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Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands
Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands
Project Mission:
Construct pump stations, spreader swales, stormwater treatment areas, flowways, levees and culverts, and backfill canals.
Project Benefits:
Restore Biscayne Bay which includes Biscayne National Park. The natural overland sheetflow of water has been changed with the construction of drainage canals. This project will restore the overland sheetflow in a 13,600-acre area through the construction of spreader canals and other features. The more natural water flow will improve the ecology of Biscayne Bay including its freshwater and tidal wetlands, nearshore bay habitat, marine nursery habitat, oysters and the oyster reef community.
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Project Managers
James Hourican
James.j.hourican2@usace.army.mil
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Project Details
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Project Description
This project includes pump stations, spreader swales, stormwater treatment areas, flowways, levees, culverts, and backfilling canals located in southeast Miami-Dade County and covers 13,600 acres from the Deering Estate at C-100C, south to the Florida Power and Light Turkey Point power plant, generally along L-31E. The purpose of this project is to rehydrate wetlands and reduce point source discharge to Biscayne Bay. The proposed project will replace lost overland flow and partially compensate for the reduction in groundwater seepage by redistributing, through a spreader system, available surface water entering the area from regional canals. The proposed redistribution of freshwater flow across a broad front is expected to restore or enhance freshwater wetlands, tidal wetlands, and nearshore bay habitat. Sustained lower-than-seawater salinities are required in tidal wetlands and the nearshore bay to provide nursery habitat for fish and shellfish. This project is expected to create conditions that will be conducive to the re-establishment of oysters and other components of the oyster reef community. Diversion of canal discharges into coastal wetlands is expected not only to re-establish productive nursery habitat all along the shoreline but also to reduce the abrupt freshwater discharges that are physiologically stressful to fish and benthic invertebrates in the bay near canal outlets. More detailed analyses will be required to define target freshwater flows for Biscayne Bay and the wetlands within the redistribution system. The target(s) will be based upon the quality, quantity, timing and distribution of flows needed to provide and maintain sustainable biological communities in Biscayne Bay, Biscayne National Park and the coastal wetlands. Additionally, potential sources of water for providing freshwater flows to Biscayne Bay will be identified and evaluated to determine their ability to provide the target flows. The component Biscayne Bay Coastal Canals as modeled in D-13R and the Critical Project on the L-31E Flowway Redistribution are smaller components of the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands project described above. |
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