The value of the
Indian River Lagoon to its five Florida counties has been pegged at $7.64 billion a year, according to a new economic study, the first of its kind since 2008. The authors also say that efforts to preserve and restore the waterway’s health would return $33 for each dollar invested.
“Many of our industries really depend on a healthy lagoon,” said Michael Busha, executive director of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, which undertook the study along with its east-central Florida counterpart in Brevard and Volusia counties.
Five major industries related to the lagoon employ nearly 72,000 workers with annual wages of more than $1.2 billion, plus profits of $1.4 billion, the study found. The average wage for those industries is $57,538 a year, compared with $39,152 for the entire region.
CAVEATS
The report estimates the lagoon’s annual impact in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties at just under $2 billion, up from $1.27 billion in 2008. But the overall numbers come with important caveats:
Included in the overall economic benefit was $5.15 billion from the defense and aerospace industries, which the report says “was the subject of significant debate” among a dozen experts who guided the study. Without counting that sector, centered at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Brevard but scattered throughout the area, the regional economic benefit of the lagoon would be pared to $2.5 billion a year.
No effort was made to gauge the impact of the lagoon on factors such as public health, cultural values and quality of life. “How do you put a price on that?” Busha said. However, the lagoon’s contribution to quality of life is a key argument in the report for including the defense and aerospace industries in the overall economic analysis because it “is important … for recruiting and retaining a new generation of talented engineers and technicians who can be particularly discriminating about … where they work.”
Also not included in the economic impact was an estimated $934 million in annual real estate value added to property on or near the lagoon, and estuary-related benefits in Volusia County beyond the lagoon’s northern outlet at the Ponce de Leon Inlet. Adding those numbers would bring the overall impact to $9.9 billion a year, nearly one-fifth of the five counties’ $51 billion total economy.
“You can take all that out and the aerospace industry, too, if you want,” Busha said, but the calculation of return on investment in a healthy lagoon would still exceed 10 to 1.
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