Our Marco Island Canals are Dying

At first, I thought it was caused by reuse water from our Wastewater Treatment Plant. I have found out that this was not the case.

The chief cause is twofold:

About 65% is due to the sludge on the bottom of the canal, brought about from years of algal bloom and decay due primarily from fertilizer runoff.

The other approximately 35% is from ground water run-off. Excessive fertilizer, on our lawns, gets into the groundwater and ultimately into the canals. This causes seasonal algal bloom. The bloom dies, falls into the bottom of the canal then decays, causing oxygen depletion and slowly killing them.

The sludge problem solution is going to be long term. A lot of our canals are dead ends and do not have a good flow path with the tides.

But there is something we can do now. We currently have a partial fertilizer restriction (with weak enforcement). We need to get serious. Full fertilizer band and strong enforcement.

Just maybe, just maybe, nature would then help us out a little and start to help mitigate the sludge problem.

People of Marco Island have to decide....do we want our designer type lawns or do we want clear, live canals with fish and wildlife?

I don't use any fertilizer on my lawn and it’s really not that bad.

Please call or email your City Councilor to discuss how you feel.