Sierra Club organizing manager Cris Costello expresses once again what must now be obvious to even the most casual observer–DeSantis throws money at environmental issues solely to promote his political career.
This money, first of all, will not fix the problem because it is not directed toward the source, and secondly, as Ms. Costello points out, will fill the coffers of an agency that has an environmentally controversial past, and whose director passes off red tide as a natural occurring phenomenon.
Sadly, there goes another wasted $14 million of taxpayer money.
Read the original article with photos here in the Palm Beach Post.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Nine months ago, the Sierra Club put the governor on notice with a letter titled “Stop the Greenwash and Hold Polluters Accountable,” but alas, DeSantis has made a huge deal out of greenwashing his failure to stop pollution at its source, and the unsuspecting are likely to buy his sales pitch.
We want to set the record straight (again). Per media sources, state officials claim that Florida has invested $40 million to detect and mitigate red tide since 2019. This has put a lot of money into the coffers of Mote Marine Laboratory but has it stopped the pollution that fuels red tide, cyanobacteria, and other toxic algae? The answer is “no.”
Another $14 million to research/control/mitigation/cleanup is nothing to celebrate, and in fact is a loss for Floridians. There is only so much money to spend in the state budget, and taxpayer money spent on after-the-fact “cleanup” projects cannot then be spent on proven measures to stop the sewage, manure and fertilizer pollution from being dumped into our lakes, rivers, bays, and spring sheds.
The never-ending control/mitigation/cleanup treadmill not only fails to remedy the harmful algal bloom problem but makes it worse by letting more time pass without regulating the pollution that fuels it. The failure to implement or even encourage or promote stopping pollution at its source makes our toxic waterways inevitable.
After-the-fact attention to harmful algal outbreaks is not what Florida needs. Until pollution is stopped at its source, polluters will go on setting taxpayers up for a never-ending series of costly cleanups.
Cris Costello is senior organizing manager for Sierra Club Florida.
