EPC Hybrid Will Serve Public, Save Resources

Published: Sep 5, 2007

For several months, the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission has been working to strike a delicate balance between governmental fiscal responsibility and strong protection for important natural resources.

In June, the members of the Board of County Commissioners, sitting as the Environmental Protection Commission, voted 4-3 to do away with local oversight and protections for wetlands. My vote in opposition of this measure was based on my belief that any issues of process could be addressed without scrapping the division and that local oversight of resources is a conservative tenant of good government.

From the beginning, public debate about this issue needed to be divided into two arenas: The philosophical arena of how much regulation is necessary and beneficial, and the procedural arena of how that regulation is communicated and imposed. Most of the complaints I have received about the EPC centered on issues of process: The way in which regulations are imposed, the way regulators interact and communicate with the regulated community, and a lack of clarity in the written rules.

That said, wetlands serve many important purposes for both the economy and the ecology of Hillsborough County. They serve as natural water carrying and storage systems, preventing flooding that would be costly to fix through artificial means. They filter contaminants out of surface waters, purifying our creeks, rivers, and Tampa Bay. They provide natural habitat for a host of organisms and animals and the feeding grounds for birds like the American white ibis. This is a resource worth protecting.

The EPC board needed to find a way to combine good science with regulatory common-sense and we found that through the process of creating the hybrid. EPC staff, led by executive director Dr. Rick Garrity and general counsel Rick Tschantz, worked diligently to devise a plan that accomplished three goals I had from the beginning: eliminate unnecessary government waste, improve customer service, and maintain the strong protections our wetlands enjoy today.

Some have characterized the hybrid proposal as a compromise, implying that each side gave up something and no one is happy. I believe that with the hybrid, all interests walk away with a win. I'm confident the hybrid is no compromise.

Working together, we crafted a win for the entire community through innovative partnerships like that with the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Agriculture Ground and Surface Water Management Program for farmers. We created a miscellaneous activities permit for the smallest of insignificant impacts, saving regulatory time and tax-payer dollars. We reasserted protection for wetlands that serve as significant habitat for threatened and endangered species.

We stepped forward in creating a technical advisory committee of proficient and eminently qualified scientists to complement the work of the soon-to-be created wetland advisory committee in reviewing and proposing future wetland rule changes and process changes. We made the wetland rules better.

Al Higginbotham is the Hillsborough County commissioner from District 4.