Statement of Estimated Regulatory Costs for the Dover / Plant City ...

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYJANUARY 2011 five of the 37 investigations required repairs totaling over $3 million in cost. The costs of the repairs include fixing the sinkholes only and do not include the costs of repaving the damaged roads. Portions of Interstate 4 and US Highway 92, both major roadways in the area, were also damaged and closed to traffic during repairs. The 3 east-bound lanes of Interstate 4 were closed to traffic for four days causing significant traffic and commuting delays. The Florida Department of Transportation estimates damages to federally aided roadways in the region to be approximately $1.051 million. The total cost to repair or replace wells and/or pumps damaged as a result of the cold protection ground water pumping was approximately $1.2 million. Well repair costs are generally paid by water use permittees. For those residents whose wells were damaged outside the area where well damage investigation and repair (mitigation) conditions were applied to permits, about 31 percent of the wells were out-of-service for three days or less, 48 percent were out-of-service for 4 to 7 days, 17 percent were out-of-service for 8 to 11 days and 4 percent for more than 11 days. “Days-out-of-service” data for damaged wells inside the mitigation area are not available but their out-of-service durations are likely to be somewhat shorter because the investigations are assigned to responsible permittees as quickly as possible. Chapter 373, F.S., and District rules provide that use of water under a water use permit must be for a reasonable-beneficial use, not interfere with any presently existing legal use of water and be consistent with the public interest. Water use that damages existing domestic wells interferes with the existing legal use of water and pumpage that causes widespread formation of sinkholes resulting in damage to homes and infrastructure is not in the public interest. Under Chapter 373, F.S. and current District rules, when the use of permitted groundwater for frost/freeze crop protection results in the impacts described above, the permitted quantity must be modified to bring the permitted water use into compliance with the law. In the case of frost / freeze protection for crops, a permit modification involves reducing the amount of groundwater permitted to be withdrawn or reducing the duration of pumpage. 44324-000R4.docx Such a modification is likely to have immediate ramifications on the agricultural industry in the Dover/Plant City area. For example, if an existing strawberry permittee’s cold protection ground water quantities were reduced or limited in duration without alternative cold protection methods in place, the crop could be lost to cold damage. The loss could be up to $23,000 per acre of strawberries and there are about 7,700 acres with permitted ground water quantities for strawberry production in the Dover/ Plant City area. Adoption of the proposed recovery strategy in 40D-80, F.A.C., will instead allow for a phased reduction in permitted cold protection water quantities. It will avoid the near term SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT SERC FOR DOVER / PLANT CITY WUCA RULE Page ES-2 HAZEN AND SAWYER, P.C.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYJANUARY 2011 impacts to the strawberry and other agricultural industries that rely on ground water use for cold protection until feasible alternative cold protection methods can be implemented by existing permittees. As part of the the proposed recovery strategy, the District will provide co-funding to permittees for equipment costs associated with alternative cold protection methods. Additionally, it is unlikely that any new requests for groundwater withdrawals for frost/freeze protection could be permitted under current rule. To address this concern, District staff, at the direction of the Governing Board, provided recommendations that will result in a reduced need to use groundwater for cold protection and provide a mechanism for new permits to be issued. The recommendations also include expanding permit and hydrologic data collection. The proposed rule will create a Dover / Plant City Water Use Caution Area (DPC WUCA) in portions of Hillsborough and Polk counties for the following purpose. “By January 2020, to reduce groundwater withdrawals for frost/freeze protection by 20% from January 2010 quantities to lessen the potential that drawdown during a future frost / freeze event would lower the aquifer level at District Well DV-1 Suwannee below 10 feet NGVD.” The Minimum Aquifer Level at District well DV-1 is affected by local and regional groundwater withdrawals. In order to address the effects of these withdrawals and the variable hydrogeologic factors within the region, a Minimum Aquifer Level Protection Zone is established under the proposed rule. The Minimum Aquifer Level Protection Zone is defined as the area within the 30’ drawdown contour that resulted from the January 2010 frost / freeze event. The proposed rule provides that new proposed withdrawals that further impact the Minimum Aquifer Level Protection Zone would cause unacceptable impacts and will not be permitted without a Net Benefit. The proposed rule provides more specific guidance to applicants and their agents than the existing rule which would simply dictate that unacceptable impacts must not occur. Such language makes it easier for applicants and their agents to demonstrate reasonable assurance of compliance with rule criteria. 44324-000R4.docx Another issue highlighted by the January 2010 freeze event is that the current method for allocating well failure investigations and mitigations to permittees can cause significant financial hardship to newer permittees using cold protection quantities in the region. The current allocation methodology assigns well complaints to those with the most recent permit action, whether that is the issuance of a new permit or modification of an existing permit. Under the existing method, during the January 2010 freeze event, only 61 of 504 permittees were required to investigate complaints and one permittee was as- SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT SERC FOR DOVER / PLANT CITY WUCA RULE Page ES-3 HAZEN AND SAWYER, P.C.
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