This summer’s rainfall has caused the Peace River to swell beyond its normal summer flow and parks along the river are feeling the effects.
Boating is pretty much out of the question for all but the foolhardy.
The photo above taken at the approach of the boat ramp at Fort Meade Outdoor Recreation illustrates the problem.
There is visible flow across the access road. The launching area is beyond the half-submerged picnic tables in the background.
According to preliminary USGS data, the flow exceeds the river flow following hurricanes in 2004.
Downstream the problems continue.
Payne Creek Historic State Park near Bowling Green is closed until further notice because of high water.
Construction on improvements at Crews Park in Wauchula will remain on hold until the flood waters recede.
The Canoe Outpost in Arcadia is closed and its website reports all boat ramps along the Peace River in Hardee and DeSoto counties are closed.

The high water may figure into the continuing discussions of tapping more of the river to meet future  drinking water demands in Polk County following a settlement over a permit dispute with the Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority, which has tapped the river for decades  to supply coastal counties in a part of Florida where tapping the aquifer would increase saltwater intrusion.

Utility officials have argued to increase their withdrawal rate, especially during exceptional flows such as what is happening now on the river.

One of the essential faults with the plan to build three new toll highways across rural sections of Florida was exposed during this week’s Polk Transportation Planning Organization meeting in Bartow.
It is simply this: Florida is years behind in fixing the highways it already has that are essential for moving freight and hurricane evacuation, the very attributes ascribed to these proposed new roads, and diverting state funds to these new projects isn’t likely to improve the funding situation.
TPO board members on Thursday approved a resolution urging state transportation officials to four-lane the rural section of State Road 60 that runs through parts of Polk and Osceola counties. There is currently no state funding to do this. The only traffic relief in this area is  the existence of periodic passing lanes, which are a band aid solution.
“While looking at new corridors, don’t lose sight of the need to look at existing corridors,” said planner Tom Deardorff, explaining State Road 60 is a critical freight route– truck traffic makes up 30 percent of the highway’s traffic volume–and hurricane evacuation route.
Haines City Commissioner Roy Tyler, a former law enforcement officer who has responded to auto crashes there, described the section as a “bottleneck” where most crashes are head-on collisions.
“There are no fender benders on SR 60,” he said.
Later in the meeting the board discussed the need to improve another highway, the section of SR 33 between Lakeland and Polk City, that is plagued by heavy truck traffic generated by the distribution centers that have been constructed nearby.Ironically there is another toll road nearby, but it is not a convenient alternative route for the truck traffic. Board members were told there was no money available in the near future to fix that problem, either.

Finding balloons in conservation lands is an all-too-common occurrence these days.
That’s because the activity is incompletely .regulated and public education may be lagging.
Florida bans releases of 10 or more balloons unless they area biodegradable or photodegradable. Violations can bring a $250 fine.
The problem many have encountered is not with mass balloon releases, but with individual releases, either intentional or accidental, that can be carried many miles–some have been documented to travel hundreds of miles–into wildlife habitat.
Perhaps the best approach is to work to persuade people to use more environmentally sensitive practices to celebrate events, remember loved ones and other uses.
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The memberships of the three task forces that will provide input to state transportation leaders on three new toll roads through rural areas of Florida are gradually appearing, but some jurisdictions have yet to name representatives..
Under legislation approved this year, the task forces were supposed to selected by today from a list of stakeholders outlined in the bill.
The appointments so far are listed on the website the Florida Department of Transportation has set up for the projects.

Local representatives include Polk County Commissioner Rick Wilson, Winter Haven Commissioner Nat Birdsong, Hardee County Commissioner Colon Lambert, Central Florida Regional Planning Council Executive Director Pat Steed, Polk State College President Dr. Angela M. Garcia Falconetti , South Florida State College Vice President Glen Little, DeSoto County Commissioner Elton Langford, Hardee County Commissioner Mike Thompson,  Highlands County Commissioner Ron Handley and Katie Worthington Decker, president and CEO of the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce.

Environmental groups represented on the task force are 1000 Friends of Florida,  Audubon Florida,  Defenders of Wildlife, The Everglades Foundation and The Nature Conservancy.

.The first meeting will occur Aug. 27 at the Tampa Convention Center. It is planned to run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Future meetings will be scheduled in varied locations within the proposed corridors.
In this part of Florida, the southwest Florida route  runs from Lakeland to Naples.
The corridor study area depicted on the website’s map includes Polk, Hardee, Highlands, DeSoto, Lee, Hendry, Glades and Collier counties.
For more information, go to this link .

Sierra opposes the project because it will fragment wildlife habitat, lead to urban sprawl and waste state transportation resources.

This is about a month out, but the Southwest Florida Water Management District plans a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at its Tampa office at 7601 U.S. 301 to roll out the latest plans for minimum flows and levels for rivers and lakes in this part of the state.

The meeting is scheduled to last only an hour, so it seems this won’t be the place for an expanded discussion, but simply a meeting to satisfy the legal requirements for having such a meeting.

Also, the details of any changes from the current schedule of reviews, which stretches a few  years into the future, will not be posted until the day before or the day of the meeting. You get the idea.

One issue that’s coming that may be new is planned  rule-making that pertains to how much water can be sustainably withdrawn from the Peace River for public supply.

That was part of the settlement in the threatened litigation between upstream interests in Polk and Hardee counties and the Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority , which is based in Charlotte County but draws water from the river to serve customers in adjacent counties downstream.

Meanwhile, the current list of priority planned new reviews or re-evaluations that affect the area where Ancient Islands Group members live are:

2020: Water reservations for the Upper Peace River and Lake Hancock.

2023: Charlie Creek in Polk and Hardee counties and Horse Creek in Hardee and DeSoto counties.

2024: Upper Withlacoochee River in Polk, Sumter, Lake, Pasco and Hernando counties.

2025: Three segments of the Upper Peace River in Hardee and Polk counties stretching from the USGS gauge at Zolfo Springs to north of the USGS gauge at State Road 60 in Bartow.

2025: Prairie Creek in DeSoto and Charlotte counties.

2027: The North and South prongs of the Alafia River in Polk and Hillsborough counties.

Details or the schedule and the current studies completed within the past couple of decades are available at https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/documents-and-reports .

If you live in unincorporated Polk County adjacent to tracts of private property and worry what may occur next door, the county planning staff wants to hear from you,
There’s a workshop at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 413 at the county administration building.
The idea is to turn something that is often a subjective determination into an objective one, if that’s possible.
Rules are scheduled to be presented to the County Commission this fall.
The development community will probably turn out in force. If you aren’t there and someone else writes the rules, don’t complain.

It has been five years since an overwhelming majority of Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to allocate state revenue to revive the popular Florida Forever land acquisition program.
We’re still waiting for the Florida Legislature to obey the will of the voters and amendment sponsors.
This week a lawsuit in which environmental groups prevailed in circuit court  and legislators appealed was before appeals court judges in Tallahassee.
During the  hearing, the arguments were familiar.
Lawyers representing Sierra Club and other environmental groups charged that legislators were using the voter-approved land-purchase appropriation as a slush fund for whatever they felt like spending it on.
Lawyers representing legislators and other state agencies argued the amendment’s language was vague enough to allow them to do as they pleased.
There is no word on when a ruling will occur.
The case is expected to be ultimately resolved by the Florida Supreme Court. Lawyers for environmental groups have sought to expedite getting the case to the high court.
Meanwhile, the price of land increases as the economy recovers following the recession that caused state officials to suspend most spending on the Florida Forever program and development pressure on rural lands is returning.
This lawsuit is not only the pursuit of a principle but a race against time.