Comments are due on EPA’s proposal in mid-July, but officials also are keeping an eye on a federal court in Florida, where a key water transfer case is pending. The suit was filed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, which argued that the South Florida Water Management District violated the Clean Water Act by pumping phosphorus-tainted waters into Lake Okeechobee, the area’s largest source of drinking water. The case came before the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2004 did not rule directly on the issue, but remanded it to the district court.
Nick Gutierrez, a water district governing board member, says if the plaintiffs win, it could mire water managers nationwide in permitting issues. “We move a lot of water throughout the 16 counties in our jurisdiction,” Gutierrez says. “It would be ludicrous for us to have to apply for a permit every time we moved water from one point to another.” He says EPA hasn’t required such permits and adds, “There’s no sense in interjecting a cumbersome and faraway federal bureaucracy into essentially local water transfer decisions.”