08/19/2014BCC - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Reconnection/Water Farming August 2014 Page 9 In 2011, in cooperation with the Water Management Districts, the Indian River Citrus League identified two agricultural citrus areas in the Upper East Coast region of the SFWMD to serve as pilot sites for a detailed assessment of water farming. With the complete cooperation of the participating landowners two sites were selected for this detailed analysis as jointly funded by the SJRWMD and the SFWMD. In May, 2012, the final report governing the Assessment of Water Farming on Agricultural Lands was published. This report looked at varying storage depths of 2 feet or 4 feet on abandoned citrus lands that were determined through detailed environmental analysis to be conducive to the study efforts. The overall costs benefits were significantly better than other methods and clearly provided an economic incentive for further development and exploration as a useable and common sense tool beneficial to the health of the lagoon system. While the assessment provided the missing economic piece —it also provided some interesting volumetric scenarios. Based on the assessment, it was determined that one release from the 1000 acre pilot site on the C-24 canal system could take the C-24 canal system from its regulatory cut-off elevation for irrigation to an elevation well within the permitted withdrawal range -thus providing a rejuvenated surface water supply to stakeholders in the C-24 service basin. Encouraged by the results of the assessment of water farming on agricultural lands and with the support of the State's leadership, the SFWMD issued a Request for Proposals for an "Invitation �.. for Water Farming Pilot Project" April 1, 2013. In July, 2013, the SFWMD Governing Board, as per the recommendation of District Staff, authorized entering into negotiations with the top rated pilot projects for the development of water farming sites within the Martin and St. Lucie County basins. Subsequent to that action and in concert with pilot project finalization, the SFWMD entered into a Grant Agreement with the State of Florida, Department of Environmental Protection which was finalized by the State on April 4, 2014. This grant agreement provided $ 1,506,401.00 to the SFWMD as matching funds for the water farming pilot program. As a result the SFWMD had an approximate total of 3 million dollars earmarked for the water farming pilot programs in the regional area under the SFWMD jurisdiction. In February, 2014, the first water farming site was brought on line. Presently, there are two additional sites proposed to be brought on line by the end of 2014. 14