State managers tackle water quality issues near Everglades restoration site

As one of the first projects to restore the greater Everglades begins its home stretch, a state agency is contending with a common Southwest Florida problem: water quality.

The South Florida Water Management District is working with the U.S. Army Corps in the Picayune Strand State Forest to restore historic water flows after a failed housing development redirected water into canals and interrupted sheet flow with a 270-mile grid work of roads.

A final piece of the Picayune Strand Restoration Project, part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, is a protection feature planned around agricultural lands at the southwest corner of the site. While the feature protects agricultural lands, it has the potential to send excess nutrients into otherwise clean waters.

More:Finishing touches on Picayune restoration moving through permitting process

The waters at risk of nutrient pollution are in Collier-Seminole State Park, Rookery Bay Estuarine Research Reserve and Cape Romano-Ten Thousand Islands Aquatic Preserve.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection calls them Outstanding Florida Waters. This designation marks a water body “worthy of special protection because of its natural attributes” and is applied to protect existing water quality.

Now, a working group headed by the water management district is studying possible solutions to the excess nitrogen and phosphorus found in monitoring stations near the proposed protection features.

The group met for the second time Tuesday to discuss potential solutions. Stantec, a consulting group working on the problem, has identified 11 applicable treatment options.

Jennifer Reynolds, the district’s director of ecosystem restoration and capital projects, kicked off the meeting by quickly addressing a common concern of the public attendees.

Reynolds acknowledged that ranches, agriculture and increasing development can contribute to problematic nutrients and runoff, but the scope of the study will not be to consider the source of any nutrient pollution.

“This study is not about pinpointing the specific sources and volumes of these nutrients and flows right now,” she said. “But, agree with it or not, the upstream source contributors are in legal compliance with the statutes, the framework and the regulations that are currently in place.”

More:Massive Everglades restoration project in Picayune Strand more than two thirds complete

The district intends to focus the study on projects that will fit on the limited land available while cleaning the water currently on the landscape, she said.

Stantec’s Jennifer Brunty presented a handful of the 11 options the company thought would best fit the needs of the project. Among the possible solutions are canals, sediment basins, constructed treatment wetlands, polishing ponds and media filters. One of many of these could be used in the final project, she said.

Stantec pointed to Freedom Park in Naples as an example of how multiple treatment options can link together to efficiently clean water. The park, part of Conservation Collier, uses about 20 acres of wetlands and different treatment solutions to manage the runoff from 3,000 acres. Data shows that nitrogen has been reduced by about 41% and phosphorus by around 84% as water runs through the park and into the Gordon River.

During a previous meeting on Aug. 31, Jennifer Leeds of the district said water quality solutions must be produced quickly and are limited by where they can go.

“(We’re looking at) things that are a little bit more low key but still provide really good water quality benefits that will last a while,” she said. “And then also, will fit into smaller areas because if you look at this area, even if you're looking a little bit further to the west, you know there's not a whole lot of land availability.”

More:Florida agency seeks control of federal wetland permits

This land availability remained a constraint during Tuesday’s meeting, with Stantec’s Tim Hancock suggesting more of a suite of potential tools to clean the water rather than a single silver bullet.

“The focus going forward in this effort will really be on passive systems that do not require a substantial degree of mechanical infrastructure to operate,” he said. Hancock agreed with a member of the public who suggested that the water in the Picayune Strand area would need dozens of Freedom Parks.

In a report published last week, Stantec detailed the information it collected for the water quality study and suggested the possibility of a treatment train, or a way to shuttle water between different treatment options, the same way Freedom Park works.

Efforts to restore Picayune Strand should wrap up in 2024, and Reynolds said she hopes the water quality component will follow the same timeline. The working group on the water quality issue will meet once more in December to discuss a draft feasibility report.

More information and the Stantec report can be found on the district’s website: sfwmd.gov/our-work/picayune-watershed-water-quality-feasibility-study

Karl Schneider is an environment reporter. Connect with him via email at kschneider@gannett.com or on Twitter: @karlstartswithk