State Rep. Bob Allen has a name for his frustration: state Rep. Mitch Needelman.

Allen, R-Merritt Island, is accusing Needelman, R-Melbourne, of blocking his bill to stop gambling ships in Florida from dumping their sewage offshore. The bill would require gambling ships statewide -- including the two based at Port Canaveral -- to pump their waste into a holding tank or treatment facility at the dock, rather than discharging it several miles offshore.

The issue is crucial to Brevard County, as the two ships dump an estimated 1.38 million gallons of sewage a year off the coast, and a federal study found Brevard's coastline is vulnerable to pollution from such sewage.

Allen's bill has been stuck in a committee in the Florida House of Representatives led by Needelman.

The House Environmental Regulation Committee received the bill in November. Needelman didn't schedule a hearing on it until the committee's last scheduled meeting of the session Wednesday in Tallahassee. But the allotted time for the hearing ran out before the committee could debate and vote on it.

Allen said Needelman deliberately stalled the vote and questioned whether Needelman is trying to kill the bill, in collusion with the gambling-ship industry.

The way Needelman handled Wednesday's hearing was "a cheap shot -- a bureaucratic manipulation to stop a good environmental bill," Allen said.

"The gambling-ship industry approached me about stopping the bill. I'm sure they approached him," Allen said.

"He's holding it up. Is he being influenced by the gambling-ship industry? He's certainly not being influenced by environmental concerns."

Another chance

Needelman said he will ask House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, for permission to conduct another meeting of his committee to continue the hearing on the bill.

"I don't want anybody to think we don't care about the environment," said Needelman, who has cited constitutional and jurisdictional concerns about Allen's bill.

Needelman said Allen is trying to grab "headlines," rather than craft a bill that would be able to withstand legal challenges.

"I'm dedicated to keeping the greater environment clean, not just getting my name in the paper," said Needelman, a former Florida Marine Patrol officer.

Needelman said Allen's bill will die if the committee does not approve it.

However, Allen said there still are procedures -- although rare -- available to get his bill before the full House membership for a vote, even if the bill doesn't make it out of Needelman's committee. The legislative session is scheduled to end May 5.

Campaign money

Needelman said he is not sticking up for gambling ships, and has not received any gifts or favors from the industry. He said he would have to check his campaign finance records to see whether he has received contributions from the industry.

Records show Needelman received two campaign contributions in 2004 totaling $1,000 from the Day Cruise Association, which represents the state's gambling-vessel operators.

Local interest

The stakes over the bill are especially high at Port Canaveral -- one of the state's busiest venues for offshore gambling vessels.

Two ships operated by Sterling Casino Lines and SunCruz Casinos draw almost 1 million passengers a year. In addition to Sterling's and SunCruz's revenues, which the companies do not disclose, the ships produce millions of dollars a year in revenue for the Canaveral Port Authority.

The two ships also produce an unwanted byproduct: about 3,800 gallons of sewage a day, according to numbers that Sterling and SunCruz provided to the Canaveral Port Authority. That comes to more than 1.38 million gallons a year.

For years, the vessels dumped their sewage three to four miles off Brevard County's shore. Then, in July, just before Allen announced his proposal, the companies agreed to dump eight miles offshore.

Offshore limits

The eight-mile announcement also came as a federal study of pollution in Brevard County's coastal waters was released. The study found that, because of shallow waters off the Space Coast, waste would have to be dumped more than 12 nautical miles or 14 statute miles offshore to avoid any interaction with coastal waters and shoals.

The issue has raised the ire of city officials and residents in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, which have popular beaches just south of Port Canaveral.

Allen said he proposed his bill -- called the Clean Ocean Act -- with such concerns in mind.

But he had not been able to get Needelman to put the bill before his committee, as the two lawmakers traded e-mails and other messages for weeks over Needelman's objections to the bill.

Expensive solution

If the bill is approved, it could prove expensive for gambling-ship operators and port authorities.

Although the exact costs haven't been worked out, the Canaveral Port Authority, for example, has set aside at least $200,000 for sewage-pumping facilities or equipment in case the bill becomes law.

Some officials at Port Canaveral echo Needelman's concerns about Allen's bill, including Port Commissioner Ralph Kennedy, who called gambling-ship dumping "inconsequential" in the big picture of ocean pollution.

Needelman said he opposes Allen's bill based on constitutional and jurisdictional concerns because the gambling ships travel outside state waters, among other issues. He said he doesn't want to single out gambling ships for such regulations.

Needelman said gambling vessels treat their sewage before discharging it, although Allen said such treatment is minimal, calling it "pureed" sewage.

Constitutional issues

Allen also said Needelman's legal arguments against the bill don't make sense, calling them "fuzzy constitutional issues."

Nevertheless, Allen said he had a House lawyer rewrite his bill to address Needelman's concerns, and presented his new bill to Needelman's committee Wednesday.

When that happened, Needelman called for a brief recess. When the meeting resumed, the committee took testimony, and the bill didn't come to a vote.

Senate version

There's another version of the bill in the Senate, sponsored by state Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic.

That bill was tabled by a Senate committee this week after Ralph Haben, a lobbyist for the Day Cruise Association and a former Florida speaker of the House, opposed the measure. Haben also said the bill poses constitutional and jurisdictional problems.

However, the Senate committee is expected to schedule another hearing on the Haridopolos bill, Allen said.

Needelman, meanwhile, said he is proposing an agreement -- called a memorandum of understanding -- as an alternative to Allen's bill.

The agreement would be signed by gambling-vessel operators and call for stricter dumping regulations and greater enforcement and education of such issues -- although Allen said such an agreement would not have the power or legal "teeth" of his bill.

Needelman said, while he intends to seek another meeting to hear Allen's bill, he doesn't know whether anything will come of it.

"I don't think Mr. Allen has worked in trust and good faith to resolve this issue," Needelman said.

"If there's a perception in Brevard about ocean pollution, then I'm going to address it. If Allen's unwilling to address it -- I will," Needelman added, referring to his proposal.

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