Bush Photo-Op Wetland Downstream From Pending Huge Development

[hatrack]

NAPLES, Fla. - "At the same time President Bush is declaring his commitment to conservation, environmentalists say his administration is approving development proposals that endanger sensitive areas such as southwest Florida’s Rookery Bay, where the president traveled last week to defend his record. Environmental groups oppose the proposed Winding Cypress development, saying its 2,300 homes and golf course would destroy wetlands because the project is at the headwaters of the bay. The developer is one of the area’s most prominent business families, the Colliers. The county that encompasses Naples bears the family name.

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Reversing its early opposition to Winding Cypress, the Environmental Protection Agency last year rejected a request by environmental groups to stop it. The agency refused to veto permits that allow development although some wetlands will be destroyed. The federal Clean Water Act empowers the EPA to stop projects near important wetlands. The agency has said it scrutinizes proposed developments carefully, even though it rarely has invoked its veto authority in 25 years.

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Environmental groups, which claim a sharp tilt in favor of developers, cite as Exhibit A the case of EPA scientist Bruce Boler. Environmentalists say he paid the price for aggressively objecting to development in southwest Florida; Boler has said he was forced out of his job. The EPA says it was Boler’s decision to leave; he now works at Everglades National Park in Florida. The Naples Daily News reported that officials of the Army Corps of Engineers kept Boler from some permitting meetings when his concerns about wetlands destruction and water quality were at odds with developers’ intentions.

The Corps, the primary permitting agency around federally protected waterways, says the dialogue between Boler and the agency was “professional” and that EPA comments are “fully considered in our permitting decisions.”

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4836629/

[DRoseDARs]

1. Admission of guilt

...Boler has said he was forced out of his job. The EPA says it was Boler’s decision to leave...



Uh...yeah, that's generally what happens when one is forced out of their job: they leave when they can't take any more crap from their employer. :eyes: