Eau Gallie River Muck Dredging Project Nears

Construction progresses on the Brevard County site that will receive muck from the Eau Gallie River Muck Dredging Project, which is set to begin this winter.

The construction of the Dredge Material Management Area (DMMA) started earlier this year and will be completed before the summer ends.

The dredging is scheduled to begin immediately after construction of the DMMA, and ended in early 2018.

Decades of stormwater runoff and erosion have deposited a thick layer of muck in the Eau Gallie River, a tributary of the Indian River Lagoon.

The St. Johns River Water Management District is collaborating with its partners – the city of Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida Inland Navigation District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection – to improve the health of the river by removing between 625,000 and 750,000 cubic yards of muck from the main stem of the river as well as the southern branch of the river known as Elbow Creek.

Muck is a mix of fine-grained sediments, sand, clay and organic matter (decaying leaves, grass and other plant material) contained in untreated stormwater runoff that drains to canals and storm drains connected to the Eau Gallie River.