Don't fill lake with junk

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Saturday, July 14, 2007

This week, three of Gov. Crist's new water district board members held off a sugar industry chief's push to pump polluted farm runoff into Lake Okeechobee. But the proposal will surface again soon at a South Florida Water Management District board meeting. Palm Beach County's new board member, Patrick Rooney, voted to approve the controversial practice, called back-pumping. He and the west coast's Charles Dauray, who was absent, should stand with Shannon Estenoz, Melissa Meeker and Chairman Eric Beurmann to oppose it.

Board member Malcolm "Bubba" Wade, a senior vice president of United States Sugar Corp., said growers will suffer if Lake Okeechobee remains at low levels through mid-2008. Farmers use the lake as a reservoir. But at slightly higher than 9 feet, it's 4.5 feet lower than normal for the rainy season. Recent rain along the coast hasn't helped the lake, and the chance of getting enough rain to end the shortage by next year's dry season is slim. Mr. Wade had to recuse himself from voting since he has a clear conflict of interest on this issue.

While the difficulties for farmers are real, pumping water loaded with pesticides and fertilizers from canals to store it in the lake harms the lake and endangers lakeside communities, which draw their drinking water from it. Polluted canal water adds to the lake's already severe problems, which have included blooms of toxic algae. District officials just spent $11 million removing polluted muck from 1 percent of the lake's bottom, exposed by the drought. The lake's water contains pollutants that, with the chemicals used to disinfect it for drinking, create cancer-causing agents.

Ms. Estenoz correctly questioned how much water the district would pump into the lake, including how many pollutants would be put in and how they would be removed. Ms. Meeker, who clashed with district officials over back-pumping when she headed the Department of Environmental Protection's regional office, asked why the district has no policy for deciding when pumping is justified, another good question. The district staff had no answers.

Under former Gov. Jeb Bush's board, if agriculture's representatives wanted back-pumping, they got it - with no questions. On Wednesday, three of Gov. Crist's appointees, correctly, delayed it. Gov. Crist's appointees can stop this destructive practice. They should.