Crist signs controversial water bill

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July 2, 2009

However, signing statement ambiguity means 'business as usual' at SRWMD

By Carnell Hawthorne Jr., Reporter The Suwannee Democrat Thu Jul 02, 2009, 01:44 PM EDT

Gov. Charlie Crist signed Senate Bill 2080 into law Tuesday, giving water management district executives complete authority to approve or deny community water use permits.

Previously, district governing boards voted on such permits.

However, a representative of the Suwannee Water Management District said Wednesday the district intends to "go about business as usual."

Crist included a signing statement with the bill urging water management boards and executive directors to continue to include surface water and consumptive use permits on board meeting agendas for the purposes of "discussion and transparency."

The signing statement - the legal authority of which is itself ambiguous - doesn't say anything about district boards continuing to vote on water use permits. However, as SRWMD Executive Director David Still noted Wednesday, "It doesn't say that we can't vote."

"Business as usual' would be good news to environmentalists, who decried passage of the bill.

"They have taken the individual right underneath the land on which we stand and own, and they have given control of it to a faceless politically appointed bureaucrat and shielded him from all outside contact by common man," said Stan Meeks, a well-known area environmentalist.

Meeks said he expects that within three to five years, the quality and quantity of local and state waterways will suffer severely from passage of the bill.

"We have lost control of the most valuable commodity in our lives," Meeks said.

Other components of Senate Bill 2080 include transferring water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades National Park in an effort to preserve the state wetland. Also, the bill carries a clause that allows homeowners to convert their lawns into "Florida-friendly" yards, shielding them from previous loopholes, in addition to the reenactment of Florida's five water management districts for the next five years.

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