FORT MYERS — One after another, supporters of a federal proposal to tighten water quality standards in Florida stepped to the microphone to have their say Tuesday.
Linda Mattos brought more to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing at the Harborside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers.
Mattos, 62, plunked down a jar full of murky water, drawn from the Caloosahatchee River as it flowed past her riverfront home Tuesday morning, in front of two EPA officials sitting at a table on a stage in the front of the room.
“The people who are responsible aren’t going to do anything so they (the EPA) better,” she said. “Somebody’s got to do something.”
That something, the EPA says, are new numbers that would limit the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus, such as in wastewater and fertilizer, in canals, streams and lakes.
The nutrients cause algae blooms that turn ecosystems into slicks of green that can poison water supplies, kill fish and sicken people.
Florida law is less specific, requiring only that nutrient levels not upset the natural balance of plants and animals in a waterway.
The EPA proposed the numeric nutrient standard in January as part of a lawsuit settlement with environmental groups, who said the state of Florida has moved too slowly to set its own limits.
The proposal has touched off a big debate: Backers say the new standards are needed to protect Florida’s environment and its economy, but agriculture and business groups say the measure will cost too much and is unscientific.
Among the 150 people at Tuesday afternoon’s hearing, opponents of the proposal were badly outnumbered.
Many recalled what they said were better days in Florida, when the water was cleaner, seagrass beds more dense and wading birds more plentiful.
Sportfisherman Jim Maguire said when he moved to Marco Island in 1999, the water beneath his dock teemed with pinfish and juvenile porgy and bream.
Now all he sees is the occasional mullet — if he’s lucky, he said.
“They’re gone now,” he said. “They’re absolutely gone.”
Some said they’ve even stopped fishing altogether.
“We’re not interested in eating slimed fish,” said Becky Ayech, president of the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida.
Many in the crowd wore white baseball caps with green lettering spelling out “No Slime” and neon green or pink lapel stickers that said “End the Slime.”
Neon green placards bearing the same message and poster-sized photos of algae blooms and dead fish leaned against a wall outside the hearing room.
Inside, a handful of farmers and ranchers cast themselves as good stewards of the land, not polluters who need more regulation.
They pointed to best management practices, such as using slow-release fertilizer and changing their irrigation habits.
“We have made progress,” said John Alexander, chairman of Labelle-based agribusiness giant Alico Inc. “We are making progress. We understand the problem, and we’re committed to do even more.”
The EPA has set more hearings this week in Tampa and Jacksonville, following an earlier round of hearings in March.
A public comment period ends April 28. The settlement calls for the EPA to finalize the standards by October 2010.
Standards for downstream estuaries and coastal waters are due by October 2011.
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They care what's in the water
TAMPA — Gus Muench routinely pulls pieces of plastic from his crab traps on the Little Manatee River. It's the kind farmers use to grow crops.
But it's what he doesn't see that makes him wonder, the Ruskin resident told U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials Wednesday.
"It's the things we don't see that turn the water green," he said.
Muench was among more than 100 people who spoke at one of two public hearings held by the EPA on proposed changes aimed at improving water quality in the state.
The EPA issued proposed standards in January after reaching a settlement with environmental groups who sued the federal government in 2008 for lax water regulations.
Many who spoke supported the stricter measures, which cap the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen levels in Florida's lakes, rivers, streams, springs and canals.
By limiting what are known as "nutrients," the federal rules would replace vague state guidelines governing waste and fertilizer runoff. The top five sources of nutrient pollution identified by the EPA are stormwater runoff, discharges from wastewater treatment, vehicle exhaust, livestock production and fertilizers used for row crop production.
Nutrient pollution is considered the most prevalent water pollution problem in the state. It causes algae blooms that kill fish, creates public health hazards and affects property values and tourism.
According to the EPA, more than 500 state waters are polluted by nutrients. That includes about 1,000 miles of rivers and streams, 350,000 acres of lakes and 900 square miles of estuaries.
As evidence, officials showed photos of waterways throughout Florida covered in bright green growths. Correcting such problems could cost polluters $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.
Farmers who came to the meeting Wednesday said they feel like targets of increased regulations that make it difficult to stay in business.Sarasota rancher Todd Underhill said that stricter rules, such as the ones proposed by the EPA, squeeze family operations like his. "The temptation of do you stop farming or sell your land to a farming corporation or developer is always there," Underhill said. "This kind of pressure is causing shifts away from what we want."
It's easy to blame an industry rather than individuals in a subdivision who also are contributing to pollution, he said.
The agency will take written comments through April 28, and expects to complete new regulations by October.
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Federal clean-water fight comes to Jacksonville
A statewide dispute over planned federal water standards to fight algae blooms led both sides to a Jacksonville hotel Thursday for a final hearing on rules critics call a "water tax."
While people from businesses affected by the rules argued for changes or delays, environmental activists cheered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for acting on a subject the state studied for years without resolving.
"It is way past time to get on with these [rules]. ... They have drug their feet long enough," said Ben Williams, a seafood merchant from St. Johns County. He said algae levels, and the odor and health concerns connected with them, have helped drive some people away from buying locally caught fish.
As part of a lawsuit settlement, EPA agreed last year to set maximum levels of nitrogen and phosphorus allowed in Florida waterways. Both of those feed algae growth, a recurring concern for many people along the St. Johns River and other waterways.
The EPA levels would be numeric standards, which advocates said would be clearer and more useful than so-called "narrative" standards the state traditionally used. Those say nitrogen and phosphorous levels shouldn't be allowed to disrupt natural ecosystems.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection had been researching how to set numeric standards for several years when EPA said it was stepping in.
The federal agency proposed standards in January for freshwater lakes and streams and for South Florida canals. It will propose standards for river estuaries, such as the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, next year.
Opponents of the EPA standards say they're tougher than needed and will make farmers, water utilities and others waste money.
The actual cost of cleaner water remains a matter of debate and rhetoric. EPA estimates its proposal might increase costs by up to $140 million annually statewide.
But affected business groups that formed a group called Don't Tax Florida have circulated forecasts of costs topping $50 billion that they say would put the state at an economic disadvantage against places with looser rules.
Partly because of the volume of critics' resistance, EPA had already held hearings in five cities before coming to Jacksonville's Clarion Hotel Airport, where about 100 people came for the first of two sessions scheduled Thursday.
Some critics lamented that the state hadn't finished its own standards.
"I'm for rules. I'm just for the process that DEP was following," said Jack Frost Jr., a Lakeland-area fertilizer salesman.
But the state had a lot of time to act, said St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon, whose group was part of the lawsuit that led to EPA's proposals.
"This is a significant problem that is not being address at the state level," he said.
"Every summer for the past five years, it has come to our community and diminished the quality of our life," Armingeon said, adding that last year algae blooms on the St. Johns started by early spring and lasted in some form until this winter's sustained cold snaps.
Jeb Smith, a fifth-generation farmer from Hastings, said he worried about costs his family would incur and said past efforts to balance stewardship with the bottom line "are proving to be wasted."
Ephraim King, the science and technology director at EPA's Office of Water, asked Smith to describe some of those costs in writing later this month so people in his agency could look into them.
