Florida Whistleblower Loses Job Over Park Leak

When James Gaddis was asked to begin mapping hotels, golf courses, and pickleball courts in nine Florida state parks this past July, he felt that the project was "secretive and atrocious." Gaddis, who worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, found the project "unethical," as there was no public involvement. Knowing it could risk his $49,000 a year, he leaked documents showing what was being planned in the state parks.

According to an article in the Tallahassee Democrat ("State parks whistleblower overwhelmed by praise and more than $207,600 in donations"), the single dad found the project "unethical," as there was no public involvement, violating Florida's Sunshine Law. He was subsequently fired from his job for leaking the documents.

Once the plans to bulldoze parts of different state parks for the project came to light, public outcry was swift and firm against the addition in state parks, causing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to put a stop to the plan.

To read the rest of the story, including praise for James Gaddis, go to "State parks whistleblower overwhelmed by praise and more than $207,600 in donations".

Plastic 'Increasing Exponentially' within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

A seventy-nine thousand ton plastic garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean now occupies "an area three times the size of France," according to an article printed in The Washington Post and reprinted in the Tampa Bay Times.

Surveyors using 18 boats and two planes found that "(t)he amount of plastic found in this area...in 'increasing exponentially'."

While the garbage patch has been described before, the latest survey estimates the plastic contained in the patch has a 4 to 16 times larger mass than previously thought.

To read the article in The Washington Post, click here. Click here to read it in the Tampa Bay Times.

"Modest Interest" to Federal Offshore Oil Auction, Setback to Trump Admin

A federal auction of 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil production has garnered only "modest interest" from the oil industry, according to an article in The New York Times.

According to the article ("Auction of Oil Drilling Tracts in Gulf Draws Tepid Interest"), "Companies bid on only 1 percent of the acreage," with only $125 million going to the government.

Major oil companies are taking a "wait and see" approach to exploration at this time, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie stated.

While the administration is attempting to "revive exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico," that production has been hurt by sliding oil prices during the last four years. Also, drilling in both the gulf and other deep waters has "slowed considerably" following the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion.

In January, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that Florida would be exempts from President Trump's offshore drilling plan, according to another article in the Times ("Drilling Off Florida Is Still on the Table, Interior Official Says").

The Trump administration has lifted a drilling bad imposed by President Barack Obama. However, the lack of interest in the auction may help the environment, at least for the short term.

To read the main article in its entirety, click here. To read the earlier article, click here.

Florida Nuclear Plant Cooling System Leak Threatens Drinking Water

A leak in Florida Power & Light's reactors at the Turkey Point nuclear plant has allowed polluted water to enter Biscayne Bay, according to a recent article in The New York Time.

The article ("Nuclear Plant Leak Threatens Drinking Water Wells in Florida"), published March 22, states, "A recent study commissioned by the county concluded that Turkey Point’s old cooling canal system was leaking polluted water into Biscayne Bay," thereby polluting surface water, along with the bay's "fragile ecosystem." It is also allowing "a large saltwater plume" to move towards wells supplying "drinking water to millions of residents in Miami and the Florida Keys."

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

The Corporate Lawyer Who Became a Corporation's Nightmare

What happens when a lawyer follows his conscience and uses his training to help right a wrong? You'd be surprised. Or, maybe not, if you know a the type of lawyer who gives lawyers a good name.

Wilbur Tennant's cows were dying at an alarming rate, and he was sure he knew who was responsible: the DuPont chemical company, according to The New York Times' Magazine. When he couldn't get local "politicians, journalists, doctors and veterinarians" as well as lawyers to pay attention, he reached out to Rob Bilott, an attorney whose grandmother had lived in Vienna, W.Va., a suburb of Parkersburg, where Tennant lived. Bilott nearly hung up on Tennant, until he realized the connection.

The Times' Magazine's story, "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare", due out in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine, tells how Bilott, an environmental lawyer who defended corporations - including working several times with DuPont's lawyers - decided to take Tennant's case and later became, in the words of the Magazine, "DuPont's worst nightmare.

The article is a must-read for anyone who cares about the environment. To read the article in its entirety, click here.

FL Voters Approved Conservation Funds; Legislature Has Other Ideas

When Florida voters cast their ballots in November's election, they sent a message to elected officials: Protect Florida's natural habitats, including the Everglades, according to The New York Times. But the Florida Legislature has other ideas on how to spend the $750 million pool set aside to "buy, conserve and restore land and water resources."

During November's election, 75 percent of Florida's voters approved constitutional Amendment 1, which was intended to boost Florida Forever, a conservation program "that had been hard hit by state budge cuts," The Times reports.

However, during the current Florida Legislative session, lawmakers shifted money to other programs and projects.

"We don't need to be known as the boarding-land state," State Senator Alan Hays, the Republican chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, said about the money.

To read the entire New York Times article, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/us/florida-legislature-has-its-own-ideas-for-voter-approved-conservation-fund.html?ref=us&_r=0.

Fracking: Study Shows Waste Dangerous

A recent study states that state regulations which governs hazardous oil-and-gas waste poses a danger to human health, as well as the environment. An article titled Fracking Wast Puts Public At Risk, Study Says (Bradenton Herald) reports that "states disregard the risks" due to decades-old regulations, putting the public's health and the environment at risk

The study, released by the environmental organization Earthworks, "studied the rules governing of the often toxic waste..."

To read the Bradenton Herald article in its entirety, click here. To read more about Fracking, as well as other environmental issues, go to Inside Climate News.

Activists, Riverkeeper: JEA, Utility Industry Distorting Facts

Environmental, state and local activists are taking a stance against JEA and other utility organizations that have criticized President Obama's plan to cut the nation's power plants' pollution, calling his proposal a "good start" to helping rid waterways and air of dirty technology's effects. St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman has said that JEA, as well as industry lobbyists, are "working overtime to distort the facts," scaring the public while undermining the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule, adding, "...[C]oal-fired power plants are the largest source of toxic water pollution in the United States," The Florida Times-Union reports.

Bud Para, JEA's chief public affairs officer, said, "JEA's coal plants are not the coal plants Lisa's referring to," adding that JEA's coal-powered modern plants comply with federal regulations.

While Florida utilities, including JEA, have invested in other sources to generate electricity, coal remains a major source of fuel, with coal being used to generate "about 65 percent" of JEA's power this year.

The EPA's proposed rule aims at a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, according to the Times-Union article.

In an earlier Florida Times-Union article ("JEA: Obama's pollution reduction plan 'most disruptive energy policy in modern times'"), JEA stated that President Barack Obama's proposed plan would adversely affect Florida's economy and strip utilities of needed fuel flexibility. JEA added that the proposed rule is "the most disruptive energy policy proposal in modern times" and that the EPA's goal "would quickly render coal-fired power plants obsolete."

JEA (formerly Jacksonville Electric Authority) currently owns and operates an electric system, as well as a water system, according to the JEA website.

To read The Florida Times-Union articles further, check out "Riverkeeper: JEA, utility industry distorting facts on President Obama's pollution-reduction plan" and "JEA: Obama's pollution reduction plan 'most disruptive energy policy in modern times'".

U.N. Study: Ozone Layer Shows Sign of Recovery

After years of depletion, the ozone layer surrounding the earth is showing "its first sign of recovery," according to a United Nations study. Experts said it was largely due to global action, including a 1987 ban on man-made gases, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

While the study also showed that the ozone hole over the Antarctica has also stopped growing, it is expected to be "about a decade" before it starts to shrink.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned or phased out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); these were once widely used in spray cans and refrigerators.

To read the Orlando Sentinel article in its entirety, click here.

BP About Claims Administrator: 'Court Should Replace Him'

BP Plc has asked a U.S. court to fire the lawyer in charge of paying out compensation to those affected by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, stating that the lawyer had not disclosed an alleged conflict of interest. The motion, filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, states that attorney Patrick Juneau advocated for claimants before being appoint by the court to run the claims program, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

This was the latest in a series of challenges filed by BP, claiming that Juneau had "been too generous and liberal when approving claims," the Orlando Sentinel article states.

While BP originally expected the class-action settlement to cost $7.8 billion, it has since said that the uncapped program "could cost $9.2 billion and that this amount could grow."

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Cancers at PA Prison Blamed on Coal Ash

A high cancer rate among prisoners at the State Correctional Institution Fayette in southwestern Pennsylvania has been linked to a nearby coal ash dump, according to a report. The report, released by the Abolitionist Law Center and the Human Rights Coalition, also advised that the correctional facility should be closed down, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

From 2010 through 2013, eleven prisoners died of cancer, and six others were diagnosed with cancer at SCI Fayette. Only two other Pennsylvania prisons have a higher inmate death rate than SCI Fayette; both of those prisons have high geriatric populations. The investigation found that the "coal ash was the most likely cause of the inmate cancers as well as other illnesses at the facility.

Coal ash, a residue of burning coal in power plants, was used extensively in Pennsylvania during the 1960s and '70s. Its carcinogenic components include lead, arsenic and mercury.

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm based in Pittsburg while the Human Rights Coalition is a national prison reform group.

To read the entire Orlando Sentinel article, click here.

Obama Signs Sen. Nelson's Bill For Toxic Algae Research

President Barack Obama has signed a bill that would allow $82 million for research in controlling the outbreak of toxic algae. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, sponsored the bill which amends the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998. Nelson said that it would "help battle the algae that's been choking off life in Florida's waterways," according to The Palm Beach Post.

To read more about it, click here.

Endangered Everglades Birds' Numbers Climbing

An endangered species of bird known as the Everglades snail kite appears to growing in number, signaling hope for both the species as well as the River of Grass in which it lives. While the snail kites had numbered 3,600 as recently as 1999, the numbers had dropped to a mere 800 in 2008, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The bird of prey feeds primarily on apple snails, which lay their eggs just above the water line.

Between recent droughts and floods, along with manmade manipulations of the water flows and level, the next generation of snail kite food is at risk. Fortunately for the finicky species, a new snail is invading the Everglades. While the new non-native snail is not seen as a threat to the Everglades' ecosystem, it has provided "a more steady food source" for the snail kite.

To read more of the Sun-Sentinel article, click here.

Savannah River Third Most Toxic In Nation

The Savannah River (Savannah, Georgia) has been called "the third most toxic in the United States" by a nonprofit research and policy center following a report that showed more than 4 million pounds of toxic discharge were released into the river in 2010. The report, released Thursday by Environment Georgia Research & Policy Center, also stated that more than 10 million pounds of toxic chemicals had been dumped into Georgia's waterways in 2012, making it the eighth worst state in the nation. The report showed that Augusta's DSM Chemicals North America Inc. was the state's biggest polluter, dumping "more than 4 million pounds of the toxic pollution" into the Savannah River, according to The Florida Times-Union.

The Lower Ohio River-Little Pigeon River, which runs through Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, and Virginia's New River were the only watersheds found to have higher volumes of toxic pollution than the Savannah River.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Judge Allows Arkansas Case Against Exxon To Proceed

A U.S. district judge has rejected a request by Exxon to have a lawsuit over a pipeline spill in Arkansas dismissed, thereby allowing the lawsuit to move forward. Federal and state attorneys had sued Exxon Mobil Corp. over the March 2013 Pegasus oil pipeline burst in Mayflower, Ark. The rupture sent an estimated 210,000 gallons of Canadian diluted bitumen into a nearby neighborhood and cove, according to the Miami Herald. The lawsuit seeks penalties that could dwarf the $2.66 million proposed fine set by the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration.

To read the Miami Herald article in its entirety, click