Press/ For Immediate Release            Contact: Dexter Lehtinen (305)
279-3353
Miami/August 7, 2003                        Joette Lorion  
              
(305) 281-0429  

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE WANTS ANTI-EVERGLADES RULE DECLARED INVALID
Says ERC Rule Will Allow Everglades Pollution and Destruction to Continue

Today, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, whose members have lived in the Florida Everglades for generations and struggle to protect it, filed a Petition with the state's Division of Administrative Hearings asking that the phosphorus Rule adopted by the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP's)  Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) on July 8th be declared invalid.  The Tribe says the ERC Rule will allow the Everglades to continue to be destroyed by phosphorous pollution and is asking for an evidentiary hearing to prove it.

When the ERC adopted its Rule, DEP officials claimed the state had finally established the 10ppb phosphorous criterion the Tribe and others had long contended was necessary to protect the Everglades. The Petition disputes that DEP's 10 is really a 10.  It claims that DEP and its ERC exceeded their authority by establishing moderating provisions and other loop-holes, which enable DEP to claim the criterion is 10ppb while not actually achieving it. It claims the only rulemaking job that DEP's ERC was given by the Everglades Forever Act (EFA) was to numerically interpret the existing narrative criterion for phosphorous that was established to protect the Everglades flora and fauna from the impacts of pollution, but that they went far beyond that.  The Petition requests that an Administrative Law Judge determine that the ERC Rule be declared "an invalid exercise of delegated legislative authority," and asks that DEP
be ordered to immediately discontinue any reliance on it.

According to the Tribe's attorney Dexter Lehtinen, "The ERC Rule is a continuation of the destruction of the Everglades begun by the Florida legislature months ago when it amended the EFA.  We feel like we're holding our finger in the dike of Everglades protection, but we are confident that both the Tribe and the Everglades will win in the end."

The Miccosukee Tribe, which is treated as a state by the Environmental Protection Agency for the purposes of the Clean Water Act,  set a10ppb phosphorus
criterion for Tribal Everglades long before the state.  The EPA recognized the
Tribe's 10ppb as "scientifically defensible" and "protective" of the Everglades.  In its Petition, the Tribe contends that: 1) although DEP claims they adopted a 10ppb criterion, the way the Rule is written they will not actually achieve it; and 2) this conflicts with the Tribe's true 10ppb phosphorous criterion.

According to the Petition,"The failure of DEP to adopt a numeric phosphorous
criterion by rulemaking that numerically interprets, and does not violate, the
narrative criterion established to protect the aquatic flora and fauna in the
Everglades Protection Area ...permits polluted waters with excessive phosphorous to be discharged into protected waters, causes degradation of water in the Florida Everglades, encourages polluters to omit cleaning their polluted water, and allows polluters to avoid the consequences of their illegal acts."

Note:   Friends of the Everglades has also filed a Petition to invalidate the ERC Rule. Friends can be reached at (305) 669-0858.