Cypress Creek Restoration Project
   Okeechobee County, Florida

Overview
Beginning in 2009, Water & Air Research was asked to perform hydrologic modeling and design to support the permitting of the Cypress Creek Mitigation Bank in Okeechobee County, FL. This effort will be part of the final phase of a wetland restoration project that began over a decade ago in which a hydrologic restoration program was designed, permitted and constructed to restore the headwater wetlands which feed into Cypress Creek.

The original restoration/mitigation work required the determination of historic flows, historic wetland boundaries and existing conditions over a large and complex area (over 2000 acres) with multiple land owners. This survey effort revealed extensive changes to the regional surface water flow due to longstanding agricultural land use practices and channelization due to ditches and culverts installed along SR 70 and Berman Road. These early efforts included topographic surveys, vegetation mapping, soil studies, and the installation and monitoring of both piezometers and surface water level gauges to determine design hydroperiods for the system. Permitting required coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Once design and permitting were completed, construction of water control structures, and the creation of hundreds of acres of created wetlands began along with the enhancement and restoration of hundreds of additional acres. All of the current water resources engineering staff were the key engineers on these efforts at another firm prior to working at Water & Air.

Details

• Review of the existing topographic and hydrologic data
• Assessment of existing water control structures
• Hydrologic modeling / storm-event and wetland hydroperiod
• Water control structure design
• Environmental Resource Permitting assistance

Results
This project is currently in the permitting process with an expected construction start date of June 2010.