After nearly a decade of debate, a Florida environmental agency has agreed on a new standard for phosphorus levels that is intended to preserve the Everglades. But environmental advocates are critical of the rule, saying that it relies on calculations that make phosphorus levels appear deceptively low.
Roughly 80 tons of phosphorus get dumped into the Florida Everglades every year by way of runoff from sugar-cane farms and other agricultural industries, badly damaging parts of the 970,000-hectare ecosystem. Last week, the state's Environmental Regulation Commission voted to limit phosphorus to 10 parts per billion (ppb), a level that is one-fifth of the previous standard.
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Most researchers agree that the new standard is reasonable. But measuring phosphorus concentration is tricky. Ronald Jones, an ecologist at Florida International University in Miami, says "they've used new math to create a 10 that really isn't 10" by relying heavily on geometric means. Ernie Barnett, director of ecosystem projects at the Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee, agrees that the calculations are "contentious" but denies that they would allow for levels higher than 10 ppb.
