The Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Town of Redington Shores recently signed an amendment to an existing agreement to move forward on phases two through four of a project that will improve water quality and reduce flooding.
Phases two and three include upgrading the stormwater system by adding inlets and storm piping, a Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS) unit, which will treat stormwater runoff, and the associated roadway reconstruction. A CDS unit filters out sediment from the water. These infrastructure improvements will be built within the area of 1st Street East, 176th Avenue East, Long Point Drive and 176th Terrace Drive.
Phase four involves the design of additional stormwater improvements.
The original agreement was for the design and permitting of phases two and three. The amended agreement also includes the design of phase four.
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.
Each phase of this project 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 first phase, which was recently completed, involved constructing infrastructure improvements on the east side of Gulf Boulevard between 174th Avenue and 175th Avenue. Phase five, which was also recently completed, provided infrastructure improvements on the west side of Gulf Boulevard.
The cost to complete this portion of these three phases of the project is expected to be $1.15 million, which will be divided equally between the District’s Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board and the Town of Redington Shores.