Gov. Rick Scott must be really worried about Florida’s algae crisis. He’s running a campaign commercial about it.
Spoiler alert: It’s Bill Nelson’s fault.
Nelson has been in the Senate since 2001. If he had done his job, the ad implies, Lake Okeechobee would be pristine. Problem solved.
The news is not that the ad is misleading. The news is that Scott is running the ad.
For eight years, Scott’s priorities have been jobs and tax cuts, with the environment 53rd. But just as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Massacre forced the governor to annoy the National Rifle Association, Scott must address the state’s latest ecological mess. It’s hitting close to home in many ways.
Scott’s $14 million home fronts the Gulf of Mexico in Naples. Reliably Republican Southwest Florida faces the double whammy of red tide – cause unknown — and toxic algae from releases of Lake Okeechobee water. Scott’s home county of Collier is under a beach alert because of fish kills, algae and respiratory risks they pose.
Yet things are far worse in Lee County to the north. The Caloosahatchee River empties into the gulf near the tourist havens of Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel and Captiva islands. When the Army Corps of Engineers releases water from Lake Okeechobee, it goes into the Caloosahatchee carrying toxic algae.
For tourist-dependent businesses, it’s shaping up as the sort of lost summer Martin County endured in 2013 and 2016 because of lake releases through the St. Lucie River. The Fort Myers News-Press reported on the trip through Estero Bay that a Florida Gulf Coast University researcher gave students. Bob Wasno said, “There’s lots of dead everything here.”
Lee County mayors want Scott to extend the state of emergency he declared a month ago. Francis Rooney, the Republican who represents Southwest Florida in Congress, wants President Trump to issue a federal emergency declaration. Like Scott, Rooney is on the ballot this year. He lists water quality as the main issue.
Other Republicans also are breaking from the nationalization of politics. Brian Mast represents Martin County. While one of his primary opponents campaigns on the Second Amendment and Trump’s border wall, Mast introduces legislation that would bring more federal agencies into the algae fight.
Scott needs to talk about algae and red tide enough to show more concern than he did in 2013, when he blew off protesters who had gathered where lake water enters the St. Lucie. He made $3 million available to local governments.
The more Scott talks, though, the more voters might wonder about Scott’s record. That’s why the man who has been setting state environmental policy blames Nelson and Washington. Nelson responded with a digital ad that – spoiler alert – blames the algae crisis on Scott.
In fact, the algae problem has been decades in the making. During the 1960s, the Corps of Engineers turned the meandering, pollution-filtering Kissimmee River into a drainage ditch. Farm runoff poured in. Restoration of the river is nearly complete, but the damage was done.
Despite their denials, Everglades sugar farmers also deserve blame. Until recently, the South Florida Water Management District regularly backpumped water into the lake from Everglades fields. Farmers also like higher water levels, which hurt wildlife but maintain the lake as a backup reservoir.
Nelson has done his part for the sugar industry, opposing efforts to reform the price support program. Otherwise, though, his role in Congress has been to secure money for environmental restoration, which he has done.
Scott has approved state money for some of those projects. But he also opposed that southern reservoir, giving in only after farmers lobbied to make it much smaller. Scott cut staff at the Department of Environmental Protection. He cut by $700 million the budget of the water management district, the lead state agency for Everglades restoration. He loosened rules on septic tanks – another source of Lake Okeechobee pollution – and signed a water bill that delays the Everglades cleanup and allows farmers to pay less toward it.
The governor can’t blame Barack Obama anymore. His “friend” is in the White House. Like Trump, Scott doesn’t want to discuss climate change, even though heat causes algae blooms to explode.
This Senate race still may turn on national politics. But wouldn’t it be great if the race turned on something of vital importance to Florida?
