After making red tide and water quality the main issues of her campaign in 2018, newly elected state Rep. Margaret Good filed legislation Monday aimed at reducing the amount of herbicides sprayed into Florida waterways.
The legislation -HB 737- looks to cut back on the use of herbicides to manage invasive aquatic plants. The Herald-Tribune reports that according to the bill, property owners that use a technique called Multimodel Biological Control would not be required to get a water pollution operation permit.
That method puts into use native fish and plants in order to manage the unwanted ones rather than use chemicals.
In a press release Monday, Good said the use of the chemicals “too often kills plants indiscriminately while creating excess nutrients which contribute to the blue-green algae problem and the exacerbation of red tide.”