Report - February 5, 2010
TMDL’s Matter to Septic Owners – in spite of what FDEP says.
Last April, many of us attended a Wekiva BMAP meeting. It was made very clear that our attendance was not particularly welcome. Further, in an e-mail response from a FDEP spokesperson to Fred Brummer’s office, our attendance at that meeting was labeled an inappropriate use of our time and attention, and we obviously had “the mistaken impression that an issue of critical interest (to them) will be discussed.”
The following information is taken verbatim from a
Dept. of Environmental Protection publication.
Please note, the BMAP groups are charged with identifying the
CAUSE of the impairment and establishing nutrient reduction targets
to fix the problem (TMDL’s).
If your septic system is identified as the cause of the
problem, they set a target reduction goal, and you must meet it.
They are careful not to say
how the standard must be met.
The natural conclusion then is that once the amount of
nutrient reduction is established, the Department of Health, Bureau
of On-site Sewage will have no choice but to mandate the appropriate
nutrient reduction technology – PBTS.
From the web site http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/designateduse.htm the following question is posed and answered:
“How will “impaired waters” and
Total
Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) be affected?
If the designated use of a surface water is not being met and
maintained, the cause of the water quality degradation
(“impairment”) must be identified and corrected. The primary
programs established to identify problems and restore water quality
are TMDLs and Basin Management Action Plan process. Changes to the
classification system would not change the procedures of the TMDL
program but will align water quality requirements with appropriate
ecological goals and human uses.
A
Basin Management
Action Plan is a
comprehensive plan of regulatory and non-regulatory actions to meet
the TMDLs for a given watershed.”
FDEP and BMAP Rule
development meetings are set for February (in Orlando – February 17)
www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/rules/florida for more information.
As is the norm, there are hundreds of pages of documentation to
review and no time for adequate response by affected parties.
Resolutions are also posted on that web site from counties
all over the state protesting the time frame for rule promulgation,
and about the lack of information about the economic impact of
setting numeric nutrient reduction standards before adequate
scientific evidence or the time to review such information.
Sounds familiar. It’s
not just septic owners any more that face economic crisis over these
issues, it’s counties too.
Everyone will be impacted – and everyone needs to be aware
and involved.