FLCV Website shut down

Florida League of Conservation Voters appears to have hit rock bottom. Their web site at http://www.floridalcv.org/ has returned to no ownership and the web site defaults to a site that says the domain is for sale.

This is a new low point for an organization that has not filed a tax return since 2005. The 2005 hand written return for the FLCV Ed Fund, their 501 C3 edition, listed no income and was signed by Vice President Dan Hendrickson.

The FLCV C4 seems to be still active, however. A recent filing by Rebecca Martin indicated that Joy Towles Ezell, former Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club Florida Chapter, is now Presdent of FLCV and that Cullum Hasty is now Vice President. Hasty is Political Chair of the Calusa Sierra Club. Hendrickson remains on the board. Ezell was forced out of her Sierra chair when the chapter was dissolved by the national.

The connections seem to suggest that the ousted Sierra Florida Chapter group may be reforming itself as FLCV. It is not likely they will be any more popular under their new banner. With Sierra, there was a ready flow of funds, but FLCV has no source of income.

Long time president Nancy Brown is no longer listed as either a director or registered agent for FLCV or FLCV Ed Fund. Martin also filed documents for the FLCV Ed Fund and indicates that former lobbyist and former legislator Helen Spivy is President.

What do these changes mean? The organization still lists Hendrickson and former lobbyist Susie Caplowe's Tallahassee office as its legal address. Beka Martin is invisible on the internet and has not recently been quoted on any environmental issues. The fingerprints of Caplowe and Hendrickson are all over this and it appears to be another facade of their tight group of syncophants.

Spivey, on the other hand, is quite visible, and while no longer registered as a lobbyist, she is listed as a board member of Citizens for a Scenic Florida and operates a web site that appears to have absolutely no listings. This blog hopes Spivey has merely fallen in with a bad crowd, but her leadership position argues otherwise.

Once an affiliate of the national League of Conservation Voters, the Florida group split from the national several years ago, and has not done much since. The association of Ezell, Hendrickson and Caplowe may not have benefitted the organization, since the trio was at the center of the controversy leading to the closure of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club. It seems they do not get along well with national leadership, and when left on their own, do not raise a lot of money for their causes.

It is a sad day for Florida's environmental movement when a once proud organization reaches such a low point.

Cypress Creek Zombie Mall still not dead

The destruction of the Cypress Creek watershed continues with possible construction of the Cypress Creek Mall. Nobody needs a mall, least of all in wetlands and environmentally sensitive lands.

Pasco is nearly deserted. The New Yorker featured Pasco in an article highlighting the development debacle and the many empty houses. Besides, they just built a new mall up the road. If you read the story below, many of the stores planned for this mall have already gone bankrupt. Also, one investor has pulled a part of the land out of the deal and is seeking alternative development plans.

Sadly, there are few, if any political leaders in Pasco willing to fight this thing. Its up to the grass roots. Hometown Democracy would have been helpful. And now, the legislature wants to exempt developers from concurrency rules. Sierra Club is fighting hard against this mall. -- FL Enviro
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Delayed Cypress Creek mall still plans to move forward

BY LISA BUIE, Times Staff Writer In Print: Saturday, March 28, 2009

LAND O'LAKES — It's all systems go.

That's what developers and real estate agents are saying when it comes to Cypress Creek Town Center properties on State Road 56 just west of Interstate 75, including one tract slated for an outdoor mall.

Signs that went up this week on the northern tract said simply "available" and listed the name Brightwork Real Estate as the agency, leading to rumors the property was for sale. A couple of months ago, cows were also seen grazing on the site, which was set to feature big box stores and restaurants.

Owner John "Hi" Sierra couldn't be reached, but an executive with the south Tampa real estate firm confirmed the property was not on the market. The word "available" on the sign referred to leases.

"We are representing Mr. Sierra and are working on procuring tenants," Brightwork Real Estate partner Brad Douglas said.

He admitted a sour economy — the Tampa Bay area's unemployment rate is now 10.2 percent — is making the job more difficult.

"It's quiet," he said.

Also still quiet is the southern tract, where Cleveland-based Jacobs Group plans to build an outdoor mall. Construction halted on the Cypress Creek Town Center mall last year when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended the development permit after heavy rains sent muddy water into the Cypress Creek, a federally protected waterway that feeds Hillsborough County's drinking water supply. The Sierra Club has sued the Army Corps for granting a permit.

However, mall representatives said Friday that nothing has changed.

"It's just as viable today as it's always been," said Deanne Roberts, a spokeswoman for the project. "It's a great location. It has great access."

She reiterated that the developers had paid to widen State Road 54 from four to six lanes in the area.

"We're just waiting on our permit," she said.

The mall had has a tough time when it comes to the big box market.

Two tenants, Linens N Things and Circuit City, went out of business. Another possible store, Justice for Girls, ended up opening a location at rival the Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel.

Tracy Hurst, a biologist with the Army Corps, said nothing had changed.

"We are still working to resolve the enforcement case and evaluating our option to reinstate, modify or revoke the permit," she said.

Lisa Buie can be reached at buie@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4604.

Earth First! Blockades Florida Power Plant Construction, 27 Arrested

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida, February 19, 2008 (ENS) - Early Monday morning, a dozen activitists protesting the construction of Florida Power & Light's West County Energy Center locked themselves together through metal pipes as 200 supporters rallied around them at the main entrance of the construction site.

The blockade stopped work at the site for six hours before 27 people were arrested.

The activists say they took this action to protect the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, which lies 1,000 feet from the power plant site and to protect the larger Everglades ecosystem.

"We just don't need this plant," said Lynne Purvis, an activist with Everglades Earth First! who was born and raised in the Loxahatchee area. "I'm not willing to threaten the integrity of the Loxahatchee, one of the last large, intact pieces of northern Everglades, so that people can fuel their greedy energy desires."

Florida Power & Light, FPL, is currently building two new natural gas-fired combined-cycle generating units at the 220 acre site in western Palm Beach County. A third unit for the site was recently announced but has not yet been permitted.

FPL says all three units are safe, clean, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective sources of power and each unit will be equipped with the most advanced emission control equipment.

The three units will be able to produce 1,250 megawatts of power each - enough electricity produced by each unit to serve about 250,000 homes and businesses - about 750,000 in total.

Units 1 and 2 presently under construction will begin serving customers in 2009 and 2010 respectively. If approved, Unit 3 would begin serving customers in 2011, says FPL.

The activists say that natural gas is not clean energy and the three units would emit 12 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide every year.

The activists worry that Everglades restoration would be undermined by new development that the power plant is expected to encourage in the area.

Purvis says that the Everglades Earth First! group intends to continue a sustained campaign of direct action against this power plant and its adjacent gas pipeline.

The protest was attended by grassroots activists and groups from across the United States who have been participating in the annual Earth First! Winter Rendezvous.

One such group, Rising Tide North America, is part of an international movement for climate justice, which connects the social and environmental issues related to the growing climate crisis and calls for "urgent and bold responses to the global human-caused dilemma."

Brian Sloan, an organizer with Rising Tide North America and participant in Monday's protest, said, "FPL is doing what we call green-washing. Gas-fired power is not a clean or sustainable energy. It is a dirty and dwindling fossil fuel."

Sloan says Rising Tide does not trust energy companies to solve the climate crisis. "The solutions to climate change will never come from the people who created the problem," he said.

Purvis says that the Everglades Earth First! group intends to continue a sustained campaign of direct action against this power plant and its adjacent gas pipeline.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.

Questions on Pasco Landfill

There are sure a lot of questions about the incinerator/landfill being considered in Pasco County. Is the incinerator or the landfill worse? Certainly recycling would be better.

Sierra Club has sided with the landfill, actually called a "bioreactor", that would be built by Angelo's, an area recycler. In a sense, this is like banking the waste material, as opposed to the incinerator, which extracts all the energy at once. The bioreactor extracts different recyclable materials and can change over time to reflect new technologies.

Covanta wants to expand its incinerator and, of course, county officials seem to want to do that. It is not surprising since the energy would provide money to the county and allow for more development.

The group backing Covanta, which includes former Governor Bob Martinez, Bob Thomas, Honey Rand, and Bill Blanchard, is heavily connected to developers and has generally not been accused of environmental motives. It raises a lot of questions.

The article describing the bioreactor-landfill is below.

UPDATE: an editorial regarding the landfill appeared in the Tampa Tribune. Written by Bill Newton of Florida Consumer Action Network, the piece supports the landfill and makes the case for its environmental and financial benefits. FCAN is the second enviro group to support the landfill. Sierra Club was the first.


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Landfill Close To State Nod
By KEVIN WIATROWSKI
kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com
Published: December 18, 2008

DADE CITY - After two years of review and public debate, state regulators are poised to approve a controversial landfill that sits near the headwaters of two of the region's major rivers.

Officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection have drafted a letter of intent - the first step toward issuing a permit - giving Largo-based Angelo's Aggregate Materials tentative approval for the household garbage landfill it plans to build near its existing construction debris landfill on Messick Road, just south of Dade City.

The letter of intent will go out for public comment next month.
The site of the proposed 90-acre landfill sits just west of Green Swamp, the source of both the Hillsborough and Withlacoochee rivers. The property is about 220 feet above sea level and within the Duck Lake watershed, which drains into the Withlacoochee River.

Opponents fear waste from the landfill could contaminate drinking water supplies for people downstream, but DEP officials say the developers' plans call for adequate safeguards.

Angelo and Dominic Iafrates want to build the landfill in a sparsely populated section of the county between Dade City and Zephyrhills. Their company, Angelo's, already operates a construction debris landfill in the area, and Pasco County also owns a seldom-used landfill nearby.

The Angelo's project would be part of a 1,039-acre development that would include a dirt mine and an expanded construction debris landfill, according to plans the company submitted to Pasco County in 2006.

The Iafrates submitted their landfill plans at a time when Pasco County's rapid growth was creating more trash than could be burned at the waste incinerator on Hays Road. The county has since spent more than a year trucking excess garbage to Osceola County for burial.

The developers see Pasco as the landfill's primary customer, but it could take trash from anywhere.

A DEP permit is the first step in what promises to be a lengthy approval process. The proposed landfill still must get a conditional-use permit from Pasco County to operate. That could take months and will involve at least two public hearings.
Given those hurdles, project manager John Arnold declined to say when construction might start on the landfill.

Opponents of the project worry the landfill could rupture and leak pollution into the groundwater, the swamp and the rivers that drain it.

The Hillsborough River provides drinking water for Tampa. Tampa officials have expressed concerns about the project and are scheduled to consider formally opposing the landfill today.

Carl Roth, who has led citizen opposition to the project, said he was disappointed at the favorable tone of the DEP's letter.

"The FDEP has stated to us this morning that this document is 'just a draft' and the decision will not be finalized until Jan. 12," Roth said in a statement.
Last week, the DEP said it would delay issuing its letter of intent until after the holidays to ensure everyone interested in the case had ample opportunity to comment.
In the last year or so, however, the landfill has been the topic of regular discussion among local civic groups and municipal boards.

Despite concerns raised about the project, Angelo's construction plans "meet or exceed" the DEP's requirements for such a facility, agency spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said Wednesday

Those plans call for, among other things, several layers of man-made liners, a network of pipes to collect contaminated rainwater that seeps through the buried garbage and monitoring wells around the landfill to check for pollution leaking into the environment.

Arnold said opponents' concerns are overblown. He pointed to the nearby landfill Pasco County owns as proof.

"The county's landfill has been proven to work out here," Arnold said. "Ours will, too.

"If those things people say could happen could happen, they would be happening at the county's facility now," he added.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

Cypress Creek road rises again

Just when you thought it was dead, the City of Tampa keeps pushing for this road through the Cypress Creek Ecosystem. The City really ought to be looking at updating its public transportation system, rather than planning a shortcut to the interstate. Many cities around the state have similar problems.

The EW connector is extremely expensive, not only dollars, but to wildlife and one of Tampa's last unspoiled wild areas. Sierra Club, Tampa Audubon, FCAN, Environment Florida, and citizens near Cypress Creek have battled the road for year. They might have thought Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio would help, but she seems to be listening to pro-growth developers in the New Tampa area. Here are details from a recent St Pete Times article by Marlene Sokol:

Don't write off the east-west road

Maybe you thought the East-West road was dead. Mayor Pam Iorio and the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority said as much last spring. "Unfeasible'' and "not viable,'' they called the toll road that would run from Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to Interstate-275.

But a letter from city public works administrator Steve Daignault to Tampa Palms attorney Warren Dixon suggests otherwise. “We must consider all possibilities and alternatives with a possible long term solution that may include a combination of the East West Collector, roadway grid system and transit,’’ Daignault wrote on Oct. 10.

Daignault was answering a letter from Dixon that took issue with the city's plans to run a bridge from New Tampa Boulevard to Commerce Park Boulevard, which feeds into Tampa Palms Boulevard past several schools and parks. The bridge was to be part of that East-West Road project.

“The east west collector is an option which provides relief to some of the traffic issues in New Tampa,’’ Daignault wrote. “To that end, the city has obtained right of way and is exploring financial options with outside transportation agencies.”

Specifically: The city has asked Florida's Turnpike Enterprise to run the numbers a second time. When the Turnpike considered the project in 2005, it concluded that although the tolls could pay for construction, they would not cover maintenance costs, said Turpike spokeswoman Joanne Hurley.

"In late July, the city contacted the Turnpike and asked if we would take a fresh look,'' Hurley said. "They asked us to see if anything had changed."

Hurley said the Turnpike plans is wrapping up its work and will contact city officials in a few weeks to arrange a meeting.

Dixon said he does not object to the bridge if it is part of the toll road project. He does object to the bridge alone. Daignault, in his letter, promised that if the bridge is funded and built, the city “will work to ensure that Tampa Palms Boulevard remains protected from unacceptable levels of service.’’

Reacting to the letter, Randy Marlowe, a supervisor for the Tampa Palms community development district, said that “at the minimum, there should be no trucks allowed on Tampa Palms Boulevard.’’

Added CDD consultant Maggie Wilson, “I look forward to working with the city to minimize the detrimental effects.”

Threats to the acquifer from water bottlers

This is happening all over the state. Nestle (Zephyrhills and other brands) is a major bottler and has also caused problems in Texas. - FL Enviroblog


The Florida Times-Union

August 5, 2008

More threats to aquifer rising from water bottlers

By RON LITTLEPAGE
The Times-Union

First an update on the idiotic plan by yet another bottled water company to suck 177 million gallons of water a year out of the already stressed Floridan aquifer.

Staffers at the St. Johns River Water Management District have recommended approving a permit for Niagara Bottling, a California company that wants to build the plant in Lake County, and the district's board of governors was going to vote on the issue at its Aug. 12 meeting.

The Lake County Commission put a halt to that last week by filing a challenge to the permit with an administrative law judge.

That challenge will delay any action on the permit for at least six months.

Perhaps by then the water management district will realize the absurdity of taking precious water from the aquifer, while at the same time pushing to take up to 262 million gallons of water a day out of the St. Johns because the aquifer can't meet Central Florida's potable water needs.

Click.

Unfortunately, the courts may not be much help in stopping bottling plants from slurping up our water and shipping it elsewhere.

The Ocala Star-Banner reported last week that an appellate court panel ruled against Marion County's challenge to a plan to take 182 million gallons of water a year out of the aquifer there for bottled water.

The county commission had challenged the permit with an administrative law judge. Losing there, the commission appealed to the courts. That at least tied up the permit for four years.

The ruling Friday was a 2-1 squeaker. An issue was whether taking water from the aquifer for such a use was in the public's interest. The answer should be no. Hopefully, the state Supreme Court will get a chance to weigh in.

Click.

By the way, several of my astute readers have come up with an alternative to plans by the Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Palatka to dump 23 million gallons of polluted effluent a day into the middle of the river.

Uncontrolled growth in Central Florida has so depleted the Floridan aquifer that water managers there are greedily eying the 262 million gallons a day from the river.

To help out, ship the paper mill's dirty effluent to Orlando instead of sullying the St. Johns.

Click.

Readers who want to protest how the river is being treated ask whom they should contact.

A good place to start is Mayor John Peyton, who has pledged to fight the water withdrawal and any polluting of the river. His e-mail address is JPeyton@coj.net.

Gov. Charlie Crist should also be encouraged to get into the fight. His e-mail address is Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com.

And don't forget the members of the water management district's governing board. You can find their e-mail addresses at http://sjr.fl.us/governingboard/boardmembers.html

The message should be simple: Protect the St. Johns River. It's too great a resource to mess up.

Click.

ron.littlepage@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4284

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080508/opl_313410224.shtml

Reef Relief adds staff

Reef Relief, Florida's feisty reef protectors in Key West, have hired Mike McCleary as their new program person. Mike recently worked at Clean Water Action and established himself as a capable advocate for the environment.

Let's hope Mike can help push more sewage treatment for Keys waters (pdf presentation) and find ways to slow down reef bleaching.

He has a big job ahead. Good luck, Mike!