St. Johns River battleground for DEP, environmentalists (Florida)

Lined by nearly three dozen water treatment plants, development and a pulp mill, the Lower St. Johns River in Jacksonville is one of the state's dirtiest rivers.
But instead of cleaning up the river as required by the federal Clean Water Act, state officials are seeking to get around it by easing restrictions on how much pollution is allowed.

The proposed changes would affect more than just the St. Johns River.

"They are changing water quality standards for the entire state," said Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida. "This is a huge change."
State officials say relaxing the standards would save taxpayers and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars while maintaining the integrity of the state's waters. Environmentalists say it's just another example of the state kowtowing to industry at the expense of the environment, resulting in more red tides, algal blooms and the continuing decay of the state's rivers and estuaries.

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Environmentalists like Young and Neil Armingeon, of the environmental watchdog group St. Johns Riverkeeper, say this isn't the first time the state Department of Environmental Protection has tried to flank Clean Water Act provisions to allow less cleanup of the dirty St. Johns.

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"These people are looking for a level of health of the river not based on what's best for the river. They are looking at what's best for the bottom line," Armingeon said. "The Department of Environmental Protection believes that the public is stupid enough to believe that they are going to improve the health of the river by degrading it."
Armingeon and Young say the DEP knew the proposed rule change would meet opposition, so the agency tried to sneak it through during the 2005 holiday season and implement it in early January without the necessary EPA approval.

But Young complained to federal officials, which put the effort on hold pending EPA approval.

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