Streamlined Permitting Process Sparks Concerns

The Southwest Florida Water Management District wants to streamline its permitting process by giving its staff and executive more authority to grant or deny water and land use permits.

Allowing staff to make the decisions for routine permit requests to pump water or develop a tract of land instead of taking the applications to the district's governing board is a sensible way to speed up the procedure and save tax dollars, officials from the water management district known as Swiftmud contend.

But environmentalists worry that taking even routine permit requests out of the governing board's purview is a recipe for trouble.

"Efficiency and streamlining should not be placed ahead of the district's ultimate responsibility, which is to protect natural resources," said Joe Murphy, Florida director of the Gulf Restoration Network.

The changes would affect two categories of permits.

The first is for water use. Currently, the district's 13-member governing board reviews all water use requests to pump more than 500,000 gallons per day.

Under the new policy, the district's executive director and staff would have the authority to grant or deny requests to renew an existing permit for amounts between 500,000 and 10 million gallons per day only if the renewal is for the same amount of water.

Permit renewals for the same amount of water account for about 45 percent of the applications, district spokesman Michael Molligan said.

"We're trying to find that balance between making sure (an applicant) is following all the rules and the protections are in place, and at the same time operating as efficiently as possible and not wasting taxpayer dollars," he said.

The permit applications would still be held to the same standards and the decision of the staff would have to be defendable in court, Molligan said.

The second change would apply to environmental resource permits. Under existing rules, the governing board votes on any permits for projects greater than 100 acres in size, that have at least acre of wetland, or both.

The new rules would increase the project size to 500 acres. The wetland threshold, however, would stay the same, Molligan emphasized.

These permits tend to have a minimal environmental impact and provoke little public input, he said.

Changes to both rules would save some 2,300 hours of staff time each year, Molligan said.

The permits for both water use and land development will still be challengeable by the public, Molligan said. Citizens can ask to be placed on a mailing list and receive all the correspondence between the district and an applicant.

Environmentalists aren't convinced.

The Sierra Club groups in Swiftmud's 16-county region will likely send a letter of opposition to the rules change and urge the governing board to reject the plan, said Phil Compton, regional representative in the Sierra Club's St. Petersburg office.

"There is definitely concern that a very important part of the board's function would be taken out of the public realm and the public discourse," Compton said.

It's also troubling that the applicant, the executive director or a governing board member can request that a permit request come before the governing board, but a member of the public cannot, Compton said.

While the district might consider the permit requests routine, "you're still talking about millions of gallons of water or hundreds of acres," said Murphy, the Gulf Restoration Network director. Murphy is also conservation chair for Hernando Audubon, which is currently reviewing the proposal, he said.

The governing board is appointed by the governor to represent the public, and the board's monthly meetings are the best way to make sure that permit requests get a proper airing and the board is held accountable for decisions.

"It's a whole lot easier for me to speak in front of the governing board and urge my friends and neighbors to do the same than to try and track down a staff member," Murphy said.

Murphy also worries about the precedent that such a change would create.

"In a year from now are we going to review this and expand those numbers?" Murphy said. "We need to be increasing public participation and citizen oversight. Anything that moves away from that is moving in the wrong direction."

The Swiftmud governing board meeting is slated for 1 p.m. today at the district's headquarters, 2379 Broad St., Brooksville. For more information, call 796-7211.