.
New Development - Urban Development Line May Stick
Every two years Miami-Dade County accepts applications to revise the Comprehensive Development Master Plan and extend the Urban Development Boundary (UDB). A lengthy process provides for numerous sets of recommendations and hearings leading to a final vote by the County Commission. This past April the Commission voted to accept two amendments to extend the UDB. But now, the Florida DCA has stepped in.
In the months that led to this vote, many organizations and individuals testified at these preliminary hearings. On one side the developers, their lobbyists, and their citizen supporters wanted the amendments approved and they were opposed by the "Hold The Line" alliance, including Sierra Club, many organizations, and many citizen activists. Support for holding the line also came from the Florida Department of Community Affairs, state agencies, the Miami Herald, the Mayor, and the County's own professional staff. Right after the two amendments were passed, Mayor Alvarez vetoed the amendments but the County Commission immediately overrode the Mayor's veto.
On July 18, 2008, the Florida Department of Community Affairs informed Mayor Alvarez that the Department intends to take legal action challenging the two amendments on the grounds that they are not in compliance with Florida's Comprehensive Plan, the Florida Administrative Code, Florida Statutes, and even Miami-Dade County's own Comprehensive Plan.
Mayor Alvarez is encouraging the County Commissioners to avoid a lengthy, costly legal challenge and vote to rescind the two amendments the Commission previously approved. Ironically, this legal challenge would have the County's professional staff defending the Commission's amendments, which the staff themselves recommended against approving.
The fight over the UDB amendments is not over. Look for future action alerts from Sierra Club where public opinions expressed directly to the Commissioners will play an important role. - Mark Oncavage, Conservation Chair of Miami Sierra Club.
July 14, 2008 Bush, McCain, Grand Oil Party Play Politics Over Drilling. Bush Administration Admits Offshore Drilling Will Do NOTHING to Lower Gas Prices
Washington, D.C.-President Bush is set to announce today that he is lifting the executive moratorium on new offshore drilling off our coasts. This will have no impact on the Congressional moratorium, which is renewed annually through the appropriations process, and still remains in place.
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director: "This is the most cynical of political ploys. Even the Bush administration admits that offshore drilling will do absolutely nothing to lower gas prices, today, tomorrow, or even a decade from now. This is nothing more than an attempt to exploit the suffering of hardworking Americans in order to pad Big Oil's bottom line.
"John McCain, George Bush, and Big Oil are working in lockstep to push for the 'exploitation' of our coasts, as McCain himself called it. It is the failed policies of the Bush administration that have crippled our economy and caused energy prices to skyrocket-and John McCain is just calling for more of the same. In fact, he also wants a Texas-sized tax cut for Big Oil--$1.2 billion for ExxonMobil alone. America simply cannot afford another president from the Grand Oil Party.
"Barack Obama knows that simply seeking a bigger fix is not the way to end our addiction to oil and won't do anything to ease our pain at the pump. He has a plan that will make the oil companies pay their fair share on their record profits in order to giving hardworking Americans a $1,000 tax cut to get us through today's crisis. In addition to real relief at the pump now, Obama's plan will put us on the true path to energy independence and break Big Oil's chokehold on our economy once and for all."
Other Notes: The DOE's Energy Information Administration says offshore or Arctic Refuge oil won't flow for ten years and prices won't be affected until at least 2027. The impact on price? "Insignificant." The Department of the Interior: The number of drilling permits on federal lands doubled in the last five years while the price of gas almost tripled. More drilling does not lower prices. House Natural Resources Committee: Oil and gas companies hold leases to 68 million acres of federal land and waters - an area the size of Nevada - that are producing nothing. Oil production on these lands could cut U.S. oil imports by more than one-third. John McCain On the effect of more U.S. oil drilling on the price of gas: "I don't see an immediate relief.... Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial." Fresno, June 23, 2008
T. Boone Pickens: "I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of." June 8, 2008The U.S. holds 2% of global oil reserves but consumes 24% of the world's oil. We can't drill our way to energy independence. Conservation, alternative energy sources and technological advances are the cheaper, faster, cleaner, surer way to meet America's energy needs while reducing the threat of global warming.
'Glades Rebirth - July, 2008
Gov. Crist gave the River of Grass new hope when he announced the buyout of U.S. Sugar. At almost 10 times the land mass of the city of Miami, this purchase can restore water flow to the Everglades if Florida Crystals swaps some of its land to create a continuous corridor from Lake Okeechobee to the rest of the Everglades.
This rich land of pond apple and cypress that the New York Botanical Garden curator in 1913 called ''picturesque beyond description,'' will soon be back in the hands of the state. Florida essentially gave it away more than 100 years ago. The U.S. Sugar sale marks the end of an era, but begins a new one for the Everglades and for all of us who believe in second chances. - Debbie Mathews, Chair, Sierra Club Miami Group
Our Drinking Water and the Lakebelt Issue
Rock Mining is an unfortunate fact of life in South Florida. What
should not be, is having mining contaminate our drinking water. We
knew we were in for a fight when the the industry successfully got
everyone to refer to the string of giant open mining pits as a "Lake
Belt". The public had another setback when the county passed an ordinance saying rock mining no longer needed to hold public hearings to get new permits. For 10 years we have been in a legal battle with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just to get them to obey the environmental
laws when permitting these mining operations. Recently, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ruled wisely and set aside the permits. It was one of our most stunning victories. However, the fight continues because the Army Corps of Engineers and the mining group have appealed the decision. The Miami New Times has the story.
Click Here and read "Poisoned Well" - March 2008.
Sierra Club Statement in Support of the U.S. Sugar Land Purchase (June 30, 2008) - The Sierra Club strongly supports the purchase of 187,000 acres of land from U.S. Sugar to restore the flow of clean, fresh water at the right time each year to the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. Governor Charlie Crist deserves our thanks for his leadership on this point: yes, there are risks and costs, but long ago we agreed that the destruction of the Everglades exposes taxpayers and future generations to unlimited risk. The purchase has the potential to provide several major benefits:
It would help fill in a missing link in the connection of Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.
It would provide adequate spatial extent—if the lands are in the right location—to restore wetlands and wildlife in the northern Everglades.
It would take one-third of sugar lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area out of production, thereby reducing nutrient pollution of the entire Everglades system down to Florida Bay.
It would restore the northern Everglades as a major tourist attraction and reinvigorate commerce from the shore communities of Lake Okeechobee to the fishing communities of Florida Bay.
It would allow much improved management of Lake Okeechobee water levels. Excessive fresh water in Lake Okeechobee would be released south into the Everglades, thus protecting the St. Lucie Canal and Caloosahatchee River from harmful releases following tropical storms and other periods of heavy rainfall.
It would serve as a large, natural water storage area and would eliminate the ill-conceived plan to construct 333 aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells as the centerpiece of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The Sierra Club realizes that there are many details that need to be worked out to complete the purchase of the U.S. Sugar cane fields and to create a contiguous corridor from Lake Okeechobee to the Water Conservation Areas south of the Everglades Agricultural Area. In the process, the State of Florida must remain faithful to the overarching goal of restoring the natural flow of water as well as the vast expanse of marshes and sawgrass that once stretched southward from Lake Okeechobee more than a hundred miles to Florida Bay. Such restoration should use the best science available to minimize the use of artificial structures and maximize replication of historic flows. Governor Crist should move quickly to lay out common sense rules for this acquisition: initiate land swaps to provide contiguous tracts as soon as possible; require that U.S. Sugar parcels swapped to other landowners carry permanent conservation easements and be used for environmentally-friendly purposes; and prohibit land uses incompatible with restoration (e.g. rock mining, power plants and urban development). We see this purchase as a very important step towards the restoration of the Everglades, which exist nowhere else in the world, as so eloquently described by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in the River of Grass. FPL Announces Plans for Two New Nuclear Reactors at Turkey Point - May, 2008
FPL is seeking approval to expand the Turkey Point site by two new reactor units by 2025. This would make it one of the largest sites in the Southeast. Forgetting all the issues with nuclear waste and the supervision and measuring of the existing aging reactors, these units need fresh water for cooling. So much water that it is an obvious question in these drought years, where are they going to get the water?
Mark Oncavage, Conservation Chair for the Miami Sierra Club was interviewed by the Miami Herald and was quoted as saying " That is one of the biggest problems I see, there is not enough water to build it." Mark has been the Energy Chair for the local Sierra Club for many years and testified at many of the hearings on the workings at Turkey Point. Over the years, issues of waste storage, security, and hurricane protection for the aging nuclear plant have all been in the news.
Hold the Urban Development Line!
The final County Commission meeting for 3 permits outside the UDB was April 24. One of the applications was pulled before the vote. Despite hearing that the public was against moving the UDB, that the entire environmental community was against it, that the Miami-Dade County Staff was against it, the Florida Dept. of Community Affairs and the South Florida Water Management District was against it, the commission voted to move the line for the two permits.
Everglades Skyway
Tamiami Trail (US highway 41) cuts through Shark River Slough, one of the Everglades’ deepest and most important
water passageways. Scientists say this 11-mile section of the 1928 road must be elevated into a “skyway” if Everglades
restoration is to succeed. The skyway will be an important first step in returning the historic water sheet flow through
parched Everglades National Park and into Florida Bay. It will be beneficial to wildlife by reducing habitat
fragmentation and preventing road kill. The project will create jobs and increase tourism while raising Everglades
awareness at the same time. Best yet, an 11-mile skyway will serve as a visible symbol of Everglades restoration;
a real benefit to the floundering project. The Sierra Club believes that Everglades restoration cannot happen
without the full 11-mile skyway. The US Army Corps of Engineers has tentatively selected a one-mile bridge in the eastern portion of the 11 mile area. This 1-mile plan is part of the 1989 federally-funded Modified Waters Delivery Project (Mod Waters), and not the $11 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) or any other state or federal transportation or environmental project. The Skyway Coalition has always said that if we were unable to secure the Skyway entirely in Mod Waters then the smaller project must be compatible with a full Skyway, and be built consecutively. The entire Corps document can be viewed at: USAC Site Sierra Concerns:
1. It’s generally acknowledged by all parties that the one-mile bridge alone will not provide enough water flow to restore Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. If the Skyway Coalition were to consider this as a first step to restore Shark River Slough and close out Mod Waters, we would need to see verifiable commitments from the state and federal officials that a project to build the remainder of the Skyway would break ground right after the one-mile bridge project is finished. 2.We are concerned that the 10 miles of asphalt, however thin, is a costly and long measure that might lend some permanency to the project. We wonder if this plan is designed to be the only bridge for 10-15 years or beyond. Tell us why that shouldn’t be a concern, and what are you doing to assure this doesn’t happen. 3.It behooves us to assure the public that finishing the Skyway starts immediately after the Mod Waters project because costs will only go up. We’ll look back at this 20-30 years from now and think that this was a bargain. 4.There doesn’t seem to be a plan to build the full Skyway after Mod Waters. We would like the Administration in its last months to work with Congress, the State of Florida and the Skyway Coalition, to craft a plan that blends a variety of state and federal and possibly private funds, possibly tapping existing and future tolling streams and financing options. We’d like that plan ready before Congresses’ July ‘08 deadline so that the public can see that the interim 1-mile plan isn’t the end of the road. 5.To show the agency’s commitment to restoring flow to the Everglades, would the Corps move up the Tamiami Trail decompartmentalization project of CERP, which could be a funding vehicle for much or all of the remaining Skyway bridging after Mod Waters? 6.The science chair of Miami-Dade County’s Global Warming Task Force and University of Miami Geology Chair, Dr. Harold Wanless, predicts a 3 to 5 foot sea level rise by 2100. He said that restoring natural historic flows may be pivotal to saving the Everglades. This week marks the 80th Anniversary of the completion of Tamiami Trail. In another 80 years, the road and much if not all the Everglades could be underwater if we don’t make the right choices now. We hope State and Federal officials agree on a post-Mod Waters bridging plan by July to address these predictions. - Jonathan Ullman,
Sierra Club Everglades Office
Governor Crist Signs Solar Initiative Bill
Here in the Sunshine State, the sun is our greatest energy resource. The Florida Solar Roofs Initiative is a plan to supply 2% of our energy from rooftop solar photovoltaics and a further 2% from solar thermal, by 2020. This will cost us less than 1% of our utility bills. That's a price most are willing to pay. Except for the Florida House and Senate.
State Senator's and Reps are looking to weaken the bill, or worse, call coal and nuclear energy renewable resources similar to solar.Please sign and forward the Vote Solar Petition. It proposes a million roof solar initiative for Florida. It can be accessed through the following site: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/votesolar/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=738.
Jonathan Ullman, Sierra Club
Water Conservation News
Miami-Dade County has had rain. But despite this, some water restrictions still remain. You can view the Miami-Dade government website on water conservaton at Conservation
Broward County has created a few programs concerned with water management and resource protection.
"Water Matters" is the County’s educational program that helps homeowners, policymakers, local businesses, and property managers understand their role in water management and water conservation. See this at: Water Matters
NatureScape is about creating Florida-friendly landscapes that conserve water, protect water quality, and create wildlife habitat. See this at: NatureScape
Broward’s water management community has developed a Plan called the Integrated Water Resource Plan (IWRP) that looks at how Broward’s water resources might be most effectively and efficiently managed – for the next ten years and beyond. The Plan is an important step in making sure that water is managed in a way that benefits everyone, while protecting the environment.See this at: IWRP
“Know the Flow” educates local residents, property managers, landscape professionals, and municipal staff about how they each contribute to the successful functioning of our water management system. The Know the Flow program was developed in partnership with the Central Broward Water Control District and the South Florida Water Management District and provides an overview of local water management. The program emphasizes that we all have a role as water managers.See this at: Know the Flow
Global Warming Information
FOR TOO LONG, America has failed to take meaningful steps to address the serious problem of global warming, and some in government and industry want to deny the science behind global warming instead of taking responsible action. \However, we have the opportunity and the technology to cut our emission of the greenhouse gases which fuel global warming. The facts about global warming are in. The time for debate is over. We must act now. Visit www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming for more information and ways to take action.
“An Inconvenient Truth,” in theaters now, is an inspirational look at Al Gore’s crusade to halt global warming’s progress by exposing its myths and misconceptions. Find out more at www.climatecrisis.net and find a showing near you.
Help Keep the Environment a Top Issue in Florida
Please help push the environment to the front of the newspaper editors' attention in Florida. Something that you can do (and maybe even make you feel better!) is to write a letter to the editor of newspapers, both in your area and to others. The Internet makes this easier than ever. Even if your letter is not published, it is good for the newspapers to know that our issue-the environment-is at the top of peoples' concerns. Most papers require letters to the editor to include a full name, home address, occupation and daytime phone number, for verification purposes. The name, city of residence and, usually, occupation of writers may published. Send your opinions and share them with others.
Click on the links below to send letters to the editor
| Orlando Sentinel | Sun Sentinel | Gainesville Sun |
| Florida Union Times | Miami Herald | Naples News |
| Tallahassee Democrat | St. Petersburg Times | Tampa Tribune |
| Gulf Herald | Palm Beach Post |
CONSERVATION ARCHIVE
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Bill Baggs State Park
Dadeland Sprawl/Urban Sprawl Deep Well Injection Everglades |
Freshwater Lake Belt Plan Homestead Air Base |
Offshore Drilling
Port of Miami Violations Virginia Beach Key |
If you have comments or suggestions, email the webmaster at Miami Group Webmaster