Feds, Florida bicker over who is responsible for poor water quality

Federal and state agencies are bickering over who exactly is responsible for poor water quality conditions that have gripped much of the state for most of this year.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is essentially telling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up Everglades restoration projects.

The Army Corps says it could speed up projects aimed at storing water south of Lake Okeechobee if it had a state partner, which is required in the 50-50 cost split Everglades restoration. That partner would have to be the South Florida Water Management District, but officials there say part of the problem is the Fish and Wildlife Service is constraining water management options by enforcing the Endangered Species Act.

If it sounds complicated, that's because it is.

No one wants to take blame for the degraded water conditions that have plagued areas like Fort Myers and the St. Lucie area, two areas that receive discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

The problem stems from the mid-1800s, when Florida was created by the federal government with the caveat Florida drain the Everglades and provide a "bread basket" of agriculture south of the lake.

Lake Okeechobee was diked. The Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers were connected to the lake. Okeechobee waters were then sent down the rivers, which in turn dried out much of the historic River of Grass.

The project worked exactly as it was designed, but decades of water management side effects has lead to ecological issues and detrimental impacts on the Everglades itself.

Heavy rains started falling in January, thanks to an El Nino weather pattern that brought record rainfall to most of the state.

Water managers have since struggled to keep Okeechobee water levels low enough to provide flood protection needed south lake.

Lake water has contributed to a nasty algae bloom on the east coast, and residents in Southwest Florida have worried recently the same may be headed this direction.

Pete Antonacci, the water management district's executive director, pleaded with Sens. Ben Nelson and Marco Rubio to intervene in the situation.

Federal protections for birds like the Cape Sable seaside sparrow and the Everglades snail kite won't allow the state to store waters in certain areas because it can impact or kill those species.

Enforcing those laws, Antonacci's letter says, is detrimental to our crippled coastal estuaries.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is forcibly standing behind the Endangered Species Act in an attempt to block the district's emergency operational actions. In fact, USFWS has even threatened the district with legal action," a letter from Antonacci to Nelson and Rubio reads. "Their message seems to be: if you continue to provide relief for coastal residents and businesses then we will see you in court."

Earlier this week the Governmental Affairs Office says the Corps needs a better, more accurate system of documenting conditions. Instead of conducting mandatory 10-year reviews of the facilities, Army Corps officials across the nation have instead relied on "informal," day-to-day inspections.

Watchdog group: Army Corps not compliant with management rules

The Corps, however, says the state needs to participate in a study aimed at assessing lands south of Okeechobee, a process that is scheduled to begin in five years.

Residents and business owners in Southwest Florida have pushed the state for a decade or more to buy farm fields south of the lake and turn them into water storage compounds that would receive some of the harmful discharges from Okeechobee.

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"A study (of agriculture lands) will investigate opportunities to create water storage (in) areas south of the lake," says a letter from Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army. "The Army is prepared to initiate this study quickly, once a non-Federal sponsor for the study is identified."

Environmental groups say all entities involved in Everglades restoration need to finish projects that are in the works while designing other projects that will provide more long-term solutions.

"The algal blooms and the sea grass beds dying and the endangered species are all the same problem and they have the same overall solution: implementing Everglades restoration faster," said Julie Hill-Gabriel, with Audubon Florida. "We’re seeing such dramatic images of algal blooms in the estuaries at the same time we’re seeing sea grass die off because of a lack of freshwater. The solution is reconnecting the natural system."

So who is to blame for dying sea grasses, fish kills and algae blooms?

"It's all of us," Dave Ulrich, with the Responsible Growth Coalition. "We need to stop pointing fingers and work on the issues."

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