# Gov Scotts dead lagoon



## a (Oct 2, 2007)

Another reason to vote this idiot out of office......republican or not! After 25 years of annual $$$fishing trips$$$$ to the Indian River, and Sebastion Inlet.
the INDIAN RIVER LAGOON IS DEAD......thanks to our Governor,.......It looks like Louisiana will be our destination from now on$$$$$$$$$$:thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:Scott vetoes funds critical to tracking lagoon pollution

STORY BY STEVEN M. THOMAS, (Week of July 11, 2013)

Governor Rick Scott has dealt another blow to the Indian River Lagoon by vetoing $2 million approved by the legislature for a network of sophisticated sensors that would have enabled scientists to track pollution and water conditions in real time, speeding up diagnosis and cure of environmental problems plaguing the estuary.


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## NoleAnimal (Apr 3, 2014)

Thank you, Gov. Scott, for not wasting this money...
(while the IRL is certainly suffering- it's definitely not dead. Typical liberal emotional appeal.)


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## Wharf Rat (Sep 27, 2007)

$2 million for sensors to track pollution and water conditions??? What a waste of money that would have been!! Thank goodness he didn't waste my tax dollars on sensors for Indian River Lagoon. Thank you Gov. Scott!


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## a (Oct 2, 2007)

'Has Gov. Scott managed to destroy the IRL in just his short tenure or have these issues been going on for a long time? I think the southern Indian River is healthy. It's only the Lagoon that has been going down recently and I don't know if that is due to pollution but how hard is it to figure out the culprits without all the technology.
Congrats to him have having the gumption to say, NO. Very few politicians know that word"


"i dont t know if that is due to pollution but how hard is it to figure out the culprits without all the technology."

Isnt the uncertainty worth investigating in what was once such a spectacular fishery?
$2mil is certainly only a worthwhile investment in the IRL, and and a drop in the bucket of the states budget. 

I was at the Sebastion Inlet boat ramp last week on an out going tide....The dead sea grasses flowed out in a continuous glob..("no sense in tracking pollution"?). 

Liberal or not, after 25 annual trips, ill be renting homes and buying dinners elsewhere.


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

Wharf Rat said:


> $2 million for sensors to track pollution and water conditions??? What a waste of money that would have been!! Thank goodness he didn't waste my tax dollars on sensors for Indian River Lagoon. Thank you Gov. Scott!


Agreed, that is why I like this guy, he is a business man, and if it don't make sense, he doesn't do it.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

I grew up on Merritt Island and the problem with the IRL North has little to do with actual pollution. The Locks are what messed up that area. To the South you have actual inlets which help flush out the garbage. No need in wasting millions on garbage studies. Action and results possibly but not wasted studies.


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## Wharf Rat (Sep 27, 2007)

Sounds like they can go to Sebastian Inlet on an out going tide and do quite a bit of research for pretty cheap.


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## a (Oct 2, 2007)

*"not a significant return on our investment"???*

The 156-mile-long lagoon encompasses 40 percent of Florida’s Atlantic Coast and has an annual economic impact of $3.7 billion, according to a 2009 study by the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program. It adds $43 billion in value to real estate on or within 0.3 miles of its shores and supports tens of thousands of jobs.

But Scott says spending $2 million to illuminate and help remedy the ecological collapse that is rapidly undermining the lagoon’s huge contribution to the state’s economy would “not provide a significant return for the investment.”

Problems in the lagoon include pollution from fertilizer runoff and septic tanks, unprecedented cyanobacteria algae blooms, historic seagrass loss, declining fish populations and the deaths of more than 100 bottlenose dolphins and West Indian manatees so far this year.

Mayfield says the sensors would be “extremely helpful in solving a very complicated scientific problem. They are portable and can be placed in various areas of the lagoon to monitor and measure data such as phosphate, nitrogen and oxygen levels. With the ability to receive real-time data, this will allow the experts to pinpoint the problems in different areas of the lagoon in order to find solutions.”

She calls Scott‘s veto “disappointing.”
Pelican Island Audubon Society President Richard Baker called the cuts “insane.”

“No one can understand it,” said Warren Falls, managing director of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA) in Fort Pierce. “The waterways are why people move to Florida. Governor Scott is tearing down the very thing the tourism industry and the towns along the waterway are built on. I think the long-term ramifications of the state cutbacks will have a devastating effect on the waters and economy of Florida.”


Last year, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute responded to environmental challenges in the estuary by launching the Indian River Lagoon Observatory, a long-term, multi-disciplinary effort that “will produce an enhanced understanding of IRL ecology and its relationship with human health and the regional economy,” according to a program summery.

The Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory sensors Scott nixed are the heart of the program.


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## Bullshark (Mar 19, 2009)

I live down here. We have to run to the marina to check the signs to see if the water is to toxic to let our kids swim at the sand bar. I have fished here a LOT over the past 4 years and it's so bad tomorrow is the first inshore fishing day I have planned since last summer. And that's only if threadfin Dave is at the dock selling cheat baits. Dead dead dead. This is the 2nd biggest reason we are leaving and relocating to Santa Rosa Beach. I think a lot of you would be singing a different tune if you watched Pensacola Bay go from clear with lobster and bonefish inshore to crap brown and catfish. I went from catching 50+ snook a day and some reds to MAYBE 1 or 2. It is so sad to see what this place has become. I've attached pictures


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## CurDog (Nov 14, 2010)

Instead of wasting the 2M on sensors, why not spend it on doing soil samples of every business, major construction site and golf courses within a given distance of the waterway. Those that are not in compliance with Fed. guidelines of safe ppm run-off, they should be fined 10-fold of the original 2M grant. This would eliminate the need of sensors without a return on the principle investment. Plus it'd generate tax-free money for further restoration of the IRL.... just saying...


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## Bullshark (Mar 19, 2009)

The samples have been a major part. The people who are pushing for the water to be pushed through the Everglades have been using the samples of coastline in Palm City and Stuart to prove their cause. The toxic slime happens when the locks are open and the lake is drained. There is loads of proof showing the cause all over the internet. Gov. Scott was here a few months back and saw all the proof firsthand. It just needs to be filtered through the natural filtration system of the everglades which is starving for water anyway. The everglades filtered the water for a very long time not the natural Clear water bay. 

Good read:
http://fl.audubon.org/crisis-indian-river-lagoon-solutions-imperiled-ecosystem


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