No aerial manatee survey this year

ST. PETERSBURG -- For the first time since 1994, Florida's annual aerial survey of manatees has been canceled. The cause: Winter was too warm.

The aerial survey, overseen by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, has been going on since 1991. It may involve up to 60 scientists from federal, state and county agencies, as well as nonprofit groups like Mote Marine Laboratory, working together to see how many manatees they can spot from circling airplanes or helicopters.

The survey is designed to take advantage of winter weather, when cold-sensitive manatees gather at warm-water sites like power plant discharges. But for the counts to be accurate, scientists say they need certain weather conditions, such as clear skies and temperatures below 50 degrees for three days.

When conditions are not perfect, not as many manatees show up in the survey. So after beginning the aerial surveys with flights in 1991 and 1992, state scientists skipped surveys in 1993 and 1994 because the weather was too warm. However, after complaints from boat manufacturers that the scientists weren't counting manatees anymore, the Legislature mandated a survey every year. Scientists have undertaken a survey every year since then.

So the numbers have fluctuated wildly from year to year, as conditions changed and counting methods improved. A survey in January 1998 found 2,018 manatees, while a survey in January 1999 found just 1,865 of them. The record, hit in January 2001, is 3,300. Last year’s count, taken at the end of January, found 2,817.

State officials had hoped to unveil a new method of counting manatees this year, one that used a computer program to estimate how many manatees might be missed by the aerial census-takers. But the weather never got cold enough for the planes to take to the air, a spokeswoman for FWRI said.

Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

[Craig Pittman, Times files]

Cypress Creek Town Center on hold

WESLEY CHAPEL -- Cypress Creek Town Center is indefinitely on hold, a spokeswoman for the mall said today.

The Richard E. Jacobs Group, developers of the 1-million-square-foot project, and the prospective tenants of the mall agreed last week to halt all construction at the site on Interstate 75 and State Road 56 and postpone its opening, said Deanne Roberts.

The mall was originally scheduled to open in October. "I don't know what the new date will be," Roberts said.

The mall has long been dogged by controversy. Environmentalists sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying the regulators should never have issued a permit for the Jacobs Group to fill 54 acres of wetlands at the site. 

In February, the corps suspended the permit, halting work on the 54 acres that would have been part of the mall.

Mall officials said that they decided last week to stop all construction on the site, because they did not want to risk the mall opening as an incomplete construction. But Roberts denied that Cypress Creek Town Center had lost any tenants because of these problems.

-- Chuin-Wei Yap, Times staff writer

Red snapper fishing restricted in federal waters

Upping the ante in a federal-state clash over red snapper fishing, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced today that it will reduce the 2008 season in federal waters by almost two months.

The shortened red snapper season, which will now end Aug. 5 instead of Sept. 30, was necessary because Texas and Florida have refused to follow the federal lead on red snapper and allowed looser rules in their state waters, says the NMFS announcement in the Southeast Fishery Bulletin.

Red snapper fishing has been in turmoil for years since federal scientists determined that the stock is under too much pressure. Last year, the fishery service reduced the recreational bag limit from 4 fish to 2 and installed a six-month season that ran from April 21 through Oct. 31. They were trying to keep recreational fishing within a 3.185-million pound quota.

Texas, where red snapper fishing is an important cog in the tourist economy, declined to go along, keeping the four-fish limit and a year-around season in state waters, which extend nine miles from the coast. Florida also kept its four-fish limit in state waters.

In 2007, the commercial sector stayed within its 3.3-million pound quota, but recreational fishermen exceeded their quota by 1-million pounds. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council responded by ractheting down the recreational quota even further. To hit that target, the council shortened the recreational season from June 1 through September 30.

Texas stuck to its guns: 4 fish bag limit and year-around fishing. Florida dropped its bag limit to two fish, but set its season at April 15 through October 31, 78 days longer than the federal season. Red snapper are a primary target for summertime charter boats and anglers in the Panhandle.

Now the feds have lobbed one back, closing federal waters to snapper fishing as of Aug. 5, essentially a two-month season. The same rules will apply in 2009, NMFS said.

Fishermen in the Tampa Bay area traditionally have not targeted red snapper as much as grouper. But for the past few years, they have reported an increasingly heavy red snapper bite. Snapper are aggressive feeders and will often hit bait before it can get down to bottom-feeding grouper. Even with most of the snapper season closed,  grouper fishermen are likely to hook and kill  thousands of snapper.

--Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer

New smog standard may mean expensive changes for Tampa Bay area

Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties could face expensive steps to reduce smog to meet new air pollution standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency this week.

Reducing pollution may require expensive changes to the gasoline sold in this area, Hillsborough County officials say. It is also likely to mean tougher restrictions on the power plants and incinerators that still have smoke stacks spewing nitrogen oxide, a key component in smog. However, the changes are likely to improve the respiratory health of the bay area's youngest and oldest residents, county officials said.

Currently, the standard for average concentrations of ozone at ground level over an eight-hour period is 84 parts per billion (ppb). The EPA's expert panel recommended a new level of 60 to 70 parts per billion. The EPA decided to lower it to 75.

Hillsborough and Pasco counties are among 10 Florida counties that do not currently meet the new EPA air pollution standard. While Pinellas does meet the standard, air pollution does not stop at the county line and any pollution control measures required in Pasco and Hillsborough are likely to be applied to Pinellas as well, said Jerry Campbell of Hillsborough County’s Environmental Protection Commission.

Hillsborough's level is 81 ppb, while Pasco's is 76. Just south of the Tampa Bay area, Manatee and Sarasota counties both are at 76 ppb as well.

--Craig Pittman and Asjylyn Loder

[John Pendygraft, Times archives]

Port ethanol project moving forward

An ethanol plant planned for the Port of Tampa, mired in a lawsuit for more than a year, appears cleared for takeoff.

Brad Krohn, president of US EnviroFuels, declined to comment on the lawsuit, or to confirm that it has concluded. But he did say the project was now seeking financing and expected to get under way in the second half of 2008. That suggests a resolution in the project’s legal woes.

Krohn also said the project has changed. Original plans called for a 44-million-gallon-a-year plant that would use corn from the Midwest and reclaimed water from Tampa to make ethanol, an alcohol fuel. That plan has been indefinitely postponed. Instead, Krohn will start with an ethanol storage and blending facility.

“The market conditions are not optimal for building an ethanol plant at this moment,” Krohn said.

US EnviroFuels is moving forward with an ethanol plant in Highlands County. The company received a $7-million grant from the state to build the facility, which will use sweet sorghum to make ethanol. Krohn expected construction on that project to begin some time in 2009.

The Highlands County project is one of many state-funded ethanol projects in Florida.

- Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Desal plant violates dumping permit 3 times

Over the past four months, Tampa Bay Water's desalination plant has been hit with three notices of violations of its wastewater dumping permit by Hillsborough County officials. The most recent notice went out this week.

The $158-million plant in Apollo Beach uses membranes to filter the salt out of seawater taken from Tampa Bay and turn it into drinking water. The problem is, the membranes have to be cleaned periodically. Then the used cleaning solution, full of chloride, sodium and sulfate, is dumped into the sewer line.

To make sure the sewer plant doesn't get overwhelmed, Hillsborough County put a limit on how much of that stuff can be flushed into its sewer line, and how fast. But in August, November and January, the plant flushed waste down the line that exceeded those limits, county officials say.

Although the county has warned Tampa Bay Water that repeated violations could lead to fines, so far it has not taken that step. Tampa Bay Water operations and facilities manager Chuck Carden said today that the plant's operator, American Water Pridesa, is working to fix the problem before it happens a fourth time. He blamed operator error and a manual flushing system.

- Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

Cabinet backs Cross Bar land purchase

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet today voted to add the 12,500-acre Cross Bar ranch in central Pasco County to the state's priority list for conservation.

The land is owned by Pinellas County, which bought it decades ago when Tampa Bay communities squared off over controlling water sources. The land includes drinking water wells managed by Tampa Bay Water. It's a habitat for endangered and at-risk species, too.

While today's vote makes the purchase a priority, the land is roughly valued at $175-million. And the state's land conservation program is running out of money, but Crist supports extending it.

"Am I right that we don't really have the money to buy much of any of this right now?" asked Attorney General Bill McCollum to chuckles. "Hopefully, we will."

- Times staff writer

Progress asks feds to approve new nukes

This morning, Progress Energy Carolinas asked federal regulators to approve its plans to build two new nuclear reactors in North Carolina. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that the licensing application will likely take more than three years to win approval.

The Carolinas utility picked the Westinghouse AP1000, the same technology on the drawing board for its sister utility, Progress Energy Florida. The St. Petersburg-based utility plans to build a pair of reactors in Levy County. Both utilities have carefully avoided voicing any commitment to build, saying only that its trying to preserve the option.

The utilities remain conspicuously silent on one crucial piece of information: cost.

When Progress Energy announced its plans more than a year ago, it offered a single-reactor estimate of $2-billion to $3-billion. In recent months, the utility -- along with others in the industry -- has backed away from that early estimate, saying it wasn't an all-inclusive estimate. But it has not given a new figure.

The industry has proffered a range of new guesses that double and even triple that early estimate. Perhaps the best guess comes from Florida Power & Light. Unlike its industry brethren, the Juno Beach utility has been unusually candid on the subject of cost. It has offered a two-reactor estimate on the Westinghouse AP1000 that ranges from $12-billion to $18-billion.

Progress Energy Florida plans to file its case for new nuclear with the Florida Public Service Commission some time in March. That utility has said it won't offer new estimates until then. It has estimated the cost of its 10-county, 200-mile transmission project to support the new plant at about $2-billion.

Read more about Progress Energy's new nuclear plans here:

Nuclear Power Costs Surge in Rush to Build --  Dec. 12, 2007

Nature Coast to Nuclear Coast -- Dec. 9, 2007

Utilities Press Land Access Law -- Feb. 7, 2007

Power Line Idea Takes Big Bite from Preserve -- Feb. 16, 2008

- Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Dirt pit approved, with lots of truck limits

KEYSTONE -- A developer has finally won approval to dig 2.5-million cubic yards of dirt off Lutz-Lake Fern Road, creating a 54-acre lake.

But this week's decision by a Hillsborough County land use hearing officer limits the travel of dump trucks on Lutz-Lake Fern so much that nearly all of the dirt will be trucked about 1,000-feet east to the Suncoast Parkway, and from there, to points north and south.

To respect the rural nature of Keystone, the trucks were banned from rumbling west on Lutz-Lake Fern. To protect schoolchildren, they were banned from driving east past the Suncoast while Martinez Middle School, McKitrick Elementary School or the future Steinbrenner High School are in session. To preserve quiet nights nearby, the excavation must close between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m.

And somebody will have to sweep dirt off the road at the end of each work day.

- Bill Coats, Times staff writer

Big Bend development project headed for rejection again

A controversial development project proposed for Taylor County by St. Petersburg surgeon Dr. Clayton Pruitt is again headed for a denial by state officials, according to a letter dated Friday from the Suwannee River Water Management District.

Pruitt's original plans called for turning 500 acres of swamp and salt marsh that the locals call Boggy Bay into a massive condominium/hotel project with a marina. But to make it work, he needed a 7-foot-deep channel 2 miles long and 100 feet wide through the Big Bend Seagrass Aquatic Preserve, the state’s largest aquatic preserve.

State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole wrote a letter saying that the project would not be in the public interest, and Suwannee River Water Management District staff members recommended denying Pruitt a permit to wipe out the wetlands. Before the permit could come to a vote, though, Pruitt withdrew his application.

His new plan drops the marina and channel, but still calls for destroying 58 acres of wetlands next to the state preserve to build 624 condominium unites, an 874-unit hotel, 280,000 square feet of commercial space and a golf course. But state Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham sent the water district a letter saying that "the proposed impact to wetlands could significantly affect wildlife habitat," especially in the state preserve, and thus was inconsistent with the state's planning goals.

As a result, the water district staff is again recommending denial of Pruitt's development permit, which is slated for a vote Tuesday.

- Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

Manatee protection debated at public meeting

CRYSTAL RIVER -– The endangered manatees that winter in the warm spring waters of Kings Bay in the Crystal River need protection. That was the consensus of dozens of people who came to comment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during a public meeting Wednesday night at the Crystal River National Guard Armory.

But in the emotionally charged crowd of more than 100 people, there was little agreement on how to accomplish that goal in a place where the manatee population has expanded, as has the number of people who want the unique experience of swimming with manatees.

Federal officials are gathering information to help them draw up a 15-year comprehensive conservation plan for the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, which forms the core of the area along the Citrus County coast where much of the human and manatee interaction takes place.

Individuals and groups urging conservation argued that the blatant manatee harassment seen on widely circulated videos is proof that stricter rules are needed to keep people from driving manatees out of the critical warm-water habitat they need in the winter months. The number of people in the water should be limited, and touching manatees should be prohibited, they said.

"I ask you to try to understand what petting really is," said kayak tour operator Matt Clemons. "Manatees are extremely tactile animals. ... Just because they like it doesn’t mean it's good for them."

Swimming in green, or drowning in CO2?

The great greening of America gets mixed reviews, according to the inaugural GreenBiz Index, a first-of-its-kind benchmark of “green” released today. The report rates U.S. performance in several areas of greening, from alternate fuel vehicles to corporate carbon reductions, as sink, tread water, or swim.

Much-hyped greening is real, but incremental, concluded Joel Makower, author and expert on corporate environmentalism. In the report, “The State of Green Business 2008,” he noted the move toward a carbon tax or carbon cap-and-trade scheme that could reduce greenhouse gases, but said there’s a lot of work remaining. He lauded the auto industry’s foray into plug-in electric hybrids, although the cars remain years away from an appearance on your car dealer’s lot. Corporate truck fleets, like Wal-Mart’s, have committed to shedding gas-guzzlers and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Consumers found all sorts of green claims on store shelves, but remained wary of the earth-friendly pledges. Well building went bust, green building provided a bright spot, with energy-efficient construction expected to double in size to a $4.7-billion market by 2011.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Sewage break in Town 'N Country

TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- A raw sewage leak has Hillsborough County officials cautioning residents not to have any contact with the water in Pebble Mound Creek for the next couple of days. The creek, south of Memorial Highway and Bay Pointe Drive, is polluted, they say.

"It's a fairly sizable pipe, but thankfully we don't get these kinds of breaks that often,'' said Michelle Van Dyke, spokeswoman for Water Resource Services.

A 14-inch sewage pipe in the Town 'N Country area broke this morning, leading to the release of about 150,000 gallons of sewage into a drainage system. The drainage system eventually leads to Pebble Mound Creek and Tampa Bay.

"Most swimming pools hold about 15,000 gallons of water, so this spill was significant,'' Van Dyke said.

The flow from two lift stations serving the area is being diverted into tanker trucks while crews make repairs to the  pipeline.

Water Resource Services staff also have notified local and state environmental agencies and will post warning signs. Water samples will be taken in the area of the spill and the site will be monitored.

The spill does not affect any canals in the area.

Jackie Ripley, Times staff writer

Plan for environmental preserve praised, but access road draws fire

KEYSTONE -- Very few of the people who packed into the conference room at Austin Davis Library in Keystone Tuesday night thought that setting aside 1,000 acres in northwest Hillsborough as an environmental land preserve was a bad idea.

But many voiced concern about the county's plan to use Tyler Road for the public to get to the site.

"I love the idea of a preserve, but we can't handle the traffic,'' said Nadine Peterson, who lives nearby. "You have to stop on the road to let other cars pass as it is.''

Renewable power cheaper and cleaner, scientists say

Making renewable energy 15 percent of our power will lower electricity costs and reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the Union of Concerned Scientists said today.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an energy bill requiring utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal or bioenergy by 2020. The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis said that such a bill could save consumers more than $13-billion and reduce global warming pollution by 126-million metric tons per year by 2020, the equivalent of taking 21-million cars off the road.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Desal plant may be ready by Nov. 30

CLEARWATER -- Tampa Bay Water's perpetually troubled desalination plant may at last be free of its operational woes, an official of the company repairing the plant told the utility's board Monday.

"I sometimes say that this plant has ghosts with it," Kent Turner of American Water Pridesa told the board. "I think the ghosts are gone."

Since the start of a test run that began Oct. 2, Turner said, the $140-million plant in Apollo Beach has been producing 25-million gallons of water every day, the plant's capacity. If the test run, known as a "run-in," continues to proceed without a major glitch, then the company will end it Thursday, take a two-week break and then begin the plant's formal acceptance test in early November, he said.

If it passes the acceptance test, then the plant will be ready for full-fledged operation by Nov. 30, he said. Until the plant passes the acceptance test, Tampa Bay Water will not accept the project as completed.

The plant, the largest in the United States, was supposed to be done in 2003, but it flunked its acceptance test, leading to a long series of stumbles and delays in repairing it. Tampa Bay Water, the state's largest regional wholesale utility, needs a working desal plant now more than ever before. Beginning in January it will be required to begin drastically scaling back the amount of water it pumps out of the underground aquifer.

--Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

Wildlife commission delays manatee vote

ST. PETERSBURG - As expected this morning, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 6-0 to delay making a final decision on taking manatees off the state's endangered species list.

However, the commissioners want to get back on track in time for their next meeting, which is slated for December in Key Largo.

The commission, which is meeting in St. Petersburg this week, had been scheduled to vote on a controversial move to take manatees off the endangered list and reclassify them as "threatened." The move has been long sought by boating and development interests, but strongly opposed by environmental groups.

This week, though, Gov. Charlie Crist asked the commissioners -- all gubernatorial appointees -- to delay the decision. He pointed out that there are two new commissioners who might not be up to speed on the issue. And he noted that a record number of manatees died ast year -- more than 400 -- yet there is a need for a better way to calculate how many manatees are left. Scientists estimate there are about 3,000.

Commissioners agreed with no dissent to do what Crist asked. But Commissioner Kathy Barco, who runs a construction company in Jacksonville, said she wanted to see the manatee vote on the next meeting agenda.

Executive director Ken Haddad said that may be possible, but first he and his manatee experts want to "confer with the governor's office to see what his concerns are."

-- Craig Pittman, Times staff writer