John G. Heim, the leader of the Southwest Florida Clean Water Movement and other activists that began demonstrating non-stop in November for 60 days on the Fort Myers Beach Bridge have continued to demonstrate and are fully committed to persist in their rallying efforts. “We will demonstrate every week at a different bridge in Southwest Florida for as long as it takes to educate the public on how the toxic discharges are destroying the Caloosahatchee River, estuary and local Gulf waters, and why we need to get our Lee County Commissioners to urge the Army Corp of Engineers to stop the Lake Okeechobee discharges. We also want them to urge Governor Rick Scott to honor the voter’s will to use Amendment One funds for acquisition of 153,000 acres of land (still under option with US Sugar until 2020) south of the lake, where the water can be sent for filtering purposes before flowing into the Everglades,” says Heim.

At present, the discharges are flowing into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, as well as the Indian River lagoon. The polluted water is destroying fragile ecosystems and devastating the tourism economy, as well as posing an immediate public safety crisis. “These discharges extend 30 miles offshore and are reaching as far south as Bonita Springs and Naples. For the first time in history, they have reached Marco Island,” advises Heim.

The Southwest Florida Clean Water Movement (SWFLCWM) has 10,000 supporters throughout the state. “Anyone interested in joining us in our demonstrations can become a member of our Facebook group (Facebook.com/groups/SWFLcleanwater) and check our schedule. We undoubtedly will be demonstrating all through 2016, since our rainy season will impact the discharges even more,” notes Heim, who recently went to Washington, D.C., to speak with congressional representatives regarding the discharges. He met with Congressman (R-FL) Curt Clawson, who co-sponsored with Senator Bill Nelson D-FL, bipartisan emergency legislation to expedite repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike (by 2020).

Since Heim began meeting in November with the municipal mayors of the newly formed Southwest Florida Mayor’s Coalition on Water Quality—Fort Myers, Sanibel, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach—he notes that no action has been taken on requests for a press conference or the demands for water testing in the areas where water is now murky and brown. “We call the sludge line of brown water, which is visible in aerial photographs, the ‘line of death’, because wherever it flows, more dead fish, stingrays, sharks, conch and starfish are washing up on the shore. Unfortunately, we aren’t making any progress on our demand, and the Health Department of Lee County will only test for e-coli in bird droppings. Our only choice is to use the crowdfunding money we raised to pay for testing, which costs approximately $500 for each particular item. Due to the high cost, our requests have to be very specific,” explains Heim.

Heim is also asking for political transparency—full disclosure of campaign funds—to see which local official’s campaign is funded by the sugar industry, which he believes is back pumping polluted water from their fields into the lake. This is illegal per the 1972 Clean Water Act.

“With the help of the Internet, our Southwest Florida Clean Water Movement is being supported by people throughout the U.S. We filmed a video of the line of death and posted it. In one week, we had a million hits to our Facebook page. Even Alan Farago, Huffington Post’s writer and environmental activist, mentioned us in his February 16 blog post,” comments Heim, who refutes any rhetoric by mainstream media, local mayors and the sugar industry suggesting the situation is being over exaggerated and does not pose a risk to human health. “Hundreds of us who work and live along this coast have acute respiratory issues such as bronchitis. We had Red Tide for a month during discharges. It’s an insult to anyone concerned about the health risk of the chemicals and harmful agents in our waterways that are causing massive fish kills,” says Heim.

Southwest Florida's economy, natural beauty and quality of life are intricately linked to how water resources are managed. “All the different groups such as Captains for Clean Water, Politics of Florida Water, Stonecrab Alliance, Bullsugar.org, Anglers for Everglades Restoration and any other groups need to network together toward a solution. We all want clean water, and we are more likely to get it if we work together. There is power in numbers,” says Heim, who suggests that concerned supporters and citizens attend the Food & Thought Health Freedom Summit in Naples on April 2 to learn from the Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum about the For the Generations initiative of the Delaware River Waterkeeper Network.

The mission of this initiative emerged as the result of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that upheld the inalienable right of humans to pure water, clean air and a healthy environment. The initiative is for the pursuit and procurement of state constitutional-level environment protection of environmental rights. Presently, protection at this level exists only in Pennsylvania and Montana.  

For more information, call 407-460-6452, or email [email protected]. Visit Facebook.com/john.g.heim. Also visit FoodAndThought.com/food-and-thought-health-freedom-summit-and-expo-2016 for the event schedule.