A federal judge yesterday tossed out part of a controversial Florida law aimed at cleaning up the Everglades and slammed U.S. EPA's decision to approve the legislation, saying it violated the Clean Water Act.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold said EPA turned a "blind eye" to changes in water quality standards that violated the Clean Water Act when the agency chose to approve Florida's revised schedule for cleaning up agricultural runoff.

Gold's ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Miccosukee Tribe and the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Everglades in 2004 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The lawsuit challenges changes the state made to the plan to clean up the Everglades, which has long been plagued by nutrient pollution from sugar and dairy farming despite a massive restoration effort.

At issue are the 2003 amendments to Florida's Everglades Forever Act and the state's phosphorus rule. Under the 1994 act, Florida was supposed to lower phosphorus levels in the Everglades to 10 parts per billion by 2006.

The amendments pushed the 2006 deadline back at least 10 years to 2016, allowing Florida to "radically modify its water quality standards" and then "simply disavow that a change had taken place," Gold said.

"Federal law does not authorize anything like a 22-year compliance schedule," Gold added.

Gold said the Florida Legislature had "violated its fundamental commitment and promise to protect the Everglades," and EPA was "patently wrong and acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in approving their decision.

The judge noted that EPA had not violated the Clean Water Act when the agency approved Florida's phosphorus measurement methods, which averages phosphorus concentration over time.

Wider implications

Dexter Lehtinen, an attorney for the Miccosukee Tribe, hailed Gold's decision as a major victory for the Everglades. The Miccosukee, whose ancestral home is in the Everglades, have been fierce advocates for its restoration.

Lehtinen predicted Gold's ruling would bolster the Miccosukee Tribe's position in another Everglades case as well. The tribe is trying to force the state and water management districts to undertake and finish Everglade cleanup projects they promised to do in a 1992 consent decree. That case is before U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who is chief judge for the Southern District of Florida. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12.

"This victory in front of Gold obviously is significant for the Clean Water Act," Lehtinen said. "But it's even more significant because it is going to halt this attempt to undermine or redefine what [the state] promised to do in 1992."

A spokeswoman for EPA said the agency is reviewing the decision.

Click here to read the order.