Center Wins Battle Over Improper Omissions From Florida’s Impaired Waters List

The 11th Circuit Court has ruled in favor of MAELC’s clients in Florida in a suit alleging that EPA’s 2004 approval of the State of Florida’s 2002 update to its Clean Water Act List of Impaired Waters was an arbitrary and capricious agency decision. On behalf of Florida PIRG, Save Our Suwannee, Friends of St. Sebastian River, and Linda Young, the Center and co-Counsel from Sierra Club argued that EPA should not have approved the List because Florida: was not permitted to exclude available water quality-related data more than 7.5 years old; improperly refused to include waters under waterbody-specific fish consumption advisories; and failed to rely on the appropriate statutory factors in its prioritization of waters on the Impaired Waters (CWA Section 303(d)) List update.

In June 2007, the 11th Circuit reversed the District Court’s decision for the EPA and remanded in favor of the Plaintiffs. EPA and the Plaintiffs then negotiated in late 2007 over how EPA will review the Florida actions. As a result of the suit, EPA has now concurred with the Center that dozens of waterways should have been on the List Update. EPA has advised the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida of its findings.
 
A waterway’s presence on the List assures that it will receive further attention and efforts to restore water quality in the near future. This includes development of a TMDL, or “Total Maximum Daily Load,” a limit on the total amount of a pollutant that a waterway can assimilate in a day’s time without violating water quality standards. Since water quality standards are typically being violated in a waterway on the Impaired Waters List, the TMDL necessarily contemplates reductions to the pollution load.