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The construction of U.S. Highway 41 (Tamiami Trail), the Southern Golden Gate Estates development, and the Barron River Canal has altered the flow of freshwater to the Ten Thousand Islands estuary of Southwest Florida. Two restoration projects, the Picayune Strand Restoration Project and the Tamiami Trail Culverts Project, both associated with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, were initiated to address this issue. Quantifying the flow of freshwater to the estuary is essential to assessing the effectiveness of these projects. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a study between March 2006 and September 2010 to quantify the freshwater flowing under the Tamiami Trail between County Road 92 and State Road 29 in southwest Florida, excluding the Faka Union Canal (which is monitored by South Florida Water Management District). The study period was after the completion of the Tamiami Trail Culverts Project and prior to most of the construction related to the Picayune Restoration Project. The section of the Tamiami Trail that was studied contains too many structures (35 bridges and 16 culverts) to cost-effectively measure each structure on a continuous basis, so the area was divided into seven subbasins. One bridge within each of the subbasins was instrumented with an acoustic Doppler velocity meter. The index velocity method was used to compute discharge at the seven instrumented bridges. Periodic discharge measurements were made at all structures, using acoustic Doppler current profilers at bridges and acoustic Doppler velocity meters at culverts. Continuous daily mean values of discharge for the uninstrumented structures were calculated on the basis of relations between the measured discharge at the uninstrumented stations and the discharge and stage at the instrumented bridge. Estimates of daily mean discharge are available beginning in 2006 or 2007 through September 2010 for all structures. Subbasin comparison is limited to water years 2008–2010. The Faka Union Canal contributed more than half (on average 60 percent) of the flow under the Tamiami Trail between State Road 29 and County Road 92 during water years 2008–2010. During water years 2008–2010, an average 9 percent of the flow through the study area came from west of the Faka Union Canal and an average 31 percent came from east of the Faka Union Canal. Flow data provided by this study serve as baseline information about the seasonal and spatial distribution of freshwater flow under the Tamiami Trail between County Road 92 and State Road 29, and study results provide data to evaluate restoration efforts. Introduction The construction of U.S. Highway 41, the Southern Golden Gate Estates (SGGE), and the Barron River Canal altered the flow of freshwater to the Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) estuary of southwest Florida (fig. 1) (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998). U.S. Highway 41, also known as the Tamiami Trail, was completed in 1928 to provide a southern route connecting the west coast of Florida (Tampa) to the east coast (Miami) of Florida. The Tamiami Trail created a block to the natural drainage of the Picayune and Fakahatchee Strands (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998). Freshwater historically meandered south as sheet flow across the landscape, ultimately reaching the TTI estuary through a natural course of sloughs, wetlands, marshes, and rivers. With the completion of the Tamiami Trail, this flow was intercepted by a borrow canal (the Tamiami Canal) dug on the north side of the road. Water is conveyed under the road at only a few bridges and culverts, which were not always optimally positioned relative to the natural flow patterns. As a result, water is unevenly distributed, and the hydrology of the downstream wetlands and estuaries is affected by the addition or reduction in freshwater flows (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998). The SGGE is an 86 square mile (mi2) failed housing development built in the 1960s in the western part of the TTI watershed north of the Tamiami Trail. The Faka Union Canal System, consisting of four canals (Miller Canal, Faka Union Canal, Merritt Canal, and Prairie Canal), was built to drain the area for the SGGE project. Several roads, with adjacent drainage ditches, diverted sheet flow into the Faka Union 2 Flow Monitoring Along the Tamiami Trail, Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, 2007–2010 Canal System, accelerating drainage within the watershed and reducing wetland coverage, aquifer recharge, and base flow into the estuaries (South Florida Water Management District Big Cypress Basin and U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Services, 2003). As a result of the altered hydrologic environment, the intercepted sheet flow is discharged into the TTI estuary at a single point, Faka Union Bay, instead of being distributed throughout the system (fig. 2) (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2008). The Barron River Canal is a borrow canal built in the 1920s that parallels State Road 29 (S.R. 29) between Immokalee and Everglades City, a distance of 37 miles (South Florida Water Management District, 2006). The Barron River Canal is divided into two segments 2.5 miles north of the Tamiami Trail. These segments are reconnected just north of Everglades City, where the canal empties into the Barron River (fig. 2). The Barron River Canal has increased the amount of water discharged by the Barron River, resulting in a large single-point discharge of freshwater to the TTI estuary at Chokoloskee Bay (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998). Seasonal salinity maps produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) between 2007 and 2010, as part of a broader monitoring program within the estuary, demonstrated the altered freshwater flows to the estuary. Freshwater plumes were evident in Faka Union and Chokoloskee Bays in many of the salinity maps. In addition, higher salinities were often observed in the inner bays west of the Faka Union Canal, particularly Pumpkin Bay, compared to the inner bays east of the Faka Union Canal (Soderqvist and Patino, 2010). Two Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects were initiated to improve freshwater delivery to the TTI estuary: the Picayune Strand Restoration Project (formerly SGGE Restoration Project) and the Tamiami Trail Culverts Project. The goal of the Picayune Strand Restoration Project is to “restore historic hydroperiods and sheet-flow patterns in the study area to the extent possible, while maintaining the existing levels of flood protection for areas north of the SGGE” (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2004). To meet this goal, the current plan calls for the removal of 227 miles of roads and the placement of 83 plugs within 42 miles of existing canals. In addition, three pump stations with downstream spreader channels are to be constructed to restore sheet flow through the region while maintaining flood control capacity for communities to the north (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2008). As of August 2012, plugs had been placed in the Prairie Canal, and roads between the Prairie and Merritt Canals were removed. The Merritt Pump station was near completion, and construction had begun on the Faka Union Pump station. The majority of road removal between the Faka Union and Miller Canals was also completed (Jennifer Carpenter, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, unpub. data, 2013). The Tamiami Trail Culverts Project involved the construction of 16 culverts under the Tamiami Trail within the TTI watershed. The purpose of these culverts is to provide a path for the restored sheet flow exiting Picayune Strand to continue southward toward the estuary. The portion of the Tamiami Trail Culverts Project within the TTI watershed was completed in June 2006 (Wossenu and Ciuca, 2011). Quantifying discharge across the western part of the Tamiami Trail between County Road 92 (C.R. 92) and S.R. 29 was necessary to provide preliminary data to assess the effectiveness of these projects. Discharge for the Faka Union Canal at the Tamiami Trail is reported by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD); however, no flow data existed for the remaining structures. In March 2006, the USGS initiated a study, as part of the Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science initiative, in cooperation with the National Park Service Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and SFWMD, to quantify the flow through the western Tamiami Trail, excluding the Faka Union Canal. The data presented herein provide information regarding the quantity and distribution of flow within the study area during 2007–2010. For the purpose of this report, years during the study period are referenced to water years (October 1 to September 30) and they are identified by the year in which the period ends. This study period occurred after the completion of the Tamiami Trail Culverts Project and prior to most of the construction related to the Picayune Restoration Project. The data complement seasonal salinity maps of the TTI estuary produced by the USGS between 2007–2010 as part of a broader monitoring program within the estuary (Soderqvist and Patino, 2010). The data also may be useful for calibration of local hydrologic models, such as the TTI-area model (Swain and Decker, 2009). Purpose and Scope The purpose of this report is to provide daily mean discharge data at 35 bridges and 16 culverts along the western Tamiami Trail between C.R. 92 and S.R. 29, excluding the Faka Union Canal. Data collection began in 2006 at structures west of the Faka Union Canal and in 2007 at structures east of the Faka Union Canal (table 1). Data collection continued at all locations through September 30, 2010. Data are not available for Subbasin 2 for 2007. It was not cost effective to individually monitor the 51 structures within the study area continuously; therefore, the area was divided into seven subbasins, and one bridge within each subbasin was instrumented with a stream gage. Subbasins were

data series

Flow monitoring along the western Tamiami Trail between County Road 92 and State Road 29 in support of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, 2007-2010