By KEITH LAING – THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 4, 2010……….Both sides of a fight over new water quality regulations for Florida are cheering a decision by federal officials to extend the comment period on the proposal, though they did not see eye-to-eye on what the flood of extra time would mean for the plan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has extended the period for public comment on the water standards, which the agency has telegraphed would be toughened, for 30 days.
“This extension of the allotted comment period will allow DEP as well as Florida scientists and water quality managers to thoroughly engage in assessing and commenting on the proposed criteria,” state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said in a statement. “It is critical that those who are knowledgeable of Florida waters share information on the state’s unique ecosystems with EPA scientists to best inform their decisions in the future.”
State Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, had asked the state’s Congressional Delegation to push for the delay so more residents could speak out against the proposed new rules. Murzin has held town halls in his district on the proposal independent of the EPA’s recent public hearings and said the decision by the EPA to agree was an apparent victory.
He said that 90 other state House members had signed onto the letter.
“Across the state, this could potentially quadruple the cost of water,” Murzin said in an interview. “That’s a lot to ask in downturned economy, so anytime we can forestall that, it is a good thing.”
But Florida Clean Water Network director Linda Young, who has argued that threats about increased costs associated with the EPA proposal have been exaggerated, also saw the decision to extend the comment period as a good thing.
“That’s the one thing everybody agreed on, that we needed more time,” she told the News Service. “I’m always a big advocate for public participation and anything that gives people the opportunity to have their voices heard.”
At issue is an EPA proposal to set limits on the amount of pollution in state bodies of water containing the chemicals phosphorous and nitrogen. The plan is the result of a lengthy legal fight between the state, which argues that the standards would be unfair because they would only be applied to Florida, and environmentalists, who sued state regulators for failing to enforce the federal Clean Water Act.
A federal court agreed with the environmentalists, issuing a consent decree that numeric water quality standards for inland waters had to be established, as opposed to existing “narrative” standards, which are enforced on a case-by-case basis. Under the EPA plan, Florida waters would be grouped with different nutrient allotments depending on the characteristic of the water.
The proposed standards, while not complete, have angered the state’s business and farming communities, who argue they would be expensive to comply with.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has sided with the state’s business and farming communities and had planned to discuss its own proposed numeric standards next week, but the department postponed the meeting until April 7 in light of the EPA extension Thursday.
The EPA plans to use the extra time to hold three additional public hearings on the proposed regulations. Hearings were held last month in the Panhandle, central and south Florida.
Both Young and Murzin see different uses for the extra time. Young said it would give environmentalists more time to dissect the EPA proposal and it would also give federal officials more time to respond to objections like the ones raised by Murzin.
“The rule itself is 75 or 180 pages, depending on which version you read, so a whole bunch of us are working together to try to do comments, get scientists (to testify) and figure out the loopholes they have built into it,” Young said. “The timing they (initially) gave us wasn’t enough to do that.”
Murzin, however, said the extra time would allow the EPA to reconsider its proposal.
“We’re basically saying give us a little bit more time and see if we can get some scientific evidence before we do something willy nilly,” he said.
Young said that time would eventually run out though, because the EPA was being compelled to act by the federal court.
“The EPA is trying to stay in line with the consent degree,” she said. “Polluters want to delay because they think somehow it will give them an opportunity to put political pressure on the Congressional delegation and whatever other avenues they are going through, but every Congressman in the world won’t be able to stop it. There’s a court order. It’s going to happen.”
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