State one-ups feds in battle over nutrients

Commentary

Last week the state government succeeded in ducking an attempt by the federal government to impose water rules that would give Florida residents a real hosing.

The subject is numeric nutrient criteria, the bureaucratic way of describing regulations related to limiting the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that flows into the state's freshwater bodies.

There is an acknowledged problem. Florida farmers use nutrients to be productive and generate large crop yields at relatively low cost, which benefits everybody.

But Mother Nature sends down rain, which washes those nutrients into nearby lakes and streams, referred to as non-point source pollution. Too much of a good thing produces algae blooms and can harm fish.

The state Department of Environmental Regulation has been working for years to determine how much nutrient runoff is harmful and how to regulate it reasonably.

But "reasonably" is not in the dictionary of Big Environment. Lobbyists and lawyers who make big bucks from rushing things filed suit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency to force it to impose regulations.

There is a large constitutional question involved as to whether the federal government has such power, but it didn't matter because the EPA caved in immediately. The powerful agency is still imbued with the spirit of Carol Browner, the ultraliberal protégé of Al Gore who headed the agency during the Clinton administration.

The draconian limits subsequently drawn by the EPA would have cost $1 billion, the EPA claimed.

Others said the cost was more likely to be near $50 billion. No body of water in the state would have met the new limits. One authority said 80 percent of the streams in Florida now designated "pristine" would have been declared "polluted" overnight, and there was no known technology to meet the proposed standards.

Average water and sewer bills throughout the state would have had to rise $62 a month, according to one estimate.

To counter the threat, the Legislature enacted a bill, signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott last week, allowing new standards developed by the DEP and approved unanimously by the Environmental Regulatory Commission to move forward. In addition, a federal judge ruled that the EPA criteria were arbitrary and capricious.

The Legislature had been precluded from approving the DEP rules because of administrative law challenges by professional environmentalists. What the bill does is waive that requirement and direct the DEP to submit its rules to the federal government for review and approval immediately. State officials hope the EPA will approve them in their entirety, without cherry-picking.

The cost won't be insignificant, but it will be far more reasonable than what the federal government had proposed, and will afford adequate protection.

As a result, Florida can continue to lead other states in protecting its waters, and do so in a manner that is based on sound science, while also weighing both costs and benefits.