Marco City Council Passed AWT Ordinance– Next Steps

At the May 4, 2026,Marco Island City Council meeting, the council passed an ordinance to upgrade the Marco Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) to achieve Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) nutrient standards in the sewage reuse water. The new ordinance will reduce the “nutrient footprint” on Marco andimprove canal water quality.A big step in the right direction. 

In 2022, the City of Marco received a preliminary proposal from Jacob’s Engineering that estimated the cost to reduce the nutrients in the reuse water to AWT standards tobe between $4M and $9M. In 2026, the city received another estimate from Black and Veatch that estimated the cost to be between $5M and $14M. 

City staff should ask each of these firms to provide a firm quote for full “design and build” of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) upgrade to achieve the lowest sewage reuse nutrient concentrations possible.  

Each quote would be compared on three terms: 1) How much of the nutrients are removed, 2) Capital cost (CAPEX), and 3) Operating cost(OPEX). On this basis, decide which firm has the better project for Marco Island. Fewer nutrients are better for the canal water environment. 

When the nutrients in the sewage reuse water dropped to almost zero during the early days of COVID in 2020, the canal oxygen rebounded to healthy levels almost immediately. After the WWTP upgrade, we can anticipate that oxygen in the canals would improve to healthy levels within a few months. 

Ed Sherwood, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Restoration Program, estimated that it would take between three and five years for the benthic mats of “gunk” at the bottoms of the canals to clear up – there is significant tidal flushing in the Marco canals. 

The city could then move on to oyster bed and seagrass restoration in the canals.