Anti-wetland, pro-sprawl bills are piling up in Tallahassee; how bad will it get this year?     Legislative session 2024: It's going to be a long two months Welcome to the good, the bad and the hideously ugly. The 2024 Florida Legislative session began Tuesday, Jan. 9, and continues through Friday, March 8. More than four dozen bills that could have an impact on clean water have been filed, and as we noted in a recent newsletter, the mantra this year seems to be: “Spend more money on clean-water projects so we can push through more dirty-water bills.” One particularly noxious pair of bills (HB 527/SB 664) seeks to pare back local wetlands protections. Others seek to expand the use of mitigation banking. But the big push this year — as was the case last year — comes from the “sprawl” industry; there’s a growing stack of bills designed to intimidate citizens and prevent environmental challenges, to curtail the power of local governments, and to push through as many residential building permits as quickly as possible. Our friends at Friends of the Everglades have the canonical rundown on their Legislative Accountability page, and check out this video from Tuesday’s livestream with Friends’ Executive Director Eve Samples and VoteWater Executive Director/Friends Policy Director Gil Smart on what to expect over the next two months. WATCH THE LIVESTREAM REPORT YOUR SUPPORT POWERS OUR WORK - PLEASE DONATE TO VOTEWATER!   Lake O: Going up  We’re getting even more worried. Even before the major storms that pushed through the state Tuesday and Wednesday, Lake Okeechobee was rising again. It stood at 16 feet on Monday, Jan. 8; and with little hope for an extended drying-out period on the immediate horizon, it seems inevitable we’ll see damaging discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned. Why do YOU Vote Water? Lots of us have personal stories as to why we "Vote Water." Maybe you grew up on the water and have been dismayed watching the decline. Maybe you — like VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart — came to Florida with the idea you were moving to paradise, only to discover how troubled paradise really was once you got here. Or maybe you just can't understand how policy-makers can keep inflicting ever-more injury on Florida's waterways, among the state's biggest economic drivers and wellspring of our storied "quality of life." Whatever your story, we want to hear it! Post it to your social media account and tag us, or send it to us directly, and we'll share it with the clean-water community! Rolling Stone magazine reports on sugarcane burning Rolling Stone magazine just published a massive and damning report on Big Sugar’s practice burning of the cane fields prior to harvest, interviewing residents of the Glades and tribal communities and astutely observing that “the industry’s foothold in the center of the historic Everglades that begins north of Lake Okeechobee and stretches south to the Gulf of Mexico makes it a principal impediment to Everglades restoration.” Bingo. The more the media reports on the burning of the cane fields, the more people realize what an environmental injustice it is. And the worse Big Sugar looks. Maybe one day they'll figure out that the "black snow" is giving them a black eye. READ THE ROLLING STONE REPORT BECOME A MEMBER DONATE VoteWater 3727 SE Ocean Blvd Suite 200-A Stuart, FL 34996 | (772) 212-2939 VoteWater | 3727 SE Ocean Blvd, Suite 200-A, Stuart, FL 34996 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!