After a whirlwind day visiting both coasts to announce sweeping measures to address the state’s environmental woes, Florida’s new governor demanded water managers overseeing efforts to fix the Everglades step down.
At an afternoon meeting in Stuart, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he wanted the nine-member board at the South Florida Water Management District to resign because he believed they failed to understand the toll endured by communities by repeated hammering from dirty lake water released into coastal rivers.
“I just want good people who are willing to do the right thing,” he said.
Board members infuriated the new governor in November when they voted to extend a lease to sugar farmers two days after the election. News of the vote was posted the night before the meeting, with less than 12 hours notice. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, who headed up DeSantis’ environmental transition team, raced down to the meeting and urged board members to put off the vote, but they refused.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
