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Special Feature

DEFENDING

Our Waterways

By Suzee Bailey

“Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

eighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale may want to
rewrite the later part of that line from Coleridge’s
NRime of the Ancient Mariner to “sadly how it
stinks” after dealing with 6 sewer line breaks throughout
December. These horrific spills not only made life dangerous
then drifted to the New River, into canals, the intracoastal,
and miserable in the neighborhoods directly affected by the
and ultimately found its way into the ocean. According to
toxic waste, but they dumped over 126 million gallons of
the Sun Sentinel, men in hazmat suits roamed the Tarpon
this poison into our City’s beautiful waterways.
River daily scooping up dead fish and other marine life.
Unfortunately, devastating events like these are happening
“It’s the single most devastating environmental catastrophe
much too frequently. These harmful spills drastically add to
in the history of Broward County”, said Paul Chettle, a
the high levels of pollution contaminating our over 165
concerned resident.
navigable miles of rivers and canals, threatening the life of
our beautiful “Venice of America.” In addition to the harmful invasion of disgusting smells,
waste was floating through parks and streets, eventually
Residents from all of South Florida and millions of tourist creeping up onto residents’ yards and driveways. Intensive
flock to Fort Lauderdale’s popular beaches and waterways sterilization repairs have to be made to the grounds affected
for recreation, or business each year. Their continued by the spill to make the area safe and livable for those
support of our over 11 billion dollar a year marine industry residents living near these hazardous conditions. According
has earned our city the nickname “Yachting Capital of the to Dr. Nancy Gassman, Assistant Director of Public Works-
World.” However, the extremely high number of sewage Sustainability, “the City has engaged Cliff Berry Inc. to clean
line spills over the past 10 years, (due to a long overdue and sanitize public and private areas impacted by the pipe
city- ignored antiquated infrastructure), have dumped over a breaks. We have submitted the sampling results and spill
155 million gallons of toxic waste into our local waterways. reports to the appropriate regulatory agencies and are
This continual occurrence is seriously threatening the awaiting additional feedback on remediation.”
important life force of our city, our waterways.
The 6 toxic sewage line breaks, not only had a direct
To add to these severe infrastructure issues impacting Fort impact on human health, but on the life of the ecosystem of
Lauderdale; six sewage line breaks, including two in Rio our waterways as well. Raw and inadequately treated
Vista, one at the bottom of the Himmarshee Canal, two in sewage contains pathogens (both bacterial and viral) that
Victoria Park and another in Coral Ridge, spilled massive can lead to a long list of serious health problems including
amounts of raw sewage into affected neighborhoods and Hepatitis A, severe gastric problems, and even cholera and
millions of gallons into the Tarpon river. This toxic sludge

26 CORAL RIDGE COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES HOA