The author is a scientist but you don’t have to be one to simply look at the records to see that the DEP, the Suwannee River Water Management Districts and the other districts are intentionally and knowingly failing to protect our springs, rivers and aquifers.
You can also simply look at the springs and rivers and see that year after year the levels are lower and the clarity is less. Your historian first began recreating on the Withlacoochee, Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers in 1977. They have changed considerably for the worse since then. The flow is down about 30 per cent or more, the levels are much lower because the license to harmfully pump called Minimum Flows and Levels constantly allows more to be pumped springs, rivers and aquifers.
So DeSantis’ and the DEP’s and the water management districts’ crowing about helping the environment is believed only by a naive non-thinking public which includes some water board members. Anyone willing to do a minimum of research knows better.
We see as the only solution to this sad situation the Right to Clean and Healthy Water amendment. Please participate in this endeavor to save what is left of our water resources, unique in the world.
Read the complete article here in the Tallahassee Democrat.
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
Ron DeSantis’s ‘New era of environmental stewardship’ | Opinion
As a scientist and life-long Florida environmentalist, I am appalled that the governor bragged in his inauguration speech that he has delivered a “new era of stewardship for Florida’s natural resources” when we have so many serious unresolved problems that hurt Floridians and our economy.
In 2022, Florida topped the list for the most polluted lakes (900,00 acres) in the U.S. according to a study by the Environmental Integrity Project using data from the Environmental Protection Agency. We ranked second in the number of acres of polluted estuaries. In 2019, Florida was second nationally in the number of people impacted by violations under the Safe Drinking Water Act according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Manatees are starving in the Indian River Lagoon because the state has not seriously addressed water quality problems, that were highlighted by the governor’s own Blue-Green Algae Task Force of scientists in 2019. The discharge of nitrogen laden water is killing seagrasses which manatees depend on for food.
The governor’s failed response to the climate crisis has been well noted. Florida is considered by many to be ground-zero for climate change impacts from rising seas, extreme heat to monster storms. Yet, he has done exactly zero to address the root cause of these problems, our rising carbon emissions. In fact, he is supporting the rogue industry that is causing the climate crisis by his aggressive opposition to the popular ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing. He is part of a nation-wide organized backlash on behalf of the fossil fuel industry to ESG investing. This is one more dangerous delaying tactic by the fossil fuel industry to keep us from solving the climate crisis.
Then there are the air quality emissions from the burning sugar cane fields. It is well established science that fires are a source of small particulate matter (PM2.5) that is linked to lung and other cancers, cardiopulmonary disease, and premature death. Florida State University researchers recently published in a peer reviewed journal that this seasonal burning is contributing to mortality rates within this region. Our governor signed a bill last year that limits lawsuits related to health impacts of air emissions from the burning of sugar cane.
Finally, there is his bragging about his work to restore the Florida Everglades. Don’t even get me started. Working to restore the Everglades does not mean that he is protecting Florida’s environment. It is only one part of Florida and last time I checked the restoration was heavily focused on providing drinking water and cleaning up Lake Okeechobee’s discharges that have been polluted by agriculture. Even so, I am not sure that he has done much to slow the amount of phosphorus flowing into Lake Okeechobee, which is a Class I drinking water body. Also, because of his failure and others to cut carbon emissions, the Everglades will be swamped by sea level rise.
There is more, but you get the drift. He isn’t seriously addressing Florida’s many environmental problems. He should stop focusing on ridding us of “faddish ideology” and get on with the business of protecting us from real world problems.
Governor, you need to “woke up” to Florida’s many environmental problems. If you want to brag about what Florida is first in, unfortunately, it is uncontrolled growth, climate change impacts and poor water quality. Please work on these and then maybe, you can claim to have delivered a new environmental era.
Pam McVety is a climate activist and retired scientist living in Tallahassee.
