Turning the Toxic Tide: Florida needs new approach to environmental regulation

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Turning the Toxic Tide is a series of editorials published collectively by the six editorial boards of USA TODAY Network – Florida, with the goal of providing an environmental road map for the state's next governor, legislators and congressional delegation. This is the second in the series. 

The joke has been around for years:

In Florida, is DEP an acronym for the state Department of Environmental Protection or “Don’t Expect Protection”?

It’s easy to bash a faceless bureaucracy for problems it hasn’t solved. Unfortunately, the chief regulatory agency tasked with protecting Florida’s waters has too often invited the scorn.

Consider:

  • Earlier this year, as blue-green algae clogged the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, DEP came under fire for taking samples around the edges of a bloom rather than from the center. DEP officials said they wanted “representative” samples of the entire water body; that, critics said, understated the toxicity of the blooms.
  • DEP has relied on computer models to evaluate “best management practices” utilized in the state’s Basin Management Action Plans, which are blueprints for restoring impaired waters. The computer models, which often present a rosier picture than actual water-quality data, are used as “proof” the plans are working — even as pollutants rise.
  • Last summer, as Blue Cypress Lake in Indian River County choked on toxic algae, environmentalists pointed to biosolids — sewage sludge — spread at a nearby ranch as a likely source of the blooms. DEP officials said the most recent inspection at the ranch showed no runoff. But that inspection was done before the blooms proliferated, at a time when no sludge had been spread at the ranch for eight months.

The list goes on, but the point is: Florida’s water problems are getting worse, and we need tangible solutions for tackling them.

It’s become obvious regulators are not up to the task.

Gavin Lau and Joshua Davidson from Ecological Laboratories take a water sample from an algae infested canal near the Midpoint Bridge on Tuesday 8/28/2018.  Cape Coral based Ecological Laboratories has a possible solution to the algae problem that is plaguing Cape Coral and Southwest Florida  waters. They got a letter of no objection to start testing a section of this canal. They took water samples on Tuesday 8/28/2018. The process involves a denitrification process.

DEP isn’t the only agency looking after Florida’s waters. The state’s five water management districts control flooding, ensure adequate water supply and oversee construction of water quality projects, among other things.

The federal government also plays a role, as a key partner in funding, regulation and water monitoring. Local governments’ fertilizer ordinances and drainage systems can help keep pollutants out of waterways.

No blue-green algae bloom, red tide outbreak or other calamity can be blamed on any one individual or policy. Yet it’s inarguable that environmental regulation in Florida underwent a comprehensive overhaul in recent years — and the resulting changes moved the state in the direction of less policing of polluters, not more.

Red tide fish kill cleanup along the shoreline of Indian River County beaches on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, in Indian River County.

More: Study links toxic algae blooms to fatal liver disease

More: Dead zone conditions reported in the Gulf of Mexico

More: Before and after images show red tide devastation in Southwest Florida

Upon taking office in 2011, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature slashed regulatory budgets and staffing. The South Florida Water Management District alone saw a $700 million reduction in its budget with 500 jobs cut, half of which were scientists, hydrologists, engineers, field technicians and regulators.

Scott’s appointees brought with them a new approach to regulation, articulated in a 2011 memo by then-DEP Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs Jeff Littlejohn. When violations occur, he wrote, regulators’ first consideration “should be whether you can bring about a return to compliance without enforcement.”

Enforcement subsequently fell off a cliff. In 2010, DEP opened nearly 1,600 enforcement cases, according to data compiled by the Florida chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In 2017, that number was 220.

It may be coincidence that our water problems compounded in the wake of all this. But the appearance of correlation is inescapable.

As the Scott era ends and Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis takes office, Florida has a key opportunity to turn the toxic tide.

DeSantis earned the backing of some environmental groups during his campaign for his promises to fight for the Everglades, ban fracking and eschew sugar industry cash, among other things.

He should start at the top, choosing experts rather than politically connected allies for key environmental posts.

That includes not just top jobs like DEP secretary, but also board members of the water management districts. These boards, which set policy and tax rates, should have more diverse representation — not just from business, agriculture and industry, but also fishing and boating interests, stakeholders who have a strong conservation interest in our waters.

This new blood must bring with it a new commitment to the stick as well as the carrot.

More: DeSantis names environment, agriculture transition team

More: Here's what we can expect Gov. DeSantis to do for the environment

This is not to suggest regulators adopt an adversarial stance. But the first impulse of regulators should be to protect our waters — not protect the regulated community from enforcement.

DeSantis should bring back the state’s Harmful Algal Blooms Task Force, as he has proposed, though doing so won’t be meaningful unless the task force has the authority to do more than study the problem.

Jim Chalmers, of Blue Dog Rentals in Vero Beach, photographs the remains of a large grouper along the shoreline just north of Tracking Station Beachfront Park, while managing a group of day laborers  cleaning the beach of dead fish killed by red tide on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, in Indian River County. "We're on the back end of the cleanup, things are going smoothly," Chalmers said. "Fortunately we have not seen a lot of large marine life, considering the scale of all the small marine life. We're taking care of it (cleanup) step by step."

Even with all this, new challenges loom. President Donald Trump has already enacted major cuts to the federal Environmental Protection Agency; the burden of enforcement will increasingly fall to states, as has been the trend in recent years.

Florida’s congressional delegation must step up, too, to advocate for cleaner water in our state. 

The delegation must also advocate for funding. Trump has signed off on a massive reservoir project south of Lake Okeechobee, but Congress has not yet allocated the $200 million per year needed for construction. The state’s delegation must fight hard for this funding at every turn.

Finally, local governments can do more. Throughout Florida in recent months there have been proposals to strengthen existing municipal fertilizer bans; many have been rejected. While there’s little definitive research showing these bans have made a major dent in the nutrients going into our waters, researchers say they are making some difference.

Given the severity of water problems, every little bit helps.

Regulation in and of itself isn’t the answer to all our problems. But given the crises we’ve endured, and the challenges to come, it’s impossible to deny we could be doing more to protect Florida’s waters.

And unless we want our problems to get even worse, we must.

This editorial reflects the opinion of the editorial boards of all six USA TODAY Network-Florida news organizations: FLORIDA TODAY, Naples Daily News, The News-Press, Pensacola News Journal, Tallahassee Democrat and TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers. 

More: Read the first editorial in our Turning the Toxic Tide series

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The bloom of fallen flower floats in an algae covered canal near the Midpoint Bridge in Cape Coral on Tuesday 8/28/2018. Cape Coral based Ecological Laboratories has a possible solution to the algae problem that is plaguing Cape Coral and Southwest Florida  waters. They got a letter of no objection to start testing a section of this canal that is filled with algae. They took water samples on Tuesday 9/28/2018. The process involves a denitrification process.