Under pressure from a Miami federal judge, the EPA lays out a long, expensive proposal for the state to reduce pollution flowing into the Everglades.

Federal environmental regulators on Friday laid out a detailed blueprint for how Florida can finally live up to its repeatedly postponed pledge to clean up pollution flowing into the Everglades.

The plan, which a Miami federal judge demanded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, calls for a more than 70 percent expansion of the state's existing network of reservoirs and pollution treatment marshes -- 42,000 acres of new projects that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It also endorses Gov. Charlie Crist's controversial land deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp. as part of the solution

But the proposal would again push back deadlines to meet a standard for phosphorus, a fertilizer ingredient that flows from farms, ranches and yards and can poison native marsh plants. The long-expired 2006 state deadline for supplying the Glades the pristine water it needs would lag -- pushed back to as much a decade from now.

Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, said the proposal, which U.S. District Judge Alan Gold must approve, made a clear case that cleanup was falling short.

``The technical experts at the federal government and the courts are all banging on the table, saying the state needs to get off its duff,'' he said.

Fordham called the plan an ``emphatic declaration'' for the U.S. Sugar land purchase, a deal championed by many environmental groups but bitterly opposed by rival growers and the Miccosukee Tribe. Last month, the South Florida Water Management District approved the latest version of the thrice-shrunk deal. The deal, scheduled to close next month, would pay the company $197 million for 26,000 acres of citrus groves and fields that plans call for eventually converting to reservoirs and pollution cleaning marshes.

Stan Meiburg, the EPA's acting southeastern regional administrator, credited the district and Florida Department of Environmental Protection with making progress but also acknowledged ``that we must do more together to restore clean water to the Everglades.''

HARSH RULING

Gold was not so diplomatic in a blistering ruling he issued in April. Gold argued state lawmakers had crafted ``incomprehensible'' rules that opened loopholes effectively pushing back a 2006 deadline by a decade. In an initial ruling in 2008, Gold also found the EPA erred in approving the watered-down standards.

In April, the judge threatened to fine the EPA and DEP if they didn't work out an enforceable plan. He also ordered the chiefs of both agencies to appear in his court in next month.

The 57-page document spells out the steps to improve water quality but also shows that the state's $1 billion-plus investment in sprawling marshes hasn't halted the decline of the Everglades. In just one of many measures, it notes that in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005, the expanse of soil with damaging levels of phosphorus increased by 106,000 acres, or 50 percent.

NO APPROVAL YET

The EPA had been working with state agencies on the plan but neither the DEP or district has formally approved it.

Amy Graham, a spokeswoman for the DEP, said the lengthy plan was under review. Water managers, in a statement, said they were encouraged by the ```apparent flexibility'' of a plan that would allow more water storage and give the state up to 60 days to propose alternative solutions

They also were pleased that the federal agency had noted how the U.S. Sugar deal would help the state comply with tougher standards.

INCREASING SUPPORT

The land deal got more legal support earlier this week, when a advisor to U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who is overseeing another Everglades cleanup case, issued a report supporting the land buy as part of an expanded cleanup effort.

If the purchase goes through, the district would own most of the land it needs for the cleanup expansion -- aside from 7,600 acres near the Loxahatchee Wildlife National Refuge, site of two past water quality violations. Land in the more well-developed area would be expensive, particularly for an agency already struggling with budget cuts from declining property tax revenues.

The Gold case was originally filed by the Miccosukee Tribe and Friends of the Everglades, an environmental group. The tribe, along with Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar's chief rival, have also been the fiercest critics of the land buy, arguing it would leave the district with no money for building projects and delay restoration by decades.

Sonia O'Donnell, the tribe's attorney, did not respond to an e-mail nor a phone message asking for comment.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/03/1807702/epa-gives-florida-new-everglades.html#ixzz0yZnuZN00