ob Piechocki doesn't always see eye to eye with state clean-water regulators.

As a Dixie County dairyman with 1,100 cows, Piechocki says he's been dealt his share of Department of Environmental Protection mandates during his eight years of operation.

And he doesn't need any more.

But since last month, after a small coalition of environmental groups successfully challenged Florida's approach to dairy permitting, poking holes in the effectiveness of a popular voluntary compliance program, farmers like Piechocki have found themselves on unfamiliar ground — actually agreeing with Tallahassee on a water-related issue.

"Farmers themselves want to be good stewards of the land," Piechocki said Wednesday as he steered his John Deere utility vehicle past concrete animal waste pits at Oak Grove Dairy Inc., east of State Road 349. "All the groundwater that we drink, and the cattle drink, has to be pure water."

Echoing the sentiments of state environmental officials, he added: "If a guy is legitimately polluting, there's something to fight over. But if they're doing a good job, why are you fighting them?"

At issue is the legality of a voluntary program state and local officials say has helped North Florida dairies better manage their pollution while keeping the cost to farmers manageable.

Known as the Suwannee River Partnership, the loosely knit coalition of 46 government agencies, farmers and water quality experts formed in 1999 with a single environmental mission: lowering the then-ballooning nutrient levels in the Middle Suwannee River basin, which stretches from Ellaville to Branford.

A by-product of animal waste and fertilizers, nitrates and other nutrients released by dairy, poultry and row-crop operations were widely believed to be causing significant declines in fish stocks and native vegetation. In the Suwannee River, for example, nearly 3,000 tons of nitrate-nitrogen was deposited into the Gulf of Mexico in 2002, nutrients that have been tied to out-of-control algae growth and fish kills.

While no one can say for certain how much of the basin's nitrates are from agriculture, farming is a likely culprit, experts say. In response, members of the Suwannee partnership agreed to limit the release of habitat-altering chemicals into the environment, a non-regulatory shift in farming methods all sides said they could agree on.

Pollution problems

To date, more than 86 percent of dairy operations and 95 percent of poultry operations in the Suwannee River Basin have conservation plans in various stages of completion, including the installation of cement-lined lagoons for the storage of animal waste, improved manure application strategies, and other measures.

But during the first five years of the partnership's existence — a period of growth that saw the addition of 22 new members and $12.3 million in funding — nitrate levels steadily increased in the basin, Suwannee River Water Management District data show.

In fact, district officials say they have watched nitrate levels rise steadily in the basin for more than a decade.

The increase, partnership critics contend, is evidence that stronger state action is needed to protect the region's waterways.

"The Suwannee River Partnership would probably like to hang me," said Svenn Lindskold, former president of the environmental advocacy group Save Our Suwannee, and a longtime critic of the partnership. "They've put so much time and energy into this program.

"But it's not working."

His argument has won the ear of at least one important regulatory body: a state judge.

In his ruling, Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. sided with Lindskold's Save Our Suwannee and three other petitioners — Manasota-88, the Conservation Alliance of St. Lucie County, and Linda Young, southeastern director of the Clean Water Network in Tallahassee — finding that the DEP had failed to require that large dairies obtain federal Clean Water Act permits.

In addition, Smith ruled that DEP had relied too heavily on voluntary compliance programs, specifically the Suwannee River Partnership, to protect state waters.

He ordered that the state's 50 or so dairies with more than 700 milking cows, as well as all dairies in the Suwannee River basin, immediately apply for federal pollution permits as required by the Clean Water Act. Once permitted, annual site visits by the state are conducted to ensure compliance.

"Judge Smith was loud and clear: Industry can't police itself," Young said. "Our state government has a duty to protect our waterways and our health, and it's a sad day when you have to go to court to force it to do its job."

'A slap in the face'

Dairy experts and partnership members, on the other hand, insist the dairy suit went too far, claiming that voluntary compliance and enforcement has been more effective than mandatory methods could ever have been.

"To say this program is not working is just a slap in the face to the Suwannee River Partnership, and the agricultural industry," said Art Darling, executive director of the Sunshine State Milk Producers, an industry lobbying group. "They have worked extremely hard and spent their own money to meet the requirements of the federal program."

According to Deena Wells, a DEP spokeswoman, most of the state's larger dairies are already operating under state industrial waste permits, which place strict guidelines on the handling of animal effluent.

In addition, Wells said the remaining 110 dairies with less than 700 cows are all undergoing assessments to determine whether they release animal waste to nearby waterways. If they do, each of those will also be required to apply for federal pollution discharge permits.

"We are disappointed in the judge's decision and respectfully disagree with the findings of the order," Wells said. "The department designed a comprehensive plan to quickly and effectively reduce pollution from animal feeding operations and improve water quality."

But the Suwannee River Partnership, which has the support of both state and federal governments, has attempted to go even further, members say. And last year, building on the partnership's work in the Suwannee, the organization even expanded to include all agricultural operations within the Santa Fe River Basin.

Had the state relied solely on federal permitting requirements, only the region's largest dairies would have been required to improve their farm's waste management practices, farmers and agriculture officials say.

"It really is counter-productive in that it has tied up a lot of the DEP's staff time," said Louis Shiver, a Suwannee River Water Management District governing board member and dairy farmer in Mayo. "And it creates a little bit of paranoia in the farming community. It's almost like the environmental groups don't think the DEP has people that know what's going on."

Piechocki, pulling his green Gator cart up to a feeding stall at his 450-acre farm on Wednesday, put it another way.

"DEP does nothing for the farmer other than regulate them," he said. "But the partnership, if they see a problem, they help the farmer work to solve it."

Greg Bruno can be reached at (352) 374-5026 or greg.bruno@gvillesun.com.