TO CLEAN STATE'S WATERS, CLEAN HOUSE
By Sally Swartz
Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/03/21/a16a_swartzcol_0321.html
Florida's environmental regulators have a simple way to describe the condition of the state's lakes, rivers, ponds, creeks and canals. The Department of Environmental Protection classifies water as fit for drinking, harvesting clams and other shellfish, receational use such as swimming, boating or fishing, and for agricultural or industrial use.
But DEP is changing the rules in a way that could allow more pollution. That's the word from Linda Young of the Clean Water Network of Florida (www.cleanwaternetwork-fl.org), a coalition of environmental groups. Ms. Young pushes the DEP, sometimes with lawsuits, to make polluters clean up or to stop the state from weakening water-quality standards. She spoke to members of the Martin and St. Lucie Conservation Alliances on Saturday, when she also accepted an award from the St. Lucie group. I hope Gov. Crist listens to her.
Under the new system, water can be:
• Fishable and swimmable. Full body contact OK.
• Splashable. Fishing and limited human contact. You can't swim in this water, but a splash won't hurt you.
• Boatable. Limited fishing and no human contact. Drive a boat through the water; don't touch it.
Ms. Young is not making this up. There are new categories for fish and other aquatic life, too. Some waters are fine for fish; some support only pollution-tolerant species. In other waters, nothing can live. Ms. Young said that the DEP also is racheting back on pumping permits for dairies, sewage plants and paper mills, trying for easier standards that allow more pollution.
She has sued over the agency's "impaired waters" rule, which changes standards so "grossly polluted waters turn into perfectly fine waters" that don't need to be cleaned up. Other loopholes use alternative standards to allow more pollution. One claims that "critters can get along with less oxygen in the water; they'll be fine." She sued over that rule, too.
Ms. Young points to water-quality problems statewide. Manatees die in red tides, which some scientists say are pollution-related. Dolphins suffer severe skin problems. Sea turtles develop cancers. Thousands of dead fish wash up on beaches. As critical as she is of the DEP, though, Ms. Young is not without hope.
"We have come through a very dark period of time with our state and the previous administration, which filled every slot with special interests," she said. The agency under Gov. Bush "ignored so many laws and became the tool of developers, polluters and powerful interests in our state. A lot of damage has been done in the past eight years, and before, too." Ms. Young said she thinks highly of Gov. Crist. "Every day, there's a new something he's doing or trying to undo. We've got a lot of undoing to do. He truly does care about our resources."
The big challenge for the new governor, she said, is "to get him to understand fully how bad the situation is at DEP and how much work there is to do." She met with new DEP Secretary Michael Sole recently and said she was disappointed that his main concern is "that I need to stop suing the DEP to stop it from weakening water-quality standards."
Mr. Sole is a 16-year DEP employee, and the weakening of standards began on his watch. At least she got to talk to Mr. Sole. A press representative said I can't talk to him without an appointment, which must be booked two months in advance. Same old arrogant DEP attitude. Spokesman Jerry Brooks, deputy director of water resource management, said the DEP doesn't feel that it is weakening water-quality standards, only looking to make them more effective.
I agree with Ms. Young. Gov. Crist, who so diligently has begun reform in the Department of Children and Families and other agencies, also needs to overhaul DEP. Entrenched employees, who go easy on polluters and would weaken water standards, must go.
Ms. Young's message struck a chord with people who have fought for a decade to stop the state from polluting area rivers with dirty water from Lake Okeechobee. It's a tall order, but Gov. Crist, who has inspired such hope in the conservation community, can pull it off: Clean up the DEP.