Calusa Waterkeeper has spent years advocating about high bacteria levels in local waters Manuel’s Branch and Billy’s Creek. Florida Department of Environmental Protection has bent over backwards for the City of Fort Myers, and recently extended their 2021 consent order by an additional seven years.
The Big Picture
The City of Fort Myers’ wastewater treatment facilities have long needed improvement. This is a huge undertaking we generally support, but it is frustrating for the state to give them more time to complete upgrades, even if it is necessary.
Sure, the pandemic and major hurricanes were setbacks but there are always going to be forces of nature out of the City’s control. For the parties to agree that population growth rates were unanticipated is a particularly difficult argument to swallow. Growth consistently outpacing infrastructure is a situation created entirely by local and state policy makers and has been easily foreseeable for decades.
Regarding the City’s use of Senate Bill 64 (2021) to ask for more time to complete wastewater infrastructure projects, 1) at best, shines a light on how that legislation can be leveraged to slow down the types of projects it sought to have implemented or 2) at worst, demonstrates one of the many ways the Legislature has worked to purposely kick the can down the road on meaningful water quality projects and reform.
Manuel’s Branch & Billy’s Creek
There are a variety of potential point sources along Manuel’s Branch and Billy’s Creek that remain unaddressed by the city’s actions, and this amended agreement with FDEP.
CWK remains disappointed with FDEP allowing the City stop their quarterly “Pollution Reduction Plan” reports for Billy’s Creek and Manuel’s Branch. In 2024, the City presented two consecutive quarters of results with (arguably) no human indicators found. Technically this satisfied Action G of the consent order. This is despite both FDEP and CWK’s independent testing in the same time frame coming back as positive for human sources of bacteria contamination in Manuel’s Branch.
Calusa Waterkeeper believes strongly that the City could be taking more actions to restore the surfaces waters of Manuel’s Branch and that many of the wastewater facility upgrades in the order will likely have no effect on the pollution of this waterbody.
Calusa Waterkeeper will continue our independent monitoring and investigation of potential point sources, with plans to present that data to the public and local officials.
Potential Solutions
With Lee Memorial Hospital tabbed for demolition in the coming years, there may be a rare opportunity for authorities to establish/extend a linear park along Manuel’s Branch and make efforts to restore it to a more natural and healthy condition.
In the meantime, we urge the FDEP to prioritize bacterial TMDLs for Billy’s Creek and Manuel’s Branch.
The lack of progress in restoring the bacteria impairments to these two waterbodies, and many more like them around the state, demonstrates a failure of both local and state policy.
With the failure of our governments to protect our environment and water quality, Calusa Waterkeeper’s mission, and your voices from the public, are more critical than ever.