Highlights
The St. Johns River Water Management District is one of five regional agencies in Florida that have authority to tax, issue water permits and regulate wetlands. The nine members of the St. Johns board meet monthly at headquarters in Palatka, Fla. They are appointed by the governor, a system sometimes criticized as giving too much power to non-elected officials. The district, run by about 700 employees, includes the St. Johns River basin in 18 counties from Georgia to Okeechobee County.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is one of five regional agencies in Florida that have authority to tax, issue water permits and regulate wetlands. The nine members of the St. Johns board meet monthly at headquarters in Palatka, Fla. They are appointed by the governor, a system sometimes criticized as giving too much power to non-elected officials. The district, run by about 700 employees, includes the St. Johns River basin in 18 counties from Georgia to Okeechobee County.
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Water district keeps its distance as other fight over wetlands tied to river it is guarding
Low-lying Wedgefield's fight to be exempted from Orange County's wetlands rules is taking place in the Florida Legislature this spring with scant information about the potential environmental consequences of the legislation. That's because the state...
Tags: Environmental Issues, Rick Scott, Tallahassee (Leon, Florida), Florida Legislature, Conservation
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Mellow Mushroom pizza franchise a step closer to opening in Mount Dora
Picture this: a pizza pie emerging from a narrow oven on a flat paddle, its wispy tendrils of steam twirling into the air from the big chunks of mushroom and bubbly mozzarella, cradled in a buttered crust. Please stop drooling. It's unseemly. The...Tags: Restaurant and Catering Industry, Mushrooms, Business, Money and Monetary Policy
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Florida rivers getting sicker, Sentinel investigation finds
Florida's rivers are in trouble. That's what the Orlando Sentinel found after a yearlong evaluation of some of the state's biggest and smallest, most urban and remote, cleanest and dirtiest, protected and abused rivers. Of the 22 rivers studied,...
Tags: Wildlife, Crime, Law and Justice, Wekiva River, Environmental Pollution, Sports
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Florida rivers' low profile puts them at risk
For an imaginary moment, swim with Hueland Todd Brown as he descends into a deep, caramel-colored river, feeling his way with his hands and hoping nothing bites. Brown lives by the Choctawhatchee, a wild river that coils through remote forests in the...
Tags: Leu Gardens, Justice System, Wetlands, Judges, Wekiva River
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Water district wisely postpones decision on sale of land near Eustis
Here's a partial victory for those who speak up and carry on at government meetings. Staffers at the St. Johns River Water Management District were recommending that board members sell 800 acres east of Eustis because it's "surplus." The land would have...
Tags: Property, U.S. Postal Service, Lake Apopka
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NCBA, PLC support private property rights lawsuit in Supreme Court
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) joined the Public Lands Council (PLC) in filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a challenge by a landowner who is suing Florida's St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) to protect...Tags: U.S. Supreme Court, National Government, Orange County (Florida), Government, Politics
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Niagara Bottling permit shows how water district has been weakened
The St. Johns River Water Management District has been gutted of some of its most experienced scientists in the last two years. Shortly after taking office, Florida Gov. Rick Scott fired the directors of the five water districts statewide and cut funding...Tags: Lawyers, Tampa, Hurricane Sandy (2012), Justice System, Crime, Law and Justice
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St. Johns River Water Management District shouldn't sell Lake County conservation property
What does "forever" mean? For Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the definition likely won't be the same as yours. His idea of the "Florida Forever" land-buying conservation program is more like "Florida Until I Say Otherwise." And now he has said otherwise....
Tags: Lake County (Florida), Government, Wekiva River, Auction Service, Water Pollution
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Reservoir fight pits potato chips vs. lush lawns
The throaty roar of Central Florida's water wars was audible a few weeks ago as tractors that had planted 440 acres of potatoes back in January dug up their freshly grown crop from fields some 30 miles southeast of Orlando.
This particular conflict,...Tags: Potatoes, Osceola County, Potato Chips, Seminole County, Orange County (Florida)
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State rejects proposal to let hydrilla spread in Lake Apopka
The Florida agency responsible for fish and wildlife has decided to pass on a controversial proposal that would have allowed an invasive aquatic plant known as hydrilla to infest more of Lake Apopka, where it survives now in spite of regular dousing...Tags: Environmental Issues, Conservation, Lakes and Ponds, Wildlife, Endangered Species
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Reservoir fight: Cocoa would sell water to Orange — but for a profit
As tensions in Florida rise over the control of scarce water supplies, the Brevard County city of Cocoa, a heavy user of water pumped from rural Orange County, is offering to sell the increasingly precious resource to Orange County's utility — for a...Tags: Church and State Relations, Potatoes, Brevard County, Lakes and Ponds, Population and Census
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OUC hires water cops: For 1st time, Orlando utility is sending out sprinkler patrols
As Orlando residents sleep in for an extra hour Sunday morning, a new kind of law enforcement will be out in city neighborhoods by the crack of dawn: water cops.
The end of daylight saving time marks the start of a four-month period when lawn...Tags: Fines, Punishment, Punishment
Apr 29, 2013
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Mar 6, 2013
|Column| Orlando Sentinel
Jan 16, 2013
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Dec 18, 2012
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Dec 5, 2012
|Column| Orlando Sentinel
Dec 7, 2012
|Story| Aberdeen News
Nov 14, 2012
|Column| Orlando Sentinel
Nov 11, 2012
|Column| Orlando Sentinel
Jun 18, 2012
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Jun 24, 2012
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Jan 8, 2012
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
Nov 6, 2011
|Story| Orlando Sentinel
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