For future's sake, keep restrictions on use of water
Published September 3, 2003
Re: Water rules.
It seems to me that we, as the "intelligent species," just refuse to get it! I cannot understand why the "lords of water" would want to relax the very rules that were put in place to train us to conserve our precious resource. Am I alone in this thinking? I have lived in Pinellas County for more than 25 years and have been through the many warnings about water shortages and how we must conserve water.
Yesterday's news photos showed free-standing docks in dry lake beds and dry wells. Our future will bring more demand for potable water than ever before with our county and state populations growing. Congratulations to us for learning to not waste!
Our weather pattern has shifted for now. We should not shift as well. We have a lot of water now. Let's keep it. We have been trained to function with our present rules and live successfully within those means. Leave them alone. Our leaders should work to plan for our future needs, with foresight and lessons learned from the past.
-- Gray Rideout, Treasure Island
Conservation should be a way of life
Re: Water restrictions.
The folks in South Florida and the Swiftmud people shouldn't even be considering lifting water restrictions! I've been reading about South Florida's quest for water from the North Florida resources since the last of the 1940s, but there have been no noticeable attempts to conserve water in the South's fast-growing region.
The only proactive thing seems to be the building of the salt water conversion plant, but the last I read it was "down" due to . . . whatever.
Somebody needs to understand that this state needs permanent water restrictions all over the state! Take a leadership role there at the Times! Otherwise it all will just end up as a "dollar" issue rather than an issue of all of us being in the same boat! Conservation should be a way of life for all of us all over Florida!
-- Robert L. Deen, Ormond Beach
News is good on water
Almost a decade ago, the Tampa Bay Water board of directors set out to help the environment near 11 overstressed well fields rest and recover. The board committed to develop new and alternative water resources - the Master Water Plan - to allow well-field pumping reductions at certain long-producing, overstressed well fields. Some of the well fields targeted for cutbacks had been operating up to 70 years and had been sited and managed with outdated technology. Environmental impacts resulted. The Master Water Plan was intended to reverse that effect.
Today, thanks primarily to the new water sources now on-line - and a little bit of luck with good weather - we have already begun to see signs of recovery in the Floridan Aquifer. Near many of the overstressed well fields, water levels in the Floridan Aquifer are at their highest levels since before 1989. While we have had heavy rains over the past six months, most of that surplus fell during December 2002 and June 2003, and does not account for all the water-level increases seen in the Floridan Aquifer.
Our scientists have been very clear: The Master Water Plan is accomplishing the board's environmental recovery goals - and doing so ahead of schedule.
Increased rainfall allowed us to shift production in September, earlier than anticipated, to our new surface water projects - sources we can only tap during high river flows. Having the surface water projects, Tampa Bay seawater desalination and the Brandon urban dispersed wells completed and ready to produce water meant that we could cut back well-field pumping far sooner and to a greater extent than we'd planned - and that we could begin seeing a response from the environment sooner than expected.
As of July, our 12-month running average for well-field production from the 11 well fields on our consolidated permit was 99.02-million gallons per day (mgd). This number is well below the required 121 mgd target we are required to meet at the end of this calendar year. With final startup of the desalination plant scheduled for the end of September, we expect these reductions to be sustainable.
Our June pumping level was 74 mgd. Compare that to the next lowest historical June pumping level - 147 mgd in June 2001.
While hydrologists tell us it takes more time to document signs of recovery in lakes and wetlands, they believe that the rise in the Floridan Aquifer levels means that a similar recovery in lakes and wetlands near these 11 well fields will follow. Over time, Tampa Bay residents will be able to see visible evidence of the benefits of the Master Water Plan through higher water levels in lakes and wetlands near these well fields.
In the decade since we began work on the Master Water Plan, the region has experienced the bad luck of drought and floods and the good luck of heavy rains and on-time, on-budget project completions. But the bottom line is that the board has delivered early on its promise of environmental recovery, without sacrificing water badly needed for public health, safety and recreation. And that's mighty good news.
-- Jerry Maxwell, general manager, Tampa Bay Water,
Clearwater
A disregard for the public's health
Thank you for your Aug. 26 editorial Sneaky Friday regarding this administration's destructive change in the rules to our Clean Air Act.
What are they thinking? The Environmental Protection Agency is a bureaucracy gone awry. The change has been enacted based on information from representatives of the industries that it regulates, not from the general public it is supposed to protect.
By contrast, public hearings were held when the rule was adopted that allowed older power plants and refineries to postpone installation of pollution-control devices until a major upgrade was undertaken. The purpose was to gradually clean the air while recognizing economic constraints.
But now this administration has revealed its disregard for the health of American citizens. These old plants emit mercury, which pollutes our rivers and lakes; and nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which result in smog, acid rain and soot over wide areas of our country.
Smog causes a burning of the cell wall of the lungs and air passages, which can result in asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Soot causes bacterial and viral respiratory infections like pneumonia, as well as chronic lung disease, and is increasingly recognized by scientists to be the most dangerous air pollutant. Acid rain damages ecosystems, including rivers, lakes and forests. It even eats away at our historic monuments!
We must advise those in power that we are outraged that the EPA has so little regard for our health. President Bush is the leader of the world's superpower. Surely it is not beyond his power to provide our citizens with clean and healthful air to breathe.
-- Thalia L. Potter, Tampa
Column was appreciated
Re: A few triumphant, historic moments, Aug. 28.
Thanks for running Gene Patterson's column of 40 years ago that appeared in the Atlanta Constitution. Patterson and Ralph McGill of the same paper were out front for all sensible Southerners on the race question back in those days.
Some of us who lived in Florida's Panhandle eagerly looked forward to the thoughts of these two men, and your reprinting of Gene's long ago column was a service. Those were turbulent days, on the verge of what became known as the "Sixties," which actually began 83 days later with the murder of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
Then, given those events, and the tidal wave of feeling for those in this country who continued to be oppressed 100 years after a war to settle that issue, President Lyndon Johnson was able to inspire Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Gene Patterson was part of all that.
-- Leo Coughlin, Largo
Memories of racism and healing
The 40th anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King sparked poignant memories of sorrow, personal regret and witnessing the ability of one man to heal despite his immersion into the swamp of racism that permeated the South. At that time, few people dared to cross that divide which split the world into black and white.
When the speech was aired that night on national news, my father raged, yelling the N-word framed in expletives. I thought how ironic it was when words pleading for peace and freedom emanated from the TV. His emotion boiled over provoking him to slam an object at the flickering images of blacks and whites together listening to words of truth. This did not dampen his anger. He stormed out of the room with Dr. King's words racing after him, "Free at last, free at last . . ."
Somehow, I escaped the taint and stain of racism. Most likely, it was because my mother enriched my life with the knowledge that we are all children of God and our whiteness did not place us above anyone else. She understood the content of character being more important than the color of our skin long before Dr. King spoke those words.
Unfortunately, I did not carry that belief into public action. I regret I did not participate in the demonstrations of the '60s. However, I did demonstrate on a personal level, standing up for my beliefs and making them known with certainty especially to my father. There was no excuse for our societal divide. Many arguments ensued eventually leading to an estrangement.
Years later, we reconnected and not long before he died, we were traveling though Central Florida. The area was mired in poverty - houses that could fall to a whisper of a wind, children with haunted eyes searching across a remote stretch of land that lay barren to anything fertile. For a moment, you almost felt you had been transported to a distant village in Africa instead of being just minutes from Disney World.
He slowed the car, which was not his fashion, and slowly scanned the faces and their world. Over the years, he no longer used the N-word in my presence. I wondered what he was thinking when he turned to me and remarked with sorrow, "We," pointing his finger at his chest, "we caused all of this."
It was a remarkable moment between us - our civil war ended that day on that dusty road. We were "free at last."
-- Barbara Burkham, Clearwater
Raising awareness of breast cancer
Re: Tampa official has cancer, Aug. 29.
On behalf of the Florida Suncoast Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, I would like to thank Tampa City Council member Gwen Miller for agreeing to publicize her recent surgery to treat breast cancer. One of the most significant barriers to getting more women to obtain education on and screening and treatment for breast cancer is the stigma many women have in even discussing the subject. But through the courageous efforts of public figures such as council member Miller, former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan and others, more women and men will realize the need for early detection and treatment.
Our Komen all-volunteer-run affiliate, which serves Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties, has been committed to our community's breast health needs since 1998 and in that time we have raised and granted millions of dollars to treatment, education and screening programs. We invite everyone to join the thousands of runners, walkers and survivors at our 5th Anniversary Race for the Cure in St. Petersburg this Sept. 20, where we will continue to celebrate the Gwen Millers of our community!
-- Robert M. Eschenfelder Esq., president of the board,
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Florida
Suncoast Affiliate, Clearwater
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