September 12, 2011

Boatable/splashable waters for Florida approved by EPA

Dear Friends of Florida’s waters:

Last week the US EPA approved Florida’s request to change the designated use categories for Florida’s waters. For decades, all of Florida’s waters had to fall into one of five use categories: drinking, shell-fishing, fishing/swimming, agriculture and industry (for which there are none anymore). As I have written to you many times over the past two years, Florida decided that some of our waters should not be clean enough for fishing and swimming, which means that higher levels of pollution will not only be tolerated but it will be legal and beyond anyone’s legal objections.

We have all tried to stop this from happening for the past several years. We submitted several comment letters to the state and to EPA and have had several meetings with EPA as well as phone conversations and emailing back and forth. Nevertheless, EPA has made yet another decision that will be devastating to Florida’s waters. While I am not surprised, I am deeply disappointed in the Obama EPA, which seems to have little or no regard for our waters. Yes, from time to time they make sounds that would lead one to think they want to do the right thing, but their actions speak louder.

First they gave Florida a numeric nutrient criteria rule that is so full of loopholes that it will actually allow even more nutrient pollution in our waters. Now they are allowing for designated uses that will legalize more pollution. Next year Florida intends to weaken the dissolved oxygen criteria for Florida’s waters. This is necessary because of the higher nutrient levels that are now allowed, which in turn cause lower dissolved oxygen in our waters. Higher nutrients, more algae, lower dissolved oxygen all lead to waters that are unsuitable for fish to survive in and unfit for humans to swim in. When Florida asks EPA to approve the change in dissolved oxygen criteria next year, we can unfortunately expect EPA to say yes again.

Our attorney is reviewing the situation and I’m hoping that we can file suit against EPA for this decision. The wording is carefully crafted in an attempt to cover their butt in court. If there is a way to challenge this, we will.

I’m sorry to bring this bad news to you, but we will continue to fight for protection of our waters on the local level across the state and hopefully in the near future the voters of Florida will elect people to office who care about clean water, our health and preserving our natural resources for future generations.

For all of Florida’s waters,

Linda Young

Director