Cape Coral residents gather to discuss water quality crisis Thursday

After months of dealing with red tide and blue-green algae, a group held a meeting in Cape Coral inviting hundreds to talk about the future of Southwest Florida’s water.

Bill Johnson Junior, CEO of the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association  was attending the meeting, he says business is taking a hit.

“With us being in the construction industry association, construction is our bread and butter and we’ve already seen the decline from the tourism side,” he said.

He says some of their members, especially contractors, are seeing a bit of a dip.

“It’s a catastrophe and it’s hurting everything – the environment peoples health their homes people are really concerned and scared and they should be,” David Holden said.

The big question remains: how do we keep this from happening again?

Mayor Coviello says plans are in the works.

“If we build that bubble curtain on the outside of our canals at the entrance of the river then there’s a potential to keep it out all together then we wont be dealing with it in our canals,” he said.

But Johnson is worried that is only a temporary solution.

“What concerns us is five months down the road, six months down the road,” he said.