The Legislature took a step toward taking on federal permitting in 2005, but a DEP report later that year concluded changes in both federal and state law would be needed to do what lawmakers wanted. Johns River Water Management District as part of a land swap, although the management district had already approved its own permit for the development. The developer eventually agreed to have easements banning development on a lot of the property and to outright give other parcels to the St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman, noting that some projects have a lot at stake.Ī 2005 Corps decision that denied a permit to a developer at Freedom Commerce Center off Baymeadows Road derailed a plan to fill 167 acres of wetlands in a tract that held headwaters to both Pottsburg and Julington creeks. Projects seeking federal permits deserve careful attention, said St. Groups ranging from the state chamber of commerce to the Florida League of Cities and Associated Industries of Florida have backed the legislation, which is opposed by groups including Florida Conservation Voters, the Save the Manatee Club and Environment Florida. How that’s going to work at the state level is still unknown to us.” “All of those resources are available to the EPA. Fish and Wildlife Service, it works with agencies that have expertise in oceanic issues, experts in national wildlife refuges and national parks,” Cullen said. “The way they will be looked at and by whom they will be looked at is still in question,” Sierra Club lobbyist David Cullen told Albritton and other members of a committee minutes before a vote approving the measure. ”That is good government.”īut critics argue the state would give up valuable background by handling reviews solo. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, told a House committee last month. With that much overlap, taking over the federal program means that “from a government resources perspective, we’re saving 85 percent,” Rep. The permitting change has been pitched as a step to increase efficiency, with the state’s environmental department reporting that 80 percent to 85 percent of the projects seeking federal permits also get a different type of state permit. 1402) is on the chamber's calendar for consideration Wednesday. 7043) allowing the state agency to take over that job, and a bill in the Senate (S.B. Environmental Protection Agency.īut Florida’s House of Representatives has approved a bill (H.B. Army Corps of Engineers reviews applications now for so-called “dredge and fill” permits to disturb wetlands, working in cooperation with the U.S. An effort to move important wetland protections from the federal government to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection is worrying environmental activists while gathering heavy support in Florida’s Legislature.
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