The Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Town of Redington Beach recently signed an agreement for a project that will reduce flooding and improve water quality.
This project involves upgrading the stormwater system by adding inlets and storm piping, a Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS) unit, that filters out sediment from the stormwater runoff and the associated roadway reconstruction. These infrastructure improvements will be built within the area of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Streets East, and Redington Drive between 155th and 160th Avenues.
This project is the third phase of multi-phased plan that is part of the town’s watershed management plan, a previous cooperative funding project between the District and the town, that identified multiple locations for water quality improvements.
The cost to complete this phase of the project is expected to be $1.2 million, which will be divided equally between the District’s Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board and the Town of Redington Beach.
A watershed management plan is a process that identifies, prioritizes and addresses water resources issues within a watershed. The plan has five stages:
- The collection of detailed information such as land elevation, drainage ditches, culverts, and other features that affect how water moves within the watershed;
- The evaluation of the collected data to identify flooding or water quality problems;
- The evaluation of the collected data to identify flooding or water quality problems;
- The identification of potential projects, or best management practices, that will resolve the water resource problems;
- The implementation of best management practices to resolve problems;
- The regular updating of data to ensure that decisions are being made based on the best available information.
Storm water is water that flows over land during and immediately after a rainstorm. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified stormwater runoff as Florida’s most serious water quality problem today. Pollutants associated with stormwater runoff include sediment, nutrients, heavy metals, oils, greases, pesticides and bacteria. Without proper treatment in developed areas, these pollutants adversely impact the quality of the receiving water.