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Sorensen's attempt to lower pollution standards stinks
Last week, Rep. Ken
Sorensen proposed easing the standards for removing pollution from
sewage effluent. These are tough measures that all large wastewater
plants in the Keys are required to meet by 2010.
Specifically, Sorensen
would like the nitrogen standard changed from 3 parts per million to 5
parts per million (raw sewage contains approximately 250 parts per
million).
Sorensen has called
this difference an "almost infinitesimal amount." And he's right -- it
is a tiny amount. That is one of the key features of coral reef
environments -- they require clean, clear, nutrient-free waters. The
long history in the Keys of development with woefully inadequate sewage
treatment has caused severe degradation to our nearshore waters -- so
severe that a state administrative law judge found, in 1995, that Monroe
County had already exceeded its carrying capacity for nearshore water
quality.
That decision
ultimately sent the county into its brave new world of "nutrient
reduction credits" in exchange for building permits and its long and
tortuous path to getting some pipes in the ground.
For those who have
pushed for wastewater upgrades, the goal was not to create years of
political turmoil and public anxiety (though that has been the result
thanks to the county's financial footdragging and interagency turf wars
between the county and the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority). The goal,
as one official from the Environmental Protection Agency has put it, is
to "get the crap out of the creek." The marine environment is essential
both to the Keys economy and our quality of life. Who wants to live on
canals or visit beaches that aren't safe for swimming?
The standards Sorensen
wants to change did not come out of thin air.
They are part of state
law, the definition of advanced wastewater treatment (AWT). They were
set after long and considered study by scientists and engineers. Another
state law, adopted in 1999, requires large plants in the Keys (100,000
gallons a day or more) to meet these standards by 2010. That state law
and understanding of these AWT standards was part of the Monroe County
Wastewater Master Plan, adopted by the county back in 2000.
In other words, the
standards that large plants would be required to meet are not news to
governments in the Keys or to Rep. Sorensen. He has called them "almost
impossible" to meet, but Key West doesn't seem to having a problem
meeting them. Except for periods when it diverts large amounts of
stormwater to the treatment plant, Key West commonly exceeds AWT
standards by 50 percent.
However, it appears to
be a problem for the bidder selected by the Key Largo Wastewater Board
to build that island's first plant (the high bidder, but that's a
different story). Suddenly, Sorensen is pushing hard for a change to
state standards.
It's part of his
recent aggressive onslaught directed toward Department of Community
Affairs Secretary Colleen Castille. (Sorensen even objects to Castille's
acceptance of an award from Audubon of Florida, "an honor that does not
help our credibility," he wrote in a letter to the governor last week.)
Making Florida's
largest environmental group -- one that is generally considered quite
moderate -- the target of his ire was a particularly birdbrained move on
Sorensen's part. For one thing, neither Audubon of Florida (the
statewide group) nor the local Audubon chapter has been lobbying on the
recent Keys growth management discussions. For another, the governor
himself was also recently honored by Audubon of Florida, personally
releasing a rehabilitated bald eagle from the Audubon Center for Birds
of Prey.
Sorensen's pressure on
Castille is especially unbecoming because of his position as chairman of
the House of Representatives Local Government Committee, the committee
with the most direct influence on Castille's department. He is putting
the bully into bully pulpit.
It is inappropriate
for the sole representative in Tallahassee of one of Florida's most
beautiful and endangered places, which relies on its natural environment
as the basis for its tourism economy. If the standards need changing, we
should only do so after consideration from scientists and engineers.
So instead of lowering
standards for wastewater treatment in the Florida Keys, why don't we try
a different approach? How about raising our standards of behavior for
our elected representatives?
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