The Army Corps has proven that, if left to their own devices, they will continue to poison our communities, and as a result, we have been treated as Florida’s septic tank for far too long. 

That’s why I introduced the Stop Poisoning Florida Act, which would prohibit discharges from Lake Okeechobee at the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam and the St. Lucie Lock and Dam when the water exceeds the toxicity level that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined is too toxic for human contact.

At my urging, the EPA determined that 8 parts per billion of microcystin makes the water hazardous for people even to just come in contact with.  Water discharged from Lake Okeechobee into our community routinely tests far above this limit, and the health impacts are extremely serious: fever, rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal distress, liver damage, kidney failure and even death.  

As a result, even the Army Corps was forced to admit in Congressional testimony that they were willfully poisoning Floridians.  That should never be allowed, which is why my bill would bring a permanent end to this taxpayer-funded public health crisis.

Read the bill here: