It started as just a swim in the canal for 14-year-old Cruz Yturralde, explains his father, Harry Rozelle.
“Cruz loves the water, and he loves to fish, and so does my other son, so they're always in the water. I used to tell them, 'You guys, that water is not so great all the time. Make sure you jump through the pool.’ At the time I was thinking I was a good parent telling them to go through the chlorine,” he said.
Just a few days later, the teenager's stomach began to hurt. The pain got so bad he was taken to the emergency room and had to stay overnight. He had contracted E.coli and salmonella from his short swim.
It was during Yturralde's hospital stay that Rozelle had a conversation with a neighbor who told him a potential solution to the water quality problem that led to Yturralde’s sickness — living seawalls.
“ What is a living seawall? I have no idea. I never heard of it, but I'm all ears," he said.
Living seawalls use 3-D printed designs to promote marine biodiversity. These “bio-mimic” designs look similar to mangrove roots embedded in the printed slabs. One of the main benefits is oyster repopulation. Oysters are exceptional for water quality. A single oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water per day.
READ MORE: Reinventing the South Florida seawall to help marine life, buffer rising seas
Rozelle took the idea to The Church-by-the-Sea where he serves as treasurer. Located East of the 17th Street Causeway on Fort Lauderdale’s barrier island, the church has 980 feet of seawall. That seawall has been in place for decades now and the looming threat of sea level rise meant it needed to be replaced and raised.
“People got very excited about the chance to fix the seawall — that we need to do — and benefit the whole community by cleaning up the water,” said Brian Cecchio, the church’s senior pastor. “The spiritual side of that is that we're commissioned by God all the way back in Genesis 1 to take care of the Earth that He's provided for us.”
A new living seawall is expected to attract enough oyster growth to filter 1 million gallons of water per day.
The church teamed up with Kind Designs, a Miami-based firm that creates living seawalls, and began soliciting donations for the project, which came with a $1.75 million price tag. In fact, the church says the living seawall design actually saves about a dollar per foot of seawall.
Donations began pouring in for what the church claims is the largest privately-funded living seawall project in Florida’s history. While many members of the congregation gave, some were from as far away as Australia and gave through the project's website. To date they’ve raised nearly $1.6 million.
The church also got a boost from the City of Fort Lauderdale, who recently launched a living seawall incentive program. That program covers up to 100% of the permitting fees for living seawall projects.
The project also includes an observation deck, which Cecchio says can inspire others to take on a similar project.
“ Our hope is that people in the community that are curious about what we've done being able to do that in their own property so that the cleaning effort continues around Fort Lauderdale,” he said.
The project is expected to break ground soon and finish in Spring of 2027.
