Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Overview
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
charged with environmental protection
Environmental protection
Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...
.
By the mid-1960s, when the federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
was becoming more and more involved in initiatives designed to protect the country's environmental interests, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
had four agencies with responsibilities involving environmental protection in some relatively direct manner: the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (state land
Public land
In all modern states, some land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land. The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countries...
, including shore
Shore
A shore or shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In Physical Oceanography a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the beach is at the edge of the shore,...
s, beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
es, wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s, and bodies of water
Body of water
A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water, usually covering the Earth or another planet. The term body of water most often refers to large accumulations of water, such as oceans, seas, and lakes, but it may also include smaller pools of water such as ponds, puddles or...
), the Department of Health
Florida Department of Health
The Florida Department of Health is responsible for protecting the public health and safety of the residents and visitors of the State of Florida. It is a cabinet level agency of the state government, headed by a State surgeon general who reports to the Governor...
(sewage treatment
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
, drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
quality
Water quality
Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...
), Department of Natural Resources (state park
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...
s and recreation area
Recreation area
A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. In the United States, National Recreation Areas are administered by several different agencies. They typically do not meet the strict guidelines to become national parks. In U.S...
s), and Game and Freshwater Fish Commission
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is a Florida government agency charged with managing the state's fish and wildlife resources, regulating Florida's fisheries and wildlife, and enforcing related laws...
(hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
).
Florida had no cohesive environmental agency to oversee the state's environment, when the Florida Department of Air and Water Pollution Control
Florida Department of Air and Water Pollution Control
The Florida Department of Air and Water Pollution Control was the state of Florida's first agency devoted strictly to environmental quality. It was created under the authority of Florida Statute 69-109 during the administration of Governor Claude Kirk, in 1969. The agency's name was changed to the...
was created under Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr.
Claude R. Kirk, Jr.
Claude Roy Kirk, Jr. was the 36th Governor of the U.S. state of Florida . He was the first Republican Governor of Florida since Reconstruction.-Early life:...
in the late 1960s.
Quotations
Excellent plan! Devious minds are attracted to Python, like mimes to unappreciative crowds.
Tim Peters, 13 Nov 1998
Python's syntax succeeds in combining the mistakes of Lisp and Fortran. I do not construe that as progress.
Larry Wall (author of Perl), May 12 2004
Python is an experiment in how much freedom programmers need. Too much freedom and nobody can read another's code; too little and expressiveness is endangered.
Guido van Rossum, 13 Aug 1996
And what defines a 'python activist' anyway? Blowing up Perl installations worldwide?
Ivan Van Laningham, June 2005, on comp. lang. python
Python is more concerned with making it easy to write good programs than difficult to write bad ones.
Steve Holden, June 2005, on comp.lang.python