| Abstrakt: |
Water pollution threatens public health, especially in Florida, where excess nutrients cause reoccurring algal blooms. The law itself has become the problem. Florida serves as a case study in micro-deregulation because its system of environmental regulation has been incrementally dismantled through a combination of legally mandated "drops." Some deregulation occurred openly through exemptions, presumptions, preemptions, and deadline-driven procrastination. Other efforts are less transparent. Exercises of agency discretion, often based on vague standards, may be known to the government but hidden from public view. Furthermore, justice is willfully blind because the judiciary refuses to listen to citizen advocates, invoking doctrines of judicial restraint, standing, and fee-shifting to undermine access to courts in environmental affairs. Finally, some of the deregulatory efforts will never be truly understood due to the unknown impacts of appropriations and other structural deregulatory efforts. But as water quality continues to decline, Florida's citizens endure the consequences of deregulation, one drop at a time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
