Concerns over fuel in the water at Legacy Marina in Fort Myers

Hundreds of gallons of fuel are polluting and stinking up the water at Legacy Marina in downtown Fort Myers.

People who live nearby are concerned about the pollution and the fire hazard that the fuel presents.

WINK News spoke with a company cleaning the fuel from the water. It’s called “Resolve,” and they said the fire hazard is bigger than the environmental hazard this will have on our waterways and wildlife.

You can see the fuel floating on the water, and residents nearby say they can smell it too.

“How long it’s going to take for nature to clean it up,” said Don Gilardi. “It’s a terrible thing to see.”

The environment is also feeling the impacts.

“It’s something that nature is going to have to do. You can’t hire anyone to clean this amount of water,” said Gilardi.

The question is how much and how harmful diesel fuel is in our waterways.

The film on the water you can see at the marina is called sheen. It’s like a sheet of fuel that sits on the surface of the water.

That sheen is coming from the boats in Legacy Marina that have capsized and sat in the water for weeks since Hurricane Ian.

The company working to clean it up says it’s not that harmful to our environment. They say the sunlight will burn that sheen by the end of each day, and the tides will carry out whatever’s left.

The good news is there is a crane at the marina that is prepared to pull some of the boats out of the water, which will be the first major step in making sure no more fuel spills.