"Red Tide" Rick Scott (9-17-2018)

DMK · 2018-09-19T22:49:31.538Z

Cynic:

You have some catching up to do.

I know it is all in vogue with righties to deny that humans have any effect on the environment, but you need to inform yourself. There are serious problems in both FW and marine systems in Florida that are not to be dismissed.

What I dispute is the “global warming” claim. Look to big Sugar as a major cause, not septic tanks inspections. The water through our filtering system, the Everglades, has been diverted. WE FLORIDIANS have taken issue with this for years. It is neither a democrat nor a republican issue but an issue for all Floridians.

I live 20 minutes away from Sanibel Island and have seen the destruction first hand. So my dear, please get off your high horse about assuming who here needs to educate themselves.

DMK · 2018-09-19T22:50:09.098Z

Cynic:

So his cuts are not so wise knowing this history, huh?

Was Rick Scott Governor in 1994?

Cynic · 2018-09-19T22:50:54.158Z

Read the OP

DMK · 2018-09-19T22:51:29.832Z

Read the posts. Educate yourself.

Cynic · 2018-09-19T23:02:39.897Z

You really have no clue how reductions in watershed pollution are driven if you think a $700 million cut from the state’s water management districts and reduced staffing at Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection does not have an impact.

DMK · 2018-09-19T23:06:20.400Z

Cynic:

You really have no clue how reductions in watershed pollution are driven if you think a $700 million cut from the state’s water management districts and reduced staffing at Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection does not have an impact.

Great, show scientific evidence that the cuts impacted red tide. Don’t address the causes that have been attributed to the contributions of red tide, go ahead and blame cuts in government.

Cynic · 2018-09-19T23:24:37.012Z

See, this is why you are clueless about the subject. Industries only respond to NOVs, cuts and reduced staffing reduce NOVs.

DMK · 2018-09-19T23:28:11.311Z

Okay, you have no research to have a discussion with and only have mud to sling instead.

“You’re clueless, etc.” is your best effort.

Cynic · 2018-09-19T23:42:35.317Z

Tampa Bay Times

Under Scott, Department of Environmental Protection undergoes drastic change

In January, Gov. Rick Scott stood in front of a room full of Department of Environmental Protection employees and praised their hard work.

Just to start the conversation, Scott has:

Slashed funding for the DEP and the five water districts;
Laid off veteran DEP and water district employees, including Everglades scientists;
Put the DEP in the hands of people connected to the industries the agency regulates;
Emphasized helping industries avoid fines instead of prosecuting polluters.
When Jeb Bush was governor, it took an average of 44 days for the DEP to approve a permit. Cutting that to two days means it’s now as easy to get a pollution permit from Scott’s DEP as it is to buy a Coke from a vending machine, said Jerry Phillips, a former DEP attorney who’s now in charge of the Florida chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Under Scott, the driving force in the DEP became “a hatred of regulation in general and in particular environmental regulations,” one laid-off DEP veteran, Mark Bardolph, said.

Scott’s administration has cut the monitoring on the inflow of nutrients into the lake, has dismissed studies showing nitrogen and phosphorous levels in the lake are increasing, and gutted the Department of Environmental Protection and the state’s water management districts that enforce water protection laws, which resulting in dramatically fewer enforcement actions (i.e. NOVs). He even asked the Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver from federal monitoring entirely…

And as for “scientific evidence”, well that is an area that Rick Scott has ALSO decimated:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article215993665.html

“No one is out on the lake collecting water samples of the bloom,” he said last month. “We’re flying blind.”
While one crisis after another hit Florida, state and federal funding that paid for a massive coastal network with nearly three decades of information dwindled from about 350 stations to 115, according to Florida International University’s Southeast Environmental Research Center.
That included Pine Island Sound, ground zero for the worst of the current red tide fish kills where sampling was halted in October 2007, and shutting down a 49-station network across the Florida Shelf started in 1995.

It goes on and on, he has has an impact in every aspect of this issue, from permitting, to enforcement, and monitoring. Like I said, GET A CLUE.

Cynic · 2018-09-19T23:55:00.167Z

And to reiterate, this is about the perception in the upcoming election, you can wave at clouds all you want about scientific proof, but all that matters is If you are going to be the “regulation cutting guy”, you take the associated risks… if those regulations can be connected to subsequent issues they were enacted to prevent, you take the hit.

As I posted above, you are literally flying blind at the moment with a ghost ship of a DEP. Stupid.

DMK · 2018-09-20T00:00:14.051Z

So your scientific evidence showing cuts in the water management district and FL EPA are directly correlated with the last red tide (and BTW green algae bloom) are where?

You might actually be fun to speak with if you weren’t so condescending and defensive.

Cynic · 2018-09-20T00:04:28.876Z

That seems to be the modus operandi, hard to prove there is a problem if you fired everyone who monitors/enforces and collects the data…

For someone who seems to be so insistent on data to justify a relationship, do you at least admit THAT is a problem?

DMK · 2018-09-20T00:11:27.160Z

Did he fire EVERYONE who collects data? Is the government our only source? Could it be possible that big sugar has been lobbying our politicians for decades and no matter if R or D is not to be trusted?

Do you know (just for one example) what Mote Marine Laboratories is and what they do? How about the Universities in Florida?

There are so many private industries out there trying to solve this problem as well. Using some pretty innovative stuff.

Cynic · 2018-09-20T00:16:22.069Z

You can wave your hands all you want, but he has had a significant impact on permitting, enforcement and monitoring; the voters will decide soon enough if they support the changes he made.

DMK · 2018-09-20T00:19:10.978Z

Cynic:

You can wave your hands all you want, but he has had a significant impact on permitting, enforcement and monitoring; the voters will decide soon enough if they support the changes he made.

Okay, I’ve tried to engage with you in a discussion. For some reason, you have a need to be condescending and defensive.

Good luck with that.

Cynic · 2018-09-20T00:24:10.474Z

No problem, enjoy your toxic waterways and shores.

biggestal99 · 2018-09-20T11:35:44.800Z

DMK:

Are they boo-hooing over the 9 million in grant money to help communities? Or that he declared a State of Emergency?

Red Tide has been documented since the 1800’s in Florida.

After cutting 700,000,000. 9,000,000 a mere drop in the bucket, so to speak

too little, too late.

Allan

biggestal99 · 2018-09-20T11:37:09.747Z

DMK:

There are so many private industries out there trying to solve this problem as well

so how much dough have they coughed up.

A lot less than 700,000,000 I betcha.

Allan

DMK · 2018-09-20T11:57:28.914Z

Part of the State of Emergency:

Continuation of enhanced water monitoring and testing by the Department of Environmental Projection and FWC to give scientists the best possible data to work with.

DEP continues to perform enhanced water testing, beach cleanup and public outreach, as well as the deployment of additional biologists to assist communities dealing with naturally occurring red tide.

Janet_Miller · 2018-10-06T13:05:26.329Z

Yeah I moved from Phoenix to Tampa in 1978, & remember Red Tide being in the news then.

It isn’t something new.