In a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard e-mailed Monday, Martin County has shared new data about the number of boats transiting the St. Lucie River at the Florida East Coast Railway Drawbridge in Stuart.
The data indicates there are far more boats on the waterway than those referred to in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement or DEIS for the All Aboard Florida passenger rail project.
The data shows the number of boats counted in April 2015 are 83 percent higher than those counted in January. The DEIS uses boat counts from January, a slower month for boat travel.
In February, the Martin County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to allocate $1.4 million dollars to fight the project. Among the issues concerning opponents of the high speed rail system is the projected increase of closing the bridge to boat traffic to accommodate the 32 extra trains a day using the bridge.
