News & Public Affairs
Businesses oppose what they say will be costly EPA regulations for Florida waterways listen
01/18/13 Ella WindWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: EPA, FDEP, water quality, numeric nutrient standards, nutrient pollution, environment, DEP
The Environmental Protection Agency’s new numeric limits on nutrient levels in Florida waterways overrule the weaker, narrative-based limits used by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.The EPA says it will retract its rules if the Florida DEP creates its own standards. At a public information session in downtown Tampa Thursday, business owners want that to happen.
Some business people were unhappy with the EPA’s new role in regulating nutrient levels in Florida waterways. Af...
Be the first to commentFlorida environmentalists tell EPA to stand-by its water quality standards listen
01/17/13 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: EPA, FDEP, water quality, numeric nutrient standards, nitrogen pollution, nutrient pollution, environment, DEP
The Environmental Protection Agency set new water quality standards in November that placed numeric limits on nutrient levels in Florida waterways. Environmentalists celebrated it as a win, but now the agency is considering yielding its rules to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection whose standards would not be as strict. 150 people from environmental groups across the state are gathering in downtown Tampa Thursday during a public information session to demand the EPA not let t...
Be the first to commentStudy could start talks on Hillsborough fertilizer ban listen
12/13/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Commission, Environmental Protection Commission, EPA, FDEP, Tampa Bay Estuary, nitrogen, fertilizer ban
Thursday Hillsborough County Commissioners agreed to spend $25,000 more for a fertilizer study during their monthly meeting as the county’s Environmental Protection Commission. The findings could determine whether or not Hillsborough implements a fertilizer ordinance.
The money will come out of pollution recovery funds and is in addition to another $50,000 that has already been allocated to the study. According to Tom Ash, general manager for environmental monitoring for the Hillsborough ...
Be the first to commentCongress moves to axe EPA mercury emissions at cement plants listen
02/18/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: EPA, mercury, waterways, pollution, FDEP, Barack Obama, US House of Representatives
Yesterday, the U.S. House passed a spending bill that would cut funding for the enforcement of certain federal laws. One of them would have allowed the US Environmental Protection Agency to continue enforcing tough rules on toxic emissions at cement plants, including one in the Tampa Bay area.
Late last year, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection slapped international cement manufacturer Cemex with a hefty fine for emitting nearly ten times the amount of mercury legally allowe...
Be the first to commentIndustry-sponsored "Clean Gulf" conference draws fire listen
10/20/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Gulf oil disaster, Deepwater Horizon, Corexit, Noralco, BP, FDEP
Six months ago today, an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers. The deep water well may have been dead for three months, but the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spewed left a stain on the Gulf Coast’s environment as well as its economy. Entities involved in the cleanup touted their response efforts, but not without getting an earful from critics.
The annual Clean Gulf conference is in its twentieth year, but this is the first one since the Deepwater Hor...
Be the first to commentFormer FDEP head Sole lands lobbying gig at with utility giant listen
10/04/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida Power and Light, Charlie Crist, Michael Sole, FDEP
The man who used to be Florida’s top environmental official will reportedly soon be lobbying his old bosses – on behalf of a utility. Florida Power and Light has hired former Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole to be the company’s new vice president of state governmental affairs.
The position involves advocating on behalf of the state’s largest private utility, one that covers about a quarter of the state’s consumers. Former FDEP Secretary Mike Sole would lob...
Be the first to commentSen. Justice calls for speedier cleanup of Raytheon chemical plume listen
05/21/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Raytheon, Charlie Justice, FDEP
The gigantic plume of oil that has reportedly formed under the surface of the Gulf may be stealing headlines, but a smaller chemical plume is menacing some Tampa Bay area residents. For years, defense contractor Raytheon dumped toxic waste into an on-site pond. That waste seeped into the groundwater, which sits beneath St. Petersburg’s Azalea neighborhood.
When the story broke in 2008, nearly twenty years after officials knew about it, residents were outraged. Raytheon proposed a cleanup ...
Be the first to commentEPA won't set estuary pollution standards until 2011 listen
03/19/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: fertilizer, EPA, FDEP, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, EPA water standards, EarthJustice, Sierra Club, phosphorous, nitrogen fertilizer, nitrogen pollution
On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it’s not going to enforce key pollution restrictions in the state’s estuaries. That is, not until next year.
In 2008, several environmental groups sued the EPA, claiming it wasn’t enforcing the Clean Water Act in the Sunshine State. As a result, it developed standards for the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that can flow into Florida’s lakes, rivers and estuaries...
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