Although much of the national press coverage in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian has focused on the damage the storm caused in coastal areas, the effects here in the Heartland that covers much of the areas where members of the Ancient Islands Group of Sierra Club live were pretty horrible, too.

As noted in a previous post, flood waters along the Peace River were more extreme than hardly anyone alive today can recall.

Although the flood waters have subsided, water levels are still impressive in the Peace River’s headwaters, where water flowing toward the river via the Peace Creek Drainage Canal is still over its banks.

To put this in perspective, even though river flow at State Road 60 where the river proper begins is no longer flowing at record levels, it is flowing at more than five times the average volume for this time of year based on 83 years of records.

Downstream in Arcadia, the river is flowing at a volume more than four times the average of this time of year. But two weeks ago the river was flowing at more than three times the record flow recorded over the past 91 years that records have been kept.

The flooding was shocking, but not surprising when you consider much of the area received nearly a month’s worth of rainfall in a couple of days following a fairly rainy September.

This is certainly a time to evaluate where development should occur based on how clear it is where historic wetlands actually lie and how development of more impermeable surfaces over the several decades have affected the volume and velocity of stormwater runoff . That runoff likely overwhelmed some of the stormwater retention areas that were not big or deep enough to accommodate this kind of flow.

That’s because there has been perennial pressure from the development community to require retention areas to be as small as possible because the larger the retention areas, the smaller number of residential lots or the smaller amount of square feet of commercial and industrial development can be constructed. This is a good time to review those compromises.

Another issue is how this will affect insurance rates or even whether insurance will be available, which also affects where and whether development can occur.

This is not a new issue.

I attended a conference in 2011 in which insurance experts predicted the time would come in the foreseeable future when parts of Florida would become practically uninsurable.

Finally, there is an environmental aspect to this discussion.

On Nov. 8, Polk voters will be asked to approve a referendum that would expand the amount of land in Polk County that can be used to, among other things, to protect important water resources. That means recharge areas, wetlands and river floodplains and all of the wildlife that depends on these places for their survival.

If voters approve the referendum, that could provide an opportunity to rethink what lands should be preserved instead of developed and how to link existing conservation lands to preserve as much of the historic wetlands connections as possible.

This is an alternative that is important to consider while there’s still time.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied a request by the Center For Biological Diversity to list the Gopher Tortoise as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The species is protected under Florida wildlife regulations, which no longer allow them to be buried alive on development sites, but instead require relocation, though suitable relocation sites are becoming more difficult to locate because of the loss of unoccupied suitable habitat in Florida.

In the 113-page response to the petition, federal wildlife officials acknowledged there are issues with habitat loss, primarily as a result of increased residential development in prime Gopher Tortoise habitat, but concluded at this time there is no justification for listing because the evidence that the species is in danger of extinction does not exist in the foreseeable future.

However, the analysis also noted that the term “foreseeable future” is not defined in current federal regulations.

In addition to habitat loss, the list petition consider the effects of climate change and sea level rise and mortality as a result of predation, roadkill and other factors.

It seems Polk officials will have to wait a bit longer to get state funding for some environmental related projects that were approved by the Florida Legislature, but never approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis, The Ledger reports.

Two projects were affected.

One was a $950,000 appropriation to advance the long-sought educational center at Se7en Wetlands, a 1,640-acre environmental park and wetlands treatment area at the headwaters of the Alafia River that is adjacent to Loyce Harpe Park and Lakeland Highlands Scrub and is managed by Lakeland officials.

It opened in 2018 as a system of trails, but city officials have been interested in improving the site by adding an environmental education center.

The city has been attempting to get state funding since at least 2020, when the governor vetoed a $400,000 appropriation to design the center.

The other environmentally related Polk project that the governor’s inaction doomed for this year involved $500,000 to improve stormwater treatment to preserve a public beach on Lake Clinch in Frostproof, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian.

The Polk County Planning Commission voted 4-3 Wednesday to approve a controversial change in the county’s land-use map to allow a private two-mile long asphalt racetrack near the shore of Lake Walkinwater, Polk’s largest lake.

The request by a Melbourne man named Gary Young drew opposition from homeowners around the lake, who were concerned about the facility’s noise level, which they said made it incompatible with their quiet rural lifestyle, and whether gasoline and other chemicals could leak into the ground near wetlands and ultimately reach the popular fishing lake.

In addition, the site is near a number of state and local conservation areas, including Lake Wales Ridge State Forest, The Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve and Polk County’s SUMICA tract.

Young told commissioners he would limit operations to daylight, which would eliminate the need for a network of lights around the track. He said the track will be used only by himself and some friends and will not be open to the public.

If the property’s use ever intensifies beyond what was presented in the application, the project would be subject to a second public hearing.

Unless residents decide to appeal Wednesday’s vote to the County Commission, the racetrack can proceed as long as it also complies with county and water management district regulations concerning traffic, stormwater management and related issues.

The Peace River has never been flowing this heavily within most people’s memories.

The record flow—in some cases two to four times the previous records—bears out predictions by forecasters that Ian would cause severe flooding.

River flow typically increases the farther downstream you travel, but the flow figures are truly amazing.

Saturday the flow at Arcadia was 50,500 cubic feet per second. The previous record occurred in 1949, when flow peaked at 13,900 cfs. A cubic foot per second is 538,171 gallons a day. The Arcadia flow was something like 27 billion gallons a day.

At Zolfo Springs, Saturday’s flow was 15,300 cfs, breaking another 1949 record of 8,370 cfs.

At State Road 60 at Bartow, the flow was a record-breaking 4,030 cfs, topping the previous record set in 2005 of 3520 cfs.

Lakes have risen, too. A section of Lake Howard Drive in Winter Haven has been closed because the road is underwater.

Among the personal concerns about Hurricane Ian’s effect on homes in Polk and neighboring counties, there is one big environmental question mark, which is how the heavy rainfall will affect the massive network of ponds operated by Mosaic’s phosphate mining and fertilizer manufacturing facilities.

Polk emergency officials on Wednesday were predicting as much as 12 to 14 inches of rainfall accompanying the storm.

Although the mining companies have extensive water-management systems in place to prevent spills, the ponds do not have unlimited capacity.

The question is whether the overflow will be contained on the mine and plant properties or whether there may be discharges into local rivers or their tributaries.

At last report, Mosaic had not responded to media inquiries.

Meanwhile, earlier concerns about declining water levels on Lake Okeechobee have sidelined by recent increases in rainfall.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released a statement saying the Herbert Hoover Dike that surrounds the lake is in no danger.

Stay tuned.

Polk County officials announced Saturday that county-maintained nature preserves such as Circle B Bar Reserve will be closed Monday and will remain closed until further notice in preparation for the landfall of Ian.

Ian is a tropical storm, but is predicted to become a hurricane by the time it comes ashore somewhere in Florida by Wednesday.

Also affected are all county campgrounds, which will close at noon on Monday, Bone Valley ATV Park and all youth and adult league activities. No other park closures were announced Saturday.

Southwest Florida Water Management District officials on Monday announced closures of its recreational sites at noon on Sept. 27.

The South Florida Water Management District has announced the closure of all navigation locks at the end of operating hours on Monday. Those include locks on Lake Kissimmee and along the Kissimmee River.

The district on Monday announced closures of recreational areas, effective Tuesday.