County commission approves water quality, treatment research
On May 18, the Lee County Board of County Commissioners voted to approve an agreement with Florida Gulf Coast University for a water quality research project at the Boma site to test methods for removal of nitrogen from the Caloosahatchee River surface waters in order to improve water quality.
The project will be funded by a $180,000 innovative technology grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which the board approved on April 6.
The research, in partnership with FGCU and the South Florida Water Management District, will take place at the C-43 Water Quality Treatment and Testing Project Boma site in Glades County.
In 2007, the commission voted to contribute $10 million toward the purchase of 1,700 acres of agricultural land — then owned and operated by the Boma family — in Glades for the purpose of constructing a water quality project to benefit the Caloosahatchee watershed.
The SFWMD built 12 tanks, called mesocosms, containing wetland vegetation that were used to conduct a water quality assessment of nutrient removal from the Caloosahatchee River water that was allowed to flow through the wetland cells.
The project will use some of these mesocosms to test innovative technology that could reduce nutrients in water bodies, and prevent or mitigate harmful algal blooms. Work is expected to begin this month.
For more information, log on https://www.leegov.com/water.