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SCCF Leaders Discuss Stormwater at 2025 State of the Islands

Sanibel and Captiva Island communities came together Jan. 22 at the Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce‘s 2025 State of the Islands.
The Chamber held the first State of the Islands conference last year as a way to bring island businesses and stakeholders up-to-date on post-Hurricane Ian progress and predictions. When Hurricane Ian devastated our communities in September 2022, it left a lasting impact on businesses and tourism on the islands, as well as natural systems. Their recovery was further challenged with Hurricanes Helene and Milton in fall 2024.
Over 200 people joined this year’s State of the Islands at the Marriott Sanibel Harbour & Resort, which included panels on real estate, city planning, and storm surge and stormwater management.
SCCF CEO James Evans moderated the stormwater panel, which featured SCCF Marine Laboratory Research Associate Mark Thompson, South Florida Water Management District Board Chairman Chauncey Goss, and City of Sanibel Engineer Oisin Dolly.
The panel’s discussion focused on the differences between storm surge and rain-driven stormwater flooding events. The panel also highlighted the fact that incremental sea level rise is making stormwater management on Sanibel and Captiva more challenging.
“Because all of our stormwater systems are reliant on tidal outfalls, as sea level rise increases, those low tides that we look to for periods of time where we can release excess water into adjacent water bodies like San Carlos Bay — those time periods are shorter, and they’re less frequent,” Dolly said. “That limits [the City’s] ability to open the weir gates and other activities that relieve the island of that excess water.”
Learn more about how weirs and stormwater management work on Sanibel.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that sea level in our region has risen as much as 0.8 feet since 1985, meaning there’s less capacity for the ground to soak up water after a rain event or storm surge, Thompson said. This also means that — as barrier islands at low elevation — Sanibel and Captiva are increasingly susceptible to saltwater intrusion.
“As sea level rises, there’s going to be more and more instances of storm surge, saltwater inundation, and saltwater coming in through the weirs,” Thompson said. “The Sanibel Slough is likely to become saltier and saltier in the future, and may not end up being a freshwater system in the future, which changes a lot of things water quality wise as to what survives in there and what doesn’t.”
Dolly said the City of Sanibel has been working on updating its stormwater master plan, and public workshops and council meetings will be announced in the coming months.
Lastly, the group discussed the importance of native vegetation for taking up and retaining excess water off the landscape.
“If you see standing water on your property, and if you think the water’s not going away as fast as it used to, one reason that is true is that we don’t have the quality or the density of vegetation we had before Ian,” Thompson said.
SCCF’s Native Landscapes & Garden Center is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at 1300 Periwinkle Way.
In closing Evans said, “While the hurricanes of 2024 were certainly a setback to our recovery, they have energized and empowered us to think outside the box and seek solutions to expedite our recovery, while preserving the natural systems and wildlife that make Sanibel and Captiva so special and support our tourism-based economy.”
State of the Islands also included a special address from both Sanibel’s first mayor, Porter Goss, and current mayor, Richard Johnson, as well as an update from Nicole McHale, executive director of Community Housing and Resources.
Throughout the program, all speakers delivered a message of optimism for the future of the islands, highlighting the major progress underway. The construction on the Sanibel Causeway is nearing its lengthy end, and many hotels, resorts, and other businesses and markets are finally coming back online in 2025.