SFWMD effort to end mandated Everglades pollution limits in consent decree subject of motions

Several environmental groups are opposing the South Florida Water Management District's effort to end a federal court's oversight of Everglades restoration projects.

The district and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection "have yet to fulfill the promises they made" to clean water entering Everglades National Park, according to a motion filed late Wednesday by the Sierra Club, the Defenders of Wildlife, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Florida Audubon Society.

The "promises" were actually mandated by a 1988 court case, in which the federal government sued the Florida government for failing to control pollution entering the Everglades. The resulting "consent decree" set strict limits, primarily on phosphorus.

"Water quality standards have never been fully attained," though progress has been made, the motion says. "SFWMD does not argue it is in compliance with the consent decree. Instead, it argues compliance with pollution limits are now inconvenient."

Everglades restoration

In November, the district asked the U.S. District Court to vacate the 27-year-old consent decree, calling it "unworkable" because water now flows to the Everglades differently. 

More: SFWMD board votes to end court oversight of Everglades projects

The consent decree also impedes Everglades restoration, in part by limiting the amount of much-needed water that can be sent to the Everglades, claimed then-district General Counsel Brian Accardo, who resigned in early January amid controversy.

More: SFWMD board member, general counsel/chief of staff resign

The environmental groups' motion mentions that controversy: a Nov. 8 meeting in which the district board voted to vacate the consent decree two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis was elected.

Since his inauguration, DeSantis has asked the entire board to resign immediately.

More: Will DeSantis suspend SFWMD board members who won't resign?

The district also blamed the Army Corps of Engineers for not completing its share of Everglades water projects, "leaving the state beholden to compliance measures."

Farms support SFWMD 

Three agricultural interests — Roth Farms, KWB Farms and the Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau — also filed a motion late Wednesday, but in support of the district's request to vacate the consent decree.

The farm groups argued the consent decree's pollution-curbing goal "has been codified in permits and orders that are enforceable under both state and federal law," making the "continued federal court oversight not only unnecessary but improper."

More: See all of TCPalm's coverage of the Indian River Lagoon issues

The state fought the 1988 lawsuit until 1991, when newly elected Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles told a Miami court, “I want to find out who I can give my sword to.”

Chiles' "surrender" led to the consent decree between the state and feds, as well as the federal court's oversight of Everglades restoration, according to Michael Grunwald, author of "The Swamp," considered to be the definitive history on the subject.