The Nature Conservancy is considering a pilot program in Indian River County designed to improve stormwater management and address water quality problems in the Indian River Lagoon.
James Byrne, the organization’s chapter director of strategy and policy, said improving lagoon conditions remains a central concern.
“Water quality is a major issue in the state of Florida, in the Indian River Lagoon especially, and one of the things we’ve been looking at are what are ways that we can help improve water quality,” he said.
The project would involve retrofitting existing stormwater ponds with technology that can actively control the timing and rate of water release, rather than relying on traditional passive overflow systems.
“And one of the things that we’ve been working on across the country in several different locations is looking at how we can improve stormwater management,” Byrne said. “What these systems are is looking at stormwater ponds and how we can make them more efficient.”
The goal is to help reduce nutrient runoff that contributes to algae growth and declining seagrass health.
“The longer that water stays in the pond, the more nutrients settle out,” he said. “This actually is a control valve that you would install and be able to control when water leaves the ponds and when it stays in.”
Byrne said the system would be capable of adjusting automatically during changing weather.
“You’re also able to adjust the water levels based on the weather conditions, both the forecast but also on actual conditions that are occurring,” he said.
Indian River County is being considered because many stormwater ponds in the area are connected, which Byrne said makes it a natural testing ground.
“A lot of these ponds are interconnected hydrologically,” he said. “So the idea is, can we look at that and how that works and replicate kind of how that water flows and be able to control it in a way that with newer technology that’s available, to get more efficiency by having these ponds work interconnectedly.”
After evaluating ponds across the lagoon region, several potential sites in Indian River County were identified for the pilot.
“We’ve modeled out all these ponds across the whole Indian River Lagoon,” Byrne said. “Through that, we were able to focus in on several ponds in Indian River County. It’s kind of our test here to try this out.”
County Natural Resources Director Kylie Yanchula said local staff have assisted during preliminary planning efforts.
“We’ve been involved trying to assist from a concept phase,” she said, adding that the county will help gather field data and water quality samples.
Reducing nuisance flooding is another expected benefit.
“It also will help with some of the nuisance flooding that occurs from stormwater ponds because it is looking at real-time data, lowering water levels appropriately to try to also help reduce some of the flooding issues,” Byrne said.
The pilot would also examine financial feasibility and whether the approach can be expanded regionally.
“Showing that it works on this network piece, it’s something that could be deployed and retrofitted to existing stormwater ponds,” Byrne said. “We’re not talking about building new infrastructure — it’s retrofitting existing to get them more effective.”
The program remains in early planning stages and has not yet begun implementation.