The St. Johns River, South Florida and Southwest Florida water management districts have concluded that sustainable quantities of groundwater in central Florida are insufficient to meet all future public water supply demands and that there is an immediate need to develop and implement supplemental water supply projects.

The central Florida area, known as the Central Florida Coordination Area (CFCA), includes Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties and south Lake County within the St. Johns River Water Management District; Orange, Osceola and Polk counties within the South Florida Water Management District; and Polk County within the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

To address these issues, the three water management districts developed an action plan for formal coordination and communication in the CFCA where the boundaries of the three districts come together and where permitting actions in one district can impact water resources and water users throughout the area. The Action Plan addresses three areas of coordination — regulation, planning, and computer modeling and predictive tools.

Each of the three districts approved interim rules to implement the regulatory component of the Action Plan. The key provision of the interim rules limits future groundwater withdrawals to no more than that needed to meet 2013 demands. Supplemental water supply projects will be needed to satisfy needs beyond 2013. The interim rules sunset on Dec. 31, 2012.

Phase II of the CFCA project is currently under way, which will result in development of permitting rules implementing a long-term strategy to address the concerns about water supplies and the sustainability of the resources. The planning component will focus on identification of supplemental water supply projects and project implementation strategies that will ultimately be included in future updates of each district’s regional water supply plan and in the comprehensive plans of local governments in the CFCA. The computer modeling and predictive tools component will result in improved hydrologic modeling, statistical and analytical tools to better quantify sustainable groundwater and surface water availability in the CFCA.

For more information about the CFCA, contact:

• Southwest Florida Water Management District — Roy Mazur at Roy.Mazur@swfwmd.state.fl.us
• St. Johns River Water Management District — Dwight Jenkins at djenkins@sjrwmd.com
• South Florida Water Management District — Dean Powell at dpowell@sfwmd.gov
• Facilitator — John Shearer at johnshearer@cfl.rr.com

Public meetings

• July 29, 2010, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Meeting presentations
    • Overview and status of CFCA efforts
    • Data analysis and modeling tools
    • Statistical evaluations
    • East Central Florida transient model update
    • DWRM2 update
    • Model consistency
    • Proposed model simulation
    • Model work products and access
    • Schedule for completion of modeling activities
    • Public participation
  • Webcast of meeting

Resources

• Phase II work plan, May 17, 2010 (Posted on June 15, 2010. This document is subject to change. This document will be updated if changes are made to the plan.)
• Action plan, Sept. 18, 2006
• Coordination Area map
• Coordination Area utilities map
• Planning work group final report
• Public meeting presentation, Sept. 25, 2009
• St. Johns River Water Management District permitting rules
• South Florida Water Management District permitting rules
• Southwest Florida Water Management District permitting rules