Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

More hotels, motels see wisdom of saving water

Re: Slow start, big hopes, Nov. 19 Times:

The Southwest Florida Water Management District's Water Conservation Hotel and Motel Program, or CHAMP, promotes water conservation through a "linens and towels reuse program," which means the management agrees to launder linens every third day of a guest's stay unless the guest requests otherwise.

The district program started in Pinellas County and has spread throughout our 16-county jurisdiction. The program was introduced in Hernando and Citrus counties last year, and we now have 20 percent participation from area hotels and motels. We are quite pleased with this start, especially considering the lack of a central vehicle like a hotel/motel association to help promote the program.

I would like to correct a few errors in a recent news article about the program.

The news article mistakenly listed Niagara Conservation as a supporter or partner in the program and did not give credit to all of the actual supporting partners. Water CHAMP in Hernando and Citrus counties is supported by Progress Energy, Citrus 20/20, Citrus County Solid Waste Management and Hernando County Utilities.

The Green Lodging Program was created by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, not Progress Energy. Water CHAMP is a technical partner to the Green Lodging Program.

Finally, there are no current plans for "free or low-cost (water) audits" of participating properties.

We appreciate the news coverage of our recent Water CHAMP workshop and hope all hotels and motels will consider participating in this valuable program. For more information, call (352) 796-7211, ext. 4782.

Manatees deserve freedom, protection

Rosie the manatee lives at Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park in Citrus County. I have long been Rosie's adoptive mom, along with thousands of other members of Save the Manatee Club's adoption program.

Rosie's life as a captive began when she was captured Sept. 12, 1978, as a calf. She has been exhibited to the public in various amusement park-type facilities ever since. Tragically, Rosie was captured before Congress passed the Endangered Species Act protecting all manatees from ownership by anyone other than the American people and preventing an endangered species from being taken from the wild and held captive.

Why am I telling you this? Well, for years I have been buying a Lotto ticket in the hopes of wining the Florida Lottery. If I won, I planned to offer a few million dollars to Florida, the current owner of Rosie, to buy her and set her free if knowledgeable scientists think she could survive in the wild. (They have said they think she could.)

She deserves to be free. But before she could be released, special legislation would have to be passed to also make Rosie an endangered species. If that didn't happen, someone could capture her again and sell her to the highest bidder - and believe me, the bid would be high.

But now I am dropping my purchase of Lotto tickets to try to free Rosie.

Why? A few weeks ago Congress quickly passed a bill by the House Resources Committee chairman, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to remove the designation of critical habitat from the Endangered Species Act. Areas where manatees have to live in the winter, and have prospered in small spots like Crystal River and Hernando Beach, would no longer be protected from destruction as viable habitat by manatee protection laws.

Tucked into the Pombo bill at the last moment was an amendment by Gainesville's congressman, Rep. Adam Putnam, to remove the additional protection of manatees as a marine mammal from the Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The act protects marine mammals from being taken from the wild: whales, dolphins and manatees. The Putnam amendment would remove manatees from that protection. I wonder why. Care to guess?

If the U.S. Senate passes Pombo's House bill, with Putnam's dastardly amendment, the only thing left protecting manatees would be an Endangered Species Act that ignored the creatures' vital habitats and Florida's protection of the manatee as an endangered species.

Of course, Florida is in the process of taking that status away from her manatees, too. Members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will soon look at a plan they voted to have their staff develop on lowering the status on protection of manatees.

Suddenly and sadly I realized I cannot buy a Lotto ticket to free Rosie. If I win the Lotto, she, and all manatees, would be in greater danger if these lawmakers are able to strip away protection from manatees by gutting these laws.

Right now it looks as if I stand a better chance of winning the lottery than stopping these horrid laws, but I never learned how to stop trying.

--Spivey is a former state House member who represented Citrus and Hernando counties. She is co-chairwoman of the Save the Manatee Club.

[Last modified November 29, 2005, 11:09:08]