Weeki Wachee River System Recommended Minimum Flows and ...

1.6 Content of Remaining Chapters
In this chapter, we have summarized the requirements and rationale for developing
minimum flows and levels in general and introduced the need for protection of the flow
regime rather than protection of a single minimum flow. The remainder of this
document considers the development of minimum flows and levels specific to the Weeki
Wachee River, which is defined as the river reach from the head springs near US
Highway 50 to the confluence with the Gulf of Mexico at Bayport, FL.
Chapters 2 through 5 are intended to be largely descriptive of the system. Not all of the
material presented in these chapters was used in setting the MFL, but it is important to
characterize the nature of the system under investigation. For example, watershed landuse
cannot be reasonably managed as an MFL issue, but it is important to understand
that highly urbanized systems generally offer less habitat than relatively pristine
systems, and this may have a bearing on the outcome of the MFL.
In Chapter 2, we provide a short description of the entire river basin and springshed; the
hydrogeologic setting, and consider historical and current river flows and the factors that
have influenced the flow regimes. Seasonal blocks corresponding to low, medium and
high flows are identified. In Chapter 3 the focus changes to a description of the
estuarine characteristics. Chapter 4 is devoted to water quality with a focus on salinity
and the relationships with flow.
Biological resources are described in Chapter 5 along with quantifiable relationships to
flow that have been developed for the MFL evaluation. Goals and specific MFL
resource criteria are defined in Chapter 6 while Chapter 7 is devoted to application of
evaluation tools to determine what minimum flow(s) achieve the criteria established in
the prior chapter. Finally, Chapter 8 provides a definition of the Weeki Wachee MFL.
Chapters 9 and 10 contain literature cited and appendices respectively for the prior
chapters.
With the exceptions noted, the British system of measurement units has been utilized in
this report. This will promote consistency with other SWFWMD reports and Governor
Crist's Plain Language Initiative 3 that promotes a writing style easily understood by the
public. The two exceptions to the British system are river distance (expressed in
kilometer) and sample depth (expressed in meters) A table of common conversions is
provided following the Table of Contents.
One final comment regarding establishment of the MFL is the issue of hydrologic
alterations. It is both a practical, and a statutory requirement (373.0421, FS) that the
establishment of an MFL shall consider changes and structural alterations. Examples
within the District include in-stream impoundments such as exist on the Hillsborough,
Manatee, Braden, Withlacoochee Rivers, Shell Creek, Tampa Bypass Canal (TBC) and
3 State initiative can be found at http://www.flgov.com/pl_home
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Proposed Minimum Flows and Levels for Weeki Wachee River
Purpose and Background Page 11 of 164