Bush Environmental Policies Have Endangered Florida's Everglades, Wetlands Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner Says

4/23/2004

From: Aimee Christensen, 202-367-0506 or 202-492-9520 (cell) or Dick Batchelor, 407-841-4311, both for Environment2004

WASHINGTON, April 23 -- President Bush's visit to Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Naples on the day after Earth Day to again claim credit for actions benefiting wetlands is an attempt by the Bush Administration to mislead Floridians about how their policies are harming Florida, according to Carol Browner, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and former head of the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation.

The well-documented policies of the Bush Administration that have impacted Florida's wetlands and especially the treasured Everglades, despite the Everglades' formal recognition by all nations of the world as a World Heritage site are discussed in the Environment2004 titled, "Destroying an American Treasure: The Bush Environmental Record in Florida," available at http://www.environment2004.org/fl_report.php. The comprehensive report states that the Bush Everglades plan primarily consists of "delaying efforts to address agricultural pollution, diverting water needed to maintain habitat and natural ecosystems, and refusing to weigh the consequences of encroaching development." (p.20)

According to Browner, who serves on the Board of Directors of Environment2004, "While the president pursues election year photo ops, he leaves in his wake three years of policies that threaten Florida's environment, the health of Floridians, and cherished treasures like the Everglades."

Overall, the report documents that many of President Bush's anti-environmental policies have benefited the special interests of corporate polluters. "These policies come at the expense of Florida's economy, which relies on tourism, recreation, and other income dependent on Florida's quality of its environment -- its air, water, and land," Browner added.

On Florida's wetlands and Everglades, the Administration:

-- Proposed eliminating Clean Water Act protections for many wetlands, streams, and isolated waters, radically departing from 30 years of legal precedent and putting over 300,000 acres of wetlands in Florida at risk. (EPA/Army Corps Memo, Jan. 15, 2003, http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/Joint_Memo.pdf)

-- Failed to enforce wetlands programs that protect against continued drainage of wetlands on farmland and continues to pursue Army Corps of Engineers projects that alone will cause significant wetlands loss of approximately 16,000 to 22,400 acres/year. (NWF, "Nowhere Near No-Net-Loss," http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/ binaryVault/Nowhere_Near_No-Net-Loss.pdf).

-- Dealt a critical blow to Everglades restoration by supporting a sugar industry backed plan to delay by 10-years the cleanup of phosphorus run-off, which comes principally from sugar farms whose owners heavily subsidize political campaigns in Florida. (p.20)

-- Encouraged the rapid development of the Everglades when the Army Corp of Engineers ignored its own environmental impact statements (EIS) and permitted more than 3,800 acres of wetland drainage and the filling of almost 1 million-acres. (p.21) "By ignoring the historic policy of 'no net loss' of wetlands, the Bush Administration is allowing unrestricted growth, sprawl and overdevelopment. In reality, we have been losing wetlands by administrative indifference and lack of enforcement. We are paving over that which makes this paradise," said Clay Henderson, chairman of the Florida Conservation Alliance, and member of the Florida Committee of Environment2004.

"We are pleased to see President Bush highlighting Florida's special places like the Rookery Reserve, but instead of staged photo ops, we need real leadership that will ensure wetlands are protected and the Everglades restoration process is pursued with integrity and not stalled by inaction and pandering to polluters," said Dick Batchelor, former chair of Florida's Environment Commission, former state legislator, and member of the Florida Committee of Environment2004.