Lee County Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida

07/28/2026

This is one of the many reasons to elect Democrats in Florida. We particularly need an Attorney General like Jose Javier Rodriguez to enforce existing laws.

New Report Finds Majority of Florida Waterways Fail Water Quality Standards

State Pollution Enforcement Actions Remain Near Historic Lows as Population Explodes

A new report released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Waterkeepers Florida finds that the majority of Florida’s waterways are failing to meet state water quality standards while enforcement of the state’s environmental laws remains far below historical levels.

The report, Majority of Florida Waterways Fail Water Quality Standards as State Enforcement Remains Near Historic Laws, examines 37 years of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) enforcement data alongside current water quality data. It finds that f***l bacteria and nutrient pollution are the most widespread contaminants fouling Florida’s rivers, lakes, and estuaries - pollution driven by agricultural runoff, wastewater discharges, and excess fertilizer use.

The report finds that while DEP enforcement actions ticked up slightly to 755 in 2025, that number is still less than half the state’s historical average. Between 1996 and 2010, DEP initiated an average of 1,303 enforcement cases per year; between 2019 and 2025, that average fell to just 654, even as Florida’s population grew by nearly five million residents over the same period.

“Florida’s enforcement program has been hollowed out over the past fifteen years, even as its population and pollution problems have grown,” said PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. “You cannot protect clean water with an enforcement program that is running at half strength.”

“The data are unambiguous: most of our waterways are not meeting the standards designed to protect public health and the environment. Our current water regulatory system is not working,” said Jen Lomberk, Esq., Vice-Chair of Waterkeepers Florida. “Floridians are swimming, fishing, and boating in waters that the state’s own data show are impaired. That should alarm every resident and every elected official in this state.”

The report’s authors call for stronger enforcement of existing environmental laws, more protective pollution-control policies, and greater transparency from state and local governments about water quality conditions — steps they say are essential to protecting Florida’s public health, wildlife, and multi-billion-dollar tourism economy.

The full report is available here.
https://peer.org/.../07/Florida-Report-2025-Enforcement.pdf

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About Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER):
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment, natural resources, and public health. We support current and former environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers, and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values across federal, state, local, and tribal governments. For more information, visit: www.peer.org

About Waterkeepers Florida:
Waterkeepers Florida is a regional entity composed of all 15 Waterkeeper organizations working throughout the State of Florida to protect and restore our waters across over 50,000 square miles of watershed which is home to over 15 million Floridians. For more information, visit: www.WaterkeepersFlorida.org

03/04/2026

Read and weep for science.

Thomas Van Lent worked at the Everglades Foundation for 17 years before he was sued and sent to jail after being accused of stealing secrets.

02/15/2026

This is what’s known as “documenting the decline.” It runs through every corner of environmental research. The data are not new. The warnings are not new. The projections are not new. For decades—through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s—we told ourselves the public and policymakers ignored climate forecasts because they were too abstract: computer models, atmospheric physics, lines on a graph. Too technical. Too theoretical. Too easy to dismiss.

That excuse is dead.

Now the evidence is physical, visible, undeniable. And still it’s ignored—more aggressively than ever. The stronger the evidence becomes, the harder certain groups push back. They don’t lack information. They lack willingness. Their worldview—rooted in ignorance, compulsive consumerism, greed, and the pursuit of power—cannot accommodate the implications of climate reality. More reports will not move them. More data will not convert them. It never has, and it never will.

Meanwhile, those in power are not merely stalling climate action—they are actively dismantling it. They are clearing the way for crony-capitalist schemes that will repackage collapse into short-term profit: exploitative technologies, hollow “solutions,” extractive business models dressed up as innovation. By the time the market finishes monetizing the crisis, the window for meaningful prevention will be gone.

We will continue to fail unless awareness among the informed minority is transformed into immediate action—political, social, and technological. Outrage without mobilization is useless. Concern without power is irrelevant. This begins at the ballot box and must be forced into policy.

Our current government is deliberately steering in the opposite direction. This November will reveal whether authoritarian control has been consolidated deeply enough—nationally, statewide, locally—to suppress the will of the clear majority demanding change.

12/22/2025

Give a green gift to a true-blue friend this holiday season

A 2026 year-long membership in the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida for only $10

Send them your wishes for a green future in 2026 and in the years and decades to come

Go to https://secure.actblue.com/donate/decfgift to send someone this special holiday gift.

DECF will create a personalized holiday card with your name and forward to you for approval. DECF can then deliver the card to the gift recipient via email and text.