Harvester Reaps Cleaner Canals
"This is amazing...it eats and cuts down weeds, 
moves sand and other debris at the same time at a fast pace"

Miles away from developed Cape Coral on the northeast tip of the city limits, city workers man a harvester they say will have a positive effect on all residents.

It weighs four tons and is about 28 feet long. The 177 horsepower diesel motor pumps out debris from a 12-inch pipe that can span a mile long.

At first glance the state-of-the-art harvester looks like a dredge. But city officials say it can do much more and, to prove the point, Cape Coral Mayor Roger Butler hopped aboard and operated the equipment in the Gator Clough canal for a few minutes.

"This is amazing," Mayor Butler said while operating the vessel. "It eats and cuts down weeds, moves sand and other debris at the same time at a fast pace. We should have three or four more of these. And the adjustable seat is actually more comfortable than the one in my office at city hall."

The harvester will play a vital role in the Cape, according to Kevin McGee who supervises the city's canal maintenance and dredging program. The city has one of the largest canal maintenance programs in the country which includes three dredges, a long reach excavator and the new harvester.

But the task in Cape Coral is enormous. There are 400 miles of fresh and saltwater canals. Many requests come in from citizens asking the city to clear or dredge them.

"This harvester can do something the dredges cannot; get in the water and clear the canals from top to bottom," said McGee. "And the work we're doing in clearing the Gator Slough is important. A large percentage of the water we receive in Cape Coral is fed by the Gator Slough. Once we clear the Gator Slough Canal, we'll begin getting in the developed areas; the first will be the Lake Kennedy area."

So important is the work that the South Florida Water Management District provided the city with $300,000 in May of last year to begin the Gator Slough project. Kurt Harclerode, a spokesperson for the water management district, said the project has a regional impact. The Water Management District has another $150,000 budgeted for the city project in 1998.

"It will effect people in the city and the district is involved because it will provide for flooding relief for other areas in Charlotte County and North Fort Myers," said Harclerode.

McGee said the natural water flow from the Peace River and other estuaries in Charlotte County runs south through the Gator Slough and into the river aquifers in the Cape. When canals get blocked by debris and weeds, not only is that water flow diminished, but heavy rains force the waterflow elsewhere due to the blockage, and cause flooding in the other areas.

The city is leasing the harvester under a five-year contract that will allow the city to purchase the equipment at the end of the term.

"This is a machine the Cape sorely needs," said Butler, who campaigned for the harvester during his re-election bid in 1996. "It can make great improvements to our canal maintenance system. Once our residents see what it can do, I think they'll be in favor of getting more of them.