The Environmental Protection Agency has come under fire for its decision to allow the state of Florida to write its own water pollution rules (known as “numeric nutrient criteria”). EPA Regional Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming is now firing back, writing that the Agency commends the state Department of Environmental Protection for its draft of a proposed standard.

The EPA seal (Pic via sentryjournal.com)

A host of environmental groups filed suit in 2008, seeking to compel the EPA to implement a strict set of water pollution standards in Florida, arguing that the state was in violation of the Clean Water Act. In 2009, following what many have deemed years of stalling on the part of the state department, the EPA agreed to implement its criteria.

Industry leaders and lawmakers have blasted the EPA’s mandate, arguing that the state of Florida should implement its own standards, without federal intervention. The state did have its chance, however: As early as 1998, the EPA told the state to develop its own standards.

Fast-forward to 2011, and the state is finally developing its own criteria — with the approval of the EPA.

A recent St. Petersburg Times editorial accused the EPA of rewarding Florida “for dragging its feet on cleaning up dirty waters,” a sentiment shared by environmentalists who have championed tougher water standards in the state. Not so, says the EPA’s Keyes Fleming, in a response to the editorial published today.

“The Clean Water Act envisions — and the EPA agrees — that states should have the primary role in establishing and implementing water quality standards for their waters, allowing them to innovate and respond to local water quality needs,” she writes. “These standards must meet the requirements of the act, but they need not be identical to standards the EPA would adopt on its own. The FDEP’s proposed standards, in our judgment, meet this test.”

According to Keyes Fleming, the Florida standards don’t mirror every aspect of the federal standards, but they come awfully close.

“The FDEP’s proposed criteria for estuaries are based on methodologies similar to what the EPA has been using in developing its own criteria,” she writes. “The FDEP’s numeric criteria for streams are very close to the EPA’s criteria but will be applied in combination with biological information. Although the EPA did not adopt this approach, we believe it is reasonable to factor in site-specific information.”

Florida currently relies on a narrative water quality standard, the wording of which (.pdf) has been criticized as too vague to be effective. The rule reads: ”In no case shall nutrient concentrations of a body of water be altered so as to cause an imbalance in natural populations of aquatic flora or fauna.”

Stricter criteria would specifically govern the amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen present in state waterways, and should lessen the amount of fish kills and large-scale algal blooms across Florida.

An upcoming Water Supply Summit hosted by the Everglades Foundation will include a “Legislative Briefing Breakfast” and a “Capital Lobby Day,” according to information released by the group.

Everglades National Park (Pic by Rodney Cammauf, National Park Service; via army.mil)

The summit will kick off in Tallahassee on Tues., Jan. 17, with a luncheon, and will wrap up the next day with “briefings, meetings, and advocacy to save America’s Everglades.” According to a press release, the event will be attended by top government officials and business leaders and will feature a performance by recording artist Gavin DeGraw.

An email sent out to supporters highlighted the recent problems plaguing the Florida Everglades — including one of the worst droughts the state has ever seen.

From the email:

In 2011, Florida witnessed one of the worst droughts in history. It was the third drought in the past ten years. This lack of rain sparked wildfires across the state and set large-scale destructive algal blooms in motion in the Caloosahatchee river. West Palm Beach and other municipalities came within days of running out of water.

The drought highlighted the issues that Florida should have been focusing on from the beginning: storing rainwater, cleaning it and supplying it to the millions of Floridians who need it.

The Everglades ecosystem is a crucial link between water storage and water supply for almost 7 million Floridians. And at less than half its original size, one out of every three Floridians relies on the Everglades as the source of their fresh drinking water.

For over a hundred years, we have built canals and levees to re-direct the natural southerly flow of freshwater from the headwaters of the Everglades in the Kissimmee river basin towards urban areas and coastal cities, disrupting the ecosystem’s delicate natural balance.

Meanwhile, 1.7 billion gallons of freshwater are dumped into saltwater estuaries every day.

Florida’s boating, tourism, real estate, hunting, recreational and commercial fishing industries all depend on a healthy Everglades ecosystem, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and contributing billions to our economy.

The Summit is being touted as “the first of its kind.”

A bill recently introduced by congressmen from Pennsylvania and Illinois could have a far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 union workers on Aug. 1.

Source: Gfpeck, Flickr

Members of Minnesota and North Dakota’s congressional delegations have repeatedly warned that the company’s lockout could help undermine the congressional consensus around protections for the sugar industry.

“There are members of Congress whose natural constituency is agriculture; some who see themselves as champions of business, and others who fight for workers,” Sen. Al Franken wrote in late August. “Knowing that the program has worked so well for so many years for the hardworking growers who produce such a large percentage of our nation’s sugar beets and for the dedicated workers and skilled management, who turn those beets into the highest quality sugar in the world, has played no small role in creating this consensus.”

Big Sugar has maintained support from Congress by continuously lining the campaign coffers of both Republicans and Democrats, although there is also a tangible discontent among industries that use sugar products, who find domestic prices to be too high. Those upset with American Crystal Sugar’s labor practices could join with these discontented industries to repeal the protections.

Enter Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Penn., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., who teamed up to introduce a bill that would protect the other sweet-tooth industries: candy companies that lie within their districts.

“We’ve heard from his constituents that the price of sugar is affecting business, it’s affecting jobs,” says Pitts spokesperson Andrew Wimer, who adds that Davis, the Chicago Democrat co-sponsoring the legislation, cites examples of factories that have shut their doors because of the high price of sugar.

The Free Market Sugar Act would repeal the sugar loan program and amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (known as the Farm Bill), perhaps the most important piece of legislation impacting U.S. sugar interests. Written every five years, the Farm Bill helps sugar growers with farm subsidies (which some dismiss as “corporate welfare”) and a series of quotas that tightly control the supply of imported sugar, a benefit to the handful of American sugar producers who pocket around $1 billion in excess profits a year, and a detriment to candy companies that buy U.S. sugar at prices two to three times higher than the global market rate.

Federal legislation also calls for the sugar program to be operated on a no-cost basis, a provision some sugar insiders project will remain for years to come.

“In general, [the Free Market Sugar Act] seeks to reform the sugar program so that the government is not controlling how much sugar is produced and imported,” says Wimer. ”It loosens the controls on production and importation, so that the U.S. price for sugar can be more closely aligned with the world price.”

In addition to amending the sugar price support program, the bill pushes for more transparency in the sugar industry, and an overhaul of how it does business. If enacted, the bill would replace quota import provisions with a tariff rate quota. “Right now the USDA is tightly controlling how much raw cane sugar comes into the U.S.,” says Wimer. “Instead of blanket eliminating quotas, we are modifying it so it’s not as unfair to the current market.”

Pitts and Davis have also recently announced the formation of the Congressional Sugar Reform Caucus, a bipartisan group that also includes Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Jean Shaheen, D-N.H.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo made the announcement Monday morning during an annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in St. Louis.

In a following statement, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “Today’s funding will provide residents of these rural communities with high speed internet connections to improve health care and educational opportunities and connect to global markets. In addition to providing much needed services to rural businesses and residents, these investments will increase jobs, not just in the near term, but through expanded opportunities in rural areas.”

The USDA provided three examples of how the funding would improve quality of life for rural residents. In Minnesota, they said, Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative’s existing Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network to serve rural communities in north-central portions of the state. The program will offer service to more than 45,710 households and businesses through a company that has been operating since 1952.

In North Dakota, the funds will expand Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation’s broadband system throughout 18 exchanges to provide voice, video and high-speed data systems. When the project is completed, all of Polar’s subscribers will have access to broadband.

Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., based in Indiana, will begin the process of designing and building broadband services to its 5,711 subscribers spread over 1,148 miles.

USDA is providing $478.6 million in funding to companies that meet eligibility requirements. Companies slated to receive funding, by state, are:

Colorado

• Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association, Inc.–$18,725,000 will be used to upgrade the existing fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) network, capable of providing modern broadband services to subscribers in 10 exchanges.

Idaho and Utah

• Albion Telephone Company–$17,075,000 in loan funds will be used to install 453 miles of buried fiber optic cables throughout the proposed FTTP system, providing nearly 60 percent of subscribers with FTTP.

Illinois

• McNabb Telephone Company–$3,700,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including constructing new FTTP facilities. A total of 115 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed to improve service to subscribers.
• Shawnee Telephone Company–$30,286,000 in loan funds will be used to construct FTTP facilities, allowing Shawnee to provide voice and data services at speeds of up to 100 Mbps to both residences and businesses.
• McDonough Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$15,728,000 in funds will be used to upgrade the rural areas with FTTH technology. Approximately 766 miles of buried fiber cable will be deployed to provide over half of the subscribers with access to improved broadband service. McDonough has been serving its rural subscribers for over 60 years.
• Wabash Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$21,867,000 will be used to install 777 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will enhance service to 70 percent of Wabash’s subscribers.

Indiana

• Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$29,139,000 in loan funds have been awarded to Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., (PSC) which provides telecommunications services to nearly 6,000 subscribers over approximately 1,150 square miles in southern Indiana. This loan will enable PSC to start the process of designing and building FTTP to enhance broadband services across the service area.

Iowa

• Mediapolis Telephone Company–$13,401,000 in loan funds will be used to make system upgrades to the transport system and the network architecture from the existing copper Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to FTTP broadband systems.
• Griswold Cooperative Telephone Company–$12,747,000 in loan funds will be used to complete a system-wide FTTP network, enhancing broadband service to all subscribers.
• La Porte City Telephone Company–$9,867,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including installation of a FTTP broadband network that will serve all of the borrower’s subscribers. A total of 297 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed, enabling downstream data rates of up to 20 Mbps.

Kansas

• The S & T Telephone Cooperative Association–$29,814,000 will be used to implement a full FTTH design to allow the migration to 10-20 Mbps broadband speeds to all subscribers and to provide IPTV in the near future.

Minnesota

• Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative–$19,749,000 in Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan’s existing FTTH network to serve the exchanges of Park Rapids Rural and Trout Lake in North Central Minnesota. With this extension of their network, Paul Bunyan will be able to provide advanced telecommunications services to over 45,710 establishments (households and businesses) across all service areas. Paul Bunyan has been operating since 1952 and has been a telecommunications borrower with the Rural Utilities Service since 1953.

Nebraska

• The Hemingford Co-operative Telephone Company–$10,280,000 will be used to upgrade the outside plant with optic cable, fiber optic drops and FTTP equipment. These funds will add 377 fiber miles of fiber optic cable.

New Mexico

• Roosevelt County Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$12,358,000 will be used to deploy new equipment and install FTTP equipment to enhance the broadband network.

North Dakota

• BEK Communications Cooperative–$26,746,000 in loan funds will be used to expand a FTTH broadband system. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of BEK’s subscribers will be served by fiber.
• SRT Communications, Inc.–$24,832,000 in loan funds will be used to install 2,143 miles of buried fiber optic cable and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will be constructed in areas outside of towns in twelve of the borrower’s twenty-six exchanges. The service areas in the towns will continue to be offered DSL at speeds of at least 55 Mbps with its relatively new copper plant.
• Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation–$32,939,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the Borrower’s FTTP broadband system throughout the borrower’s eighteen exchanges. The upgraded system will help meet current and future requirements for delivery of voice, video and high speed data to subscribers. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of Polar’s subscribers will be served with broadband via various technologies.

Oklahoma

• Terral Telephone Company–$4,855,000 in loan funds will be used to convert the existing copper network to a FTTH system, and connect new subscribers. The proposed FTTH deployment includes construction of over 62 miles of fiber plant in and around Terral, and the replacement of the existing softswitch and power plant. This FTTH deployment will create nine jobs and save seven jobs.

South Carolina

• Sandhill Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$5,930,000 will be used to provide for system improvements, including purchase of a new switch.

Tennessee

• North Central Telephone Cooperative Corporation–$27,069,000 will be used to upgrade portions of North Central’s outside plant and network infrastructure by deploying a FTTP network.

Washington

• Inland Telephone Company–$24,823,000 in loan funds will be used to expand Inland’s FTTP broadband system and connect new subscribers.
• The Toledo Telephone Co., Inc.–$18,091,000 in loan funds will be used to install 292 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system, offering enhanced service to all Toledo subscribers.

Wisconsin

• Union Telephone Company–$13,308,000 in loan funds will enable Union to deploy approximately 336 miles of fiber, which will provide approximately 60 percent of Union’s subscribers with access to improved broadband services.
• Marquette-Adams Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$19,781,000 Marquette-Adams will use loan funds to complete a system-wide FTTP network, including over 370 miles of new or modified buried fiber, providing enhanced broadband service to all subscribers.
• Vernon Telephone Cooperative–$24,143,000 in loan funds will be used to install 1,206 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will offer enhanced broadband service to 90 percent of subscribers.

Wyoming and Colorado

• Dubois Telephone Exchange, Inc.–$11,391,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the FTTP system to provide video and data services over an optic network with speeds up to 100 Mbps. Included in this loan is $9,462,000 for construction and engineering in Wyoming and $1,929,000 for construction and engineering in Colorado.

Earlier this week, in a statement released on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection website, department Secretary Herschel Vinyard authorized his staff to move forward with its draft of a set of water pollution standards. The standards, known as “numeric nutrient criteria,” will likely take the place of a similar set of rules mandated by the EPA. Critics argue that the EPA’s rules will prove to be too expensive to implement, so the EPA is allowing the state to create its own set of rules.

“The future of Florida’s environment depends on the health of our water resources, and no one knows our waters better than us,” said Vinyard. “This is the right thing for Florida, and the right thing to do.”

In a letter (.pdf) penned on Nov. 2, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner applauded the department’s decision to move forward with its own rules, saying that the majority of the state’s draft rules appear to be consistent with the Clean Water Act.

“While EPA’s final decision to approve or disapprove any nutrient criteria rule submitted by FDEP will follow our formal review of the rule and record under section 303(c) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), our current review of the October 24, 2011 draft rule, guidance, and other scientific and technical information supporting the draft rule, leads us to the preliminary conclusion that EPA would be able to approve the draft rule under the CWA,” writes Stoner. “Should EPA formally approve FDEP’s final nutrient criteria as consistent with the CWA, EPA would initiate rulemaking to withdraw federal numeric nutrient criteria for any waters covered by the new and approved state water quality standards.”

As The Iowa Independent reported in September, the DOL proposed rule change (the first since 1970) is intended to “strengthen the safety requirements for young workers employed in agriculture and related fields” and is expected to bring such occupations more in line with restrictions that already exist for young workers in non-ag-related jobs.

Although the rule continues a current exemption for children working on family-owned farms, a spokesperson from the National Council of Agricultural employers is skeptical. Many family farms have legally moved from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company, which means the definition used by the exemption may not hold. In essence, youth would not be working directly for their parents or relatives, but for the company.

Branstad and Northey believe the regulations will discourage farmers from engaging young people in agriculture, which has been an ongoing initiative at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and will prevent future farmers from acquiring the skills and experience needed for a career in agriculture.

“These new, over-reaching regulations will prevent young people from learning through supervised hands-on experience and obtaining life-long values,” Branstad said. “The federal government should not construct further employment barriers at a time when there are fewer job opportunities available for young people.”

Northey added, “We need more young farmers in Iowa to carry on our agricultural traditions.”

The pair has asked the DOL to increase the commenting period by 45 days to Jan. 15, 2012.

A copy of the letter is embedded below.

Branstad, Northey correspondence to DOL

About 1,300 union workers have been locked out of their jobs by American Crystal Sugar since Aug. 1. Since the lockout started, the union and company have only met twice, both times at the urging of a federal mediator. Following the rejection of Monday’s offer, there are no plans to meet again.

Sen. Al Franken said “it’s imperative that both sides continue to work to come to an agreement that will end this lockout and get workers back on the job,” pointing out that all sides play a role in the sugar industry’s success.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Collin Peterson released a joint statement highlighting the impact of the lockout on communities across the Red River Valley: “We continue to urge both Crystal Sugar management and workers to come together at the negotiating table to work out an agreement that allows workers to return to their jobs as soon as possible. American Crystal and these jobs are very important to the region.”

Locked out workers in Minnesota are receiving unemployment benefits, but those who live in North Dakota are denied them under state law. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said in a statement that the “lock-out is taking a serious toll on families in North Dakota and Minnesota and the economic and social impact can be felt up and down the Red River Valley.”

In an interview with the Grand Forks Herald, Conrad admitted that the dispute could harm the chances of a farm bill. Franken has warned in the past that American Crystal Sugar’s tactics of locking out workers could alienate pro-worker members of Congress who have previously supported protections for the sugar industry.

Conrad told the Grand Forks Herald that the “company needs to think long and hard about the consequences, about the implications of their strategy.”

An article released yesterday in a special agri-business edition of Highlands Today dubs a set of federally mandated water pollution standards “way too extreme for Florida.” The article is the latest in a long series of critiques of the EPA’s decision to implement its “numeric nutrient criteria,” rules that would help thwart algal blooms and fish kills in Florida waterways.

Via Highlands Today:

Every reasonable person is willing to sacrifice to protect the water quality in our Florida rivers and lakes. It all falls apart, though, when extreme measures threaten to break the bank with too many people in our state, and that’s exactly what’s going on with the Environmental Protection Agency’s idea on “numeric nutrient criteria” regulations being implemented in March.

Numeric nutrient criteria is a fancy way of saying that the EPA has come up with convoluted, complicated and unfair demands on water quality standards. It’s supposedly to protect against algae blooms and red tides.

The article also contends that attempts to thwart algal blooms with the EPA rules would be akin to “killing a fly with a bazooka,” and the regulations would “most likely put some people out of business.”

Though the EPA has contended in the past that the agricultural industry won’t be affected by the rules, industry interests remain strongly opposed.

Recently, the Department of Agriculture’s Rich Budell outlined his department’s objections to the clean water rules, arguing that any assertions that ag. wouldn’t be affected are “naive at best.” The Highlands Today piece takes those assertions a step further — arguing that the criteria will lead to a spike in the cost of food: “Consumers are much more likely to see food prices climb as agricultural operators and producers are forced to shell out huge amounts of money to abide by these regulations.”

Currently, the state Department of Environmental Protection is drawing up its own set of rules which, if they are approved, will be implemented in place of the EPA’s criteria.

That determination followed litigation brought on by Florida environmental groups that alleged the state wasn’t meeting the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Pollution brought on by failing septic tanks, home fertilizers, utility companies and agricultural interests often leads to large-scale algal blooms and fish kills — occurrences that wouldn’t be so frequent, say some, if Florida had stricter water pollution rules.

The EPA’s 2009 decision to force Florida to implement the so-called “numeric nutrient criteria” was not without controversy. Both Putnam and Bondi have argued, much like affected industries do, that the standards would be nearly impossible to meet and extremely costly. Environmentalists have argued that the new rules might not be strict enough.

In Monday’s filing, Putnam and Bondi argue that the EPA “failed to provide a record to support” its 2009 decision, “manufactured the basis for federal intervention” and “made the determination to settle a lawsuit.”

“EPA manufactured a basis for the significant shift in its policy toward Florida in order to justify making the … determination,” reads the filing. “The agency exaggerated the impact and threat of nutrients generally, and the situation in Florida specifically.”

The filing is signed by attorneys for the State of Florida, White Springs Agricultural Chemicals, the Florida Pulp and Paper Association and other industry agencies.

The EPA has committed to propose water quality standards for Florida’s estuarine coastal, and southern inland flowing waters by Nov. 14, and to establish final standards by Aug. 15, 2012, unless the state Department of Environmental Protection comes up with its own set of rules (which must then be approved by the EPA).

“Florida collects more water quality data than any other state in the nation … [and] we have the most advanced reuse,” said Budell, who has criticized the EPA’s numeric nutrient criteria in the past.

Among Budell’s concerns with the EPA’s version of the water pollution rules? “The science is weak,” “we don’t think they do an adequate job considering the diversity of waters in Florida” and “many biologically healthy waters under the EPA rule would be determined impaired.”

As for claims that Florida’s agricultural industry (whose fertilizer-laden effluent often contributes to algal blooms and fish kills) wouldn’t be affected by the rules, Budell told the panel it’s an assertion that “is at best naive.”

Budell claims that point-source polluters like pulp and paper mills, dairy operations and hog farms would definitely be impacted, despite EPA claims to the contrary.

“EPA has made it very clear in other parts of the country … [and] clearly indicated the direction they are taking is to require states to implement programs to regulate agricultural stormwater flow,” he said. “The Clean Water Act may not give them permitting authority over agriculture  [but] they have other mechanisms. … That’s the connection we make from what we see the agency doing in other parts of the country.”

Though Budell himself admitted that much about the rules remains uncertain, he made clear his stance that “no sector of agriculture can comply with the … criteria as proposed.”

Budell did say that the ag industry in general supports the state’s efforts to write its own rules, which he said would be “infinitely more palatable” than the EPA’s version.