You might have seen the news last week that Florida DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton was stepping down; he’ll be replaced by Alexis Lambert, chief of staff of the state’s division of bond finance since 2018.

There’s speculation that Hamilton’s departure is fallout from the aborted state parks development proposal; back in September we wondered why no one had been held accountable for that fiasco. Maybe this is that accountability.

While Hamilton was no crusader, he seemed generally amenable to the clean-water cause (which, in Florida, is sometimes the most you can expect). Lambert could be different. First, unlike Hamilton, she has no environmental background.

Second, she’s the daughter of the late Pete Antonacci, a longtime political “fixer” in Tallahassee who among other things served as Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District during one of its less “enlightened” periods.

So there’s reason to be wary of this change at FDEP. The agency plays a key role in regulating pollution — and its signature program, Basin Management Action Plans, are mostly failing to meet pollution-reduction goals. And, Gov. DeSantis has publicly stated that the aborted parks plan will be back; Lambert will ride herd over that process — and perhaps she was brought in for that very purpose.

Bottom line, it’s hard to know exactly what to expect from Lambert’s appointment. So we’ll be watching closely, and we’ll keep you in the loop.