EPA Rejects State's Plan to Make St. Johns River Stretch Healthier Nutrients Wouldn't Have Been Reduced Enough, the Agency Says Upon Review.
Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 18:00 CST
By GREGORY RICHARDS
A state plan to reduce nutrients in the portion of the St. Johns River that flows through Northeast Florida was found to be insufficient by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which said the plan would not have reduced pollutant levels far enough.
The river would not have met state standards for dissolved oxygen under the proposal by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the EPA found, despite the EPA having approved that plan in April 2004. The EPA rejected the plan after reviewing it for a second time following a challenge in federal court by two environmental groups, the St. Johns Riverkeeper of Jacksonville and the Clean Water Network of Florida, based in Tallahassee.
Proper levels of oxygen are critical to the river's health, especially for fish, St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon said. Low oxygen levels, a condition that can be caused by nutrients from lawn fertilizer and sewage washing into the river, were partly responsible for the green film of algae that covered large sections of the St. Johns in the summer.
Armingeon hailed the EPA's decision as a victory for the river. He said the state had formulated a plan that catered to the wishes of various industries, rather than what was best for the river.
"Instead of the process determining this is the level of nutrient reduction we need to come up with, it's honestly like they had the answer . . . and then they more or less made a process that would give them that answer.
"The science was bankrupt," he said of the state's plan.
In a statement, Mimi Drew, a Department of Environmental Protection official, commented on the EPA's action by saying the "decision ensures that progress will continue to be made" on developing new nutrient levels for the river.
Department spokeswoman Jill Johnson said the department would not respond to Armingeon's comments.
The state is required to reduce the amount of nutrients in the St. Johns River from Putnam County north through Jacksonville to Mayport because the state has deemed that stretch of river impaired in terms of oxygen levels, Armingeon said.
To do that, it is using a program that belatedly enforces a portion of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The program's aim is to determine how much pollution waterways can absorb without being harmed..
In the state plan that has been rejected, nutrient levels were to be reduced up to 30 percent. That plan was filed in March 2004. Johnson said the state had not yet determined how much it would cost businesses and others to comply with the new regulations.
The EPA has until next month to devise a new set of levels, Johnson said.gregory.richards@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4649
Source: Florida Times Union
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