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EPA Sued Over Standards For Runoff In Florida

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The Associated Press

Published: July 18, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH - Five environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, claiming the federal government is violating the Clean Water Act by failing to set standards for farm and urban runoff that is polluting Florida's waterways.

The plaintiffs hope a favorable ruling would force the EPA to implement standards for every state, most of which have only vague limits on such pollution, said Earthjustice attorney David Guest.

The groups say rain sends the runoff, which includes fertilizers and animal waste, into rivers and lakes, contaminating waterways and nourishing algae blooms that poison the ecosystems.

"This is endemic throughout the United States," Guest said. "When you fertilize the water, it makes it so that only one instrument in the ecological orchestra can play. Where you used to have this vast ecological orchestra, now it's only the algae playing."

He said the runoff also can contaminate drinking water.

The federal lawsuit was filed in Tallahassee by the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the agency would carefully review the lawsuit.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection is still working to set guidelines, which are complex because the agency hasn't determined exactly how much runoff can continue without harming ecosystems, spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said.

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