By: Ed Killer, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Thursday was a landmark day in the fight for clean water on the Treasure Coast. Residents who have been screaming until they were hoarse for two decades finally saw evidence that perhaps indeed they are being heard. What may follow, eventually, is a change in water policy.
But let's be clear: The change right now is small, and yet significant.
The Army Corps of Engineers did something a tiny bit different than it has in the 24 years I have been covering the dirty water crisis on Florida's East Coast. It listened, apparently, and responded.
Make no mistake about it. The Corps loves flowcharts and graphs. It loves procedure and operating instructions, perhaps more than any other federal agency. It makes no bones about following guidelines seemingly set in stone by the 1948 document, the "Comprehensive Report On Central and Southern Florida for Flood Control and Other Purposes."
Countless times the Corps has sadly informed residents who live and do business along the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries that water will be coming from Lake Okeechobee and there isn't anything they can do about it…