The St. Lucie River is dead. That’s the message activist lined the Roosevelt bridge Friday to show, pleading for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop releasing water from Lake Okeechobee through the St. Lucie River, causing potentially toxic blue-green algae to bloom.
This is Marty Baum.
“I learned that some lights you don’t need as many,” he said.
He made these ten light up signs.
“You’re going to see three messages,” he said.
“I’m aware of how the river changes and how it kills whatever is in it when we have these releases,” Al Ragl, a fellow activist.
“Tonight is just a quiet vigil. The river has died underneath us. It’s here. We can change it but is going to take the ballot box,” Marty said.
“He can’t fish. He can’t play in the water. We’re making our voices heard,” Alanna Reamer said, referencing her 8-year-old son.
Many people honked as they drove by.
“They know what’s going on. They all do,” Marty said.
Irene Gomes owns a motel on the river.
“I have to contact these people let them know the river conditions. It’s just a dangerous situation,” she said.
They hope the glow on the bridge can shed light on the river below.
“The first one is water is life...the next one is our water is toxic. And the third one is my slogan demand clean water,” Marty said.
If he had time to make one more sign, he said it would simply read: “vote.”
