Letters to the Editors

Steps must be taken to save Pasco's beauty

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 5, 2000

Editor: Much has been written about Pasco County's need to promote tourism and attract investment dollars to broaden our tax base. Our need to eliminate pollution and protect the environment goes hand in hand with those goals. Some of the things we can do are:

1. Support Sen. Jack Latvala's effort to develop a beach at the Wetstone tract, which is a stretch of land on the gulf between Port Richey and Hudson.

2. Support Rep. Heather Fiorentino's legislation to update our sewer plants to meet advanced water-treatment standards, in accordance with Grizzle-Figg Bill 204.

3. Encourage our cities and county to provide pump-out facilities for marine sanitation devices.

4. Support the development of desalination plants if the discharge meets the advanced water-treatment standards. Tampa Bay has come a long way in the past 10 years, and we should not allow it to be polluted again from a new source.

5. Recommend that Salt Springs Run become a fish and game sanctuary.

6. Support updating our utilities, including roads, surface-water drainage and garbage collection.

The responsibility of cleaning up our communities is ours. When an area is well cared-for, real estate values rise, benefiting all.

Pasco County has been a wonderful place to live, and that is why so many people are joining us as permanent residents. We must all work diligently to preserve the natural resources with which we have been blessed.

Lastly, it is our responsibility to elect officials to our local and county governments who are able to find solutions to the problems and are willing to make the hard choices necessary to correct them.
Patrick Raimond, Port Richey

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