Everything for the environment

While it’s unlikely he’ll be remembered as a champion of the environment, Governor Ron DeSantis is actually doing something. And it’s not all bad.

As this year’s legislative season came to a close, the governor approved $1.5 billion from Florida’s 2024-2025 budget for Everglades restoration and water quality improvements statewide, as part of a 3-year environmental initiative $.5 billion in his second term. DeSantis touted about $6.5 billion in environmental spending since taking office.

“No other state in the country has taken on conservation projects that are so ambitious,” he said.

The Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir was a major undertaking, including a 6,500-acre filter marsh to clean up released water from Lake Okeechobee and a 10,500-acre reservoir to contain discharges to the east.

While Lake O and the Everglades have received a lot of attention over the years, water quality in general has not. DeSantis hopes to correct this with new legislation and more federal funding.

TRACTOR

Climate activists are joining in, trying to put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot. The Florida Right to Clean Water would create “an enforceable, fundamental right to clean and healthy water,” allowing for judicial oversight and legal relief. It’s an uphill battle, a real long shot. But it could happen.

There are other activities. DeSantis just signed a bill to restore red tide research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, a joint program with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. This builds on a state task force established several years ago.

The governor also highlighted funding for the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which was established in 2021 and includes nearly 18 million acres of wildlife habitat. Some of the money will come from gambling revenue in an agreement with Seminole casinos across the state. Nearly half a billion will be set aside annually for things like removing invasive species and improving water quality.

Lawmakers also designated funds for a slew of local projects, most notably septic tank-to-sewer conversions in parts of Lee and Collier counties, as well as lake and estuary restorations in the Naples area.

On another front, DeSantis has taken the lead in creating a network of Chief Resilience Officers. The CRO program, an offshoot of a national Rockefeller Foundation effort, includes a Florida CRO appointed in 2019 and dozens of local CROs working in cities and counties across the state.

The goal is to involve one person in the local government who coordinates storm resilience programs along the coast. Research is underway on the benefits of having a CRO in Collier County.

Put all these things together and you will have a significant focus on the environment.

But DeSantis’ opponents say it’s too little, too late. Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said, “Throwing taxpayer dollars at inadequate solutions will not solve Florida’s water crisis.”

Opponents – many driven by politics – want limits on growth, more wildlife corridors and less sugar cane cultivation. Above all, they want an open tap of money for nature conservation. Just like Oliver, they want more. A lot of money is never enough.

Okay, that’s fair. $2 billion out of a $117 billion budget seems pretty paltry. Or it could be just the right amount, given the billions in federal aid President Biden is pouring into the environment.

The fact is that different people have different priorities. A liberal friend told me that climate change should be everyone’s top priority. When I asked about the economy, rising prices and overseas wars, he looked at me in surprise, as if I had cursed in Swahili. ¦

— Dave Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer executive living in Florida.