FSAWWA Speaking Out—Emilie Moore

Chair, FSAWWA

With approximately 90 percent of Floridians relying on aquifers as a source of drinking water (USGS, 2020), protecting Florida’s groundwater resources is vital. Since its establishment in 1999, National Groundwater Awareness Week annually highlights responsible development, management, and use of groundwater.

Sponsored by the National Groundwater Association, the week also encourages yearly water testing and well maintenance. Moreover, it calls attention to promoting policies impacting groundwater quality and supply and highlights the importance of groundwater to people’s health and the environment.

This year, the 22nd National Groundwater Awareness Week will be held March 6-12. Per the National Groundwater Association, more than 44 percent of the population in the United States depends on groundwater as a primary water source.

Similar to our potable water industry, groundwater professionals are in demand, with more than 135,000 open positions in the U.S., per the American Geosciences Institute. Groundwater professionals include well contractors, hydrogeologists, groundwater policy advocates, and suppliers and manufacturers of groundwater technology.

Florida law requires the state’s water management districts (WMDs) or the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to establish minimum flows and levels (MFLs) for surface waters and aquifers in order to identify the limit at which further withdrawals would be significantly harmful to the water resources or ecology of the area. Minimum flows are established to protect springs, streams, rivers, and estuaries; minimum levels are developed to protect aquifers, lakes, and wetlands.

The MFLs are one of numerous tools use by the WMDs to review requests for water withdrawals and can be used to plan for current and future water needs. A recovery strategy is developed if an MFL is currently not met, and a prevention strategy is developed if an MFL will not be met in the next 20 years. The MFLs are defined in Section 373.042, Florida Statutes, and in Rule 62-40.473, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.).

Per Chapter 62 of the F.A.C., 62-520.300, Section (2)(a), Florida’s groundwater quality standards “are designed to protect public health or welfare and to enhance the quality of waters of the state.” Furthermore, the standards “have been established taking into consideration the use and value of waters of the state for public water supply, agricultural, industrial, and other purposes.”

The 2022 session of the Florida Legislature began on Jan. 11, 2022, and several House Bills (HB) and Senate Bills (SB) have been filed that are focused on Florida’s groundwater quality, including: S HB 1019/SB 1238, Saltwater Intrusion

Vulnerability Assessments, which would require coastal counties to conduct vulnerability assessments analyzing the effects of saltwater intrusion on water supplies and preparedness to respond to threats. It would also provide cost-share funding to coastal counties. S HB 1475, Cleanup of Per- and

Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), and a similar bill, SB 1418, Soil and

Groundwater Contamination, which would require the FDEP to adopt statewide cleanup target levels for these substances in soil and groundwater by a specified date. The SB 1418 would require the Office of Program Policy Analysis and

Government Accountability to conduct an analysis of certain assessment and cleanup