Boating; SWFL so screwed by polluted lake water.

I stopped fishing inshore right after the river water turned black. We haven't seen a lot of fish kill now because our fish are smart. They've gone to Charlotte County or Collier but the sea grass in the river will die so why would they return?

How did this start? In 1926 there was a Hurricane that blew all the water out of the Lake O and killed thousands. Tragic, so the Corps of Engineers built a dike (can't call it a damn) and then Miami and Fort Lauderdale started taking water from the Everglades and then the dairy farmers moved in north of the big lake. A perfect pollution storm.

We recreational boaters can't be excused from this mess either. We demand that the lake contain enough water for recreation and travel. We cross the state through the lake and the fastest route is the one across the lake rather than the rim route.

The farmers allowed fertilizer and cow poopy water to flow into O and the recreational boaters demanded a fuller lake and the East Coast cities wanted water. So the lake died from pollution, sediment and lack of flow.

Whenever there is a heavy summer rainy season the lake fills beyond the dam's capacity. Oops, I meant dike. Why can't I say dam? Beside the fact that my saintly Mother disapproved of the word, if we called the dike a dam then the bureau of dams would have to fix it and they don't want to do that. So the Corps of Engineers has to dump water out of the lake and ruin our environment.

They should release the overflow into the Everglades where it would sheet flow south and filter out the pollution, right? No, that wouldn't work because the Everglades are crisscrossed with canals carrying off the clean fresh water from the top of the south end of the lake. The muck and pollution settles to the bottom until the lake gets too full. Then the excess water is emptied into the Caloosahatchee river and onto the Gulf of Mexico. You can see the rest of the story in the aerial photos.

More to come.....

Boatguy Ed (boatguiEd@aol.com)is the manufacturer of the worlds BEST anti-fouling bottom paint,www.supershipbottom.com. TWEET me @boatguyed and a corresponding web site is http://www.boatingbyboatguyed.com/ ........ NEVER, EVER TRY TO BUY HIM A DRINK!

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