Private industries and utilities don't have the right to dump dirty water into clean water. A government agency shouldn't have that right, either. That's the issue in a long-running court battle between the South Florida Water Management District, which needs to dump dirty water from urban drainage canals, and the Miccosukee Tribe and Friends of the Everglades, which sued to stop the district from dumping that polluted runoff into clean Everglades water.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court also muddied the case. The court rejected the district's argument that it merely moves polluted water from one place to another and so doesn't need an expensive federal permit. The permit would set a timetable and force the district to clean water before dumping it into Everglades marshes.

But the court also asked lower courts to look again at an argument raised by the district and Bush administration attorneys: That the runoff from urban Broward County in a canal east of the district's pumps and the Everglades wetlands to the west are part of one water system. The court ruling argues that in a major flood, Broward and the Everglades would become a single system, and thus the district needs no permit to move water around inside the same body of water.

The plaintiffs contend that the canal and the wetlands are separate systems; two lower courts sided with them. The Supreme Court told the lower courts to consider the Bush administration argument. The Bush administration also argued that all navigable waters are part of the same system, a question the court said could be raised later.

Justice Antonin Scalia was correct to say in his dissent that the Supreme Court should have ruled against the water district. To those on the receiving end of dirty water, the issue is simple. Industries, utilities or government agencies can't be allowed to foul clean water with polluted water. Lake Okeechobee suffers because phosphorus-laden runoff pours into it from dairy farms. The St. Lucie River suffers when the district dumps that dirty lake water into the river.

The Supreme Court could have held the district accountable by making it get a federal permit, which ultimately would force the agency to clean up water it discharges. Instead, the high court invited years of more litigation, while the district continues to use public money fighting for the right to continue polluting public waters.