FORT MYERS
Trying to find a solution to the persistent water issues in the City of Fort Myers.
Leaders are urging people to conserve water because more and more people are coming to the area this time of year.
The Fort Myers City Manager, Marty Lawing, told WINK News he doesn’t think it will get to the point where the city will need to borrow water from the county again. But he did say if the city somehow does get to the point where water levels become dire, the city will have to enforce its water conservation ordiancnce.
The first resort is asking locals, tourists, and the snowbirds to conserve city water.
“We believe people will be wise, and they’ll help us out,” Lawing said.
The last resort is to start punishing people.
“We’ll have to take enforcement action,” Lawing said.
Lawing told WINK News because of the growth in the city, the water demand is increasing.
“Our peak demand is anywhere from 500 to 1000 gallons per minute higher,” Lawing said.
That’s not exactly what customers like Mike Hodgins wants to hear.
“It’s it’s a tough thing that to be dealing with on a year-to-year basis now,” Hodgins said.
WINK News met Hodins 13 months ago when he and his wife used buckets to take showers and do laundry because their water pressure was too low.
Since then, the city has installed four more wells. Hodgins said that’s helped with his water pressure but didn’t solve everything.
“It’s still not right. It’s not what we should be having delivered to us,” Hodgins said.
Hodgins fears because the city is requesting everyone to conserve their water usage, more water troubles are ahead.
“If it’s an infrastructure issue, then put the money into the infrastructure,” Hodgins said. “It’s one thing to have all this water now and have more wells, more holding tanks more, more, more. But if you can’t deliver it to the final source, what’s the point?”
WINK News asked Lawing about stress on the city’s infrastructure, and he hasn’t directly answered yet. Lawing did say his focus is on making sure every family has water and enough of it.
WINK NEWS