ABOUT OUR LEAD ATTORNEY

JOHN E. CHILDE

Our attorney John E. Childe, has been representing Friends of the Everglades' in its federal litigation strategy since 1993. The job we gave him then was to do what he could to bring real restoration efforts to the Everglades through federal law and the Federal Court System here in Florida.

John had previously been working on a back pumping case in Federal Court in Southern District Court on behalf of a recreational fishing group, challenging a large sugar farm's pollution discharge into Lake Okeechobee that was destroying the Lake.

John's previous work in Pennsylvania where he helped develop citizen involvement in enforcement of environmental laws drew national attention. In 1987 he was named one of the "Best Lawyers In America" as one of the top three environmental lawyers in Pennsylvania.

Friends goal, with John's guidance, has been to bring the Federal Clean Water Act into the Everglades. This is the only way to bring about real restoration. John realized back in the late 1980's, while working on the Lake Okeechobee case, that the State will never have the will nor leadership to force compliance by either the Sugar Industry or the South Florida Water Management District - and that Sugar controled the State legislature. These facts could only be overcome by forcing Federal oversight as intended under the Federal Clean Water Act.

John's first recommendation to Friends was that we oppose in 1993 the "Marjory Stone Douglas Act" which proposed to suspend all water quality standards in the Everglades for twelve years. Representatives of Friends went to Tallahassee with the explicit aproval of Marjory Stoneman Douglas herself, and demanded that the Legislature remove her name from the Act. As a result the Act became known as the "Everglades Forever Act" when it waw finally pased in 1994.

Next, John got Friends involved in the hearings that were being conducted by the EPA to determine whether permits under the CWA would be imposed in the Water Management District for discharges from the experimental storm water Treatment area known as the Everglades Nutrient Removal Project (ENR). John and members of Friends offered testimony at several hearings held by EPA supporting the concept of requiring federal permits for the STA's.

When permits were required for the ENR, which came to be called STA 1, Friends challenged the sufficiency of the permit, which was based on the new State Everglades Forever Act, and thus had no requirement to meet existing water quality standards as would be required if the permits were issued under the federal Clean Water Act. The challenge was brough through EPA Administrative appeal procedure, and ultimately became a costly time consuming process for Friends. Since that battle was also being fought by the Miccosukee Tribe, John recommended we withdraw from proceedings and give STA-1 a chance to achieve compliance by 2006.

Dropping that challenge freed up the resources for John to file a Federal Complaint against the SFWMD for another major pollution discharge into the Everglades that was not scheduled for any treatment under the Everglaeds Forever Act. Thus began the case against the S-9 pump station discharge that is now to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

At the same time that the S-9 case was winding its way to the Supreme Court Friends began an action through John to challenge the new polluted water discharges proposed for the Rotenberger Tract of the Everglades, a large tract of state owned land in the southern end of the Everglades Agriculural Area. No other group was willing to challenge the Water Management District's proposal to dump agricultural waste water from the Western C-139 Basin into this land.

Recently Friends and John have begun another lawsuit challenging the continued pollution backpumping by the Water Management District into Lake Okeechobee through the S-2 and S-3 pump stations. These two pump stations have a long history of bring large amount of pollution into the the Lake. Since at least 1971 they have been pinpointed as leading causes of the eutrofication of the Lake. Friends has been joined in this case by the Miccosukee Tribe and the Florida Wildlife Federation. The case is currently moving rapidly toward trial. However, the Supreme Court decision to grant certiorari in the S-9 case will probably put the S-2/S-3 case on hold.

In addition to the above efforts John has assisted Friends on countless other issues, either as an advisor or just a friend.

John has given us the ability to play a big part in the process of requiring restoration of the the water quality of the Everglades. Friends AND the Everglades are very fortunate to have his expertize, devotion and guidance.

John E. Childe can be reached via e-mail at: Childeje@aol.com