Water bodies, watersheds and storm water
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Northern Coastal Basin Home
Resources
- Northern Coastal Basin Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan, 2003
- Order these documents on
CD-ROM:- Northern Coastal Basin Bathymetric Survey – Technical Memorandum
No. 49 - Northern Coastal Basin Reconnaissance Report –
July 1998 - Northern Coastal Basin Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan, 2003
- Northern Coastal Basin Bathymetric Survey – Technical Memorandum
Northern Coastal Basin
The Northern Coastal Basin is located on the northern Atlantic coast of Florida. The NCB extends nearly 100 miles from lower Duval County, just south of the urban center of Jacksonville, Fla., south through the coastal watersheds of St. Johns, Flagler and Volusia counties to Ponce de Leon Inlet, near the city of New Smyrna Beach.
The St. Johns River Water Management District established the basin program in 1995 in response to concerns about the impacts of population growth and development on water quality in the basin. The basin covers all the watersheds that drain toward the Atlantic coast between the Spruce Creek watershed near Ponce Inlet in Volusia County and the Guana River watershed in northern St. Johns County.
Recognizing the problems
Negative impacts range from stormwater runoff to leaking septic systems to wakes from an increasing number of recreational boaters. Through District-sponsored workshops, local, regional, state and federal agencies have came together to address flood relief needs and to confront the perceived deterioration of coastal saltmarsh resources and water quality, particularly in shellfish harvesting areas. The need was underscored by several coastal algae bloom events and when the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) listed several water bodies in the basin as not having proper water quality to meet their designated uses.
A white ibis.
The NCB SWIM Plan
With assistance from local governments and agencies, the District developed a watershed-based Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan to enhance, restore and manage the water quality and wetland resources within the basin estuaries.
The District’s Governing Board adopted the plan in 2003 and the Northern Coastal Basin was designated as an official SWIM program. The SWIM Plan is being updated and expected to be completed in 2010. The existing plan includes five initiatives:
- Water quality — The District and its partners have established a water quality monitoring network in the basin and, where necessary, design and implement additional efforts to plan, track and evaluate cooperative watershed management initiatives.
- Watershed master planning — Includes tracking and evaluation of stormwater management. Using hydrologic and screening models, stormwater treatment needs and priority areas have been identified, stormwater retrofit initiative projects can be tracked and stormwater treatment proposals can be evaluated and refined.
- Stormwater retrofit and master plan implementation — Initiative includes facilitating the development, refinement and implementation of a prioritized stormwater retrofit program, focusing on areas built prior to stormwater regulations adopted in 1983. The District also encourages and provides support for the development of local government stormwater utilities and land acquisition programs, provides technical support for specific projects and watershed initiatives, and helps evaluate federal and state funding sources to facilitate the securing of support from other partnering agency and programs.
- Compliance and rule enforcement — The District works with its partners and community leaders to collect and evaluate compliance information from existing permitted stormwater quality treatment systems. Results may be used to increase the effectiveness of compliance measures and to assist refinement of treatment and management techniques. Efforts include the coordination on establishment of pollutant load reduction goals (PLRGs) for the District and DEP’s total maximum daily load initiative and may include initiatives for support for expansion of the Outstanding Florida Water designation and establishment of Special Basin Designations with the Northern Coastal Basin watersheds.
- Resource assessment, protection and restoration — Initiative involves the collection, mapping and evaluation of resource and habitat data sets and the development and implementation of resource restoration, enhancement and management goals and opportunities in the region.
Students enjoy a canoe outing on a creek at the Pellicer Creek Conservation Area, where they conduct water quality sampling as part of their outdoor classroom experience.
Active restoration and management plans have been developed and are being implemented for disturbed estuary habitats, including historical saltmarshes filled by dredge spoils from creation of the Intracoastal Waterway, spoil piles associated with dragline ditches created by extensive mosquito control activities and restoration of impoundment dike walls back to historical saltmarsh.
The District coordinates with 15 local governments and regional, state and federal agencies in the watershed to monitor and assess estuary health, respond to current issues, and address future management needs. Interagency work groups are guiding efforts to develop and monitor resource baselines and to coordinate resources and funding for development and implementation of regional watershed management initiatives.
Styles Creek near Princess Place Preserve within the Pellicer Creek Conservation Area.
Assessing water quality
In addition, a number of water bodies in the basin are listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (303d list) as not having sufficient water quality to meet their designated uses. The District is legislatively mandated to assess these water bodies and determine the potential need for establishment and implementation of PLRGs. Through a series of workshops and public forums, management agencies, local governments and stakeholders were requested to identify issues and provide listings of reports and related studies for the portions of the basin within their jurisdiction. This was used for development of an initial NCB Reconnaissance Report (Bonnie Holub and Associates 1998). The Reconnaissance Report was used as a resource guide in development of the basin SWIM Plan the District.
Northern Coastal Basin planning units
The Northern Coastal Basin covers four “planning units,” which can be an individual, usually large, tributary basin or a group of small adjacent primary tributary basins with similar characteristics. The major planning units comprising the basin, from north to south, are the Tolomato River (9D), the Matanzas River (9C), Pellicer Creek (9B), and the Halifax River (9A). For the purposes of the management plan, the Tolomato and Matanzas river basins are treated as one basin and are referred to as Tolomato/Matanzas. This combination provides general consistency with the federal Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR) Program, which encompasses parts of the estuaries in both of these planning units.
The Tolomato/Matanzas River planning unit is located within northeast Florida, in portions of Duval, St. Johns and Flagler counties, and has a contributing drainage area of approximately 127,000 acres, within 37 basins. Portions of the Tolomato/Matanzas River planning unit are designated as Class II waters, which is the standard for commercial and recreational shellfish harvesting. In 1995, extensive shellfish harvesting areas were re-classified from “conditionally approved” to “conditionally restricted” for shellfish harvesting due to high coliform bacteria levels. The net result was a closure of virtually all the primary shellfish harvesting areas available for either commercial sale or recreational usage.
The Tolomato River north of St. Augustine has good but degrading water quality, and urban runoff and other sources of sediment load impact the Tolomato/Matanzas River planning unit. It has a contributing drainage area of approximately 102,000 acres. The system, as a whole, has high average total suspended solids and somewhat elevated turbidity. Overall development in the planning unit and the corresponding increase in human-related activities may be the causes of increased fecal coliform bacteria levels and other water quality parameters in the receiving waters.
The Pellicer Creek planning unit is located south of St. Augustine and includes southern St. Johns County and northern Flagler County. Pellicer Creek, which forms the boundary between St. Johns and Flagler counties, is the only natural watershed drainage feature in this planning unit. Pellicer Creek is designated by the state of Florida as an Outstanding Florida Water (OFW). The Pellicer Creek planning unit consists of vast wetlands, many miles of which were drained for pine plantations or real estate development, and to reduce mosquito breeding sites. Commercial shellfishing for oysters and clams has historically occurred in the southern St. Johns County portion of this planning unit.
A green tree frog blends in with its environment.
Pellicer Creek is a 303(d) listed water body with a variety of water quality substances exceeding limits, including lead, nutrients, coliform bacteria, dissolved oxygen and iron. The man-made canals of Palm Coast are also collectively identified as a 303(d) listed water body. The water quality parameters of concern at Palm Coast are cadmium, lead, selenium, nutrients, coliforms, dissolved oxygen, silver and thallium.
The Halifax River planning unit includes portions of Flagler and Volusia counties along the northeast Florida coast and encompasses an area of nearly 208,000 acres, within 33 basins. Major drainage into the estuary comes from Bulow Creek, the Tomoka River and Spruce Creek, and their natural tributaries. Rose Bay, which is a large embayment partially isolated from the main part of the Halifax River by an abandoned causeway and the present U.S. 1 causeway, also contributes drainage to the Halifax River. Both the Tomoka River and Spruce Creek basins are listed as OFWs.
The Halifax River unit has several 303(d) listed water bodies, including the Halifax River for nutrients, coliform bacteria, copper, lead and iron. Rose Bay is listed for nutrients, coliform bacteria and dissolved oxygen. The Tomoka River is listed for lead, nutrients and iron. The B-19 canal network is listed for nutrients and dissolved oxygen and Spruce Creek, with a variety of constituents exceeding state water quality criteria, is listed for lead, nutrients, coliform bacteria, dissolved oxygen and iron.
Updated on 5-26-2010
