Florida Administrative Code › 40 - WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS › 40B - Suwannee River Water Management District › Chapter 40B-8 - MINIMUM FLOWS AND LEVELS › Section 40B-8.121 - Minimum Surface Water Levels for Lakes

Current through Reg. 50, No. 138; July 16, 2024
(1) The following terms, as used in this
				rule, shall have the following meanings:
(a)
				"High Minimum Lake Level" means the surface water level the lake must meet or
				exceed ten percent of the time on a long-term basis to ensure it reaches higher
				levels on a periodic basis.
(b)
				"Minimum Average" means the surface water level or flow necessary over a long
				period to maintain the integrity of hydric soils and wetland plant
				communities.
(c) "Minimum Frequent
				High" means a chronically high surface water level or flow with an associated
				frequency and duration that allows for inundation of the floodplain at a depth
				and duration sufficient to maintain wetland functions.
(d) "Minimum Frequent Low" means a
				chronically low surface water level or flow that generally occurs only during
				periods of reduced rainfall. This level is intended to prevent deleterious
				effects to the composition and structure of floodplain soils, the species
				composition and structure of floodplain and instream biotic communities, and
				the linkage of aquatic and floodplain food webs.
(e) "Minimum Lake Level" means the surface
				water level the lake must meet or exceed fifty percent of the time on a
				long-term basis to maintain average conditions.
(f) "Seasonally Flooded" means a hydroperiod
				category where surface water is typically present for extended periods (30 days
				or more) during the growing season, resulting in a predominance of submerged or
				submerged and transitional wetland species. During extended periods of normal
				or above normal rainfall, lake levels causing inundation are expected to occur
				several weeks to several months every one to two years.
(g) "Semi-Permanently Flooded" means a
				hydroperiod category where surface water inundation persists in most years.
				When surface water is absent the water table is usually near the land surface.
				In many lakes with emergent marshes this water level is near the lower
				elevation that supports emergent marsh or floating vegetation and peat
				substrates, or other highly organic hydric substrates. This characterization
				may not be true for herbaceous wetlands around sandhill type lakes, which often
				have emergent vegetation that follows declining water levels to below the lower
				elevation of peat substrate. Water levels causing inundation are expected to
				occur approximately eighty percent of the time over a long-term period of
				record. Exposure of these ground elevations is expected to re-occur, on
				average, about every five to ten years for extended periods (several or more
				months) during moderate droughts.
(h) "Typically Saturated" means a hydroperiod
				category where, for extended periods of the year, the water level should
				saturate or inundate. This condition results in saturated substrates for
				periods of one-half year or more during non-flooding periods of typical years.
				Water levels causing inundation are expected to occur fifty to sixty per cent
				of the time over a long-term period of record. This water level is expected to
				have a recurrence interval, on the average, of one or two years over a
				long-term period of record. Obligate wetland plant species are expected to be
				predominate near this water level.