Lee County accepts Powell Creek grant

The Lee County Board of County Commissioner last week accepted a state grant of $774,000 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for construction of water quality improvements to the Powell Creek bypass canal.

The 10.5-acre project site is southwest of Old Bridge Road, near the Caloosahatchee River, and is designed to improve water quality in the Powell Creek bypass canal.

The project will divert water through a detention area /filter marsh to remove nutrients before the water flows into the Caloosahatchee River, which has a Total Maximum Daily Load for nitrogen.

"This project continues the board's commitment to clean up the water that runs off our own landscape that contributes to our water quality issues," Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman said. "We're under a mandate from the state to reduce the nitrogen that goes into the Caloosahatchee, and all these projects help."

The Caloosahatchee Estuary Basin Management Action Plan adopted November 2012, includes this project as part of its goal to reduce elevated nitrogen levels in the estuary.