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Tampa’s University Area is located near the University of South Florida.

It is home to about 10,000 residents, the majority of them renters.

It is also home to Aarans Pond, an artificial pond where contaminants and stormwater collect.

In December of 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded $15 million to the University Area CDC and USF.

It was granted through the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program.  

This federal-funded initiative had set $3 billion to support community-led solutions to pollution and climate change in disadvantaged communities.

It’s called “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”.

It aims to completely remove and ban all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI/DEIA) projects across the federal government.

Christian Wells is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Brownfields Research and Redevelopment at the University of South Florida. 

“There’s just this feeling of outrage, I think, that a lot of people have because it’s, as they’ve said to me repeatedly, it’s not about race, it’s about community. It’s about having the same things that other communities have.”

The grant was awarded to address issues in the community relating to flooding, stormwater, and drinking water. 

Wells adds that many residents rely on private drinking water wells and septic systems to manage their wastewater. 

Kym Meyer is the Litigation Director at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

“The challenge is, even though we filed this case very promptly in March of 2025, it’s now September of 2026, and the funding actually expires at the end of this month. So we are kind of racing against the clock to get EPA to act before the funding expires.” 

Despite the setbacks, Wells adds that the University Area is not giving up.

They push to find alternative funding options to advance its efforts in providing residents clean water.

The post Trump administration cancels $15 million University Area grant appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

Florida join one of the four states to restict access to public unversity for undocumented students, which could drive students to attend univerities outside of Florida.

A coalition of environmental and social justice groups push for a city-owned electic utility.

With the influx of students, ages 11-18 vapping, Hillsborough school broard and community efforts approve restricion efforts. Alongside a techonolgy that will sense vape smoke, students will also be given a preventative educational course on the dangers of vaping.

North Port commisioners called a halt as the process is reviewed. Residents remain worried about the possible enviornmental degradation of data centers.

The Scoop, produced by Jaila Harrigan

WMNF anchors Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Seán Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Megan Fair.
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Lisa Marzilli, Seán Kinane, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl.
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.

Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
https://archive.org/details/jamendo-001084/02.mp3
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com / WMNF

The post The Scoop: Fri. Sep. 4, 2026, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

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The 40-year-old Whiteway plant has significant structural problems and PFAS contamination levels.

PFAS are a large group of synthetic chemicals that do not degrade easily in the environment and increase the risk of cancer and childhood obesity.

The city is now looking at two proposals to renovate and clean the water treatment infrastructure.

Both would cost over 70 million dollars.

City Manager Carlos Baia presented the estimated budget at a recent city council workshop.

“We had to do a lot of educated estimation here, so I just want you to understand that these numbers, by the time that you go a year or two years from now to actually go to construction, these numbers could look different,” Baia said.

One proposal looks at purchasing water from Hillsborough County. 

But Temple Terrace would need to build nearly 3.2 miles of new pipes under busy roadways like I-75 to transport the water.

Construction could take five to six years and would cost roughly $93 million dollars.

The other proposal looks at building a nanofiltration system with a deep injection well at the city’s Whiteway plant. 

It would cost about $73 million dollars and take four to five years to be completed.

James Chamber is the Vice Mayor of Temple Terrace’s City Council.

“So we’ve got a county option that is going to be as long or longer, cost more, and certainly the monthly rates would be more expensive to our residents to buy the water down the road,” Chamber said. 

Apart from the two long-term plans to renovate the Whiteway plant near the University of South Florida, Temple Terrace needs to decrease the PFAS contamination levels in its drinking water.

A new rule that goes into effect in 2031 from the Environmental Protection Agency requires these levels to be below 4 parts per trillion.

Think of four single drops of water inside an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Temple Terrace wants to purchase a temporary carbon activated filtration system. 

The council is in favor of buying the equipment instead of renting it for three to four years at about $2.5 million annually because it could save money.

It would also allow Temple Terrace to use the utility revenue bond to help pay for it. 

The bond could not be used to rent the equipment.

However, as Temple Terrace’s water is hard, the temporary fix would need the filtration media to be replaced roughly every 45 days instead of the industry standard of six months.

Each replacement would cost about $750,000.

Therefore, it would cost nearly $5.5 million dollars to purchase the equipment and roughly another $15 million dollars on filter replacements.

The plant’s renovation and the temporary fix would require a 35% rate increase in the 2027 water utility.

Mayor Andy Ross said their water is still compliant to the EPA current requirements.

“If you are one of the people that are really sensitive to this, for a hundred bucks you can go buy a Brita filter,” Ross said. “But when you compare the cost of a filter, compared to adding 25 or 30 million dollars to this bill, it would be cheaper to buy everybody a filter.”

The council did not make any final decisions and is still evaluating the project’s budget.

The post Temple Terrace’s plans to renovate the Whiteway plant may lead to a 35% rate increase in water bills appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

More than 160 field cameras have been monitoring Florida wildlife for three years.

Lisa Smith, the supervisor of the Florida team at Zoo Tampa says it’s a partnership with the fStop foundation.

This began with the effort to understand why the Florida Panther population continues to decrease.

“So we’re looking at different parts of what’s called the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which is areas of wild land that run throughout Florida, and how animals are utilizing that wild land to move throughout Florida, so that we can hopefully see how the panthers can be more successful in the future.”

State wildlife officials saw the highest death toll since 2016 in 2024, documenting 36 panther deaths.

Zoo Tampa has expanded to gather data on all wildlife along Lake Wales Ridge State Forest in Polk County.

She says employees go into the field once a month to check these cameras. This can include adding more or moving them to different locations.

“We go out, and we change the batteries; we pull out the SD cards. We get them all set up so that they can record for a whole other month, and then we bring that footage back, look through it, see what we’re seeing, and we upload it to a Google Drive that then Desktop Foundation has access to and can utilize those videos as well for any information that they need or anything that they want to share.”

Data from these field cameras have also led to the construction of the first overpass dedicated entirely to wildlife in the state.

The overpass is expected to open in 2027 and will be located over I-4 in Lakeland.

The post Over 160 field cameras have been monitoring Florida wildlife for three years appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

Since 2021 dozens of cameras have been installed without discussion from the public. It has been cited by the ACLU that police can use the camera for warrantless tracking to determine your daily whereabouts.

The federal program encourages schools to use locally-sourced meat and produce in school lunches. The initiative does not increase the budget for the updates, leading federal budget to look cuts and funding in other categories.

Residents were protesting Project Grace, an $80-million dollar sports complex in Lakewood Ranch. The sports complex would lead the residential are to become a high traffic spot raising concerns for children’s saftey in the urban area. There is an alloted 22 acres for Lakewood Ranch that is also raising environmental concerns.

The Scoop, produced by Kayleigh Fuller

WMNF anchors Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Seán Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Megan Fair.
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Lisa Marzilli, Seán Kinane, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl.
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.

Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
https://archive.org/details/jamendo-001084/02.mp3
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com / WMNF

The post The Scoop: Thurs. Aug. 27, 2026, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

On the August 17th WMNF Sustainable Living program, our topic was all about termites with Dr. Thomas Chouvenc, a Professor of Urban Entomology at the IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research Center. Dr. Chouvenc’s research focuses on subterranean termite biology, with a particular interest in the field of evolution of insect societies, termite ecology, and termite control.

Topics discussed include:

-the importance of termites in the ecosystem

-the complex biology, life cycle and societal structure of termites

-native vs. invasive species in Florida

-tree inspection in effected neighborhoods 

-control methods

-dry termites vs. subterranean termites

and more!

If you love the Sustainable Living Show, make sure to tune in every Monday at 11am on 88.5fm or listen to past episodes in the archives here. You can also stay up to date with show happenings on our Facebook page. Head over to the tip jar and direct your donation to Sustainable Living to show your monetary support. Remember, it takes a community to build a community.

The post All about termites with Dr. Thomas Chouvenc appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

Last week, the 11th circuit court of appeals approved the use of radioactive waste in a road paving test in Polk County.

The case revolves around the Center for Biological Diversity suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its approval of phosphogypsum as a road paving material.

Mosaic fertilizer requested the EPA’s approval in 2022.

“Phosphogypsum is the radioactive waste that is generated when the phosphate industry mines phosphate ore and turns it into fertilizer,” said Ragan Whitlock is a Florida-based attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

He points to the 2021 Piney Point leak of phosphate waste. It led to the discharge of 200 million gallons of industrial wastewater into Tampa Bay.

It is one of the largest environmental disasters in the history of Florida.

Manatee County has spent over $23 million in the site’s cleanup.

“Mosaic is now seeking to pave roadways with this waste in an attempt to reduce the amount of costs that they have to safely manage it, and the EPA has approved a test road at its own facility in Mulberry, Florida.”

Whitlock warns that this approval and the subsequent test can lead to widespread use, but the court ruled that argument lacks substantial evidence.

According to the Florida Phoenix, the EPA prohibited the use of phosphogypsum in road projects in 1992, stating that this application presents an “unacceptable level of risk to public health.”

The rule, however, allows phosphogypsum’s use on a case-by-case basis.

The post Appeals court approves the use of radioactive waste in a road paving test in Polk County. appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

Advocates gathered outside Tampa Electric’s offices on July 25 to mark the one-year anniversary of record 100-degree heat in Tampa.

It was a protest organized by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch and the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition.

They are calling for an affordable energy reform following a recent report revealing TECO customers have seen their bills skyrocket by 81% over the past five years.

It is an increase of over $900 dollars a year—more than three times the rate of inflation.

That’s according to Isabella Moeller, the Florida organizer for the nonprofit Food and Water Watch.

“Our investor owned utilities such as Tampa Electric, Duke Energy, Florida Power and Light have been receiving massive rate increases year after year, all of which are rubber stamped by our utility regulators, the Public Service Commission,” said Moeller. “This has now caused Floridians to pay some of the highest electricity bills in the nation.”

TECO is removing a storm recovery charge from bills this month which they argue would save  customers about $20 per 1,000 kWh.

But the group warns this is a minor decrease and that base rates are still historically high.

Food and Water Watch also expect TECO to request another rate hike in 2027.

“There’s currently a case happening right now with the Public Service Commission that’s coming up this month in August,” said Moeller. “They’re going to be reviewing this large user tariff that Duke Energy has requested to see if it is in compliance with the new data center law.”

If passed, the proposal would allow Duke Energy to treat data centers as a large corporation using its grid.

Some consumer advocates say that proposal sidesteps the new law and would lead to ratepayers footing the costs.

The post Advocates call for affordable energy reform a year after record heat appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the largest blackwater Swamp in North America.

For Jason Totoiu, senior attorney and Florida policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, it is one of the sites everyone should visit at least once in their lives.

“It is a place that I would recommend to anyone who is just interested in the way America used to look centuries ago,” said Totoiu. “It is unspoiled. One of the few places left in the southeastern United States, in both Georgia and Florida, that remains truly wild.”

The World Heritage designation acknowledges the swamp’s rich diversity.

But it doesn’t provide any conservation regulations or protections.

“Largely due to the proximity of some proposed mines throughout the years and beginning in the 1990s,” said Totoiu. He refers to mining projects around Trial Ridge which surrounds the swamp. “Which would have compromised water levels and the water quality of the swamp.”

Public outcry led to the conservation of near areas and for the 1990’s proposal to be dropped.

But other proposals have come with the most recent one arriving in 2020.

The Everglades National Park received a World Heritage designation in 2010, but is now less than half its original size.

Most recently, it was the focal point of an environmental lawsuit due to an immigration detention center that the state called Alligator Alcatraz.

For Totoiu, the designation also comes at a time the federal government doesn’t prioritize habitat protection.

Just last month, the Trump administration eliminated habitat damage from the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act.

“From a regulatory perspective, you know the elimination of habitat harm under the definition is very concerning,” said Totoiu. “Those protections are in place to help conserve species that would be otherwise threatened by private activities like mining. It is a somewhat naive approach that we will just figure it out”

During his second term, the Center for Biological Diversity has filed 123 lawsuits aiming to protect threatened species or their habitats.

The post UNESCO recognizes the Okefenokee swamp as World Heritage appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

Lakeland city commissioners are considering a temporary moratorium on large data centers. Meanwhile, officials say the pause would allow time to evaluate the impact on infrastructure and future development.

The union representing TSA employees nationwide is vowing to fight a privatization plan at Tampa International Airport. However, union leaders argue the proposal could affect workers and airport security operations.

The court appearance of a woman who was injured during her arrest while pregnant has been delayed. Meanwhile, the case will move forward at a later date as legal proceedings continue.

Republican Congress member Cory Mills is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, officials have released few details as the investigation remains ongoing.

The Scoop, produced by Demaria Green

WMNF anchors Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Seán Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Megan Fair.
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Lisa Marzilli, Seán Kinane, Sofia Caballero, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl.
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.

Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
https://archive.org/details/jamendo-001084/02.mp3
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com / WMNF

The post The Scoop: Thurs. July 23, 2026, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.