By Neil Armingeon
Guest Commentary

posted May 4, 2009 - 9:24:30am

Guest Commentary by Neil Armingeon

Readers of Susan Hughes’ recent guest commentary cheering the siphoning of the St. Johns River had a right to wonder if Hughes even attended the recent meeting of the Water Management District Governing Board.

I know she was there; I saw her; she chaired the meeting. But, her one-sided comments reflect that she is just parroting the script the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) staff wrote for her. Using bureaucratic speak, the Governing Board chairwoman rationalizes — no, sanitizes — one of the most disturbing hearings I’ve attended in two decades of environmental activism.

Although the Governing Board did vote to allow Seminole County to divert the river’s water to initially water lawns, Mrs. Hughes conveniently fails to mention that she broke a 4-to-4-vote tie among the board members. Half the board quite sensibly opposed siphoning millions of gallons a day from the river.

Does a one-vote margin sound like an overwhelming endorsement of this ill-conceived idea? Let’s examine some of those who voted in favor of Seminole County’s withdrawals.

Mike Ertel, a Seminole County elected official, voted for a project that his own county proposed. Why didn’t he recuse himself? Why didn’t the district’s lawyers tell him to recuse himself? How can Mrs. Hughes, an executive with the Jacksonville Utility, JEA, the largest holder of a SJRWMD consumptive-use permit, not realize she is in a conflicted situation? Especially now that the executive director of JEA has admitted that the utility is, itself, considering taking water from the St. Johns River?

Why shouldn’t the public suspect quid pro quo?

This squeaker of a vote is only part of the story. What happened in Palatka, under Mrs. Hughes’ leadership, goes far beyond the numerical vote count.

The SJRWMD knew a large crowd was going to Palatka for the public hearing, and the district failed to act accordingly. Countless citizens were turned away. Many, many people were told they would not be allowed to speak and were told to leave.

The violation of people’s right to attend was the tip of the iceberg. Weeks before the hearing, the district began to block e-mails from citizens who were trying to send comments to the Governing Board members.

An attorney for the district confessed that the agency had blocked 19,000 e-mails, including e-mails from the St. Johns Riverkeeper Web site, Save the Manatee Club, the Welaka Woman’s Club, and 36 individuals.

Citizens’ rights to contact their officials were compromised by the SJRWMD, and the citizens’ constitutional rights were violated.

Mrs. Hughes describes the vote as “difficult.” If so, the failure to hear from everyone who wanted to be heard, in person or by e-mails, was a grave mistake. Since the real test is whether the siphoning was in the public interest, what those who were excluded had to say may have moved one vote.

For those of us who were allowed to attend and experienced the injustice, we are left with the gnawing feeling that the deal was done; the hearing, such as it was, showed that the SJRWMD, as currently managed and constituted, has failed the public, failed the river, and turned its back on its mission.

— Armingeon is the Riverkeeper, the name both of his position and the nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the St. Johns River. Send him e-mail at narming@ju.edu.

— narming@ju.edu

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