The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to impose expensive new standards on Florida waters beginning next month, and there's little city and county governments can do to stop it.

"You can't fight (the EPA) alone," Richard Griswold, general manager of Destin Water Users Inc., told the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners on Monday. "Our only hope is if the State of Florida takes this on as a states' rights issue."

The EPA plans to implement numeric nutrient standards for nitrogen and phosphorous in inland waters -- canals, lakes, rivers, springs and streams -- in November and for coastal waters in 2011.

The standards are the result of a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the EPA. To settle the suit, the agency entered into a consent decree in August 2009 with the Florida Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and St. Johns Riverkeeper to develop and enforce standards for acceptable levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in Florida waters.

 

For more on this story, see the Oct. 14 issue of the Navarre Press or subscribe online.