Florida's $92.2 billion budget includes millions to help clean up Treasure Coast waters
Tyler TreadwayThe state budget Gov. Ron DeSantis signed this week contains millions of dollars for projects that will directly, and indirectly, help clean Treasure Coast waterways.
The budget for fiscal year 2020-21 includes more than $322 million for Everglades restoration projects, $160 million for targeted water quality improvements and $25 million to combat harmful algal blooms and red tide.
The budget also sets aside $100 million for Florida Forever, the state’s premier program to buy land for conservation and recreation.
Here's how some of the money in the $92.2 billion budget will affect the Treasure Coast:
- $170 million for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
The allocation includes money to complete construction of the water-cleaning marsh at the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area in western Martin County.
More: SFWMD adds $9 million added to contract with board member's company
The project will take water out of the C-44 Canal that otherwise would have headed for the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon, clean it and release it back into the canal.
About half the 6,300-acre wetland began operations in November. The entire wetland is scheduled to be finished in September.
The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to finish building the adjacent 3,400-acre reservoir in 2021.
- $64 million for the EAA Reservoir
The linchpin of several projects designed to cut damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee River estuaries, it includes a 10,100-acre reservoir with 37-foot walls to store excess lake water and a 6,500-acre artificial marsh to clean water as it leaves the reservoir and heads toward Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.
More:Corps issues permit, construction starts on marsh at EAA reservoir
The state and federal governments are splitting the project's $1.6 billion cost. The state began work on the marsh in April and expects to finish in December 2023. The Corps expects to build the reservoir in 2028.
- $10.8 million to increase water quality monitoring, support the Blue-Green Algae Task Force and to improve and maintain the water quality public information portal.
About $575,000 of that will go to the Ocean Research & Conservation Association in Fort Pierce to maintain the 11 Kilroys, remote-controlled water quality monitors spread throughout the lagoon and the St. River, funded by the state.
ORCA officials had hoped to get $750,000 to expand the Kilroy network in the lagoon and, more importantly, the tributaries feeding water and pollution into it.
Of the remaining seven Kilroys, four are funded by Brevard County, two by Martin County and one by St. Lucie County.
- $800,000 to Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne for the second phase of its study into the feasibility of building links to bring Atlantic Ocean water into the Indian River Lagoon.
One of the three sites being studied is Bethel Creek, a dead-end arm of the lagoon where water tends to stagnate, in Indian River County. A broken wastewater pipe that dumped about 3 million gallons of raw sewage into the creek in mid-November 2017 illustrated the need for better water flows in the area.
More:Link between ocean, lagoon at Vero Beach focus of FIT study
The other two sites are in the Banana River section of the lagoon, near Port Canaveral and Orlando Beach, both in Brevard County.
Phase I of the study, expected to conclude in September, involves gathering baseline conditions at the sites. The second phase will model how the links would affect conditions in the ocean and lagoon, giving Florida Tech project leaders enough information to make a recommendation.
- $500,000 to St. Lucie County for a muck removal project in Taylor Creek
The county is partnering with the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Inland Navigation District on the $3.6 million project.
More: State agencies, St. Lucie County partner to remove Taylor Creek muck
Both the creek and the C-25 Canal that flows into it stretch into the northwestern part of the county and combine to dump tons of sediment in the lagoon north of Fort Pierce.
The accumulation of muck, which contains algae bloom-feeding nutrients, is "affecting both the environment and navigation" in the creek, according to a SFWMD report.
Septic to sewer conversions
The state also allocated $25 million for cost-share grant funds for water quality improvements, including septic conversions and upgrades, other wastewater improvements, and rural and urban stormwater system upgrades.
Indian River County received $750,000 to help pay for a $4.4 million project to switch 114 properties along the St. Sebastian River near the Indian River Lagoon from septic tanks to a centralized sewer system.
The county estimates the project will keep over 3,500 pounds of nitrogen and 570 pounds of phosphorus — both feed algae blooms — out of the river and lagoon.
Port St. Lucie received $100,000 for the city’s ongoing septic-to-sewer project.
Martin County received $100,000 from the fund to build a weir on Jensen Beach Boulevard to help remove debris from water draining from Savannas Preserve State Park into Warner Creek and the St. Lucie River.
Martin County also plans to seek more money from that fund, said John Maehl, the county ecosystem restoration manager, including:
- $4 million for the county's septic to sewer program
- $150,000 for a project along Cypress Creek, a Loxahatchee River tributary
- Up to $4 million for technology to reduce nutrients in the water and prevent harmful algae blooms.
Tyler Treadway is an environment reporter who specializes in issues facing the Indian River Lagoon. Support his work on TCPalm.com. Contact him at 772-221-4219 and tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com.