Water Quality Targets Refinement Project / Numeric Nutrient Criteria (NNC)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing numeric nutrient water quality standards for Florida's waters, including lakes, flowing waters and estuaries. The CHNEP is proposing a data analysis plan to use in developing numeric nutrient criteria for the Charlotte Harbor estuaries.

As tasks are completed and reports are approved by the CHNEP Management Conference, they are made available as PDF files below.The final six reports were approved on August 22, 2011 by the CHNEP Policy Committee. (Additional water quality documents are also available as PDF files on this website.) To learn more about this important work as it develops, check out the WQQOS meetings where they are discussed in detail and each of the Management Conference meetings.

This CHNEP project, contracted to Janicki Environmental, Inc., provides technically defensible quantitative habitat and water quality restoration and protection targets for the CHNEP based on seagrass water clarity needs. It uses seagrass and water quality analysis methodologies build on a previously developed CHNEP optical model and are consistent with those used in Tampa and Sarasota Bay Estuary Programs. The project was initiated in September 2008 and has been modified several times to add tasks associated with EPA’s requirement that Florida develop numeric nutrient Criteria (which are Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) measurable concentrations and loadings). CHNEP is developing numeric nutrient criteria (NNC) using consistent methods as Tampa and Sarasota Bay Estuary Programs as well as available seagrass, water quality and watershed landuse, soils and hydrology data for the CHNEP study area. The project included 11 tasks.

• Task 1: Harbor segmentation scheme (PDF @ 1,687 KB)

• Task 2: Seagrass target development (PDF @ 9,596 KB)

• Task 3: Water clarity target development (PDF @ 2,188 KB)

• Task 3 supplement: Evaluation strategy and reporting tool for CHNEP water clarity targets (PDF @ 183 KB)

• Task 4: Pollutant loading estimates development (PDF @ 14,271 KB)

• Task 5: Provide the water quality and pollutant loading databases (Access Database @ 96,460 KB)

  • Because of the size of the database file, task 5 is only available by FTP (ftp://ftp.swfrpc.org, user name: chnep, password: chnepaccess)

• Task 6: Numeric nutrient criteria (NNC) data analysis plan, including chlorophyll targets for each estuary segment (PDF @ 280 KB)

• Task 6 supplement: Chlorophyl targets (PDF @ 228 KB)

• Task 6 supplement: Southwest Florida numeric nutrient criteria approach (PDF @ 1,669 KB)

• Task 7: Numeric nutrient criteria development (PDF @ 14,966 KB)

• Task 8: TN and TP loading and concentration based criteria (PDF @ 6,362 KB)

• Task 8 supplement: Tidal creeks (PDF @ 866 KB)

• Task 9: Downstream protection values (DPVs) for TN and TP (PDF @ 9,755 KB)

• Task 10: Dissolved oxygen (PDF @ 5,012 KB)

• Task 11: Implementation issues (PDF @ 3,098 KB)

• Task 11: Proposed Numeric Nutrient Criteria for CHNEP (PDF @ 5,885 KB)