Red Tide: Jono and Julie interview Cris Costello - plus an RtCW update

 If you have an interest in understanding Red Tide, or in how some of the local resources like Mote Marine have interpreted red tide phenomena, you might find this interview with Chris Costello of the Sierra Club eye-opening.

Here's the intro from environmentalists Jono Miller and Julie Morris:

Today's Guest: Cris Costello, Senior Organizing Manager of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club. Get ready to learn about the Legislature and fertilizer, offshore fish farms, and remember that time back in 2014 when 3 out of 4 of us voted to buy more wild land? The government still hasn't complied. 

The show airs Tuesday's at 9 am on WSLR. 

Interview with Cris Costello, WSLR, Tues. July 11, 2023

WSLR archive 

How to listen to WSLR online 

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Here's an update on where Petitions to create a Florida Constitutional Amendment for the Right to Clean Water can be obtained and dropped off. 

Questions? Contact Rona Turek.

A local contact for the Right to Clean Water Amendment

A message from Sarasota's local contact point for the Right to Clean Water:

My contact information for The Right to Clean Water is ronaturek@gmail.com —

I'm the county ambassador for the initiative and should be contacted by any seeking more information as well as those wanting to help get this proposed amendment to the state constitution on the ballot for the voters to decide whether they want clean and healthy waters. 

Our legislators have doubled the number of signed petitions required for a citizen-initiated petition drive. By a deadline in this November, we need 900,000 signatures of registered Florida voters on our petitions to qualify for placement on the ballot. So we need your signatures and volunteers who can help for as little as a couple of hours one day gathering signatures, recruiting and informing their neighbors, helping at public venues, and spreading the word to voters in any Florida county.

Anyone may volunteer to help with this initiative, clean water is a concern to all — even if not a registered Florida voter, anyone here is concerned about unhealthy waters — and the other critters will benefit as well. 

website —  https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

petition — https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/petition

donations of any amount  —  https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/donate 

walkup location - to sign petition or leave signed petitions —

Architectural Salvage

1093 Central Avenue
downtown Sarasota
Monday-Saturday

volunteer petition gatherers will be at many public venues and events

 

local contact   ronaturek@gmail.com 

• get blank petitions   
• return signed petitions to us locally
• get yard signs
• get questions answered  
• volunteer locally  
• arrange for a speaker to your neighborhood, group, organization

Sarasotan designs new logo for the Right to Clean Water

 

“A ‘Right to Clean and Healthy Waters'" is a green amendment crafted specifically to meet the legal and political challenges in Florida” - Joseph Bonasia, Communications Director for FloridaRightToCleanWater.org. 

A call to support the right to clean water in Florida

By Kafi Benz

Guest Columnist 

A version of this column appeared in the Jan. 12, 2023 Sarasota News Leader

In 2020, the Orange County Charter Review Commission placed a charter amendment on the ballot. It was designed to guarantee that Orange County waters had a right to be clean and free of pollution. The amendment also granted all county citizens the right to clean water. It passed with 89.2% voter approval.

Shortly after placement on the ballot, however, the state legislature preempted the authority of local governments to pass such laws. Because of this, a lawsuit using the new amendment to protect wetlands in the county from development was challenged by both the developer and the state. The lawsuit was dismissed, but the appeal is being prepared.

Work began immediately on a state constitutional amendment because the constitution can’t be circumvented.

The 2024 ballot is a feasible goal. Many new venues, such as virtual meetings, now were available for our organizational meetings and presentations to members of organizations supporting the effort. Consensus developed quickly to focus on one amendment and leadership changes occurred. The Florida Right To Clean Water (RtCW) campaign for a state constitutional amendment began coming together both in its legal form and development of the statewide network that would function in each county or region.

Working closely with the new leaders, I mentioned my proposal for a redesign of the logo that would be important for attracting voters who were not committed participants in “things environmental.” 

Joseph Bonasia, Southwest Florida RtCW leader, described it as “a new and improved logo, for a new and improved amendment”:

Now we in Sarasota need to provide our fair share of the required signatures on petitions. That is where you come in. We need your signatures on the petitions and we need your help getting others (at least five friends).

At Floridarighttocleanwater.org you can get the petition — then mail it to the Fort Myers address.* Find answers to questions about the campaign, and see the growing support: League of Women Voters, VoteWater.org, Florida Wildlife Federation, and Waterkeeper chapters among them. If you can, join the volunteer effort in any way convenient for you — become an ambassador or a captain. Even if you are not a Florida voter, with a little volunteered work or a donation you can participate in this clean water effort.

It is up to us to get this question before the voters — so they may decide whether to guarantee that we have the clean water we have been pursuing fruitlessly for decades — instead of things just getting worse.

*Mail to: 

FloridaRightToCleanWater.org
(Political Committee)
13300 S Cleveland Ave, Ste 56
Fort Myers, FL 33907