Around the state

EPA sued over Florida water quality

TALLAHASSEE - Three environmental groups accused the federal government Thursday of breaching the Clean Water Act by failing to make Florida clean up more of its waterways.

The Clean Water Act requires states to maintain a list of all polluted waterways and a schedule for cleaning them. The Environmental Protection Agency signs off on states' lists, often requiring changes such as the addition of more waterways.

The Sierra Club, Save our Suwannee Inc. and the Florida Public Interest Research Group filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court. They claim the EPA violated the Clean Water Act by not stepping in when 161 polluted lakes and streams were left off Florida's list, approved in June.

Many of those waterways contain mercury, sewage, ammonia, or other toxic chemicals, the suit alleges.

The environmentalists also object to a provision that lets waterways be dropped from the list if pollution data are more than 7.5 years old, saying the lack of new data doesn't mean a problem is solved.

The EPA hadn't yet received the suit, agency spokeswoman Dawn Harris-Young said.

TALLAHASSEE - A couple sued the Special Olympics Thursday, claiming it should have conducted a more thorough background check on a volunteer who raped their disabled son.

Along with unspecified damages, the couple want to force the organization to adopt requirements for psychological testing and criminal background checks for any volunteer who is left alone with a child, their attorneys said.

The lawsuit was filed in Circuit Court in Gadsden County.

George "Tommy" Toole, 64, is serving a 30-year sentence for raping the couple's 14-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy, during a 2002 Special Olympics event in Tampa and on other occasions. The couple said they relied on the organization to conduct appropriate screenings of volunteers.

The organization last September settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a developmentally disabled woman who gave birth to the child of a coach. The family said the coach had a six-month sexual relationship with the woman.

SAN FRANCISCO - Trying to locate the owner of a newly arrived stray cat three weeks ago, workers in San Francisco's Department of Animal Care and Control couldn't believe what they found: It belonged to a woman in Bradenton, 3,000 miles away.

Pamela Edwards adopted the black, short-haired cat in the summer of 1997, naming it Cheyenne. A few months later, Cheyenne disappeared. Edwards got no response to fliers she posted and ads she ran in the local paper.

This month she got a call from her local shelter: Cheyenne was in San Francisco.

"I figured, there's no way," Edwards said. "I've never lived in San Francisco."

Someone found Cheyenne wandering down a San Francisco street April 1. Animal workers scanned her, found a microchip and traced her to Edwards. "Maybe she came here on vacation because she wanted to see the Wine Country, and decided to stick around because it's not so muggy," said Deb Campbell, spokeswoman for Animal Care.

BONITA SPRINGS - Fallout over last year's deadly fireworks explosion has prompted the city to cancel this year's display.

The City Council decided to scrap it Wednesday after officials couldn't find an acceptable location for the annual Independence Day display.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection denied the city a permit to have the display at the usual location at Lovers Key State Park. The agency said the park staff hasn't recovered from the trauma of the July 2 explosion that killed five workers from a St. Louis-area fireworks company.

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