East County Water Control District and the South Florida Water Management District will be reaching out to Walmart shortly and advising them they could be facing penalties for improperly discharging trash into a water body (aka Lehigh Acres canal system) and for not taking care of their water control structures.
According Mike Cook Assistant District Manager of ECWCD, Walmart has failed to maintain the lot behind them which is the discharge area for their parking lot. (see photo is this article) Currently it has many years overgrowth. Cook said we cannot even found two of the water control structures do to all the overgrowth.
Also the final discharge of water goes into a canal near Walmart. This discharge pipe and canal have 100’s Walmart bags in it plus other trash.
When we reached out the store the manager he did know about the property behind them, though he did mention that the store has been there since 1993 and wants to be a good corporate neighbor.
We are still waiting for a response from Walmart corporate office.
Good Corporate neighbors respect the environment and follow regulations. This is also a common sense issue. You don’t pollute your waterways or land! Get it fixed Walmart.