MANASOTA & PEACE RIVER BBDs Meeting Notebook 10-21-09.docx

W547
Water Quality in the Peace and Myakka Basins, Charlotte Harbor,
and Lemon Bay
Project Type SWIM
AOR(s)
Water Quality
Basin(s) Peace River, Manasota
Cooperator(s)
Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center
Project Manager SZAFRANIEC, MARY
Task Manager(s)
Status Ongoing
KAUFMAN, KRIS
Description
This ongoing project is in response to a funding request from Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center (CHEC) for
on-line publication of water quality maps and graphs. Water quality data from various sources collected within the
Peace River Basin, Myakka River Basin, Charlotte Harbor, and Lemon Bay are included in the maps. The project
involves mapping and graphing of of District Peace and Myakka River basin water quality data on the CHEC website.
In FY2005, the project expanded its coverage to include Sarasota County's Northern Lemon Bay water quality
sampling effort, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) volunteer water quality project, and FDEP
Lemon Bay monitoring network. An FY2009 cooperative funding request was received for continuation of the display of
the project's sixth year of multi-agency monitoring. Benchmark Labs will be responsible for the data management
tasks as part of this project.
Benefits
Information provided through this project will offer technical support for environmental management activities
conducted by the District's SWIM Program, FDEP, the Peace River/ Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, the
Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, and other local and regional organizations. Publication of the data in the
STORET databases and website provides an historical record of the changes in water quality within each system.
Costs
The FY2009 budget is $66,000, with the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center and the District each contributing half
($33,000). The District share is split between State SWIM ($33,000), the Peace River Basin ($16,500), and the
Manatsota Basin ($4,125). The cost to each basin board is determined by its watershed's (Peace River and Myakka
River watersheds) relative influence on water quality in Charlotte Harbor. District funds shown in the table include staff
salaries. The District and CHEC agreed to reduce the scope of work to only cover the CHEC website display of water
quality mapping and graphing for a total cost of $28,000, with the District and CHEC each contributing half ($14,000).
$10,000 of the remaining funds will be used for the data management under a separate purchase order with
Benchmark Labs. The Basin Boards approved the transfer of remaining funds for CHEC's fourth grade education
project.
Additional Information
Since 2003, the CHEC has been presenting the results of these efforts on its web site www.checflorida.org/chec/water
quality, allowing the public and scientists to view the results in terms of both status and trends in water quality. The
cooperative project is executed through purchase orders and associated scopes of work. The SWIM Plan for
Charlotte Harbor focuses on management strategies for the Peace and Myakka Rivers, in addition to Charlotte Harbor
proper, to reduce point and non-point source pollution and to preserve and restore habitat. The objectives of this
project are consistent with these strategies.
020 - Peace River Basin 53