Last year I passed legislation to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to redo the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS) that determines when toxic discharges from Lake O are sent into our community. That rewrite process starts now with a chance to make our community’s voice heard!

Starting next week, the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be hosting a number of public forums to help determine a new schedule for when they discharge water. It’s absolutely critical that our community demonstrates how the current system is damaging our environment, our economy, our public health and more.

These are meetings where we need to speak up - and not just with our personal experiences but backed with data and science - to show that continuing to hurt our community is not acceptable.

Here are the dates to know where you can participate:

Lehigh Acres
Tuesday, February 5, 2019, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
15191 Homestead Road, Lehigh Acres, FL 33971

Okeechobee
Wednesday, February 6, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Indian River State College
Williamson Conference and Education Center
2229 N.W. 9th Avenue, Okeechobee, FL 34972

Clewiston
Monday, February 11, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
John Boy Auditorium
1200 South W.C. Owen Ave, Clewiston, FL 33440

Stuart
Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Indian River State College
The Clare and Gladys Wolf High-Technology Center
2400 SE Salerno Road, Stuart, FL 34997

Broward County
Tuesday, February 26, 2019, Time TBD
Location TBD

West Palm Beach
Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Auditorium
3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33406

Miami Gardens
Thursday, February 28, 2019, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
North Dade Regional Library
2455 NW 183rd Street, Miami Gardens, FL 33056

Additional information is available here.

If we want no more lost summers, this is our chance to be heard and make a real difference in the process. Check out this week’s Week In Review video to learn more.

P.S. We are also making great progress in the fight to make the South Florida Water Management District represent the people, not special interests. Governor Ron DeSantis recently appointed two new members to the SFWMD to bring long overdue transparency to the board.