My favorite snapshot of childhood captures joy and triumph. The boy's back is to the camera, to his parents, to a long moment of indecision: "I want to do it, but I don't know if I can! Mom, do you think I can? Dad, do you think I should?"

Yes, and yes. I snapped the photo as he let go of the rope swing and stretched his arms to meet the Suwannee River.

For years, our family and a bunch of other moms, dads and children have celebrated Mother's Day with a canoe trip we call "Rope Swings" down a kid-friendly section of the gentle Suwannee. Talk about Florida attractions. One year, I tallied them in my reporter's notebook: Countless sandbars and beaches for swimming and for mud pies. Three thrill-ride-quality rope swings. One wolf spider guarding its nest of babies. Dozens of river turtles. One gopher tortoise.

Hundreds of fish and birds, from an owl to a pair of swallow-tailed kites. One cave, a limestone labyrinth big enough for kids to walk through — a hike in the aquifer.

The cave beach is our favorite stop, for the hike, the culture (one carload of teenagers from Georgia, one grandma in a Confederate-flag bikini), and the many launch pads — bluffs, tree limbs, the granddaddy rope swing hanging from a granddaddy oak. Known as "Five Holes," this is everyone else's favorite, too. People come by canoe or kayak, motorboat or car, to watch aerial athletics: Teenagers flip; dads defy gravity for a second before a big splash; the smallest bodies swing into the sky with fragile grace, my son in the snapshot.

Apparently, we've all loved this place too much. Planning this year's trip, I learned that Five Holes has been shut down to the public. On the landside, no hiking in the limestone, no parking for the teenagers. On the waterside, no swimming and no swinging.

The rope has been severed from the oak with a pole saw. Suwannee River State Park manager Craig Liney sympathized with me when he explained the "multi-agency decision," and I with him. The big swing was dangerous; law-enforcement agencies wanted it gone. The parking was "unofficial," along with everything else about Five Holes. The Florida Department of Health, for example, won't allow a public swimming area without visibility of at least 4 feet. And finally, state scientists say all the scrambling up and down the banks, and in and out of the limestone, is putting too much stress on the iconic river and all-important Floridan Aquifer, source of freshwater for Florida's people, industry and ecosystems.

It's just the sort of reasoned, multi-agency protection our groundwater, rivers and springs deserve. But as I set about finding a new Mother's Day adventure, the evidence that Florida's freshwaters aren't getting that protection was clear as the springs used to be. And I found myself wishing that the state might direct the same vigilance to utilities and agriculture — the two major users of freshwater in Florida — as to river-loving families.

We couldn't head to one former favorite, Gold Head Branch State Park to the east, for the lovely lakeside cabins, bathhouses and pavilions built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s now surround a bone-dry lakebed.

To the west, strike out another past prize, Wakulla Springs south of Tallahassee. The deepest freshwater spring in the world has darkened and become so choked with algae the glass-bottomed boats rarely run anymore. Scientists say human sewage is primarily to blame.

We could join the flotillas on the Ichetucknee, and perhaps we should while we still can: The pane-clear river has lost 25 percent of its flow in the past 50 years. Scientists blame excessive groundwater pumping in northeast Florida and south Georgia.

Across the state, our freshwaters are under unprecedented stress from two well-understood threats: overuse, and pollution. The solutions are also well understood. Swift as a pole saw through braided rope, we could cut the groundwater extractions helping to dry up dozens of inland lakes and springs. And just as the Department of Health protects us from swimming in water with poor visibility, it could defend us against the nitrate pollution spoiling the springs.

Here's what happens instead: The Legislature passed a bill this year that reorganizes the Department of Health to streamline its duties and eliminate requirements that septic tanks be inspected every five years to ensure they're not leaking nitrates.

The multi-agency response to groundwater over-pumping looks like this: St. Johns River water managers in 2011 approved a new permit for Jacksonville's water utility to extract up to 163 million gallons a day – over the objections of Suwannee River water managers who said Jacksonville's withdrawals already present a "continued threat" to the rivers and springs in their district.

Meanwhile, as they watch that threat grow, Suwannee water managers have declined to meter all agricultural water use in their own district. The first step to conservation is figuring out how much everyone's using. But it's not as easy as it sounds when the chairman of the Suwannee River Water Management District Board is also president of the Florida Cattlemen's Association.

Like many agricultural operations, cattle and water require a delicate balance because the industry pumps as well as pollutes. Now before the St. Johns district is a 13-million-gallon-a-day groundwater application from Adena Springs Ranch, a 30,000-acre, grass-fed cattle operation that Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach plans for Marion County. (The entire city of Ocala pumps 12 million gallons a day.) Some scientists worry the withdrawal will harm Florida's famous Silver Springs. Stronach has hired water lawyer Ed de la Parte, who's responded to concerns about dwindling wells, springs and rivers with assurances familiar to anyone who lived through the Tampa Bay Water wars he helped litigate: The current declines are part of Florida's natural drought cycle. Prodigious rains will return; they always have.

The reality is that many computer-climate models show a long-term drying trend for Florida. But the models remain uncertain enough that scientists cannot say whether this year's arid spring will become tomorrow's arid future.

Rather than fight over the last available drops, the wisest way forward would be to work together to use less water and create less pollution.

Our failure to think long-term about Florida's freshwater legacy is a lot like our inability to analyze the risk versus reward of letting children be children in nature. If you think swinging on a rope or swimming in a tea-brown river is risky, consider U.S. childhood obesity, attention-deficit and depression statistics.

Whether by the intended severing of a rope swing, or the unintended ruin of a local spring, when we separate children from their natural waters, we undermine not only their individual healthy development — but the adaptability and resilience of an entire generation.

The future is going to need those traits.

Cynthia Barnett is the author of "Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis" and "Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S." 2012-05-16T14:36:01+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/gatorlands-exotic-pet-amnesty-day/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/gatorlands-exotic-pet-amnesty-day/

Pet Amnesty Day Returns to Gatorland
May 19 in an effort to keep unwanted exotic pets out of Florida’s native ecosystems

Orlando, Fl.: Florida Wildlife Commission and Gatorland will host a Nonnative Pet Amnesty Day Saturday, May 19th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Gatorland in Orlando.  Species of Concern (nonnative reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and invertebrates) will be accepted.

If you have an exotic pet you can no longer care for, don’t just open the front door and set it free.  It’s illegal to release a nonnative animal into the wild in Florida, and it could be detrimental for the animal and the environment.

WHEN: Saturday, May 19, 2012
10AM - 2PM
WHERE:  Gatorland
14501 S. Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, Florida 32837
*South Parking Lot Entrance
This Pet Amnesty Day is free and open to the public.  Exotic animals can be surrendered to the FWC free of charge with no questions asked and no penalties. Domestic pets including, but not limited to, dogs, cats and ferrets will not be accepted.

Nonnative pet amnesty events help to increase awareness of nonnative species problems.  Over 400 nonnative species have been observed in Florida, and more than 130 have reproducing populations. For more information on nonnative species in Florida, visit www.myFWC.com/nonnatives.

Anyone interested in adopting nonnative pets should download the proper adoption applications and animal care sheets at www.myFWC.com/nonnatives and click on “How to become an FWC exotic pet adopter.”  Adopters must have knowledge of natural history and caging requirements along with having proper facilities for the animals they are interested in adopti]]> 2012-05-15T17:02:01+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/chattahoochee-back-on-list-of-endangered-rivers/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/chattahoochee-back-on-list-of-endangered-rivers/

Thanks in large part to a proposal to dam a tributary upstream of Lake Lanier, the Chattahoochee River has landed on a top 10 list of endangered rivers in the country today.

The Chattahoochee, at the center of a decades-long struggle between Georgia, Florida and Alabama over control of its water, is the only river in the Southeast to make this year’s list, which is compiled annually by the American Rivers organization.

The river has made the list three other times, but the group hasn’t called the river “endangered” since 2000.

The Chattahoochee’s spot on the list this year is directly related to a plan to dam Flat Creek in North Hall, impounding the water there to create an 850-acre reservoir.

American Rivers also lists a proposal to build Bear Creek Reservoir in South Fulton County as a “significant threat” to the river.

Hall County officials, like Hall County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Oliver, tout their proposed reservoir as a necessity for securing the county’s future water supply. In a proposal submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, county officials project the reservoir could help supply some 72.5 million gallons a day of water to Hall County customers.

The corps is awaiting the results of a study of the impacts of the Glades Reservoir proposal before it will permit Hall County to build it.

A draft of the study is expected late this year, and a permit decision likely will be made next year.

Oliver argues the reservoir “will have no more impact than Lake Lanier does on the Chattahoochee River,” and that the corps-commissioned study will show that building Glades is more important now than ever.

“It’s something that has to be done,” Oliver said.

Jenny Hoffner, the director of water supply for American Rivers, said the group, by listing the Chattahoochee, hopes to draw attention to the proposals to dam the Chattahoochee and what she says is a larger trend across the country to build reservoirs.

The group also wants to call attention to what it says are viable alternatives to building reservoirs, including more aggressive conservation measures.

They hope the attention the list brings results in the corps’ denial of a permit to build Glades Reservoir.

The report released today doesn’t outline the country’s most polluted waterways, only those that stand to be significantly changed by an imminent decision.

“I think as we’re learning more and more here in the Southeast, water is finite...” Hoffner said. “I think the lesson here is that there’s no new water. These reservoirs do not create new water. We’re essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

In addition to listing the Chattahoochee as endangered, American Rivers, along with the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and the Southern Environmental Law Center, last month submitted comments to the corps on Hall County’s proposal to build the reservoir on Flat Creek.

The comments are meant to guide the corps-commissioned study of Glades’ impacts on the larger river basin.

The groups’ letter called into question the county’s intentions to build the reservoir or its need for the water Glades might provide.

“We are unconvinced that this is not in fact an amenity lake disguised as a water supply reservoir for permitting purposes,” the letter states.

American Rivers’ “most endangered” list also calls Glades and Bear Creek “amenity lakes for new subdivision developments.”

“Following court rulings and recent multi-year periods of extreme drought, project proponents have repackaged these projects to justify them as water supply options,” the report states.

Oliver disputes that claim, though he acknowledges that there will be development in the area around the proposed reservoir.

But, he said, “the setback (required from the reservoir’s shoreline to any development) and the restrictions will be such that it is not an amenity lake.”

The groups’ letter also asked the corps to consider the impact of the proposed reservoir on water temperatures in a trout habitat downstream of Buford Dam.

The trout habitat is also mentioned in the report released today.

Trout Unlimited lists a section extending below Buford Dam to Roswell as one of the country’s 100 best trout streams.

Kevin McGrath, president of the upper Chattahoochee chapter of the organization, says it’s also one of two trout streams in a major metropolitan area in North America.

He said the survival of that trout fishery is dependent upon a certain amount of cool water coming from Buford Dam. If another reservoir lessened the water coming from the dam, it could affect the river’s temperature, which could affect the fish and the food that they eat, McGrath said.

His organization, like American Rivers, advocates exhausting conservation efforts first and then expanding existing reservoirs before building another.

“Water is a valuable and important resource to all Georgians and to our neighbors in Alabama and in Florida,” McGrath said. “And anything that is done in terms of modifying the flow of the river or impounding water is going to affect everybody in the local area where that reservoir is built downstream to Apalachicola Bay ... all those actions have a cumulative affect.”

Oliver cites the small watershed in North Georgia as a reason to impound more of the basin’s water for Hall County’s use, saying Glades could be an “asset to the river” during a drought situation.

“With the city of Atlanta located in one of the smallest water basins in the country, it just makes sense for us to build more reservoirs in our area to have more water supply,” Oliver said. “I think what (Glades) will allow us to do is to enhance the value of the watershed.”

But even if the proposal to build Glades is meant to secure future water, Hoffner says it will have the opposite effect.

“When you impound more water, you’re evaporating a significant amount of water,” Hoffner said, estimating that some five million gallons of water would evaporate from the surface of Glades and Bear Creek daily. “That’s water lost to the system. It’s water lost to downstream users. It’s water lost to everybody who values the river.”

“Creating more reservoirs in a basin like this actually becomes a liability in terms of water supply, instead of an asset,” she added. 2012-05-15T16:59:34+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/how-a-lost-rope-swing-captures-everything-wrong-with-water-policy/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/how-a-lost-rope-swing-captures-everything-wrong-with-water-policy/

Although water is always with us — sitting on the desk in a bottle, splashing from the kitchen tap, at-the-ready to be flushed in the toilet — water problems often seem remote.

Drought…somewhere else. And how many of us are farmers, anyway? The lettuce and tomatoes always appear in the supermarket.

Fading aquifers…but who can envision an aquifer? You turn on the hose, the water arcs across your lawn.

And water policy decisions are even more evanescent. Who can really stop and grasp the details of withdrawl permits or irrigation allocations?

But how about when the local water authorities quite literally cut down the rope swing your kids use to plunge themselves into a peaceful, slow-moving Florida river? When officials tell you it’s to protect the river your kids have so enjoyed plunging into over and over? That they are, in fact, protecting the river from your kids?

There’s a water policy decision that smacks you in the face like a badly executed cannon-ball.

Florida is home to some of the most vividly short-sighted water policy anywhere. Rain delivers more than enough water to Florida, in a typical year, that it needs. Florida systematically collects that water and throws it away, right into the ocean — then to supply its vast farms and sprawling cities, Floridians pump furiously from an aquifer that underlies most of the state, and which is seriously over-used.

Florida is also home to some of the most beautiful river and spring landscapes in the U.S. It’s hard to believe that one of the keys to protecting the state’s waters is excluding children in swim trunks from those springs. Isn’t the point of the protection precisely to let us enjoy the water?

The same state that cut down the rope swing out over the Suwannee River last year allowed a new permit for a power plant in Jacksonville to take 163 million gallons of water a day from the same river system — that’s 6.8 million gallons of water an hour, enough for a city of 1.5 million people.

At least that old rope swing won’t slow down all that pumping. Thank goodness.

Florida is also home to one of the nation’s finest water journalists and authors, Cynthia Barnett, and in an essay in yesterday’s Tampa Bay Times, she tells the story of her kids’ lost Suwannee River rope swing, and the larger Florida water decisions that surround it.

Barnett is the author of a book about water in Florda, Mirage, and last fall a second book, Blue Revolution, which is about the need for a whole new attitude about water in the U.S., a new water ethic.

Both are elegant, inspirational, indispensible.

But water has the most impact on us when it is immediate, even intimate. Barnett’s short story in the Tampa Bay Times is about getting the small things right while getting the big things terribly wrong; about disconnecting ourselves and our kids from nature; it’s about Mother’s Day. And it’s about the unaccountable loss of the exuberance that comes right at the moment you let go of the rope and plunge for the water.

 Charles Fishman is an award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author who has spent the last four years traveling the world to understand and explain water issues. He is the author of The Big Thirst 2012-05-15T14:33:21+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/tracking-pythons-may-yield-clues-to-vanishing-wildlife/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/tracking-pythons-may-yield-clues-to-vanishing-wildlife/

And a series of rainy days in May is a taste of what’s expected to come during the summer rainy season.

"We think we may be seeing a glimmer of hope," said Tommy Strowd, director of operations for the South Florida Water Management District.

Thanks to the rain, groundwater levels – relied on to fuel drinking water supplies – are largely at normal levels along the southeast coast of Florida, according to the district.

Also, the Everglades water conservation areas in western Palm Beach and Broward counties are above normal water levels. That’s good news for wildlife habitat that last month was drying out in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, considered the northern reaches of the Everglades.

While the rainfall has been a big boost for water supplies along the southeast coast, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, not enough as been falling north of Lake Okeechobee. Rainfall in the Kissimmee River region is needed to send water flowing into Lake Okeechobee, which serves as South Florida’s primary back-up water supply.

Lake Okeechobee dropped about half a foot during the past month, down to about 11.62 feet above sea level. While that’s nearly two feet below normal, it’s almost one foot higher than this time last year.

Water levels rising down south mean "significant improvement" for wildlife habitat in the Everglades, but Lake Okeechobee’s dried-out marshes rimming the lake are still "waiting for recovery," said Terrie Bates, district water resources director.

Wading birds and other wildlife are still trying to rebound from last year’s drought conditions that diminished the smaller pre]]> 2012-05-14T19:29:45+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/southwest-florida-water-management-district-remains-strong/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/southwest-florida-water-management-district-remains-strong/

Much has been written about the reduction of revenue at the state's water management districts during the past several months. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has refocused its priorities and mission to address the new economic realities, while remaining committed to protecting the environment and providing funding to local governments for vital water resources projects.

The district is building on a longstanding commitment to providing funding for water supply and natural resources projects within the 16 counties we serve, including Manatee. In fact, the ad valorem revenue we've collected has been reinvested into $1.3 billion in projects to meet the needs of the region. When matched by our project partners this provides a total investment of more than $2.5 billion in water resources infrastructure to protect our environment and support our economy.

Due to our "pay-as-you-go" philosophy, we have not incurred debt and moving forward we are well positioned to provide continued support to our local partners.

The district is committed to providing our local government partners with cooperative funding for water resources projects that meet our core mission responsibilities. Currently, the district has $380 million dedicated to more than 650 ongoing cooperative projects in the region.

When matched, this gives our area $760 million in ongoing water resources work. In addition, the district currently has another $200 million in unencumbered reserves to be dedicated to new projects.

Looking ahead, the district is reviewing our long-range plans for the region. Some of the need for new, large-scale alternative water supply projects has decreased with the downturn in the economy. However, thanks to the passage of SB 1986, as the economy rebounds and the demand for water increases, we have the capacity to grow and meet these commitments.

It is good for all Floridians to ensure that government is efficient and that state laws are implemented consistently and expeditiously for the protection of the water resources and the taxpayer. Gov. Rick Scott's direction to consider every opportunity to implement new business processes has resulted in great savings and improvements in the way we operate.

Under the Governing Board's direction, the district has reduced its operating expenses from nearly $100 million to less than $80 million. This savings allows continued investment for regional projects.

One way we have increased internal efficiencies is by reorganizing our regulatory staff and centralizing our permitting review process. This alone has saved nearly $4 million while increasing our quality of service.

And by implementing a new process of evaluating the complexity of permit applications, using the same rigorous environmental standards, many Environmental Resource Permits (ERPs) are now issued within 48 hours. We also are working closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the other four water management districts on statewide permitting consistency.

Yes, we face challenges, but this district will continue to manage and protect the water resources of west-central Florida and provide for the development of new water supplies for years to come. The district is staffed by dedicated public servants committed to our core mission of flood protection, water supply, water quality, and their associated natural systems. We assure you that we are capable of meeting these challenges and we will remain fiscally and operationally strong.

Blake C. Guillory, P.E., DWRE, is the executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management Distric]]> 2012-05-14T19:29:10+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/wise-call-on-wetlands/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/wise-call-on-wetlands/

HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com

South Florida’s water managers are drawing up new plans on how best to use wetlands in West Miami-Dade, land that Florida International University had pushed for as part of a land swap. Good idea.

FIU had tried to fast track the deal when the Florida Legislature was in session, which was a very bad call. The land swap would have helped FIU’s medical school expand to land around the current fairgrounds south of the campus. We’re all for the medical school’s expansion, but FIU’s proposed land swap would have put the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition in the wrong place. It attempted to rush a deal that, as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez warned during the legislative session, is bad for the environment.

On Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board voted unanimously to study how best to use 2,800 acres in that area near Krome Avenue and Tamiami Trail.

The swap would have turned over 350 acres of those wetlands in the Bird Drive Everglades Basin for a new fairgrounds far out west. But wait. That land was bought by the state more than a decade ago to protect wetlands and water recharge areas and prevent flooding.

Parking lots and exhibition buildings don’t belong outside the county’s urban development boundary, which is meant to control sprawl and not force urban services like sewer lines in the middle of nowhere. And a fair certainly doesn’t belong where the land is essentially muck and floods during rain storms.

These wetlands need help, too. Some chunks have been used as a dump, yet, as environmentalists point out, that area serves as ideal foraging grounds for wildlife, including endangered wood storks.

Gov. Rick Scott’s office and the county are working with FIU to find a better location for the medical school’s expansion. That’s idea]]> 2012-05-14T19:24:51+00:00 http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/south-florida-cuts-water-use-by-20-percent/ http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/south-florida-cuts-water-use-by-20-percent/

Thanks to low-flow toilets, efficient shower heads and washing machines and lawn watering restrictions, South Florida has managed to quit wasting so much water.

South Florida has suffered through some dreary declines of late — home values, paychecks and the Miami Dolphins, for instance.

But in the case of the public thirst for one precious commodity — fresh water — the decline has actually turned into a major money-saving plus.

The 53 water utilities serving Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties pumped about 83 million fewer gallons a day in 2010 than they did in 2000 — despite a population that grew by some 600,000 over the decade — according to a new draft analysis produced by the South Florida Water Management District.

Do the math and it adds up to South Floridians using about 20 percent less water each day for drinking, bathing and sprinkling yards per person than they did a decade ago. That’s about 30 billion gallons over the course of a year, enough unused water to fill 45,900 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

It’s an unexpected but entirely welcome drop-off in public demand in a region that only a decade ago was worried about taps running dry in relentlessly sprawling suburbs.

“It’s not a surprise that it went down,’’ said Mark Elsner, administrator of water supply development for the water management district. “It’s a surprise it went down so much.’’

WHAT’S BEHIND IT

Though water consumption per person has been declining for decades, water managers point to a combination of factors that are accelerating the trend. They include newer water-efficient toilets and other fixtures, tougher restrictions on lawn irrigation and stepped utility rates designed to make customers pay a premium for excessive water use.

Water managers and state and local environmental regulators have pushed conservation programs and also demanded that utilities expand use of “reclaimed” wastewater — often by using it to irrigate parks and golf courses.

At Hillcrest Golf & Country Club in Hollywood, for instance, every drop from the sprinklers is recycled wastewater — cheaper and in totally unrestricted supply.

“We have a very good deal for water. We could use a million gallons or 10 gallons and we pay the same amount,’’ said Lewis Rissman, Hillcrest’s general manager. “The city of Hollywood doesn’t even know what to do with all their reclaimed water.’’

Clearly, South Florida’s economic downturn, housing market collapse and flattening population growth have contributed to the slaking thirst as well.

“There are a lot of things working together,’’ said Elsner, whose agency oversees the water supply for 16 counties stretching from south of Orlando to Key West. “What you’re seeing is a conservation ethic being developed. People are understanding the value of water.’’

What the decline in demand from public utilities does not mean is South Florida is in the clear when it comes to water shortages

South Florida depends on wildly varying annual rainfall to replenish its underground aquifers and Lake Okeechobee. Right now, for example, an unusually dry winter has left ground water levels lower than normal.

The district’s long-term planning analysis, revised every five years with new consumption and population figures, also covers only four counties in the region and doesn’t track similar trends for agriculture, which consumes an estimated 37 percent of the region’s water. It also doesn’t account for some critical future demands — such as the massive volumes of water needed to help restore the Everglades. The draft study predicts the four counties will still need to expand the public water supply by 18 percent by 2030.

But improved conservation has eased pressure on traditional public water supplies and utilities contemplating new, far more expensive water systems designed to reclaim wastewater and tap other new sources, from deep aquifers to sea water.

SCALING BACK

The drop-off has been significant enough that Miami-Dade’s Water and Sewer Department has been able to scale back projects considered essential only five years ago, saving the utility — and its customers — hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 2007, Miami-Dade, which had historically relied almost entirely on the cheap, clean Biscayne Aquifer, was forced to draw up a $1.6 billion expansion plan to serve a then-booming population. Under pressure from water managers, who warned that drawing more from the underground supply could hurt regional water supplies, the Everglades and Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade designed projects to tap the deeper brackish Floridan aquifer or to treat wastewater.

Bertha Goldenberg, assistant director of the water and sewer department, said the county has since been able to cancel or defer a handful of projects, including one that would have piped highly treated wastewater back into the ground near Zoo Miami to increase ground water supplies.

“We basically saved $300 million by changing that,’’ she said.

Alan Garcia, director of Broward County’s water and wastewater services, said the decline has allowed the agency to push back a $46 million project to tap the Floridan until at least 2023 and explore other potentially cheaper options for the future, such as teaming up with other Broward and Palm Beach utilities in constructing a massive reservoir.

Garcia said county figures show per person usage falling sharply in some areas, down almost by half between 1990 and 2008 in one area that includes Lighthouse Point and parts of Pompano Beach.

“People have finally started to see they don’t need to water their lawns four or five days a week,’’ he said. “It’s expensive water and they don’t need to use it.’’

Miami-Dade’s Goldenberg also points to irrigation restrictions the district first imposed in 2006 during a severe drought as a major factor in the decline, with county usage dropping by 20 gallons a day per person over the following two years. In 2010, both Miami-Dade and Broward made twice-weekly lawn watering rules permanent.

Miami-Dade programs to offer rebates and exchanges for high-efficiency toilets and shower heads and to improve homeowner associations’ irrigation systems also combined to save nearly 8.5 million gallons a day last year, according to a water department report completed in April.

The district analysis shows that, based on 2010 figures, Miami-Dade remained the largest consumer of the public water supply, slurping some 347 million gallons a day. Broward trailed with 217 million gallons a day, followed by Palm Beach County with 207 million gallons and Monroe with 16 million gallons.

But Palm Beach County’s agricultural industry, dominated by sprawling sugar farms, made it the thirstiest county overall. Farms, which draw from their own wells and pumps, pushed Palm Beach’s total daily demands to over 600 million gallons. Miami-Dade’s combined farm and public total runs just over 400 million gallons a day, according to the report.

Measuring by usage per person, Palm Beach recorded the greatest decline between 2000 and 2010, at 28 percent, followed by Broward at 19 percent and Miami-Dade at 17 percent. Miami-Dade’s updated numbers, which include figures through 2011, show a 21 percent reduction since 2000.

THIRSTY MONROE

Officially, Monroe ranked far and away as the thirstiest county per person at 198 gallons per day in 2010 but water managers said that number was heavily skewed by tourists in the Florida Keys, who use much of the water but aren’t included in the calculations.

Lower population projections also have eased the pressure to expand water systems. The last time the district produced its analysis, in 2006, when South Florida was in the midst of a super-heated housing boom, water managers calculated the four counties would be using nearly 2.3 billion gallons of water a day by 2025 for everything from home faucets to farming.

That estimate is now down by some 400 million gallons — for 2030, five years later.

“I don’t think the question is are we going to run out of water but are we going to run out of less expensive water,’’ said Elsner, of the water management district. “What this does is extend the traditional fresh water sources further down the road.’’

Miami-Dade now believes it can cover much of its future demand through 2030 with a plant in Hialeah already under construction and expected to be completed later this year that will tap the Floridan and a second plant in South Miami that is being designed to use less expensive technology.

“We’re a lot better off than we were in 2005,’’ Goldenberg said. “Our demands were above our allocations so we wer

A volunteer with the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge on his way to work spotted the injured kitten that morning and reported the sighting.

Rescuers immediately took the then 12-week-old male kitten to the Animal Specialty Hospital of Florida in Naples for treatment. Although veterinarians at the hospital found no major fractures and no signs of significant internal damage, they believe the panther experienced some level of head trauma.

“Unfortunately, this kitten’s condition makes it unlikely that he will recover enough to be released into the wild,” said Dave Onorato, FWC biologist in a news release. “We’re grateful to the staff at the Animal Specialty Hospital, who have worked tirelessly caring for him.”

The kitten is being transferred to Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo for further rehabilitation. This is the third kitten and seventh panther overall to receive rehabilitation at the zoo. The kitten’s prognosis is guarded.

A male panther kitten, believed to be this kitten’s brother, died April 7 from injuries also consistent with a vehicle strike.

Collisions with vehicles are the top human-related cause of panther deaths. More than a third of panther deaths documented last year were the result of vehicle strikes. Drivers are encouraged to slow down and drive carefully in rural areas where panthers are known to live. An estimated 100 to 160 adults of this federally endangered species live in the wild.

To report dead or injured panthers, call the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on a cell phone.

During an extended drought we tend to think a lot about water.

When we see local springs and rivers running dry (think Hornsby, Poe, and Gilchrist Blue Springs on the upper Santa Fe River) we start to wonder what is next. Our private wells? Our public water supplies?

Then we think: No, that can't happen, our government will take care of us. After all, we pay them taxes and give them jobs so they can look out for our collective good. They have official plans that say we have at least 20 more years before we need to worry about running out of plentiful and healthy groundwater supplies.

Still, a drought seems to sharpen our innate senses: when nature peels away the rainwater inputs during a drought, shouldn't there still be some water left in these springs? Did these springs run dry in the past?

The fact is our springs are not just being stressed by an historic drought. The groundwater aquifer that feeds these springs is being pumped at the highest rate in recorded history. And to add "insult to injury" these springs are being exposed to the highest groundwater nitrate nitrogen contamination ever observed.

These two stresses are creating a "perfect storm" of severe impacts to our precious springs that is appalling to witness. Go visit your favorite spring now and put on a face mask. Look carefully at the clarity of the water, examine the plant life and algae, and study the fish and turtles. I am afraid you will see a sick ecosystem.

That is exactly what I did last weekend, when I snorkeled the lower Ichetucknee River from Dampier's Landing to the U.S. 27 take out. Here is a summary of what I saw: Very low water levels and reduced flow rates, turbid water with less than 30 feet of visibility, eelgrass leaves coated with a thick encrustation of attached algae, long trailing filaments of green algae, areas of thinning vegetation, and largemouth bass with white fungus growing on their heads. It was not a pretty sight.

This shouldn't be happening.

How could the water management districts issue so many groundwater pumping permits that the flow in the Ichetucknee River continues to decline and flows in smaller springs like Poe have essentially stopped?

How could the Department of Environmental Protection set the groundwater nitrate standard so high that the springs that feed the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe rivers have been impaired by nutrient pollution for more than 30 years?

Who was in charge of protecting these state-designated Outstanding Florida Waters?

Is there a public agency that will take responsibility for this environmental negligence? Or will they continue their denial that there is a problem with our groundwater and continue to issue more groundwater withdrawal permits, rather than immediately mandating emergency water use restrictions?

Are the water managers who are tasked with protecting our water bodies and the public's best interests afraid to speak up because they fear losing their jobs?

Robert L. Knight is director of the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute.

The river's wide expanse near Jacksonville Naval Air Station was without a ripple as three Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission boats moved slowly toward the base's marina.

This was the river at its most beautiful, the blue sky and puffy clouds reflected in its smooth surface, and the timing couldn't have been better.

Last fall when Gov. Rick Scott visited with the editorial board of The Florida Times-Union, I asked him if he had ever spent any time on the St. Johns.

Scott said that he hadn't but that he would like to. Last week, he followed through.

On Wednesday, Scott took an airboat tour of the river's upper basin where the St. Johns River Water Management District has done monumental work restoring the marshes and the river's natural flow.

Friday afternoon, he saw our part of the river, and he brought with him an all-star cast.

Aboard the boat with the governor were Herschel Vinyard, the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection; Greg Strong, the DEP's Northeast Florida district director; Lisa Rinaman, the St. Johns Riverkeeper; Hans Tanzler, the water management district's executive director; Kathy Barco, the FWC chairwoman; and Sen. John Thrasher.

Scott even let me tag along and never once threatened to throw me in the water.

Rinaman was able to talk to Scott about some of the problems facing the St. Johns, from the nutrient overload that can cause the sickening algal blooms to the potential damage that can come from dredging the river's main channel deeper and deeper to accommodate the port.

Vinyard told Scott about the progress that has been made in this part of the river — a 67 percent reduction in nitrogen in the last three years due to the collaborative efforts by utilities, industries, citizens and governmental agencies.

"More has to be done," Vinyard said.

A FWC team was in the river with a seine net conducting a monthly survey of the fish in the area.

The catch they showed Scott on this day included mullet, shad, lady fish, a baby flounder and a juvenile red fish.

Thrasher was able to secure $5.6 million in the state budget this year for projects to improve the health of the river's lower basin.

Last year, Scott vetoed $10 million that had been set aside for the St. Johns.

He left the $5.6 million in place this year. During his river tour, he said more can be set aside for environmental projects as the economy continues to improve and budget changes are made, especially spending on Medicaid.

As I've written before, I'm a firm believer that one can't understand the importance of the St. Johns and the need to protect it without seeing the river up close.

Doing that brings into focus that the St. Johns is as critical to Florida as the Everglades are.

Scott now has experienced the St. Johns on a day the river happened to be showing off a bit.

ron.littlepage@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4284

“There’s a swing,” Captain Jim Willcox warned as the saw slashed the air. “Careful, it’s pretty green.”

But Willcox and Yannis Papastamatiou, a University of Florida scientist, managed to secure the line around both the saw and the tail of their quarry: an endangered smalltooth sawfish, the rarest marine species in U.S. waters. Now the huge brown creature lay quietly alongside their skiff near East Cape Sable in Everglades National Park, enabling them to safely complete their research mission.

“He’s a good boy!” said UF research assistant Bethan Gillett, who had caught the giant fish on a rod and reel moments earlier.

The point of this hazardous maritime rodeo is for researchers from the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Team to learn as much as they can to help bring back one of the top predators in the marine ecosystem — nearly wiped out through its entire range over the past century.

“These guys started disappearing before we as biologists started figuring out they were going,” said George Burgess, who runs a sawfish database at the University of Florida’s Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Once common from New York south to Florida and west to Texas, these huge members of the ray family that can grow to 25 feet are rarely seen today, except for the waters of Everglades National Park and the Keys. Not a lot is known about their life history, but scientists say they may live 25 to 30 years, reaching sexual maturity after about 10 years. Females give birth to litters of 15 to 20 pups.

With its slow growth and late maturity, the smalltooth sawfish met its demise decades ago by becoming entangled in gill nets, being slaughtered by collectors of its bill, and squeezed by shrinkage of its shallow mangrove habitat. It was declared an endangered species in the United States in 2003. Its cousin, the endangered largetooth — formerly found in the Atlantic — now is functionally extinct in U.S. waters, according to Burgess.

Burgess says recovery of the smalltooth will take a very long time.

“Even with a total ban on death, it will take 100 years, and we’re 10 years into that process, so we’ve got 90 years to go,” he said.

Sawfish numbers are so beaten down that even scientific experts like Burgess and colleagues from the National Marine Fisheries Service and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission must obtain a federal permit to handle the species. Anyone else who molests or harasses them faces a possible $10,000 federal fine.

This year, Burgess had a permit to tag 11 sawfish, which he did over the past couple of months with help from Willcox — a veteran Islamorada light-tackle guide — and several UF colleagues. They deployed the final two sets of tags on April 27 near East Cape Sable on two males in the 13-foot range. Both swam forcefully away when the procedures were completed.

Papastamatiou drilled holes in the animals’ tough dorsal fins and fastened a cigar-shaped satellite pop-up tag, an acoustic transmitter tag and a small streamer tag with the research lab’s phone number. The satellite tag records water temperature, depth and light levels at short intervals, then pops off after five months, broadcasting the accumulated data to a satellite, which sends it to the scientists’ computers.

The acoustic tag beeps a signal to underwater listening stations that tell how many times the sawfish passes through the area. The three tags are intended to back each other up.

Willcox and the scientists have been catching and tagging sawfish in the park for about three years — not enough time to draw conclusions about the animals’ movements or growth rates. Their ability to continue the research is imperiled by money problems: Federal funds are running dry, so they’re seeking private donations.

“It’s going to be a long haul,” Burgess said. “We can’t grow weary of the fight. Hopefully, our children and grandchildren will have a shot at this down the line.”

One thing in the sawfish’s favor is its charisma — a giant, brown apex predator that slashes its prey, mostly fish and some crustaceans, with its deadly bill. A recent study by scientist Barbara Wueringer of the University of Queensland in Australia found that the animals have a “sixth sense” in their bills — a series of pores that can detect movements or electrical fields of hidden fish or crabs.

The sight of a sawfish is awe-inspiring, Willcox says.

“When people see that for the first time, they feel like they’ve gone back in time,” he said. “It’s not something you want to mess with casually. That bill can come up vertically and take your head off. For me, it’s like fishing in a tournament and getting a victory. It’s about as big a rush as you can get in fishing — or anything in life.”

Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

Peace may finally be at hand in the decades-long Everglades dirty-water war.

Eight months after Gov. Rick Scott flew to Washington to extend a political olive branch and personally pitch Florida’s latest plan for stopping the flow of polluted farm, ranch and yard runoff into the Everglades, state and federal negotiators are on the verge of an accord expected to be hailed by both sides as a major milestone.

A settlement crafted with the goal of resolving two protracted and paralyzing federal lawsuits — one goes back almost a quarter century, the other eight years — could be soon finalized, possibly within the month, according to officials on both sides of the confidential negotiations.

The agreement would commit Florida to a significantly expanded slate of Everglades restoration projects pegged at an estimated $890 million. Still, that’s a considerably smaller price tag than a $1.5 billion plan drawn up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that a Miami federal judge has threatened to impose.

Most key technical issues — such as the size of additional artificial marshes used to scrub dirty, nutrient-laced storm runoff that has poisoned vast swaths of the Everglades — have been largely sorted out. But both sides cautioned the deal could still be delayed as negotiators work through the nuts and bolts of rolling out, implementing and enforcing a complex and likely controversial agreement.

Environmental groups and sugar growers have heard increasingly encouraging reports from negotiators over the past few months, though they have not been briefed on key details. But they agree the new cleanup blueprint that emerges will stand as a landmark in the costly, contentious legal and political battles to revive the struggling, shrunken River of Grass.

“It would be huge for everyone,’’ said Gaston Cantens, a vice president for Florida Crystals, one of the region’s largest sugar growers. “For a business, whenever you can have stability and certainty, then you can make long-term plans with confidence.’’

Environmentalists are reserving judgment, with some bracing for a deal they fear will be a compromise that might fall short of providing the Glades the pristine fresh water it needs and will push cleanup deadlines, already repeatedly delayed, back by years.

David Guest, an attorney for EarthJustice who represents several environmental groups in a 24-year-old lawsuit brought by the federal government that first forced Florida to deal with Glades pollution, said he has heard enough about the framework of the deal to know he’ll find plenty to question.

But even Guest acknowledges, “It’s absolutely going to be progress, there is no doubt about that.”

The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration projects for the state, responded to questions with a statement, saying the state plan was “scientifically sound, economically feasible and would bring about long-term protection for America’s Everglades.’’

“We’ve had productive dialogue with our federal partners and have made significant progress toward an agreed-upon approach. However, there are some outstanding issues that are important to Florida.” For both the Obama and Scott administrations, finalizing a major Everglades deal would represent a political win and a rare example of bipartisan cooperation. It would be particularly notable for the governor, a tea party-backed, anti-regulation Republican healthcare executive who infuriated environmentalists in his first year in office by slashing environmental programs and gutting much of the state’s grown management oversight.

With the state facing the threat that U.S. District Judge Alan Gold would impose the $1.5 billion EPA cleanup plan on the state, Scott last October flew to Washington to pitch Florida’s alternative plan, meeting with high-ranking White House officials, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

He has continued campaigning since, in meetings and letters, including a Feb. 1 letter to President Barack Obama discussing encouraging settlement talks and stressing a message repeated in a state court brief filed this month requesting more time for negotiations: that the state’s time and taxpayer’s money would be better spent on projects than “pointless, expensive and time-consuming litigation.’’

In an April 5 response to Scott, EPA administrator Jackson echoed the upbeat tone, noting “we share a common desire to take advantage of the opportunity in front of us for quick, historic progress towards clean water for the Everglades.’’

Though four federal agencies initially found the state’s plan inadequate, the state has made a number of tweaks and additions during negotiations, officials said, adding some 8,400 more acres of treatment marshes — still far less than the 42,000 additional acres the EPA had proposed. In addition, the state plan calls for expanded water storage in a string of new “flow equalization basins’’ intended to keep the marshes more effective by limiting flooding or damaging dry-downs.

To save money, land swaps are being considered and water managers also intend to convert a massive reservoir that water managers halted two years and $272 million into construction in 2008 would be turned into one of new, shallower basins.

The nearly $900 million in projects would add to the $1.8 billion the state has already spent to construct a 45,000 acres of existing marshes, with an additional 11,000 acres scheduled to come online later this year. But that massive network hasn’t been enough to meet the super-low standards needed to protect the sensitive Glades ecosystem from phosphorous, a common fertilizer ingredient that drains off farms and yards with every rainstorm. It fuels the spread of cat tails and other exotics that crowd out native plants.

Though Scott has earned praise from some environmentalists, Guest, the EarthJustice attorney, isn’t among them, arguing the governor didn’t lead so much as he was pushed by courtroom defeats and mounting pressure from two federal judges.

Gold, in a 2004 suit brought by the Miccosukee Tribe and the environmental group Friends of the Everglades, has issued a series of rulings blasting the state and federal agencies for “glacial delay’’ and repeatedly failing to enforce water-pollution standards tough enough to protect the Everglades. In 2010, he ordered the EPA to draw up a cleanup plan that water managers said they couldn’t afford.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who oversees the original 1988 cleanup suit by the federal government, has expressed similar frustrations and urged both sides to come up with a viable plan.

Barbara Miedema, vice president of the Belle Glade-based Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, said she expects it will still take a while to nail down the deal. With multiple federal and state agencies, more than a half-dozen environmental groups, the Miccosukee Tribe and two federal judges involved, there are numerous legal, practical and political hurdles to clear, she said.

“We hear they are close, but we have been hearing they are close for months,’’ she said. “A lot of signs say it’s likely. I’m not betting on it.’’

Overhead, brown pelicans, anhinga, roseate spoonbills and white ibis fly. Below the surface of the created saltwater and freshwater wetlands, baby snook, redfish, shrimp and oysters thrive.

And the once-polluted water that ran off those farm fields and into Tampa Bay is gone, replaced by filtered water that meanders through the manmade grass flats before trickling into the Bay.

It took nearly 21 years, but the restoration project on 500 acres of this 651-acre county-owned swath is all but complete, and Cockroach Bay Preserve is now open to the public.

The preserve was dedicated amid much fanfare April 20 when those responsible for its transformation came together to celebrate.

About 20 government and environmental agencies and approximately 2,500 volunteers worked to transform this chunk of property, located at 3709 Gulf City Road. The property is a short distance west of U.S. 41 within the original bounds of historic Sun City.

"It has turned out beautifully," said Brandt Henningsen, the environmental scientist who designed and oversaw the restoration, completed in 17 phases as money came available. Henningsen works for the state Surface Water Improvement and Management, or SWIM program, in conjunction with the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

"Twenty years ago, these were fallow farm fields covered with weeds and exotic plants," Henningsen said.

The salt terns, for years, had been used as a dump by agricultural interests that filled them with 100 tons of plastic sheeting and other garbage.

"We removed all of that," Henningsen said.

The salt terns, or salt barrens, are important but rare spawning areas for fish. Only about 900 acres remain along the Tampa Bay coastline.

Formerly deep shell rock mining pits are now shallow, flowing wetlands. A 17-acre salt marsh created in 2005 turned uninhabited land into a mosaic of channels and isolated pools that provide habitat for redfish, fiddler crabs and wading birds.

Preserve Manager Richard Sullivan has counted at least 300 species of birds using the property. The increase in the amount of wildlife using the site since he arrived in 1999 has been astounding, he said.

No one has even begun to document the many types of water creatures that now occupy the recreated wetlands.

Hillsborough County purchased the property in 1991 through its Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, a voter-approved assessment to acquire endangered lands and restore them to their former glory.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, first visited Cockroach Bay with her mother, former County Commissioner Betty Castor, when she was six or seven, she said during the dedication.

"In the late 1960s, an awakening happened" and people began to worry about the health of Tampa Bay," she said.

"Development was tearing out the old coastline." Castor said.

People rallied and formed environmental groups to protect what was left. They all made the Tampa Bay community a better place to live, she said.

Castor called Cockroach Bay a community treasure well worth saving.

"This is like icing on the cake," said Ann Paul, regional coordinator for Audubon of Florida. "This project is the best of cooperative relationships you could ever imagine. Everyone in the county has participated, and we have a stunning result."

Hugh Gramling, the vice chair of Swifmud's governing board, called the restoration "a perfect example of teamwork."

The project represents one of the largest restorations ever undertaken along Tampa Bay. Scientists from around the globe have come to visit the site to see how the work was done.

"The most important thing about it is that it is replacing 500 acres of lost coastal habitat for Tampa Bay," Henningsen said.

The preserve is open to the public from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. There is a parking area, but no restroom facilities at this time. Hillsborough County's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department plans to offer guided canoe trips on the property in the future, though no date has been set.

For now, visitors can bring their binoculars and cameras and hike the property.

DEP is responsible for protecting the quality of Florida’s drinking water as well as its rivers, lakes, wetlands and springs. The Federal Clean Water Act requires states to publicly review and update their water quality standards in what is called a "triennial review." 

The department has scheduled hearings for later this month in West Palm Beach, Orlando and Tallahassee to consider its "human health criteria" involving exposure to chemicals through fish consumption.

DEP was conducting a similar review in 2008 before some environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state's lack of numeric limits for nitrogen and phosphorus. That lawsuit led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in Florida waterways, which prompted DEP to adopt replacement rules.

"That just became all-consuming," said Drew Bartlett, director of DEP's Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration. "Now that we put that to rest, we can shift those resources consumed by the numeric nutrient criteria back onto this issue. We decided to pick it straight right back up."

The Legislature waived approval of those rules in February and the state sent them to the EPA for review. Environmental groups including the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club have a legal challenge pending at the Division of Administrative Hearings.

In 2009, the Clean Water Network petitioned the federal EPA to set human health criteria for fish consumption. Other environmental groups had sued in 1995, arguing that previous human health criteria were based on low fish consumption rates by Floridians.

DEP has conducted studies and determined that Floridians do eat more fish than those in other states, so proposed new human health criteria will have to reflect that, Bartlett said.

"It is going to become more stringent than it is currently on the books for all of those (pollution) parameters," he said.

Although Bartlett said DEP is moving forward as planned, Clean Water Network's Linda Youngsaid her group has warned it will sue if DEP delays action again.

"(The federal) EPA has to make sure the criteria adopted are protective of human health when those fish are consumed," said Young, the group's director.

After the hearings from May 15-17, DEP hopes to adopt updated rules by the end of the year, Bartlett said.

The department also is proposing limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in estuaries along the Florida Panhandle. And the department will consider setting new requirements for dissolved oxygen, which affects the amount of pollution that can be discharged into waterways.

Florida's dissolved oxygen criteria were based on national criteria from studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, Bartlett said.

He said in more recent years, DEP has invested in a "huge" monitoring system in Florida to determine what dissolved oxygen conditions exist naturally in Florida. That science also will be presented at the workshops.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is tracking the dissolved oxygen issue and has raised serious concerns with DEP, said Jennifer Hecker, the group's director of natural resource policy.

"Sometimes by changing the goal and standard you can create compliance," Hecker said. "It doesn't necessarily make anything better -- that is the concern. We want to see things truly improve. I think that is what Floridians want as well."

Young warned that industry groups are seeking to allow pollution to continue by reducing dissolved oxygen -- along with setting weak nitrogen and phosphorus limits and creating new designated uses for waterways with their own pollution limits.

Bartlett responded the science behind dissolved oxygen standard needs to be updated based on new science, just like with the nitrogen and phosphorus limits. And he said DEP will looking for feedback from the public at its upcoming workshops.

"We can't really do anything at DEP that is not truly and soundly rooted in the science," Bartlett said. "There is no other way to do it really."

Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.

In its heyday — especially for thirsty cities and counties — the Southwest Florida Water Management District was the closest thing to a rainmaker.

Nicknamed Swiftmud, the agency during the last decade granted nearly $1 billion — tens of millions of it in Southwest Florida — to expand drinking water supplies, clean stormwater runoff and improve water quality in bays and rivers.

But this year and the next, because of state budget cuts, Swiftmud can muster only $40 million to spread over its 16-county territory, including Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte.

The funding cuts reduce the agency's capacity for transformative spending on projects such as the expansion of a regional water supply for Southwest Florida on the Peace River and construction of a huge desalination plant on Tampa Bay that has put the region in an enviable position for drinking water supplies amidst the drought.

It also could affect numerous other spending plans for the area during the next several years, including:

• Dona Bay restoration in Sarasota County.

• Stormwater runoff improvements in a host of old neighborhoods.

• Expansion of the nearly 500-acre Robinson Preserve in Manatee County.

• Restoration projects on conservation land region-wide.

Glenn Compton, president of the local environmental group Manasota-88, called the cuts shortsighted because delays will make environmental restoration more expensive.

"If we don't correct these mistakes, we'll be probably paying more in the future for environmental cleanups," Compton said.

Opportunities to preserve or restore sensitive land, especially on the coast, will shrink, said Charlie Hunsicker, director of natural resources for Manatee County, which has relied heavily on Swiftmud money for coastal restoration.

Each year from 2006 to 2010 the district gave out more than $100 million in grants for projects from south of Punta Gorda to north of Ocala. Those so-called cooperative funding grants — which required matching money from local governments and utilities — peaked at $161 million in 2009.

A decade of gains

The cash matches played a major role in Southwest Florida's economy over the past decade, removing water supply as a potential impediment to growth by developing new supplies, promoting water conservation, increasing waste water recycling and reversing damage caused by development built before stringent regulations were adopted in the 1970s.

The funding loss could halt or reverse more than a decade of work that has led to fewer floods, abundant water supplies even in droughts and cleaner bays and rivers throughout the district.

For example, wastewater reuse projects have greatly reduced the amount of water discharged to Sarasota Bay, helping to restore bay seagrasses. The Celery Fields restoration project, east of Interstate 75, fixed flooding problems for hundreds of people and created a destination for bird watching.

The construction of new reservoirs, meant to keep up with population growth, has also given the region ample drinking water.

The district helped fund a $158 million drinking water desalination plant and a $162 million drinking water reservoir in Tampa to solve the state's last water supply crisis. The dwindling supply had spawned legal feuds between cities and counties, as regulations tightened in response to dropping aquifer and lake levels and dried-up wetlands.

Swiftmud also contributed the land and $50 million in funding for a reservoir on the Peace River in Arcadia, helping turn the Peace River-Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority from an operation serving mainly Charlotte County and North Port into a regional system.

The recession, however, curbed the anticipated growth. When people begin moving here in droves again, Southwest Florida could find itself once again mired in legal fights over affordable drinking water if money for better conservation or expansion efforts is not available.

Additionally, district money helped pay for dozens of distribution pipelines for drinking, irrigation and recycled waste water.

Assessing cutbacks

The drastic spending reduction follows a law passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2011 that cut and capped how much money water districts statewide could raise in property taxes. The cap was meant to save money, keep taxes low and streamline state government.

While the limit saves average taxpayers in Swiftmud's territory about $12 per year, it has cut the multi-faceted agency's budget 44 percent, or $119 million.

Local officials are still assessing how the cutbacks will affect them.

Hunsicker called it a "tragic" setback because Manatee County relies on the district to help fund environmental restoration on its conservation lands. Robinson Preserve, bordering Sarasota Bay in Manatee County, is an example.

The money also allowed the county and other local governments to win additional matching grants from federal and state agencies.

Plans to pursue some restoration projects, such as an expansion of Robinson Preserve, may be delayed unless Manatee County can find money elsewhere in difficult budget times, said Hunsicker.

Sarasota County may feel the pinch more because it relied on larger grants each year, ranging from $4 million to $6 million annually.

Much of that money paid for work that restored degraded wetlands and water flow to now-popular destinations, such as the Celery Fields — part of a flood control project in east Sarasota County.

In Sarasota County, efforts to restore Dona Bay, aimed at boosting both water supply and water quality in the Venice and Nokomis area, could be set back. Plans to build better natural filters to clean storm water in older Sarasota neighborhoods also may be halted.

Smaller requests

Regionally, water suppliers are concerned, too.

The Peace River authority, run jointly by DeSoto, Charlotte, Sarasota and Manatee counties, is building miles of new pipelines with water district grants.

The authority was fortunate to get funding for its reservoir and three pipeline projects years ago and to complete the reservoir before back-to-back years of drought set in.

"We were very lucky both financially and weather-wise," said Mike Coates, the water authority's deputy director.

Although the district has less money to award to communities this year, funding remains available because of smaller requests driven by a slow economy, said Mark Hammond, Swiftmud's director of resource management.

Several communities and water suppliers have scaled back on projects because they can no longer afford to put up the money required for the district match. Those delayed projects have resulted in tens of millions in refunds, which has helped to build the district's reserves, Hammond said.

The city of Tampa returned $24 million after economic constraints halted a few projects. Bradenton decided not to build a drinking water reservoir, instead opting for underground storage in aquifers for half the $20 million cost. During the past 11 years, project cancellations throughout the district have put $90 million back into reserves.

Though the budget will severely curtail the projects the water district funds, the Legislature faces the same problems, argues state Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota. "Just like we did in the Legislature, there's a lot of things we'd like to fund, but there's a lot of things they'll have to prioritize," Pilon said.

Pilon, a former government affairs coordinator for the Peace River authority, said he does not like the law that limited the district's ability to raise money. Lawmakers this year passed a new law that removes the cap on the districts next year, but the districts will still need to get legislative permission to raise money through taxes.

Scott signed a bill April 20 that removes property tax revenue caps imposed on the districts for the 2011-12 budget year as the governor and legislators sharpened their budget-cutting axes.

"Gov. Scott and legislators realized they made a mistake," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida, which made reversing the caps its top legislative priority this year.

Scott signed the bill without any fanfare or comment; the governor's office didn't respond to requests from the Daily News for an explanation about why he favored lifting the caps.

The $285 million property tax revenue cap on the South Florida Water Management District, which includes Collier and Lee counties, undercut Everglades restoration efforts, Draper said.

To comply with the cap, the district's Governing Board wrestled with a 32 percent property tax cut for the 16-county district that stretches coast-to-coast from Orlando to Key West. The district's total budget is $576 million.

The Big Cypress Basin, the Collier County arm of the South Florida district, saw its budget go from $13.4 million to $9.3 million.

Removing the cap doesn't restore the district's funding to pre-cap levels. It allows districts to take advantage of property value increases to raise more revenue, but raising the property tax rate would require a further vote of the district's Governing Board.

"That for me is going to be the real test," Draper said.

Southwest Florida's representative on the district's Governing Board said there's "not a chance" the district will return to pre-cap spending levels.

"There was excess in how the district was spending money," board member Daniel DeLisi said. "We owed it to the taxpayers to look at that."

Having a cap, though, "just doesn't make sense" because it takes away flexibility the district needs to pay for Everglades restoration projects.

"What we don't want to do is, because of the mistakes of the past, go overboard," DeLisi said.

The bill Scott signed keeps some restrictions on how districts can spend their money and rebalances district oversight between the state Legislature and the governor's office.

In 2011, a property tax cap bill gave legislators line-item veto authority over the district's budget, something that had been the sole power of the governor. The new bill takes the line-item veto power away from the state Legislature.

Still, a Legislative Budget Commission can reject some district budget proposals. They include a single land purchase of more than $10 million, any cumulative purchase of land during a single fiscal year of more than $50 million and any issuance of debt, starting July 1.

The bill also allows the Legislature, if it chooses, to enact legislation to set a maximum property tax rate for each water management district and to review the districts' preliminary budget each year.

"Do you see her?" asked Hart, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. "Yeah, she's in there," answered Thomas Selby, a wildlife biologist. "I think she knows we're here," said Brian Smith, another biologist.

Within seconds, the 161/2-foot Burmese python uncoiled and made a run for it. What happened next is a drama that plays out every week or so, as state and federal biologists try to prove -- or disprove -- that the giant invasive snakes are the reason for the near disappearance of rabbits, opossums, raccoons, foxes and even bobcats in the southernmost section of the 1.5-million-acre Everglades.

Smith and Selby charged into the trees. "I've got the head!" Smith shouted. "Grab the tail!" They stumbled out with the writhing snake in a chokehold, huge mouth agape, ready to bite.

It was actually the second time biologists got their hands on Python 51 -- the 51st caught. Two months ago, they surgically fitted it with a radio transmitter, motion detector and global positioning system to study its diet and movements.

Now, the snake's days of squeezing the life out of prey and giving birth to about four dozen babies every year are over. The scientists want to retrieve their expensive equipment and the data it contains. The snake was euthanized last week, along with an even bigger snake, the largest ever captured in Florida, at 171/2 feet--'.

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia. No one knows for certain how the invasive snake entered the park. The belief that Hurricane Andrew blew them there from exotic pet shops and houses in 1992, or that numerous pet owners released them when they grew too large, is likely a myth, according to Frank J. Mazzotti, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation for the University of Florida.

"All it takes is three snakes," he said, mating and laying an average of 50 eggs, and up to 100 eggs, per year.

Their population in the Everglades is estimated at anywhere between 5,000 and 100,000 by USGS. The National Park Service says that more than 1,800 pythons have been removed from the park and surrounding areas since 2002.

Some game officials and citizens have suggested sending bounty hunters with guns and machetes into the park.

What can we do to control this snake?" Hart said. Control is politically correct biologist jargon for killing to drive down a population. All but one of the 52 snakes captured were humanely killed. "That's what I'm really focused on."

The News-Press of Fort Myers (http://newspr.es/JMjmk8 ) reports that nearly 4 billion gallons of fresh water from the Lake Okeechobee system were released into the river this week.

Without the fresh-water flushing in the current drought conditions, water in the river becomes stagnant — making it easier for harmful algae to grow.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, acting on a recommendation from the South Florida Water Management District, released the water down the river at a rate of 2,000 cubic feet per second over three days this week.

The river runs west from central Florida and empties in the Gulf of Mexico between Fort Myers and Cape Coral.