Highly protected waterways still polluted in Estero Bay system

A mother dolphin and her calf cruise along the eastern shoreline of Estero Bay shortly after sunrise, occasionally cresting the surface for a breath of air.

As they approach a paddleboarder, the calf whirls and flashes it's pinkish belly toward the sky. In a flash it spots the paddler and spooks just inches away from the bow.

The two shoot off into the distance, the paddleboarder left bobbing in the wake near the mouth of Spring Creek.

Scenes like these plays themselves out across Estero Bay and in its vaunted tributaries.

But the bay and the rivers and creeks that feed it are sick with pollution despite receiving the highest levels of protection the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the governor can grant.

These waterways are filled with things like fecal indicator bacteria, blue-green algae, copper, nitrogen and phosphorus.

Records from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, show that the upper Imperial River is polluted with nitrogen and has oxygen problems, while Mullock and Hendry creeks are loaded with bacteria and fecal coliform.

The Estero River is a hotspot for fecal indicator bacteria, and Spring Creek is ailing from water woes as well.

It's enough to make one sick

So, what happened to the state's first aquatic preserve and the tributaries that feed it? After all, the bay has been protected since the '60s, and the creeks and rivers were given the Outstanding Florida Waters designation in 1991.

"It's not the best of all possible worlds," said retired state biologist and planning expert Jim Beever. "This is as good as we have it because (rules and regulations) haven't been enforced. This is the world of weakened regulations and the pretense that everything's OK."

This is not how things were supposed to go for these protected waterways, Beever and others say.

Protected on behalf of the public, for green space, wildlife habitat and water supply, Outstanding Florida Waters and aquatic preserves are the top designations, the best Florida is able to offer.

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The gold-star standard for DEP, the agency charged with keeping Florida's waters in check, has failed, critics say.

Terry Cain is the president of the citizen's support group Estero Bay Buddies, which formed in 1999. She moved here in the 1970s and says water quality has slowly declined throughout the bay and its tributaries since.

"People in the '50s that were using the bay and fishing and water skiing saw that the water quality was degrading, and they formed a group and started to lobby in Tallahassee for a preserve in the water so there would be some kind of engine to protect out water quality," Cain said, describing the formation of what would become the state's first aquatic preserve. "I've been here 48 years, and the water quality was so good when I came that you could see the bottom. if you walk into the Gulf of Mexico up to your neck, you could see your toes. The same in the bay."

She said having clean water is important to the local economy and that a failing set of rivers and creeks could have outfall that touches Southwest Florida's most profitable industries.

"Economically, it's of premiere importance because if the tributaries fail, the economy fails because people come here for clean air and clean water, Cain said. "And they come here for boating and fishing and kayaking."

Most tributaries not monitored by Dept. of Health

Bloom conditions and the presence of fecal coliform is only reported by the Florida Department of Health in Lee County when it occurs at places like Bonita Beach or Fort Myers Beach. Conditions in tributaries ― many of them used heavily by paddlers, boaters and anglers ― aren't checked by the public agency.

Calusa Waterkeeper Codty Pierce and his group of volunteers keep tabs on water conditions in popular recreational waterbodies that aren't monitored by DOH.

He reports that Estero Bay tributaries are filled with potentially harmful bacteria, and that water conditions seem to be getting worse over time.

"The testing we're doing is to bring awareness and try to safeguard our water-based community," Pearce said when asked why his group tests waterways that DOH does not. "There are a tremendous number of people kayaking, fishing, boating, snorkeling and swimming so the main role we do is monitor the waters for fecal indicator bacteria to safeguard the public because we know they're recreating in that area. We're filling the gap and bringing that awareness to the community."

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And again, they're polluted; and critics say the presence of harmful bacteria and nutrients that feed toxic algae blooms stem from the overdevelopment of the 360 square acre watershed, which lies mostly in south Lee County.

"You have algae blooms that are enhanced by the nutrients," Beever said. "Fecal indicator bacteria is an indicator of other pathogens that are not healthy for humans. Even people who step into a waterbody and are just wading may contract something if the pathogens are bad enough."

The problems in the creeks and river are similar, but the levels of pollution vary due to localized causes ― like the septic tanks in San Carlos Park that invariably leak and load Mullock Creek with fecal bacteria.

"In the 2019 water status report, fecal coliform and nitrogen were the worse problems," Beever said. "Human waste was in Mullock Creek, Estero River, Spring Creek and Imperial River."

So what happened since the tributaries were designated as Outstanding Florida Waters in 1991?

"They were in better shape at that time," Beever said. "Water quality rules were stronger then. Then there was an amazing development boom in Bonita Springs and Estero and that put a lot more nutrients into Imperial River and Spring Creek and the Estero River. And FGCU wasn't built in the early '90s, nor was all the booming development around it or east of Interstate 75."

Beever and others say despite the state and federal governments spending billions of dollars a year on projects, water quality across much of the state has only gotten worse in the last 30 years.

"Not only are you supposed to not get any worse but you're supposed to repair the parts that aren't currently meeting standards," Beever said of the polluted tributaries. "There's this denial that more development causes more pollution when in fact the basis of review admits that it's only treating a percentage of the pollution."

'That poop is getting into the bay'

So, is it safe to touch water that drains into Estero Bay, the state's longest-standing aquatic preserve.

That depends on the time of year, who you ask and localized conditions.

Waters here can be very clean, at times, but they're also, at times, filled with fecal bacteria from overused septic tanks and leaky wastewater pipes and plants.

"The population has grown a lot in the Estero Bay watershed, but there haven't been similar improvements in our wastewater systems," said James Douglass, Florida Gulf Coast University professor and water quality researcher. "It's the poop of all these people that have moved into the watershed, and it hasn’t been kept out of the tributaries the way it should. And that poop is getting into the bay."

Douglass knows first-hand how elevated bacteria levels can impact even healthy adults like himself.

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In the wake of Hurricane Ian in 2022, Douglass made contact with local waters regularly, and he ended up with MRSA, pseudomonas aeruginosa and streptococcus. He eventually wound up in the hospital.

"Now I’m much more careful about (going into the water with) wounds," Douglass said. "Or if it’s after recent storm events, I don’t go in the river."

Douglass said the tributaries simply haven't been protected to the degree they deserve, or to the letter of the law as development is not supposed to increase pollution.

"They certainly haven’t been treated with the respect due to an Outstanding Florida Waterway because a lot of the data shows this progressive degradation there," Douglass said. "They’ve all got kind of the same mixture of pollution, just in different relative amounts. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are really big (problems)."

There is still hope for Estero Bay tributaries

But there are answers to the problems facing Estero Bay tributaries. The basic goal is to rid the waters of pollution and get dissolved oxygen to healthy levels.

"There are signs of hope," Douglass said. "Big communities like Spanish Wells and others off East Bonita Beach Road have asked me to come and talk to them and they’re advocating getting away from the spraying and start using plants as filters. I don’t think that’s the only solution, but that’s one of the solutions to me that we should switch to and the other piece to the puzzle is really improving the wastewater problem instead of trying to play dumb and not know what’s going on."

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And all is not lost. Not forever, Beever and others say.

Florida's waterways could be again on a new track, on a path to the days when waters were gin clear and some were clean enough to scoop up and drink by hand.

Stricter regulations and enforcement of pollution standards (along with wastewater treatment facility updates) could cleanse waters until they're again worthy of the vaunted Florida protections.

"We can make things better," Beever said. "You can look ats examples in the United States and Europe and Asia; and in those cases, they put together tougher standards. We did a great job on Tampa Bay, and the state standards got weakened and there were problems again."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida development: Estero Bay near Fort Myers polluted by human waste