florida's dirty habit: nutrient pollution

Water Quality at Risk

Blue-green algal blooms are popping up across Florida's waterways and causing a big stink for residents and tourists. Nutrient pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous are invading Florida's waterways and causing these dangerous outbreaks. Toxic algae has a foul smell and can cause serious harm to humans and animals alike, not to mention cause devastating impacts to our state's critical fishing and tourism economies.

These pollutants come from urban and industrial sources, and heavily-used fertilizers and pesticides are the culprits. Residents, agricultural operations, large-scale industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants all send untreated pollution into our rivers and streams. Over the years, high nitrogen and phosphorus levels have had devastating impacts on Florida's commercial fishing economy, which is among the most profitable in the nation. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that commercial fishing alone generates $5.6 billion in in-state sales and creates over 108,000 Florida jobs annually. However, this success depends directly on healthy fish populations. Over the past five years, dangerous algal blooms have led to inedible fish populations in the St. Johns, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, causing fishing industries to shut down entirely for months at a time. Florida's residents cannot continue to sustain this loss of revenue and jobs due to unregulated pollution.

Though the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has explicitly told Florida to adopt long-overdue water quality standards, many polluting industries and Florida's Congressional Delegation strongly oppose such standards, claiming the cost of compliance will inordinately burden business and negatively impact local economies.  The National Academy of Science (NAS) has been asked to conduct an investigation into the economic impacts of the EPA's proposed numeric nutrients rule and give guidance on appropriate actions to be taken. Clean Water Action and its environmental partners have urged the NAS to consider not only the cost of cleanup by polluting industries in their analysis, but also the benefits that a clean and safe water supply will have on the numerous economies that put a majority of Florida's residents to work each year, such as fishing and tourism.

Florida's heaviest polluters should also bear the heaviest burden when it comes to cleaning up our state's nitrogen and phosphorous overloads. Clean Water Action urges Florida's decision-makers to ensure that the public is not forced to shoulder the costs while private industries take all the financial gains.

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