The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) appear poised to set numerical standards for acceptable limits of nutrient pollution--nitrogen and phosphorus levels primarily from fertilizer use--in Florida waters. Last month, the EPA said it would begin setting those numeric standards within a year unless FDEP set them first.

Currently, Florida law states that nutrients in waterways should not cause an ecological imbalance but does not define that imbalance--an omission which makes enforcement of Clean Water Act regulations difficult. A lawsuit by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, forced the EPA's hand in calling for the new numerical standards.

But those efforts are now meeting resistance among lawmakers here in Florida who say that the establishment of new standards would be a costly innovation in an economic downturn. State Rep. JD Alexander (R-Winter Haven), chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, criticized the EPA's plan as "extremely expensive to local governments and to agriculture and industry across the state."

Additionally, agricultural groups and the South Florida Water Management District have filed motions in the lawsuit that may mean complications and delays for the arrival of the new standards.

Monica Reimer, an Earthjustice attorney in Tallahassee, said in an interview that she disagrees with Alexander because visitors to Florida won't keep coming if beaches are plagued with red tide and dead fish or if rivers and lakes turn green.

"I am really tired of the current economic crisis being used as an excuse for getting rid of every environmental safeguard passed by Congress or the state of Florida," Reimer said.