In Southwest Florida, where the Caloosahatchee River empties into Pine Island Sound and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico, three citizen advocates for clean water are facing crippling retaliatory financial penalties from their local government.
For Dan Carney, Jim Collier and Kevin Sparks, being able to cast a line in the waters off Cape Coral is what brought them to buy a home and relocate to the community.
“Access to world-class fishing and the environment that supports it,” Dan Carney told the City Council is what motivated him to move to Cape Coral. Jim Collier told the Council that he and his wife Cheryl “… have a 20-year history in Cape Coral supporting wildlife and water quality.” Cheryl runs the Butterfly House at Rotary Park; Jim was chairperson of the Waterway Advisory Board. Kevin Sparks noted that he is also “a lifelong fisherman. Fishing is what brought me to Cape Coral.”
The three joined with the Matlacha Civic Association, Calusa Waterkeeper and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation to challenge the removal of the Chiquita Lock on the Caloosahatchee.