Governor Ron DeSantis said he wanted the “immediate” resignation of all nine-member board at the South Florida Water Management in order to have a new beginning”.
DeSantis signed a decree aimed at preserving the huge wetland of the Everglades and the state’s water resources with an allocation of 2.5 billion dollars for that purpose.
“Our economy and Florida’s lifestyle are based on water and natural resources,” DeSantis said in a statement.
DeSantis, who took office this week and is a Republican like his predecessor, Rick Scott, now a senator from Florida, said that defending the environment was to be one of his priorities since the election campaign for the November 6 elections.
In his opinion, the protection of water resources is one of the most important issues for Florida.
“That is why,” he said, “that I am today acting immediately to fight against the threats that have devastated the economy and put the health” of some communities in check.
The decree instructs various public offices to provide 2.5 billion dollars in four years for the restoration of the Everglades and the protection of water resources, one billion more than in the previous four years, according to press reports.
It also instructs the competent authorities in this matter to immediately begin the next phase of a project to create a reservoir for waste from an agricultural area neighboring the Everglades and ensure the approval of the work by the Army’s corps of engineers in the area.
That reservoir will prevent the waste from the agricultural industry that contaminates Lake Okeechobee from reaching the Everglades and the rivers and canals of the southern part of the state, where blue-green toxic algae proliferate.
The decree creates a Task Force against these algae, as well as an Environmental Audit and Transparency office.
