CONTAMINATED! FLORIDA RIGHT TO CLEAN WATER CAMPAIGN
April 6, 2023 6:30 – 8:30 PM
A virtual program
Join us on Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84175950107
or watch later on our Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
WATER IS LIFE. It’s one of our most precious commodities, yet we all take it for granted. Florida, in its natural state, was literally surrounded by clean ocean currents, flowing freshwater springs and rivers, clear estuaries and abundant pristine underground aquifers. We’re blessed with generous rainfall through much of every year.
But, as the song said: “They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.” Over the past century, 22 million people have swarmed the panhandle and peninsula, spewing all forms of sewage, garbage, fertilizers and poisonous chemicals all over the land, and into the water and air. We’ve cut down the trees, sucked the water from the aquifers, drained the wetlands, paved and overbuilt with reckless abandon – the way humans do wherever we go.
Humans have raped Mother Nature. Why haven’t we defended our beautiful Sunshine State?
Many of us have tried. For generations, thoughtful citizens have pushed for laws to protect our wilderness areas as well as our neighborhoods from pollution and mismanagement. Some laws have passed. Some projects have been completed. Yet what conservationists have found over the years is that soft language and loopholes in legislation have made laws weak or unenforceable. It’s hard to beat developers with lots of money and teams of lawyers.
The Florida Right to Clean Water Campaign is a grassroots effort to pass an amendment to the Florida State Constitution that will make water protection language clear, and make those rules enforceable. All across our state, volunteers are joining together to get enough petitions to move this proposal to our ballot for the November 2024 election, so that every Floridian can vote for clean water. The SCPA supports this effort and we hope that you will too!
Please join us as we welcome a panel of three respected clean water activists who will explain the water problems that our state faces and how we can work together to solve them. As always, you’ll have the opportunity to ask them questions in our Q&A with the panel.
Biographies:
Jim Durocher
East Central Regional Director, Florida Rights of Nature Network
Jim Durocher is a retired property manager and kayak company owner who has been exploring and studying the Space Coast waters since 1982. He helped preserve the Thousand Islands of Cocoa Beach and led kayaking tours there for many years until the waters and the mass mortality events in the lagoon was to much to bear. As a Coastal Master Naturalist and Springs and Rivers Academy graduate he tries to educate and offer alternatives to the exploitation of our natural systems which sustain all of us. Jim is a volunteer with Bear Warriors, UU Green Team, Native Rhythms Festival, Friends of T I, and the Florida Rights of Nature Network when it formed in 2019. A Green Amendment is necessary for the paradigm shift that we need to survive.
Mel Martin
Campaign Coordinator, Florida Right to Clean Water
Mel Martin, a Florida native, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a commissioned U.S. Marine Corps Officer, retiring as a Staff Judge Advocate in 2014. She earned her law degree from Barry University School of Law. Active in matters of good governance, clean water advocacy and conservation, in 2016, Mel helped defeat a pro-fracking bill in Florida as Brevard’s Area Captain and led a countywide coalition which successfully helped pass a half-cent sales tax to support necessary restoration projects for the Indian River Lagoon. She also served as an Adjunct Law Professor, teaching Water Pollution Law and Environmental Ethics at Barry Law. Still a licensed Florida attorney, Mel currently lives in Eugene, Oregon and volunteers in support of the Florida Right to Clean Water citizens’ initiative as the campaign coordinator.
Michael Myjak
East Central Regional Deputy Director, Florida Rights of Nature Network
Florida’s Right to Clean Water (RTCW) initiative started in earnest when the Orange County Charter Review Commission placed the first RTCW Charter Amendment on the 2020 ballot. The State Legislature fired back with a preemptive provision that appears to made it illegal for local governments to declare that Nature has Rights. Having seen this, Titusville residents petitioned to have a fundamental Right to Nature added to the City’s Charter. We also petitioned the Brevard County Charter Review Commission. They didn’t appreciate it however, declining to advance it to ballot for the County. Meanwhile, Titusville’s ballot initiative passed with an overwhelming 82% of the vote.
Michael Myjak is an officer of Speak Up Titusville, the Political Action Committee (PAC) responsible for the Titusville Clean Water Charter Amendment. Both are now working with the Florida Rights of Nature Network (FRONN) to bring Clean and Healthy Waters to the Florida Constitution in 2024.
Presently Michael serves as the Deputy Director for the East Central Florida District representing 9 counties, We are working with hundreds of other volunteers across the State. But we need a cast of thousands. We aim to collect 900,000 petitions state-wide with a judicial review initiated after 225,000 have been collected. We hope you’ll join us in our efforts to save Florida’s waters.
April 6, 2023 6:30 – 8:30 PM
A virtual program
Join us on Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84175950107
or watch later on our Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?