- At first, we thought the dead fish floating downstream
in the Peace River were a result of Hurricane Charley. But at night, we
saw the water glow from our flashlights and realized our worst fears...
the river was full of phosphates. We had been using the river water for
bathing since Saturday morning. Obviously, we no longer go near the river
that flows not far from our doorsteps.
-
- The Peace River begins in central Florida and flows south
105 miles to the Charlotte Harbor Estuary. The Peace River is an important
source of Florida,s drinking water, supplying about 6 million gallons of
drinking water every day to 4 counties along the Southwest Coast of Florida,
basically those areas now devastated by Hurricane Charley.
-
- To get at the rich deposits of phosphate in the Peace
River watershed, since the 1890's, phosphate mining companies have been
boring and scraping out huge pits that reach thousands of acres in size.
One by-product of the extraction process is clay which is stored in settling
ponds. Sometimes, the man-made earthen dams of these clay ponds collapse
sending uranium and radium contaminated waste clay into the river which
then suffocates fish, flora, and fauna. It also kills the animals depending
on that water and flora for survival.
-
- In 1971, a settling pond spill turned Charlotte Harbor
"to chocolate milk according to newspaper accounts at the time. They
estimated there were 3 million dead fish back then. In the past, clay slime
spills have prevented the Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority from
using river flows for drinking water, forcing counties to seek water supplies
elsewhere or rely on stored supplies.
-
- Regardless of any future debunker reports that may attempt
to rebuff this article, have no doubt or question that the Peace River
is - at this very moment - highly contaminated. All the fish are dead from
Arcadia to Charlotte Harbor. The water coming down-stream is muddy and
glows at night when flashlights shine on it. The next 2 weeks will prove
this beyond any doubt as animals and fowl begin to die after eating the
contaminated river fauna and drinking the water. It has happened before.
In the future, anyone who drinks water processed from the Peace River,
throughout 4 Florida Counties, will be drinking uranium and radium contaminated
water. The effects are said to be no different than the depleted uranium
in Iraq.
-
- The ironic part of this is that the mining companies
have insisted for years that this could never happen. We the people have
fought the Florida State environmental permits that have been granted to
these foreign owned mining companies, but we have lost every objection
we made to protect our environment and drinking water. Few know that the
majority of the phosphate fertilizers processed from the Peace River mining
sites are sent to China.
-
- Michael Edward Lawgiver1
-
-
- More On Peace River Phosphate Mining Crisis
-
- Rumor Mill News Agents Forum Posted By: LinnCiesla Date:
Wednesday, 18 August 2004, 10:30 a.m.
-
- Lawgiver1 asked me to help out with some back-up info
... Linn
-
- http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20040816/BLOG02/40816062&template=art_blog&EntryNo=5
-
- August 16, 2004, 5:46 pm
-
- Sarasota County residents asked not to use drinking water
on irrigation
-
- "As part of an inter-local agreement, Sarasota County
Utilities is supplying water to the Peace River Water Treatment Plant in
Charlotte County. This agreement will be in effect until the Peace River
plant is fully productive or no longer needs supplemental supplies. Peace
River,s system sustained damage during the storm."
-
- -----------------------
-
- From Lawgiver1:
-
- The Peace River utility station is on generator power
ONLY. The water pressure is a maximum of 25 psi because of this. The big
water plant is only a mile up King's Highway from where I am ob the Peace
River. They will run out of reserve water in 2 weeks if they don't get
their full system supplied with electric in order to get the purification
machinery operating. WORSE is that the water they will be pulling up from
the river is phosphate contaminated with uranium and radium from the clay
leaking out of the mining settling ponds.
-
- -----------------------
-
- From Lawgiver1:
-
- The Peace River water facility was slightly damaged and
is on generator power to pump right now. The truth is, they have contaminated
water to draw from so they will not go online even if full electric is
supplied.
-
- Post all this as a collaberation effort of us both. I'm
your eye witness. I'm just too backed up trying to get the other things
written about.
-
- -----------------------
-
- Phosphate mining on the Peace River since the early 1890's.
See pic at: http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/photos/industry/phospate/0869.htm
-
- Peace River among most 'endangered', "potential
time bomb":
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/0414
04/tp2ch16.htm?date=041404&story=tp2ch16.htm
-
-
- also
-
- http://amriversaction.ctsg.com/action/index.asp?step=2&item=17360
-
-
- Florida's Phosphate Mining Crisis:
http://www.whoseflorida.com/misc_pages/phosphate_mining_crisis.htm
-
-
- Many more articles about the controversy from the Sun
Herald:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=+site
:www.sun-herald.com+Peace+River+phosphate+mining
-
-
- Comment
- From Mary Sparrowdancer
- 8-19-4
-
- When my sisters and I were growing up during a portion
of our lives in Satellite Beach, Florida, (our father worked at Cape Kennedy),
we lived on a canal.
-
- There were nights when my three sisters and I would take
our giant, wooden raft out of the dock in the back of our house, and travel
up the canal and into the Banana River.
-
- On some of those nights, as three of us sat on the back
of the raft and kicked our feet furiously in the water, (providing propulsion)
and one of us was at the square "bow," presumably navigating,
we could see that our feet were churning up something mighty strange.
-
- Our wake, as we left our own mooring in our back yard
and traveled out toward the river, was leaving a bright, phosphorescent
hue that quite literally lit up the night with a strange, blue-green light.
-
- I also saw this same, strange effect when I walked along
the beach at night in Indialantic, a beach that was just up the road.
My foot prints would be visibile and glowing with that same, strange green/blue
aura. I could turn around at 10 p.m., and see each of the steps I had
taken during the last half hour.
-
- I was told that this was plankton - glowing plankton.
-
- I'm not sure, however, if plankton are supposed to glow.
-
- My question, again, is if we need to raise more questions
about the "F" word: Is this fluoride contamination? Why are
things glowing in such a strange manner? Fluoride is a halogen.
-
- There are some tests available to determine Fluoride
contamination in water, but they are expensive. I know that I cannot afford
such tests.
-
- The bottom line is this - there is absolutely no reason
for any regulatory branch of the government to continue to add a HAZMAT
material (fluoride) into our drinking water, especially when our water
supplies are, at this point, so very fragile.
-
- A moratorium should be called, immediately - especially
for areas where there is no appropriate way to monitor artificial fluoride
content in the drinking water. A moritorium should be called, immediately,
for all areas where the recent, great storm, has compromised all health
and safety.
-
- mary sparrowdancer
-
- http://www.rense.com/general45/bll.htm
- www.sparrowdancer.com
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