There is a reason that our DEP and our water management districts continually choose to protect industry instead of the environment, all the while pretending to do the opposite.  That reason is explained here in Bonasia’s article:  industry [money] controls our elected representatives in Tallahassee.

There is little we can do about this except  inserting our right to clean water into our state constitution.  We have that chance on our next state ballot, and that is the amendment for clean water.

Read the original article here in the Tampa Bay Times.

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

Montana’s lesson for Florida’s future

RED HUBER | South Florida Sun Sentinel  September 1, 2023
BY JOSEPH BONASIA
Guest Columnist

Some good climate news for a change: A Montana judge has ruled as
unconstitutional a Montana law that prohibited state agencies from
considering environmental impacts when weighing permits allowing the
release of greenhouse gases.

There have been other climate cases in the U.S. brought by young people
who don’t want to inherit a dangerously damaged planet from their
parents. Those cases, so far, have been unsuccessful. This one, Held v.
State of Montana, is different, and there’s a lesson here for Floridians.

These young Americans, unlike those living in all but two other states,
Pennsylvania and New York, have a constitutional right to a “clean and
healthy environment” as declared in a 1972 amendment to the Montana
Constitution. They asserted that the law in question violated that
right, and the judge agreed.

The state’s attorney had argued that the “issue at the core of this case
is a fundamental principle of separation of powers. The power of the
state ultimately resides with the people of Montana and the people of
Montana are most directly represented by their elected representatives
in the Montana Legislature.”

That was a disingenuous statement employed to protect special interests
who rig the political system in their favor and against the best
interests of the public and future generations.

That harmful policy was the law in Montana because the Legislature there
is “deeply entrenched with the fossil fuel industry.” Policy experts,
The Guardian reports, “say Montana officials have shaped state laws
around the financial interests of the energy companies.”

With this victory based on their constitutional environmental rights,
these young people have started to “untangle the fossil fuel industry’s
grip on local and state government” so they have a better chance of
inheriting a healthy planet.

Here in Florida, special interests have a similarly powerful grip on our
state government, and we suffer the consequences in the form of red
tides, blue-green algae blooms, fecal bacteria contamination,
disappearing seagrass and dead manatees.

We know the sugar industry pumps millions of dollars into campaign
coffers, and then the Legislature passes industry-friendly laws.

We know the sprawl industry had much to do with the notorious “sprawl
bill” passed by the Legislature and recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

We know the fertilizer industry had much to do with the recent ban on
fertilizer bans.

Floridians know this, but we have not been successful in overcoming the
stranglehold these industries have on our Legislature and the political
process. Here’s the lesson this Montana climate case offers Floridians:
With an amendment to our state constitution establishing a fundamental
“Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” for all Floridians, we could.

In his closing remarks to the court, the young Montanans’ attorney said
that it’s “worth remembering other times in our nation’s history when
the political process didn’t work to protect people’s basic human
rights. … Time and time again, the political will of powerful majorities
was struck down by courts, based on the compelling evidence before them,
courageously correcting the injustices thrust on the people.”

In Florida, “all political power is inherent in the people.” That power
includes protecting ourselves when the political process isn’t working,
and regarding our waters, the process isn’t working. We need to fix it
with a constitutional right to clean water.

Approximately 900,000 signed petitions are needed to qualify the
proposed “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” amendment for the 2024
ballot. Registered voters can go to FloridaRightToCleanWater.org to
print, sign and mail the petition.

A constitutional right to clean water for all Floridians has never been
more important. Waterkeeper Emeritus John Cassani says this amendment
“may be the last meaningful opportunity to turn the tide on Florida’s
rapidly declining waters.”

Joseph Bonasia is communications director of
FloridaRightToCleanWater.org. This opinion piece was originally
published by the Fort Myers News-Press and distributed by The Invading
Sea website (theinvadingsea.com). The site posts news and commentary on
climate change and other environmental issues affecting Florida.