October 23, 2006

ISSUE 1138

WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT SUED FOR FLATFORD SWAMP TREE DIE-OFF

The law firm Earth Justice filed a lawsuit in circuit court Monday (October 16) against the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). The law suit claims that SWFWMD has issued too many water use permits for agricultural operations, and that irrigation water is causing excessive water in Flatford Swamp during the dry season.

This altered hydroperiod has resulted in a massive tree die-off in Flatford Swamp. A similar lawsuit was filed against more than a dozen individual growers in 2003. To date, one of the growers named in that suit has settled by agreeing to design, implement, and manage changes that would keep irrigation water from entering the swamp.

Flatford Swamp issues have been a priority for SWFWMD for more than 10 years. In an effort to reduce dry season flows, SWFWMD and the agricultural community have taken major steps to reduce any contribution that results from agricultural irrigation in the region.

Through the FARMS cost share reimbursement program, SWFWMD and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services currently partner with growers in an effort to retrofit farms and irrigation systems. In recent years, growers and the partnering agencies have spent millions of dollars to retrofit farms and implement best management practices with little or no improvement in the river’s hydrology. Many experts agree that major hydrologic changes caused by development and made by government agencies over recent decades are much bigger factors than all of the impacts from agriculture.