PALATKA, Fla., Dec. 3, 2009 - The St. Johns River Water Management District's Governing Board at 1 p.m. on Dec. 7 will hold the second of two public workshops to discuss concepts to improve water conservation through potential changes in agency rules.
The workshop will be held in the Governing Board Room at the District's headquarters, 4049 Reid St., Palatka.
The purpose of the workshop is to allow the Board to continue discussing proposed concepts to enhance water conservation, and to hear views of water suppliers, local governments and members of the public. Workshop discussions are focusing on conservation relating specifically to public water supply, which is the water use category with the most significant projected growth.
Concepts to be discussed at the Dec. 7 workshop include:
Modifying consumptive use permitting (CUP) requirements related to informative billing Requiring stormwater management systems to be designed to maximize the use of stormwater for irrigationRevising CUP rules to require implementation of additional water conservation measures for high water usersRequiring utilities to provide specific water use data needed to calculate per capita demandRevising the District's regulatory approach with water utilities to require quantifiable and targeted water conservation actions In addition to the above concepts, public comment will be accepted on the following concepts that were discussed at the Nov. 9 workshop:Requiring local governments to adopt water conservation ordinances that implement the District's landscape irrigation restrictionsRevising District rules to include landscape irrigation system design constraints, such as setting a maximum on the amount of landscape that may be irrigated using an in-ground irrigation systemAmending District environmental resource permit (ERP) rules to include water conservation as a condition for permit issuance, such as requiring Florida-friendly landscaping plans for any ERP applications filed with the District for developments needing landscape irrigationEnhancing requirements for water conservation rate structuresRequiring concurrent submittal and review of ERP and consumptive use permit (CUP) applications for projects that contain, and propose to irrigate, landscape, golf course or recreation areasFor more details about the workshops and the concepts being discussed, visit floridaswater.com/meetingagendas.html and click on the workshop link.