Middle St. Johns - Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Water Quality Assessment Report: Middle St. Johns
Chapter 4: The Verified List of Impaired
Waters
149
Public Participation
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Department)
has worked with a variety of stakeholders and held public meetings on
developing and adopting the Verified Lists of impaired waters for the six
Group 2 basins across the state. Table 4.1 lists the statewide schedule for
the development and adoption of the Group 2 Verified Lists, including the
public meetings. The schedule for the Middle St. Johns Basin is highlighted
in boldface type. Appendix J contains documentation provided
during the public comment period.
Basin-specific draft Verified Lists of waters that met the requirements
of the Impaired Surface Waters Rule (IWR) were made available to the
public on June 2, 2003. The lists were placed on the Department’s Total
Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) Web site, at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/
water/tmdl, and were also sent on request to interested parties by mail or
via e-mail.
Citizens were given the opportunity to comment on the draft lists in
person and/or in writing. Eight public meetings were held across the state,
to encourage public participation on a basin-by-basin basis. The Department
also accepted written comments for 45 days beginning June 2, 2003,
and ending July 17, 2003.
Following the public meetings for the Group 2 basins, which took
place between June 9 and June 19, 2003, revised draft lists were made available
to the public on September 5, 2003. The public had the opportunity
to comment on these revised lists either in writing and/or at a final public
meeting in Tallahassee. Comments received on or before October 2, 2003,
were considered in preparing the revised draft lists. Comments on any of
the lists were accepted and considered throughout the full comment period.
The final basin-specific Verified Lists developed through the public
participation process were adopted by rule on May 27, 2004, and submitted
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the State’s current
303(d) list of impaired waters.