November, 16 2009, 01:49pm EDT
Judge Approves Historic EPA Settlement: EPA and Florida Must Set Limits on Fertilizer and Animal Waste Pollution in State Waters
Polluters’ arguments rejected in favor of the environment
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
A federal judge in Tallahassee today approved a historic consent
decree which requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set
legal limits for the widespread nutrient poisoning that triggers
harmful algae blooms in Florida waters.
The change in federal policy comes 13 months after five
environmental groups filed a major lawsuit to compel the federal
government to set strict limits on nutrient poisoning in public waters.
Nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen poison Florida's waters
every time it rains; running off agricultural operations, fertilized
landscapes, and septic systems. The poison runoff triggers slimy algae
outbreaks which foul Florida's beaches, lakes, rivers, and springs more
each year, threatening public health, closing swimming areas, and even
shutting down a southwest Florida drinking water plant.
Ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle rejected
arguments made by polluters who sought to delay cleanup and get out of
complying with the Clean Water Act. Florida Agriculture Commissioner
Charles Bronson, the Florida Pulp and Paper Association, four of the
state's five water management districts, sewage plant operators, the
Florida Farm Bureau, and others tried to derail the settlement.
Today's action has nationwide implications. Currently, Florida and
most other states have only vague limits regulating nutrient pollution.
The U.S. EPA will now begin the process of imposing quantifiable -- and
enforceable -- water quality standards to tackle nutrient pollution,
using data collected by the Florida DEP.
"The Clean Water Act is strong medicine," said Earthjustice attorney
David Guest. "The EPA can now get on with the work of setting standards
that will clean up our waters. We're hoping to see safe drinking water,
clear springs, lakes and rivers again."
A 2008 DEP report concluded that half of the state's rivers and more
than half of its lakes had poor water quality. The problem is
compounded when nutrient-poisoned waters are used as drinking water
sources. Disinfectants like chlorine and chloramine can react with the
dissolved organic compounds, contaminating drinking water with harmful
chemical byproducts.
Exposure to these blue-green algae toxins - when people drink the
water, touch it, or inhale vapors from it -- can cause rashes, skin and
eye irritation, allergic reactions, gastrointestinal upset, serious
illness, and even death. In June 2008, a water treatment plant serving
30,000 Florida residents was shut down after a toxic blue-green algae
bloom on the Caloosahatchee River threatened the plant's water supply.
"The long-lasting and worsening pollution of our lakes, rivers,
beaches and springs hurts Florida's economy and needs to end," said
Florida Wildlife Federation president Manley Fuller. "This day has been
a long time coming."
"Asking for clean water is not a stretch," said St. Johns
Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon. "There are algae blooms even today in the
St. Johns River. Moving forward quickly is imperative."
"Florida is one step closer to having the tools it needs to
adequately address the threats that nutrient pollution pose to our
quality of life and our tourist economy," said Frank Jackalone of the
Sierra Club.
The public interest law firm Earthjustice filed the suit in the
Northern District of Florida on behalf of the Florida Wildlife
Federation, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Environmental
Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. John's Riverkeeper, and the
Sierra Club in July 2008. The suit challenged an unacceptable
decade-long delay by the state and federal governments in setting
limits for nutrient pollution. Speaking from the bench today, Judge
Hinkle said the delay was a matter of serious concern.
The EPA originally gave Florida a 2004 deadline to set limits for
nutrient pollution, which the state failed to meet. The EPA was then
supposed to set limits itself, but failed to do so. Under the
administration of President George W. Bush, the EPA let the states off
the hook by allowing them to formulate plans without deadlines for
action.
The dire state of Florida's polluted waters made the delay unacceptable and dangerous, so the five groups sued.
Florida's current narrative standard says: "In no case shall
nutrient concentrations of a body of water be altered so as to cause an
imbalance in natural populations of aquatic flora and fauna."
Clearly, nutrient poisoning is altering water bodies all over Florida. As Earthjustice noted in a letter it sent to the EPA:
"Potentially toxigenic cyanobacteria have been found statewide,
including river and stream systems such as the St. Johns River in the
Northeast Region and the Caloosahatchee River in the Southwest Region.
In the Southeast Region, toxin levels in the St. Lucie River and
estuary during an algae bloom in 2005 were 300 times above suggested
drinking water limits and 60 times above suggested recreational limits.
Warning signs had to be posted by local health authorities warning
visitors and residents not to come into contact with the water. Lake
Okeechobee, which is categorized under state regulations as a drinking
water source, is now subject to almost year-round blue-green algae
blooms as a result of nutrient pollution."
The St. Johns River has been under a health advisory due to a
toxigenic blue green algae bloom. In 2005, a similar bloom shut down
all boat traffic on the river.
Tampa Bay has suffered an outbreak this year of Pyrodinium
bahamense, and Takayama tuberculata has sullied waters around San Marco
Island.
Nutrient pollution also fuels the explosive growth of invasive water
plants like hydrilla, which now clogs countless springs, rivers and
lakes.
EPA's agreement to set enforceable nutrient limits is available here.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.
In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, alleging that the nation's largest alcohol distributor, "violated the Robinson-Patman Act, harming small, independent businesses by depriving them of access to discounts and rebates, and impeding their ability to compete against large national and regional chains."
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Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress Education Fund, said Thursday that "instead of heeding bad-faith calls to disarm before the end of the year, the FTC is taking bold, needed action to fight back against monopoly power that's raising prices."
"By suing Southern Glazer under the Robinson-Patman Act, a law that has gone unenforced for decades, the FTC is doing what our government should be doing: using every tool possible to make life better for everyday Americans," she added.
According to the FTC:
Under the Robinson-Patman Act, it is generally illegal for sellers to engage in price discrimination that harms competition by charging higher prices to disfavored retailers that purchase similar goods. The FTC's case filed today seeks to ensure that businesses of all sizes compete on a level playing field with equivalent access to discounts and rebates, which means increased consumer choice and the ability to pass on lower prices to consumers shopping across independent retailers.
"When local businesses get squeezed because of unfair pricing practices that favor large chains, Americans see fewer choices and pay higher prices—and communities suffer," Khan said in a statement. "The law says that businesses of all sizes should be able to compete on a level playing field. Enforcers have ignored this mandate from Congress for decades, but the FTC's action today will help protect fair competition, lower prices, and restore the rule of law."
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