City Council approved the purchase of 1,202 acres, which is located east of U.S. 41 in Charlotte County for $38 million for the development of a water supply reservoir for Cape Coral’s irrigation water system.

Utilities Director Jeff Pearson said currently the city receives all of their irrigation water from the freshwater canal system. He said they are permitted for 66.7 million gallons per day on a maximum basis.

“The system that we have, the reliability for the system depends on the canal levels remaining static, especially during the dry season,” Pearson said, adding that the reservoir can provide up to 16 million gallons a day in dry season through the freshwater canal system.

There is also 17 million gallons that can be produced from the water reclamation facilities and an additional 9 million gallons a day from the interconnection with Fort Myers.

B.P. Limited Liability Company and Neslund Family Limited Partnership II are selling the land to the City of Cape Coral. The land is north of the Lee County line, south of Zemel Road, east of U.S. 41 and west of 1-75 in Charlotte County.

This property has been used by the city since 2017 as a water supply reservoir. Pearson said with frequent dry conditions, it has required the city to pump supplemental water from this property into the U.S. 41 swells.

There was a Southwest Florida Water Management District Water Use Permit obtained in 2020 between the city and the seller, which is for 20 years.

According to backup information, the inter-district transfer agreement allows the city to pump up to 1.44 billion gallons of water between the two-water management district drainage basins during the dry season.

Pearson said the seller has indicated that he will continue under the same terms through the property closing.

The city has a 100% engineering design plan to construct a 3-mile, 36-inch raw water pipeline and pump station on the reservoir property. The pipeline is capable of delivering approximately 20 million gallons per day to Gator Slough – the primary freshwater canal that recharges the northern section of the city’s freshwater canal system.

The agreement also includes the seller and their engineer completing the construction phase – permitting, bidding services/engineer of record services and CEI for the pipeline and pump station. In addition, the seller shall include the shop building, fuel storage tanks, diesel pumps, all culverts, existing utility poles, monitoring wells and two dewatering pumps and power units in the property sale.

The city is also working to modify the current WUP, which would allow the city to pump additional water from the future Bond Farm Reservoir and Cecil Webb Babcock Wildlife Management area during the dry season.

Pearson said they looked at all available sources for irrigation and water supply and the reservoir was the most economical. He said alternative options would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and it would be five to six years before they would receive additional water.

If the city is not satisfied at any time during the due diligence period, they can terminate the contract and receive the earnest money back.

Debt funding will fund the project, which could be repaid by a 2.5% utility rate increase, or an increase in the monthly irrigation charge from $9.50 to $13.50 a month.