NORTHWEST NEWS

NORTHWEST FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT

April 2013 VOL. 5, NO. 3

District Celebrates Environmental Events in April

As part of its ongoing commitment to ensure a clean and reliable supply of water for both the residents and natural resources of Florida, the District joined the state, local governments, and Floridas other water management districts to celebrate Water Conservation Month and Earth Day in April. A proclamation issued by Florida Governor Rick Scott recognizes April as Water Conservation Month and encourages water users statewide to help protect and conserve Floridas water resources. Throughout the month, District staff participated in community events across the panhandle to provide residents with information on ways individuals can help conserve water and protect water resources. Along with providing educational materials about water conservation and protection activities, the Districts exhibits also featured the Enviroscape tabletop model. This interactive model helps children understand how their daily activities can affect water quantity and quality in a watershed. By making small changes in their daily activities at home and in their yards, Floridians can help save hundreds of gallons of water each year.

Children learn about watersheds and pollution using an interactive model. District staff participated in several outreach events in April, including Earth Day at the Florida Capitol which attracted more than 1,000 students.

Water Conservation Tips

Indoors

Outdoors

Take shorter showers and shallower baths. Turn down the water volume while waiting for hot water, or even better, capture that water and use it to water plants. Compost kitchen scraps to avoid having to run water down your garbage disposal. Wait to run your washing machine and dishwasher until you have a full load. Check your plumbing for leaks and install low-flow faucets and toilets. Not only will you save money, but your utility bill will go down, as well. Insulate your water pipes youll get hot water faster, plus avoid wasting water while it heats up.

Plant Florida-friendly species, which adapt to Floridas climate and require less water and fertilizer. Water wisely by watering plants during low evaporation hours (5 p.m. to 10 a.m.) and using timers to make sure sprinklers turn off. Also, check sprinklers regularly for leaks and alignment, so you water your lawn and not the sidewalk. Catch and store rainwater in a barrel to be used for irrigation during dry spells. Mulch flower beds to help retain moisture. Sweep walks and driveways instead of hosing them down.

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Protecting and managing water resources sustainably ...

NORTHWEST NEWS

District Continues to Improve Service with Online Forestry Authorizations

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve customer service and efficiency, the District is pleased offer a new online authorization process for minor forestry works. but it also clearly denotes required information to ensure our staff receives the project information we need.

The authorization system Through its Bureau of Surface Water features a mapping tool, which Regulation, the District regulates allows users to use an aerial the construction or installation of map to find the actual location forestry-related projects that affect for their proposed activity. Once water resources of wetlands, the user pins the location, the including access roads, stream system automatically fills in the crossings, bridges, ditches and appropriate GPS coordinates. culverts. Users can learn more about We encourage forestry users to take advantage of our new online authorization system, said Lance Laird, Chief of the Districts Surface Water Bureau. The system not only allows users to submit their projects to the District in a timely manner, The District will host a series of public workshops on rule development as part of the statewide consumptive use permitting consistency (CUPCon) effort. CUPCon is a collaborative effort between Floridas five water management districts and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to improve consistency and reduce confusion in the agricultural and forestry regulations and access the online authorization process on the Districts website at http://www.nwfwmd.state.fl.us/ permits/permits-agforest.html.
The Districts new online forestry authorization system features a mapping tool to help users easily pinpoint their location and auto-populate the form information.

District To Host Rulemaking Workshops

consumptive use/water use programs As part of this commitment, the implemented by the districts. Districts May 16 workshop will focus on providing an overview of how the This will be the second round of workshops related to the rulemaking proposed changes will affect the agricultural community in Northwest efforts. The District remains Florida. committed to working with permittees, including well owners and agricultural users, to make the transition to the new rules as easy as possible. Draft rule language will be available on the Districts website prior to the workshops. For more information on statewide CUPCon efforts, please visit http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/ waterpolicy/cupcon.htm. Thursday, May 16 5:30 p.m., CT Jackson County Agriculture Conference Center 2741 Pennsylvania Avenue Marianna, FL 32448

Consumptive Use Rulemaking Workshops

Tuesday, May 14 1 p.m., ET NWFWMD Headquarters Governing Board Room 81 Water Management Drive Havana, FL 32333 (Off Highway 90 West, near Midway) Wednesday, May 15 1:30 p.m., CT Escambia County Board of County Commission Chambers, Room 100 221 Palafox Place Pensacola, FL 32502

Northwest Florida Water Management District 81 Water Management Drive, Havana, FL 32333 Phone: (850) 539-5999 Public.Information@nwfwmd.state.fl.us www.nwfwmd.state.fl.us