Referendum

1967, in my medical practice, one patient paid his bill in stone crabs claws. He had traps in the harbor collected in a small rowboat. The harbor water was clear, full of marine life and offered fine fishing. That has been decimated and morphed into a murky dead zone, almost cesspool status. Arrival of the Cruise Ships killed the harbor and the blight has spread, a malignancy with unhealthy tentacles. For the cruise ships our air and water functions as their sewer. Debarking passengers pay 56% of all revenue to the Walsh’s, not to Key West. The Army Corps of Engineers are supposed to do an objective review on dredging which in a shallow tropical sea like ours has been labeled by Leeds University as a disaster. Getting ugly was the scientific conclusion of that study. Leeds in London is one of the most well regarded environmental evaluators in the world. The Army Corps has produced some of the worst environmental tragedies ever recorded obliterating wetlands and killing generations of Salmon, recently engineering a dirty water scenario affecting Florida Bay and our coral reef negatively. Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, under 2 presidents, said about the Corps: “no more lawless or irresponsible group than the Corps of Engineers has ever attempted to operate in the United States either outside or within the law…it is truly beyond imagination.” Studying their record closely that United States cabinet member’s statement was right on target; Environmental Protection Agency does detailed studies on environmental impact not the Corps. If Key West is basing their future, even partially, on that group, I fear for all of us. Statements by the Chamber and their attorney are mostly pure sophistry, falseness, untruths and misinformation, my judgement based on intense research over 8 years necessary for a book being published.  Again I fear for all of us, our environment that sustains our planet and our lives. The Walsh’s have stacked the deck against us citizens seemingly motivated by sheer avarice.

Jerrold J. Weinstock, M.D.

Member National Biological Honor Society

Key West, Florida  33040