1. Caulkins Water Farm
A public/private partnership with
real environmental benefits.real environmental benefits.

2. What is a Water Farm?
An enhanced water capture and storage system
How does it work?How does it work?
We pump water from the C‐44 Canal into the Farm
Where does the water in the Farm go?
The water goes up
( )into the atmosphere (known as evapotranspiration) or
down into the water table (infiltration)
Any other benefits?
Any phosphorus and nitrogen in the water is kept on‐site,
reducing pollution and algae blooms

3. Why at Caulkins?
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATIONLOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Located within the
937 square mile
St. Lucie
River
WatershedWatershed

4. More specifically, within the 182
square mile
C 44 Drainage Basin
Did k
C‐44 Drainage Basin
Did you know:
of water discharged through the
72%
of water discharged through the
locks comes from the
C-44 Drainage Basin
Damaging Discharges:
> 2,000 cfs = stress to ecosystem
3 000 f d>3,000 cfs = severe damage
200,000 acre‐feet of storage
is needed tois needed to
reduce damaging discharges
significantly

5. Why at Caulkins?
LOCATION,
LOCATIONLOCATION,
LOCATION
Located adjacent to the
C‐44 Canal
Existing infrastructure in place –
l d i icanal and pump station connecting
to C‐44 + miles of internal canals
Sandy soil
Extremely successful pilot project –
Anticipated Yearly Storage =
6,780 ac‐ft
Water stored in Farm in first year =
11 974 ac ft11,974 ac‐ft
Water stored including internal
canals = 17,666 ac‐ft
Expansion possible
i hiwithin a year
If expanded, potential to hold up to
85,000 ac‐ft or more per year

6. The benefit of private sectorp
involvement…
B t ti i S t bBegan construction in September 2013
1 YearGiven 1 Year to Complete
Construction complete in 16weeks

7. What have we done so far?What have we done so far?
Since February 2014 we have:
Stored over 26,000 acre-ft of water
That equates to over 8.5 billion gallons
Stored 20 metric tons of Nitrogen and 5 metric
tons of Phosphorus within the farmtons of Phosphorus within the farm

8. Questions / Comments??