Marco Considers Manmade Mini Islands to Improve Water Quality 

In the wake of years of declining water quality on Marco Island, City Council considered a plan on Monday presented by a Marco Island businessman to construct habitat islands out of dredged sediment in island canals.  

Council members said they were intrigued by the idea.  

“I think this is a unique and very innovative approach,” said Councilor Greg Folley. 

Since 2019, Marco Island's waterways were on Florida Department of Environmental Protection's impaired waterways list, meaning that the island’s waterways exceed the allowed levels of toxins, according to samples taken in the years prior.  

The nitrogen levels in the city's canals had been above DEP's standards and waterways are impaired for dissolved oxygen, trending towards hypoxia, DEP reported. Areas with low oxygen levels, or hypoxia, are often called dead zones because they no longer support normal aquatic life. 

The city began implementing several measures, after hiring the firm Environmental Research and Design in 2021, to reduce toxicity and improve water quality. Next steps in the plan included swale exfiltration improvements, street sweeping, median reconstruction to limit runoff, public education regarding irrigation, cleaning existing culverts to increase water flow and a canal aeration pilot study.  

Marco Island submitted a water quality restoration plan to the DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June 2023. The plan was accepted, and Marco Island is now in a "4e category" which indicates that ongoing restoration activities are underway.  

One of the most expensive potential remedies according to ERD in 2021 would be sediment dredging at an estimated cost at the time of $189 million and that’s where an alternative idea was broached by Marco Island resident Dan Davies, owner of Earthwerks Corp.  

Earthwerks has done many freshwater dredging projects in the Chicago area, Davies said. 

His firm, through attorney Zach Lombardo, presented a plan to City Council on Monday, called C-HAWQ, Coastal Habitat and Water Quality Initiative. C-HAWQ is a public and private partnership to pursue grants that would be matched by the city to improve the canals by dredging the sediment and creating small islands. The islands would total approximately 100 acres of new land, close to where the material is dredged, Davies proposed. 

The islands will be planted with native plants and create habitat, according to Chad Washburn of Naples Botanical Garden, who served as an environmental consultant on the proposal.  

City Council gave their consent to move forward with more details about designing such a project. If it is unique enough, Council may not have to put the project out for bid, advised city attorney Alan Gabriel.  

As of the meeting on Sept. 23, there was not an estimated cost for the C-HAWQ proposal only that it would cost substantially less than $189 million for dredging that would traditionally include piping and transporting sediment off island.  

C-HAWQ would include using amphibious excavators to get sediment from the canal onto a barge and then build the islands using the sediment, Davies said. Boat traffic could continue during construction, he said.  

With Marco Island no longer having septic systems and several changes implemented to mitigate storm runoff in the swales, the project could help to undo damage done years prior, he said.  

“This began as a concerned citizen,” said Davies. “I want to do this because I care about the waterways here,” he added.