Restoration of Aquatic Systems - Chapter 8 potx

235

chapter 8

Research, News Reports,
and Restoration Success

8.1 Restoration Processes and Public Opinion

It should be stated from the beginning that there is a long and distinguished history of
environmental reporting at the regional, state, and national levels. The list of excellent
environmental reporters is too long to review here. Even small newspapers have, in the
past, supported environmental reporters of high caliber. That is not to say that the Amer-
ican news media have always covered themselves in glory concerning environmental
issues. Newspaper articles that followed a pattern of distortion and omission not dissimilar
to that of today’s reporting contributed to the genocide of Native Americans in past years.
Even today, the difficulties of this oppressed minority are still largely ignored, and even
distorted by media reporters. However, the present situation concerning environmental
reporting is a product of complex, new trends both at the economic and cultural levels of
American society. The takeover of public radio and television airwaves by large corpora-
tions has had an important influence on what is reported to the American public. Big
business in the form of Disney (ABC), Viacom (CBS), and General Electric (NBC) has
literally taken over television reporting. The right-wing empire of Rupert Murdoch (Fox)
continues to distort everything environmental. The cable news channels (CNN, MSNBC)
are often primary outlets for right-wing, anti-environmental propaganda. The overwhelm-
ingly negative publicity concerning environmental issues generated by a broad range of
right-wing radio stations is a disturbing fact of life in today’s America. There has been an
increasing trend of business interests taking control of newspapers throughout the country.
It is not, therefore, very surprising that the regional news media in north Florida continue
to use omission, distortion, and outright lying to protect their business and political

interests.
There is no simple way to define the relationships among the various societal forces
that control public opinion and affect the complex process of ecosystem restoration. These
forces include political and economic interests, the news media, environmental organiza-
tions (from NIMBY groups to organized environmental societies), educational and
research institutions, and legal groups. There has been considerable debate concerning
the interaction between the news media and the public. There is little doubt that the media
dominate public debate concerning environmental issues with advocates on both sides of
any given issue. To be sure, there is a synergistic relationship concerning the interactions
of news reporting and public opinion. Both media and public opinion are inextricably
linked with continuous feedback that complicates simplistic generalizations concerning
control. However, in the final analysis, the news media have a direct impact on public

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236 Restoration of Aquatic Systems

opinion, and this impact drives related factors such as political decisions and the gener-
ation of laws and regulations that control environmental matters. There are cultural aspects
to the public’s perception of environmental issues that color the media’s approach to
environmental reporting. A mere recitation of these interactions does not, however, explain
the inexorable deterioration of public knowledge and interest in things environmental
since the peak of such interest in the 1970s.

8.2 Florida as a Microcosm for Restoration Activities

During the past 30 to 40 years, the record of destruction of Florida’s aquatic resources has
been clear regarding the debilitation or even loss of many of the primary waterways and
river–estuarine systems. A list of damaged and destroyed systems includes most of the

state’s major lakes, rivers, and bays: the Kissimmee–Okeechobee–Florida Everglades–
Florida Bay–Florida Keys/coral reef system, the Miami River–Biscayne Bay area, the Indian
River system, the St. Johns drainage system, Naples Bay, Sarasota Bay, the Hillsborough
River–Tampa Bay area, the Fenholloway River, Choctawhatchee Bay, the Pensacola Bay
system, and the Perdido Bay system. A comparison of the scientific data concerning such
areas with news coverage and the public’s perception of environmental matters is not
encouraging. The generally rosy reporting of restoration activities is hardly consistent with
what is actually happening. The gap between public knowledge of the key environmental
issues and what is scientifically demonstrated continues to widen. Public ignorance and
indifference to environmental matters contribute to the scandalous level of posturing by
a political establishment that is anything but environmentally oriented.
The situation in north Florida is probably representative of what is going on at the
state and national levels. There are instances of the appropriate use of scientific studies
in the initiation of successful restoration programs. The problem of ammonia loading in
the Amelia Estuary was solved with the direct application of the results of an impact
analysis and the cooperative efforts of the pulp mill and the FDEP. This success was
tempered by the discovery of urban storm water impacts on both the Amelia and Nassau
estuaries, which have little chance of successful remediation. Pollution caused by urban-
ization is not usually covered by the news media, and is not regulated by local, state, or
federal agencies. After all, the development forces that control the politics and regional
media are not about to pay for such “progress.” The north Florida Lake situation represents
the deliberate obfuscation of scientific data by regional news outlets that are literally run
by dominant political and economic interests. The situation in Leon County, Florida, is a
clear example of the deliberate omission and misrepresentation of scientific facts when
confronted with a propaganda machine that is led by the regional Chamber of Commerce
approach to environmental reporting. The public remains protected from the unpleasant
reality of resource destruction in a totally managed news situation. This control includes
the firing and/or personal attacks of anyone who gets in the way.
In Perdido Bay, there was partial success of the restoration of a polluted system with
the reduction of nutrient loading from the pulp mill. However, nutrients remain an issue

with various sources that include a pulp mill, a sewage treatment plant, agricultural
loading, and urban runoff. The need for an ecosystem approach to restoration activities
is exemplified in the Perdido and Pensacola drainage systems. The association of a regional
news media that is in an unhealthy synergism with NIMBY operatives who are indifferent
to and/or ignorant of scientific research results has culminated in the public’s preoccu-
pation with false issues while their children drink radioactive water. The deterioration of
the Perdido and Pensacola Bay systems is a classic example of problems associated with
the influence of local interests on the regional press, and the almost complete indifference

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Chapter 8: Research, News Reports, and Restoration Success 237

of the public to cumulative impacts of the various forms of urbanization and industrial-
ization. Throughout the north Florida area, from Apalachee Bay to the Perdido system,
the public remains in a state of almost complete ignorance of what is happening.
The role of the press in environmental matters cannot be underestimated — both as
a positive force that brings public attention to the need for restoration and as a negative
force that often leads to public ignorance and confusion concerning environmental prob-
lems. As noted above, this can occur in various ways: deliberate omission of scientific
information, transmission of misinformation and outright lies, and the unspoken protec-
tion of economic interests that dominate the political atmosphere. In some cases, coverage
of complex environmental issues by people who are not trained in the scientific facts that
are crucial to restoration attempts plays an important part in the imperfect process of
information transfer. The rise of the NIMBY phenomenon in recent years that has replaced
the more responsible environmental interests that were once dominant has contributed to
the gap between the perception of environmental progress and the actual success of the
growing restoration movement. Parochial concerns rarely address system-wide environ-
mental problems, and the constant erroneous chatter from people who eschew scientific

research constitutes a major distraction, especially when the press uses irrelevant procla-
mations by NIMBY groups to sell news through the creation of controversy. When the
actual scientific data are lined up, what is reported by the press — the general failure of
the restoration process — is not surprising. The proliferation of simplistic solutions to
inherently complex environmental processes has contributed to the current and continuing
situation of lost natural resources.
There is another problem associated with the replacement of responsible action with
the false enhancement of public image. The restoration movement has, in some ways,
replaced the practice of effective preventive action through resource planning and atten-
tion to the infrastructure costs associated with the protection of natural resources. According
to J.B. Battle and M.I. Lipeles

(Water Pollution,

1998, Anderson Publishing Co.),
“America has made essentially no progress in addressing polluted runoff over
the past quarter-century, … there is compelling data indicating that non-point
pollution has gotten worse rather than better over the past 25 years. …polluted
runoff is the largest reason that roughly 40% of America’s surveyed waters are
too polluted for basic uses…”
The complex interactions that have contributed to this situation are often related to
the political control of environmental research at all levels of government. The real authors
of the lack of enforcement of the water quality laws are often elected officials who keep
a tight grip on the budgets of state and federal regulatory agencies. Their actions are
largely kept quiet by collusion of many elements of the news media that contribute to the
proliferation of ignorance and confusion regarding ecological processes in aquatic systems.
Consequently, the American public remains ignorant of the most damaging environmental
problems in favor of more sensational but less important issues made popular by elements
of the news media.

8.3 Comparison of Research Results, Media Coverage,
and Public Response

A review of the comparison of what is known scientifically vs. what is reported and
assimilated by the public follows:

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238 Restoration of Aquatic Systems

1. Research concerning the impacts of urbanization on north Florida lakes indicated
that periodic increases in polluted runoff led to increased nutrient loading, which
resulted in phytoplankton blooms. The long-term changes associated with such
blooms included habitat deterioration, adverse impacts on associated biota, and
the debilitation of valuable species such as largemouth bass due to food web
response to the blooms. The data indicated that most of the lakes in the region
were adversely affected by urban runoff, and that so-called restoration attempts
that relied mainly on holding ponds (mainly holes in the ground) rather than
combinations of retention and detention ponds were not adequate to protect nat-
ural lakes.
a. There was a change in the reporting of lake issues as the regional newspaper
was taken over by a conservative publisher who was closely aligned with
development interests. The news accounts went from accurate reporting of the
above impacts to omission of any scientific accounts showing adverse impacts.
b. News media of the region have resorted to propaganda that distorted and even
promoted lies about what was happening to the lakes in the region. The media
blackout was extended to even the publication of letters to the editor so that
any objective scientific results concerning water quality issues were kept from
the public.

c. Recent analyses indicated that the lakes continue to deteriorate, and that anyone
who gets in the way of development interests will be fired or otherwise
discredited.
d. Research funds for objective scientific efforts have been withdrawn if results
showing adverse impacts are made public.
e. The control of information and the proliferation of open propaganda by self-
serving political interests concerning sensitive environmental issues have
replaced objective media reports, and the so-called open process of information
dissemination remains compromised.
f. There has been virtually no regulation of urban runoff by local, state, or federal
agencies.
2. Long-term research concerning a pulp mill on the Fenholloway River in the
Apalachee Bay basin indicated that the river has been severely affected by low
dissolved oxygen (DO), high levels of nutrients such as ammonia, increased wa-
tercolor, and high levels of specific conductance. Comparisons of long-term efforts
to remediate such impacts indicate that the situation has not changed substantially
since the early 1970s, and the river remains polluted. Dioxin levels in fishes meet
federal requirements, and changes in secondary sex characteristics of certain top-
minnow species have not been associated with adverse impacts in the field. The
primary impacts on associated offshore areas include the loss of seagrass beds due
to high watercolor levels, and the periodic increase in plankton blooms due to
nutrient loading (ammonia, orthophosphate) from the pulp mill. There is no evi-
dence of the impact of toxic substances (metals, organochlorine compounds) on
offshore sediments.
a. Media coverage concerning the problems associated with the Fenholloway
River has concentrated largely on the dioxin issue and changes in the secondary
sex characteristics of mosquitofish. The emphasis has been on sensationalized
accounts of the impacts of the mill that are largely without scientific confirmation.
b. The real causes of the environmental impacts of the mill on the Fenholloway
River and associated parts of Apalachee Bay have been largely ignored by

regional news media.

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Chapter 8: Research, News Reports, and Restoration Success 239

c. Recent efforts to reduce watercolor have not been effective in the restoration
of offshore seagrass beds and the associated invertebrate and fish biota that
have been adversely affected by the loss of the benthic plants. Both sides of the
issue have distorted media accounts of such impacts, and the pulp mill, “envi-
ronmentalists,” and state and federal regulatory agencies have largely ignored
the scientific data.
d. Regulatory actions by state and federal agencies remain inadequate, and attempts
to save the river using a pipeline have been blocked by “environmentalists”
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort that precludes
the use of scientific information to resolve the problem.
e. Media tactics that include omission, misinformation, and sensationalism have
resulted in a lack of public knowledge concerning the pollution of the Fenhol-
loway system, and the resulting misdirection of attention to the actual impacts
of the paper mill have contributed to the lack of effective restoration of the
damaged system.
3. A long-term scientific database concerning the response of the Perdido drainage
system to impacts due to pulp mill effluents indicated that the immediate receiving
system (Elevenmile Creek) has been adversely affected by such discharges. Al-
though there are similarities with impacts on the Fenholloway River such as the
general lack of assimilative capacity for high-volume effluents, there were differ-
ences. The successful treatment of color impacts in Elevenmile Creek have led to
adverse impacts associated with blue-green algae blooms during drought periods.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stratified Perdido Bay due to the opening of

the bay to the Gulf. Resulting salinity stratification exacerbated hypoxia at depth
in major parts of the bay. Nutrient loading by the pulp mill was associated with
plankton blooms, which led to adverse impacts on bay food webs and the decline
of various fish and invertebrate species. Rainfall events were associated with
nutrient loading from a sewage treatment plant that seriously damaged the bay.
Similar impacts were noted in the lower bay due to nutrient loading from agricul-
tural interests in Alabama and urban runoff from development. By 2003, the Per-
dido Bay system was largely bereft of fishes and invertebrates due to the combined
impacts of the various activities that loaded nutrients to the bay.
a. Like the Fenholloway River, the emphasis of media reports has been on sensa-
tionalized accounts of the impacts of dioxin and hormone changes causing
changes in the secondary sex characteristics of topminnows. These claims,
although discredited in reports by state and federal agencies that include find-
ings of no dioxin levels in fishes that exceed federal standards, continue to
dominate media coverage of the Perdido system.
b. “Environmentalists” who claim the real impacts are due to chlorinated com-
pounds such as dioxin have denied impacts on Perdido Bay due to plankton
blooms associated with mill nutrient loading.
c. The

Pensacola News Herald

, which ran a whitewash of such impacts on the bay,
deliberately distorted findings concerning the impacts of a sewage treatment
plant on Perdido Bay run by the Escambia County Utilities Authority (ECUA).
The Associated Press broadcast this false information even though the impacts
were documented in a public research report of the findings. There was no
regulatory response to the report.
d. Media tactics that include omission, misinformation, and sensationalism have
resulted in a lack of public knowledge concerning the pollution of the Perdido

system, and the resulting misdirection of attention to the actual impacts of

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240 Restoration of Aquatic Systems

various pollution sources has contributed to the lack of effective restoration of
the damaged Perdido system.
4. A study of the Pensacola Bay system indicated that the Escambia estuary was so
polluted by point source pollution (toxic wastes), releases of sewage, and the
impacts of polluted urban storm water that the effluents of the pulp mill on Eleven-
mile Creek in the Perdido system should not be diverted to the Escambia River.
a. The

Pensacola News Herald

deliberately misrepresented the scientific effort to
analyze the Pensacola Bay system.
b. The news media in the Pensacola region used misrepresentation and omission
to make sure that the public was not informed concerning the state of toxic
waste loading into the Pensacola Bay system.
c. Recently (May 2004), a Grand Jury found that groundwater contamination was
widespread in Escambia County, with more than half the county’s drinking
water wells contaminated. Sources of the contamination include six Superfund
sites, dozens of dry-cleaning sites, hundreds of petroleum storage sites and
numerous abandoned landfills. The Grand Jury also found that the U.S. EPA,
the FDEP, and the ECUA failed to do all they could to prevent or remediate
groundwater contamination.
d. The Grand Jury also found that ECUA staff knew for several years that drinking

water from some wells in the ECUA system was contaminated with radium
and other harmful substances but did not tell the ECUA board or the public
until 1998.
e. The Grand Jury also found that the ECUA publicly stated that federal radium
standards were likely to be loosened and that the heightened level of radium in
some public wells created no health risk. The ECUA knew that neither state-
ment was accurate.
f. The Grand Jury also found that the ECUA did not inform customers using
water from radium-tainted wells to seek an alternative source of supply, as
directed by the FDEP.
g. The Grand Jury also found that, at heavily contaminated sites, the costs of
contamination have been shifted to the public because the polluting companies
closed their businesses and abandoned their properties.
h. Media tactics that include omission, misinformation, and sensationalism have
resulted in a lack of public knowledge concerning the pollution of the Pensacola
system, and the resulting misdirection of attention to the actual impacts of
various pollution sources have contributed to the lack of effective restoration
of the damaged Pensacola system.

8.4 Summary of Recent Trends in North Florida

To summarize, the experience of environmental reporting over the past 35 years has gone
from excellent and objective coverage in the 1970s and early 1980s, to a drift toward
obfuscation and open camouflage of environmental damage during the 1990s that has not
improved to the present day. In areas where there has been extensive and detailed scientific
data concerning impacts due to various human activities, the data have been largely
ignored by media interests in favor of sensationalism generated by inflated and erroneous
(often inflammatory) claims by “environmentalists.” Real problems are largely ignored
when they involve politically powerful interests such as urban developers and agricultural
groups. When the scientific data are reported, the media often treat such information in

a way that inflates controversy and obfuscates understanding of the real pollution issues.
Unsubstantiated claims by all sides of a given issue are treated as equal by media reports.

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Chapter 8: Research, News Reports, and Restoration Success 241

There is virtually no effort to substantiate claims by the various sides of a given environ-
mental controversy. The usual tools of investigative reporting are ignored in favor of
alternating sensationalism and obfuscation of actual scientific facts. The public remains
titillated but largely ignorant of the real issues in terms of impact and remediation.
The problems outlined above are not restricted to north Florida — they are worldwide
and afflict some the most prominent aquatic systems in terms of increasing water pollution
and the loss of useful productivity.

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