Engage Estero needs your help supporting the Right to Clean Water Florida constitutional amendment before time runs out.
In order to be on the ballot, the amendment must receive a set number of signatures from Florida registered voters. Click for petition information.
The movement is attempting to reach as many residents as possible. Your donation can assist. Click for more donation information.
Spread the word on your social media, in your community newsletters, and by writing letters to the editor of your newspaper.
Keep abreast of developments and needs by subscribing to Engage Estero’s informative emails.
The Right to Clean and Healthy Waters is a grass-roots movement to get a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot for the State of Florida. This amendment:
“creates a fundamental right to clean and healthy waters, clarifies prohibited actions and inactions that harm (or threaten to harm) waters, and defines important terms. It also allows Floridians to enforce this right through the ability to sue state executive agencies that violate this right, empowering courts to look at the science and truth (and not politics) of what’s going on before awarding equitable relief to the situation.”
“It has become clear that the current system of water protection has failed; the state executive branch is not enforcing clean water legislation according to environmental laws, legislative intent and constitutional policy. Although a right to clean water already exists by statute, it defers too much to state executive agencies to guard against harm. The proof of dysfunction frequently makes national news, with routine harmful algal blooms, fish and wildlife mortality events and public notices of pathogenic or toxic contamination of our waters. It’s not okay. People suffer, wildlife suffers, property values suffer, businesses suffer, communities suffer. Waiting for political solutions in a system that favors pollution industries financing those politics – is a fool’s game. We need a clear, simple, legal solution to restore the necessary checks and balances for such a critical necessity to all lives – water.”
Voices of Florida
We’re talking about the Right to Clean Water initiative, which will break the downward spiral affecting our water resources for years. This game-changing movement will make a big difference in our lives. Join us and be part of this historic event! The proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution states that “clean and healthy waters promote important public interests,” including safe drinking water, scenic beauty, and recreational activities such as fishing.
It also emphasizes the importance of clean and healthy waters by listing public interests such as “economic interests and business opportunities.” The amendment will create an enforceable fundamental right to clean and healthy waters, protecting and advancing these public interests, giving hope for a future where our waters are not just clean but thriving.
There are many indicators of the state of our waters’ including dying seagrass beds, yearly algae blooms, and starving manatees. Americans expect clean air, water, and a healthy environment, and after 50 years of Earth Days and the Clean Water Act, it is not too much to ask of our government. However, the current regulatory system favors industry and allows the degradation of aquatic ecosystems by inviting unscrupulous behavior.
Despite efforts to vote for the right officials and plead with officials to take environmental action, a national movement is now advocating for basic ecological rights to be enshrined in state constitutions. Florida is part of this movement, with a proposed “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” constitutional amendment for the 2026 ballot.
Florida’s waters are in chronic critical condition, with alarming statistics such as 58% of the Indian River Lagoon’s seagrass lost since 2009, 80% of Florida’s 1,000 artesian springs polluted, nearly 9,000 miles of rivers and streams contaminated with fecal bacteria, and blue-green algae blooms linked to neurodegenerative diseases.
Special interests such as Big Sugar, Big Mining, and Big Development have undue influence over environmental policy, and science seldom determines policy. The amendment’s legal mechanism is fair and sensible, as state agencies cannot ignore the people’s fundamental constitutional rights. If harm is caused to Florida waters, agencies must have a compelling state interest in doing so. They must do everything reasonably possible to limit the damage to no more than necessary. If they fail to do so, we can take them to court, and the court, after weighing scientific information, not political influence, can ensure that they do.
Some people worry that this amendment will lead to many lawsuits, but this has not happened in other states with similar amendments. Others fear their taxes will go up, but this cannot happen for legal reasons. Clean water means less taxes, not more. Some worry that the legislature will undermine the amendment’s intent and effectiveness, but it has been written to protect against this. Finally, some may ask if we already have enough laws to protect our waters. However, if we did, our waters would not be chronically polluted.
In a 2013 case in Pennsylvania, the people’s constitutional right to clean water saved citizens from a harmful pro-fracking law. The conservative chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court took 162 pages to explain the court’s ruling that this law was unconstitutional.
He detailed the state’s long history of environmental degradation to make a critical point. “It is not a historical accident that the Pennsylvania Constitution now places citizens’ environmental rights on par with their political rights,” he said. When they amended their constitution in 1971, Pennsylvania voters understood that basic environmental rights were just as fundamental as all Americans’ rights to freedom of speech and religion.
Sign the petition to support Florida. Please visit https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org and encourage others to sign, too.
Adapted from The Right to Clean Water website https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org
Calusa Waterkeeper, Inc. is a local non-profit organization which conducts testing and sampling, reviews and advises on legislation, and educates about our home waters.
For nearly 60 years, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida has been a leading environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the water, land, wildlife and future of our five-county area. They facilitate contacting legislators on important votes.
VoteWater is a grassroots organization founded by residents on the belief that stopping the damaging discharges to our coasts and restoring the Everglades is not a science or engineering problem. Our problem is a political problem – and it requires a political solution.
The health of waterways impacts surrounding ecosystems, regional and state economies and people who rely on water for life and leisure. By taking a leadership role in this vital arena, FGCU acts as a catalyst for change in our community and throughout the world.
