Revised Period of Record Waterbody Assessment Decisions for the Group 1 (Cycle 3) Basins
 

The Department announces the availability of revised lists of water quality assessments for waterbodies in the Group 1 Basins based on “period of record data” for: St. Marks-Ochlockonee Rivers, Suwannee River, Ocklawaha River, Tampa Bay, Everglades West Coast, and Lake Okeechobee. These lists are referred to as the period of record (POR) lists.

The presentation of this information in this manner is new, so please review the following text which should provide sufficient detail to describe this latest addition to the Impaired Waters Assessment process.

Waterbodies are assessed using the available data within the Verified Period for parameters listed in 62-302 and 62-303, Florida Administrative Code. As specified in the Impaired Waters Rule (62-303, FAC), the Department assesses water quality based on the most recent data collected, namely a 7.5 year period. However, as part of our assessment process, the Impaired Waters Rule also requires us to consider additional data from outside of this time period that would provide additional information relevant to the assessment of a waterbody's health. This additional step is referred to as the “period of record” review and involves evaluating all available data including older data if it is “representative of current conditions”. However, like all data used in our assessments, the data must meet data quality requirements. In many instances, the Department is unable to determine the quality of older data. For those waterbody assessments where the assessment decision would change based on the inclusion of older data, the Department seeks comment on the whether such data are representative of current conditions of either the waterbody or the watershed's pollution sources.

Note: 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 1 basins through the third cycle.