by David Ball
Staff Writer
Nearly 14,500 tons. Almost 29 million pounds. That’s how much nitrogen and phosphorus is pouring into the lower St. Johns River each year from wastewater treatment plants and stormwater runoff, according to figures from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The pollutants kill fish and other marine animals and vegetation, promote blooms of toxic algae and can even affect the health of people swimming or recreating in the water.
Now, after eight years of work, the DEP is about to finalize a plan requiring at least $450 million in expenditures by Northeast Florida utilities, governments and others to reduce their total nutrient discharge by about 26 percent. Some estimate the true costs at more than $1 billion.
The reductions are part of new Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) defined for the Lower St. Johns. A TMDL is a specific amount of nutrients the river can carry while still maintaining water quality levels, and for the Lower St. Johns, it’s 11,518 tons of nitrogen and phosphorus.
That figure has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which by way of the federal Clean Water Act is responsible for establishing TMDLs for all of the country’s impaired water bodies.
The figure is now being incorporated into the DEP’s Basin Management Action Plan, which will spell out how the TMDL reductions will be implemented and enforced throughout Northeast Florida. The plan is to be approved any day, DEP officials said.
There are detractors, however. Florida Department of Transportation District Secretary Charles Baldwin said he doesn’t agree with the $29 million he would have to pay simply because nutrient-filled runoff from other areas happens to travel down his highway and road infrastructure and into the river.
Although happy to see any reductions in pollution, Neil Armingeon of the St. Johns Riverkeeper said the TMDLs are a far cry from what is truly needed. He said he is considering a lawsuit challenging the TMDL, just as the Riverkeeper did once before in 2003.
Still, DEP officials say this culmination of years of research and the work of dozens of stakeholders is worth a little celebration.
“We definitely are happy,” said Greg Strong, DEP’s northeast director. “This is really the culmination of a multi-year effort where a lot of people have come together and work cooperatively for a common good. And you’re now starting to see some real positive impacts.”
Some of the work has already begun. Jacksonville examples are the River Alliance and River Accord, as well as the City’s new stormwater fees needed to pay for treatment systems. Proposed fertilizer and irrigation ordinances are also making their way through the City Council.
Those efforts are to chip away at required reduction of 150 tons of nutrient runoff from City stormwater systems, according to Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, director of the City’s Environmental and Compliance Department.
“We need to get back to what was being discharged in 1997-98, which is the base year for the TMDL,” he said. “But given the current technology, that is not achievable.”
Gujjarlapudi said one of the options for the City and other smaller nutrient dischargers is trading for nutrient reduction credits. Typically, larger entities, such as JEA, can achieve nutrient reductions below what is required because of their large wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure. Those entities can then trade credits to other entities that may not be able to reach their mandated reductions.
“DEP is interested in encouraging and trying to find the most cost-effective solution for nitrogen and phosphorus load reductions,” said Strong. “Our primary interest is to encourage the greatest amount of cooperation with those stakeholders. I think we’ll get a whole lot farther in cooperative manner than an adversarial manner.”
Baldwin, however, said requiring FDOT to buy $29 million in credits to offset highway runoff may not be the best use of funds.
“If I’m going to be responsible for those nitrates coming through my conveyance, and those producers are not, then I want to fix the problem,” he said, “I don’t just want to pay the bill and say I’m clean.”
Baldwin recently spoke at a First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting and said he was informed by DEP officials that JEA and the City of Jacksonville could be facing $500 million in penalties over a 10- to 20-year period of they don’t come into compliance with the new TMDLs.
“I believe that every agency or jurisdiction that is in contact with the river basin in the state of Florida, under this philosophy, is going to receive a bill,” he said. “I’m just suggesting maybe this thing should be more broadly discussed.”
Baldwin’s statement led City Councilman Stephen Joost to send an e-mail to Mayor John Peyton’s Chief Administration Officer Alan Mosley about the $500 million figure. JEA spokesman Phil Mattox said JEA was not aware of that possibility and called the figure “a rumor.”
DEP Water Facilities Administrator Melissa Long said there have been no discussions concerning possible penalties. Enforcement of the new TMDLs would occur through the permitting process, where specific nutrient reductions would be spelled out and DEP would administer inspections and studies to make sure the reductions are being met during a five-year timeframe. Then, Long said, fines would become an option.
“We have enforcement capabilities,” she said. “If people do not comply with the plan they have submitted, that is a route we can take.”
However, Armingeon said he doesn’t expect many if any fines to be levied. Riverkeeper is currently involved in a lawsuit against JEA for years of pollution discharge that was never penalized by DEP.
“You’ve seen the backbreaking fines leveled against polluters in Florida,” Armingeon said facetiously. “We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on the TMDL. We won a federal court victory (to throw out the first TMDL) and saw it muted through DEP activities to lower water quality standards.
“I don’t want to diminish what people are going to have to do,” he added. “In some ways, this is a significant beginning. But this isn’t where we need to go. With the St. Johns River, we can’t skimp on anything and expect the river not to keep going down the tubes.”
DEP officials said public hearings on the Basin Management Action Plan will be scheduled for June. To read the draft plan and TMDL figures, visit www.dep.state.fl.us.