Water bodies, watersheds and storm water
In this section
Upper Ocklawaha River Basin Home
Upper Ocklawaha River Basin
The Upper Ocklawaha River Basin has undergone drastic declines in water quality and loss of river and marsh habitat over the last century.
In the late 1800s, the Ocklawaha River was dredged to improve navigation for steamboats. In the early 1900s, 15 miles of the upper Ocklawaha River were abandoned when a parallel canal was dug to drain 5,800 acres of sawgrass marsh for muck farming. Beginning in the 1950s, 6,500 acres of sawgrass marsh were drained for muck farming at Emeralda Marsh on Lake Griffin. Construction of three dams stabilized water levels to provide flood protection for muck farms and lakeside homes and businesses.
Problems
For over 40 years, farms established on former marshes pumped water loaded with fertilizers into the lakes and the river of the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin. Untreated sewage, agricultural discharges and industrial effluents were discharged into the lakes. The water bodies were unable to absorb excessive nutrients naturally because pastures and vegetable fields had mostly replaced filtering marshes.
Nutrient-fed algae flourished, turning the water pea-green. Underwater plants, essential for fish spawning, died because sunlight could not penetrate the murky waters. Deep organic sediments rich in nutrients accumulated on the lake bottoms as dead algae settled. Stabilized water levels further degraded water quality.
Accomplishments
The St. Johns River Water Management District began work to restore water quality and fish and wildlife habitat in the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin in 1988 with funding provided by Florida’s Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program and the plan that outlines restoration efforts.
In cooperation with local, state and federal agencies, the District:
A limpkin parent and chick walk along
a well-traveled path in the upper Ocklawaha River basin.
- Purchased and began restoration of former muck farms to create aquatic and wetland habitat
- Began restoration of 15 miles of the historic Upper Ocklawaha River Channel and surrounding floodplain marshes
- Adopted pollutant load reduction goals (PLRGs), which the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used to establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs)
- Adopted an interim plan for enhanced fluctuation of water levels in Lake Griffin
- Harvested gizzard shad in lakes Griffin and Apopka to reduce phosphorus levels
- Re-established the Harris Bayou in 2007, thus connecting Lake Harris with Lake Griffin to improve water flow and allow improvements in lake level fluctuations
What’s being done
The District began implementing plans combining District resources with federal and state funding to:
- Restore 15,000 acres of muck farms to natural marshlands
- Treat soils on former muck farms to bind nutrients
- Develop plans to change the ways that three dams are operated to restore more natural water-level fluctuations in basin lakes
- Develop and implement nutrient-loading reductions for basin lakes
- Plant desirable vegetation to restore marshes and lake shores
Updated on 5-26-2010
