Thanks to discharges from the Buckeye pulp mill in the Taylor County town of Perry, the Fenholloway River reeks of toxins and the underwater drinking supplies are contaminated. The few fish that remain in the river are exhibiting bizarre, sex-changing characteristics. Meanwhile, the discharges have left a 10-square-mile bald patch in Big Bend waters where seagrasses once flourished. Now, the mill wants to pipe its untreated effluent into the Gulf of Mexico, about 1 mile from the mouth of the Fenholloway.

The mill employs about 500 people, and garnishes millions each week. But activists say that the mill and the environment aren’t mutually exclusive.

“We’ve spent years working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Environmental Protection Agency and Buckeye, and two reports showed Buckeye how they can modernize for about the same coast as the building the pipe to the Gulf,” said Linda Young, Director of the Clean Water Network of Florida. “But Buckeye insists upon externalizing all costs to the public. Imagine the fishing and wildlife tourism we could have there, if Buckeye would just come into compliance.”

But Buckeye wouldn’t come into compliance, and DEP refused to enforce the law. So, Clean Water Network of Florida filed suit in Federal Court. In March, a federal judge ruled that because of the Clean Water Act, EPA has jurisdiction over the Fenholloway River. The decision wrests authority away from DEP, an agency that is trying to reduce water-quality standards throughout the state, and gives it to the feds.

“This isn’t the end, but the end of the beginning,” said Young. “The EPA has to enforce the law, and we’re hoping that they won’t be as blatantly disregarding of the law as Florida has been. But now we’re in the federal process, so if needs be we can get a fair trial.”

FS