It is a shame some people look at Lake Okeechobee's problems through a distorted political microscope rather than a scientific one. A recent letter from Rae Ann Wessel ("Water management board right to discontinue failed policy," Aug. 27) denies farm water is "cleaner" than other water flowing to the lake. But not once does it compare phosphorus levels in farm water with levels in other water flowing into Lake Okeechobee. This "political" science is ruining efforts to fix the system. According to South Florida Water Management District data, sugar farm water is cleaner (from 80 to 150 parts per billion of phosphorus) than other sources of water entering Lake Okeechobee (200 to 800 ppb phosphorus). The cost of cleaning water south of the lake pales in comparison to the projected cost of cleaning huge amounts of water north of the lake. The relative contribution into Lake Okeechobee from the south is less than 3 percent of both phosphorus and total water flow. Harping on 3 percent while ignoring the 97 percent is paltry and political. Lake Okeechobee remains at a drastically low level. Three months into the wet season, we have nothing to show for it. The state's decision not to pump farm water back into the lake leaves us without a solution to the anticipated billion-dollar drought this coming spring. Farmers have given up 40,000 acres of farm land for treatment marshes (equivalent to a city like Fort Myers), pay an agricultural privilege tax to farm their own land, have mandatory best management practices to reduce phosphorus, and pay for water quality monitoring. Efforts to clean up other run-off from other areas are financed by tax dollars. Is the real agenda to put farmers out of business? The environment would suffer far more from whatever replaces the farms. Until real science trumps political science, we will face more dangerous droughts in the swamp of South Florida. Judy Sanchez
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