The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recently agreed to set legal, enforceable limits on Florida’s stark water pollution problem, focusing particularly on high levels of sewerage, manure and fertilizers which pollute that State’s lakes and rivers. Such as move by the EPA is to be applauded, given the many years of inaction.
By some estimates, it could cost Florida $50 billion to upgrade its sewerage treatment plants. Earthjustice, a watchdog non-profit public interest law firm, calls such claims ridiculous.
In a fact sheet released today, the organization stated that, “For it to cost Florida $50 billion, they’d have to buy gold-plated toilets for every house and trailer in Florida,” said Earthjustice lawyer Monica Reimer. “They don’t even know what standards are being proposed and nobody will know for another two months. The standards will be set by scientists at the EPA, using data from the Florida DEP. Lawyers are not involved.”
Earthjustice believes that the biggest polluters are now trying to get out of complying with standards that will make Florida’s public waters clean and safe. Moreover, the organization stated in their release that, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson is using tax dollars to side with the polluters instead of protecting the public.
In July 2008, Earthjustice filed a clean water suit in the Northern District of Florida on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. John’s Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club.
The recent decision by the EPA to enforce limits on nutrient pollution in Florida, re-affirms the correctness of the lawsuit, the group believes.
