HEALTH

SFWMD will link polluted C-23 Canal to cleansing C-44 reservoir to spare St. Lucie River

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

The South Florida Water Management District board agreed Thursday to spend $5 million for land to connect a canal dumping nutrient-polluted water into the St. Lucie River to an under-construction water cleansing project.

The 6-mile "interconnect" will take up to 1.7 billion gallons of water a year from the C-23 Canal, which drains farmland in northwest Martin County and southwest St. Lucie County, and send it south to the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area being built near Indiantown.

That will keep about 14.8 tons of phosphorus (about the weight of two bull African elephants) and 34.2 tons of nitrogen (five of those elephants) out of the estuary, according to district projections.

Construction continues on the the new C-44 Reservoir Stormwater Treatment Area on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019, in western Martin County. The new Stormwater Treatment Area project, located near the Indiantown Airport off Citrus Boulevard, is a major component of the Indian River Lagoon-South Restoration Project to improve the health of the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem, which includes the St. Lucie Estuary.

Phosphorus and nitrogen, nutrients found in fertilizer runoff, feed blue-green algae blooms like those that have plagued the St. Lucie River estuary.

The money will buy a 108.5-acre strip of land west of Interstate 95 in western Martin County running 3 miles from the C-23 Canal south to Martin Highway, aka County Road 714.

Land for the remaining 3 miles of the canal, from Martin Highway south to the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area, is already owned by the district as part of the Allapattah Flats, a wetland used as a natural water storage area.

By the way:Read all of TCPalm's Indian River Lagoon coverage

More: Port St. Lucie project will clean St. Lucie River, provide water supply

Map shows how a proposed canal will connect the C-23 Canal along the Martin-St. Lucie county line to the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area.

Doing double duty

The C-44 project's 3,400-acre reservoir and its stormwater treatment area, a marsh filled with plants to suck fertilizer nutrients out of the water, are designed primarily to store and clean water from the C-44 Canal — including Lake Okeechobee discharges — before it reaches the St. Lucie River.

But district officials said Thursday the project was designed to get the extra water from the C-23 connection as well, under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. That suite of projects was authorized in 2000 to restore the environment of the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee river estuaries.

About half the 6,300-acre wetland began operations in November. The district is expected to complete the rest this month, Executive Director Drew Bartlett told the board.

Ed Killer column: Clean water project by Corps,water district cause for hope 

More:District adds $9 million to C-44 contract with board member's company

The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to finish building the adjacent reservoir in 2021.

The combined cost of the reservoir and wetland is about $800 million.

Construction of the connection canal is scheduled to begin in September 2021, said Jennifer Reynolds, the district's ecosystem restoration director, and be operational in 2024.

Money for the purchase will come from property taxes levied by the district and/or Florida Forever, a fund used to acquire land for natural spaces and conservation areas.

The interconnect will not impact Port St. Lucie's long-range plan to draw water out of the C-23 Canal for a project that will add 20 million gallons of drinking water a day to the growing city.

The board took action without members Carlos E. "Charlie" Martinez, a real estate investor and restaurant owner from Pinecrest in Miami-Dade County, and Benjamin Butler, a dairy farmer from Lorida in Okeechobee County, whose terms expired in March. The six-month grace period extending their terms ran out before this month's meeting.

Both were named to the board in November to fill unexpired terms of members who had been asked to leave by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"We are hopeful the governor will reappoint Mr. Martinez and Mr. Butler," district spokesperson Randy Smith said via email.

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.