Middle St. Johns - Florida Department of Environmental Protection

246 Water Quality Assessment Report: Middle St. Johns
Aquatic Life Use Support-Based Attainment
Primary Contact and Recreation Attainment
Fish and Shellfish Consumption Attainment
Drinking Water Use Attainment and Protection of Human Health
Table E.1 summarizes the designated uses assigned to Florida’s various surface
water classifications.
Table E.1: Designated Use Attainment Categories for Surface Waters in Florida
Designated Use Attainment Category Used in
Impaired Surface Waters Rule Evaluation
Applicable Florida Surface Water Classification
Aquatic Life Use Support-Based Attainment
Class I, II, and III
Primary Contact and Recreation Attainment
Class I, II, and III
Fish and Shellfish Consumption Attainment
Class II
Drinking Water Use Attainment
Class I
Protection of Human Health
Class I, II, and III
Sources of Data
The Department’s assessment of water quality for each basin statewide includes an
analysis of quantitative data from a variety of sources, many of which are readily
available to the public. These sources include the EPA’s Legacy and modernized
STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) databases, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the
Department, the Florida Department of Health (DOH), the water management districts,
local governments, and volunteer monitoring groups.
Historically, the Department carried out statewide water quality assessments using
data available in the EPA’s Legacy STORET Database; STORET makes up
approximately 60 percent of the statewide data used in the 2002 Impaired Surface Waters
Rule assessment. The Legacy STORET dataset is a repository of data collected and
uploaded by numerous organizations through 1999. The Legacy STORET Database can
be accessed at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/storet/index.htm.
In 2000, the EPA created a modernized version of STORET that included new
features designed to address data quality assurance/quality control concerns (see the new
STORET Web site at www.epa.gov/storet/). However, because of software difficulties
associated with batch uploading of data to the modernized STORET, the data being
uploaded to the national repository decreased dramatically, and lingering problems have
temporarily reduced STORET’s importance as a statewide data source. It houses only
about 5 percent of the statewide Impaired Surface Waters Rule 2002 Database.
Approximately 35 percent of the data used in the 2002 Impaired Surface Waters Rule
assessment was provided by individual organizations that for various reasons, such as
time constraints or resource limitations, were not able to enter their data into the national
database. The organizations providing the largest datasets include the South Florida,
Southwest Florida, and St. Johns River water management districts; the USGS; and the
University of Florida LakeWatch volunteer monitoring group. Several of these databases