Published August 14, 2002
Imagine a miracle.
All of Florida's polluted lakes, rivers, creeks and canals suddenly are pristine. No more low oxygen levels that kill fish. No more problems created by runoff from farms and cities. No industrial waste, no phosphorus from fertilizers or nitrogen that feeds the growth of green slime on clear water. No unknown chemicals that make fish develop sores and lesions.
Now imagine that Florida's solution to pollution is the standard for the nation.
Apparently, it is just that simple. Florida's environmental bureaucrats are in the process of removing 600 bodies of water from the state's "impaired" list by changing the rules. They redefined impaired. A discussion of the proposed changes is scheduled today in Tallahassee; citizens have until Aug. 24 to file protests with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The only "miracle" DEP and Gov. Bush are manufacturing is another pass for polluters. If DEP succeeds in this sham, it could create a sneaky new way for other states to comply with the federal Clean Water Act.
Jim Egan directs the Marine Resources Council, which has more than 100 volunteers monitoring water quality in the Indian River Lagoon. The inland waterway runs from New Smyrna Beach to Jupiter. Mr. Egan said his workers see no evidence of a "miracle" in the state's decision to remove the lagoon from the list.
"Last July, one-third of all fish kills in Florida occurred in the lagoon," Mr. Egan wrote in an e-mail. "Forty dolphins died mysteriously in 30 days, and a fish never known to be poisonous to humans has turned toxic. Our volunteers testing water quality measured the lowest levels of oxygen in the water in our 11-year history last summer. This summer, we have found the lowest levels of salt in the water. But the lagoon is no longer officially impaired."
One problem with the state changing rules to take polluted waters off the "impaired" list is that federal money no longer will be available for cleanup. The list of area waters no longer on the list is astonishing. It includes: Lake Okeechobee; the West Palm Beach Canal; the Indian River Lagoon; the St. Lucie Canal; the north and south forks of the St. Lucie River; Taylor, 10-Mile, Kitching and Bessey creeks, the Manatee Pocket; and the northwest and southwest forks of the Loxahatchee River.
Linda Young of the Clean Water Network explains what the change in definition can mean. If waters are considered impaired, state and federal laws say no more pollutants can be dumped into them without setting limits. The limits, called "total maximum daily loads," are a stop sign, an absolute boundary for the amount of pollution that can be dumped into a water body." If the waters aren't on the "impaired," list, dumping can continue.
Some waters were removed from the list because plans exist to clean them up. Never mind that no action has been taken. EPA has pressured Florida for years to set limits on pollution, and the state has resisted. Now, Florida is trying to avoid saying no to agricultural runoff and stormwater pollution, Ms. Young said, and taking all the waters off the "impaired" list gives state environmental officials a way to do that.
"If a lake or river is on that list, a citizen can say to a polluter, 'No, you can't put new pollution in this water,'" Ms. Young said. "New development, for example, can direct runoff into the Sebastian River, which has been taken off the list. If the river remained on the list, that wouldn't be allowed. That's why the DEP is resisting the program so aggressively."
Under President Bush, EPA is pushing to turn over enforcement of clean-water standards to states. In the past, the EPA has had to force states to set such standards. Florida lags far behind other Southern states in setting pollution limits, Ms. Young said, but probably will become a model if the agencies backed by Gov. Bush and President Bush have their way.
Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, Mr. Egan said, sued Florida into complying with the federal Clean Water Act, and the original guidelines expected polluters to bear the responsibility for reducing pollution of impaired water bodies. But polluting industries such as paper mills, corporate farms and large developers lobbied for a change in the Florida rule to avoid requirements that they reduce pollution.
"This is the heart and soul of the Clean Water Act," Ms. Young said. "If in Florida we remove the only real mechanism that allows us to clean up our water well, that's very depressing."