by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Establishing quality standards for Florida’s waterways has been contentious, both scientifically and monetarily.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon told the City Waterways Commission Wednesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to an independent review of the cost to implement its regulations.
The National Academy of Sciences will conduct the third-party review of the costs of the regulation.
“One of the biggest controversies on this issue is the cost,” said Armingeon.
“There was a study that industry and special interests hired and paid for which claimed that the cost of these regulations would be $50 billion. That’s a lot of money,” he said.
“The EPA did an economic analysis which, instead of $50 billion, they came up with a cost of about $125 million annually for several years,” he said.
Previously, the commission had heard from the JEA about numeric nutrient standards, which set numeric nutrient water quality standards for nitrogen and phosphorus, also known as nutrients, that would be allowed in Florida’s lakes, rivers, streams, springs and canals.
Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution come from sources including stormwater runoff, municipal wastewater treatment, fertilization of crops and livestock manure, according to the EPA.
Paul Steinbrecher, JEA director of permitting and regulatory conformance, attended an October commission meeting to discuss the regulation’s impact on the local utility.
He cited a study by Carollo Engineers, based in Walnut Creek, Ca.
“Should the proposed numeric nutrient criteria become incorporated in the discharge permits for treatment plants, Florida utilities will spend an estimated $24.4 billion to $50.7 billion in capital costs” for the improvements to meet the standards, it said.
The report estimated that the capital outlay for JEA would result in an increase of user fees of between $673 to $726 per year. That estimate was a statewide estimate, and not specific to Jacksonville.
Armingeon recognized U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson as leading the effort for an independent review of the cost analysis because the EPA and industry numbers were so far apart.
Nelson sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Sept. 16 urging further review.
“I share the concerns many Florida residents, municipalities, businesses, and farmers have about the potential cost of compliance with these standards and the validity of the science,” he wrote.
“I believe you made the right decision to submit the portions of the rule related to downstream values, canals, coastal and estuarine waters to the EPA Science Advisory Board for peer review and delay finalizing those rules until August 2012,” he wrote.
Established by an act of Congress in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences is called upon to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government.”
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