FGUA and the system

There are about 8,000 existing FGUA sewer customers in Lehigh Acres.
By FGUA's outdated, one-year old statistics, their existing 2.5 million gallon per day sewer plant was operating at a yearly (2004) effluent flow of 2.13 million gallons per day. We all know that there have been a substantial number of additional hookups in 2005, and our educated guess is that the existing plant is operating at, or over, its maximum allowable AVERAGE capacity.

According to your figures from the Lee County Planning records there are an additional 3,534 hookups, or Equivalent Residential Connections (ERC's) up for review represented by the five projects you detailed in your recent report as listed below:

Buckingham Villages 631
Section 10 1,750
Caloosa Lakes 800
Mirror Lakes Village 130
Prairie Creek 223

Just These 5 Equal 3,534

And that's only the residential units in those projects, not the commercial square footage, which will also have a huge impact on the FGUA sewer plant.

Now let's add a few more additional hookups that we know are coming soon:

Savanna Lakes 1,999
Mirror Lakes Golf Course 400
Admiral Lehigh Golf Course 250
Majestic Golf Course 170
Beth Stacey Multi Family 380
Copperhead Golf Course 400
Next Phases of Towne Lakes 230
Flint Farm 400

Just These 7 Equal 3,869

Again, this does not include commercial components, new schools, new businesses along Lee Blvd.and in the Industrial Park, smaller, pocket developments of townhouses and other multi-family projects, etc., etc., etc.

Adding only the RPD's listed above, that accounts for an additional 7,403 hookups - almost DOUBLE the existing FGUA customer base in Lehigh Acres.

No wonder FGUA is in such a hurry to expand! Even their additional 1 million gallon per day expansion is not enough to handle the increase caused by the Lee County government's reckless disregard for concurrency, the Red Zone and their own Comprehensive Plan. They are simply rubber stamping development orders for more residential units than FGUA can possibly handle. Something, or someone has to give!

Yes, FGUA is planning a 7+ million-dollar deep well injection project to handle the increased effluent (at our expense). Whether you think deep well injection is safe, or not, everyone agrees that it will take at least three to four years to permit and build it. By then all the RPD's listed above will be completed.

So what happens if FGUA, Lee County and the FDEP continue to ignore the obvious math here? The excess "production" has to go someplace.

1. More effluent will be dumped into Lehigh Acres' canals, and ultimately into the Orange River and the Caloosahatchee River. Commissioner John Albion is suing the South Florida Water Management District to stop the dumping of polluted runoff from Lake Okeechobee, but the ugly truth is that 70% of the pollution is coming from the Caloosahatchee watershed, downriver from Lake O, caused by runoff from overdevelopment in Southwest Florida. This is nothing short of an environmental crime against the people of Florida. Albion is not trying to fix the problem. As usual, he is trying to fix the blame.

2. Our community will be placed at considerable health and safety risks because the water pressure in Lehigh Acres will drop to dangerous levels. According to the FDEP the minimum safe water pressure is 20 pounds per square inch (psi). The water pressure in my neighborhood has been recently measured at 22 psi, dangerously close to the level where the water will backflow causing contamination. My home was built 14 years ago, before backflow safety valves were required in new construction. Like many homeowners in Lehigh, we will have to boil our water before using it if the water pressure drops below 20 psi.

3. With low water pressure, our fire hydrants will fail, and there will be no way to sprinkle the top floors of all those Lehigh multi-family projects in the pipeline.

4. With no adequate fire flow our insurance rates will go up, and worse, we won't even be able to fight brush fires and house fires with our garden hoses.

Somebody is lying through their teeth and endangering the entire community.

We already know that Albion and Darth Stilwell won't listen. FGUA won't admit to its failure to plan ahead years ago. FGUA is not responsible to the PSC like other utilities are. Our only recourse is to hold the State Department of Environmental Protection accountable for this looming environmental catastrophe.

I suggest that we start a petition drive to demand that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launch an immediate investigation into this urgent matter.

To do less would increase the threat to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Lehigh Acres.

Thank you for your time, interest and thoughtful consideration.

Warmest Team Lehigh Acres Regards,

Jim Fleming