Response to Public Comments

Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's 

Lakes and Flowing Waters

November 14, 2010

40 CFR Part 131

Docket #: EPA-HQ-OW-2009-0596
i 

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................iii

A. Methodology EPA Used to Sort and Code Public Comment Letters ..................................................iv

B. Components of a Coded Comment Letter .......................................................................................... v

C. Locating Your Comments and EPA’s Response in the Final Document............................................. vi

Get Familiar with the Types of Tables in Chapter 1 ............................................................................ vi

Find Comments and Responses.........................................................................................................ix

Fictional Example................................................................................................................................ix

D. Duplicates and Attachments...............................................................................................................xi

Duplicates ...........................................................................................................................................xi

Attachments ........................................................................................................................................xi

Chapter 1 – Public Comment Process

Table 1 – Issue Categories .................................................................................................................. 1-1 

Table 2 – Issue Category Page Ranges and Chapter 2 File Names.................................................... 1-7 

Table 3 – Index of Comments by Author............................................................................................ 1-14

Table 4 – Index of Comments by Organization.................................................................................. 1-85 

Chapter 2 

Public Hearings.................................................................................................................................... 2-1 

General Support................................................................................................................................. 2-14

General Opposition .......................................................................................................................... 2-925

Background Scope Comment ........................................................................................................ 2-1109

I. General Information .................................................................................................................... 2-1489

II. Background................................................................................................................................ 2-1509

III.A. General Information............................................................................................................... 2-1944

III.B. Lakes..................................................................................................................................... 2-2616

III.C. Rivers and Streams ............................................................................................................... 2-3048

III.D. Springs .................................................................................................................................. 2-3953

III.E. Canals ................................................................................................................................... 2-4050
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III.F. Comparison of EPA and FDEP Rules.................................................................................... 2-4281

III.G. Applicability ........................................................................................................................... 2-4297

IV. Conditions................................................................................................................................. 2-4446

V. Alternate Regulatory Approaches.............................................................................................. 2-4447

VI. Proposed Restoration Standards.............................................................................................. 2-4568

VII. Statutory and Executive Orders............................................................................................... 2-4653

Technical Support Document (TSD) .............................................................................................. 2-4698

40 CFR 131.................................................................................................................................... 2-4774

Economics ..................................................................................................................................... 2-4780

Duplicates ...................................................................................................................................... 2-5199

SNODA .......................................................................................................................................... 2-5268

 
Introduction 

iii

Introduction

On January 26, 2010 EPA published proposed Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Lakes 

and Flowing Waters. On August 3, 2010, EPA published a Supplemental Notice of Data Availability and 

Request for Comment (SNODA). Between the two efforts, EPA received more than 22,000 comments. 

EPA coded public comment letters submitted in response to the January 26, 2010 proposal using issue 

categories developed for the proposed rule. EPA also coded public comment letters submitted in 

response to the August 3, 2010 SNODA using new issue categories (all start with SNODA). 

The final response to comments document consists of the following:

• Introductory Chapter: Familiarizes commenters with the process EPA used to divide comments 

into similar issues for response; helps commenters learn how to find their comments

• Chapter 1: A tool for commenters to find their comments (similar to a table of contents)

• Chapter 2: All the public comments broken out into issue categories, along with EPA responses

This Introductory Chapter describes the following:

A. Methodology EPA used to sort and code public comment letters

B. Components of a coded comment letter

C. Locating your comments and EPA’s response in the final document

D. Duplicates and attachments
Introduction 

iv

A. Methodology EPA Used to Sort and Code Public Comment Letters

In responding to public comments, EPA used the following methodology to sort and code comment letters 

into similar topics for response (see next page for an explanation of terms, if needed):

1. Reviewed each letter in its entirety and assigned each letter an Author ID.

2. Identified the major subjects addressed in each letter and assigned them to specific issue 

categories, resulting in multiple comment IDs for most letters.

3. Drafted a response in each issue category, by comment ID. 

a. Comments (comment IDs) were grouped for response based on similar issues. 

Responses were then provided for each group of similar issues. 

b. Multiple responses might be included in a single issue category if there are multiple 

groups of issues. 

c. If a comment ID applies to more than one group of issues in a single issue category, it 

will be responded to under each grouping.

In the next section, learn how your coded comment letter looks after it has been coded (so you can find 

your comment and its response). Note, your comment letter may have been split up into multiple 

comment IDs, which have associated responses.
Introduction 

v 

B. Components of a Coded Comment Letter

The following diagram illustrates the components of a coded letter once they have been entered into the 

comments database. Refer to the section below on Locating Your Comments and EPA’s Response in the 

Final Document to learn how to find your comment and the response.

Comment Letters with No Attachments

Comment ID: composed of the author ID 

and comment ID; a unique ID in the 

database to identify a particular comment

Author ID (first four numbers): Sequential 

numbering of comment letter authors

Comment ID (last three numbers):

Sequential numbering of individual 

thoughts/comments within a letter 

Issue Category: Reflects the subject 

area addressed by the comment

Comment Letters with Attachments

If your comment letter had an attachment, the numbering will look like the example below (for 

attachment 1). 

Attachment Number: When multiple documents were submitted by an 

author at the same time, they were assigned an attachment number 
Introduction 

vi

C. Locating Your Comments and EPA’s Response in the Final Document

To locate comments and their associated responses, refer to the following discussion about tables you 

can use to find comments and steps you should take once you have the information you need from the 

tables. Note that the tables below are just excerpts of much larger tables and are only being used as 

examples. The tables appear in their entirety in Chapter 1.

Get Familiar with the Types of Tables in Chapter 1

Table 1. Issue Categories: Commenters can see which issue categories were used to parse comments 

into. The table is a listing of all issue categories used for coding (for both the proposed rule and SNODA). 

An example is provided below (an excerpt).
Introduction 

vii

Table 2. Comments Sorted by Issue Category: Commenters can obtain the page numbers where the 

issue categories are located. An example of Table 2 is provided below. Table 2 lists the page range of the 

comments and responses in a particular issue category. The comments are grouped together at the 

beginning of the issue category and the responses are grouped together at the end of the issue category. 

Table 2 also indicates the name of the Chapter 2 file that the commenter should open to find their 

comments and associated responses.

Issue Category Page Range: Page number 

range where the comments for a particular 

issue category and the associated responses 

can be found within Chapter 2

Chapter 2 File Name: Indicates the file 

name where the comments and associated 

responses are located
Introduction 

viii

Table 3. Index of Commenters and Page Numbers (by Author Name): Commenters should use this 

table to find their author ID(s) and the page numbers for their comments (by author name). The table is 

sorted alphabetically by last name and the author ID appears after the name in parentheses. An example 

of Table 3 is listed below.

Table 4. Index of Commenters and Page Numbers (by Organization): If commenters are interested in 

searching for comments by organization, they should use Table 4 to find author ID(s) and the page 

numbers for the comments. The table is sorted alphabetically by organization and the author ID appears 

after the organization in parentheses. An example of Table 4 is listed below. Note that Table 4 contains 

the same information as Table 3, it is just formatted by organization (instead of individual author).
Introduction 

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Find Comments and Responses

1. Identify author IDs and page numbers for comments you are interested in (use Table 3 or 

Table 4 depending on if you are interested in searching by author name (Table 3) or 

organization name (Table 4)). Make sure to look at the comment in case there are multiple 

people with the same first initial and last name. 

a. If your comment was considered a duplicate you will need to find the parent letter 

ID by going to the Chapter 2 report for the issue categories DUP or 

SNODA.DUP. Once you find the comment ID of the parent letter, repeat step 1.

2. Compare author IDs and page numbers obtained from Tables 3 and 4 with Table 2 to 

determine which issue categories the comments are located in (based on page number).

3. Find the Chapter 2 report you are interested in (by issue category and page number). The file 

names of these Chapter 2 reports are listed in Table 2 as well.

4. Open the issue category report and search for the author ID. All responses are grouped at 

the end of each issue category.

Fictional Example

To better understand how to find comments and EPA’s response 

to them, follow this fictional example. Using the excerpt of Table 3 

above, T. Brant finds that his/her comments were assigned author 

IDs 0524, 0556, and 0901. Using the letter with the author ID

0901, T. Brant finds the associated page numbers for this letter to 

be pages 198, 1592, 1745, 1868 (twice), 3597, and 4953. This 

means that letter 0901 was parsed into 7 unique ideas that are 

coded under one or multiple issue categories (depending on the 

issues). 

Using the excerpt of Table 2 above, T. Brant learns that those comment IDs were coded in issue 

categories GEN SUPP (page 198), II.A.2 (page 1592), II.D.1 (page 1745), II.D.2 (page 1868), etc. 

T. Brant would then go to the Chapter 2 reports for these 4 example issue categories and search for 

his/her comments (using comment ID 0901 for the search). To find the appropriate report, use Table 2 

(matches issue categories and file names). For example, Table 2 shows that issue category II.D.2 is 

located in the file called ‘1509-1943 - II.Background.pdf’. An example of what T. Brant’s comment 0901 

looks like in Chapter 2 (issue category II.D.2, file name ‘1509-1943 - II.Background.pdf’) is below. 

Use the Search Function to 

Find Your Comment

Comments and responses are in 

Adobe PDF format. Perform searches

for your comments and EPA’s 

response using the search button. 

Refer to the Docket for this 

rulemaking to view the comment 

letters in their entirety.
Introduction 

x 

Chapter 2, page 1868

For many issue category responses, EPA provides a call out for specific comment IDs. For other issue 

categories, a single response was provided to address all comment IDs. In this case, the comment ID will 

only appear in the comment section (and not be called out in the response). The example below shows 

how EPA responded to comment 0901.001.005. Note that all public comments are sorted by issue 

category in Chapter 2 (is broken into multiple reports by major issue categories because of file size). 

Responses are always at the end of each issue category.

Called out comment ID 0901.001.005 

in the response section in Chapter 2, 

page 1940
Introduction 

xi

D. Duplicates and Attachments

Duplicates

Note that comments were considered duplicates when the comment letter (not the attachment/data) was 

an exact duplicate of another comment letter (i.e., the parent letter). All identified duplicates were coded 

under the issue category DUP or SNODA.DUP. For all duplicates EPA identified the comment ID of the 

parent letter. Note that only parent letters are coded under non duplicate issue categories. 

Commenters whose comments appear under DUP or SNODA.DUP can find the response to their 

comment under the issue category for the parent letter identified with their comment letter. Note that in 

some cases, cover letters were included under DUP.

In the example below, the commenter can find the response to their comments (identified as comment ID 

0992.001.001) under the response generated for the letter with the comment ID 0973:

Comment ID 0992.001.001

This comment letter is a duplicate of another comment letter submitted to the docket. See 

Comment ID 0973 for the coded comments. 

Attachments

Attachments that were considered additional data/information, and not a comment, were always coded 

into a designated issue category, as described below.

Issue Categories for Data/Information

Data/Information Type Issue Category

General – non waterbody-type specific data/information III.A.2.Q.2

Lakes – additional data/information on lakes III.B.5

Rivers/Streams – additional data/information rivers/streams III.C.1.Q.1

Springs/Clear Streams – additional data/information on springs/clear streams III.D.3.Q.2

Canals – additional data/information on canals III.E.3.Q.2

Data for SNODA – additional data submitted for the supplemental notice of data availability 

(SNODA) SNODA.DATA