Stop Poisoning Florida Act

The Stop Poisoning Florida Act would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt or prohibit water discharges from Lake Okeechobee through the S-308 and S-80 lock-and-dam structures if the concentration of microcystins in the water exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recommended recreational water quality criteria. The prohibition would be triggered based on tests conducted by the Secretary of the Army (through the Chief of Engineers), another Federal agency, or the State of Florida, using the EPA criteria described in a specific Federal Register notice (84 Fed. Reg. 26413) or any later update to those criteria. In short, the bill ties release operations at these Lake Okeechobee structures to public health-based toxin thresholds to prevent harmful algal bloom impacts on recreational water use.