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"Thunders stealing our water again"

Southern Airboat Gallery Archives

Shady Oaks
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Jay Frye's new motor color
It sounds like bad press on the surface, but WHY were the airboaters not using the airboat crossover at the dam? What got this started? I suspect theres more to it than meets the eye.

It really sets my butt on fire to hear them say airboats used an "unauthorized" trail. Like we need or require authorization to run somewhere. That kind of attitude MUST come to a stop ! Further those who have it must be removed from office !

This story aint the whole story I really suspect that. Not being there I dont have first hand knowledge but something aint right in Denmark!

Scotty
 
Here's my take on the scene. When the water came way up the airboat ramp was somewhat unsafe. (This was hurricane time either this year or last or previous I can't remember.) Anyway people started just running around the weir. I know I am guilty of it. Anyhow it was essentially a trail and that was it. But as the high waters came and went water naturally takes the easiest way through. I personally think the airboaters just laid down a little grass and moter nature did the rest. If you would realize it was not a trail but a channel. My .02
 
The real truth is when they did some dam work the equipment they used sat on the ground next to the dam and that is what started the trail. I saw this with my own eyes. We are talking about a dam in the marsh the water will just flow around another spot next time this ain't some cannon with walls it's all low lying marsh. Secondly Lake Washington use to always get low and looked like a beach. Then they put in a dam for containing drinking water well now only clean water flows over the dam and all the silt and sediments plug up Lake Washington and everything south. In my life time I have seen the lake bottom go from sand to muck and all the old timers tell me Hell and Blazes use to have the same sandy bottom. When the water level is high they need to let the water flow out at the bottom of the dam to help disperse all this muck that is accumulating. Oh ya Brevard county once again drug their feet and lost the grant that the Army Core of Engineers kicked in to demuck Lake Washington south to Hell and Blazes, we will all pay for this. The cost of the project doubled because it took years for the county to make a decision or come up with the money.
 
Waterthunder I believe your likely exactly right.

I got old timer friends tell me about the clean sand bottoms and that they had the best bass fishing in the state there. Thats why the old cabins and campgrounds at Kim Hannas (RIP) place. They tell me of rich folks coming in and renting boats and guides for weeks at a time for the bass fishing.

The ONLY valid way to clean up the lakes is to dynamite the damn and let the water flow. Demucking will be a temporary solution until the water flows and the ranchers stop dumping fertilizer and nitrogen enriched holding waters into the river and lakes. But this is OLD history, its a lost cause now. I'm surprised they can do anything at all to it to make it safe to drink nowdays.

Does the County dragging their feet and losing huge amounts of money surprise ANYONE !? I'm sure they have some excuse that makes it all sound perfectly legit and ok and that everything is as it should be. Just sets me on fire !

Ok Ill shut up before I climb on someone elses soapbox ! LOL

Scotty
 
I also recall seeing some kind of PVC Catwalk bult across the airboat crossing last December so the airboats had to go around!!
 
Well ain't that interesting! Then WE get bad press for going around.

When it comes to government of any kind theres always some kind of scam involved otherwise they wouldn't be called politicians. They would still be called statesmen.

Scotty
 
I’m from the New Orleans area, are you sure you want the Army Corp of Engineers to fix anything? They sure did not design or maintain the levees correctly in southeast Louisiana. I would not want to count on them.
 
MarshGator":1d5mvnh5 said:
I’m from the New Orleans area, are you sure you want the Army Corp of Engineers to fix anything? They sure did not design or maintain the levees correctly in southeast Louisiana. I would not want to count on them.
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I'm guessing you didn't see the :roll: after my comment. Army Corp and South Florida FLood control are not at the top of my X-mas list. :D
 
the army corp of engineers has done forida a huge injustice, might as well put them with big sugar for screwin' up the everglades :cry:
 
God made it it worked man gets involved and messes it all up we airboaters get blamed for it it has nothing to do with st. johns,corp of engineers, or development, there was more game up in that county when it was run with traxck buggies,and airboats, now you can't hardly find a deer or ahog in the marsh. used to be a lot of hogs in the marsh and no deer started running buggies in there and I guess it opened it up enough and deer started moving in. you old timers will agree with me.
 
The reason the South St. Johns got shut down to buggies and tracks.

I remember seeing track buggies up from West Palm back in the 70s with chains dragging between them and running like this for miles scaring up and shooting anything that moved. I'm not saying I heard about this, I SAW it myself. The the high dollar Airboaters came up and did nearly the same thing. We locals kinda got run out of our own marsh for a couple years there. Not to mention back then the attitude those boys brought up with them made us feel like we had no right even being out on our marsh if we didnt have $50k in a boat. We begged for GFC to put a stop to it and then we assaulted the County and state officials about it. Finally it was made a Type 2 management area and they stopped the biggies in their chain dragging buggies.

We all paid the price for it though, cause we can't even run our own buggies and its STILL a friggin Type 2 management area.

Theres still deer and hog out there and we still got some BIG gators too.

Scotty
 
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Interesting thought about how sportsmen's trails open up new areas for game. You know it's true when you see bobcat & deer & hog footprints on the sandy trails. The treehuggers aren't always right.

The graph above shows something interesting... I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that around Apr 22,23, or 24 there was work being done on the dam and they had the floodgates open to bring the water down a bit. It showed as an increase of an inch or so downstream at Hwy 50. After which the level plummeted!

You can see the rain storm that passed on May 11 & 12 as an inch bump in the line, and the recent rain bumped it a half inch or less.... and now it's at the lowest level I've EVER seen it.... 1.11 feet.

This guage (in the summer) normally reads around 4 to 5 feet. The highest I've ever seen it was at 9.35 feet after Hurricane Wilma which had water an inch or so from flowing into the bar room floor at Loughman's.

I hope Lake Washington fills up fast! We need the water downstream!!!!!

matt.
 
the author over the phone claimed it was "airboat and kickerboats that did this damage over years of use" not abuse. I actually had a pretty nice conversation with him and just asked that he be a little sensitve when using the term airboaters. If anyone wants to have him out for a ride his main focus is on legislative actions. Someone should have Bill Sargeant do a nice article someday in the Melbourne paper.
 
Here is living proof the developers own our Brevard County commissioners. In the late 70's and 80's we had sever penalties for watering lawns. There was a huge battle going on about a Billion dollar development called SunTree then Bay Tree. Well all the water control departments and citizens and even the tree huggers said their is not enough water for a new city well since then another new city has arrived called Vieira well folk's because the average home in there is around 1/2 million they won. What amazes me is we have the same water supply we had in the 70's with three times the demand on it. But the commissioners keep letting all these projects go in and always side with the developers just like with all the impact and road fees. They let the developers do what they want and have the existing citizens pay for all the growth. Because of this Lake Washington supplies the water for at least 5 cities now. The developers won as always and the county wouldn't even demuck the lake so I can't wait to laugh my ass of when everything north of Lake Washington is bone dry and Lake Washington dries up. Folks we came a week or two from completely running out of water. This is the only thing that could make the commissioners do something like dredge the lake and surrounding waters that have been destroyed by the dam and get a handle on this growth. I hope we run out of water we must in order for something to be done.
 
one of the reasons the water camne up was becasuse they open the flood gates at the northwest corner of farm 13 and at the south east corner of the farm and let water out of garcias, farm 13 ,. and south of 60, and I think they let watwer out of blue cypress.
 
That's exactly what happened they had to let that water out or 5 cities would have ran out of water simultaneously. The Lake isn't to the top of the weir but it's close however anything after the dam will be dry in two or three weeks if we don't get some hard core rain.
 
The Bear high-fives Waterthunder !

Its a mess and thats as it should be. They earned every trouble they get with it in spades. We need Viera like we need a hole in our head. Biggest crooked waste of tax money ever in our county. Was all a scam. When the voters wouldnt let them use the general fund they illegally (I'm told) sold bonds or got a loan or something like that and then ended up getting in trouble over that even, but that sure didnt stop it happening. It should have never happened period.

I still get madder than damnit when I think about it. Theres other deals like that too but thats the biggest. Lota crap gong on now still. Brevard must be the Payton Place of counties in that respect.

If it dries up and we have dust storms in middle of Lake Washington, I wont shed a tear !

Scotty
 
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