Story at a glance
- Environmental advocates have pushed legal recognition of the rights of nature, including bodies of water.
- Now, several waters in Orange County, Fla., are suing the state over proposed development.
- This is the first such legal challenge in the state.
It’s hard to say whether Orange County voters knew what might happen when they approved the Wekiva River and Econlockhatchee River Bill of Rights last fall, establishing rights of nature in the central Florida county. But what’s done is done, and now nature is looking to exercise those rights in a lawsuit against the state itself.
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Last month, the Wilde Cypress Branch, Boggy Branch, Crosby Island Marsh, Lake Hart, Lake Mary Jane and other waters of Orange County filed a suit against the Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Beachline South Residential, which is seeking permits for a development in the area. If you’re wondering who physically filed the complaint, that would be Charles O’Neal, president of Speak Up Wekiva, who filed on behalf of the waters of Orange County.
“If the proposed development is allowed to impact the flow of these waters, their pollution, the damage to their ecosystems, and their potential destruction cannot be remedied by monetary damages or other relief,” says the complaint, which is seeking a denial of the permit.
Changing America could not reach a representative for Beachline South Residential.
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The “Right to Clean Water Initiative” was the first legislation in the state to create legally enforceable rights of waterways and other ecosystems, part of a push by environmental advocates in recent decades. Last year, the state passed a law that included a provision barring localities from adopting “rights of nature” and was challenged in court by Speak Up Wekiva. The lawsuit was later dismissed after the Orange County measure was approved.
“Eighty-nine percent of Orange County voters in this past election declared that the waterways in the County deserved the highest level of protection – the recognition of legal rights. This lawsuit poses the question of whether the interests of one development corporation should outweigh the interests of over half a million Orange County voters and the existence of streams, marshes, lakes, and wetlands important to the region,” O’Neal said in a release.
“The plaintiff-waterways represented in this action deserve more than just their day in court – they need to have even their most basic right to exist protected. For too long our legislators have told the public we need balance between commerce and Nature, and then folded to pressure from commerce to permit egregious exploitation.”
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