As the new year gets underway, Brevard County and the city of Palm Bay will host on Monday night the second of two workshops to gather public feedback about the county’s Save Our Indian River Lagoon, or SOIRL, program.
Unless the half-cent sales tax funding the SOIRL program is renewed, 2026 will be the last year it’s collected. The program would then come to an end.
Across the program’s 10-year lifespan, the SOIRL tax will likely have contributed some $586 million for lagoon restoration projects, or an average of $58.6 million a year, according to Brevard County. Those projects are designed to help the lagoon, generally by either removing existing pollution from the water or preventing new pollutants from getting in.
Massive, harmful algal blooms that killed off manatees, fish and other wildlife in the lagoon were a driving force behind the sales tax county residents voted to approve in 2016. Since that time, although the lagoon is still polluted, its health has improved.
Last year was one of “general stability” across the Indian River Lagoon, according to an annual report published by the nonprofit Marine Resources Council or MRC.
Unlike 2024, none of the lagoon’s five basins, or watersheds, were deemed to be in poor health last year. The Central basin’s health was designated “poor” in 2024, but in 2025, it rose to “okay.” The MRC attributes the basin’s improvement to lower concentrations of harmful algal blooms, plus more seagrass coverage.
Many lagoon advocates are excited about that seagrass coverage growth, including lifelong county resident Laurilee Thompson, who sits on the SOIRL program’s Citizens Oversight Committee. Members of the committee vet and choose which projects SOIRL will fund and prioritize.
“I'm seeing massive seagrass restoration,” Thompson said. “You can definitely see a difference in the river.”
That seagrass growth began in 2022 in the Mosquito Lagoon, the Indian River Lagoon’s northernmost basin, and has since expanded, Thompson said.
“I couldn't believe my eyes, but we have massive seagrass growth along the shoreline at Titusville,” Thompson said. “I expect it to just keep marching southward. That’s what I’m anticipating, based on what I’ve seen over the last five years.”
Thompson attributes much of the success to projects funded by the SOIRL program.
“There's a major change between what we had in 2016 — which was crisis time, as far as algae blooms —and what we're seeing now,” Thompson said.
Many of the projects take years to plan and execute but are well worth the expense of time and money, Thompson said. She’s hoping to see the SOIRL program return to Brevard County ballots, and that voters will choose to renew it for another ten years.
Otherwise, Thompson said, the county and its municipalities will have a much more difficult time meeting new state requirements for improved stormwater management and septic-to-sewer conversions. “Those mandates from the state were not there in 2016, but they are now.”
“If we did not have this reliable source of funding that we can count on, we would not be able to plan these large projects, these large improvements,” Thompson said.
Not everyone is confident in the SOIRL program. Some county residents have voiced concern about whether sales-tax revenues have been spent effectively.
At a county commission meeting last month, Brevard commissioners approved a change to the way SOIRL funds septic system upgrades. Before, SOIRL doled out those funds based on how much nitrogen pollution each septic upgrade would reduce to the lagoon. Now, each approved applicant receives at least $6,000, regardless of how much pollution their septic upgrade is expected to reduce.
Resident Sandra Sullivan told commissioners last month she’s not happy with that change.
“What we voted for was cleaning up the lagoon, not for septic systems anywhere in Brevard County being funded by the lagoon tax,” Sullivan said.
RELATED: To cut pollution, Brevard offers more money for septic upgrades
Although the lagoon’s overall health improved in 2025, compared to 2024, some things stayed the same. Just like in 2024, the Mosquito Lagoon was the lagoon system’s only basin last year to receive a “good” health assessment, according to the MRC report.
“If we don't address our water quality issues, it will eventually impact our ability to attract tourists to come to the state, and be able to attract a good workforce,” Thompson said.
Monday night’s workshop will include time for public comment. It begins at 5 p.m. at Palm Bay Council Chambers, located at 120 Malabar Road SE. The workshop won’t be livestreamed, but will be recorded for later viewing.
