On February 17th, the FDEP presented the draft TMDL for the Sanibel Slough. There was a good turnout for the meeting with approximately 25-30 attendees. City staff, residents, the FDEP and other stakeholders had a good discussion about the TMDL process, and how they derived the nitrogen and phosphorus loading targets for the Sanibel Slough.

For development of the TMDLs, the Slough was divided up into two separate basins (east and west) and each will have separate load reduction target for total phosphorus and total nitrogen. For the western basin, the load reduction target for TP is 27% (representing a 66 kg/yr reduction) and TN is 18% (representing a 176 kg/yr reduction). For the eastern basin, the load reduction target for TP is 74% (representing a 401 kg/yr reduction) and the load reduction target for TN is 31% (representing a 727 kg/yr reduction). Public comments were due on March 3rd and the City submitted a comment letter, which will be included on the March 21st Council agenda. The load reduction targets could potentially change from the draft TMDL if they incorporate our comments and re-run the loading models