County Commissioners should prioritize water, our environment
To the editor:
Are you happy with the manner in which the five gentlemen on our Lee County Board of County Commissioners handle the county’s affairs? Are you happy with the way they take care of your money? You should not be.
For one thing, we have a problem in Lee County as to the availability of drinking water. Consider the wells in Cape Coral that are going dry. Think of the $1,800,000 contract just awarded by the commissioners because of well failures in east Lehigh. Apparently, the commissioners think we have an infinite supply because their singular solution seems to be to drill and install another straw. Nowhere can I find evidence of them considering alternatives.
Install the proper purification systems and recycle all of our water. This is viable and is being done in numerous places. This would eliminate the present process of injecting waste water deep underground in a supposedly “safe” place. Think about how much of this “liquid gold” will be saved.
Build desalination plants. The technology has been vastly improved, reducing the energy required for processing. Take it one step further and install a SMR and it would be self-contained.
If you pay attention at all, you would be aware of the fact that the commissioners have not met a developer they do not like. (Could this possibly be because an inordinate percentage of their political donations come from these same developers?)
They routinely amend the Lee Plan to suit a developer. It’s as if the document does not exist.
They routinely allow unbearable density of housing, in the area known as the DR/GR, of up to 12 homes per acre when the original zoning they set up was for 1 home per 20 acres. DR/GR stands for Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource. It is rapidly losing its effectiveness as a Groundwater Resource as it is quickly being paved over.
They have made some good purchases through Conservation 20/20 but some seem to be questionable. They have purchased a number of small properties which are not, nor probably will ever be, contiguous to any preservation areas.
There are any number of ways to build in an environmentally sound manner but, and this is a big but, it would upset their developer buddies:
• Shade, not palm trees.
• Native plantings.
• Micro irrigation.
• Xeriscaping or at the very best go-to grasses that require less water than the Floritam type.
• The color palette of all exterior surfaces to be very light.
• All building materials to be environmentally friendly.
• Metal roofing which is more hurricane resistant and will outlast fiberglass and concrete roofs. It is also easier to attach solar to.
• All paved surfaces to be of a highly porus material.
• All common areas to be irrigated from on-site “lakes.”
• Direct all runoff, both ground and structure into these “lakes.”
• Require “Energy Star” appliances.
• All structures to meet Florida Gold Star Water Certification.
Norman Cannon
Fort Myers