New FDEP Water Quality Programs for the Caloosahatchee presented by John Capece, UFIFAS SWFREC based

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New FDEP Water Quality Programs for the
Caloosahatchee presented by John Capece,
UF-IFAS SWFRECbased on information provided by
Bruce BolerFlorida Department of Environmental
Protection
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Program Objectives

• Determine how much pollution the Caloosahatchee
  can handle and then implement a program to keep
  pollution loads below that level.
• Accomplish this (statewide) over a 13 year period.

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Two Component Programs

• Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)establishes the
  maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body
  can assimilate without causing exceedances of
  water quality standards for critical and
  designated uses.
• Watershed Management Program (WMP)mechanism for
  achieving reductions in pollutant loads to a
  water body through specific Basin Management
  Plans.
• The TMDL-WMP linkage is similar to the PLRG-SWIM
  linkage.

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TMDL Program MotivationEPA is seeking to
enforce Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act by
requiring state agencies to establish TMDL
programs.EPA has been subject to many state
lawsuits asserting their failure to properly
implement provisions of the Clean Water Act.
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Legal Developments

• Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal
  Defense Fund) filed suit in Florida on April 22.
  
• Lawsuit seeks to accelerate the process by
  requiring FDEP to implement a Watershed
  Management approach rather than the TMDL approach.

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Pollutant LoadsLOAD mass of a pollutant
entering the riverLOAD Concentration x Flow
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The General Process

• Identify Goals1. Estuary ecosystem health
  (the estuary is a Class III water)2. Drinking
  water supply quality (the river upstream of
  S79 is a Class I water)

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The General Process

• Understand the Target SystemsDevelop knowledge
  of how the target system (Caloosahatchee estuary)
  functions and determine which water quality
  characteristics affect the health of that
  system.Drinking water standards are already
  very well defined by the EPA.

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The General Process

• Identify Problem Pollutants and
  SourcesDetermine which pollutants are are now
  or may soon be impairing water quality relative
  to the established goals (estuary health and
  drinking water quality)In Florida the primary
  problem pollutants are nutrients, sediments, and
  coliforms.

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The General Process

• Establish TMDL listDetermine which pollutant
  sources should be reduced and by how much.

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The General Process

• Reduce Pollutants Develop and implement plans
  for reducing the problem pollutants from both
  point sources (wastewater plants) and non-point
  sources (ag and urban runoff).The FDEP Basin
  Management Plans will be the mechanism to achieve
  these reductions.

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Basin Management Cycle

• 1. Initial Basin Assessment
• 2. Coordinated Basin Monitoring
• 3. Data Analysis and TMDL Development
• 4. Basin Management Plan Development
• 5. Begin Implementation

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4. Basin Management Plan Development

• recommending management activities (BMPs)
• establish who is responsible for implementation
• establish an implementation schedule
• determine how effectiveness will be assessed

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Which Water Quality Parameters?

• Physical Parameters (color, pH, turbidity, temp,
  dissolved oxygen, etc.)
• Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus)
• Biological (chlorophyll and coliforms)
• Pesticides
• Metals

Not all parameters are being measured at all
sites due to the high cost and because of
differing objectives.
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Monitoring Programs

• FDEP - river and tributary water quality
• USGS - river and tributary flows
• SFWMD - estuary, flow quality
• SFWMD - tributaries to estuary, flow quality

The Caloosahatchee is assigned a Hydrologic Unit
Code (HUC) but is also divided into many
sub-basins by the DEP for water quality
classifications purposes.
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Sub-basins with impaired water qualityas
determined by previous sampling
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DEP Monitoring Sites in the Eastern Caloosahatchee
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Internet Information Sources

• FDEPhttp//www.dep.state.fl.us/sd/
  http//www.dep.state.fl.us/sd/strategic/ecosystem/
  bruce/http//www2.dep.state.fl.us/water/Slerp/Non
  point_Stormwater/ documents/
  tmdl_doc/npsfinal.pdf
• SFWMDhttp//141.232.1.11/org/exo/cwmp/cwmp.html
• UF-IFAShttp//www.agen.ufl.edu/wq
• CRCAhttp//crca.ces.fau.edu/