Those of you who have lived in the Tampa Bay region for decades probably have noticed the better water quality in the bay and other local waterways due to intensive cleanup efforts, stricter environmental rules and actual consequences for those who pollute.
But ever since Governor Rick Scott took office, and despite his claims that he’s an environment guy, those latter two factors in Florida’s environmental gains have gone largely by the wayside, according to a report by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility out this week originally reported on by the New Times Broward-Palm Beach .
Every year, PEER looks at the number of cases Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection opened, citations it issues to polluters and fines the state collects as a result.
Their findings?
Florida is currently enforcing its laws against pollution with all the tenacity and vigor of a Humboldt County Ultimate Frisbee ref.
DEP has opened significantly less cases, and issued about 85 percent fewer citations last year than 2010, the year before Scott took office in 2011 (the latter year being the one climate change, sea-level rise and ocean acidification disappeared in Florida’s eyes).
While cases were up somewhat in 2014 from 2013, compared to 2010 there’s been an 85 percent drop in investigations into possible environmental violations.
When Charlie Crist was governor, the state investigated over 1,500 cases of possible environmental transgressions. Four years later, that number was well under 300.
Sure, maybe fewer individuals and companies are polluting. But that’s an enormous maybe. After all, 85 percent is a big number, especially when potential polluters know the governor has appointed people to top DEP positions who, as he does, give zero craps about the environment as long as there are enough golf courses, forests to hunt for trophy bears and beaches to hunt for trophy wives.
The Tampa Bay area falls within DEP’s Southwest District, where there were 38 cases initiated in all in 2014 (four more than the previous year). Of the cases opened, DEP levied fines on only 37 percent of them — 14 in all — the lowest number of fines issued in the state (though the median amount of fines levied in the district did double).
The city of Largo was issued one of the highest fines, $108,750, for a violation of domestic waste regulations.
The study notes that, since Scott took office, DEP’s Southwest District alone eliminated 40 percent of its positions, 62 percent of those enforcement related.
“This lack of meaningful enforcement has not happened in a vacuum,” the PEER report concludes. “It is the result of a management staff that is primarily focused on ensuring that businesses in Florida are financially prosperous. Environmental protection is now seen merely as a tool to be used to generate business income.”
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2015.