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VoteWater is working to stop the politicians and special interests that are destroying Florida’s waters. With your support, we can hold them accountable and push for real, lasting change to protect the places we all love.

Sugar smackdown: Former Congressman calls out ‘oligarchy’

That’s gonna leave a mark!

Former Florida Congressman Francis Rooney (at right) slapped Big Sugar with a rhetorical 2x4 last week, calling out the industry — and the Trump Administration — for pushing policies that reward their political cronies while trashing the environment.

Initially, on his Facebook page, Rooney wondered why President Trump was urging Coca-Cola to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup in soda; it was, he wrote, “a gift to the Florida sugar industry — an oligarchy of billionaires who receive twice the world price because the US taxpayer subsidizes them.”

Then, Rooney told Gulf Coast NBC that “There is no reason for American taxpayers to subsidize the billionaires in Palm Beach, who are destructive to the environment just because they have political clout.”

Bingo.

Rooney is a Republican; and more and more people on both sides of the aisle now understand that Big Sugar is a pox on our health, our economy and our political landscape.

• Sugar contributes to obesity, diabetes and other maladies.
• Sugar policy forces consumers to pay higher prices than consumers in other parts of the world, enriching those Palm Beach billionaires.
• Florida taxpayers coughed up $1.2 billion to build the stormwater treatment areas (STAs) south of Lake Okeechobee, which could be used to help mitigate discharges to the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee rivers. Instead they’re used almost exclusively to clean water coming off the sugarcane fields. In other words, you paid for it — they get to use it.
• And all this contributes to Big Sugar’s “political clout,” which the industry cements by giving millions to politicians, who then labor to protect sugar’s sweet deal.

But former Congressman Rooney gets it. Now if we can only get a few more still in Congress to do something about it.

State to boaters dumping sewage:

Don’t do it, but we’re not looking

TCPalm has the story of how it’s against the law for boaters to discharge sewage into the Indian River-Vero Beach to Fort Pierce Aquatic Preserve between the 17th Street Bridge in Vero Beach to the North Bridge in Fort Piece, a stretch of some 12 miles. But the new “Boater Freedom Act” passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis effectively guarantees dumping by prohibiting law enforcement from stopping boaters and boarding vessels without probable cause.

Look, we’re not really fans of the authorities boarding your vessel without probable cause; it’s the equivalent of “stop and frisk” policies, which are often based on reasonable suspicion. So that’s effectively what this law does: it prevents law enforcement who have a reasonable suspicion (but not probable cause) from checking to see if you’re discharging sewage.

As Indian Riverkeeper Jim Moir told TCPalm, the new law makes it “even more important to make it as easy and convenient to pump-out."

“I don't think anyone wants to pollute the Indian River Lagoon; they want to do what's easy and convenient," said Moir.

Sure — and that’s going to be true in every water body in the state. Boaters should be environmentally responsible; most will be. But some, not so much — and now there’s one less tool to try and prevent or punish their recklessness.

Our waters can only be dirtier as a result.

'Alligator Alcatraz' update:

Legal challenges move forward

The drumbeat of stupidity and cruelty continues at the Everglades detention center, where last week Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference that was in turn defensive and aggressive. 

He seemed to be feeling the heat, but he also plowed ahead, saying commercial size jets would be flying migrants in and out, day and night. Oh, and they're storing 5,000 gallons of jet fuel on site. That won't be a problem for the Everglades if it spills!

As of this writing, DeSantis said "over 100" people have been deported from the facility.

The legal challenges grind on; on Wednesday U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams heard a request by the government to change the venue in the lawsuit against the detention center filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The case was filed in Florida’s Southern District; the state argued that the detention center is actually in Collier County, which is in the state’s Middle District. Williams did not immediately issue a ruling; she did, however, grant the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida’s motion to join the lawsuit against the detention center.

Next week Williams is scheduled to hear arguments on the injunction sought by the environmental groups, which if granted would curtail additional activity at the site.

The ACLU and Americans for Immigrant Justice have sued on behalf of detainees who say they’ve been unable to access their attorneys; on Monday of this week U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz said he needs more clarity on “who’s running he show” and indicated he wanted to see copies of any agreements between the state and ICE or the Department of Homeland Security to operate the detention center.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava on July 25 sent a letter to Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, demanding access to the site and saying the county should have oversight authority. She requested a comprehensive briefing on operations, weekly reports on environmental impacts and more. No word on the state’s response yet.

VoteWater is one of 14 conservation organizations that signed a letter to Gov. DeSantis to “vehemently oppose” the detention center and demand that it be closed.

Stay tuned.

Sludge is killing the St. Johns River

Lastly this week, don’t miss Craig Pittman’s recent column on how sewage sludge (or “bioisolids”) are causing huge environmental problems in the St. Johns River watershed. The sludge is shipped up from Miami — where they’ve got plenty of, well, poop — and then is spread on farm fields. Pollutants leach into the water and viola: massive problems including blue-green algae blooms. And that’s not even to mention the heavy metals and other nasty stuff in the “Class B” sludge.

Turns out a change in state rules (you knew that was coming) increased sludge dumping in Brevard and Indian River counties. A 2007 state law prohibited the stuff from being spread near Lake Okeechobee, but it wasn’t banned everywhere.

“As a result,” wrote Pittman, “the trucks simply headed north and started dumping their toxic loads at farms in the St. Johns watershed… (and) Suddenly the St. Johns started having serious problems with excessive phosphorus and nitrogen.”

A new report puts the cleanup costs at up to $1.4 billion over 40 years. And there seems to be no end in sight.

Read the whole thing and weep. We work for a day when we don’t have to bring you depressing stories like this. But we’ve sure got our work cut out for us.

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