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Water Quality and Water Supply
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for setting Florida's surface water, ground water, and drinking water quality standards and implementing broad-based programs to protect the state's rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries, wetlands, and aquifers. The agency regulates tens of thousands of drinking-water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, as well as mining operations and other activities and sites, to ensure that the consequences of development do not compromise Florida's public health, water quality, and water supplies. The department also provides extensive technical assistance and awards hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and loans every year to help local governments build the environmental infrastructure necessary to protect resources and promote sustainable growth.
Why Is This Important?
Florida's public water systems serve more than 18 million residents every day and 84 million visitors every year. The Department's ability to assure safe drinking water, both at the source and at the tap, is an essential component of Florida's overall public health program.
Understanding surface water quality is critical to protecting its various uses for drinking water supplies, shellfish harvesting, fishing and recreation, navigation, agriculture, and aquatic habitat. By identifying waters that do not meet water quality standards, the department can establish causes of the pollution problems; set specific reduction targets called total maximum daily loads (TMDLs); and work with local stakeholders to develop, adopt, and implement clean-up programs.
This strategy is important in part because by 2025, Floridians are expected to use about two billion gallons more fresh water each day, a 30 percent increase in just 20 years. Traditional fresh groundwater sources have been taxed beyond their ability to sustain both public supply and the needs of the natural systems that depend on them, including millions of acres of wetlands, more than 700 natural springs, and countless interconnected rivers, lakes, and streams. It is essential to develop alternative water supplies to accommodate future demands without compromising freshwater resources and natural habitats.
Floridians are expected to generate similar growth in wastewater treatment demands, which increases potential pollution to Florida's surface and ground waters. Pollution will be substantially reduced and hundreds of millions of gallons of fresh water will be conserved every day by highly treating the wastewater to reuse it for urban and agricultural irrigation, groundwater recharge, industrial cooling water, and other beneficial applications rather than discharging it – wasting it – directly into Florida's surface waters and aquifers.
How Is Florida Doing?
Florida leads the nation in reuse, generating 667 million gallons of reclaimed water each day in 2008 — 45 percent of all domestic wastewater. Equally important, more and more wastewater facilities are being upgraded to provide for reuse. As of 2008, 64 percent of all the domestic wastewater treatment capacity is devoted to reuse, providing for continuing growth in the availability of reclaimed water in the future.
More than 95 percent of Florida's public water systems routinely meet all critical public health standards. This success is achieved in spite of the increasing number of treatment and monitoring requirements demanded by an ever-improving understanding of the risks to drinking water quality.
The department evaluates one-fifth of Florida's surface waters every year, dividing them into geographically or hydrologically related 'segments.' Of the 2,841 surface water segments that have been fully evaluated, 1,631, or 57 percent, meet water quality standards. The percentage dropped from FY 07/08 because the department changed to a more rigorous methodology accounting for more water bodies. The Department is establishing pollution limits and clean-up plans for the other 1,070 segments and continues to gather the data necessary to focus on the highest priority pollution problems and solve them. The remaining 140 segments already have restoration efforts underway.
For the relatively small investment of $217 million in the three years of the program was funded (FY 05/06 to FY 08/09), Florida has had an approximate $18 return on every dollar 'invested' to help local governments construct alternative water supply projects. funding for fiscal year 2008-2009 droppped to $7.7 million, leading to a drop in alternative water supply production. More importantly, this investment has resulted in the development of about 850 million gallons of 'new' water to reduce the burden on existing supplies and provide for a sustainable water future.
Federal Stimulus Funds and Water Quality/Water Supply
More than $234 million became available to Florida for water quality and water supply protection through construction of wastewater, stormwater and drinking water projects, as well as cleanup of leaking petroleum storage tanks. Through the end of fiscal year 2008-2009, more than $141 million had been obligated, the vast majority to local governments across the state to build critical environmental infrastructure. The funds were awarded to the State and authorized by the Florida Legislature. More than 150 jobs, virtually all in the private sector, had been created or maintained with this funding through the end of fiscal year 2008-2009.
Scorecard
What Influences Water Quality and Water Supply?
The primary influences on water quality and water supply are Florida's rapid population growth and associated development. The more people there are, the higher the demand for water and the more waste and wastewater they generate. Urban and industrial development increase the amount of contaminants that are discharged into the environment directly or make their way into surface and ground waters through stormwater runoff, which is the greatest water pollution problem confronting Florida today. Development also results in the degradation or destruction of wetlands that, in addition to their inherent value, serve as 'filters' to reduce the impacts of polluted runoff on other surface waters and as buffers to reduce flooding impacts. Water quality and water-dependent species are impacted by excessive fertilizer and pesticide application in urban and agricultural settings; leaking underground storage tanks; hazardous waste dumps; improper disposal of solvents and petroleum products; improperly sited or failing septic tank systems; poor animal waste handling practices; impervious (nonporous such as asphalt) parking lots, roads and driveways; and poorly managed domestic and industrial wastewater facilities. Water pollution threatens source water supplies as well. These source waters are put at risk through overuse, which not only depletes the resource directly, but also leads to saltwater intrusion and contamination in coastal areas, as well as inadequate conservation and reuse. All of these circumstances are exacerbated by the effects of climate change, including droughts and sea-level rise.
What Is the State's Role?
To ensure the safety of our drinking water, the department conducts a comprehensive program of permitting, water quality monitoring and reporting, physical inspection, technical assistance, and public education and outreach for all public water systems. The state's approach is designed to prevent problems, but where violations are found, the department quickly acts to return the systems to compliance through technical assistance, financial aid or legal enforcement.
To promote healthy rivers, streams and lakes, the department identifies the causes of the surface water pollution and adopts specific pollution reduction targets (also known as total maximum daily loads or TMDLs). It also works with local stakeholders to develop, adopt and implement programs that can, over time, reduce pollution and restore the waters to health.
The department promotes reclaimed water through its wastewater regulatory program and through its relationship with Florida's five water management districts, extensive outreach and technical assistance, and direct loan and grant funding to local governments amounting to more than $100 million each year.
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