News - CHNEP.WaterAtlas.orghttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/Recent news items for CHNEP Water Atlas60Conservation group celebrates establishment of Everglades to Gulf Conservation Areahttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22839<h4> Region spans 12 counties west of Lake Okeechobee, Including watersheds critical to Florida&rsquo;s water quality.</h4> <p> On Monday, Florida Conservation Group (FCG) Executive Director Julie Morris joined Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to announce the establishment of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area in southwest Florida.</p> <p> The Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area will allow the USFWS to work with landowners to secure conservation easements over ecologically sensitive lands, protecting those lands in perpetuity while allowing continued agricultural operations.</p> <p> FCG engages in conservation science, planning, outreach, and land protection. The organization assists landowners with conservation easement and incentive programs to ensure that Florida&rsquo;s highest-priority lands are identified and protected.</p> <p> FCG partnered with the USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System, the University of Florida&rsquo;s Center for Landscape Conservation Planning and the National Wildlife Refuge Association to provide the science foundation behind establishing the Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area. FCG also worked with USFWS to lead stakeholder outreach efforts.</p> WaterAtlas.orgWed, 13 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTState seeks to speed up decision in wetlands permitting casehttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22843<p> TALLAHASSEE &ndash; Florida is asking a federal judge to speed up a final ruling in a high-stakes case about permitting authority for projects that affect wetlands, as the state sets the stage for a likely appeal.</p> <p> U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss on Feb. 15 ruled that federal officials did not follow required steps in 2020 before transferring wetlands-related permitting authority from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the state. Moss vacated the shift but said the state and the federal government could seek a stay of his ruling. He also did not decide certain legal issues in the case.</p> <p> In a filing Monday, attorneys for the state urged Moss to issue a final judgment, which would help clear the way for an appeal. The filing said Moss&rsquo; Feb. 15 decision has effectively resolved the case&rsquo;s key issues in favor of environmental groups that challenged the shift.</p> <p> &ldquo;This single judicial ruling, which gave complete relief to plaintiffs, immediately placed over 1,000 projects across Florida (including permit applications for environmental restoration, roads and bridges, hospitals, schools, affordable housing, senior living facilities, and grid reliability, among many others) in regulatory limbo with no clear timeline or expectation for a permit decision,&rdquo; the state&rsquo;s 21-page filing said. &ldquo;The situation was immediately urgent and becomes more so with each passing day.&rdquo;</p> <p> The state on Feb. 26 also filed a motion for a stay of Moss&rsquo; decision. The judge has not ruled on the motion and has scheduled an April 4 conference in Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs have opposed a stay.</p> <p> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the transfer of the permitting authority to the state in December 2020, about a month before former President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration ended. Florida became the third state, after Michigan and New Jersey, to receive the permitting authority.</p> WaterAtlas.orgWed, 13 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTLee County Dept. of Health issues Health Caution for blue-green algae in Caloosahatchee Riverhttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22828<p> <img alt="FDOH logo" src="https://cdn.wateratlas.org/img/logos/DOH.jpg" style="float:left;margin-right:10px;width:150px;" /></p> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p> LEE COUNTY &ndash; The Florida Department of Health in Lee County (DOH-Lee) is cautioning the public of the presence of blue-green algae blooms in Caloosahatchee &mdash; Killer Canal. Blooms have the potential to produce toxins, and what triggers them to do so remains poorly understood. Since bloom conditions can change at any time, it is important to exercise caution as if the bloom were toxic, even if toxin presence has not yet been confirmed.</p> <p> Residents and visitors are advised to take the following precautions:</p> <ul> <li> You should not drink, swim, wade, water ski or engage in activities that may cause you to come in direct contact with waters where there is a visible bloom.</li> <li> Exercise caution when using personal watercraft or boating, to avoid stirring up or contacting the algae or the affected water.</li> <li> Avoid getting affected water in your eyes, nose, or mouth.</li> <li> Wash your skin and clothing with soap and water if you have contact with algae or discolored or smelly water.</li> <li> You should keep pets and livestock away from the waters in this location.</li> <li> Eating fillets from healthy fish caught in freshwater lakes experiencing blooms is safe. Rinse fish fillets with tap or bottled water, throw out the guts and cook fish to appropriate temperature.</li> <li> You should not eat shellfish from this location.</li> </ul> <p> The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and partners collect algae samples from reported bloom locations for toxin analysis. Once completed, the results will be posted on the DEP <a href="https://floridadep.gov/AlgalBloom" target="_blank" title="Algal Bloom Dashboard"><strong>Algal Bloom Dashboard</strong></a>, and can also be viewed on the <a href="https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/" target="_blank" title="Statewide water quality"><strong>Protecting Florida Together website</strong></a>, where you can sign up to be notified of the latest conditions.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>WaterAtlas.orgMon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTEnvironmental groups oppose a stay in the fight over wetlands permitting in Floridahttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22829<p> Environmental groups Thursday pushed back against a request by Florida for a partial stay of a ruling in a legal battle about a 2020 decision that shifted permitting authority from the federal government to the state for projects that affect wetlands.</p> <p> U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss on Feb. 15 ruled that actions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in approving the shift violated the Endangered Species Act.</p> <p> Moss issued an order vacating the approval of the shift.</p> <p> Such permitting authority is usually held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.</p> <p> Saying permits were in &ldquo;regulatory limbo,&rdquo; the state filed a motion for a limited stay of Moss&rsquo; ruling to keep the &ldquo;bulk&rdquo; of Florida&rsquo;s permitting program in place until a new plan can be put in place or until further court decisions.</p> <p> But in a 22-page filing Thursday, environmental groups argued the state&rsquo;s request would &ldquo;create confusion and perpetuate violations&rdquo; of the Endangered Species Act.</p> <p> &ldquo;The least disruptive path forward, which would also serve developers&rsquo; interest in clarity &hellip; is therefore to deny a limited stay, leave permitting authority with the (Army) Corps, and allow Florida to propose a new program subject to EPA approval,&rdquo; Thursday&rsquo;s filing said.</p> <p> The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, Miami Waterkeeper and St. Johns Riverkeeper filed the lawsuit in January 2021 against the federal government.</p> <p> The state later intervened.</p> <p> The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed the state&rsquo;s request for a partial stay of Moss&rsquo; ruling, but Florida business groups have supported the request.</p> WaterAtlas.orgMon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTUPDATE: Beach reopened after stranded whale removed from Service Club Park beach in Venicehttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22830<p> <strong>9:30 AM 3/13 UPDATE:</strong> Service Club Park is now open, and the No Swim Advisory issued March 11 for beaches from Caspersen to the South Jetty has been lifted as a full tidal cycle has occurred since the deceased whale was removed from the area yesterday afternoon.</p> <hr /> <h4> The 50-feet-long whale was beached on a sandbar about 50 yards out in Venice. Weather prevented a rescue and the whale died between 3 and 4 a.m. Monday.</h4> <p> A sperm whale stranded on a sandbar off Venice Beach died early Monday morning.</p> <p> The animal was stuck in the waves and sand Sunday morning. The Venice Police Department, Sarasota County Sheriff&#39;s Office, Florida Fish &amp; Wildlife Conservation Commission and Mote Marine Laboratory were unsuccessful in rescuing the whale due to heavy winds and surf.</p> <p> Jessica Powell, with NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office in St. Petersburg, confirmed that the whale died overnight.</p> <p> &quot;Unfortunately, the animal passed, &quot; she said. &quot;Right now, the teams are mustering. The idea is to pull the animal onto the beach, which, you can imagine, takes a lot of logistics, a lot of heavy equipment. This is a very large animal, we&#39;re estimating around 60,000 pounds.&quot;</p> <p> Powell said the whale would have a necropsy performed on it after it is brought to the beach.</p> <p> &quot;It helps us understand why the animal was sick,&quot; she said. &quot;It will help us understand more about sperm whales ... help us do a better job of understanding these animals,&quot; Powell said.</p> <p> The FWC on Sunday night said that water conditions were too dangerous to approach the whale by boat to attempt to give the animal a sedative. The whale was estimated to be approximately about 50 feet long.</p> <p> Another assessment was made at low tide, shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday.</p> <p> Biologists were hopeful for a successful rescue Monday as weather conditions became more favorable, but the whale died between 3 and 4 a.m.</p> WaterAtlas.orgMon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTSeagrasses in the Gulf of Mexico could be overgrazed by migrating herbivores due to warming watershttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22831<h4> &quot;If we don&#39;t manage them properly, then those seagrasses will be less resilient, and we could potentially degrade a very, very valuable habitat,&quot; said Tom Frazer of USF.</h4> <p> As oceans warm and organisms that feed on seagrasses move north, they could overgraze parts of the Gulf of Mexico, including areas in the greater Tampa Bay region.</p> <p> This finding comes from a peer-reviewed study recently published in the journal Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution.</p> <p> Tom Frazer, the dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, was one of dozens of other scientists who researched areas off Florida&#39;s Gulf Coast, the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and parts of Panama.</p> <p> They focused on turtle grass, which is the predominant structural habitat in the Gulf and the broader Caribbean region. It provides foraging areas for many animals that are important both ecologically and economically.</p> <p> &quot;In Florida, for example, probably about 85% of the fishes that we exploit either recreationally or commercially spend some part of their life history in seagrass beds,&quot; Frazer said.</p> <p> The researchers observed the effects on how grazing and nutrient pollution might alter the growth characteristics or the productivity of seagrass beds.</p> WaterAtlas.orgMon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT$15M flows to FGCU for Lake O, regional water quality studyhttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22816<h4> The Fort Myers-based university has studied ways to improve water quality in South Florida.</h4> <p> In one heck of a surprise &quot;sprinkle&quot;, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) secured $15 million for a water study.</p> <p> Funding for the Fort Myers university was included in the Senate Supplemental Funding, affectionately called the &ldquo;sprinkle list,&rdquo; But originally, the item was listed for only a &ldquo;Comprehensive Study on the Health of Lake Okeechobee.&rdquo;</p> <p> Senate officials, though, made clear this money will go through FGCU&rsquo;s The Water School, and will be used for a comprehensive water quality study of regional significance.</p> <p> Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Lake Mary Republican, had requested $5 million in the budget this year for FGCU to conduct a study chiefly on Florida&rsquo;s largest lake.</p> <p> His request said funds would go to &ldquo;conduct a comprehensive and predictive data assessment of the environmental health of Lake Okeechobee based on natural and anthropogenic influences on the biota to produce a current state of the Lake with gaps identified around the Lake&rsquo;s condition, gather information to address gaps, and create a suite of potential water level and in lake management strategies that may be implemented and explored for lake improvements.&rdquo;</p> WaterAtlas.orgFri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTCalusa Waterkeeper names Connie Ramos-Williams new directorhttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22817<p> Back in 2018, Connie Ramos-Williams was driving over the old Sanibel Bridge when she saw the depth and breadth of that year&rsquo;s blue-green algae outbreak. The nasty green goo was everywhere, affecting everything. Ramos-Williams burst into tears.</p> <p> At that moment, she promised herself, if she ever got the chance to do anything about the harmful algae bloom crisis, she would.</p> <p> Now, as the new director of Calusa Waterkeeper, she is front and center in the fight against harmful algae blooms.</p> <p> &ldquo;I came out of early retirement to take the role of director of the Calusa Waterkeeper because I really do find it my mission to help protect our number one natural resource and that&rsquo;s water,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We are facing a crisis with our water. And if our generation doesn&rsquo;t do something to find solutions to restore clean water in our communities it&rsquo;s going to get passed on to our next generation.&rdquo;</p> <p> Connie Ramos-Williams, the new director of Calusa Waterkeepr who starts April 1, came out of retirement to help the environmental nonprofit clean up Southwest Florida&#39;s waterways and keep them that way for future generations</p> <p> Calusa Waterkeeper, 400-people-strong and mainly comprised of volunteers, works to restore and maintain the health of the Caloosahatchee River, which flows from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico, and its surrounding watersheds. That&rsquo;s 1,000 square miles of water in all that Ramos-Williams is going to try and find a way to keep clean for future generations.</p> <p> &ldquo;We can&#39;t keep passing the buck,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We need to do something now. We can find solutions. We can help to preserve our water.&quot;</p> <p> Finding ways to keep the Caloosahatchee River clean with the triple threats of stormwater runoff from nearby roads and parking lots, releases of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee, and phosphorus and nitrogen from over-fertilizing lawns is just one of the many waterways Calusa Waterkeeper&#39;s 400 volunteers and staff work to clean up and keep that way for future generations</p> WaterAtlas.orgFri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTExperts: Flooding puts flat Florida at riskhttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22818<h4> Climate summit discusses data, plans to prepare for future storms.</h4> <p> PUNTA GORDA &ndash; Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 on Wednesday [Feb. 28th], Doug Marcy [a senior Coastal Hazards Specialist with NOAA] stressed Florida may not see massive flooding in the immediate future, but long-term projections still have consequences for coastal communities.</p> <p> &quot;One foot of flooding can change the entire estuary system,&quot; Marcy said, pointing to the low-lying, flat terrain of the state.</p> <p> Scholars and residents from across the southwest shoreline gathered in Punta Gorda on Wednesday to attend the 2024 Southwest Florida Climate Summit.</p> <p> The summit hosted a series of talks from experts in climate observation in the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center, covering topics from climate tracking to post-Hurricane Ian resiliency.</p> <p> This year&#39;s summit was hosted by the Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership. It continues Thursday.</p> <p> Jennifer Hecker, CHNEP&#39;s executive director, noted in a previous news release that 2023 was &quot;the hottest year on record globally&quot; and saw Hurricane Idalia sweep through Southwest Florida, similar to Hurricane Ian in 2022.</p> WaterAtlas.orgFri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTLake Okeechobee slowly recedinghttps://chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=22819<h4> Water continues to flow in from the north</h4> <p> OKEECHOBEE &ndash; Concerned about already an already high lake level approaching the Florida &ldquo;wet&rdquo; season, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started releasing more water east to the St. Lucie and west to the Caloosahatchee River on Feb. 17.</p> <p> So why is the lake level still above 16 feet?</p> <p> For the week of Feb. 19-25, South Florida Water Management District data shows flow from the north added 63,440 acre feet of water to the Big O, and direct rainfall contributed 3,320 acre feet. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and SFWMD are working on a plan to hold water higher in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes at the end of the wet season in order to have water supply for the restored portion of the river in the dry season. It takes a flow of around 1,400 cubic feet per second to hyrdrate the restored portion of the river. However, this year they had to lower the water level in Lake Kissimmee in order to repair water control structures. That work is expected to take several months, so if there is rain in that basin, the water will be released down the Kissimmee River into Lake O.</p> <p> Outflow for the week included 69,770 acre feet (to the Caloosahatchee River), 48,400 acre feet east (to St. Lucie and Lake Worth Lagoon), 5,340 acre feet south and 40,390 acre feet removed via evapotranspiration (an combination of evaporation and plant transpiration).</p> WaterAtlas.orgFri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT