From my first Water Quality Workshop in 2021 through my current work with the City Council and the Waterways Advisory Committee (WAC) I have tried to stay informed about water quality, a topic that I knew little about before becoming a City Councilor. I have always believed that you can never have too much information about a subject. The more we know, the more informed our choices will be when it comes to policy development (City Council’s role) and implementation strategies (Staff’s role).
I’ve spent the last several weeks reviewing the best available Marco-Island specific data related to the health of our waterways and have come up with the following conclusions and implications for policy development and funding moving forward.
1. Evidence presented by advocates of the Collier County Pollution Control Department’s FY22 Surface Water Report recommendation 7.6 to consider ”…converting existing wastewater plants to Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) technologies” is insufficient to warrant spending millions of Marco Island taxpayer dollars in FY2025 to convert our Marco Island facility.
2. The City of Marco Island must honor its commitments to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) that are associated with our MS4 Stormwater Management Program and our 4e Remediation Plan. Activities such as swale improvements, water testing, reuse water application oversight, and many others are required by the FDEP for compliance with our MS4 and 4 E programs. They simply cannot be discarded based on recommendations of individuals and organizations who judge them to no longer be necessary.
3. The City Council advocated for, and received, millions of dollars in direct legislative appropriations for special projects ( Exfiltration Swale Construction, Median Modifications, Canal Interconnects, Aeration Pilot Study etc.) related to improving water quality. These appropriations have commitments to provide matching funds that the City of Marco Island must honor. The City cannot turn its back on these financial commitments and use that money for AWT or other new initiatives. These special projects and appropriations were based on scientific studies and discussed at length during City Council Meetings over the past three years.
4. The waters of Marco Island are still deemed as impaired for Nitrogen by the FDEP. Until we are officially off of that list (which may or may not happen in FY 2025) our fiscal priorities for the coming year should be to continue to fund our current reuse water, MS4 and 4E programs, and to honor our commitment to fund matching grants related to the direct legislative appropriations for special projects we received from the State of Florida.
5. Before considering conversion to AWT the City of Marco Island should consider a formal study of water quality trends that examines issues such as oxygen levels, Benthic Mats, Algal Blooms etc.
I know that this represents a change of direction for me related to my prior support for converting to Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) but after carefully reviewing all of the data I can no longer in good faith support this action for FY 2025.
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