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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 19, 2001
Editor: I believe residents of Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties are concerned about our serious water shortage. Yet, since moving to Florida in 1979, I've heard nothing from the Southwest Florida Water Management District about a plan or means of collecting and distributing water. Governmental agencies continue to allow growth as if we had ample resources.
I'm not against progress, expansion or having more people join us; but there comes a time when enough is enough unless you have the resources to take care of the added population.
Where will the county find sufficient water for added residents? Evidently Swiftmud doesn't want to do anything about our problem except make statements like "Conserve water, we are in a drought," or "It appears we may disallow watering the lawns entirely." What nonsense when we have sufficient rain, if it was collected and stored properly. And the Gulf of Mexico is brimming with water. Evidently we don't have the mental resources to plan, or is money the primary reason for not acting?
Can you imagine what Los Angeles would be like today if the governing bodies 50 years ago got up, looked at the hot sun and said, "Looks like a drought." No, they got up and said, "We've got a problem, so let's fix it." So they engineered an aqueduct system that transports 1-billion gallons of water daily from the Colorado River, over the San Bernardino Mountains to Lake Mathews, Calif., some 242 miles away. They also pump water from the Sacramento River to Parris Reservoir (south of Los Angeles), a distance of 444 miles. The city of Los Angeles uses a separate aqueduct system, drawing 5-billion gallons of water daily from the Owens River, some 338 miles away.
In 144 B.C., the Romans built their first above-ground aqueduct system. Can you imagine the forethought and engineering that had to go into that system? And it still works today. If Swiftmud had been the ruling Roman water lords at that time, they would still be putting out Nero's fires in Rome.
Residents of the above-mentioned counties have invested a great deal in business and homes, and we need a comprehensive report as to what we face in the future. What is Swiftmud's position on continued growth, piping in water, building collection reservoirs, tapping into the natural springs and rivers around the state? When will our first desalination plant start operating? What are their plans besides: "Looks like we will have to stop watering lawns altogether"?
-- Derrel E. Tooman, Spring Hill
Re: Robots would do better job than overpaid postal workers, Feb. 14 letter
Editor: If the writer is unhappy with the Hudson post office, he should take his business to the Elfers post office.
The personnel there are not only fast, they are friendly and caring. Even if there is a line waiting to be served, very few customers seem to object. I have the utmost respect and regard for the people at the Elfers post office. As a matter of fact, several years ago, I wrote to the supervisor to tell him what a nice crew they had.
Maybe if the letter writer wrote to the supervisor at the Hudson post office with his complaint, he might get better results than writing to the paper. Maybe they just might change their attitude.
-- Kathryn L. Robinson, Holiday
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