ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Florida isn't protecting its own waterways or its residents.
That’s the message the federal government sent a few weeks ago, blasting state water pollution standards that are three decades old and badly outdated.
The federal review was sparked by a group of environmental advocates, headed up by the Matanzas Riverkeeper right here on the First Coast.
Florida’s waterways. We play on them, eat from them, make a living off of them. Someone’s in charge of protecting them, right?
Enter Matanzas Riverkeeper Jen Lomberk of St. Augustine.
"I currently serve as chair Waterkeepers Florida," she said.
Waterkeepers Florida and the Environmental Defense Alliance said the state wasn’t doing adequate testing of waterways to see what pollutants are in them.
Lomberk said, "The state agencies don’t have enough resources and manpower to do all the testing they need to do."
So her group and the Environmental Defense Alliance took the issue to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. And just weeks ago, the EPA sent a letter, agreeing with them.
"They said, 'yes, Florida is not complying with the Clean Water Act right now,'" Lomberk said.
"Florida has 37 pollutants they’re supposed to be regulating that they just simply don’t have water quality standards for, and there are 40 more pollutants that there are standards on the books for, but they were adopted 30 years ago," Lomberk explained. "So they’re severely out of date."
That means, "There’s a lot of stuff in our water ways that has the potential to hurt you that is not being regulated by the state."
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has 12 months to come up with more stringent standards. And if pollution exceeds those levels, "that triggers a calculation of how much polluters are allowed to discharge into those waterways," Lomberk explained.
So now that the feds are cracking down on Florida’s DEP when it comes to water quality testing, how will the DEP do more of that when it doesn't have the resources or manpower?
Lomberk noted there is a two-part response.
"There needs to be additional resources allocated to the DEP, so there is more funding more staff to carry out the programs they’re already responsible for managing," Lomberk said. "And the DEP needs to stop taking on additional responsibilities for the things they don’t have the bandwidth to do."
First Coast News received a statement from DEP which states:
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) determination on Dec. 1, 2022, and we're currently evaluating next steps to further strengthen protection of Florida's waters.
Florida has long acknowledged the need and has been working to update its standards and we look forward to working with EPA and stakeholders as we move forward in this process.
The department remains committed to a transparent public process as we move forward updating the state's Human Health Criteria.