Florida Wildlife Federation, Inc., et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 4:08cv324, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1343 (N.D. Fla. Jan. 7, 2014)

(plaintiffs, several environmental groups, sued the defendant in 2008, seeking to compel the defendant to adopt new standards for Florida’s water quality under the Clean Water Act; specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that Florida’s narrative standards were insufficient and that the defendant was required to issue numeric standards for the state; in 2009, the defendant ordered Florida to issue numeric standards and determined that if Florida failed to do so, the defendant would set those standards; the court then issued a consent decree approving an agreement among the parties stating that the defendant would be required to impose numeric standards only if Florida failed to do so; in 2012, Florida submitted to the defendant for approval a set of nutrient criteria, including numeric criteria for some waters and narrative criteria for others; the defendant approved the proposal and then amended its 2009 determination to conform to the new standards; the defendant then filed a motion to modify the consent order to conform with these amendments; the plaintiffs protested, arguing that the decree could not be modified; in granting the EPA’s motion, the court ruled that underRufo v. Inmates of Suffolk Cnty. Jail, 502 U.S. 367 (1992), the consent decree could be modified because there had been a “significant change in the factual conditions and law”; studies showed that appropriate numeric criteria for streams had proven elusive).