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City needs ordinance to protect canal waters

By Staff | Dec 3, 2020

To the editor:

It was very disappointing to see our city council members refuse to pass an ordinance protecting the canal waters from lawn run-off pollution at the last council meeting. This should not be a measure postponed. Councilmember Nelson, the author of the proposed ban on phosphorus pollution, and Cosden both voiced support for this modest, but helpful measure to ban phosphorous fertilizer and add a 15-foot area adjacent to the canal where fertilizer is banned to prevent run off into the canal water.

I would urge your readership to actively contact their council person and Mayor Coviello. Urge them to pass a ban on phosphorus fertilizer in the next council meeting (Nelson’s proposal).

Yes, concerns about how to enforce such a measure exist. Since we seem to have plenty of auxiliary police to urge homeowners to clip their grass and move their boats, I suspect we have enough Human Resources to urge homeowners to be mindful of the delicate nature of the water environment. What really seems to be missing is political will to do the right thing.

It is problematic that only four landscape/yard businesses have bothered to register and pay city taxes. That doesn’t mean the city can’t enforce a clean water initiative. Indeed, it suggests that the city should reach out to these business to pony up as well as clean up their polluting habits. That could occur in the same conversation if the council would only act now. What seems to be lacking is not resource to act on cleaner water, but political motivation.

It is only fair that the City of Cape Coral do those modest things within our jurisdictional control in tandem with demanding better accountability from the Army Corp of Engineers and Florid Department of Environment. Please supply some encouragement to your council and mayor, if you treasure the beauty of the gulf waters and your own health. Go to capecoral.gov to find your city council person. Ask them to do the right thing.

Ellen Starbird

Cape Coral