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establish Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) rules for these water bodies and
implement these MFLs through water shortage plans and/or the water use
permitting process. Specifically, Biscayne Bay has been identified as a priority
water body in which MFLs are to be developed by the South Florida Water
Management District (SFWMD or the District) by December, 2004.
The rules pursuant to which Minimum Flows and Levels are adopted are
contained in Chapter 40E-8, Florida Administrative Code. This chapter includes
definitions of several terms which identify the purpose of MFLs and which are
the basis for developing MFL rules for any specific water body. These include:
Minimum Flows for Biscayne Bay are the limit “at which further freshwater
withdrawals would be significantly harmful to the water resources or the
ecology of the area”.
Significant harm is defined as “the temporary loss of water resource function,
which results from a change in surface or ground water hydrology, that
takes more than two years to recover, but which is considered less severe
than serious harm”.
Serious harm means “the long term loss of water resource functions, as
defined in Chapters 40E-21 and 40E-22 F.A.C., resulting from a change in
surface or ground water hydrology”.
Chapter 40E-8.011 identifies that minimum flows “are established to identify
where further withdrawals would cause significant harm to the water resources,
or to the ecology of the area, and that MFLs are to be established based on
existing best available data.” In general, it is not the goal of MFLs to address
recovery strategies for ecosystems which may be experiencing harm at the time
of adoption of an MFL rule. However, in Biscayne Bay, which is a part of the
greater Everglades Ecosystem, there is an acknowledgment that portions of the
Bay are in a degraded state, and that the MFL project for Biscayne Bay will need
to interact with other past, existing and ongoing projects that are intended to
facilitate ecosystem recovery, including:
Introduction
Freshwater Flow and Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay 1-2
· Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP);
· RECOVER;
· Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands Project;
· Surface Water Improvement & Management Plan (SWIM)
· Lower East Coast Regional Water Supply Plan
The objectives of these projects are to restore degraded conditions; whereas the
MFL project is designed to prevent significant harm. Adopted MFLs will be
revisited periodically.
As one component of the effort to develop an MFL rule for Biscayne Bay, the
SFWMD issued a work order to undertake a study entitled, Freshwater Flow and
Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay. SFWMD entered into an agreement
(Contract No. C-15967-WO04-06) with the consultant team of Barnes, Ferland
and Associates, Applied Technology Management, Inc. and Lewis
Environmental Services, Inc. to conduct a variety of activities, which will assist
the District in developing the MFL rule for Biscayne Bay.
PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The overall objectives of this project are to assist District staff in identifying
significant harm and with developing the technical criteria for the Biscayne Bay
MFLs, by:
1) Performing an intensive review and documentation of existing literature
and information to determine the technical relationships among
freshwater flow, salinity and watershed/estuary hydrodynamics that
impact key indicator biological communities or species present
throughout Biscayne Bay;
2) Identifying various technical approaches that have been used (or are being
used) to develop MFL rules for other estuaries in Florida; and
recommending the approach(es) that are most appropriate for Biscayne
Bay; and
3) Identifying the criteria and/or conditions, which will signal significant
harm.
Results of this study may be applied to meet the goal of protecting natural
resources from significant harm, together with consideration of comments and
suggestions that are expected to be offered by various stakeholders during the
future public input component of the MFL rule development process.
Introduction
Freshwater Flow and Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay 1-3
The work conducted by the project team involves the following five tasks:
1) Developing a Project Work Plan
2) Conducting a Literature Search and Data Review
3) Contacting and Interviewing Experts
4) Evaluating Alternative Approaches for District MFL Development
5) Addressing/summarizing Information and Information Needs
Tasks 1-4 have been completed and the resulting deliverables for each task have
been transmitted to the District for review and comment. Questions raised by
the District have been addressed, and the Appendices to this report contain the
final deliverables for each Task. This document, the Task 5 report, which builds
on the results of the previous tasks, also includes summaries of pertinent
portions of the previously completed tasks.
RELATIONSHIPS OF SALINITY, ECOSYSTEMS AND POTENTIAL HARM
An estuary is a dynamic ecoregion where saltwater from the ocean meets
freshwater from the watershed. Biscayne Bay supports a wide variety of
estuarine plants and animals, some of which are important for recreational
and/or commercial fisheries. Several rare, threatened and endangered species
also inhabit this estuarine ecosystem, including manatees and crocodiles.
Marine and estuarine communities are affected by event related salinity changes
and long term salinity shifts. Salinity affects these communities by being too
high or too low or too variable. Biscayne Bay is a fragile ecosystem that relies on
a balance of freshwater delivered in the proper amounts, with the proper timing,
in the proper location. Currently, water is primarily conveyed into the Bay as
point source discharge through canals and through groundwater inflows. The
timing, volume and method of delivery of canal discharges can cause acute and
long term chronic biologic effects (HARM), which are related to timing, volume
and method of delivery.
Biological communities are affected by flows in terms of habitat, community
structure and distribution, productivity, fecundity, and energy cycling through
food webs. Damage to biological communities in the bay from excess amounts of
freshwater occurs to varying extents in different portions of the Bay, but is
primarily restricted to the vicinity of inflow points. Observed patterns of
hypersalinity in Biscayne Bay suggest that parts of the system may be getting less