Is Florida’s water ‘dirtier’ under DeSantis? Here’s what the data show

The early days of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second time period are brimming with news about water.

In DeSantis’ inaugural address Jan. 3, the Republican governor touted his investments to enhance the state’s water high quality, and he promised that thousands and thousands extra will are available in the subsequent legislative session.

Democratic state lawmakers aren’t offered on DeSantis’ environmental success; one House member from St. Petersburg mentioned the reverse is true.

“The results are clear — Florida’s water is dirtier and sicker than when Gov. DeSantis first took office,” Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, mentioned in a Jan. 3 assertion.

We wished to know whether or not Florida’s water high quality had declined as Cross mentioned. We shortly realized that the phrases chosen by Cross, an environmental scientist, aren’t the similar phrases that environmental businesses use to check and monitor water situations.

Cross additionally didn’t specify what sort of water she was speaking about.

There are many alternative sorts of water our bodies in Florida — lakes, rivers, springs and seashores, simply to call a number of. Each system has its personal challenges, and there’s no catch-all unit of measurement to summarize the well being of all water in the state.

When we requested Cross for proof of her declare, she mentioned: “My statement refers to the state broadly, but particularly in our coastal estuaries.” She mentioned algae occasions, together with purple tide and blue-green algae, are lasting longer and inflicting extra injury.

Estuaries are our bodies of water the place the freshwater from rivers or streams converges with the saltwater of the ocean. The largest estuary in Florida is Tampa Bay, in line with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Here’s what we discovered once we examined Cross’ declare. DeSantis’ press workplace directed us to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

More estuaries aren’t assembly water high quality requirements under DeSantis

We reached out to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection for information on the total well being of the state’s water, however we didn’t obtain a response in time for publication.

As a part of the federal Clean Water Act, the division should submit a biannual report on Florida’s water our bodies to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This report supplies an evaluation of the our bodies of water in Florida which have turn out to be too polluted for swimming or ingesting. The division examines streams, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters for water high quality and descriptions the root causes of air pollution.

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PolitiFact reviewed the division experiences from 2018, 2020 and 2022. We discovered {that a} rising variety of the state’s water our bodies are impaired — that means they don’t meet water high quality requirements.

In 2018, earlier than DeSantis took workplace, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported that 2.5 million acres of the state’s estuaries have been polluted and never appropriate for ingesting or recreation. That quantity declined to 2.1 million in 2020 earlier than rising to three.1 million in 2022.

That enhance was fueled, partly, by a surge in nutrient air pollution, which may worsen algae blooms which are poisonous for wildlife and trigger well being problems for individuals swimming or ingesting from such waters.

Florida’s lakes and coastal waters face comparable challenges

Other our bodies of water in Florida additionally skilled an preliminary lower in air pollution when DeSantis entered workplace after which an uptick towards the finish of his first time period.

• Lakes: In 2018, greater than 1 million acres of lakes throughout Florida have been recognized as unsuitable for swimming and aquatic life. The rely dropped to about 893,000 acres in 2020, earlier than rising to 2.1 million in 2022.
• Coastal waters: Coastal waters, which embody seashores, had a far much less dramatic shift in air pollution. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection recognized 2,718 miles of coast as impaired in 2018. The rely fell to 1,529 miles in 2020 and rose to 1,570 in 2022.

Florida’s streams had a constant decline in miles of impaired water, nevertheless. In 2018, greater than 70,000 miles of streams have been polluted. By 2022, that dropped to fifteen,000.

Cross talked about purple tide and blue-green algae occasions to help her assertion that the state’s waters are dirtier. Although purple tide has been throughout latest news, there’s a data difficulty with evaluating these occasions over time.

We couldn’t discover data that in contrast the total severity and extent of algal blooms from one calendar 12 months to the subsequent throughout DeSantis’ tenure.

“In the Everglades and throughout Florida’s lakes, harmful toxic algae blooms have become an almost annual event fed by fertilizer runoff from farms and subdivisions,” the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., concluded after reviewing state experiences.

The Environmental Integrity Project evaluated the newest water high quality analyses submitted by every state. Its report was launched March 17, 2022, a month earlier than Florida launched the newest data on the state’s water. According to the report:

• Florida ranked first in the nation for whole acres of lakes deemed too polluted for swimming and aquatic life. When the share of lakes assessed, Florida ranked fourth.
• Florida additionally has the second most sq. miles of polluted estuaries in the U.S. It ranked ninth when the share of estuaries assessed.

While acknowledging the problems with Florida’s water, specialists mentioned the issues are nothing new.

“Florida’s had water issues for as long as people have been selling real estate down here. So, these issues definitely predated DeSantis,” mentioned Matt DePaolis, environmental coverage director at the nonprofit Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

DeSantis additionally pursued a number of actions to enhance the state’s water high quality. He reestablished the Blue-Green Algae job drive to report on “the causes and solutions to Florida’s red tide crisis,” and invested a complete of $40 million to handle the downside.

But DeSantis might at all times do extra, DePaolis mentioned.

The Blue-Green Algae Task Force, as an example, offered 33 suggestions in 2019. A coalition of environmental organizations present in August 2022 that 27 suggestions had not been enacted.

DeSantis announced a proposal Jan. 10 to speculate an extra $3 million to handle points impacting Florida’s setting and water.

Our ruling

Cross mentioned Florida’s water is “dirtier and sicker” than when DeSantis took workplace in 2019.

Her assertion is broad, and there may be additionally no catch-all unit of measurement to find out whether or not all of Florida’s distinct waterbodies are dirtier or sicker. But specialists largely agreed along with her evaluation of the declining state of Florida’s water high quality, noting that the underlying situations predate DeSantis’ tenure.

Comprehensive analyses submitted to the EPA throughout DeSantis’ time in the governor’s workplace show {that a} rising variety of the state’s water our bodies, together with estuaries and lakes, are impaired — that means, they don’t meet water high quality requirements. The state of coastal waters and streams has improved since earlier than DeSantis’ time in workplace.

The assertion is partially correct however leaves out vital particulars. We fee it Half True.