Advocates sued to save Chesapeake Bay. How will Florida protect its polluted waters?

Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972. Congress subsequently voted to override a veto by President Richard Nixon, and it became law.

The purpose was to guarantee that all Americans would have access to clean and healthy waters throughout the country.

History has proven that legislation wasn’t always enough to protect our waterways. There have been numerous cases where our waters were so polluted that they were dangerous and unusable for recreation, swimming and fishing.

Lawsuits often had to be filed against those creating the sources of pollution and the degradation of the waters involved.

I served as chairman of the board of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It became clear at that time that after decades of broken promises by the six states and the District of Columbia bordering on the Chesapeake that we weren’t going to save the bay at the rate we were going.

The only alternative to save the bay was to file suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require the states in question to meet their obligations under the Clean Water Act to restore the waters of the Chesapeake to meet the Clean Water Standards.

The suit was filed, and a settlement reached in 2010 with EPA and the six states. Shortly after, we were sued by various agricultural interests, primarily in the Midwest, who opposed the agreement.

The suit was defended successfully at both the District and the Court of Appeals levels. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals, indicating the lower court rulings would stand as the law.

A similar situation exists in Florida. For decades we have watched as our lakes, springs, rivers and bays have become degraded to the point that they are now listed as impaired waters. In many cases the fisheries, sea grasses and a record number of mammals, especially manatees, have died along with oysters, clams and numerous benthic creatures.

The common thread causing these deaths is always too much pollution from failing septic systems, broken sewers, failing sewerage treatment systems, untreated storm-water runoff from urban and suburban settings, including agriculture.

The guarantee needed here is that clean-water protection needs to be included in Florida’s Constitution. Hence, the need for the Right to Clean Water Amendment. This will prohibit the polluting of Florida’s waters by recognizing a right to clean water for all Floridians and waters in the state.

Among other things, this amendment will provide that:

Every Floridian has a right to clean water; “Clean Water” shall mean waters free of the nonnatural presence of any one or more substances, contaminants or pollutants in quantities that are or may be potentially harmful or injurious to human health or welfare, animals, fish, plant life, water quality or that may unreasonably interfere with the environment or life or property, including outdoor recreation.

Only three states have these protections in their constitutions — Pennsylvania, Montana and New York — but several more are attempting to add them.

Most recently, the EPA notified Shawn Hamilton, Florida secretary of environmental protection, that Florida needs revised water-quality standards to comply with the U.S. Clean Water Act.

I encourage everyone who wants to protect and restore Florida’s environment to visit floridarighttocleanwater.org to learn more about this proposed amendment. There, you can sign the petition to show your support for putting these protections in the state’s Constitution.

Wayne A. Mills, former board chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, lives on Florida’s North Hutchinson Island.

This piece was originally published in TCPalm, which is part of “The Invading Sea” media collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.