This week the new South Florida Water Management District board members officially took their seats. The old board was ousted by Governor Ron DeSantis for failing their responsibility to be transparent and accountable to the people of Florida.

I am optimistic that working alongside this new group of water leaders, we will be able to make real progress to stop discharges and restore the Everglades.

Of course, we can’t rest on small victories before the larger battle is won. Over the last 21 days, the Corps has discharged an average of 500 cubic feet per second of water to the St. Lucie estuary.

I definitely appreciate the Army Corps' acknowledgement that lower lake levels heading into wet season this year is a good thing, and I hope they continue sending the water south in the months to come. But we absolutely must keep fighting against these harmful releases.

The bottom line is that discharging toxic water to our coast doesn’t need to be a part of the Corps’ efforts to lower the lake. These discharges to the St. Lucie damage our estuary, devastate our economy and threaten the health and human safety of our communities. The costs simply outweigh the benefits.

The good news is that the Corps announced this week they will be reducing these discharges by about half. But that’s still not nearly enough. And we must keep up the fight until we are consistently receiving no discharges to the St. Lucie.

We must send the water south and stop putting our coastal communities public health and human safety at risk. I won’t stop fighting, and I hope you won’t either.