Efforts to restore Lake Panasoffkee are progressing well as almost half of the 1,977-acre dredging portion of the Lake Panasoffkee Restoration Council’s four-step, multi-million dollar restoration plan is complete.
According to the Lake Panasoffkee Restoration Council’s annual report, which was recently accepted by the Southwest Florida Management District and will be submitted to the Legislature, approximately 956 acres have been dredged.
The restoration plan, which is being managed by the District, involves dredging approximately 8.4 million cubic yards of sediment from the lake, which will improve fish habitat, restore the historic lake shoreline and improve navigation. The project will also restore approximately 920 acres of open-water habitat that has been lost to the encroachment of dense emergent vegetation since the 1940s. Lake Panasoffkee is designated as an Outstanding Florida Water by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and is one of the District’s Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) priority water bodies.
The dredging was broken up into three steps. Approximately 25 acres were restored in Step 1, the Coleman Landing Pilot Dredging Project. Step 1 was completed in December 2000.
Step 2, also referred to as dredging to hard bottom, focused on dredging the western shoreline while Step 3 focused on the eastern side of the lake. So far contractors have completed dredging 218 acres along the western shoreline and 713 acres on the eastern side of the lake.
The material that is dredged from the lake is being deposited at a spoil site off County Road 482 South, immediately west of Interstate 75.
The dredging is expected to continue through January 2008.
“In four years, when all is said and done, approximately 1,977 acres of lake area will have been restored or enhanced in connection with the full-scale in-lake restoration effort,” said District Operations Director Mike Holtkamp.
Step 4 consists of dredging out residential canals. This phase, which is expected to cost $800,000, will be completed by Sumter County.
The total cost of the 4-step restoration plan is approximately $26.2 million.
The state Legislature has appropriated a total of $19.5 million to implement the restoration plan recommended by the Council. The District’s Withlacoochee River Basin Board and SWIM Program budgeted $2.55 million. The District also secured $2 million from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, $1.1 million through federal appropriations and $469,733 from Florida Department of Transportation for the in-lake restoration efforts.