Last week, in a sweeping, philistine effort to annihilate some $32 billion dollars in funding for arts and cultural nonprofits, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office vetoed a handful of bills , including HB165 , also known as the “Safe Waterways Act,” a provision essentially designed to mandate water-quality testing to ensure beach waters are clean for swimming.
“Florida is a state plagued by water woes, largely triggered by outdated or failing wastewater infrastructure that has repeatedly polluted local waterways and beach waters,” writes Surfrider in a recent blog post commenting on and expressing dismay at the governor’s decision.
Surfrider ran through a litany of concerns for well-being of waterways and surf-bathers alike: algal blooms, fish kills, vibrio, flesh-eating bacteria, and an overwhelming amount of contaminated wastewater (like that from farm runoff) to sewage spills.
Related: This California Beach Is the Most Toxic in America
The bill, in its 2024 iteration, would have also required measures for clean-water enforcement, issuance of public health advisories, closure of beaches that fail to meet public health and safety standards, advisory signage, and delegation of authority and responsibility to local governments and agencies.
“Swim at your own risk” is the meta message to the seagoing public from the governor’s office. And while that part of it might be fine—a caveat, after all, is that the veto doesn’t prohibit testing of waterways or broadcasting findings, it just grants local government and authorities the option to overlook conditions—the resulting choice not to inform the public or post even cursory advisories regarding measured levels of pollutants and pathogens is outright egregious. And that’s to say nothing of whether local governments can or will hold responsible parties (particularly corporations) accountable.
Surfrider Foundation’s Florida Policy Manager, Emma Haydocy, had this to say: “Surfrider Foundation's Florida network, including eleven chapters and eight student clubs throughout the Sunshine State, have led the charge to improve the state's beach water quality monitoring and public notification practices for years. Current and historic practices have left beachgoers in the dark about whether it is safe to get in the water or not.”
Surfrider is three years into campaigning for the Safe Waterways Act since its basic provisions were eliminated back in 2011. “While Surfrider is deeply disappointed by Governor DeSantis' decision to veto this critical bill for clean water and public health,”—which saw unanimous, bipartisan support—“our Florida network is committed to working with state lawmakers to reintroduce this legislation and ensure clean water for all people in Florida in the next legislative session.”
“This is not the end of the 'Safe Waterways Act',” Haydocy continued, “nor the end of Surfrider's efforts to protect Floridians and the hundreds of millions of people who enjoy recreating in Florida's beach waters every year.”
In the meantime, the short-term solution is probably that various nonprofits and NGOs will have to pick up the slack with vigilante efforts, posting and making real-time data available to the public. Here’s hoping, anyhow, in the interest of everyone and everything right down to you and yours, Gov.
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