This is about a month out, but the Southwest Florida Water Management District plans a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at its Tampa office at 7601 U.S. 301 to roll out the latest plans for minimum flows and levels for rivers and lakes in this part of the state.
The meeting is scheduled to last only an hour, so it seems this won’t be the place for an expanded discussion, but simply a meeting to satisfy the legal requirements for having such a meeting.
Also, the details of any changes from the current schedule of reviews, which stretches a few years into the future, will not be posted until the day before or the day of the meeting. You get the idea.
One issue that’s coming that may be new is planned rule-making that pertains to how much water can be sustainably withdrawn from the Peace River for public supply.
That was part of the settlement in the threatened litigation between upstream interests in Polk and Hardee counties and the Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority , which is based in Charlotte County but draws water from the river to serve customers in adjacent counties downstream.
Meanwhile, the current list of priority planned new reviews or re-evaluations that affect the area where Ancient Islands Group members live are:
2020: Water reservations for the Upper Peace River and Lake Hancock.
2023: Charlie Creek in Polk and Hardee counties and Horse Creek in Hardee and DeSoto counties.
2024: Upper Withlacoochee River in Polk, Sumter, Lake, Pasco and Hernando counties.
2025: Three segments of the Upper Peace River in Hardee and Polk counties stretching from the USGS gauge at Zolfo Springs to north of the USGS gauge at State Road 60 in Bartow.
2025: Prairie Creek in DeSoto and Charlotte counties.
2027: The North and South prongs of the Alafia River in Polk and Hillsborough counties.
Details or the schedule and the current studies completed within the past couple of decades are available at https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/documents-and-reports .