Dear Editor:

Your story, regarding canal runoff adding to ocean pollution by John Fine, addresses an important topic about the need to clean and save a lot of water in South Florida that currently is dumped to the ocean. But, the story misleads the public in implying that sugar farmers in Western Palm Beach County are a major culprit in ocean pollution.

The water management system is designed to send farm water south into the Everglades not east to the Atlantic Ocean. Runoff from urban areas east of the Everglades is drained into the ocean, not sugar farm runoff. However, even if farm water were sent to tide, it would be cleaner than the current runoff from the cities. Phosphorus levels in water leaving the farm have averaged about 100 parts per billion (ppb) as compared to urban runoff from the Boynton/Delray area that averages over 250 ppb.

Farmers have dramatically reduced phosphorus levels using new on-farm water management practices and we have helped fund a series of filter marshes constructed by the Water Management District that further clean storm water before it moves into the Everglades system. In August, the District announced that phosphorus leaving sugar farms had been reduced by 55 percent. It was the fifth straight year that the farmers had exceeded the 25 percent reductions required by the 1994 Everglades Forever Act.

As for Florida Bay, the consensus among the scientific community has long been that water from the Everglades Agricultural Area plays no role in Florida Bay’s problems. Dr. Ron Jones of Florida International University, who gave expert witness testimony on the issue to the U.S. Justice Department in 1993 said, "There is no evidence that anthropogenic nutrients, especially phosphorus, are entering Florida Bay from the agricultural and municipal areas to the North."

Dick Pettigrew, in 1995 as chairman of the Governor’s Commission For a Sustainable South Florida, said of the EAA farms, "There’s a lot of false information out in the public. We need to put it to rest. That’s not the problem impacting Florida Bay."

While the mainstream scientific community as a whole has embraced and supported these findings, there are a few scientists who continue to espouse opposing and counter-productive opinions. Farmers continue to have to respond to misinformation from those who seem to be more interested in demonizing agriculture than in solving real problems. It is time to move on. Working together and basing decision-making on sound science will best serve the environment in South Florida.