EST PALM BEACH — For decades, dairy and cattle farms dotted Lake Okeechobee's northern shores, a water-rich region long polluted by some of the most intensive agriculture in the state.

Between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s, concentrations of farm-based nutrients entering the lake increased nearly three-fold, resulting in water quality declines and diminished freshwater habitats. A 30,000-ton blob of phosphorus-laden muck still sits at the bottom of the nation's second largest freshwater lake, continually polluting the entire Everglades ecosystem.

But after a state-sanctioned buyout plan in 1986, during which 32 of the region's 51 dairies took their cows and left the area, water quality in the region began to stabilize, environmental experts say.

Unfortunately for North Central Florida, the legacy those farmers left behind may now be influencing water quality in the greater Suwannee River region.

It is unclear how many Okeechobee-based farmers stayed in business after the state's relocation plan. Hines Boyd, director of the state's dairy division, said many closed their doors, leaving the business after years of declining milk prices.

Of the farmers that remained viable, one may have moved to Georgia, Boyd said. Another was reported to have tried locating near the underground river that feeds the Ichetucknee Springs, though that plan was later abandoned after vocal resident protest.

None moved anywhere near Gainesville, Boyd said.

Still, coincidence or not, as dairies were leaving the Okeechobee area in the late 1980s, farm numbers and cow populations in some Suwannee River counties were slowly climbing, state and federal agriculture data show.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, Suwannee County dairies climbed by three between 1987 and 1992, to 36, while total cow numbers spiked by nearly 2,500, to 5,900.

Dairy experts say the data show that while North Florida farm numbers remained relatively constant during the Okeechobee buyout, their sizes began to mushroom.

Lafayette County also saw a similar trend, with farm numbers increasing by seven to 42, and cattle numbers climbing by 1,800, to 11,700.

Total operations in Gilchrist during the five years immediately after the buyout declined, though cattle numbers jumped by 1,500.

By contrast, dairies in Okeechobee County shrunk by 13 during the same period, to 30; Cattle numbers declined, to 36,000 from nearly 45,000.

While the North Florida surge in cows likely brought economic vitality to a rural region of the state, it also helped increase nutrient pollution in the Suwannee and surrounding rivers, some environmentalists say.

"I think what we suffered was an absence of understanding," said Svenn Lindskold, past president of the Bell-based Save Our Suwannee and a vocal supporter of increased dairy industry regulations. Fifty years ago, when farms in North Florida were still small, "nitrates could be dealt with."

Nitrates, like phosphorus, are by-products of human and animal waste, fertilizers and other sources. Necessary for sustaining life, an abundance of the nutrients can kill native plants and fish, and lead to declines in overall water quality.

In a recent study, the Suwannee River Water Management District reported that 4,485 tons of nitrate nitrogen entered the Gulf of Mexico via the Suwannee River in 2003, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. Experts say dairy farms are just one of many sources contributing nitrates to the Suwannee River Basin.

But when the large, concentrated operations began popping up in North Florida following the Okeechobee buyout, "I think the system just got overwhelmed," Lindskold said.

To be sure, Okeechobee County remains the state's cow population leader in an industry that is shrinking annually. In 2003, 31,000 milking cows were counted by the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service, 2.2 times more than any other county.

Still, state data show North Florida counties continue to maintain or increase their total cow numbers, even while the number of farms decreases elsewhere. The trend suggests concentrated dairy operations have found a home in the Suwannee River Basin.

Florida's "large dairies started to spring up around that (buyout) time in the area northwest of Gainesville," Boyd said during a recent telephone interview. "Was it the same cows? I don't know."

While Boyd and other dairy experts say they can't be sure the state dairy shift was a direct result of the Okeechobee relocation plan, the reasons for the exodus from Central Florida, and subsequent surge in the Suwannee Basin, are closely linked.

For one, land use prices and growth in South Florida began increasing pressures on rural property owners beginning in the mid-1980s, experts say. At the same time, land prices in North Florida remained low, with few neighbors to complain about animal waste or offensives smells.

More significant, however, were environmental regulations imposed on farmers by state regulators.

"Those dairies were going to be required to put in some very expensive environmental protection systems," said Art Darling, executive director of the Sunshine State Milk Producers, an industry lobbying group.

"In Okeechobee, you had very heavy regulations, so a number of them took the opportunity to get out."

Like Boyd, Darling said he was not aware of any farms moving north after the state buyout plan. The geographic shift in the state's dairy industry toward Gainesville was natural, he said, because North Florida "is a significant agricultural area, so that's where they will just be."

But others say they worry Florida regulators in 1986 simply removed an environmental problem from one area of the state and sent it to another, without thinking how the consequences would impact natural systems down the road.

"How do you produce milk in an environmentally sensitive manner and still create an economically viable product?" asked Mark Clark, a professor of soil and water science at the University of Florida who has worked closely with farmers in the Okeechobee Basin.

"As you put more pressure on agricultural interests and their ability to produce an economically viable product, you often push them out of areas that have higher environmental concerns."

The dairy industry, Clark added, "will get shifted around until the
agricultural interests can find some way for the economic compensations to deal with the environmental implications."

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