September 11, 2003                            

Press/For Immediate Release   
Miami/                                        
  

Contacts: 
Dexter Lehtinen (305) 279-3353
Joette  Lorion    (305) 281-0429

Miccosukeee Tribe Says Water Management  District Claim That Clean Water
Act Permit for the S-9 Pump Will Be Bad for Everglades Restoration is
Reminiscent of Chicken Little

Today, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians said the South Florida Water Management District's claim that forcing water managers to get a Clean Water Act permit for their S-9 pump would be bad for Everglades Restoration is reminiscent of Chicken Little. [The District is currently attempting to overturn important Clean Water Act federal court victories won by the Tribe in its struggle to stop the pollution of its Everglades homeland.  The case, South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe and Friends of the Everglades, No. 02-626 will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in January.] According to Dexter Lehtinen, the former U.S. Attorney who sued the District in 1988 for polluting the Everglades and who now represents the Miccosukee Tribe, "The District's Chicken Little claim that "the sky will fall" if they are forced to get a Clean Water Act permit for their S-9 pump spewing polluted water into the Everglades is the same story I've heard for 20 years.  If they really want to clean up the Everglades like they say they do, why don't they just get the permit they were ordered to get years ago?"   Lehtinen called the District's claim that complying with the Clean Water Act could delay Everglades Restoration equally absurd,  "How can getting a permit and cleaning up polluted water before you put it into the Everglades delay a multi-billion dollar restoration project that requires the water to be clean?"

The Tribe said the District's recent press release that announced their Supreme Court brief filing was right about one thing.  It correctly states that the Tribe argued that the District is a "polluter" in federal court.   The Tribe points to the fact that both the Federal District Court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals  agreed with them that the District was violating the Clean Water Act and ordered the water managers to get a National Pollutant Elimination System (NPDES) permit for their S-9 pump.  The Tribe disputes claims by the District  that the lower courts "misread the law," and disputes their claim that the Tribe's legal struggle to force the District to comply with the Clean Water Act is "an impediment to Everglades restoration." "Our small Tribe has lived in the Everglades for centuries," said Miccosukee Tribal Chairman Billy Cypress.  "The Everglades is our homeland, and we struggle to protect and restore it.  The Tribe strongly disagrees with the District's assertion that our five year court battle to force them to comply with the Clean Water Act is an impediment to restoration.  The real  impediment to restoration is the District's refusal to obtain the Clean Water Act permit the court ordered, so they can provide the Everglades with the quality of water it needs to survive. It is the state and District's failure to clean up the water going into the Everglades that may ultimately result in the nation's taxpayers wasting billions of dollars on an Everglades Restoration project that depends on clean water to succeed.  The $8.4 Billion Dollar Question is why does the District continue to fight against clean water for the Everglades?" Says Lehtinen, "The Tribe is confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will see through the South Florida Water Management District's "the sky is falling" scare tactics and affirm the well reasoned decision of the Federal Court Judges, who overwhelmingly agreed with the Tribe that the Clean Water Act does apply to the District's S-9 pump that is backpumping polluted water into the fragile Everglades."