We are thankful that AWRA’s Florida Chapter chose Sarasota for their upcoming meeting, which centers around the recovery of water quality in Sarasota Bay - how it got worse, how we figured out what had to be done, and the projects and programs that helped us meet (already!) our pollutant load reduction goal.
Sarasota Bay is not nearly as big as other systems in Florida, but we have many challenges nonetheless. For example, Tampa Bay’s watershed is about 14 times bigger than Sarasota Bay’s, but it only has 3 to 4 times as many people living in it, compared to us. Take the population of Miami-Dade County and divide it by the size of Biscayne Bay’s watershed and we still have 3 times the number of people per square mile. Undisturbed natural lands only make up about 2% of our watershed.
Yet our water quality is now better than it has been at any time over the last 10 years - not even including data from the drought year of 2023.
How’d we pull it off? By speaking directly about the problems we faced, by being “biased towards action” and by having local elected officials who were as interested in turning our bay around as the scientists and engineers who worked to come up with the projects needed to bring this recovery about.
#sarasotabay #waterquality #restoration
HIMSS Changemaker Leader | Sales Director @ CenTrak | HIMSS South Florida Chapter Past-President | Tech Advisor
3 周Thanks to HIMSS South Florida Chapter Advocacy Chairs Joshua Tarkoff MD, MBA & Roosevelt De Los Santos, MD MBA MS FAAP FACHE FAMIA CHCIO for leading Florida Health IT Days 2025! Together we are making a difference in Healthcare Policy!