Selections from the Past: Memorandum: History of Water Management District Boundaries

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1983 SECOND ANNUAL WATER
MANAGEMENT SEMINAR

MEMORANDUM

December 1, 1981

Re: History of Water Management District Boundaries


Chapter 25214, Laws of Florida, Act of 1949, created Central
and Southern Florida Flood Control District and defined the
boundaries. This Act took effect on June 2, 1949.

Chapter 25270, Laws of Florida, Act of 1949, also passed by
the same legislature which re-described the boundaries of
Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District. This
latter Act took effect on June 10, 1949.

Chapter 61-691 created Southwest Florida Water Management
District and defined its boundaries. The Act took effect on
July 1, 1961.

The Water Resources Act of 1972 was passed in the form of
Chapter 72-299 and provided that the state should be divided
into five water management districts, leaving to the Department
of Natural Resources the responsibility for prescribing the
boundaries and reporting its recommendation to the 1973 regular
session of the legislature.

Chapter 73-190, Laws of Florida, took effect July 1, 1973 and
actually created six water management districts including the
then existing Southwest Florida Water Management District and
the then existing Central and Southern Florida Flood Control
District. The Ridge and Lower Gulf Coast Water Management
District was comprised of four basins. These basins consisted
of areas in the southern portion of the state which were not
within the boundaries of either Southwest Florida Water Management
District or Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District.
They included the Manasota Basin (Manatee and Sarasota Counties);
the Ridge Basin consisting of an irregular shaped tract of land
extending north and south through central Polk County and into
northwestern Highlands County; the Big Cypress Basin including
southeastern Charlotte County, the west and southern portions of
Levy County and all of Collier County; and the .Keys Basin consisting
of all of Monroe and the southwestern portion of Dade County.

Chapter 373-190 also provided that on July 1, 1975 the name of
Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District shall be changed
to South Florida Water Management District.

Chapter 75-125 provided that the main change would not take effect
until December 31, 1976.

Chapter 76-243, Laws of Florida, changed the boundaries of each of
the water management districts effective December 31, 1976. This
eliminated the Ridge and Lower Gulf Coast District and transferred





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History of Water Management District Boundaries
December 1, 1981
Page Two


areas from the Manasota Basin and the Ridge Basin to Southwest
Florida Water Management District.

Chapter 78-65, Laws of Florida, changed the boundaries between
Southwest Florida Water Management District and South Florida
Water Management District so that additional portions of the
Ridge area were changed from the South Florida Water Management
District to Southwest Florida Water Management District. This
Act took effect on July 1, 1978.

























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