Photo by Charlotte Southern

Since the 1950’s, an intricate network of pumps has been utilized to suppress flooding in residential areas of South Florida—a system that sucks up excess storm water from the suburbs that lay west of Fort Lauderdale and redistributes it to the waters of the Everglades.  This discharging of recycled water has led to catastrophic effects on the once ecologically abundant “river of grass.” Pollutants from suburban yards, sugar farms, livestock grounds and industrial turfs contaminate this run-off water, which in turn, infiltrates the Everglades via the pumping network, killing off various plants and having adverse affects on fish and ornithological populations.

“The Everglades has become a cesspool,” states Billy Cypress, a chairman for the Miccosukee Native American Tribe. “We won’t rest until it’s clean.” This sentiment is what led the Miccosukee’s to take the South Florida Water Management District—the regional agency in charge of operating various water pumping stations from central Florida to as far south as the Keys—to court for illegal dumping of pollutants into the Everglades.

The tribe claimed that a significant amount of the pollution found in the waters of the Everglades was directly linked to the S-9 pumping station. This pump allegedly unloads as much as 423,000 gallons a minute of polluted runoff into an area of the Everglades that includes the 189,000 acres of land the state leases to the Miccosukees. The S-9 pumping station moves water specifically from the C-11 canal in Broward County to an area known as Everglades Water Conservation Area 3. The tribe felt that these practices were in violation of the Clean Water Act of 1972 which stipulates that dischargers must apply for Federal permits and install what is known as a “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System” which   places limits on the types and quality of pollutants that can be released into the Nation’s bodies of water.  The Miccosukees felt that the SFWMD should be responsible for following the mandatory bureaucratic procedures to obtain a federal permit calling for SFWMD to treat the polluted run-off or enforce pollution laws against the landowners from which the polluted water comes.

The SFWMD does not deny the high levels of pollution in the water that is being circulated through their pumping station; however, they claim they are not the source of the pollutants and are solely responsible for the movement of the water within the Everglades ecosystem. SFWMD claims “…moving water from one navigable body of water to another does not require a federal permit.” SFWMD argues that the C-11 canal and the Water Conservation Area are in actuality, not separate.
Since the case was filed in 2001, two levels of federal courts ruled in favor of the Miccosukee. The district appealed to the Supreme Court because this decision would set a precedent if new structures—such as the 83 new pumps outlined in the CERP—are required to meet heightened ecological regulation. The higher court decided to hear the case on January 14, 2004.
On March 23, 2004 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the South Florida Water Management District and overturned the lower court’s decision that would have forced SFWMD and other water managers across the country to change their operational procedures. The Supreme Court felt that the waters east and west of the S-9 pumping station are indeed the same body of water and therefore did not require a federal permit to move the water within.  The case was sent back to the lower court and will again be heard by the end of this year.

This decision does appease many economic concerns raised by water managers across the country—especially in regards to the newly enacted $8.4 billion dollar Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). As stated by Richard Harvey, the Environmental Protection Agency’s South Florida Director, “I don’t think taxpayers are going to like it if we build a bunch of pumps we can’t even turn on. They’d be perfect monuments to stupidity.”

However, the ecological consequences that will result from the destruction of the Everglades seemed to be negated in the Higher Court’s decision. David Reiner, president of the Friends of the Everglades asserts, “If they [SFWMD] are not required to get a permit, the federal government would be paying $8.4 billion to restore the Everglades, but allowing the district to pump pollution into the Everglades at the same time. If the district’s interpretation is allowed to stand, it will significantly contract the reach of the Clean Water Act. Any agency will be able to take water from anywhere and move it anywhere. It’s a ‘get out of jail’ free card for water management agencies throughout the country.”

It seems that this decision is another “watered-down “verdict, only concerned with the “on-paper” legal technicalities in a case where the economic ramifications are the chief impetus for legislative action. When is the Federal Government going to lhave the sense to acknowledge that a National treasure doesn’t always have a value that can be accounted for in dollars and cents?

Further information about this article can be found at the following sites:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/  
http://www.evergladesplan.org/