There Is More To Be Concerned With Than the Presidential Campaign.

I have been woefully remiss in not posting more frequently, but have been so absorbed by other writers and sites and their US presidential coverage that I have missed many of the more important state and local challenges we face in the US, as well as some of the critical international issues our neighbors around the world are dealing with.

A pressing problem in Florida at the moment for the central and southern portions of the state is the current water crisis. Lake Okeechobee has built up unsafe loads of agricultural runoff,  high in nitrogen and phosphates, among other things. The state government, presumably at the direction of the administration of Governor Rick Scott, has failed to use the proceeds generated by a voter-approved amendment to purchase land to the south of the lake, take it out of agricultural (mostly Big Sugar) production and restore it to wetlands. The wetlands would have performed a critical water purification function, as well as restoring the natural flow southward, where wetland plant growth could feed on the nutrients. Because of this failure, the US Corps of Engineers must periodically release the pollution-rich waters of the lake into the Caloosahatcheee and St. Lucie rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, respectively. These waters have now created critically high levels of pollution in both sides of the state, destroying water quality, killing local fauna and flora and leaving thick algae blooms that make any other water-based activity impossible.

Now to add to that, the state's Environmental Regulatory Commission has authorized the release of high levels of industrial chemicals to add to the organic compound soup currently in the waters.

Here's a column from the Miami-Herald on the topic: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article96465417.html

If you are justly offended, here's an online petition where you can begin to take action: https://www.change.org/p/keep-the-cancer-causing-chemicals-out-of-our-water