Water Supply Assessment & Plan

Water Supply Flyer Opens in new windowSection 373.036, Florida Statutes (F.S.) requires the District to conduct a Districtwide Water Supply Assessment (WSA) at least once every five years. Each WSA is required to provide the following information for each water supply planning region within the District for at least a 20-year planning period:

  • Existing legal uses, reasonably anticipated future needs, and existing and reasonably anticipated sources of water and conservation efforts
  • Whether existing and reasonably anticipated sources of water and conservation efforts are adequate to supply water for all existing legal uses and reasonably anticipated future needs to sustain the water resources and natural systems

Rule 62-40.520(2), Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), provides additional guidance for the statutory requirements to develop WSAs and directs the state of Florida’s (state) water management districts (WMDs) to conduct a Districtwide WSA at least once every five years. This rule provides that when a WMD determines in a WSA that sources of water are not adequate to supply water for all existing and future reasonable-beneficial uses, and to sustain the water resources and related natural systems for a particular area, a regional water supply plan (RWSP) shall be developed.

As part of the District’s work to ensure adequate and sustainable water supplies are available to meet both existing and future needs while protecting the environment, the District prepares water supply plans per the provisions of Chapter 373, Florida Statutes. The water supply planning process is an open and public process, and includes local governments, public supply utilities, self-suppliers, other stakeholders and the public. Water supply plans identify future water supply needs for a 20-year planning horizon, and programs and projects needed to ensure sustainable supplies. The District is divided into two water supply planning regions and works closely with other water management districts on water supply planning.  

In July 2018, the District’s Governing Board accepted the 2015-2035 Water Supply Assessment, which recommended the District be split into two water supply planning regions to increase efficiency for planning and project implementation.

Water_Supply_Planning_Website

North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership/Eastern Planning Region

The north Florida regional planning area covers 14 counties within the Districts Eastern Planning Region and Region 1 of the St. Johns River Water Management District. The first-ever regional water supply plan for those north Florida counties was adopted in 2017 and was developed through a highly collaborative process among the Suwannee River and St. Johns River water management districts and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), local governments, public supply utilities, environmental advocates, and other stakeholders.

The District is actively working, in coordination with the St. Johns District on the development of the 2020-2045 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan. For more information, please visit the North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership webpage.

Western Planning Region

The District’s Western Planning Region includes Dixie, Lafayette, Madison, Taylor and part of Jefferson and Levy counties. The District is currently working on the development of the first regional Water Supply Assessment and Plan for these counties and is in the stakeholder review process.

Technical Data & Reports

A Technical Methods workshop describing the approach to developing the population and water demand projections was held on December 8, 2021 at District Headquarters. Comments on the methods and the datasets were received through December 17, 2021. The District reviewed all submitted comments and incorporated updates to the methods and datasets, as necessary. The methodologies utilized to develop the population, water demand and water reuse projections, and the water conservation scenarios are described in the following document. 

The methods were utilized to develop the 2020-2045 population and water demand projections, water reuse estimates and projections, and water conservation scenarios which can be viewed in the documents below:

Additionally, the spatially distributed data can be downloaded here or directly reviewed at this location: https://srwmd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0ab6a8580ede4a8a87a94615eefd3b5d. 

Note: The geodatabase was updated June 22, 2022, to reflect revisions to Suwannee River Water Management District’s End-of-Permit agricultural estimates. 

Comments on the methods and geodatabase were received through July 8, 2022 and incorporated into the documents where appropriate. Work has commenced on the assessment of water resource constraints. 

As the planning process proceeds, this webpage will be updated with additional datasets, documents and notices for upcoming public meetings. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the District at: westernplan@srwmd.com. Submit your contact info including name, organization, phone number, and email and a staff member will respond back to you.

Upcoming Meetings

None at this time.