Florida commission considers sewage sludge rule changes

The Environmental Regulation Commission on Tuesday will consider changes to regulations dealing with "biosolids." That's the term used to describe the waste from sewage treatment plants, also called sewage sludge.

Spreading biosolids or sewage sludge on land has raised health and safety concerns in some counties. The National Academy of Sciences says the use of biosolids on crops presents a "negligible risk" to consumers when used in accordance with existing federal guidelines and regulations. (See links at end of story)

Sarasota County restricted sludge dumping in 2002 while DeSoto County that year banned the spreading of Class B sludge, which receives less treatment than other biosolids, according to media reports.

The proposed DEP rule changes are designed to improve the management of biosolids, address concerns about nitrogen and phosphorus getting into waterways and support public confidence in the beneficial use of biosolids, according to the department.

DEP began holding hearings in 2002 on rule changes. The draft rule changes require permits for biosolids application sites. Biosolids can only be applied to permitted sites after Jan. 1, 2013.

Changes in site boundaries will require permit modifications as will changes in agricultural operations that affect nutrient loading or application rates.

The ManaSota-88 environmental group in Southwest Florida wanted DEP to follow Sarasota County's lead and require landowners who allowed sludge dumping to disclose that to land-buyers, said Glenn Compton, the environmental group's chairman.

"We thought that would be a good idea to get that on the state level also," he said. "Apparently we fell short on the state level."

Representatives of the Florida Water Environment Association, which includes wastewater utilities, and the Florida Cattlemen's Association could not be reached for comment. Representatives of those groups served on a DEP committee that worked on the draft regulations.

Florida DEP biosolids rule revision site:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wastewater/dom/resmake.htm

U.S. EPA biosolids site including FAQ:
http://www.epa.gov/OWM/mtb/biosolids/

"Florida sludge victims" opposition web site:
http://www.sludgevictims.com/States/Florida_sludge_victims.html

(Photo copied from DEP PowerPoint presentation. Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Florida planners face legislative scrutiny on growth

State planners say it would take 268 years of population growth to use up the new home lots that already are allowed in Tallahassee and Leon County.

In DeSoto and Jackson counties, it would take even longer: DeSoto would require 328 years of growth and Jackson County would require 996 years.


Despite -- or perhaps because of -- what the Florida Department of Community Affairs says is an over-allocation of residential development in some counties, the department's process for reviewing projects is facing legislative scrutiny.

DCA reviews development projects proposed by cities and counties as amendments to their comprehensive plans. As part of that review, the department wants cities and counties to conduct a "needs analysis" showing that population growth supports changing the land use designation.

But some legislators and landowners say they don't like the needs analysis and its reliance on population estimates. They say it infringes on new development that would create jobs during tough economic times.

"It appears to me we should get rid of the needs analysis or make it tighter so there is more certainty for the developer going through it," Sen. Mike Bennett, chairman of the Senate Committee on Community Affairs, said during a committee hearing earlier this month.

"I don't think the needs test deters people from moving to Florida," he said. "They still want to come down here. So I'm trying to understand -- why we have a needs analysis that would take away economic development and economic incentives?"

A report published last month by the Senate Committee on Community Affairs staff says the needs assessment is a fundamental part of land use planning and a key indicator of urban sprawl. But the committee staff also said it is only one factor to consider along with economic development, urban infill and locating development where it is most efficient to receive local services.

DCA Secretary Tom Pelham suggests that the department is getting a bad rap from its critics. He says projects usually are denied for multiple reasons -- including lack of infrastructure -- which he said are caused by overallocation of development.

"I challenge anyone to find department decisions where need was the only issue raised," Pelham told the committee hearing. "It simply is not the case."

Bennett today told FloridaEnvironments.com that he's not sure whether his committee's review of the needs analysis will result in legislation. He also said that the proposed Destiny development project in Osceola County could create more than 10,000 jobs, yet it must go through the uncertainty of the needs analysis.

"You have a group of investors willing to put millions and millions and millions of their own money into the project," Bennett said, adding, "A needs analysis does not work in that situation."

In response, Pelham said today the Destiny developers still could build 8,500 homes on more than 40,000 acres -- and they haven't submitted an application to build more. So the department, he said, hasn't denied any project there.

And claims of jobs that could be created at Destiny are simply "wild rumor and speculation," Pelham said, adding, "No hard evidence of any kind has been presented to back that up."

In its report, the Senate Committee on Community Affairs suggested that DCA or the Legislature begin rulemaking to clarify the criteria used in the needs analysis. DCA earlier this month held a hearing to solicit comment on a possible rule but no timetable has been established for adopting one.

Earlier this month, Pelham told Bennett's committee that it shouldn't be hard for a developer to provide data showing that a good project is needed.

The needs analysis, Pelham said, lies at the heart of the planning process. And he noted that Florida has a history of "speculative" development projects that wind up failing -- and government then is called in to bail them out.

"I worked for the private sector for a long time and was honored to represent some of the top developers in this state," Pelham said. "But they are doing their job, which is to take care of their bottom line.

"That's their job -- I don't criticize that at all," he said. "That's why someone has to take the big picture and look out for the public interest. Because it may be the public that winds up holding the bill."

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Florida CFO Sink announces "paperless" initiative

Florida CFO Alex Sink says her department's efforts to reduce the use of paper and printing have saved state taxpayers $1 million since 2007.

Sink, whose elected position places her in charge of the state Department of Financial Services, today announced a legislative proposal to require electronic payments from some vendors instead of processing paper warrants. She called it part of the "Going Green, Saving Green" initiative at her department.

"Today's focus on going paperless will save money (and) improve customer satisfaction," she said. "It will certainly help the environment and it's going to help make state government a little greener."

Sink, a Democrat who is running for governor in the 2010 election, isn't the only state official to announce efforts to reduce waste from printing.

Two Senate committees conducted meetings without paper in October. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-Palm Beach, has set a goal of having all Senate committees hold paperless meetings by December, though paper copies of meeting materials still will be available to the public. (To see Atwater announcement, click here.)

Under Gov. Charlie Crist, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has promoted waste reduction along with recycling as the state looks for ways to meet a 75-percent statewide recycling goal by 2020. With counties now recycling 28 percent of their waste on average, DEP is preparing recommendations before a Jan. 1 deadline on meeting the 75-percent statewide recycling goal.

During today's announcement, Sink focused more on the financial savings than environmental benefits of reducing printing costs and moving towards electronic financial transactions. With her podium surrounded by stacks of manuals and reports, she said the cost of processing 1.4 million paper checks each year is $4.18 each compared to 77 cents for each electronic transaction.

"The difference in cost is staggering," Sink said.

(Copyright Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Industry reps slam DEP bag ban recommendation

Representatives of stores and packaging industries slammed the Department of Environmental Protection today for a draft report's recommendation to tax and then ban plastic and paper bags in Florida.

DEP posted the draft report Oct. 15, then withdrew it two days later after criticism. Still, industry representatives said today they disagreed with the recommended tax and ban and said more regulation may not be needed.

"It was a thorough, well-researched piece of work," Fred McCormack of the Florida Dry Cleaners Coalition said, paradoxically adding, "We absolutely don't agree with any of the recommendations."

Environmentalists say plastic bags litter the landscape and harm wildlife that eat them or become entangled in them. Some local governments were considering banning bags until the Legislature in 2008 adopted a bill at the urging of the Florida Retail Federation.

The bill prohibited local governments from banning bags until the Legislature adopts recommendations. DEP is required to issue its recommendations in a report by Feb. 1.

The draft report was intended to prompt public comment. Instead it became a big controversy "on an apparent slow news day" for one newspaper reporter, Mary Jean Yon, director of DEP's Division of Waste Management, told a public meeting audience of about 50.

"We're really just here to listen today," she said.

Representatives of the Florida Retail Federation, the American Chemistry Council, Wal-Mart and the American Paper Bag Council were among those who said that voluntary efforts are guiding the consumer trend toward reusable bags and recycling disposable bags.

Target has begun paying customers 5 cents for each reusable bag they bring into the store. CVS will issue store-credits to customers for bags they reuse, said Samantha Hunter Padgett, of the Florida Retail Federation.

Wal-Mart, which has 273 stores in Florida, has set a goal of recycling or reducing the use of plastic bags by 33 percent at its stores worldwide, said Cindi Marsiglio, the company's senior manager for public affairs and government relations in Tallahassee. The company also is experimenting in three California stores with not offering disposable bags and instead selling reusable bags for 15 cents each.

"There are a lot of exciting things happening," she said. "We just need to let it catch up with what the right product and time and demand on the customer is."

Critics who spoke at the meeting far outnumbered supporters of a bag ban. David Auth of Gainesville said sea turtles and birds die from eating plastic bags and that landscape views also suffer.

"People are irresponsible," he said. "The only way to make them responsible is to get rid of these plastic bags so they won't have them in the first place."

Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington said plastic bags clog the county's stormwater drains and he doesn't think educational programs will halt the problem. He said he would ask his county to take action if the state doesn't act on recommendations.

"I think the state approach is much better for retailers as a whole," he said.

DEP won't post another draft report before the recommendations are sent to the Legislature because there isn't enough time, Yon said. She said her staff also is working on the recommendations due Jan. 1 for increasing the state's recycling goal from 30 percent to 75 percent in 10 years.

(Photo and story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

DEP meeting follows withdrawal of retail bags ban report

Following an uproar last month over a draft proposal to ban plastic and paper shopping bags, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday holds another public workshop on whether to regulate bags.

DEP last month withdrew a draft report that recommended taxing bags by up to 25 cents each and then banning them by 2015. The Legislature in 2008 adopted a bill prohibiting local governments from banning retail bags until DEP issues recommendations and they are adopted by the Legislature.

But the recommendations in the draft report last month drew criticism from conservative commentators and newspaper editorials. DEP Secretary Michael Sole said Tuesday that the report was withdrawn because it didn't contain options other than taxing and then banning bags.

"I felt we needed to take a step back and look at other options rather than one solution," Sole told FloridaEnvironments.com.
DEP posted the report on its Web site Oct. 14 and took it down on Oct. 16, according to a department memo to interested media.

By the time it was withdrawn, the draft report had already created a storm of reaction. Panama City News-Herald editorial

The Sierra Club issued an alert on Oct. 28, saying the report was withdrawn "likely because of industry pressure."

Indeed, the Florida Retail Federation issued its own alert about the draft report on Oct. 15, and held a conference call with its members. The next day, Sole called the group to say that the report was being withdrawn, according to a follow-up alert.

The trade group for the state’s second-biggest industry had spent months talking with the state about how to keep the roughly 5 billion throw-away bags Floridians use yearly from ending up in streets, storm drains and beach dunes.

“Gosh, this is not what we expected,” said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation, told the Florida Times-Union.

The Sierra Club is urging its members to tell Gov. Charlie Crist to support the ban. Sierra Club member Dwight Adams of Gainesville said the draft report was thorough and the ban is needed.

"It sounds like politics trumping science," Adams said of the withdrawn report. He is chairman of the Florida Chapter's waste minimization committee.

Sole denied politics was involved in the decision. "I was unfortunately not given a copy of the report before it went out," he said.

Increased plastic-bag recycling and other options, Sole said, should be explored more thoroughly, including "cradle-to-grave" responsiblity in which companies that produce the bags are responsible for using them in new products.

"Plastic bags do have an adverse impact not only on Florida's environment but the global environment," Sole said.

The public meeting Thursday will be held at 1 p.m. at DEP's Bob Martinez Center (formerly Twin Towers building), 2600 Blair Stone Road, room 609. For more information, go to DEP's retail bags report page. (www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/retailbags)

To watch a video about the harm caused by plastic bags, go to Metacafe.com.

(An earlier version of this report only stated that the recommendation in the draft report called for banning plastic bags. The story was revised to reflect that paper bags also would be taxed and banned under the recommendation.)

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Cabinet approves land-buying bonds, Keys oversight

Bald Point State Park, purchased by the state under the Florida Forever predecessor program.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet today approved a resolution issuing $250 million in bonds for buying conservation lands, representing the last money approved by the Legislature for the program.

Florida Forever program is the largest land-buying program in the nation, having acquired more than 2 million acres since 1990 with its predecessor program. The programs received $300 million a year from 1990 until this year when the Legislature did not provide additional funding because of a tight budget.

The program has $250 million remaining in bonds authorized by the 2008 Legislature. The bonds were not issued earlier this year because collections from a state documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions lagged behind projections, making it difficult to find a buyer for the bonds.


Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said the Cabinet vote today was good news for the land-buying program. Although about $73 million remains in the Florida Forever trust fund, the lack of new revenue had caused the state to proceed slowly on purchases, Sole said.

"While we hadn't stopped (buying land), we have approached acquisitions with a little bit more sage eye to make sure we had adequate funds to meet the commitments we have made," he said.

He said a majority of the $250 million is committed already to purchases approved by the Cabinet, water management districts and the Florida Communities Trust program at the Department of Community Affairs.

"We can move forward with closing" on projects, Sole said.

The actual amount of the bond resolution is $285 million, which includes a $35 million-reserve fund to pay debt service in a timely manner if revenue collections fall behind projections, said Ben Watkins, director of the state Division of Bond Finance. He told Cabinet aides last week that selling the bonds still could be difficult this year.

Environmentalists next year must convince some House leaders, who say the state can't afford to buy more land, to restore funding for Florida Forever. The program needs new funding next year to move forward on new purchases, said Andy McLeod, director of government relations with The Nature Conservancy's Florida chapter.

"There are no new projects and no new money this year," McLeod said. "This is the first year in 20 years -- and we hope the one exception, if the Legislature is able to appropriate (money for the program) next year."

In other action today, the Cabinet voted to maintain additional state growth management oversight for the Florida Keys as an "Area of Critical State Concern." The island chain faces challenges stemming from rapid growth in an ecologically sensitive area with a lack of advanced sewage treatment and other infrastructure.

Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham commended Monroe County and the cities of Islamorada and Marathon for progress on wastewater projects but he said additional funding and time are needed to complete the work program.

"A year ago, I was very critical of the lack of progress," Attorney General Bill McCollum told other Cabinet members. "It appears this year we have made some. It may not be substantial, but we have made some."

Also today, McCollum delayed his request for an update from DEP on the proposed federal nutrient standards for Florida waters because Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson was absent from the Cabinet meeting. Bronson was traveling and had asked for the meeting to be rescheduled.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to propose the more specific numeric limits in January. Bronson's department challenged a lawsuit settlement that called for the EPA to set those limits. (To read Monday's story on a federal judge approving the settlement, click here).

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)

Judge backs enviro groups, EPA settlement

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle today said he will approve a legal settlement that calls for the federal government to set specific water quality standards for nutrients in Florida -- a move that industry groups and Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson have opposed.

Florida now prohibits excessive nitrogen and phosphorus that cause an imbalance of fish and plants in waterways. Environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it to require specific numeric limits to prevent waterways from continuing to become choked with weeds and algae.

A proposed settlement agreement calls for the EPA to propose numeric limits in January and adopt them by October for lakes and rivers. But agriculture and industry groups along with Bronson and sewage treatment utilities say they expect EPA to impose standards that will be costly to meet because of a lack of time and inadequate science.

Hinkle today said opponents can challenge those new standards once they are approved by EPA. And he seemed to side with environmental groups who argued that the federal agency has taken too long to take such action.


"There certainly is evidence that there is significant degradation (of waterways) and it has gotten worse," Hinkle said.

Terry Cole, an attorney representing eight agriculture and industry groups including Florida Farm Bureau, the Florida Pulp and Paper Association, the Florida Stormwater Association and the Florida Cattlemen's Association, said he didn't know whether his clients will appeal. But several industry groups recently filed their own lawsuits challenging the EPA action in January when it determined that numeric limits were needed.

In court today, Cole also argued that Florida's economy is in worse shape than other states, including neighboring states that won't have such strict standards.


But Hinkle repeatedly suggested that EPA and the state have had more than a decade to act on their own. And he rejected the idea that the federal Clean Water Act allows the EPA not to act -- or that he could throw out the settlement agreement -- because of economic concerns.

"That would be an absolutely lawless decision by a district court judge, I think," Hinkle said.

Opponents last week launched a public-relations offensive, unveiling a Web site at a news conference with former Florida DEP secretaries Virginia Wetherell and Colleen Castille urging Congress to block the agreement. Opponents say EPA is working on a one-size-fits-all criteria that will be difficult to meet and could cause the average montly household sewer bill to more than double.

But Martha Mann, a federal Department of Justice trial attorney representing the U.S. EPA, said it's not clear yet what the agency will propose in January though, she told Hinkle that it won't be one set of criteria that will be applied statewide.

Hinkle said his role was not to decide whether numeric criteria are needed to clean up Florida waterways. He said EPA had made that decision in January and that it would be subject to appeal later.

"Any substantially or procedurally invalid regulation will never take effect because it will not be enacted by the EPA or it will not be upheld by the District Court or Court of Appeals," he said.

After the hearing, David Guest of the Earthjustice law firm said the environmental groups got exactly what they wanted. He represents the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. John’s Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club

"Florida waterways are going to hell in a hand basket," he said. "Today is when we start the process for fixing them."

Cole said the groups he represent would prefer that DEP develop numeric criteria. He said he remains concerned that EPA doesn't have the field scientists that Florida has to develop criteria to apply to waterways from Key West to Pensacola -- even if EPA says it won't apply one set of limits statewide.

"We did not think they (EPA officials) were going to come up with just one, but we think it is going to require more than one in North Florida and one in South Florida," he said.

Previous stories:
Nov. 12, 2009: "Two former Florida DEP heads join opposition to EPA standards"
Nov. 4, 2009: "House members vent against EPA water standards"
Oct. 2, 2009: "Bronson sides against EPA agreement on waterways"
Aug. 24, 2009: "EPA, groups settle water dispute; Industry groups threaten challenge"

(Copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission).