Honor Stewart Legacy

Amid all the speculation and intense lobbying about the next executive director of the Environmental Protection Commission, this inevitably comes to mind: We’re still in the debt of Roger Stewart.

He WAS the EPC–from inception through three decades of often contentious service, especially in the unenlightened 1970s. Roger the steward fought the good, if curmudgeonly, fight for quality of life. He paved the way, metaphorically, for the more even-keeled, but effective Richard Garrity.

Regardless of who is chosen to succeed the retiring Garrity, may that person never forget the legacy of Stewart, the county’s avatar of environmental priority. The one who, back in a go-go-growth, subdivisions-forever, dredge-and-fill era, incurred the ire of real estate developers and phosphate mines for being a “purist” about the environment, especially the bay. The one who was not intimidated from shaming the establishment. The one who brought Mike Wallace and “60 Minutes” to town to showcase an environmental crusader battling vested economic interests.

The next EPC director should be more than a key county official and Garrity’s successor. That person, mindful that Tampa Bay is the state’s largest open-water estuary, should be a de facto natural resource for this area. There is a reason why Tampa Bay is enjoying an ecological comeback with water quality and sea-grass acreage that we haven’t seen in more than half a century. We’ve come too far to return to open season on air and water.

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