Message from Congressman Brian Mast

Last year I passed legislation to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to redo the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS) that determines when toxic discharges from Lake O are sent into our community. That rewrite process starts now with a chance to make our community’s voice heard!

Starting next week, the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be hosting a number of public forums to help determine a new schedule for when they discharge water. It’s absolutely critical that our community demonstrates how the current system is damaging our environment, our economy, our public health and more. These are meetings where we need to speak up - and not just with our personal experiences but backed with data and science - to show that continuing to hurt our community is not acceptable.

Here are the dates to know where you can participate:

Lehigh Acres
Tuesday, February 5, 2019, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. 15191 Homestead Road, Lehigh Acres, FL 33971

Okeechobee
Wednesday, February 6, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Indian River State College Williamson Conference and Education Center 2229 N.W. 9th Avenue, Okeechobee, FL 34972

Clewiston
Monday, February 11, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. John Boy Auditorium 1200 South W.C. Owen Ave, Clewiston, FL 33440

Stuart
Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Indian River State College The Clare and Gladys Wolf High-Technology Center 2400 SE Salerno Road, Stuart, FL 34997

Broward County
Tuesday, February 26, 2019, Time TBD Location TBD

West Palm Beach
Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Auditorium 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33406

Miami Gardens
Thursday, February 28, 2019, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. North Dade Regional Library 2455 NW 183rd Street, Miami Gardens, FL 33056

Additional information is available here.

Message from Congressman Brian Mast

DEAL STRUCK TO AUTHORIZE SOUTHERN STORAGE RESERVOIR

Congressman Brian Mast says, "Fixing our toxic water is, without a doubt, the most important issue for our community. That's why one of my top priorities in Congress has been passing legislation called the Water Resources Development Act, which was drafted by the subcommittee on which I serve as Vice Chairman. With people getting sick, animals dying, our environment being demolished and our economy withering, we cannot wait any longer to get this bill signed into law.

I have great news: late last night, we reached a deal to pass a bipartisan compromise version of the legislation. This bipartisan bill includes all of the Treasure Coast priorities from the version passed by the House in June and also includes an updated bipartisan provision that I wrote with Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Bill Nelson to authorize the EAA Southern Storage Reservoir. The compromise bill is expected to be voted on in both chambers this month."

Here's a quick summary of this wins we got in this bill: