Make water policy tougher on polluters
One big issue the Florida Legislature left unfinished in 2015 was creation of a statewide water policy. The 2016 version is set for early approval, but it also is unfinished.
Our main concern is that Senate Bill 552 would continue to base pollution control on farming practices and goals, not tough standards. It’s the difference between needing to do well on a test and needing to get an A.
A related concern is that the legislation would shift primary regulation of farm runoff from water management districts to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. One of that agency’s main jobs is promoting farming. Adding regulation would present a conflict, much like the Federal Aviation Administration being responsible for airline industry advocacy and regulation.
Finally, the legislation would do nothing to increase water conservation, though it would allow large users to take even more from aquifers, especially in Central Florida. To promote conservation, the state could require new and replacement toilets to be low-flow. The state could offer counties and cities more incentives to use recycled water for irrigation. A policy that addresses supply and not conservation is unfinished.
The legislation is a priority of House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. It’s 134 pages long. It has 32 sections. The staff analysis alone is 48 pages. The legislation focuses on three areas: the freshwater springs of northern Florida, the booming central portion of the state and the Lake Okeechobee-Everglades system.
In an email, a spokesman for Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said the bill contains “no shift of oversight” to the department. Audubon of Florida Executive Director Eric Draper argues that the legislation would indeed shift most regulatory powers to Putnam’s department, and the bill’s language supports that argument.
For years, the state has required farmers to use “best management practices” to reduce pollutants flowing from their land into state waters. Such practices have helped clean up the Everglades, but those practices alone haven’t made runoff safe enough to keep from harming the Everglades. The Legislature has twice pushed back the deadline for reaching that acceptable standard.
SB 552 would continue to rely excessively on these standards, with vague methods of enforcement. One section of the bill would reduce the South Florida Water Management District’s role in monitoring runoff that enters Lake Okeechobee. Another section would make the Department of Agriculture responsible for “rule making” that would “verify implementation” of best management practices and other “interim measures” to improve water quality. The department only would have to consult with the water management districts.
Draper says the Senate added that language after consulting with the Department of Agriculture. He calls that a “major change on Lake Okeechobee cleanup,” and says the Department of Agriculture would have an institutional bias that would discourage tough regulation of the farms it supports.
The legislation, Draper says, is “too much of a gift. There’s no evaluation,” though it does set up a “mechanism” for writing an anti-pollution rule.
The problem is that the Legislature would have to write the rule. The farmers could oppose it. The Legislature could fail to include a trigger that would punish farmers for violating the rule. It would be better to eliminate any such role for the Legislature.
The health of Lake Okeechobee matters much in this area. The lake is the backup reservoir for many cities. When the lake level rises high enough that it threatens the stability of the Herbert Hoover Dike, the Army Corps of Engineers releases water. When that nutrient-rich water comes through the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County, it can foul the Atlantic Ocean for miles in either direction.
A good statewide water policy would acknowledge that healthier waterways make for a healthier economy. Florida can’t advertise the state to tourists as a paradise if our lakes and rivers are polluted.
In recent years, however, Florida has sided more with polluters. Putnam and Gov. Rick Scott criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed water-quality rules. Attorney General Pam Bondi sued to block them.
Yet this year the EPA, not Florida, reached a roughly $2 billion settlement with the phosphate/fertilizer company Mosaic for mishandling hazardous waste. The company will clean up six sites in Florida.
Environmental groups are seeking changes to SB 552. Example: The Sun Sentinel reported that sewage sludge — partially treated human waste — from Broward County is being dumped onto a sod farm in Palm Beach County’s Everglades Agricultural Area, which the public is paying to clean up. Audubon wants the legislation to ban the practice.
SB 552 has passed two committees unanimously. Crisafulli would like the Legislature to pass it soon after the session opens Jan. 12. He’s right that Florida needs a statewide water policy. But the Legislature needs to make big changes before work on this policy is finished.