A push in Florida for a right to clean water

A group of Southwest Florida activists have launched an effort to get a new right added to the state constitution: the right to clean water.

Driving the news: A political committee called Florida Right to Clean Water has filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a "fundamental right to clean and healthy waters."

• The amendment would allow lawsuits against state agencies for harm or threatened harm to lakes, rivers, wetlands and other types of water bodies.

Why it matters: The change would put into law that humans in the state have the right to clean drinking water, and if something threatens to pollute it, we can sue.

• The move is the latest in a series of efforts in Florida to legally protect natural resources.

State of play: To get on the 2024 ballot, the committee would need to submit nearly 892,000 valid petition signatures by Feb. 1, 2024, and receive approval of wording from the Florida Supreme Court.

• They're collecting signatures here and looking for volunteers to help with collection in all 67 counties.

What they're saying: "The system is failing us right now," said organizer Joseph Bonasia, a retired high school English teacher who moved to Cape Coral six years ago, per the Fort Myers News-Press.

• "We want to amend the state constitution to give every Floridian a fundamental right to clean and healthy waters … a law that can't be overturned [and] can't be messed with by the state Legislature."

The other side: Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican homebuilder from Spring Hill, filed a bill that would ban local governments from granting "any legal rights to a plant, an animal, a body of water, or any other part of the natural environment."

• He argues it would hurt business and the tax base.