March 12, 2011
Op-Ed Piece by Sanibel Vice-Mayor Mick Denham
REALLY?
The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
Abraham Lincoln --July 1, 1854 [?] Fragment on Government
Sorry, Mr. Lincoln, Tallahassee knows best
Here is the Tallahassee view of whether local cities and counties can manage the local pollution of their local waters competently: or, to use Lincoln's words "...cannot so well do for themselves..."
Senate Bill 606 "...deletes authority for certain counties and municipalities to adopt fertilizer management practices more stringent than standards of a specified model ordinance..." and -
House Bill 0457: "...deletes authority for certain counties & municipalities to adopt fertilizer management practices more stringent than standards of specified model ordinance...preempts such regulation of fertilizer to state..."
It is doubly ironic that Tallahassee thinks that locals can't manage local issues when Tallahassee has spent much time and balloons full of hot political air criticizing Washington for just precisely this - preempting States' right to the federal government. Now Tallahassee wants to preempt to itself the authority to manage that most local of issues - the quality of our local water and therefore the quality of our local environment.
Ask any voter and the voter will tell you that for Florida the environment is pretty important because - well - it's pretty. And pretty creates jobs.
Pretty means tourism.
Pretty means hotels, restaurants, travel, international visitors and people, Floridians, working to meet their needs. It would make sense wouldn't it for Tallahassee to do something about the environment? That would help job creation.
It would also make sense wouldn't it for Tallahassee to do something that local cities and counties know will help the environment: something that will make their local water cleaner and more attractive to these tourists. They have lots of choice but they like pretty Florida. They come here because locals care about pretty and therefore like to keep their water clean. Clean water is nice to swim in, breeds lots of fish for visitors to catch and makes our beaches look fabulous. Makes sense doesn't it?
Not to Tallahassee.
Tallahassee has decided that it knows better than locals how to keep their local waters clean.
Tallahassee has decided that it knows better than 20 senior academics, such globally renowned institutions as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and better than Florida's Gulf Coast University.
These guys have spent four years researching how best to keep our waters clean.
They have spent long hours through the night reading and understanding gripping tales of detection and arrest such as "A Conceptual Model Of Algal Accumulation And Transport To The Shoreline".
They have put quantities of Lagodon Rhomboides and Paralichthys Lethostigma under the microscope and very fascinating they were. They have compared the palatabilities measured by Steneck and Watling in 1985 based on algal morphology with those of Duffy and Hay based on algal tolerance in 1990 and were carried away by excitement at their conclusions.
In other words they have been doing what globally famous academics do best - researching and reporting the facts.
The result? You can read all about it in the 133 pages of the technical report: "Bioavailability and Sources of Nutrients and the Linkages to Nuisance Drift Algae" sadly not yet available in paperback or on your Kindle.
If, sensibly, you would rather have an executive summary - here it is:
1. Rain, falling on the land around the Caloosahatchee estuary, washes excess nitrogen, used as a fertilizer by your families, your friends and many farmers, into the river.
2. The river carries this downstream and the algae eat it, grow fat and multiply, then they are torn off by tide and wave and storm and dump themselves to die on our beaches. That is why they call it "nuisance drift algae": it is a severe nuisance.
3. Tourists hate it. It's ugly and smelly and they can't scoop up shells and build sandcastles. They even plan trips to avoid it.
4. Controlling fertilizer application containing nitrogen at certain times of the year can reduce algae growth and damage to our beaches. To help prevent it many cities and counties have local rules that forbid you and me to put nitrogen based fertilizers on our yards at certain times of the year.
Makes sense doesn't it?
Tallahassee doesn't think so.
Tallahassee prefers to go along with the fertilizer manufacturers who hate the thought of the consumer being restricted in any way from buying their (very profitable) fertilizer.
Tallahassee knows better than the locals who live by the side of the rivers, canals and lakes in Florida. Tallahassee knows that fertilizer manufacturers must be free of local controls whatever the cost to clean water and the tourist trade. Tourists don't vote. Neither of course do fertilizer manufacturers but they do write big fat checks that keep Tallahassee politicians in business by funding their campaigns.
Can it be that Tallahassee prefers dollars to votes - at least in between elections?
Tallahassee knows that, to prevent local authorities from reducing the sale of profitable fertilizer, it must take away local rights to control what goes into their local waters.
So Tallahassee is about to:
1. Stop local councils and counties ruling that fertilizers cannot be applied at certain times (Tallahassee knows better)
2. Legalize the application of fertilizer throughout the year (Tallahassee knows that you have been making a fuss about nothing: Tallahassee knows better)
Who is this Tallahassee that knows better? Who are the elected politicians - elected by us remember - who want to remove our ability to control pollution of local water in favor of allowing fertilizer companies to sell as much polluting nutrient as they wish?
You might like to tell them that they don't know better than you particularly the local you.
