Treasure Coast Free Press

How the Corps are addressing wet banks along parts of the C-44 reservoir

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District

The Indian River Lagoon, home to more than 3,000 species of plants and animals, is considered the most biologically diverse estuarine system in the continental United States. The C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area is the first component of the multi-billion dollar Indian River Lagoon-South (IRL-S) project, part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).

Construction is underway on multiple components of the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) project in Martin County, Fla. The C-44 project includes the construction of a 3,400-acre reservoir, a pump station with a capacity to pump 1,100 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, and 6,300 acres of STAs.

All project components were originally planned to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but, in an effort to construct the project as expeditiously as possible, local sponsor South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has awarded construction contracts for the constructing the pump station, STA, and system discharge canal.

After construction is completed, the project will capture local runoff from the C-44 basin, reducing average annual total nutrient loads and improving salinity in the St. Lucie Estuary and the southern portion of the Indian River Lagoon by providing, in total, 60,500 acre-feet of new water storage (50,600 acre-feet in the reservoir and 9,900 acre-feet in the STAs) and 3,600 acres of new wetlands.

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