ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 St. Lucie County has been working for a year to remove derelict boats from the Indian River Lagoon and other waterways.<\/p>\n
Dennis Meyer, who kayaks near Barbour Point in Fort Pierce, has noticed the abandoned vessels.<\/p>\n
WATCH WPTV’S COVERAGE BELOW:<\/p>\n
St. Lucie County removes 18 derelict boats from waterways in year-long cleanup effort<\/p>\n
“It’s sort of an eyesore. I can count 10 more abandoned boats right now. I know where they’re at, just in this general area with a two-mile radius.”<\/p>\n
But James Beams, senior project manager with St. Lucie County Port, Inlet and Beaches, said they’ve been cleaning them up.<\/p>\n
“I know it’s a big concern for a lot of our local citizens. We’re just doing our best now.”<\/p>\n
Beams spoke about their abandoned vessel program, which started last December.<\/p>\n
So far, in partnership with Florida DEP and FWC, they’ve removed 18 abandoned vessels.<\/p>\n
“We take everything from county line to county line.”<\/p>\n
If the boats are left in the water, Beams said it can dirty the waterways.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of environmental concern with the diesel and oil tanks and then holding tanks.”<\/p>\n
The abandoned boats can also be a navigational hazard.<\/p>\n
“They break free and crash into other people’s property.”<\/p>\n
Before the program, the county would remove them upon request.<\/p>\n
But now, with $75,000 from the Florida Inland Navigation District, Beams’ team can get to the vessels before they’re an issue.<\/p>\n
So far, it’s only cost the county $24,000.<\/p>\n
“We’re able to get to these vessels a lot earlier. Before they become the eyesore and the problem, we’re taking care of it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 St. Lucie County has been working for a year to remove derelict boats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-84603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84603","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=84603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}