Florida CFO Sink announces "paperless" initiative

Florida CFO Alex Sink says her department's efforts to reduce the use of paper and printing have saved state taxpayers $1 million since 2007.

Sink, whose elected position places her in charge of the state Department of Financial Services, today announced a legislative proposal to require electronic payments from some vendors instead of processing paper warrants. She called it part of the "Going Green, Saving Green" initiative at her department.

"Today's focus on going paperless will save money (and) improve customer satisfaction," she said. "It will certainly help the environment and it's going to help make state government a little greener."

Sink, a Democrat who is running for governor in the 2010 election, isn't the only state official to announce efforts to reduce waste from printing.

Two Senate committees conducted meetings without paper in October. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-Palm Beach, has set a goal of having all Senate committees hold paperless meetings by December, though paper copies of meeting materials still will be available to the public. (To see Atwater announcement, click here.)

Under Gov. Charlie Crist, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has promoted waste reduction along with recycling as the state looks for ways to meet a 75-percent statewide recycling goal by 2020. With counties now recycling 28 percent of their waste on average, DEP is preparing recommendations before a Jan. 1 deadline on meeting the 75-percent statewide recycling goal.

During today's announcement, Sink focused more on the financial savings than environmental benefits of reducing printing costs and moving towards electronic financial transactions. With her podium surrounded by stacks of manuals and reports, she said the cost of processing 1.4 million paper checks each year is $4.18 each compared to 77 cents for each electronic transaction.

"The difference in cost is staggering," Sink said.

(Copyright Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Industry reps slam DEP bag ban recommendation

Representatives of stores and packaging industries slammed the Department of Environmental Protection today for a draft report's recommendation to tax and then ban plastic and paper bags in Florida.

DEP posted the draft report Oct. 15, then withdrew it two days later after criticism. Still, industry representatives said today they disagreed with the recommended tax and ban and said more regulation may not be needed.

"It was a thorough, well-researched piece of work," Fred McCormack of the Florida Dry Cleaners Coalition said, paradoxically adding, "We absolutely don't agree with any of the recommendations."

Environmentalists say plastic bags litter the landscape and harm wildlife that eat them or become entangled in them. Some local governments were considering banning bags until the Legislature in 2008 adopted a bill at the urging of the Florida Retail Federation.

The bill prohibited local governments from banning bags until the Legislature adopts recommendations. DEP is required to issue its recommendations in a report by Feb. 1.

The draft report was intended to prompt public comment. Instead it became a big controversy "on an apparent slow news day" for one newspaper reporter, Mary Jean Yon, director of DEP's Division of Waste Management, told a public meeting audience of about 50.

"We're really just here to listen today," she said.

Representatives of the Florida Retail Federation, the American Chemistry Council, Wal-Mart and the American Paper Bag Council were among those who said that voluntary efforts are guiding the consumer trend toward reusable bags and recycling disposable bags.

Target has begun paying customers 5 cents for each reusable bag they bring into the store. CVS will issue store-credits to customers for bags they reuse, said Samantha Hunter Padgett, of the Florida Retail Federation.

Wal-Mart, which has 273 stores in Florida, has set a goal of recycling or reducing the use of plastic bags by 33 percent at its stores worldwide, said Cindi Marsiglio, the company's senior manager for public affairs and government relations in Tallahassee. The company also is experimenting in three California stores with not offering disposable bags and instead selling reusable bags for 15 cents each.

"There are a lot of exciting things happening," she said. "We just need to let it catch up with what the right product and time and demand on the customer is."

Critics who spoke at the meeting far outnumbered supporters of a bag ban. David Auth of Gainesville said sea turtles and birds die from eating plastic bags and that landscape views also suffer.

"People are irresponsible," he said. "The only way to make them responsible is to get rid of these plastic bags so they won't have them in the first place."

Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington said plastic bags clog the county's stormwater drains and he doesn't think educational programs will halt the problem. He said he would ask his county to take action if the state doesn't act on recommendations.

"I think the state approach is much better for retailers as a whole," he said.

DEP won't post another draft report before the recommendations are sent to the Legislature because there isn't enough time, Yon said. She said her staff also is working on the recommendations due Jan. 1 for increasing the state's recycling goal from 30 percent to 75 percent in 10 years.

(Photo and story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

DEP meeting follows withdrawal of retail bags ban report

Following an uproar last month over a draft proposal to ban plastic and paper shopping bags, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday holds another public workshop on whether to regulate bags.

DEP last month withdrew a draft report that recommended taxing bags by up to 25 cents each and then banning them by 2015. The Legislature in 2008 adopted a bill prohibiting local governments from banning retail bags until DEP issues recommendations and they are adopted by the Legislature.

But the recommendations in the draft report last month drew criticism from conservative commentators and newspaper editorials. DEP Secretary Michael Sole said Tuesday that the report was withdrawn because it didn't contain options other than taxing and then banning bags.

"I felt we needed to take a step back and look at other options rather than one solution," Sole told FloridaEnvironments.com.
DEP posted the report on its Web site Oct. 14 and took it down on Oct. 16, according to a department memo to interested media.

By the time it was withdrawn, the draft report had already created a storm of reaction. Panama City News-Herald editorial

The Sierra Club issued an alert on Oct. 28, saying the report was withdrawn "likely because of industry pressure."

Indeed, the Florida Retail Federation issued its own alert about the draft report on Oct. 15, and held a conference call with its members. The next day, Sole called the group to say that the report was being withdrawn, according to a follow-up alert.

The trade group for the state’s second-biggest industry had spent months talking with the state about how to keep the roughly 5 billion throw-away bags Floridians use yearly from ending up in streets, storm drains and beach dunes.

“Gosh, this is not what we expected,” said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation, told the Florida Times-Union.

The Sierra Club is urging its members to tell Gov. Charlie Crist to support the ban. Sierra Club member Dwight Adams of Gainesville said the draft report was thorough and the ban is needed.

"It sounds like politics trumping science," Adams said of the withdrawn report. He is chairman of the Florida Chapter's waste minimization committee.

Sole denied politics was involved in the decision. "I was unfortunately not given a copy of the report before it went out," he said.

Increased plastic-bag recycling and other options, Sole said, should be explored more thoroughly, including "cradle-to-grave" responsiblity in which companies that produce the bags are responsible for using them in new products.

"Plastic bags do have an adverse impact not only on Florida's environment but the global environment," Sole said.

The public meeting Thursday will be held at 1 p.m. at DEP's Bob Martinez Center (formerly Twin Towers building), 2600 Blair Stone Road, room 609. For more information, go to DEP's retail bags report page. (www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/retailbags)

To watch a video about the harm caused by plastic bags, go to Metacafe.com.

(An earlier version of this report only stated that the recommendation in the draft report called for banning plastic bags. The story was revised to reflect that paper bags also would be taxed and banned under the recommendation.)

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Cabinet approves land-buying bonds, Keys oversight

Bald Point State Park, purchased by the state under the Florida Forever predecessor program.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet today approved a resolution issuing $250 million in bonds for buying conservation lands, representing the last money approved by the Legislature for the program.

Florida Forever program is the largest land-buying program in the nation, having acquired more than 2 million acres since 1990 with its predecessor program. The programs received $300 million a year from 1990 until this year when the Legislature did not provide additional funding because of a tight budget.

The program has $250 million remaining in bonds authorized by the 2008 Legislature. The bonds were not issued earlier this year because collections from a state documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions lagged behind projections, making it difficult to find a buyer for the bonds.


Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said the Cabinet vote today was good news for the land-buying program. Although about $73 million remains in the Florida Forever trust fund, the lack of new revenue had caused the state to proceed slowly on purchases, Sole said.

"While we hadn't stopped (buying land), we have approached acquisitions with a little bit more sage eye to make sure we had adequate funds to meet the commitments we have made," he said.

He said a majority of the $250 million is committed already to purchases approved by the Cabinet, water management districts and the Florida Communities Trust program at the Department of Community Affairs.

"We can move forward with closing" on projects, Sole said.

The actual amount of the bond resolution is $285 million, which includes a $35 million-reserve fund to pay debt service in a timely manner if revenue collections fall behind projections, said Ben Watkins, director of the state Division of Bond Finance. He told Cabinet aides last week that selling the bonds still could be difficult this year.

Environmentalists next year must convince some House leaders, who say the state can't afford to buy more land, to restore funding for Florida Forever. The program needs new funding next year to move forward on new purchases, said Andy McLeod, director of government relations with The Nature Conservancy's Florida chapter.

"There are no new projects and no new money this year," McLeod said. "This is the first year in 20 years -- and we hope the one exception, if the Legislature is able to appropriate (money for the program) next year."

In other action today, the Cabinet voted to maintain additional state growth management oversight for the Florida Keys as an "Area of Critical State Concern." The island chain faces challenges stemming from rapid growth in an ecologically sensitive area with a lack of advanced sewage treatment and other infrastructure.

Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham commended Monroe County and the cities of Islamorada and Marathon for progress on wastewater projects but he said additional funding and time are needed to complete the work program.

"A year ago, I was very critical of the lack of progress," Attorney General Bill McCollum told other Cabinet members. "It appears this year we have made some. It may not be substantial, but we have made some."

Also today, McCollum delayed his request for an update from DEP on the proposed federal nutrient standards for Florida waters because Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson was absent from the Cabinet meeting. Bronson was traveling and had asked for the meeting to be rescheduled.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to propose the more specific numeric limits in January. Bronson's department challenged a lawsuit settlement that called for the EPA to set those limits. (To read Monday's story on a federal judge approving the settlement, click here).

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Judge backs enviro groups, EPA settlement

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle today said he will approve a legal settlement that calls for the federal government to set specific water quality standards for nutrients in Florida -- a move that industry groups and Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson have opposed.

Florida now prohibits excessive nitrogen and phosphorus that cause an imbalance of fish and plants in waterways. Environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it to require specific numeric limits to prevent waterways from continuing to become choked with weeds and algae.

A proposed settlement agreement calls for the EPA to propose numeric limits in January and adopt them by October for lakes and rivers. But agriculture and industry groups along with Bronson and sewage treatment utilities say they expect EPA to impose standards that will be costly to meet because of a lack of time and inadequate science.

Hinkle today said opponents can challenge those new standards once they are approved by EPA. And he seemed to side with environmental groups who argued that the federal agency has taken too long to take such action.


"There certainly is evidence that there is significant degradation (of waterways) and it has gotten worse," Hinkle said.

Terry Cole, an attorney representing eight agriculture and industry groups including Florida Farm Bureau, the Florida Pulp and Paper Association, the Florida Stormwater Association and the Florida Cattlemen's Association, said he didn't know whether his clients will appeal. But several industry groups recently filed their own lawsuits challenging the EPA action in January when it determined that numeric limits were needed.

In court today, Cole also argued that Florida's economy is in worse shape than other states, including neighboring states that won't have such strict standards.


But Hinkle repeatedly suggested that EPA and the state have had more than a decade to act on their own. And he rejected the idea that the federal Clean Water Act allows the EPA not to act -- or that he could throw out the settlement agreement -- because of economic concerns.

"That would be an absolutely lawless decision by a district court judge, I think," Hinkle said.

Opponents last week launched a public-relations offensive, unveiling a Web site at a news conference with former Florida DEP secretaries Virginia Wetherell and Colleen Castille urging Congress to block the agreement. Opponents say EPA is working on a one-size-fits-all criteria that will be difficult to meet and could cause the average montly household sewer bill to more than double.

But Martha Mann, a federal Department of Justice trial attorney representing the U.S. EPA, said it's not clear yet what the agency will propose in January though, she told Hinkle that it won't be one set of criteria that will be applied statewide.

Hinkle said his role was not to decide whether numeric criteria are needed to clean up Florida waterways. He said EPA had made that decision in January and that it would be subject to appeal later.

"Any substantially or procedurally invalid regulation will never take effect because it will not be enacted by the EPA or it will not be upheld by the District Court or Court of Appeals," he said.

After the hearing, David Guest of the Earthjustice law firm said the environmental groups got exactly what they wanted. He represents the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. John’s Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club

"Florida waterways are going to hell in a hand basket," he said. "Today is when we start the process for fixing them."

Cole said the groups he represent would prefer that DEP develop numeric criteria. He said he remains concerned that EPA doesn't have the field scientists that Florida has to develop criteria to apply to waterways from Key West to Pensacola -- even if EPA says it won't apply one set of limits statewide.

"We did not think they (EPA officials) were going to come up with just one, but we think it is going to require more than one in North Florida and one in South Florida," he said.

Previous stories:
Nov. 12, 2009: "Two former Florida DEP heads join opposition to EPA standards"
Nov. 4, 2009: "House members vent against EPA water standards"
Oct. 2, 2009: "Bronson sides against EPA agreement on waterways"
Aug. 24, 2009: "EPA, groups settle water dispute; Industry groups threaten challenge"

(Copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission).

FDA delays raw oyster ban, Florida reaction mixed

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today backed off a proposal to ban the sale of raw oysters from Gulf states during summer months by 2011.

The federal agency instead says it plans to study the issue and work with industry to develop a new timetable for possibly requiring the treatment of raw oysters. The announcement was met with mixed reviews among seafood industry supporters.

U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who introduced legislation aimed at blocking the proposed FDA ban announced last month, hailed the FDA move.

"Today's announcement by the FDA is a tremendous victory for our oyster farmers and great news for North Florida's coastal communities," he said.

But Kevin Begos, coordinator of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Industry Task Force, said the announcement did not ensure the future sale of raw oysters from Gulf Coast states in the summer.

"We're glad to see they (FDA officials) stopped their unilateral action," Begos said. "But their press release does not address all of our concerns."

About 15 people die each year in the United States from raw oysters infected with Vibrio vulnificus, which typically is found in warm coastal waters between April and October. Most of the deaths occur among people with weak immune systems caused by health problems like liver or kidney disease, cancer, diabetes, or AIDS.

The FDA proposed requiring that all oysters harvested from April to October receive post-harvest treatment through processes including flash freezing or warm-water pasteurization. Some seafood industry officials say consumers who like raw oysters may not like the treated shellfish or may be unwilling to pay the cost.

Today, the FDA said there is a need to further examine the process for large and small oyster harvesters to gain access to processing facilities. The federal agency said it will conduct an independent study to assess how post-harvest treatment or other controls can be feasibly implemented.

"Based on subsequent conversations with the industry and concerns we have been hearing, we wanted to take a step back and ensure we are doing this in a way that affects the public health and works for the oyster industry," said Meghan Scott, an FDA spokeswoman.

David Barber, owner of Barber's Seafood in Eastpoint, said the FDA jumped the gun with its proposal last month.

"If you know you eat something that makes you sick and you eat it anyway, what can you do about it?" he said.

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Two Florida DEP heads join opposition to EPA standards

Virginia Wetherell, left, speaks to reporters while Colleen Castille waits to speak. Both are former Florida DEP secretaries.

Opponents of federal water quality standards for nutrients in Florida waterways raised their level of opposition today, unveiling a Web site and two former state environmental chiefs who are on their side.

Scientists say nutrients from a variety of sources, including farms, sewage treatment plans, industrial mills and stormwater runoff are to blame for weeds and algae that choke some Florida waterways.

To settle a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, the EPA agreed in August to set numeric limits for nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Previously the state had only a narrative criteria that prohibited levels that cause an "imbalance" of plants and animals.

Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson, along with wastewater utilities and four of the state's five water management districts, already is seeking to intervene in an attempt to block the agreement. They protested the agreement last week in appearances before the House Agricultural and Natural Resources Policy Committee.

Today, business and anti-tax groups along with Colleen Castille and Virginia Wetherell, both former secretaries of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, announced their opposition and the creation of a web site called www.DontTaxFlorida.com.

"For Colleen and myself, we find it very troubling that the federal government would inflict a particular set of strict -- and what we think are unreachable -- limits on this particular state when they are not looking at them for other states," Wetherell said.

The proposed court agreement, which will be considered for approval Monday by a federal judge, would more than double the monthly sewage treatment bill for the average household from $56 to $118, said Paul Steinbrecher, vice president of the Florida Water Environment Association's Utility Council. He also said utilities would be required to spend $50 billion to meet new federal water quality standards.

There was no immediate reply from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA and the Florida DEP both have said that setting numeric criteria is necessary to restore waterways in the state. EPA has said last month that it had not finalized the proposed criteria so it was unknown what actions would be needed to reduce pollution.

Monica Reimer, an attorney representing the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and the St. Johns Riverkeeper and other environmental groups that sued the federal government, said the opposition press conference reflected "hysteria" by the industry groups and that the economic claims were "just ridiculous."

"This entire press conference was about something that doesn't exist -- it's about what the standards are that EPA will propose," said Reimer, with the nonprofit Earthjustice law firm in Tallahassee.

"If they (the standards to be proposed) are in fact arbitrary, they (opponents) can go to federal court and claim that," she said. "If they are right, a federal court will strike them."

A federal judge is scheduled to consider the proposed court agreement on Monday. If approved, the EPA would be required to propose standards in January and adopt them by October 2010.

The groups represented at the news conference today included Florida TaxWatch, Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida Alliance for Concerned Taxpayers and the Florida Chamber of Commerce. They are among 26 businesses and groups that have joined the opposition coalition.

Outside the news conference at the Florida Press Center in Tallahassee, staff of Earthjustice held poster-sized photographs of algae blooms in waterways including a St. Johns River tributary.

Previous stories:
Nov. 4, 2009: "House members vent against EPA water standards"
Oct. 2, 2009: "Bronson sides against EPA agreement on waterways"
Aug. 24, 2009: "EPA, groups settle water dispute; Industry groups threaten challenge"

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)