Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen • June 2016 | Page 12

QUICK BITS
DEP Begins Rulemaking
on Florida Water Quality Criteria
The Florida Department of
Environmental Protection
began workshops in May
to adopt or update water
quality criteria for 80 different
chemicals that can affect
human health. The chemicals
are found in pesticides,
herbicides, and in many
industrial outputs. Once
finalized, these “human health
criteria” will limit the amount
of the chemicals that can
be discharged into waters
across the state. Failure to
comply with the new limits
will create the possibility of
state or federal enforcement
or third-party litigation for
noncompliance.
Businesses with Clean Water
Act permits, known as NPDES
permits, should be monitoring
the new Florida Department

of Environmental Protection
rulemaking process to ensure
that the criteria affecting them
are based on sound science.
Industrial and environmental
interests have already taken
opposing views of the
science underlying the new
criteria.
To develop the criteria,
DEP made a number of
assumptions about the
amount of fish or drinking
water people consume every
day, as well as more complex
assumptions related to the
potential toxicological effects
of the chemicals, including
the amount of a chemical
likely to remain in fish tissue
over time, and the amount
of a chemical that can be
absorbed through other, nonwater sources (such as air

sources or dietary sources of
the chemicals).
While some of the
assumptions appear to
be non-controversial,
others used to develop
the criteria are likely to be
very controversial given the
scarcity of data available
to support them, and the
sometimes dramatic changes
to the permissible water
quality criteria. Some of the
new levels are so low that the
amounts can’t be measured,
and arguably are well below
those levels necessary to
protect human health. A list
of the chemicals and more
information on human health
criteria rulemaking can be
found on DEP’s website:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/
water/wqssp/health.htm

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DITCHMEN • JUNE 2016