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Activists Fight Loss Of Frog Ponds

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

Updated: 01/21/2008 08:56 pm

TAMPA - Regulators characterized it as the potential loss of a "nominal amount" of wetlands, but environmental advocates said allowing farmers to dredge or fill small ponds or marshes without replacing them whittles away at Hillsborough County's long-standing wetlands protections.

At a hearing in Tampa, opponents of an exemption approved last week said frog ponds provide critical wildlife habitat and foraging ground, as well as flood control and aquifer recharge. Some also questioned whether the exemption to certain wetlands regulations would help farmers or developers.

"This agricultural exemption has loopholes big enough to drive a bulldozer through," said Mariella Smith of Ruskin, a Tampa Bay Sierra Club member. She said allowing farmers to destroy wetlands up to a half-acre without providing the justification or replacement previously required invites developers to buy land and lease it for agriculture to get a filled parcel that otherwise would be unsuitable for building.

"It paves the way for these places to be paved over," said John Hendershot, another Sierra Club member.

County commissioners sitting as the Environmental Protection Commission approved the exemption 5-2, with Rose Ferlita and Kevin White voting no. Ferlita said the proposal needed more time to develop, and White said he was opposed to wiping out wetlands without replacing them.

Hugh Gramling, chairman of Hillsborough's Agriculture Economic Development Council and president of Tampa Bay Wholesale Growers; Dale McClellan, chairman of the Hillsborough County Farm Bureau; and another Farm Bureau board member, Roy Davis, spoke in favor of the exemption.

Davis said government regulations like wetlands protections cost farmers money.

"If you want farmers to continue to farm, you have to create a financial atmosphere in which the farmer can continue to do it," Davis told the board.

County Commissioner Jim Norman, one of four board members who voted in June to eliminate the EPC's wetlands division, said Hillsborough growers must compete with farmers who only have to follow less stringent state and federal regulations.

Rick Garrity, EPC's executive director, said staff proposed allowing the exemption for land that remained in agriculture for at least seven years to reduce the likelihood of development. Property owners who build homes or businesses on the land before seven years pass must provide mitigation, or compensation, for the destroyed wetlands.

At the urging of agriculture leaders and two advisory committees, commissioners decided the exemption would apply to farmland that remains in agriculture for at least five years.

Garrity noted that farmers also must be approved through a Southwest Florida Water Management District program that encourages environmentally sensitive farm practices to receive the exemption.

Turnout was considerably less than last summer, when a preliminary vote by four commissioners to dismantle the EPC's wetlands division drew overflow crowds.

Commissioners then agreed to keep the regulatory division intact after Garrity promised to streamline permitting procedures under what he called a "hybrid plan."

Commissioners said their initial vote was reacting to complaints that land developers wanting to alter or destroy wetlands have to deal with local, state and federal agencies, all with different requirements.

Generally, the measure approved Thursday exempts property owners using land for "bona fide agricultural activities" and who hold state permits for disturbing marshes of less than a half-acre from the county's traditionally more stringent requirements for avoiding or replacing wetlands. Officials estimated the county has about 835 wetlands that size on land zoned for agriculture.

Critics said agriculture operations received relief from what farmers have described as burdensome regulations pertaining to man-made ditches and cow ponds. The EPC exempted those from the wetland rule in August.

Garrity and other EPC staff members said they are fine-tuning the wetlands rule, not weakening it.

In an open letter sent by e-mail last week, Terry Flott of Seffner, chairwoman of United Citizens' Action Network, said promises not to weaken wetlands protection "ring hollow."

"A vote to eliminate the wetlands division in August would have been political suicide, but now with the aid and implementation of Dr. Garrity's 'hybrid plan,' the commissioners can achieve the same end result, only this time it shall be death by a thousand cuts," Flott wrote.

She said last week that she and other environmental watchdogs will continue to monitor future changes to the wetlands rule, but she said most people can't take time off from work to keep fighting to protect it.

Late last year, Gramling drafted a bill that would have stripped the EPC of regulatory authority over wetlands on agricultural land. He withdrew the proposal just before the Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation was to consider it.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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