Eau Gallie River and Elbow Creek Muck Dredging in Melbourne, Florida

The Eau Gallie River muck dredging project was a 2017 to 2019 St. Johns River Water Management District job that removed about 630,000 cubic yards of muck from the river and Elbow Creek in Melbourne.

The Eau Gallie River is a tributary of the Indian River Lagoon in Melbourne, and between 2017 and 2019 it was the site of the first dredging the river had ever seen. The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) and its partners gathered on May 13, 2019 at historic Ballard Park, at the mouth of the Eau Gallie River, to celebrate the removal of approximately 630,000 cubic yards of black muck after a two-year-long dredging project. The work covered the main river and its south prong, Elbow Creek, according to a 2016 District release.

The dredged material did not go out to sea. It was pumped to a containment area on land owned by Brevard County. At the February 2017 kickoff, District Governing Board Chairman John Miklos called the start an historic event for a river that had never been dredged before, and Executive Director Ann Shortelle described the project as a grass-roots effort led by people living along the river. Members of the Eau Gallie River Environment is Threatened (EGRET) Project were among the stakeholders at both ceremonies.

Muck is a mix of fine-grained sediments, sand, clay and organic matter that untreated stormwater runoff carries through canals and storm drains into lagoon tributaries such as the Eau Gallie River, according to SJRWMD.

The District says muck can accumulate nutrients that contribute to algal blooms and create detrimental conditions for seagrasses and the organisms at the base of the lagoon food chain. In its 2016 contractor announcement it added that the Eau Gallie had accumulated substantial muck sediments over many decades, and that muck contributes nutrients to the water column and had led to undesirable impacts on the regional ecology and economy.

In the Eau Gallie the deposit had grown thick. A March 2019 District update reported that in some areas of the river the muck was 12 feet deep, and Shortelle said that decades of deposited muck had been removed in just two years.

Researchers at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne were raising the same alarm before the project was funded. A Florida Tech media advisory dated Dec. 10, 2013 announced that John Trefry, professor of marine and environmental systems, would present on sediment accumulation and removal in the Indian River Lagoon to the Florida Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation, and would bring three large bags of muck to the meeting. The advisory said he had sought input from Florida Tech faculty, Brevard County, the Florida Inland Navigation District and the water management district, among others, and that Florida Tech had established its Indian River Lagoon Research Institute that November.

A dredge pumped the muck through a pipe from the Eau Gallie River and Elbow Creek to a containment area on Brevard County land, with pauses and extra watchers to protect manatees.

SJRWMD's Governing Board learned on March 8, 2016 that the low bidder for the job, Blue Goose Construction, could do the work for $18.5 million, leaving about $2 million potentially available for additional dredging and improvements. The plan called for at least 625,000 cubic yards of muck sediments to be dredged from the Eau Gallie River and Elbow Creek and placed in a containment area on land owned by Brevard County.

A dredge moves sediment as a slurry through a pipe. At the Feb. 16, 2017 kickoff at Ballard Park, attendees watched a fantail of muck spray from a pipe into the Dredged Material Management Area, and the District then expected at least 632,000 cubic yards to be removed by late 2018. A March 6, 2017 update said nearly 80,000 cubic yards had already been pumped to the storage facility on Brevard County property since dredging began in early February.

Wildlife shaped the Eau Gallie schedule. In March 2017 SJRWMD paused operations for two months, when manatees are most active, with dredging expected to resume May 1. When the final leg of dredging was scheduled to begin on March 11, 2019, while manatees were active, the District added manatee watchers who would shut down dredging if a manatee was sighted and a larger required buffer zone between the dredge and sighted manatees, measures reviewed and permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Florida Legislature paid for most of the Eau Gallie River cleanup, appropriating $20 million through DEP, with smaller shares from FIND and the City of Melbourne.

At the 2017 kickoff, SJRWMD listed DEP as the main funder, providing $20 million approved by the Florida Legislature in 2014 and 2015. The Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) contributed $3.9 million toward project design, permitting and construction of the Dredge Material Management Area, and the City of Melbourne contributed $50,000 for the initial feasibility study.

The District's 2019 completion release gives a slightly different FIND figure. It says the legislative funding was disbursed through DEP, that FIND and the City of Melbourne contributed $3.75 million and $50,000 respectively, and that Brevard County provided a location to store the dredged material. The two official releases differ on FIND's share, $3.9 million in 2017 and $3.75 million in 2019, and neither explains the change.

The push for the appropriation came from the riverbank. Shortelle said in 2019 that the community along the river led a grass-roots effort and that legislators responded by appropriating $20 million, and the District noted that EGRET Project members had focused for several years on securing support and funding for the Eau Gallie River and the Indian River Lagoon. Former House Speaker Steve Crisafulli called securing the funding a highlight of his time as Speaker.

By May 2019 the Eau Gallie project had removed about 630,000 cubic yards of muck, which SJRWMD said translates to a reduction of approximately 1,200 tons of nitrogen and 260 tons of total phosphorus.

Those are nutrients that contribute to algal blooms in the lagoon. DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein called the completed project another great step forward in tackling water quality in the lagoon and its tributaries, and State Rep. Thad Altman called muck removal the single most important action for restoring the Indian River Lagoon, and the Eau Gallie project the very example of what is needed.

Keeping new muck out of the river falls largely to stormwater and septic work across the county. Brevard County describes its countywide lagoon program, known as SOIRL, as a voter-approved initiative funded by a half-cent sales tax to reduce excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, with projects that reduce pollution, remove legacy nutrient loads and restore natural filtration. The county lists a ten-year renewal of that half-cent sales tax on the November 2026 ballot for Brevard voters.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, by re-reading five SJRWMD news releases on the Eau Gallie dredging from 2016 to 2019, Brevard County's SOIRL program page and Florida Tech's December 2013 media advisory.