It looks like a mush of guacamole and smells like a sewer, and that's almost exactly what it is.
Residents of the Cascades community in Estero noticed a fecal smell in the air.
They tried to figure out where it was coming from. Just behind a wall in the community is a wastewater treatment facility owned and operated by Cypress Bend RV Resort.
"This trailer park, like many of them throughout the state, operates with a package wastewater treatment plant," said Steven Sarkozy, Estero village manager.
Sarkozy said the plant has been around since the '60s.
To his knowledge, it's working fine, but the smell is anything but.
"It’s that it’s seeping into our pond that is the problem," resident Theresa Maier said.
The homeowners association at the Cascades Community got the water tested in November 2023 by Advanced Aquatics.
The testing showed fecal bacteria at very high levels. The testing company then treated it, but the water got stinky again.
So, Maier reached out to a Florida Gulf Coast University professor of marine science, James Douglass.
"The analysis showed that there were high levels of nutrients and algae in the ponds. Much higher than you see in stormwater ponds," said Douglass.
He says this could cause serious health risks for community members.
Now the village plans to help solve the problem.
"We have plans on not only connecting this entire community to the municipal system so we can eliminate the pond altogether," Sarkozy said.
A combination of grants to the village and the individual trailer parks would pay for the conversion.
The village plans to have all RV parks that have a sewage setup like this hooked up to the village within the next 18 months.