BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The plight of the Indian River Lagoon remains a priority for those tasked with using funds from a ten-year sales tax plan.

What You Need To Know

  • The Indian River Lagoon has improved water quality as a result of a tax that funds the cleanup

  • Additional funding will only help to multiply the results

  • Locals hope to use natural means and tech advances to continue to clean the water

One group’s goal is to continue to spend the money wisely on projects dedicated to restoring the historic waterway which runs through several counties, including Brevard. Indialantic native Vinnie Taranto grew up on the banks of the Indian River Lagoon and knows firsthand the daunting challenge to overcome decades of pollution.

As a volunteer for the Save Our Lagoon Oversight Committee, he uses his I-T and computer background skills to find solutions and make sure the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2016 goes to fund the proper projects.

“Our number one goal is to make sure that every penny that we spend is being used in the most efficient way we can,” Taranto told Spectrum News. “We understand public trust and we don’t want to ruin that. And so we look at those numbers and look at the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous removed, and make sure as much as we can per dollar is being removed.”

Tax dollars are being used for projects designed to remove 1.3 million pounds of excess nitrogen and 105,000 pounds of phosphorous from the lagoon each year.

Since 2017, around $35 million has funded muck removal, storm water and sewer plant and sewer system upgrades, and to filter fertilizer filled rainwater runoff before it reaches the river.

“It’s all about getting in between, and before it hits the lagoon,” Taranto says. “Because that water is going to collect everything it runs across.”

A map of the projects shows where they are and how much pollution the project has removed from the water.

“Oysters and living shorelines, septic system upgrades, septic to sewer conversions, reclaimed water use, storm water, muck removal, and leaky sewer laterals,” says Taranto, these things go towards helping the water quality.

Lagoon advocates are working to get a new sales tax measure on the 2026 ballot to continue pumping resources into the lagoon’s recovery.​ It’s an over $7 billion dollar yearly economic impact to the six counties it flows through.​

Taranto still comes to the river banks often and says the effort to bring back the place he’s loved all his life is worth it.

“I’m hopeful in 10 to 20 years, it will be back to where it was,” he says.