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If this summer brings toxic algae blooms to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries, are state agencies ready, willing and able to find the toxins and quickly warn the public? The need for early detection of and warnings for toxic…
One down, one to go — and not in a good way. On May 24, after weeks of lobbying and email campaigns and public pleas by citizens and conservation groups seeking a veto, Gov. Ron DeSantis ignored it all and signed…
The Florida Legislature has taken a step to address one of the state’s nastiest and fastest-growing environmental problems. The problem is that this attempt to solve one problem may well create another. As the legislative session wound down last week,…
VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart was in the state capital of Tallahassee last week, speaking to key Florida legislators about clean-water issues and bills that are now under consideration in the state House and Senate. Alongside Friends of the Everglades…
Big Sugar just took it on the chin in court. But one of their central issues has yet to be fully addressed — and could have big implications for water storage south of Lake Okeechobee. In a March 21 ruling,…
Here’s an idea whose time has come. The key thing to realize about the system of drainage and water conveyance around Lake Okeechobee is that the system was built, and continues to be operated, to serve corporate agriculture – and…
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…
Is your local government spending too much time worrying about clean water? Are your city or county officials too concerned about blue-green algae or red tide? Are they overly obsessed with “nutrients,” spending too much time on dead seagrass or…
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Executive Order 23-06, issued Jan. 11, was a watershed moment in the history of Florida water politics — no pun intended. It laid out what DeSantis characterized as a sweeping agenda to clean up Florida’s troubled waters,…
Happy Holidays from VoteWater! Fighting for cleaner water in Florida is an uphill battle. It can be discouraging and infuriating. Our side doesn’t have the same money, the same number of lobbyists; the same influence in the capitol. But what…