Collier watershed restoration project seeks to reverse decades of damage

For decades, an extensive canal system dug to make way for development and farms in Collier County has altered historical water flows through the region’s two major watersheds and into its estuaries and bays. 

Now, Collier officials are looking toward an ambitious plan to help restore some of the natural flowways through the county and rebalance freshwater flows into Naples and Rookery bays.

The multi-year plan, conceived in 2015, aims to improve water quality, help oysters and mangroves recover, and rehydrate about 10,000 acres known as South Belle Meade in the Picayune Strand State Forest. 

At the heart of the proposal, known as the Collier County Comprehensive Watershed Improvement Plan, is an effort to send more freshwater to Rookery Bay and reduce the amount of freshwater flowing into Naples Bay.

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Manmade alterations of flowways, including the Golden Gate Canal, have increased the size of the Naples Bay watershed by about 80 square miles while the Rookery Bay watershed has decreased by the same amount, Collier coastal projects manager Gary McAlpin said.

That has created problems in both watersheds, but the proposed project could encounter opposition from the owners of mostly undeveloped land that would be in the restored flowway.

Too much, too little

More water flowing into Naples Bay brings with it more nutrients, elevating nitrogen and phosphorous levels. The differences in freshwater received by each watershed also changes the salinity of the systems, McAlpin said. 

That affects the survival of oysters, which help filter nutrients out of the water, improving water quality.

“It has to have the right salinity for oysters to grow,” McAlpin said. “You could plant all the oyster reefs that you want, but if the salinity of Naples Bay is not correct, oysters will not grow.”

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In Rookery Bay, meanwhile, the change in the water’s makeup is detrimental to mangroves.

“Mangroves need freshwater to survive and to grow,” McAlpin said. “And so what’s happening down in Rookery Bay, there’s been die-offs in some areas in Rookery Bay because of the lack of freshwater for the mangroves.”

Furthermore, by diverting flows to the Picayune Strand State Forest county officials aim to rehydrate wetland areas, restore habitat and reduce the possibility of catastrophic wildfires. By restoring the wet season flows “to a more historical regime,” the project would also recharge the aquifer, which would help “protect the water supply for the City of Naples and Collier County,” according to a notice about a public meeting Tuesday night to discuss the project.

Reversing decades of damage

Most of Collier’s canals were dug in the 1940s and 1950s. As dredge-and-fill became the established method to meet a growing demand for waterfront housing after World War II, the canals helped create waterfront property, increased access for boating and provided fill material for buildable lots, according to an executive summary from the 2016 plan.

The widespread canal construction for urban and agricultural drainage changed the timing and quantity of freshwater flowing into coastal waters. 

Groundwater levels have been lowered. Wetlands have been degraded or destroyed. Wildlife populations have been reduced. Nutrients and other pollutants have increased in coastal waters.

The watershed restoration project is estimated to cost about $32 million. It is expected to be funded through the RESTORE Act that distributes Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement money. So far, $18 million has been committed, and the county is working to get more funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, McAlpin said.

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County officials are working with other agencies to see what issues there are with the project's design and what else the county needs to do to get the necessary permits. McAlpin said the county is about six months into a permitting process that could take a couple of years.

He said the project will be completed sometime around or after 2024, "if everything works the way we think it should."

How it would work

Using two pump stations — one at the Golden Gate Main Canal and another at the Alligator Alley portion of Interstate 75 — county officials would flow water from the Golden Gate and I-75 canals through culverts underneath the road. 

The water would spread southwest, bypassing Six L's Farm. Additional culverts under U.S. 41 East would allow the water to travel toward Rookery Bay.

The county would use an automated system to regulate the flows on a schedule to be worked out with the South Florida Water Management District to avoid harming private property or city and county well fields, McAlpin said. 

Generally, the system would operate during the wet season, when there is more water to move, he said.

A series of monitoring wells would tell the county when it would need to shut down and when it would need to pump, McAlpin said. 

County officials expect to have only about half the water that would travel through the project area arrive at Rookery Bay. The rest would soak into the ground or evaporate.

County looking to landowners for help 

The majority of the 10,000 to 15,000 acres that make up the state forest are publicly owned. However, about 100 privately owned parcels are scattered throughout the primary and secondary flowway of the project. Of those parcels, county officials estimate that about 50 would be considered “critical” and a flowway easement or agreement would need to be executed.

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As part of the project, Collier County commissioners last month approved the concept of a voluntary program that would offer private property owners credits they could use to build elsewhere in exchange for allowing the county to flow water over their property.

The private property owners could also sell the credits to a developer who would be able to then build in so-called receiving lands, McAlpin said.

The county’s preferred path would be to have the property owners enter into the credit program, because it would create a “win-win situation,” McAlpin said. 

“They get money for their property and they still maintain the ownership of the property,” he said. “And they’re doing something that would be incredibly positive for the environment.”

However, if some of the property owners within the project area don’t want to enter into an agreement with the county, Collier officials “would engineer around them,” McAlpin said.

“There’s definitely ways we can get around the properties,” he said.

Environmentalists favor project

To Brad Cornell, a policy associate for Audubon of the Western Everglades and Audubon Florida, the project is a step in the right direction.

“Generally, the concept is right on target,” he said. “It’s the right kind of plan. It accomplishes a number of regional restoration needs that are going to have multiple benefits.”

It will help not only with water issues, Cornell said, but could also reduce the risk of catastrophic fires in the area.

“Some of these landscapes, a lot of them, burn or should burn, but when it’s overdrained like they all are right now, because of the canals, the fires are really damaging,” he said. 

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Aside from the benefits to Naples and Rookery bays and the rehydration of the area, the project also presents an opportunity to create wildlife crossings where officials are proposing to flow water underneath roads using culverts, said Meredith Budd, Southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation.

“So while you’re looking at how to improve hydrological flow, it’s a great opportunity to also focus on wildlife movement and how we can maximize making sure that there is connectivity across roadways for wildlife,” she said.

The project’s biggest hurdle could be the various property owners, all with different interests, who have land within the proposed flowway, Budd said.

“Belle Meade is a patchwork of ownership, some public, some private,” she said. “And so solving the ownership issues I think will be one of the greatest challenges to the rehydration of Belle Meade.”

Some skeptical of plan

To Michael Ramsey, president of the Golden Gate Estates Area Civic Association, there are still many unanswered questions. He said he doesn’t think there has been much coordination on the plan, including with landowners south of I-75. 

“The county has not talked to us at all,” he said. “What I know is what I’ve read.”

He questioned whether county officials have had enough discussions and debates with different groups to understand the system and weigh any unintended consequences.

“Is it going to cause us to dry out our summers faster, is it going to make our winters longer when it’s drier, will it extend our fire season?” Ramsey asked. “Will it change our wetlands?”

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Ramsey also wondered how the project would affect the Golden Gate Estates aquifer and what it would do to properties of landowners within the flowway.

“So the question then becomes how much water are they going to put on somebody’s property?” he asked. “Is it going to change the conditions on the property? Will it become a liability or limitation?”

Commission Chairman Bill McDaniel, whose district includes Golden Gate Estates, said there is no argument that the increase in freshwater flow into the southerly estuaries is a “healthy benefit” to those water bodies. 

However, he said no other alternatives farther upstream have been explored to keep water out of Naples Bay and achieve the county’s goal of reducing the freshwater flow into the bay by 30 percent.

“The proposed rehydration and flowing the water into the Rookery Bay through the South Belle Meade only accommodates 10 percent of that 30 percent reduction that they need or want to effectuate,” he said. “So something else has to be done and nothing else is being done. Nor even talked about.”

Connect with the reporter at patrick.riley@naplesnews.com or on Twitter @PatJRiley.

WATERSHED PROJECT

What: Collier County public information meeting

Where: South Regional Public Library, 8065 Lely Cultural Parkway

When: Tuesday, 6 to 8 p.m.