New Tourism Slogan for Florida: Get sick from Florida's filthy waters, and we will cover all medical expenses! ... by gimleteye

When 16 year old Courtney Nash died a few weeks ago from an infection contracted while swimming in the St. Johns River, I resolved that the state legislature pass the Courtney Nash Act -- just like the Ryan White Act -- to require all Republican legislators to put their children in the water and swim, before the start of the legislative session, where Courtney Nash died. The infection Courtney Nash contracted is very rare, but the horrible water quality where bad stuff lurks is taking over the state of Florida. It is terrible for the tourism industry, terrible for fishing, terrible for swimmers, and real estate and taxpayers. All this is happening because the Florida legislature, fundamentally, protects polluters.

The Courtney Nash Act seeks a modest goal: give the GOP legislators a dose of their own medicine for taking the hatchet to Florida's environmental protections. Make their offspring experience the uncertainty of swimming where the result could be death. Because that is the potential consequence that the Florida legislature is imposing on all Floridians by refusing to clean up our filthy state waters. It is a terrible form of surrender and keeps getting worse in Florida. There is no way to put lipstick on this particular pig. No way to glorify the lowering of the bar.

Florida's waters are clogged with nutrients-- most comes from big agricultural operations that use massive amounts of fertilizer because without added nutrients, very little would grow in soil too sandy to farm or stripped of natural nutrients long ago. The nutrients flow from the farm fields into waterways and canals and suck out the oxygen creating conditions perfect for toxic algae and even more dangerous amoeba.

The premise of state law is that polluters must pay to cleanup of the mess they created. But that is not what happens in Florida. The Florida legislature, under the influence of lobbyists and a rotten campaign finance system, holds up one reason or another, because one reason or another (jobs!) to put the price of pollution on the rest of us. This is not only unfair, it also violates the Clean Water Act enforced -- sometimes on the heels of lawsuits brought by environmentalists -- by the federal EPA.

The economic crisis is providing the pitchfork that the right-wing has always sought to kill the federal EPA. Unfortunately, the Obama White House is doing what every Democratic administration has done in the past two decades; backing off from its enforcement responsibilities on the environment because it is more worried about winning Florida than protecting Floridians. That happened just last week, on the issue of imposing nutrient criteria for Florida waters.

Here is the net result. After more than a year of virulent attacks against the EPA by Florida's GOP Congressional delegation, the EPA agreed to a new water quality standard that environmental groups have strenuously fought.

The St. Pete Times writes: "What the EPA has approved is a new subcategory called Class III-Limited, which is aimed at waterways that the state says can't be cleaned up enough to meet Class III status without spending more than it's worth. The rules for each one would be site-specific. In those waterways, boating might be allowed, for instance, but not prolonged physical contact with the water. "They wanted a classification that didn't have to be clean enough for people to swim in," Young said.

Clean water is a human right. There is no qualification on that point.. The idea that Floridians are to roll over and accept the balkanization of our water quality is mind-numbing. So get ready for taking risk in Florida waters.

This gets to the point why I would require the children of GOP legislators to swim in the river where Courtney Nash contracted her fatal infection: some sanity might seep in, where ideological blindness rules. In lieu of the Courtney Nash Act, how about a new tourism slogan: "Florida, where if you die from swimming in Class III Limited Waters, we will cover all your medical expenses." (for the St. Pete Times article, click 'read more')


St. Petersburg Times: Federal government to allow Florida less stringent water standards


September 13, 2011 Federal government to allow Florida less stringent water
standards By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

The feds concede to Florida's contention that some cleanup would be too
expensive.

Despite complaints by environmental groups that it will lead to more
pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Florida's
request to change state standards for its waterways so they aren't as
stringent.

The new standards allow for some waterways - man-made canals, for instance
- to be classified as no longer appropriate for swimming or fishing,
allowing only "incidental contact."

The reason, say state officials, is that cleaning them up would cost more
than it's worth.

State Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller
said changing the classifications for such waterways allows the DEP "to
focus protection on our most valuable water resources."

But Linda Young of the Clean Water Network contended that the change "is so
broad and all-encompassing that it undermines the basis for Florida water
protection." The fact that the Obama administration approved it, she said,
means Obama is "as bad or worse than Bush" at protecting water quality.

The current state standards were created in 1968. They divide the state's
waterways into five categories based on their usage. Class I is for drinking
water. Class II means it's clean enough to eat the oysters and other
shellfish harvested there.

Class III means it's clean enough for someone to swim there or to eat the
fish caught there. Class IV means it's only good for irrigating crops, and
Class V is primarily for industrial use.

No one is supposed to dump pollution into those waterways in quantities
sufficient to change their use. In other words, no one can degrade a Class
III waterway so that it becomes a Class IV or V. To make sure that doesn't
happen, the state sets limits on how much pollution can be dumped into each
waterway per day, something called a total maximum daily load.

In 1998, state officials drew up a list of 1,200 Florida waterways that had
trouble meeting their classification because they were impaired by
pollution. About 80 percent had problems with high levels of nutrients and
low levels of dissolved oxygen - both manifestations of fertilizer-heavy
runoff, which is the target of some controversial regulations that federal
officials plan to impose in Florida.

Most of the state's waterways are designated as Class III, safe for fishing
and swimming. What the EPA has approved is a new subcategory called Class
III-Limited, which is aimed at waterways that the state says can't be
cleaned up enough to meet Class III status without spending more than it's
worth. The rules for each one would be site-specific. In those waterways,
boating might be allowed, for instance, but not prolonged physical contact
with the water. "They wanted a classification that didn't have to be clean
enough for people to swim in," Young said.

Class III-Limited would also not have the same kinds of fish and other
aquatic life found in a natural system. Whether people would be allowed to
catch and eat those fish - or would want to - is a matter of debate.

A Sept. 6 letter from EPA official Jim Giattina to DEP Secretary Herschel
Vinyard says the Class III-Limited designation is being approved because it
meets the legal requirements for "the highest uses that are attainable." The
EPA's letter says the state cannot change any waterways to the new
classification without showing that the change "will result in the
protection of all existing uses, as well as the standards of downstream
waters."

The DEP must post a public notice and also let EPA review the change first.
Craig Pittman can be reached at craig@sptimes.com