Middle St. Johns - Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Water Quality Assessment Report: Middle St. Johns 201
hydrologic, ecological, and socioeconomic setting as well as historical, current, and
proposed watershed management issues and activities. It also contains a preliminary
evaluation of major water quality parameters, water quality issues by planning unit,
an evaluation of ecological resources, and basinwide pollutant loading trends related
to land uses. At the end of Phase 1, a Strategic Monitoring Plan is developed.
• Phase 2: Strategic Monitoring and Assessment. Additional data are collected
through strategic monitoring and uploaded to STORET. The data are used to verify
whether potentially impaired waters in each basin are impaired and to calibrate and
verify models for TMDL development. At the end of Phase 2, an Assessment
Report is produced for each basin that contains a Verified List of impaired waters.
The report also provides an updated and more thorough evaluation of water quality,
associated biological resources, and current management plans. The Department
will adopt the Verified List through a Secretarial Order and submit it to the EPA as
the state’s Section 303(d) list of impaired waters.
• Phase 3: Development and Adoption of TMDLs. TMDLs for priority impaired
waters in the basin will be developed and adopted by rule. Because TMDLs cannot
be developed for all listed waters during a single watershed management cycle due to
fiscal and technical limitations, waterbodies will be prioritized using the criteria in
the Identification of Impaired Surface Waters Rule (Rule 62-303, F.A.C.).
• Phase 4: Development of a Basin Management Action Plan (B-MAP). A B-MAP
will be developed for each basin to specify how pollutant loadings from point and
nonpoint sources will be allocated and reduced in order to meet TMDL requirements.
The plans will include regulatory and nonregulatory (i.e., voluntary) and structural
and nonstructural strategies, and existing management plans will be used where
feasible. The involvement and support of affected stakeholders in this phase will be
especially critical.
• Phase 5: Implementation of a Basin Management Action Plan. Implementation of
the activities specified in the B-MAP will begin. This includes carrying out rule
development as needed, securing funding, informing stakeholders and the public, and
monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the plan.
To implement the watershed cycle, the state’s river basins have been divided into
five groups within each of the Department’s six districts statewide, and each district will
assess one basin each year. Table A.1 shows the basin groups for implementing the
cycle in the Department’s districts, and Figure A.1 shows these groups and the rotating
cycle in the districts. Table A.2, which lists the basin rotation schedule for TMDL
development and implementation, shows that it will take nine years to complete one full
cycle of the state.
The watershed management cycle is an iterative, or repeated, process. One of its key
components is that the effectiveness of management activities (TMDL implementation)