Four Decades
Florida Currents
Don't sit on the sidelines
We all want an efficient, streamlined government, but we also need to have balance to ensure we don't dismantle or disregard key public health and environmental protections. Florida's economy and our residents depend on having clean and safe water. Today, at all levels of government we are seeing an attack on water quality protections. At the state and federal level attempts are being made to gut fundamental water quality laws that protect our residents.
Governor Rick Scott's assault on Florida's economy, residents' quality of life
Rick Scott has been Florida's Governor for less than one year but the
damage being done under his leadership will impact our state for
generations to come. Scott's campaign mantra was "job creation", but in
reality Governor Scott's policies are starving the state instead of
investing in it. Florida's overall economic stability, public health and
environmental protections are at risk.
Florida's dirty habit: nutrient pollution
Water Quality at Risk
Blue-green algal blooms are popping up across Florida's waterways and causing a big stink for residents and tourists. Nutrient pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous are invading Florida's waterways and causing these dangerous outbreaks. Toxic algae has a foul smell and can cause serious harm to humans and animals alike, not to mention cause devastating impacts to our state's critical fishing and tourism economies.
Polluted Water
These pollutants come from urban and industrial sources, and heavily-used fertilizers and pesticides are the culprits. Residents, agricultural operations, large-scale industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants all send untreated pollution into our rivers and streams.
Over the years, high nitrogen and phosphorus levels have had devastating impacts on Florida's commercial fishing economy, which is among the most profitable in the nation. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that commercial fishing alone generates $5.6 billion in in-state sales and creates over 108,000 Florida jobs annually. However, this success depends directly on healthy fish populations. Over the past five years, dangerous algal blooms have led to inedible fish populations in the St. Johns, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, causing fishing industries to shut down entirely for months at a time. Florida's residents cannot continue to sustain this loss of revenue and jobs due to unregulated pollution.
community focus:
Rock Mining in Palm Beach County
Rock mining can have devastating long-term consequences on Palm Beach CountyÕs water supply. The practice involves blasting as far as 60 feet deep into the underlying porous aquifer that provides water for the entire County. The blasting is facilitated through use of dangerous chemicals and the depth of excavation can cause detrimental impacts to the sensitive flow of ground and surface waters, contaminating our drinking water supply and causing environmental and economic regional harm.Economy of the Everglades
Restoring America's Everglades will do more than restore Florida's environment, it will also bolster our economy. A study commissioned by the Everglades Foundation reported that every dollar committed to Everglades restoration will yield a $4 return on investment. In total, this could amount to up $46.5 billion in gains to Florida's economy and the creation of more than 440,000 jobs over the next fifty years.
Floridian's voting rights:
Under attack
Clean Water Action believes that democracy should work for all. The
voting rights of Florida's citizens are again under attack. In May,
Governor Scott signed HB 1355, a politically motivated bill that makes
it harder for minorities, college students, and low-income Floridians to
register and vote.
Wanted: Water!
Water conservation should always be a priority for Floridians, but especially during this year as we have experienced a drastic and extended dry season. Over the past few months, Florida has seen record rainfall deficits and extreme dry surface conditions. Scientists reported detrimental impacts to our environment and water resources, and these impacts extend to residents and businesses even into the wet season.
Clean energy economy for the Everglades?
Wind Capital Group is hoping to invest in a clean energy future for South Florida with its proposal to construct a wind farm in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) south of Lake Okeechobee. The St. Louis-based company hopes to build Florida's first wind farm, which would produce the estimated energy equivalent of more than 500,000 barrels of oil each year. The project is also estimated to bring 250-300 construction jobs to the struggling Belle Glade community.
congress &
the environment
Some of the most important issues facing the environment in U.S. Congress this year are efforts to block implementation of, or even reverse, laws protecting public health and natural resources.
Recently the "Dirty Water Caucus" has emerged in the House of Representatives. Members of this caucus introduced and passed a bill in the House that will gut the Clean Water Act. H.R. 2018, the "Dirty Water" bill is nothing short of a temper tantrum in writing. In addition to H.R. 201, H.R. 910 will loosen Global Warming protections and the dozens of riders and amendments attached to various spending bills will severely limit our ability to protect our environment and the health of our communities.
To help you understand what these bills and amendments mean for our environment and our health, Clean Water Action has analyzed the votes on 12 key bills - 10 from the H.R.1 debate in the winter as well as H.R. 2018 and H.R. 910 this summer.
water is fundamental
Dirty water kills. Dirty water kills fish in our rivers and streams. Dirty water can sicken people, killing the most vulnerable…the young, the old or those with other illnesses. And dirty water kills jobs in fishing, tourism and other recreational businesses…multi-billion dollar industries in the US.
It seems like some legislators have forgotten how important clean water is, and the sorry state of our nation’s water resources forty years ago that led to passage of the Clean Water Act.
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