Remember the increasing chunk of the budget environmentalists want to embed in the Constitution to buy conservation lands -- 33 percent of annualnet revenues from the excise tax on documentsfrom here to kingdom come?
And the hand-slapping, fist-bumping celebration during the governor's signing of a billion-dollar allocation for Everglades restoration?
Massive amounts of money at issue for land acquisition, not so much for drinking water infrastructure. Oh, maybe a little effort in the Everglades. It's always good PR to talk about drinking water. But the truth is, infrastructure to bring safe drinking water to Floridians is a ragged Cinderella in the fairyland where Florida environmentalists live and land is king.
I've been meaning to write this column for a while. Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency gave me the giddy-up I needed.
The EPA's fifth Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, released Tuesday, identifies and quantifies investments the nation needs over the next 20 years to build or repair or replace its crumbling drinking water infrastructure. Try to get your head around a jaw-dropping $384 billion to fillthe needs of 73,400 water systems across the country, as well as American Indian and Alaska Native Village water systems.
Florida needs to come up with $16.5 billion. Yes, that's sixteen-and-a-half billion dollars.Look at the report for yourself -- page 18 (page 32 of the PDF). It breaks out how much the EPA says Florida requires in water infrastructure.
The Sunshine State is one of only eight states whose critical water infrastructure is more than $10 billion needy.
We're in bad shape. We need a plan. Anyone got one? Environmentalists, lawmakers, Gov. Scott -- anyone?
I don't know whether $1 billion for specific Everglades projects is all needed now or could have waited. But at times like this, when one of the state's critical issues is identified -- and it turns up as a jaw-dropper -- I'm struck by the colossal arrogance of environmentalists who believe theirs is the only cause juste.
Much of the existing infrastructure in the Sunshine State has reached or is approaching the end of its useful life: aging and deteriorating pipelines; nonexistent treatment plants; nonexistent, unfinished and inadequate storage reservoirs; nonexistent and inadequate intake structures, wells and spring collectors.
The EPA has grant programs to help. But they won't come close to providing the $16.5 billion full-fix price-tag -- and what if enough systems in already-overstretched towns and cities crack and crumble at the same time?
Oh, yes, and by the way: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the worlds largest and oldest publisher of civil engineering information, produced a report card in May called American Infrastructure for 2013. The Society looked at everything, not just drinking water -- and offered a bleak insight on the U.S.s crumbling foundation.
On an A-F grading scale, the country managed a meager D+, a failing grade by any academic standard. Among the components of the assessment, drinking water earned a D, as did aviation, hazardous waste and roads.
Still think we need more land? Think we need a constitutional amendmentto pay for conservation lands that in this fiscal year would lock up$425 million; in 2015-2016, $550 million; in 2021, well over $700 million?
I understand that most environmentalists mean well, I really do. They fancy themselves saviors of the planet. I get that. But it doesn't take away from the fact that in Florida, their land grab is nothing more than an arrogant and self-serving attempt to generate income and attention for themselves and their lawyers, and how dare any of the rest of us question their motives.
I live in hope that later on they will undergo a Great Epiphany, and a light will suddenly turn on, and they will be able to see that Florida needs more than land for "future projects" it can no longer afford to build. So much more.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (228) 282-2423.
