Large crowd mostly hostile to EPA plans for cleaning Florida’s lakes and rivers

Large crowd mostly hostile to EPA plans for cleaning Florida’s lakes and rivers

A public hearing on a federal plan to clean up Florida’s rivers and lakes drew an unexpectedly large crowd of nearly 350 people to a room with only 200 chairs Wednesday. Whether seated or standing, most of the anxious speakers repeatedly lashed out against stiffer environmental regulations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a first-of-its-kind move, wants to use Florida’s extensive database on water bodies to establish broad categories of pollution limits, instead of continuing the state’s lake-by-lake and river-by-river approach.

Florida’s process of developing custom-made pollution limits for individual rivers and lakes is a slow approach that even state authorities admit hasn’t been able to reverse the decline of Florida’s water quality.

Rusty Wiygul, director of grower affairs for Florida Citrus Mutual, told the crowd that the EPA’s proposal contains many unknowns to worry about.

Wiygul, whose family has farmed in Florida for four generations, said farmers don’t know if the federal rules would require them to build large ponds for holding dirty water, cut back on fertilizer or take other costly steps.

“You can regulate us out of business,” Wiygul warned. “That’s a scary thing.”

James Payne, representing the enormous Deseret Ranch, which covers large portions of Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties, said: “You often wonder how much regulation a cow can carry on her back.”

EPA officials heard from lawyers, scientists, engineers, farmers, fertilizer makers, paper makers, sewage-plant officials, environmentalists and anti-government advocates, all gathered in a large south Orlando hotel for the second of three public hearings the federal agency is conducting in Florida this week.

The EPA hopes to use Florida as a test for its regulatory approach — which is likely to face lawsuits — with an eye toward expanding it to other states.

An often-repeated theme at Wednesday’s hearing: The EPA rules would put Florida agriculture at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with farmers in other countries.

Another complaint: State pollution problems should be left to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, an agency often subjected to heavy pressure from Florida industries.

Speakers also challenged details of the scientific assumptions behind the EPA proposal as well as the basis of the agency’s Florida intervention.

Outside the hotel, a dozen protestors who support the Tea Party movement waved signs such as “EPA stay out of lakes.” Inside, Lynne Grace of Space Coast Patriots of Brevard County, another Tea Party supporter, said the Washington bureaucrats should go home soon.

“I’m beginning to think we need protection from the federal government,” Grace said. “You really don’t have any business in our Florida waters.”

The first dozen speakers were largely opposed to the federal rules.

Next to step to the microphone was David Guest, managing attorney in Tallahassee for Earthjustice, who appeared to briefly surprise the anti-regulation advocates with his forceful environmental message.

Guest’s group is part of the coalition that sued the EPA, alleging failures to uphold federal water-quality laws in Florida, which resulted in a settlement in which the U.S. agency agreed to step up enforcement of federal environmental laws in Florida.

Guest said pollution-fed algae is ruining many of Florida’s major and most important waters, including some of its famous springs.

“Who is talking about that? Nobody, and that’s the problem,” Guest said, interrupted briefly by hecklers. “This is killing the economy, and we can’t pretend that it is not.”

The EPA’s proposed regulations are aimed at the ordinary chemicals — forms of phosphorus and nitrogen — that plants need to grow.

Delivered to lakes and rivers by urban and agricultural runoff and in sewage-plant discharges, those chemicals can become pollutants that help breed smothering outbreaks of algae.

One speaker urged the EPA to carefully consider the comments from its hearings.

“You have never seen pushback like you’re going to see from Florida if this thing is pushed down our throats,” said Wade Grigsby, president of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association.

EPA officials are on track to make the rules final later this year.

Kevin Spear can be reached at kspear@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5062.