Miami Herald

THE EVERGLADES
Vigilance falls woefully short
Posted on Sun, May. 29, 2005

CARL HIAASEN

If Miami-Dade commissioners sell out to developers and vote to move westward the county's Urban Development Boundary, thousands of acres of wetlands will be open to destruction.

The decision would effectively sabotage the $8 billion Everglades restoration plan, and would further imperil South Florida's future water supply.

In theory, wetlands are supposed to be protected under the Clean Water Act by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Since the federal government is an equal partner with Florida in the much-hyped Everglades project, you might reasonably assume that the Corps would make at least a token effort at vigilance.

But you'd be wrong.

If the UDB gets moved, all remaining wetlands along the rim of the Everglades are in danger. Judging by its past actions, the Corps will bow to the developers as meekly as the politicians do.

A series of superb articles in The St. Petersburg Times has documented that at least 84,000 acres of wetlands in Florida have been obliterated since 1990.

That was the year that the first President Bush unveiled a federal initiative called ''no net loss.'' The idea was that developers would be made to replace the pristine marshes and swamps that they destroyed.

''It's a huge scam,'' Steve Brooker told The Times. For 15 years he reviewed wetlands permits for the Army Corps in Florida.

''A make-believe program,'' agreed Vic Anderson, who spent 30 years with the Corps.

Wetland destruction permits

Basically, here's how it is meant to work. Through a process known as mitigation, developers are allowed to drain and pave a wetland if they agree to re-create another one somewhere else.

Unfortunately, constructing a shopping mall is much easier (and much more lucrative) than constructing an ecologically healthy swamp. Many of the artificially devised wetlands are nothing but glorified rain puddles.

Not that the Army Corps would ever notice. To this day the agency has no system for tracking the success or failure of mitigation projects. Usually, it's content to take the developer's word.

According to the Times' investigation, the feds approve more wetland destruction in Florida than in any other state.

How easy is it to turn a marsh into asphalt and concrete? Between 1999 and 2003, the corps approved more than 12,000 wetland destruction permits here.

Number rejected: One.

Agency officials say their job is not to ''impede'' development, but rather to work with developers during the permitting process to minimize the project's impact.

Look around Florida and see what a swell job they've done.

In Pensacola, a top Democratic fundraiser named Fred Levin and his brother were allowed to erect five 21-story condos on prime beach marshlands, despite the objections of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The mitigation was a flop. The man-made wetland was so feeble that it was destroyed by the first hurricane to blow through.

Here's how the ''no net loss'' policy really works: Developers call up their congressman or senator, to whose campaigns they've generously donated, and whine that the Army Corps is dragging its feet on a wetland permit.

The congressman or senator promptly picks up the phone or fires off a letter, and magically the developer's permit is expedited.

This scenario was documented in shameful detail by the Times. Both Republicans and Democrats (Sen. Bill Nelson, Rep. Alcee Hastings, even Everglades champion Bob Graham) have intervened to hasten the demise of a wetland.

A classic example was the time in 1995 when then-U.S. Sen. Connie Mack chewed out Col. Terry Rice, then head of the Army Corps in Florida, for taking too long on a permit application from Florida Gulf Coast University.

Plans for the new university called for removing 75 acres of wetlands near Fort Myers owned by Ben Hill Griffin III, the citrus heir and a heavyweight political donor.

Griffin had offered the tract to the university and wanted to build a huge development around it. Not long after Mack's angry phone call, Rice approved the wetlands destruction.

84,000 acres wiped out

Construction commenced, and soon three feet of water covered the site. The problem hasn't gone away. Since FGCU opened, it's been cited three times for illegally pumping water from its campus into nearby marshes.

That's what you get for building on a swamp, a long and greedy tradition here. Most of western Broward, including the whole community of Weston, was once wetlands that nurtured the Everglades.

Which is why those seeking to dissolve the UDB in Miami-Dade aren't terribly worried about the feds interfering with their plans later on. Shoma Homes, Lowe's Home Centers, D.R. Horton -- all have lobbyists who know exactly whom to call in Washington, D.C.

No developer has more clout than Lennar Corp., which is itching to cram thousands of homes on 981 acres outside Florida City, along the edge of Everglades National Park.

That single project could be fatal to Everglades restoration, but don't expect the Army Corps to ride to the rescue. The agency is merely a minor nuisance for big developers with friends in high places.

The record speaks for itself: In only 14 years, 84,000 acres of wetlands wiped out.

No net loss? Only for those pocketing the profits.