Suncoast Water Keeper Takes Action to Defend Your Right to Clean Waters.

In a perfect world there would be no reason for SCWK to exist. People would be responsible and follow the rules, laws and science to maintain our healthy ecosystem. The reality is that people are degrading our environment in such ways that creates water that is unsafe to use for recreation, and our right to enjoy. Developers are removing valuable wetlands, with the critical habitat that supports the fish we try to catch and also an important filter to our waterways. People still treat storm drains like they do to someplace magical, however those pollutants end up in our coastal waters. Suncoast WaterKeeper has stepped up to the plate and initiated several important programs to hold people accountable for violating laws , rules and the science based reasons of protection.

Our Sick of Sewage Program has used the Clean Water Act, with its rules to provide notice and pursue legal action if necessary to force compliance. From our government to industrial polluters, we have found irresponsible acts that ignore laws and rules based on valid science to prevent injury to all of us that use the coastal waters.

"SOS" IN TAMPA BAY CAMPAIGN GOALS:

(1) de-politicize the issue by agreeing to oversight by the federal court,
(2) provide certainty that cities will fully address overdue system maintenance and upgrades via mandatory long-term commitments and deadlines, and
(3) ensure transparency and citizen oversight.

SCWK has also embarked on a program of water sampling to provide a baseline of information and to help create a path to stop waters we use from being unsafe to recreate. Education is an important part of the program and we use this website as that tool, and perform outreach as funds allow. Check out the results here.

The following is is a historical summary of the actions SCWK took.

Suncoast Metal

Largo

Tradewinds

Sarasota County

Gulfport

St. Petersburg