Captains For Clean Water Goes to Washington DC to Support the EAA Reservoir Project

Captains For Clean Water Goes to Washington DC to Support the EAA Reservoir Project to Safeguard Florida’s $15.3 Billion Marine and $9.3 Billion Fishing Industries.
Captains for Clean Water was founded in 2016 to advance science based-solutions to the damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges which have plagued the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers for decades. As a result of the Everglades being drained, Florida Bay receives only a small fraction of the freshwater flows it historically did, which wreaks havoc on Florida Bay, causing massive seagrass die-offs. Captains for Clean Water united Florida’s East & West coast communities, as well as the Keys communities to push for solutions to this problem.

Last year, Captains for Clean Water brought hundreds of anglers, fishing guides and leaders in the fishing and tourism industries to Tallahassee to support Senate Bill 10 which authorizes and funds the State of Florida’s portion of the EAA Reservoir- a critical Everglades restoration project that will provide relief to our estuaries. Senate Bill 10 was passed and signed into law in 2017, and $800 million was appropriated to the project.

This project is a 50/50 cost share with the federal government, and we are in Washington DC now to gain federal support in hopes that we can get this project in the 2018 WRDA (Water Resources and Development Act) Bill. Captains for Clean Water is traveling to our Nation’s Capital with a group of 20 individuals including fishing guides, recreational anglers and marine industry leaders including Chris Peterson, CEO of Hell’s Bay Boatworks, and Chuck Yates, VP of sales for SeaDek Marine Nonskid. Together with Everglades Foundation, TRCP, NWF and many other organizations, we are asking Congress to support the EAA Reservoir project to safeguard Florida’s $15.3 billion marine and $9.3 billion fishing industries.

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