A bad-water bill is close to becoming law in Tallahassee.
Sadly, the legislation appears to have support from several Treasure Coast lawmakers.
This is, in a word, egregious.
Our elected representatives talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to cleaning water in Lake Okeechobee and protecting and preserving the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
They say one thing to voters’ faces on the Treasure Coast, then go to Tallahassee and support legislation that will have the opposite effect.
Case in point: House Bill 7003, which would delay the cleanup of Lake Okeechobee, eliminate water-quality requirements for water entering the lake and replace verifiable safeguards with unproven “best management practices.” It also would shift responsibility for water-quality improvements in the northern Everglades and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee river estuaries from the South Florida Water Management District to the Florida Department of Agriculture.
Republicans Gayle Harrell of Stuart, MaryLynn Magar of Tequesta, Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach and Cary Pigman of Avon Park approved the legislation.
Among our region’s House delegation, only Rep. Larry Lee, D-Port St. Lucie, opposed it.
It gets worse.
A companion bill in the Senate — SB 918 — cleared a key committee Tuesday and is headed for a vote by the full Senate. Like its counterpart in the House, SB 918 eliminates a recently expired January deadline to achieve minimum pollution targets through the use of permits. And, like HB 7003, it authorizes the state to clean water by implementing “best management practices.” It’s a flawed approach with no enforcement that relies on polluters — particularly farmers — to limit pollution in the water running off their land into major water bodies.
Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, voted for SB 918, though he qualified his support by saying, “I’m not completely happy with it. … I’d like to see a stricter regulatory approach.”
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, voted against it because he wants to see stricter pollution control regulations.
Florida needs a comprehensive water policy. But it must include proven programs to reduce phosphorus and nitrogen levels, specific target dates for achieving mandated water-quality standards and effective oversight and enforcement.
This isn’t likely to happen when the two chambers reconcile HB 7003 and SB 918.
Instead, we’ll be stuck with a water-regulation policy that authorizes an unproven program and contains little oversight and enforcement.
And we may have several Treasure Coast lawmakers to “thank” for making it a reality.
Read the story online:
http://www.tcpalm.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-members-of-treasure-coast-legislative-delegation-complicit-in-badwater-bill_55510668