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Today, Bullsugar.org is proud to announce the debut of a new initiative, Vote Water, that will spearhead our clean-water voter guides for the 2020 election season. VoteWater.org is a nonpartisan, grassroots effort designed to help Floridians identify clean-water candidates committed to policymaking that addresses Florida’s toxic bloom crises and the restoration of America’s Everglades. We can’t fix our water problems unless we fix the politics that created them. CLICK HERE TO BECOME A BULLSUGAR.ORG MEMBER! “The Vote Water campaign is a critically important effort to help voters focus on the protection and restoration of the Everglades, Florida Bay, rivers and coastal estuaries when considering candidates at the local, state and federal level during the 2020 elections,” Bullsugar board member Ray [...]

Today is #GivingTuesdayNow! For 24 hours, #GivingTuesdayNow is a chance for people everywhere to stand together in unity by powering the movements that they care about, even amidst all the strangeness and uncertainty resulting from COVID-19. Floridians know that improving Florida’s water quality is a political problem and it requires a political solution. The science is settled. The time to fix the problem is now. At Bullsugar.org, we are doubling down on efforts to ensure that Florida voters will have a tool to help them identify clean water candidates at the state, local, and federal levels in the upcoming election. With your help, we can fuel a movement that puts the right politicians into office to turn the tide of [...]

Election season is coming! Your feedback has been loud and clear — no matter the changes happening in the world as a result of the coronavirus, people still care about protecting Florida’s most precious resources. Floridians are ready to Vote Water in 2020. With your help, we’re going to help make sure that happens. We are exactly one week away from #GivingTuesdayNow. The 24-hour giving event, happening May 5th, is a global day of giving inspired by the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19. This is your chance to support important efforts to educate the public and protect our waterways despite all distractions. Right now, we’ve got a dedicated team building the basework for a nonpartisan, grassroots initiative that will help [...]

Because of the unusual times, we may be showing up less in your inbox right now but we’re here to assure you that we’ve had our heads down working to bring Bullsugar supporters some of our most important projects. An update on the 2020 Clean Water Voter Guides We remain determined to help Florida voters elect politicians that will confront the sugarcane industry's impact on Florida water policy and will fight back against the status quo. We’re hard at work with a group of water advocacy leaders from around the state, creating nonpartisan voter guides which will identify candidates committed to policymaking that addresses water-management-related health issues and the restoration of America’s Everglades. The guides will fulfill a unique niche [...]

We are who we are because of you. Over the past 6 years, Bullsugar has relied on an army of grassroots support, in Florida and across the country, to fight the state’s most pressing water issues. We’ve asked you to show up at legislative hearings, at Army Corps and Water Management District meetings, at local government events, and at community gatherings to tell your stories and ask hard questions. You never let us down. The coronavirus has changed the way business functions. In order to prioritize as much attention and support as possible to the projects central to our mission, we will be making some changes in the coming weeks. The most visible change will be the frequency of this [...]

A peek into the Everglades reminds us that spring flowers are blossoming, completely indifferent to the events of the world. Every person on Earth is watching to see what happens as the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. As alarming as that may feel, it’s also a powerful reminder that we’re in this together. Even amidst the chaos, the beat goes on. As you read this, the Army Corps of Engineers is assessing new ideas and desired outcomes for the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, which will influence the condition of our waters for years to come. Nonprofits, elected officials, and government agencies on the Project Delivery Team for LOSOM are helping to shape a new management schedule for Lake Okeechobee. [...]

Bullsugar has a strong new ally: our newest board member, former Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah. Ray brings deep experience in environmental advocacy, particularly in Southwest Florida, that is sure to add an inspiring presence to the Bullsugar team. As a former environmental land planner with the Lee County Department of Community Development and with 24 years of experience as a Lee County Commissioner (1988-2012) he remains a strong advocate for providing a balance between management of growth and responsible stewardship of our precious natural resources. Ray isn’t new to the fight for clean water. He spent many years establishing himself as a thorn in the side of polluters. He has spoken out regularly at environmental gatherings and water management [...]

Why is the state of Florida spending $50 million to build a cluster of scientifically questionable water-storage wells north of Lake Okeechobee? The broader restoration project known as LOWRP intends to reduce the need for damaging discharges to the northern estuaries while also improving the ecology of the lake. On the surface, that sounds like a promising proposal to address northern water-storage needs required by Everglades restoration — but there are big questions about the unintended consequences. The success of the project relies heavily on the costly implementation of 80 “aquifer storage and recovery” (ASR) wells north of the lake, projected to store up to 146 billion gallons a year that would then be available for recovery during times of [...]

They did what?? That was our response when we heard that the Army Corps of Engineers had slid in eleventh-hour language changes to an important new report on the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir planned for south of Lake Okeechobee. The language locks us into a footprint that independent scientists have called grossly inadequate and reverses the Corps’ 2018 stated position that, as designed, the proposed project risked “non-compliance with water quality standards.” CLICK HERE TO BECOME A BULLSUGAR.ORG MEMBER! For communities looking for relief from Lake Okeechobee discharges, the EAA reservoir is one initiative with the greatest potential to help solve Florida’s water management crisis by reducing the need to send damaging releases to the northern coastal estuaries and increasing [...]

In the decades-long saga that is Everglades restoration, there’s been very little progress that doesn’t have roots in a state or federal courtroom battle. CLICK HERE TO BECOME A BULLSUGAR.ORG MEMBER! It’s thanks to a federal lawsuit in the 80’s that the Everglades has mandatory nutrient pollution limits on water moving south. Though it’s been fought by polluters as too stringent almost since its inception, the “consent decree” that came from that lawsuit is widely considered the only thing keeping the toxic algae nightmare of the northern estuaries from leaking down into the Everglades. It remains the single most meaningful legislation that has ever protected the Everglades from pollution to this day. In northern coastal communities, there are no such [...]