EPA offers Florida water pollution limits

MIAMI – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed the first numeric limits in the nation for farm and urban runoff polluting Florida’s waterways, limits supporters say could set precedent and lead to similar federal standards in other states.
The agency released its proposed rules after reaching a settlement last year with environmentalists who sued [...]

Manatee poop causes brief park closure

VERO BEACH — Humiston Park Beach reopened after a couple of hours of feces scooping Thursday.
The culprit wasn’t four-legged, but instead has flippers, Indian River County officials said.
Manatees are responsible for what may have been a mile-long stretch of excrement that piled up along the beach. Late Thursday afternoon, more manatee mess was spotted at [...]

Lake County man’s wind turbine could help feed Florida’s power grid

Jim Dotson made Florida history Monday afternoon when a crane tilted his wind turbine into the sky next to his hilltop home in south Lake County.
If the egg-shaped generator perched on a 35-foot pole works as Dotson hopes it does, he’ll be able to thumb his nose at those who say the state’s interior is [...]

Florida’s few remaining panthers face threat from development: group

Some environmentalists in Florida are opposing a planned development near Naples, much of which is in the territory favored by wild panthers.
Only about 100 panthers — the state’s official animal — remain in the wild in Florida.
The proposed development, called Big Cypress, features a town of 9,000 homes, plus businesses, retail stores, schools and parks. [...]

South Florida water managers agree to hold off on selling public land

WEST PALM BEACH – Environmental concerns and questions about the transparency of real estate deals prompted South Florida water managers Wednesday to hold off on selling thousands of acres of taxpayer-owned land.
The South Florida Water Management District in June approved plans to unload 3,000 acres of “surplus” properties, even as it was pushing a half-billion-dollar [...]

Florida Energy Solar Center to study how the electric grid can best integrate solar-energy plants

Federal energy officials announced Wednesday that the Florida Solar Energy Center is one of dozens of research organizations and utilities eligible for as much as $11.8 million in awards for projects aimed at improving the ability of nation’s electricity grid to accommodate solar power.
In one project, the Florida Solar Energy Center — a branch of [...]

Finally, Crist names three to fill vacant board seats at South Florida Water Management District

Everglades aerial photo
With his massive sugar land purchase in the balance, Gov. Charlie Crist today named three relative unknowns to fill seats on the water board overseeing the Everglades restoration and South Florida’s faucets.
The nominees, to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District, are:

Joe Collins, 41, a Sebring engineering manager with [...]

Critics: DEP’s new list of polluted waters in Southwest Florida falls short

NAPLES — A federal review meant to clean up Florida’s list of polluted waters has left a handful of waterbodies in Lee and Collier counties in limbo.
A spot on the list, called the impaired waters list, triggers requirements under the Clean Water Act to set limits on whatever is doing the polluting and to come [...]