Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried promotes initiative in St. Pete to combat red tide

The cease is An factor of Fried’s three-day tour To debate The mannequin new environmental effort.

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried proceedd her three-day Clear Water Initiative tour with ceases in Tampa and St. Petersburg — spaces hardest hit by the current purple tide outbreak.

Fried first launched the initiative final week, which is Aimed in the direction of updating and strengthening the division’s water insurance coverage policies To raised shield the state’s pure assets. 

It comes at a time when the Tampa Bay space is being Suffering from purple tide, the state is seeing An enhance in manatee deaths and the aftermath of the Piney Level wastewater emergency Continues to be being felt.

Fried says when she acquired here into office, she made a dedication to furthering clean water efforts Inside the state, however that too typically partisan politics get in The biggest Method of shielding the environment.

“From starting at zero As quickly as I acquired here into office, to the place We’re this week, from making this announcement of the Office of Agriculture Water Coverage Clear Water Initiative, We now have come An prolonged Method to make these landmark modifications,” Fried said at a press convention Tuesday in St. Petersburg.

Based mostly on Fried, The subsequent first-ever practices Shall be put in place beneath the initiative: 

• Conducting in-particular person visits in cooperation with agriculture stakeholders Rather than Counting on voluntary self-reporting When it Includes compliance.
• Taking movement in the direction ofs anyone refusing to Adjust to state regulation.
• Working with producers on corrective movement plans and refer circumstances of non-compliance to The deptfor enforcement.
• Inspecting, amassing and aggregating detailed data of the dietary vitamins being utilized by agriculture producers on the purpleuction panorama.

Under the Clear Water Initiative, Fried said the Office of Agriculture Water Coverage will reinvent its program to prioritize extreme-worth tasks and proceed to make use of extra environment nice dietary vitamins and water utilization practices, amongst completely different issues.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said the placeas The metropolis’s purple tide state of affairs seems to be enhancing with much less algae Inside the bay, there stays concern it might return.