Venice City Council approves new fee to pay for water quality improvements

VENICE – The Venice City Council approved a plan that will streamline the way fees are assessed for stormwater management, as well as establish a new fee that will collect funds to pay for at least $3 million in stormwater identified by city engineers to raise water quality.

In the aftermath of the 2018 red tide bloom, the City Council pledged to start an aggressive effort to clean up city stormwater runoff.

A 2019 study of stormwater at several of the 16 major outfalls on the island of Venice showed higher than acceptable levels of pollutants including nitrogen, phosphorus and enterococcus bacteria.