Seminole County begins debris removal around Little Wekiva River

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – Cleanup efforts around Little Wekiva River will begin Wednesday in Altamonte Springs.

Seminole County Watershed Management contractors will begin removing debris from the river as part of an $11 million grant.

“There are areas all over this county that were hit hard and we have a lot of debris,” said Marie Lackey with Seminole County Watershed Management. “We can’t get to every area of the county before a hurricane hits. We’re trying to do the best we can. We can only do a segment at a time.”

The project around Little Wekiva River is part of a larger cleanup effort and work is being “prioritized by unincorporated areas hit hardest by Hurricane Ian last fall,” the county said.

Little Wekiva River, which is connected to the St. Johns River, experienced record-level flooding after Ian.

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The grant will fund cleanup efforts for 13 waterways and eight erosion control projects, according to the county.

“It’s pretty devastating in a lot of places,” said Henry Elmore with TSI Disaster Recovery. “A lot of bigger trees came down, some of the root balls might be as big as 16 tons.”

He added that the intensity of the water velocity in the county, due to how steep the banks are, can lead to drastic changes in water levels.

“You can get two inches of rain, and you’ll have four feet of change in the water level at the bottom of the creek,” Elmore said. “It doesn’t sound like much, but you get two inches of rain an hour for over 10 hours, and you’re out of the banks.”

County officials said there will be additional work in the next few months for the following:

• Howell Creek
• Gee Creek
• Soldiers Creek
• Little Econ River
• Big Econ River
• Lockhart Smith Canal
• Six Mile Canal
• Navy Canal
• Bear Gully Canal
• Sweetwater Creek
• Salt Creek
• Sunland Outfall Canal

The grant was funded by the Emergency Watershed Protection program.

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