Naples Bay Water Quality

This rainy season has been a lot less rainy than last year. This is actually better for the Bay. Last year city and county officials found that the Bay was getting up to 200 million gallons of fresh water a day at times from the streams that empty into it. (900 million gallons reported at one day one time)
The Gordon river was the worst offender and if you were here last year and on the water you had to have noticed the many islands of weeds that were everywhere in the bay and up into all the canals. It was a real problem. Naples even sent out small boats with teams of men to scoop up the debris and haul it out of the canals. At the time I heard one city official report that 80% of the bays oyster beds, 90%of the sea grass and 70% of the mangroves had been lost in the previous decade. A plan is now in operation to reverse this trend and recover the Bay.
This plan include the creation of "holding ponds" up river from the Gordon river all the way across pine ridge road. These will be behind the Zoo and along Goodlett Frank and they will be a series of ponds, each feeding the next and filtering out debris and cleaning the water before it reaches the Bay. There is also a study and plan to pond an area in the Davis, US 41, and Airport triangle and running that accumulated water into Haldman's creek. Then a plan to divert some water directly into Rookery Bay. Lastly there is a plan to take the Green area off Broad St in Old Naples Aqualane area and put a series of filtering ponds there.
Besides ponds there are other ideas including more rip rap walls, planting and aerating alread existing ponds them makeing them less stagnant and now even trying to pass water retention systems on every new home that is built.
Things are getting better. I see more fish in my canals and the water might be a little more clear. (or maybe that is wishful thnking.) AS I learn of more I will pass it on.