Florida must follow data, enforce rules to clean up Lake Okeechobee pollution | Our View

Imagine living in a world where good intentions and wishful thinking are more important than reality. That pretty much describes where state regulators are in their efforts to curb pollution seeping into Lake Okeechobee.

The State of Florida has divided the properties along the lake into 32 drainage basins. A recent investigation by TCPalm found pollution in every one of those basins exceeded the limits deemed acceptable by the state between May 2016 and April 2021.

Most of the time, it's not even close. The investigation found pollution levels were 5.7 times above the acceptable limits on the median for those drainage basins.

But you wouldn't know this if you were relying on the state Department of Environmental Protection's data. The state uses modeling estimates that credit pollution-reduction initiatives, regardless of their effectiveness, in determining whether so-called Basin Management Action Plans are working.

Relying on the modeling estimates rather than actual data is like turning up the car radio's volume to drown out the sound of an annoying rattle symptomatic of mechanical trouble.

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It's not entirely surprising, though. The state has been lax in other areas of environmental regulation, such as monitoring the amount of lead in the St. Sebastian River.

In TCPalm's investigation, reporters Sydney Czyzon, Max Chesnes, and Lindsey Leake evaluated readings from water-quality monitors used by the South Florida Water Management District. Those readings tell a much different story about the amount of pollutants like phosphorus, primarily from cow manure, seeping into the lake from nearby farms.

Water from the lake is regularly discharged into the St. Lucie River and eventually the Indian River Lagoon, so this pollution should be of great concern to people all around eastern Florida.

The state must take several steps to address this problem.

The first and most obvious is to communicate to property owners along the lake the "best management practices" are mandatory, not optional. Based on comments some property owners made to our reporters, there seems to be some confusion on this point.

The state also must overhaul its efforts to inspect and enforce compliance with those rules. Currently, the Department of Agriculture inspects properties, then refers suspected noncompliance to the DEP.

The DEP could fine polluters up to $50,000, which should be enough to get property owners' attention, but it never has.

It's an inefficient system to have one government agency do inspections, then hand cases off to another agency for enforcement. One department should handle both.

Whichever agency is responsible should treat enforcement as a critical part of its mission and not an afterthought. If there aren't enough inspectors to handle potential cases, the state should allocate more funding to handle that duty.

Of course the state's enforcement efforts should be based on data provided by the water-quality monitors and not just modeling that doesn't accurately reflect what's happening in the lake.

In fact, the state should increase water-monitoring efforts to more accurately identify sources of pollution. There are dozens of properties within each drainage basin, so the state should add monitors to pinpoint which property owners are out of compliance with the standards.

If the state does all of that and water pollution still exceeds acceptable limits, then it might be necessary to consider more stringent standards.

It doesn't seem like we're at that point yet, however. The standards in place might work if they were actually being followed. We won't know that for sure until the state develops a more rigorous inspection and enforcement routine.

Along the Treasure Coast, water quality seems like a nonpartisan issue. Elected officials from both major parties seem to understand how important clean water is to our local economy and way of life.

Understanding is meaningless, though, unless it leads to action. The time for action is now.

Editorials published by TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers are decided collectively by its editorial board. To respond to this editorial with a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.