Orange County is undergoing a detailed evaluation of its various environmental regulations, comprehensive plan, and associated policies to assess how improvements can be made that will better protect the County’s natural and environmental resources while accommodating the needs of a rapidly growing metropolitan community. Drummond Carpenter (DC) and Applied Ecology, Inc. (AEI) are currently supporting Orange County Environmental Protection Division (OCEPD) with an evaluation of the County’s existing wetland ordinance. A critical part of understanding the effectiveness of past and current regulatory guidelines is a detailed evaluation of the wetland resources within the County. DC requested the assistance of Applied Ecology, Inc. (AEI) to quantify the state of wetlands ecological communities within Orange County to help assess the effectiveness of the existing wetland ordinance at preventing a net loss in wetland acreage and functionality. The State of the Wetlands (SOTW) project provides the scientific data to guide the County’s future efforts in refining their wetland ordinance.

The goal of this project is to better understand the extent that wastewater contaminated groundwater is impacting the Indian River Lagoon by examining contamination in different regions of Brevard County within communities that are receiving three different wastewater treatments. The data collected was used to identify critical areas of groundwater contamination, guide wastewater retrofit project selection and evaluation, as well as verify and update nutrient pollutant load estimates to the Indian River Lagoon.

Applied Ecology, Inc. (AEI) provided environmental TMDL support services to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) established Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) for large portions of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) system in March. TMDLs were based on setting a water quality restoration goal that would allow seagrass regrowth to within 10% of the maximum historical seagrass depth limit. To meet the necessary TMDL goals, AEI performed four major tasks for this contract.