We are sorry to see John Cassani leave his post as Calusa Waterkeeper, but we appreciate all his work during his tenure. The state’s waterkeepers are a hardworking dedicated group who has no easy job.
They are spokespersons for our springs and rivers and are often on the front lines of the thankless job of defending our water resources which the State of Florida is so bound and determined to allow to be destroyed by developers, agriculture, water bottlers and any business who happens to want to pollute or suck up our water for personal gain.
The waterkeepers try their best to do the job the state should be doing with its horrible lack of leadership in protecting what will not be regained, once totally destroyed. And that is the path Florida is on.
Read the complete article with photos and video here at WINKNews.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Calusa Waterkeeper to retire after decades defending clean SWFL water
Cassani has been the face of the region’s water for years. Whether you’re talking about issues of fecal matter in Billy’s Creek, blue-green algae in the canals, or red tide near Sanibel, John Cassani has always been part of the conversation. Few people have been more passionate about protecting our waterways, making it his decadeslong mission to defend our right to drinkable, fishable, and swimmable waters.
Cassani says he discovered this passion at a young age.
“My parents, you know, we’d go fishing on weekends, chase frogs, and my dad owned a sporting garden, just co-owner with his brother in a sporting goods store,” Cassani said.
Many of his most memorable moments happened on or near the water, like proposing to his wife and raising his own children.
“With my son, kayak fishing on upper Pine Island Sound… memories I’ll never forget,” Cassani said.
And Cassani hopes others will be able to share similar memories with their families That’s why he has spent around the last 45 years working as an environmental advocate and water resources manager.
“I have to tell you, I’ve witnessed a lot of change over that period of time, more than four decades, and it hasn’t all been good,” Cassani said. “Right now, at this point in time. So discouraging. We’re right on the cliff edge, if you will, of losing it in a big way.”
As his retirement looms, Cassani shared what he considers the biggest water worries in Southwest Florida.
“I would point to a statewide issue where nutrient-impaired streams have increased by a factor of four since 2010; that’s the state’s own data from their integrated water quality report,” Cassani said. “That’s staggering. A fourfold increase in the miles of rivers and streams impaired for nutrients. It’s similar for fecal bacteria as well. So, those are just two parameters.”
Despite having a restoration program since 2012, Cassani says the Caloosahatchee River has seen a 77% increase in pollutant nitrogen over the last decade. Restoration and conservation are important, but to him, it is more important to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place.
“We used to have an algae bloom in the river, a big bloom, maybe once a decade; now, it’s every two or three years, requiring states of emergency by the executive branch to deal with this issue. And the same thing is happening with red tide: We’re seeing increased frequency and duration of red tide events since the 1950s,” Cassani said. “I hate to see wildlife and habitat decline so much, where manatees are starving, we’re not seeing the butterflies. We’re not seeing the insects, the bees, and things that we saw as little as 20 years ago.”
He does credit local environmental programs with providing some measure of help and acknowledges that people’s desire to live in Florida has to do with some of the issues.
“I think the biggest shift in the evolution on water policy in Florida has been overwhelmingly influenced by special interests,” Cassani said. “So, it’s easy to get frustrated; it’s easy to get burned out, being a water resource advocate in Florida. But what keeps us going is how spectacular resources were and to some degree still are today.”
Cassani plans to retire as soon as his replacement is lined up.
