Rivers Coalition Backs Reservoir As The “Last, Best Chance”

By Tyler Treadway
April 5, 2018
TC Palm

About half the member organizations that make up the Rivers Coalition are voicing support for the proposed design for a reservoir to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers — but with reservations.

As of a 5 p.m. Thursday deadline, 47 of the group’s 103 member organizations had signed a three-page letter supporting the project to R.D. James, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works who heads the Army Corps of Engineers.

More members are expected to sign after the letter is sent Friday, said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart and a member of the coalition’s leadership team.

“The letter doesn’t state an official position by the Rivers Coalition,” Perry said, “but a lot of our members had said they wanted to voice their support, and we wanted to give them a way to do it. Some members also have some real problems with the plan.”

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