SWFWMD Plant City Freeze Management Plan

To minimize the potential harmful affects of pumping too much water during freeze events in the Plant City/Dover area SWFWMD has proposed new rules. Here is a list of the proposals for this area.

1. The management district will create a new water use caution area (WUCA) in the Dover/Plant City area. It will encompass a 256 sq. mile water use caution area from McIntosh east to the county line and bounded on the North at Knights Griffin and continue south to Keysville road. SWFWMD will put limitations on new ground water requests, and implement a strategy to minimize loss of the aquifer during a freeze event.

2. All new residential well consturction within the WUCA will need to be dug deeper and have a greater casing depth.

3. SWFWMD will communicate to residents before a freeze event using media, letters, and phone calls to alert residents to turn off their pumps.

4. SWFWMD will allocate dry well repairs in a more equitable fashion.

5. SWFWMD will expanding the FARMS Program and increasing incentives for alternative frost/freeze protection methods.

6. SWFWMD will increased groundwater monitoring through drilling new monitoring wells and putting meters on all existing wells in the area to record water use and temperatures during a freeze event.

Here is the SWFWMD website that has all the information and potential rules affecting the area.

http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/agriculture/freeze-management/

If you would like to comment to SWFWMD about these rule changes 9/24/10 is the deadline. Send emails to Pamela.gifford@watermatters.org