C-10 Water Management Area project

Updated on 7-2-2024

The C-10 Water Management Area (WMA) is planned as part of the work of the St. Johns River Water Management District in the Upper St. Johns River Basin to help improve water quality in the Indian River Lagoon.

The C-10 WMA is a proposed 1,300-acre stormwater treatment system located at the west end of Malabar Road, north of the District’s Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area, and south of Sawgrass Lakes Water Management Area in Brevard County.

The purpose of the project is to reduce the amount of nutrient loading to the Indian River Lagoon, restore historic surface water flows back west to the St. Johns River, increase flood protection, and improve resiliency. The project will provide water quality and alternative water supply benefits. As an ancillary benefit, C-10 WMA will further support the community by making additional public recreational opportunities available in Brevard County, similar to those found on existing District lands such as Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area and Sawgrass Lake WMA, which are adjacent to the proposed C-10 WMA.

The C-10 WMA will improve water quality in the Indian River Lagoon similar to the District’s completed Canal 1 (C-1)/Sawgrass Lake Water Management Area project. For almost a century, the C-1 Canal shunted stormwater away from its natural destination, the St. Johns River, and instead directed it to the Indian River Lagoon, impacting the estuarine environment with nutrients, sediments and unnatural volumes of freshwater. The multi-phase C-1/Sawgrass Lake Water Management Area Project restored a portion of these flows back to the St. Johns River, after being naturally filtered to remove nitrogen and phosphorus. Natural filtration occurs though the 2,000-acre Sawgrass Lake WMA. That project has operated since 2015 and reduces nutrient loading to the Indian River Lagoon by an estimated 148,000 lbs./year total nitrogen (TN) and 13,000 lbs./year total phosphorus (TP). If the C-10 WMA is constructed, it is estimated to further reduce nutrient loading to the Indian River Lagoon by an additional 29,300 lbs./year TN and 1,300 lbs./year TP.

Project design is nearly complete. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is providing $20 million in resiliency funding toward project construction. The Brevard County Board of County Commissioners approved the 2024 Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SOIRL) project plan, which includes $10.46 million in grant funds for C-10 WMA.