Despite vehement opposition from environmental groups, state regulators signed off this afternoon on new standards for Florida’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters that include less stringent requirements for more than 20 toxic chemicals.
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The Environmental Regulation Commission voted 3-2 to approve a proposal drafted by state regulators that would impose new standards on 39 chemicals not now regulated by the state and revise the regulations on 43 other toxics, most of which are carcinogens.
The Miami Herald reports that under the proposal, acceptable levels of toxins will be increased for more than two dozen known carcinogens and decreased for 13 now regulated chemicals.
The new criteria are inconsistent with national standards, environmentalists say. However, environmental groups such as the Florida Clean Water Action Network (FL-CWN) and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), are fighting the rules. “It’s so insane it seems unreal, and they’re not even embarrassed by it”.
DEP initially proposed raising the standard from 1.18 parts per billion in Florida’s drinking water sources to 3 parts per billion but, after public outcry, the agency revised its criteria and reduced the level to 2 parts per billion. Florida has not updated this set of water standards since 1992.
The draft rule uses new methods to determine the amount of toxins that post a threat to human health.
Florida environmental regulators point out that the proposed rule would put new limits on the likes of cyanide and beryllium, while strengthening standards for other chemicals, such as trichloroethylene, also known as trike, which can cause birth defects or cancer.
“DEP’s and EPA’s nationally recognized scientists have worked diligently for multiple years to develop the criteria, which incorporate both the EPA guidance and data specific to Florida”, Miller said. Environmentalists argue that assumptions in the state rule underestimate how much seafood Floridian’s actually eat.
The lawmakers raised concerns that “the state is proposing to raise the allowable levels for dozens of chemicals, including more than half of the most unsafe cancer-causing chemicals in the proposal”. The proposal would drop the allowed level in drinking water – from 2.7 to 1.3 parts per million. Drew Bartlett, assistant secretary at DEP, said one of the most frequent questions is why the state can’t retain the current levels relating to carcinogens while adopting new levels for all the other compounds.
DEP has told lawmakers in the past that it does not have the authority to reject a fracking permit if one was requested. And limits for most of the 80-plus chemicals would have less-restrictive standards than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, when factors like local seafood consumption are considered, opponents asserted.
But environmentalists warn that no other state uses Florida’s “probabilistic analysis” method for detecting cancer risk – for a reason. The final vote came after hours of discussion, protests and emotional testimony.
DEP’s new cancer-risk measurement is supported by the pulp and paper industry which sees it as “more scientifically advanced as it addresses compounded conservatism, links risk targets with environmental concentrations, improves transparency and makes greater use of available of available data”, wrote Jerry Schwartz of the American Forest and Paper Association in a letter to DEP last month.
Tom Frick, director of the department’s Division of Developmental Assessment, said the reclassifications have been under review for four years and are based on federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. The man said Gov. Rick Scott “spat on the Democratic process” by keeping vacant two seats on the seven-person ERC set aside for representation by the environmental community and local government.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency must now approve the rules, which are required under the federal Clean Water Act, before they take effect. Democrats in Florida’s congressional delegation sent a letter on Monday urging the commission to reject the new rules saying they “would threaten Florida’s ecosystems and compromise Floridians’ health and livelihoods”.
Several of the chemicals that are on the increase in the new rule are related to benzene and are said to be used in fracking. The unique “probabilistic analysis” was crafted for specifically Floridians, who are likely to consume more seafood that can contain unsafe toxin levels.
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By contrast, she said, Broward County water quality criteria imposes a stricter standard, imposing water quality testing at the end of the pipe where the chemicals are discharged into a water body.
