With Florida facing yet another Lake Okeechobee-related crisis, Gov. Rick Scott is trying to cleanse a seven-year record of environmental indifference.
This week, Scott declared a state of emergency because of the latest algae bloom in the lake. As happened under his watch in 2013 and 2016, discharges of polluted lake water are ravaging estuaries on both coasts. National news broadcasts show green slime in Florida waterways as the governor runs against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
During the 2013 crisis, Scott visited Martin County and claimed that lake releases were out of his control. Back then, the governor wanted to blame the Obama administration for any environmental problems.
Now the president is Donald Trump, Scott’s good friend. The governor should use that relationship to jumpstart funding for a planned reservoir south of the lake needed to store water. And he should do so today.
“If we miss this opportunity,” said Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg, “the Army Corps goes back to a planning process, which will take three years, which will be more summers of toxic algae, more summers of closed beaches, impact to tourism jobs, let alone human health.”
Over the weekend, Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio got the Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily suspend this week’s planned discharges, needed to keep the lake low enough to ease pressure on the aging Herbert Hoover Dike. But the Corps has made clear the hold-up can’t last long.
Last week, the Corps announced that it was setting aside $514 million from hurricane recovery funds to complete repairs on the dike by 2022 – six years ahead of schedule. Through his campaign, Scott took the opportunity to criticize Nelson.
“In April 2017, I announced my goal of fixing the Herbert Hoover Dike by 2022,” he said in a statement. “I’m glad to see that Bill Nelson finally supports my plan.”
But Scott’s environmental passion is more like an election-year conversion.
Let’s look at the full record.
— During Scott’s first year in office, he cut $700 million from the five water management districts. The biggest cut hit the South Florida Water Management District, whose mission includes Everglades restoration. Scott’s appointees on the district’s governing board continue to short the agency on money.
— Scott signed an Everglades bill that slowly phases out the tax on farmers to clean pollution and further delays the quarter-century-old plan to save the “River of Grass.”
— Scott opposed federal efforts to raise water quality standards in Florida.
— With septic tanks and urban runoff from communities north of the lake fouling Lake O’s water, Scott killed a septic tank inspection program in 2012.
— Scott granted long-term leases to farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area. He also joined legislators on a trip to U.S. Sugar’s hunting lodge in Texas and tried to keep the junket secret. U.S. Sugar is one of his largest political patrons.
— And directly to the point of the current crisis, Scott’s choice to run the South Florida Water Management District opposed the new reservoir that the Legislature approved in 2017. The reservoir would allow the release of water south from the lake, easing the pain on the coast and providing needed water for the Everglades.
In addition, the Scott administration banned the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” Rising seas threaten Florida, and higher summer temperatures – May saw record heat – worsen algae blooms and the red tide that is causing fish kills in the Gulf of Mexico.
Scott is hardly the only person to blame for the cesspool that is Lake Okeechobee. The problems began more than half a century ago. But the lake and its attendant problems loom large as he completes his eighth year in office.
It’s good to see, for the moment, at least some candidates talking about an issue that really matters to Florida – the state’s environment and its importance to the economy.
Many projects are underway around Lake Okeechobee to store and cleanse water. That southern reservoir, though, is crucial. If Congress doesn’t include the project in this year’s water bill, the delay would be at least two years.
Scott’s party controls Congress. A Republican president controls the Army Corps of Engineers, which has expressed skepticism about the reservoir.
If Washington finances the reservoir now, Scott might have a real environmental record to run on.
