EAU GALLIE RIVER, Fla. — A project to restore the struggling Eau Gallie River portion of the Indian River Lagoon has wrapped up.

The waterway has suffered for decades due to pollution.

Officials with the St. John's Water Management District, along with local and state officials marked a milestone two years in the making Monday morning.

"Truly a success story, truly a celebration," Anne Shortelle, St. John's Water Management District Executive Director​, told the crowd.

The $20 million Eau Gallie River Muck dredging project was approved by the state legislature, and led by the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection and Florida Inland Navigational District.​

In all, the area of the project covered 2.6 miles, where dredgers removed some 630,000 cubic yards, or 40,000 dump truck loads, of gooey muck from the river bottom.

The muck is nutrient-rich sediment full of nitrogen and phosphorous. It’s the result of decades of pollution-like fertilizer runoff, which created harmful algae blooms that hurt the ecosystem.

At times it would be churned up by the wind and waves so bad that the water was murky and cloudy.

"Now we have to make sure those nutrients from the watershed (are) back," Shortelle said.

Don Belcher has lived along the banks of the Eau Gallie River and Elbow Creek since the 1960s. That's about the time the waterway began its struggles, thanks to human hands.

"You didn't want to even stand in it," he said. "We still got a ways to go, but the water is so much better. Kayakers and boaters are out on weekends. Things are changing."

Officials estimate the annual economic impact of the Indian River Lagoon is nearly $4 billion.