Estimated Water Use Report - Southwest Florida Water ...

2005 Estimated Water Use Report
Water Use Caution Areas
(WUCAs)
In the late 1980s the District realized that
certain interim resource management
initiatives could be implemented to help
prevent existing problems in the Water
Resource Assessment Project (WRAP) areas
from getting worse prior to the completion of
each WRAP (Figure 5). As a result, in 1989,
the District established the Northern Tampa
Bay (NTB), Eastern Tampa Bay (ETB), and
Highlands Ridge (HR) WUCAs, or Water
Resource Caution Areas (WRCAs) as they are
referred to in Chapter 62-40, Florida
Administrative Code (F.A.C.)
For each of the initial three WUCAs, a threephased
approach to water resources
management was implemented, including: (1)
short-term actions that could be put in place
immediately, (2) mid-term or intermediate
actions that could be implemented concurrent
with the ongoing WRAPs, and (3) long-term
actions that would be based upon the results
of the WRAPs. Short-term actions for each
WUCA included the establishment of a Work
Group comprised of representatives from all
types of water users within each WUCA (e.g.,
public supply, agriculture, industry), local
governments, environmental representatives,
and other interested parties. These Work
Groups were convened to assist the District in
the development of management plans for
each WUCA.
The main goal of the management plans was
to stabilize and restore the water resource in
each area through a combination of
regulatory and non-regulatory efforts. The
plans were adopted in 1990 and 1991.
Additional short-term measures included
development of conservation plans, permitting
using cumulative impact analysis, and
requiring withdrawals from stressed lakes to
cease within three years.
One of the primary means of implementing
the WUCA management plans was through
modifications to the District’s water use
permitting rules for each specific WUCA.
These modifications primarily addressed
additional conservation requirements and
investigation of alternative water sources for
water use permittees. One significant change
was the designation of the Most Impacted
Area within the ETB WUCA, within which no
net increase in permitted water use from the
Upper Floridan aquifer was allowed. This
would be accomplished by significantly
limiting the issuance of new permitted
quantities.
Southern Water Use Caution Area (SWUCA)
Realizing that the Southern Ground-Water
Basin should be managed in a comprehensive
fashion, the entire southern portion of the
District encompassing this basin was declared
the Southern Water Use Caution Area
(SWUCA) in October of 1992 (Figure 3). The
SWUCA encompasses approximately 5,100
square miles, including all or part of eight
counties in the southern portion of the District.
In response to growing demands from public
supply, agriculture, mining, power generation
and recreational uses, ground-water
withdrawals steadily increased for nearly a
century before peaking in the mid-1970s.
These withdrawals resulted in declines in
aquifer levels throughout the basin, which in
some areas exceeded 50 feet. Although
ground-water withdrawals have since
stabilized as a result of management efforts,
depressed aquifer levels continue
Figure 3 illustrates location of the Northern
Tampa Bay, Eastern Tampa Bay, and
Highlands Ridge Water Use Caution Areas
(WUCAs).
The SWUCA encompassed the previously
established ETB and HR WUCAs. As with the
previous WUCAs, the District convened a
Work Group to assist in drafting a
management plan for the area. The Work
Group concluded a year long series of
meetings in late 1993. The District completed
the management plan for the SWUCA in mid-
1994, which included both regulatory and
non-regulatory recommendations. To
Southwest Florida Water Management District
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