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Warning: Contaminated Water

The Cycle of Crap Punishing Florida’s Waterways and Taxpayers

March 29, 2018

Last week we made fun of the connection between sewage, politics, and industry in Florida. It’s one way to cope with the cycle we’ve been stuck in, where three institutional forces survive and thrive by literally crapping on the public: Florida’s…

Is this the future of Miami's drinking water?

Oh, the Places Poo Will Go: Florida’s Toilet-to-Tap Law, in Rhyme

March 22, 2018

Of all the anti-clean water legislation that Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott can sign into law this week, none tops the “toilet-to-tap” bill allowing treated sewage to be injected into the Biscayne aquifer–Miami-Dade’s water supply. We owe Dr. Seuss an apology for…

St. Lucie Sunrise. Photo by Kristof Reuther.

So, Are We For or Against the Everglades Reservoir?

March 15, 2018

This question, swirling around Everglades policy circles all winter, touched off a string of debate-club arguments that left everyone confused and divided. Which is exactly what it was supposed to do. It’s a dishonest question, asked mostly by people who…

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Mosquito Lagoon Guide Calls it Quits, In Face of Ecosystem Collapse

March 15, 2018

Long-time Mosquito Lagoon guide, Billy Rotne recently found himself faced with a choice of moral and financial significance: Continue adding pressure to a system in peril, risking shared responsibility for its fast-increasing decline, or walk away from a cherished location…

Dead zones and hypoxia are taking a massive toll on Chesapeake Bay fisheries

Coastal Conservationists, We’re On Our Own

March 12, 2018

Tony Friedrich has a warning for Florida fisherman: No one has your back. Friedrich has spent the better part of his life fighting a mostly uphill battle over the Chesapeake. He has watched a national treasure slowly degrade and coastal…

Indian River Afternoon. Photo by Kristof Reuther.

The Dirty Politics of Clean Water

March 7, 2018

Karl Wickstrom, founder of Florida Sportsman, was a champion of clean water before most of us knew we needed to fight for it. He’s heard enough empty political promises to recognize the tricks, and he knew right away where the…

Dead grassflats scoured bare by discharges to the St. Lucie River. Photo by Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch

Time for Sugar to Clean Up its Own Pollution?

March 1, 2018

Mark Perry of Florida Oceanographic Society says this all better than we could. Scientists estimate that the Everglades reservoir plan needs another 6,500 acres to work properly, and the sugar industry warns any expansion better come from public land. This is after…

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Scientists Grade the Everglades Reservoir Plan: F

February 22, 2018

It doesn’t work. The first scientific evaluations of Florida’s EAA reservoir plan were publicly released last week, and the findings are bleak: it can’t operate at full capacity without violating pollution standards. But it wouldn’t take much to fix it.…

The Everglades flooded in 2017 while neighboring sugarcane fields stayed dry

Who Paid the Price for Sugar’s Record Year?

February 15, 2018

Florida’s sugar industry just posted one of the best years in its history, even as the Everglades and virtually everyone in South Florida suffered one of the worst. It’s not a coincidence. Managing water in Florida means picking winners and…

State water managers couldn't find enough public land to expand the EAA reservoir plan. Can you?

SFWMD Can’t Find More Public Land. It’s Up to Us.

February 9, 2018

The map below might be the best possible illustration of how little the public–taxpayers and voters–matter to the people who control our water. This afternoon the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) board unofficially rubber-stamped a weak plan to send a little…

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