NEWS PRESS

March 01, 2007

 

 

Give Lee voice on water board

Editorials

 

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703010353

 

Contact them

• Gov. Charlie Crist, (850) 488-4441; charlie.crist@myflorida.com.

• Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, (850) 488-4711; jeff.kottkamp@myflorida.gov.

Let Gov. Charlie Crist know that Lee County's 585,000 people need and deserve one of their own on the powerful South Florida Water Management District Board of Governors.

 

Crist is to appoint a person this month to the board seat reserved for a resident of Lee, Collier, Charlotte or Hendry counties. The district regulates water use and conservation throughout the Kissimmee River-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades system, including the Caloosahatchee River Basin. Of crucial importance to Lee County is the quality and quantity of water coming down the Caloosahatchee from the lake, which has contributed to algae outbreaks and other degradation that threaten our environment and economy.

The district has not yet given our problems the priority they deserve. We'd feel a lot better about its chances of doing so if we had a Lee County resident on the nine-member board, a person with strong growth and water resources experience and the public interest at heart. Two outstanding candidates among the people under consideration are Wayne Daltry and Greg Rawl.

 

Daltry was executive director of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Commission for 27 years and is currently the county's director of Smart Growth. Rawl has been a water resources professional for 26 years and is a respected consultant to the county and other local governments in the area. Both have deep roots in this area and are passionately and intelligently concerned with improving the way water is managed throughout South Florida — and with its impact on Lee County's coastal resources.

 

Both also have the backing of Lee County commissioners and several public interest groups. Either can be counted on to try to correct the district's historic tilt toward the east coast and agricultural interests at the expense of the west coast.

 

Lee County needs its own voice at the table. Urge the governor to give us that voice, and also ask Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, a former legislator from Cape Coral, to use his influence on behalf of a qualified Lee County resident for this post.

 

The governor will be naming four people to spots on the board. He has a chance to shift the district sharply in favor of the environment, and away from special interests.

 

Urge him to do so.