tens of thousands of years.

It is an injustice to describe the area Spring Hill now occupies as "nothing but sand." Some might say the real injustice is people bulldozing, paving and building on these sand hills. The sand hills and scrub are God's creation; parking lots and buildings are ours. Do we really want to look like the New Jersey suburbs here?

I would like to ask the residents of Spring Hill to remember - and where possible, preserve - some of the original sand hills environment. The sand and scrub of Spring Hill was there far longer than we have been, and those who take the time will find they have or had a certain wild beauty.

See the Web site at www.floridasandhill.info for more information.

Polk OKs Subdivision in Rural Area
By Tom Palmer
The Ledger

BARTOW - County commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday to approve a subdivision in the middle of a group of rural homes - including the residence of James and Erin Abercrombie.

The subdivision will have fewer homes than originally proposed, but how many won't be clear until the developer redraws the site plan. Wednesday's vote could end up in court, just as the commission's 2002 approval of a subdivision there did after the Abercrombies sued the county.

Following the vote, James Abercrombie said he and his wife haven't decided whether to go back to court, but they were upset.

Wednesday's vote came in fits and starts following two failed motions proposed by Commissioner Jean Reed to deny it and, failing that, to nearly triple the size of the lots.

"It's a little island,'' Reed said. "We need to have areas like this in Polk County .''

But Commissioner Sam Johnson, who lives nearby, rejected the idea that the area is as rural as the Abercrombies and their neighbors claimed during the hearing.

"The city limits are half a mile away," he said.

Wednesday's hearing came after the Abercrombies, who have been fighting development next to their home for the past five years, appealed the Polk County Planning Commission's March 13 approval of a 26-lot subdivision on a 15-acre tract surrounding their home on Gib-Galloway Road on Lakeland 's north side.

Planning commissioners had reduced the size of the project by increasing the minimum size of the lots from 11,500 square feet to 14,000 square feet.

County commissioners said the lots should be at least 18,000 square feet.

The subdivision was proposed by local builder Donnie Tyler. Lawyer Steve Watson argued during the hearing that his client had already reduced the density to comply with a 2004 court ruling that overturned the commission's approval - over the Planning Commission's objections - of a 30-lot subdivision on 13 acres.

He disputed a staff report that suggested the subdivision was premature.

"We're the last one to get to the party," he said, pointing out that most of the land in the area has already been subdivided for residential development.

The exception is the land adjacent to the site, which is a collection of rural lots, some as large as 10 acres.

Longtime resident Don Taylor questioned the need for the development.

"What the heck is wrong with keeping some of our land rural?'' he asked.

In addition to Johnson, Commissioners Jack Myers and Randy Wilkinson voted in favor of the development.

Reed and Commissioner Bob English voted against it.
County to CSX: Detail ILC impact

By Diane Nichols

News Chief staff

BARTOW - Residents concerned about the effects of a massive railroad and trucking terminal in south Winter Haven were delighted Wednesday by a county decision to seek more information about the proposed complex.

In a 3-2 vote, the Polk County Commission directed the county staff to send a request to the state Department of Community Affairs for a full development of regional impact (DRI) review concerning CSX Inc.'s plans for an integrated logistics center (ILC).

CSX wants to build the ILC near existing company railroad tracks in the area of Pollard Road, east of Wahneta and south of Eagle Lake Loop Road .

After several residents lined up during the county public hearing to share their concerns about the impact the terminal will have on the area, county leaders responded to their fears.

When County Manager Mike Herr announced that commissioners had agreed it was time to take a closer look at the possible impact of ILC on the county, applause and cheers came from audience in the County Commission meeting room.

"We did look into it, with respect to Phase One," Herr said. "Phase Two has reached the threshold of a DRI review, so that will require that there be more involvement on the part of our county staff and also the Central Florida Regional Planning Council with the city of Winter Haven."

By the recommendation of Commissioner Jean Reed and approval of the full commission, the engineering firm URS has been hired to evaluate the impact of the ILC on infrastructure, housing and the Wahneta area. The task will include interviews with project decision-makers.

"We are concerned about this," Herr told the gathered residents. "We hear you. I'm speaking for the staff and you can count on us to do an excellent job. We hear everybody. I think we understand what our margin lines are."

Commissioner Randy Wilkinson brought up a recent fact-finding trip to Georgia , where several commissioners got a good look at the actual impact a CSX freight terminal has had on the community of Fairburn.

"We need to know the numbers on what salaries will be," Wilkinson said, referring to the proposed ILC near Winter Haven . "I've heard that this project will employ 1,000 people. We just went up to Georgia and found out there are only 100 CSX employees and the wages of the railroad employees were good at $16 to $17 per hour, but what about all the other jobs?"

Wilkinson said suggestions that the ILC will provide jobs with annual salaries averaging $60,000 need to be documented by CSX.

"It's a done deal already," Wilkinson said. "We'd better start negotiating now. We won't have any opportunity to later. As Mr. ( Polk County Attorney Joseph G.) Jarett said, once they're in, they're in like Flynn and they can do whatever they want to do. We want to negotiate some overpasses."

Wally Krouson, a Lake Wales resident, said the proposed ILC needs to be studied to determine the quality of life thousands of residents can expect if the center is built without their consent.

"You poo-poo the safety issues," Krouson told commissioners. "I've got eight typewritten pages of crashes and explosions caused by CSX. Investigations are being conducted as we speak in New York . The cost of the roads and associated infrastructure is going to be horrendous. We're going to have to build overpasses all over the place to get around and we'll end up exactly like Lakeland and everywhere else those trains come through.

"Who is paying for the ... overpasses we need?" Krouson asked. "What about water pollution? It can affect Lake Eloise over to Cypress Gardens and all area lakes. If there was ever a project in Florida that required a DRI, this is the one."

Pam Childers, a resident of Sundance Ranch Estates, lives in a home that is 105 feet away from the proposed ILC site. She came to the public hearing armed with photos taken Saturday of a local tanker-washing facility. Though the facility doesn't have anything to do with CSX, Childers said the ILC would lead to similar unsightly results for area residents.

Childers said she also visited another CSX location and was taken aback to see tankers, barbed-wire fencing and warehouses that were nothing like what CSX has promised for Polk County .

"This is what you need to look out for. This is the reason for the DRI," Childers said. "It needs to be done right."

Commissioner Reed addressed the issue with urgency.

"We need to fire the (DRI request) letter off today," she said.

The commission agreed to have a letter drafted Wednesday and directed that attachments, such as Childers' photos, be included to back up local concerns about the ILC.

To the sound of groans and shouts of "No!" from the audience, Commissioner Bob English suggested that the county wait for more facts from its engineering study before requesting the DRI.

English was joined by Commissioner Jack Myers in voting against the DRI request. Commissioner Sam Johnson joined Reed and Wilkinson in the majority vote for the DRI.

diane.nichols@newschief.com

 Utility Ends Inquiry Into Source of Leak

By Rick Rousos
The Ledger

LAKELAND - It took three years for Lakeland Electric to lose $43.7 million in the natural gas market. An investigation by the utility into who leaked that information to The Ledger didn't take long at all.

"It's over," utility General Manager Jim Stanfield said Wednesday afternoon.

The leak to the newspaper prodded utility supervisors on Monday to tell city commissioners and other members of the Utility Committee about the extent of the loss. The $43.7 million expenditure was the result of Lakeland Electric's hedging - trying to avoid the possibility of high natural gas prices by locking in prices ahead of time. But market prices instead had dropped by the time the utility needed the gas.

Stanfield would not say whether the leaker had been identified. City and utility officials have said the chance of identifying someone was slim.

A chart generated by the city's finance office detailing the $43.7 million loss was e-mailed in April to the city's Risk Oversight Committee, a group of 10 top city and utility supervisors. A copy of the chart was sent anonymously to The Ledger. On Monday, Stanfield said the utility would try to determine who leaked the information.

The newspaper began asking questions about the leak investigation, which Stanfield categorized as "an inquiry," on Wednesday morning. Stanfield said the reason for the inquiry was there may be a disgruntled high-level worker acting with malice toward the utility.

He said he had "no intention at this time" to punish anyone but would say, face to face, "What are you doing?"

City Public Information Director Kevin Cook said he was asked to organize the effort to catch the leaker.

Cook said he asked Josh Wilson, a computer expert who holds the $64,729-per-year position of information security officer for the city, to determine which utility or city employees had sent e-mails to The Ledger in the past month and who had downloaded, forwarded or printed the document in question.

Cook said he expected Wilson 's inquiry to take a week or two.

However, Stanfield said Wednesday morning he believed the inquiry would be done quickly, and on Wednesday afternoon he said it had been completed. Stanfield said Wilson spent only a few hours looking into who e-mailed the document.

City commissioners, despite being unaware of the $43.7 million loss until the leaker forced the utility's hand, were generally supportive of Stanfield's effort to find the culprit. Mayor Buddy Fletcher declined comment.

Commissioner Howard Wiggs said commissioners should have been told about the loss as it mounted. But he said the leaker "clearly stepped outside the boundaries."

"That person should have gone to Jim Stanfield, (city manager) Doug Thomas, or Howard Wiggs, not the paper," Wiggs said.

Commissioner Glenn Higgins said he understood why Stanfield wanted to identify the leaker but he didn't feel an investigation was necessary.

"I don't think there's anything to be gained from this,'' Higgins said. "I don't see the point."

Thomas was on vacation Wednesday and was not available for comment.

City employees said that they've heard rumors about the hedging losses. Some tried to get answers on an "Ask City Management Employee Q&A" on the city's intranet site but were given little information.

Documents obtained by the Ledger show they asked questions like, "It seems the losses are only compounding. Has this been an economically viable program for the city?" And, "Has the utility actually incurred losses due to the hedging program?"

City and utility administrators responded to the questions but never revealed the extent of the loss.

City supports plug-in hybrids
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Imagine never again having to buy gas for your daily commute.

That dream might have come one step closer to reality Wednesday after the city of Tallahassee threw its weight behind a national effort to promote cars that drivers could plug into their home electricity outlets.

The idea is that plug-in hybrids could be widely available within a few years - if only carmakers would get on board.

"I think anything that can bring higher energy efficiency will have its chance in the marketplace," said David Byrne, the city's director of energy services.

The campaign is part of the city's "Go Green Tallahassee" initiative, which includes heightened recycling use, the development of renewable energy sources and other environmentally friendly measures.

Rising gas prices, instability in the Middle East and pollution concerns all will help bring about the next generation of hybrid cars, which currently use a gasoline engine and an electric motor whose batteries are recharged while in gas mode. The city owns four of these hybrids, with an order for 12 more expected to arrive within the next few weeks.

Plug-ins would be similar, but would rarely - if ever - rely on their gas engines for a regular commute. They're expected to get about 30-50 percent better fuel economy than standard hybrids, and twice that of regular cars.

But new technologies are expensive, and car makers need to see that there's a demand for them, Byrne said.

That's the goal of the Plug-In Partners National Campaign, which already involves hundreds of partners, including cities, utilities and businesses. The local campaign will include a petition drive, public-relations efforts and "soft" orders for the vehicles - meaning the city commits to strongly consider buying some of the vehicles if they become available.

But Terry Lowe, the city's fleet superintendent, said they'd have to make economic as well as environmental sense.

"We want to see, before we start spending the citizens' money, whether they're good buys or not," he said.

Bruce Vanderveen, The Florida Native Plant Society, Brooksville

Residents' financial needs could seal case against trailer park closing

BY CHRISTOPHER CURRY
STAR-BANNER

OCALA - Tom Turner relies on a 1978 travel trailer and monthly checks from Social Security and the Veterans' Administration.

If the city closes the Ocala Municipal Trailer Park , Turner, 72, said he can't afford to move and another park won't accept his trailer because of its age. Sitting in a lawn chair outside his trailer, he said he does not want to live in a subsidized apartment complex.

"I'd rather be out here like this," Turner said Monday. "I own my own home. It's not the best in the world, but at least it's mine."

Carolyn Bellinger has lived in the city-owned park since 2002. She said she spent a few months living at a friend's house before that, because the bank foreclosed on her home after her husband died. Bellinger said her main source of income is a disability check. Like Turner, she owns a trailer too old to be allowed in another park.

Hungarian immigrant Livia Holdos, 79, has lived in the park for less than a year - since seven surgeries and a slew of hospital stays ate up much of her money. Holdos relies on her neighbors in the park to do her grocery shopping.

An attorney representing park residents free of charge believes an ongoing survey will show many more of them are poor.

Peter Sleasman, with Florida Institutional Legal Services in Gainesville , hopes that fact will delay or end the Ocala City Council's plans to close the circa-1937 city-owned trailer park just north of Tuscawilla Park .

"The argument we have made is that basically the city cannot close the park under state law until it has done a survey of the financial means of the people living there and a survey to see if there is another park to move them to or adequate replacement housing based on their financial need," Sleasman said. "We think there is not adequate affordable replacement housing out there, so they can't close the park."

Ocala Community Programs Director Jim Simon said there is a waiting list for many of the local subsidized apartment complexes serving senior citizens. Right now, the Ocala Housing Authority's waiting list for Section 8 federal housing assistance also is closed to new applicants.

Sleasman and the Tallahassee-based nonprofit group 1000 Friends of Florida got involved last fall after all five City Council members agreed during a workshop session that the city should close down the 96-unit park. There has been no final vote on the decision and no firm timetable for the closure.

Jaimie Ross, affordable housing director for 1000 Friends of Florida, said the City Council would violate the city's own comprehensive plan if the park closes. Ross said there is a requirement to promote affordable and low-income housing, and shutting down the park would actually eliminate some of that housing stock. She believes that could help in a potential legal challenge, should the City Council move forward with plans to close the park.

Trailer park resident Lynn Holland plans to apply to get the Ocala Municipal Trailer Park and the adjacent Ocala City Auditorium on the National Register of Historic Places.

Three of the five City Council members also support razing the City Auditorium, located on the north end of Tuscawilla Park , because full renovations could cost more than $2 million. But because the city owns the trailer park land and the City Auditorium, an application to get either of them on the Historic Register would require support from the City Council.

Christopher Curry may be reached at chris.curry@starbanner.com or 867-4115.

Lennar moves into top spot

Two Brevard builders slip in rankings

BY SCOTT BLAKE
FLORIDA TODAY

Two Brevard County-based builders slipped in Professional Builder magazine's latest annual Giant 400 list, which ranks the nation's 400 largest homebuilders.

At the same time, another Florida-based builder, Lennar Corp., climbed to the No. 1 spot.

The builders on the list -- published in the magazine's May issue -- were selected based on those with the most closings, then were ranked based on those with the most housing revenue in 2006.

Miami-based Lennar -- which has built communities on the Space Coast such as Fairway Crossings in Palm Bay and Heritage Isle in Viera -- climbed from third place on last year's list, which measured results from 2005.

Like many companies on this year's list, Lennar posted gains in the number of housing units
closed and total housing revenue, topping the rankings, with $14.85 billion in housing revenue in 2006.

But last year was no picnic for many builders, who saw profits shrink, as many housing markets slumped.

Even Lennar relied on aggressive discounting and other incentives to boost its numbers, Professional Builder Senior Business Editor Bill Lurz said.

"They took it to greater extremes than anyone else," Lurz said about Lennar.

Pittsburgh-based Maronda Homes, another builder with a longtime local presence, moved up to 25th on the list, up from 34th last year.

Mercedes Homes and Holiday Builders -- two Brevard County-based builders that ranked high on the list -- each slipped a few notches from last year's rankings.

Mercedes ranked 28th this year, down from 23rd last year. Holiday ranked 44th this year, down from 40th last year.

But that was not unexpected, given the slowdown in the local housing market, which mirrors what has been happening in many places in Florida , California and other markets, where house "flipping" -- buying and selling to make a quick profit -- previously was in vogue.

Such markets say saw housing activity level off.

"It's still going to be a pretty tough year," said Keith Buescher, president of Suntree-based Mercedes Homes. "We haven't seen a lot of improvement."

Lurz, who wrote an article accompanying the Giant 400 list titled "Selective Slump," said housing markets like Brevard County that were inundated with housing investors and speculators saw steep increases in housing prices several years ago -- but those markets have seen the biggest price declines since then.

Meanwhile, places like Texas , which did not see big price increases several years ago, also have not seen prices fall like other markets have.

When many markets were flying high, builders had big profit margins, but not so much anymore, Lurz said.

Builders, meanwhile, have been adjusting to the new realities of the real estate market.

Lennar, for instance, is focusing on building more homes with smaller floor plans and less square-footage to bring prices down to a level that more people can afford -- or are willing to pay -- in certain markets like Brevard County, said Laureen Ramsey, president of Lennar's Space Coast Division.

"What made sense yesterday doesn't make sense today," Ramsey said.

Group sues over cruise line pollution

No action taken on 2000 petition

BY DONNA BALANCIA
FLORIDA TODAY

An environmental group called Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, seeking an immediate response to a 7-year-old cruise ship pollution petition submitted in March 2000.

The petition asked the EPA to assess and regulate pollution from cruise ships. The agency has not yet responded.

" Florida is the capital of the cruise industry," said Teri Shore , campaign director for Friends of the Earth. "The cruise business in Port Canaveral is increasing dramatically, and there are no new protections in place. There's no monitoring of the discharges, so we don't know how much is going in, but we know each cruise ship with 3,000 to 5,000 passengers produces a tremendous amount of waste."

After issuing a cruise pollution white paper in August 2000 and holding public hearings in September 2000, the EPA abandoned the effort under the Bush administration.

During the past seven years, calls for a national regimen for regulating cruise ship dumping have been made by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission, with no action by the EPA, Shore said.

Cruise ships are like floating cities. A typical one-week voyage with 3,000 people on board generates about 210,000 gallons of sewage; 1 million gallons of "gray water" from sinks and showers; and 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water, according to the EPA.

Under the Clean Water Act, wastewater treatment requirements for ships are limited and apply only near shore.

"It was my impression that the cruise companies have made great strides in developing wastewater systems that were the equivalent or better than municipal systems," Canaveral Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Stan Payne said. "I know the Disney ships both have advanced wastewater systems."

Carnival Cruise Lines, Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines all have ships that are based at or that make ports of call to Port Canaveral.

About 100 cruise vessels will carry more than 12 million passengers through North American waters this year, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

In addition, cruise ship size and capacity continue to expand dramatically, with some ships now transporting 5,000
passengers and crew, and the next generation of ships carrying as many as 8,500 passengers and crew.

Four of the 16 states with cruise ships calling on their ports -- Alaska , California , Hawaii and Maine -- have enacted their own laws, according to Shore.

Cruise ships call on ports in Alabama , Alaska , California , Florida , Hawaii , Louisiana , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Jersey , New York , Pennsylvania , South Carolina , Texas , Virginia and Washington .

"We're hoping the U.S. EPA will respond to the petition with an assessment of cruise ship pollution and a recommendation for regulation," Shore said. "We believe a judge will put them on a timeline to do so."

Posted on Thu, May. 10, 2007

Record gasoline prices great news for U.S.

By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Hurrah! Great news! When I filled up my car's gas tank yesterday, I paid an all-time record $3.41 a gallon, and experts are predicting that gasoline prices may soon reach $4 a gallon.

I can't wait!

I'm not kidding. I am more convinced than ever that unless gasoline prices rise above $4 a gallon, there won't be a nationwide uproar strong enough to force Washington to get serious about reducing the U.S. suicidal dependence on foreign oil.

Barring $4-a-gallon gasoline prices, America will not get serious about reducing toxic emissions that worsen global warming, and will continue to fund corrupt Middle Eastern kingdoms that deny basic civil rights to women and fund Islamic fundamentalist schools, some of which preach violence against innocent ''infidels'' in the name of Allah.

And, closer to home, without $4 a gallon gasoline, Washington will most likely continue filling the pockets of oil-rich tropical autocrats.

Venezuela 's narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chávez is a perfect example of U.S. oil-funded radicalism. When he was first elected in 1998 and oil prices were at $9 a barrel, Chávez was ridiculing critics who speculated that he would become a radical leftist. ''Me, a Communist?'' he asked reporters.

Today, with oil prices at more than $62 a barrel, Chávez ends his speeches proclaiming ''Socialism or Death!'' He claims that the United States is ''the cruelest, most terrible, most cynical, most murderous empire that has existed.'' And he chaperones Iranian Holocaust-denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad throughout Latin America .

Granted, the Bush administration will tell you that it is doing a lot to reduce America 's oil consumption. In his recent State of the Union address, Bush laid plans to reduce U.S. gasoline usage by 20 percent over the next 10 years, among other things by increasing the supply of alternative fuels such as ethanol.

But Bush, a Texas oilman at heart, and the U.S. Congress, not immune to the car lobby, are far too timid in attacking the U.S. foreign oil addiction.

On Monday, the U.S. Energy Department announced that gasoline prices hit a national record of $3.05 a gallon, because of bottlenecks in U.S. refineries. At the Miami Beach Shell station where I filled up my tank, regular gasoline was $3.41; Plus gasoline was $3.60 a gallon.

Judging from U.S. Energy Information Administration figures, the long-term picture is bleak: based on current trends, Americans will continue buying SUVs, Hummers and ever-growing cars, and U.S. dependence on foreign oil will increase. Consider:

• While light trucks and SUVs accounted for 19 percent of all vehicles sold in the United States in 1975, the percentage grew to 50 percent by 2005. By 2015, light trucks and SUVs are projected to account for 52 percent of all new U.S. car sales, according to EIA projections.

•  U.S. imports of foreign oil have soared from 35 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 1973 to 60 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 2006, according to the EIA.

''Overall imports of oil are going to increase, as we consume more petroleum,'' Jonathan Cogan, a spokesman for the EIA, told me in a telephone interview Wednesday.

My opinion: This is insane! I have nothing against you buying a light truck or an SUV if you are a soccer mom with quintuplets, a concert bass player, or a rancher in Montana .

But when I see these ever-growing vehicles driving through Miami -- where I have yet to find a hill, let alone a mountain -- with just one person inside, carrying nothing, I can only conclude that America deserves the foreign oil-rich despots that are causing so much trouble.

As long as America doesn't get serious about reducing oil consumption, petro-dictators will grow stronger, and there will be more of them. So when I see $3.41 gas prices, I say: ''Bravo!'' The sooner we get to $4, the better!
Spillway proposal for dike scrapped

By Robert P. King

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 10, 2007

OKEECHOBEE — It sounded like a bold step to ease the burdens on the leaky Herbert Hoover Dike, open a new outlet for Lake Okeechobee and clean up the St. Lucie River.

And now it's dead.

 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it has no intention of carving a 2-mile-long "spillway" into the dike's southern flank, even though an agency representative proffered the idea last week as an alternative to a lengthy, $856 million dike repair.

Such a spillway would send excess water south toward the Everglades , just as the lake's runoff flowed for thousands of years until humans interfered. But it also would require elevating 2 miles of U.S. 27, moving a sugar mill and buying more vacant farmland than exists south of the lake to clean the polluted runoff, corps restoration leader Dennis Duke told water managers.

"We're not doing it," Duke said afterward. "For us, it is essentially a dead issue."

But Duke said the corps is continuing to examine the related concept of restoring some sort of natural flow between the lake and the Everglades , if it can overcome the considerable cost and engineering hurdles. That idea has been controversial since the early 1990s, when a federal science panel endorsed it, sparking an outcry from sugar growers.

Martin County commissioners last week endorsed the natural-flow concept, which some supporters call "Plan 6." Commissioner Sarah Heard said Wednesday that the county remains adamant that southward flow must be restored, with or without a spillway in the dike.

"People on the east coast and the west coast aren't going to take no for an answer," Heard said. "It's not an acceptable answer."

Under the current system, the corps dumps most of the lake's excess water east into the St. Lucie Canal and west into the Caloosahatchee River . The dumping creates ecological havoc while wasting hundreds of billions of gallons out to sea.

But engineers at the corps and the South Florida Water Management District long have dismissed the southern-flow concept as impractical, saying the landscape is too altered to bring back ecological utopia.

"It's become sort of a cult item on the Internet," district board member Mike Collins said Wednesday during a workshop in Okeechobee.

While restoring flow would have ecological aims, Duke said the spillway concept had a more concrete goal: Easing the costs of fixing the 143-mile-long earthen dike, which a state engineering panel last year labeled a "grave and imminent danger" to human life.

The corps announced in February that the repairs would cost an estimated $856 million, or nearly triple what it had said a year ago. The increase stemmed from rising costs for labor, fuel and concrete, as well as improvements the corps made to its repair plans to address the state's criticisms.

At the current rate of congressional spending, repairs of the most critical segments of the dike - from Port Mayaca to Moore Haven - might not be done until 2020, Duke said.

With the dike repairs rising so rapidly, Duke said the corps fell under pressure to examine other alternatives. One of those is the spillway, a concept that corps constructions and operations chief Alan Bugg presented to the Martin commissioners last week.

Bugg said at the time that the spillway would eliminate the need to repair the dike.

Reaction from the public - and then from state officials - was explosive, district board members said.

"I'll tell you what, you took a hornet's nest and you made one of these African bee things out of it," said Lennart Lindahl, a board member from Tequesta.

But newly appointed board member Shannon Estenoz said it's no surprise that people in the Treasure Coast will latch onto proposals for rescuing their battered estuary.

"There are obviously so many folks in Martin County who are so desperate for a solution, so wanting to hear that there's going to be some bold and decisive action," said Estenoz, a longtime Everglades activist from Broward County. "Maybe your folks who were making the presentation just didn't anticipate that."

The spillway would begin moving water south when the lake reaches 12 feet above sea level - 6 feet below the water levels at which leaks become a problem. It also could address one major failing that the state's engineering panel noted last year: The dike has no emergency outlet, a commonly required safety feature in dams.

Duke said he has no estimate of how much such a spillway and the related features would cost. He added that the corps will include the idea in its report on all the alternatives it has examined - including the alternative of taking no action.

But he said nobody should take the wrong message.

"We're committed to fixing the dike," Duke said. "We need the funding to do that."

County considers more diver-friendly approach

By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER

Jackson County Floridan

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Divers who are certified to teach others will be allowed to use Jackson Blue Spring as their underwater classroom if a proposed county ordinance is approved.

The ordinance would also give the county administrator the authority to let divers use the Blue Springs Recreation Area during the same time swimmers are in the water.

Under current county rules, from May through September no diving is allowed from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and instruction is not allowed at all.

The new hours would open up new opportunities for divers during the entire Labor-to-Memorial Day season, when the recreation area is open to the public.

County Administrator Ted Lakey said the change of hours is being proposed because staff believes the divers would be working too deeply in the water to interfere with swimmers.

As for the proposal to allow diving instruction, strict rules would come with the privilege. Instructors must be certified and must not have more than four students per instructor in the water.

Cave divers and open water divers must check in with a designated county representative before entering the water, giving their planned entry and exit points, and leaving contact information. Cave divers would be required to check in when diving elsewhere in the county as well.

Cave divers must be certified for the activity to work any body of water in Jackson County .

The ordinance would also expand the area at Blue Springs that falls under county control, stretching the county's jurisdiction beyond the fence that defines the swimming area to the buoy line that lies beyond the fence.

The county will also establish the entire Blue Springs Recreation Area as a no-wake zone, with boaters restricted to running at "idle" speed.

The ordinance will get a public hearing on May 22 at the 6 p.m. meeting of the Jackson County Commission.