Clean up our canals project update
To the editor:
Small strides have been taken when it comes to citizens groups working with politicians to clean our canals. However it costs a lot of money, which the town does not have to spend on dredging.
We, as a citizen group, don’t take that as an answer, as now we look for funding in the form of grants, and personally go into the canals to take samples. The only way to get water tested is also through a certain price tag.
One must be real specific for what we’re testing for as well. In other words, it’s going to be up to us as citizens to fully find ways to fund such a daunting project that is over-needed. Our canals without doubt are very polluted. If we do nothing, then we continue to accept this unacceptable problem.
Water quality is the number one issue in Southwest Florida, threatening our local economy’s 60 billion dollars a year in the tourism sector, decreasing property values, and increasingly having the perception of Fort Myers Beach as a dirty water town.
We ask town officials for not only your participation as good stewards of the planet, but to aid in searching for grants needed to finally clean our canals.?It is our personal responsibility to keep our water clean. If we don’t eventually, we won’t have any chance to speak of that visit here by any tourist, simply due to water quality.?Get involved in your community. Save your canals.
John G Heim?
Clean water activist
Fort Myers Beach