By Jim Durocher, Guest Author
June 9, 2023
It would take every page of this website to explore all the assaults on the Indian River Lagoon. Green and brown algal blooms, 46,000 acres of lost sea grass, municipal sewage leaks, septic tank releases, unusual mortality events, such as 1,901 dead manatees in the last two years and failing report cards, overall.
If you have been in Brevard County for five years, you know the lagoon is in trouble. If you have been here longer, you know it is dying.
How did the lagoon collapse with all the state regulations, county and city fertilizer ordinances, best management practices on agriculture, stormwater ponds and sewer treatment plants? The lagoon has collapsed because there are no teeth in the rules and no political will to enforce them.
If those flaws seem designed to make the rules and regulations fail, then you have a good grasp of the problem. Our state agencies that we depend on to protect our waters make excuses and look the other way. We don’t need another study; we need action.
How about something positive for this 156-mile estuary of national significance? How about a quick and simple way to help all the waters of Florida and the people and creatures that depend on healthy ecosystems, including Islanders?
There is an amendment that would hold the state accountable and stop the damage done to our waters – the waters we swim, paddle, sail, jet ski, boat, fish, hunt and recreate in and cherish. The Right to Clean and Healthy Waters Constitutional Amendment is the gamechanger that is needed. It would give every Floridian the right to clean water and standing in a court of law to protect our waters.
It will take 891,000 signed petitions from registered voters just to get the amendment on the 2024 ballot. That is approximately one signed petition for each acre of Florida estuary contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria. What more incentive do we need?
We can create our own future and make Florida the clean water state. How? Become a clean water ambassador.
Go to Floridarighttocleanwater.org to sign the petition and to join or donate to this grassroots volunteer group. Print extras for friends and neighbors to sign. Do it for the lagoon and for all of us.
About Jim Durocher
Florida Rights Of Nature Network, East Central Regional Director
Jim Durocher is a Florida native and Coastal Master Naturalist who is a retired Property Manager from Brevard County now living in Volusia. He was one of the founding members of the Cocoa Beach Area Hotel and Motel Association. Other business and personal interests were establishing Space Coast Kayaking nature tours and securing the Thousand Islands of Cocoa Beach as a nature sanctuary. He currently volunteers with several environmental organizations.