South Florida Water Management District vacates consent decree on Everglades restoration

The South Florida Water Management District voted 6-3 Thursday to vacate a 30-year-old "consent decree" giving a federal court oversight on its Everglades restoration projects.

Under the decree, the state promised to clean up polluted farm water draining into Everglades National Park.

The resolution calls for the district to file a motion asking a federal court to vacate the decree, said district spokesman Randy Smith.

Board members who voted in favor of vacating the decree said guidelines required in the federal court order are being met and the federal oversight is no longer necessary.

In particular, said board member James Moran, who made the motion leading to the board action, the district is meeting court-ordered limits on phosphorus flows into the Everglades and has built the stormwater treatment areas ordered by the court.

The federal court oversight in the decree, Moran said, "is no longer necessary."

In fact, said board member Melanie Peterson, the decree "shackles us from moving forward with restoration projects."

The court oversight is frustrating, agreed board member Daniel O'Keefe, "but I don't think today is the day to take that action."

O'Keefe, who voted against vacating the consent decree, recommended talking to other state agencies, including Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis, first "so everyone can be on the same page."

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Under the decree, the state agreed to make sure make sure water headed to the Everglades was clean, while the federal government agreed to handle the distribution and timing of water flow.

Environmentalists, while agreeing the state has made improvements in water quality, argue the consent decree has been the prod to get the state to hold up its side of the deal.

And they note that none of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan's 68 projects approved after the decree has been completed.

District has 'gone rogue'

"The fact is that the district hasn't met the goals they're supposed to meet," said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida. "They say they're 90 percent of the way there, but they've got their thumb on the scale."

Audubon was a party in the lawsuit resulting in the consent decree, and Wraithmell said the group is trying to decide how to respond to the board's action.

"We'll certainly stand up and oppose the state getting out of the consent decree," she said. 

The National Wildlife Federation and the National Parks Conservation Association also were parties in the lawsuit filed in 1988.

"It's mind-boggling," said Eric Eikenberg, executive director of the Everglades Foundation. "The South Florida Water Management District has turned into a banana republic. They've gone completely rogue."

The state fought the lawsuit until 1991 when, in a move that's become legendary in environmental circles, newly elected Gov. Lawton Chiles walked into a Miami court hearing and said, “I want to find out who I can give my sword to.”

Chiles "surrender" led to the agreement between the state and feds, as well as the court's oversight, according to "The Swamp" by Michael Grunwald.

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