EPA's takeover of Florida's nutrient water quality standard setting : impact on communities and job creation : hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, August 9, 2011.

EPA's takeover of Florida's nutrient water quality standard setting : impact on communities and job creation : hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, August 9, 2011.

The Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of the costs associated with implementing numeric nutrient criteria in Florida's waterways was significantly lower than many stakeholders expected. This discrepancy was due, in part, to the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis considered only the incremental cost of reducing nutrients in waters it considered "newly impaired" as a result of the new criteria-not the total cost of improving water quality in Florida. The incremental approach is appropriate for this type of assessment, but the Environmental Protection Agency's cost analysis would have been more accurate if it better described the differences between the new numeric criteria rule and the narrative rule it would replace, and how the differences affect the costs of implementing nutrient reductions over time, instead of at a fixed time point. Such an analysis would have more accurately described which pollutant sources, for example municipal wastewater treatment plants or agricultural operations, would bear the costs over time under the different rules and would have better illuminated the uncertainties in making such cost estimates.

EPA has determined that new or revised numeric water quality standards for nutrients are necessary to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for the State of Florida. This determination will support Florida in building upon its already strong record of water quality protection, result in standards protective of applicable designated uses, and further expand and strengthen the numerous partnerships and collaborative projects Florida has led and supported to date.