Treasure Coast residents are pulling out their wallets to help the river

By SUZANNE WENTLEY
suzanne.wentley@scripps.com
December 15, 2005

Rivers Coalition Chairman Leon Abood can't go to the grocery store without someone stopping him to talk about the St. Lucie River.
But lately, Treasure Coast residents are pulling out their wallets while they talk.
Even though river advocates have not formally begun soliciting funds for a planned lawsuit against water managers over discharges from Lake Okeechobee, Abood said they have raised almost $20,000 toward legal bills.
"I've never seen the community awareness so high," said Abood, who with other river activists formed the coalition of 40 environmental, business and recreation groups in 1998.
"The community says 'enough is enough,'" he added. "We have to have a judge issue a court order to stop the damaging discharges."
This week, the Sewall's Point Town Commission voted to give the coalition $50,000. In addition, a disbanded grass-roots group in St. Lucie County, called Friends of the Marina, on Wednesday announced it decided to give $5,400 to the effort.
Formed in 2001, Friends of the Marina members worked toward improvements to Marina Park, a county-owned island where Prima Vista Boulevard crosses the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. But instead of seeing improvements to the park, the group became frustrated by what they said were St. Lucie County workers thwarting their efforts.
"We finally gave up," said Walt Deemer, the former treasurer. "We couldn't help the park, but maybe we could help the river that surrounds it."
The disgust with the polluted, murky St. Lucie River was also clear in Sewall's Point, which was the first municipality to donate money to the legal initiative.
"We backed them very much in principle and now financially," Town Manager Hugh Williams said. "Surrounded completely by water, we're definitely affected by it."
Abood said community support was imperative to the battle. Working with the national environmental law firm Earthjustice, the activists want to raise $1 million.
In the upcoming months, Abood said they will begin a "public awareness campaign" as well as making fundraising calls.
But initial phone calls and connections through www.riverscoalition.org already have been "a huge financial and morale boost for us," he said. "This just reinforces our commitment to see this through to fruition."