Five Florida Groups Sue EPA

Five environmental groups in Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and the St. Johns Riverkeeper, sued the EPA last Thursday because they say the federal government has violated the Clean Water Act of 1972.

These groups claim that farm and urban runoff, such as animal waste and fertilizers, are polluting Florida's waterways. This runoff is also fueling algae bloom growth in the water, which absorbs a majority of the oxygen in the surrounding ecosystems and kills the wildlife.

The Lawsuit

The lawsuit is directed towards Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, which recognized in 1998 that “nutrient pollution is the leading cause of impairment in lakes and coastal waterways.”

Here’s the entire story.

It seems like a lot of people are suing the EPA nowadays. We wrote a blog a few months ago about how 18 states are suing the EPA for not regulating greenhouse gas emissions properly.

What does this say about the performance of the EPA? It’s true that they have a very hard job, but if they keep making broken promises, eventually no one will have faith in what they stand for.