An additional $1.5 million for restoration work is set to benefit the Indian River Lagoon.
The Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) is allocating the funding through its cooperative assistance program for the dredging of muck from the Eau Gallie River.
This additional money raises the total FIND contribution to $3.9 million.
Other funding partners include DEP, which is providing $20 million approved by the Legislature in 2014 and 2015, and the city of Melbourne, which contributed $50,000 for the initial feasibility study.
The district – which is managing the project – and its partners expect to remove at least 625,000 cubic yards of muck from the main stem of the 3.9-mile-long Eau Gallie 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.
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