Florida Water Quality

Florida’s waters will bear the scars of this legislative session

May 8, 2023

And so the 2023 Legislative Session has come to an end. Mercifully. Let’s be frank: It wasn’t a good year for clean water or Florida’s environment in general. While the Legislature did allot a record $1.1 billion for land acquisition…

Banning fertilizer bans: Dirty trick by Legislature will lead to dirtier water

May 3, 2023

Sneaky. Devious. Underhanded. Duplicitous. Can you think of a better word to describe the stunt just pulled by the Florida Legislature? We’d love to hear it — and we suggest you let THEM hear it, too. Tucked inside an “implementing…

A clean-water governor wouldn’t sign these dirty-water bills

March 30, 2023

So what’s it going to be, Gov. DeSantis? You’ve styled yourself as a Teddy Roosevelt-style Republican with an eye for conservation. And frankly, we appreciate the record funding you’ve helped secure for Everglades restoration and other water quality projects around…

VoteWater Deep Dive: Big Ag’s big pollution is a big problem for Florida

March 10, 2023

The question was simple, the answer complicated. But it needn’t have been. In late January Adam Blalock, Deputy Secretary for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, gave a presentation on water quality to the new House Water Quality, Supply and…

Will technology save us from toxic algae?

February 23, 2023

In a frightening 2009 article titled “Re-Engineering the Earth,” The Atlantic magazine predicted that as the impacts of climate change worsened, mankind would turn to technology for salvation. Perhaps we’ll pump pollutants into the sky, turning it a reddish-orange, to…

VoteWater Deep Dive: Why can’t we send more water south?

January 20, 2023

Because the system was designed to benefit Big Agriculture – at the expense of the northern estuaries It’s been a common refrain from angry citizens along the algae-clogged St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries for years: Send it south! And in…

Legislators have ‘unique opportunity’ with new Water Quality Subcommittee; but will they take it?

January 12, 2023

When it comes to water quality issues, we’re always leery of putting too much faith in the Florida Legislature. Time after time, we’ve watched bad bills sail on through. Proposals like last year’s Senate Bill 1000 (which will allow citrus…

Everglades restoration could fall short – here’s what to do about it

December 20, 2022

We hate to say, “We told you so.” But we told you so. For years, first as Bullsugar.org and now as VoteWater, we’ve advocated for two key points: We need more land south of Lake Okeechobee to store water and…

Florida needs new water quality standards — and they better be tough

December 15, 2022

How safe is it to eat fish caught in Florida waters? And how big of a threat are toxic pollutants to Floridians’ health? If it was still 1992, we might be wearing mullets, listening to “Achy Breaky Heart” and assuming…

VoteWater Deep Dive: What if the seagrass keeps dying?

December 12, 2022

The widespread die-off of seagrass in Florida ought to be front-page news. And last fall it was, as Gannett’s Florida Today issued a blockbuster report on how seagrass appears to be receding in every coastal corner of Florida, at levels…

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