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Associated PressThe group fears an automatic fine agreement is just the "price of doing business," not true cleanup compliance.
TALLAHASSEE - Environmentalists are decrying a deal between the state and Tropicana Products that allows the company to pay a prearranged fine any time it violates state and national clean water standards.
Manasota 88, an environmental group with about 1,000 members in Manatee and Sarasota counties, wants an administrative law judge to overturn a consent order the state Department of Environmental Protection and Tropicana signed in March 2002.
The agreement called for Tropicana to meet state and federal water pollution standards by Monday or pay a $10,000 fine whenever its discharges into the Manatee River violate certain limits.
"To Tropicana it's nothing more than the price of doing business," said Glenn Compton, chairman of Manasota 88. "It allows them to continue polluting."
But DEP officials say the company has nearly stopped discharging polluted water into the river since it began storing wastewater in an underground well before the consent decree was signed.
"The best guaranteed option for eliminating the problem was what the company decided to do in going ahead and constructing the well," said Deborah Getzoff, director of district management for DEP's southwest district.
Manasota 88 argues that the agreement was kept secret, though, further leading it to question whether the pact was good for the environment. The deal was signed more than a year ago.
"We didn't have any information that Manasota 88 had an interest in the Tropicana plant," Getzoff said.
Tropicana spokeswoman Meghan Stout said the company is constructing a second well in case the first one is shut down.