Seasonal rains keep falling in south Florida and Lake Okeechobee water levels and water releases keep making national news. The so-called green algae again heads through canals and urbanizing areas toward the ocean to the East and the Gulf of Mexico to the West. Farmers south of the lake continue to fight misinformation spread by anti-agriculture interests in the region and inaccurate reporting in the midst of the confusion abounds.
This topic is becoming quite a political football this election year. Whether you’re a farmer or a rancher north or south of the lake, farmer numbers in this debate are far fewer than urban voters. Furthermore, this issue has local farm interests and the Glades community more than concerned about the future of the local economies, their homes, their farms and their families. They also live in the shadow of a dyke around the lake that is in bad need of federal dollars for repair.
Apparently some with opinions about this either haven’t considered, or forgotten, that the majority of the water flowing into Lake Okeechobee is coming from the North of the lake where thousands of septic tanks still dot the landscape throughout the Kissimmee River Basin.
One local group of concerned residents south of the lake is trying to get its voice heard. Tammy Jackson-Moore is the co-founder of Guardians of the Glades. Hear more from Jackson-Moore below: