May 4th,2014 We had a funeral for the St Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon which had been devastated by discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Both turned green with poisonous green toxic algae. Our lives would never be the same again.
As a way to protest we held this funeral at Phipps Park which the park next to the the “Gates of Hell” where the water out and runs into the river and the lagoon.
Here is a video that Brad Langel shot with his drone. There is a great shot of the St Lucie Locks that will be opened when Lake Okeechobee is too high. That’s when we get polluted with Lake water that destroys mostly because the fresh water hits the lagoon, changes the salinity of the water and kills everything including the oysters that my friends very lovingly place through out.
Yesterday I had to laugh because if I just had clean water I probably wouldn’t even be sitting here on my day off computing. I would be in the water.
Yesterday after I posted my blog I was having a conversation with my friend Kenny Hinkle and between the both of us we came up with some interesting information. Team work yay. We were both interested in this web site.
I got there because I got a little confused with all the liberty blogs that are out there and different liberty caucuses but then a few things caught my eye.
and this
What could these people possible want with FNAA and our Indian River Lagoon. So I dared to go a little further and they had a whole local section.
June was an abysmal month for freedom on the Treasure Coast as 290 area residents were violently abducted at gunpoint by men in costumes for non-violent vices.
Saint Lucie
June was a terrible month for freedom in Saint Lucie as costumed men with guns abducted and caged 177 people for non-violent vices.
Indian River
Indian River saw a much lower total with 57 people being kidnapped and caged by costumed men with guns for non-violent vices.
Martin
A total of 56 citizens were abducted at gunpoint by men in costumes for alleged non-violent vices.”
Who are these costumed men who are kidnapping and caging people? If my friend Gayle Ryan was in town she would say “Are they single?”
Did they look like this?
did they look like this?
If the police are costumed men with guns am I a costumed female with a stethoscope?
“The lagoonists and their goons have banned fertilizers (though no evidence of damaged caused by the fertilizers exists just their presence) and now facing the calamity of rain one has to wonder: Will the loony lagoonists soon ban rain?”
Funny but we are lagoonatics! Get your jargon correct puleeeze Brightlight.
and then I saw that they were all obsessed with Eve Samples.
I felt terrible because I was having such a good laugh and then this.
You can go over and search. It’s a good search engine and also has a store where you can buy all kinds of nifty things. Like stickers and books. You can buy the Libertarian Manifesto for 11 bucks!
I love manifestos. Here are some other people that wrote manifestos.
kazinski manafesto
At any rate you get the picture and honestly like I have said hundreds of times. Free speech! Keep on writing. Please!
So we were interested in who owned the website because these people are local and thought it would be a good thing to know. All these funny people hiding behind their nom de plumes! I don’t have issue’s with nom de plumes. Some of my friends have these. I could just never figure out what mine would be.
So anyway, the owner of the site is Registrant Email: gatorlandrhett@hotmail.com
This I find very confusing since he previously made me very sad with those not so nice posts about Eve Samples.
I’m so confused.
This is his job.
“Creating solutions for local and small businesses to connect with their target audience wherever they are, collecting useful information for how consumers interact with them and implementing steps to increase conversions and ROI for business partners.”
I’m wondering what he puts in to target us? Lagoonakooks?
What would you use to target me? #noseylagoonakook? or maybe #socialistlagoonakook?
“.. scarcity is a reason most people work since their financial resources are limited and finite and work provides them the income necessary to accumulate resources to exchange for the goods and services of another. Consumers demand scarce goods (housing, clothes, a night out, travel, school supplies) and people have to economize their decisions based on scarcity.
In the case of water scarcity, however, we find that the challenge of scarcity is met in some very peculiar ways.
For examples, we can look to the Indian River Lagoon, Lake Okeechobee, and the Everglades where water is plentiful, but clean water is scarce. Moreover, we might look to the western United States where an arid climate makes all types of water scarce.
Yet in all of these places there is one thing in abundance — clean and drinkable bottled water.
Why is it that we can we have too much dirty water in one place, not enough water in another, and be surrounded by an abundance of bottled water?
The first thing to be said about this is that on the free market, regardless of the stringency of supply, there is never any “shortage,” that is, there is never a condition where a purchaser cannot find supplies available at the market price. On the free market, there is always enough supply available to satisfy demand. The clearing mechanism is fluctuations in price. If, for example, there is an orange blight, and the supply of oranges declines, there is then an increasing scarcity of oranges, and the scarcity, is “rationed” voluntarily to the purchasers by the uncoerced rise in price, a rise sufficient to equalize supply and demand. If, on the other hand, there is an improvement in the orange crop, the supply increases, oranges are relatively less scarce, and the price of oranges falls consumers are induced to purchase the increased supply.
In the case of droughts government monopolies set prices arbitrarily and this sends consumers distorted prices. Just as bad crops increase the price of oranges so should droughts increase the price of water. Individuals then internalize their decisions to make best use of the scare resources — their own finances and the water commodity. Government distorting prices prevents individuals from acting most efficiently to conserve scarce resources.
The Indian River Lagoon and other areas in South Florida are impacted by the lack of clear pricing signals to individuals. Meanwhile, bottled water is so easy to obtain that this past weekend at the Indian River Lagoon Clean Water Rally, free clean bottled water was given away during an event to protest the lack of clean water in the environment.
Bottled water is the only water product that Americans have routinely priced and marketed. We now happily pay as much as four times the cost of gasoline for potable water that we could have for free from fountains and taps. Of course, economists will tell us factually that bottled water is not the same good. The square Fiji bottle is a sexy statement; and the ubiquitous bottle of water in hand is a fitness and convenience statement. Subjective valuation determines price. A real market in this water product does exist.
Markets for other water products are, meanwhile, mainly nonexistent. We routinely do not pay market prices for most other forms of water. Until recently, water has been viewed and treated as a free good by all Earth’s peoples. As with all free goods, water experiences unlimited demand. But water cannot meet unlimited demand. Water needs prices in order to signal scarcity and inform demand. Different categories of water need different prices to reflect the different preferences of users. Free can no longer be water’s price. The profligate glory days of limitless water everywhere seem to be over.
The lack of market pricing affects the Indian River Lagoon as it encourages pollution. By allowing farms and industries to pump byproduct into the water the waterways are essentially being used as a free garbage dumping ground. The permitting of pollution by government recklessly encourages more pollution by firms rather than firms benevolently opting to pay to have it properly disposed. The business who pays extra to have waste properly treated and disposed of may not be able to compete with the businesses who opt to take advantages of government allowing dumping of byproduct into waterways at virtually no cost.
The lack of market pricing occurs largely due to lack of ownership and governmental edict. With “public” ownership bureaucrats and politicians charged with maintaining resources lack capital value interest in the resources. They only preside over the current use as Hans Hoppe taught us, “it makes exploitation less calculating and carried out with little or no regard to the capital stock. Exploitation becomes shortsighted and capital consumption will be systematically promoted.” The long-term calculations of the bureaucrat is distorted by this.
Ownership being replaced with stewardship and the lack of the profit and loss mechanism prevents the water bureaucrats from making the most efficient decisions. It is not for the lack of caring but the inability to make economic calculation as Mises explained in Bureaucracy:
Bureaucratic management is management of affairs which cannot be checked by economic calculation.
… The bureaucrat is not free to aim at improvement. He is bound to obey rules and regulations established by a superior body. He has no right to embark upon innovations if his superiors do not approve of them. His duty and his virtue is to be obedient. … Nobody can be at the same time a correct bureaucrat and an innovator.
Yet if the same waterways were privately owned the property owners could charge for the all uses of waterways. Non-pollutive by products may be charged less than damaging pollutive byproducts which negatively affect water quality. The scarcity of the water quality would set prices to discourage pollution and incentivize firms to find cleaner and more efficient production methods.
Furthermore with ownership provides the long-term capital value incentive which encourages conservation. We see this in forestry where forests are replanted to ensure the forest owner has income in the future. We see this at Adams Ranch where the stock of cattle is not wiped out all at once. Adams Ranch does a particularly good job of conserving grass to feed and support their cattle because the land they have to raise cattle on is limited. If grass goes so does the cattle.
In the case of the Lagoon, waterway owners might decide not to allow pollution. Instead, deciding that the boaters, fisherman, divers, swimmers, etc., are a preferable source of revenue for decades into the future.
Prices would help owners calculate that using the water for leisure and conservation is more efficient and useful than making it unusable dumping grounds. Prices would help consumers appreciate the use of clean waterways. Up the Kissimmee River Disney is able to charge huge entrance fees to maintain a safe clean park and facilities. In other unmaintained areas people dump litter in the river, like they do on the roadways. Notice, other than on trash day, people do not litter their own driveway. That is because of the tragedy of the commons. Nobody has an incentive to keep it clean as nobody owns it.
When we fail to understand the basics of scarcity and prices, however, we are left with the current and dominant view of water in which everyone owns it, and action to maintain it can only be undertaken communally. We see this attitude reflected in recent social media posts (1, 2, 3,) on the Indian River Lagoon, including: Thousands of people came out to rally for the lagoon cleanup and to raise awareness and money. Obviously, a clean lagoon is valuable to many people, but we will never know just how valuable as long as government precludes pricing from working in the lagoon’s favor.
In other words, let’s allow the people who care to put money where their mouths are and allow the marketplace to incentivize the people who are most motivated to have a long-term stake and interest in conserving the capital value of the lagoon.
Only the market can provide this, for no matter how hard bureaucrats try they cannot imitate market forces. Lilley explains:
And, no, command economies cannot play at market. There is no third way. Only private property and the rule of law can create a viable market; bureaucratic mandates can deliver only shortages, higher costs, and poorer quality.”
Alrighty then. ok. Funny about the clean water at the rally. We were concerned that people would get dehydrated so we made sure that everyone had water. Don’t read into it. I’m a nurse and it get’s very hot out there in the summer and we didn’t want anyone passing out. We all know this past winter’s failure to buy the land is a part of the big picture to privatize out water. But is it to increase bottled water sales? That’s interesting.
As for the rest I think the whole thing is very thoughtful but misguided and I hope some of my experts will chime in here on my blog or you can go to there and read about men in costumes with guns. Maybe Robin of Loxley will show up. And don’t forget “You gotta be a man to wear tights.”
update: 7/11/15 I just got a correction from a friend of mine that this person was let go from scripts. More on that later.
“Restoration of the Everglades, however, briefly became a bipartisan cause in national politics. A controversial penny-a-pound (2 cent/kg) tax on sugar was proposed to fund some of the necessary changes to be made to help decrease phosphorus and make other improvements to water. State voters were asked to support the tax, and environmentalists paid $15 million to encourage the issue. Sugar lobbyists responded with $24 million in advertising to discourage it and succeeded; it became the most expensive ballot issue in state history.[62] How restoration might be funded became a political battleground and seemed to stall without resolution. However, in the 1996 election year, Republican senator Bob Dole proposed that Congress give the State of Florida $200 million to acquire land for the Everglades. Democratic Vice President Al Gore promised the federal government would purchase 100,000 acres (400 km2) of land in the EAA to turn it over for restoration. Politicking reduced the number to 50,000 acres (200 km2), but both Dole’s and Gore’s gestures were approved by Congress.
The purpose of this case study was to examine the impact that environmental activism can have on agriculture by focusing on the Florida sugar industry’s reaction during the 1996 “sugar tax” amendment campaign. During the campaign, proponents and opponents of the three proposed Everglades-related amendments to Florida’s constitution spent more than $40 million to sway the public. As a result of the public relations and political campaigns, communicators from Florida agricultural industries realized that they must increase their efforts to project a positive public image.
In 1996, the issue finally was contested when a small, but well-funded environmental activist group named Save Our Everglades Committee authored three proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution, collected enough signatures to get the proposals on the November 1996 ballot, and began a campaign aimed at voters in support of the amendments (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997). The Florida sugar industry spent $24 million and the Save Our Everglades Committee (SOE) spent over $14 million on the most expensive public relations campaign in the state’s history (Marcus, 1997). The three proposed amendments were as follows:
• Amendment Four: if passed, this amendment would put a penny-a-pound tax on all sugar grown in Florida. If passed, it has been estimated that sugar farmers would have had to pay $1 billion (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997). • Amendment Five: this proposed amendment, commonly known as the “polluters pay” amendment stated that those in the Everglades Agricultural Area “who cause water pollution within the Everglades Protection area or the Everglades Agricultural area shall be primarily responsible” for paying the costs of clean-up (Kleindienst, 1997). • Amendment Six: this amendment was designed to establish a state trust fund reserved for Everglades clean-up.
The fight
For several months before Election Day in November, Florida voters were the targets of television and radio advertisements, direct mail pieces, persuasive phone calls, and door-to-door campaigning — all related to the proposed amendments. The sugar industry, which is comprised of two large corporations, a farming cooperative, and numerous small, independent farmers, was unprepared to face a serious challenge from a well-organized activist group. In addition, the industry was surprised by early polls that indicated widespread public support for the measures.
The sugar industry considered the proposed amendments a threat to its very existence. Seldom if ever before had a single agricultural commodity been singled out as “primarily responsible” for nonpoint-source pollution (pollution that is not the result of a direct, detectable environmental accident or contamination). One sugar industry statement said that “there are few times in the life of a business when one event can have a literal life or death impact; for U. S. Sugar and the Florida sugar industry, the threat of the $1 billion tax was such an event” (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997).
For two months, the public relations battle continued, with each side of the argument accusing the other of distorting facts and deceiving the public. On November 6, Amendment Four was defeated, while Amendments Five and Six passed. Although the second two amendments passed, the sugar industry claimed the victory since the penny-per-pound tax was voted down.
Over the course of the campaign, the sugar industry responded to being referred to as “Big Sugar” (a derogatory term) by attacking the founders of SOE. The industry referred to chairperson Mary Barley as “a millionaire land development heiress” and to financial supporter Paul Tudor Jones as a “mega-wealthy Connecticut commodities broker” (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997). In addition to attempting to promote a negative image of SOE, the sugar industry also aired television and radio advertising portraying employees of the South Florida Water Management District (the regulatory agency with primary jurisdiction over the Everglades) as bureaucrats with a reputation for squandering public money on luxuries such as limousines and jet planes. This particular advertisement provoked then-Governor Lawton Chiles (who had remained quiet about the amendments issues thus far) to write a letter to the sugar industry chastising it for intentionally damaging the reputation of the water management district’s employees (Marcus, 1997).
The sugar industry also distributed a number of press releases geared toward informing the public about the progress the sugar industry had already made toward cleaning up farm run-off. The message conveyed in several of the releases (that phosphorous levels in farm water had been reduced by 68% in just three years of voluntary management practices) was well-received by the mass media. In addition, just two weeks before the election, the start of the sugar harvest was delayed so that almost 2,000 employees could go door-to-door and personally ask communities to vote “no” (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997).”
(Miami Herald LTE, Jan 31, 2012) For 15 years Florida taxpayers have been carrying dirty water for the sugar billionaires. When Florida’s voters passed the Polluters Pay Amendment to Florida Constitution, the sugar industry was supposed to pay 100 percent of their pollution cleanup costs. In one of the most cynical abdications of governance in history, the Legislature has refused to implement Polluters Pay. In doing so, they have dumped billions in extra property taxes on the homeowners of South Florida and enabled Big Sugar to dump millions of tons of excess pollution on the Everglades.
So not only do the sugar billionaires get unearned taxpayer dollars through unnecessary federal import quotas and subsidies, but they get their pollution cleanup costs paid by the taxpayers of South Florida. Our legislators need to swear off their addiction to sugar campaign money and make them pay all their cleanup costs.
Albert Slap, Key Biscayne
Fast forward to our present legislators and Rick Scott and you’ll hear in the video they changed the law.
The measure, HB 7065, would rewrite the state’s plan to clean pollution flowing from farms in the Everglades’ agricultural zones to the protection areas in the south. Supporters say the legislation is needed to codify the agreement between Scott and the federal government that calls on Florida to spend $880 million over 12 years to build storm water treatment and water storage to intercept runoff from the farms, preventing further pollution of an ecosystem that is vital to the state’s economy, environment and drinking water needs.
The legislation, though, does far more than that. It would roll back the enforcement of water discharge permits, clearing the way for farming operations to pollute regardless of how much the state erred in issuing them a permit or policing it. That opens a door for polluters and increases the pressure on regulators at the South Florida Water Management District to follow the Legislature’s lead in going soft on the industry. Even the district opposes that measure. It would rather keep the permitting process intact than create a public impression that the system is corrupt.
The measure also caps the industry’s financial obligation for funding the cleanup. While the legislation would extend the $25 per acre agriculture tax until 2024 — eight years longer than under current law — it holds that those payments and improved management practices would “fulfill” the industry’s obligation for the cleanup under Florida’s “Polluter Pay” requirement in the state Constitution.
That is an outright sellout. Extending the agriculture tax generates less than $7 million per year — pennies compared to the $880 million that taxpayers will spend to treat the polluted water. The very governor who forced the water management districts to cut their budgets now intends to ask Florida taxpayers to commit $32 million a year for 12 years for this program — all in addition to the money that will come from property owners in South Florida. Meanwhile the industry responsible for two-thirds of the pollution entering the Everglades walks away from any long-term obligations even before the new water projects are in place.
Just two weeks into the legislative session, HB 7065 has sailed through two committees and is headed for the House floor. This bill has leadership’s blessing, which is why Scott and the Senate are likely the last defense. Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-New Port Richey, who is shepherding the Senate bill, which is much better, needs to do what the House and several of his bay area counterparts failed to do and insist that the polluters pay their share. Shifting these costs onto the public is unfair, and every dollar the state spends on behalf of polluters is a dollar it won’t have for police, schools and other legitimate priorities.
Audubon and other organizations have objected to these changes to the Everglades Forever Act. We are hoping for some serious discussions about increasing the amount of money sugar growers pay to clean up the pollution coming off their land. We have also objected to the part of the bill that nullifies enforcement of discharge permits. This section of the bill seems deliberately written to eliminate the basis of a recent legal challenge to three discharge permits for the dirtiest Everglades farms.
The Senate companion bill – SB 768 – has none of the offending provisions.
Why Your Voice is Important
The sugar industry has dozens of lobbyists.Money has been given to legislators and political committees. Many members of the Florida House have already made up their mind on this bill. Some have been, by their own admission, heavily lobbied by the sugar industry.
“Back when he first ran for governor of Florida as a self-styled outsider, Rick Scott lambasted his opponent in the Republican primary for taking campaign money from U.S. Sugar, one of the worst corporate polluters of the Everglades.
Scott indignantly squeaked that Bill McCollum had been “bought and paid for” by U.S. Sugar. He said the company’s support of McCollum was “disgusting.”
“I can’t be bought,” Scott declared. Seriously, that’s what the man said. Stop gagging and read on.
Four years later, the governor’s re-election campaign is hungrily raking in money from U.S. Sugar, more than $534,000 so far.”
So to review, and please if I got this wrong help me out!
In 1996 the Save the Everglades Committeeauthored three proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution, collected enough signatures to get the proposals on the November 1996 ballot.
• Amendment Four: if passed, this amendment would put a penny-a-pound tax on all sugar grown in Florida. If passed, it has been estimated that sugar farmers would have had to pay $1 billion (U.S. Sugar Corporation, 1997). • Amendment Five: this proposed amendment, commonly known as the “polluters pay” amendment stated that those in the Everglades Agricultural Area “who cause water pollution within the Everglades Protection area or the Everglades Agricultural area shall be primarily responsible” for paying the costs of clean-up (Kleindienst, 1997). • Amendment Six: this amendment was designed to establish a state trust fund reserved for Everglades clean-up.
We lost the penny-a -pound tax but we got polluters pay and the Everglades trust. Then under Rick Scott, The measure, HB 7065, would rewrite the state’s plan to clean pollution flowing from farms in the Everglades’ agricultural zones to the protection areas in the south. Supporters say the legislation is needed to codify the agreement between Scott and the federal government that calls on Florida to spend $880 million over 12 years to build storm water treatment and water storage to intercept runoff from the farms, preventing further pollution of an ecosystem that is vital to the state’s economy, environment and drinking water needs.
What it ended up doing was rolling back the enforcement of water discharge permits, clearing the way for farming operations to pollute regardless of how much the state erred in issuing them a permit or policing it. This opens a door for polluters and increases the pressure on regulators at the South Florida Water Management District to follow the Legislature’s lead in going soft on the industry.
Then, the very governor who forced the water management districts to cut their budgets now intends to ask Florida taxpayers to commit $32 million a year for 12 years for this program — all in addition to the money that will come from property owners in South Florida. Meanwhile the industry responsible for two-thirds of the pollution entering the Everglades walks away from any long-term obligations even before the new water projects are in place.
So we went from polluters paying to us paying, the voters.
Remember us.
Slick.
Sick.
Slicky RIcky
omg
But don’t forget folks your getting ten bucks back on your inflated cell phone bill and no taxes on your textbooks.
Where was the news when this happened?
So it all comes down to one thing really. We have to make sure that we have legislators that cannot be bought off by an industry that pollutes, that really does nothing for our economy and fills the pockets of corrupt politicians. We have to pay attention and we must vote.
In a few week we’ll be going to the Sugar Summit that is being put together by our great friends, the Florida SIerra Club. I thought it was a good time to bone up on who’z who and what’s what.
Please feel free to chime in. Even at sugarcard2 – we want to hear from you!
Yesterday, my friend Jules and I went out to Clewiston. The headquarters for US Sugar Corporation resides there.
They call themselves ” America’s Sweetest Town.” Maybe sweet in sugar but not sweet people. The last time I went out there was to shoot “The Sugarland Rally”
The Sugarland Rally was a really sincere effort to bring people together to discuss our water issues together. Lead by our friend Justin Riney. This was their message.
An open letter to Florida residents from The Sugarland Rally Committee:
Dear Florida,
Please read these important details regarding a bicoastal rally we have planned for September 1st on Lake Okeechobee. There are multiple organizations involved in planning this event, and we need your help immediately to get the word out.
The Sugarland Rally will unite the east and west coasts of Florida in a peaceful, historic demonstration to speak out against the pollution of our estuaries from Lake Okeechobee discharges. We support both immediate and long-term solutions, but ecosystems and communities along the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries are in crisis. We cannot afford to wait for ecological and economic collapse. We urge all stakeholders–especially local, state and federal governments–to act immediately.
We chose Clewiston as a central location to unify east and west at Lake Okeechobee, the source that is polluting our estuaries, and because we believe Florida’s sugar industry can be part of the solution. Please don’t misinterpret our intentions–we are NOT holding a rally at Clewiston to protest or point fingers at “Big Sugar.” It’s quite the opposite, actually. We invite Florida’s powerful sugar industry to join us in crafting an immediate solution to the ecological and economic crisis caused by discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Here’s a golden opportunity to earn the respect, loyalty, and trust of Floridians for generations to come–to squash the stereotypes–by standing with the people in support of a solution. Without the healthy longevity of Florida’s land and water, we’re all out of business. Our children and grandchildren are out of business. We invite Florida’s sugar industry to stand with us in support of preserving the wonderful land and water that keeps us all in business. We must think longer term, we must think sustainably, and the time to act is now.
Our message is a peaceful one to emphasize a powerful sense of unity needed among ALL Floridians, and to urge local, state, and federal governments to act immediately to stop the pollution of our estuaries from Lake Okeechobee discharges. We are all entitled to healthy land and water, and it is our responsibility as citizens, working with our government, to preserve these treasured assets and ensure their longevity for generations to come. Let’s all unite as Floridians in support of both immediate and long-term solutions. The Sugarland Rally will be a peaceful demonstration that we can all be proud of.
Join The Sugarland Rally conversation on the event page at http://www.bit.ly/sugarlandrally, and please share this post with as many concerned Floridians as possible. This is a call to action, and we need your help.
Respectfully,
The Sugarland Rally Committee
This was a rally to have a discussion to pull us all together. US= east coast, west coast, and the people of Clewiston. For us it was to make sure we respect the people that live in the south of the lake and make sure they are safe. Human being stuff. Community stuff.
Here is the video I shot. As you can see at the beginning we were quit stoked to be there.
After the rally we went on the invitation of the Mayor to the Roland Martin Marina for some food. When we got there they refused to serve us. Every person in the room stared us down and honestly if they had guns they would have shot us down.
We went next door where I met up with friends Bob and Lisa Riney (parents of justin) and ate lunch and my friends did end up getting a few drinks because Mayor Roland showed up.
Mind you, I’m the video girl, who’s only job was to document the event. And I was starving, hot, tired. So so much for Southern Hospitality. So much for olive branches.
Afterwards in the Clewiston New’s more hate came from the people who were quite verbal, quite nasty and totally unwilling to listen to any kind of reason.
To this day, I still believe in the mission of the Sugarland rally and our extended Olive Branch.
I can’t tell you why. I’m not a psychic. I can only tell you what happened.
In spit of that, I still worry about the people who live there and how much work is being done on the dike and always hope they will be safe.
When we went out yesterday I even wore my Marshall Tucker Band T shirt. I mean who would shoot a video girl with a Marshall Tucker Band Shirt? (Really didn’t stay there long enough to find out)
This stop BTW just a pit stop on our way to STA 5/6.
Robert Coker is Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, of United States Sugar Corporation. He is responsible for managing the company’s federal, state and local government affairs department and the company’s corporate and charitable giving programs encompassing numerous community and employee-relations activities. As a member of senior management, Coker also actively participates in corporate matters involving real estate, environmental regulation, budgeting and allocation of capital.
He is a former Chairman of the Board of Regents for Leadership Florida. He serves on the board of directors for the Florida Sugar Cane League, the Board of Trustees of BIZ-PAC of Palm Beach County and is a member of the Board of Governors for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Board of Trustees and serves on the Executive Committee of Florida Taxwatch.
Malcolm “Bubba” Wade
Sugar execs, w/ Gaston Cantens of Florida Crystals and Robert Coker of US Sugar, just huddled in back room of #IndianRiverLagoon hearing.
Malcolm S. Wade, Jr. is Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development of United States Sugar Corporation. He has been employed by the Company for more than 27 years and has been a member of the senior management team for over 20 years. Wade, a certified public accountant, joined the company as Director of Internal Audit in 1982 and subsequently was named director, vice president and senior vice president of the Administrative Service Group and is currently senior vice president of sugar operations.
For more than 20 years, Wade has been involved in developing and overseeing the Company’s environmental responsibilities. Through his appointments by two governors and the South Florida Water Management District to working groups on South Florida environmental issues, Wade has helped shape public policy regarding Everglades Restoration.
In March 2005, Governor Bush appointed Wade to a four-year term on the South Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board, a position he resigned in 2008 due to the State’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Sugar.Previously, Wade was a member of the team representing South Florida farmers that spent more than a year negotiating with the Interior and Justice Departments, the State of Florida and the South Florida Water Management District to resolve the legal disputes over Everglades Restoration. He represented farmers on the technical mediation committee that crafted the Technical Mediated Plan for Everglades Restoration, which was adopted by the Florida Legislature in the spring of 1994.
He was appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles to the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida, which worked for four years to establish a consensus plan for Everglades Restoration. The work of the commission became the framework for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) approved by Congress and is currently being implemented throughout south Florida.
Wade’s work on restoration issues continued with his appointment by Gov. Jeb Bush to the Governor’s Commission for the Everglades. He is a past member and co-chair of the South Florida Water Management District Water Resource Advisory Commission (WRAC) as well as a past member and chairman of the Lake Okeechobee Advisory Committee of the WRAC. He is also a past member of the District’s Lower East Coast Water Supply Planning Committee and the Budget Review commission. In addition, Wade served on the South Florida Agricultural Council Water Commission, the Caloosahatchee Water Management Advisory Committee and is a director of the Everglades Agricultural Area Environmental Protection District.
Wade is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Judy C. Sanchez is the Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for United States Sugar Corporation. She joined U.S. Sugar in 1994, transferring from its South Bay Growers vegetable division where she worked as a Marketing Specialist.
Mrs. Sanchez attended the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in communications. A fourth generation farmer, she has spent most of her life in and around the sugar cane industry, both in Florida and Louisiana. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau, Childcare of Southwest Florida, and the Agricultural Institute of Florida.
She lives in Belle Glade, Florida, with her husband and two sons.
Judy follows me on twitter so I hope she reads this. We night not like what Judy does or says but for her boss’s she does a great job! Check out the tweets!
Florida Bay needs clean water now
 Unless the South Florida Water Management District takes immediate action to restore flows of clean fresh water to the southern Everglades, its governing board and the man who appointed them, Gov. Rick Scott, will go down in history as the people who destroyed South Florida’s coastal fisheries.
Most estuaries in the district’s jurisdiction are on the verge of collapse. By assaulting the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers with billions of gallons of filthy runoff and depriving Florida Bay of clean fresh water, the district is knowingly destroying many of the iconic waters that make Florida the Fishing Capital of the World.
The discharges out the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers get the most media attention, since they’re urban waterways and always in the public eye. But what’s going wrong in Florida Bay is also reprehensible and costly, especially in the context of Florida Keys tourism. One of Florida Bay’s most popular and prolific fish species, the spotted sea trout or “speckled trout,” has virtually disappeared. Recent studies confirm what veteran anglers like me witness on the water — a near absence of the second most commonly caught fish in Florida Bay, which also happens to be the state’s most commonly targeted species.
You really have to work hard at destroying an estuary to crash spotted sea trout populations. Female trout spawn as frequently as each full and new moon from March through October, broadcasting hundreds of thousands of eggs into waters where they’ve spawned for millennia.
These offspring can survive in a pretty wide range of salinity levels. However, water that’s too salty causes brown algae blooms that block sunlight from reaching seagrass meadows, killing seagrasses and depriving juve- niles of essential cover. Annual hatches of shrimp and crabs, which provide nutrition for juvenile trout, depend upon spring- and summertime influxes of fresh water as well. Without clean, fresh water mixing in the bay, the little trout and many other species don’t get enough to eat. Extremely salty water also interferes with a juvenile trout’s ability to breathe.
Boating and fishing are two of Florida’s biggest economic engines. So you’d think the state that touts itself as the Fishing Capital of the World would bend over backwards to ensure that its most fertile coastal waters get the right amount of clean water at the right times, to maximize the numbers of fish and other marine life these waters can produce. After all, recreational fish- ing in salt water alone generates at least $7.6 billion, with more than $1 billion of that income generated in Everglades watersheds.
Instead, fishermen like me embrace science-based fisheries management and adhere to catch limits recommended by scientists, only to watch fisheries and the ecosystems they belong to crash because of water mismanagement.
We’re tired of being ignored. Florida Bay needs more fresh water, the same water that’s destroying the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee. To restore our coastal fisheries, the district needs to expand water storage, clean the water and send it south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades and Florida Bay. … Our fisheries are running out of time, our jobs are on the line and our patience has run out.
Capt. Matt Bellinger, Bamboo Charters, Islamorada
One way you can help this weekend is to attend one of these rallies.
Where: 15935 NW US Hwy 441, Alachua, FL 32615
(Parking at Lowes, Sonny’s BBQ, or other nearby lots. This is the stretch of 441 that everyone uses to get to Spring Country!)
Thank you Kenny Hinkle for this great video. This is great work.
Last Thursday SFWMD voted to terminate the 46,000 acre option on the sugar lands where our reservoir was suppose to go.
You know the one that was going clean and convey the water south they way GOD intended it and man screwed it up. Yes, that land. The one that was suppose recharge the aquifers, help stop salt water intrusion, save South Florida’s water and help us to to stop the toxic discharges.
Your job was to read the water study. What I’m confused about is why you thought we didn’t read it and talk about it and ask questions about it? We, as in all us advocates, actually talk to each other and communicate with each other daily. We share articles. .We talk about the water every day. Multiple times a day.
I also think you need to do your homework and understand what you are calling local runoff. have you ever been to western martin county? Seriously. Your a horse person and a real estate person. I’m sure your great at both. But to spit in the face of the people who have lived and breathed this water issue is unacceptable.
If you want people to treat you with respect then if has to be both ways. You were totally disrespectful.
We were getting “local runoff” and we did not have green algae. It wasn’t pretty. But before that things were clearing up and they were going test and then the ACOE opened the gates.
“If your concerned about the estuaries.” really. If you were you would understand your remarks were simply sugar speak and a big wink wink.
There is no one more well informed that the group before you. 6 months before the discharges we were documenting here and havn’t stopped.
We also have other pages where thousands of people talk to each other every day. Every day. Multiple times a day. We wake up with each and we at night time we check in to see whats going on.
So before you insult all my hard working friends who have given up their lives for this you should do your homework. Actually, they deserve an apology. You need to apologize.
You can send it here and i’ll post it. You also need to watch the video above. and then you need to resign immediately.
Of course Mitch Hutchcraft doesn’t want the land in play. He is also in real estate and I’m sure part of your golden parachute will be to build big things on this land. Good luck with that!
You cannot build big things south of the lake. Why? We are getting the discharges is to protect the people south of the lake because they are in danger because of the dike. So putting more people in danger is not an option. If you all think its ok o build then maybe it’s not as dangerous as we were told.
No offense.You are really out of touch and you have no business being part of the people who decide how to deal with our water. In fact, your entire presentation was beyond frightening.
Then my favorite part was I could hear Gayle just having a meltdown and Mr Moran telling her that she was exposed to propaganda.
really? hahahhh
That is seriously rich.
and if it propaganda why is Senator Negron promising to buy other land so we get all the scientists together and send the water south? Why?
State Sen. Joe Negron said Friday he’ll continue “full-speed ahead” seeking $500 million to buy land south of Lake Okeechobee, even though the option of getting it from the U.S. Sugar Corp. is dead.
Now if our Congressman Patrick Murphy understands this and our Senator Joe Negron Understands this. Why don’t you?
Mr Moran should have attended the Everglades Coalition meeting where we listened to real “scientists” talk about sea level rise and we went to a great session about the northern estuaries.
He should have gone he would have learned something.
or at least read a book.
Here’s a great book he can read!
Because sir, if your going to berate us. you really need to know the facts.
Please bone up because I’m sure your not calling the following people propagandists. You surely have time to take that back.
Here are the following people who have been going to SFWMD plead with the Board of Govenor’s to buy the land and send the water south.
US (The River Warriors)
The Everglades Coaltion
The Everglades Trust
The Everglades Foundation
Florida Audobon
Tropical Audobon
Everglades Law Center
The Indian RiverKeeper
Ray Judah
Mark Perry Director of Florida Oceanographic, WRAC member
Palm Beach County Soil
Ed Fielding, Martin County Commissioner
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, Sewell’s Point Commissioner and WRAC member
Dr Gary Goforth
The Sierra Club
Maggy Hurchella
I’m sure there are more. You get the drift.
You have no intention of doing anything because your orders are clear. Privatize the water and you will be rewarded handsomely.
When you sink this low can you really trust the puppet master?
Axis of evil: Big Sugar- Legislature- SFWMD
Just so you know the difference THIS is a propaganda campaign. Trying to stop you from polluting us, saving the water, saving the Everglades and stopping sea level rise and salt water intrusion certainly is not propaganda. But YOUR propaganda campaign is just as bad as this. Now lets all go get some coffee made from snow.
Michael Grunwald came to talk to us all at the our new and improved Elliot Museum. The event was sponsored by BullSugar and anonymous supporters. It was first of what I hope will be many lectures we can attend at Elliot.
The video taken will be available at Elliot and also from Bullsugar so other’s will be able to watch.
I bought my third copy of this book last night. I have no idea where the first copy went and the second is out there somewhere. This one is signed so it stays in the bookcase.
This is one of my top ten favorite books ever. It’s not an easy read not because it’s hard to understand. There is a huge amount of detail. In order to understand the sad sad story of Everglades you have to understand the detail. You have to understand the plumbing. The Universe created The Everglades. Man screwed it up. We screwed up the plumbing
"Everglades restoration was suppose to be a storage project" with @MikeGrunwald
This was suppose to be a storage project yet there is no storage.
and he also said “There is no Plan B”
Which is correct. I think I said the same thing yesterday because we never asked (or maybe we did and they just never answered) them what was their plan to stop the discharges, recharge the aquifers, send water to the Everglades, stop salt water intrusion and prevent sea level rise. What are the people who are in charge of the plumbing doing to protect our water and deal with these issues?
Also noted Rober Coker was in the house. Robert is Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, of United States Sugar Corporation. He serves on the board of directors for the Florida Sugar Cane League, the Board of Trustees of BIZ-PAC of Palm Beach County and is a member of the Board of Governors for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. He lives here. He is also a trustee on the http://www.stuartmartinchamber.org/trustees.asp
(That’s interesting)
People got frustrated at the end because they felt Michael was defending big sugar by saying they had a right to be a business, and they have cleaned up their act. (you’ll have to watch the video when its released).
I think at the end it got a little mooshed up and Michael does not quite understand what our particular issues are here right now.
Yes, big sugar has a right to be a company, but most companies have to live and die by their own devices not on subsidies created by Corporate Wellfare. So Big Sugar pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. We don’t get Medicaid Expansion why should you get corporate subsidies.
Next, we went out there to talk to talk to these guys and they vilified us.
When this whole thing happened in 2013 we were told we had to have discharges to protect the people south of the Lake. What has been done to fix this particular spot so these people will be safe and the lake can hold more water? Why is this not fixed two years later?
The Big sugar corporation is the one behind us not getting the land to build the reservoir. It’s their influence in Tallahassee and SFWMD that is in the way of stopping our discharges, recharging the aquifers, stopping salt water intrusion, and sea level rise. Big Sugar is standing in the way of fixing the plumbing.
I could write forever and bore you all to tears but the bottom line is the bottom line.
The plumbing has to be fixed and what is the plan to do so?
Thank You Michael for coming! Hopefully one day you can come back and bring your family and go swimming in our lagoon.
Everyone else be sure to look for this video on Bullsugar.
May the fourth be with you! Toxic algae, discharging St Lucie locks.
On May 4th our friend Katy Lewey, river warrior, founder of the River Kidz of St Lucie and Indian River County put together a gathering so we could all be there when the locks open.
st lucie locks may 4, 2015
They have been open but were recently closed due to the discovery of Toxic green algae at Port Mayaca.
In the past few years we are blessed to have great news teams that show up and we show up for them.
In between, the new’s cycle we decided to take a ride to Port Mayaca to see the green toxic algae for ourselves.
When we got there we found Ben, an employee of SFWMD. I have lots of friends who work or worked for them. Good People. Dedicated Scientists.
He was taking water samples of both sides of the locks.
This is what we saw on the inside of the locks.
Slime crimes.
We all documented.
Algae buster mammas.
Then we went to the overpass for a nice wide shot.
you can see the green by the gates. There is also a section off to the right that is not in the photo.
I was not there last week so I have no basis of comparison but I can say the weather has been cooler and this stuff thrives on two things according to my ORCA friend and past Indian RiverKeeper George Jones : Heat and nutrients. So I have no idea what will come next because of the the cool weather. Will it come down and just hang stagnant until it gets hot and then bloom? George said it sucks the o2 out of the water and at night it goes underwater so it just doesn’t sit on the top it goes to the bottom and it sucks the o2 thus killing everything underneath.
A harmful algal bloom (HAB) is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms via production of natural toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means.
armful algal blooms have been observed to cause adverse effects to a wide variety of aquatic organisms, most notably marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and finfish. The impacts of HAB toxins on these groups can include harmful changes to their developmental, immunological, neurological, or reproductive capacities. The most conspicuous effects of HABs on marine wildlife are large-scale mortality events associated with toxin-producing blooms. For example, a mass mortality event of 107 bottlenose dolphins occurred along the Florida panhandle in the spring of 2004 due to ingestion of contaminated menhaden with high levels of brevetoxin.[8] Manatee mortalities have also been attributed to brevetoxin but unlike dolphins, the main toxin vector was endemic seagrass species (Thalassia testudinum) in which high concentrations of brevetoxins were detected and subsequently found as a main component of the stomach contents of manatees.[8]
Immune system responses have been affected by brevetoxin exposure in another critically endangered species, the Loggerhead sea turtle. Brevetoxin exposure, via inhalation of aerosolized toxins and ingestion of contaminated prey, can have clinical signs of increased lethargy and muscle weakness in loggerhead sea turtles causing these animals to wash ashore in a decreased metabolic state with increases of immune system responses upon blood analysis.[10] Examples of common harmful effects of HABs include:
the production of neurotoxins which cause mass mortalities in fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals
human illness or death via consumption of seafood contaminated by toxic algae[11]
mechanical damage to other organisms, such as disruption of epithelial gill tissues in fish, resulting in asphyxiation
oxygen depletion of the water column (hypoxia or anoxia) from cellular respiration and bacterial degradation
Algae are vitally important to marine and fresh-water ecosystems, and most species of algae are not harmful. Algal blooms occur in natural waters used for drinking and/or recreation when certain types of microscopic algae grow quickly in water, often in response to changes in levels of chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer, in the water. Algal blooms can deplete the oxygen and block the sunlight that other organisms need to live, and some can produce toxins that are harmful to the health of the environment, plants, animals, and people.
Please also see this blog post about pets and toxic algae.
STUART EVENT: Contact Cara Capp, (305) 546-6689, cara@evergladescoalition.org,
Mark Perry, 772-486-3858, mperry@floridaocean.org
CAPTIVA EVENT: Contact David Jensen, 239-470-5389, dave@gocaptiva.com; Rae Ann Wessel, 239-246-0100, rawessel@sccf.org
Two Coasts, One Message:
Buy the Land Now
Rallies to support State Senator Joe Negron for his efforts to open the door to a sugar land purchase and call for further action
When: Wednesday, April 29, 2015
East Coast *** THERE WILL BE VISUALS ***
Where: Flagler Park, 201 SW Flagler Ave, Stuart, FL
Time: 11 a.m. to noon (11 30 a.m. Press Conference)
WHO & WHAT: Elected officials, Everglades Coalition, Rivers Coalition, and River Warriors will laud Florida Senator Joe Negron (R) for planning on introducing legislation asking for $500 million for land purchases, money that could buy U.S. Sugar lands. Will present “Buy the land” letters to Governor, House Speaker, Senate President from 19 local elected officials and resolutions from 11 local governments. Florida Realtors’ water quality/home values study. People will sign a giant poster saying, “With Joe we stand. Let’s buy the land.”
West Coast *** THERE WILL BE VISUALS ***
Where: Jensen’s Twin Palm Resort & Marina, 15107 Captiva Dr, Captiva, FL 33924
Time: 10 to 11 a.m. (10:15 a.m. Press Conference)
WHO & WHAT: SW FL business leaders, Realtors and Chamber of Commerce officials. Boaters, fisherman, kayak and paddle boarders will take to the water in support. Singer/songwriters: North Captiva’s Bob Hipkens and Austin Church from Cocoa Beach. Florida Realtors’ water quality/home values study. Videotaping of messages to the Governor and Leadership will also be captured and Queenies ice cream will be served. Banners, posters. Painted fish.
Background: There is broad public support for exercising the 48,600 acre purchase option in the US Sugar contract, but water managers must take action now for the process to begin. As polluted water is dumped to the coasts, the Everglades multibillion dollar restoration project, is starving for water. The solution, according to the scientific community, is to pursue 48,600 acres of sugar land to store and clean the water.
Bustor Brown and his human Jennie Pawlowsky.
Mark Perry, Florida Oceanographic
Jason Totoiu, Everglades Law
Ed Fielding, Martin County Commission
Irene Nethery Gomes and Takeata King Pang
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch Commissioner Sewells Point, Blogger, Tireless River Advocate, Plume Chaser
Mark Perry and Troy Macdonald, former mayor of Stuart, FL
“Senator Negron Calls on Army Corps to Immediately Suspend Harmful Releases from Lake Okeechobee Due to Algae Bloom”
Stuart, Fla. – Today, State Senator Joe Negron (R-Stuart) called on the Army Corps of Engineers to immediately suspend the harmful releases from Lake Okeechobee due to the current toxic blue-green algae bloom in water adjacent to the lake.
“I have personally seen video and photos confirming that water adjacent to Lake Okeechobee is currently experiencing a toxic blue-green algae bloom,” said Senator Negron. “With the elevation of Lake Okeechobee at less than 14 feet, there is simply no reason whatsoever for the Army Corps to be discharging water at this time.”
“While releases from Lake Okeechobee are always harmful, discharging water with a toxic blue-green algae bloom is particularly dangerous to our lagoon and estuary,” said Senator Negron.
“Right now, there is zero chance of any breach or damage to the dike,” said Senator Negron. “At the same time, there is a hundred percent chance of damage to our lagoon and estuary when the Army Corps pours hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted water into our community. Why would they do that?”
The Army Corps of Engineers will suspend discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River so state agencies can run tests on a possible blue-green algae bloom that has been found in the western end of the St. Lucie Canal.
How long the discharges will be curtailed for the testing by the South Florida Water Management District and the state Department of Environmental Protection was not confirmed.
Press Release from Rick Scott’s Office: For Immediate Release, Office of the Governor, Lake Okeechobee Toxic Algae and ACOE’s Halting Releases to St Lucie River.
April 24, 2015
Contact: media@eog.myflorida.com
(850) 717-9282
Governor Rick Scott Dispatches Florida Department of Environmental Protection Team to Test Potential Algae Blooms in Lake Okeechobee
LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Rick Scott made the following statement following claims of harmful blue green algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee.
Governor Rick Scott said, “Today, following reports of harmful blue green algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee, I’ve asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to immediately dispatch a team to test water for harmful algae blooms. The Army Corps of Engineers did the right thing by halting their releases this afternoon. President Obama also needs to live up to his commitment to repair the dike and responsibly manage Lake Okeechobee.
Today Obama is managing Lake Okeechobee? Wow. Because a few weeks ago it was the state. Oh that’s right it’s suppose to be a partnership.
I want to drive this point home.
1. Even if this water was totally clean and devoid of all the nasty nutrients and toxic green algae it would still kill us because it is fresh water. So the legislature needs to know this – even the clean water will kills us. I don’t understand why this particular important point is never mentioned. NO FRESH WATER! Please find a hydrologist and ask them to explain salinity.
2. Now add on toxic green algae to the mix. been there. done this. bought the t shirt. But know this -it only happens when this stuff comes out of Lake O. So whenI hear talk in Tallahassee of not buying the land because we have enough land (Sen ALAN HAY) and how water needs to be stored north. I have to wonder what kind of information are these people getting and who are they getting it from.
Who are you getting it from?
How in the world do you recharge the aquifers if you store the water north of the lake? How do you fend off salt water intrusion if the water does not flow south?
HOW?
Just proves to me that our legislators have no understanding of what is going on here.
I know its hard but if we can understand this stuff so can you.
and why would any one push this stuff? They do because its sugar speak. Anything to avoid what would save us. We didn’t like but we lived through discharges from our own water shed which was mostly AG BTW. This is what no one tells you and big sugar wants you to believe.
What kind of person does that anyway? What kind of people distorts the truth for their own personal gain? When is enough enough?
Because this is the truth and this what happens and this has got to end. We CANNOT have another toxic summer.
Do the right thing. Buy the land. Don’t destroy us.
and stop taking money from Big Sugar. I’m sure there is lots of other corporate welfare out there.
cyndi lenz 