Millions of gallons of wastewater are ending up in the Caloosahatchee River.
City of Fort Myers leaders said they have updated the state on what they’re doing to fix the issue, but it will take longer than expected.
“This is the gateway to heaven," said charter boat captain Todd Shelly.
He started Off The Leash Boat Charters because of the beauty of the river.
“Going past the Billy Creek area, we've seen discharges where it's coming up into the river and people always are curious about what is," Shelly said. "I really don't talk about it a whole lot, because who wants to talk about discharge coming into the river?”
However, the city of Fort Myers does want to talk about its plan to stop this water from going into the river after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection threatened an $85,000 fine.
“It's very easy to assume that the worst is going on, that we're just discharging this nasty stuff that comes out of our house into the river without treatment," said assistant director of public utilities Jason Sciandra. "Since the 1980s, we've been treating this to an advanced wastewater treatment level.”
However, a 2021 bill signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis outlawed discharging treated water into bodies of water.
“What we realize is that we are still contributing nutrients to the environment," Sciandra said.
He said the city has updated the state on its plan to finish a new well at the Central Plant by the end of the year.
"We'll be capable of basically accepting up to 38 million gallons a day of treated effluent water, preventing that from going to the Caloosahatchee," Sciandra said.
Originally, all discharge to the river was supposed to stop by 2028.
Now, city leaders said they need until 2032 due to COVID-19, population growth and Hurricane Ian.
“We didn't know what was going to take. The rough estimate that I had back in the time I was a consultant to the city at the time was going to be about $150 million of investment," Sciandra said. "Where we are today, I think we're somewhere between $300 and $350 million.”
While he is glad the city is working on the problem, Shelly said it needs to act quickly.
“Everyone’s tired of the excuse of Ian. It's just time to get on with it and make it happen," Shelly said.
FDEP's next deadline for the city to complete the new well is by the end of the year.
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