Sweet!
Today, May 12th, at 9:45 A.M. Governor Rick Scott is scheduled to sign Senate President Joe Negron’s “Senate Bill 10” in of all places Clewiston. Clewiston is “America’s Sweetest Town” and the headquarters of U.S. Sugar Corporation…
According to the article in the Glades County Democrat announcing the signing: “Earlier this week Senate Bill 10, a move to secure funding for a water storage reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee was approved. In its amended form, Senate Bill 10 became a measure that we in the Glades could stand behind. The bill no longer stated that additional farmlands be taken out of production but rather the state would utilize the property that it already owns to create a reservoir with a much smaller footprint.”
Full article: (http://gladescountydemocrat.com/lake-okeechobee/governor-rick-scott-set-sign-sb10-clewiston/)
Although I am scratching my head, you know what? Sometimes you just have to be happy for what you get, no matter where you get it. I am tremendously thankful to Governor Scott for signing the bill ~ although I do wish he had decided to sign it in Martin County since we’ve worked so hard to get it.
When I read the announcement officially last night, it got me thinking about Clewiston before I went to sleep. It brought back memories of 2013 and famed paddle boarder Justin Riney’s idea to hold the Sugarland Rally in Clewiston on September 1st, 2013 to unite the movement. This was one of the early rallies for the river during the devastation of the “Lost Summer.”
Since Governor Scott is going to sign in Clewiston I think it’s a good time to walk down memory lane and be proud of how far we’ve come and to get ready for how far we have to go! The point of the location of the Sugarland Rally was to “meet halfway.” Hopefully Governor Scott is thinking the same, in that Joe Negron helped us meet half way and we are all thankful.
Now let’s remember the past, enjoy today, and then take it to the finish line!
“The Sugarland Rally will unite the east and west coasts of Florida in a peaceful, historic demonstration to speak out against the pollution of our estuaries from Lake Okeechobee discharges. We support both immediate and long-term solutions, but ecosystems and communities along the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries are in crisis. We cannot afford to wait for ecological and economic collapse. We urge all stakeholders–especially local, state and federal governments–to act immediately. We chose Clewiston as a central location to unify east and west at Lake Okeechobee, the source that is polluting our estuaries, and because we believe Florida’s sugar industry can be part of the solution. Please don’t misinterpret our intentions–we are NOT holding a rally at Clewiston to protest or point fingers at “Big Sugar.” It’s quite the opposite, actually. We invite Florida’s powerful sugar industry to join us in crafting an immediate solution to the ecological and economic crisis caused by discharges from Lake Okeechobee.” (Press release from Justin Riney, Aug. 2013)
SUGARLAND RALLY 2013
Press release on Sugarland Rally from 2013, in Clewiston, Justin Riney: http://www.supradioshow.com/2013/08/justin-riney-sugarland-rally-unite-east-west-coasts-florida-sup-radio/
9:35 am JTL
Thanks Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch for the memories and your calming writings. Sugarland Rally was when I decided to get involved. And I am thankful daily for the folks I’ve met and the inspiration I’ve received from many good people. Thanks always!
We have met so many great people! An amazing grassroots uprising of folks that may never have met under any other set of circumstances. Beautiful.
How will the water be dispersed out of the reservoir? What happens when the reservoir fills up? Will there be more Lake water flowing into the South Fork other than boats locking through C-44?
It should be dispersed thorough the mechanics of CEPP. Sent south, cleansed through vegetation and sent to Everglades National Park. These will be less water flowing into the south fork.
Once the project is operational, depending on the final footprint (capacity) and degree of conveyance ability, we will have made a dent in the discharges. Keeping things real, if it stores 80 billion, or 100 billion, without the “turnover” mechanism in place (conveyance cleaning marsh acreage) it will not handle enough water to stem the discharges to TWO estuaries it wet summers and autumns. Remember that in 2016 a horrific 400-plus billion gallons of Lake O water crushed the St. Lucie/IRL and Caloosahatchee. In 2013, nearly as bad. In the space of one MONTH in 2016, over 50 billion came through the S-80 (St. Lucie) locks. Hope that puts the reservoir in perspective. The bill — and project size– was watered down. It was amended to the wishes of the growers primarily. They came through it pretty much unscathed. We need to ultimately send as much as one MILLION acre-feet south overall to stop the discharges and restore Florida Bay. That is the number cited by Wendy Graham of the U of F Water Institute. It is quite a conundrum to pray for drought for the northern estuaries because that is exactly what will further decimate Florida Bay at the bottom of the system.
Jacqui tell your mom I said happy mother’s day
Thank you Brent
Face Book comments as well as can transfer: 34 Patty Childs, Tony Polito and 32 others
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Comments
Jo Neeson
Jo Neeson Extremely “sweet” big sugar summoned their puppet king to their backyard .
Like · Reply · 10 · May 12 at 9:43am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch Be nice Jo Neeson…:)
Like · Reply · 5 · May 12 at 9:48am
Evan Miller
Evan Miller Lol
Like · Reply · 4 · May 12 at 10:22am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Jerry Kyckelhahn
Jerry Kyckelhahn Thank you Governor Scott…
Like · Reply · 1 · May 12 at 9:56am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch 🙂
Like · Reply · 1 · May 12 at 10:14am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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JP Sasser
JP Sasser Another way of looking at it is – since the reservoir is being constructed in the EAA – why not sign the bill in the EAA. Without compromise nothing gets done.
Like · Reply · 7 · May 12 at 11:16am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz That sounds good Jp!
Like · Reply · 1 · May 12 at 12:36pm
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz I’m very grateful. He can sign it whereever
\ he pleases.
Like · Reply · 2 · May 12 at 12:37pm
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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David Borrack
David Borrack I don’t trust Rick Scott.
Like · Reply · 10 · May 12 at 11:25am
Marvin Newman
Marvin Newman Its signed don’t care where it was signed.. Now get to work!
Like · Reply · 7 · May 12 at 11:36am
Raoul Bataller
Raoul Bataller · 8 mutual friends
It goes into service in 2030, estimated with federal hoops to jump through, meanwhile good luck to the Lagoon and their algae.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 2:37pm
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Jennie Pawlowsky
Jennie Pawlowsky he’s just plain weird
Like · Reply · 3 · May 12 at 11:41am
Kevin Stinnette
Kevin Stinnette How do we ensure that the reservoir is not full of sugar farm/ local runoff when we need it?
Like · Reply · 4 · May 12 at 12:17pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner We can’t. Just like the old Jeb Bush-CERP ‘plan’ for a 31,000 acre deep water reservoir using the SFWMD owned 53,000 acre Talisman Tract land about 15 years…there was almost no allowance made for cleaning the stored water. That requires a big enough …See More
Like · Reply · May 13 at 9:14am
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook There are about 400,000 acres of WCA filter marsh this water will flow through…as well as the STAs in metered amounts…None of this will reduce the P to below 10 ppb during even modest rain events like 2013 and 2016….and the St. Lucie and Caloosah…See More
Like · Reply · May 13 at 10:47am
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Michael Donovan
Michael Donovan It is telling that he chose to sign the bill in Clewiston instead of Martin County or Lee County or Monroe County.
Like · Reply · 4 · May 12 at 12:18pm
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz Honestly I think he thinks if he comes here we’ll be mean to him.
Like · Reply · 3 · May 12 at 12:38pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Well…Adam Putnam came here to meet with the Economic Council of Martin County at a VERY bad time. I doubt that either Putnam or Scott have forgotten Putnam’s reception in the Stuart Beach parking lot…
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 7:53am
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Charles Nemitz
Charles Nemitz Still not voting for him come next election! No way not a chance.
Like · Reply · 2 · May 12 at 1:24pm
JP Sasser
JP Sasser He signed the bill at John Stretch Park in Palm Beach County – actually in the community of Lake Harbor. It is just east of the City of Clewiston and the Hendry County line. It is also where the Miami Canal connects to Lake Okeechobee and there is a very large pump station there. There is a lot of symbolism there.
Like · Reply · 4 · May 12 at 4:28pm · Edited
Nyla Pipes
Nyla Pipes Together, we can ALL make progress. Fighting against one another, our communities are less effective. When compromise is reached, we all move forward.
Like · Reply · 1 · May 12 at 1:54pm
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta If we are all obedient to the holiness of sugar cane growers their dominion over the citizen’s water will eventually, gently and gradually be returned to us. And we will succumb to their ambitions in the name of compromise. They want us to go gently in…See More
Like · Reply · 4 · May 12 at 4:01pm
Nyla Pipes
Nyla Pipes Richard Trotta, you do realize following me all over the internet and posting each and every time you see my name is the very definition of trolling, don’t you? I know you believe yourself to be a master of prose and enjoy writing flowery tributes to …See More
Like · Reply · May 12 at 4:09pm · Edited
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Is that where Governor Charlie Crist and Robert Buker of U.S. Sugar Corp. signed their original deal in 2008 too?
Like · Reply · 3 · May 12 at 5:03pm
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch Good question! I do not know
Like · Reply · May 12 at 11:36pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Thank you Jacqui…I just now did a google search and found out the answer. Along with some swell pics you might like to see. The signing in 2008 of an agreement in principle happened at Loxahatchie NWR. Everyone was smiling. Shannon Estenoz of (then) SFWMD board leadership was there too. It is sad now to see what might have been………http://www.reuters.com/…/us-usa-sugar-interview…
Florida offer for U.S. Sugar came as a big surprise
The $1.75 billion offer from the state of Florida…
REUTERS.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 2 · May 12 at 11:44pm
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner 🙂
Like · Reply · 1 · May 12 at 5:16pm
TJ Thompson
TJ Thompson I so agree with your observations… we all know ‘compromise’ takes give-and-take for all concerned… but Gov Scott still tweeks things more in favor of his Sugar Cartel handlers…than the REST of us!
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 5:57am
Tom Levy
Tom Levy If a cake recipe calls for a gallon of milk and you are given a quart of milk and a pat on the head, is that reason to celebrate? And when the cake turns out to be inedible, who’s at fault? You can attempt to address the cake after the fact, but who wants to? The awful taste and texture are baked in. And no one wants to eat it. Rick Scott is as waterdown as a politician as this inadequate law is as a mitigation. Now if the recipe calls for a pound of sugar, I’m sure you can get two (or three). How sweet it isn’t.
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 8:01am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz if you listen to rick scotts speech its clear! and it was the best place for him to do it and he also said he doesn’t want to see any more guacamole thick water over here or dirty water over on the gulf but wants the dike fixed. So the only thing we have left to do is say thank you!
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 8:13am
TJ Thompson
TJ Thompson That’s a positive attitude – and I hate to be cynical… but look at the blatant and proven misappropriation of amendment 1 funds by this governor … we can’t rest on our laurels over something he said at a photo-op… I’ll hold off on the ‘thank-you Governor ‘ for now..
Like · Reply · 4 · May 13 at 8:26am · Edited
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz TJ Thompson no ones resting just taking a moment to be grateful because i am amazed it even happened. there is a long list of things that need to happen. I wrote this last week you might want to read.http://www.treasurecoast.com/waiting-exhale-long-road…/
Waiting to Exhale! It’s a long road to our reservoir! – Treasure Coast -…
TREASURECOAST.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 2 · May 13 at 8:29am
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner He is fixated on the dike now because it allows him to continue pointing the finger of blame at what happened in 2016 at the federal government…ie. Obama…Period. He cannot get past that and put state money where it really should be going. Into an E…See More
Like · Reply · 4 · May 13 at 8:22am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz Right but would like to celebrate fir five minutes what we got and be happy and be grateful
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 8:24am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner I know…OK 5 minutes…Startingggg……NOW!
Like · Reply · 1 · May 13 at 8:26am
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner For those who don’t know what my ‘spare a square’ term is derived from. Enjoy…………https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gysu0kgFwT0
The Stall – I Don’t Have a Square to Spare
YOUTUBE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · May 13 at 8:25am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz I wrote this last week. I am very happy and grateful we got what we did. I consider it a miracle. There are many more things that need to be accomplished. But a lot of the rhetoric and fake news (with the exception of the economic council of martin county and they need to stop and also set the record straight) This is a huge important step. http://www.treasurecoast.com/waiting-exhale-long-road…/
Waiting to Exhale! It’s a long road to our reservoir! – Treasure Coast – Connecting…
TREASURECOAST.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 3 · May 13 at 8:34am
Doc Snook
Doc Snook It’s all a bunch of bullshit talk until the Bull Dozers start moving dirt for the res…….It’s as simple as that…….!!!
Like · Reply · 3 · May 13 at 2:07pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook You are exactly on point…….
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 9:50am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Troy Brown
Troy Brown he chose ground zero of the sugar industry to celebrate the nullification of a land deal that could have helped solve the water problem much more effectively.
Like · Reply · May 13 at 8:43pm · Edited
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Please note the article in ECOWATCH today regarding the planning for north of Lake O…..The Deep Well Injection Pumps alone would take 2,500,000 acre feet out of the river before the water got into Lake O during rain events…That is five feet…more …See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 9:40am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz Because the wAter is needed south!
Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 11:08am
Cyndi Lenz
Cyndi Lenz Do you believe in God?
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:08am
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Cyndi, we all want more water “south to Florida Bay”….But, when there is massive flows during rain events the USACE has few choices…and all of them involve getting the excess water to sea. Once a large portion of this excess water just spread over…See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:21am
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Regarding the panthers…not my issue…I leave that to those involved in habitat area….But, I did see the last FWC report at the Commission meeting and there is no doubt the deer are being decimated by the panthers according to those (scientists) ru…See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 9:49am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner In Ohio about 1/3rd of the deer fawns born each year are killed and eaten by coyotes, which are abundant there. Pretty sure pumas/panthers keep coyote populations at a lower level by preying on them.
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 10:16am
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook No doubt…but panthers eat several deer a month, or the equivalent…Incidentally, I still hunt deer at my place in Ohio and over 30 years have watched the coyote situation lower the deer herd after a large increase of deer at first…about ten years …See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 10:29am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Is he a deer rancher or a cattle rancher?…It’s a numbers game. A panther territory is 200 square miles. If a panther eats ONLY deer…it might kill 3 deer a month. But how many deer live in a 200 square mile area? Hundreds, probably. How many coyotes can live in a 200 square mile area? A lot fewer if there was a predator that preyed on them as well as a deer or two every month…
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 10:44am
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner http://www.livescience.com/27267-pumas.html
Pumas, Panthers & Cougars: Facts About America’s Big Cats
Puma, panther, cougar and mountain lion are different…
LIVESCIENCE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · Yesterday at 10:23am
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook The latest science shows there is only one “species” of panther in North America…one in Central America and three in South America….These are distinct species. It has been noted by the USFWS that all North American panthers are the “same”. The NA species is NOT endangered..even hunted in several places….What is in place in Florida is protection of an Isolated Population that is in jeopardy.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:01am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Yes…we agree on all of that. And isn’t it a good thing that the Endangered Species Act clearly states that isolated populations of a species that still exist within a former range…are federally protected until they can re-establish a population siz…See More
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 11:10am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner It wasn’t until Roy McBride was called in to help determine if there were any Florida panthers left in Florida back in the 1970s that the FWC biologists had a clue there were still some around. They learned from Roy McBride how to track and capture pan…See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 2:43pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner https://www.fws.gov/pacific/news/grizzly/esafacts.htm
Little Know But Important Features of the Endangered Species Act
There are features built into the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its implementing regulations that give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) flexibility in listing, protecting, managing, and recovering species that need the ESA’s protections.
FWS.GOV
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Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner I don’t trust statements that start with “There is no doubt…”…I’ve been around that kind of factually unsupported ‘assuredness’ too much in my life. That’s just me. I’m always ready to change my mind if there is good evidence to persuade me to do that. I can live with doubt and uncertainty until I know something for sure.
Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 10:27am
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Reality is very complex. We shouldn’t try to simplify our perceptions and deceive ourselves to make things simple…when they are not.
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 10:29am
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Blake Faulkner , Newton is a masterful deceiver when he has something to sell that benefits him or his cohorts. He’s trying to sell a need to loosen protections on the species so incremental land entitlements can be made by ranchers and farmers escala…See More
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 2:32pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Oh dear…Look what we have done on Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch’s post!…I am so sorry Jacqui…In my defense…I was provoked into wordiness!!!
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 2:58pm
TJ Thompson
TJ Thompson 😂🙊
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 9:35pm
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Yeah but Richard…he also wants lots of public access on any land that becomes publicly-owned. That is his MAIN agenda…to be able to ‘harvest’ the bounty of Mother Nature with birdshot, rifle or even rod & reel. So he has to be nice to those folks at SFWMD & FWC…doesn’t he?
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 3:03pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Wow, what a conspiracy theory. My “cohorts” are mostly regular folk who like to hunt and fish, hike, horse ride, kayak, etc. on public lands. Perhaps you should go look at my public comments to the FWC Commissioners last meeting if you believe I am “nice”. First day about two hours into the meeting.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:08pm
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Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Back to the science Newton? Your cohorts are the folks over there at the Panthers of South Florida. Is it accurate that you have lent some formal assistance to Mike Elf’s effort to raise funds to loosen Florida Panther restrictions?
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:18pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner HA…I’d say Mike Elf thanks everyone for the free gasoline for his truck that 6,000 dollars of Go-Fund-Me money can buy…I think that fund is shut down now.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:20pm
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Without any real evidence it is my understanding that Newton was one of the supporters of the project. Anything Mikheal Elfenbein touches should be treated as radioactive.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:24pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook I know Mike, nice guy. I have not donated nor fund raised for his group. I am not so much interested in seeing the Panthers changing listing status as I am in a proper management plan that gets the population numbers back inside the habitat capacity. Panthers should be all across the Florida landscape, “here but rare” as historical.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:32pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner Rare is what made them inbred. Too many young male panthers having no options other than to mate with their sisters and first cousins. OK, no jokes about Appalachia here on Jacqui’s page…please…
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 3:34pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Rare and concentrated. That is a disaster for a species. Note I say “across the Florida landscape”. That is crucial and that scattering is the single most challenging issue facing the Panther committee.
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 3:40pm
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner I may have to call a REAL wildlife biologist/ecologist in here to explain the needs of healthy panther populations. I wonder if Reed Noss can be persuaded to share such a thing with us.
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 3:46pm
Reed Noss
Reed Noss · Friends with Blake Faulkner and 12 others
I really don’t want to wade into this, except to point out that a long-term viable population of panthers requires a lot more wildland than exists in South Florida today. Full recovery will require several large and connected subpopulations across Florida and the Southeast, which has been recognized in the recovery plan for decades.
Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 8:58pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Thank you Reed. And I don’t blame you for staying above the fray!
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook The “sub populations” are where the problem of “240 cats in three populations in FL and south GA” for any change from “Endangered” exists. There simply are not three large enough areas for these concentrations to exist and be healthy. SW FL, the Ocala …See More
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner It’s the only established population left east of the Mississippi River. But people still have to bring up the fact that the species itself is not endangered out west. The ‘reasons’ they are hunted out west is to boost the prey populations that trophy …See More
Like · Reply · 2 · 12 hrs
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Newton Earl Cook, you claimed science was the support for your theory of overpopulation and now you’ve retreated to conjecture. Your credibility again impugned. Panthers are not hunted to control populations. They’re hunted for bravado.
Like · Reply · 11 hrs · Edited
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook That is your opinion….Man has hunted panthers from day one in the eons and panthers and man coexisted as predator and prey (both ways) naturally…..If you are against man hunting in the ecosystems you are an UNNATURAL person NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST….See More
Like · Reply · 11 hrs
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Newton, I am hunter. There is nothing brave about hunting. Shooting a projectile from 40 yards is no danger. When I hunt boar hogs with the Bowie knife my focus is to avoid getting bit by the dogs and not sliced by the hogs. Those guns make you feel manly and adventurous. I’ve hunted the entire Western Hemisphere and never feared I was prey with a weapon in my hand. But, many of your cohort seem to fear the “lions”.
Like · Reply · 7 hrs
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook That is commendable…but at 77, or my grandson at 8 might have some problems with hand to claw combat!….I don’t believe most people who spend time in the woods “fear” animals, except some snake…and perhaps some are leery of gators….I reluctantly…See More
Like · Reply · 6 hrs
Richard Trotta
Richard Trotta Thank God for limits Ducks Unlimited, NWTF and NWR’s. Teddy Roosevelt was a real genius. Take a look at Panthers of South Florida and the suggestive posts and comments of “lions” in our backyards.
Like · Reply · 6 hrs
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Our group is a Life Sponsor Organization for DU….of course we are nearly all DU members as well… I am also on the TRUST Group working to finance the new Lake O Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge along with a number of hunter organizations….Conservation is in most hunters’ blood…
Like · Reply · 1 · 6 hrs
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner I’m more interested in why Mark Perry of Florida Oceanographic Society is no longer a WRAC member. Who was he replaced by and who on the SFWMD board is responsible for that ‘change’?…Is Nyla Pipes the new WRAC member replacement for Mark Perry? I really do not know what happened there. But I’d like to know.
Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 3:17pm
Troy Brown
Troy Brown why would they want an expert hydrologist to have input in a hydrology issue? dont u know that science is frowned upon by Dick Scott?
Like · Reply · 22 hrs
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
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Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook Not sure of the reasons but we all serve at the pleasure of the Gov. Board. Gov. Scott reduced WRAC by about a third when he came in. Meant some hard choices I am sure. Mark is a good guy but the “chairs were rearranged” last year with new points of view represented.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 7:29pm · Edited
John Hitchcock
John Hitchcock Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend money on fixing root causes rather than wasting money on something that stores shit water in another spot and won’t happen until after the lagoon and the Everglades are dead? I guess not. Stupid is as stupid was…no matter how much money there is to steer the stupid ship.
Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 9:42pm · Edited
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Blake Faulkner
Blake Faulkner If Rick Scott can get the Florida state government to spend 200 million dollars to speed up Hoover dike reinforcement and get the federal government to pay the state back…I guarantee you he will have some hidden way to profit personally from state contracts on that work. That is how he rolls…
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 9:40pm
Newton Earl Cook
Newton Earl Cook John, your perception is notable. The “hate sugar” groups are lost in a maze of sugar cane. The fact that very little water from cane fields, less than 3 %, goes into the Lake and an even smaller amount into drainages into the LRL is well known but these groups need a boogeyman for fundraising. The sugar companies are tough and lobby hard for their interests, including the price support (which also covers sugar beets in the north), but it is not their runoff that is polluting the IRL. The diversion from the true culprits to the farmers south of the Lake by these organizations has delayed and hurt the needed projects and actions needed to clean Lake O and to reduce flows out the C 43 and C 44 plus, to do the costly and needed work to reduce local basin runoff, especially from the 110,000 septic tanks along the IRL. Your knowledgeable voice is welcome.
Like · Reply · 14 hrs