March 24, 2020
The Honorable Ron DeSantis
Plaza Level 05, The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399
RE: Veto SB 712
The Florida Legislature has passed CS/CS/SB 712, known as
the “Clean Waterways Act,” which will soon be sent to your desk. This bill is an endorsement of the status quo
which has led to our current water quality crisis. It does nothing to reduce
nutrient pollution to Florida’s springs. Florida’s waters are polluted because
our regulatory system is broken and those in charge of protecting our waters
are unduly influenced by polluters and their lobbyists. Far from fixing these
problems, CS/CS/SB 712 is a symptom of them.
CS/CS/SB 712 relies on an ineffective water quality
restoration program called Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs). BMAPs for
Outstanding Florida Springs have already been shown to be unable to achieve
water quality goals. The Florida Springs
Council and several springs advocacy groups are in active litigation against
the Florida Department of Environmental Protect over these failed plans. As passed, CS/CS/SB 712 is based on a program
that is designed to fail at achieving water quality goals.
CS/CS/SB 712 does nothing to prevent even one pound of
agricultural pollution, the predominant source of nutrient pollution to
Outstanding Florida Springs, from reaching our groundwater. It requires DACS to confirm that producers
are implementing current best management practices, even though the Department
of Environmental Protection has acknowledged in a court filing that current
best management practices are not useful for achieving water quality
goals. By law, as long as agricultural
producers implement these ineffective practices, they are automatically assumed
in compliance with water quality standards. CS/CS/SB 712 does not require the
adoption or implementation of improved best management practices for
agricultural producers, even though the need for such practices is almost
universally recognized and many of Florida’s impaired waters cannot recover
without them.
CS/CS/SB 712 continues to allow foul sewage sludge from
South Florida to be transported north and dumped into areas where it pollutes the
headwaters of the St. Johns River and other important waterways. It weakens efforts to regulate sewage sludge
application and includes loopholes which will delay stronger protections
indefinitely.
Ironically, while CS/CS/SB 712 relies exclusively on a
broken and failed regulatory system to protect water quality, it preempts local
governments from filling the vacuum left by a lack of leadership at the state
level and addressing environmental issues in their own jurisdictions.
The shortcomings of CS/CS/SB 712 are many and various. We have provided specific
recommendations for amendments and explanations of the need for these
amendments to legislators, Secretary Valenstein, and Chief Science Officer
Frazer to no avail.
Because this bill does literally nothing to protect or
restore Florida’s springs we ask you to veto CS/CS/SB 712 and demand that the
Legislature return next year to pass bold effective water quality legislation
before it is too late. If signed into law, CS/CS/SB 712 will only make our
water quality problems worse in the long run. It provides political cover for a
Legislature that refuses to make the tough choices necessary to address this
crisis. And it guarantees another
half-decade, or more, of inaction towards meaningful and effective water
quality laws.
No one will remember what bills were signed, or how much
money was proposed, when Florida’s waters are more polluted in five years than
they are today. Instead, the legacy left
by CS/CS/SB 712 and those who championed it as a solution to our water quality
crisis will be another generation of polluted waters.
Sincerely,
Apalachicola
Riverkeeper
Georgia
Ackerman, Riverkeeper and Executive Director
Aquatics for Life
Susan
Steinhauser, President
Broward for Progress
Laurie
Woodward Garcia, Co-Leader
Center for Biological Diversity
Jaclyn
Lopez, Florida Director
Citizens for an Engaged Electorate
Barbara
Byram, Co-Founder
Collier County Waterkeeper
Colleen
Gill, Waterkeeper
Deep Spring Farm
Leela
Robinson, Owner
Democratic Club of On Top of the
World
Bob
Troy, Director
Democratic Environmental Caucus of
Florida
Janelle
J. Christensn, PhD, President
Duval Audubon Society
Jody
Willis, President
Earthjustice
Alisa
Coe, Staff Attorney
Emerald Coastkeeper
Laurie
Murphy, Executive Director
Englewood Indivisible
Jane
Hunter, Leadership Team
Florida Paddling Association
Jill
Lingard, President
Florida Poor People's Campaign
Dr.
Carolynn Zonia, Leadership Team
Florida Springs Council
Ryan
Smart, Executive Director
Florida Water Conservation Trust
Terry
Brant, Legal & Legislative Chairman
Friends of the Wekiva River
Mike
Cliburn, Secretary
Friends of Warm Mineral Springs
Juliette
Jones, Director
Gullah/Geechee Nation
Queen
Quet, Chieftess
Healthy Gulf
Christian
Wagley, Coastal Organizer
Hernando Environmental Land
Protectors
Charles
Morton, President
Hillsborough Democratic
Environmental Caucus
Russell
Conn, Chair
Ichetucknee Alliance
John
D. Jopling, President
IDEAS for Us
Clayton
Louis Ferrara, Executive Director
Indivisible Clay County
Sandy
Goldman, Chair
Indivisible FL13
Cynthia
Lippert, Organizer
Indivisible St. Johns
Mary
Lawrence, Founder
Indivisible Venice
Debra
Schyvinck, Leadership Team
League of Women Voters Florida
Judith
Hushon, Natural Resources Chair
Lee Weber Distribution
Lee
Weber, Owner
Lobby for Animals
Thomas
Ponce, President
Martin County Conservation Alliance
Donna
Melzer, Chair
Miakka Community Club
Becky
Ayech, President
Our Santa Fe River
Mike
Roth, President
Pine Lily Chapter of the Florida
Native Plant Society
Karina
Veaudry, President
Rainbow River Conservation
Burt
Eno, President
Rebah Farm
Carol
Ahearn, Owner
Santa Fe Lake Dwellers Association
Jill
McGuire, President
Save Orange County, Inc.
Dr.
Kelly Semrad, Vice Chair
Save the Manatee Club
Anne
Harvey, Esq., Acting Director of Conservation and Advocacy
Sierra Club Florida
Frank
Jackalone, Chapter Director
Silver Springs Alliance
Chris
Spontak, President
South Florida Wildlands Association
Matthew
Schwartz, Executive Director
Space Coast Audubon
Matt
Heyden, Conservation Chair
Speak Up Wekiva, Inc.
Chuck
O'Neal, President
Stone Crab Alliance
Karen
Dwyer, PhD., Co-founder
Visions Unlimited
Productions, Inc.
Leslie Harris-Senac, Owner
Wakulla Springs Alliance
Robert
Deyle, Chair
Withlacoochee Aquatic Restoration
Dan
Hilliard, President
