In Brief: Florida is an intricate web of wetlands, subtropical forests, open ranges, lakes, and slow-moving rivers, which, prior to development, resulted in half of Florida being under water during the wet season. And nothing is more emblematic of the state's aquatic heritage than the dual icons of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. Sadly, both are perilously threatened by pollution. It's not surprising, then, that most of the cases Earthjustice's Tallahassee office takes on are related to water.

06/15/05

Florida is an intricate web of wetlands, subtropical forests, open ranges, lakes, and slow-moving rivers, which, prior to development, resulted in half of Florida being under water during the wet season. Because of this, in one way or another, most of the work of Earthjustice's Tallahassee office is focused on water. And nothing is more emblematic of the state's aquatic heritage than the dual icons of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades -- which include the 1,500,000-acre Everglades National Park. Far from being the proverbial worthless swampland in Florida, these wetlands are the backbone of the state's ecosystem. Sadly, both are perilously threatened by pollution from agri-business.

In the center of the state is the bass fishing capital of the world, Lake Okeechobee -- a shallow sub-tropical fresh-water lake that supports an astounding variety of fish and wildlife as it sprawls across 730 square miles. Prior to development, water from the lake flowed slowly south to Everglades. Today, a system of canals, dikes, and pumping stations disrupt the primordial sheet-flow of water, restricting the amount that flows to the Everglades and polluting the water that does.

Like the historic floods of the Nile, at one time the seasonal runoff from Lake Okeechobee enriched the surrounding area's soil with nutrient-rich sediment. However, with the disruption of the area's hydrology by dams and the filling of wetlands, sugarcane farmers increasingly need to employ fertilizers. In Florida, more than 450,000 acres of land are committed to sugarcane production, most of which is concentrated around the lower half of Lake Okeechobee. Every year, literally tons of phosphorous from fertilizer run off the plantations and pollute the lake and the Everglades. Coupled with animal waste from the 1.9 million head of cattle in the state, this septic runoff clouds the lake and the surrounding wetlands with algae blooms, creating eutrophic conditions, which lower the amount of dissolved oxygen in the lake and kill the native fish -- including the much prized large-mouth bass. After more than 50 years of pollution, phosphorous levels are so high that the future of Lake Okeechobee and the health of the Everglades are in doubt. Unless the culpable industries are reigned in, these national treasures will become a wasteland devoid of fish and wildlife.

Still, there is some good news. After decades of work, conservationists forced the state of Florida and the Federal government to take action to clean up the Everglades. The state and federal government committed to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Under this plan the governing bodies are funding ecosystem restoration and agreed to enforceable water quality standards aimed at limiting pollution from phosphorous. Yet, as Earthjustice supporters know all too well, often governmental agencies will only act to enforce regulations when compelled by a court.

In one part of the long-running and far-reaching effort to clean up the Everglades, on June 1, 2005, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians and Earthjustice won a decision in U.S. District Court that forced the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District to regulate pollution and limit phosphorous levels in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. (Located southeast of Lake Okeechobee, the refuge preserves what remains of the northern freshwater Everglades; it also suffers greatly from ineffective measures to limit sugar plantation runoff.) The court found the state in violation of a 1991 agreement where the state of Florida committed to protecting the refuge from the accumulating phosphorous and ordered hearings to establish an effective means of limiting the runoff from the sugar fields to the north that is asphyxiating the refuge.

Clearly, if Florida's waterways are to be protected for future generations, this long-term commitment is crucial, as is the ability to convince the courts to step in and act when the state or federal government fails to live up to its promises. This is why, in a case with national implications, our attorneys in Tallahassee are challenging the South Florida Water Management District's extremely harmful practice of pumping huge quantities of polluted storm water uphill from a collection canal in a developed area into a natural wetland area in the Everglades. Our attorneys are also taking on the state's powerful dairy industry; our goal is to compel industrial dairy farms to reduce the amount of toxic runoff that flows into Lake Okeechobee. Ultimately, Earthjustice is committed to ensuring that state and federal agencies enforce strict water quality standards and that Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades remain thriving ecosystems for future generations.

Vawter "Buck" Parker, Executive Director
buckparker@earthjustice.org