OKEECHOBEE — A wetlands restoration project is planned near Taylor Creek. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) acquired an easement on the 414-acre Cody Sod Farm, for the purpose of wetland restoration. The project is located at the end of Southeast 18th Way and is bordered on the south by Taylor Creek.

Okeechobee County commissioners reviewed plans for the wetlands restoration project at their Nov. 12 meeting.

Jessica Robbins of NRCS said the Cody Sod farm is just outside the city limits. She said the project will include dikes 3 feet high, the addition of water control structures and removal of a pump on the south end. She said they are planning to add a new pump on the north end to continue to provide drainage for the neighbors to the north.

The environmental benefits of the project are water storage, improvement in water quality and improvement of wildlife habitat.

The soil on the project area is 8 to 9 inches of muck, so they will have to haul in soil for the dikes, she said. “We’re looking for guidance on times of day we should be hauling,” she said, noting they will consider things like school bus schedules.

Commissioner Bryant Culpepper said the old diesel pump was a nuisance to the neighbors due to the smell and the noise. He asked whether the new pump could be electric.

Commission Chairman Terry Burroughs noted the new pump will be in an area where there are no houses.

“I actually grew up there,” said Commissioner Brad Goodbread. He said the road there was not built to hold truck traffic. “Our phones are going to be blowing up over the trucks going by and the damage to the road.” He suggested they work out an agreement to make another road through a privately owned pasture.

“To me that would give access to where you’re not going down that residential street,” he said.

He said that if they can make a temporary “back way” through the pasture for the trucks to use, it would save the cost of rebuilding the residential streets. Robbins said they are open to this idea.

Commissioner Kelly Owens said she would like assurances in writing that NRCS will be responsible for returning the road to its original condition. She said she also has concerns about drainage in that area.

Assistant County Administrator Louis Johnson said he has had email correspondence with NRCS. He said he would like to have more discussion with NRCS about the drainage in that area. South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) may also be involved, he said.

The schedule for the trucks should take school bus schedules into consideration, said Owens. “We don’t need children waiting on the side of the road and big trucks coming through,” she said.

Roney Gutierrez, project manager, said the SFWMD has given a permit for this project. He said the landowners to the north have agreed to accept responsibility for maintenance of the pump because it is designed to manage the water coming off their property.

“All of South Florida is drained and ditched. We’re not going to go back to a ‘River of Grass’,” he said. The project will mimic the original flow of the water in that area, he explained.

“Our program is designed to acquire mostly agricultural lands and restore it to wetlands,” he explained.

He said they hope to start the work in January 2021.

The goal of the project is to restore the easement to its historic and ecological condition prior to agricultural manipulation, to the extent practicable. In recent years, the property was utilized as a sod farm and tree nursery. According to historical aerial imagery, topography and soils, the site was historically freshwater marsh, wet prairie and cypress domes.

The benefits of wetland restoration will create activity to enhance wildlife, water quality and water quantity, along with many other functions and values a wetland provides.

In order to build the dikes, they anticipate the need to haul in approximately 35,000 cubic yards of clean fill material utilizing Southeast 16th Avenue and Southeast Sixth Lane. Due to the soils on the site, which are 8 to 9 feet deep of muck, it was determined that in order to construct the dikes, clean fill material would need to be imported.