How Should Fish Vote? by David Helvarg

Creating An Oceans Policy in 2016

Philippe Cousteau: Save Our Coral Reefs From Dredging

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article91203287.html

OP-ED
JULY 22, 2016 12:00 AM

Proposed rule would change the standard for calculating cancer risk — to the detriment of public health

Public denied ample time to comment

South Florida shut out of public hearings

BY RACHEL SILVERSTEIN
rachel@miamiwaterkeeper.org

Despite the ongoing Florida water quality emergency —a deluge of toxic green sludge coating the Treasure Coast — Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proposing a rule to ease restrictions on toxic chemicals in our surface waters, and the rule will have direct impact on our health.

The Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC), a seven-member committee appointed by the governor and tasked with setting standards and rules to protect Florida’s citizens and waterways, is considering adopting a new rule, proposed by DEP, that would allow higher limits for dozens of cancer-causing chemicals.
Although DEP provided the public with fewer than 30 days to comment on this highly technical rule, some groups have already made their opposition clear. The Florida chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national health association, recently “oppos[ed] any rulemaking that would increase the current allowable limits of toxic compounds discharged into the state’s [waters],” noting that the “compounds proposed for regulation include known human carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.”

Carcinogens include benzene, which DEP’s proposed rule changes would allow to increase by a factor of three in our water. The rule changes would also allow dramatic increases in allowable limits of perchloroethylene — the toxin implicated in the infamous Camp Lejeune Cancer Cluster, where U.S. service members developed cancer after drinking water contaminated with this carcinogen.

Concerned Floridians are asking how and why Governor Scott’s DEP can propose to loosen the regulations of cancer-causing agents in our waterways.
The how is simple: DEP is utilizing different models for calculating cancer risk than the methods used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and every other state in the nation. Furthermore, Gov. Rick Scott’s DEP is accepting the likelihood that more Florida citizens might develop cancer with these new exposure limits, using a carcinogenic “chemical risk calculation” that is 10 times (or sometime 100 times) higher than the current rule allows.

In other words, where the existing regulations accept the risk that toxic exposure levels might cause cancer in 1 in a million people, DEP’s proposed rule changes would allow that number to rise for some risk groups to 1 in 100,000 people, or, in some cases, even 1 in 10,000. The risk factors increase for people who eat Florida-caught seafood more than once per week, and even more so for subsistence fishermen who might eat seafood daily, because the chemicals that accumulate in fish or shellfish are passed along to humans who consume them.

Aside from increasing our cancer risk, allowing higher carcinogen levels in our water, and thus in our fish, will hurt the market for Florida seafood, deterring the public from choosing “Fresh from Florida” shellfish and fish.

As for the why, many of the toxic compounds currently under review are, not coincidentally, the very same chemicals commonly used in fracking and other polluting industries. Although some 50 Florida counties and cities have banned fracking, Tallahassee has tried several times to preempt these bans.

Critically, the body that will ultimately decide whether to adopt or reject DEP’s proposed rule changes, the ERC, is currently missing appointees in two of its seven seats — the environment seat and the local government seat— the former being vacant for more than a year. These vacancies stifle the voices of local communities and environmentalists and prevent these interests from being represented. Governor Bob Graham and 50 environmental groups recently sent Governor Scott a letter in June, urging him to fill these two seats before the ERC’s critical vote on the DEP’s rule changes. Governor Scott conspicuously ignored their request and a week later, pushed the ERC vote forward from a date in “early fall” to July 26th, the same day as a much-publicized meeting on the outflows from Lake Okeechobee that caused the Treasure Coast catastrophe. This convenient double-booking has raised concerns that the State is attempting to limit the attendance of environmentalists and community stakeholders — many of whom will be attending the Okeechobee hearing — at the ERC deliberation. Furthermore, none of the three workshops that DEP held about the rule change were located south of Stuart, leaving South Floridians in the dark in the Sunshine State.

In response, local elected officials State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, Mayors Philip Stoddard and Cindy Lerner, and City Commissioner Ken Russell, have sent a letter to DEP Secretary Steverson asking to postpone this meeting until the vacant ERC seats are filled and public hearings are held in south Florida, and to grant more time for public comment.

If this summer’s green slime disaster has taught us anything, it’s how fragile and precious clean water is for our state. Clean water is too important for Florida, and of course, nothing is more important than our health. When dealing with toxic and harmful chemicals, the State’s priority should be protecting our public health and prosperity and ensuring swimmable, drinkable, fishable water for all Floridians.

Rachel Silverstein is Executive Director and Waterkeeper, Miami Waterkeeper.

ENVIRONMENT

JULY 20, 2016 7:11 PM

Commissioners want state and federal officials to work faster on Everglades restoration

They back efforts to buy sugar land to store and treat water from Lake Okeechobee

Rerouting water could lessen impacts on Treasure Coast estuaries

Audubon Florida biologist Jerry Lorenz holds a stalk of dead seagrass. Since last summer, about 50,000 acres of seagrass have died, wiping out critical habitat for the bay’s marine life. Jenny Staletovich Miami Herald Staff

BY JENNY STALETOVICH

jstaletovich@miamiherald.com

Less than a week after South Florida water managers unveiled a quick fix to bring more fresh water to wilting Florida Bay, Monroe County commissioners joined the outcry demanding faster work to repair the Everglades and move water south.

Frustrated by efforts so far, commissioners said state and federal officials need to stop neglecting environmental problems that eat away at the state’s tourism and fishing industry, two staples for the county’s island chain that generate up to $4.5 billion annually. Commissioners were particularly critical of a government plan to buy more land that is expected to take seven years, saying the state needs to move faster.

They plan to hand deliver the resolution to Gov. Rick Scott Tuesday in Key Largo.

EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM KNOWS WE NEED MORE STORAGE TO CLEAN WATER BEFORE MOVING IT SOUTH.

Monroe County Commissioner David Rice

“Everybody in this room knows we need more storage to clean water before moving it south,” said commissioner David Rice. “What we don’t know is how much and where. To me, seven years to get that answer is totally unacceptable.”

Over the last year, about 50,000 acres of seagrass wilted and died in the central bay after a regional drought sent salinity soaring. The conditions raised fears that the die-off could trigger a massive algae bloom — in the late 1980s a similar die-off triggered a bloom that caused the bay to collapse — and mirror the kind of damage now playing out on the Treasure Coast, where freshwater algae blooms have decimated estuaries.

At its driest, the amount of water sent into the northeastern bay by the district dropped to about 78,000 acre feet, far under the volume called for in state regulations. The bay has twice exceeded salinity standards, prompting calls for the district to reconsider the amount of water it moves into the bay.

While no significant bloom has been documented this summer in Florida Bay, anglers have reported seeing “algae balls,” charter boat Capt. Bill Wickers, a board member of the key West Charter Boat Association, told commissioners.

WHEN I WAS A KID, YOU COULD SEE THE BOTTOM IN A HUNDRED FEET OF WATER.

Key West charter boat Capt. Bill Wickers

“Our board is very, very concerned because we have watched the downward spiral of water quality in the Keys,” he said. “I’m 69 years old now. When I was a kid, you could see the bottom in a hundred feet of water. Without the water down here, we don’t have quality of life and we don’t have a way to make a living.”

Buying additional land from U.S. Sugar to store and clean water south of Lake Okeechobee has been a critical sticking point, with federal officials and environmentalists backing the measure. State officials have declined to pursue a land-buying option that the sugar industry opposes.

Wednesday’s resolution urges the state to buy land but not at the expense of ongoing projects. The Central Everglades Planning Project, which has been authorized by Congress but so far not funded, is expected to restore about 65 percent of the flow heading south and into Florida Bay, even without the land, said Mayor Heather Carruthers.

“This is why it’s important to not get in the way of this process with lawsuits, which you know there will be millions of them if we say we want to buy this land,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, both Miami Republicans, have both been pushing for congressional support for the Central Everglades project.

But environmentalists say for the project to work, land south of the lake needs to be in place to store and clean water. They are now pressing to expand the focus of a planning effort aimed at finding storage north of the lake to also include that land. A public meeting on the plan will be held Tuesday in Okeechobee.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Ernie Marks, the South Florida Water Management District’s newly appointed director of Everglades Policy and Coordination, outlined fixes approved by the district governing board last week. The plans should increase water flowing into Taylor Slough, which feeds the central bay, by about 20,000 acre feet per year. Critics say that’s not nearly enough to sustain the bay during droughts. By comparison, about eight acre feet per hour were being flushed from Lake Okeechobee at the height of releases.

IT’S THE FIRST STEP IN AN EVOLUTION AS WE GO THROUGH EVERGLADES RESTORATION.

Ernie Marks, South Florida Water Management District Director of Everglades Policy and Coordination

The fixes, expected to cost up to $3.3 million, could be in place as early as November and would largely use existing structures with the addition of a pump. Gaps in a levee would also be closed and vegetation cleared.

“It’s the first step in an evolution as we go through Everglades restoration,” Marks said.

Follow Jenny Staletovich on Twitter @jenstaletovich

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