In this section

Facts about the St. Johns River

Get a glimpse of the St. Johns River’s rich history and how it contributes to our society today.

Fragile ecology

Read how the river was formed and what plants and animals call it home.

Water quality

Many things influence the quality of the water in the St. Johns River. Learn more.

Tour of the St. Johns River

Begin at the river’s headwaters in Brevard and Indian River counties and read about points of interest along the way as you head to the river’s mouth at Mayport.

Learn how to get
a St. Johns River
license plate.

The St. Johns River

A story of the St. Johns River
The big picture

How can one describe the St. Johns River to the uninitiated? Certainly not in broad strokes, for this 310-mile-long waterway transforms itself as it flows lazily north from Indian River County to northeast Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean.

In Indian River County, the river’s headwaters encompass vast, primordial marshes teeming with alligators, wading birds and waterfowl. In Brevard County, the marsh morphs into a navigable river, gently twisting as it crawls north. Surprises abound as the river reveals multiple personalities along the way: a tapestry of sawgrass lakes, bottle-clear spring runs and darkwater tributaries. As the river leaves Putnam County for Clay and St. Johns counties, it widens considerably, in some locations exceeding 3 miles across. After passing Mayport in Duval County, the longest river contained in the state of Florida ends its journey where it mixes with the Atlantic Ocean.

History

The St. Johns River has always played a significant role in the development of Florida. The Timucuan Indians used the river for food, water and transportation for centuries before the Europeans arrived. The French and Spanish battled for control over the waterway in the 1500s. Two centuries later, in his writings, explorer William Bartram immortalized a portion of the river as a “true garden of Eden.” Later, steamboats plied this liquid highway, ferrying tourists and goods to towns and trading posts sprouting along the shore.

Threats to the river

Today the St. Johns River remains an invaluable part of Florida. But it is not the same river it was long ago.

A limpkin forages for food.

For decades, the river suffered from people’s activities, primarily stormwater runoff from metropolitan areas, treated domestic and industrial wastewater and agricultural runoff from farming areas.

Pollution in the river has, at times, triggered algal blooms and subsequent fish kills. The blooms are caused by nutrient-rich discharges. As a result, portions of the St. Johns River fail to meet state and federal water quality standards.

Fixing the problems

There is no single solution for improving the health of this celebrated and storied river. The St. Johns River Water Management District is aggressively engaged in restoration and prevention activities in several watersheds, or “basins,” along the river. The realization is this: Each basin is an interconnected part of the whole river. Improving water quality at the headwaters will ultimately impact the receiving watersheds as the river flows north.

Basin by basin, here are highlights of the billions of dollars the District and various federal, state and local partners have infused into river restoration projects and what lies ahead.

Upper St. Johns River Basin

The 2,000-square-mile basin — the St. Johns River’s headwaters — succumbed to decades of degradation as the marshes were drained to expose the rich soils to grow citrus and row crops and to raise cattle for beefsteak.

Cypress trees reach toward the sky at Blue Cypress Conservation Area in the Upper St. Johns River Basin.

Since 1988, the District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have restored and enhanced more than 150,000 acres of marshes in Indian River and Brevard counties, returning the marshes to their natural, pristine condition.

Primarily a flood control project, the ancillary benefits include the restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, the creation of recreational opportunities, improved water quality and the reduction of stormwater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon by 70 percent.

Restoration projects have been completed in Fort Drum Marsh Conservation Area and in Sixmile Creek, Broadmoor Marsh and Moccasin Island restoration areas.

The $200 million project calls for the District to fund all land acquisition and USACE to fund all construction. Work in the Upper St. Johns River Basin is in the final stages of completion.

Middle St. Johns River Basin

Spanning more than 1,200 square miles in east-central Florida, the Middle St. Johns River Basin encompasses a network of connecting lakes and tributaries fed by flow from the Upper St. Johns River Basin, underground springs, stormwater runoff and rainfall. The middle basin is situated within Orange, Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties — a highly urbanized area boasting more than 2 million residents — and faces ever-increasing demands on its natural resources.

Palms at Seminole Ranch in the Middle St. Johns River Basin.

The middle basin is composed of the watersheds for the Econlockhatchee River, Deep Creek, Lake Harney, Lake Jesup, Lake Monroe and the Wekiva River. Each of the watersheds is unique and has characteristics that require variable and adaptive approaches when addressing water resource issues. A Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) plan was developed for the basin to correct and prevent problems. The District is working with local governments and other stakeholders throughout the middle basin to address some problems from a regional perspective.

Accomplishments to date include the acquisition of environmentally significant land, elimination of wastewater discharges, tighter stormwater and wetland protection regulations, development of pollutant load reduction goals to identify targets to aim for in restoration efforts, erosion control in the Little Wekiva River, partnerships with local governments to retrofit problem areas for water quality and flood improvements.

Work in this project area is expected to be completed by 2025, with $33 million budgeted for restoration work and $59 million for land acquisition.

Upper Ocklawaha River Basin (including
Lake Apopka) and Orange Creek

The Upper Ocklawaha River Basin has undergone drastic declines in water quality and loss of river and marsh habitat over the last century.

A pump station at Lake Apopka Marsh Flow-Way.

Since the late 1800s, portions of the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin have been manipulated to accommodate farming and industry. The Ocklawaha River was dredged to improve riverboat navigation, and a parallel canal was dug to drain 5,800 acres of sawgrass marsh for muck farming. Similar draining occurred for farming at Emeralda Marsh on Lake Griffin. For more than 40 years, farms established on former marshes pumped water loaded with fertilizers into the lakes and rivers of the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin, including Lake Apopka. The excessive nutrients in the water caused algal blooms and fish kills. Deep organic sediments rich in nutrients accumulated on the lake bottoms as dead algae settled.

Orange Creek is another major tributary of the Ocklawaha River. As in the Upper Ocklawaha, the District has major restoration efforts under way in the 600-square-mile Orange Creek basin. The District is focusing those efforts on the three large lakes of the basin — Orange, Lochloosa and Newnans lakes.

Since the 1980s, the District has been working to restore water quality and fish and wildlife habitat in the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin through Florida’s SWIM program. In cooperation with state and federal agencies, the District has

• Harvested more than 2.5 million pounds of phosphorus-producing gizzard shad from Lake Griffin and 15 million pounds from Lake Apopka.
• Removed 62 million pounds of suspended solids and 37,000 pounds of total phosphorus from Lake Apopka water filtered by the Marsh Flow-Way (since November 2003).
• Completed construction on several parcels that will enhance restoration of 15,000 acres of muck farms to natural marshlands.
• Developed nutrient-loading reduction goals for basin lakes.

In the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin, budget dollars total $64 million for restoration work and $166 million for land acquisition.

Lower St. Johns River Basin

Industry, farming and urban development have contributed to the decline of the health of the St. Johns River’s lower basin, which flows north from Lake George — the second largest lake in Florida — to the river’s mouth at Mayport.

Part of Bayard Conservation Area in Clay County is along the shoreline of the St. Johns River.

Treated domestic and industrial wastewater, as well as sediments, pesticides and lawn fertilizers carried by storm water, have all helped feed harmful algal blooms in the river, which can produce toxins, deplete dissolved oxygen and endanger fish and other wildlife. Lake George is a major contributor of nitrogen to the lower basin, which affects water quality and algal production in the downstream portions of the lower St. Johns River.

Work in the lower basin began in the 1980s with the District’s development of the basin’s SWIM plan, which focused on water quality, biological health, sediment management, toxic remediation, public education and intergovernmental coordination. The goals of the basin’s SWIM plan were furthered in the 1990s by the creation of the River Agenda, a five-year cooperative plan among several partners. The River Agenda incorporated other agency actions into the work already begun by the District, including reducing point source and stormwater pollution, reducing bacteria in tributaries, restoring degraded aquatic habitat, increasing water quality compliance and enforcement, and increasing public awareness of the river.

Studies have shown the most cost-effective solution for reducing pollutant loadings is to phase out wastewater discharges to the river. Redirecting the wastewater and recognizing reclaimed water as a commodity will improve the river’s ecological health and extend Florida’s precious water supply.

Through cooperative efforts, more than 20 reclaimed water projects are expected to begin or be completed by 2014. Once implemented, they will remove 1.6 million pounds of nitrogen per year and 10 billion gallons per year of discharge through wastewater reuse.

In 2006, the District participated in the River Accord and committed to spend up to $150 million on reuse cost-share projects over the next decade in a restoration partnership with the city of Jacksonville ($200 million), JEA ($200 million), and other local government partners and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ($150 million). Through early May 2010, more than $53 million had been contracted by the District and more than $200 million by all partners to wastewater improvements and reclaimed water projects.

The District also is studying whether projects at Lake George could reduce algal blooms downstream.