Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) promotes efforts to fund Everglades restoration.
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00:00southwest florida man this is uh this is what it's all about so it's always great to be back
00:05and i'm joined by really an all-star cast here uh that we're going to talk about a lot of our
00:10efforts to uh restore florida's everglades and natural resources successful efforts that are
00:16ongoing our department of environmental protection secretary alexis lambert our executive director of
00:22florida fish and wildlife roger young board chairman of south florida water management
00:27district south florida's own chauncey goss we got the executive director of south florida water
00:32management district jew bartlett we have some of the other board members here too i saw charlette i
00:36saw ben and so i want to thank all the board members who came from the water management district
00:41uh anna upton ceo of everglades trust and then james evans ceo of sanibel captiva conservation
00:49foundation director of keep florida fishing for the american sports fitting fishing association gary
00:55jennings um and then of course we do have other dignitaries so i want to thank everybody for
01:00being here we launched our efforts to really create a new beginning for florida's natural resources way
01:10back in january of 2019 in southwest florida it was um arctic temperatures that day i remember thinking
01:17am i in green bay or am i in southwest florida but we we charted a very bold vision it was something
01:24that that needed to be done not only in terms of restoring florida's everglades which is the the
01:30largest restoration project anywhere in the united states and maybe anywhere in the world
01:35but also doing things to improve water quality reduce discharges from lake okeechobee and we've
01:41worked with the army corps so that they manage that better but we also know that we had a role in
01:46creating some new infrastructure that would make it unnecessary for the army corps
01:50to to do the discharges so there was a lot of stuff that that we set out to do the first uh
01:57announcement back in january 2019 we said all right we're serious about this we're going to commit 2.5
02:03billion over four years to everglades restoration and water quality projects and that represented a
02:09billion dollars more than had been done in the previous four years and so a lot of people appreciated
02:14it they thought it may be too ambitious we ended up doing 3.3 billion dollars during that period of
02:20time which is more than florida's ever had uh 10 miles
02:28and that four-year run of 3.3 billion that was more than the previous 12 years combined for the state
02:34of florida we also then at the january of 2023 we said we wanted to do 3.5 billion over the next four years
02:43um and i'm proud to say we've almost achieved that goal just in two years we've gotten over three
02:48billion dollars uh for that when you are supporting everglades restoration that does have
02:56a positive impact on not only our way of life but also uh florida's economy uh over the next 50 years
03:04we think that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be linked to these restoration efforts um over the past
03:11five years we've reached because of my leadership in part but honestly the legislature being supportive
03:18of the funding and then the the water management district people really working hard i mean it's
03:23really been a team effort uh we have uh completed or broken ground on more than 75 projects just in
03:30the past five years that's a record for this state
03:33uh 2021 we completed the old tamiami trail roadbed removal project six months ahead of schedule that
03:44allows more water to flow south to everglades national park as god originally intended we completed
03:51the c44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area to provide clean fresh water to the indian river lagoon
03:57in the saint lucie estuary we also completed the s333 water control structure which doubles the amount
04:05of water that can be moved south to everglades national park so so far since 2019 through our efforts
04:13we've reduced the amount of harmful nutrients in south florida's waterways by 727 000 pounds per year of
04:21nitrogen and almost 500 000 pounds per year of phosphorus now so these projects as well as other
04:34investments have brought the cumulative annual nutrient removal efforts to over 1.8 million pounds
04:40of nitrogen and 770 000 pounds of phosphorus uh each and every year we've also made major progress on the
04:48crown jewel of everglades restoration the eaa reservoir we were able to break ground on our part of the
04:55project one full year of head of schedule the aa reservoir project of course is one way to reduce
05:02discharges from lake okeechobee clean water and send it south the 10 000 acre reservoir with 240 000
05:10acre feet of storage uh delivers water to the 6300 acre a2 stormwater treatment area for treatment the
05:17project will provide an additional 370 000 acre feet of clean water annually to the everglades and so
05:25we now have if you go south of lake okeechobee water flowing down to the everglades if you go to florida
05:31bay uh florida bay is is is at its salinity goals for the first time in decades this was something that's
05:38that's new happened over the last couple years and so that's a really really good sign now we understand
05:43the ea reservoir is important one of the requests we have into the trump administration we're ahead of
05:50schedule we work much quicker army corps of engineers not so much it's taken a little longer and so
05:56they're really tasked and and the whole serp is 50 50. we're fine with um taking the money from the feds
06:05giving them credit for their share we don't want the credit but then letting us actually do this stuff
06:10because we will move it quicker and especially when you talk about the eaa reservoir that can make a
06:15huge huge difference so we've asked to have that delegated to the state of florida block grant us the
06:22money we'll move it forward and i think move it forward in a very very positive way so that's that'd be
06:28a huge huge positive for the state of florida if we can get that done another huge positive for the state
06:35of florida is that this summer the c43 reservoir will be completed and that's a major milestone for
06:42our everglades restoration ever efforts this project will be able to hold nearly 55 billion gallons of
06:49water the already completed pump station of the reservoir will be able to move 650 000 gallons of
06:55water per minute from the caloosahatchee into the c43 reservoir i think people know on this side
07:03on the west side of florida west coast of florida you do need discharges into the caloosahatchee
07:09during the dry season you know saint lucie they never want discharges but you do need it
07:15so you gotta you gotta manage that and i know the core does different things but you don't want the
07:20discharges in the summer like you had in 2018 that before i was governor but you had all these nutrients
07:27the algae and we've also done a lot to mitigate algae in lake okeechobee as well but at the time
07:33that wasn't as much so they're sending it and it creates um blooms it interacts with with some of
07:40the water in the gulf uh exacerbated some of the red tide you know red tide's naturally occurring but
07:46when you have the algae and some of the other nutrients going it can make it worse and so 2018
07:51uh excuse me was a was a really tough run it hurt tourism it hurt her businesses and obviously
07:59environmentally wasn't something to be good well now you know if you have a situation where the lake
08:04rises and the core is discharging water uh we'll be able to store that water in the c43 reservoir
08:11clean it and then you can put it there and it ends up being fine so this is a major major component
08:17to our efforts and i'm excited that this will be something that will be up and running in time for
08:22this year's rainy season which uh which would be really really good now it's also the case since i
08:27became governor during the first trump administration i worked with the president to say listen can you
08:33tell the core to try to mitigate these discharges and have because all the core was focused on is what
08:39the water level is if it's a possibility of flood they just discharge well you can manage the lake
08:45differently to try to prevent from being in that situation to begin with and to their credit you
08:50know they did do that and so you've had way fewer discharges since 2019 than you did in the proceeding
08:56years you know part of it is because we're doing this infrastructure stuff that's come online but part of
09:01it is that the core under the first trump administration did manage it differently and and and i think more
09:08appropriately so so that brings us to where we are uh today we have incredible momentum we've had
09:15incredible accomplishments on these very important initiatives and this is something that i've worked
09:21with uh leaders in both the house and the senate for years to be able to advance members of the
09:29legislature all year in southwest florida all your house members um have have have embraced these projects
09:37have campaigned on it and have talked about how uh this is something that's really really important
09:42for florida there seemed to be you know almost unanimous agreement that this was something that was
09:47good there wasn't unanimous at first when i started it but then by the time we did people realized
09:52because they saw the benefits and the public really appreciated that we were putting our money where our
09:57mouth is and making sure we were getting the job done and so that brings us now to today the legislature is
10:04currently in session and they are working on their budget both in house and senate have already submitted
10:13budget i submitted my budget in february and we my budget called to continue the momentum of everglades
10:20restoration and water quality uh we proposed uh over 800 million dollars which is a record uh for that
10:27uh 805 million the senate has basically agreed with that and and is on board for what we're looking and
10:35so i want to thank uh president albritt and the member of the senate who stood up uh and and said yeah
10:41let's continue the momentum unfortunately the florida house of representatives have proposed a budget
10:47that slashes everglades funding and water quality efforts by almost half a billion dollars almost 500 million
10:56dollars in reductions that they're putting into this budget they didn't campaign on that they didn't tell you
11:03that this is something that they were going to do um they're just doing it uh and a lot of the reason
11:09they're doing it is because the leadership in the house of representatives has taken a position
11:14that if i'm for something that that it's their uh view to just oppose us just in a knee-jerk fashion oh the governor always
11:22gets his way we don't want to give the governor any wins that's kind of how these people think
11:28shouldn't you be doing what's right for the people of florida stop playing your petty games stand up
11:34and do what's right do what the people asked us to do continue the momentum and stop with this silliness
11:41they even in their budget defunded key aspects of the florida highway patrol i highlighted this last week
11:49they wanted to slash almost 90 positions from our florida highway patrol they defunded body armor
11:56for the florida highway patrol and they did other things that will make the people of florida less
12:01safe and we called them on it a lot of people were very frustrated and what some of the members oh
12:06you're mischaracterizing the budget process understand what they're telling you they're admitting
12:11that their budget isn't worth anything they're admitting that all this stuff is just i don't know
12:17though is it just fluff is it for show why are you doing that why are you trying to defund the highway
12:22patrol positions why are you the first house over the last six years they've never tried to do this
12:30before no senate has ever tried to do this before over the last six seven years this is what the florida
12:37house is doing uh it is not right what they're doing is wrong and this is one of so many other things
12:44where their agenda is not your agenda their agenda is not what the people voted for their whole agenda
12:52really represents a revolt against the voters that sent them there all they had to do was continue the
12:59momentum continue the success build off what had come before you and instead they submit a budget
13:06where they're trying to totally sabotage all the efforts that we have with everglades restoration and
13:13they'll try to say oh there's money sitting there that's not being used that's not true
13:17the water management district and chauncey can talk about this you know their fiscal year ends
13:22a different time than the state it ends at september 30th and so all this stuff is obligated
13:28it's all being put into into work and all these projects are being moved forward we're the south
13:34florida district has moved this stuff forward quicker than anybody thought possible it's not easy to do all this stuff
13:41and they're doing it so slashing everglades restoration funding is not uh the right way to go about it
13:49that's not the only thing they're doing so last year uh under the leadership of your senator kathleen
13:57pasodomo and my friend um she created a framework where 90 96 percent of the seminal tribe compact revenue
14:08would go to fund water quality improvement infrastructure and the continued acquisition
14:14and management of florida's conservation lands uh the deal was to basically continue the momentum
14:21that we have done and it's not just you know our momentum on everglades restoration is great
14:25uh it's i'm proud of it uh we are leaving a very important legacy to our kids and grandkids by taking
14:31on these initiatives but we've also created the florida wildlife corridor i mean i don't want the state of
14:37florida florida to be one big concrete slab someday i want to be able to protect this and kathleen led the
14:44effort on that and we've been able to put so much land into conservation um in this really nice corridor
14:51and it's it's kind of like a um florida's version of central park it just spans hundreds of miles and
14:57it's good so we've done so much stuff with this so so that was what was signed in the law that was what
15:03the legislature passed um you know now the house wants to undo that and they want to redirect the
15:09money into uh just general revenue which they'll basically use for their own pet projects now when
15:17this stuff is not tended to you know we know what ends up happening you start to see the discharges
15:24have impact you see erosion you see all these different things that have happened i mean we've put
15:30a lot of resources into fortifying coastline and doing things that have really made a difference
15:36they want to turn their back on that so what i would tell people is is that what you voted for
15:42did you vote to stop and sabotage the progress that we've made with everglades restoration and look if
15:50that's what you wanted if that's what you thought you were getting when you sent folks to the florida
15:56house of representatives look we can agree to disagree i mean that's life right not everyone
16:01has to agree with me on this stuff but i don't think that's what they told you they were going to do
16:05i think they told you and i think they understandably took credit for being a part of these great
16:11initiatives and now all of a sudden the house's budget they're just going to turn their back on those
16:16initiatives that is not right that is not the way you do business so this is their budget i know it
16:23doesn't get as much attention i know people focus more on washington and i understand there's a lot
16:28going on there but this this is something that is just outright wrong so i'm thankful to be have been
16:34able to put forth a budget that continues the momentum that continues us fulfilling our promise
16:42to leave this state to god better than we found it and i'm thankful that the senate in florida has
16:48stepped up to the plate to answer the call as well the house of representatives has not been willing to
16:53do that but on so many issues uh they have just gone a wall they are not doing anything to address my
17:01call for property tax relief they are not doing anything or have not done anything yet to alleviate
17:08the condo crisis that was created by legislation you know that they passed several years ago and they're
17:14not doing what people are expecting them to do and a lot of what they're trying to do is to try to undo
17:22a lot of the good work that's been done in recent years and that's not what they told you they were
17:26going to do so i'm thankful for everyone that's been a part of this fight it's not easy to have done
17:32all that's been done uh you know we kind of were i think some people just thought it was on autopilot
17:37that of course everyone's going to continue to do that you know florida is it's a great success story
17:42to to have gotten these projects started and completed and in such such quick time you see the water flow you
17:48see the results but yet there's some folks that um are are wanting to turn back we're not going to
17:54turn back we're going to keep the momentum going so so let's get this done let's have a budget that
18:00actually reflects the priorities of the people of florida and with that i'm going to invite up some
18:05other speakers starting with our secretary alexis lambert
18:17thank you governor i'm alexis lambert and it's my privilege to serve as the secretary of the florida
18:22department of environmental protection what an honor to stand here and reinforce the message we just
18:28heard because what florida is doing to restore the everglades and protect the environment is truly historic
18:35since 2019 as the governor mentioned florida has invested more than 3.3 billion dollars
18:40in everglades restoration more than the previous 12 years combined
18:46we've also taken major steps to improve the pace and efficiency of this work
18:51two recent projects we managed were completed six to seven years ahead of schedule
18:57we're also learning from past challenges in the past projects like the c44 reservoir
19:04had to be broken up and permitted in pieces due to funding uncertainty
19:11leading to more than a dozen permit modifications over time
19:15that approach creates unnecessary delays and drives up costs
19:19when we fund projects in full and plan comprehensively like we have under the governor's leadership
19:28we minimize those complications a good example is the c43 reservoir it was originally planned in two
19:35parts but we made the decision to build it all at once that single choice saved years in construction
19:42time and millions of dollars it's decisions like these that have positioned florida as a national
19:48leader in restoration it's also why we are working hard with the federal government to take the lead
19:54on managing more of this work as proposed by the governor back in january we're now in discussions to
20:00have florida manage federally funded serp projects dep and our partners at the south florida water management
20:07district are working on an updated agreement with the army to allow for even faster construction and
20:14give taxpayers a better return on these very vital investments so let's let today serve as a reminder
20:23that we can't afford to lose momentum continued investment is critical because restoring the everglades
20:30is not just an environmental priority it's a commitment to florida's future thank you
20:43good morning everyone i'm roger young the executive director for the florida fish and wildlife
20:47conservation commission and governor thank you for for being here and thank you for having me here
20:51it's a true honor to stand here today it's such a beautiful place um and to celebrate these
20:58announcements these environmental announcements and accomplishments here in southwest florida on
21:02such a beautiful day this this area is so important to our natural resources you know properly managed
21:08water systems like the c43 helps sustain healthy fisheries and estuaries that support recreational
21:14and commercial fishing which is so important to these communities especially here in southwest florida
21:19but across the state and governor thank you for your leadership and your commitment to conservation
21:24i was there on that arctic cold day your commitment has been there since day one and it has been
21:30unprecedented commitment through funding and support for our environment and for conservation and we
21:35are so grateful for all of that you know it's because of that that florida truly is the fishing and boating
21:41capital of the world and so many of our residents and our visitors enjoy that and come here and live here
21:47because of that fact you know it is this commitment and these important measures that will ensure that the
21:53everglades will remain one of a kind the everglades truly are one of a kind in the entire world
21:59and we want to protect this for the next generation i see a lot of kids here we want
22:03them to be able to enjoy the everglades like we did growing up for future generations so governor again
22:09thank you and i want to thank all of our partners that work so hard together
22:12to preserve and support the everglades the environment and conservation thank you
22:23thank you that's so much for being here at the river of you i'm also joining the water to start
22:28in the river of us here tonight we're going to be able to get a good part
22:31of this and just to continue to bring up the water to do and get a good part of this
22:31environment and i'm going to encourage you to do it just a good part of this is that we're
22:36going to be able to go deeper into the world and make sure that we are going to be able to
22:37continue to get a good part of this data to do this and let's go through the next project
22:41but i would like to address it in particular i would like to thank you for your support
22:43here and marco ben butler from okeechobee thanks for making the drive down this morning ben i
22:47appreciate your being here and drew bartlett our incredible executive director who leads one of the
22:51best staffs in the whole state so thank you very much for being here i've been chair of this board
22:56now for six years and we are continuing to see both small and large-scale everglades restoration
23:02projects come online and really the beauty of that is it's working we're seeing record hydration in
23:07the everglades we're seeing salinity levels in florida bay that are hitting their goals
23:12and we're seeing water storage capacity that has tripled in just six years but i want to go back
23:16in time for just a second and talk just about something the governor referenced talk about 2016
23:22talk about 2018 and i'm sure a lot of you remember those lost summers when those toxic discharges
23:29poured onto our coastal estuaries and red tide ravaged our beaches ravaged our canals it smelled
23:36awful you could barely be outside both southwest florida and southeast florida felt the impact
23:42um in our local economies faltered as a result i'm glad to see john lie here he's from the
23:48sanibel captiva chamber of commerce he was very instrumental in working with us
23:52just to let everyone know hey this isn't just an environmental problem this is an economic problem
23:57to see james evans here from sandoval who was in the ground ground zero working with us trying to
24:01clean up the beaches after uh that red tide was just it was an unbelievably bad time
24:07water's the lifeblood of south florida i think most of you know that and our economy depends
24:11on clean water it depends on healthy coasts governor de santis recognized this was a huge problem he
24:17understood the impact those lost summers were having on our businesses on our real estate values and on
24:23our way of life here in south florida that's why he signed that executive order within 48 hours of taking
24:29office in 2019 that recognized the solution to eliminating damaging discharges is the restoration
24:35of florida's everglades that executive order outlined a bold vision of how we were going to advance
24:41everglades restoration how we're going to prove water quality how we were going to send more clean
24:46water south and we were going to reduce damaging discharges from lake okeechobee to the coastal estuaries
24:52and we have but he didn't just sign an executive order he fought hard for unprecedented spending at
24:58the state level and he went to bat and he still does go to bat for the everglades with the president
25:03under governor de santis we've had the highest level of funding for everglades restoration in our
25:08state's history the governor understands that by restoring the historic flow of water our water
25:14managers us are going to have greater flexibility we're going to have more tools we're going to have
25:18more levels levers to be able to push and pull to manage our incredibly complex water management system
25:24and to reduce the discharges that damage our economy and that damage our ecology and because
25:29of the governor's leadership in shattering that status quo of not getting much done in just a few
25:34short months we are going to celebrate as he mentioned the initial operations of the caloosahatchee c43
25:39reservoir here on the west coast something we've all been waiting for for a really long time
25:43this reservoir long anticipated is going to provide storage for approximately
25:4755 billion gallons of water off of the caloosahatchee river it's going to reduce harmful flows of water
25:53from the lake to the caloosahatchee estuary which is where i live right out here it comes down this
25:58way as well during the wet season and provide beneficial fresh water flows to the estuary during
26:03the dry season and just a few miles from here we have another sir project called the picayune strand that
26:09charlotte roman has been working very hard on and helping the core understand that we need to get this
26:14done quicker and this project is going to be finished in the next year and that's going to
26:18restore natural flow of water across 85 square miles in collier county it's going to rehydrate
26:24drained wetlands enhance habitat for fish and wildlife and restore the area's natural sheet flow
26:29right here to the 10 000 islands we're also going to celebrate the completion of the biscayne bay
26:34coastal wetland project and other syrup effort and that's going to improve the health of biscayne bay and
26:39is going to aid in wetland rehydration building coastal resiliency and improving water quality
26:43in miami-dade county so this is really the year of serp we're seeing major everglades projects come
26:49online and the fact that we're going to have major water storage both on the east coast and the west
26:53coast this year is a real game changer for us in the water management world but all of us know there's
26:58still so much work to do and i think that's why we're here today because now is not the time to stop
27:03now is not the time to slow down our water is too important to the lives of floridians it's critical
27:10that we keep our foot on the gas and keep getting the job done we need to finish the aa reservoir
27:15we need to keep advancing projects for the indian river lagoon we need to keep restoring the western
27:20everglades and big cypress preserve right here we need to keep storage projects going to protect lake
27:24okeechobee and our bass fishery we need to remain laser focused on sending water south and we need to
27:30double down on our commitment to leaving florida better than we found it for future generations
27:34so i'm honored to be here today representing the district and thank you governor for your
27:38leadership and your commitment to florida's water resources
27:49i think it's also worth just pointing out we've talked about record funding for everglades restoration
27:56we also in my budget this year and i think the senate's as well and hopefully that'll get across
28:01the line we're going to have record increase for teacher salaries and we've done done that over many
28:06many years leading up to this biggest one we've also done record investment in transportation and
28:13particularly roads and we did moving florida forward so so we've dealt with and and done really big things
28:21that benefit the people of florida but we've also done that with within the context of a budget
28:28that even though we have 3 million more residents now than new york state does our budget's less than
28:33half the size of new york state's budget we've almost quadrupled the rainy day fund since i've been
28:39governor if you look at all the debt that's been accumulated in florida's 180 year history just since
28:44i've been in we've paid off 41 of that so we have the lowest number of state employees per capita in
28:51the entire united states so don't tell me it can't be done we're doing it we're showing how it's done
29:00by doing very strong fiscal conservative low debt low tax but then also actually using
29:09our ability to to to make impacts on major major things so i couldn't be more proud of that
29:15i'm obviously very disappointed that the house is trying to to sabotage the momentum i don't think
29:22voters will will like that too much and so we thought it was important to come highlight our commitment
29:28make sure everybody knows we're not we're not giving an inch on this and then hopefully you'll you'll
29:33uh let your members of the house of representatives know here in florida that you want to continue
29:38the momentum on this you don't want to see them slashing the everglades restoration efforts so
29:43thank you for everything okay we got any questions back there
29:46all right god bless everybody thank you
29:52thank you
29:54thank you