VoteWater endorses Brian Mast for Congress

VoteWater, a South Florida clean-water advocacy group, has endorsed U.S. Rep. Brian Mast for Congress.

Mast, a Republican seeking his fifth term, has been endorsed repeatedly by VoteWater and its predecessor, Bullsugar.org, since he first ran in 2016.

He’s the only member of the South Florida Congressional delegation that doesn’t take money from Big Sugar. He’s backed reforms to the Sugar Program in the Farm Bill which would curtail sugar price supports.

He has consistently used his position as a “bully pulpit” to demand better water management, and has sponsored numerous pieces of legislation to end discharges to the St. Lucie River and fight toxic algae. Indeed, he once took a jar of blue-green algae to the House floor to dramatize the damage the green goo was inflicting on his constituents and region.

And he worked closely with VoteWater, then Bullsugar.org, during the LOSOM process and backed the "Now or Neverglades" Declaration, which called for acquiring land south of Lake Okeechobee for water storage.

Said Mast: "Together, we've made progress to authorize the EAA reservoir, reduce discharges from Lake O, combat harmful algal blooms and fund Everglades restoration — but the fight is far from over. I'm proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our community in this fight every day, and I'll keep swinging the bat with everything I've got until all of the water is sent where it's needed and not another drop is headed into our estuary."

After the storms, will common sense prevail?

On a media call last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said they expect Lake Okeechobee could go as high as 17 feet in the coming weeks, in part due to the impact of Hurricane Milton.

Still, said Col. Brandon Bowman, he doesn’t expect to make releases to the St. Lucie or Caloosahatchee estuaries as a result. That’s good, but hurricane season isn’t over; and damaging discharges to the estuaries remains a possibility for the foreseeable future.

Elsewhere, of course, both Helene and Milton already inflicted tremendous damage. As we write this, communities on Florida’s west coast are still dealing with flooding and sewage spills, while communities in our own east coast backyard are still cleaning up from the deadly tornado swarms that hit Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

The state Legislature will face tough choices when it reconvenes in March. Will lawmakers back new restrictions on building in areas prone to storm damage? Even Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that Florida now has "23 million people (and) a storm that hits is likely to hit more people and property than it would have 100 years ago."

There you have it: The more people — the more building in harm's way — the more harm there will be.

Florida is economically addicted to ever-more growth and development, in part because the development and building industries deploy millions in “dirty money” to keep the good times rolling. See our "Dirty Money Project" for details.

So the question is: Will common sense prevail over dirty money? We’ll be pushing for it, as the future of clean water in Florida — indeed, perhaps the fate of the state itself — hangs in the balance.