CS/HM 1401

1
House Memorial
2A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3Congress to keep the United States Environmental
4Protection Agency from overextending its mandate and to
5direct the agency not to intrude into Florida's previously
6approved clean water program.
7
8     WHEREAS, on December 7, 2010, the State of Florida filed a
9lawsuit against the United States Environmental Protection
10Agency over federal intrusion into Florida's clean water
11program, and
12     WHEREAS, the lawsuit alleges that the agency's action is
13inconsistent with the intent of Congress when it based the Clean
14Water Act on the idea of cooperative federalism whereby the
15states would be responsible for the control of water quality
16with oversight by the agency, and
17     WHEREAS, the control of nutrient loading from predominately
18nonpoint sources involves traditional states' rights and
19responsibilities for water and land resource management, which
20Congress expressly intended to preserve in the Clean Water Act,
21and
22     WHEREAS, the lawsuit specifically alleges that the agency's
23rule and its January 2009 necessity determination for adopting
24numeric nutrient water quality criteria for Florida's waters
25were arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion, and
26requests the court to enjoin the agency's administrator from
27implementing the numeric water quality criteria for Florida in
28the rule, and
29     WHEREAS, prior to the agency's announcement that it would
30be implementing new rules for Florida, the state had been
31diligently working through its Total Maximum Daily Load Program
32to adopt numeric standards for impaired bodies of water, and
33     WHEREAS, the agency had already approved Florida's Total
34Maximum Daily Load Program on the basis that it was sufficient
35to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act, as referenced
36in a letter dated September 28, 2007, and
37     WHEREAS, as recently as January 2010, the agency praised
38Florida for implementing "some of the most progressive nutrient
39management strategies in the nation," and the Total Maximum
40Daily Load Program had a timetable for implementation through
412011, and
42     WHEREAS, despite the fact that Florida was working to
43implement its approved program and was seeing successes, the
44agency reversed its determinations in 2009 and informed the
45state that new federal rules and criteria would be developed and
46implemented by the agency, preempting the approved state
47program, and
48     WHEREAS, according to the state's lawsuit, the agency has
49continued to rely on a methodology that is neither
50scientifically sound nor site specific for Florida's waters, and
51     WHEREAS, in April, the agency's own Science Advisory Board
52joined the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the
53Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the
54University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural
55Sciences, the Florida Legislature, and others in expressing
56serious concerns that the agency's methods for developing
57numeric nutrient water quality criteria are scientifically
58flawed, and
59     WHEREAS, the State of Florida has significant concerns with
60regard to the cost of implementing the new numeric nutrient
61water quality criteria proposed by the agency, NOW, THEREFORE,
62
63Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
64
65     That the Congress of the United States is urged to keep the
66United States Environmental Protection Agency from overextending
67its mandate and to direct the agency not to intrude into
68Florida's previously approved clean water program.
69     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
70dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
71President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
72United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
73the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.