Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin Water Allocation - Following the expiration of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Compact on August 31, 2003, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and the Army Corps of Engineers, among others, have been engaged in litigation in three federal district courts over the Corps’ operation of federal reservoirs in the ACF River Basin.  On October 19, 2003, U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre, in Alabama v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, Case No. CV 90-BE-1331-E (N.D. Ala.) (“Alabama litigation”), issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the Corps and Georgia from entering into or implementing any water supply contracts involving the ACF Basin, including a proposed Settlement Agreement filed in Southeastern Federal Power Customers, Inc. v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, Case No. 1:00CV02975 (“D.C. litigation”).  U.S. District Judge Penfield Jackson has scheduled a hearing for January 20, 2004 in the D.C. litigation to consider the validity of the proposed Settlement Agreement, in light of Judge Bowdre’s order.  Judge Bowdre has stayed the Alabama litigation pending a ruling on the validity of the proposed Settlement Agreement by Judge Jackson.  Finally, Florida's motion to dismiss is still pending in Georgia v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, Case No. 2:01-CV-0026-RWS (“Georgia litigation”).

Update on Florida Forever Projects - On December 5, 2003, the Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) members voted to add nine new projects to Florida’s premier land acquisition program, Florida Forever. The 10-year, $3 billion Florida Forever program established by Governor Bush conserves environmentally sensitive land, restores waterways and preserves important cultural and historical resources.  The recommendations will go before the Governor and Cabinet members for final approval.  For more information on the nine projects and to see which species the projects will help protect, see www.dep.state.fl.us/lands/; a summary of the projects follows:

• Camp Blanding to Osceola National Forest Ecological Greenway (153,000 acres), Baker, Bradford, Clay and Union counties – It connects a contiguous area of more than a half a million acres of publicly owned or managed lands.
• Flagler County Blueway (8,000 acres), Flagler County – This acquisition includes most of the undeveloped and available land east of I-95 and closes gaps and gains public ownership to some of the last remaining hammocks, marshes, flatwoods and swamps.
• Lake Santa Fe (10,735 acres), Alachua and Sanford counties – The project contains historic cypress fringe and significant swamps of undisturbed wetlands.
• San Pedro Bay (44,000 acres), Madison and Taylor counties – The area on Florida’s Gulf coast is characterized by forested wetlands, marshes and planted pines and constitutes one of the largest undeveloped areas of the state not in public ownership.
• Searcy Estate (600 acres), Wakulla County – The project is bordered on two sides by the Apalachicola National Forest and provides watershed protection for the Ochlocknee River
• Upper Shoal River (12,035 acres), Walton County – Located on some of Florida’s highest elevations, the acquisition will conserve headwater streams and creeks.
• Lake Talquin/Rocky Comfort Creek Addition (400 acres), Gadsden County – The project includes one-mile of lake frontage that was targeted for waterfront development.
• Mill Creek (12,000 acres), Marion County – Acquired as a conservation easement, the Mill Creek project will enhance existing wetlands by prohibiting future timber harvesting.
• The Harris School, Monroe County –The Jepha Vinning Harris School built in 1909, represents the first public high school in the Florida Keys. 

Piney Point Phosphates - On July 20, 2003, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection began an emergency operation to remove treated water from the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County and disperse it over a wide area in the Gulf of Mexico.  The emergency move, conducted pursuant to an EPA permit, was necessary to alleviate the threat of a catastrophic spill of dangerously high levels of acidic water in above grade ponds at the site.  The high levels of water, which were the result of heavy rains during the summer and hurricane season, threatened to breach the containment dikes and cause damage to property, human life and the ecology of Bishop’s Harbor and Tampa Bay.

     The treated process water was dispersed in the Gulf approximately over 120 miles offshore in areas where the depth of the water was in excess of 600 feet.  The dispersal was done gradually and safely over a very large area to ensure appropriate dilution and allowed for at least a 35-mile buffer from designated marine reserves.  Scientists have closely observed the dispersion activities, monitored water quality in the Gulf of Mexico and used satellite imagery to ensure that the dispersal did not harm the environment.  This was the first time the Department had taken control of a site like this through a bankruptcy proceeding.  

COASTAL PETROLEUM COMPANY v. DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, and THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT TRUST FUND - On December 3, 2003, the First District Court of Appeal per curiam affirmed the Leon County Circuit Court’s finding that there was no taking of Coastal Petroleum’s leasing rights as a result of the denial of a permit to drill in Florida State waters.  The alleged taking concerned 400,000 acres of sovereign submerged lands Coastal leased from the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund in 1947.  The lease was later amended, limited and modified by a 1976 Memorandum of Settlement between the parties.  Paragraph six of the 1976 Agreement required Coastal to secure “permits from all appropriate state environmental protection agencies in compliance with the then existing laws and regulations, prior to any drilling or mining.”  Therefore, Coastal’s right to drill was a conditional right.  Coastal applied for a permit to drill in one location within the 400,000 acres.  The Department denied the application in 1998.  The land that is the subject of the Coastal leases is in two tracts stretching from the eastern panhandle to the shores near Naples.  Litigation on the southern tract remains pending in Leon County Circuit Court.