Florida's Manatees and the
2009 Florida Legislative Session

Additional Information -- First the Bad News:

Closure of 5 Department of Environmental Protection
Aquatic Preserve Offices
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been asked to prepare for a 20% budget cut. To address the request, DEP has proposed to close five aquatic preserve field offices. The sites selected for closure are the East Central Aquatic Preserve Office in Cocoa; the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve Office in Ft. Myers Beach; the Central Panhandle Office which manages the St. Joe Bay, Apalachicola Bay, and Alligator Harbor AP’s; the Northeast Florida Office which manages the Ft. Clinch and Nassau River-St. Johns River Marshes AP’s; and the Biscayne Bay Office which manages the Biscayne Bay and Biscayne Bay-Cape Florida to Monroe County Line aquatic preserves. Closure will eliminate services including monitoring, resource protection and restoration, permitting assistance, volunteer coordination, emergency response and cleanup, education and outreach activities and coordination with other agencies on potential impacts to these sites from adjacent alterations of habitats. In addition, the proposed budget cuts will result in a reduction of staff and services at the remaining aquatic preserves.

Growth Management and the
Department of Community Affairs (DCA)
The House Government Accountability Act Council passed its committee bill (PCB GAAC 09-04) last week, reassigning the growth management responsibilities of DCA to the Department of State. A Senate Bill (SB 730) proposed by Senator Mike Bennett (R-Bradenton) proposes to dismantle DCA altogether and shift some responsibilities to other agencies. Both bills are an attempt to weaken growth management provisions in Florida.

The DCA provides oversight of the state’s development by reviewing proposed amendments to county comprehensive plans and other laws. A proposed bill would diminish the effectiveness of the DCA by eliminating state review of local comprehensive plan amendments for counties with more than one million residents or cities with more than 100,000 residents. Such developed areas are in no less need of strong comprehensive plans than smaller communities. The DCA helped prevent a large marina from being constructed in the aquatic preserve on the St. Johns River in Volusia County, near Blue Spring State Park where more than 250 manatees spend the winter.

Additional legislation would weaken the permitting process by eliminating impact fees currently paid by developers to help fund the infrastructure improvements required by new developments. In the absence of such impact fees, these costs could be passed on to tax payers. Additional proposals would cut the staff that review local plan amendments by half, which would likely lead to incomplete reviews of amendments and assessments of possible environmental impacts. At least 300,000 homes are currently sitting vacant in Florida due to the economic downturn. A relaxation of environmental protections could further weaken the state’s economy by adding even more residential and commercial developments to an already flooded market.

Wetlands Permitting
A proposed amendment to HB 1349 was introduced by Representative Jimmy Patronis (R-Panama City) in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, and passed in that committee. The amendment proposes that environmental resource permit applications signed by licensed professionals (including a developer-hired consultant) would be assumed to represent compliance with all permit requirements and would be approved without question. Once approved, these permits would be nearly impossible to challenge, and non-compliance would have to be proven. A consultant’s signature could eliminate requirements for wetlands mitigation or stormwater treatment. This same committee has released an environmental permitting “streamlining” bill (PCB ANR 02) that would weaken environmental safeguards.

Transformation of Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts Program
into a Boat Ramp Development Program
The proposed amendment to HB 1349, added at the behest of representatives from the marine industry, would allocate a disproportionate amount of points to projects that contain a proposed boat ramp, almost certainly guaranteeing them funding, while other projects more consistent with the spirit and intent of the Working Waterfronts program would fall short in scoring and be unable to secure project funding. The amendment passed in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Committee. The proposed changes, would, in statute, amend rule criteria for grants for vessel access to make 70 points available for including a boat ramp in a funding proposal, effectively turning the Mayfield program into a boat ramp acquisition program.

Now the Good News:

Springs Bill
The bill would designate all counties with first or second magnitude springs as spring protection zones. The bill includes provisions to limit nutrient input from septic tanks into groundwater, requires counties designated as spring protection zones to implement "Florida Friendly Landscape" ordinances, and contains agricultural best management practices.

Seagrass Protection
Legislation to protect seagrass has been introduced again this session. The language is identical to the bill presented in 2008, but without the "mitigation banking" language that caused Save the Manatee Club and other organizations to call for a veto of the bill. The seagrass protection bill has passed the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee (SB 2536) and the House General Government Policy Council (HB 1423).


What You Can Do:

Please click on this link to send an online letter to Governor Charlie Crist, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House, asking that DEP's Aquatic Preserve offices remain open, that the functions of DCA remain intact, that wetlands permitting receive sufficient oversight, that the Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts program remains committed to supporting projects that are in the public interest, and that new laws to protect springs and seagrass be passed.

Your letter will help safeguard Florida's environment against damaging and short-sighted policies being proposed in Tallahassee.

Thank you for your help and support!