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NAPLES — Environmental groups and the landscape maintenance industry are facing off over a rewrite of a Florida water quality manual.

Industry representatives say the rewrite by the state Department of Environmental Protection is meant to update a 2002 version of the manual with new science, but an environmental advocate is worried the industry will use the manual as a weapon against more restrictive fertilizer laws adopted by Southwest Florida cities and counties, including Naples, in the face of declining coastal water quality.

The rewrite process was too short and lacked input from water quality experts, Sierra Club regional representative Cris Costello said.

“It was misguided, suspect -- certainly suspect, and a sham,” she said.

An industry representative who led an effort to write the 2002 manual and worked on the 2008 rewrite said environmental groups and the industry agree on the need for clean water but disagree on how to get it.

“The document has really turned into more of a political document than what we originally imagined,” TruGreen regional technical manager Erica Santella said.

The DEP plans to publish the manual by the end of the year after “one last quickie review,” Bureau of Watershed Protection engineer Mike Thomas said.

“It’s pretty much finished,” he said.

Costello said the manual, called the 2008 Best Management Practices for Protection of Water Resources by the Green Industries, makes good changes to reflect the benefits of slow-release fertilizers and problems with fertilizer washing off driveways and sidewalks.

A key provision of local fertilizer laws, though, is missing: A ban on fertilizer during the rainy season between June and October.

Instead, the manual recommends not applying fertilizers when heavy rains are likely, defined as a 60 percent chance of 2 inches or more of rain falling in a 24-hour period.

The fertilizer ban is meant to keep nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from running off lawns and into canals, lakes and bays where they cause algae blooms.

Algae blooms, some of which can be toxic by themselves, also can cause fish kills when the algae die and suck oxygen out of the water.

The ban is the backbone of local fertilizer laws, including one the Naples City Council approved in March. It went into effect Oct. 1.

More than 750 workers representing 125 landscape companies have obtained the environmental certification the law requires to be able to do business in the city of Naples, according to city records.

Slow-release fertilizers applied before the rainy season, combined with nitrogen from grass clippings and atmospheric conditions, are enough to keep lawns healthy without degrading coastal water quality, said Jon Rosenthal, vice president of business development for slow-release fertilizer manufacturer Florikan, based in Sarasota.

“Florida can have its cake and eat it too,” Rosenthal said.

Santella, with TruGreen, said studies have shown that not fertilizing during the summer can cause root damage that leads to water quality problems associated with erosion.

She compared the argument in favor of slow-release fertilizer to the argument that the earth is flat: It seemed to make sense to early explorers sailing across the ocean, but science has proven otherwise.

“What may be intuitive may not be scientifically valid,” Santella said.

Costello said environmental groups are worried that the weaker rules in the revised water quality manual will become a statewide standard that would pre-empt more restrictive local laws.

Thomas, at the DEP, said the manual includes a disclaimer that it is not intended as a regulatory tool and that some parts of Florida might require more restrictive rules for good water quality.

“It’s designed to be a good baseline statewide,” he said. “Is it good for everybody? Probably not. Nothing ever is.”

Thomas defended the manual rewrite, which he said the DEP began about a year ago.

He said he solicited input by sending various drafts to a list of e-mail addresses cobbled together from old distribution lists.

Interest in the rewrite prompted an Aug. 18 meeting that included satellite hook-ups to six sites around the state, including Immokalee, as Tropical Storm Fay was bearing down on Florida.

Costello said she didn’t find out about the rewrite until the end of July.

“I must say there was method to their madness,” she said.

Thomas said he did not try to keep environmental groups out of the loop and that he, not industry representatives, had the final say on how to rewrite the manual.

“This was a DEP-driven process,” Thomas said.