November 2002
Hour of Decision nears on Everglades Phosphorus Criterion
Are Florida's public officials willing to make the difficult
decisions
necessary to really protect Florida's Everglades from demise by
phosphorus
pollution?
Parts of the River of Grass are being lost rapidly to the
effects of
phosphorus. The pollution emerging from sugar cane and other
cropland in the
Everglades Agricultural Area is causing healthy Everglades
sawgrass marshes
and sloughs to convert into cattail choked wasteland at a rate of
between 2
and 9 acres per day.
While the Governor has endorsed and the staff of DEP is
proposing a
phosphorus criterion of 10 parts per billion, (sufficiently low
to protect
the Everglades) it is uncertain whether a majority of the 7
member
Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) will support this
criterion due to
heavy lobbying against it by sugar industry lawyers and
consultants.
Even if the ERC adopts the 10 ppb criterion, sugar industry
lobbyists are
pressing to write a variety of mechanisms into the rule to help
them evade
its effective enforcement. They want the ability to seek
variances, mixing
zones and similar relief mechanisms. Recent statements by
attorneys working
for DEP suggest that the agency is starting to bend under the
industry's
lobbying pressure.
Decision time begins in December.
Related Links:
110102 Special Report; .pdf file (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Audubon Advocate Special Report Website
Page Last Updated:
02/06/2003