Archive for July, 2010
Are you interested in learning what the impact of the Gulf oil disaster will be on the Florida Keys’ habitats and wildlife? And how you can help?
Please join us at a FREE scientific conference to learn more about the Gulf disaster’s impacts on the Keys and what you can do.
Leading scientists and local volunteer and response organizations will be on hand to discuss the impacts of the disaster and to answer your questions.
This event is sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Oceana.
Please RSVP, as seating is limited.
Date: Wednesday, August 4
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Location: Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center
35 East Quay Road, Key West
Cost: FREE
The Center is located at the end of Southard Street in Truman Annex, across the street from Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park.
For more information and to RSVP, please contact Amanda Gambill, Oceana organizer, at agambill@oceana.org.
The following two fact sheets prepared by the Natural Resources Defense Council on the Florida keys are now available in both english and spanish to better understand the “Do’s and Don’t” of dealing with oil and “What’s at Stake” regarding the ecological and economic treasures threatened by the Gulf oil spill disaster in the Florida Keys.
Oil Spill Do’s and Don’ts for the Florida Keys: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from the Health Impacts of the Oil Spill
http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/keysoilspill.asp
El futuro ecológico y económico de los cayos de la Florida está en juego
What’s At Stake: The Ecological and Economic Future of the Florida Keys
http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/FLfuture.asp
Reef Relief has long worked to improve state and national standards for water quality in the Florida Keys, particularly on the reef and in Florida Bay. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the deadlines for the proposed establishment of numeric nutrient criteria for Florida’s estuarine and coastal waters (statewide), inland waters in South Florida (including canals), and downstream protection values for estuaries by ten months. This decision, which was made by mutual agreement between EPA and the parties involved in the Consent Decree (Florida Department of Environmental Protection and various plantiffs), will allow EPA to send the data and methods used to develop numeric nutrient criteria for Florida’s coastal waters to a Science Advisory Board for an independent public peer review. Both the letter to the Department as well as the Joint Notice to the Court are posted to the Department’s website at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/nutrients/federal.htm .
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection initiated development of numeric nutrient criteria for estuaries earlier this year and conducted public meetings around the state in February and March to discuss the development of numeric nutrient criteria for estuarine and coastal systems. As a result of these public meetings and subsequent analyses, the Department is preparing reports on numeric nutrient criteria development in these estuarine and coastal systems. Draft reports will be posted in the next few weeks to the Department’s website at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/nutrients/estuarine.htm . The PowerPoint presentations from the earlier public meetings have already been posted to this website.
The Department will be conducting four public meetings to discuss these estuarine and coastal system numeric nutrient criteria reports as follows:
DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bob Martinez Center, Room 609, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32399
AREA TO BE COVERED: Perdido Bay to Apalachee Bay
DATE AND TIME: Thursday, August 26, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: South Florida Water Management District Auditorium, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, Florida 33406
AREA TO BE COVERED: Rookery Bay to St. Lucie River Estuary
DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 1:00 p.m. and Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas Research Reserve Auditorium, 505 Guana River Road, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 32082
AREA TO BE COVERED: Indian River Lagoon to St. Marys River Estuary
DATE AND TIME: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 9:00 a.m. and Friday, September 3, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Conference Room, 4000 Gateway Centre Boulevard, Suite 100, Pinellas Park, Florida 33782
AREA TO BE COVERED: Suwannee River Estuary to Caloosahatchee River/Charlotte Harbor (NOTE: The morning of September 2nd will be dedicated to numeric nutrient criteria discussions of the Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, and Charlotte Harbor National Estuarine Program areas)
Most of the meetings can be expected to run until mid-afternoon or later with the exception of the September 1st and 3rd meetings, which will be limited to the morning. To ensure constructive dialogue during the meetings, we strongly encourage you to review the reports once they are posted to the Department’s website as discussed above. All of the meetings are open to the public, and we welcome any feedback you may have on the documents.
The Department has also established a Marine Numeric Nutrient Criteria Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) to assist in our efforts to derive Florida’s marine numeric nutrient criteria. This TAC is separate and distinct from a previous TAC established for nutrient criteria development for freshwater systems (lakes, streams, and canals). The first meeting of the MTAC, which is open to the public, is scheduled as follows:
DATE AND TIME: Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bob Martinez Center, Room 609, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32399
E & E News, July 12, 2010
Enviro group sues for Salazar leasing docs
By Noelle Straub
The Center for Biological Diversity today sued the Interior Department for failing to provide information requested under the Freedom of Information Act related to the Interior secretary’s decisions on oil and gas leasing.
On May 18, the group filed a FOIA request seeking all phone logs and correspondence to or from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar related to the approval of offshore oil and gas leasing, along with notes of meetings Salazar attended on the topic.
A response to the request was due July 1, after Interior invoked a 10-day working extension. The lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asks the court to order Salazar to immediately respond to the request and promptly provide the documents.
CBD said it wants documents related to proposals on expanding drilling off the Atlantic Coast and Alaska and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and to approvals of numerous offshore leases and drilling plans in the Gulf.
“Secretary Salazar has been cozy with the offshore drilling lobby for many years,” CBD Executive Director Kieran Suckling said in a statement. “There is no question that BP and other oil companies were integral to his decisions to expand offshore oil drilling. We want to know who Salazar was talking to, what was said, and what deals were made.”
An Interior spokeswoman said the department could not provide comment on a lawsuit.
”The new White House initiative will take a comprehensive approach to all the different uses of our public seas. Using our best observing tools and a national Ocean Council working with regional and local interests there will be a determination how we can best restore our ocean commons while maintaining its use for recreation, transportation, trade, (clean) energy, (limited) protein, security and, of course, inspiration, the everlasting blue in our red, white and blue.” – Taken from the Blue Frontier Campaign’s BLUE NOTES #77 written by David Helvarg
Several Senators have introduced a Senate companion bill to the Coastal Jobs Creation Act
On June 24th, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced S. 3528, the Coastal Jobs Creation Act (CJCA) to create jobs for fishermen and coastal communities. This Senate legislation follows the CJCA legislation in the House of Representatives that has already gained significant support, in large part due to your calls and letters. For the CJCA to advance in the Senate, we need your help!
Tell Florida’s Senator to cosponsor the Coastal Jobs Creation Act (S. 3528)!
To Learn more about the Senate version see Pew’s Factsheet
Cleaner Water Mitigates Climate Change Effects on Florida Keys Coral Reefs, Study Shows ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) —
Improving the quality of local water increases the resistance of coral reefs to global climate change, according to a study published in June in Marine Ecology Progress Series. Florida Institute of Technology coral reef ecologist Robert van Woesik and his student Dan Wagner led the study, which provides concrete evidence for a link between environmental health and the prospects for reefs in a rapidly changing world. Van Woesik and his team showed that when waters in the Florida Keys warmed over the last few summers, corals living in cleaner water with fewer nutrients did well. On the other hand, corals in dirtier water became sick and bleached. “Regulating wastewater discharge from the land will help coral reefs resist climate change,” said van Woesik. “In the face of climate change and ocean warming, this study gives managers hope that maintaining high water quality can spare corals.”
More Story Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Florida Institute of Technology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Journal Reference: 1. DE Wagner, P Kramer, R van Woesik. Species composition, habitat, and water quality influence coral bleaching in southern Florida. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 2010; 408: 65 DOI: 10.3354/meps08584
