In today’s politically charged climate, the daily news seems filled with reports of someone calling attention to our rights. So it seems more than appropriate to ask: Do we have a right to clean water?
It’s no small issue. California publishes a map that shows more than 40 algae-laden waterways. Ohio is famous for Lake Erie summer algae blooms. Indeed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared that all 50 states have a major environmental problem with harmful algal blooms, and the problems have been going on without satisfactory action for many years.
We should have a fundamental right to clean water, says the Florida Right to Clean Water organization, but expecting state politicians to act is like believing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a true story. Putting it in the state’s constitution is the only way to go, and in Florida, they’re set on getting it done. Moreover, the effort may serve as a model for other states.
It won’t be easy, but it’s doable. In 1994, the citizen-driven Save our Sealife constitutional amendment changed the way the state’s fisheries were managed. Two years later, citizens again bypassed the inaction of lawmakers and nailed down three more aquatic habitat-saving amendments.
Harmful blooms of blue-green algae not only slime up the waterways but also can impact human health, aquatic ecosystems and economies. It’s doesn’t do much to help us encourage families to buy and go boating.
More than 60 other Florida organizations are reportedly on record supporting such an amendment. This initiative, of course, follows years of failed attempts to get Florida lawmakers to pass essential legislation over the concerted lobbying of the state’s sugar and phosphate mining industries, which have reportedly spent as much as $11 million in a single political campaign cycle.
Florida is the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane. The sugar cane industry was allowed to clear and drain huge amounts of wetland while generating income for a small group of sugar producers. Moreover, these producers are further bolstered by a federal program that heavily restricts imported sugar. Consumers and the environment are paying the price.
According to Colin Grabow at the Cato Institute, a 2018 study of the program details how the domestic sugar industry is essentially guaranteed 85% of the domestic market and a minimum price of 20 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 25 cents for beet sugar. Grabow accuses Washington of “operating a sugar cartel.” No wonder there’s so much money that flows into Florida’s legislative races.
The result is distorted land that cannot filter out the nitrogen fertilizers and other chemicals that feed blue‐green algae blooms in the state’s waters, killing fish, manatees, sea turtles and other wildlife.
The sole purpose of pursuing the amendment is to make clean water a constitutional right. It means the state could be sued for its failure to provide water that is safe for drinking and able to support “populations and diverse communities of native fish and wildlife.”
In addition, it reportedly would also protect natural water flow patterns and require recharging ground and underground water sources. This is noteworthy because it would fill a gap in the federal Clean Water Act, which prevents direct pollution of waters but doesn’t address water supplies.
Florida isn’t the first to propose such an amendment. Groups in New York, Montana and Pennsylvania have successfully done so. In Ohio, there’s a different approach that’s apparently successful: suing the U.S. EPA for failure to require the Ohio EPA to effectively implement the standards required by the Clean Water Act of 1972.
The Ohio court case was brought by the Environmental Law Policy Center. U.S. District Judge James Carr has been hearing the case, and it has resulted in a landmark consent decree that must be executed this year. It will establish a roadmap for federal and state regulators to finally get serious about addressing western Lake Erie’s chronic algal blooms and much more.
For marine dealers and their customers — and boaters and anglers in general — clean water is a must for long-term success. As an industry, we have talked about the need for effective governmental action, and with problems demonstrably now worse nationwide, it’s time to walk the talk.
Wherever there are initiatives to demand that clean water be a priority, area dealers should be supportive and give time to be involved.
