Tampa Bay Times
In a nationwide precedent setting decision the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tells judge it will impose stricter water pollution standards on Florida. That means that the new federal rules will cover 85 percent — about 100,000 miles of waterways. Basically federalizing Florida's water system.
This comes Fourteen years after the federal government acknowledged that Florida had a serious water pollution problem. In the mean time our state's legendary Springs, waterways and even drinking water were held hostage by agriculture, business and political interests.
The Sierra Club, Florida Wildlife Federation and other environmental groups had sued the EPA four years ago over the most persistent water pollution problem in Florida — one that the federal agency had first told the state to do something about in 1998.
When the EPA settled the suit, it agreed to impose tough new pollution rules, prompting a political backlash from Gov. Rick Scott, big business, agricultural interests, paper mills and utilities, among other interests.
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Scott, along with U.S. representatives and senators and state legislators, contended that the pollution limits would ruin the state's economy. One business leader asked, "How clean does our water have to be?"
The EPA decision marks the end of a major battle between Republican controlled Florida Environmental Protection officials trying to maintain the status quo of lax or no water management and environmental groups persistent in defending our precious water. The State DEP officials are incensed about almost total federal control of our waterways. But they've had three decades of failed and negligent oversight and it's good to see the EPA being unleased to do its work.
This appears to be another positive result of our successful election. Keep them coming!
Vetwife wrote about the issue and our idiot Governor Scott's dislike for water management.