Category: Letters and Submissions

Superfund Report – 09/05/2011
GOP Effort To Block EPA Radiation Surveys In Florida Faces Opposition
Posted: September 2, 2011
Environmentalists and a key House Democrat are pushing back against a GOP effort to block EPA from doing aerial surveys that could inform a potentially precedent-setting cleanup of an area in central Florida where the agency fears tens of thousands of people living on former phosphate mines may be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
At issue are approximately 10 square miles of such lands near Lakeland, FL, where EPA has taken no cleanup action despite its concerns dating back to the late 1970s over residential radiation. EPA’s concerns, made public by an award-winning series of Inside EPA articles in 2010, have prompted a negative reaction from GOP lawmakers representing the area, who say the fears are overblown.
In February, the lawmakers — including GOP Florida Reps. Dennis Ross, Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Richard Nugent and Thomas Rooney — sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in which they take issue with EPA having recently conducted a preliminary aerial survey near the area in question. The survey, which was expected to set the stage for a much more extensive flyover of the area, is considered to be a key early step in a possible cleanup process (Superfund Report, July 11).
Ross, who plans to meet with Jackson in the coming weeks to discuss the issue, is preparing to insert an amendment blocking any additional EPA survey work in the fiscal year 2012 budget bill when it is recalled to the House floor in the coming months. The amendment would block surveys “of any facility in the State of Florida in Polk county or Hillsborough county that is listed in” EPA’s Superfund database, known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) (Superfund Report, Aug. 8).
But the measure may be countered by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), who has raised concerns about the Florida phosphate issue in the past. According to a Capitol Hill source, Markey continues to track the issue and may speak in opposition to the Ross amendment when it comes up on the House floor.
In addition, Florida environmentalists are urging Jackson to reject the demands of the GOP lawmakers. In a July 20 letter, the activists say they “strongly support a fully scientific review of the impacts of phosphate mining, including the aerial radiation surveys which are long overdue.”
The groups, which include the Sierra Club Florida Phosphate Committee, Protect Our Watersheds and People Protecting Peace River, say that in addition to aiding EPA’s Superfund evaluation of the former mining areas, information gleamed from the surveys should be included in the Area-Wide Environmental Impact Statement that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are preparing relative to proposed new phosphate mines in Florida (Superfund Report, Oct. 15).
The activists also take issue with the GOP lawmakers’ assertion that EPA’s preferred cleanup standard for the Florida sites is “arbitrary.” The activists note that the standard, which dictates that concentrations for radium-226 in soil should not exceed 5 picocures per gram (pCi/g) above what naturally occurs in an area, “is a longstanding national standard which has been used at may sites nationwide to evaluate risk.”
“It would be highly improper to apply a different rule for Florida, or to refuse to look at the data because you don’t want to know what it says, which is the underlying premise of the [GOP] letter,” the activists say. Relevant documents are available on Inside EPA.com. (Doc ID: 2374487)
In their letter, the GOP lawmakers complain that “Florida’s real estate market is already under significant duress as a result of the economic downturn” and that “potential actions by EPA stand to impede Florida’s recovery.”
But the activists challenge this assertion, saying that aerial surveys “allow a scientific evaluation of risk and can have the effect of lifting the stigma currently associated with many such sites.”
The GOP congressmen presume “that this is a debate between economics and public health,” the activists continue. “This simply isn’t true. It’s a debate between powerful narrow corporate interests and a broader regional interest in environmental, public and economic health.” — Douglas P. Guarino
© 2000-2011. Inside Washington Publishers
—
Douglas P. Guarino
Associate Editor
Inside Washington Publishers
(Inside EPA’s Superfund Report)
1919 South Eads Street, Suite 201
Arlington, VA 22202
703-416-8518
fax:703-416-8543
mailto:[email protected]

Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Polluters and for Clean Water
Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta rules in Favor of EPA settlement with Earthjustice

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2011/federal-appeals-court-rules-against-polluters-and-for-clean-water

August 3, 2011
Tallahassee, FL

A federal appeals court today struck down a challenge filed by polluting industries and upheld a historic clean water settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Earthjustice. The 2009 settlement requires EPA to set limits on sewage, fertilizer and manure in Florida’s waterways.

Unchecked, the phosphorus and nitrogen in sewage, manure and fertilizer are sparking repeated toxic algae outbreaks in Florida waters. See pictures of toxic algae blooms at Slideshow: Florida Nutrient Pollution and Algae Blooms and Florida Water Coalition’s website. These outbreaks are a public health threat because they can make people and animals sick, contaminate drinking water, cause fish kills, and shut down swimming areas. Most recently, the Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida was covered with nauseating green slime and rotting fish for weeks.

“The polluters keep trying to use our public waters as their private sewers, but we intend to keep fighting them. They have to take responsibility for their mess,” said Earthjustice attorney David Guest. “Our economy depends on tourism, and nobody wants to come to Florida to look at dead fish and slime-covered water.”

“This court decision is a win for Florida’s families. We should not have to endure the public health threat posed by contaminated rivers, springs, lakes and beaches. We are talking about the water that flows from our kitchen taps. It needs to be clean.”
A who’s-who of Florida’s leading polluting industries filed a legal challenge to stop the cleanup in January. The federal court ruled against them today.

“This pollution is preventable. Several courts have now ruled that Florida needs limits on this pollution to keep our water clean.”

“The polluters have been using scare tactics, bogus science, underhanded political bullying, and campaign cash to try to get their way. Fortunately, the Clean Water Act is still a good law that protects ordinary citizens, and it prevailed today.”

Contact:
David Guest, Earthjustice, (850) 681-0031

U.S. | August 18, 2011
Bashing E.P.A. Is New Theme in G.O.P. Race
By JOHN M. BRODER
Republican presidential hopefuls are portraying the Environmental Protection Agency as a symbol of a heavy-handed regulatory agenda that they say is strangling the economy.

Time to talk about outcomes of Mosaic suit

Charlotte Sun Herald, Editorial 08/07/11

OUR POSITION: Environmental groups should dust off phosphate compact and sit down with Mosaic.
The Sierra Club is winning — but it may lose. The powerful environmental group, which is the lead plaintiff in a federal court challenge to a Mosaic Fertilizer permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a 10,856-acre expansion of its South Fort Meade phosphate mine, recently won a preliminary injunction preventing any more mining until the court rules.
The July 8 injunction issued by Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. contains pointed language taking the Corps to task for not abiding by Clean Water Act and National Environmental Protection Act regulations in its review of Mosaic’s permit application and “violated its duty to independently evaluate and verify Mosaic’s information.” The Corps is in the process of conducting a regional environmental impact study, having acknowledged that the mine in question, known as the Hardee County Extension of the South Fort Meade Mine, plus 11 other mines at various points in the permitting pipeline, “may result in significant cumulative environmental impacts in the future.”
The Sierra Club is winning — but it may lose.
Now is the time to talk.
We share the concerns expressed by environmental groups, including ManaSota 88 and Protect the Peace River, the Sierra Club’s fellow plaintiffs, about downstream impacts on the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor watersheds from phosphate mining at the Hardee County Extension and elsewhere. Our community’s current and long-term economy is only as healthy as those two bodies of water.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with them on demands regarding water quality and quantity, setbacks from ecologically sensitive areas and ongoing monitoring. We have repeatedly called on the company to be a better corporate neighbor, not only in its home base, where its jobs and charitable giving generate tremendous goodwill, but in the coastal communities whose residents see little upside but plenty of downside to digging up the Heartland. In fact, we backed the so-called “phosphate compact” between Mosaic and coastal counties because the company agreed to far exceed existing state regulations related to all three concerns, in addition to other concessions. Sarasota and Lee counties scotched the deal after it was OK’d by Charlotte County, which had spent about $12 million challenging Mosaic permits elsewhere in Bone Valley.
Now Mosaic faces yet another appeal, an areawide review, lost revenue and higher costs at a time when prices for phosphate-based fertilizer are favorable for making money — lots of it. Mosaic estimated its 2012 costs would climb by $200 million as a result of the injunction. That’s a nice place to start talking.
The Sierra Club and Mosaic have shown a willingness to talk in this case. A mediator got the sides to agree to short-term mining on a 200-acre swath of the extension that saved scores of jobs — for a few months. But now the plaintiffs have to decide what they want. What some want — an end to mining in Florida — isn’t going to happen. We think the Sierra Club wants to win. A win would be an agreement by Mosaic for unprecedented mining setbacks, monitoring, conservation and reclamation in Hardee and elsewhere. More than the state will ever require, given the industry’s power and economic impact. More than the Sierra Club can reasonably expect to win in court, where victory in the long run is more dubious.
The Sierra Club is winning — but it may lose. It’s time to talk.