By Tyler Treadway, tcpalm.com
Picture this: A Florida state trooper is assigned to catch speeders; but he never uses his radar gun, so he makes no arrests. Just as he’s finally about to take the device out of its box, a supervisor tells him not to; the state police aren’t going to use radar guns anymore.
That’s how Audubon Florida head Eric Draper sees a proposed change to the state’s way of controlling water pollution that’s working its way — rather quickly — through the Legislature this March-to-May session.
Gary Goforth, a Stuart environmental engineer who helped design water treatment projects and set pollution limits for the South Florida Water Management District, calls the proposal — House Bill 7003 sponsored by state Rep. Matthew Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres — “the most egregious environmental legislation in the history of Florida.”
Under the current system, the state issues permits (the speed limits) that limit how much pollution (the speeders) can enter a water body. In August 2001, for example, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (the troopers) said no more than 140 tons of phosphorus should enter Lake Okeechobee, which typically receives 500 or more tons of phosphorus a year.
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http://www.tcpalm.com/franchise/state-debate-whats-the-best-way-to-police-water-pollution_44722534