Washington, DC — During the past three years, anti-pollution enforcement actions in Florida have declined by one-fifth, sinking to levels well below the state’s historical average, according to a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This decline in eco-enforcement has also occurred during a time of significant population growth bringing with it greater pollution pressure on Florida waters, air, and soil.

Overall, Florida’s current eco-enforcement efforts are only a fraction of what they were a dozen years ago. Although Governor DeSantis promised to improve Florida’s response to a crisis of toxic red tides, major sewage spills, and manatee die-offs due to loss of seagrass, the number of state enforcement actions in 2023 was almost two-thirds (63%) below what it was in 2010 –

• For the last three years in a row, anti-pollution enforcement actions under the DeSantis administration significantly declined from 742 to 579;
• Likewise, the state’s domestic wastewater program has seen a steady slide in the number of enforcement actions despite more than 5,000 major sewage spills releasing billions of gallons of wastewater from 2021 through 2023, with another 773 spills recorded so far this year; and
• Not surprisingly, a growing number of the state’s water bodies, including estuaries and lakes, do not meet water quality standards.

“By any measure, Florida’s environment is in steady decline with little relief in sight,” stated PEER Litigation and Policy Attorney Colleen Teubner, a former Assistant District Attorney for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in New York, who compiled the report. “Moreover, any assertion that pollution enforcement is down because eco-compliance is up lacks any factual support we could find.”

The state’s weak anti-pollution posture was perhaps best highlighted by Gov. DeSantis’ veto of the bipartisan 2024 Safe Waterways Act which would have required public warnings about dangerous levels of pollution in their waterways and improved environmental enforcement. This veto came as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found this year that Florida’s water quality standards are not protective of human health and is proposing stricter criteria.

Additionally, this summer, Gov. DeSantis signed into law a measure striking statutory references to climate change and banning the use of climate change as a factor in state decision-making.

“Hiding our head in the sand is not a coherent or sustainable approach to the obvious effects of climate change,” added PEER Board Member Alexandra Bueno, a resident of Saint Petersburg.  “If the Governor claims to care about Florida’s environment, he cannot ignore climate change.”

PEER has issued similar annual reports on the state of Florida’s environmental enforcement every year since 2004.

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Read the new report

See past PEER annual Florida eco-enforcement reports

View pending EPA water quality intervention in Florida