Workers from the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department pick up dead fish from the Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, Florida in October 2018.
Some beaches north of Miami were closed at the time because of a rare red tide outbreak along Florida’s Atlantic coast.
[Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP] DeSantis is asking the Legislature to spend $625 million this year on water projects, the first step toward a roughly $2.5 billion, four-year investment in tackling problems plaguing Lake Okeechobee, nearby rivers and estuaries, freshwater springs and the Everglades.
Ron DeSantis on Tuesday began attempting to put dollars behind that pledge.
DeSantis is asking the Legislature to spend $625 million this year on water projects, the first step toward a roughly $2.5 billion, four-year investment in tackling problems plaguing Lake Okeechobee, nearby rivers and estuaries, freshwater springs and the Everglades.
DeSantis also began reshaping the South Florida Water Management District, whose nine-member board he wants overhauled, having demanded the resignations of current members.
In his budget proposal to the Republican-controlled Legislature, DeSantis is calling for increases in many areas of state environmental spending.
The governor also said the Department of Environmental Protection is seeking applicants for a nine-member, blue-green algae task force, proposed in his executive order.
DeSantis on Tuesday also said that DEP is looking for a chief science officer, another element of his executive order.
Getting the water right protects our future.” Lisa Rinaman, with St. Johns Riverkeeper, said she welcomed the new administration’s attention to sea level concerns.