Regulators Said "Go Easy On FL Panhandle Polluters", DEP Staff Say

[seafan]

Dec 17, 2005
Regulators Said Go Easy On Polluters, DEP Staff Say
By MIKE SALINERO

TAMPA - High-level environmental regulators in the Florida Panhandle told their employees to go easy on polluters, stopping inspectors from levying fines and other penalties, according to sworn statements from state workers.

Employees with the Northwest District of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection say they were discouraged from taking tough action against chronic polluters. Some employees said their efforts to crack down on violators disappeared into a "black hole" at the Pensacola headquarters.
Their testimony was given under oath as part of an internal investigation in June by DEP's Office of Inspector General, detailed in documents recently obtained by The Tampa Tribune.
Despite the sworn statements, the DEP investigative bureau exonerated all upper-level district officials except program administrator Connie Lasher. She was reprimanded.

snip

The concerns Fancher referred to were complaints by employees who said the cases they developed against polluters were reversed by management without explanation.
"It is just sort of ... don't take enforcement, and that is that," said Craig Landry, an enforcement coordinator, in his statement.

The Northwest District long has had a reputation for lax enforcement of environmental laws, according to environmental groups and longtime Panhandle residents. In 1999, an Escambia County grand jury blasted DEP regulators for allowing groundwater to be contaminated with radium, dry-cleaning chemicals, pesticides and petroleum products. The panel even recommended that then-District Director Bobby Cooley be fired.

"You see this pattern at DEP over the years of people being put in charge of the Pensacola office who are either completely in bed with the regulated community or are patsies of the Legislature and the governor's office," said Linda Young, southeast director of the Clean Water Network and a Panhandle native.

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http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGBATSOGBHE.html

[gulfcoastliberal]

1. I live in this area and the pollution and cancer rates are unreal!

Chemical companies allowed to inject millions of gallons of waste every day. A Int'l Paper mill that discharges toxic effluent into wetlands. Multiple untreated superfund sites, one named "Mt. Dioxin" that required moving a neighborhood. This article is not surprising at all. I can't wait to move out of this toxic hellhole! :puke:

Thanks for posting this!

[philb]

2. Horseshoe Bayou was pristene sea food area off Destin; DEP study

said that permit for Sandestin Marina should be denied because it would contaminate
sea food area in that area. But higher ups over ruled the science and approved the
permit. A year later the oysters, etc. had high levels of arsenic, chromium, and copper
(from CCA treated pilings,etc.) There was also petroleum based pollution.
Sea food is no longer usable in the area.
I guess tourism is just more important than sea food. But where will the world get its
sea food? Its a matter of record that most from the Gulf Coast has dangerous levels of
toxics such as mercury, PAHs, etc.
http://www.flcv.com/flhg.html

[blindpig]

3. Apalachicola oysters, anyone?

Though those great oyster beds are not immediately threatened they were only a few years back when a golf community was slated to be built right outside of Eastpoint. Fortunately it was scotched and much of the land was bought by the state to become Tate's Hell Conservation Area, some most excellent habitat. Of course, that was before Jeb.