On January 14, 1999, the South Florida Water Management District (District) received approval from its Governing Board to begin comprehensive revisions to its Water Use rules. The District will be revising eight Chapters bearing upon water use issues as well as its Basis of Review (BOR) for Water Use permits. In total, 24 distinct water use topics will be addressed with corresponding changes to the rules and the BOR.

     For the past year, the District has been informally meeting with various members of the regulated community through the Regulatory Information Gathering Group (RIGG). The RIGG discussions centered on the potential revisions to the Water Use rules and the impacts these revisions would have on various users. The RIGG consists of representatives from utility, agricultural, environmental interests and other government agencies.

     As a result of these past RIGG meetings, the District has generated draft white papers on all 24 topics which summarize the areas that require amending, the District’s recommendations for revision and the various technical and/or legal issues which will require more public discussion through the workshop forum.

     The last time the District’s rules were substantially revised was 1993 when the water conservation rules were updated. Since this time, numerous changes in legislation, District policy and the development of the regional water supply planning process has created the need to reexamine and update the District’s rules to incorporate and reflect the current state of Florida water law and policy. For example, the Legislature in 1998 adopted the local sources first law which requires the water management districts in Florida to promulgate rules implementing this policy into their consumptive use permitting criteria.

     The proposed rule revisions will require evaluation and coordination with the ongoing water supply planning process and will allow the public to view and comment on the impacts of the proposed rules and the plans together. In addition, the rule revisions will be an implementation tool for the water supply plan recommendations and conclusions regarding the water supply for South Florida.

     Among the more complex of the specific policy and substantive issues to be decided in the course of this rule revision effort are the following: establishing minimum flows and levels, competition, reservation of water, existing legal user rights, defining the resource protection criteria, basin expiration dates and the growing issue of aquifer storage and recovery.

     The first rule development workshops on all 24 rules will be held at the end of February. If anyone has any questions regarding the District’s rule revision effort or would like to request a copy of a particular white paper, please contact Luna Ergas, Esquire, Office of Counsel, SFWMD at 561-682-6753.