This may be our best hope in turning around the state-sponsored killing of our rivers, springs, aquifer and wetlands. The normal protections are not working in Florida.
As Carl Deigart says below: “Only those who currently benefit from a broken system, at our expense, at our loss, will be against this.”
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
Read the original article with photos here at NewsPress.
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
Do Floridians have a right to clean water? Advocates working to change the state constitution
Amy Bennett WilliamsFree speech, religion, assembly, work: Many Floridians know those rights are guarantees by their federal and state constitutions. But the right to clean water? Nowhere to be found.
A group of clean water advocates is working to change that.
On Thursday, they announced a drive to get the “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” added as a state constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. To qualify, the amendment needs 891,589 signed and verified petitions.
“Everybody deserves the right to clean water,” says organizer Joe Bonasia. “We do not currently have it.”
He realizes that may come as a surprise, but it’s true, Bonasia says. And that’s why an amendment is needed, he says.
Bonasia says the amendment would kick in to cover things like wanton mangrove clearing, chronically polluted public waters and wetland destruction.
Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani says there’s an acute need for such a remedy, since the existing system, under which the state has seen massive cyanobacteria blooms, lingering red tides and an ever-expanding list of troubled waters in recent years, is not getting the job done.
In 2010, there were 2,300 miles of polluted rivers and streams in Florida, Cassani says. By 2020, it was 9,000 miles. “It’s increased by a factor of four in just one decade,” Cassani said. “It’s not just failing, it’s getting worse faster.”
“It’s unsustainable, and it’s going to get worse in the context of human health … The current legal framework that interprets state and federal laws is not making a difference in restoring our waters,” Cassani said. “We need something else. We need something that isn’t subject to interpretation by a politicized magistrate.”
Despite the common belief that federal legislation like the 1972 federal Clean Water Act offers such protections, “There’s nothing in the Clean Water Act that guarantees Americans the right to clean water,” Bonasia said.
“Guarantee is the key word,” Cassani says. “The Clean Water Act uses terms like ‘maximum extent practical” and “reasonable and beneficial,’ says, which leaves it to judges to interpret laws. “What does maximum mean? What is reasonable?” Cassani asks. “That’s the basis of the concern and frustration. Even though the statutes and rules say, ‘This is how it’s to be,’ … or if it says right in the statute (violations) shouldn’t happen, they continue to happen. There’s no end to it.
“So if you can define those in terms of bringing an enforcement threshold, great, But this will bring a clearer threshold in how we can get to the rights. Rights offer the higher protection.”
Citizens in other states like Pennsylvania and Montana have tried similar measures, and so far, Bonasia says, they seem to be working. For example, in the Adirondack Mountains, hundreds of lakes were destroyed by acid rain, Bonasia says. Though the attorneys general of those states argued for years and years, “The only thing that got that changed was when they sued the EPA for not enforcing standards of the Clean Air Act,” he said. “This would be like that.”
But Deigert thinks that because this is a concern for everyone, support should be broad. “Clean water is one of the few issues everyone can link arms about, spanning party lines, as it affects all of us, in so many different aspects of our lives in Florida. Only those who currently benefit from a broken system, at our expense, at our loss, will be against this.”
Learn more, sign on
Volunteer, donate, download the petition at FloridaRightToCleanWater.org. Donations can be mailed to the FloridaRightToCleanWater.org political committee, 13300 S. Cleveland Ave, Suite 56, Fort Myers, 33907.
