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Florida Legislature 2005 (click for ongoing coverage)

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Bill seeks quick wetlands permits

Backed by developers, it proposes that the state, not a federal agency, issue permits to build on less than 10 acres.

By CRAIG PITTMAN and MATTHEW WAITE
Published April 7, 2005

	[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
	Under the bill, a new Wal-Mart on Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg would need only a state permit.

At the urging of developers, some state legislators are pushing a bill to make it easier to wipe out wetlands.

The bill would put the state Department of Environmental Protection in charge of approving projects that would destroy 10 acres of wetlands or less.

The change would require the consent of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has primary authority for protecting Florida's swamps and marshes.

Although the corps approves nearly all wetlands permits, developers are unhappy with how long it takes - generally several months, but a year or more in some cases. It has no deadline for approval.

State law gives permit reviewers 90 days to say yes or no. If they don't act on it by then, the permit is automatically issued. State records show DEP permits in 2003 were issued in an average of 44 days.

The legislation is sponsored in the House by Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, an engineer whose clients include such big developers as WCI Communities. "I thought this was something that made a lot of sense for Florida," said Williams.

Lobbyist Jim Garner, who represents WCI and the Florida Association of Community Developers, said the bill (HB 759/SB 1730) would streamline the permitting process. He estimated that about half the corps' permits involve wetlands of 10 acres or less, though the corps could not confirm that.

Environmental activists blasted the bill as a boon to developers and bad for wildlife.

"It would have serious negative consequences for the Florida panther and other endangered species in Florida," said John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation.

Wetlands also help control flooding, clean up polluted runoff and replenish the water supply. The federal Clean Water Act says most wetlands deserve to be saved.

"It's supposed to be hard to get a permit under the Clean Water Act, because the goal is to protect the waters of the United States," said Lesley Blackner, a Palm Beach lawyer who has sued the corps to overturn wetlands destruction permits.

Over the past 10 years, the corps says it has approved permits allowing the destruction of 61,000 acres of Florida's wetlands. The corps issues more wetlands permits in Florida than any other state.

The fact that Florida developers want the Legislature to make it even easier to get a permit "just shows what a joke everything has become," Blackner said.

Any project that wipes out more than a half-acre of wetlands must get a corps permit. For instance, a controversial new Wal-Mart proposed on Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg needs a corps permit because it would wipe out six acres of wetlands on the 27-acre site. Under the bill, the Wal-Mart would need only a state permit, not a federal one.

About a dozen other states have taken over partial authority for permits for wetlands of three to five acres, said Jeanne Christie, executive director of the Association of State Wetland Managers. Only New Jersey and Michigan have taken over all permitting from the corps.

DEP press secretary Cragin Mosteller said the state is "open to exploring how we could assume federal permitting responsibility."

But corps officials are more cautious. Permits take so long to process because the corps' 100 reviewers sometimes juggled more than 200 applications at a time, said Col. Robert Carpenter, who oversees the corps' Florida operations.

The best solution is more money for the corps, Carpenter said, not handing off responsibility to the state, which would not have extra federal funding to help the state do the job.

"If you had a pie and the pie's too small, cutting the pie in half doesn't make it any bigger," Carpenter said.

The bill's backers expect permitting fees to cover the increased costs of review. Garner predicted DEP would delegate its authority to the state's five water management districts, though that's not in the bill.

Although Williams said she came up with the bill on her own, Garner - who like Williams is a former South Florida Water Management District official - said Williams introduced the bill at his urging.

The DEP and water districts now issue permits that certify that wiping out wetlands will not harm water quality. It's up to the corps to determine if destroying wetlands violates the Clean Water Act.

Like the corps, state permit reviewers are too busy to visit the wetlands they're supposed to protect from destruction. Instead they rely on aerial photos and other references.

And like the corps, the state's permit reviewers seldom say no.

DEP records show that there were 14,000 applications for environmental permits in 2003, and of those acted on, 300 were denied. That category includes projects other than just wetlands destructions, such as building docks and seawalls.

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 01:41:31]