From the Sun Sentinel:

Audubon of Florida picked a political fight with Big Sugar on Thursday, calling for tougher water pollution rules for agriculture to try to jumpstart Everglades restoration.

The push for tougher water quality requirements comes after a federal judge's blistering ruling Wednesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Florida left Everglades restoration "rudderless" by failing to enforce the Clean Water Act.

Audubon contends that the most immediate way to respond to the judge's call for action is to toughen the water quality requirements for runoff from sugar cane fields and other farms in 700,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area, south of Lake Okeechobee.

The environmental advocacy group wants the South Florida Water Management District to update pollution cleanup rules in place since 1992 on growers in the vast agricultural area.

That could mean requiring farmers to store more stormwater on their properties and to more frequently clean up polluted muck from the drainage canals that deliver water that ends up in the Everglades.

"There are some distinct opportunities . that could leverage tremendous amounts of improvements," said Charles Lee, Audubon director of advocacy. "It's probably the most practical and immediate movement you can make."

Agricultural representatives on Thursday countered that growers already have changed their practices to improve water quality. They blame urban stormwater runoff and polluted water from Lake Okeechobee for South Florida

failing to meet water quality standards set for the Everglades.

"It's not the farm water that's the issue," said Judy Sanchez, U.S. Sugar Corp. spokeswoman. "Tweaking the [cleanup rules] is just going to cost the farmers more money and it won't give you any cleaner water."

The South Florida Water Management District plans to wade into the politically divisive water quality issue in the next few months. That could include updating the "best management practices" required of farmers to lessen agricultural pollution.

The concern is the amount of phosphorus that ends up in the Everglades.

Phosphorus comes from fertilizer as well as the natural decay of soil on agricultural fields. Stormwater that drains off farmland, as well as urban areas, carries phosphorus to the Everglades and fuels the growth of cattails that squeeze out sawgrass and other native habitat.