By David DeCamp, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
CLEARWATER — Last January, the Pinellas County Commission banned residents from using certain fertilizers in the summer, warning that tougher federal water pollution limits were coming and the county needed to protect its waterways.
A year later, the County Commission unanimously decided to sue the federal government to soften those limits. The regulation could cost the county millions of dollars, they said Tuesday, and are based on bad assumptions.
"The levels being proposed are cost prohibitive for all governments. Recession or no, they're outrageous," said Commission Chairwoman Susan Latvala, who spearheaded the fertilizer ban.
Taking effect in 2012, the new regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will force Florida cities and counties to do a better job of keeping contamination out of rivers, streams, lakes and drainage ditches that feed water supplies.
The EPA estimates that clean-up will ...