Upper St. Johns River Basin Project in Melbourne, Florida

The Upper St. Johns River Basin Project is a flood control and wetland restoration system spread across the marshes west of Melbourne, at the headwaters of the St. Johns River in Brevard and Indian River counties.

According to the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), the District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began the work in 1977, and in May 2016 they celebrated completion of a semi-structural system covering approximately 166,500 acres in Indian River and Brevard counties.

Instead of dams, the design leans on the marsh itself. SJRWMD describes four water management areas, four marsh conservation areas and two marsh restoration areas, with dikes fortified and agricultural drainage routes redirected to improve water quality. For Melbourne the project matters in two ways: it stores floodwater that canals once sent east toward the Indian River Lagoon, and its River Lakes Conservation Area takes in Lake Washington, the lake that feeds the city's surface water treatment plant.

It was built to undo early 1900s drainage and a halted federal canal plan that had sent St. Johns River floodwater east into the Indian River Lagoon.

The marsh west of Melbourne was once far larger: SJRWMD reports that the upper basin originally held more than 400,000 acres of floodplain marsh, that it was diked and drained for agriculture in the early 1900s, and that agricultural interests drained thousands of acres to reach the rich peat soils beneath the water. By the early 1970s, 62 percent of the marsh was gone, and canals were carrying St. Johns River floodwater east into the Indian River Lagoon.

Hurricanes in the 1920s and 1940s pushed the Corps to plan a federal flood control project for the basin in the 1950s. Its largest canal, C-54, was designed to move up to 6,000 cubic feet per second of water from the St. Johns River to the Indian River. Environmental studies found that dumping that much fresh water would hurt shellfish and swing the salinity of the lagoon off Brevard County, and that losing the water would harm the St. Johns as a source of public supply. SJRWMD records that construction of the federal flood control project was halted in 1973 by President Richard Nixon.

SJRWMD took over in 1977 and worked with the Corps on a redesign that stores water in restored marshes rather than shipping it through C-54. In May 2016 the District and the Corps celebrated completion, and the project moved into long-term maintenance.

The work has drawn the International Thiess River Prize from an Australian river advocacy organization in October 2008, recognition as a Project of the Century by the Florida Engineering Society in August 2016, and a 2019 feature by the Association of State Wetland Managers as one of the nation's top wetland restoration projects, according to SJRWMD.

The restored marshes store storm water and release it gradually to the St. Johns River instead of sending it east to the Indian River Lagoon.

Under maximum storm conditions, SJRWMD says the project is designed to hold 500,000 acre-feet of water, enough to cover its 200,000 acres to an average depth of 2.5 feet, virtually eliminating the need to discharge water to the lagoon through the C-54 canal.

Hurricane Matthew tested the system in October 2016. In a news release datelined Palm Bay, October 13, 2016, SJRWMD reported that between five and six inches of rain fell in the upper St. Johns River Basin during the storm. Executive Director Ann Shortelle said the project had once again protected western Brevard and Indian River counties from flooding, and that water levels never reached maximum elevations during or after Matthew.

The River Lakes Conservation Area, the project land closest to the city, has its vehicle entry gate at the western terminus of Wickham Road, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, according to the SJRWMD River Lakes page.

Lake Washington, which supplies Melbourne's Buckley surface water treatment plant, lies in project land, and a weir just north of the lake helps ensure the city's supply.

The River Lakes Conservation Area, acquired as part of the basin project, includes lakes Washington, Winder and Poinsett. SJRWMD notes that river flow in this reach is regulated at a single point, a fixed-crest weir just north of Lake Washington, which helps ensure the water supply for Melbourne. An SJRWMD technical publication from April 2022 adds that dry season releases from Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area augment water levels in Lake Washington, a major municipal water supply for the city.

The City of Melbourne draws that lake water into the John A. Buckley Surface Water Treatment Plant. The city describes Lake Washington as the third uppermost of the naturally connected upper St. Johns River lakes and as one of the few surface water supplies of drinking water in Florida. Melbourne's second plant, the Joe Mullins Reverse Osmosis facility, opened in 1995 with 5 million gallons per day of capacity and draws on four Floridan Aquifer wells. Water from the city system serves Melbourne, Melbourne Beach, Indialantic, Indian Harbour Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Shores, Melbourne Village and unincorporated Brevard County south of the Pineda Causeway.

The St. Johns itself starts close by. SJRWMD's river overview says the 310-mile river begins in marshes in Indian River County, and that from its source in the marshes south of Melbourne to its mouth at Mayport the river drops less than 30 feet in total, roughly an inch per mile.

The Canal 1 Rediversion Project sends Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District runoff that once drained east to the Indian River Lagoon back west to the St. Johns River.

The canal dates to 1922. SJRWMD's water management history records that the C-1 Canal was built that year, carrying soils, nitrogen, phosphorus and large volumes of freshwater from the historical St. Johns River floodplain east to Turkey Creek and into the Indian River Lagoon.

The Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District was established in 1922 by the Florida Legislature. It covers 100 square miles (approximately 64,500 acres) in Brevard County, Palm Bay and West Melbourne, maintains 163 miles of canals, and maintains the MS-1 water control structure, six overshot gates installed by SJRWMD, at the eastern end of C-1. In the rediversion, the SJRWMD 2022 technical publication says, the Sawgrass Lake Water Management Area of about 3,792 acres, including the 1,578-acre C-1 Retention Area, operates as a treatment wetland before the water is discharged to the St. Johns River.

Much of the project land west of Melbourne is open for hiking, fishing, boating, primitive camping and seasonal hunting.

SJRWMD lists more than 7 miles of trails and boat-access primitive campsites in the River Lakes Conservation Area, with boat ramps on State Road 520, U.S. 192 and at Lake Washington County Park, which has picnic pavilions, a fishing pier and airboat ramps. Listed species recorded there include wood storks, bald eagles, Florida sandhill cranes and river otters, and most of the property lies within the Upper St. Johns River Marsh Wildlife Management Area.

Farther south, SJRWMD names the St. Johns Water Management Area, known to anglers as the Stick Marsh and Farm 13, along with the Blue Cypress, Fellsmere and Sawgrass Lake water management areas. The FWC manages T.M. Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area, located near Fellsmere on the east side of the St. Johns River in southern Brevard County. SJRWMD's April 2022 interim Environmental Water Management Plan sets water level criteria for the project areas and records the endangered snail kite nesting and foraging in the Blue Cypress Water Management Area.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, against the SJRWMD upper basin, River Lakes, river overview and history pages, its 2016 Hurricane Matthew release and April 2022 technical publication SJ2022-01, the City of Melbourne water treatment page, the Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District and FWC.