rivers

Environmentalists want to permanently open a dam built for a canal that was supposed to cut through the middle of Florida from the Atlantic to the Gulf. The canal project was dropped more than half a century ago because of environmental concerns, but the dam was built and now some people want it removed or opened. That would drain a reservoir behind it, bringing back springs and helping with fish, manatees and wildlife crossings.

An unprecedented drought is afflicting nearly half of the European continent, damaging farm economies, forcing water restrictions and causing wildfires and threatening aquatic species.

A political committee has filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a “fundamental right to clean and healthy waters” and allow lawsuits against state agencies for harm to lakes, rivers, wetlands and other types of water bodies.

The case involves divvying up water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, which stretches from northern Georgia to Apalachicola Bay in Franklin County. Florida contends that Georgia uses too much water from the system, in part damaging a critical Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery.

A scathing guest column that appeared Wednesday in the Orlando Sentinel says "severe budget cuts are seriously compromising the ability of Florida's…