By Rae Ann Wessel

SCCF Natural Resource policy director

This legislative session produced more bad bills than good ones but there are three bills in particular that passed this legislative session which we strongly urge the governor to veto.

We encourage letters, emails and phone calls to his office this week, asking him to veto these detrimental bills.

Telephone: (850) 488-7146

E-mail: Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com

Fax: (850) 487-0801

Urge a veto of SB 494 Statewide Fertilizer Bill/ Water Conservation

Compiled as a water use bill, this legislation incorporates language from last year’s ineffectual fertilizer legislation. Like last year this bill effectively preempts local governments from adopting stricter local regulations than those promoted in the statewide legislation which is built around an ineffectual model ordinance.

Although Sanibel, Lee County and other gulf coast municipalities which passed local ordinances prior to January 2009 are not affected, Cape Coral, one of the largest cities in the state by land area, does not yet have an ordinance. Likewise the municipalities upstream of Lee County do not have local ordinances.

This legislation will preclude meaningful reduction of nutrient pollution in our local waters. The model ordinance is based on a statewide Urban Turf Rule that specifies fertilizer content and application rates developed based on turf science alone and does not take into account water quality/stormwater science.

As a result it is oblivious to the effects of fertilizer on waterbodies and neglects standards we have incorporated in local ordinances to address the affect on water quality such as slow release formulas and summer rainy season blackout period for nitrogen and phosphorus.

Two state agencies involved in fertilizer research and water quality, IFAS (Institute for Food & Agricultural Science) and FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) agree that phosphorous application should not be considered on existing turf until a soil or tissue test shows a deficiency.

However this test is not a precondition of phosphorous application in the turf rule, which promotes phosphorus applications before soil testing.

While we have worked hard with local communities to improve water quality through local ordinances such as our fertilizer ordinances we must object to any preemption to local government’s ability to address these issues to protect and prevent degradation of our local waters.

Urge a veto of SB 2080 Water Resources

As approved, Senate Bill 2080 transfers the decisions on major water permits, including impacts to wetlands, water quality and consumptive use, from the citizen governing boards of the state’s five water management districts to agency staff, effectively eliminating public participation in water resource decisions that affect all Floridians.

Currently these water permits are presented before the citizen appointees of the state’s five water management districts. These meetings are advertised and include opportunities for public comment, just like City Council or County commission meetings.

However, SB 2080 will allow major permit decisions to be made by agency staff without advertising when decisions will be made, thus eliminating the opportunity for these decisions to be evaluated and commented on by the public.

Many issues that we deal with locally have depended on our ability to make public comment. Eliminating the public’s access to the decision-making process is a recipe for corruption and is bad governance.

Contact the Governor and urge his to veto this bill.

Urge a veto of SB 360 Growth Management

SB 360 would exempt projects from review by Florida’s growth management division, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), making it easier to develop rural and agricultural lands without review of or payment for regional transportation expansion.

Despite the bill’s intent to channel growth into dense urban areas by lifting requirements for adequate roads and other transportation, the bill’s definition of dense urban areas is so broad that it would lift the requirements in nearly all of Lee County as well as eight of Florida’s largest counties and 245 cities throughout the state. The legacy of this bill will dramatically change our quality of life in Florida.

DCA Secretary, Tom Pelham, has expressed major concerns about the impact this bill will have on everything from traffic and land planning to the economy of Florida. We need to protect our quality of life in Florida by strengthening guidelines for growth management not throwing them away.

Please contact the governor and urge him to veto these detrimental bills.