“Newly elected Senator Marco Rubio is correct in his appraisal of the situation.  To help our state’s agriculture industry, Marco has put forth six simple ways to help farmers:

IDEA #1: Stand Up To The EPA On Numeric Nutrients.  Due to environmental groups suing the EPA in 2008, Florida is facing the federal imposition of economically damaging numeric nutrient standards on its lakes and rivers. Congress should step-in and ensure that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection leads the effort to implement numeric nutrients. Being a state agency, they are fully aware of the economic cost and devastation a one-size-fits-all Washington approach would have on the state…”

A Message To Florida’s Legislature-

It isnt’ Congress that should step in, its you.

The EPA standards for water nutrients amount to a de facto take over of the water bodies inside the sovereign state of Florida.  Economically, the cost to our agricultural industry will be over one billion dollars annually at a time when our home country suffers from twelve per cent  unemployment. We urge the legislature to interpose itself between we the people of the State of Florida and this EPA power grab.

Say NO! to the General Government’s EPA imposed water nutrient standards….Florida’s own agency, the DEP is the lawful agency for environmental standards implementation inside our sovereign state….Stand up for Florida’s agriculture and Florida’s sovereignty!

 Everyone wants clean air and water.  This is not an issue that should be owned by one party or another.  The Clean Air and Water Act, an unfunded mandate imposed upon the sovereign states by the general government is poised to wreak destruction upon Florida’s farmers.  When Congress acted outside of its enumerated powers and created the Clean Air and Water Act, it assigned its implementation and policing to the Environmental Protection Agency, itself a creature outside of the general government’s enumerated powers. The weakness of this approach has been known for years.

“..Another contentious issue arising out of the Clean Water Act and its revisions involves the setting of precise water quality standards by the states and the EPA. The original act required states to identify pollution-impaired water areas and then develop “total maximum daily loads” (TMDLs) for each waterbody. TMDLs are the maximum amount of pollution that a waterbody can receive without violating water quality standards. If the state fails to act, then the EPA is required to undertake this time-consuming and technologically challenging determination. Most states have lacked the resources to undertake this task, and the EPA has been reluctant to step in and assume responsibility, in part because it, too, lacks the necessary personnel to do the job nationwide. Consequently, since the late 1980s, citizen groups have filed more than forty lawsuits in thirty-eight states against the EPA and the states for failing to implement the TMDL requirement. During the Clinton administration, the EPA attempted to strengthen the enforcement of this program, but with the change in the presidency after the 2000 election, that proposal has been tabled. As with the wetlands issue, scholars and other interested parties note that the time has come for the U.S. Congress to revisit the Clean Water Act of 1972..”-http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ce-Cr/Clean-Water-Act.html

Florida does not lack the resources to manage its own water quality. Indeed,

“The FDEP has been actively working with EPA on the development of numeric nutrient criteria for several years. FDEP submitted its initial DRAFT Numeric Nutrient Criteria Development Plan to EPA Region IV in May 2002, and received mutual agreement on the Numeric Nutrient Criteria Development Plan from EPA on July 7, 2004. The FDEP revised its plan in September 2007 to more accurately reflect its evolved strategy and technical approach, and FDEP received mutual agreement on the 2007 revisions from EPA on September 28, 2007. On January 14, 2009, EPA formally determined that numeric nutrient criteria should be established on an expedited schedule. On March 3, 2009 FDEP submitted its Current Numeric Nutrient Criteria Development Plan to EPA Region IV. This revised plan reflects DEP’s current approaches and expedited schedule.”-http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/nutrients/

There is no reason for the general government to impose its own standards on our state. FDEP has been working diligently, using accurate and substantive scientific methods to manage the nutrient content of  Florida’s sovereign waterways.

“FDEP has relied on this narrative for many years because nutrients are unlike any other “pollutant” regulated by the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). Most water quality criteria are based on a toxicity threshold, evidenced by a dose-response relationship, where higher concentrations can be demonstrated to be harmful, and acceptable concentrations can be established at a level below which adverse responses are elicited (usually in laboratory toxicity tests). In contrast, nutrients are not only present naturally in aquatic systems, they are absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of biological communities, and are sometimes moderated in their expression by many natural factors.”-http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/nutrients/

In spite of FDEP diligence and sound science, the EPA remains committed to imposing itself as the ulitimate authority over Florida waterways.

“EPA refers to Florida’s regulatory nutrient accountability system as an “impressive synthesis of technology-based standards, point source control authority, and authority to establish enforceable controls for nonpoint source activities,” but states that it is “insufficient to ensure protection of applicable designated uses.”[15] EPA’s primary criticism of Florida’s approach mirrors EPA’s opinion of narrative criteria generally: “Reliance on a narrative criterion to derive NPDES permit limits, assess water bodies for listing purposes, and establish TMDL targets can often be a difficult, resource-intensive, and time-consuming process that entails conducting case-by-case analyses to determine the appropriate numeric target value based on a site-specific translation of the narrative criterion.”[16] EPA’s assessment of narrative criteria as generally insufficient to control nutrient pollution could have broad implications for many states that do not themselves have numeric nutrient standards.”-http://www.martenlaw.com/newsletter/20100203-numeric-nutrient-standards

Newly elected Senator Marco Rubio is correct in his appraisal of the situation. 

 “Florida’s farms are an invaluable part of our state and national economies. As the nation’s largest industry, it is necessary that farmers be protected from an overreaching government and unfair taxes that stymie growth and profitability. We must do everything we can to allow these farms to create jobs, protect their crops and increase market size by opening up trade. As the country’s leading citrus provider, Florida stands to gain the most from these necessary practices,” said Rubio.

     Unfortunately, Washington has intervened and made it more difficult for farmers to run successful businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is placing stringent standards on farmers, and unfair taxes are strangling their ability to grow their businesses. These practices must be adjusted so that America’s largest industry can thrive and produce not just food, but jobs as well.

     To help our state’s agriculture industry, Marco has put forth six simple ways to help farmers:

• IDEA #1: Stand Up To The EPA On Numeric Nutrients.  Due to environmental groups suing the EPA in 2008, Florida is facing the federal imposition of economically damaging numeric nutrient standards on its lakes and rivers. Congress should step-in and ensure that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection leads the effort to implement numeric nutrients. Being a state agency, they are fully aware of the economic cost and devastation a one-size-fits-all Washington approach would have on the state.

Florida’s own Department of Agriculture has also warned of the toll this general government imposition will take on Florida’s jobs and economy.
“TALLAHASSEE – Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson says a just released study indicates the costs of meeting proposed numeric water nutrient standards are going to be significantly higher than federal estimates.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated the annual costs of implementing its standards for acceptable concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen in water bodies in Florida will be about 35 million dollars. However, a study conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, professors at the University of Florida Food and Resource Economics Department, and Soil and Water Engineering Technology, Inc. shows costs and lost revenues to farms will likely be over one billion dollars annually.There will also be significant ripple effects on suppliers and employees, impacting Florida’s economy as a whole by more than 1 billion dollars. More than 14,000 jobs will be lost according to the study. The final costs will depend on how many agriculture acres are actually impacted and how the standards are implemented. EPA has estimated that about 6 million acres of agricultural and forest lands surrounding water bodies will be impacted but the study indicates the number is more than 13 and a half million impacted acres. “It’s clear that at a minimum, we are looking at tens of millions of dollars in costs, lost revenue in agriculture and related industries, and higher unemployment if the EPA’s proposed rule is adopted,” Bronson said. “We believe EPA is grossly underestimating the number of farm acres that will be impacted and the indirect costs to related businesses.” -http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/press/2010/04262010.html

As members of the Florida Legislature we know you take your position as defenders of our state seriously.  In a followup to Madison’s Virginia Resolutions of 1798, the Virginia legislature declared encroachments by the central government must “excite the legislatures to watchfulness and impose upon them the strongest obligation, and that is to preserve unimpaired the line of partition.”  That line of partition is the line of jurisdiction of powers. The general government is clearly limited to certain and very limited enumerated powers. The powers of the sovereign states and the people are unlimited with the exception those enumerated powers that were very guardedly ceded to the proposed general government.-http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/03/29/whos-supreme-the-supremacy-clause-smackdown/

The de facto ownership of Florida waters by an edict from a general government agency should not be allowed to stand.  Not only does it come at a time when such an economic hit will devastate our land which already suffers a 12% unemployment rate; it is a gross violation of our sovereignty and independence under the Tenth Amendment.  Our Washington D.C. delegation has already written to the EPA.  Our Congressional delegation has politely suggested that “EPA should conduct a full scientific review of this proposed rule for all Florida waters,” said Putnam.  “And it should modify its rulemaking in accordance with SAB’s analysis so that Floridians can continue to enjoy clean water, protected by a standard that is achievable and supported by the best available science.”-http://capitalsoup.com/2010/08/02/putnam-leads-call-for-scientific-review-of-florida-water-rules/

We suggest the Florida Legislature, acting on behalf of the citizens of the sovereign state of Florida reply to EPA with a bit more matter of fact firmness.  First, we suggest that EPA be reminded as follows:

“… That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress……”-http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm

As Jefferson rightly points out in the Kentucky Resolutions, when the general government is the arbitrator of its own power, its discretion, whether via Judiciary, Executive or Legislative usurpation, the Constitution ceases to be the measure of a limited powers government. In spite of the blatantly preposterous SCOTUS ruling in American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Browner (http://www.wlf.org/Litigating/case_detail.asp?id=77) delegation of its legislative power is NOT permissable to Congress. A clear reading of the Constitution and the writings of the Founders supports this position. As a co-equal partner with the general government, Florida has the right and duty to find this EPA edict and indeed any edict that is intended to have the effect of lawful congressional legislation inside the sovereign state of Florida to be null and void.

In closing, we heartily urge the Florida Legislature to interpose itself between the citizens of the sovereign state of Florida and this unlawful intention of the general government’s Environmental Protection Agency.  We also urge the Legislature to revisit HJR 679, The Sovereign State Act as proposed in the last session by Lt. Governor Elect Jennifer Carroll.  The return to limited, constitutional government must take place at the state level.  Washington D.C. , as so vividly illustrated by this imposition of the EPA  and the Congress who created and nurtures it, will never be the agent of expanded freedom or limited government. Our state legislatures must  rightfully choose to demand that Washington D.C cease to be an obstacle to our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Andrew Nappi
State Director
Florida Tenth Amendment Center

http://florida.tenthamendmentcenter.com