The best news we have seen in a long time. Power-obsessed Florida legislators lately spend a great deal of their time trying to gain more power for themselves, usually at the expense of the ordinary citizen and/or the environment.
The recent takeover allowing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to issue permits regarding wetlands instead of the EPA was a death knell for the wetlands. This is because allowing Florida to protect its wetlands opened the door for developers to have a field day.
The decision-makers in Florida are money-blinded and think of nothing but money and the present, with no thought of the quality of life for future generations.
The Florida DEP has an abysmal record of protecting 0ur environment and often protects corporations instead of the environment. The most egregious cases have been the DEP’s open-door policy for the phosphate mining industry.
Read this great story here in the Sun Sentinel.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Judge rejects handing over wetland permitting duties to the state of Florida
In what is being hailed as a victory to conservationists, a U.S. district judge has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service don’t have the right to hand over wetland permitting duties to the state of Florida.
The ruling will affect large planned housing developments in rural areas outside Naples that conservationists and biologists consider crucial habitat for the endangered Florida panther.
Prior to December 2020, when the federal agencies handed over wetland development permitting to Florida, permitting required federal Fish and Wildlife impact reviews on endangered species.
The plaintiffs claimed that the Florida process was less rigorous, and therefore a violation of the Endangered Species Act. The judge agreed.
The EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife handed over the regulating process to Florida in December of 2020, in the waning days of the Trump Administration. The Biden Administration continued the policy.
Several plaintiffs — including Miami Waterkeeper, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club — alleged in a lawsuit that the federal agencies violated the law “in their rush to transfer this permitting authority to Florida in the final days of the last administration.”
One of the concerns of Judge Randolph Moss was that Florida’s plan would result in developers gaining liability protection if they incidentally harmed or harassed an endangered species by dredging and filling wetlands.
But environmental groups Friday touted Moss’ ruling, which involved permits for dredge and fill activities often associated with such things as large developments.
Though the EPA and USFS could delay or postpone the judge’s decision, the judge was explicit in stating that any project that might affect an endangered species, such as Florida panthers or ghost orchids, will not be able to use Florida’s permitting program.
Regardless of delay, the state of Florida would not be allowed to issue any permits for applicants for projects that would affect endangered species, Reichert said.
Appeals to the decision will have to wait until the judge makes a final judgment on other legal issues in the lawsuit….
Two of the most pressing housing projects have gone through public notice and public meetings, and are on the precipice of a permitting decision, Crooks said.
And just to the north, the 3,300-acre Kingston Project, in eastern Lee County, would add 10,000 homes to an area that, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, is primary and secondary Florida panther habitat. The land is adjacent to the Corkscrew ecosystem watershed and the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
Both planned development areas are home to some of the 200 or so panthers that remain in Florida.
With the judge’s decision Friday, developments that threaten panther habitat will have to apply for permits federally instead of with the state, and those permits will be contingent on wildlife officials analyzing impacts on protected species.
“To reestablish the laws that protect our area from unbridled development and growth couldn’t come at a better time,” said Crooks, “especially when a lot of the projects we’re concerned about are getting ready to be permitted.”
Reporting from the News Service of Florida was used in this article.
Bill Kearney covers the environment, the outdoors and tropical weather. He can be reached at bkearney@sunsentinel.com. Follow him on Instagram @billkearney or on X @billkearney6.
A very dear friend of mine sent me a note last night to inform me about this recent ruling that a U.S. District Court Judge made that showed that the EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services had violated the Endangered Species Act when they allowed Florida to assume authority over evaluating the impacts that discharge permits have on imperiled wetland species.
I thanked the friend for sending me that important information. I then researched to find out the name of the U.S. District Judge who made that ruling. His name is Judge Randolph Moss.
The 7 environmental who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit included: the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, MIami Waterkeeper, and St. Johns Riverkeeper.
The environmental groups and ALL of us who care about our environment, can take pride in having offered any assistance with this VERY important accomplishment. Let us each pick up a little more strength to continue to fight the necessary environmental fights! I thank ALL of you for your help!