Watershed Assessment Program

 New! The Department announces the availability of the REVISED lists of impaired waters for the Group 5 Basins: Perdido, Upper East Coast, Springs Coast, Indian River Lagoon, Everglades, and the Florida Keys.

The Department is requesting comment on the following types of assessments: Verified lists of Impaired Waters, Waters proposed for delisting from the 303(d) list, Waters in category 4d and 4e, Waters that are potentially impaired based on period of record data, and Waters potentially impaired for criteria that are expressed relative to natural background.

The revised lists reflect new data that have been received and incorporated into the assessments, station-WBID assignments that have been corrected, WBID classifications that have been corrected, and/or data that have been excluded from assessments based on comments received from data providers or stakeholders. These assessments reflect the Department’s current assessments for these waterbodies, but they are subject to change based on input received during the public comment period, which ends November 18, 2011.

In an attempt to make commenting on the lists easier, we have designed these lists to provide information regarding the DRAFT assessments and the REVISED assessments. The first two columns in each list indicate whether or not the assessment was on the DRAFT list and/or the REVISED list and the comments provide information on why the assessment may have changed. To determine what is NEW from the draft lists, one can look at those rows where the first column is blank and the second column contains an ‘R’. These represent what is being proposed as the final assessments for the Group 5 basins through the second cycle.

Public meetings will be held for the Upper East Coast, Springs Coast, and the Indian River Lagoon basins to present the revised lists. Note: no public meetings are scheduled to present the revised lists for the Perdido, Everglades, and Florida Keys basins due to the minimal amount of changes to the draft lists. If the public has any questions or comments for these basins feel free to attend one of the scheduled meetings to gather information.

Florida’s rivers, streams, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters are spectacularly beautiful. More than that, they are essential natural resources, supplying the water necessary for aquatic life, both large and microscopic; drinking water; recreation; industry; fishing and shellfish harvesting; and agriculture. Florida's multi-billion tourist industry would vanish if our water resources were irreparably degraded.

Protecting these abundant water resource, restoring them when they become damaged because of unmanaged growth and development, and preserving them for the future is your responsibility and ours.

DEP's Divisions of Water Resource Management and Environmental Assessment and Restoration implement a wide range of programs to protect and restore Florida's surface waters. Tour this website and you will find dozens of different strategies and activities underway to benefit water quality. At the heart of these efforts, particularly in identifying water quality problems and establishing clean-up objectives, is the Watershed Assessment program.

For more information, send e-mail to Julie Espy (Julie.Espy@dep.state.fl.us)

Watershed Assessment Program
2600 Blair Stone Road - Mail Station 3555
 Tallahassee, FL, 32399-2400
Phone: (850) 245-8346