People United to Restore Our Rivers & Estuaries
People United to Restore Our Rivers & Estuaries
PURRE’s members have sent thousands of letters to Florida state representatives, members of Congress, senators, former Gov. Jeb Bush and current Gov. Charlie Crist, forcing the government to take notice of the environmental and economic dangers facing Florida as a result of its deteriorating waterways.
Leaders of PURRE communicate and meet regularly – in one-on-one or small working sessions – with Gov. Charlie Crist, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole, state representatives Trudi Williams and Gary Aubuchon, Commander of the Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Paul Grosskruger and his predecessor Col. Carpenter, the Corps’ Chief Project Engineer Pete Milam, South Florida Water Management District Director Carol Wehle, Lee County Commission Chairman Bob Janes, Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, retired Congressman Porter Goss, and others.
In 2007, the efforts of PURRE’s leaders and members played a big role in convincing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to throw out a proposed schedule for the release of polluted fresh water from Lake Okeechobee that would have been the death knell for South Florida’s estuaries. PURRE put a “solution to the pollution” plan on the table that included building reservoirs for water storage and methods to send water from the lake south to the Everglades, as nature intended.
PURRE has earned a voice in Tallahassee and in Washington, D.C., and is respected as a level-headed, solution-seeking organization. The respect we’ve earned has enabled us to be a constant voice in the halls of government on behalf of the people – and the water – of South Florida. PURRE’s concerns, possible solutions, policy changes, and call for legislative action are presented to a wide range of elected officials on a regular basis.
"The River of Grass was only the most distinctive link of an interconnected ecosystem that once blanketed almost all of south Florida, from its headwaters atop the Kissimmee chain of lakes near modern-day Orlando down to the coral reefs of the Keys, an area twice the size of New Jersey. "
~ Michael Grunwald, The Swamp ~
