TCPalm.com

June 5, 2007

What we need, according to Reed

Guest column

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Nathaniel Reed, chairman emeritus of the 1000 Friends of Florida, is a former vice chairman of the National Audubon and The Nature Conservancy boards, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He serves on the boards of the National Geographic Society, Hope Rural School and the Everglades Foundation, according to the 1000Friends Web site.

ON HIS SFWMD SERVICE:

I was, as a Republican, appointed to the board by Gov. Bob Graham, as he became convinced that the then board was dominated by "Big Sugar" and that his hope for a level playing field was being undermined by board and senior staff members. ... There were many mornings ... on the way to the old District headquarters that I regretted ever wanting to serve. I knew in advance that it was going to be another pair of days defending unpopular positions and I would be slammed by board members and even staff members who marched to the drum beats of the developers and the Sugar Barons."

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ON THE DISTRICT'S

ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS:

We slowly but surely developed the agency into a powerful instrument for not only flood control and agricultural water supply, but began the long road toward an environmental focus. ...

That became one of my major missions. Following the resignation of Jack Maloy as executive director, newly appointed director Woody Wodraska worked with the board to raise the funds and attracted a world-class group of scientists and land managers. The District hummed. There were the problems of water storage that remain as one of the greatest impediments to water management in south Florida. The problems of the pollution of the Okeechobee watershed were becoming identified and action began to be taken as the dairies came under close inspection and regulation.

ON THE JEB BUSH ERA:

The new board took six steps backward. The forced resignation of Samuel Poole as executive director and William Malone, who was not only in charge of land acquisition but a recognized leader within the organization, started the downward slide. Big Sugar claimed a number of board spots and infiltrated the highest levels of the senior staff. ...

The board led by "fear." Good men who spoke up and took strong positions were demoted, transferred or urged to leave the district staff. There was a brain drain that continues. Totally ill-equipped men and women were promoted to key positions and tight supervisory control dominated all decision-making. Board members were rude to the public.

ON THE CHARLIE CRIST ERA:

The situation that you enter will be tough. You may be a lonely voice at first, but as Gov. Crist makes his next series of appointments over the next three years you will be joined by colleagues that will bring new ideas and a collective sense of responsibility that is sorely lacking at this time."

ON HIS SUGGESTED PRIORITIES FOR 2007 AND BEYOND:

Force the District leadership to identify the in-house expertise to assist the NGOs. In particular, Dr. Paul Gray, Audubon's Okeechobee watershed expert, to identify through land acquisition and preferably a system of verifiable land easements vast areas within the watershed where far more rainfall can be contained and slowly released. Water storage in the Okeechobee basin must be one of your highest priorities. Major land use changes within the basin will destroy any possibility of water storage or the prevention of the era of gross water pollution.

Focus on the pollution problems with in the Okeechobee basin. Obtain the literature and visit the dairies. I believe I am the only member of the board who has inspected almost every dairy in the watershed. I knew which dairies were making every effort to control their discharges of excess phosphorus and those that were getting a free ride from (regulators). The problem of fractured responsibility still prevents enforcement of the state's water quality laws. Lake Okeechobee is hopelessly polluted with no hope for a change in sight.

I urge you to escape from the District staff that are partly responsible for years of study and inaction and take a day with Dr. Gray at his office, or better yet on the lake. It is Florida's greatest disgrace and its condition will influence all of your decisions during your tour of duty.

Give the C-111 basin high priority. The situation is solvable, but will be expensive and time-consuming. Do not accept a current member's quick-fix option that scientifically is unsound and is politically motivated. Identify the members of the staff who are actually working to solve the land use-engineering-water management problem rather than continuing a feud between your federal partners. The staff has been manhandled by arrogant board members. I cannot identify who is really working for the public good versus trying to save their skins!

Recognize that the problems with the Hoover Dike force a lower lake schedule. A lower lake schedule means far more water will have to be released down the Caloosahatchee and St Lucie Rivers unless the board and state give serious consideration to a third outlet connecting the lake to a series of reservoirs and flow through marshes north of Conservation Area No. 3. Big Sugar has a minimum of three votes on the present board to prevent even a study of the concept.

The (Army) Corps (of Engineers) knows that the time has come to study the option and is ready to assist the staff of the SFWMD to understand the complexities, but the District is paralyzed due to Sugar's representation.

ON THE BOTTOM LINE:

We will never save and restore the Caloosahatchee River and vast west coast estuarine system or the St. Lucie-Indian River ecosystem without the third outlet. We will never restore the Everglades without additional storage within the (Everglades Agricultural Area) and upstream in the Okeechobee watershed. We will never end the gross pollution of Florida's "Mother Lake" without controlling the pollution from the watershed and the back pumped highly polluted waste irrigation water from the EAA.