Bembry bill could endanger wetlands

A Big Bend legislator's attempt to shield himself and fellow farmers from expensive water management regulations could prime the pump for massive development across the state, environmentalists warn.

"This is a major policy shift and it's one of the worst bills I've seen this session," said Eric Draper, executive Drector of Audubon of Florida. "Water is a resource that belongs to everyone in the state."

The bill, HB 421, by Rep. Leonard Bembry, a Democrat and a tree farmer from Greenville, would shift the final authority for approving an agricultural exemption to water regulations from the state's five water management districts to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Critics say the move would allow landowners to sidestep permits and wetlands mitigation when they turn farms into shopping centers and housing developments.

Bembry, whose district includes Franklin County, denied he has a conflict of interest, saying he is only trying to preserve an agricultural exemption that has been available to legitimate farming operations since 1984.

There is a safeguard against abuses, he said. The bill would require land to be used for farming for four years before it's eligible for the exemption. "When we have to get a permit to farm, we're in trouble," Bembry said.

Bembry owns 900 acres in rural Northwest Florida. He acknowledged that he wants to convert from pine trees to row crops, which would require a more intense use of the land.

When a companion bill, SB 1174, passed the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation last week, Alachua Farm Bureau lobbyist Frank Leary defended it.

The bill could have saved Florida Blue Farms in Alachua County more than $70,000, he said. That's the amount the landowners paid for an engineering study before water-management regulators were convinced Tat the operation qualified for an agricultural exemption, Leary said. The owners want to convert 120 acres from pine trees to blueberry plants, he said.

"There's a lot of conversion going on right now because of commodity prices," Leary said.

The agriculture exemption was threatened by a 2009 legal dispute between the St. Johns River Water Management District and A. Duda and Sons Inc. Duda sued when the district determined that a permit was required for a series of ditches Duda built on an 18,000-acre Cocoa Farms property in Brevard County.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled mostly in the district's favor.

Bembry's proposal and other bills percolating in the Legislature, including a move to do away with the Department of Community Affairs and to repeal a statewide septic-tank inspection program, would seriously threaten ecological gems like Wakulla Springs, Northwest Florida activists say.

"Unmanaged development would be the real problem," said Jack Leppert, a board member of Friends of Wakulla Springs.

Northwest Florida Water Management District executive director Doug Barr said the bill would not likely make a big difference in the Big Bend area, where water regulators routinely grant agricultural exemptions. District board member Pete Antonacci said he has yet to study the bill, but he likes the idea of switching authority from appointed boards to the Department of Agriculture headed by a commissioner who is elected statewide.

"As a policy matter, I can't say I'm offended by that," he said.

Jim Ash is the Florida Capital Bureau Chief for the Tallahassee Democrat.