Hillsborough Farmers Given Leeway To Fill Small Wetlands

TAMPA - The fate of frog ponds in Hillsborough County took center stage Thursday when the Environmental Protection Commission agreed to give farmers greater leeway in dredging and filling small wetlands after more than two hours of debate.

About a dozen environmental advocates trekked to the County Center to oppose the measure, saying it opens the door for more bricks, mortar and asphalt. They predicted that developers who couldn't otherwise destroy a pond or marsh would buy land that received the agricultural exemption for construction.

County commissioners, sitting as the EPC, voted 6-2 to allow up to a half-acre of wetlands destruction for land that remains in agriculture at least five years. They instructed EPC staff to draft quarterly reports on the acreage affected.

The exemption for small, isolated marshes and ponds applies only if farmers have received approval through a state environmental management program.

Commissioners Rose Ferlita and Kevin White voted against the measure.

Speaking in favor of it were agriculture representatives Hugh Gramling, president of Tampa Bay Wholesale Growers; Dale McClellan, president of the Hillsborough County Farm Bureau; and bureau board member Roy Davis.

Stephen Gran, Hillsborough's agricultural industry development manager, said the exemption will benefit farmers, though he said they did not push for the change. He said "true farmers" will be watching the results as closely as environmentalists and regulators to be sure would-be developers don't abuse the exemption.

Members of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club said isolated ponds and marshes provide critical foraging areas for endangered birds, along with flood control and other environmental benefits.

EPC staff members said the exemption is expected to benefit mostly row crop farmers such as strawberry growers. They said farmers will not be able to use the exemption to dig up or fill a wetland unless they demonstrate a need under recognized farming practices.

The move follows heated debate that started last year when a majority of the EPC board voted to eliminate the EPC's wetlands division. Public outcry last summer led commissioners to keep the division amid promises by EPC Executive Director Rick Garrity to streamline permitting.

Garrity and Bob Stetler, EPC wetlands division director, said the exemption does not weaken the county's long-standing wetlands protections, generally recognized as more stringent than the state's. They said they do not expect more exemptions, but EPC will continue tightening the rule's language to give people who want to modify wetlands more definitive guidelines.

"I can't tell you we don't have angst in the future about what projects might come before us," Stetler told the board.

Terry Flott, chairwoman of the United Citizens' Action Network, said she fears that officials are whittling away at wetlands protections, knowing that people can't continue taking time off work to keep up with the changes and attending meetings to protest.