The environmental law firm Earthjustice today announced that it has filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Forest Service to protect imperiled manatees and shortnose sturgeon, two species the firm alleges are blocked from migrating in the Ocklawaha River because of a dam operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
A U.S. District judge on Saturday ruled that limits on sewage, manure and fertilizer contamination in state waters must take effect by March 6. Judge Robert Hinkle supported a set of federally mandated criteria for Florida waterways in his ruling, but argued that two portions of the EPA-drafted rules are “arbitrary and capricious.”
Environmental law firm Earthjustice yesterday announced that it has filed suit against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, alleging that the agency “illegally held closed-door meetings to craft a plan which would cut off the public’s boating access to part of Fisheating Creek in Glades County” and therefore violated state open meeting requirements.
The Florida Senate gave final passage to a bill approving a set of state-drafted water pollution rules late Thursday, a move environmentalists say is a “slap in the face to Floridians” dealing with algal blooms and fish kills caused by poor water quality. Critics charge that the rules drafted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are not as strong as the ones drafted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Critics of federally mandated water pollution standards continue to challenge the costs and benefits of implementing the new water rules, while environmental groups maintain that the standards are necessary to ensure the health of Florida’s waterways, and its economy.
A coalition of Florida environmental groups is speaking out against a new bill introduced by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, that would, he says, “empower Florida officials, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA” to implement water pollution standards.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced yesterday morning that it will begin selling leases to allow offshore oil drilling in 38 million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups say the move is troubling, as regulatory oversight and environmental problems related to the catastrophic 2010 gulf oil spill haven’t yet been fully remedied.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed delaying the implementation of a set of Florida-specific water quality standards for 90 days, allowing for the approval of a set of replacement rules drafted by the state.
A new report issued by The National Academy of Engineering, a government-created nonprofit, concludes that the lack of regulation and ineffective safety management practices that led to BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have not been fully remedied — leaving communities in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana potentially vulnerable to another oil spill.
Despite objections from environmental groups, the six-member Environmental Regulation Commission unanimously approved a set of water pollution standards drafted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection yesterday.
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