Water Warrior

Local woman joins fight to clean up Florida’s murky misdeeds

BY ELLEN GILLETTE

Some 24-year-olds are adrift in a sea of possibilities, but not Hannah Angelo-Walker. As development director on the East Coast for Fort Myers-based Captains for Clean Water, she uses PR skills to advocate for a better future.

Since 2016, the mission of Captains for Clean Water is to educate the public and lobby for change. South Florida — dependent on clean water — faces economic and natural crises. The solution? A science-based reduction of Lake Okeechobee discharges coupled with Everglades restoration.

It’s a modern-day David and Goliath story: Two fishing guides, Capt. Daniel Andrews and Capt. Chris Wittman, were convinced that if people were informed, the solution to water-quality issues could be found. “They’d never been involved in politics, but they knew the water was bad,” Angelo-Walker said. “It was a matter of getting people to understand it. They were willing to give up their dreams and careers for a desk job, to fight for what’s right.