Our DEP does not have the will to adequately protect our wetlands. This transference of power will serve only to fast track permits to further exploit our natural resources.
SOS for Florida’s wetlands: Time is running out for government action | Opinion
Amber Crooks Guest columnist
June 11, 2022
They cite the state’s lack of resources, familiarity, or political will to adequately tackle the more than 5,000 permit applications to destroy, alter or impact wetlands they have received. We agree and urge state and federal leadership to immediately begin the process of returning the program to the Army Corps of Engineers.
The state of Florida is close to deciding on immense and disastrous development projects that will forever change southwest Florida and the fates of our endangered species, wetland flow-ways, drinking water resources, and cherished public lands. Having access to all of our foundational federal laws — which Florida’s program circumnavigates – is absolutely essential at this very moment.
When vying to take over wetland permitting, Florida only estimated 130 applications a year in southwest Florida; the real-world figures show the state vastly underestimated the number and complexity of the permitting they would be responsible for when awarded the federal program.
Keep in mind these transferred or new applications are the total received by Department of Environmental Protection only within the last year and a half. If Florida’s program continues to languish without intervention, the state may continue to allow some developers to move forward without adequate mitigation for wetland impacts (and some will get a free pass to avoid the regulatory process completely), as Florida continues to use a less-protective standard for identifying federal wetlands.
The Rural Lands West project never received the green light with the Army Corps of Engineers, despite permitting attempts over the last decade. This project, and its companion called Bellmar, will form a new massive development over six miles long and two miles wide. These eastern Collier County developments are within a flow-way and panther corridor, and next door to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge (the most densely-inhabited lands for the endangered Florida panther).
More than 19,000 new residents would add massive traffic flows onto roadways that are already deadly for the panther. Just a few miles away, located at hotspot for Florida panther roadkill, Immokalee Road Rural Village is also under review by the Department of Environmental Protection….
The distress call has been rung about Florida’s wetland permitting program. It is time for action to protect our critical watersheds and save our swamps.
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