AWT Petition an Overwhelming Success!

A petition drive has been underway to put a referendum on the ballot to upgrade the Marco sewage plant to Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT). This will eliminate excess nutrients in the human sewage “reuse” water that are now polluting the Marco canals. 

Referendums require that 10% of registered voters sign a petition before a question is allowed on the ballot. A political action committee, the Committee to Improve the Quality of Marco Island Reuse Water, Inc., gathered 1,541 approved petitions – 110 more than the required 1,431 petitions.  

Not only that, 1,000 extra petitions were gathered. The Supervisor of Elections (SOE) stopped the count. A sign of significant public support for the referendum.  

This petition will now be certified by the SOE and sent to the Marco Island City Council. The city council has a decision to make - either accept the referendum as written as a new ordinance or put the question on the ballot for the voters to decide. 

What happened on Marco was an unintended consequence. A septic-to-sewer conversion was completed on the island; however, the sewage plant was not capable of properly treating the sewage gathered. The Marco canal ecosystem collapsed, losing 70% of the oxygen in the canal waters. Toxic algal slicks, oxygen loss, no fish, no birds, oyster and clams died, seagrass died, no manatee, no dolphin. Loss of property value. 

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was not completed along with the septic-to-sewer project, which allowed this costly error to take place. Lesson learned – when communities consider septic-to-sewer conversions, they must complete an EIA to make sure they do not destroy the environment with the sewage collected.