City of Miami Approved Dumping on Wetlands

April 7, 2011 1 Comment

Letter to Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection

March 31, 2011

Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Mr. Donald Keirn
Environmental Specialist III
Submerged Lands & Environmental Resources Program
Department of Environmental Protection
400 N. Congress Ave., Suite 200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Via email: Don.Keirn@dep.state.fl.us

Subject: North Point, Virginia Key, Florida
Conceptual Environmental Resource Permit No. EC 13-0267159-001
Port Tunnel Contractor Deposits on wetlands, mangroves.

Dear Mr. Keirn:

We are writing to object to the dumping of excavation materials from the Miami Harbor tunnel project on Virginia Key, a barrier island within the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, an Outstanding Florida Water.

The City of Miami, the municipality that has jurisdiction over the North Point of Virginia Key, has allowed the Port of Miami Tunnel contractor, Bouygues Civil Works Florida,. Inc. access to Virginia Key for the purpose of depositing tens of thousands of cubic yards of fill material on the North Point.  The contractor has been cited  for depositing material on wetlands and destroying mangroves.  A “Notice of Violation” was issued by the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources (DERM) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is investigating.

The North Point of Virginia Key is an environmentally significant and fragile area for which the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has identified special resource designations:  Manatee No Entry Zone, the Critical Wildlife Area and Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve.

In 1994,  the Florida DEP described the North Point as “highly productive fish and wildlife habitat, as well as a movement corridor for the endangered manatee.” An extensive restoration project  created five acres of coastal hammock, four acres of dune, 12 acres of new mangrove forest and new tidal habitat where there is a thriving coastal band mangrove community of red, white, and black mangroves.

In light of the significant environmental resources of the North Point of Virginia Key and the surrounding Wildlife Refuge and Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, we are requesting that the Florida DEP:

*Issue an immediate Cease and Desist Order to prevent further damage to the area’s natural resources.

*Conduct an ecological assessment of the area to determine what damage has been caused by the most recent dumping of materials, the dumping of Port of Miami dredge materials in the 1990s as well as other uses introduced over the years by the City of Miami. These uses may be incompatible with the fragile natural resources of the uplands and submerged lands as well as contrary to the deed restrictions set by the State of Florida when it conveyed the property to the City of Miami in 1942.

*Request that the State of Florida manage the ecological restoration of the area, in partnership with Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands Program or other responsible entities.

*Establish a state park, preserve or wildlife refuge on Virginia Key, in particular in the North Point and Critical Wildlife Refuge areas, to assure the protection and preservation of the area for future generations.

Thank you in advance for your attention and assistance in this matter of great public Interest.

Please add the undersigned to the list of organizations and individuals to be notified by the Florida DEP in all matters related to this issue and permit application.

Sincerely,

Debbie Matthews, chair
Sierra Club Miami Group
P.O. Box 43-0741
S. Miami, FL 33243-0741
email: treehuggerdeb@yahoo.com
Phone: 305-766-0835

Robert S. Skinner
Izaak Walton League of America, Miami Chapter
2730 SW 3rd Ave # 205
Miami, FL 33129-2339
Phone: 305-285-0916
email: skinner205@earthlink.net
www.yellowbot.com/izaak-walton-league-of-america-miami-fl.html

Michael Chenoweth
The Izaak Walton League, Florida Keys Chapter
P.O. Box 236
Homestead, Florida 33090-0236
Phone: (305) 451-0993
email: gladerunner@earthlink.net

Alexis K. Segal, Esq.
Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, Waterkeeper and Executive Director
465 Ocean Drive #417,Miami Beach, FL 33139
Email: alexis@bbwk.orgwww.bbwk.org

 

 

 

SC April, 2011 newsletter – stephenmcgy@gmail.com – Gmail.

Filed under Environment, Miami

City of Coral Gables: Check Your Reserves For Hurricane Response

April 6, 2011 Leave a comment

EXTENDED RANGE FORECAST OF ATLANTIC SEASONAL HURRICANE ACTIVITY AND LANDFALL STRIKE PROBABILITY FOR 2011

(Philip J. Klotzbach & William M. Gray: http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/Forecasts/2011/april2011/apr2011.pdf )

ABSTRACT:

As of 6 April 2011, it is foreseen a well above-average activity for the 2011 Atlantic-Caribbean cyclonic season. The seasonal forecast has been reduced slightly from early December, since there is a little uncertainty about ENSO and the maintenance of an anomalously warm tropical Atlantic SST conditions. It is possible to continue to anticipate an above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.

Information obtained through March 2011 indicates that the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will have significantly more activity than the average 1950-2000 season. We estimate that 2011 will have about 9 hurricanes (average is 5.9), 16 named storms (average is 9.6), 80 named storm days (average is 49.1), 35 hurricane days (average is 24.5), 5 major (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes (average is 2.3) and 10 major hurricane days (average is 5.0). The probability of U.S. major hurricane landfall is estimated to be about 140 percent of the long-period average. We expect Atlantic basin Net Tropical Cyclone (NTC) activity in 2011 to be approximately 175 percent of the long-term average. We have decreased our seasonal forecast slightly from early December, due to anomalous warming in the eastern and central tropical Pacific and cooling in the tropical Atlantic. This forecast is based on a new extended-range early April statistical prediction scheme that utilizes 29 years of past data. Analog predictors are also utilized. We expect current La Niña conditions to transition to near-neutral conditions during the heart of the hurricane season. Overall, conditions remain conducive for a very active hurricane season.

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Environment, Finance

Obama Sets Low Energy Targets

March 30, 2011 Leave a comment

We are almost meeting Obama’s goal for oil imports, or close too it.

This feels like a political energy plan for the next presidential campaign (as usual) and not for us or climate change.  Until carbon prices really rise, until we start conserving energy in building, until we quit using corn to energize our cars, until we have a good public transportation system, until we have a smart grid to distribute electricity throughout the country, until we have cleaner electricity, then this is just political window dressing.

Iowa farmers should be happy with the ethanol subsidies.  (Easy way to get ethanol is to cut the 50 cent tariff on cheap Brazilian ethanol.)

Obama calls for a one-third cut in oil imports by 2025 from 2008 levels of 11.1 million barrels a day.  But the EIA reports that net imports for have averaged 9.0 MBD for the first two months of 2011 — and 8.9 MBD over the last 6 months (h/t Oildrum)   We only need to hit 7.4 to achieve Obama’s goal!

via Climate Progress.

Filed under Environment, National

Nuclear Costs to Soar and Government Subsidies Too

March 29, 2011 Leave a comment

Reasons to realize that nuclear energy will not be an “out” for climate change.  The cost will be so great that it will not be financially viable except for huge government subsidies.

The nuclear situation in Japan is still not under control, and reports of exposed workers, contaminated food, and possible leaking reactor cores continue to come out of the pummeled nation. But researchers are already predicting how the disaster will affect the nuclear industry and — according to Mark Cooper, a senior fellow at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment — construction costs of nuclear reactors for the foreseeable future will soar following the problems in Japan.

“If they do what they are supposed to, nuclear reactor construction will be much more costly and much less inviting as a policy option as a result of the Fukusima accident,” said Cooper in a research note.

via Nuclear Costs to Soar Post Japan Disaster: Cleantech News and Analysis «.

Filed under Environment

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