“Send It [Lake Okeechobee water] South!” and another timely reminder.

“Going to government meetings doesn’t do anything. Nobody ever listens.”

They don’t? Think again. Briefly, scroll down and take a look at the image below.

Send It South! the “small but vocal minority” wailed and howled.

Published in The Palm Beach Post in October 2017 titled, “Hurricane Irma ended idea that we can ‘send water south’ ” by Mr. Mitch Hutchcraft of Fort Myers; an excerpt:


“While the system [operated by SFWMD and USACE*], as it stands today, is far from working perfectly, it is a flood-control system that enables nearly 8 million people to live in South Florida. [emphasis added] Through my service on the SFWMD, I was proud to make focusing on actually fixing problems a priority. That means that sometimes we have to ignore the small but vocal minority that will never settle for any solution other than ‘send the water south.’ ”

—From the editor at the Post: “[Mitch] Hutchcraft is a former member of the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District.” 

“Nobody ever listens”?

Try telling that to the citizens in Pahokee, Belle Glade, South Bay and a whole lot of other residents in the Glades region here in Palm Beach County.

“Send The Water South!” and another reservoir without fixing the Herbert Hoover Dike was a bad idea from the very beginning. But it took a large, vocal group of citizens in PBC to get everyone’s attention. The public showed up. In large numbers. They “spoke their mind”.

However, there remains a looming question:

JP Sasser, the former mayor of Pahokee and a frequent contributor to The Palm Beach Post, asks: “When are we going to get serious about our water?” and septic tanks along the Indian River Lagoon (IRL)?


“The final point was that the cities of Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay pumped our raw sewage into the lake. We have had modern centralized sewer systems for over 40 years.
     The Treasure Coast needs to look in the mirror. Some waters in Florida are polluted with human fecal matter — particularly the IRL.
     “Buy the land and send water south” is not the only road to water salvation.
     My question is: When are we going to get serious about our water? Florida’s agriculture-industry pollution is regulated statewide and has to meet specific limits. Our septic tanks are not held to the same requirements.”

Datelined May 4th is this from ABC News (originally an AP news story); an excerpt:

“It [IRL] has also been fouled by wastewater treatment plants that discharge into the lagoon, sewage spills from the plants during heavy rains, and leaky septic tanks.” [emphasis added]

Myth vs. FACT:

Fact from the SFWMD vs. the myth about
“Send The Water South!”

*USACE  =  United States Army Corps of Engineers; SFWMD  =  South Florida Water Management District.