By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-979865.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The first in a series of meetings over federal water pollution rules being imposed on Florida started this week. An independent panel is reviewing conflicting accounts on how much the rules will cost the state. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency says the costs are minimal, but business and industry groups say the price tag is more in the billions. As Lynn Hatter reports, it's the latest phase in an ongoing dispute between the state and the federal government over the issue.
Florida is the first and so far, only state in the nation to have a federal mandate to decrease water pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rules would limit how much nitrogen and phosphorus can be in the state's waterways. The EPA says the rules would cost about 200-million dollars a year, but other studies show the rules carry a multi-billion dollar price tag. Now an independent panel of scientists from the National Academy of Sciences is trying to sort out the mess. Study director Laura Ehlers says, don't look to the group to throw out a new number.
"We'll be commenting on all the existing analyses that are out there and talking about ideal ways to do this analysis, but we're not going to be doing number crunching or giving you a number."
The panel's review is looking at which cost-estimate if any, is the most accurate. During a two-day meeting in Orlando, environmentalists, state economists, industry groups and businesses each presented their own findings. According to state estimates, the price tag for compliance is between one-to-three billion dollars. And the Department of Agriculture's Richard Budell says cost-driver is a combination of uncertainty with how the rules will be applied, and the amount of water bodies affected by them.
"I would say the reason our numbers are so much larger than what the EPA has proposed is because of uncertainty in how these numeric criteria will be implemented. That creates a great deal of uncertainty in our mind, and a great deal of uncertainty in the minds of Ag [Agriculture] producers and all of the other industries you're going to hear from today."
Studies done by Business and industry groups show the EPA' s water-rules could cost up to eight-billion dollars to implement. The industry-sponsored studies take into account water treatment plant upgrades, higher costs for treating nitrogen and the loss of farmland for conversion to water retention ponds. Keyna Corey is a lobbyist with Associated Industries of Florida. The pro-business group has joined others in pushing for the EPA repeal its water rules.
"Businesses are afraid to expand, come to Florida or expand until they know what the true regulatory costs are going to be. I'm not going to recruit a company to come to a state with dirty water. I can't do it, I won't do it. However, when that company wants to come to Florida, they have to know what they're taxes are going to be, what they're workforce is going to be and what they're regulatory costs are going to be, and we don't have a handle on that. So we're looking to you to tell us, whose got the right numbers?"
David Guest: "When you say, "Is a quart of milk $3.50, or is a quart of milk $1,000? Somebody's not telling the truth, and the panel is going to decide who that is."
David Guest is an attorney for EarthJustice. In 2008 the environmental advocacy group led a lawsuit against the state over toxic nitrates in waterways that led to algae blooms which kill fish and other wildlife. The EPA got involved shortly after and the state has been fighting the federal intervention ever since. Cara Capp with the Cleanwater Action Network, knows the impacts of pollution first hand. Eleven years ago her family moved from New Jersey to Cape Coral, Florida, buying a home on a canal in Lee County she says was full wildlife. But that isn't the case anymore.
"First of all the water is usually stagnant. The canal system has become a dumping ground for polluters who are going unregulated. Through the years we've had algae outbreaks, slime issues and fish kills. We've dead fish and even dead turtles show up as a result of this pollution. So what was a thrill when we first bought this house, is now a detriment and a cesspool for pollution more than anything else."
In 2009 the state was in the process of making rules to meet the EPA's water regulations, but stopped when Governor Rick Scott's administration came into office. Scott says the rules aren't necessary and the state can manage its own water affairs. The EPA says Florida has the ability and the knowledge in place for compliance if it wanted to. The National Academy of Sciences will hold two more public hearings before the end of the year. It will issue a report on its cost-findings in late February.