Water bodies, watersheds and storm water
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Middle St. Johns
River Basin
Life in central Florida has centered around its many waterways for hundreds of years. When Native Americans lived along the shores of the St. Johns River, it provided them with food and transportation. As European settlers moved to the wilds of Florida, the area’s waterways served as a route for commerce, with paddlewheel boats bringing tourists to the center of the state and carrying away citrus and other agricultural products grown on the rich floodplain along the shores of the St. Johns River.
Even today, central Florida is known for its lakes, creeks, streams and rivers. Here, many find the natural beauty that leads them to adventure hiking in the centuries old woods, viewing the many birds and animals that live here, or paddling a canoe along a lazy waterway.
The region is also known as the vacation destination of millions of visitors each year, for its rich agricultural fields and for a large population and widespread development that comes with being a center of commerce.
The Middle St. Johns River Basin in central Florida encompasses the watersheds of five major sources to the St. Johns River: the Wekiva and Econlockhatchee rivers, Howell Creek through Lake Jesup, Deep Creek through Lake Harney and various flows of water into Lake Monroe. The basin extends more than 1,200 square miles from the Econlockhatchee River in Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties northward into Lake and Volusia counties. Each of the watersheds are unique and have characteristics that require variable and adaptive approaches when addressing water resource issues.
Challenges
Among the region’s challenges is how to restore degraded lakes and streams and to help people understand that their everyday activities have a cause-and-effect relationship on the St. Johns River and the other area waterways.
The shoreline of the St. Johns River near Lake Monroe Conservation Area.
Like other areas of Florida, waterways in central Florida have been degraded by stormwater runoff, discharges from agricultural and dairy areas and by wastewater treatment plants. Excess pollutants and sediments in stormwater runoff and other discharges can fuel the growth of algae, which can cover the surface of the water to a degree that restricts the amount of sunlight reaching underwater plants. This condition can kill the plants needed by fish and other aquatic animals for food and habitat. In some water bodies, the natural flow of water has been altered for roads, flood control, aesthetics, erosion control and water level maintenance. These alterations limit the ability of the waterways to naturally cleanse themselves, which further aggravates the degraded water conditions. In addition, the highly urbanized Middle St. Johns River Basin has limited land available for restoration, and high land costs limit restoration options and increase the cost of restoration.
Waterways within the middle basin were listed as impaired and did not meet the state of Florida water quality standards on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) 2009 verified list of impaired water bodies, including Lake Jesup, the Wekiva River and a segment of the St. Johns River that also includes lakes Harney and Monroe.
Finding solutions
Palm trees hug the shore of the St. Johns River.
Work to preserve those areas of the middle basin still in good condition and to restore those areas that have degraded over the years are efforts led by the St. Johns River Water Management District and the District is involved in many water resource protection and restoration projects in the region. The District’s work includes monitoring, modeling, diagnostics and alternatives analysis.
In 2000, the District’s Governing Board proposed the middle basin as a Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program to coordinate individual project areas into a regional framework. Due to the highly urbanized nature of the basin and the area of the development, an initiative of the SWIM plan is to partner with local governments to implement stormwater retrofit systems. The plan also includes the development of pollutant load reduction goals (PLRGs) that will provide an estimate of reduction in pollutant loading needed to preserve or restore designated uses of the waterway.
The District’s partners in these efforts include DEP, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Lake, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties; the cities of Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, DeBary, Deltona, Eatonville, Edgewood, Lake Helen, Lake Mary, Longwood, Maitland, Orlando, Oviedo, Sanford, Winter Park and Winter Springs; the Florida Audubon Society; Orange Audubon; Friends of the Wekiva; Friends of Lake Jesup; and The Nature Conservancy.
Accomplishments
The accomplishments of the District and its partners include:
Egrets take flight.
- Developing a Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) plan for the basin
- Expanding water quality modeling, diagnostics and compliance
- Developing total maximum daily loads and pollutant load reduction goals to address water quality impairments
- Prioritizing stormwater retrofit programs for older developments
- Targeting areas with the highest nutrient loads
- Seeking funding to implement or assisting local governments to implement stormwater master plans
- Successfully implementing erosion control projects and various water quality improvements throughout the basin
- Developing plans for subbasins that address the specific needs of the watershed
- Investigating land development rule changes to improve watershed protection
- Addressing flooding
- Buying environmentally sensitive land for preservation
Contact information
For more information about the Middle St. Johns River Basin, contact Mary Brabham, basin program manager, at (407) 659-4829 or mbrabham@sjrwmd.com.
Updated on 5-14-2010
