Caloosahatchee River Troubles

Guest Editorial by T. W. Bill Neville

Saturday's August 13, 2005 News Press headline in the Local & State
section read as follows: "Algae e-mail rankles state officials".
Considering the "Bafflegab" she had to wade through to compile the
article, I want to congratulate Pamela Smith Hayford on her ability to
complete this assignment while holding her nose.
I know Ms Hayford to be a friend of the environment, so it must have
been with major constraint and mixed emotions as she listened to all
this "glibido", (all talk and no action), coming from those in charge of
the CaloosaBASHee river & basin.

It brings to mind the question, "Can a person cry underwater"? If so,
then why should we expect any different results from the CORPS and SFWMD
today in "mangling" the BIG "O" and the estuaries?
Aren't they the same designated groups that created the circumstances
over 40 years ago that they now have been given unbridled authority to
correct?

Is it any wonder that dedicated officials like Richard Harvey have come
forward with pronouncements that the proposed C-43 Hendry County
reservoir will become "incubators for potentially toxic, blue-green
algae".

On the other hand, people identified only as District staffers have
countered Harvey's concerns by stating " They have looked into the issue
and the reservoir will not significantly increase the potential for
blue-green algae bloom".
DEP press secretary, Cragin Mosteller commented, " The standard for the
Caloosahatchee Reservoir is that the water leaving it can't be any worse
than that going in". Now stop and think about that bit of "bafflegab"!
Maybe she's on to something here? What if that sign appeared over every
Doctor or Dentist's office door?

Not to be topped by Mosteller's glibness our old friend Kurt
"Halfalode", regional provocateur & "bafflegabber" for the SFWMD chimed
in with this response. "We feel certain we can meet that standard".
Where I come from that's not a qualified, non-toxic response but more
like the computer terminology called "GIGO". Garbage in and garbage
out! He also felt duty-bound to stale in reference to Mosteller's
solution to controlling algae bloom in a reservoir, by saying, "Test
cells to be built this fall should verify that".
Might I suggest that I would be careful recommending "cells" in an
environment of "acts" bordering on the criminal.

As an active member of the IMPACT Group of S. W. Florida, Inc., I am
living testimony to the confrontations IMPACT has had with the CORP &
SFWMD regarding the impractical implementation of a reservoir on the
west Hendry County
Berry Groves property, while totally ignoring the utilization of a, now,
endangered, but still salvageable, world's most natural reservoir, Lake
Okeechobee.

In "bafflegab" jargon that would fall under the heading of
"Adminisphere". (Those rarefied administrative, organizational layers
above the rank & file that makes decisions that are often profoundly
inappropriate or irrelevant to the issue(s).
Most often the fallout from "adminisphere" is a rash of "Blamestorming".
(Meetings in which discussions of why a deadline was missed or a project
failed, results in blame assignment), no more, no less.
To the average citizen watching their tax dollars relentlessly
disappearing down the sewer, lt is no wonder that all they perceive is
being done is "blamestorming". That is not the point IMPACT has pursued
over the past three years, nor do we want that to be the case today.

These countless, fruitless exchanges and recriminations between
politically appointed and Civil Service lifers regarding managing facts
of nature is akin to asking a chicken how to make chicken soup.

We, at IMPACT, thru our varied membership experiences and local terrain
experts have and will continue to welcome the opportunity to negate
"adminisphere and blamestorming" and participate in an open
academic/scientific debate wherein accreditation can be shown, not
claimed, supporting reservoir versus natural impoundments.

For various. systemic reasons and underlying factors it has been shown
that taxing and management agencies do not have a sufficiently long
attention span to do science properly, or relate to local lore.

There must be a mutually-protective firewall between the practioneers of
science and politically warranted practioneers.

Because of the current system's stifling effect on the creation,
speaking, and recognition of truth, there will never be any real
solutions to our water problems unless and until funding fo
examining/reporting the problems, is fundamentally separated from the
agencies with the taxing aithority who are attempting/pretending to
implement solutions.

The attempts by the CORP and SFWMD to put a "human" face on thier
projects is only a well worn replay covering the exploitation of the
Everglades over too many decades. All of this despite their latest
efforts to appear as a more
"colorfull" group via the algae "caper'. or as one local wag was known
to call them a "A bunch of blooming idiots, trying to play GOD"!

For those of you still not convinced of the bafflegab "boondoggle", I
will close with one more definitive "bafflegab" word.
"Sarchasm": (The gap between the author of sarcastic wit and the person
who doesn't get it).

T. W. Bill Neville, IMPACT of S. W. Florida Inc.