PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014 A group of Port St. Lucie residents says they’re dealing with limited water access in their canal-front neighborhood, pointing to sediment buildup that\u2019s made boating at low tide difficult.<\/p>\n
Walter Newman, who has lived along the canal since 2018, said he chose his home for its access to the water, but is now frustrated by the conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s upsetting because we moved here to enjoy the water,\u201d Newman said. <\/p>\n
Port St. Lucie boaters contact WPTV over canal access<\/p>\n
Newman said he and his neighbors have trouble using their boats when the water level drops.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it silted in so much there\u2019s no more, \u2018Hey, I want to go for a boat ride,\u2019 because if it\u2019s low tide my boat is not coming off the lift,\u201d Newman explained. <\/p>\n
Photos from the area show the extent of the problem, such as a floating jet ski dock at high tide that has become beached as the tide recedes.<\/p>\n
Other neighbors shared similar concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sand under our docks prevents us from getting off at low-tides,\u201d Lawrence Owen said.<\/p>\n
Samuel Gaspard, who has lived on the water for more than 15 years, said he doesn’t even have a boat because of the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll just end up sitting on the sand, and it\u2019ll just tilt during low tide,\u201d Gaspard said. \u201cYou’re paying a higher amount of taxes every year\u2014you want to be able to enjoy [the water].”<\/p>\n
Several residents say they\u2019ve reported the issue to the city multiple times, but haven\u2019t seen a long-term solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see them come up with a maintenance program,\u201d Newman said. <\/p>\n
WPTV reached out to Port St. Lucie and the city council. The City of Port St. Lucie said it surveyed the area on Wednesday and issued the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe center of the canal maintains a consistent depth of at least five feet […] Dredging is not recommended at this time. We will continue to work with the homeowner to monitor the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each year, each season it just gets worse and worse,\u201d Owen said. <\/p>\n
Neighbors also raised concerns that the city surveyed the area during high tide, which may not fully reflect the challenges at lower water levels. For now, residents say they plan to keep pushing for a long-term maintenance program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014 A group of Port St. Lucie residents says they’re dealing with limited water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1269,3570,3571,3572,171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-2955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-boating","9":"tag-canal-maintenance","10":"tag-drainage-canal","11":"tag-dredging","12":"tag-port-st-lucie","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}