State Legislators: Pass Meaningful Okeechobee Legislation This Session!

    As the Florida State Legislature enters its 2007 session, Audubon of Florida and its partners are calling on decision makers to pass into law a real plan to solve the pollution and water management problems plaguing Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries.
   Both SB 392 by Senator Burt Saunders (R-Naples) and PCB ENR 07-06, or HB 595 by Representative Trudi Williams (R-Ft. Myers), have real promise to provide solutions for the lake and estuaries. But a substitute proposal drafted by state agencies fails to take aggressive aim at the known problems.
    The good news is that Governor Charlie Crist and Florida legislators clearly support increased funding for Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and estuary clean-up and restoration, to the tune of up to $200 million. What is troubling is that state agencies are not asking for new aggressive tools to go along with the funding. Instead, a technical plan will be drafted for Legislative approval. What goes in the plan is uncertain at this time. This approach does not include the real action needed to solve what ails Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries.
    Instead of granting water managers a blank check and encouraging more plans, the Legislature has an opportunity this year to pass concrete solutions that will go a long way toward healing the lake and estuaries, and protecting the wildlife and communities that depend on healthy ecosystems.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you live in Florida, write your state legislators with our easy email function at right, urging them to pass meaningful legislation for Lake Okeechobee, rather than simply authorizing another planning effort that would further delay real action.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Please support strong Lake Okeechobee legislation this year

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to urge you to act now to support and pass aggressive legislation to solve the environmental problems plaguing Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries. Both the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries are suffering ecological damage to a large degree because of releases of huge amounts of polluted water from the lake. Lake Okeechobee, its watershed and the important plants and wildlife that depend on a healthy system, are also endangered by seriously inadequate water management capabilities, a lack of adequate water treatment and water storage located south, and most importantly north of the lake.

As a legislator of this great state, you have the opportunity to take real action this year to move forward strong legislative solutions for Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries. Legislating solutions in conjunction with funding will make sure that state agencies are given the mandate they need to solve this crisis, rather than a blank check to plan and study a problem that has been planned and studied for far too long.

I call upon you to support legislation that includes the following measures for real restoration: * Stop dumping sewage sludge in the Lake Okeechobee Watershed; * Strengthen rules for new development to cut stormwater runoff and pollution; * Store enough water in recreated wetlands and other areas to buffer the Lake and estuaries during dry and rainy seasons.

SB 392 by Senator Burt Saunders and HB 595 by Rep. Trudi Williams are promising starts to solving the problems plaguing Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries. I will follow the progress of Lake Okeechobee legislation this session and hope it will help bring about real solutions.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
February 22, 2007

Background Information

Join Audubon of Florida in calling upon the Florida House and Senate to make a real commitment to South Florida's environment by passing the following into law:

1. Calculate pollution and water storage needs based on the years 1991 through 2005.
2. Authorize new program authority along with sustained appropriations—not just another study.
3. Appropriate $200 million for water quality and water storage projects, with a mandate for matching funds from the South Florida Water Management District.
4. Create 1.2 million acre-feet of storage and treatment capacity upstream of the lake, partly by maximizing compensated storage on private lands.
5. Create tougher development standards for runoff pollution (strengthen the rules for Environmental Resource Permit), and direct new Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) rules in Lake Okeechobee and estuary basins for retention of up to 80 percent of pre-drainage stormwater on urban and agricultural properties.
6. Encourage Rural Stewardship Area-type conservation easements.
7. Require balanced phosphorus budgets (i.e., no net imports).
8. Accelerate new lake level regulations, including fixing the Hoover Dike to restore operational flexibility.
9. Encourage retention of sustainable agriculture through appropriation of funds that can be matched in the 2007 federal farm bill.
10. Accelerate removal of the Lake's phosphorus-laden mud center.
11. Stop dumping sewage sludge in the Lake Okeechobee basin.