Quite an apt title that Mr. Bonasia uses because our pollution laws are written by the polluters and passed by our Citizens United-elected legislators. An apt pair.
But a combination that is killing our springs and rivers.
Not surprising that the latest bill to take power away from the people and give it to our useless leaders in Tallahassee comes from the former agriculture vice-czar. We must support agriculture and make it sustainable, but currently this industry contributes much less to our economy than tourism, which they are bent on destroying by killing our springs and rivers with over-pumping and excessive fertilizer.
The point is that our Tallahassee leaders have no intention of preserving our springs, rivers and aquifer and not only that, they fight any attempt by the citizens to save them.
And that is why the right to clean water amendment is so critical to Florida; our water problems will definitely get worse unless the people do something about it.
Read the complete article here in the Orlando Sentinel.
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
Clean-water amendment would protect us from polluters — and legislators | Commentary
By Joseph Bonasia
Guest Columnist
Feb 16, 2023 at 2:50 pm
I had never seen anything like it when it comes to petition-gathering: volunteers hurriedly handing out multiple clipboards and clusters of six, seven and eight people intently signing petitions at the same time.
Over 1,600 registered Florida voters at a recent arts and crafts festival in Cape Coral signed petitions, wanting to qualify a “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” Constitutional Amendment for the 2024 ballot.
Democracy doesn’t get more democratic than this.
Joseph Bonasia is chair of Florida Rights of Nature Network.
Petitioning was “so cherished” in the 18th century, the American Bar Association says, that framers included a right to petition our government for the ‘”redress of grievances” in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights where our freedom of speech, religion, and assembly are also enshrined.
Non-partisan Freedom Forum states, “Many of the nation’s founders considered petitioning to be the most important First Amendment freedom, believing it would protect the rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution itself.” It is, they say, a way “to speak truth to power.”
Amending Florida’s Constitution should not be easy, of course, and it isn’t. By Nov. 30, 891,589 signed and verified petitions are needed to get the issue on the ballot. Once there, it will likely need millions of dollars to advertise the amendment and educate the public on what it will do. It’s a daunting challenge.
But the Florida Legislature may make that challenge more difficult still.
Currently, 60% of voters are needed to turn a proposed amendment into law, a threshold much higher than most other states, and 10% higher than it had been in Florida prior to 2006.
Now, however, HJR 129, “Requiring Broader Public Support for Constitutional Amendments or Revisions,” has been introduced in the Legislature by Rick Roth (R-Palm Beach), former vice president of the Florida Farm Bureau. It would require 66.67% of voters to pass the amendment.
Worse, this bill is part of a disturbing pattern on the part of our Legislature.
In 2020, tired of polluted water, 89% of Orange County residents passed their historic Rights of Nature/Right to Clean Water Charter amendment. Ignoring the will and clear mandate of the people and disregarding home rule principles, the Legislature preempted the authority of local governments to pass rights of nature laws and laws granting citizens “any specific rights relating to the natural environment not otherwise authorized in general law or specifically granted in the State Constitution.”
Legislators were more interested in protecting special interests than in protecting Florida waters and the health, safety and welfare of citizens. Their preemption did what it was meant to do: it snuffed out similar local efforts elsewhere in Florida.
Trampling the will of the people and the public interest, it was this preemption that spawned the drive to amend our constitution with a “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters.”
In Florida, 80% of our approximate 1,000 springs are impaired. Nearly a million acres of estuaries and 9,000 miles of rivers and streams are contaminated with fecal bacteria. Seagrass beds are nearly in a death spiral, which is a primary reason why manatees have recently died in record numbers….
We have grievances with our government that need redressing: an environmental regulatory system that fails to protect us and Florida waters, and the preemption of local government authority to provide adequate environmental protections in light of that failure.
Exercise your First Amendment right. Speak truth to power. Go to FloridaRightToCleanWater.org to sign and mail the petition.
Joseph Bonasia is Chair of the Florida Rights of Nature Network.
“The Invading Sea” is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.
