From the 20^th floor of the Wachovia “Gulf Life” Building, the Jacksonville staff of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) saw sheets white foam blow across the St. Johns River and become wedged in heaps against bulkheads on the north bank of the river. Up close, the foam looked like egg whites whipped to stiff peaks. A man in Fleming Island said the stuff was three-feet thick. An industrial chemist sampled some foam near the Shand’s Bridge with a swimming pool test kit, and he said it contained cyranic acid, a pool chemical.

The following day on Friday, Nelson boarded a water taxi to get a better look himself. He said he wanted to  take a sample directly to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for testing. St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon joined Nelson in the bow of the boat with a cluster of television cameras, photographers and reporters trained on them. The  state Department of Environmental Protection Northeast Florida Director Gregory Strong, the city’s Environmental and Compliance Director Ebeneezer Gujjarlapudi and the city’s Environmental Quality Division Chief Vince Sebold were also onboard.

Armingeon had a message for Nelson. Since early spring, there were algae blooms, then more than 350 dead fish and now the foam. “This fish kill will probably go down as one of the largest fish kills (we’ve had). And then the foam issue, I’m not sure if anybody knows what is going on,” said Armingeon.

Nelson asked if the fish deaths and the foam might all be part of the cycle of an algae bloom. The algae robs the water of oxygen and it kills fish and then when the algae breaks down, the foam is part of the biodegradation. It’s caused by too many nutrients in the river, but it’s not an unusual occurrence.

But Armingeon pointed out the fish didn’t die from algae toxins or lack of oxygen. “These are all signs that the river is sick, that it can’t assimilate what is being fed into it,” he told Nelson

Nelson recalled he had run the length of the river in an airboat in 1974, more than 200 miles over three days, from its source to Jacksonville. He said he was shocked during the trip to learn there were 75 outlets in Jacksonville where raw sewage was dumped directly into the river. He said that compared to 1974, the river has been cleaned up. “But you are telling me we still got so many nutrients in the river that it is causing the river to have this reaction.,” Nelson said.

It was mostly a metaphorical moment when Nelson lay on his stomach and scooped  a jar of foam out of the river. The sample hadn’t been collected by strict scientific protocol and probably wasn’t useful as a test sample. But Nelson was mostly there to let his constituents to know he’s concerned about the algae bloom earlier this year, the fish kill and now the foam. He asked the head of DEP for Northeast Florida if they needed EPAs help to test the foam. No, DEP has all the equipment they need, Strong told him. Nelson talked about the river as a great resource, held the jar of foam up for the cameras, and told the story of his airboat ride up the river more than four times.

There was an undertow in the conversation between Armingeon and Nelson. Armingeon wants federal regulation to decrease tthe amount of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus allowed to be dumped in the river. To comply with the Clean Water Act, the state’s farmers, citrus growers, industries and residents will have to change the way they use fertilizers and chemicals.

The United States Department of Environmental Protection has agreed as part of a court settlement to develop rules to govern the maximum level of nitrogen and phosphorous allowed in Florida rivers, creeks and streams. The lawsuit was filed 12 years ago by environmental organization including the St. Johns Riverkeeper. The lawsuit said EPA failed to enforce the Clean Water Act in Florida by letting the state set its own standards.

Next week, a phalanx of legislators, lobbyists and representatives from the fertilizer and agrichemical agricultural, citrus and sugar industries will travel to Washington to lobby members of Congress to take more time on the federal rules, to do new research, to adopt looser standards, and lobby to circumvent the ruling that put the feds in charge.

By October 15, EPA is supposed to establish rules for the state’s fresh water bodies. Asked whether EPA or the Congress has the will to force the citrus growers and farmers on the southern portion of the St. Johns River to reduce their fertilizer and chemical runoff, Nelson said yes, but . . . “There is a need for more accurate data and what I have done with regard to the farms and ranches and citrus groves is to ask, and EPA, they have agreed, to go out for additional data before they make their final ruling.”

Nelson referred Folio Weekly to a staff member for more information on exactly what was wrong with the data EPA has developed. But that information wasn’t available Friday.

Armingeon’s reaction to any talk of postponing the setting of nutrient standards was to say that polluters always think it’s right to postpone because they don’t want to have to change the way they do business.

A bad sign that the state wants to minimize problems in the St. Johns in order to protect the status quo arrived in a press release from the Jacksonville office of the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  It was entitled, “Fish Kills Common This Time of Year.”

— Susan Eastman

After reading a Flog post on the thousands of dead fish reported in the St. Johns River, a reader who asked that his name not be used,  took this picture with his iPhone while walking from the Everbank to the St. Joe building along the Northbank Riverwalk. Although it’s only one carcass, the shoreline of the river is littered with the bodies of good-sized fish and they can be spotted floating belly up  in the river.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has received reports of  thousands of dead fish — catfish, bream, black bass, a large mouth bass, shad, bluegill, eel, snook, a stingray, brim, red drum, gar, redfish and mullet  — in the St. Johns River and its tributaries in the past week.

Dead fish have been reported along an 85-mile length of the river from Lake George north to Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

Although tests to determine the cause of the kill aren’t complete, FWC scientists suspect an early outbreak of toxic blue-green algae.

Algae blooms are common in the St. Johns River during the summer, But just because the blooms are routine doesn’t mean they’re part of a healthy river’s natural purging.

The electric green blooms are fed by excessive nitrogen and phosphorous washing into the river and feeding its phytoplankton until they grow into oxygen-hogging and light-blocking mass. The overload of nutrients come from fertilizers used to keep lawns a pristine green and fertilizers pumped to feed the growth of farm crops, as well as from simple things like dog poop left on the ground that washes into storm drains and then into the river along with oil washed from roads. One of the biggest contributers to nutrient overload is the effluent dumped into the river from manufacturers such as paper mills and from breaks in the sewage system.

Anyone who sees a dead fish should report it to the FWC hotline at 800-636-0511.

— Susan Eastman

Was the Invisible Hand of lobbyist Paul Harden behind Tuesday’s upset move to elect Stephen Joost president of the City Council?

That’s the hearsay, the rumor, the tittle-tattle, the scuttlebutt.

Council Vice President Jack Webb had lined up declarations of support from all 19 council members. That isn’t special. The City Council usually votes the vice president into the president’s seat after the one-year term is up.

Instead of the routine shoo-in, when Council President Richard Clark opened up the floor for nominations, Warren Jones rose and nominated Joost. It was seconded by Art Graham. Both said they thought Joost’s financial acumen was needed in these tough times (he’s a CPA).

Jack Webb looked shook up and shell-shocked as he sat on the dais, barely moving, his face deepening to a dark red. Webb kept his eyes downcast while Graham and Jones explained their support of Joost.

Next, Bill Bishop rose and nominated Webb, and E. Denise Lee seconded the motion She dressed down the members who’d agreed to vote for Joost and said she had been asked just before the meeting to second Webb’s nomination because the original council member who’d pledged to do so had bowed out.

The campaigning of Joost for the council presidency had apparently taken place over a 24-hour period. On Monday, Council president Richard Clark praised Webb. On Tuesday, he told the Times-Union he’d changed his mind.

Harden supposedly wanted Webb embarrassed and chastened because he’d led a fight to send the Waste Management contract to run Trail Ridge Landfill out to bid. Harden represents Waste Management. If Harden had the power to pull off such an upset, he stood to gain on several fronts He’d shown the people whom he’d convinced to change their vote who else on the Council he held sway with. And if Joost won, he would have a Harden-friendly and Harden-indebted City Council president. There’d be a pretty good chance at least he’d get Joost’s ear on committee appointments. Even if Joost lost, the message to Webb was clear. Harden fell just one vote short of the number he needed to push through an upset. He could rally votes on other issues, too. When the vote was taken, Webb won, but it was hardly a ringing endorsement. The vote was 10-9 in his favor.
— Susan Eastman

The Institute of Southern Studies is running a series on the regulation of coal ash. Tomorrow’s installment will be about the re-use of coal ash in building materials and other products.

The Jacksonville Electric Authority received approval from the state of Florida in 2005 to sell its coal ash as a road material. EZBase is used as both a road bed covered with a top coat of asphalt or other material, and it is compacted heavily and used in an uncovered state.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has discovered numerous instances where EZBase roads not covered by a sealant were installed incorrectly. When the material isn’t properly compacted it is washed off the road in heavy rains, contaminating the soil in swales. When it’s dry, the coal ash dust is airborne and people living nearbycomplain of cars and houses and outdoor patios covered with the toxic dust.

The New York Times reports today that at least seven new permits for offshore drilling and five environmental waivers have been issued since President Obama announced a moratorium on new offshore drill permits and on waivers like the one granted for the Deepwater Horizon rig . For the full article, go here.

— Susan Eastman

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered British Petroleum today to find a less toxic dispersant to use on the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Within 24 hours, BP must identify a less toxic dispersant and to put it into use within 72 hours. EPA has not said that the dispersant BP is using is dangerous, only that the long-term effect of its use in such unprecedented amounts is unknown.

In the U.K., the Corexit line of dispersants had been banned more than a decade ago. BP has been using dispersants from the line of products named Corexit 9500 and Coexiit (R) EC9527, ProPublica reported earlier this week. Corexit dispersants were used after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. It was subsequently linked to respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.

Corexit has kept the oil gushing from the underground well from reaching the surface of the Gulf of Mexico by breaking it into small droplets. For BP’s public relations, keeping the oil off the sugar sand beaches of Pensacola and out of the thicket of marsh grasses in the tidal flats of Louisiana is critical. But research vessels documented massive plumes of oil deep in the Gulf of Mexico, including one plume that is 10 miles long, three miles wide and 300 feet thick.

When EPA administrator Lisa Jackson appeared before a Senate panel on Tuesday she spoke as though the agency didn’t understand the reason for the U.K. ban. EPA is “still looking into why” Corexit was banned in the U.K., she told the Senate, according to Mother Jones. “I’m amazed by how little science there is on the issue,” Jackson said.

— Susan Eastman

It’s not even summer yet and Rice Creek near Palatka already has that bloom of green algae on it that signals nitrogen pollutant overload.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon forwarded a set of 15 snapshots of the creek taken Friday and Sunday.

His comments were terse.

“Why do we need numeric nutrient standards? I agree with the polluters. . . .

“Tell EPA Florida’s plans are working well.

“This is shameful.”

— Susan Eastman

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that the a juvenile offender cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he or she didn’t kill anyone. The ruling signals the end of decades of get-tough sentencing where juveniles were judged to be a new baby breed of criminal from a predator generation already beyond the fold of redemption and locked up for life before reaching adulthood.

The Court said that Duval County Circuit Court Judge Lance Day imposed cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, when he sentenced 17-year-old Terrance Graham to life in prison without parole. Graham received the sentence for a violating probation on an armed burglary he committed at 16 years of age.

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile could not be sentenced to death because children should not be judged as harshly as adults. Today’s ruling acknowledges that for juvenile defendants who haven’t committed murder the legal system should offer the possibility of redemption, parole, a second chance, said Graham’s attorney John Gowdy. “Today’s decision is a landmark decision that I believe has significant implications for our criminal justice system and for society, and significant implications in Florida,” said Gowdy.

There are about 129 other people sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-homicidal offenses in the United States, and like Graham most are African Americans. There are 77 such prisoners incarcerated in Florida. The Supreme Court ruling today means all of those cases will need to be reviewed, sentencing reconsidered and at least parole hearings offered. The Supreme Court recognized juveniles can change,” said Gowdy. “I think we should give kids a chance to redeem themselves.”

The crime that Graham and an accomplice committed wasn’t murder, but it was brutal and violent. The pair tried to rob a Bono’s on Philips Highway shortly after closing in 2003. When the robbery didn’t go off as planned, Graham’s accomplice hit the manager in the head with a steel pipe, a blow so severe it opened a gash that took 12 stitches to close. The pair fled. Both youths were found guilty and placed on probation for the crime. That was Graham’s first arrest.

While on probation for the armed robbery, Graham was arrested for armed home evasion. The case never went to trial. Based on the preponderance of evidence of his guilt, Judge Day revoked probation on the Bono’s burglary charge. In sentencing Graham, Day went way beyond the sentence sought by the Department of Corrections (four years) and the prosecution (30 years) and sentenced Graham to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At a press conference this afternoon, Graham’s mother Mary said that the ruling gave her hope. “This is the most happiest day of my life,” she said. “This has been a long dark tunnel and now I can see a light at the end of it.

“I felt as though my son’s sentencing was unfair, and the Supreme Court felt the same way I did. Right now it is some chance at some hope.”

Graham said she hadn’t spoken to her son since the ruling. Gowdy spoke to Graham, who is now 23 years of age and incarcerated at the Taylor Correctional Institute, at 11 a.m. “He was very gratified and very hopeful,” said Gowdy. “He knows that this isn’t a get out of jail free card. He’s already spent significant time in prison. But this will give him some hope within the system that he can demonstrate that he will change for the better.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that sentencing a Jacksonville teenager to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he didn’t kill anyone amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The 5-4 vote ends a decade where juveniles who committed violent crimes were treated by the courts as beyond redemption and sent to prison for life.

The Court ruled that Duval County Circuit Court Judge Lance Day violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment when he sentenced 17-year-old Terrance Graham to life without parole for armed burglary. Graham was 16 years of age and on probation for armed home invasion when he committed the crime.

The ruling will trigger the re-sentencing and possibly the release of 111 people in the United States sentenced as to life in prison as juveniles. Seventy-seven of those cases are in Florida.
— Susan Eastman