This Everglades update episode is a bonus check-in with Capt. Daniel Andrews of Captains for Clean Water on the freshwater discharges affecting Sanibel and the push to get the EAA Reservoir into the 2018 WRDA Bill. Andrews, co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, walks through why the Army Corps of Engineers released polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, and what anglers can do about it before it happens again.
In early June, the Army Corps of Engineers released brown, pollutant-heavy water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, which flow into the Gulf and the Atlantic. This has been happening since 2016 and harms living organisms, jobs, and the tourism industry in the affected areas.
Because the historic Everglades has been shrunk over time, there is very little natural storage capacity left for excess water. The EAA Reservoir would add storage space and treatment, including shallow filter marshes that remove nutrients and sediment before water reaches the estuaries, which is why Captains for Clean Water is pushing to get it built.
Daniel Andrews is the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, an organization that has grown quickly over a few years and made a major impact toward protecting the Everglades, with a specific focus on getting the EAA Reservoir built to completion.
Go to captainsforcleanwater.org to learn more about the problem and its economic impact, call or write your congressman to ask that the EAA Reservoir be included in the 2018 WRDA Bill, share the podcast with your social media audience, and follow Captains for Clean Water on social media and their email list.
Normally rain helps by diluting heavy salinity in shallow areas, which benefits more species. But heavy rain events like Tropical Storm Alberto bring too much water into the Everglades, and that water has to be pushed out somewhere, which spreads pollutants into the ocean and Gulf and hurts fish and plants.
I had Daniel on before to talk about Captains for Clean Water, and when the discharges started again around Sanibel, I wanted to check back in with him directly rather than guess at what was happening. He had also just come back from a trip to Washington, D.C., and I wanted to hear how that went in his own words before passing it along to you.
Getting the EAA Reservoir into the 2018 WRDA Bill is not something that happens just because anglers in Florida want it. It takes congressmen in Washington hearing about the economic impact directly, so I wanted Daniel to walk through how that trip went and what he thinks moved the needle, because that is the part most of us never get to see.
Daniel made a point that stuck with me: congressmen look at what people are actually discussing on social media to decide which issues to focus on. That means sharing this episode and following Captains for Clean Water is not just noise, it is part of how this actually gets fixed.
This is an important time and an important issue. Spare the ten minutes that Daniel has asked for and it will go a long way. Go to captainsforcleanwater.org, contact your congressman about the EAA Reservoir and the 2018 WRDA Bill, and share this episode with people who care about these waters.
Capt. Daniel Andrews is the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, an organization focused on Everglades restoration and getting the EAA Reservoir built to reduce harmful freshwater discharges into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers.
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