Naples Council to discuss removing stormwater outfall pipes from city beaches

For decades, stormwater outfalls — large pipes that stretch from the sand into the water — have dotted the beaches of Naples, dumping debris and high levels of bacteria into the Gulf of Mexico.

But now the city is undertaking a project to remove the majority of outfalls and implement a new, better system. City staff will present an update on the project to the City Council during its workshop Monday.

The project began in 2011 when the Florida Department of Environmental Protection notified the city that it would not issue any more beach renourishment permits until city officials came up with a plan to remove the outfalls.

According to a staff report, the outfalls cause these problems:

• They negatively affect Gulf water quality.
• They accelerate beach erosion.
• They require frequent and costly maintenance.
• Tidal backflows through the pipes exacerbate neighborhood flooding. 
• They are detrimental to the natural environment, especially sea turtle nesting. 

The council hired AECOM Technical Services Inc. in 2013 to figure out the best alternative to the current stormwater system, said Gregg Strakaluse, streets and stormwater department director.

"We’ve been studying the options, the opportunities and the challenges for doing something that would not just achieve the goal of what the DEP wants, but also the community’s goal of trying to reduce flooding and beach erosion and improve water quality and the environment, particularly for sea turtle nesting," Strakaluse said.

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The council ultimately approved a plan to remove the six southernmost outfalls, extend one of the remaining outfalls farther into the Gulf and use a pump station to run the system.

The result will be cleaner discharges into the Gulf, reduced flooding in neighborhoods and an overall more effective operation, Strakaluse said.

“We’re going to push (the stormwater) out cleaner, and we want to integrate a pump station which will help with the flooding situation because right now, it’s tidally influenced, so high tides bring water back into the system," Strakaluse said.

"It also relies on gravity for the water to move, as opposed to a pump station, which can take it in and push it out up against the tides in the Gulf,” he said.

The project is in the permitting stage, and Strakaluse said construction could start in April 2020.

The City Council workshop is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, 735 Eighth St. S., across from Cambier Park in downtown Naples.

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