The Southwest Florida Water Management District will hold a public workshop Tuesday, April 16, to share information about the Weeki Wachee Channel Restoration Project.
According to their official announcement, the meeting will take place at the Coast Guard Auxiliary Meeting Hall, located at 4340 Calienta St. in Hernando Beach, FL.
“The workshop will be an open-house style allowing the public to arrive at their convenience between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Staff will give a brief presentation about the project at 5:30 p.m., ” the statement reads.
This multiyear project is focused on sediment removal as a restoration strategy to benefit the river’s ecosystem. The final construction plans should be completed at the end of 2019, with construction anticipated to begin in the spring of 2021.
Background
Sedimentation is an environmental problem in the Weeki Wachee River and is identified as one of the priority issues in the Weeki Wachee River Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan.
Sedimentation alters the river channel structure and can smother beneficial submerged aquatic vegetation and other habitats.
Despite most sources of erosion being addressed in the past, this sediment continues to work its way downstream with widening sand bars and increasingly shallow areas in the lower river as signs of continued sedimentation.