Madfloridian's Journal - Crist put control of Florida's water in the hands of 5 people.

What a sneaky way to do things. Florida Senator J.D. Alexander added an amendment secretly to SB 2080 which even the sponsors did not know about.

Crist signed the bill before people really knew what had happened.

Several years ago a group called The Council of 100 had plans to move water around the state via pipe lines...but the public shouted them down and said no very emphatically.

The bill just signed gives that power to 5 people. It is an awesome power, and Charlie Crist really sold out the state on this signing.

Water District Chiefs Are Getting Unwanted Power

With a stroke of his pen last week, Gov. Charlie Crist put the future of Florida's water resources in the hands of five people. Now the five - four men and one woman - are trying to figure out how to wield their significant new power over development and water-use permits, yet still give the public a chance to be heard.

..."Until this week, if a bottling company wanted to slurp millions of gallons of water out of the aquifer or a developer wanted to pave over thousands of acres of swamps, the state permits had to be approved by one of five water management district boards appointed by the governor. The board's vote took place in a public meeting where residents could stand up and give their opinion.

But on the next-to-last day of the session, Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, added an amendment to SB 2080 that even the bill's sponsor says he didn't know about. The bill - originally just aimed at promoting water conservation - passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously.

Only afterward did the public discover that Alexander's amendment shifted the power over permitting away from the boards and open meetings. It said that "the governing board shall delegate to the executive director all of its authority to take final action on permit applications."

Charlie Crist is so concerned about running for Senate that he is trading off Florida's resources.

Here is more about the history of how this came to be. Shouted down 5 years ago in public hearings....now it is law done secretly.

Cross-Florida Water Pipelines: Water-Transfer End Run

That was five years ago. Dockery and her colleagues on the state Senate Natural Resources Committee were pressed into giving the citizenry an outlet to vent after the Florida Council of 100 - a group of wealthy, influential business leaders that advises the governor - issued a report calling for a dramatic overhaul in Florida's water policy. The pillars of the Council of 100 proposal were massive cross-state water transfers, i.e. pipelines, and the creation of an all-powerful state water board with ultimate say over water disbursements and policy.

The power of wetlands in the now lies in the hands of 5 people.

The governing boards' authority on permitting and wetland destruction now rests solely in the hands of the five district executive directors - for all practical purposes, a unelected statewide water board. Even better for the developers, builders and other growth-industry interests, the executive directors are not required to conduct their business in public.

The emasculation of the water district boards is just the half of it. Despite the lawmakers' assurances that no water transfers would take place, the water management districts - led by the executive directors - are feverishly developing plans to pipe water from where they have it to where they don't. The St. Johns River Water Management District has been the most aggressive, with Executive Director Kirby Green ramrodding through a highly unpopular plan for 500 miles of pipeline that would carry water from the Ocklawaha River in Marion County and the St. Johns River to the thirsting Orlando metropolitan area.

To ease up the criticism Charlie recommended that the water management districts keep talking about it together, even though the power now lies with the top person on each one.

Crist is asking governing boards and executive directors of the districts to continue to include surface water and consumptive use permits on all board meeting and other public meeting agendas, despite a measure in the bill that delegates final agency action on such permits solely to the executive directors.

Florida is broken up into five water management districts. The Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, covers Tampa Bay. Others are the Northwest Florida Water Management District, Suwannee River Management District, St. Johns River Water Management District and the South Florida Water Management District.

Crist urges that management districts still continue to discuss important issues

Developers have been getting more perks than ever lately. Having just 5 people able to more the water around the state should be an advantage to them.

Just a few weeks ago, Charlie gave developers vast new powers by signing SB 360.

."The new law is designed to make it easier to build new residential housing, even as Florida wallows in a glut of housing caused by the foreclosure crisis.Crist signed the bill in private with no public ceremony. His press office issued a terse news release that attributed no quotations to Crist endorsing the legislation.

St. Pete Times columnist, Howard Troxler, called S.B.360 "the "Katie Bar the Door and Strip Mall Act of 2009."

I can only imagine what he thinks of the new powers over water given to just 5 people.