Friday, August 10, 2007
Editorial
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/08/10/a10a_backpumpedit_0810.html
It was a stunning, welcome and overdue shift for the South Florida Water Management District Board.
Since the 1960s, the board had supported the sugar industry's demands to pump runoff from farm canals back into Lake Okeechobee, to boost water supply during droughts. On Thursday, by a vote of 4-3, the board set a new policy: No back-pumping. Protect the lake first, and find other ways to help farmers. Back-pumping adds water, but it also adds tons of polluting phosphorus, nitrogen and pesticides.
With one board member absent and U.S. Sugar Corp. Vice President Malcolm "Bubba" Wade barred from voting by his obvious conflict of interest, four of Gov. Crist's new appointees - Chairman Eric Buermann, Charles Dauray, Shannon Estenoz and Melissa Meeker - voted against back-pumping. Unfortunately, the fifth Crist appointee, Palm Beach County's Pat Rooney, voted with two board members whom Jeb Bush appointed.
The board action reflected the comments of about 30 residents, including many from Florida's west coast. In wetter times, the lake's overflow is dumped into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries on both coasts, causing toxic algae blooms, sickening fish and devastating businesses that depend on healthy rivers. Reporting by The Post has shown that when communities treat the water they draw from the lake, the process creates cancer-causing compounds. Back-pumping causes the levels of those carcinogens to rise sharply.
During Wednesday's presentations, heavily weighted in favor of back-pumping, district staff and lobbyists said farmers need help. But Ms. Meeker correctly noted that the district and the farmers can seek other solutions "that can be done that haven't been done." For example, rather than use the lake as a reservoir, farmers can store and clean more water on their own land. Since the district wants public utilities to find new sources of water, the district should encourage farmers to rely less on the lake.
The board's decision also acknowledged that agriculture is not the only lake-related economy. Cleaner lake water will draw more tourists and fishermen, helping businesses that cater to them. For flood protection and to protect the Herbert Hoover Dike, water must be released periodically from the lake. Cleaner water will help businesses along the lake and the rivers that receive these discharges.
Mr. Dauray moved board members with his passionate declaration that contaminating the lake with polluted water "was wrong in the past, is wrong today and will be wrong in the future ... it's about time we realize we have to assume leadership." As a board member of the Izaak Walton League, Mr. Dauray said, he represents 36,000 members, 72 percent of whom are involved with agricultural production. Still, he said, voting for back-pumping would be "indefensible."
It was true in the '60s, and it is true now. But now, it's official.