Letter to The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader of United States Senate, and The Honorable Harry Reid, Minority Leader of United States Senate - Call For Immediate Passage Of Water Bill As Algae Crisis Continues

Letter

Dear Leaders McConnell and Reid,

South Florida is facing a crisis. The water flowing in the St. Lucie River is covered with dark green and brown algae. Beaches and waterways that would normally have been crowded this past Fourth of July weekend were empty as families and vacationers heeded warnings to avoid the toxic blue-green and brown algae blooms that have formed along the waterways and even out into the Atlantic Ocean.

To help address this crisis, I strongly urge you to bring the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016 (S. 2848) up for a vote as soon as possible.

These algae blooms are the result of historic amounts of rain that has forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discharge billions of gallons of nutrient-laden water from Lake Okeechobee to prevent the aging Herbert Hoover Dike from failing.

Since the state refuses to acquire additional land south of the lake to help store and treat this water before sending it south -- as Mother Nature intended -- it's imperative that Congress act now to help solve the problem.

This year's WRDA bill, which the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved earlier this year, has strong bipartisan support and includes several priorities for Florida such as the Central Everglades Planning Project, or CEPP, a critical component of the long-term Everglades restoration plan. I strongly urge you to bring this year's water bill up for a vote as soon as possible so that the Army Corps of Engineers can begin working on CEPP immediately.

Sincerely,

Bill Nelson

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