The Acting Assistant Administrator for Water at the Environmental Protection Agency has been in Ft. Myers this week visiting family. Nancy Stoner also took some time to view the results of the some of the work the EPA supports in the area.
Stoner was the guest of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program which is funded by the EPA under the Clean Water Act. Leaving from a boat ramp near Cape Coral, Stoner got a close up view of mangrove islands, oyster bars, dolphins, manatees, and lots of birds. Midway through a four hour tour Stoner said she liked what she saw.
“What I’d say I’m most impressed with is all the preservation of these mangroves areas that I’ve seen all along the shoreline,” she said. “Tremendous efforts have been to identify areas to preserve and to work with a variety of different sources to come up with the funding to do that, and it makes a huge difference in terms of water quality, the habitat, all kinds of different things.”
Stoner also said she’s very proud new water quality standards in place for Florida which were agreed upon by the EPA and the State Department of Environmental Protection.
