Re: Leaking septic tanks/St. Lucie River editorial (Oct. 16):

We agree with the thrust of your recent editorial on leaking local septic tanks and the conditions of the St. Lucie River and estuary. These problems are indeed complex and, unfortunately, there are no easy solutions on the horizon.

However, it is misleading for your readers to continue having "big sugar" mentioned in articles dealing with the river conditions and the releases of water from Lake Okeechobee. Florida sugar farms are not the cause of the polluted water being directed down the rivers and creating problems in our coastal communities. As you correctly pointed out, "central Florida drainage" is the major contributor to Lake Okeechobee, that and rainfall over the lake — not sugar farms located south of the lake.

Sugar farms, which, again, are located south of the lake, are responsible for what is now the cleanest water flowing south to 40,000 acres of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades, which in turn release water to water conservation areas and to recharge coastal aquifers.

In addition, sugar farmers have been and will continue to be major supporters of the multi-billion-dollar Everglades restoration plan that will deal with the multitude of challenges in the greater Lake Okeechobee/Everglades ecosystem. We have joined with state and local leaders, environmental organizations and many others to aggressively lobby for funding to deal with these concerns in both Tallahassee and Washington.

While it is important to look for answers, we will not find them by continuing to point fingers at sugar merely to advance some people's tired old political agenda against sugar farmers. Our efforts are better spent working hard to keep everyone focused on finding long-term solutions for Lake Okeechobee and the entire ecosystem that depends on it for clean, fresh water.

Robert E. Coker
Senior Vice President, Public Affairs
U.S. Sugar
Clewiston

Paul Reynolds..11.14.2005

Mr. Coker, one must think on purpose, misses or obscures the most important point. It's simply that massive quantities of fresh water, stored in the Okeechobee Reservoir for HIS industry and released into our estuaries when not needed by him are almost as destructive to our ecology as the polluted water issue he would attempt to divert us with.

No sir Mr. Coker, you are a VERY big part of the problem and your gamesmanship and diversion tactics are not going to work any longer. Why don't you step up and be part of a solution to this issue that was created by you and FOR you instead of hiding behind your victim's rhetoric. Take some of this water and contribute to our community instead of your own, and often uneeded, selfish interests?

Paul Reynolds