It would be one thing if Florida lawmakers genuinely tried to improve
an ineffective wetlands mitigation policy. But elevating a single
private industry's interests over the state's long-term water needs is
not the answer. Changing state law so that the Department of
Transportation is more likely to purchase wetland mitigation credits
from private mitigation banks is another government giveaway
masquerading as environmental protection. Private mitigation banks may
have a role to play, but they should not be allowed to corner the
market.
Under the little-noticed mitigation bills (HB 599/SB 824),
the Department of Transportation — the largest destroyer each year of
aquifer-recharging wetlands in Florida — would be required to give a
preference to private mitigation banks when spending wetlands mitigation
money.
That would be a boon to the industry, which has seen the prices
it can command fall with the rest of Florida's real estate-based
industries. If this unfairness is not enough to kill the legislation,
this should do it: The House amended its bill to make taxpayers liable
for potential accidents caused by Amtrak on the 61-mile SunRail commuter
line in Orlando.
Mitigation banks are created when a landowner
agrees to hold restored wetland property in perpetuity, thereby creating
"credits" that can be sold to developers destroying wetlands elsewhere.
It's a different option than on-site mitigation, for example, which the
water management district can require under current law.
The state's own record with mitigation banking is nothing to boast about, as detailed in a 2006 investigative series by the Tampa Bay Times.
And in 2007, a study done for the state Department of Environmental
Protection found fewer than half of the mitigation banks reviewed had
achieved the goals required in their permits. Even the federal
government's Government Accountability Office raised concerns in 2005,
saying regulators failed to follow up after issuing mitigation bank
permits.
Nothing in these bills adequately addresses those
concerns. Instead, they further undermine the 40-year mission of the
five water management districts. Under Gov. Rick Scott, the districts
have seen a steady erosion of resources and autonomy. The governor and
the Legislature slashed their tax rates, and the local basin boards have
been eliminated. Then there's the demise of Florida Forever, the
state's once-heralded conservation program that helped water management
districts buy and preserve land needed to protect watersheds.
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