Case Number # 7717 Millions of gallons of polluted water coming
off of half a million acres of sugar cane fields and cities are
pumped into Lake Okeechobee by the South Florida Water
Management District. The discharge contaminates drinking water
supplies and fertilizes toxic blue-green algae blooms.
Earthjustice filed suit demanding the district obtain Clean
Water Act permits for its discharges and comply with water
quality standards in the lake. On December 11, 2006, a federal
district judge in Miami ruled that the district must comply with
the Clean Water Act. And on Jun 15, 2007, a federal court issued
an injunction requiring the South Florida Water Management
District to apply for pollution permits to engage in pumping
dirty water into the lake. As a result of our victory in court,
one of the larger landowners near Lake Okeechobee, U.S. Sugar --
which farming operations resulted in polluted water being pumped
back into Lake Okeechobee -- negotiated with the state of
Florida to sell its 185,000 acres of la