The controversial state law that
governs the Everglades cleanup program has won the approval of federal
regulators.
After a yearlong review, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced Friday that Florida's Everglades Forever Act
of 1994 is in
compliance with federal water pollution law.
EPA's review allows the state to adhere to an
often-criticized December 2006 deadline for achieving a five-fold
reduction of phosphorus flowing into the northern Everglades from the
sprawling agricultural area near Lake Okeechobee.
Conservationists have been critical of the state law as being too easy
on farm interests and too slow to reduce pollution that is fueling
vegetation changes in the Everglades, which is damaging to wildlife.
The Miccosukee Tribe, whose reservation in the Everglades is being
damaged by the farm pollution, sued EPA in U.S. District Court in Miami in
1995, arguing that the agency was allowing the state to violate the
federal Clean Water Act by allowing pollution to continue.
The EPA review of the state law was ordered by U.S. District Court
Judge Edward Davis last year.
``Federal law does not authorize anything like a 12-year compliance
schedule, Davis said then.
But officials at EPA's regional office in Atlanta found that the
lengthy schedule was legal and reasonable under federal law, given the
size of the Everglades and the complexity of the cleanup. The state is in
the first phase of the cleanup, a $760 million project that is turning
more than 40,000 acres of farmland at the northern edge of the Everglades
into marshes that will soak up pollution.
Robert McGhee, director of EPA's regional Water Management Division,
notified state officials of its assessment of the law on Thursday and
released its 25-page report on Friday.
``This closes the door on this case, said Philip Mancusi-Ungaro, EPA
associate regional counsel. The only way the report could be challenged,
he said, was under the state's Administrative Procedures Act.
Joette Lorion, a spokeswoman for Miccosukee counsel Dexter Lehtinen,
said attorneys for the tribe had not completed its review of the EPA
report.