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LRA Neighborhood Update

Waterway MAINTENANCE

By Tom Brinkley

iven the ever-deteriorating conditions of our • Send an email to our Commissioner (jherbst@fortlauderdale.
waterways, multiple approaches to minimizing gov) and copy the other City Commissioners requesting
G“pollution impacts” are extremely important. We that the City require/mandate the median and parks
as residents of The Landings can make a difference in maintenance contractors/forces to collect all cuttings and
many “simple/small ways”. A little time, a little effort, a debris (and not blow it into the roadway, adjacent yards or
little oversight, a few dollars and a “willingness to make back into the medians). They need to understand that when
a difference” (by all of us) can make a huge impact. Here leaves cuttings and trash are not collected and removed,
are some simple ideas that will have compounding positive it all finds its way into the stormwater system with the first
impacts on the water quality within our waterways: wind/rain. The City’s inaction has as large of an impact on
our waterways as our lawn maintenance service providers’
• Insisting/instructing our yard/lawn maintenance service
providers that “no debris” (cuttings, leaves and other failure to properly collect the yard debris.
yard waste) shall be blown into the waterways serving • Send an email to our Commissioner (jherbst@fortlauderdale.
our properties. gov) and copy the other City Commissioners requesting that
the City take the required actions needed to secure permits
• Monitoring the performance of the yard/lawn maintenance
service providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary and fund the dredging of the Longboat Inlet Bridge, the
precautions to properly collect the weekly-generated lawn South Bayview Drive Bridge, and the NE 55th Street Bridge,
debris (and preventing it from entering our canals). so as to insure proper water flow and flushing of the canal
system in The Landings.
• When floating debris is within reach of our seawall, a pool
skimmer is the perfect tool to retrieve trash for placement • Support the proposed “Seabins” project with your time
in our green refuse bins. While what we retrieve may not and/or money. Kevin O’Neill has generously committed his
be debris we contributed, it is debris which we can help time, money and efforts in getting the first of the “Seabins”
remove from our canals and improve the water quality and deployed and activated here in The Landings. We all need
visual experience for ourselves and our neighbors. to join-in and support this effort in order to get at least two
additional “Seabins” deployed. See the June issue of The
• Adopt a “storm inlet grate” near your home and take the Landings & Bay Colony Magazine for more information. The
required ten (10) minutes twice a week to pick-up the street Landings has the opportunity to provide a leadership role
debris that collects on the grates, and then dispose of the in parenting this effort within the City, which hopefully other
leaves, blooms and other materials before they have the communities (and the City) will follow.
opportunity to flow into the canals (via the stormwater
pipes). Surely this small amount of additional waste will not • Consider adding “green-seawall technology” or other
overload our “green refuse cans” serviced by the City. more simplistic oyster/mussel support habitat to your dock
and/or seawalls. The mussel’s capacity to filter/clean the
• Contact the City’s LauderServ 24-hour call center canal water is extremely important to the overall health of
(954-828-8000) anytime there is a significant “tidal flow of the marine environment. Refer to past and future Landings
trash” accumulating within our canal system. Typically, these Magazine articles addressing this topic.
accumulations occur at the peak of an incoming tide. While
the City’s canal trash-barge contractor may not be available The canals within The Landings are an important element
to respond every time, the more often an area is reported, in the quality-of-life we all enjoy. As neighbors, we can pull
the greater the service frequency demand will help justify together and make a difference. JUST TAKE THE FIRST STEP.
which requests the City can include in its’ planning and The Landings and your canals are worth the effort.
budgeting process. It may take some time to achieve the
required level of frequency desired, but it can be achieved
by our making one-call at-a-time.

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