Another suggestion for the UEP
To the editor:
My wife and I recently purchased a nice waterfront lot in the NW and plan to build on it someday to retire in Cape Coral. We were prepared to pay $4,800 for UEP, but not it sounds like we won’t need to … for now. I don’t have any magic answers to this UEP problem. It does seem to swing back and forth a lot, but it is a difficult problem to have. I do have one suggestion. I’m not sure whether it would work or not, because it’s kind of old fashioned, but it seems reasonable to me and might benefit almost everyone involved. Here it is:
Apparently the city of Cape Coral has plenty of capacity to process sewerage at the current plants, but a limited buildout in many newer areas. When I build on my lot, which is right next to a canal, my only alternative will be to pay someone to install an expensive septic system. It may break and have to be repaired, it may leak pollution into the canal and the city of Cape Coral will receive no income from my septic tank, but will have sewerage plants sitting below full capacity (if I understand right). Then, once the UEP expansion goes through into my area, I will need to abandon my septic system, pay a big fee (a second big expenditure) and hook up to city service (which will be a good thing). Why not arrange instead for the installation of holding tanks that would be pumped out and delivered by truck to the city sewage plants to process? Here are the advantages, as I see then:
1. No wasted money on septic systems,
2. The city UEP makes more revenue
3. Eliminates all pollution that may now go into the city’s great system of canals
4. Generate employment for people driving the pickup vehicles (whether public or private)
5. Generate revenue for UEP immediately as the city actually expands in the future, which I am confident it will, regardless of whether the piping network has gotten to a particular area or not
6. This service can be priced to make a profit for the city, because there is no right to install septic systems and potentially pollute the canals, and the price for service does not need to be the same as it would be once the piped system were installed.
I submit this wild idea respectfully in the hopes that it will be considered and might help the city in these trying times.
Alex Wilsion
Spring Park