A major, long-awaited project to redirect polluted stormwater away from the Indian River Lagoon is finally finished, Governor Ron DeSantis announced Monday at a press conference in Melbourne, where state leaders gathered to celebrate the Crane Creek/M-1 Canal Flow Restoration Project’s completion.
The project, initially identified in 2017 by the St. Johns River Water Management District, is effectively an attempt to reverse damage done about 100 years ago, when earlier Floridians dug the M-1 Canal for agricultural purposes. Over time, the canal diverted stormwater — and nutrients — from more than 5,300 acres of land in the Melbourne area into the Indian River Lagoon, according to the District.
Now, water from the M-1 Canal will instead be getting pumped under I-95 and Heritage Parkway to a stormwater treatment area, where the water will be treated before getting discharged to the St. Johns River basin. Historically, before the M-1 Canal’s construction, that’s where water would naturally flow — and where it’ll flow again once more, now that the restoration project is complete.
Up until the project’s completion, diverted stormwater was flowing into Crane Creek, carrying with it excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that were ultimately entering the Indian River Lagoon.
Now that the water’s once again flowing in its natural, westward direction towards the St. Johns River basin, the project is expected to stop 24,000 pounds of nitrogen and 3,100 pounds of phosphorus from entering the lagoon each year, according to officials. Meanwhile, officials say the St. Johns River watershed will benefit from the additional flow of up to 7 million gallons of freshwater daily.
“That's a double whammy of goodness, right there,” said District Chair Rob Bradley. “You got the St. Johns River getting the water it needs, and you got the Indian River Lagoon being cleansed and returned to where it should be.”
Bradley thanked DeSantis for “securing the future of Florida’s one-of-a-kind natural environment for all the future generations.” He also praised Brevard County and the IRL Council, an independent special district made up of representatives from various agencies and local community leaders from the five counties that border the lagoon.
“This project is going to restore the flow of water in this area through the way that God originally intended it,” Bradley said.
