Supreme Court dodges major ruling in Everglades pollution case

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Mar. 23, 2004

Supreme Court dodges major ruling in Everglades pollution case

GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, sidestepping a major decision on the government's power to regulate clean water, told a Florida court Tuesday to reconsider a pollution dispute involving the Everglades.

The ruling extends a six-year fight between the 500-member Miccosukee Indian tribe and a water district the Indians accuse of illegally dumping pollutants into Florida's Everglades.

The South Florida Water Management District's pump west of Fort Lauderdale dumps as much as 423,000 gallons a minute of polluted runoff from suburban lawns, farms and industrial yards into the Everglades, including 189,000 acres the state leased to the tribe and promised to keep in its natural state.

The district was sued in 1998 by the Miccosukees and Friends of the Everglades under the federal Clean Water Act.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8256408.htm