City Staff Engaged for Harper’s Report

On September 20, at the regular meeting of the Marco Island City Council, the much-anticipated Water Quality Repot from the firm Environmental Research and Design (ERD) was officially presented by ERD President Dr. Harvey Harper. There were no major surprises, but there have been some questions raised by those who have been following the discussions as to how the community might address water quality issues moving forward.

For years, a number of individuals involved with water quality questioned whether those issues were something isolated to the island itself or had a more wide-ranging presence throughout Southwest Florida. Dr. Harper’s report indeed showed that higher levels of nitrates and phosphates are in evidence within the Gulf of Mexico near the island as some have suspected.

Now that the report, and the data so crucial to creating a plan to address how to proceed, is in the hands of the city staff, the next step lies in absorbing that data and moving forward. “No one who will play a part in laying out a strategic plan to address these issues denies that the way forward will be a long one. It will require discipline and commitment by all the shareholders in this process,” said Marco Island City Manager Michael McNees.

McNees has elevated the city’s staff’s involvement in the issue, now that the Harper Report is in his hands, by establishing a “Water Quality Working Group” to break out the various recommendations found in the report and assign what he refers to as an “owner” for each recommendation mentioned in the 500-page report. The group’s conclusions obviously should include estimated costs.

As part of Harper’s scope of work, a field monitoring program was conducted by ERD from April to November 2020 to identify ambient water quality characteristics and collect hydrologic and water quality data for use in developing budgets for the waterways. A detailed evaluation of sediment characteristics in Marco Island waterways also was conducted, including physical and chemical characterization of surficial sediments and evaluation of internal nutrient recycling. This study collected 600 individual samples of rainfall, runoff, groundwater seepage, and sediment nutrient release, with more than 5300 individual lab analyses and more than 4200 field measurements to identify nutrient sources.

ERD’S work thus has provided the city with data and information not previously available and will provide a platform from which city staff and others may be able to create a strategy moving forward to deal with issues surrounding water quality.

Harper’s group went beyond the 17 regularly monitored testing sites found within the city’s waterways and did testing offshore in Gulf of Mexico waters. His studies in areas of the Gulf surrounding Marco Island showed issues similar to those shown in other independent tests in off-shore areas southeast of Marco Island. Those areas have exhibited, and continue to exhibit, higher than acceptable total nitrogen, as well as total phosphorus and fecal coliform numbers in recent years.

Some may begin to see a correlation that points to a more “regional” issue in regard to dealing with these challenges. Harper’s report speaks to this, as he mentions other off-shore testing by independent agencies such as Collier County, Southwest Florida Water Management District, FDEP and the Florida Department of Health, all of which point to a larger regional issue.

The off-shore waters create what Harper refers to as a baseline for the waterways in and around Marco, and are a subset of the problem which is being seen on the island. Harper is clear, however, that there do exist island-wide contributing factors to the water quality issues which we must be looking to address.

Council and the public can look forward to reviewing those reports and proposed action items, as a website that tracks the progress will be developed to provide necessary transparency as the city proceeds to move forward.