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SEP-22-1995 16:28
CHARLES B. LI-rLEJOHN & ASSOCIATES
ENVIRONMENTAL AND GOVERNMENTAL
AFFAIRS
To:
Fax #:
Re:
Date:
Pages:
V-0L FA(SIMIIE
(including cover sheet).
4 (including cover sheet).
COMMENTS:
Charles B. Littlejohn & Associates
3 10 W. College Avenue
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
Tel: (904) 222-7535
Fax: (904) 681-8796
P.01
OQj-
alPe
SEP-22-1995 16:28
CHARLES B. LITTLEJOHN & ASSOCIATES
ENVIRONMENTAL AND GOVERNMENTAL
AFFAIRS
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
DATE:
Florida Water Plan Team
Chuck Littlejo
Florida Water Plan
September 22, 1995
Based upon the sentiment expressed during our discussions of the Florida Water Plan, I
recommend a broad response on our part rather than a line-by-line critique of the Plan. Please
look over the attached letter prepraed for submission to DEP prior to the October 2 workshop in
Tallahassee and give me your comments by no later than September 28.
Thanks.
CBL/l
Attachment
cc: Tim McVickers
Jim Garner
Jake Vain
310 Wsrr COLLEGE AVENUE TAI.AnASSEG, FLORIDA 32301 (904) 222-7535
P.02
SEP-22-1995 16:28 P.0
P.03
DRAFT
September 22, 1995
Virginia Wetherell
Secretary
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, FL 32304
Dear Secretary Wetherell:
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the Department of Environmental
Protection's proposed Florida Water Plan. The strong consensus position of Florida's business
community is that the document as drafted adequately addresses the protection of Florida's water
resources but fails to satisfactorily deal with the question of how to provide the water supply and
flood control services needed to accommodate Florida's projected population and economic
growth.
It has become apparent during the deliberations of the Water Management District Review
Commission that Florida currently lacks the institutional framework to cope with its water
resource development needs. The Water Management Districts are not now what they were
envisioned to be when they were created. This is not necessarily bad, but it does warrant
consideration of some basic changes.
Water supply and flood protection, along with the regulation of surface water and water use,
should be the essential mission of WMDs. Environmental protection and restoration and land
acquisition and management, while very popular and important elements of their present duties,
have served more as a distraction than an enhancement of their original mission. This has come at
a time when the importance of fulfilling their core mission has never been greater.
To take one example, the P2000 program has led to phenomenal growth in the state's, and
WMDs, land inventory. This has been a popular and effective approach for environmental
preservation. However, two obvious shortcomings are that Florida is accumulating a huge and
varied inventory of public land with no consistent approach of how to pay for the resource
management that will always be necessary, and that the program as implemented by the WMDs
has not led to solutions to water supply problems and in some cases has even added to the
SEP-22-1995 16:29
growing unmet demand for regional water supply solutions.
The concern over our state's future water supply has surfaced in every major urban and
agricultural setting in our state. What is apparent is that their is no concerted effort underway to
seek, and implement, appropriate regional solutions. The current institutional structure has not
allowed this goal to be pursued by an entity with the resources and mission necessary to pull it
off.
These and other important water management issues are now before the Water Management
District Review Commission, the House Select Committee on Water Policy, and the Senate
Natural Resources Committee. We respectfully suggest that further consideration of the Florida
Water Plan and related water policy issues be deferred until the Florida Legislature has acted upon
the report of the Commission and legislative proposals of the appropriate House and Senate
committees.
Sincerely,
TOTAL P.04
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