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Charlotte County details water-quality monitoring progress and prepares 1 Water public review
Summary
County water-quality staff reported nearly three years of monitoring, described a public dashboard with recent and historical panels, and said a 30-day public review of the county’s 1 Water plan will be posted soon; commissioners asked for clearer temporal markers and pre/post septic-to-sewer monitoring updates.
Charlotte County water-quality staff briefed commissioners on April 17 on progress from a monitoring program that began in July 2022 and on next steps for a countywide water plan.
"We're now just about at the three-year mark," Brandon Moody, the county’s water quality and resiliency manager, told the Board of County Commissioners. He described analyses now possible with the accumulated dataset, including DNA testing to determine whether bacterial hits are human-sourced and upstream–downstream nutrient source tracking.
Moody said staff have built a dashboard that presents two primary views: a three-year recent panel for quick, current-state assessment and a separate panel providing full historical trends for sites where users want deeper context. Commissioner Constance pressed staff to ensure the public-facing presentation avoids misleading, outdated single data points; Moody said the dashboard only displays actively monitored sites but preserves the historic record for deeper review.
The water team is also moving toward centralized data storage and QC processes to reduce transcription errors and anomalies. Moody said that anomalies in historic groundwater sampling—unexpected well-depths and flagged lab results—have prompted tightened quality-control checks and improved digital data capture by GIS field forms and IT Applications support.
On pre/post septic-to-sewer conversion monitoring, Moody said results are mixed: some conversion areas show substantial nutrient declines while others show little immediate change. Utilities staff reported ongoing testing in Lakeview Midway and that they will follow up on whether pre-conversion sampling was completed at Ackerman.
Moody also discussed revisiting past core-sample work done with university partners (he cited a 1999 LSU study) to understand how storm events have altered benthic strata. He said the county has leveraged graduate students and interns to lower study costs and has begun isotope analysis of macroalgae samples collected with volunteer partners to help trace nutrient sources.
Next steps: the county plans a 30-day public review of the 1 Water plan and additional QC and pre/post monitoring coordination with utilities; commissioners requested more frequent, consolidated updates and easier access to the dashboard’s temporal filters.
