Basin Management Action Plans and Total Maximum Daily Loads – the process by which the state of Florida is approaching cleaning up our polluted waters- is not working. Why?
“Until the public is able to understand how all of this stuff works, we’re never going to have accountability,” said Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, SFWMD Governing Board member 2019-2023. ~Article TCPalm “Florida’s BMAPs are Failing”
Literacy. It is the key to all things. Being able to read and understand allows one to SEE for oneself what works and what is broken. The Florida BMAP public process is broken. BMAP reports on “improving waterways” are painfully complicated and pollution is increasing not lessening. When the state legislature does not meet its goals dependent on the Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Agriculture, politicians simply push deadlines into the future because BMAPs read like a foreign language and thus accountability by the public is impossible.
Now that will change.
Todd Thurlow, Eye on Lake O, has created “Water Data Maps” that are readable and easily show pollution levels so we can SEE the nitrogen and phosphorus killing our waterways and where it is coming from. We don’t need 15 years. We don’t need 30 years. We can see it today, for action today! Please explore the website and I will be writing more on this in the near future.
Go to: WATER DATA MAPS
Links to State of Florida’s Statewide Annual Reports