WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, March 2, 2009 (ENS) – In support of watershed protection plans for Florida’s Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board has approved a contract with the University of Massachusetts to study changes in nutrient levels in the rivers’ estuaries during the 2009 wet season. June…
TALLAHASSE, Florida, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Charlie Crist today joined the chairman of the South Florida Water Management District, state environmental and economic officials, and environmentalists to applaud the SFWMD Governing Board’s approval this week in favor of an historic land acquisition for Everglades restoration. By one vote, the seven-member Board of the…
MIAMI, Florida, November 12, 2008 (ENS) – Florida officials have agreed to new terms for a land deal with the largest U.S. producer of cane sugar to increase the availability of water storage and flow to the vast Everglades wetland. The new agreement, subject to approval by the South Florida Water Management District, includes the…
MIAMI, Florida, October 22, 2008 (ENS) – An $88 million effort to improve water quality and navigation on the Miami River is now complete. The final scoop of sediment came out of the river last week after four years of work by federal, state and local partners, including the South Florida Water Management District. Water…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, September 18, 2008 (ENS) – For more than a decade, Naples Bay on Florida’s southern Gulf coast has been subject to increased pollutant loading as a result of extensive land development in the county. The stormwater runoff entering the Gordon River Basin contains chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides, which are slowly…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, July 30, 2008 (ENS) – Map specialists, scientists and vegetation experts at the South Florida Water Management District have created the most detailed vegetation maps ever produced of the southern Everglades, giving water and land managers an additional tool to guide Everglades restoration. The new vegetation maps identify the locations of…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, June 25, 2008 (ENS) – The largest U.S. producer of cane sugar, U.S. Sugar Corp., would close up shop under a $1.75 billion agreement to sell its 292 square miles of land to Florida for Everglades restoration, the company president and Florida Governor Charlie Crist said Tuesday. The deal, announced at…
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, May 18, 2008 (ENS) – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Thursday announced adoption of two river basin management action plans about 100 miles apart – both of which will require better stormwater management measures. The Long Branch Basin Management Action Plan, developed in partnership with Orange County and the Florida Department of…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, March 8, 2008 (ENS) – South Florida experienced a severe water shortage during Water Year 2007, more than a foot below historic averages for the region. From May 1, 2006 to April 31, 2007, low rainfall reduced flows across the entire region, according the annual report released Tuesday by Florida state…
ORLANDO, Florida, March 4, 2008 (ENS) – The Everglades snail kite is getting some help nesting this year from the South Florida Water Management District. Each year, usually in the middle of March, the district begins to bring down the lakes of the Kissimmee Chain to create the flood storage necessary during the hurricane season,…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, January 8, 2008 (ENS) – The past two years have been the driest back-to-back calendar years in South Florida since rainfall recordkeeping began in 1932, meteorologists at the South Florida Water Management District confirmed today. The 2006-2007 rainfall total of 83.63 inches district-wide displaces by nearly an inch the previous low…
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, January 2, 2008 (ENS) – A lawsuit by three environmental groups seeking to force the South Florida Water Management District to obtain federal discharge permits for pumping water into Florida’s largest lake has attracted a large number of opponents. Nine states and dozens of agencies and organizations filed legal briefs in…
NAPLES, Florida, December 26, 2007 (ENS) – The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board has authorized $1.5 million for a city of Naples stormwater improvement project benefiting Naples Bay. The district funds are part of the total $7.7 million effort. The funding will allow the city to implement a broad range of stormwater improvements,…
CAMP SPRINGS, Maryland, December 20, 2007 (ENS) – Some drought relief is anticipated in parched sections of the United States, but for many areas the long drought is expected to persist or intensify from January through March 2008, according to the latest U.S. Drought Outlook issued today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. Drought conditions are…
From left: Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. December 17, 2007 (Photo courtesy DOI) TALLAHASSEE, Florida, December 17, 2007 (ENS) – The governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today agreed upon a revised schedule…