Much More Than Meets the Eye

The acronym “ASR” may seem like a random assemblage of letters to many people, but the men and women who attended this year’s Marco Island Water and Sewer Department open house can tell you exactly what it means, along with details about its importance to the city.  

Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) was just one part of the in-depth, 360-degree look at Marco’s utility system provided by the department’s general manager Jeff Poteet. The annual event was held recently at the city’s North Water Treatment Plant & Reclaimed Water Production Facility, located on E. Elkcam Circle.  

Beyond the ASR, Poteet reviewed other key aspects of the department’s operations, as well as its history, rate structure—including a comparison to Collier County—current and future projects, and more for an audience of roughly 15 residents. Aside from his presentation, he also fielded questions before turning the roughly 15 people in attendance over to staff for a tour of the busy facility where much of the utility’s functions take place.  

“It’s amazing how much stuff we have in this small footprint,” said Poteet. “It’s about a 10-acre site and we have both our wastewater operations and one of our drinking water treatment plant operations here.”  

He stated that because of the lack of conventional water sources, Marco Island facilities use 100% “alternative water sources.” That means that rather than relying upon fresh surface water such as underground aquifers, as are common, the city’s water needs are instead met by four alternative sources.  

• The utility’s 205-acre stormwater runoff reservoir (Source Water Facility) provides about 75% of the city’s water. It’s located near U.S. 41 and SR. 951.  

• Marco’s South Water Treatment Plant uses reverse osmosis membranes, which utilizes an expensive process to transform brackish (more saline than fresh) water into potable water.  
• Reclaimed water, which is treated wastewater that is suitable for irrigation use.  
• Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) wells.  

“These are all things that many places, especially up North, don’t have to go through and they’re all costly,” said Poteet.  

ASR is a system that directly injects surface water, potable water, reclaimed water or river water, into an underground aquifer for later recovery and use. Marco’s seven ASR wells are located at the Source Water Facility and serve to augment the city’s freshwater supply.  

“We store water underground when it’s plentiful, during the rainy season, about 780 feet deep,” explained Poteet. “It forms a freshwater bubble within a saltwater formation that is below the surface and in times when we need that water, we’re able to pull it back up and supply our community.”  

The wells are bordered on the top and bottom by layers of clay and separated by layers of porous rock and hold approximately 1 billion gallons of water. The city’s ASR system is so successful that water system experts from around the world have visited our facilities since coming on-line in 1997 to see how it works.  

“We have probably the most successful ASR system in the nation,” said Poteet. “One of the reasons for this is we use raw water. Most places treat the water 100% and then put it back down into the ground. You’re going to lose some of that water on the fringe of the bubble. If you have the high cost of treating water and then you lose 25% of the water when you store it underground, it can be quite costly. In our case, we’re using raw water with very minimal treatment.”  

Poteet was joined at the open house by Water and Sewer Department staff members Lori Rizzo, Susie Hernandez, Michon Jackson, Scott Henriksson, and Nigel Noone.  

Capital improvement project updates were given on the Marco Shores Alternative Water Project. This project consists of installing piping and other infrastructure to provide potable water to Marco Shores from the island and to pump sewage from that community and the Isles of Capri to the Reclaimed Water Production Facility.  

When complete, the project will be a cost-saver for the city.  

“The main driving force behind doing this project was the fact that the Marco Shores wastewater plant needed substantial improvements,” explained Poteet. “If we’re going to spend $6 million on a treatment plant, then what are the alternatives? It made a lot more sense to eliminate that treatment plant and send the water here where we have the existing capacity to meet that demand.”  

Eliminating the Marco Shores plant means the city will no longer have a need for the 43-acre parcel, located just south of Fiddlers Creek, that has served as a disposal site for the plant. According to Poteet, the city could utilize the land for a different purpose or opt to sell the property, which he stated is more likely.  

With the impending conclusion of that project, the next item on the utility’s to-do list is switching from a lime softening water treatment process to the more modern and less costly membrane softening. Poteet said membrane softening will also meet the more stringent rules and regulations of the future regarding contaminants, which lime softening won’t do. The roughly $8 Million Project will have a life expectancy of about 20 years and an 8-year payback of initial costs. After that, the utility should realize savings of about $1 million a year, as compared to using lime softening.  

Utility rates won’t be affected by the project, he said.  

He stated the Plant Upgrade charge on the water bills was a result from the substantial improvements that were required when the city purchased the utility and during the STRP. It’s now at 2% on bills, down from 8% originally; it will be eliminated in October. The utility hasn’t had a rate increase on Marco for 4 years.  

The city is also in the process of taking another look at erecting a permanent building for the Department’s collections-distributions department at the North Water Plant site. Poteet said the city originally purchased a property in 2009, in part, for a permanent collection-distribution and administration facility. The proposed structure was designed, and costs were projected at between $6 million and $8 million. Ultimately, the city council elected to postpone the project at the time.  

Collections and distributions staff are the employees responsible for fixing sewer and water line breaks, digging ditches and the like, and they currently work out of trailers located on the South Water Plant grounds on Lily Court.  

He said the building will have to be redesigned because of building code changes since 2009 and that the new city manager, Mike McNees, is conducting a review of all the city’s space needs before proceeding with any building projects.  

“A lot of people don’t realize that water and sewer folks are what I call, ‘the silent sentinels of the community,’ added Poteet. “We are here for the community in times of need. We need to work out of a facility that is hardened, that isn’t trailers. We were lucky that these trailers survived the hurricane (Irma). If we’d had the storm surge that was predicted, then these would have been floating down the river I think. So, we do need a hardened facility to work out of on our daily routine and for emergencies, like hurricanes.”