Protecting Florida’s waterways
Bob Graham has worn many hats in a long, distinguished publicservice career. Florida state legislator. Florida’s 38th governor. U.S. senator.
Now, he’s donning the white hat — charging to the rescue of Florida’s ailing waterways.
OnSaturday, Graham headlined the Speak UpWekiva rally, concerned with finding solutions to save the badly polluted Wekiwa Springs.
Graham recently met with the Editorial Board to discuss green efforts and other issues. Excerpts follow in today’s Front & Center. More of our interview appears at orlandosentinel.com/opinion. Why have you assumed a leadership role in this fight? 2011was a disastrous year for the Florida environment. Many of our land and water policies that were 40 years in the making and implementing were eliminated, and the capabilties of the agencies to carry out their response were severely cut back by budget and personnel reduction.
So, we came together with the commitment that wewould stop the bleeding in the 2012 session and then go on the offensive. I think we largely accomplished our 2012 goals. Now, in 2013, we’re going to try to do some [aggressive] things, with a heavy focus on springs and streams protection. What happened to Florida’s once-robust environmental movement? Florida, up until the1970s, was a commodity to many Floridians, something to be used for whatever immediate purposes. Beginning in the early ’70s, the state began to change its fundamental values from commodity to treasure. I thought that battle had been fought and won, but it broke out again in 2011. Why did it happen? The recession was a big contributor. People made the false argument that by regulating the proper use of our water, wewere in some ways adversely affecting job creation. I think there was a significantly more conservative majority in the state Legislature, and Gov. [Rick] Scott is quite conservative, and they saw this as an opportunity to repeal some provisions that people like them hadn’t approved of when originally adopted 40 years earlier. Gov. Scott’s latest budget proposal includes $6.5 million for springs restoration. Is that adequate? No. The five water-management districts were asked to develop budgets for spring and streams protection. That amount was about $112 million. So, the departments — all of which are under people appointed by the governor — have come to a budget that is substantially more than is being recommended. Scott’s budget also earmarks $75 million for Florida Forever. Is that enough? The governor has recommended $75 million for land acquisition, but $50 million of that is derived from the sale of existing land. Nowwhether that is realistic — to find that much land which was purchased because of environmental value and contribution to conservation or which can be acquired in the next15 months — is questionable. Howwould you grade Gov. Scott on ecological causes? I’m going to be generous and give him an incomplete. My hope is that he and those around him responsible for this area have gone through a learning process and are beginning to apply some of that. What is the idea behind the proposed Florida Water and Land Legacy constitutional amendment? It would basically commit a certain proportion of the real-estate transfer tax to a state fund limited to purchasing environmental and public-use lands. I think the benefit of that is it would give stability to the program — it would not depend on the Legislature’s willingness to support it on a year-to-year basis. It would be at the scale as we’ve had in the recent past —which has been in the range of $200 [million]-$300 million a year. And third, it would depoliticize [the issue]. I think it will result in the public getting what it wants — a scientifically derived list of priority land acquisition, which in turn will result in our ability to continue purchasing flood plains along our rivers and other initiatives that have played a key role in protecting our water supply.