This one, simple rule change can slash toxic blooms

By Erin Elizabeth

I’m sure all the politicians currently owned by Big $ugar are tired of us talking about this topic but until they make the needed changes to our laws, we are going to keep on them about it. We are going to write stories and interview experts. We are going to make documentaries and protest.

It needs to happen. Now.

And it can all be fixed. Now. We don’t need to wait for years and years.

“Our elected officials can act right now to stop fueling toxic blooms in our communities. One simple legislative act can change everything: Making human health and safety our single highest water management priority.”

When the people come first, the federal government isn’t able to “play Russian Roulette with Lake Okeechobee, stockpiling billions of gallons of reserve irrigation water behind a crumbling dike, betting with human lives on the weather forecast… If people were the top priority, our state government would leave room in its vast network of canals and filter marshes and water storage areas, so they’re not over capacity with sugarcane runoff when the lake rises, forcing toxic discharges into residential areas. This year we’re all paying a horrific price to keep sugarcane dry.”

Enter, Congressman Brian Mast. Together with Bullsugar.org, Congressman Brian Mast has proposed legislation that puts people first. Because he’s seen how much influence the sugarcane industry has over our water management policy and legislation (that’s why “he voted against sugar subsidies and refuses contributions from the industry.”3) And because he lives near the St. Lucie River and is worried about his family’s long-term health from cyanotoxin exposure.

But Mast is proposing more than just words. He’s asking for long-overdue action. Getting a handle on the discharges that feed toxic blooms and are endangering not only our environment but people’s actual lives, should be the government’s first priority.