Introducing the Lake O discharge ticker: Tracking the devastation

It's been 19 days since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers threw open the floodgates and started pounding the St. Lucie, Caloosahatchee and Lake Worth Lagoon with discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

Our blue waters have turned brown. Salinity levels have plummeted. Silt and sediment is covering seagrasses, the turbidity shading out the light. It's a full-blown ecological crisis.

But with few exceptions, state lawmakers representing affected districts have said nothing. They should be outraged, like their constituents; they're not. You should call them up and ask why – see the links below in the last item.

Stay angry. Make noise. And eventually they'll have to listen.

March 21 in Sewall's Point: Got questions about the discharges? We've got answers

VoteWater will host a Town Hall meeting on the discharges Thursday, March 21, from 6-8 p.m. at Sewall’s Point Town Hall, 1 S. Sewalls Point Rd, Sewall’s Point, FL 34996. The free, nonpartisan community event will feature a history of the discharges, the ecological and economic impacts, current efforts to address the problem and a discussion of what more can be done.

A panel discussion will feature VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart; Senior Editor and former Publisher of Florida Sportsman Blair Wickstrom; and Sewall’s Point native/local attorney Todd Thurlow, who runs the “Eye on Lake O” website.

No need to RSVP – just be there!

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Deep Dive: If we build a reservoir north of Lake O, who gets the water?

You won't believe this – wait, maybe you will.

There's talk of building a reservoir north of Lake Okeechobee, and virtually everyone thinks it's a good idea. But some could benefit more than others.

Which means, there's disagreement over who will have first dibs on the reservoir capacity. Will it be the Seminoles, who have a legitimate claim? Will it be the environment, which would benefit immensely from more water storage?

Or will it be Big Sugar, which wants the water as an insurance policy just in case they need it to irrigate the vast sugarcane fields south of Lake O?

Check out our latest "Deep Dive" for the story – and the consequences of the ultimate decision.

READ THE DEEP DIVE REPORT

Toby Overdorf's polluter-friendly bill down to the wire in Tallahassee

As we mentioned last week, a legislative proposal that started out terrible, got amended but remained bad was moving in Tallahassee, perhaps goosed along by $109,000 in campaign checks doled out by phosphate mining giant Mosaic, which could benefit from the proposal.

This pair of bills would protect polluters from personal injury or economic damage lawsuits where the polluter has a permit for a discharge or spill. The Senate version, SB 738, already passed; but the House version, HB 789, is stalled as of this writing.

HB 789 was sponsored by Rep. Toby Overdorf of the Treasure Coast — whose political committee, Heavens to Oceans, got $5,000 from Mosaic a month after he filed the bill.

Last week our friends at Friends of the Everglades and Captains for Clean Water mobilized against HB 789, generating thousands of phone calls and emails to legislators, telling them to vote "no" or suggesting the House shouldn't even hear the bill in the first place.

This may have derailed the proposal — but we need to keep the pressure on just in case!

Below find links to the names and contact info of state legislators in southeast and southwest Florida. Call your state Representatives or send an email asking them to vote "no" if HB 789 gets a vote — or is grafted onto another bill as an amendment.

Let's kill this "toxic spill bill" dead — which it so richly deserves.

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