A Performance-Based Regulatory Program for Phosphorus Control to Prevent the Accelerated Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee, Florida
Following 15 years of data collection, field studies, and modeling efforts, the State of Florida in 1987 legislatively mandated the South Florida Water Management District, a regional water management agency, to create and implement a plan to reduce average annual inputs of total phosphorus to Lake Okeechobee by 40 percent. One element of the resulting plan was the creation and implementation of a performance-based regulatory program that set phosphorus discharge limitations for all parcels of land equal to or greater than 1/2 acre in size in almost all of the 1,735,000 acres of the lake's 31 tributary drainage basins. Owners of non-complying parcels are required to take measures to bring the parcels into compliance. This regulatory program, coupled with concurrent cost-share incentive programs and ongoing research efforts, has resulted in a decrease in phosphorus concentrations from individual properties and at some tributary discharge locations to the lake. This effort demonstrates that where there is sufficient historical information, scientific application of state-of-the-art modeling techniques, a political will, and appropriate powers vested in the institutions to take and enforce actions, such programs can be implemented and have positive effects on reducing non-point source pollutants.