MELBOURNE, Fla. — Another milestone in restoring the struggling Indian River Lagoon will soon be installed in the more than 500-acre drainage basin surrounding the Cliff Creek neighborhood in Melbourne.

• Baffle box to filter water flowing to Indian River Lagoon
• Melbourne: It will be largest one east of the Mississippi River
• Project is funded by 1/2-cent sales tax increase passed in 2016
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A baffle box will stifle more than 4,000 pounds of pollution from seeping into the lagoon every year. The underground structure is filled with debris-trapping chambers and keeps pollution from flowing into waterways like the lagoon.

At 26 feet by 22 feet and 15 feet deep, it's the largest such box east of the Mississippi River.

Officials say the boxes have an add-on that removes nitrogen and phosphorous, which are damaging, harmful pollutants running into the water.

"It allows the sediment to drop out of the water," Melbourne Deputy City Manager Jenni Lamb said.

The project is welcomed by concerned neighbor Vikki Thacker.

"It's really polluted," she says of the lagoon. "Our water is our life, our tourists' life, our community's life. It shows we are innovative as a community."

The large baffle box project will begin in January. More than half of the $700,000 cost is funded by the 1/2-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2016.