Re: Long lasting wakes suggest estuary is sick

Keith W wrote:

"Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1140953917.196353.282230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Keith W wrote:

"Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1140900746.808801.119370@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Article below describes situation in the Indian River Lagoon, actually
an 80 mile long estuary with very little tidal action and about 200,000
residences that would feed lawn and household runoff into it. Has
anyone seen or heard of a similar phenomenon?


Its a widely observed phenomenom when nitrate rich
runoff flows into sheltered waters. The nitrates encourage
algal blooms which consume all the O2 in the water and
kill off marine life. In the UK the authorities responsible for
water courses have been trying to cut down on nitrate
discharges for some years.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/quality/nitrate/intro.htm

Keith

Thanks I forwarded the url to our Marine Resources Council.

Florida has the non-unique problem of trying to please everybody. There
was a scheme to take the waters of the Indian River and pump them over
about 7-10 miles to the headwaters of the Florida river system. It was
a pretty good idea, achievable, but the close-in former periodic
wetlands that would have been used are now filled with houses.

Those houses' yards fill with water when it rains, it does, and the
householders want the water out now. So the local jurisdictions bring
out a ditcher and cut a drain from the yard to a , usually, nearby
agricultural drain.



We have the same problem here in East Anglia. Traditionally
when heavy rain caused the River Cam to rise to dangerous
levels the river authorities closed sluice gates which limited
levels in the city and the river overflowed into the meadows
and flood plain upstream which was used for industrial
and agricultural use.

Now developers are starting to build houses on that land
and the householders screamed 2 years ago when they were
flooded out. The insurance companies are telling them
they will no longer cover the risk and they are wailing that
the counclil should fix it.

Personally I have no wish to pay for an expensive public drainage
system to fix a problem caused by greedy developers and
people too stupid to understand that there's a reason why
nobody built in these areas during the past 500 years.

Keith



Same problem here.

The developers buy the land cheap, mainly because it is at risk and building the the area is banned, then use their influence to get around the law and build, making huge profits. Newcomers, foolishly thinking the local laws protect them, buy the house and there you are.

John Mullen
.

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