Water Resource Issues in Northwest Florida
Annual Report 1999
Be sure to see: A
Compilation of Water Quality and Pumpage Data for
Select Wells in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay
Counties, Florida (1mb PDF file)
Also see: The
Water Assessment Report for OKALOOSA COUNTY, SANTA ROSA COUNTY, WALTON COUNTY
(571 kb ADOBE PDF file)
Looking Beyond 2000
While formed along hydrologic
boundaries, Florida's water management districts were
established as regional entities by the Florida
Legislature so that water resource issues could be
addressed more effectively. Regional approaches to
water management require looking beyond city limits,
county lines and even state borders. The Northwest
Florida Water Management District, in turn, focuses on
smaller areas or sub-regions within its 16-county area
of responsibility to identify regional solutions.
In seeking appropriate regional
solutions, the District places an emphasis on
long-range planning. A recently completed water supply
assessment serves as such an example. For this effort,
the District divided its 16 counties into seven
planning regions. As a result of the assessment, only
one region (Region II: Santa Rosa, Walton and Okaloosa
counties) was projected to have insufficient water
supply to meet future demands while sustaining related
natural systems. A water supply plan for Region II is
now being developed. This plan will provide a regional
framework for the area for future water use decisions
to ensure adequate water supply through 2020.
Cooperative measures undertaken
among public utilities in coastal areas of the
District, as well as between the utilities and the
District, are helping resolve water resource issues.
In Region II, utilities are turning to inland
wellfields to reduce withdrawals from coastal wells
and are cooperating in finding or identifying common
solutions to satisfy combined interests rather than on
separate solutions and individual interests.
Discussions and plans with utilities and local
governments related to the development of regional
ground water models for the area also have taken
place. The District was successful in securing
$328,000 in federal funding to assist the Fairpoint
Regional Utilities with the final design of an inland
Sand-and-Gravel wellfield for Santa Rosa County. In
another area, the Escambia County Utilities Authority
assisted neighboring utilities with water supply
problems.
Management of a shared water
resource, such as the Apalachicola River, calls for
regional solutions involving three states - Florida,
Georgia and Alabama. The
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system is
made up of interconnected and interdependent parts or
units. It functions as an ecosystem and requires a
regional approach to managing the system so that it
can be preserved and protected in the future.
Efforts by the three states to reach
a consensus on a water allocation formula for the ACF
river system continued throughout 1999. Originally,
the ACF Compact agreement called for an agreement on a
water allocation formula by December 31, 1998. This
deadline was extended to December 31, 1999, and then
again to May 1, 2000, since the three states had not
reached a consensus by the end of 1999. Florida is
still hopeful that differences existing among the
states can be resolved and a consensus reached on the
basinwide management of this important resource.
At the conclusion of 1999, we not
only look back over our accomplishments and activities
of the past year but we look forward to establishing
our priorities for the new millennium. In the year
ahead, we will see a continuing commitment to the ACF
river system interstate Compact agreement and the
continuing negotiations to reach a consensus on a
water allocation formula. Efforts to develop a
regional water supply plan for Santa Rosa, Okaloosa
and Walton counties will continue and this significant
planning initiative is expected to be completed by the
summer of 2000. The District's cooperative funding
programs with utilities and local governments also
will be in the forefront of our activities. There will
be a continued emphasis on the Surface Water
Improvement and Management (SWIM) program as we revise
existing management plans and develop new plans for
SWIM priority water bodies.
We also will begin planning for the
implementation of the new Florida Forever program as
the Preservation 2000 land acquisition program
concludes. Accordingly, the District will place a
greater emphasis on "less-than-fee" land
purchases which would allow the District to acquire
only those rights for a property that are needed to
accomplish specific water and environmental protection
goals. Traditional fee simple purchases involve
acquiring all rights where less-than-fee purchases
allow funds to be conserved, enabling the protection
of more sensitive environmental land areas at less
cost. The property acquired also continues in private
ownership and thus remains on the local property tax
rolls. Of course, land owners must be willing to enter
into a less-than-fee purchase agreement.
While these activities are not a
complete listing of our priorities, these are some of
the major water resource issues and programs that will
be the focus of considerable effort in 2000 and the
years to come.
Charles W. Roberts, Chair, Governing
Board
Douglas E. Barr, Executive Director
Related Links:
Northwest
Florida Water Management District
Technical
Publications
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A
Compilation of Water Quality and Pumpage Data for
Select Wells in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay
Counties, Florida by Elaine C. McKinnon
and Thomas R. Pratt, 1998.
District
Water Management Plan by Patricia L. Ryan
and Tyler Macmillan, 1999.
Hydrogeology
of the Northwest Florida Water Management District
by Thomas R. Pratt, Christopher J. Richards,
Katherine A. Milla, Jeffry R. Wagner, Jay L. Johnson
and Ross J. Curry. Water Resources Special Report
96-4. October, 1996.
Results
of the Milton T-Field Aquifer Test, Sand-and-Gravel
Aquifer, Santa Rosa County Florida by
Christopher J. Richards, 1998.
St.
Andrew Bay Watershed Surface Water Improvement and
Management Plan Edited by: Patricia Ryan,
Paul Thorpe, Christine Stafford, Ron Bartel, Tyler
Macmillan, Duncan Cairns, and Karen Horowitz
Susceptibility
of Public Supply Wells to Ground Water Contamination
in Southern Escambia County, Florida by
Tainshing Ma, Thomas R. Pratt, Jim Dukes, Roger A.
Countryman and Gary Miller, 1999. Water Resources
Special Report 99-1.
Water
Supply Assessment Report by Patricia L.
Ryan, Tyler L. Macmillan, AICP, Thomas R. Pratt,
Angela R. Chelette, Christopher J. Richards, Roger
A. Countryman and Grady L. Marchman, P.E., 1998.
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