Airboat Closure Brings Attention to Western Everglades Water Woes

Captain Mitch House maneuvers a small fishing boat through mangrove tunnels as an odor stings the nose and dead fish float upon the surface water in the Western Everglades. 

He, his wife of 20 years, Janette House, and daughter Kaitlyn House, 19, have just moved from their airboat tour business, located along U.S. 41 just west of Carnestown. Now, they are offering fishing tours out of their hometown of Everglades City instead.

“There’s a speed bump,” said Kaitlyn to her dad, helping him navigate. “That’s what he calls kayaks,” she said. 

The name comes from the years of operating airboats. 

“There is no reverse. There are no breaks. It’s not us being rude,” Kaitlyn said. 

There is no easy way for an airboat to get out of the way if a kayak suddenly appears, she explained.

The “speed bump” kayak is occupied by two longtime Naples residents — Dennis “Duke” Vasey and Stan Chrzanowski. They, too, are curious about the fish kill. 

Vasey is a former chairman of the Collier Soil and Water Conservation District, a state entity, and Chrzanowski is a retired Collier County engineer. They are avid paddlers of the nonprofit Marsh Paddlers, Inc. 

The fish are increasingly dying in the area, as they also were around the nearby former business, Capt. Mitch’s Everglades Airboat Tours, because the water is depleted of oxygen due to lack of rain, lack of natural water flow, and a resulting saltwater intrusion. Still, there are some good areas for fishing, they said.

But overall, the government control of the water flow is wrecking the ecosystem, the Houses said. 

The salinity is 46 parts per thousand, Kaitlyn declares specifically off the top of her head from years of lived experience on the water. At 19 years old, she already relies on historical knowledge of the area and intuition. Her dad estimates it’s 51 ppt. Vasey’s salinity device reveals Kaitlyn is spot-on at 46 ppt. That’s saltier than average seawater, and it’s supposed to be freshwater, they said.

Closing of Capt. Mitch’s Everglades Airboat Tours

The same issue is found near Capt. Mitch’s Everglades Airboat Tours, located north of Everglades City, in Carnestown. South Florida Water Management District officials had informed the House family that Capt. Mitch’s Everglades Airboat Tours, which had operated for approximately 35 years, had to close because the Water District decided to use their business location, which is within the Green Heart of the Everglades Project area, as a public access point instead. SFWMD's decision only affected the House family business because it was the only business in the Green Heart completely operated on public land, said SFWMD spokeswoman Jill Margolius. 

The Green Heart of the Everglades Project included a state purchase of 11,000 acres for approximately $30 million from the Collier family businesses in 2023. The House family had a long lease with the Collier family, who are the Collier County namesake. The Green Heart connects Big Cypress National Preserve, Picayune Strand State Forest, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge to create hundreds of thousands of acres of contiguous protected land. 

In December 2024, the House family was informed by phone that they would have to move or close their airboat operation by April, which was extended to the end of May in a follow-up email from SFWMD. 

Status of Water Contamination Plume in Western Everglades

In the meantime, water quality issues were continuing to rise as water levels dropped and ongoing fish kills last weeks, the Houses stated, as also visible through recent tours and site visits by the reporter.

Water quality concerns span decades throughout the area, including from the old lumber industry in the nearby town of Jerome, located north of Carnestown. 

“Everyone has known about the creosote in the water,” Kaitlyn said. 

It’s been a fact she has lived with her whole life, she added.

Her teeth yellow and her hair turns orange without special water filters and bottled water for brushing her teeth, Kaitlyn said. 

According to records shared recently by SFWMD, that creosote, a cancer-causing wood preservative, may have been cleared. The 2022 document comes prior to the 2024 lawsuit filed by a former employee of the Collier family. That lawsuit includes allegations by the whistleblower that the Colliers knew and failed to disclose contamination within the Green Heart site. Attempts to reach the whistleblower, Sonja Eddings Brown, were not yet successful.

Margolius provided the Green Heart of the Everglades Environmental Site Assessment, a document from 2022, in response to a request for additional information related to the House family, ongoing fish kills, creosote, and water quality. Though the document did not clearly reveal what could cause a fish kill, it did address, to some extent, questions regarding creosote and other contaminants. 

Creosote in the area of Jerome is documented at a lumber mill and wood treating site that closed in 1956 due to lack of supply, according to the 2022 environmental assessment of the Green Heart area. 

“In 1989, local residents, adjacent west of the facility, filed a complaint to the Collier County Pollution Control Department (Collier County PCD) regarding the quality of water from their residential potable wells. Collier County PCD sampling investigations reported concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) above the regulatory limits in two residential wells located west of SR 29 and one residential well located east of SR 29. Further investigation by the FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) revealed creosote contaminated soil and groundwater were present at the facility in the area of the former wood treating operations,” according to the document. 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are a group of more than 100 chemicals that are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, and gas.

By 2011, after soil removal and other actions, some of which are outlined in the environmental assessment shared by SFWMD, FDEP issued a Site Rehabilitation Completion Order (SRCO). This site order, SRCO, usually occurs when there is no soil or groundwater contamination, and the owner is released from further obligation to clean up their site. 

Based on the Green Heart environmental assessment shared with this reporter from SFWMD, the fish kill is not likely related to creosote. Drought alone doesn’t explain it, according to the area environmentalists, captains, and fishermen interviewed. SFWMD did not directly address the ongoing fish kills or their potential causes. 

Lack of Water Flow Contributes to Marine and Other Wildlife Deaths

Instead, it is likely drought combined with lack of natural water flow, say longtime residents. Lack of water flow to the area is a historical concern well-documented by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. 

The Tribe recently requested relief in the form of water flow in an April 21 letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed by Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress. In the letter, the Tribe requests that water be allowed to flow on both sides of U.S. 41, also called Tamiami Trail, that has long been restricted. 

“By redistributing water north and south of the Trail more evenly, the sloughs that are designed to channel water through the system, the Shark River, Mullet, and Lostmans Slough can naturally carry water to the very same bays they've flowed to for millennia,” Cypress wrote. 

“We must break from decades of bad precedent. Just because the gates have been operated in the same way for decades, since the gates first closed and caused the die off of 90% of mammals in the Central Everglades in a two month span in 1995, does not mean that continuing to manage the system in the same way will lead to the intended benefits. We appreciate the Corps acknowledging that a change is necessary,” he said. 

The gates and levee system includes an area of concern addressed in the letter from the Tribe known as Water Conservation Area 3-A. This is east of the House’s area, on the far eastern edge of Collier County. 

House’s area within the Green Heart is affected by a lack of historical flow from the Big Cypress Basin, which is north of Carnestown and Everglades City, and controls water through developments, including Golden Gate Estates. 

In both areas - the Tribe’s and the House family of Gladesmen - the water that once flowed naturally from Lake Okeechobee south through the Everglades is now controlled in large part to make way for development throughout South Florida in what would otherwise be wetlands much of the year. Lake Okeechobee is also lower than usual this spring due to the drought, limiting flow throughout some areas of the Everglades even more. 

Further encumbering the situation, which the Miccosukee Tribe addresses in the letter to U.S. ACE, water controls meant to protect an endangered bird, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which no one from the Tribe has seen for a decade or longer, is killing more than it’s protecting.

Go Fish with Capt. Mitch or Capt. Kaitlyn

Despite areas of concern, there are still several good fishing spots throughout the Western Everglades, locals report. House and daughter Captain Kaitlyn House are persevering in the wake of the loss of their airboat business location. Both Captains offer charters of multiple varieties with numerous boat sizes and style options, offering guided tours, fishing, or other boating opportunities in and around Everglades City. The House family is one of the core families that make up the history of the area and the Gladesmen culture, with colorful histories to share. 

For Capt. Mitch House, visit FishCapMitch.com, call 239-253-5523 or email FishCaptMitch@gmail.com and/ or for Capt. Kaitlyn House: call 239-253-5525.