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Another Attack On Hillsborough Wetlands

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By BEV GRIFFITHS

Published: December 3, 2007

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir, 1911.

Our Hillsborough County Commission is once again considering weakening our wetland protections, this time under the guise of helping "farmers." In a few short weeks, Hillsborough County commissioners acting as the Board of EPC will decide the fate of small wetlands located on agricultural land. If this has a familiar ring, it should.

A brief history: Earlier this year four out of seven county commissioners attempted to completely eliminate the Environmental Protection Commission's wetlands division and shift oversight to the state, which doesn't protect these small wetlands. What motivated the commissioners to do this? They were pressured by developers who want to do away with stricter, local control in order to maximize their profits by building additional homes without avoidance of impacts to wetlands.

In response to this attack, there was massive public opposition. Citizens contacted their county commissioners and many turned out for the public hearing to voice their concern. Dr. Richard Garrity, executive director of EPC drafted a "hybrid plan" - a rewrite of the entire wetland's permitting process to appease the same business owners he and his agency are tasked with regulating. The alternative was to risk losing the entire division and local wetlands oversight.

Now one of the new provisions of the hybrid plan is the "agricultural exemption."

This exemption would allow certain members of the agricultural industry - fish farmers, livestock operations, ornamental nurserymen as well as vegetable farmers - to fill in a wetland under certain conditions.

But this appears to be a thinly veiled attempt by some landowners to make it easier to convert their land use from farming to future development.

We all want to help farmers, who make an important contribution to our economy and food supply. But there are other incentives we can give them besides sacrificing our wetlands.

Now, in a surprise move, despite ongoing workshops and stakeholder meetings with EPC, Hugh Gramling, president of the Tampa Bay Growers Association, asked Rep. Rich Glorioso to sponsor a state bill that would eliminate local sovereignty over wetland decisions.

The Sierra Club supports the protection of small wetlands. They are home to amphibian species, a vital link in the food chain for hundreds of local and migratory birds. They also prevent flooding, erosion and filter pollutants.

Researchers have found that ecological well-being and biodiversity depend not only on preserving the total acreage of wetlands but on maintaining a mosaic of different types and sizes that together perform their complex and critical functions.

Write to county commissioners and ask them to streamline the wetlands permitting process but maintain the protections to small wetlands.

Write to your state legislators to ask them not to exempt agriculture from local EPC rules when they consider the bill Dec. 7.

Bev Griffiths is chair of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club.

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