The Legislature will consider clean-up projects for three Florida waterways this spring, but will avoid major policies that challenge the state’s polluters, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
House Speaker Will Weatherford said money will be considered for the cleanup of Lake Ockeechobee, the Everglades and Indian River Lagoon. But pollution from waste-water treatment plants, septic tanks, and from and front-lawn run-offs won’t be tackled this year, according to the Sentinel.
Some bills that are being drafted would increase Department of Environmental Protection, local governments and water-management districts regulations for leaking septic tanks and slow-release fertilizers.
In another story, clean up continues on a derailed CSX freight train that last month spilled up to 30,000 gallons of phosphoric acid into a creek that feeds into the Escambia River, the Pensacola News Journal reports. Contractors have removed the train cars from Fletcher Creek and surrounding tracks and the corrosive material has been “contained and neutralized,” the News-Journal said. About 300 fish died following the spill.