Marco Island water quality workshop: How can homeowners, city protect the island's canals?

The city of Marco Island hosted a water quality workshop Thursday on the island's impaired canal waters and what homeowners can do to help.

City Councilor Richard Blonna said he helped organize the event because he said there is misinformation among residents about what the impaired waters designation means and what the city is doing about it.

"Many residents complained that the city and the City Council were not doing anything," Blonna said.

In 2019, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection determined the city's waterways were impaired and in need of a corrective plan because several  segments did not meet water quality standards for two consecutive years.

From 2019:Marco Island waterways added to state impairment list after elected official contacts DEP

To address DEP's findings, the city awarded last year a contract of nearly $200,000 to the Orlando-based company Environmental Research and Design to evaluate and assess the source of nutrients polluting local waterways, city documents show.

Jason Tomassetti, the city's stormwater engineer, said Thursday that the city is scheduled to receive a draft copy of ERD's report in June and a final report in August.

"The results of this study will actually help the current City Council target our resources for the upcoming budget years to continue to improve the quality of water," Blonna said.

The city also spends thousands of dollars every year to test water samples from the canals to identify the level of nutrients such as nitrogen that, if found in excess, can stimulate the growth of nuisance plants, including algae blooms. Algae blooms can have harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website.

From 2020:City Council awards contract to evaluate source of nutrients in Marco waters

The city agreed to pay approximately $30,000 to Collier County in fiscal 2020 to test water samples from the city's canals, a city document shows. During fiscal 2021, the city agreed to pay a similar amount to the Miami-based company Advanced Environmental Laboratories. 

Blonna said the city spent more than $1.5 million during fiscal 2020 on efforts to improve water quality such as water quality tests, regrading swales, street sweeping and the ERD study.

How can homeowners protect the canals?

Robert Roth, a member of Collier County's coastal advisory committee, said homeowners can make changes on their properties to protect the canals as the island continues to be developed. He said there have been 2,745 homes built in the past 20 years.

Roth said one of the things homeowners can do is replace impervious pavers with pervious pavers, which are porous to allow water to drain into the ground instead of into the canals.

More:Marco Island's top headlines of 2020: Coronavirus, 'new council,' water quality and growth

Roth said homeowners can also install rain gardens and ex-filtration trenches to capture the water coming from the roof.

"We have to think about the long-term impacts of the construction throughout the life of these homes because these impervious surfaces will continue to drain (into the canals), and the regulations we have on the books right now really don't address that," Roth said.

Gulf may be source of nutrients

Although homeowners can help protect the canals, former City Councilor Howard Reed said the excess nutrients that caused canal segments to be deemed impaired may be coming from the Gulf of Mexico.

Reed said he analyzed more than a decade-worth of water quality data from the city and did not find any patterns that could help identify the source of the excess nitrogen. Reed said he took into consideration certain variables such as rainfall and hurricanes.

"On any given test sampling day, the highest number (of total nitrogen) and the lowest number could be the lowest number and the highest number on the next day," Reed said.

Reed said people are not suddenly starting to use fertilizer and that data shows that reclaimed water use on the island has remained "consistent" over the years. Fertilizer and reclaimed water are two of several sources of nitrogen that can impact water quality.

Reclaimed water, also known as recycled water or reuse water, is former wastewater that is treated and discharged into waterbodies or used for irrigation, according to the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

In case you missed it:Marco Island leaders ask legislators to back $425,000 in state funds for water project

Reed also said the swales are not the problem because they do not drastically change from month to month or quarterly.

"What we are seeing here are things related to something other than what we are doing on the island," Reed said. "What is going on in our canals, because they are tidal canals, is primarily driven by what is going on in the Gulf."

Reed said the city should take water samples from the Gulf and other waterbodies outside the canals at the same time it does so in the canals.

"Without simultaneous out-of-canal or offshore testing, we cannot know if the increase in impurities in our canals is caused by activity on our island or from out in the Gulf or the (Big Marco) River," Reed said.

Harvey H. Harper III, president of ERD, wrote Monday in an email that his company collected water samples from the Big Marco River and the Gulf of Mexico. 

Contact Omar at omar.rodriguezortiz@naplesnews.com, and follow him on Twitter as @Omar_fromPR. Support his work by subscribing to Naples Daily News.