What happened to Manuels Branch? Residents wonder about turbid water in historic creek
Once again, the water in Manuels Branch has neighbors upset.
On Monday, the Fort Myers creek, which flows to the Caloosahatchee, looked like turkey gravy. As the fish and wildlife that usually call the historic waterway home cleared out, area residents took to social media in alarm.
"You would think after the largest sewage spill in Fort Myers history, the city would be more protective of our natural waterways," said Brett Bever, whose backyard is bounded by the creek. He's referring to a March incident that sent 183,000 gallons of raw sewage into the creek after a lift station broke.
This is the third time in recent memory the creek has become uninhabitable for wild creatures, Bever said. Aside from the March spill, in 2017, its water ran deep red after a contractor for nearby Lee Memorial Hospital dumped industrial dye into a storm drain that runs into Manuels Branch.
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This time, the water flowing into the creek was potable, said city spokeswoman Stephanie Schaffer. "The color of the water in Manuels Branch is due to turbidity," or cloudiness, she wrote in an email.
Dirt, sand or other suspended solids cause water to lose clarity. Turbidity can cause a number of environmental problems, decreasing recreational value and habitat quality for fish and other aquatic life. Particles also provide attachment places for other pollutants, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey, notably metals and bacteria. “For this reason, turbidity readings can be used as an indicator of potential pollution in a water body."
During repairs on U.S. 41, a contractor hit a 12-inch city water main on Linhart Avenue, Schaffer said, "causing the city to deliver an emergency precautionary boil water notice to nearby properties. If you do not receive a notice, your property is not affected," she wrote.
"It just upsets the heck out of me," Bever said, "and it's the residents bringing it to light – not the city."
That official reticence is become something of a pattern when such accidents happen. In March, neither Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson nor City Manager Saeed Kazemi publicly acknowledged the spill in its aftermath.
“It happened on a Monday and I learned about it on Thursday in The News-Press," Fort Myers City Councilman Fred Burson told The News-Press at the time. "It’s just not fair to the citizens. Anybody who has anything to do with that water should have been alerted ... they could have sent out a public notice on Monday to say, ‘Hey we’ve had this happen and please conduct yourself accordingly.' "
Again on Tuesday morning, Burson hadn't heard from Kazemi about the break, so Burson texted him to ask for details.
"It was the road construction people and not the city,” Burson learned, “and when all that water flowed into (Manuels Branch) the sediment on the bottom got stirred up, due to the volume,” creating the milky brown color.
Burson said he was gratified to learn it was quickly repaired. “Water quality is everything.”
Fort Myers resident and local history expert Joanne Iwinski Miller would like to see the creek better-protected, perhaps with a historic designation, she said. "It is just a horrible situation."
The city's stormwater system is designed to accommodate roadway drainage from U.S. 41 into Manuels Branch, which the city considers a "stormwater conveyance" canal.
That rankles Bever, who's lived on the creek more than 25 years. Named for Captain Manuel Gonzalez, one of the city's earliest residents, the shallow tributary flows behind Fort Myers High School and through backyards on its way to the river.
Fishing, wading and rope-swinging into the creek has been part of countless Fort Myers childhoods, but in recent years, parents have been warning their kids to stay away.
In July, the city posted No Fishing and No Swimming signs near the banks. "Fishing and swimming is not allowed in the stormwater conveyance system," said Schaffer.
Monday, the water was devoid of the birds, turtles and fish that normally populate it.
"When we have something like this, all the fish and everything that live there evacuate – or die," Bever said. "The water was just so murky."
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