Press Room
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Press Releases
Fertilizer Industry Fights Local Freedom
Polluters attack as locals seek solutions: Press release from the Sierra Club, Clean Water Network of Florida, and PURRE.
Op-Eds
Dissolved Oxygen
Environmental agency letting polluters set the rules by Linda Young
- Pensacola News Journal on 3/16/06
- Jupiter Courier on 2/24/06
- Florida Today on 2/20/06
- Bradenton Herald on 2/17/06
- Stuart News on 2/15/06
- Port St. Lucie News on 2/15/06
- Fort Pierce News Tribune on 2/15/06
- Vero Beach Press Journal on 2/15/06
Pulp & Paper: Buckeye
More Trouble Looms for Ailing Gulf by Linda Young
- Ocala Star Banner on 2/5/06
- Cedar Key News on 1/28/06
- Florida Times-Union on 1/17/06
- Orlando Business Journal on 1/13/06
- Apalachee Tortoise on 1/6/06
- Port St. Lucie News on 1/2/06
- Vero Beach Press Journal on 1/2/06
- Fort Pierce News Tribune on 1/2/06
- Stuart News on 1/2/06
- Pensacola News Journal on 12/26/05
- Twin City News on 12/22/05
- St. Petersburg Times on 12/22/05
- Panama City News Herald on 12/21/05
- Centre Daily Times (PA) on 12/21/05
- Miami Herald on 12/21/05
- St. Joe Star on 12/21/05
- Tallahassee Democrat on 12/20/05
- Tampa Tribune on 12/27/05
Gulf of Mexico
Drilling is wrong response to storms by Linda Young
- Tallahassee Democrat on 10/17/05
- Gainesville Sun on 10/16/05
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune on 10/11/05
- Panama City News Herald on 10/11/05
- Bradenton Herald on 10/10/05
- Pensacola News Journal on 10/9/05
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel on 10/8/05
Katrina serves as a warning to mend the links between our agencies by Frank Muller-Karger
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune on 9/18/05
Dead marine life is the consequence of lax regulation by Linda Young
- Miami Herald on 10/16/05
- Centre Daily Times (PA) on 10/16/05
- Ocala Star-Banner on 9/18/05
- Pelican Press on 9/15/05
- Pensacola News Journal on 9/3/05
- Twin City News on 8/25/05
- Charlotte Sun on 8/25/05
- Panama City News Herald on 8/24/05
- Bradenton Herald on 8/21/05
- Tampa Tribune on 8/19/05
- Orlando Sentinel on 6/29/05
- Gainesville Sun on 7/2/05
- Tallahassee Democrat on 7/3/05
- Pensacola News Journal on 7/3/05
- Miami Herald on 7/6/05
- Tampa Tribune on 7/6/05
- Port St. Joe Star on 7/6/05
- Daytona Beach News-Journal on 7/28/05
Pulp & Paper: Pipelines
Florida's Dirty, Rotten Scandal by Linda Young
- Tallahassee Democrat on 5/30/05
- St. Petersburg Times on 5/30/05
- Jacksonville Times-Union (abbreviated letter to the editor) on 6/5/05
- Daytona Beach News-Journal on 6/8/05
- Baldwin Islander (AL) on 6/8/05
- Mobile Register on 6/12/05
- The Franklin Chronicle on 6/8/05
- Apalachee Tortoise on 9/05
Wetlands
DEP won't safeguard wetlands by Linda Young
- Florida Today on 12/12/05
- Twin City News on 11/24/05
- Tallahassee Democrat on 11/22/05
- Orlando Sentinel on 11/16/05
Protect Remaining Clean Water by Linda Young
- St. Petersburg Times (as a letter to the editor) on 4/24/05
- Tallahassee Democrat on 4/25/05
- Daytona Beach News Journal on 4/25/05
- Miami Herald on 4/28/05
- Port St. Joe Star on 5/12/05
- Panama City News Herald on 5/12/05
- Tampa Tribune on 5/13/05
- Gainesville Sun on 5/14/05
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel on 05/16/05
- Crestview News Bulletin on 05/18/05
Letters to the Editor
Pulp & Paper: Buckeye
That toxic dead zone will move on and on by Wilton Sturges
Re: "Don't grant permit to pollute Gulf" (My View, Dec. 20).
Linda Young writes that the DEP permit would allow Buckeye to create a "three-mile dead zone" around a pipe extending into the Gulf of Mexico. Actually, that's the good news. But the toxic material in that dead zone won't simply stay there.
Suppose the weather is nice for many days, with weak winds, and the discharge from the end of the pipe is not carried away by currents but simply builds up around the end of the pipe. Then the wind begins to blow and, over the next week, blows at typical speeds so that the currents are roughly a quarter knot up to half a knot. The toxic water will be carried, nearly intact, roughly 75 miles - along the coast toward either the Shell Point and St. George Island beaches or toward the St. Pete beaches, depending on the direction of the winds.
The waste water will be stretched out into a long thin ribbon, rather than the original simple blob. If the winds blow it onshore it will not be pretty - unless the original outflow is thoroughly diluted, which seems highly unlikely. This does not sound like a good idea.
WILTON STURGES: sturges@ocean.fsu.edu
Sewage
Save Our Waters from Sewage Act by Linda Young
In March, April, and May of 2005, newspapers around the state printed Letters to the Editor that thanked the U.S. Representatives in each area for signing on to a letter opposing EPA's proposed sewage dumping policy. The Letters to the Editor also encouraged citizens to contact these Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the "Save Our Waters from Sewage Act."
The Representatives who signed on to the letter opposing the policy and who were mentioned in the Letters to the Editor were: Allen Boyd, Corrine Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Jim Davis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mark Foley, Katherine Harris, Alcee Hastings, Connie Mack, Kendrick Meek, John Mica, Jeff Miller, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Clay Shaw, Cliff Stearns, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Robert Wexler.
At the end of May, thanks to all the pressure from citizens and elected officials, the EPA dropped its dangerous sewage policy.
The letters were printed in papers around the state, including:
- Port St. Joe Star on 5/12/05
- South Florida Business Journal on 5/6/05
- Panama City News Herald on 4/29/05
- High Springs Herald on 4/28/05
- Boca Beacon on 4/15/05
- Diario Las Americas on 4/15/05
- Fort Pierce Tribune on 4/11/05
- St. Augustine Record on 4/10/05
- Key West Citizen on 4/9/05
- Florida Keys Keynoter on 4/8/05
- Tavernier Reporter on 4/7/05
- Taylor County Times on 4/6/05
- Ft. Myers News-Press on 4/6/05
- Lakeland Ledger on 4/5/05
- Miami Herald on 4/4/05
- Gainesville Sun on 4/4/05
- Northwest Florida Daily News on 4/1/05
- Wakulla News on 3/31/05
- Wauchula Herald-Advocate on 3/31/05
- Dixie County Advocate on 3/31/05
- Havana Herald on 3/31/05
- Ocala Star-Banner on 3/30/05
- Tallahassee Democrat on 3/29/05
- Destin Log on 3/26/05
- Pensacola News Journal on 3/19/05