Watershed Management

Water sheds into lakes from surrounding hills and houses outside Orlando, Florida.

What is a watershed? A watershed is simply the geographic area through which water flows across the land and drains into a common body of water, whether a stream, river, lake, or ocean. Much of the water comes from rainfall and the stormwater runoff. The quality and quantity of stormwater is affected by all the alterations to the land--agriculture, roadways, urban development,- and the activities of people within a watershed. Watersheds are usually separated from other watersheds by naturally elevated areas.

Why are watersheds important? Because the surface water features and stormwater runoff within a watershed ultimately drain to other bodies of water, it is essential to consider these downstream impacts when developing and implementing water quality protection and restoration actions. Everything upstream ends up downstream. We need to remember that we all live downstream and that our everyday activities can affect downstream waters.

Florida's Watershed Management Program was created to embrace this holistic, ecosystem-based approach and to integrate Florida's longstanding water quality protection programs into more effective, comprehensive action. The program specifically implements the provisions of the Florida Watershed Restoration Act of 1999,  section 403.067, Florida Statutes, but it encompasses other legal authorities, voluntary programs and practices, public education, and financial assistance, all directed at cleaning up water pollution or preventing it in the first place.

Watersheds are natural features. Florida has 52 large watersheds or basins. In order to best protect and restore them, DEP has grouped these watersheds into 29 groups of basins to make environmental management easier, more effective and more uniform across programs. The map below reflects the major watersheds in Florida.

Major Identified Watersheds in Florida

The water body restoration and watershed management program is conducted on a Rotating Basin cycle that is conducted over a five year period (See basin 411 for more information). The cycle consists of the following steps:

Watershed Monitoring and Data Management - Conducts Florida’s surface and ground water monitoring programs, including cooperative efforts with other agencies in the state that monitor water quality and quantity. It also integrates monitoring data into a centralized statewide repository.

• More water quality data and other sources of environmental information are available at DEP's Water Data Central.

Watershed Assessment - Using data from the monitoring program and other sources, this section evaluates the impacts of wastewater facilities, industries, agriculture, septic tanks, urban development and other sources of pollution on Florida's surface waters. Every two years a statewide assessment of the health of Florida’s surface and ground waters is conducted and summarized in the “305(b) Report” which is required by Section 305(b) of the Federal Clean Water Act. Each year, an assessment is done for the basins within one of the five groups of basins leading to the development and adoption of the Verified List of Impaired Waters, which identifies surface waters that do not meet water quality standards ("impaired waters"). Florida’s surface water quality standards are set forth primarily in rule 62-302, Florida Administrative Code, and the associated table of water quality criteria. However, the Verified List is developed using the methodology specified within the Impaired Waters Rule, Chapter 62-303, F.A.C., which has been adopted as water quality standards for the purposes of these assessments.

Watershed Evaluation and TMDL Development – For those waters that are impaired, water quality restoration targets, called Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDLs, are developed and adopted into Chapter 62-304, F.A.C.

• What is a TMDL? A scientific determination of the maximum amount of a given pollutant that a surface water can absorb and still meet the water quality standards that protect human health and aquatic life. Water bodies that do not meet water quality standards are identified as impaired for the particular pollutants of concern--nutrients, bacteria, mercury, etc.--and TMDLs must be developed, adopted and implemented for those pollutants to reduce pollutants and clean up the water body.

Watershed Planning and Coordination - Coordinates the activities of the watershed restoration program with local government and business leaders, environmental groups, interested citizens, and other local stakeholders. Staff in this section lead the development of local Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) to implement the requirements of TMDLs.

• What is a BMAP? A comprehensive set of strategies--permit limits on wastewater facilities, urban and agricultural best management practices, conservation programs, financial assistance and revenue generating activities, etc.--designed to implement the pollutant reductions established by the TMDL. These broad-based plans are developed in conjunction with local stakeholders--they rely on local input and local commitment--and they are adopted by Secretarial Order to be enforceable.

Nonpoint Source Management - Coordinated implementation of Florida’s nonpoint source management program which strives to reduce pollution from everyday human activities (also known as “Pointless Personal Pollution”). Administers the "Section 319" grant program, which provides some $8 million annually to local governments to implement projects--stormwater retrofits, best management practices, public education--that reduce or promote the reduction of contaminants from stormwater and other nonpoint sources of pollution.

Ground Water Protection - Assesses the quality of Florida’s ground water resources, which serve as the source of drinking water for more than 90% of Florida’s residents and visitors. Conducts assessments of loading of pollutants from the ground water into surface waters and conducts research to better identify the sources of pollutants in ground water. Works with the watershed program and other DEP programs to assure protection of ground water resources, which are intimately connected with Florida's surface waters through spring systems, wetlands, ground water recharge areas, and other places where surface and ground waters interact.