PALATKA, Fla., Feb. 22, 2010 -- The St. Johns River Water Management District's Governing Board will hold a workshop on March 8 to discuss concepts to improve public supply water conservation by making changes to agency rules.
This meeting is the third Board workshop on proposed changes to District consumptive use permitting and environmental resource permitting rules to enhance water conservation. At the March 8 workshop, discussion will continue on the nine water conservation concepts previously proposed by District staff. Staff will provide an update and propose a schedule for the rulemaking process.
The workshop will be held at 2 p.m. in the Governing Board Room at the District's headquarters, 4049 Reid St., Palatka. The Board will welcome comment about the water conservation concepts from water suppliers, local governments and members of the public. Public comment will also be part of the upcoming formal rule development process.
The nine potential concepts are:
Modifying consumptive use permit (CUP) requirements related to informative billing Requiring stormwater management systems to be designed to maximize the use of storm water for irrigation Revising CUP rules moving from the current "best management practices (BMPs)" to a combination of core BMPs and a goal-based water conservation program, with utilities selecting targeted measures needed to meet water efficiency goals Requiring utilities to provide specific water use data needed to calculate per capita demand Requiring local governments to adopt water conservation ordinances that fully implement the District's landscape irrigation restrictions Revising 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 system Amending 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 irrigation Enhancing requirements for water conservation rate structures Requiring concurrent submittal and review of ERP and CUP applications for projects that contain, and propose to irrigate, landscape, golf course or recreation areas Visit floridaswater.com/waterconservation for more details about the workshop and the concepts being discussed.