GPICA hears about sewer conversion
The Greater Pine Island Civic Association had their monthly meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 7. The featured speaker was Lee County Public Utilities Director, Pamela Keyes. Keyes, who is leading the development of a countywide wastewater management plan, attended the meeting to speak on septic to sewer conversion for Pine Island. GPICA President, Helen Fox reminded everyone of the septic to sewer task force created by the organization. The GPICA Task Force has shared their findings with the county, Fox said, and urged them to consider Pine Island a priority as they address wastewater management.
Keyes began her presentation by discussing the preliminary results of a water quality study performed by the Lee County Natural Resources Department, who has partnered with Lee County Public Utilities. Human and animal waste both contribute to impacted water quality, Keyes said.
“They’ve done a study in the North Fort Myers area initially…they knew they had impacted waters there and then they expanded that to go more countywide within the unincorporated county,” Keyes said.
The results of the countywide study should be available to the public within the next couple of months, she said. The intent was to understand how septic systems impact surface water. The findings were that septic systems are effective if there is a four-foot separation between the surface of the soil and the groundwater. Because Florida’s groundwater is so high, there are many systems that fail to meet that system’s separation, she said.
“We also look at the age of septic systems and whether there has been proper maintenance and inspections of them, many septic systems are 20 or 30 years old and have not been properly maintained. What our natural resources studies have found is that the biggest impact from septic systems are located within a quarter mile of impacted water bodies,” Keyes said.
Conventional septic systems, she said, don’t treat foreign nutrients, which impacts algae and red tide reactions. Lee County Utilities will be working with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ascertain whether they will be requiring those with conventional septic systems to upgrade to a more advanced treatment system. They approximate 5,000 septic systems currently on Pine Island, and nine package plants. If these are to be connected, she said, plant capacity as well as disposal, would have to be taken into consideration.
“Looking at our collection system, our transmission line, and our plant capacity would be very important for understanding how we connect septic systems to be able to treat that water. We did hear that there were some concerns that additional package plants or new septic systems may not be allowed on Pine Island. We had discussions with DEP staff and they do not know of any restrictions, but again, they’re going through the process of evaluating whether or not they’ll be requiring advanced treatment systems for package plants and for new septic systems, which will improve water quality,” Keyes said.
Based on current population growth, the plan through 2040 is that there are to be no changes to the plant or transmission systems. If there is a septic system created, the transmission line will have to be extended. Captiva, she said, is in the process of a study for conversion to the Sanibel Central sewer system. It has been concluded that the cost is $10,000 to $30,000 per property, which is part of the problem faced in septic to sewer conversion. Lee County Utilities will have a finalized countywide wastewater master plan by the end of 2022.
Two new board members were welcomed in; Connie Delessio and Cindy Bear. The new board members are replacing Jamie Delacey and Claudia Bringe.
The next GPICA meeting will be on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at Pine Island United Methodist Church at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will also be streamed live on Facebook.
This is a public information session.