Help fix the broken BMAPs to clean up Florida waters 2024-10-30

Update 2024-11-05: Pictures: Suwannee River Basin BMAP meeting in Live Oak 2024-10-30.

Update 2024-10-30: Pictures: Santa Fe River BMAP meeting, Lake Butler, FL 2024-10-28.

FDEP has announced rescheduled dates for some BMAP meetings after the hurricanes.
https://floridadep.gov/dear/water-quality-restoration/content/bmap-public-meetings

Please go and say why you think the Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) are broken. But don’t stop there, or they will just mark down x number of people came, so public outreach was successful.

Here are more things you can do at the meeting and afterwards.

Wear blue, so we can all be seen together, as recommended by Sarah Younger of the Suwannee-St. Johns Group of Sierra Club Florida.

Ask for metrics for improvement since the BMAPs started, such as how much less nitrate leaching from irrigated fertilizer into springs and rivers.

Turn their poster session format into a grassroots town hall. Video your question and their answer. Post your video on social media with a hashtag: #BMAPSantaFe, #BMAPSuwannee, or #BMAPSilverRainbow (see below).

If they say go look at some obscure website, ask them to tell you the metrics now.

If the FDEP person refuses to answer, video that, and post it.

For the Suwannee BMAP, ask them why SRWMD did not mention the Manatee Springs BMAP when it issued an Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) for a road inside the 2,109-acre rezoning area for a development in floodplain.

For the Rainbow BMAP, ask them why SWFWMD did not mention the Rainbow Springs Springshed when it issued an ERP for the sand mine.

Ask them what the BMAPs are doing to get farmers to convert from Monsanto-seed Glysophate-spraying over-fertilized water-sucking over-irrigated agriculture to methods more friendly to Florida’s waters.

Be polite. The specific FDEP employees there are probably just trying to do their job. The problem comes from higher up. See below for what to do about that after the meeting.

[Help fix Florida BMAPs to fix Florida polluted waters 2024-10-28-30]
Help fix Florida BMAPs to fix Florida polluted waters 2024-10-28-30

Three meetings are of particular interest. Two are in the Suwannee River Basin, and the third is about the watershed of that Levy County sand mine.

The Meeting Materials are all agendas.

All the agendas say “In-person.” So there’s no remote participation through zoom (or teams). You must go there.

Or you can send email. Even if you do go, please send email afterwards repeating what you said. That makes it easier to retrieve through Florida Public Records requests.

Please do not just go, speak, and leave. They will mark that down as a plus for the BMAPs: x number of people came, so public outreach was successful.

So let’s turn it into a success for cleaning up Florida’s waters. See below.

Look up who are your statehouse members:
https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org

Here’s a cheatsheat for the Florida House:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/florida-house/

[Florida State House Districts]
Florida State House Districts

And a cheatsheat for the Florida Senate:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/florida-senate/

[Florida State Senate Districts]
Florida State Senate Districts

Look up who (and what PACs) donated to their campaigns:
https://dos.fl.gov/elections/candidates-committees/campaign-finance/campaign-finance-database/

You may have to select All for Year to get it to work.

See who you know on that list. See if you can persuade them to contact the statehouse member about fixing the BMAPs.

Or contact anybody else you think has influence over your statehouse member: friend, neighbor, veterinarian, preacher, etc. Ask those grasstops to help.

For who probably won’t help, see The Dirty Money Project:
https://votewater.org/dirty-money/

Craig Pittman, Florida Phoenix, October 17, 2024, New database helps show which Florida politicians are owned by which polluters: This is the closest we can get to requiring them to wear NASCAR jackets listing their corporate sponsors.

Maybe you’d like to write an op-ed or post on social media asking of your statehouse member will do what their dirty money contributors say, or will they help fix the BMAPs to actually clean up Florida’s waters?

Let’s turn this BMAP greenwashing into a success for clean water in Florida.

[Suwannee River at Manatee Springs Run, 2018-02-24]
Suwannee River at Manatee Springs Run, 2018-02-24

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/