Has One Florida Dam's Day Finally Come?

Ms. Lawler: I took nothing “out of context.” You cited and posted incorrect information. And I corrected it. I never imagined that the numbers were yours; if they had been, I’d have noted that you have no more credibility or credentials than Ed Taylor. Taylor is not a “reliable source” as Karen Chadwick, Paul Nosca and others clearly demonstrate here. Nor is Florida DEP a “reliable source” for reasons I explained. The notion that a river meandering through naturally forested wetlands could somehow be “purified” by a thermally polluted, fetid, de-oxygenated stew of decaying alien vegetation and herbicides is preposterous. No ecologically literate person could believe this. If Lake Watch makes that claim, it provides us only with information about Lake Watch, not the reservoir. I have no doubt that the U.S. Forest Service (not the “National Forest Service”) estimated 75 years for re-growth. So what? Even if that estimate were accurate (and it clearly is not, because being underwater would not retard regrowth as is evident by the rapid regrowth just during the drawdowns), do you contend that we should not think about the generations who will enjoy this naturally renewed forest 75-100 years hence? That’s only one human lifetime. Again, $25.8 million is a terrific deal as dam removal goes. Check out the removal costs of equally useless dams that are coming down all across the U.S. What’s more, removal is a money maker. It would be an investment that would pay for itself in only 19 years even if you didn’t add all the values of a restored natural river and just figured the cost of maintaining the reservoir ($1.3 million a year). If you did add those values, removal would pay for itself in a year or two. What we absolutely do NOT need at this point is more “conversation” between those who value wild rivers and those who do not. It is impossible by nature for such talk to be “constructive.” Dam fans have been talking since the 1960s. The time for talk is over. Now is the time for action. You may “cherish the environment.” But you obviously do not cherish the NATURAL environment. A slum is an “environment.” And Rodman Reservoir is an ecological slum.