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Introduction
Everglades Litigation Collection
1994 - Donated by USAO to University of Miami School of Law
Location - Law Library Special Collections and Archives
Internet url - www.law.miami.edu/everglades
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Contents
1 million pages of litigation and scientific documents
50 cases from federal and state fora
1 million frames of microfilm
250 mb bibliographic database
Hundreds of deposition and hearing transcripts
Voluminous productions of scientific data and reports
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Legal overview
Parties Plaintiff Defendant
Pleadings, documents Complaint Answer Deposition Orders Decision
Civil vs. Criminal
Statutes
Caselaw
Jurisdiction Federal State Administrative
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Legal overview
Trial Levels (ascending)
Trial level court
Intermediate appellate level
Higher appellate level
Highest appellate level
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Legal overview
Anatomy of Pleadings
Jurisdiction Case Number Style
Plaintiff Defendant
Type Complaint Answer Motion Summary
Judgment Appeal Order
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Background
1821 - U.S. buys Florida from Spain 1845 - Florida becomes a state 1850 - Congress passes Swamp Lands
Act. Gives ownership of overflowed lands in the Everglades to Florida on the condition that lands might be drained and settled, or used for agriculture. State sells vast tracts of land at low cost to railroads. During Civil War railroads went bankrupt.
1905 - Napoleon Bonaparte Broward elected governor
Drain the Everglades!
1906 - 1929 - Everglades Drainage District.
Went bankrupt
1941 - Publication of The Everglades: River of Grass
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Background
1947 - Everglades National Park created by Congress 1947 - 2 hurricanes hit south Florida, flooding 1948 - C&S Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes CSFP - Prime Purpose - Flood Control
USAO built 1,400 miles of levees and canals so that flood waters pass around farms and cities, carried swiftly into the Everglades or the sea
Kissimmee River Channel Lake Okeechobee dike expansion Eastern perimeter leve State lands made into conservation areas
CSFP - EAA 700,000 acres drained, leeved. Irrigation pumps
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Background
CSFP - Loxahatchee N.W.R. To make up for harm project would do to
wildlife habitat, northernmost WCA leased to Department of Interior
CSFP - completed on 1962 Put an end to river of grass cut off the flow of water from the north water allowed to flow through canals and
structures only USACOE regulations determined timing
and quantity of water flow natural hydroperiod replaced by ACOE
regime
CSFP - Local sponsor - CSFFCD Florida passed legislation creating Central
and Southern Florida Flood Control District
CSFFCD - Assembled land, operated pumps and canals
under ACOE guidelines Board of directors appointed by govenor Authority to levy small tax over many
counties in south Florida
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Background
Emergence of the Florida sugar industry
1959 - Revolution in Cuba. U.S. embargo on Cuban sugar exports U.S. quotas on sugar imports from other countries Rapid expansion of farming in the EAA 1960 - 1975 - Sugar acreage increased sixfold 421,000 acres planted, sugar now primary crop in EAA
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Background
The Intensification of Environmentalism in Florida
Roots in creation of ENP Some environmental values in CSFP Fight against jetport 1960’S - changes to CSFP in response to concern about environment 1967 - ACOE and CSFFCD built new canal to bring water arround levee on
north boundary and into center of park 1972 - congress passed legislation guaranteeing min flows of water from
project’s canals and structures into ENP 1978 - Florida proposed that Kissimmee River ditch filled, and old riverbed
restored 1972 - Flood Control District was given the responsibility for regulating
water quality and administering new state laws re wetland drainage 1976 - Flood Control district rebaptized as SFWMD
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Background
Phosphorus problem
Water quality became an issue in the 1970’s. focused on Lake Okeechobee algal blooms
SFWMD scientists believed the largest cause was nutrients from dairy farms along Kissimmee
Water entering the lake from EAA contributed 14% phosphorus 30% of water pumped from EAA went into lake, the rest pumped south 1979 - district, state, ACOE stop pumping into lake, but increased pumping
south into WCAs 1974 - district scientists first warned about cattail infestation in WCAs as
result of phosphorus loading would eventually reach the park and alter natural
Nothing was done due to powerful influence of sugar industry
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Background
SWIM Act
1987 - state legislature passes SWIM Act, requires water management districts to prepare plans to avoid and reverse degradation of state’s waters.
Set targets for how much phosphorus might enter Lake Okeechobee Required district to prepare a plan for the lake Set up technical advisory council to study effects of phosphorus in WCAs,
and other areas south of the lake Included a provision which addressed issue of phosphorus in the park “water management districts shall not divert waters to the park in such a
way that state water quality standards are violated or that the nutrient in such waters adversely affect indigenous vegetative communities or wildlife.”
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Federal water quality case
United States v. South Florida Water Management District, 88-1886-CIV-Hoeveler
In its 1988 complaint the federal government sought enforcement of state water quality laws protecting Everglades National Park, "the largest and most important subtropical wilderness" in the United States, and the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
The United States alleged that ENP and LNWR were losing native plant and animal habitat communities due to increased nutrient loading from agricultural runoff.
Settlement Agreement
In 1991, the United States and the State of Florida reached a settlement agreement that recognized the severe harm the ENP and LNWR had suffered and would continue to suffer if remedial steps were not taken.
The 1991 Settlement Agreement, entered as Consent Decree by Judge Hoeveler in 1992, 847 F. Supp 1567 (S.D. Fla 1992) sets out in detail the steps the State of Florida would take over the next ten years to restore and preserve water quality in the Everglades.
In order to secure federal court approval, the Settlement Agreement preserved the rights under state law of the agricultural interests to participate in and challenge the final development and implementation of the settlement's remedial program through the state administrative process. See also, Florida Sugar Cane League v. Department of Environmental Regulation, 617 So.2d 1065 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993).
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SWIM Challenges
Cooperative v. SFWMD, DOAH 92-3038-40 Nonsignatories to the federal case settlement agreement had
the opportunity to pursue state administrative remedies under Fla. Stat. Ch. 120 if their substantial interests were affected by implementation of the Settlement Agreement's remedial program, i.e., the final SWIM (-Surface Water Improvement Management) Plan by the SFWMD and DEP. Several agricultural interests filed challenges to the final SWIM Plan in 1992 in addition to filing several in state and federal fora.
The federal case settlement agreement was founded on the recently passed Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Protection Act (Douglas Act), Ch. 91-80, Laws of Florida, developed with the involvement and consent of sugar interests
1993 – Statement of Principles Result of settlement negotiations.
1994 – Everglades Forever Act The passage of the Everglades Forever Act in 1994 Fla. Stat.
ch. 373.4592, removed the underlying cause of action of the administrative challenges and all related lawsuits were closed by August of 1994 with the exception of the original lawsuit (United States v. South Florida Water Management District).
Reconciliation In August 1994, the United States Court of Appeals for the
Eleventh Circuit affirmed the 1992 Consent Decree and remanded the case to district court for further consideration in light of the Everglades Forever Act (28 F.3d 1563 (11th Cir. 1994), cert denied 115 S.C. 1956)).
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Restoration forever?
Current developments
SFWMD March 2003 – The district is working to achieve the long-term water quality
and water quantity goals for the Everglades through its Final Conceptual Plan for Achieving Long-term Water Quality Goals . The long-term goal of the Everglades Program restoration effort is to combine point source, basin-level and regional solutions in a system-wide approach to ensure that all waters discharged into the Everglades Protection Area are in compliance with all state water quality standards by December 31, 2006.
Florida May 2003 – Florida amends the 1994 Everglades Forever Act. SB626
essentially pushes water quality goals back by as much as 10 years (from 2006 to 2016).
Federal water quality case June 2003 - U.S. district court holds hearings regarding effect of new state
law on federal settlement agreement. Florida's two biggest sugar companies challenged Hoeveler's role after he put the Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush on notice that their amendments to the 1994 Everglades Forever Act would violate his court-approved settlement.
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More info
Email [email protected]
IN 375 everglades litigation class url http://exchange.law.miami.edu/everglades/education/um/in
375/umin375.html