Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

By Sade M. Gordon
Posted August 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

INDIANTOWN — With over a quarter of the first phase of the C-44 canal's construction complete, Martin County commissioners and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are even more anxious for the scheduled approval of the second contract for the canal's restoration project.

The first contract, which Congress funded as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project with more than $32 million in 2011, includes an intake canal, access roads, drainage canals and a new bridge on Citrus Boulevard. But it's the second contract, which kicks off construction of a huge stormwater reservoir, that Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, says will start making the big changes the St. Lucie Estuary needs to restore its natural balance of fresh and salt water.

Perry cited the recent Tropical Storm Isaac as clear proof of how necessary the reservoir is.

"Water shouldn't be pouring into the St. Lucie Estuary," he said. "It should be stored here."

Project Engineer Paul Sadowski of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said he estimated the first phase of the project to be "26 percent complete." The area has been cleared of trees and top soil, he said, while work on the bridge for the intake canal and relocation of the drainage canal are under way. There are about 120 workers on hand for the restoration project, but Sadowski couldn't confirm whether or not they were hired locally.

If all goes as planned, the first phase will be done by early 2014.

By August 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Martin County Commission hope to be awarded $270 million by Congress for the second portion. The second phase is a three-year endeavor that will result in 12,000 acres of above ground storage that would collect excess water from four different canals.

Perry expressed concern that the reservoir was going to store water above ground, however. The danger of above-ground storage is the weakness of the dikes that surround the water. He gave Lake Okeechobee's deteriorating dike as an example of what could eventually happen to the projected 2014 reservoir. Instead, he suggested using the surrounding orange groves upstream and making deals with farmers to create on-site underground storage and treatment.

Even so, he said, it was "critical that storage be put in place."

Eric Draper
Executive Director
Audubon of Florida         

STUART — Construction of the massive C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area is on schedule, but the completion of the $364 million project depends on congressional funding, federal officials said Tuesday.

The Martin County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution asking Florida's delegation in Congress to continue to support funding for the rest of the project.

"We want to be on our toes so that we are not waiting, waiting, waiting, but we're pushing, pushing, pushing," Commissioner Ed Fielding said.

However, Michelle McGovern, a regional director for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, said it has become more difficult for Congress to appropriate money for projects in recent years.

"The federal government is having to do what you all have been having to do for a long time; cut back on budgets in places that are painful," McGovern said.

The $32 million first phase of the project is expected to be completed in early 2014, said Orlando Ramos-Gines, a senior project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

However, Congress has not allocated money for the $270 million second phase, Ramos-Gines said. The contract for that work is set to be awarded in August 2014.

The project is being built in three phases because of the funding challenges, Ramos-Gines said. The $60 million contract for the third phase is set to be awarded in April 2017.

The project is designed to store and clean water draining from western Martin County into the C-44 Canal, which also is known at the Okeechobee Waterway and the St. Lucie Canal.

The goal is to reduce the flow of pollution, such as fertilizer from farmland, into the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.

Commissioner Sarah Heard said completion of the C-44 Reservoir project would set the stage for other projects in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

"We need to show completed projects that are working, that are helping, that are implementing CERP," Heard said.

Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, said Martin County's contribution of $27 million in sales tax money from a voter approved referendum shows strong public support for the project.

"We're in this for the long haul," Perry said. "We want this project to continue. If we don't keep it rolling, it's just going to kind of die on the vine."