To the editor:

As a business owner and mother to two teenagers living in Florida, water quality is important to me. When I moved here from Wisconsin in 1995, going to the beach and weekends on the boat were a major source of happiness.

I never would have dreamed that one day I’d feel anything other than joy about being near the water, much less concern over my kids going in that water! Checking the news for the fecal monitoring report and hoping the blue-green algae coming from Lake O won’t ruin a vacation for visiting friends and family is now part of life.

Rainy season is coming and massive amounts of Lake O’s polluted runoff water will be sent to the Caloosahatchee River. When they last stopped the release it didn’t take long at all for me to notice the difference while driving over the bridge to Sanibel — pale blue is much more inviting than smelly reddish-brown.

We have many groups in Florida trying to tackle these growing issues with some success, but we have LAWS that have been in place that regulate the amount of pollutants — like agriculturally sourced pollutants, septic runoff or fertilizers — that need to be enforced! I found an effort that looks to do just that.

Go to www.Floridarighttocleanwater.org. Print out the petition. Match your signature to your voter registration card, and mail it to the given address. If you want to help with our efforts to get this amendment on the ballot, please email LeeRighttoCleanWater@gmail.com

Carrie Cremia

Cape Coral