Water Quality and House Bill HM 1589

For several months I’ve been speaking out against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s imposition of federal water standards for Florida. Despite our national leadership in water quality improvement and large-scale restoration programs, Florida is being singled out by the EPA. The proposed regulations threaten to double the cost of water bills for Florida’s families, farmers and businesses; an unbearable burden during these trying economic times.

During the 2010 Session the Florida House passed HM 1589 urging Congress to require the EPA to subject its proposed numeric nutrient criteria to a peer review by the Agency’s Science Advisory Board and to review by a third party such as the Government Accountability Office or the Congressional Budget Office. The EPA recently agreed to submit the methodology for some of the proposed standards to a scientific peer re-view. Accordingly, they will delay publishing standards for canals, downstream waters and estuaries until August 2012. The new regulations for coastal waters were to have been established by October of 2011.

The final EPA standards for lakes and flowing waters (streams and springs) will be published this October. The Florida Department of Environ-mental Protection and the EPA still have significant disagreements with how the EPA is calculating their standards. The EPA has been unwilling to submit the lakes and flowing water standards to a third party review.

In the interim, Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bronson and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Sole sent a joint letter to Florida’s farmers and businesses encouraging them to sign up for the state’s Best Management Practice Program. Current law provides the pre-sumption of water quality compliance for those enrolled in the BMP program.

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