An amendment, being proposed by US Representative Crenshaw (FL) is circulating through Congress, which would prevent EPA from issuing court ordered numeric nutrient standards for the state of Florida, according to an op-ed in today’s Miami Herald.  A copy of a  letter addressed to House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (WI) and signed by numerous state and national groups urging the Committee not to adopt the Crenshaw amendment can be found HERE.

Nutrient pollution is becoming more widespread and severe throughout the nation, due in part to ineffective water quality standards that don't specify a numeric threshold for nutrients. This pollution is causing harmful algal blooms to increase in frequency and duration. Harmful algal blooms have been known to produce human health effects such as rashes, eye irritation, asthma attacks, or liver damage. These blooms also result in massive economic losses to coastal communities, affecting restaurants, lodges/hotels, fishing, and various other large contributors to coastal economies. In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) mandating that they develop numeric nutrient standards for Florida. When FDEP had failed to do so eleven years later, environmental organizations filed a petition to prompt EPA to require the standards to be completed and implemented in a timely manner. As a result, EPA proposed numeric standards for all Florida freshwaters this past January - with estuarine standards to follow in a couple years. Currently however, all the industries that generate nutrient pollution (dairy farmers, agriculture, fertilizer companies, wastewater utilities, developers, etc.) have banded together and launched a massive lobbying and advocacy campaign against these numeric standards being adopted. While the courts have upheld that the numeric nutrient standards are "reasonable" and "consistent with the Clean Water Act", the opposition is saying that these standards are unnecessary, based on bad science, unattainable, and unaffordable.

In April CWN submitted comments in support of EPA’s proposed standards, which you can read HERE.

To read a commentary about Florida's environmental protection efforts click HERE.