The Miccosukee Indians and their environmental allies [Friends of the Everglades] are right: The South Florida Water Management District should be required to get a federal permit before pumping polluted runoff into the Everglades, even if the district didn’t pollute the water in the first place.

The case went to the Supreme Court last week. It centers on the S-9 pump station in the Everglades west of Fort Lauderdale, and has drawn national attention. About 50 briefs have been filed in support of each side by dozens of states, cities, tribal groups and non-profits.

This case has major implications, but it’s at heart a common-sense matter of giving affected people their say about water management, and to force an independent examination of the handling of polluted drainage.

At issue is whether the district needs a permit under the 30-year-old Federal Clean Water Act to release polluted runoff through the S-9 station.

The Miccosukees, a 500-member tribe living in the Everglades, claim that S-9 pump station pollutes the Everglades with as much as 423,000 gallons a minute of polluted runoff into the Everglades, including the 189,000 acres the tribe leases from the state.

The district and its supporters say such a requirement is a misinterpretation of the Clean Water Act, which targets polluters themselves, not drainage districts that simply move dirty water around to prevent flooding.

The district says that if the Supreme Court upholds lower court rulings and requires permits in such cases, water districts nationwide would be faced with enormous costs increases with no environmental gains. The South Florida district says the costs and administrative delays could jeopardize the Everglades restoration process.

Water management district officials say if they lose this case, they could be required to obtain a federal permit for each of the district’s 2,000-plus structures.

But even if that is a theoretical possibility and would be an administrative and financial disaster, there are surely ways to finesse the matter.

This sounds like alarmist exaggeration. Permits could be considered on some basis other than structure-by-structure.

But why shouldn’t the Clean Water Act provide an opportunity for a consideration of the best way to handle polluted water? If the discharge is needed to prevent flooding, it will be approved. But there should be a chance to argue for moderation, diversion, treatment or some other ways of handling such water.

Southwest Florida and other areas in the South Florida Water District have raised issues about district release policy. A requirement for a federal permit might give their objections more weight.

Copyright 2004, The News-Press.