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Seminole Tribe Wants Water Standards Delayed

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, the City of Miami and others are fighting Florida's controversial new water quality standards in court.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida, the City of Miami and others are fighting Florida's controversial new water quality standards in court.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida is asking an administrative law judge for more time to fight the state’s controversial new water quality standards.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, the City of Miami and others are fighting Florida's controversial new water quality standards in court.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida, the City of Miami and others are fighting Florida's controversial new water quality standards in court.

Tribe attorneys want Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter to temporarily block the state from forwarding the new standards to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for final review.

Their complaint was dismissed on technical grounds and the Seminoles say they need more time to appeal. Florida Clean Water Network Activist Linda Young applauds the move, saying her group is laying the groundwork for its own legal challenge.

“I’m still feeling pretty optimistic. I mean, it’s a long, arduous path, to trying to protect our water quality in Florida.”

The City of Miami is also challenging the standards. Meanwhile, the state says the new standards are perfectly safe, even though they allow higher concentrations of some cancer-causing chemicals.

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Jim Ash is a reporter at WFSU-FM. A Miami native, he is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience, most of it in print. He has been a member of the Florida Capital Press Corps since 1992.