Though the tasty bivalve has rebounded to levels not seen since the 1980s, researchers said an additional year is needed to make sure the population is as vibrant as it seems.

Since 1996, two years after the state banned scallop harvesting south of the Suwannee River, the shellfish population in Homosassa increased from an average of three per 600 square meters to 243 over the same area.

"We want to make sure what we're seeing in Homosassa is a resurgence of the bay scallop and not just a one-year event. If you hammer them back down to the levels they were at before the ban in 1994, you could decimate your crop again," said Bill Teehan, a management analyst for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The state's cautious approach sent waves of rancor through the audience at Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park on Wednesday, many of whom pushed for a limited season.

The staff recommendation and the public comments will be presented to the conservation commission in the fall.

Arsenic at playgrounds creates quandary for parks

Arsenic used to treat the wood in play structures is proving to be a sticky subject for local governments around Tampa Bay.

After deciding there was no danger posed by the treated wood in its playground at Tom Varn Park, the Brooksville City Council reversed its decision Monday and voted to erect warning signs about arsenic levels found there.

"People were not really concerned, but they felt they had the right to know," City Council member Joe Bernardini said. Other council members agreed to put up the signs as long as they did not create unnecessary alarm.

In New Port Richey, parks officials said they found elevated, but still safe, levels of arsenic in the soil around Sims Park. But in Clearwater, the Long Center's Sunshine Playground was closed and encircled with yellow caution tape Tuesday afternoon after tests of the soil under the playground showed nearly seven times the amount of arsenic the state considers safe.

The wood treatment industry has commissioned studies that found the use of the wood safe, and one state toxicologist has told the Times that a child might have to eat a spoonful of arsenic-contaminated dirt daily for 30 years to get cancer.

Meanwhile, state environmental regulators have said they don't have enough information yet to say for sure what risk, if any, the chemically treated wood poses to people.

Pasco's moratorium on cell towers will expire

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County had tried to clear the air a little by creating a 90-day cellular tower moratorium.

But with no real solution to the spiky metal skeletons needed to keep ever-present cell phones ringing, the county is prepared to let the moratorium expire in two weeks.

Though activists are upset by the move, county officials say it gave them time to hire an engineer to review tower applications.

A second consultant is helping the county stiffen its existing cell tower ordinance and draw up a tower "master plan." But he isn't scheduled to complete his work until October.

Kathryn Starkey of Citizens for a Scenic Florida and wife of Pasco developer Jay B. "Trey" Starkey, said her group will continue to support limiting billboards, cell towers and other "visual pollution."

Starkey favors reducing the size of towers or disguising them as trees or stadium lights. Reducing the size of towers would require more of them, but that's a price Starkey is willing to pay.

"I'm not against cell towers -- I love my cell phone -- but companies have to catch up with the latest technology."

Bilirakis bill rewards work of EPA ombudsman

TARPON SPRINGS -- Convinced that the EPA's ombudsman office did a good turn for Tarpon Springs by investigating a controversial cleanup plan for the Stauffer Superfund site, U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, has decided to return the favor.

On Wednesday, Bilirakis introduced a bill that would create a more independent role for the ombudsman office, a watchdog arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and dramatically increase its budget.

Bilirakis and many area residents credit EPA ombudsman Robert Martin with uncovering shortcomings in the EPA's proposed mound-and-cap cleanup plan for Stauffer, including EPA assumptions about whether a mound might trigger a sinkhole and dump contaminants into the drinking water supply.

The office was thrown into turmoil in December when a high-ranking EPA official reassigned Martin's lone investigator and right-hand man, Hugh Kaufman. Martin also protested new guidelines that he said would effectively strip the office of its independence and cripple its ability to perform meaningful work.

EPA officials would not comment on the bill, but Bilirakis said he met with new EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman last week and said she "expressed her support for efforts to increase the independence of the office of the ombudsman."

Jazz fest withdraws request for donation

CLEARWATER -- After fielding questions on the proposal, Jazz Holiday withdrew its request for additional funding from Clearwater on Thursday because city commissioners said they needed more time to research the request.

Organizers of the popular Clearwater Jazz Holiday had asked the city to "step it up a notch," and give the festival the money it needs to bring big-name acts to the annual four-day October festival at Coachman Park.

Festival organizers wanted Clearwater to chip in an additional $25,000 on top of the $25,000 the city already is giving as a co-sponsor to bring in a popular headliner act, such as B.B. King or Kenny G.

The budget for this year's festival, scheduled for Oct. 18-21, is $585,000.

Damage from pine beetle subsides in Hernando

BROOKSVILLE -- After destroying thousands of pine trees in Hernando County during the past two years, the epidemic of Southern pine beetles might be coming to an end.

The county could see another rapid spread of the bug this spring, especially if the drought worsens, said Hernando County forester Anthony Petellat. And he warned landowners to look out for the red needles and the white pitch-tubes on the trunk of pine trees that are the main sign of beetle infection.

Still, he is cautiously optimistic that Hernando's infestation -- the worst in state history -- is coming to an end.

Jim Meeker, an entomologist with the state Division of Forestry, said the disease spread so quickly because of several factors. Hernando County was host to several large stands of loblolly pine trees, a favorite of the bugs. These grew too closely and, because of a lack of fire, also competed with dense underbrush.

The trees were made more vulnerable by the drought. And landowners were slow to remove infected trees, partly because the timber market was depressed.

Forestry officials will not be certain about the level of pine beetle infestation, though, until later in the spring.

Coming up this week

Tuesday will be Election Day in Pasco County, where voters will cast ballots for the City Council seats in both Port Richey and New Port Richey, as well for the Port Richey mayor

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