Posted on February 2, 2017
By Dave Berman, Florida Today
Two dozen projects have been recommended for approval by a citizens’ committee overseeing use of a special county sales tax targeted for Indian River Lagoon restoration.
The committee plowed through 36 proposals from Brevard County, five cities and other entities for a range of projects, including sewer line extensions, stormwater projects, baffle boxes and other approaches.
Twenty-four projects were recommended, with a total more than $23.6 million in proposed funding. Twelve other proposals were sent back for further review because they were incomplete and needed additional data.
Money for the recommended projects would come from Brevard County’s half-percent sales tax that voters approved in November to be levied for the next 10 years for lagoon restoration projects.
The unanimous recommendations of the Brevard County Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan Citizen Oversight Committee must be confirmed by the Brevard County Commission, which is scheduled to consider the proposals at its March 7 meeting.
“We were doing a really, really heavy lift,” Citizen Oversight Committee Vice Chair John Byron said at the end of the committee’s meeting. “The sooner we can spend the money, the sooner we can fix the lagoon. The coin of the realm here is results” — removing harmful nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to improve the conditions of the lagoon.
Noting the critical condition of the lagoon, Byron said: “The clock is not just ticking, It is two minutes to midnight.”
Indian River Lagoon Sales Tax Panel Starts Oversight
Brevard voters on Nov. 8 approved the lagoon sales tax for the next 10 years, by a vote of 62.4 percent to 37.6 percent. The sales tax started to be collected on Jan. 1, and Brevard County in March will see its first allocation of the tax money from the state.
Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department Director Virginia Barker said, in addition to money raised by the sales tax, the county is hoping for matching state and federal money for lagoon restoration projects.
For example, she said the county has submitted $34 million in requests for state funding for lagoon-related projects that would match $34 million in local money.
The lagoon in recent years has experienced algae blooms, brown tide, fish kills, and unexplained deaths of dolphins, manatees and pelicans.
The plan for restoring the lagoon within Brevard includes such measures as muck removal, stormwater projects, upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities, septic system removal and upgrades, fertilizer management, oyster reef projects and public education.
Some of the recommended projects to come out of the oversight committee would start during the current 2016-17 county budget year that ends Sept. 30. Others are scheduled to begin in the 2017-18 budget year that begins Oct. 1. And some are two-year projects that would take place in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 budget years.
The projects are spread throughout three sub-lagoon regions within Brevard: the North Indian River Lagoon, the Central Indian River Lagoon and the Banana River.
Barker said she was “very excited” to see so many applications for the first round of funding, adding that they stretch from Mims to Micco.
Barker said the 24 projects will remove a total of 80,977 pounds of nitrogen and 8,520 pounds of phosphorus from the lagoon system.
In alluding to the uncharted waters of the lagoon advisory committee’s work, Byron said: “We are designing and building this airplane while we are flying it.”
Source: Florida Today
