Florida Department of Environmental Protection

The storm triggered six sewage spills, include three that likely dumped sewage in the Miami River, Biscayne Bay and waters off Virginia Key.

Mechanical harvesters will be used to collect invasive floating plants and the plants will then be processed and pumped to nearby hayfields to enhance soil.

The plan calls for the former phosphate plant to be permanently shut down by December 2024.

It's the second major purchase since state officials put a priority on preserving natural land in those wildlife corridors.

He said the state court system “already has a running start on the closure of Piney Point” and pointed to $100 million that the Legislature approved last year to help clean up the site.

The plan would permanently close four gypsum stacks formerly used to store toxic wastewater from the production of fertilizer.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has rejected a permit application from a North Fort Myers company to drill an exploratory oil well north of Immokalee in Collier County, citing the potential for negative impacts on wildlife like the protected gopher tortoise and on water resources.

Over two days in May, scientists replanted many of the species of coral susceptible to stony coral disease to see if they can survive now that epidemic levels of the disease have subsided.

Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Tuesday he might not get sign-off from the state Cabinet for his next appointee to run the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. In what would be a precedent-setting action, DeSantis indicated he might only need approval of the appointee from the Legislature.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says varying levels of cyanotoxins have been identified, increasing chances that the discharge at Piney Point will trigger a blue-green algae bloom.

Workers will continue to identify whether there are any additional separations of the liner that resulted in millions of gallons of wastewater flowing from the reservoir.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took office two years ago in a state that had been hammered by two major hurricanes in two years and was suffering through an epic toxic algae crisis, he earned widespread praise for appointing the state’s first chief science and chief resilience officers.