There’s no issue that impacts our community at a deeper or more destructive level than toxic discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

When the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was authorized by Congress in 2000 to restore America’s Everglades, it was historic progress for Florida’s environment.  However, while CERP projects are critically important, they will stop only about two-thirds of discharges to the St. Lucie Estuary.

That’s why I introduced the Northern Estuaries Restoration Plan (NERP) today to force the Army Corps of Engineers to develop additional infrastructure to stop the remaining discharges that CERP won’t.  Finishing construction on all CERP projects must remain the immediate goal, but we can’t get caught flat footed after it is done. We must start planning now.

Our community is not the sewer system of Florida, and I will continue to fight to keep our waterways clean!

You can read the bill here: