Red tide, short-term rentals dominate COTI Conversations
The impact of Sanibel’s recent red tide and blue-green algae catastrophe dominated the discussion at COTI Conversations, held on Dec. 7 in the Founders’ Room at The Community House.
Sponsored by the Committee of the Islands and offered to COTI members, it is the first such gathering in the organization’s history, and it drew a capacity crowd.
Opening the discussion, moderator and COTI President Mike Miller reported that the event left 248 sea turtles dead or stranded on the islands’ beaches, and over 1000 dead in all of Southwest Florida. In total, 425 tons of dead sea life covered the island’s shores, and over 2,000 tons were removed in all of Lee County, marking the largest cleanup in the county’s history.
“The impact on sea life has persisted into the dry season,” he said. “As recently as late November, 40 dolphins were discovered having washed ashore on Lee and Collier county beaches.”
Miller also reported that Sanibel and Captiva businesses suffered lost revenues of almost $27 million.
“Our accommodations businesses lost $4 million in bookings,” he said, “and restaurants lost $1 million, which translates to $100,000 in gratuities lost to servers.”
Among the proposed solutions discussed was the Minimum Flow Level rule, adopted by the South Florida Water Management District and challenged by local municipalities – including Sanibel.
“What is the rationale for not increasing the MFL to the needed 750 cubic ft per second?” one attendee asked.
According to Miller, the rationale is based on insufficient reservoirs to handle the increased load.
“But my take is that they don’t want to reduce water for agriculture, preferring agricultural users over us,” he said. “The district must establish to the court that the rule is not unreasonable or capricious.”
The challenge to the district’s proposed MFL rule was heard in October. The court will hand down a decision later this month.
Attendees also expressed concern about deep-injection wells as a solution to the water crisis. Miller described the concept as a system where water from Lake Okeechobee or the Caloosahatchee watershed is injected 3,000 feet below ground by the means of 50 wells.
“The advantage is speed,” he said. “These wells can be constructed in under 10 years, and some perhaps could be online in fewer than two years.”
“Putting holes in the earth doesn’t make sense to me,” one attendee said. “Are there any data that would record the impact of deep-injection wells?”
While forum panelist COTI Board Member Barbara Joy Cooley did not express outright opposition to the concept, she remarked that “for deep wells, data must be site specific.”
“I think the priority should be moving the water south,” she said.
Miller reported that water storage options include the C-43 reservoir to be built in Hendry County at a cost of over $800 million and the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir passed in 2017 by the Florida legislature (Senate Bill 10).
“It is too small, and it provides for no water purification,” he said of the C-43 reservoir. “It could do greater damage to the estuary by virtue of the nitrogen and phosphorus content.”
Miller reported that the EAA reservoir requires double the amount of Stormwater Treatment Areas being planned.
“But in conjunction with other existing and planned projects, it should reduce the number of damaging discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers by 63 percent,” he said.
Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane pointed to the importance of COTI’s advocacy role.
“Advocacy is important. Take each (water quality proposition) and pick it apart,” he said, adding that the district’s board members have to go. “We have a new administration coming in, including a new Commissioner of Agriculture (Nikki Fried), so things may change.”
The subject of short-term housing rentals beyond the island’s resort district was also discussed. Panelist and COTI Board Member Larry Schopp reported that Sanibel has experienced a resurgence in them.
“Transactions take place between homeowners and Airbnb, HomeAway or Vacation Rental By Owner,” he said. “For the moment our regulations are safe, because they are grandfathered. But these companies will aggressively press state legislators to eliminate our ability to regulate, by preemptive state legislation.”
One attendee pushed for strong enforcement of the regulations.
“Some people spend only three weeks here, and rent their place out the rest of the year,” he said. “We should publish names of violators. They are thumbing their noses at us.”
Schopp acknowledged that violations are hard to track.
“The city is considering tools, but they cost money,” he said. “Software programs or outside monitoring agencies are very expensive, but city council is anxious to address the issue.”
Councilwoman Holly Smith affirmed that short-term rental regulation is a key project.
“I plan to write a guest opinion editorial to educate citizens about rules and what can be done to assure that the rules are followed,” she said.
The second COTI Conversations will be hold on Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. at The Community House.
For more information, contact Mike Miller 239-395-0593 or visit www.coti.org.