Charlotte County residents express concerns with water quality at town meeting

Writer: Camila Pereira
Published: Updated:

Residents of Charlotte County have dealt with multiple water issues in the past year. Stormwater flooding from Hurricane Idalia, water contamination and red tide.

The county addressed community concerns on the subject during a town meeting.

“It’s an event that brings all of the community and all of the various departments from Charlotte County together to learn and also get feedback on what water means to them, what are some of their concerns and also educate the public on what we are doing in Charlotte County for our water quality,” said Caroline Wannall, the public relations manager for Charlotte County Utilities.

Staff members gave presentations on a variety of topics, including water quality, stormwater and drinking water management.

All as they got the public’s input via an interactive survey.

“We want to get the citizens involved; we want to hear some of their concerns so that we can do better,” said Wannall.

And the people answered, with about 250 people in attendance and 500 responses gathered from a survey shared with the community earlier this month.

Residents expressed their biggest concerns with water quality in the area.

“The drinking water here, there’s some concerns with metals and that sort of thing,” said Punta Gorda resident Bill Rotramel. “I wanted to learn more about that, and then obviously, when we have storms and hurricanes, we have a lot of flooding in the area.”

Map of Charlotte County with sticky notes showing how badly it floods in some residential neighborhoods. (CREDIT: WINK News)


“They want to switch our community over from septic tanks to sewers,” Denis Cavanagh said, a resident of Charlotte County, “and we, the majority of the community, do not want to switch to sewers.”

The event provided a learning opportunity for everyone.

“One of the topics that I didn’t even anticipate was water quality reports,” said Wannall. “How do I know my drinking water is safe? So we are going to do a better job to make sure that they’re aware that these reports are out there.”

By working together, Wannall said, they can make water quality in Charlotte County better.

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