FLORIDA’S WATERS NEED YOUR HELP!

Anglers, your help is needed: Florida’s waters are in serious trouble.

Even a partial list of facts demonstrates the broad failure of Florida’s environmental regulatory system to protect our waters.

• Red tides have increased dramatically in frequency, duration and intensity.

• South Florida is bracing for yet another summer of massive blue-green algae blooms.

• Nearly a million acres of estuaries and 9,000 miles of rivers and streams are contaminated with fecal bacteria.

• Seagrass beds are on the brink of a death spiral.

• Eighty percent of our 1,000 springs are polluted.

• No state has lost more acres of wetlands.

• No state has more acres of polluted lake water. When it comes to our polluted waters, the buck stops with the state. Florida waters su er because our state government permits pollution and environmental degradation through its actions and inactions.

e primary problem is special interests, such as big agriculture, big development and big mining, which wield undue in uence over legislators and thus environmental policy. It’s pro t over public interest.

In 2020, looking to clean up their polluted waterways themselves, an astounding 89 percent of Orange County voters approved a Right to Clean Water/Rights of Nature charter amendment.

e state legislature swi ly took that right away by preempting the authority of local governments statewide from passing such laws. If you want proof that a rights-based approach to protecting our waters would be e ective, it’s right there.

at preemption le Floridians with only one viable course of action: amend our state constitution to give all Floridians a fundamental right to clean and healthy waters, a right beyond the reach of legislators. e amendment is indefeasible and self-executing; it can’t be annulled or compromised by the legislature.

is fundamental right would be on par with other fundamental rights such as the right to free speech and the right to bear arms.

Given how critical clean water is to Floridians, we merit this right. We need this right. With it enshrined in our constitution, we can hold state government accountable when it permits pollution and degradation of our waters and aquatic ecosystems.

To get on the 2024 ballot, 891,589 signed and approved petitions are needed by Nov. 30, 2023.

Go to FloridaRightToCleanWater.org to read the full text of the amendment. Browse the FAQs. Note the growing list of over 150 organizations and businesses supporting this amendment.

CONSTITUTIONAL

Learn that this right doesn’t mean your neighbor can sue you for fertilizing your lawn, or that there will be a proliferation of lawsuits. It means our government must provide real remedies for polluted waterways. en, if you are a registered Florida voter, print out, sign, and mail the petition. Get family and friends to do the same.

Florida waters depend upon it, and we all depend upon clean water.

Visit FloridaRightToCleanWater.org for more ways you can help make a di erence.

Ballot Title:

Ballot Summary:

Amendment Information

Right to Clean and Healthy Waters

This amendment creates a fundamental right to clean and healthy waters. The amendment may be used to sue State executive agencies for harm or threatened harm to Florida’s waters, which include aquatic ecosystems. This amendment defines terms, identifies affected constitutional provisions in Article IV governing the executive branch, provides for civil action enforcement, allows attorney’s and expert witness fees to prevailing plaintiffs, and provides equitable remedies including restoration of waters.

See separate document for the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment.

04/22/2022 2202 Date Approved Serial Number

Sponsor's Information (Return all completed petition forms to the address below.) Name: Address:

FloridaRighttoCleanWater.org

13300 South Cleveland Avenue Suite 56 Fort Myers, FL 33907

Voter's Information

I am a registered voter of Florida and hereby petition the Secretary of State to place the above proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution on the ballot in the general election.

Address

Update my voter registration record to this address. (check box)

Petition Circulator's Information

This Petition form is only to be collected by a volunteer or directly by the voter him or herself.

A paid petition circulator must use the DS-DE 155B version of the form. Forms for paid petition circulators can be obtained from the Division's Paid Petition Circulator website. Visit https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/InitiativePetitions/ for more information.

Attention

• This form becomes a public record once filed with the Supervisor of Elections.

• It is a first degree misdemeanor to knowingly sign the same petition more than once. [§104.185, F.S.]

• An improperly completed form will not be validated.

DS-DE 155A (10-2021) R1S-2.009, Fla. Admin. Code