Legislation backed by the sugar industry delays pollution laws.
By RYAN DOUGHERTY
Everglades N.P., Fla.- The restoration of Everglades National Park is in serious jeopardy, following passage of a sugar industry-backed bill to ease pollution rules.
The bill, passed by Florida's state legislature and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, gives polluters another ten years to meet more stringent phosphorous standards, pushing the deadline from 2006 to 2016. Phosphorous runoff from sugar farms and suburban sprawl kills grasses, plants, and wildlife habitat within the 8-million-acre Everglades ecosystem, of which 1.5 million are parkland.
And, despite a provision of the state's constitution requiring polluters to pay for cleanup, the bill continues to charge taxpayers for removing phosphorous.
"The state of Florida bowed to pressure from industry," said Mary Munson, NPCA's Sun Coast regional director. "Big Sugar's political influence and back-room deals overwhelmed good sense."
Following the landmark Everglades Forever Act of 1994, Florida and the federal government have worked together on the $8-billion plan to clean up and restore the "River of Grass." The effort has been described as an unprecedented federal-state partnership to address the Everglades' pressing problems, such as its plummeting wildlife populations and degrading water quality.
Some state officials and representatives of the sugar industry argued that meeting deadlines set by the Everglades Forever Act presented technical challenges too great to overcome by 2006. Bush signed the bill into law in May, stating: "This is the tough choice, but it is the wise choice …Everglades restoration is a 30-year journey which has had and will have many bumps in the road."
Members of Congress disagreed, said Munson. Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) led successful efforts to craft legislation tying federal funding to the state's efforts to follow through on Everglades cleanup. For the most part, said Munson, the federal-state partnership has run smoothy-but the state bill could strain it.
"If Congress is not convinced that the state is doing its part to clean up the Everglades," said Munson, "it has a right to ask what it is getting for its $4 million investment in federal funds."
Scientists have long said that phosphorous pollutes the Everglades and should be limited to ten parts per billion. The deadline for polluters to adhere to that limit was set in the Everglades Forever Act. Critics say that the recent state legislation, however, allows polluters wiggle room and an opportunity to average phosphorous measurements over the course of several years. The Everglades Coalition, a group of 41 conservation associations chaired by NPCA and Audubon of Florida, calls the bill the "Everglades Whenever Act."
Besides extending the deadline for cleanup, the state has also weakened its phosphorous standard, said Munson. In July, a state commission set that standard at ten parts per billion, but it allowed the measurement of pollution levels to be averaged over time and at many different measuring stations-allowing one area to drastically exceed the standard as long as other areas remain below it.
"The rule only presents the illusion of ten parts per billion," said Charles Lee, a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida.
Everglades National Park now has phosphorous levels at or below ten parts per billion. Sections of the Everglades have higher levels, however, and some fear that pollution will travel south and into the park.
Despite the grim news, there are three rays of hope for the Everglades, said Munson. The first is a federal lawsuit, settled in 1993, requiring Everglades National Park to achieve a phosphorous level of ten parts per billion by 2006. Second, the state bill must be reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to see whether it is consistent with the national Clean Water Act. Finally, the conditions attached to congressional funds require federal agencies to report on the state's compliance with phosphorous standards.
"We are looking to the EPA and [the federal judge] to overturn these new laws and get restoration back on track," said Munson, adding that she believes the state wants to clean up the Everglades but was misled by sugar interests.
"The state has an excellent citizen advisory process in place," she added. "We just need them to listen to all of the stakeholders-not just granular ones."
