{"id":696,"date":"2013-01-10T14:45:21","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T19:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=696"},"modified":"2021-05-19T06:40:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T10:40:35","slug":"sierra-club-florida-water-quality-rules-hearing-jan-17-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2013\/01\/10\/sierra-club-florida-water-quality-rules-hearing-jan-17-in-tampa\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Club: Florida Water Quality Rules; Hearing Jan 17 in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dear Friends:<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
We are at a major turning point in the battle over Clean Water Act enforcement in Florida.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Most of you are aware that on November 30, EPA made a complex decision on setting numeric nutrient standards for Florida’s waters. \u00a0Environmental leaders and the media initially reported it as a major victory, but so did many of the state’s biggest water polluters. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
So what really happened<\/strong><\/span>? \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
The plaintiffs in the litigation which forced EPA’s action –\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Earthjustice, Florida Wildlife Federation, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, St. John’s Riverkeeper and the Environmental Confederation – spent the past few weeks analyzing EPA’s full decision and reading the political tea leaves.<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Here’s a quick summary of what we know:
\n<\/span><\/div>\n

1. \u00a0EPA approved Florida DEP’s nutrient rules for 15% of the state’s waters. \u00a0DEP’s rules contain “thresholds” and standards that are less stringent than EPA had proposed.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0EPA proposed strong rules for the remaining 85% of Florida’s waters, but it also has signaled that it is prepared to withdraw those rules\u00a0and transfer that authority to Florida DEP. \u00a0— That would turn a major clean water victory into defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the worst possible time to put the Florida Department of Protection in charge of enforcing the Clean Water Act. As the\u00a0media have reported<\/a>, the DEP is firing experienced staffers and replacing them with people who represent polluting industries.<\/div>\n

Polluter lobbyists, in fact, crafted the DEP\u2019s ineffective rules. They hold enormous influence in the Scott Administration and in Legislature. It is simply irresponsible to turn this over to the DEP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

See the attached fact sheet<\/strong>\u00a0for our detailed assessment of EPA’s action.<\/p>\n

EPA also announced that it would hold public information sessions in Tampa on January 17-18 to answer questions and take comments on the rules. \u00a0 It is of vital importance that hundreds of clean water advocates gather in Tampa to demand that EPA not turn clean water enforcement over to Florida DEP. \u00a0<\/span>Details follow below in our action alert<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

EPA will soon decide whether it will enforce the Clean Water Act or hand a “get out of jail free card” to Florida’s polluters. \u00a0The moment is now to let our voices be heard and take action together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

– Frank<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends: We are at a major turning point in the battle over Clean Water Act enforcement in Florida.\u00a0 Most of you are aware that on November 30, EPA made a complex decision on setting numeric nutrient standards for Florida’s waters. \u00a0Environmental leaders and the media initially reported it as a major victory, but so … Continue reading Sierra Club: Florida Water Quality Rules; Hearing Jan 17 in Tampa<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}