Collier County still working to clear Hurricane Irma debris from waterways

Naples

Workers place debris from the northern waters of Gordon River into their barge on Sept. 20, 2018.

Collier County expects to finish work Saturday to remove Hurricane Irma debris from the northern reaches of the Gordon River.

Hurricane Irma struck Florida more than a year ago, but cleanup efforts still are ongoing, in part because of funding, evaluations and higher-priority cleanup work closer to residents.

The latest work is part of an $8.4 million job to clean up multiple waterways. In addition to the Gordon River, areas of focus include Rock Creek in East Naples, Golden Gate canals, the canal along State Route 29, the Cocohatchee River and its offshoot through the Palm River neighborhood in North Naples.

Work took about a week, according to Pawel Brzeski, an operations analyst with the Collier County’s Stormwater Management division.

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Pawel Brzeski, an operations analyst with the Collier County’s Stormwater Management division, looks toward workers near the water on Sept. 20, 2018.

The cleanup might help improve navigation for canoes and kayaks, as well as prevent flooding. If debris becomes trapped, it could in turn trap other debris in the water and create a dam that could induce flooding.

“No part of the system is any good unless it’s all cleared out,” Brzeski said.

After Hurricane Irma, county officials assessed some of the damage. Then the officials made a list of priorities. When the county began its work on waterways, they faced challenges such as following legal procedures to gain access to private property and avoiding protected plants and animals such as mangroves and manatees.

Workers remove debris collected from the northern reaches of the Gordon River on Sept. 20, 2018.

About $6.5 million of the $8.4 million came from a grant for Hurricane Irma cleanup via the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that promotes conservation among landowners. The county matched 25 percent in the amount of nearly $2 million.

Because the county does not have enough workers for the job on its own, Brzeski said, Collier contracted with CrowderGulf and Tetra Tech.

The work was varied. A small barge beached behind a grapple truck that has a chair and a claw arm at the back of a metal trailer. The operator pivoted his claw, the seat turning with it, and grasped a pile of branches, logs and other debris and dropped it into the trailer to be driven to the landfill.

Workers sloshed about in a layer of muddy water at the bottom of their boat to collect the debris.

A worker tends to his equipment while near the northern waters of the Gordon River on Sept. 20, 2018.

CrowderGulf handled some of the cleanup both on and off the water and loaded the material into the trucks. Tetra Tech supervised to assure that the material was appropriate for collection and issued tickets the crews took with their load of debris. Another monitor at the landfill verified the load.

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Brzeski estimated the crews removed 1,500 cubic yards of debris, about enough to fill 75 medium-sized commercial outdoor garbage bins.

Olive McKoy, a debris monitor with Tetra Tech, said she

was surprised by all of the wildlife she encountered, such as alligators and snakes.

“You just have to be very observant when you’re working,” she said.

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