Lake Okeechobee Discharges
Discharge pumps continue to flush polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into estuaries and coastal communities. The excess water needs to flow south, treated through marshes and the Everglades — not east and west where it can’t be naturally filtered.
The Problem
Lake Okeechobee discharges flush polluted water east into the St. Lucie estuary and west into the Caloosahatchee — two of the most ecologically damaging human acts in Florida. Cyanobacteria blooms close beaches, kill fish, and threaten public health. The water needs to flow south through treated marshes and the Everglades, not east and west where it can't be naturally filtered.
There is a real federal infrastructure answer: the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir, authorized under WRDA 2018. Per the USACE Final EIS, it will reduce Lake Okeechobee high-flow discharge events by 63% and discharge volume by 55%. Construction is already underway. That's what's actually fixing this.
What it isn't fixing: agricultural runoff loading the Lake from the north. Federal water-quality enforcement under the Clean Water Act has chronically failed to reach non-point agricultural sources — and the incumbent's bills target the Army Corps, not the upstream polluters.
Brian Mast — 9-Year Track Record
Talking points without legislation isn't representation.
What he’s actually gotten signed into law as the primary sponsor — across five congresses (2017–2026):
- 4
- bills became law in 9 years
- as primary sponsor
- 2
- of those just named buildings
- post office + VA hospital
- 1
- substantive policy bill
- 2017 VA reauthorization
- 0
- water-quality bills became law
- as primary sponsor
Source: production LegiScan database (sponsor + status records, queried April 2026) cross-checked against GovTrack and Congress.gov.
The Incumbent's Record
What Brian Mast Has Done
Brian Mast has filed three signature Lake O bills (PROTECT Florida Act, Stop Poisoning Florida Act, Toxic Health Threat Warning Act) over and over since 2017 — and not one has ever passed even a single chamber. His one signed-into-law water bill, the South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act, contains no money, no enforcement, and ordered a federal assessment that was due December 2023 and is still not published in April 2026. The infrastructure project that will actually reduce discharges (the EAA Reservoir) was authorized in WRDA 2018 — three and a half years before his bill became law.
Bills Sponsored or Co-Sponsored
- S. 66 / P.L. 117-144South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2021House companion
Orders the NOAA inter-agency task force to write a report on South Florida HABs. Zero new appropriations, zero discharge controls, zero enforcement. Interim assessment was due Dec 2023 — still unpublished as of April 2026.
Signed June 2022 — but Senate version (Rubio sponsor); Mast House companion HR 565 died · 2022-06-16 - H.R. 3819 (119th)PROTECT Florida Act (2025 — third introduction)Primary Sponsor
Filed verbatim in 2021 (HR 2156), 2023 (HR 2503), and 2025. Same bill, three times. Never reached a floor vote.
Introduced; never passed committee · 2025-06-06 - H.R. 3818 (119th)Stop Poisoning Florida Act (2025 — third introduction)Primary Sponsor
Filed in 2021, 2023, 2025 — same bill three times. Would bar Lake O discharges at Port Mayaca and St. Lucie locks above EPA toxicity threshold. Has never passed a single chamber.
Introduced; never passed committee · 2025-06-06 - H.R. 7520 (117th)Lake Okeechobee Comprehensive PlanPrimary Sponsor
Would have directed the Corps of Engineers to develop a comprehensive plan for Lake Okeechobee and northern estuaries. Never passed.
Introduced; died in committee · 2022-04-14
Recorded Votes
- WRDA 2018 (P.L. 115-270)Water Resources Development Act of 2018Voted YES
This — not the Clean Coastal Waters Act — is what authorized the EAA Reservoir, the project actually reducing Lake O discharges (USACE Final EIS: 63% fewer high-flow events, 55% volume reduction). Mast's vote here counts.
Signed into law October 2018 · 2018-09-13
What He Hasn't Done
- PROTECT Florida Act and Stop Poisoning Florida Act have each been filed three times (2021, 2023, 2025) — verbatim — without ever passing one chamber. Refiling the same bill is not legislating; it's positioning.
- The interim assessment the Clean Coastal Waters Act ordered was due December 2023. As of April 2026 — over two years late — it is still not published on NOAA's HABHRCA page.
- The EAA Reservoir, the infrastructure project that's actually reducing discharges, was authorized in WRDA 2018. Mast voted yes — that's a real water-infrastructure vote — but his Clean Coastal Waters Act came 3.5 years later and built nothing.
- Per Florida Politics (2018), the Fanjul family (Florida Crystals) network raised approximately $100,000 for Mast's campaign — despite his anti-sugar rhetoric and prior promise to return sugar money.
- No record of pushing EPA enforcement against agricultural runoff sources loading the Lake from the north. His bills target Army Corps operations, not the upstream polluters.
Compiled from production LegiScan database (sponsor + status records, query date April 2026), Public Law 117-144 enacted text, USACE EAA Reservoir Final EIS (May 2020), NOAA NCCOS HABHRCA page, and Florida Politics 2018 reporting.
The Cooke Plan
What Alex Would Do
Specific. Sourced. Independent.
- 1
Force the Army Corps to prioritize public health, with teeth
Pick up the language Mast filed (Stop Poisoning Florida) and pass it. The Corps' current schedule treats sugar-cane water needs and recreational lake levels as co-equal with public health — that's the bug. The fix: a hard cyanotoxin threshold above which discharges are barred, with EPA verification.
Source: Model: H.R. 2504 (118th) — but driven to floor passage
- 2
Refuse sugar industry money
No contributions from Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar, the Fanjul family, or any sugar PAC will be accepted by the Cooke campaign. Public ledger of all donations published quarterly.
- 3
Direct EPA enforcement against agricultural runoff
Federal funding to FDACS conditional on enforceable nutrient-load reductions in the Lake O watershed, with EPA backstop authority. Voluntary best-management practices have failed for 30 years; the law allows mandatory enforcement and we should use it.
- 4
Accelerate the EAA Reservoir and southern flow
Federal cost-share match increased to 75% for the EAA Reservoir and Western Everglades restoration. The water has to flow south through treated marshes — the Northern Estuaries restoration plan can't substitute for moving the water in the right direction.
Stand with Alex on this.
Independent. No party. No PACs. Real fixes for Florida District 21.