St. Lucie River to benefit from alliance between Martin and water management

By Jason Kane
Thursday, July 17, 2008

MARTIN COUNTY - The St. Lucie River soon will be a little cleaner now that Martin County and the South Florida Water Management District have combined resources to pay for four big projects.

The county and the water management district, which oversees water resources from Orlando to the Keys, will each chip in $5 million for the projects, approved last month, in the coming year.

Water quality in the St. Lucie Estuary has deteriorated in part because of excessive nutrients, caused when elements such as nitrogen or phosphorus enter the water or soil from fertilizer or other sources. The county marked the four projects as critical for the cleanup of waters coming from Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie watershed, said Temperince Morgan, the Northern Everglades program implementation manager for the water district.

Officials hope these projects will improve the timing, quality and quantity of waters flowing into the estuary in coming years.

THE PROJECTS

• Building two storm water treatment areas in Old Palm City to serve about 106 acres of residential land, helping reduce sediment and nutrients flowing to the St. Lucie River and Estuary.

• Starting in December, crews will remove about 253,000 cubic yards of muck from the Manatee Pocket of the St. Lucie Estuary, helping improve navigation for boats and reducing pollution, as well as creating a sediment trap to make the muck easier to remove in the future.

• A sewer service will be installed in the North River Shores area, providing about 450 lots with an underground collection system. The water will then be pumped to a treatment plant to be cleaned and reused.

• A water quality retrofit on Manatee Creek will improve drainage on 833 acres of residential, commercial and industrial land, helping to eliminate discharges into the Manatee Pocket. The second and third phases of this project will provide additional water treatment at the Dixie Park Wastewater Treatment Plant.