SFWMD fools Sanibel and News-Press

     The buzz term of the moment by the various bureaucracies hell bent on destroying the rivers and estuaries of South Florida is shared adversity.  The Corps of Engineers and SFWMD would like you to believe that EVERYONE is sharing the consequences of outdated water storage plans to protect the farmlands South of Lake O, of the year of major hurricanes, and twice the average annual rainfall. 
      They would like you to believe that every part of our region is equally absorbing their share of a horrific weather year.   Deputy Director Chip Merriam, on Tuesday, addressed Sanibel City Council and several thanked him for his courage of coming over. I believe gall might be a better term than courage. Mr. Merriam regaled the assembled with antiquated data, an in-our-face refusal to consider short term solutions to the disaster, and a BLATANT distortion of fact. An example was his shared adversity numbers of the water discharges. He implied the current percentage of sharing is: Caloosahatchee..40%, St Lucie(East)..24%, AND 30% going South. Only after his presentation, when pressed by me, did he admit those numbers were a NINE year AVERAGED total . The TRUE current percentages from the Corps of Engineers are approximately: West 75%, East 25%, and South 0%. ZERO PERCENT going South. It stretches credibility to call that shared adversity.
      The Board of SFWMD  is simply sacrificing the rivers and estuaries because they REFUSE to consider fair options to truly share the adversity by sending this water South to the politically protected sugar farms. They don’t deserve to be sued. They should be in PRISON.
Paul Reynolds