Bruce Ritchie, 05/24/2012 - 05:38 PM
Environmentalists said Thursday they will ask the Florida Supreme Court to require the governor and Cabinet to decide on a plan for a pollution pipeline into the St. Johns River approved by the state. Also Thursday, the Earthjustice law firm and the Florida Wildlife Federation, which are fighting proposed state pollution rules, said an algae bloom on the Santa Fe River demonstrates the need for tougher federal rules instead of the state rules. The actions represent separate fights between environmental groups and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection along with industry groups over water quality. The Clean Water Network of Florida and its allies continue to fight DEP and the pulp and paper industry over its proposals to build pollution pipelines. DEP in 1994 issued an order toGeorgia-Pacific to make water quality improvements and to construct a four-mile pipeline to move the discharge at its Palatka plant from Rice Creek to the St. Johns River. A draft petition states that by allowing "mixing zones" for pollution from the pipeline, DEP is allowing for the "private use" of submerged state lands without approval by the Cabinet, which has responsibility in the state Constitution to approve those uses and require compensation. A DEP spokeswoman said the department is still reviewing the petition but she pointed out that mixing zones are a part of state water quality standards and are kept to the smallest size possible while maintaining designated waterway uses. On Thursday, Earthjustice and the Florida Wildlife Federation highlighted Gainesville Suncoverage of the Santa Fe River, where health officials have advised people not to swim, consume fish or drink water near an algae bloom although it hasn't been classified as toxic. “This is heartbreaking for people and for wildlife,” Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller said in a news release. “It’s a full-blown crisis like we’ve never seen before on the beautiful Santa Fe River.” Earthjustice represents the federation and other groups that filed a legal challenge to block proposed state water quality rules, called numeric nutrient criteria. The state rules are proposed to replace federal water quality rules that are being rewritten after a federal judge earlier this year found them to be "arbitrary and capricious." Industry groups favor the proposed state rules that DEP says are more flexible and will cost less for industries and utilities to comply with while protecting water quality. Environmental groups say the proposed state rules are weak and will result in continued increases in nitrogen that feeds the algae choking springs and other waterways. Ryan Banfill, a spokesman for a coalition of industry groups, cities and counties that have opposed the federal rules, said it's hard to understand how the environmentalists who are opposing the state rules are complaining about foot-dragging on pollution. Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.
Bruce Ritchie, 05/02/2012 - 04:04 PMDEP is responsible for protecting the quality of Florida’s drinking water as well as its rivers, lakes, wetlands and springs. The Federal Clean Water Act requires states to publicly review and update their water quality standards in what is called a "triennial review."
The department has scheduled hearings for later this month in West Palm Beach, Orlando and Tallahassee to consider its "human health criteria" involving exposure to chemicals through fish consumption.
DEP was conducting a similar review in 2008 before some environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state's lack of numeric limits for nitrogen and phosphorus. That lawsuit led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in Florida waterways, which prompted DEP to adopt replacement rules.
"That just became all-consuming," said Drew Bartlett, director of DEP's Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration. "Now that we put that to rest, we can shift those resources consumed by the numeric nutrient criteria back onto this issue. We decided to pick it straight right back up."
The Legislature waived approval of those rules in February and the state sent them to the EPA for review. Environmental groups including the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club have a legal challenge pending at the Division of Administrative Hearings.
In 2009, the Clean Water Network petitioned the federal EPA to set human health criteria for fish consumption. Other environmental groups had sued in 1995, arguing that previous human health criteria were based on low fish consumption rates by Floridians.
DEP has conducted studies and determined that Floridians do eat more fish than those in other states, so proposed new human health criteria will have to reflect that, Bartlett said.
"It is going to become more stringent than it is currently on the books for all of those (pollution) parameters," he said.
Although Bartlett said DEP is moving forward as planned, Clean Water Network's Linda Young said her group has warned it will sue if DEP delays action again.
"(The federal) EPA has to make sure the criteria adopted are protective of human health when those fish are consumed," said Young, the group's director.
After the hearings from May 15-17, DEP hopes to adopt updated rules by the end of the year, Bartlett said.
The department also is proposing limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in estuaries along the Florida Panhandle. And the department will consider setting new requirements for dissolved oxygen, which affects the amount of pollution that can be discharged into waterways.
Florida's dissolved oxygen criteria were based on national criteria from studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, Bartlett said.
He said in more recent years, DEP has invested in a "huge" monitoring system in Florida to determine what dissolved oxygen conditions exist naturally in Florida. That science also will be presented at the workshops.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is tracking the dissolved oxygen issue and has raised serious concerns with DEP, said Jennifer Hecker, the group's director of natural resource policy.
"Sometimes by changing the goal and standard you can create compliance," Hecker said. "It doesn't necessarily make anything better -- that is the concern. We want to see things truly improve. I think that is what Floridians want as well."
Young warned that industry groups are seeking to allow pollution to continue by reducing dissolved oxygen -- along with setting weak nitrogen and phosphorus limits and creating new designated uses for waterways with their own pollution limits.
Bartlett responded the science behind dissolved oxygen standard needs to be updated based on new science, just like with the nitrogen and phosphorus limits. And he said DEP will looking for feedback from the public at its upcoming workshops.
"We can't really do anything at DEP that is not truly and soundly rooted in the science," Bartlett said. "There is no other way to do it really."
Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.