A debate raging in Tallahassee, Fla., provides them with some tangible evidence -- of a less figurative nature -- of that charge, and critics say it could develop into the next national environmental issue President Bush is forced to confront.

In the past few weeks, Gov. Bush has been pushing hard for a controversial bill that would allow Florida water utilities to inject untreated water -- containing human and animal waste -- into underground water zones, or aquifers, which are near wells where drinking water is stored. The bill is expected to be signed by Bush in the coming weeks, after which his older brother's administration will have to rule on the matter. At that point, national environmental groups say, it could become another political problem for the president.

The debate, little noticed outside Florida, comes at an awkward time for the Bush brothers as the nation approaches the 31st anniversary of Earth Day. As reported in Wednesday's USA Today, in a rare moment of greenness, Jeb Bush is butting heads with Gale Norton, his brother's secretary of the interior, over the White House's plans to auction off 6 million acres of seabed in Florida (and also Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana) to oil and gas companies.

In broader terms, President Bush has been facing harsh criticism from the environmental community -- criticisms that seem to have taken hold in the zeitgeist. With poll numbers indicating that Americans, by a ratio of 2-to-1, think the Bush White House favors the interests of corporations over those of the American people, congressional Republicans met with Vice President Dick Cheney on April 4 to beseech the White House to work on correcting its anti-environment image.

These complaints follow Bush's broken campaign promise that he would work to reduce CO₂ emissions, his stated desire to permit oil exploration on environmentally protected land in Alaska and his reversal of a last-minute executive order by then President Clinton that would have reduced the amount of arsenic permitted in drinking water.

In a rather obvious attempt to combat these impressions, on Monday Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman announced that the Bush administration would not rescind a Clinton executive order protecting wetlands. On Tuesday Whitman came before the White House press corps to personally announce that the Bush administration would also not rescind a Clinton executive order expanding the disclosure requirements for companies that pump lead emissions into the environment.

That might be a short-term help once people learn of Jeb Bush's move to inject feces- and bacteria-laden water near drinking wells. The imagery could not be worse. And the story won't improve if it moves from the Jeb-dominated island of Tallasleazy to the late-night world of the political sound bite.

The move would save the state up to $400 million, proponents say, and would enable it to continue on schedule with its Everglades restoration program by allowing the state to pump this stored water through the Everglades during the dry season.

Such a move is unprecedented, critics counter, and the presence of bacteria in the region of the drinking water supply could put the population at risk. The untreated water would supposedly stay separate from the aquifer's drinking water supplies, which belong to homeowners or utilities. But, they ask, what happens if there's leakage?

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