St. Lucie County has completed construction of a new wetland at Indrio Savannahs Preserve, a project officials say will improve stormwater quality and help protect downstream waterways.<\/p>\n
The approximately 3-acre wetland connects the county\u2019s northern drainage basin to a previously isolated, man-made lake within the preserve. The system is designed to slow and treat stormwater using native vegetation before it flows south toward Taylor Creek and eventually reaches tidal waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wetland is a water quality feature, attached to the southern end of the lake, that cleans before discharging stormwater,\u201d said Erick Gill, St. Lucie County\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n
Gill said the project altered how water moves through the area by allowing runoff from the north to flow into the lake rather than bypassing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the lake fills from the north, the southern wetland fills, thus performing water quality and nutrient reductions as the water sits in there,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the lake fills enough, water flows over the southern wetland bank and then south to Taylor Creek and then eventually out to tide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The site was selected because of its natural role in regional water movement. The 297-acre Indrio Savannahs Preserve contains a flow-way that links the northernmost areas of the county to Taylor Creek. Prior to the project, a 35-acre man-made lake within the preserve was cut off from the surrounding marsh system, allowing untreated stormwater to move east through the Savannahs and toward the Indian River Lagoon.<\/p>\n
Native wetland plants have been installed and are continuing to establish themselves, Gill said, helping to filter nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen while also creating habitat for wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will help filter and clean the water, while providing additional habitat for wildlife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The wetland is currently functioning, though parts of the preserve remain temporarily closed to the public. County officials said the Environmental Resource Department is building bridges and boardwalks to reconnect pedestrian areas, with reopening planned for the spring.<\/p>\n
Funding for the project came from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Gill said the county allocated federal funding across several stormwater projects, with construction of the Indrio Savannahs wetland totaling $802,610.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Lucie County has completed construction of a new wetland at Indrio Savannahs Preserve, a project officials say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-132997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}