Rep. Truenow has benefitted big ag more than conservationists. Will a new ballot initiative undo any potential damage he may have caused?
LEESBURG — In Lake County, water, of course, is a big part of the county’s identity.
County Commissioner Sean Parks voiced his support for the Bonds Clean Water initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot, which he says will allow the county to use a bond, which county governments issue to raise money, for projects that acquire and improve land to protect drinking water sources, preserve natural areas, protect open space from overdevelopment, provide parks and trails, and improve the water quality of rivers and lakes.
Parks, who has a degree in environmental science, says using bonds will help county officials protect springs and establish a citizen oversight committee with full public disclosure of spending. (Read more at votelakeforever.com.)
If the initiative gets voted in, Lake County will be authorized to issue unlimited general obligation bonds maturing within 20 years, not exceeding the legal maximum interest rate, not exceeding $50 million, and payable from ad valorem taxes.
Lake County Conservation Council President Judy Hepting supports the measure and says too often development dollars trump the need for clean drinking water, safety, and nature/wildlife preservation.
In the past couple of years, she’s been vocal against a state lawmaker’s move to dissolve Florida’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts, navigating a thicket of political special interests, conservationists’ concerns and reporting advice from environmental scientists.
“District 31 Florida House Rep. Keith Truenow seems to have been trying to crush conservation safeguards like a tidal wave,” she told the Daily Commercial.
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What happened to Soil and Water Conservation Districts?
Some background: On Nov. 30, 2021, Truenow filed House Bill 783 seeking to abolish all of Florida’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
“For more than 50 years, these districts have provided education and funding for conservation,” Hepting remarked.
“Fortunately, the bill failed to pass. A companion bill, however, did pass, requiring all board members to have some connection to agriculture. Is that to protect farmers from conservation efforts?”
A month after that attempt, Truenow filed House Bill 967 to exempt golf courses from local testing and ordinances related to water and fertilizer use, as long as the golf course maintains a best management practices certification from the Department of Environmental Protection.
To get the certification, an applicant only needs to complete some continuing education hours and pay a fee.
A later version of the bill added that the certified person must continue to coordinate with the local government to “ensure adherence to the best management practices.”
“Unfortunately, neither the initial nor the final version of the bill signed by the governor contains a mechanism for any government agency to enter golf courses to monitor water and fertilizer use,” Hepting said.
Truenow didn’t let up. On Jan. 3, 2022, he filed House Bill 1105 to eliminate the independence of the Lake County Water Authority (LCWA). He succeeded.
The LCWA, now a district under the total control of the Lake County Commission, had served Lake County, going back to 1953, as an entity elected by the voters. But it now no longer has the independent power to levy a tax to pay for projects like the cleanup of water flowing into the Harris Chain of Lakes.
“Truenow has told his colleagues he filed the bill to streamline services, ‘provide better oversight,’ and eliminate taxing duplications with the county, which oversees parks, and the St. Johns Water Management District, a regional agency focused on water quality,” the Daily Commercial’s Caroline Gaspich reported in March 2022.
About six months before the filing of House Bill 1105, some LCWA board members were warned that a state representative might try to dismantle the LCWA unless the board removed its executive director.
Ron Hart Jr., the authority’s final executive director, had 25 years of experience with the LCWA when hired. He had championed Lake County’s fertilizer ordinance and had opposed expanding sand mining in the Green Swamp.
Truenow filed House Bill 1105 anyway, and Hart’s contract was terminated in July 2021.
What’s Truenow’s take on regulations?
With unexpected flooding in neighborhoods caught off guard throughout Florida, we must look at where the stormwater is going.
“Fertilizer triggers algae blooms, worsens red tide and fuels seaweed invasions,” the Washington Post reported, adding that massive algae blooms starve waterways of oxygen.
If algae blooms are choking lakes and rivers throughout our state, will flooding become Florida’s new normal? In Central Florida, are choked waterways are the price of catering to Big Business and Big Agriculture, as the Post suggests?
The Daily Commercial reached out to Truenow for comment, but his aide said that he would discuss water conservation “at a later time.”
“At the current moment, his focus is on recovery assistance from the hurricane and this election cycle,” she said.