On March 25 the Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board will consider an agreement with the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services to acquire a perpetual conservation easement on a ranch along the Withlacoochee River. The property is owned by Headwaters Ranch LLC, which is located west of State Road 33 just north of the Polk-Lake county line. It contains 3.5 miles of frontage on the Withlacoochee River,, one of five rivers whose headwaters lie in the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern. The easement, whose purchase was authorized at the March 5 Florida Cabinet meeting, will add to an extensive land conservation effort here.
Polk County is in the midst of the first major overhaul of its growth plan since it was first adopted in 1991, Ben Ziskal, Polk’s land development director, laid out the process at Thursday’s Ancient Islands Sierra meeting. The big picture is that this in an effort to deal with the explosive growth that has occurred in Polk County in recent decades and is forecast to continue. The county’s population, which was slightly over 400,000 with the first plan was adopted, is projected to reach 1.2 million by 2050, he said. The proposed plan update tentatively will include some environmental provisions, based on public comments so far and direction from the County Commission. That includes the creation of a new Conservation land-use category that will allow less intense uses than the current categories that allow ballfields and campgrounds. It also envisions the long-discussed but never-implemented Habitat Conservation Plan, which will mesh with the Florida Wildlife Corridor. There also will be provisions to check on whether any of the goals, objectives and policies in the plan are actually being met by establishing metrics that can be used to measure this. This is significant because in the past plans would include lofty goals, but no follow-up. But one of the keys to making this all work is public involvement, especially from the environmental community. The first opportunity will occur during a series of what county planners are calling “listening sessions” that are scheduled for next month at various dates and locations from 6 to 8 p.m. The schedule is: April 15, Tom Fellows Community Center, 207 North Blvd. West, Davenport; April 17, Advent Health Fieldhouse, 210 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven: April 22, Magnolia Building, 702 E. Orange St. , Lakeland. That will be followed by a series of public meetings by a 15-member committee appointed by the County Commission, which will meet every two weeks between spring and fall of this year. Zinkal said the public will be free to attend these meetings, but will not be allowed to participate in the discussions. He said it has not been determined whether the meetings will be aired on Polk TV. The public will have a chance to get involved during a series of public hearings in 2026 when the committee’s recommendations come before the County Commission. The dates for those hearings will be announced later. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to become involved in the process and to find out what is being proposed can go to: Inspire-engagement.com/polk-county-comp-plan
Mosaic wants to do it in Plant City, Mulberry and Bartow. The Polk Regional Water Cooperative wants to do it near Lake Wales and north of Lakeland. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical once did it in Mulberry. Although the details differ, all of the projects involve pumping wastewater thousands of feet underground where applicants and state regulators contend it poses the least threat to the natural environment and to surface and underground water supplies. This idea was the topic of a well-attended public open house in Plant City Tuesday. Here are some takeaways from the event. The most immediate permit application involves Mosaic’s Plant City fertilizer plant and gypsum stack, which has been shut down. The waste in this case is millions of gallons acidic wastewater that sits atop the stack. If the Florida Department of Environmental Protection grants the permit, the plan is to send up to 4 million gallons a day of this waste underground for eight to 10 years. After that, the top of the stack will be capped with an impermeable liner to prevent more rainwater from entering. But for decades after the stack is capped, Mosaic will be collecting seepage from the stack and treating and pumping it underground. The reason it cannot be simply treated and discharged is because the treated wastewater would will still be too polluted to end up in sections of the Hillsborough River around Hillsborough River State Park or where Tampa gets its drinking water. Although the initial reports said the waste will be pumped 8.,000 feet deep, it may be pumped to a shallower depth, depending on what geological tests show. As with any of these wells, the main issue is to ensure that once the waste is pumped deep underground it stays there. The permit also requires financial assurance of between $750,000 and $1.5 million in case something goes wrong and well needs to be repaired. By the end of the year, permitting will be under way involving planned injection wells at Mosaic’s New Wales plant south of Mulberry and its Bartow plant. Those plants lie in the Alafia River and Peace River basins respectively. Meanwhile the water cooperative is pursuing permits for injection wells to dispose of briny waste left over from the treatment of water being pumped from the Lower Floridan Aquifer, which has lower-quality water than the Upper Floridan Aquifer. The Upper Floridan has been the traditional source of drinking water, but decades of overpumping to feed the growth machine has depleted it to the point that further withdrawals are unsustainable. The main wells for the cooperative lie either in the headwaters of the Everglades or at the edge of the Green Swamp Area of Critcial State Concern. But the idea of deep-well-injection is not new to Polk County. The Kaiser plant, which opened in 1957, used acidic fluorine waste from the phosphate industry in its process. That water was stored in ponds. but the pond water sometimes flowed downstream and began dissolving concrete bridge supports. Bridge inspectors traced the problem back to Kaiser’s plant and concluded the plant needed to inject its waste underground to solve the problem, which was done. The area around the plant was declared a brownfield site by the County Commission in 2012.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of abolishing the property tax in Florida. The Florida Legislature is studying the idea’s implications before agreeing to place the idea on the ballot as a constitutional amendment about the time DeSantis is on his way out of office. For the environmental community, this idea raises some serious questions. The big one would be how this would affect the levy of voter-approved property taxes to buy and manage environmental lands or to purchase conservation easements on working lands. These are typically 20-year commitments. What about water management districts? Property tax revenue is an important part of their budgets. They use the money to partner with local environmental lands programs to buy lands and among other things to examine development permits that affect wetlands.
Although it is atypical among Florida programs, Polk County uses a property tax assessment to fund its stormwater management program. Same goes to the Winter Haven Boat Course District, commonly known as the Canal Commission. All of the above involve modest taxing powers that are barely noticeable on most property tax bills compared to things like garbage collection, fire fees and general revenue that keep the lights on at local government offices. It is quite possible that this idea will eventually go nowhere because it seemed to be based on hyperbole about how property taxes affect homeowners even though it is relatively minor compared to insurance and mortgage rates. Nevertheless, who knows what the Florida Legislature might do and what voters might be persuaded to approve based on short-term benefits as opposed to the bigger picture. Stay tuned.
The proposed 2026 referendum to secure funding to create a local environmental lands acquisition program in Highlands County advanced Tuesday. The County Commission agreed to proceed with a study and a series of public meetings facilitated by its staff and the North Florida Land Trust. The project is aptly called the Ridge to River Conservation Plan. Highlands County contains a portion of the Lake Wales Ridge and parts of the headwaters of the Everglades in scenic vast open spaces. Much of those resources are unprotected. Commissioners have not committed yet to holding the referendum, saying they wanted to hear from their constituents. During the meeting, commissioners and one member of the audience raised questions about how the program would affect the county’s tax base and how much property owners would be willing to pay. Ramesh Buch, the land trust’s director of conservation acquisition, said such referendums have been approved in 27 of Florida’s 67 counties, adding that initial meetings with residents showed high interest in conserving more of the county’ s resources. In some counties, such as Polk, referendums have been approved twice. During the public comment period, the majority of the speakers urged commissioners to move forward. Those included Tom Palmer. chair of Ancient Islands Sierra; Kristen Nowak from the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, Dale Gillis, vice president of Highlands County Audubon, Dr. Paul Gray from Florida Audubon as well as representatives from Conservation Florida and Archbold Biological Station and some county residents. They argued it is important to protect what is left of the county’s diverse habitats before they are lost.
In response to last year’s attempt to quietly add a golf course, pickleball courts and hotels to state parks, legislation has been filed to try to prevent a repeat. The bills, H209 and SB 80, specifically bans those facilities. The Senate Bill is advancing in committees with some minor amendments such as adding language to specifically bans hotels and other public lodgings. The bill will allow cabins, which already exist in some state parks. The proposed legislation also requires more public input into any changes in the parks’ management plans. Sierra and other groups who were critical of last year’s proposal, which was done behind the scenes and only came to light as the result of whistleblower, have proposed stronger language. The stronger language includes expanding the prohibition to other state conservation lands such as state forests and wildlife management areas. That list should also include wildlife environmental areas. Further, the groups advocate getting rid of vague terms such as “to the maximum extent practicable” because such terms can invite abuses. Meanwhile, a lot can happen during a legislative session, which begins next week . That is why it is important to contact your legislators to let them know you support stronger protection of state conservation lands. Our local legislators are Sen. Ben Albritton. Sen. Colleen Burton Sen Erin Grall and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia. Also Reps. Jennifer Canady, Josie Tomkow ,Jon Albert, Jennifer Kincart Johnson, Vanessa Oliver and Kaylee Tuck.
This week Gov. Ron DeSantis was reportedly talking about pushing a constitutional amendment that would eliminate property taxes in Florida. That may sound good politically, but in practice may cause a lot of mischief. At this early point the idea raises questions. For instance, how would that affect voter-approved property tax levies, such as the ones that many counties use to finance their environmental lands protection programs, often in partnership with state programs? Also, how would any changes in the property tax regime affect special districts with modest taxing powers, such as Winter Haven’s Canal Commission? The governor’s office will likely hear from these interests and others if this measure advances to sort out what the long-term and short-term effects of these proposals might be. Stay tuned.
