Who's running for office this year? We've got the list (so far)

The Aug. 20 Florida primary election is less than four months away, you know.

Which brings to mind the classic movie line: My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

We’ve compiled the list of candidates running at the federal, state and county level for our eight-county south Florida region; the list can be found on our website (click this link). It includes congressional candidates, candidates for the Florida state House and Senate; and county commissioner candidates in St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier and Lee counties.

Where we could find campaign websites, we’ve linked them via the candidate’s name. The qualifying period for Congressional candidates ends this Friday, April 26; some of those currently on our list may not qualify, and we'll remove them if they don't. Meanwhile, the qualifying period for state Legislative races is June 10-14.

If we’ve missed the site for your favorite candidate, or if some of the links we’ve included are invalid, please let us know. Our list will be updated as new info becomes available.

Clean water, unfortunately, doesn’t seem too high on many candidates’ list of concerns this year. Abortion, recreational marijuana and other issues have dominated discussions so far. But rest assured, if we have another summer of toxic algae everyone will claim to be a big fan of clean water.

And to help you separate the contenders from the pretenders, in the coming weeks we'll poll candidates on clean-water issues, as we’ve done in the past, and link the results of those questionnaires on our site.

All the better to help you “vote water” and pick candidates who’ll prioritize the health of our fragile yet indispensable waterways!

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Bottom line, we need more STA capacity

In recent weeks we and our friends at Friends of the Everglades have been highlighting the need to fix Florida’s “rigged” system of water management which favors Big Sugar over all other stakeholders. Part of that has been our campaign to have the South Florida Water Management System take a new look at how the stormwater treatment areas (STAs) south of Lake Okeechobee are managed; we believe more capacity in the STAs must be reserved for water from the lake, to minimize the need for discharges to the coasts and to benefit the health of Lake O itself.

That, however, has generated pushback from Big Sugar and their shills, who argue the rules governing STA management are set in stone and can’t possibly be changed, and farmers are the backbone of this country, and why aren’t we advocating instead for this, that and the other thing.

None of it changes the bottom line: We need more STA capacity for lake water, period.

That can come in one of two forms: We could reserve capacity in the existing STAs for lake water, as we've advocated.

Or, as we’ve also advocated, the state could acquire additional land in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) to build more STAs, where water from the lake will get first dibs.

Yes, the EAA Reservoir now under construction will provide some of this capacity — ideally, if everything works as advertised — but while it might be enough to reduce discharges, it won't be enough to guarantee damaging discharges to the coasts become a thing of the past.

And that is ultimately what the State of Florida and the federal government itself must be striving for: To make damaging discharges a thing of the past. Those discharges inflict harm on ecosystems, on marine life, and where toxic blue-green algae is present, on pets and people.

Our governments must not be in the business of inflicting harm on communities and citizens. But here we are. It must end.

And the only way it ends is via more STA capacity for water from the lake.

We'll talk 'lost summers' May 1 in Stuart

Experts from Friends of the Everglades, VoteWater and TCPalm will provide an update on the health of our waterways at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, at the Council on Aging of Martin County Inc. at the Kane Center, 900 SE Salerno Road in Stuart.

With high water levels in Lake Okeechobee and a busy hurricane season projected, the risk of harmful discharges to the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon remains. But we’ll be talking about short-term and long-term solutions that we can all help advance.

Panelists include Eve Samples, Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades; Gil Smart, Executive Director of VoteWater; and Ed Killer, Outdoors Columnist at TCPalm.

Admission is free and open to the public; check out the Facebook page for the event for more info.

ICYMI: The case for a clean-water constitutional amendment is clear

We had a great discussion last week on the renewed push for a right to clean water in the Florida Constitution featuring Joe Bonasia of the Florida Rights of Nature Network, Eve Samples from Friends of the Everglades, Gil Smart from VoteWater, Matt DePaolis of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation and Codty Pierce, Calusa Waterkeeper. If you missed the discussion you can still watch it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The fight for clean water and political accountability needs your help!

Taking on Big Sugar, following the "dirty money" and keeping you informed on clean-water topics is a juggling act — and we rely on you to help us keep all those balls in the air.

Your generosity powers our drive for better policy and policy-makers. Please consider making a donation or becoming a member today.

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