FORT MYERS, Fla. — Have you ever wondered what is in our waterways? And I am not talking about plants or animals, but instead bacteria.
Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley joined Calusa Waterkeeper who has been testing our waterways for Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) for years.
One of the places that Calusa Waterkeeper says they are seeing the highest amounts of FIB, is at Manual's Branch in Fort Myers.
“Last month’s FIB number for MB3 (Manual Branch test site 3), which is the west end of this location, of this trailer park, were the highest ever for Manual’s Branch,” said Don Lees, Calusa Waterkeeper Ranger. “I believe they were the highest for anything in city including Billy’s Creek.”
Manual’s Branch, the waterway Don Lees is describing, runs along Canal Street in Fort Myers, goes under US-41 south of Lee Memorial and Fort Myers High School where it meets the Caloosahatchee.
“Both Manual’s Branch and Billy’s Creek have long been known to be impaired for Fecal Indicator Bacteria,” said Jason Pim, Calusa Waterkeeper Advocacy Chair. “And they are natural water bodies that have urban grown all around it now.”
With urbanization around these water bodies, having potential harmful bacteria is alarming.
“It increases the risk that someone interacting with that water could catch an illness, like gastrointestinal sickness,” said Pim.
And if that fecal bacteria is coming from a human source...
“It could also mean that could also be other bacteria and viruses that are even more dangerous,” said Pim.
But what is causing these high FIB numbers at Manual’s Branch? Unfortunately, that is a very complicated question that Calusa Waterkeeper is still trying to solve.
“It takes other types of tests and often vey frequent tests to try and narrow down a source,” said Pim.
And while Calusa Waterkeeper has been speaking with the City of Fort Myers about the concerning bacteria levels, they haven’t seen the needle being moved towards solutions from the city.
“Everyone wants clean water until they learn how much work it is going to be and how much it is going to cost,” said Pim.
Pim says at minimal signage needs to be post at these impaired water bodies.
“It’s a bummer for a water body to have to have a no fishing or no swimming sign, but that is a step in the process,” said Pim. “And we do think the public has a right to know about this contamination.”
And in the case of Manual’s Branch, Pim says there are longer term improvements that can be made to wastewater infrastructure, but also short-term solutions that be done as well.
“There are a whole multitude of land uses around there,” said Pim. “Like the hospital is right there and that is going to get demoed in a few years. Imagine being able to create a linger park there. Being able to clean up that shoreline and make it more natural.”
Here is a look at the latest FIB testing results from Calusa Waterkeeper:
