Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Plan for science forum outlined

County Administrator Steve Spratt says the environmental science group will be an independent entity that will offer scientific assessments of issues.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published June 28, 2006

Pinellas County's new Environmental Science Forum will be transparent, independent and not a way to provide political cover.

So said County Administrator Steve Spratt, at the group's first meeting Monday.

Spratt conceived of the forum in May after plans to expand concessions at Fort DeSoto Park and pump water from the Brooker Creek Preserve to private golf courses were repulsed by an indignant public.

Ever since the idea of the group was broached, however, some environmentalists have questioned whether the forum will become a fig leaf.

Gabriel Vargo said he raised that issue in discussions with Spratt about joining the forum, asking whether the group was supposed to be a rubber stamp or was to look critically at projects.

Vargo, an associate professor in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, said he got the answer he was looking for.

"He has assured most of the members that he wants to listen to all sides of a story," Vargo said. "So let's hope that's the case."

Spratt began Monday's meeting by explaining his vision for the forum to members.

Projects proposed for the county's publicly owned lands, which could prove controversial, will be brought before the group for study and discussion, Spratt said.

The forum will be asked to relay its findings to him. And Spratt, in turn, will convey the information to the County Commission.

While the focus is on scientific assessment, Spratt said he expects the group also to discuss the broader policy questions surrounding proposals.

The forum will not be limited to projects the county submits for review, he said. If there is a matter that members deem worthy of attention, they may bring the issue to the attention of county officials.

While stressing that some debates may become heated, he encouraged members to challenge the concept, the logic and the science behind a given project.

"We wouldn't be doing this just to spin our wheels," he said.

The forum's 21 members were selected by staff of the county's environmental management department, Spratt said. Thirteen members attended the first meeting.

About half of the group have environmental science backgrounds; the rest are members of advocacy groups such as the Audubon Society.

Group members decided that in cases where consensus can't be reached, they will provide Spratt with a majority and a minority opinion on a given project.

They also chose two co-chairs: Holly Greening, chief scientist of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, and the Sierra Club's Darden Rice, who ran unsuccessfully for St. Petersburg City Council last year.

Rice, who also is on an advisory board to the parks and recreation department, said as co-chair she would strive to communicate to the public just what the county has in mind for public lands so that people don't feel left in the dark.

She also spoke to the need for the group's work to be free of outside influence, whether from private interest or government officials.

"Something like that would destroy the integrity of this forum," she said.

The county has created a Web site for the group: www.pinellascounty.org/scienceforum.htm. The group, which plans to meet Aug. 10, is expected to discuss the proposed pumping in Brooker Creek Preserve, which the county may still pursue.

Will Van Sant can be reached at 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 28, 2006, 06:59:23]