ENVIRONMENTALIST
Home LAKE "O" OLD WATCHDOG SEA-LEVEL RISE LOWER CO2 SAVE ESTUARIES

One of my hobbies when I was a youngster in Spain was to keep track of oil fields and production yields in the different countries. I soon became aware of two imminent dangers, (1) Oil Depletion, and (2) Toxification of the air we breath, with CO2.

In the mid 1970´s, I was a young engineer in New York (Long Island) who had just graduated in 1974 when we were going through the crisis of oil, due to the Iran embargo.  To promote development of alternative sources I decided to write to the US Congress, and to the US President (Jimmy Carter).  I was warning about the limited supply of fossil fuels, and the release of carbon to the atmosphere.  Please, for more details, please visit www.OilDepletion.com one of my "Science Beacon" webs, which has been on the air for decades.

Concerned about the lack of vision in US Energy policy, decided to write a book about that topic, unfortunately no publisher was interested in bringing that book to the masses, yet you can find it free online, at www.PetrolSOS.com

Recently, I was a Physics Teacher at MOA (Marine Oceanographic Academy) a high school withing the campus of FAU (Florida Atlantic University) at Harbor Branch Research Center in Fort Pierce.  Taking my students to the auditorium to listen to presentations by Marine Biologists, brought me to the ecological plight our Florida Estuaries go through, especially the Indian River Lagoon, and the Tampa Bay Estuary. I became concerned, and when the opportunity to run for a seat in the US Congress came up, this preocupation was a major reason for me jumping into this opportunity to do something about it.

Please browse these pages offered above to get acquainted a bit with this terrible situation.

If you check my campaign icon you will see two small buttons, (1) Buy de land, and (2) Lower CO2 ... those are the most urgent issues for me.  Bringing more Scientists to Congress is my 3rd major issue.

 

If you click in the button titled 'Lake "O"' you will find more information about Lake Okeechobee, and the problems the discharges bring.

Sediments is the big culprit, and it escapes the attention of most scientists, and river warriors.

 

IT IS THE SEDIMENTS, STUPID !   (Paraphrasing James Carville, 1992).

 

How to get the water flowing south, unimpeded on its way to the Gulf of Mexico?

Do you remember how Mafia boss, Al Capone, was caught?  It was not because of his long list of crimes, which were relegated to his henchmen and surrogates. Eliot Ness, instead of concentrating in catching him on criminal conduct, successfully sent him to Alcatraz on “Income Tax Evasion” charges.

 

If you read the page “Lake ‘O’” on my campaign web (www.JXuna.com) which you will find under the button “Environmentalist”, you will realize that the sediments are growing at a rate of almost 3 feet (1 yard) every 100 years.  Therefore, within 300 years those deposits will reach the level where the water surface is right now.  In other words, there will be no room for water above those sediments, discharges are bound to be more frequent and more toxic as time progresses.  The Army Corps of Engineers are custodians of the integrity of that wall, and they cannot allow the water going higher that about 14 feet.  

The walls of the dike cannot be made higher (at a reasonable cost), and -as it is- when fully loaded, the water sips through the 40ft tall, 100 ft wide levee.

 

Furthermore, the sediments are like sponges that soak in toxins, and become more toxic as the time goes by. At present, (2+ feet sediment) the level of arsenic is 4x the acceptable maximum.  Interestingly, sediments are a problem within the levee, yet they are needed on the Everglades as to reinvigorate the ground.  Otherwise sea-level rise will inundate those lands much sooner than anticipated.

 

We have to get rid of the sediment in Lake ‘O’.  Yet, the last effort to do that was abandoned in 2006 (when the lake-level was at record low, and the sediments were exposed). It was very expensive to scoop them up, and dispose of them.

The sediments have to go, and the only feasible way is to drag them out, washed away with the water of the lake, as it flows unimpeded to the Everglades.  The way I see it, it is imperative that the dike, has to have multiple hydraulic openings near the base of that wall, as to allow sediments to escape.

 

If we concentrate in only “sending the water south”, Big Sugar can litigate interminably.  Using delaying tactics they will propose several alternatives to clean the lake.  But, if –like Eliot Ness- we forget about the crime and bring [1] ‘the sediments’ into the picture, [2] the urgency of not allowing those to get any higher, and [3] the need to eliminate the toxic ones now there ([4] slowly washed out over a period of about 10 years, for the marshes to absorb them safely) then we will have the legal power to use ‘Eminent Domain’ and bypass troubling discussions of acquiring the land.  Those sugar lands could be swapped by other State/Federal lands, either in Florida, or in another State like Louisiana.

 

Pr. John (Juan) Xuna

Democratic Candidate US Congress, FL 18

Home ] LAKE "O" ] OLD WATCHDOG ] SEA-LEVEL RISE ] LOWER CO2 ] SAVE ESTUARIES ]

Candidate:  John Xuna (also Juan and Xoán)

 P.O.Box 426, Port Salerno, FL 34992   <<-- to write to candidate or donations

  Modified on:    Monday August 15, 2016     Hit Counter
    Counter reset on 1/21/2016 when near 19,000 due to "theme" modification that forced Front Page extensions to be rewritten.