ACTION ALERT: Oppose the Weakening of Florida’s Water Quality Standards
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is proposing to weaken dozens of water quality standards for drinking water and waters used for swimming and fishing.
Please take action now to convey your concerns to the FDEP Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) relating to these proposed less-protective revisions to our Human Health-Based Water Quality Criteria.
The objective of the Clean Water Act (CWA) is “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s water.” According to the CWA, Florida is required to adopt, review, and if necessary, revise water quality standards. FDEP’s revision of human health-based water quality criteria provides an important window of opportunity to ensure that the water quality standard on which Florida’s ecosystems, wildlife, and human population depends, are sufficiently protected.
The FDEP, however, is proposing criteria that are not scientifically-robust or adequately protective of human health. FDEP used a new methodology (probabilistic method) for calculating water quality criteria that allows for more pollution than the methodology used by EPA and other states (deterministic method). Additionally, several of the proposed criteria are far above EPA criteria levels, including for carcinogenic substances (such as Benzene) and FDEP excluded about 25 human health-based toxic chemicals for which EPA offers proposed criteria. FDEP also changed the non-carcinogen criteria to annual averages without reducing their concentrations.
The ERC should reject these proposed criteria and instead require FDEP to:
- Use the same methodology as EPA and other states use (deterministic method), using Florida fish consumption data to set the appropriate criteria for our citizens
- Set criteria for all pollutants that EPA has proposed criteria for, especially toxics and carcinogens, to protect the public health and safety of Floridians
- Reduce concentrations for those criteria converted to annual averages to ensure that the prior level of protection is at least maintained
TAKE ACTION
Please click here to send an e-mail to the ERC members and DEP staff to express your comments in writing before July 26th.
And if possible, please try to personally attend the public hearing on Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. in Tallahassee. It will be held at the following address:
FDEP Marjory Stoneman Douglas Building, Conference Rooms A & B
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard, Tallahassee, FL
