MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Mark Perry, the longtime executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, has spent his adult life trying to protect the waters of the St. Lucie River Estuary.
He recalls growing up on the Treasure Coast before what now seem to be routine water releases from a swollen Lake Okeechobee.
WATCH BELOW: Lake Okeechobee discharges continue to impact estuaries
"Oysters and seagrass beds create habitat for these estuaries to provide for over 300-400 animal species like crabs and shrimp and gamefish like snook, trout, tarpon, snapper," Perry said.
He said all of that has been diminished by the fresh water discharges from the lake.
"We're killing this estuary by dumping all this polluted water into it," Perry said.
Polluted water upsets the balance of the estuary and Indian River Lagoon, which need a delicate mix of freshwater and saltwater to survive. On a chilly January day when WPTV sat down with Perry, the Army Corps of Engineers was once again releasing water from the Lake Okeechobee.
"They realize they have to get the lake down to 12.5 feet, and they have to get there," Perry said. "The only way to get there is they have to release water out, and we are telling them that is fine, but you need to be putting it south to the Everglades," Perry told WPTV.
That has long been a rallying cry for environmentalists. Work on a huge reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee is underway by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The goal is to hold that water and then send it through filtering marshes, releasing the cleansed water to a parched Everglades. It's an ambitious project, but completion is years away.
Perry argued that the harm to his beloved estuary keeps growing.
"We are killing the life that thrives around it, all these waterfront property owners, all these boaters, fishermen, people who move to this part of Florida to enjoy these waterways, this sanctuary," Perry said.
His argument is not only about nature for nature's sake. It's also about the water we count on to drink and feed the thirsty farms that depend on a steady flow of clean water that travels down the peninsula.
"Our water supplies are threatened by all this runoff and pollution getting into our water supplies," Perry said. "Our existence depends on the health of this environment, the diversity of our environment, and if we kind of let it go to hell, and we just keep polluting it and don't worry about it, it's going to go to hell faster and faster and faster."
