EPA hands job of cleaning Florida's water to polluters

[seafan]

Where the HELL is our leadership on this supremely critical issue?


Today's editorial at the St. Petersburg Times:


June 15, 2011

Public health, tourism and the environment in Florida suffered a major loss this week when the federal government put the protection of state waters back into the hands of the very people who have polluted them — big business and its enablers in Tallahassee. In a letter to the state, the Environmental Protection Agency dropped its effort to adopt clean water standards for Florida following 13 years of foot-dragging by state officials. This is either Washington's way to force the state's hand or a decision by the Obama administration not to alienate Florida in the run-up to the 2012 election. Either way, it's a risky game of chicken with a governor and a state Legislature that have shown no regard for the environment and clean water.

A brief history: The federal government told the states in 1998 to limit nutrient pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal areas by 2004 or it would do the job for them. But 2004 came and went. Florida environmental groups sued in 2008 seeking to compel the EPA to intervene under the Clean Water Act. The agency settled the case in 2009 under an agreement it would draft the standards for Florida. After 11 years of stalling, new rules were on the way and expected this year. Then Monday, after howls of complaints from business groups and state lawmakers, the EPA said it would give Florida another chance. The agency did not agree to preapproving any rules or to surrendering its rulemaking authority entirely. But it agreed to give Florida the time to write new clean water standards of its own.

This concession was as close to an all-out surrender as they come, and it's a shame EPA lost its nerve in the face of a massive disinformation campaign. State leaders and business interests hijacked the debate by ponying up inflated estimates for what it would cost to clean up Florida's waters. The EPA agreed to a host of loopholes — exempting entire industrial operations from the clean water rules, creating a waiver process and dragging out enforcement. Still, the state went to court to protect the biggest polluters. For this, Florida gets rewarded with another chance?

.....

Pollution taints 2,000 miles of the state's rivers, 380,000 acres of its lakes and 569 square miles of its coastal areas. Runoff from farms, utilities and sewer plants sparks fish kills, taints the public drinking water supply, damages waterfront property and tourist attractions and causes outbreaks of respiratory illness and other diseases. These are the real cost implications Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature need to consider — along with the cost of cleaning up even dirtier waterways. The EPA sold Floridians short by putting its faith in a governor who thinks government regulation is the problem.

.....

(emphasis added)


We first got wind of this development yesterday:


June 14, 2011

The federal Environmental Protection Agency appears to be offering Florida regulators an olive branch amid the legal battle and local government resistance over new federal water regulations limiting pollutants in the state's lakes and rivers.

The federal agency said this week it would consider postponing the implementation of its new pollution limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in Florida if the state Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) creates its own limits and they were approved EPA.

.....

The environmental group Earthjustice successfully sued EPA to impose nutrient pollutant standards. The group's lawyer, David Guest, said that the FDEP will try to create far more lenient pollution rules to allow continued polluting of Florida's waters.

.....

The legal battle between EPA and Florida utilities, elected officials and FDEP, focuses on how unwanted nutrients are measured in water.

Until now, Florida used primarily qualitative standards to decide whether its waters were polluted.

That meant if the water and its associated wildlife and vegetation appeared healthy, then the water body met Florida's standards, regardless of the level of nutrients. Nitrogen and phosphorus causes excessive amounts of algae to grow in water, changing the water's chemistry and damaging wildlife dependent on the water.

.....

Got that?



'Just take a look off the bow, fellas.... that water looks clean to me! We don't need no steenkin' EPA.

I guess we'll have some "public meetings" in Tallahassee and Leesburg this week to decide on some brand-new standards.'




Sixty percent of Florida's waters are polluted, according to the EPA's estimates.




It's about to get much, much worse.



Are Florida's electoral votes that important to those in Washington, to sell us out so cruelly?


We will not stand by and allow Florida's water safety standards to be callously used as a political bargaining chip.

[iwishiwas]

1. CRAP (and to the WH also!!)

[kristopher]

2. I think your indignation is unwarranted.

The best approach for getting a policy that will be more than words on paper is to have the state cooperate. I recognize that the FL written rules will not be the best that can be designed for achieving the goal of cleaning up the waterways, but since their back is against a wall on this, it will certainly be a huge leap forward from the present "Looks ok to me; what do you think Bubba?" approach.

That said, keep up the howling and focus on potential negative tourist impact. The dept of tourism is one of the strongest forces in all coastal states.