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Reconnection/Water Farming August 2014 Page 2 Also , within this same time frame, the SFWMD regional Operations and Maintenance group and Engineering Department in partnership with St. Lucie County, re -designed and re -located the SFWMD Control structure G-81 located at the boundary of C-24 and C-25 canal systems located in St. Lucie County. This structural redesign and relocation effectively built the control /divide structure into the overall structure of the new Orange Avenue Bridge system. As a result of this bridge/water control structure redesign, surface water could now be moved both northward and southward through this new facility. The new water control structure/bridge, coupled with the previous operational actions associated with the C-23 system, provided the capability to redirect canal water from Martin County to St. Lucie County or vice versa utilizing the SFWMD's Upper East Coast Canal System. The summarization response provided by the Area/Regional Operations and Maintenance Director, as based on his actual operation and maintenance daily and emergency response experience, structural design/construction activities and detailed on-site assessment with local drainage districts and landowners, concluded, that with some doing, water could be moved from the C-44 system into the C-23 system through a combination public/private ditching system. Further noted was the combination of operational actions identified with the C-23 & 24 systems, coupled with the engineered solutions regarding the new structure/bridge facility at the Orange Avenue crossing of C24/25 canal systems, concluded these redirected waters from the C-44 St. Lucie Canal, could not only be redirected to the C-23 basin, but also to the C-24 and C-25 basins, thus providing for an increased redirection of water volume from the C-44 system. The final conclusion provided by the regional Director also emphasized that until such time as there is a place in the affected regional areas to store this redirected water, the SFWMD was simply redirecting water, that for the most part, would still end up in the lagoon —somewhere in the Upper East Coast Region of the SFWMD. The time period for this assessment position was late 1999 -through mid- 2000. AN IDEA IS BORN RE -CONNECTION OF THE WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS (REGIONAL ATTENUATION SYSTEM UTILIZING DEEP WATER STORAGE IN COMBINATION WITH STORMWATER TREATMENT AREAS-STA'S) In a meeting in St. Lucie County at the University of Florida IFAS facility between the executive leadership of both the SFWMD and the St. Johns River Water Management Districts (SJRWMD), as coordinated by the Indian River Citrus League and attended by State and Local agency representatives, dialogue continued on what actions the Water Management Districts were doing and were planning to do relative to the stormwater matters affecting water quality in the lagoon system. In its sponsorship role to help identify actions to help rectify this problem in the upper east coast region of the SFWMD, the Citrus league had invited many local growers as well as State representatives. 7