Estero Bay Nutrient Management Partnership

Estero Bay Nutrient Management Partnership

Launches Lakes Park Wetland Filter Marsh Planting Project

Thank you to the approximately 100 volunteers who helped us complete a project to "turn dirt" and put something positive "in the ground!" on Saturday, July 16th at Lakes Park (click here for photos)! We planted a marsh with 1,800 native plants which will assist in restoring wetland functions at the Park. The water in Lakes Park, which was a rock quarry before Lee County converted it into a regional park, drains over a weir south of Gladiolus Drive before flowing into Hendry Creek and on to Estero Bay.

Volunteers included members of the Southwest Florida Watershed Council and the Estero Bay Nutrient Management Partnership; employees of the South Florida Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Lee County; staff from local environmental and engineering firms including Johnson Engineering, Bonita Bay and EarthBalance; and the members of a 4-H Club. We are grateful to them all!

The Estero Bay watershed has undergone extensive urban development, especially during the past 10 years. Estimates indicate that in 1995, about 11% of the watershed was comprised of urban land uses (residential, commercial, industrial) concentrated in the western developed corridor (Estero Bay Watershed Assessment, South Florida Water Management District, 1999). Concurrently, agricultural land use was estimated at 26%. In the year 2000, the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council projected that urban land use would increase to 35% by 2020, while agricultural use would increase only an additional 2% by 2010. Of the 11 secondary sub-basins in the Estero Bay watershed, seven are estimated to have impervious cover percentages of over 10% based on 1995 land uses (Estero Bay Agency for Bay Management, State of the Bay Report, in press). The ten percent threshold for impervious cover is widely accepted as the level that water quality in associated surface water systems begins to decline significantly.

Deteriorating water quality in the Bay and tributaries, all of which are classified as Outstanding Florida Waters, has occurred concurrently with the rapid urbanization of the watershed. Chlorophyll a levels (an indicator of nutrient enrichment) have increased dramatically during the past several years, especially in the Estero and Imperial Rivers. Currently Mullock Creek and the Imperial River are on the Impaired Waters List (United States Environmental Protection Agency 303D) for nutrient impairment. The remaining tributaries would also exceed the chlorophyll a annual average of 11 micro grams per liter threshold for impairment if classified as estuarine (they are now classified as freshwater).The classification of these tributaries is currently being re-evaluated through an administrative hearing challenge.

Rapid increases in impervious cover and associated declines in water quality for the Estero Bay tributaries present a significant challenge to resource managers with regard to these Outstanding Florida Waters (Estero Bay and its tributaries). “Attainment of use” as required ultimately by the Clean Water Act (Chapter 303) is addressed through the implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) rule. In effect, the TMDL program will determine the assimilative capacity of the water bodies in question and limit future loads through a variety of nutrient management strategies. The burden of achieving TMDL limits, however, falls to local government and the community at large.

The Estero Bay Nutrient Management Partnership was organized in 2003 as a non-regulatory, community based partnership to address deteriorating water quality in Estero Bay and its tributaries and to achieve nutrient load reduction goals that will be consistent with the TMDL program. Consistent with its mission, the Southwest Florida Watershed Council (Watershed Council) was founded on the premise of improving collaboration and developing partnerships to address water resource issues on a watershed scale. Our primary objective within this project proposal is to develop a partnership with public and private entities to work cooperatively toward nutrient reduction goals in the Estero Bay watershed. Secondarily, the proposed partnership could become a model for restoring other bays throughout coastal Southwest Florida.

This project is being organized into three phases: 1) organization and partnership building; 2) research and information acquisition/analysis and development of nutrient reduction goals/plans; and 3) implementation. Phases 1 and 2 are underway now.

We anticipate that this project will be successful in maintaining or reducing nutrient loads to Estero Bay. Admittedly, this will be a challenge because we anticipate that the watershed will continue, as predicted, to experience rapid and progressive conversion to urban land uses. By creating an awareness of the “value” both ecologically and economically of the Bay and its OFW tributaries, we hope to motivate private and public stakeholders toward a community/watershed strategy to improve the resource.

The project is working in the Estero Bay Watershed. Note the map which indicates watershed boundaries and sub-basin delineation.

For more information on the Estero Bay Nutrient Management Partnership, please contact webmaster@swfwc.org

Please report any problems with site to: webmaster@swfwc.org.

Site last edited on 05/03/2006