Conservation groups say ‘we are under assault’ by Scott, Florida lawmakers

[highplainsdem]

Source: Naples Daily News

-snip-

“We are under assault on all fronts,” Audubon of Florida executive director Eric Draper said. “We’re getting beaten up pretty hard up here.”

Bills are moving through the state Legislature that would deregulate growth management, repeal septic tank inspection requirements and create new exemptions from wetlands permitting rules.

Other bills seek to roll back local government fertilizer bans and blunt controversial new EPA regulations that would set stricter standards for nutrient pollution caused, in part, by fertilizer runoff into Florida waterways.

Even rescuing the Florida Forever land preservation program, a salve in the past for environmental groups bruised by rocky legislative sessions, looks like a long shot this year amid budget worries, Draper said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/apr/04/rick-scott-florida-legislature-environment-protect/

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Scott is the first governor of either party not to include funding for the Florida Forever program in his budget.

The article quotes an attorney for Earthjustice who said, "The crazy radical extremist bills are now the mainstream in the state Legislature."

[Iliyah]

1. Well hell

these groups probably supported and voted for him. He will no doubt destroy FL, and it such a beautiful state.

[NeoConsSuck]

7. EarthJustice supporting Scott?

Not in a million years.

[drm604]

2. It's almost like they're intentionally attacking the environment.

Repeal septic tank inspection requirements? Who in their right mind would want to do that? It seems like they must be being driven by a blind ideological hatred of any regulations for any purpose (other than unincorporated uteruses).

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. It's the Real Estate Industry that's behind this.

They want to fill in wetlands and take over public land to build, build, build. That's what that golfcourse in a public park was all about. The Trojan Horse.

[RantinRavin]

8. It's a new law requiring septic tank inspections.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sept. 23, 2010 – A bill passed by the Florida Legislature, SB 550, requires septic tank homeowners to have an inspection every five years. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) is now drafting rules for compliance. The law becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2011, with the inspection component phased in over the following five years.

The Legislature created stricter septic tank rules to protect the environment. Better septic systems are designed to filter out more nitrogen, which feed weeds and algae.

But the rule comes at a significant cost to the state’s 2.6 million homeowners that rely on a septic tank, and Florida lawmakers representing rural counties that rely heavily on septic tanks – Rep. Marti Coley (R-Marianna) and Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Ormond Beach) – have promised to introduce legislation next year to repeal the septic tank inspection measure.

“I just simply think that to mandate every five years for every homeowner with a septic tank to have it inspected is unnecessary and big government,” Coley says.

The DOH has heard from a number of counties and homeowners worried about the $100 to $300 cost of a septic inspection, and Gerald Briggs, DOH’s bureau chief for onsite sewage programs, says he’s “very concerned this will cost property owners,” and “we are making sure the cost is as low as we can make.”

State officials believe some septic tanks pollute more than others, and the mandatory inspections will help identify those homes. If an inspection does uncover a major problem, new drain fields could cost homeowners as much as $5,000 or $6,000 to fix, according to Sam Averett, president of Averett Septic Tank in Lakeland.

“Every system needs to be maintained,” Averett said. “You are affecting some water body somewhere – everywhere in the state … If the homeowners were maintaining their systems to begin with this would not be an issue – but they are not.”

[gejohnston]

3. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Carl Hiaasen said it best, that if the 911 hijackers would have gone to Minnesota or Iowa, the instructor would have called the cops on these guys who want to drive but not learn how to take off and land. But here in Florida, the grease pan of the country, they blended in and were pare for the course. Same here. Only here would they be crazy or dim enough to elect this (What do I call him without insulting nuts or clowns?) Going home to Wyoming is starting to look really good, if I could get the wife to like snow. That is why I'm just another tree hugging, gun toting country boy trapped behind the cornbread curtain.

[iwishiwas]

4. Same thing is happening in WI.

[RedCloud]

6. How ironic that the conservatives do not practice conservation.