Marco Legislative Priorities – A Gross Waste of Public Funds?

On September 1, 2023, the City of Marco Island submitted 2024 legislative priorities to the Collier County Legislative Delegation. This included two projects called exfiltration swales and median modifications: $13,500,000 in spending with grant requests of $2,250,000.

Both projects referred to a document called “City of Marco Island Alternate Water Quality Plan (4e) Submittal” which states: “The City of Marco Island is hereby submitting the documentation needed to demonstrate the City's efforts to bring Water Body Identification (WBID) 32780 (Marco Island) into compliance with state water quality criteria for total nitrogen.”

Marco Island has not been impaired for total nitrogen for THREE years! Why is the city pretending to be impaired for nitrogen? Is it so they can get “free” grant money from the state? This will cost the city taxpayers an additional $11,250,000 for correcting an issue that the city staff know is NOT a problem.

The island DOES have a water quality problem with OXYGEN which is depleted by algae fed by nutrient laden reuse water from the sewage treatment plant. Not yet impaired for oxygen but headed that way. To correct the oxygen decline, the sewage treatment plant must be upgraded to Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT). The city is doing everything it can to avoid this project. 

Residents must ask the city council to upgrade the sewage treatment plant, which is the problem, and not waste money on swales, which are not the cause of the oxygen problem.