In November the EPA accepted most of the numeric nutrient standards proposed by the Florida Department of the Environment for South Florida flowing waters, as well as for most estuaries, marine and coastal waters. The EPA decision ends a process that began in July 2008 when a coalition of environmental organizations sued the EPA in order to impose stricter nutrient standards on Florida as required under the Clean Water Act. In 2009, under a consent decree settlement the EPA announced its own stringent nutrient standards it intended to impose on the state if Florida did not develop their own standards.
The EPA’s decision conditionally approved the Florida DEP’s rule creating standards for 15% of the state’s flowing and estuarine/coastal/marine waters. Rivers and streams covered by the state rule will not have true criteria. Instead, they have “thresholds” that can be exceeded without nutrient reduction measures ever necessarily being required. The remaining 85% of Florida waters will be covered under the more stringent EPA standards.
In order for these waters to have pollution limits, the presence of algae outbreaks/fish kills/other types of biological failure would be required and subsequent studies linking the biological failure with the exceedence of the thresholds would need to be completed. The DEP rule has no commitment to do, nor timeline/deadline for study completion; therefore, waters can indefinitely exceed the thresholds with no requirement to reduce nutrient pollution inputs.
The DEP rule, also, allows tidal, intermittent, altered artificial waters and South Florida waters to be exempted from all numeric nutrient standards in the future. The EPA’s own proposed standards set numeric downstream protective values (measurable number limits in upstream waters that were tied to meeting downstream nutrient pollution standards) to prevent lakes, bays and beaches from becoming unsafe and severely polluted. The DEP rule does not include downstream protective values. Alarmingly, in its’ November decision the EPA has given notice of their intention to amend their own previous determination regarding the requirement for downstream protection values; this would allow EPA to withdraw these important pollution limits in the near future.
“Clean water is critical to healthy corals. Florida’s coral reefs are already struggling to survive the effects of water pollution and global carbon pollution.” Said Millard McCleary, Executive Program Director of Reef Relief. "If the EPA puts the FLDEP in charge of enforcing the Clean Water Act, Florida’s waters and public health will be at risk.”
“The FLDEP rules will not provide adequate control of nutrient pollution and would not prevent the already widespread water quality degradation of Florida’s waters. Florida needs true standards to improve degraded water quality that is already affecting the natural ecosystems in the State. Strong standards are critical to protect the public health, the economy and the environment of Florida. The EPA needs to ensure that the final rules provide genuine protection for which they are required under the Clean Water Act. The “thresholds” found in the FLDEP rule will not protect coral reefs which are the basis of much of the economy of the Florida Keys. It is vital that the EPA truly support clean water for Florida.” said McCleary.
TAKE ACTION TODAY! TELL THE EPA YOU CARE ABOUT CLEAN WATER AND PUBLIC HEALTH. TELL THEM TO SAY "NO" TO THE FLDEP'S LOWER NUTRIENT STANDARDS.
TELL THEM TO ENFORCE THE CLEAN WATER ACT IN FLORIDA. ASK THEM TO PLEASE RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENTS.
To submit comments on the EPA's Coastal Water Rule Docket ID No. [EPA-HQ-OW-2009-022 FRL-9759-3] by email to [email protected] or visit www.regulations.gov for other ways to comment and more information. Deadline for comments is Feb 19, 2013
EPA NUMERIC NUTRIENT CRITERIA COMMENT DRAFTING TIPS
Factsheet on the EPA Desicion Regarding the Numeric Nutrient Critera for Florida