10-year project scheduled for completion in October
The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the media to tour the restored lake and spoil disposal area of the Lake Panasoffkee restoration project on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The $26.9 million project was designed to restore Lake Panasoffkee’s historic fish bedding areas, restore the historic lake shoreline and improve navigation of the third largest lake in west-central Florida. When complete, the project will have removed approximately 8.3 million cubic yards of sediment over 1,744 acres of lake area. Since the 1940s, 920 acres of open-water habitat has been lost to sedimentation and vegetation encroachment.
Natural sedimentation reached a point where large portions of the lake were shallow enough to allow emergent vegetation to take hold. This expansion of vegetation significantly reduced the open water area of the lake. Additionally, the accumulation of loose sediments over the hard lake bottom adversely impacted the historic fish spawning areas. Navigation around the lake had also been severely limited by the encroachment of shoreline vegetation and the shallowing of the lake. In recent decades, the fisheries had also declined because of sedimentation and encroachment of dense, undesirable vegetation called tussocks.
In 1998, the state Legislature created the Lake Panasoffkee Restoration Council to develop a restoration plan for the lake. Since then, the Council has been reporting back to the Legislature on an annual basis providing progress reports on the restoration plan’s development and implementation.
The Lake Panasoffkee restoration plan, managed by the District, has been implemented in four steps:
- Step One: Coleman Landing Pilot Project
- Step Two: Dredging to the hard bottom of the lake
- Step Three: Removal of eastside emergent vegetation
- Step Four: Cleaning out the residential canals
The first three steps of the restoration effort focused on dredging in the lake. The first step, which began in September 2000 and was completed in December 2000, restored approximately 25 acres at Coleman Landing.
In July 2004, Steps Two and Three of the restoration plan began dredging more than 1,744 acres of lake area. The dredged material from the lake is being deposited at a 450-acre upland spoil site located off County Road 482 South, immediately west of Interstate 75. Dredging is scheduled to be complete in early October.
The fourth step of the restoration plan involves dredging the residential canals along the western shoreline of the lake. This step was managed by Sumter County and was completed in June 2008.
Lake Panasoffkee is one of the District’s Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Program priority water bodies and is designated as an Outstanding Florida Water by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The $26.9 million project has been funded by multiple partners, which include the State of Florida, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the District’s Withlacoochee River Basin Board and SWIM Program, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida Department of Transportation and Sumter County.
Space is limited. Please RSVP by Tuesday, Oct. 7 to Robyn Felix at 1-800-423-1476, ext. 4770.