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.