Big news: my bipartisan bill to address water pollution at the source passed the House of Representatives!

Here’s why that’s important...

Our communities have felt the social, health and economic consequences of environmental disaster with toxic algae last summer testing nearly 50 times more toxic than is considered safe for human contact. Over the course of last year, local basin agricultural runoff accounted for 47% of the water flowing into the St. Lucie Estuary, our communities contributed 12% (including pollution from fertilizer, septic tanks and more) and Lake O discharges were 36%.

I helped introduce the bipartisan Local Water Protection Act to stop water pollutants from entering our waterways from all of these sources.

This bipartisan bill will promote public health and defend our environment by addressing toxic agricultural runoff, leaky septic tanks, legacy pollutants and more. The bill also addresses impacts from dams and the effects of channelization of waterbodies like the Kissimmee.

These water issues exemplify why it's absolutely critical that we work together to strengthen conservation programs, promote public health, defend our environment and protect our waterways, and passing this bill goes to show how working together we can make a real difference for our waterways.