To fulfill its core missions, the St. Johns River Water Management District implements a wide variety of projects — many with partners — aimed at protecting water supplies, water quality and natural systems, as well as providing flood protection to tens of thousands of Floridians.
Major projects include:
Through its Cost-Share Funding program, the district partners with local governments and other entities to share construction costs for projects that assist in creating sustainable water resources, provide flood protection and enhance conservation efforts.
This is a multi-entity partnership project to improve the quality of water flowing to the Indian River Lagoon by removing at least 625,000 cubic yards of nutrient-laden muck from the Eau Gallie River, a lagoon tributary. Dredging began in winter 2016.
Since 2014, nearly 80 projects protecting spring water flow and water quality have been funded through district cost-share programs. The district has contributed more than $35 million toward springs protection projects, resulting in more than 62 million gallons of alternative water supplied and 4 million gallons of water a day (mgd) conserved. These projects also have reduced total nitrogen and total phosphorus.
The project is a vast flood control and marsh restoration project at the headwaters of the St. Johns River in Indian River and Brevard counties. Completed in May 2016, the project has moved into long-term maintenance. Benefits include flood protection to two counties and the restoration of more than 166,000 acres of marshes, providing recreation for people and habitat for fish and wildlife.
This long-term phosphorus removal project uses four wetland treatment cells to clean the water in this once-famous bass fishing lake. This is one part of the overall Lake Apopka restoration effort. Other aspects of the lake’s restoration include harvest of gizzard shad to remove the phosphorus in the bodies of the fish, planting to aquatic vegetation to provide wave protection and fish habitat, and work by other agencies to install fish attractors and investigate innovative technologies to remove additional excess nutrients from the lake’s water.
Improvement projects include removing internal levees and constructing vehicle pullovers for a new wildlife drive that will be east of the existing drive. The second phase of the project, under construction in 2017, will remove portions of the outside levee and construct a boat ramp.
In the Tri-County Agricultural Area in Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns counties, projects largely focus on implementing improved fertilizer and irrigation practices on farms to reduce fertilizer-laden farm runoff from reaching the St. Johns River and other waterways.