News & Public Affairs
Pinellas and Hillsborough beach goers warned about high bacteria counts
07/18/12 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: beaches, Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, health
Update Wednesday 25 July:
Hillsborough County has lifted its beach advisory for all five beaches.
Update Friday 20 July:
After re-sampling these five locations, the Pinellas County Health Department has lifted its saltwater beach advisory for
Honeymoon Island, Dunedin
Sand Key Park, Clearwater
Indian Rocks Beach (1700 Gulf Blvd.)
Madeira Beach, Archibald Park
Redington Shores near 182nd Ave. W.
They have "received lab results with moderate or good readings...
Be the first to commentNatural Resources Defense Council releases beach water quality report listen
07/12/12 Olivia KabatWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
The Natural Resources Defense Council recently released their 22nd annual Vacation Beach Water Quality Report. The findings show an overall rise in pollution at beaches around the US, but Florida fared better than most states.
According to NRDC’s results, Florida’s beaches ranked 5th in Beachwater Quality out of 30 states. Only 3% of samples in the Sunshine State exceeded national standards for beaches in 2011. At beaches like Fort DeSoto, and Sand Key less than 5% of water samples exceed...
Be the first to commentSarasota County promotes environmental awareness about Florida’s seagrass meadows listen
03/28/12 Samuel JohnsonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: environment, beaches, Sarasota County Beaches, Conservation, seagrass
Environmentally engaged volunteers are acquainting the public to the importance of Florida’s unique animals and plants. At an event for seagrass Awareness Month in Siesta Key, organizers said protecting and preserving Florida’s coastal regions starts at the grassroots level.
The volunteers, calling themselves, “beach ambassadors,” have adopted a simple goal. They serve residents who are interested in knowing more about ...
Be the first to comment150 tons of sand sculptures showcased on Treasure Island beach listen
11/22/11 Andrea LypkaWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: sanding ovations, beaches, treasure island
Over the weekend, visitors to Treasure Island saw 150 tons of sand transformed into massive sand sculptures.
Among the ten professionals from all over the world who competed for the Sanding Ovations Masters Cup last weekend was Rusty Croft from Carmel, California. He has been traveling all over the world for the last 14 years creating sand sculptures. Croft fought the windy weather and surrounded himself with buckets of sand for 24 hours to carve the masterpiece Sprouting Ideas. It’s a pi...
Be the first to commentUSF researchers study ghost crabs to find out more about impacts of Gulf oil spill listen
07/20/11 Andrea LypkaWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, oil spill, USF, Deepwater Horizon, BP oil disaster, beaches
Questions about the impact of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the effectiveness of the beach cleanups remain to be answered by researchers. A team of researchers from the University of South Florida say that their study on ghost crab populations and sediments of Gulf beaches might answer these questions.
Susan Bell, professor of biology and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology, and her research team will start to document the D...
Be the first to commentPinellas County begins recycling program for beaches listen
07/13/11 Olivia KabatWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: beaches, recycling, Pinellas County
A new Gulf Beaches Recycling Program is providing Pinellas beachgoers the opportunity to recycle. It will make recycling at the beach easy and convenient.
If you visit any of the Gulf beaches or Pinellas County beach parks you may see new blue plastic recycling containers. Pinellas County’s Solid Waste Program Supervisor, Bill Embry hopes to provide the community with an easy way to recycle all their plastic and aluminum containers.
Be the first to comment"The ultimate goal is to have every community that ha...
NRDC releases beaches scorecard; Florida scores well except for effects of BP oil listen
06/29/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: NRDC, fertilizer, fertilizer ordinance, beaches
Tampa Bay Beaches will likely be packed this holiday weekend, and an environmental study out today ranks beaches nationwide on pollution and closures. Despite oil hitting the Panhandle last year, Florida Beaches as a whole didn’t fare too poorly.
"Beaches in Florida, the overall picture is that 4 percent of the samples exceeded national standards in 2010."
Jon Devine, senior lawyer i...
Be the first to commentGovernor Scott leaves beach renourishment funding in budget listen
06/07/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Scott, Jim Frishe, beach renourishment, Beach nourishment, tourism, Pinellas County, beaches, Development, USF
The state of Florida boasts of more than 800 miles of beachfront. Some of these beaches erode so much that encroaching waters threaten buildings and worsen the impacts of storm surge. Across the state, a practice known as beach renourishment attempts to stop this. Such projects rely heavily on state funding, which Governor Rick Scott threatened to cut. But $16 million dollars for beach renourishment was not among the items he vetoed when he signed the state budget passed by the Legislature. B...
Be the first to commentOffshore drilling opponents protest Gingrich listen
04/01/10 Matthew CimitileWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: oil drilling, environment, jobs, economy, beaches, Newt Gingrich, Bill Foster
Former Speaker and possible Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich hosted a jobs summit in St. Petersburg yesterday to promote ways lawmakers can create jobs now.
But his idea for more oil drilling was met by scores of protesters.
The jobs plan presented by Newt Gingrich at the American Solutions Real Jobs Summit was a conservative policy wish list: reduce government spending, balance the budget, lower taxes, and develop America’s energy supplies. T...
1 commentsGulf drilling expansion vote is next week
09/09/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: oil drilling, beaches, drilling solids, Sea Turtles
Good afternoon, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up first today: there will soon be a vote in the U.S. Senate to open up the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. We’ll speak with two environmentalists about the upcoming vote.
Later, since this program has not been on for several weeks- it’s our first opportunity to talk about the political conventions. And we’ll do that in the second part of the program.
First up, oil drilling in the gulf:
From today...
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