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Florida’s Water Crisis: Red Tide, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, and the Consequences of Neglect

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If we don’t act now, we’re not just losing clean water. We’re losing the ability to fight for it.

Florida is drowning in more than just water.


Every year, our headlines grow more horrific: tourists infected with flesh-eating bacteria after a beach day, residents with chronic coughs from red tide blooms, wildlife washing up dead by the thousands. But these aren’t freak accidents or random natural occurrences. This is the price of political negligence, environmental deregulation, and the profits-over-people policies of Florida’s ruling elite.


From the Gulf Coast to the Everglades, our waters are under siege. And Floridians are paying with their health, their livelihoods, and, in some cases, their lives.



Red Tide and Flesh-Eating Bacteria Aren’t Just Gross—They’re Deadly


Red tide, a toxic algal bloom caused by the microorganism Karenia brevis, kills fish, poisons shellfish, disrupts local economies, and causes serious respiratory problems. Meanwhile, Vibrio vulnificus—a bacteria that can cause deadly skin infections and sepsis—thrives in these same warming, polluted waters. In 2023, Florida saw a spike in Vibrio-related deaths, mostly in the very coastal communities where local officials downplayed the risks.


Despite the carnage, the Florida Legislature continues to side with polluters and developers, gutting protections and fast-tracking construction projects in fragile ecosystems.



Deregulation, Pollution, and the Myth of “Balance”


We’ve heard it all before: “We need to balance environmental protection with economic growth.” But this “balance” is a lie—especially when Big Sugar, corporate agriculture, and developers are the ones holding the scale. Year after year, they dump fertilizer, waste, and toxins into Florida’s waterways with barely a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, working-class families are told to just “stay out of the water” and hope they don’t get sick.


The agencies tasked with protecting us—the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), the water management districts, and state lawmakers—have failed us. Or more accurately: they’ve sold us out.



The Right to Clean Water Is Not Radical—It’s Survival


That’s why the Right to Clean Water Amendment is so critical.


This citizen-led initiative would enshrine the right to clean and healthy waters directly into Florida’s Constitution, giving the people legal standing to hold polluters and state agencies accountable. It’s a bold step, but a necessary one in a state where the government is too cozy with the very industries poisoning us.


But here’s the kicker: even this right is under attack.



Florida Politicians Are Trying to Crush Citizen-Led Democracy


In recent years, Florida Republicans have launched a full-scale assault on the citizen initiative process. They’ve passed laws that:


  • Limit who can collect petitions, requiring volunteers to register with the state and comply with burdensome regulations

  • Shorten the time to collect signatures and raise the number of counties from which signatures must be gathered

  • Increase the number of signatures needed for constitutional amendments to qualify for the ballot

  • Raise the threshold for amendments to pass from a simple majority to a supermajority (60%)



Why? Because they know that when regular Floridians are given a voice—on clean water, legal marijuana, abortion rights, or fair wages—we often win. And they can’t risk that.


Make no mistake: this is about power. The same politicians poisoning our waters are now poisoning our democracy.


What You Can Do (Today)


  • Sign the petition: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org

  • Volunteer to help collect signatures—no matter how many hoops they make us jump through

  • Tell your neighbors what’s at stake: their health, their rights, their water

  • Fight for your voice: Speak out against attempts to silence the people through legislative suppression



Sources:




Author bio:

Danika Joy Fornear is a former alligator wrestler turned environmental educator and rural journalist. She lives in LaBelle, Florida, where she’s raising her two children, rescuing wildlife, and fighting to protect Florida’s waters and democracy.

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