We all saw the success of working together get HB457 under control, we could use the same help on SB 796 which will undo group efforts made 2 years ago to close the outfalls in South Florida. Please call your Senators while they are home on break.
These Bills include some troubling provisions that could detrimentally impact the treatment and reuse of water in some of our largest counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
The legislation delays the requirement for compliance with a state mandate to eliminate ocean outfall, improve wastewater treatment and beneficially reuse a portion of that wastewater by five years. Unfortunately, as is too often the case during our 60-day legislative session, some troubling provisions of this legislation appear to have been overlooked.
Of key relevance is the grave concern that injecting this into the aquifer would increase nutrients in our aquifers since drinking water standards do not limit nutrients enough. The studies have shown that due to our limestone this can easily come back through upwellings onto our reefs and into our sensitive bay areas.
Our main target is the upcoming Senate Budget Committee as this is where it goes first thing next week, but all Senators need to be aware if this gets pushed through.
http://florida.surfrider.org/action-alerts
Ericka (Davanzo) Canales
Florida Regional Manager
Surfrider Foundation
Ecanales@surfrider.org
772-924-4144
The Florida Legislature has released plans to cut essential funding that supports protection and conservation of Florida’s Aquatic Preserves. This program has already been cut 25% by the Legislature over the last three years. The current proposed cut of over $1 million in state funds is an additional 15% reduction that will close six Aquatic Preserve field offices, and eliminate 23 staff currently involved in restoration, education, monitoring, and stewardship of over 2 million acres within the Aquatic Preserves.
photo: NOAA
What you can do to help:
Contact your local state legislators in the Senate and House via email and letter NOW and urge them to support the Governor’s recommendation for Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA). To locate your legislators, go to: www.flsenate.gov and www.myfloridahouse.gov.
- CAMA is responsible for managing over 4 million acres of submerged ands within 41 Aquatic Preserves, three National Estuarine Research Reserves, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary representing Florida’s most pristine coastal and marine resources. Florida’s Aquatic Preserves protect sea grass beds, coral reefs, mangrove and marshes that serve as powerful economic engines driving local businesses such as tourism, sport fishing, boating, and commercial seafood industries that generate billions of dollars each year.
- CAMA is a non-regulatory program that uses science and education to build successful collaborative partnerships that effectively engage public and private sectors in coastal stewardship. The Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves and its associated park lands provide a wide range of outstanding benefits and values to the people of the State of Florida, including economic benefits such as:
- The $18.4 Billion and 220,000 jobs the recreational marine-related industry generated statewide in 2005, (this includes boating and marinas, fishing, and marine science research);
- As of 2007 there were tourist oriented facilities valued at $1.4 Billion in Southwest Florida (the second highest values in the state);
- Southwest Florida region has the highest number of saltwater licenses among non-residents and the second highest number of beach attendance. In order to maintain and even grow this segment of the economy, we need to at least maintain the current level of management to ensure our waters are attractive to tourist, recreational users and commercial enterprises.
Coral Reef Fact:
Map of Florida State Waters.
“Tourism brings in nearly $60 billion to Florida each year, which amounts to $3.4 billion in state tax revenues, and directly employs over 900,000 people. It is the state’s largest employer”. Source, visit to learn more on Save Shores! Florida
Join Reef Relief today & help protect our marine environment, go to reefrelief.org/act/donate
Photo: NOAA
The Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 men and sent approximately 170 million gallons of oil into one of America’s most productive fishing grounds, was a national tragedy. To determine what went so terribly wrong, and to find out how to make sure such a disaster never happens again, President Obama appointed a bipartisan commission to investigate the root causes of the explosion and to make recommendations to correct them.
The commission’s recently released report is clear: the disaster was not a one-time fluke, but rather the result of systematic failures in government oversight and industry management. The commission concluded that another disaster will likely happen again unless Congress, the Obama administration and the oil industry undertake fundamental reforms that hold the industry to higher safety standards and strengthen the government’s authority to enforce more rigorous protections.
If we are serious about preventing the next disaster, Congress has to act.
What to do:
Send a message urging your senators and representatives to support and implement the recommendations made by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling to reform offshore oil and gas drilling, and to protect and restore our nation’s oceans.
Numeric Nutrient Criteria and the general ability for EPA to effectively enforce the Clean Water Act is under assault. Please support the EPA’s efforts in implementing nutrient pollution standards.
Send a message to Senator Nelson asking him to stand up to our state’s big polluters and protect the EPA’s authority to keep our water clean, drinkable, fish-able and swim-able. This is an urgent matter and Senator Nelson needs to hear from as many Floridians as possible in the next few days. Let him know you support clean water for Florida’s rivers, lakes, streams, bays and springs!
You can contact him by phone (202-224-5274), fax (202-228-2183) or web mail: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm Phone calls are most effective.
On Friday (2/18) night, Congressman Tom Rooney (FL-16) added a rider to the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution – that would stop EPA from implementing the new freshwater numeric water quality standards – was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives in a largely party-line vote, 237-189. Only 17 Republicans voted against the rider but 16 Democrats voted for it – three of those Democrats being from Florida (Alcee Hastings, Corrine Brown and Ted Deutch). See Florida Times-Union story at: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-02-19/story/us-house-budget-vote-threatens-florida-clean-water-rule#ixzz1EbRJGiqS
The Rooney rider was just one of many anti-EPA amendments adopted by the House last weekend and next week the battle moves to the Senate.
Our goal now is to put enough pressure on the Senate to Oppose Section 4035 of the FY11 Continuing Resolution. This language would stop implementation and public education on the EPA rule to protect Florida’s waters from excess pollution from sewage, manure and fertilizer.
Unfortunately, Senator Nelson endorsed a similar rider to stop the EPA numeric nutrient criteria last fall. And since last summer he has refused to meet with us regarding this issue. We therefore must approach Nelson as we approached Congressman Rooney last week
You can contact him by phone (202-224-5274), fax (202-228-2183) or web mail: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm Phone calls are most effective.
Please ask key decision makers in other states to support these standards. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senator Jack Reed, (D-RI), Subcommittee Chairman, Interior and Related Agencies, have jurisdiction over this issue and it is very important that they vote against this amendment if it is offered to the Senate bill and then it is vital that they insist on dropping the language in conference.
You can contact Chairman Inouye’s Committee office by phone (202-224-7363), fax (202-224-2100) or web mail: http://inouye.senate.gov/Contact/ContactDKI.cfm.
You can contact Chairman Reed’s Subcommittee office by phone (202-228-0774), fax (202-228-2345) or web mail: reed.senate.gov/contact/contact-share.cfm
Of course the Democratic Leader should also lead no votes against this amendment and insist on it being dropped in Conference.
You can contact Majority Leader Reid (D – NV) by phone (202- 224-3542), fax (202- 224-7327) or web mail: Web Form: reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
The opposition is doing everything it can, with many more dollars to spend, to get rid of Florida’s new nutrient pollution limits. Go to this web address http://www.3-1-2011.org/ to get a glimpse of the opposition’s maneuvers.
Send thank you messages to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (202-225-7931), who made a heroic speech on the House floor against the Rooney rider, and to Representatives Kathy Castor (202- 225-3376), Frederica Wilson (202-225-4506) and Cliff Stearns (202-225-3973), who all voted against the Rooney rider.
wa ter in 35 cities around the country. Recently, Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced Senate Bill 79, the Protecting Pregnant Women and Children From Hexavalent Chromium Act of 2011.
Hands Across The Sand 2010 Smathers Beach Key West, FL
Hands Across The Sand 2010 Smathers Beach Key West, FL
PLEASE SIGN THE NEAR-SHORE OIL DRILLING BAN PETITION TODAY
(PRINT AND MAIL TO THE ADDRESS INCLUDED)
Petition Form
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
FLORIDA’S STATE WATERS EXTEND APPROXIMATELY THREE MILES INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND 10 MILES INTO THE GULF OF MEXICO.
IF THE PETITION EFFORT SUCCEEDS, FLORIDIANS WILL BE ALLOWED THE CHANCE TO BAN OIL DRILLING IN STATE WATERS IN NOVEMBER 2012
1) FLORIDA’S NUMBER ONE ECONOMIC DRIVER IS TOURISM. MILLIONS OF TOURISTS PUMP APPROXIMATELY $50 BILLION PER YEAR INTO OUR STATE. SOILED BEACHES MEANS FEWER VISITORS AND FEWER JOBS FOR FLORIDIANS.
2) WHILE OIL DRILLING IS PRESENTLY PROHIBITED BY STATE LAW, THAT LAW CAN BE CHANGED AT ANY TIME BY POLITICIANS IN THE LEGISLATURE. INDEED, IN 2009, LEGISLATORS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROVED LIFTING THE BAN. WE CAN ONLY SECURE THE NEAR-SHORE WATERS BY ALLOWING THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA TO VOTE. ONCE IN THE CONSTITUTION, ONLY THE PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO CHANGE IT, NOT THE POLITICIANS.
3) THIS BAN WILL NOT IMPACT, IN ANY WAY, THE PRESENT OIL DRILLING OPERATIONS IN FEDERAL WATERS; IT WILL SIMPLY PROTECT THE MARINE WATERS NEXT TO OUR COASTLINES.
4) THIS ISSUE IS POLITICALLY NON-PARTISAN. FLORIDIANS LOVE OUR BEACHES NO MATTER PARTY AFFILIATION.
5) THE BP DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER CLEARLY SHOWED US THAT OIL DRILLING IS NOT SAFE. IF THAT CATASTROPHE HAD HAPPENED ON THE COAST, IN FLORIDA WATERS, OUR ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT WOULD HAVE SUFFERED A DEVASTATING BLOW. A DRILLING BAN WILL STOP THAT POSSIBILITY.
6) DOES AN OIL BAN BELONG IN THE CONSTITUTION? YES. ONLY ISSUES OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE SHOULD BE IN THE STATE CONSTITUTION, AND OIL DRILLING IS ONE OF THOSE. THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE ON WHETHER WE WILL CONTINUE AS A MAJOR TOURIST DESTINATION KNOWN FOR OUR NATURAL BEAUTY. AS OUR WORLD-RENOWNED BEACHES ARE THE VERY ESSENCE OF FLORIDA, PROTECTION OF THE BEACHES BELONGS IN THE CONSTITUTION.
THANK YOU FOR SIGNING THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PETITION TO ALLOW CITIZENS TO VOTE TO BAN OIL DRILLING IN OUR STATE WATERS. LET US PROTECT FLORIDA’S COASTS FOR OURSELVES, OUR CHILDREN AND OUR GRANDCHILDREN!
For more info visit: http://www.sosfla.org/2010/08/petition-for-florida-constitutional.html
PLEASE MAIL THE COMPLETED FORM TO:
SAVE OUR SEAS
PO BOX 6686
TALLAHASSEE, FL 32314
Pd. pol. adv. Save our Seas, Beaches and Shores, Inc.., PO Box 6686, Tallahassee, FL 32314
