The Courtney Nash Act: Force children of Florida legislators who oppose EPA, to swim in Florida's St. John's River ... by gimleteye

Better than words, an unnecessary death-- the tragic loss of a teenager for example -- can spark new legislation protecting children. Such was the case of the Ryan White Act and Megan's Law. In a perfect world, this would be the case of Courtney Nash, the 16 year old who died as a result of swimming in the polluted St. John's River. The St. John's is polluted because Florida legislators-- and now the Florida GOP congressional delegation-- refuse to allow the federal government to fix pollution laws where the state has utterly failed.

I have an idea to change the minds of Florida legislators who aim to cure the state's ailing economy by killing the federal EPA. A federal judge-- upheld by the 11th circuit court of appeals-- ruled that EPA had succumbed to the influence of Florida's polluters. The court compelled EPA to write and enforce pollution standards for Florida's filthy waterways. In response, Florida Republicans passed legislation to block the EPA. In its own legal analysis, the EPA writes that the proposed legislation would "overturn almost 40 years of of Federal legislation by preventing (the agency) from protecting public health and water quality." It is up to the Senate to stop the madness.

My idea to make converts of Republican legislators: compel their children to go swimming in our polluted waterways. Let them experience the consequences just like an unsuspecting Courtney Nash.

From my point of view, clean fresh water is a right. When polluters contaminate our rivers, streams and Everglades -- like Big Sugar does -- with nutrients from fertilizers or any other source, they must pay 100 percent of the clean up costs. Of course they don't. Not even close. From my point of view, when lobbyists succeed in forcing environmental agencies to back down and away from protecting public health, they should be put in jail for 10 to 20 years. Lobbyists like Associated Industries of Florida and Barney Bishop, its "Jack-Ass-In-Chief", who derides citizens who want to protect our quality of life and waters as "radical left-wingers". It is a classic Karl Rove diversionary tactic and unimaginable; 30 years after the Wise Use Movement dragged the American public through its nonsense, they are at it again.

Then, Florida's waters were dirty. Today the state's waters are filthy to the point of deadly. Ask Courtney Nash's parents how they feel about the difference. The history is clear. Florida's polluters succeeded in commandeering the legislature through the decades with pro's like the late Wade Hopping, "Mr. Big Sugar", and the whole gang in Tallahassee and in county commissions.

So here is the idea for new legislation: compel the legislators' children to swim in the St. John's River, where recently a Courtney Nash recently died from a terrible bacterial infection. According to a Reuters report, the 16 year old was attacked by a microscopic amoeba while she played. The report neglected to amplify that like other forms of toxic algae contaminating Florida's waters, the amoeba thrives in pollution fed by nutrients. It "... typically enters a swimmer's nose and invades the brain causing an almost always fatal infection, according to Jonathan Yoder, an epidemiologist at the CDC in Atlanta."

Since the GOP's hatred of the EPA is based on a difference of opinion about the risks and costs associated with pollution, my idea is to require a law that requires state legislators to put their children in the same water where Courtney Nash contracted the infection that killed her. These would include State Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, who opposes the EPA’s proposed numeric nutrient criteria. Kreegel voted for a bill, sponsored by state Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers that eventually died before being voted on by the state senate. As reported by the Florida Independent, Kreegel opposed tighter standards even though his own district had just endured a nasty bout with a toxic algae bloom on the Caloosahatchee, disrupting the small town of Alva. "Residents there say the bloom was not only noxious, but was killing dogs and making people sick."

Other Republicans whose children should be forced to swim where Courtney Nash contracted the infection that killed her would include Congressman Cliff Stearns, whose district partly encompasses the St. Johns River, and who initially supported the EPA but recanted and recently chaired a field hearing in Orlando, entitled, "EPA's Takeover of Florida's Nutrient Water Quality Standard Setting: Impact on Communities and Job Creation", and Republican Tom Rooney, hand-maiden to Big Sugar, who proposed H.R. 2018 to prevent EPA from enforcing the Clean Water Act in Florida.

Hopefully the US Senate will squash Rooney's bill. Of course we need a stronger, full funded EPA to fight the polluters of Florida's waterways and Everglades. In a recent interview, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a friend of Florida Gov. Rick Scott and GOP presidential candidate, said that "he prays for the president to “ask that his EPA back down these regulations that are causing businesses to hesitate to spend money.” What nonsense. Taxpayers may want to know, the agency's budget comprises .3 percent of monthly federal expenditures. So make their children swim where Courtney did. "They were having fun just like any other kid would out in the water," her uncle told Reuters. Call it, "The Courtney Nash Act", so one kid's life won't have been in vain. (for the full Reuters story, click 'read more')



Health »
By Barbara Liston
ORLANDO, Fla | Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:20pm EDT
(Reuters) - A dangerous amoeba that thrives in warm, freshwater bodies in the heat of summer caused the recent death of a 16-year-old Central Florida girl, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed on Monday.

Courtney Nash died Saturday, 10 days after she, her brother and four friends went swimming August 3 in the St. Johns River on Florida's east coast, her uncle, Thomas Uzel, said at a news conference.

"They were having fun just like any other kid would out in the water," he said.

The amoeba, officially known as Naegleria fowleri, is a single-cell, microscopic organism found in such freshwater bodies as lakes, rivers, hot springs and, occasionally, in neglected, unchlorinated swimming pools.

The amoeba typically enters a swimmer's nose and invades the brain causing an almost always fatal infection, according to Jonathan Yoder, an epidemiologist at the CDC in Atlanta.

Out of 118 people reported to have had the amoeba infection since 1962, only one survived, Yoder said. Most reported cases have been in the southern states of Florida and Texas, he said.

Yoder said the average age of the amoeba victims is 12. He said experts believe young people are more susceptible because they are more likely to jump into the water, dive to the bottom and otherwise play underwater in ways that force water, and potentially amoebas, up their noses.

Researchers report that the amoebas proliferate when the water temperature reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but they also survive at cooler temperatures.

Anti-fungal drugs are effective against the amoeba in the laboratory, but the infection in humans typically cannot be diagnosed quickly enough to save the patient.