WFNF approved as part of NFRWSP –SRWMD 2025-11-12

Here is what the SRWMD Board approved on November 12, 2025, regarding Water First North Florida (WFNF).

Please note three things.

Although I’ve heard some people say the SRWMD Board only approved studies of the feasibilty of the plan, not WFNF itself, nothing in the agenda or the memorandum says that. Nothing in the minutes, either.
These SRWMD materials are similar to those for the SJRWMD Board meeting of the same day, but they do not include an Order approving any of this, they say nothing about hiring a consultant, and they do not include the related RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for the consultant.
Neither WFNF nor its long name appears in the SRWMD agenda item nor the staff memorandum on what the board was to approve. In the agenda, this item is:
“WR Page 1 26. 2025 Implementation Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs”
Water First North Florida first appears in the Table of Contents of the “2025 Implementation Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs” for its page 12.

WFNF approved as part of NFRWSP by SRWMD, November 12, 2025

On page 69 of the SRWMD board packet for November 12, 2026:

SUWANNEE RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
MEMORANDUM
TO: Governing Board
FROM: Amy Brown, Deputy Executive Director, Water Resources
THRU: Hugh Thomas, Executive Director
DATE: October 30, 2025
RE: 2025 Implementation Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs
RECOMMENDATION
District staff recommend the following Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers related actions:

Approve the 2025 Implementation Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs (LSFIR) Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) (hereafter the 2025 Implementation Strategy); and
Approve an Addendum to the 2014 Recovery Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs Minimum Flows and Levels (hereafter the 2014 Recovery Strategy) to include the water supply development, water resource development, and water conservation projects identified in the 2025 Implementation Strategy; and
Approve an Addendum to the 2023 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (hereafter the First Addendum to the 2023 NFRWSP), to include the water supply development, water resource development, and water conservation projects identified in the 2025 Implementation Strategy.

BACKGROUND
In 2014, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a Notice of Proposed Rule to establish minimum flows (MFLs) for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and associated priority springs (collectively the LSFIR MFLs). DEP proposed the LSFIR MFLs because impacts to those MFLs were expected to occur from more than one water management district. Since some of the MFLs were not being met, DEP developed a recovery strategy under section 373.0421, Florida Statutes (F.S.). The strategy for recovering and maintaining the LSFIR MFLs included two components: a project component and a regulatory component. DEP proposed a rule for the regulatory component of the LSFIR recovery strategy. Subsequently, the Suwannee River Water Management District (District) and the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) approved the project component of the LSFIR recovery strategy (hereafter the 2014 Recovery Strategy). In 2015, DEP’s LSFIR MFLs and the regulatory component of the LSFIR recovery strategy became effective in Chapter 62-42, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.).

to include the water supply development, water resource development, and water conservation projects identified in the 2025 Implementation Strategy
PDF

In 2016, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 552 (SB 552), which defined and established additional requirements to protect “Outstanding Florida Springs” (OFS). Several of the springs comprising the LSFIR MFLs are OFS under SB 552. See section 373.802(5), F.S. As amended by SB 552, section 373.709(2)(k), F.S. requires that a regional water supply plan assess how projects identified in the plan support the recovery strategy for implementation of adopted MFLs (including MFLS for OFS), while ensuring that sufficient water will be available for all existing and future reasonable-beneficial uses and identified natural systems.

In 2017, the District and SJRWMD jointly approved the first North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) in Northeast Florida. The NFRWSP area includes 14 counties in the District and SJRWMD: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Suwannee, and Union. Under section 373.709, F.S., Districts must reevaluate their determinations concerning the need for a water supply plan at least every five years. Thus, in December 2023, an amended NFRWSP was approved at each District’s Governing Board meetings (the 2023 NFRWSP).

DISCUSSION
In July 2024, DEP published a Notice of Rule Development to begin rulemaking to amend the adopted LSFIR MFLs. Based on the best available information, two of the three recommended flows for compliance points on the rivers are not being achieved, which includes several OFS. As set forth in subsection 373.805(1), F.S., when an MEL for an OFS is adopted or amended, a prevention or recovery strategy must be adopted concurrently if the spring flows are below, or are projected to fall below, the applicable MFLs within a 20-year planning horizon. When that MFL prevention or recovery strategy is adopted, the District’s regional water supply plan must be concurrently amended to include the MFL strategy, pursuant to section 373.0421(2), F.S.
Since some of the LSFIR MFLS are in recovery, a recovery strategy must be adopted concurrently. To accomplish this, DEP will adopt the regulatory part of the MFL recovery strategy, and the District and SJRWMD will adopt the project component of the MFL recovery strategy (the 2025 Implementation Strategy). On November 13, 2025, DEP plans to publish a notice of proposed rule to complete the rulemaking to adopt amended LSFIR MFLs and a revised regulatory component of the recovery strategy.

Thus, staff recommend approval of the attached project component of the overall recovery strategy known as the 2025 Implementation Strategy. At the same time, staff recommend approval of the attached First Addendum to the 2023 NFRWSP to add the projects identified in the 2025 Implementation Strategy to the existing regional water supply plan for the area as required by statute, recognizing the District’s authority for water supply planning extends to water supply planning regions within its boundaries as established in section 373.069, F.S.

Since DEP’s MFL recovery strategy rules will have a regulatory impact exceeding one million dollars, those rules cannot become effective until after legislative ratification. In the interim, District staff also recommend approval of the attached Addendum to the 2014 Recovery Strategy to add the regional projects identified in the 2025 Implementation Strategy to the existing recovery strategy. In this way, critical project implementation work can continue. The Addendum to the 2014 Recovery Strategy would remain in place until the permanent rule amendments become effective. At that point, the 2025 Implementation Strategy would become effective.

ED/ak
Attachments

In July 2024, DEP published a Notice of Rule Development to begin rulemaking to amend the adopted LSFIR MFLs.
PDF

Here’s what the minutes say:

Agenda Item No. 26 – 2025 Implementation Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs. Dr. Brown presented this item to the Board.
The following attendees provided comments to the Board:

Jeremy Johnston, Clay County Utility Authority
Rick Hutton, Gainesville Regional Utility

MOTION WAS MADE BY THOMPSON, SECONDED BY KEITH TO APPROVE THE ITEM. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

The legislative ratification was SB 7034, passed unanimously by the Florida Senate Rules Committee on March 3, 2026, with some news coverage.

In the Senate Rules Committee meeting, Senator Jennifer Bradley, who represents the most directly affected area of the Suwannee River Basin, told SRWMD E.D. Hugh Thomas that SB 7034 did not ratify any specific project, and they (Senators, I suppose) would be watching to be sure it was beneficial.

Senator Jennifer Bradley, 2026-03-03 –jsq for WWALS

As near as I could tell, Senator Tracie Davis of Jacksonville had not heard of WFNF previously. She expressed some alarm. But during the discussion of the motion she said when she heard the environmentalists (presumably Suwannee Riverkeeper and Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, who were the only people to speak in opposition), she was ready to vote no. But she had talked to JEA, they had assured her the water would be clean, so she was going to vote yes, and she did. I’m guessing by talked to JEA she meant she texted somebody, since I never saw her leave the podium during the meeting.

SRWMD E.D. Hugh Thomas and Senator Tracie Davis of Jacksonville, 2026-03-03 –jsq for WWALS

SJRWMD E.D. Michael A. Register told the Rules Committee that they had considered many alternatives and had settled on WFNF. That appeared to contradict what Senator Bradley had said.

SJRWMD E.D. Michael A. Register, 2026-03-03 –jsq for WWALS

State Senator Corey Simon told me at the SRWMD Open House at UF IFAS on March 19 that he was not present at the Rules Committee due to taking care of his elderly mother, but he says he voted against SB 7034 on the Senate floor.

Interestingly, according to the Florida Senate’s web page on SB 7034,
“Last Action: 3/13/2026 Senate – Died on Calendar”

That appears to mean that SB 7034 did not actually get passed into law.

If that is true, how are SRWMD and SJRWMD still proceeding with this project? Maybe they can keep trundling until the bill’s intended effective date of July 1, 2026? What then?

I will make some inquiries.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/