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Cleanup For Indian River Lagoon Set After Voters Approve Funding

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Amy Green
/
The Florida Channel
John Trefry has studied the Indian River Lagoon's muck for 30 years.

A $303 million cleanup of the Indian River Lagoon is ready for implementation after Brevard County voters overwhelming approved a half-cent sales tax funding it.

 

Nearly two-thirds of the funding for the Save Our Lagoon Project Plan targets the muck fouling the Indian River Lagoon’s bottom, and the rest is aimed at pollution and restoration.

 

“We need to sit down and analyze which of these projects are closest to shovel ready,” says Virginia Barker, director of the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department. “I think some of the utility projects, the sewer upgrades and septic expansions, are going to be shovel ready first.”

 

Half of the lagoon lies within Brevard County. It has been plagued by problems including a fish kill this spring that was the worst in the lagoon in modern history.