Water quality testing continues in Fort Myers waterways

Water quality has been an ongoing issue for parts of Southwest Florida, and two notoriously bad spots fall within the City of Fort Myers.

The water may look inviting, but the signs point out the opposite: Don’t swim. Don’t fish.

“This is typically considered our hot spot for bacteria in the city,” said Justin Mahon, the city’s environmental compliance manager.

Mahon updated the city council on the results of the fecal indicator bacteria for Manuel Branch and Billy Creek.

To keep it simple, they measure E. Coli.

Levels above 410 are considered impaired.

“We’re actually seeing that still elevated above 410 but slowly coming down again, stable in terms of how we look at data,” said Mahone.

That’s the result at Manuel’s branch community park, the image labeled CFM-Manuel.

Labeled Manuel-2 is their sampling location off U.S. 41. The numbers are trending down, and they are now below 410.

On the bottom is Manuel Branch off Canal Street, labeled Manuel-3.

“What we’re seeing is a slight trend up. We’re looking at three years of data, so a slight trend up really is considered stable in our world,” said Mahon.

You may hear fecal bacteria and think of human waste, which was the case once.

“At this point, we’ve had three consecutive quarters where we’ve had no detectable human indicators in Manuel’s Branch,” said Mahon.

Over at Billy Creek, they sample from upstream all the way to where it meets the Caloosahatchee River.

“In Billy Creek, it is generally pretty stable below the 410 threshold. We’ve had some spikes, but we’ve always kind of seen those drop back down naturally,” said Mahon.

It’s not just sampling. The city implemented safeguards to prevent this kind of bacteria from cleaning up trash and putting it in pet waste disposal stations.

The city met the requirements of the DEP consent order, with no detectable human indicators for three consecutive quarters, but Mahon told WINK News the work doesn’t stop.

They will keep sampling and tackling any issues contributing to bacteria levels.