Peace River Keeps Rising
I just checked the USGS data and the Peace River in Polk County continues to rise. As of tonight it has risen about 4 feet in the past few days. Flow is similar to what you enounter following a...
View ArticleRecent rains bring out mosquitoes
Polk County mosquito control officials’ phones have been ringing off the hook this week. Unsurprisingly the recent heavy rains have produced a bumper crop of floodwater mosquitoes, which are large and...
View ArticleFlood Insurance Program Gets More Real
The budget crunch in Washington may have produced one small, unintentional victory for the environment. I recently read that flood insurance rates are going up, sometimes substantially, and in some...
View ArticleSuwannee River Fall Trip A Treat For The Senses
Stephen Foster celebrated the Suwannee River without ever seeing it. I recently spent three days on a kayaking and camping trip along the river organized by Ancient Islands Sierra Club. Foster missed a...
View ArticleStargel Bill Seeks Swiftmud Handover Of Structure Control
State Sen. Kelli Stargel , R-Lakeland, has filed a bill to force the Southwest Florida Water Management District to turn over control of a group of structures that control lake levels in the Winter...
View ArticleAnother Reason For Stormwater Funding
Most of last year’s discussion of the need to quit delaying and to finally approve stormwater fees and taxes were focused on the need to deal with pollution. That’s still a good reason, but another...
View ArticleMoney Is Key To Future Water Policy
As I was thinking about the current buzz in Tallahassee about water policy, I recalled the scene in the movie “The Right Stuff” when the guy asks one of the engineers what makes the rockets go up. The...
View ArticleWill Floods of Winter Of 1997-98 Repeat This Year?
Jeff Spence, Polk’s director of parks and natural resources, made an interesting observation about the recent wet weather. He wasn’t talking about current flooding, because there’s little evidence...
View ArticleFlooding Complaints No Surprise; Look At Where They Are
I’ve been watching the complaints about flooding or fear of flooding pour into the County Commissioners’ in boxes in recent weeks. I’ve fielded a few calls myself. None has been surprising. We’ve had...
View ArticleSpinning the Okeechobee discharge story
The recent emergency releases of large amounts of water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers has created quite a bit of concern from coastal residents, who recently...
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