Council approves Salt Creek pump‑station project to reduce flooding and restore wetlands

Council unanimously approved a package of stormwater projects intended to reduce repeated flooding in the Basin C / Salt Creek area, including a new pump station, a force main and channel improvements and creation of a depressed wetland to restore native habitat and improve water quality.

Brijesh (Engineering) told council the Basin C work was an early deliverable from the city’s stormwater master plan. He described the project as a progressive design‑build effort that will increase pump size to respond to higher‑intensity storms and add a bypass outfall from Bartlett Lake to improve hydraulic capacity. He said the plan includes dredging Bartlett Lake, channel cleaning, a pump station on 18th Avenue South with a force main discharging near the 3rd Street bridge, and a naturalized depressed wetland on the property’s western edge to increase flood storage and water‑quality treatment.

Council members asked about impacts to nearby properties and bridge structures; staff said the gate and pump station would not change tidal levels at adjacent properties and that the bridge was not part of the work. Council also praised staff’s grant‑seeking to leverage state and federal funds; staff said project a and b had significant grant leverage and project c would be funded about one‑third by outside grants with the city covering the balance.

The council voted to approve the Salt Creek project measures and associated land acquisition funding (not to exceed $2.9 million from Weeki Wachee funds) so construction can proceed on the schedule presented.