DEP ordered to stop relying on voluntary agreements with farmers
"Imagine a quarter million people living in an open cesspool and deriving their drinking water from that cesspool," stated December McSherry, Florida Chapter Sierra Club Agriculture Issue Chair and Organic Farmer. "Our state approves policy that allows this currently. They will most likely continue that approval in this session."
Senator Al Lawson and the Committee on Natural Resources have amended and voted for SB1518 on Monday 4-19-04 to include language that would ignore Judge Smith's court order and grandfather in BMP's (volunteer to pollute) for the dairy industry. The Clean Water Act is being ignored and Florida will continue to be in violation of federal law.
If the state legislators vote to approve S1518 they will render Judge Smith's recent decision moot.
Judge Smith wisely ordered DEP to immediately require 55 large dairies in the state to apply for Clean Water Act permits; enforce state law requiring all dairies to file pollution reports; and develop an enforcement program to control water pollution from the 55 dairies in Florida operating without Clean Water Act permits. The new language of SB 1518 directs DEP to explore voluntary agreements in lieu of traditional permitting.
Environmental groups said farms now are required under state law to at least prove they are not causing pollution. Nitrogen levels in groundwater have been increasing in the Suwannee River region, causing dozens of springs along the river to become choked with algae.
DEP also was ordered to stop relying on the voluntary agreements with farmers in the Suwannee River basin as a substitute for a permitting system.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and other farm and business groups said the judge's ruling went to far.
Smith ruled that the Department of Environmental Protection's implementation of state law as it relates to dairy farms "is so inadequate as to closely resemble a delegation of its duties to the industry it is required to regulate." The judge ordered DEP to require all dairy farms, including the 43 along the Suwannee River, to file pollution reports or get permits.
DEP says it intends to appeal the ruling. The department says it has begun requiring permits for larger dairies and has begun inspecting smaller dairies to determine whether they need permits.
Nitrate contamination has tripled in 10 yrs.in the Suwannee River Basin (30ppm) where 23% of the states' dairies are now located.
For instance, in the contaminated Middle Suwannee (Lafayette, Gilchrist, Suwannee, Levy and Alachua Counties) there are 45,000 dairy cows on 63 dairies yielding 5.5 million lbs/day of raw untreated sewage.
Excessive levels of nitrogen (30ppm nitrate) and phosphorus in surface waters have caused uncontrollable aquatic plant growth; high dissolved oxygen in the water and death of aquatic organisms that rely on the oxygen. Green water now flows from the springs.
In groundwater, excessive nitrogen levels can pose a human health risk if the water is used for drinking. Methemoglobenemia (blue-baby syndrome) is an illness, particularly dangerous to infants, caused by high nitrate concentration in drinking water wells. Bacterial contamination of surface waters can effect the recreational use of the waterbody and could certainly be a risk to human health if water high in bacteria found its way into a drinking water well.