Crist should block bad water bill

No long ago there would have been little doubt that Gov. Charlie Crist would veto legislation that limits public involvement in water-use decisions. After all, he has been a proponent of both open government and environmental stewardship.

But he has also been a proponent of growth management, and that didn't stop him from signing legislation last week sabotaging growth controls and making it easier for developers to build sprawling projects without concern for road costs. In all likelihood, taxpayers at large will get stuck with the tab.

Crist would gain further favor with the special interests that pushed the growth management bill if he signs legislation that minimizes public participation in water-permit decisions.

Senate Bill 2080, proposed by Sen. JD Alexander of Lake Wales, strips the state's five water management district boards of their authority to grant permits to tap water supplies or destroy wetlands. Board members are appointed by the governor.

Instead, the district executive would approve permits. There would be no public hearing. Citizens would have to negotiate a bureaucratic process rather than making their case to board members.

Only permits rejected by the director would go before the board - so developers and other permit seekers would be given every opportunity to get what they want.

On the other hand, should the permit be approved, opponents would be required to file a petition for a formal hearing, a costly burden.

The governor should listen carefully to Dick Batchelor, an Orlando businessman and former lawmaker who chaired the Florida Environmental Regulation Commission for five years. The ERC develops state pollution regulations, a process that requires public hearings.

Batchelor warns, "To give a single bureaucrat the opportunity to recommend, without challenge, an environmental permit that impacts so many citizens who cannot be represented is an awesome power grab by the bureaucracy."

He says in contrast to the present system, where the ultimate decision is made in public view by the water management board, Alexander's scheme "will completely destroy the open process."

It also would set a dangerous precedent for having staff make decisions without public participation. Batchelor points out that same rationale would allow the Public Service Commission staff to set utility rates without either public hearings or the vote of the governor-appointed PSC board.

The change also would subject district directors, who are hired by the boards but whose appointments must be approved by the state Senate, to considerable political pressure.

Just last year, Southwest Florida Water Management District Director Dave Moore's reappointment was held up, reportedly because he was not as supportive of a proposal to pipe Tampa wastewater to Polk County as Alexander wanted.

Crist caved to developers on a bad growth management bill. He should show more spine on this slippery water legislation.