Little Wekiva Update

Seminole County’s work on the initial phase of remediation of the Little Wekiva River continues in full force. This phase includes deploying major equipment needed for the project, continued treatment of invasive plants and clearing required to encourage a flow and to prepare for sediment removal, and construction of temporary sediment traps at each end of the project area. The crews work many hours and we greatly appreciate all the work that is going on. This first component of the project is scheduled to continue until December, when the sediment removal phase is scheduled to begin.

The clearing work has enabled some flow of water, which is very shallow and mostly to the west of the riverbed due to the thousands of tons of sediment still blocking water in the river. The sediment deposits “upstream” force the water flow to the west and east, displacing and impairing the flow for a long stretch of the river.

We are still awaiting an approval from the federal EPA before any project phase can begin using the federal support ($688,000) that Congresswoman Murphy arranged for us. This EPA approval is taking a while and may or may not be complete in time to begin sediment removal in December. Shannon Wetzel and others at Seminole County are urging the EPA to move forward on this and are also looking for other approaches to enable the project to remain on the current timeline.

We are in touch with the EPA Project Officer who promises to move forward as quickly as possible. 

Jeanette Schreiber

Image by Michelle J.