Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I will disclose I have a dog in this hunt. One is my house is in NW cape Coral, I fish almost exclusively in Matlacha pass, up to Charlotte Harbor, to Boca Grande.
I also own a gulf access property that may or may not be affected by the location of a new barrier.
about 40 yrs ago a barrier/ Dam was placed at the southern end of the northwest spreader canal that seperated canal water from Matlacha pass.
In 2006 there were 13 breaches along the spreader including a major one that blew out the mangroves and made it that boats could navigate completely around the barrier. It was decided that the barrier be removed so it would not do any more damage.
The first thing to understand is why it failed in the first place.
One of the reasons is that when it was built there were no roads or houses or driveways. Bare ground can absorb rain , roof tops, concrete cannot. this forces more storm runnoff into the canals.
The other thing is they did not anticipate the tidal action of the gulf coming through the mangroves, in periods of heavy rains you would have large amounts of water pouring from the weirs over the freshwater canals as well as strong tides.
The East bank is high and dry land, the west bank is wetlands of mangroves.
There was an outroar by environmental groups who's perception was dirty canal water would be polluting Matlacha pass and they were demanding to replace the barrier. Under a consent order 20 stakeholders were to come up with a solution that was better than the barrier or replace the barrier.
The problem from the begining is some of these stakeholders were more protectionists, politicians, and lawyers. and none of them were going to be responsible financially for any of the solutions (other than Cape Coral). It's always easy to spend other people's money.
With independant scientists, and the DEP and consultants, it was agreed that reinstalling a barrier was a bad idea. After all if you do the same thing why would you expect a different result. They came up with the idea that if the water going into Matlacha was just as clean or cleaner then the water in Matlacha why would you have to seperate them?
The group came up with Net tangible ecosystem benefits that they all agreed was the best solution to the issue. Some of the points of the agreement were a fertilizer ordinance,periodically having septic system inspections (at the cost to the homeowner) Cape coral paying for the dredging of Matlacha, and for city sewer to be installed in the North Cape. There were others but the biggest problem was regarding city sewer.
All parties agreed that installing city sewer was a priority as it could help impurities from polluting in the first place. But here is where the differences started. some of the stakeholders started to make erroneous comments and try to say that the water coming from the spreader was dirty, filled with human waste, motor oil, fertilizer, and that Cape Coral was flushing their toilets into Matlacha.
Septic systems are used all over the country. they are an effective way to handle the dirty side of being human. Most states allow 1 housing unit per acre. In Cape Coral they made 1/4 acre lots which means 4 housing units per acre. This is a problem because septic systems require a leach field and need soil to absorb, break down impurities. The saving grace is the NW is only 25% built up. A lot of the homes are not lived in 1/2 the year or vacant, and a lot are just snowbirds of 2 people per household. So it is not a problem right now and there is NO science that says any different. In fact water tests have shown that the spreader water is cleaner than the Matlacha water which gets callosahatchee and Myakka river water.
Just because the septic systems are not a problem now does not mean it won't become a future problem. If the NW gets built up and more septic systems are installed it will reach a build out rate that will exceed the soils ability to absorb, and it will pollute area waters.
The City proposed that West of Burnt store rd be put on city water when it reaches 35% build out. And East of burnt store when it reached 45% build out. The west side was already at that level so in essence they were saying they would start installing there in 2012. This pretty much coincided with what the other stakeholders thought, as west of Burnt store is all gulf access and considered the Red Zone. The opposition thought that 45% build out East of Burnt Store RD was not good enough Their reasoning was that if cape coral was only issuing 300 building permits a year it would take til 2050 to reach that threshold. They wanted a set time of say 5-7 yrs. This became a deal breaker because Cape Coral thought that if they assess 20k per lot in the Nw for lots that were only worth 6k no one would pay it. You would likely have landowners just walk away, stop paying taxes altogether and the 25% that had houses would not be enough to pay for the cost of utilities brought there.
Because the city or opposition would not budge the other stakeholders had one card to play. The consent order said if an agreement couldn't be reached then the barrier would have to be put back. so now the other stakeholders are demanding it, even though at one point the all agreed it was a bad idea. Again they don't have to pay one cent towards bringing city sewer and not one cent towards building the barrier. The estimated cost is 4 million dollars to rebuild something that has already failed. A group called the NWcape association has been active in getting petitions signed and the Cape Planning and Zoning has joined in. The Cape had to file for an application to rebuild the permit and the DEP is asking for more info because they don't even know if they should approve the permit to be rebuilt.
From an environmental point of view I disapprove of this. From a Cape tax payer I disapprove of this. From a NW landowner whose property values could be affected I disapprove of this. And lastly from a point of principal that lawyers and politicians from other cities are going to tell us how we have to spend our money to benefit them. If you get a chance to sign the petition that is being circulated around town please do. If you are a Cape Coral resident or property owner and don't want 4 million of the tax payer money wasted please visit NWCAPE.com for more info.
How much would it cost to install sewers in the area? Perhaps the $4 million could finance the installation so that all the effected land owners could pay off the sewers over 30 years. I would rather spend the money on something that would make a real difference to water quality and permit the future growth of the area.
Does the barrier installation mean the boat lift would be re-activated?
I guess this is why this issue needs to end up in court. It is not environmental but strictly political and hysteria.
"Stoelker also said that the purpose of the meeting was to once again, hear from experts, both sides of the issue. Addressing the group was geologist, David Scott and biologist Aaron Adams. According to Scott, the current situation was not harmful to the pass and stood in favor of not replacing the barrier.
"We have seen studies that the storm water runoff into the pass is not polluting the area," Scott said. "Studies show that perhaps the storm water run off is among the cleanest in the state and pollution is not a problem. If we dam the thing back up, we don't know what's going to happen in the future."
Adams said the real concern was water flow and how the saline and freshwater mix was affecting the species which inhabit the area.
A couple things to note about this article. First I don't know either one of these "experts" where they are from, and what personal involvement either has had in the science and studies that have been done specifically regarding matlacha pass/ northwest spreader. Regardless, they held a meeting and the first guy says the water going into matlacha is clean (that is what water tests have shown).
2nd guy says but the amount of fresh water entering in one place is bad. In principle may be correct but the fresh water is seperated from the salt water canals by weirs so it doesn't enter that way. In fact the canals west of burnt store rd come in and out with the tides so the water in there is coming in from matlacha pass and then going back out. The only thing is does it go in and out through the mangroves or does it go in and out through a canal? They would lead you to believe that now it only goes in and out through the canal but the dye test that were done showed something completely different.
The other problem is that when it rains, the rain falls all over the place not just cape coral, the rainwater eventually makes it into the ocean through rivers and streams. so as long as the water is clean what is the big deal???
In fact if you read the next link it will explain that by damming up the calloosahatcha at lake okachobee it is preventing the flow of fresh water and damaging the estuaries. So just maybe the northwest spreader is "helping" Matlacha who's water is the cleanest in the area.
The line in the matlacha article that I find most amusing is "all these bad things started happening -dead fish-sandbars etc when the barrier was removed. Sounds like something from pilgrim times "when the connor's moved to town that's when the drought started, they must be witches, hang um"
they forget that it was cold weather of last year that was blamed, and red tide the year before. My favorite is this... Google maps has the barrier still in place and if you scroll over a little .. there's the big ol sand bar they refering to. They say it has gotten worse since the barrier has been removed.. If silt is starting when the barrier is still there and then starts to grow it acts like a catchers mitt and gets bigger faster whether the barrier is there or not.... ooopps we didn't know there's proof out there the sand bar was already there before the barrier was taken down>
I understand that with the barrier being gone water is flowing through a canal out to matlacha pass in volumes that were not present before. The impact this will have on matlach is this... They will have to dredge the canal more often than they did before. I think instead of wasting 4 million they could just arrange to have the "difference" of the time between done by Cape Coral.
I also understand that just because lack of a barrier is not a problem now, it will become a problem in the future. In order for the cape to not install the barrier they must agree to the things that "science" has shown will prevent future problems. But I don't think a civic group from matlacha should be telling the city of cape coral what needs to be done off inaccurate material.
The water tests results are out there, the dye flow tests are out there. Why when there is so much scientific data on this issue that is ignored has me scratching my head. So I have concluded. Cape coral, matlacha, pine island. lee county, the snook , foundation, the nw neighborhood assoc. should all just refer the matter completely over to Florida's DEP, the army corps of engineers, The FWC and any other group of state water authorities ,their scientist to come up with a solution.
I've dealt with the Army Corps of Engineers in a professional capacity in New England and knowing their track record all over this country I wouldn't want them to watch my dog.
That's it. If they try to maake them contain the canal 100% they were talking about seawalling the entire west bank at a cost of 60million. The original proposal was to move the barrier north of it's current location and make it a loch system
I may have thought of a solution. One of the biggest reasons why matlacha is for the reinstallment of a barrier is because they do not want cape coral boat traffic. because there is only one way in and out and it's past their homes and waterfront restaurants , they also say the propellers stir up the silt which causes the need to dredge more often. If there is a barrier it also makes their direct access lots more valuable.
well here is my solution .... they don't want cape coral boat traffic we don't want pine island , matlacha car traffic on our roads .... so we'll set up a toll booth west of burnt store rd on pine island rd (much like the sanibel causeway and cape coral parkway tolls.) We will use that income to pay for the barrier and it will create jobs to man the tolls and construct the tolls. After the barrier is paid for then we can use the money sewers in the area.
Somebody else proposed making another entry point to offset the tidal flow in just one place, although it would accomplish that it would destroy some of the habitat we are trying to protect. Same with the beach idea, the whole area is pristine mangroves it is beautiful cruising through the mangroves (at no wake zone speeds). It is like being at the ding darling nature preserve but by boat instead of car. I think it's nicer than a beach and the fishing is fantastic. The sandbars do act like beaches, people pull their boats right up to them and let their dogs run and people also fish from them.
The area is worth protecting.....cape coral needs to take some actions to keep these areas nice. But instead of doing the right things both sides are arguing about something that is not the answer
So here is the latest updates... the State DEP reviewed all the info, they did some additional tests and they determined that putting back the barrier was not in the best interest of the environment.
oh but the story of course cannot end there... the lee county commisioners are now going to bring a court case against the state because they want it back in. HELLO??????
So after science has determined the right path the county council now wants to spend money to have it overturned to make cape coral spend money. When the lee county council goes up for reelection I hope the people of the cape get organized and get someone in there that will truly represent them. more money leaves the cape in taxes then comes back in from county programs, the cape has the largest population in the area, but yet it seems the county has it out for the cape.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
