EPA demands standards for Highlands lakes

A consent decree signed last week by the EPA and Florida Wildlife Federation will require farmers and cities to tightly monitor the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that run into lakes, creeks, rivers and the ocean.

The decree settled a July 2008 lawsuit filed last year by FWF, Sierra Club and others against the EPA, asking the federal agency to set an exact number on nutrients - pollution - allowed.

Environmental Protection Agency director Lisa Jackson was in Tampa three weeks ago, said Sierra Club regional representative Phil Compton.

"She said that the EPA has been asking Florida for 10 years to set standards. They didn't do it, so now EPA has done it for them," Compton said. During those periods, George Bush was in the White House and Jeb Bush was in the governor's mansion. Environmental groups complimented the Obama administration for ending the foot-dragging.

"These standards are necessary to protect Florida waters from the impacts of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution," said Enesta Jones in EPA's press office.

The new standards will mean real protection for Florida's waters, said Earthjustice attorney Colin Adams. For the first time, the EPA is addressing massive human and animal waste pollution problems that increase dead zones along U.S. coastlines, he said at a Tampa news conference.

Florida's current vague standards, he said, only require phosphorus and nitrogen sources not to introduce nutrients in levels that will cause an imbalance. After January 2010, each water body will allow a specific parts-per-million number of nutrients.

Total Daily Maximum Load standards have been set for Lake Okeechobee, said Gary Ritter, Okeechobee Service Center director for South Florida Water Management District: "We've been working and achieving those since 2000."

Is nitrogen and phosphorous pollution a problem in Highlands lakes, creeks and rivers?

"We do see some higher levels of nitrogen and phosphorous that we would like to reduce," Ritter said. "But we all have to understand that nutrients are naturally occurring. I hate to call that pollution, because we need a certain amount to stay healthy."

News of the settlement hadn't filtered down yet to Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford.

"I haven't heard anything about that kind of settlement," Ford said, although he knew the Department Environmental Protection has been trying to arrive at a number for years.

"It's been a concern of ours at the local level," Ford said. "We'd much rather have DEP do it than have the feds do it for us."

The new regulations, which must be written by January and enforced by October 2010, will have wide-ranging implications, Ford predicted.

For instance, if a lake's phosphorous or nitrogen levels are too high, Highlands County may have to clean it up.

Ford ball-parked the cleanup figure at $10,000 per surface acre. Little Lake Jackson is a 125-acre lake, so if it were polluted, it could cost $1.25 million.

"Commissioner Bates has been saying this for a while, that it costs a lot less to do the right thing," Ford said. "In other words, it costs a lot less to keep it clean than to clean it up."

After standards are set and enforced for a few years, said Earthjustice's Adams, it will mean the end of algae blooms, fish kills, burning eyes and gastrointestinal problems after swimming in murky waters and being unable to see the bottoms of lakes and creeks.

"We should be seeing improvements very soon," Adams said.

"I am actually heartened that the USEPA is working with FDEP to set these numeric standards," Ford said. FDEP is much more familiar with regional variations in the factors affecting water quality - including soil type, interconnected watersheds, groundwater conditions and the like."

As far as a local impact, it is too soon to tell what effect it may have on us locally," Ford said. "There will be a period of comment from the time that the USEPA releases their criteria next January to that time when they are finalized in October."