Kayaking on the St. Johns River

Perhaps it’s not surprising that the self-interest of state Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson has him jumping to defend the state’s agricultural industry from anything that would hurt their wallets or make them change their method of operation. But in pandering to the narrow interests of agriculture, Bronson has abdicated his responsibility as an elected official. He could be a leader in convincing the agricultural industry that finding new ways to reduce nutrient runoff is good for the state and ultimately good for this important Florida industry.

Instead, Bronson wants to join a fight against a recent settlement brokered with the United States Environmental Protection Agency that would finally force Florida to get serious about stemming the flow of fertilizers and other nutrient-laden pollutants into its lakes, rivers, streams and estuaries. Bronson wants to join the Florida Pulp and Paper Association, the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the South Florida Water Management District to contest a settlement brokered last month by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA agreed to set statewide nutrient pollutant standards to settle a lawsuit filed in July 2008 by Earthjustice on behalf of five environmental groups, including the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

In the lawsuit, the environmentalists charged that the EPA under President Bush had allowed the state of Florida to ignore the Clean Water Act and simply set no nutrient standards. Nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from golf course, lawns, leaky septic tanks, failed sewage treatment plants and other industrial sources overload waterways and cause sickly phenomena such as the St. Johns River’s deadly blue-green algae blooms. Florida had a 2004 deadline to set limits or EPA was to intervene and set nutrient limits for the state. But 2004 came and went, and the federal government took no action. In 2008, the Florida DEP reported half of Florida’s rivers, lakes and streams had poor water quality. DEP says it would cost millions of dollars to to fix the problem.

Under the settlement of the Earthjustice lawsuit, EPA agreed to set statewide nutrient limits — for the state’s lakes and streams by October 2010 and for the coastline and estuaries by October 2011. Simple statewide standards would likely thwart a state DEP plan in the works since 2001 to develop a complex system of nutrient-loading standards for each of Florida’s water bodies. Environmentalists argue these individualized standards are really just a way for DEP to declare that the current level of pollutants in a body of water as the normal, acceptable level for that particular body of water. A single standard would force a cleanup plan and a strict curtailment of pollutants, the says, the more individualized standards would give a stamp of official approval to pollute-as-you’ve-been-polluting-all-along.

— Susan Eastman

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am and is filed under Enviroment, St. Johns River, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.