Council considering purchasing property to create city reservoir

The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel helping solve Cape Coral's water shortages during dry season just might be within reach after all.

Utilities Director Jeff Pearson informed City Council Monday night of a plan to acquire 1,030 acres of aggregate mining property on U.S. 41 to use as a reservoir capable of doubling the city's reuse water from its 300 miles of freshwater canals for irrigation purposes.

"This is such a great project," said Councilmember Richard Leon. "While it is self-serving for Cape Coral, it helps the surrounding area like North Fort Myers and Charlotte County, even the state as a whole. Hopefully, the governor's office will recognize this as well."

Access to the water would come from water that currently builds up in Charlotte County and North Fort Myers in rainy season. When I-75 and U.S. 41 were built, it created a dam effect to the natural sheet flow.

"There are millions of gallons of water just sitting there in Charlotte County, just pooling up," said Pearson. "And North Fort Myers has flooding problems during the rainy season."

Pearson estimated the reservoir would be able to provide 12.5 million gallons of water per day for the 120 days of dry season. It would store more than 1.5 billion gallons of water in addition to the 2 billion gallons of storage in the canals.