MARTIN COUNTY — The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is leading the Indian River Lagoon-South Restoration Project and is working hand in hand with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to capture and clean stormwater before it flows into those fragile waterways.
The project hinges on building fresh canals, reservoirs, and treatment zones to trap sediments, nitrogen, and phosphorus—the stuff that sparks nasty algal blooms and wrecks the estuary’s natural setup. This huge cleanup push, set to run into billions over many years, is already rolling out.
The massive cleanup initiative is projected to cost billions of dollars over the coming decades and targets polluted runoff that has long threatened the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Lucie River.
The biggest issue has probably been how fresh water interacts with a saline environment,” said John Maehl, Martin County’s environmental resource administrator, in a released statement. “When you put lots and lots of fresh water into it, it kills the vegetation and critters that live in an estuary.
Maehl added that the influx also loads the system with nutrients, leading to blooms “that are incredibly disruptive to wildlife and humans.”
Among the project’s early milestones is the C-23 Estuary Discharge Diversion Canal, slated for completion this spring. The canal will redirect runoff southward into reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas in Martin County for purification, rather than allowing direct discharge into the estuary. Another component, the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area, is already storing and treating water from its basin to curb nutrient pollution.
The funding for this project is coming from federal, state, and local sources. It is all tied to a broader restoration push that’s on track to unfold over decades. Officials are stressing that fixes will roll out gradually and asking locals who’ve seen the lagoon go downhill to hang tight.
“The sooner we get more storage and treatment into the basins, the sooner we get the incremental benefits of these projects,” Maehl said. “Every one of them is in some stage of construction or design.”
Local fishermen and conservation supporters have conveyed positivity, noting the lagoon’s economic and ecological value. The estuary maintains diverse wildlife, including manatees and seagrasses, and bolsters tourism and fishing industries along the Treasure Coast, which encompasses Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties.
State and federal agencies involved stress that diverting and treating water preserves the resource while protecting the ecosystem. “When we send that water to the estuary, it’s lost. It’s gone forever, and it impacts those areas negatively,” Maehl said.
The project builds on related efforts, such as Brevard County’s Save Our Indian River Lagoon program, which has raised hundreds of millions through a voter-approved sales tax to address pollution in the lagoon’s northern reaches. Together, these projects represent a comprehensive push to revive one of Florida’s most vital coastal waterways.
Indian River County is primarily managed by the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), not the SFWMD. However, the SFWMD does projects like this one across the broader Indian River Lagoon area that affect the county, as these districts sometimes coordinate on regional efforts such as lagoon restoration. The SFWMD focuses on the southern half of the state, from Orlando south, while the SJRWMD covers east-central Florida, including Indian River County.