Governor Scott Is Leaving Quite A Legacy......

[Laxman]

in Florida. A righteous rant on the state of Florida's waterways.

On Florida’s Massive Fish Kills, Voters Are Responsible

Here are a few examples: regulations to provide numerical standards for mercury and sulfates in Florida waters? Never happened.

Regulation to allow local government to stop phosphorous and nitrogen pollution in Florida waters? State legislature and Gov. Rick Scott voted, no. Protection of coastlines from massive overdevelopment? Absolutely not. Support for the U.S. EPA to regulate contaminants and enforce against violations in Florida? No.

Blame the Florida legislature, its leaders like Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, Florida Representative Matt Caldwell, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, Senator Joe Negron, to start. Blame the most clueless, radical governor in Florida history — the anti-people governor Rick Scott who never addressed a problem that he couldn’t visualize from 30,000 feet in his private jet, or, if he did then just slammed the window shades shut.

There is no need for science to tell us what’s wrong with Florida’s waterways and the cascade of destruction from Florida Bay stretching north along both coasts. We know exactly what is wrong: voters who don’t care, don’t vote, or vote for candidates and incumbents who represent institutionalized corruption.

read the rest here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-farago/on-floridas-massive-fish_b_9530084.html

[Beach Rat]

1. Apparently he's really good at this sort of thing!

Florida Just Flushed Its "Toilet" Lake onto Its Beaches

Just in time for tourist season, both of Florida's coasts are being flooded by dark, polluted water that's killing ocean creatures and turning away would-be swimmers, fishermen, and other visitors.

Last month was South Florida's wettest January since 1932. Because of the heavy rain, the water levels in Lake Okeechobee in central Florida rose to about a foot above what's normal for this season. On top of that, water managers began to pump dirty water from flooded farms into the lake, adding more pollution to a body of water that already contains fertilizers and other chemicals from the state's cattle and sugar industries. At the same time, officials began to worry that the rising lake waters would put stress on its aging dike, so they decided to drain the lake toward the east and west coasts. Some 70,000 gallons per second flowed into the St. Lucie River and the Caloosahatchee River all the way through to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. And as the toxic runoff spreads, it's threatening sea grasses and oyster beds and adding to harmful algae growth.

Now the tourism industry and small businesses on the coasts are worried they're going to see their business slump as a result of the pollution. Local politicians are calling on Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency, and mayors are traveling to Washington, DC, to demand action from Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers. And Floridians are snapping pictures of the polluted water and dead sea creatures and sharing them on social media.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/florida-water-pollution-lake-okeechobee