Water levels in the Mid Hawthorne Aquifer continue to be a topic of concern for the city of Cape Coral, which has led to a joint action plan.

Utilities Director Jeff Pearson said from Oct. 10 to Dec. 5, the city only received .81 inches of rain, almost 4 inches below normal of where they should be at this time of dry season.

“The Mid Hawthorne Aquifer is currently hovering just about 90 feet in the aquifer, which is below the minimum developable limit, but it is above the MFL – the top of the aquifer,” Pearson said.

There is currently work being done on a joint action plan between the city of Cape Coral, Lee County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District staff. He said they are working on comments to submit to the water management district, as there are many proposals.

One of those is designating the entire city as a mandatory reuse zone. Pearson said residents that are in the utility extension areas can keep their wells not tied into the city’s reclaimed water system, which would change if they went to the mandatory reuse zone.

“Upon completion of the UEP, it would require residents to tie into our reclaimed water system, similar to what we require with drinking water and wastewater – mandatory connection,” he said.

In addition, if there was a replacement well and they were not on reclaimed water, but using a private well, they would not be issued a replacement well permit.

Pearson said they have also looked at the shallow aquifer by drilling horizontal wells. He said they got about 500 gallons per minute and the wells dried out in a short period of time.

The water district, Pearson said, wants to do a test, at its expense.

“That is fine if they want us to do that. We have already done it and found they are not viable,” he said. “Also, the iron content is very high in that water table aquifer, shallow aquifer.”

Pearson said the city and county are urging the district to direct the county to allow deeper wells into another production zone that is below where the USGS well is located in the Mid Hawthorne Aquifer.

“The second production zone is viable and could sustain future growth until the UEP projects come through and we get them connected to the city’s utility system,” he said.

There are also proposals from the district in case the USGS well continues to decline, such as maintaining the one day a week irrigation restriction for all private well users in the Mid Hawthorne Aquifer; no longer issuing permits for irrigation use if the minimum flow level declines to less than 5 feet above the minimum flow level, or no longer issuing Mid Hawthorne Aquifer permits for any use and zero days for irrigation if the water levels decline to a certain level.

“We have another meeting scheduled with them the first week of January to pick back up on our discussions. We will continue to monitor the issue very closely,” Pearson said.