June 30, 2020
Contacts: Ryan Smart, Florida Springs Council, smarts421@gmail.com, 561-358-7191
David Cullen, Sierra Club, cullenasea@aol.com, 941-323-2404
Lisa Rinaman, St. Johns Riverkeeper, lisa@stjohnsriverkeeper.org, 904-509-3260
**PRESS RELEASE**
JUNO BEACH—Governor
DeSantis surprised no one today when he signed the misnamed “Clean Waterways Act,” SB 712, after
it was escorted to passage in both chambers of the state legislature by Florida
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein.
Florida Springs Council,
Waterkeepers Florida, and Sierra Club urged legislators to “fix” SB 712 and provided
pragmatic amendments to make the bill more protective of water quality, but
what Governor DeSantis signed today is the result of weakening, over and over
again, the language to fit the needs of the state’s biggest polluters.
On June 18, 2020, the organizations sent a side-by-side comparison of the
provisions of SB 712 and the Blue Green Algae Task Force recommendations to the Governor so
that he could see, in black and white, for himself, that the claims made by the
bill supporters do not hold water.
Ryan Smart, Florida
Springs Council Executive Director, responded with: “SB 712 will only make our water quality
problems worse in the long run. It provides political cover for a Legislature
and Governor that refuse to make the tough choices necessary to address this
crisis. SB 712 does nothing to reduce nutrient pollution in
Florida’s many impaired, algae-choked springs.”
Dave Cullen, Sierra
Club lobbyist said: “SB 712 is all
promise and no delivery. It preserves
the Florida status quo: pretend that the requirements in law are working when
they’re not, and kick the can down the road.
The bill fails to require polluters to reduce the damage they cause our
waters enough to bring them back to health.
And what little it promises is dependent on future funding (good luck
with that the next few years), and new rules which will have to be ratified by
the same legislature that refused to pass a law that would actually do
something important.”
Jen Lomberk, Vice-Chair of Waterkeepers Florida, added: “The Blue Green Algae Task Force identified some huge issues
that desperately need to be addressed by our state water quality managers.
Currently Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) fail to incorporate projected
changes in land use and hydrology, and the presumption of compliance for Best
Management Practices (BMPs) and stormwater systems is not supported by
scientific data. SB 712 doesn’t fix any of these problems; it
just doubles down on the same broken water regulatory system that got us into
this mess in the first place.”
Cris Costello, Sierra
Club Senior Organizing Manager said: “If you are celebrating the signing
of SB 712 today, you have either sold out to or been taken in by the state’s
major polluters. This is no victory for
clean water and certainly no victory for the state. When the Governor and legislature actually
listen to the Blue Green Algae Task Force, rather than ignore it, we will have
something to applaud.”
On February 3, the
Florida Springs Council, Waterkeepers Florida, and Sierra Club sent a letter to
Senator Mayfield and other legislators asking for 18 amendments to SB 712 that
would address the most serious flaws of the bill. On February 12, in
response to public comments made by Chief Science Officer Thomas K. Frazer
regarding the bill, the same groups sent a twelve-page letter to Frazer that
included a full and documented explanation of the bill’s many failures.
Responses, both formal and informal, from Senator Mayfield, DEP Secretary Noah
Valenstein, and the Chief Science Officer failed to refute any of our arguments
and continue to blithely ignore the glaring inadequacies of this legislation.
June 18, 2020: Side-by-Side Comparison between the Blue Green Algae Task Force Recommendations and the Provisions of Senate Bill 712:
February 20, 2020: Photos from Senate
Appropriations Committee: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bDyqhqvCG1RGRPzGbuTPdCqNhXObevz6/view?usp=sharing
February 12, 2020: Letter to Thomas K. Frazer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f4vO-cXzNkrY85f1xlkrzK4wPrip2AXU/view?usp=sharing
February 3, 2020: Letter to Senator Mayfield: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fvrc3oe0My5SdzQn-CYni6-7NS_O3Kwb/view?usp=sharing
18 proposed
amendments: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19Mc-VhrxDpfuV-IGcx-N3pbe0PBwy5xc/view?usp=sharing