By Brian Mudd
Q&A Of The Day – Part 2 Who’s Responsible For Florida’s Polluted Waterways?
Bottom Line: The single biggest obstacle in near-term progress is and has been The Army Corps of Engineers. The biggest long-term problem is and has been US Sugar. The Cliff Notes version goes like this. The Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with the structural integrity of the Lake Okeechobee Dike. While members of the Corps may be sensitive to the environmental concerns of east-west discharges and now the record manatee deaths associated with the killing off of seagrass resulting from them, the environment isn’t their primary concern or objective. As a result, when water levels reach heights they consider dangerous, they discharge water through the existing canals regardless of the environmental impact. Hence the importance of completing the Everglades Restoration Project to release water south into the Everglades as naturally happened prior to the construction
By Brian Mudd
Q&A Of The Day – Part 3 Who’s Responsible For Florida’s Polluted Waterways?
Bottom Line: Currently The Army Corps of Engineers is considering five different plans for handling future discharges from Lake Okeechobee after repeated demands from the state and pressure from federal officials, namely Congressman Brian Mast. According to Mast the plans would do the following:
AA: Sends 135,000 acre feet per year south
BB: Sends 92,000 acre feet per year south
CC: Sends 162,000 acre feet per year south
DD: Sends 90,000 acre feet per year south
EE: Unknown
None of the plans would completely end east-west discharges, though they could reduce them by up to 95%. The hope is that the eventual construction of the EAA reservoir, and possibly a northern one, would be able to account for the remaining excess water in the Lake eventually ending the discharges. With plan “CC” sending the most water south through the Everglades, Mast supports t
By Brian Mudd
Top Three Takeaways – June 3rd, 2021
It’s time to finish what we’ve started. For years many of us have been fighting for meaningful change to improve our waterways, combat toxic algae and restore the Everglades. With record toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee, contaminated algal drinking water within the Palm Beaches and record manatee deaths – the effort looks like a failure. Instead, perhaps it’s a case of it being darkest before the dawn. None of Florida’s water problems happened overnight and the solutions to them – now several years in the making, have been anything but easy to achieve. The Everglades Restoration Project has advanced to the point where most water discharged east and west from Lake Okeechobee can now been sent south into the Everglades. According to Congressman Brian Mast, the Army Corps of Engineers will choose from one of five plans in July which will determine the future of discharges and specifically how much water will hea
Today’s entry:
Long time listener. I wanted to contact you to ask for an opportunity for you to review and report to your listener base the pros and cons of South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) becoming an Investor Owned Utility (IOU). As a conservationist, I am concerned with the sewage effluent/raw water suggestions being injected below our precious Floridian Aquifer. And as practical realist, I realize that the opportunity to have private companies manage projects means timelines and budgets will get met. I value hearing your analysis and hope you will consider offering your insight.
Bottom Line: Florida’s water wars are anything but new, but they continue to escalate. You have the multiple decade Florida-Georgia battle over the Apalachicola, growing concerns over the bottling of water in Florida’s springs and of course the mack daddy of them all. The one that starts at Lake O’ and ends where the Everglades do. Lake O’s toxic alga
Today’s entry:
Long time listener. I wanted to contact you to ask for an opportunity for you to review and report to your listener base the pros and cons of South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) becoming an Investor Owned Utility (IOU). As a conservationist, I am concerned with the sewage effluent/raw water suggestions being injected below our precious Floridian Aquifer. And as practical realist, I realize that the opportunity to have private companies manage projects means timelines and budgets will get met. I value hearing your analysis and hope you will consider offering your insight.
Bottom Line: Florida’s water wars are anything but new, but they continue to escalate. You have the multiple decade Florida-Georgia battle over the Apalachicola, growing concerns over the bottling of water in Florida’s springs and of course the mack daddy of them all. The one that starts at Lake O’ and ends where the Everglades do. Lake O’s toxic alga