Lee keeps the waters roiling

By The Naples Daily News
December 7, 2005

Give Lee County commissioners credit. Now that they have jumped into the fight against water from Lake Okeechobee poisoning the Caloosahatchee River and its estuaries, they are keeping the heat turned up.

First they recruited political clout from Sanibel Island; then other areas. Then they contacted a national, public-interest environmental law firm. Now they are lashing out at Tallahassee, demanding that Gov. Jeb Bush and the rest of state government pay for environmental damage exacted by state appointees to the South Florida Water Management District.

Those appointees and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulate overflow from Lake Okeechobee. The pollution has been causing problems for years, but now, stung by images and actual damage from blue-green algae fouling the Caloosahatchee, Lee County has had it. Commissioners cite damage to tourism — a theme voiced just last week by the county's tourism-development team.

Now Lee County is speaking a language that everybody understands. If politicians won't respond to science, they might respond to money.