The overall objective of this project is to identify and rank sites within the Northern Everglades Watershed that would be most suitable for the implementation of chemical treatment technologies. The P reduction potential and costs for the chemical treatment systems will be used to determine the relative cost effectiveness of the identified systems. A combination of cost effectiveness and net P load reductions to Lake Okeechobee will then be used to establish rankings.
The Watershed Assessment Model (WAM) has been used to simulate all the basins within the project area except for those in the St. Lucie, Indian River Lagoon and the Northern Coastal Caloosahatchee River. For those basins simulated by WAM, an estimated flow weighted concentration for each of the source cells in the model was calculated. These outputs were used to develop an Event Mean Concentration (EMC) for each of the Land Use and Soil combinations simulated. This EMC was used to produce an estimated TP concentration for that portion of the project area not simulated by WAM, based on the land use or soils combinations.
The WAM calculated flow weighted concentrations and monitoring data sourced from DBHydro and STORET were used to identify the TP loading hotspots using GIS analysis and visual spatial correlation techniques. This resulted in the selection of 60 potential chemical treatment sites.
These 60 sites were entered into a priority ranking matrix which compared sites to each other by assigning a numerical score to each and ranking them based on their cost effectiveness of P removal. The ranking matrix used the following information to calculate a score for each site: TP concentrations, flow, adjusted treatment cost, and possible physical constraints such as the presence of wetlands, other P control projects, and multiple landowners, as well as upstream land use. The TP concentration and flow data were obtained from either monitoring data or from the WAM simulations that have been done for the watershed. It was assumed that each chemical treatment facility would reduce the TP load at that site by 80%, which is an estimate of an achievable reduction that could be expected for an alum based system.
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The overall objective of this conservation plan is to provide guidance for water quality and conservation management of the Lykes Bros. Inc. property in the Okeechobee Basin that will protect, conserve, and enhance natural resources (soil, water, air, plants and animals) within their related social and economic interests for a site-specific enterprise. The plan identifies existing and future conservation practices or Best Management Practices (BMPs) that are to be maintained and implemented to meet the above objective as well as serving to meet obligations under State water quality rules and regulations.
The Lykes Bros. Inc. property, located in Glades and Highlands County, Florida, extends over approximately 337,000 acres on one of the largest contiguous pieces of land ownership in the state. The property is completely within the SFWMD, and stretches from Lake Istokpoga in the North to Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee basin in the South, and extending west up into the Fisheating Creek basin. This area is characteristic of rural south central Florida with few population centers in close proximity to the Lykes Bros. Inc. property. The primary agricultural activities are citrus, cow/calf production, sugarcane, and forestry operations.
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Conservation planning is a natural resource problem-solving and management process. The process integrates ecological (natural resource), economic, and social considerations to meet private and public needs. This approach emphasizes identifying desired future conditions, improves natural resource management, minimizes conflict, and addresses problems and opportunities. To enhance the conservation planning process for optimizing the BMPs to be maintained and implemented, the Watershed Assessment Model (WAM) was used. The model’s ability to simulate the complex nature of the Lykes Bros. Inc. property under various BMP alternatives or scenarios allowed for direct comparisons of potential phosphorus load reductions for optimizing these alternatives.
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This is the first time WAM has been used for conservation planning and was found to be extremely useful, particularly for evaluating the various retention alternatives within the very complex hydrography on such a large land parcel.
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