April 17, 2007
The Florida Times-Union
I appreciate Ron Littlepage's column about the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's new attempt to lower water quality standards. As usual, it was right on target.
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Not to diminish Littlepage's insight, but why should residents of Northeast Florida be surprised by DEP's latest effort to allow more pollution to be discharged in our waterways? Our own St. Johns River has been the proving grounds for this foolishness.
Readers may remember the DEP has spent the past year attempting to lower dissolved oxygen standards in the St. Johns River.
It is proposing to lower dissolved oxygen levels in the river to concentrations below what is considered safe in Florida's other water bodies.
As fishermen know, adequate dissolved oxygen is important for the health of fisheries and other aquatic life. Why would the DEP want to degrade the river's water quality?
It's simple. The DEP, with support of major polluters, is working to overthrow the federal Environmental Protection Agency's nutrient reduction plan and allow more nitrogen pollution to enter the river. Lowering of dissolved oxygen levels is the first step in that process.
St. Johns Riverkeeper and Clean Water Network of Florida have gone to court to stop this scheme.
We undertook this action to protect the St. Johns River and to prevent the DEP from establishing a precedent that would allow the agency to lower water quality standards in other parts of the state. As it turns out, our fears have been confirmed.
After the St. Johns test run, the DEP is now taking its act statewide by devising a ruse to write off many more waterways as unsalvageable. Instead of the federally mandated fishable and swimmable criteria, Floridians will be learning new terms - "splashable" and "boatable." If DEP's campaign succeeds, we'll be able to boat or fish as long as our hands or faces don't contact the water. Doesn't that sound enjoyable?
We are all partly to blame for this unbelievable situation. Perhaps we have forgotten the DEP works for us, not the polluters. We have allowed the DEP to evolve into an agency that cares more about polluters than public health and our rivers' and streams' water quality.
It's time to stand up and tell our elected officials, including Gov. Charlie Crist and the DEP, our goal is to have waterways we can swim or fish in without fear of contracting an illness if the water touches us. Is that too much to ask?
NEIL A. ARMINGEON, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Jacksonville
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/041707/opl_9273371.shtml.