A Brief History of Florida Stormwater Regulation (Part 2)

As population grew, problems arose, and Florida said: regulation of stormwater quality and quantity is needed on broader scales.

Some of the earliest water management legislation began with the General Drainage Act of 1913 and the Pollution of Waters Act of 1913. Big year for regulations, as it goes. These early regulations grew out of the power to act for the general welfare set forth in the Florida Constitution. Nearly all stormwater regulations would grow from this simple idea: that a government has the authority to enact laws and regulations to benefit society as a whole, even if they limit individual rights to some degree.

Specifically, these two 1913 Acts put limitations in place that prioritized water as a shared resource that needed protecting. The General Drainage Act of 1913 allowed for the creation of drainage districts which could levy taxes against property owners to fund drainage improvement projects, which would aim to reduce flooding in a wide area. The Pollution of Waters Act of 1913 aimed to protect the quality of water resources and limited what pollutants could be discharged from a property.

These acts were clear improvements, but left many blindsides in the water resources landscape of Florida at the time. For example, nutrient reduction was non-existent still, which would continue to compound as a water quality issue over the coming decades. Some legislation required landowners to accommodate upstream discharges, even of diffused surface waters (i.e. stormwater), but had no issue with sending additional discharges downstream. Most developments still increased flood risk downstream by destroying wetlands and constructing canals and ditches to quickly push runoff away.

Many problems over the following decades continued to revolve around water rights and water use, such as for agricultural irrigation. However, additional problems were becoming more evident.

Around the 1930’s and 1940’s, saltwater intrusion was increasingly contaminating wells, especially during drought years. Fires occurred within areas that were previously drained. In 1947, the first reported algal bloom occurred in Lake Apopka. In 1949, the Legislature created the Central and Southern Florida (C&SF) Flood Control District, which oversaw extensive dredging, flood protection, and other multi-benefit water resources task in South Florida.

In 1955, the Governor of Florida put together the Florida Water Resources Study Commission. This marked a critical period where the start of a state-level regulatory approach for stormwater and water resources would occur.

“The need for continuity of attention, highly specialized knowledge in the water resources field, and speedy settlement of water rights controversies points towards the establishment of an operating agency with adequate funds and authority and the responsibility for an effective water management program for the benefit of all the people of the state.” -Report to the Governor of Florida and the 1957 Legislature by the Florida Water Resources Study Commission (Dec. 1956)

Resulting from the recommendations of this seven person commission, the State adopted the ideology that a “comprehensive water law be established in Florida.” This comprehensive law included the idea of water use permitting, or requiring a review by the state before a landowner could extract water from the ground or surface water. Additionally, state-level oversight and broad water resources reviews were recommended.

The Water Resources Act of 1957 fell short when it came to actual systemic changes, though. In essence, it was more about setting policy direction and improving coordination than creating new regulatory structures. Still, it marked another shift in Florida’s regulatory approach towards a state-level management system.

From our beginning to the 1970’s, we can see that Florida continuously increased the scale of its management of stormwater and water resources. Starting with inter-landowner conflicts and common-law rights, moving into small drainage districts to retroactively solve problems, and now into a state-level framework of permitting and oversight.

If we keep this trend going, will we eventually have an Earth-level stormwater management framework? Time will tell…

Next, we move into the third installment of A Brief History of Florida Stormwater Regulations – Part 3″ which will move into our current framework: Water Management Districts and Environmental Resource Permitting.