TALLAHASSEE, Florida — An administrative law judge sided with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Monday in a challenge to a springs rule adopted earlier this year.
Details: Judge Gary Early said the rules defining prohibited groundwater pumping that is “harmful” to springs and rivers “are not an invalid exercise of delegated legislative authority.”
The Florida Springs Council argued the DEP rules will not protect springs, which environmentalists say already are being harmed by overpumping. Early wrote in his final order that how the rules may be applied was not a subject for his review.
DEP chose to apply the 2016 state law directing it to issue the rules “narrowly — but literally,” Early wrote. “Its decision was in the bounds of reason, and was not error.”
