In late September, the Marco Island City Council heard a preliminary proposal from Earthwerks Land Improvement & Development Corp. for a public-private partnership aimed at improving water quality and restoring critical wildlife habitat throughout the island’s 100 miles of canals.

Earthwerks, a general contracting company based in Illinois and Florida, specializes in municipal, state and federal storm and water quality projects focused on wetland improvement, “blue-green” infrastructure that works with nature and stormwater mitigation.

The company is proposing an unsolicited public-private partnership called the Marco Island Coastal Habitat and Water Quality (C-HAWQ) Initiative, which would assist the city of Marco Island in obtaining funding to dredge the 100 miles of canals and use the dredged sediments to design and build approximately 33 new island wildlife habitats.

“Oyster reefs will be installed with mangroves and other native species to be planted to improve water quality and storm resilience, enhance biodiversity and provide 100 additional acres of natural space to Marco Island,” Earthwerks said in a press release after its initiation presentation to City Council, noting that Naples Botanical Garden will serve as the horticultural consultant for the restoration initiative.

According to Earthwerks’ press release, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said in 2018 that the Marco Island canals were impaired due to “increased nutrients” (contaminants), and one city consultant estimated it would cost $189 million to perform a traditional maintenance dredge of the canals to help improve water quality.

Earthwerks said that as part of the proposed collaboration on the restoration project, it would pursue — at its own cost — federal, state and private grants as a match to funds from the city of Marco Island to “complete the project at a fraction of the previously estimated $189 million cost.”

In an early October interview, Earthwerks’ owner Dan Davies, a part-time resident of Marco Island, said his company’s target would be “close to $50 million” as opposed to $189 million, depending on the number of islands created.

“The huge savings in this project is by not trying to take this dredged material (sediment), move it miles away to dry it and then truck it somewhere else, as well,” Davies said. “This is about as recycling as you can get. I mean, we can’t get any more green than using your problem material to create a habitat that’s actually going to thrive.”

Davies said Earthwerks plans to submit a full proposal to Marco Island City Council following the general election in November, after any potential new council members are installed.

How C-HAWQ would work

Asked how the C-HAWQ initiative’s island habitats would help improve water quality in the canals, Davies said the structure provided by the oyster reefs would attract fish and wildlife for food and protection.

“With the structure from oyster reefs comes the plant life above it,” Davies said. “It helps to oxygenate the water, but it also helps to create habitat for those mussels, those oysters, those things that actually help filter the water. We need filter feeders. We need structure in these canals to help bring habitat back, because right now they’re just concrete channels.”

Davies said the vegetation would be critical in habitat creation, which is why the company has enlisted Naples Botanical Garden in the potential project.

“One of the critical portions of this is the vegetation; it’s really critical to the water quality,” he said. “What native species are the most resilient and will be most effective? We thought there couldn’t be a better partner to guide us in that than Naples Botanical Garden, because we’ve got to propagate these plants ourselves. We’ve got to plant them specifically for this project down in that area so that they’re completely native to that area. And their [NBG] guidance is going to be indispensable.”

Making the project a community effort

Davies is an avid boater and fisherman who has been spending winters in Marco for 25 years. He said he sees the project as an opportunity to get the whole community involved in a creative approach to solving the water quality problem in the canals, which he described as a critical part of the island’s infrastructure and identity.

The area is important to him and his family, he said: “They grew up there on the water.” Davies was founding president of the Fort Myers Offshore Club and has remained involved for 18 years with raising scholarship funds and other projects.

In part because of his own longtime community involvement, he said he thinks it is important to get Marco residents’ feedback on the scope of the proposed project.

“We’re going to reach out to all the residents to get input on some that would like to see these islands in their areas, and people that strongly wouldn’t,” Davies said. “We want a real community effort for this. Everyone wants to point the finger about saving the planet, and there’s a way that these people can do it right in their backyard and have a really effective, results-oriented project.”

Davies also said that for most similar projects, those results are seen almost immediately.

“People don’t realize how effectively the natural habitat can help correct situations as long as you give them the right kind of foundation to start from,” he said, “and that’s what these islands would do while saving a tremendous amount of cost.”

This story was published in The Naples Press on Oct. 18