Environmental Destruction

About 120 feet below the altitude of our winter home in Costa Rica is a swimming hole formed by at least thousands of years of water falling 60 feet over a waterfall. The ministry responsible for protecting waterways enforces a law prohibiting even the removal of vegetation from anywhere near the water.

This year a neighbor hired a bulldozer to carve a new road into the side of his hill and then left the heavy equipment operator to his own devices as he drove off on other business. The road stretched far beyond the intent and eventually huge amounts of soil were pushed into the stream above the waterfall. After months of manual labor, some of the damage has been repaired, but we are waiting to see how much of the road will end up being washed into the stream when the wet season brings heavy rains. Already some moderate rain has caused a mudslide and collapse of the soil above the road. You can see this in the top right of the photo.