Florida looks to increase number of wetland mitigation banks, credits available to developers

The state has 131 wetlands mitigation banks available today.

Mitigation credits for wetlands, while still controversial among conservationists, remain a high-demand service in Florida. Meanwhile, the state only has so much space in existing banks.

Water quality officials told Florida lawmakers they intend to open another 30 sites on top of the 131 mitigation banks already in operation in Florida. Mitigation banks today cover almost 227,500 acres of land around the state.

“The bankers are out there hustling,” said Christine Wentzel, a regulatory manager for the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Developers under Florida law may offset the impacts of projects on wetlands by buying and maintaining areas near wetlands that can be restored to serve the same ecological purpose. In a presentation to the House Water Quality, Supply and Treatment Subcommittee, Wentzel discussed how credits are calculated and defended the value of the program to the state’s ecology.

The state looks to grow the available number of mitigation banks as state and federal environmental officials navigate a changing legal environment. The U.S. Supreme Court in May issued a ruling governing what waters fall under the full legal purview of the United States.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency last month issued new guidelines based on that, but officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) remain in communication about jurisdictional matters.

Treasure Island to close Sunset Beach for emergency dune restoration project

Beachgoers should expect closures to last for at least a month.

Treasure Island has announced closures along Sunset Beach while the city works to restore badly damaged dunes after Hurricane Idalia.

An ongoing battle between Pinellas County and the Army Corps of Engineers over perpetual easement agreements halted beach renourishment projects in Sand Key, Treasure Island and Long Key.

Last week, county officials found renewed optimism about funding the full cost of restoring eroded beaches, bolstered by a new analysis from county staff.

Now, the city of Treasure Island and the county are moving ahead to restore portions of Sunset Beach.

Closures will begin Wednesday [Sept. 21st] for emergency beach dune restoration south of Caddy’s, 9000 West Gulf Blvd.

Pinellas County to hold public meeting about Anchoring Limitation Areas

Treasure Island to undergo emergency beach dune restoration following Hurricane Idalia

TREASURE ISLAND – Officials are undertaking an emergency beach dune restoration following the damage from Hurricane Idalia.

“The project is not a beach renourishment, which is on hold by the Army Corp of Engineers,” the city said in a press release.

Pinellas County and the City of Treasure Island are tackling the project in the area between the Tern parking lot and Beach Pavilion on the south end of Sunset Beach at 8000 West Gulf Boulevard and 9940 Gulf Boulevard.

Officials are asking owners to sign temporary construction easements, which require notarization in front of two witnesses, by Wednesday, Sept. 20 so the project can begin.

The three-year easement is for access and dune restoration for properties that are 20 feet east of the Coastal Construction Control Line.

Pinellas County is working on an emergency beach restoration project

Pinellas County wants to shore up beaches that were heavily eroded by Hurricane Idalia. But county officials say this is not intended to replace the stalled beach renourishment project.

The county is in the process of developing an emergency plan to protect shorelines that were most impacted by the hurricane. This could include reconstructing dunes or temporarily moving sand to areas that were washed away in the storm.

Pinellas spokesman Tony Fabrizio said they're going to focus on the hardest-hit areas, including Sunset Beach and Treasure Island.

"Those measures could include temporary erosion control structures and dunes," he said. "And the county is cautioning property owners and residents to not do their own work or hire a contractor. Some of these contractors have actually gone out and solicited work. Because this really requires in many cases federal, state and/or local permitting."

He said this is not intended to replace the proposed beach renourishment project, which is on hold as federal environmental regulators are requiring every beachfront land owner to sign a property easement.

Biden administration restores the power of states and tribes to review projects to protect waterways

States and Native American tribes will have greater authority to block energy projects such as natural gas pipelines that could pollute rivers and streams under a final rule issued Thursday by the Biden administration.

The rule, which takes effect in November, reverses a Trump-era action that limited the ability of states and tribes to review pipelines, dams and other federally regulated projects within their borders. The Environmental Protection Agency says the new regulation will empower local authorities to protect rivers and streams while supporting infrastructure projects that create jobs.

“We actually think this is going to be great for the country,” said Radhika Fox, assistant administrator for water. “It’s going to allow us to balance the Biden administration goals of protecting our water resources and also supporting all kinds of infrastructure projects that this nation so desperately needs.”

But Fox acknowledged at a briefing that the water rule will be significantly slimmed down from an earlier proposal because of a Supreme Court ruling that weakened regulations protecting millions of acres of wetlands. That ruling, in a case known as Sackett v. EPA, sharply limited the federal government’s jurisdiction over wetlands, requiring that wetlands be more clearly connected to other waters such as oceans and rivers. Environmental advocates said the May decision would strip protections from tens of millions of acres of wetlands.

Researchers: Coastal ecosystems will drown if world warms above 2°C

After studying more than 1,500 coastal ecosystems, researchers say they will drown if we let the world warm above 2°C

Much of the world's natural coastline is protected by living habitats, most notably mangroves in warmer waters and tidal marshes closer to the poles. These ecosystems support fisheries and wildlife, absorb the impact of crashing waves and clean up pollutants. But these vital services are threatened by global warming and rising sea levels.

Recent research has shown wetlands can respond to sea level rise by building up their root systems, pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process. Growing recognition of the potential for this "blue" carbon sequestration is driving mangrove and tidal marsh restoration projects.

While the resilience of these ecosystems is impressive, it is not without limits. Defining the upper limits to mangrove and marsh resilience under accelerating sea level rise is a topic of great interest and considerable debate.

Our new research, published in the journal Nature, analyzes the vulnerability and exposure of mangroves, marshes and coral islands to sea level rise. The results underscore the critical importance of keeping global warming within 2 degrees of the pre-industrial baseline.

A USF professor’s photos show Idalia’s devastating effects on Pinellas beaches

Ping Wang, a professor in the USF School of Geosciences, said renourishing the beaches is expensive. But it's more than just aesthetics.

Hurricane Idalia may have made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region, but its impact has been felt along Pinellas County beaches.

Storm surge caused by the Category 3 storm resulted in significant damage to the beaches, and now officials are determining how to restore them amid a dispute over property rights.

Ping Wang is a professor in the University of South Florida School of Geosciences who specializes in coastal research.

He discussed the efforts Tuesday on the radio program "Florida Matters".

He said renourishing the beaches is expensive. But as he points out, it's more than just aesthetics.

He also provided before-and-after photos that show the widespread destruction to shorelines across Pinellas County.

Mote Marine Lab hosts workshop on red tide mitigation tools

Tampa Bay Estuary Program solicits proposals for new, innovative ways to assess Old Tampa Bay

Red tide sets manatee deaths along Florida’s west coast apart, experts say

Water quality and seagrass health play a big role in marine mammals’ survival anywhere in the state.

Red tide in the water and in the air contribute to manatee deaths on Florida’s west coast, setting the region’s waterways apart from other troubled areas of manatee mortality in Florida, researchers say.

In the long run, the loss of seagrass connects both coasts’ investigations into the marine mammals’ well-being, but, according to Dr. Thomas K. Frazer, dean and professor in the University of South Florida College of Marine Sciences, the reasons behind the decline in water quality can often be linked to different factors.

“The last several years have been very difficult for manatees, for a variety of reasons. Particularly on the east coast, and similarly, maybe to a lesser degree, on the west coast,” he said.

Seagrasses, which flourish in shallow water, are the bedrock of coastal marine life. They filter pollutants, act as a nursery to marine life and offer manatees and sea turtles their main food source.

Seagrasses also serve as a canary in the coal mine, their health and vitality an indicator of potential problems. Starting in 2016, seagrass numbers have generally declined around the state and specifically in Sarasota Bay; a warning of the decline of the delicate ecosystems along the Gulf of Mexico.

“One of the reasons why we’ve lost so many manatees in the last two and a half years is from starvation. Not boat strikes, but starving to death, due to the lapse in water quality in (Sarasota Bay), which affects their food source,” said Dr. Dave Tomasko, director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, adding the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast is the epicenter for seagrass loss and manatee deaths.

“It might be as high as 30 to 50 percent of the east coast manatee population basically starved to death in the last two and a half years,” said Tomasko.

Beachfront property owners and Army Corps remain at impasse over beach renourishment

Scores of beachfront property owners flooded into a town hall Friday on beach renourishment hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers in Indian Shores. But they didn't hear anything different from what they've been told for several years.

At issue is the Army Corps' recent decision to require every beachfront property owner to sign over an easement for access for any renourishment projects. The need has become critical for some beaches that were severely eroded by Hurricane Idalia.

But Col. James Booth, district commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, says they don't plan to waver from requiring permanent easements. He says since public tax dollars would be used for the projects, the public should have access to any renourished beach.

"The federal interest in protecting the infrastructure behind it, it does come with a requirement by law that says that I can't - as a federal agency - spend money to protect private property," Booth said. "And that's where we go to requiring these perpetual easements, so that we can come in and do the restoration on these projects after the storms have the impacts that we know they have on them."

And Booth said none of the projects proposed for Pinellas can go through without all the property owners agreeing to an easement. He said this is not impossible - it's been done recently for renourishment projects in Brevard and Flagler counties.

“Decline of Seagrasses in Tampa Bay” Story Map released by TBRPC

Seagrass meadows are thought to have covered 76,000 acres of Tampa Bay before the 1930s. 2018 marked a turning point in seagrass coverage and was the first year since 1988 where acreage declined. Since 2018, Tampa Bay has lost more than 30% of seagrass coverage.

Seagrasses are extremely vital for a healthy bay. They support thousands of marine species, store carbon, improve water quality, protect coastlines, cycle nutrients, and create habitat corridors between coral reefs and mangroves.

View Storymap »

Hurricane Idalia caused widespread pollution in Florida’s waterways

Wastewater, fuel and chemicals spilled in several parts of the state as the massive storm caused extensive flooding.

While Hurricane Idalia ravaged Florida’s Big Bend region, rain and wind from the massive storm also caused wastewater leaks, chemical dumps and fuel spills in Tampa Bay and other storm-struck parts of the state.

At least 26,000 gallons of wastewater spills, mostly raw sewage, were reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as of Friday.

In each instance, the flooding was so severe that officials said it’s not possible to tell exactly how much wastewater was released. Instead, estimates were provided.

In Tampa Bay and neighboring tributaries like the Manatee River and Boca Ciega Bay, winds and high seas toppled boats, sending their gasoline into the waters below. Hurricane Idalia’s floodwaters are also being blamed for a kerosene leak that sent flammable liquid into a St. Petersburg mobile home park.

The early snapshot of Idalia’s environmental impacts, gleaned from state and federal pollution reports, underscores the typical reality following a major hurricane’s landfall: Waterways under the storm’s crosshairs get stirred with human sewage, gas and whatever else may have mixed with storm surge.

Flesh-eating bacteria lurk in post-hurricane floodwaters. Here’s how to stay safe.

Cases of Vibrio vulnificus infection tend to rise after hurricanes mix fresh rainwater with salty seawater.

In the wake of Hurricane Idalia, health officials warned of a invisible threat in the lingering floodwaters: Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.

The warning comes as serious infections from the bacteria are on the rise, tied to warming coastal waters. On Sept. 1, the Centers for Disease Control issued an alert to health care providers to consider Vibrio as a possible cause of infected wounds, noting several severe and fatal cases in Connecticut, New York and North Carolina.

The rare and potentially deadly type of flesh-eating bacterium "shouldn't be taken lightly," Florida Health Department press secretary Jae Williams said. "It needs to be treated with proper respect — the same way we respect alligators and rattlesnakes."

Florida health officials started alerting residents of the potential for such bacterial infections "as soon as the state of emergency was declared," Williams said, referring to Hurricane Idalia.

Coastal areas of the state, as well as Georgia and the Carolinas, where Idalia's surges left behind standing water, were most at risk for Vibrio bacteria.

NASA scientists test new tool for tracking algal blooms

Harmful algae can endanger public health and coastal ecosystems and economies. Advances in satellite imaging are providing new ways to look at our living ocean.

By the time they were over, a series of massive algal blooms along the west coast of Florida in 2020 would be linked to some 2,000 tons of dead marine life around Tampa Bay. The human costs were stark, too, including a double-digit increase in asthma cases in Sarasota and Pinellas counties, and estimated losses of around $1 billion across economic sectors from tourism to fisheries.

Earth-orbiting satellites have been used for decades to detect algal blooms from space, enabling more frequent observations over broader areas than is possible by directly sampling the water. The most common observing technique relies on the visible spectrum to measure ocean color. However, this approach has been mostly restricted to clear sky conditions.

A recent study, led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has shown how one space-based instrument called TROPOMI, or TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument, was able to peer through thin clouds to uncover powerful clues about Karenia brevis (or K. brevis), the microscopic algae responsible for the 2020 blooms. TROPOMI’s enhanced ability to “see” and measure fine wavelengths of light could potentially help federal agencies and local communities better forecast and manage harmful outbreaks. (TROPOMI flies aboard the European Sentinel 5P spacecraft, which was launched in 2017.)

The scientists examined the West Florida Shelf, a stretch of continental crust arcing from the Panhandle to the Keys. From its origins in other parts of the Gulf of Mexico, K. brevis is carried toward the coastline on strong winds and ocean currents. Recent research has shown that western Florida, like many coastal communities, may be increasingly vulnerable to outbreaks because these algae flourish in nutrient-rich, warm conditions fueled by runoff, fertilizer, and climate change.

Pinellas beach officials asking feds to jumpstart beach renourishment after Idalia

The mayor of Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas County is imploring the federal government to jumpstart beach renourishment after Hurricane Idalia washed away more of the coast. But that would take changing some of the fed's requirements for private property owners.

Many Pinellas beaches have been devastated by Hurricane Idalia.

Indian Rocks Beach officials said Friday half of the city's beach access points are closed, and it will be months before they can reopen.

Mayor Cookie Kennedy said if they don't get any more sand in renourishment projects, the next storm could potentially wipe out the entire beach.

But a dispute among private property owners and the Army Corps of Engineers has put the restoration projects on hold.

Taxpayer money would be used to replace the sand, so the Army Corps requires beachfront property owners to provide a permanent easement within the construction area. But some property owners won't sign.

"We are greatly concerned with the damage that occurred from Hurricane Idalia," Kennedy said. "We ask the Army Corps to reverse their decision in May concerning the coastal communities in Pinellas County and renourish our beaches."

Kennedy said half of the city's beach access points are closed indefinitely. And there's a four-to-six-foot drop-off where the sand has been wiped away.

"We do agree that if you're on private property, you should have easements," she said. "But over 98 percent of this county - where beach renourishment is taking place - is not on private property."

The county pays for the local share of the nourishment projects. The federal share is 65% and the local share is 35%.

What is happening is a few private property owners are stopping beach renourishment from happening because they don't want to provide access. And this could imperil not just the beach - but their own homes. The Army Corps is saying if the public pays to put a beach where there would no longer be a beach, then the public now owns part of that beach.

City Manager Gregg Mims said Indian Rocks Beach alone had $600,000 damages to beach access points and boardwalks.

He said if they don't get any more sand, the next storm can potentially wipe out the entire beach.

Eroded Pinellas County beaches further damaged by Hurricane Idalia

A narrower beach means less protection for homes and businesses along the coast. But a dispute over federal guidelines has delayed beach renourishment projects in Pinellas County.

After storm surge and high tides from Hurricane Idalia closed barrier islands and gulf beaches, residents were assessing the damage while Treasure Island officials toured beaches that are already considered critically eroded.

Meanwhile, The City of Indian Rocks Beach has closed 14 of the 28-beach accesses due to sand loss and erosion.

Mayor/Commissioner Joanne "Cookie" Kennedy will hold a press conference Friday to discuss the impact of beach renourishment.

For years, Pinellas County has been trying to work with the Army Corps of Engineers on renourishment projects. But a dispute over federal guidelines has delayed those plans.

The federal agency is requiring property easements from beach community homeowners before taxpayer dollars are used to restore the beaches.

Pinellas County, which administers the beach renourishment projects across the county, was recently notified that planned projects for Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach, had been halted.

The county pays for the local share of the nourishment projects. The federal share for the Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach Project is 65% and the local share is 35%.

Beach renourishment was last completed for Treasure Island in 2019.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says the entire beach along the three-and-a-half-mile Treasure Island is designated as critically eroded.

The EPA removes federal protections for most of the country’s wetlands

The Environmental Protection Agency removed federal protections for a majority of the country's wetlands on Tuesday to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The EPA and Department of the Army announced a final rule amending the definition of protected "waters of the United States" in light of the decision in Sackett v. EPA in May, which narrowed the scope of the Clean Water Act and the agency's power to regulate waterways and wetlands.

Developers and environmental groups have for decades argued about the scope of the 1972 Clean Water Act in protecting waterways and wetlands.

"While I am disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision in the Sackett case, EPA and Army have an obligation to apply this decision alongside our state co-regulators, Tribes, and partners," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

A 2006 Supreme Court decision determined that wetlands would be protected if they had a "significant nexus" to major waterways. This year's court decision undid that standard. The EPA's new rule "removes the significant nexus test from consideration when identifying tributaries and other waters as federally protected," the agency said.

In May, Justice Samuel Alito said the navigable U.S. waters regulated by the EPA under the Clean Water Act do not include many previously regulated wetlands. Writing the court's decision, he said the law includes only streams, oceans, rivers and lakes, and wetlands with a "continuous surface connection to those bodies."

What’s the connection between climate change and hurricanes?

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida. Here are some ways climate change is reshaping tropical cyclones like it

It has been a summer of disasters–and many of them were made worse, or more intense, by human-caused climate change. Wildfires burned from coast to coast across Canada. Vermont was inundated by unprecedented floods. Phoenix's temperatures topped 100 ° F for a full month. And now Hurricane Idalia, the first major hurricane of the season, is ripping across Florida and into the Southeast.

Scientists know climate change influences hurricanes, but exactly how can be a little complicated. Here's a look at the links between a hotter world and big storms like Hurricane Idalia.

For answers to these questions, follow the link below:

• Does climate change make hurricanes stronger?
• Climate change makes them get bigger faster, right?
• Does climate change make hurricanes happen more often?
• What are some of the biggest risks from stronger hurricanes? Are those changing because of climate change?
• Is hurricane season getting longer?
• It has been pretty hot in the South and the Gulf region. How will that influence the rest of the season?