Troubled Waters: An Analysis Of Clean Water Act Compliance, July 2003- December 2004 3/23/06

Photo: South Florida Water Management District

Our Water At Risk
Chances are, you've made Florida your home because of the breathtaking environment, great climate and access to abundant lakes, rivers and shore.

Unfortunately, this precious resource that we hold so dear is in big trouble. Industrial and municipal facilities throughout Florida discharge large amounts of toxic chemicals and other pollution into our waters.

This degrades the places we fish and swim, contaminates our drinking water,and threatens our health.

To put a stop to this, we need to strengthen and enforce the laws that protect our health and our beaches, rivers and lakes. Florida PIRG and Florida PIRG Education Fund are working to do just that.

Threatening Our Most Precious Resource
Between 1999 and 2001, 72 percent of facilities with permits to pollute in Florida waters violated their legal limits —many routinely and in extremely large and dangerous amounts.1

Polluting Stays Profitable
Despite this illegal activity, few facilities have been fined or prosecuted. Often, the penalties are a slap on the wrist for companies that are saving thousands of dollars by not disposing of their waste properly.

In Gross Violation
One hundred and sixty-six, or about three-quarters of all major facilities, violated their pollution permits by 100 fold or more. For example, William Tyson Waste Water Treatment Plant dumped over 860 times the permitted level of cyanide into the Peace River in 2001.2

Increased Concentration Of Toxics
In 2000, large industrial and municipal facilities discharged at least 9.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals into our waterways.3 The need for action is becoming more urgent as concentrations of these dangerous chemicals continue to increase health risks.

Largemouth Bass

In Our Food And Water
This pollution is contaminating our drinking water and, the heart of Florida cuisine, seafood.

Over 2,000 miles of river and 183,000 acres of lakes are under fish consumption advisories due to mercury pollution.4

Citizens have been advised by the Florida Department of Health to limit the amount of largemouth Bass, bowfin and gar that they eat.

	Polluter: Mulberry Phosphates Charge: Dumped 54 million gallons of phosphoric acidic water into the Alafia River in 1997 (dumping accidental due to poor facility maintenance) Degraded Waterway: Alafia River Cost to taxpayers: Over $16 million to date 5
Phosphate mining caused a fishkill in the Alafia River Photo courtesy of the Tampa Tribune

Case Study: A Permit To Pollute The Ichetucknee River
After canoeing down the pristine waters of the Ichetucknee River (right) in 1999, Gov. Bush and David B. Struhs, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) vowed to protect the river by denying Anderson Columbia a permit to build a cement plant nearby. In response, the company hired powerful lobbyists who persuaded the governor and the DEP to renege on their promise and approve the cement plant in 2000.

Restoring Our Waterways To Health
We have strong protections in place,but to make them work,we need:

1. Tougher Enforcement
We need to strengthen enforcement efforts to stop permit violations,to catch illegal polluters,and to deny them profits from their wrongdoing. Floridians who are harmed by water pollution also deserve the right to sue polluters for cleanup costs and to stop future pollution.

2. Stronger Pollution Limits
State officials should fully implement the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) provisions of the Clean Water Act, which would reduce pollution in degraded water bodies. Issuing permits with lower pollution limits would help Florida achieve the Clean Water Act's goal of zero discharges.

3. Expansion Of The Public's Right To Know
Policy-makers should increase public access to information about permit compliance, repeat violators and pollution discharges. Citizen access to this information is fundamental to the success of proper enforcement of our environmental laws, and a community's ability to protect its quality of life.

Florida PIRG ’s Clean Water Advocate, Nina Baliga (right), speaks to coalition partners about a plan to clean up Florida's waters.

Standing Up To Polluters
Polluters like Georgia-Pacific and U.S. Sugar wield enormous influence in Tallahassee. But Florida PIRG doesn't accept that. We help balance the scales by providing an effective voice for Florida consumers and our environment. That's what happened when oil and gas companies tried to drill off Florida's coasts.

Advocates were able to put our research into decision-makers’ hands showing the negative effects of drilling, and provide evidence that the public opposed drilling.

The result: Our coasts are now safe from drilling rigs. Now, Florida PIRG is working to protect public health by standing up to industries that break the law and pollute our waterways.

Stopping Pollution
Florida PIRG advocates blow the whistle on polluters and state officials who fail to enforce the laws that protect our waters. Yet more needs to be done. We're calling for:

Enforcement of the Clean Water Act
State government is not adequately implementing or enforcing the Clean Water Act, which is intended to make every water body fishable and swimmable. We are working to make sure that key provisions such as the Impaired Waters Rule and discharge permit limits in the act are enforced both to the spirit and letter of the law.

Stronger protections for our health
Florid'’s drinking water is threatened by policies that could potentially put harmful bacteria and other toxics into our drinking water through deep well injection and surface water contamination. Public health is at risk. Florida PIRG advocates strengthening the clean water and drinking water laws that protect our health.

More waterways restored
Florida PIRG is working to stop the destructive dredging of the Apalachicola River and to restore the Ocklawaha River by dismantling the Rodman Dam.

“We have been quick to assume rights to use water, but slow to recognize obligations to preserve and protect it. We need a water ethic—a guide to right conduct in the face of complex decisions about natural systems.” —Sandra Postel, author

News Releases

Florida Polluters Continue To Violate Clean Water Act 3/30/04

Coalition Opposes Council of 100 Water Plan: Offers Plan To Protect Nature And Curb Unsustainable Growth 9/25/03

Reports

Troubled Waters: An Analysis Of Clean Water Act Compliance, July 2003- December 2004 3/23/06

Troubled Waters: An analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, January 2002-June 2003 3/30/04

Clean Water Enforcement Report Card: How Florida's Regulations Measure Up 11/03

Water for Florida’s Future: A Call for Leadership 1/03

In Gross Violation: How Polluters Are Flooding America's Waterways With Toxic Chemicals 10/17/02

Permit To Pollute: How the Government's Lax Enforcement Of The Clean Water Act Is Poisoning Our Waters 8/6/02

Cleaning Up Florida's Water: The Case for a Stronger Impaired Waters Rule 3/14/02

Data sources:

1. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)Permit Compliance System;

2. EPA Permit Compliance System;

3. EPA Toxics Release Inventory;

4. EPA Mercury Report to Congress;

5. Florida Department of Environmental Protection.