February 26, 2003

Miccosukee Tribe of Indians

Press/For Immediate Release                      Joette Lorion (305) 279-1166

      
                           THE $8.4 BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

                    Why Is the South Florida Water Management District
                    Fighting Against Clean Water Act for the Everglades?

       Today, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians questioned why the South Florida Water Management District ("District"), the Army Corps of Engineers' state partner on the $8.4 billion dollar Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), is trying to get the Supreme Court to stop the Clean Water Act from being applied to the Florida Everglades where the Tribe lives.

       According to Miccosukee Tribal Chairman Billy Cypress, "The South Florida Water Management District tells the tax-paying public that it is restoring the Everglades, while at the same time it tells the U.S. Supreme Court that it doesn't want the Clean Water Act applied to its S-9 pump spewing polluted water into the Everglades.  The District must know that the Everglades can not be restored with dirty water."        Chairman Cypress is referring to the District's Petition for Writ of Certiorari (No. 02-626) before the U.S. Supreme Court in which it is asking the court to review, and reverse, an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision which was made in favor of the Tribe and the Everglades.  The 11th Circuit decision in Case No: 00-15703 affirmed a ruling of a lower court that the District was violating the Clean Water Act by pouring polluted urban water into the Everglades and required it to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for its S-9 pump. In its quest to get the Supreme Court's attention, the District had other states write amicus briefs. "The mass hysteria that the South Florida Water Management District has inspired in other states against the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision is uncalled for, because the  decision in the S-9 case is reasoned and consistent with existing decisions in other circuits and the Clean Water Act itself," said the Tribe's in house General Counsel, Dionč Carroll.

       The small Tribe's 500 members live in the Everglades, and their entire culture and way of life depend on its natural health.  In 1997, the Miccosukee Tribe  established its own water quality standards under the Clean Water Act to protect its Everglades homeland from pollution.  In October 1999, the Tribe filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit in federal district court to force the District to get an NPDES permit for its S-9 pump and clean up the water going into the Everglades. The Court agreed with the Tribe that the District was violating the Clean Water Act and ruled that it needed a permit.. Rather than comply with the court's order and clean up the pollution, the District appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also found the District was violating the Clean Water Act.  The District now seeks review by the U.S. Supreme Court. "If the District really cared about stopping the pollution of the Everglades, it would have complied with the Court's Order and obtained a  Clean Water Act permit for its S-9 pump years ago," said  Dexter Lehtinen, the Tribe's General Counsel on this matter who argued the case in  the 11th Circuit. "The $8.4 billion dollar question is: Why is the District wasting precious taxpayer dollars trying to stop the Clean Water Act from being applied to the Everglades when it knows clean water is vital to the success of the Everglades Restoration plan?"